Over the past 12 months I have referred on a number of occasions to the importance of the school, parent (and Church) partnership in education. As a Christian school, GPCC holds the belief that God sets children in families as the designed place for them to grow and be nurtured until such time as they can stand alone and head off to make their own life.

We know that much secular research points to the value of a nurturing home in the development of a child and when a school and a home commit together to support a child, it creates a powerful force for the good of the child. As Christians, we also believe in the community of the Church as another God-ordained institution that supports both home and school in this task.

Through the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been wonderful to see school and home working together to keep the daily lives of our children stable and focused on learning and growing – not on infection. As we begin the return to all students being back at school, we do not want to fail to acknowledge that we have needed each other, and we still do. You have done so much to support our efforts to keep learning going, for which we are very grateful.

We are now looking at how to incorporate what we have learnt as teachers into our daily approach to teaching going forward and I do not want to leave out the possibility of a closer partnership together with you as parents. We will keep you informed of our work and how you can partner with us in it.

Part of this involves good communication, and some months ago we employed Mr Brendan Wood as our Marketing and Community Relations Manager. He has done excellent work to address some deficiencies in our ability to communicate what we are doing at school with you and the wider community. I hope you are enjoying the Facebook page through which we are trying to share with you exciting activities and events in the life of our school.

As part of this improvement, we are launching our new website this week (www.gpcc.nsw.edu.au). We see it primarily as a marketing tool for prospective families, but I trust you will also see it as a way of learning more about your school and what happens here. Websites remain works in progress so we will be changing content and developing it as we go forward, but I encourage you to go and have a look at it.

We have a number of volunteer parents who also run class-based Facebook pages for us and I really appreciate the great work they do in providing another channel of partnership between school and home and amongst clusters of families. We are a large community of well over 600 families, so we need to work at how to partner together well. But it is happening, and these media platforms help in that.

Phillip Nash

Principal

Mr Peter McLellan | Head of Secondary

Year 12 Students

The new dates for our HSC Trial Examinations are 17 - 31 August 2020. Our timetable will be released a little later.

Please note the HSC Examinations have also been pushed back a few days. They will now start on 20 October and finish on 11 November 2020.

Year 11 Prefect Applications

Students who would like to be considered for the role of Prefect 2020/2021, need to apply. The application form is available from Mr Lewis or the College office.

Coping in life continues to be a challenge for our students, and I think the wider community as a whole. Here is an article that gives some thoughts as how best to deal with this issue as parents.

8 Tips to Foster Resilience in Your Child

Growing up, my mother always told me that life wasn’t fair. Aside from the truth that Jesus loves me, this may have been one of her greatest gifts to me.

It seems that so much energy is wasted trying to make every aspect of every moment “fair” for our children, that we never teach them how to become resilient human beings, to develop an internal reservoir of strength and determination that will enable them to overcome the inevitable obstacles that life will bring.

Resilience is a quality that helps us not only manage stress in our lives, but motivates and energises us toward achieving our goals and living our dreams. Resilience can be defined as, “the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress.” It is the ability to "bounce back" from difficult experiences.

Giving our children the belief that life “should” be fair only cripples them from focusing on their strengths or their goals, and leaves them feeling helpless to achieve their hopes and dreams in life. What’s more, it prevents them from ever growing a sense of self that comes from accomplishing difficult tasks, and replaces an excitement about the future with an anxious uncertainty about the next step ahead. No wonder our children don’t want to leave home!

We can change the course for our children’s lives and our own lives. We can foster resilience in all areas of life. We first have to let go of needing life to be fair.

There are eight ways we can begin instilling resilience in our children.

1. Teach them to nurture themselves. Developing the practice of nurturing ourselves can keep our mind and body not only calm, but prepare us to deal with whatever situations come our way. We can teach our children how to have quiet “me-time” without earbuds or technology, so they can learn to care for themselves well, learn to connect with their emotions, and sort through their day.

2. Encourage them to cultivate a positive view of themselves. This does not mean false praise, nor does it mean telling lies. We know the difference and our children know the difference. Developing confidence in our ability to solve problems and trusting our instincts helps build resilience. We can encourage our children in their ability to overcome, to solve problems and to figure things out without rushing to the rescue to figure out their problems for them.

3. Help them learn to keep things in perspective. Even when facing challenges or painful situations, trying to view them within the broader context of our life and our faith can help avoid blowing the event out of proportion and keep our focus on what we can control. Helping our children see the big picture is significant. When every problem seems catastrophic, life begins to feel overwhelming and outside of their control. Eventually, they simply give up.

