Head of Secondary
Are you more of a Maths person or an English person?
For a long time in education, we have put people into categories like this. Maybe a student is thought of as being more (or less) academic, sporty or artistic. As we learn more about neuroscience, the more we are seeing that although our students all have unique abilities, they are all capable of being great at something if they put time and practice into it. Effort is more important than ability.
We have been speaking about this at assembly each week this term, under the theme of 'Improvement'. If we think of how to get better at running longer distances, playing a musical instrument or shooting a basketball the answer is clear – practice will lead to improvement. The same can be said for student learning. If someone puts time and effort into solving maths problems or writing essays, they will get better at it.
Improvements often happen slowly. It is difficult for a student to go from 50% to 85% in a test. However, it is not difficult to practice and move from 50% to 55%. Further practice will get them from 55% to 65%. With slow gradual steps, students will improve their results – it just takes time, effort and practice.
We call this having a growth mindset, which is understanding and believing that even 'Maths People' can get better at writing essays – and they can. It is the opposite to a fixed mindset, where people incorrectly say they can’t do something and so they do not try. I encourage all of our students and parents to have a growth mindset about learning and to put in the time, effort and practice that will lead to improvement.
Sydney Prayer Breakfast
Some of our Year 12 student leaders attended the Sydney Prayer Breakfast this morning with Mr Van Bentum and Mrs McKay. They joined with 1400 people from across Sydney to pray for all parts of society and to hear Dr Browning speak of how his faith and prayer have significantly shaped his life. It was so encouraging to be reminded that there are opportunities for Christians to be witnesses and role models in all workplaces and walks of life.
Years 8 and 11 French, Hospitality and Food Technology International Cooking Incursion
On Friday 3 May, all of Year 8 French, Year 11 French, Year 11 Food Technology and Year 11 Hospitality students participated in a day of International Cooking. Luca Roncari, an international Chef, enthusiastically demonstrated how to cook 'Crêpes' from scratch. The majority of the instructions were given in the target language of French: Ajoutez de la farine (add some flour), Mélangez la pâte (mix the batter) and Tournez (Flip). All the students learnt form the chef’s experience and thoroughly enjoyed cooking and eating the 640 crêpes with des citrons ( some lemons), du sucre (some sugar) and de la crème (cream)!
Mr Paul Chambers
Excursions, Incursions and Camps Parent Permissions – Year 7-12
How to give Parent Permission for your child to attend an excursion, camps and other events, please accept events in Parent Lounge. You may decline if you do not wish for your child to participate.
We have many opportunities for students to attend some wonderful incursions and excursions where their classroom learning can be enhanced, and there are other activities that help develop skills and grow good life skills and characteristics like sportsmanship/sportswomanship. A lot of planning goes into these events and the Parent Lounge Permission System is one process that can keep things running smoothly. When this doesn’t happen, it causes planning issues and may even lead to an event not going ahead due to low numbers.
Year 7: School Vaccination Program - 4 June 2024
If your child is in Year 7 this year, you can now provide online consent for their routine school vaccinations.
In Year 7, students are offered free vaccines for diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (dTpa) and human papillomavirus (HPV).
In Year 10, students are offered the meningococcal ACWY vaccine.
This year our Year 7 Vaccination Clinic date at GPCC is:
Year 7 - HPV and dTpa - Tuesday 4 June 2024
Year 10 – Meningococcal ACWY were conducted in February. Students who missed their vaccination may do a catch-up on 4 June if parent consent has been given.
Vaccination will only be provided at school if consent has been received.
How to provide consent:
- To complete online consent for your child’s school vaccinations, visit: https://nswhealth.service-now.com/school
- Follow the steps to log in to your existing ServiceNSW account. This is the same account you may already use to renew your driver’s licence. If you don’t have a ServiceNSW account, refer to ServiceNSW to create one.
- Update or confirm your personal details in ServiceNSW as required.
- Complete the School Vaccination Consent Form for your child/ren. You will need to:
- Enter your child’s personal details
- Provide the Medicare card details for you and your child
- Read the linked Parent Information Sheet and privacy statement
- Provide consent
If you or your child do not have a Medicare card, consent can still be provided by requesting a paper-based consent form directly from your child’s school.
The benefits of providing consent online:
- easily update your child’s details
- receive SMS and/or email notifications when vaccinations are given
- faster upload of vaccination records to the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR).
For more information on routine school vaccinations, please visit www.health.nsw.gov.au/schoolvaccination.
If you require information in your language, please visit www.health.nsw.gov.au/immunisation/Pages/school_vaccination_language.aspx
