Thirty-nine Year 7-12 students had the opportunity to represent PCS at the CSSA Nepean Zone Secondary Swimming Carnival on Wednesday 3 March 2021 at Mt Druitt Pool. They represented our school community with excellence in all that they did.
Our students achieved some amazing results, both personal bests and a number of Age Champions. In addition to PCS winning the Nepean Zone overall, the following students achieved ZONE AGE CHAMPION:
12 Years Girls
What an amazing achievement by one of our younger PCS students, Amayah, who competed on the weekend at the NSW State Speedo Sprint Finals. She placed 10th in the 8 years Girls 50m Freestyle, which meant she was a State Finalist. You are a champion Amayah! Well done!
Well done to PCS student Olivia who raced at the State Speedo Sprint Finals last weekend. Olivia came 1st in 10 Year Girls 50m Freestyle, making her a NSW State Champion! She also placed 2nd in 50m Butterfly and 3rd in 50m Backstroke - a wonderful achievement!
These results are even more amazing when you consider that Olivia had 6 months out of the water last year, due to breaking her leg quite badly. A huge congratulations to Olivia, as well as her coaches and parents, for being so determined and hard working. Well done Olivia - we are so proud of you!
Jonathan Walker graduated from PCS in 2018 and is currently studying Forensic Science at WSU Hawkesbury campus.
This week Jonathan came to speak to Year 10 students about this exciting science career and what it entails. He outlined the various types of forensics one can study which included: ballistics, arson investigation, criminalistics and trace evidence analysis. He also spoke about his motivation for taking forensic science being his passion to find out the truth and help people get justice.
Jonathan mentioned that his interest to pursue forensics was sparked in Year 9 when he did the Chemistry unit on Forensics. Year 10 students asked Jonathan excellent questions about life at university and this career path. Year 10 have an assessment task on Science careers due in Week 7.
It has been wonderful to see the students returning to school this year and embracing change, committed to learning and growing in all aspects of their lives. Our Year 11 and 12 students have been involved with Seminar Week, which was an encouragement and helped build a foundation for future success in these important Year levels.
Years 9 and 10 were involved with challenging camps that built resilience, problem solving skills, and allowed for community building in their year levels.
Years 7 and 8 have settled into new routines and are looking forward to camps at the beginning of next term. Years K - 6 have started the year with a focus on being able to ‘Bounce Back’ when challenges come, and are enjoying new places to play and spend time with their friends in the breaks.
Year 11 Studies of Religion students celebrated a Jewish event, happening that very day around the world, called Purim, the story of Esther and the survival of the Jewish people during her time as Queen. They are researching the characteristics within a religion that keep it living and dynamic.
Here are some of their thoughts after a very fun celebration:
‘Religion is living and dynamic in Judaism, as evidenced by the ever evolving and lively holiday of Purim, which displays the interaction between Jewish beliefs, sacred texts, ethics, rituals and ceremonies. Every year at this time the story is read from the scroll of Esther, and when the name of the villain ‘Haman’ is read out, they boo and drown out his name with percussion instruments. This involves everyone keeping the story from the sacred text alive.
Year 5 have started 2021 with bang in Science! We are looking at ‘Earth’s Place in Space’ and we’ve been discussing some fascinating facts about our Solar System.
We also had some great fun planning, building and decorating an orrery. Group work is something this grade does so well. They collaborate, communicate and consider – just to name a few of their incredible skills!
It has been the most wonderful start to the year, and we are all looking forward to more great days to come.
Congratulations to Jessica Smith in Year 10 who has recently been selected in the CIS Secondary Open Girls Softball, and NSW U16s Softball team. Jessica has trained extremely hard and is the leading pitcher for her teams.
What an incredible achievement this is and we wish her all the best in the upcoming tournaments.
Caroline Bartlett
We received a great write-up in local newspaper, The Western Weekender for our F1 in Schools teams recently. Thank you Western Weekender - and well done again to our amazing students and staff on your recent achievements!
Some changes have taken place in the Mathematics Department at PCS and we would like to keep the wider school community informed.
Firstly I would like to introduce myself as acting Head of Department. My name is Damien Jenner and I studied Engineering at UNSW and began my career as a Computer Programmer before exploring ministry opportunities working in Church and with Youth while completing a Theology degree. I then chose teaching as a way of being part of growing and developing young people. This is now my 13th year teaching Mathematics across all grade levels, and I have experience developing and resourcing programs across three school systems. I am also currently undertaking a Master of Education Degree in Curriculum and Assessment.
I am committed to working with all the teaching staff to develop excellent teaching and learning practices in Mathematics at PCS; and with four children attending our school from Years 6 to 11, have significant ‘skin in the game’.