4. Show them how to maintain a hopeful outlook. Having hope can change everything in life. Hope enables us to believe that good things will happen in our lives, to believe that God is at work, even in the midst of difficult circumstances. We can instill a hopeful outlook in our children by encouraging them to look beyond the immediate circumstances to discover the potential meaning or purpose in them. Though we cannot force their faith, we can help them nurture, not just a religious set of traditions and rules, but a deep and meaningful relationship that will give them strength and resilience in the most trying of times.

5. Model for them the importance of building relationships. Relationships with close family members, friends or others are important. While we all need alone time, we were intentionally created for connection. Do not isolate. Accepting help and support from those who care about you and will listen to you, strengthens resilience. Encourage your children to get involved in your church, school, and community. Learning to serve others develops their ability to see outside of themselves and nurtures empathy and compassion for others.

6. Help them accept that change is a part of living. Certain goals may not always be attainable as a result of adverse situations. We all have limitations. We all have roadblocks, fair or not. Accepting circumstances that cannot be changed can help you focus on steps you can alter. Focusing on fairness saps our energy that may be more effective in looking for flexible alternatives.

7. Empower them to move toward their goals. When life seems unfair and we feel stuck, that is a great time to identify small steps we can take towards a goal and move forward. When faced with challenges, it can be easy to detach and wish them away. Instead, we can encourage our children that taking steps, even small ones will build forward momentum toward achieving their goals.

8. Nurture a mind-set of self-discovery. We often learn something about ourselves as a result of our struggles. Those who have endured great hardship often discover a greater sense of strength and vulnerability, an increased sense of self-worth, as well as a more dynamic faith and heightened appreciation for life.

Letting go of the fairness trap allows us to grow a resilient, indomitable spirit within our kids.

We don’t need life to be fair for our children. What we need is for our children to be strong enough and resilient enough to face whatever challenges come their way and be able to move forward productively, in building the life of their dreams.

· Lisa Murray

Year 12 Geography

James McLarty, 2016 GPCC graduate, talked to the HSC Geography class on Thursday to enrich their study of Sydney.

With a focus on sustainable development of cities, James deepened the students’ knowledge of design which improves water usage at various scales. Discussion of building materials, waste management and traffic planning provided a broader understanding of the future trends.

Students appreciated his expertise, knowledge of the content and contribution to their studies.

James is studying Engineering and Project Management at Sydney University, has worked for Lendlease and Central Coast Council, tutors at Sydney University and works part time at GPCC on the Green Team.

Year 9 Drama

Year 7  Food Technology

This week’s Careers Newsletter has some helpful information for Year 10 students about selecting subjects for Years 11 and 12.  Also, for those interested in NIDA, there is a Virtual Open Day to be held in June. 

For more details, please see this week’s Careers Newsletter or visit the “Student Careers” section under the News menu on the College website.

Mr David David Russell
Curriculum Co-ordinator (7-12) | Student Advisor (7-12)

Nathan Lambert  |  K-12 Sport Co-ordinator

THE FOCUS

Tia Claire Toomey, the Fittest Woman on Earth for the past three years, has an amazing ability to focus on a goal and to go after it. She is able to concentrate entirely on a specific area, train hard to develop any weakness, and perform with such intense focus to achieve her best results.

What is your focus? She said in her book “How I Became the Fittest Woman on Earth”:

 "Go after what you really, truly want and believe in, because you're going to be so much happier inside and out if you do.”

Tia started doing Crossfit in 2013 and after learning the basics, began competing in competitions. With such drive and determination, she continued to develop her Crossfit skills and made it to the Games in 2015. Placing 2^nd at these Games, and then following this up in 2016 with another 2^nd, showed the world the amazing talent and willpower that she possessed. She followed this up taking out 1^st place at the Games from 2017-2019.

Her lift in the 2019 Crossfit Games, which cemented her lead and demonstrated her strong will to compete to the best of her ability, was in the Clean 1-rep Max event. Her final lift of 265lbs (120kgs) was sensational, approaching that bar with only one goal in mind, to succeed. She lifted it, won the event and went on to take the title for her third time.

A year earlier, she did exactly the same thing at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, representing Australia in the Clean and Jerk. Tia won Gold, wrapping up the competition with a final Clean and Jerk lift of 114kgs.

I remember watching this and seeing her final lift to take Gold. It was amazing to witness the focus and determination to attempt something that was extremely difficult but still within reach.

What is your focus?

Look at some of the students in our own College who have progressed through to a State or National level. They have not only committed themselves to their own training, but have also focused on what they need to do to better their weaknesses.

Shannon S, an amazing tennis player, has represented our College proudly for years, progressing through the levels and achieving many wonderful results. She made the NSW team last year and competed at the Australian Junior National Tennis Championships. Her skills in the game have come from many hours of training each area, practising forehands, backhands, serves, you name it. To achieve her best results, she wanted to make sure every area was sound and came together to create her strongest game.

