Head of Secondary
In Mark 10, we can see five examples of Jesus being counter cultural:
- The culture at the time allowed men to divorce their wives with a certificate and send them away, showing little value given to women. However, Jesus said that in marriage, God makes two (a man and a woman) into one, giving equal worth to women.
- The culture devalued children. Jesus rebuked his disciples for thinking that way and invited the children to come to him.
- The culture thought wealth was the sign of God’s blessing; Jesus said it is hard for the wealthy to enter God’s kingdom.
- The culture valued power and authority over others. “Not so with you,” Jesus said. He valued humble service as the sign of real greatness.
- The culture considered a blind beggar unworthy of Jesus’ attention and hushed him; Jesus stopped and healed him.
Ever since, Christianity has continued to be in opposition to the culture. A 2021 Australian Community Survey showed that less than half of the people surveyed even believed Jesus was a real person. So it is hardly surprising that many people would not agree with us when we say things like the Bible is true and the Word of God, that the purpose of human existence is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, or that the only way to eternal life is through faith in Jesus.
At GPCC, we stand unashamed in our beliefs. We not only know that this will at times put us at odds with the wider culture but we know that we should expect that to be the case.
Youth in Performing Arts (YIPA)
The annual Youth in Performing Arts showcase is fast approaching. After a tough schedule of auditions, we are excited to have the following students selected to perform at Laycock Street Theatre next week.
GPCC students will perform on the following nights:
Saturday 25th May
Year 11 Music - Linger
Sam F - Guitar Medley
Friday 24th May
Year 12 Music Jazz Ensemble - Armandos Rhumba
Bailey P. - Your Song
Aiden D. - La Fiesta
Thursday 23rd May
Jessica H. - Particles
Christian N. - Prince Ali
Luke J. - You Feel Like Home
Year 11 Music - Murder on The Dance Floor
Wednesday 22nd May
Grace T. - The Ballad of Jane Doe
Tickets will sell out quickly - You can purchase tickets with the following link:
Year 9 Visual Arts Excursion
On Friday 10 May Year 9 Visual Arts students spent a day at Pearl Beach working on various fieldwork activities. They used a range of art mediums and creative techniques to explore the coastal landscape—beach and bush. The fieldwork supports their current unit of work on looking at the landscape in art.
Years 11 and 12 Visual Arts and Photography Excursion
Years 11 and 12 Visual Arts and PDVI (Photography) classes overnight excursion to Cockatoo Island and the Sydney Biennale.
We enjoyed a rare snippet of sunny weather for our overnight excursion, which was especially appreciated as we camped on Cockatoo Island. The students engaged in several artmaking opportunities over the two days. We visited the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) at Circular Quay to see the Sydney Biennale exhibitions and participated in an educator-led workshop. Students created a unique collaborative artwork at Circular Quay in the style of Imants Tillers. On the island, students had lots of laughs while working in groups to film a scary film. They were also fortunate to have a workshop visit by a professional artist, Bronte Leighton-Dore, who encouraged the students to express their ideas intuitively and expressively.
Morning Drop Off
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.
Student Health
As we approach the change in season, its often a time when we notice more illness like coughs and colds and there are cases of Whooping Cough, Covid and Gastroenteritis on the Central Coast which is not unusual however we would like to take this opportunity to remind parents to keep sick children resting at home until they no longer have symptoms.
You can find out helpful information on the NSW Health website or use these links:
Identify, Protect, Prevent - Whooping cough (nsw.gov.au)
Viral gastroenteritis fact sheet - Fact sheets (nsw.gov.au)
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