God has made each of us unique and in His image! Year 3 have been talking about our character traits and values in Health, with the realisation that we all have strengths and are special. During Art we created self-portraits, using oil pastels with a watercolour wash in the background. Our focus was on facial features and scale, reflecting how we are fearfully and wonderfully made.
CLICK HERE to view our self-portraits
3D and Mrs Dawkins
In Term 1, Kindergarten to Year 6 students participate in a program called ‘Bounce Back!’ in Personal Development and Health lessons. Where possible, the knowledge, skills and concepts are also integrated into other Key Learning Areas; teachers then continue to refer to the Bounce Back! concepts throughout the year.
The values encouraged by the Bounce Back! program fit very well into the Christian ethos of our school. Bible verses are integrated into the program and the children are encouraged to learn them as another ‘tool’ to help them through difficult times. Examples are:
Philippians 4:13 (CEB): I can endure all these things through the power of the one who gives me strength.
Year 4 have been enjoying learning all about plants in our unit ‘Plants In Action.’ We have put our observation skills to the test as we examined seeds and what’s inside them, and by looking at different flowers and leaves of plants. Students have learnt about conditions for germination and the life cycle of plants. Over the unit, the students have also worked collaboratively conducting their own experiments. Each group planted two bean seeds and changed the growing condition of one and have been observing over the last few weeks what effect it has had on growth. We have had some very interesting results!
Belinda Garratt, Ruth Phillips and Lachlan Whale
Year 4 Teachers
The Year 2 Guinea Pigs are loving our ‘Watch it Grow’ Science topic.
We had a fantastic hands-on science lesson as we explored plants, seeds, and their life cycles! We took a walk around the school and examined the root system of a spider plant and replanted it in our classroom to watch it grow.
We investigated the newly created irrigated gardens growing, and documented how our seeds were growing in our classroom window. A wonderfully rich lesson indeed and I am sure we have some future horticulturalists amongst us!
On Monday 22 February, Years 7-12 students participated in our annual school 7-12 Swimming Carnival. We were blessed with an absolutely amazing day at Ripples Penrith with students competing in a range of events throughout the day.
There were a number of students who achieved personal bests on the day in their chosen events and we would like to give a special mention to Lily Jackson who set a new School Record in the 12-Year Girls 50m Butterfly and Adelaide Telfer who set a new School Record in the 18-Year Girls 50m Breaststroke.
We have 39 students successful in qualifying to attend the CSS Nepean Zone Secondary Swimming Carnival which will take place on Wednesday 3 March 2021 at Mt. Druitt Pool. All information will be sent to those students’ parents and caregivers shortly.
A huge congratulations to Year 5 student Coco Purcell. Last year she trialled and successfully made the CSSA Tennis Team, and on Monday competed at the CIS Tennis Trials. Coco represented CSSA (and PCS) excellently, winning THREE of her matches! We are extremely proud of Coco and her efforts.
Joshua De Martin
Year 6 Teacher
Our Summer Reading Challenge was a great success for our second year running. It is great to see so many students continuing to read through summer. This is so important as research shows that on average, students drop in their reading level over long holiday breaks. We also had some great photos sent in of students reading in unusual places to add to the fun.
Congratulations to the following students who completed the challenge and received book prizes. I hope you enjoy them!
YEAR 1
We are conducting a survey to better understand the reasons why parents choose to send their children to our school. An email will be sent to K-12 school families on Monday 8 March inviting your participation.
The Christian Schools Community Profile: WHY PARENTS CHOOSE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS survey is offered by Christian Schools Australia. It will be conducted amongst all families with children enrolled K-12 in participating Christian schools. It is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of parents’/caregivers’ choice of school, their satisfaction with their child/ren’s learning, their engagement in the school community, and their general background.
The survey will be conducted from Monday 8 March to Thursday 1 April 2021 and all responses are anonymous.
On Thursday 18 February, 27 students represented Penrith Christian School at the Nepean Zone Swimming Carnival at Glenbrook Pool. All the students were exceptionally well behaved and swam competitively to the best of their abilities.
Congratulations to the following students for their outstanding results:
12 Years Boys - Tyler Brown
Our routines at the end of the day have been much improved with your patience and changes to procedure. We continue to ask the following to make this time as safe and efficient as possible:
All students K-12 will now be dismissed at the normal time of 2.55 pm. If you have older students, we encourage you to enter the school from 3.00 pm to assist our little ones leaving first.
Please use all four lanes upon entering Bay 1 of the car park to ensure that traffic is not held up at the roundabout, and then zip together giving way as necessary when moving onto the lower section of Kiss & Go.
Please be courteous to other parents by not using the Simeon Road entrance – this must remain open for deliveries and emergency services, but is not an entry point for Kiss & Go any longer.