Wade B, who demonstrates a phenomenal training regime, worked extremely hard to qualify for Australian Triathlon Championships, making the State team after a superb performance at NSW All Schools. He worked very hard on not only his swim and run leg, which are his strongest areas, but also riding at a consistently fast pace in the bike.

Both of these athletes have a focus on what they want to achieve, their goal. They spend time training hard, working on any areas that need developing, and this drive has helped them succeed and have great results.

Congratulations to both of these athletes for their wonderful achievements so far. It is exciting to see what you have already accomplished and we are looking forward to the future.

What is your focus?

Like these athletes and many more, they have a focus, a drive, a goal that they want to achieve in their sport. Having something to aim at in training, in playing your sport, is a great thing to have. I encourage everyone to think about what they want to achieve in the sport that they love and to go for it. Is it to get better at passing, shooting, to make the school team, to qualify for Zone or State? Whatever your goal is, persevere and commit to going for your dream.

What is your focus?

Introducing our New Registrar

Last week we farewelled our longstanding Registrar, Michele Drover, after 23 years of service with Green Point Christian College, over half of that time as the College Registrar. Filling those shoes was never going to be an easy task, but we are thrilled that Angela Sheather has stepped into the role as Registrar.

Angela has served with the College since 2013, most of that time on Reception as part of the Administration team. Angela and her husband have raised three sons, all of whom have been through Green Point Christian College. Angela and her family live at Avoca and attend Green Point Baptist Church.

This is a busy time of the year for our Registrar, so please pray for Angela as she settles into her new role. Please do not hesitate to contact her directly if you have questions about your enrolment application, or to organise a tour of the College. Her contact details are: 02 4363 1266.

Yearbook Cover Art Competition

Thank you to the students who entered in our 2020 Yearbook Cover Art Competition.

Congratulations to our winners:

Scotia E – Year 10

Hannah M – 5H 

The winner's entries will feature on the front and back cover of our 2020 Yearbook.

Parent Lounge Details

The College has a legal requirement to keep our records up to date. 

Please review your details on Parent Lounge to ensure that all your information is correct. This includes medical information on your child/children (only complete the immunisation question if your child is not immunised).

Please note: Should you require both parents/carers to receive SMS notifications, please tick the appropriate boxes.

Thank you.

BUSWAYS SCHOOL BUS SERVICES UPDATE

COVID-19 and back to school

With the recent announcement of social distancing on bus services, Busways wants to clarify that school services are not affected and will not have limited capacity.

Service operations
School services will continue to operate as normal, with no student to be left behind. NSW Health advice is that children are at lower risk of contracting COVID-19. Transport for NSW and Busways have increased cleaning measures on board bus services and will continue to monitor transport usage to support students travelling safely to and from school.

Our policy is that no school student will be left behind and as such, school students will be given priority over other passengers on regular route services even if this means a service goes over physical distancing capacity. Adults may have to wait for the next service or choose to get off if they are not comfortable with how many customers are on a service. All services will continue to operate to a normal timetable until advised otherwise. Please remind students that they are still required to tap on and off with their Opal card, or show their school bus pass when boarding.

Current COVID-19 advice
It is important to continue communicating to students that we all have a responsibility to help slow the spread of COVID-19. Where possible, students should maintain social distance from each other on board bus services. If different school groups are boarding a bus, each school should maintain social distance from the other and students should always maintain a safe distance from their bus driver, where practically possible.

Busways has continued to exercise additional procedures for all Busways employees to follow in order to limit any chance of the virus spreading. This includes issuing employees with hand sanitiser, requiring employees to wash their hands every time they enter and leave a worksite, employees staying home if they are unwell, and minimising the handling of cash.

For any further questions, please contact Busways’ Customer Experience team at infoline@busways.com.au.

RED BUS SCHOOL BUS SERVICES UPDATE

With the recent announcement of social distancing on public transport, Red Bus Services would like to clarify that dedicated school services are not affected and will not have limited capacity.

Our policy is that no school student will be left behind and as such school students will be given priority over other passengers on regular route services even if this means a service goes over physical distancing capacity.

Where possible students should limit their travel to catching dedicated school buses as this will help us mitigate the risk and help provide a service to regular passengers where capacity is currently restricted.

Please remind students that they are still required to tap on and off with their Opal card when boarding, but are requested not to use the Opal card reader nearest the driver.

To help minimise the risk of spreading an infection, every bus in our fleet is being hygienically cleaned daily by a team of cleaners.

Red Bus Services has continued to exercise additional procedures for all our employees to follow to limit any chance of the virus spreading.

This includes issuing employees with hand sanitiser, face masks and gloves requiring employees to wash their hands every time they enter and leave a worksite and requesting that employees stay home if they are unwell.

https://transportnsw.info/covid-19#home-carousel

https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/covid-19-information-workplaces/industry-information/public-transport

For any further enquiries, please contact Red Bus Services: info@redbus.com.au

Canteen 

The Munchery (Canteen) has now resumed full time operating hours.

Uniform Shop 

Uniform Shop has recommenced normal trading hours.

Prayer

We pray that “… the resting place of his love will become the very source and root of your life.”  Ephesians 3:17-19 The Passion Translation (TPT)

Green Point Baptist Church

In light of the current COVID-19 crisis, Green Point Baptist Church has suspended all regular Church activities and has encouraged any Church member who is not in a high risk category to find ways to serve the vulnerable in their community.  If you are in need of assistance, please contact the Church office on 4369 1585 or office@gpbc.net.au

GPBC has moved their services online:

SERVICE TIMES

Sundays

9:30am

6:00pm    

Sunday Service

Green Point Baptist Church invite you and your family to join the Sunday service LIVE on Facebook at 9:30am every Sunday.

Thrive is on hold for now, but kids can join via Zoom from home each week during the school term. Join the “Thrive Green Point 2020” facebook group for information.

Constructing a Food Hamper …

Over the past few weeks, Green Point Baptist Church has been partnering with Kincumber Neighbourhood Centre to help those who are doing it tough in our neighbourhood as a result of Coronavirus. The One + 1 Food Aid Project is based on a simple idea, when you are out shopping, buy a few extra items each week and build up a food hamper that can be passed onto a family who really needs it.  

We would love for you to get involved with us in this project, so we want to show you visually how to put together a food hamper for a family.

A couple of questions we have had from people putting food hampers together:

Q: Are there absolute must haves in a food hamper?; and

Q: Can we put in some lollies or something special for children?

The answer is simple. Be guided by how you shop for your own family - not too much sugar or salt or processed food. Buy items that can be combined and added to with simple fresh food items to make simple meals and items that might drop off your list, like Vegemite, if you don’t have too much cash at the moment.

So let’s get this hamper for a family done ...

First up are hygiene products. These include toilet paper, antibacterial soap and tooth paste, as well as germ killers like antibacterial wipes, surface sprays and hand sanitiser. The bargains here were paracetamol for 69 cents and Lynx deodorant for $3.99, both from Aldi.

Next are food items for meals ... canned soup, instant noodles and most of the ingredients for nachos minus the mince, cheese and avocado. There is also pasta and good quality sauce, as well as rice and a simmer sauce to make butter chicken.

 

Last but not least, are all those items that make life a bit more comfortable - half price chicken crimpies, sour squirms, tea and chocolate, all bought on special from Coles.

 

Remember, once you have completed your food hamper, your items can be dropped off at the kitchen behind the Church office between 9:00am and 12 noon, Tuesday to Friday, or the College office if it needs to be earlier.

For more information, feel free to call the Church office on 4369 1585.   

Coast Shelter Restaurant

346 Mann Street, Gosford

Due to COVID-19, Coast Shelter have had to suspend dinners and are not allowing volunteers to enter.

Green Point Trader

Amanda Lawer - Finance and Mortgage Broker:  Home Loans, Car Loans (new and private sales), Personal Loans, Business and Investment Loans. As a Liberty Adviser I have a panel of 22 Lenders and can source a better deal or assist you with your new lending requirements. Contact me today on 0478 055 609 or www.liberty.com.au/amanda-lawer.

 

 

If you would like to place an advertisement in the Green Point Trader, please email details to Marie Hay at newsletter@gpcc.nsw.edu.au

Coming up

Tuesday, 26 May, 2020

Yr 11 Hospitality Incursion 

Wednesday, 27 May, 2020

National Simultaneous Storytime

Thursday, 28 May, 2020

PDHPE HSC Study Day Incursion

Uniform Shop 

Operating Times

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday during the School Term:

8:30am - 11:00am

(Closed Wednesdays)

Afternoons by appointment only.

Contact (02) 4367 9954

gpcc@alinta.com.au

Canteen

The Munchery

The Munchery (Canteen) has now returned to full operating hours.

Visit The Munchery page on our website

Munch Monitor

New to Munch Monitor? Order your school lunches each morning before 8:30am via Munch Monitor from home, for a hassle free start to your mornings.

We have daily menu specials as well as popular items available every day of the week.

www.munchmonitor.com
Username: greenpoint
Password: munch2251

TERM DATES

Term 2, 2020

Wednesday, 29 April 2020 to Friday, 3 July 2020 

Term 3, 2020

Monday, 27 July 2020 to Friday, 25 September 2020

Term 4, 2020

Tuesday, 13 October 2020 to Wednesday, 9 December 2020