The Annual Year 8 Drama Olympics was held on Monday 16 September. This is the 13th year PCS has run this competition, with all Year 8 students participating.
There were a total of 15 teams. After four knockout rounds, first place was awarded to 5 Shots, with Backstreet Spice as runners up. Ooga Booga Boogas won the prize for the best dressed team (pictured).
Marnie O’MaraDrama Teacher
Last Thursday, students from Year 10 who are interested in medical careers, visited the Nepean Clinical School. They listened to cutting edge research from prominent doctors and professors, had a hands-on experience of using ultrasound and a heart monitoring machine, then went on a tour of Nepean Hospital.
This is what they had to say:
It was great to explore a medical career such as paediatrics. I hope to be a paediatrician after attending university. I enjoyed visiting the neonatal ward at Nepean Hospital. Kyla Martin
Year 5 had a lovely time going down and visiting Prep last week! The Prep class had been working on a unit all about things that go. They showed us their cars which had been kindly made by the DT Department, for them to decorate! We talked all about ramps and tested out some ideas. It was a hive of activity and the students had a wonderful time!
Danielle BlightYear 5 Teacher, Years 5 and 6 Wellbeing Mentor
Emotional awareness and self-regulation is an essential skill in building resilience. It is the ability to identify emotional experiences and to control emotional responses to external events.
Emotional Awareness:
being resilient is not about keeping things inside, but expressing how you feel and moving forward
expressing and understanding your own emotions is a key ingredient to resilience
If your child has outgrown last season’s swimwear, or you would like to purchase PCS branded swimwear for the first time, we have a few items in stock available for purchase as follows:
Female Sports Back One Piece
Girls 10 x 1
Ladies 10 x 3
On Thursday 5 September, a team of nine Year 8 students travelled to Batemans Bay as part of our annual mission trip to serve the local community. The team partnered with Rob and Cheryl Burton (former PCS staff member) who pastor Batemans Bay Baptist Church. Through the Burtons, we were able to be connected and serve other ministries in the area including Cross Central Church.
The team of students led youth group nights, performed worship music, participated in a working bee at the Baptist Church, led a Sunday church service and joined in at Batemans Bay High School scripture lunch group.
Moreover, students had the opportunity to share their testimony and speak before others which was beautiful to see.
Thank you to our Junior School students and families who have already supported our annual ‘Coins for Missions’ fundraiser. Your children have been encouraged to do extra jobs at home and bring in the coins they earn to support our sister school, Divine Junior School in Uganda. ‘Coins for Missions’ will continue to run until the end of Term 3.
As a fun way to finish the last three days of Term 3, Zooper Doopers will be on sale at first half of lunch in Junior School ($1 small, $2 large), and cans of soft drink in Middle School ($2 per can).
Our inaugural Junior School Music Variety Performance is happening on Wednesday 18 September 2019.
Come and enjoy musical performances where Junior School showcase their creative art skills. There will be song, costumes, dance, acting - stars will be born! Bring your family and friends, pack the venue and be a part of lasting memories as we rock PCS. Refreshments will be available for purchase during Interval. All welcome!
TWO PERFORMANCES in the PCS Auditorium:
On Tuesday night 3 September, the café became a cool jazz club with Year 9s Jazzin’ on a Tuesday Concert. Performing to a full house, with mood lighting and snacks and drinks, they entertained the crowd with a history of Jazz.
The journey went from the early 1900s with Negro Spirituals, to Ragtime and Swing and then through the decades to modern Jazz composed in this decade. There were Jazz standards such as 'Black Coffee, 'Autumn Leaves' and 'What a Wonderful World', as well as experimental Jazz on the bass with 'Portrait of Tracey', and the exciting theme from Star Wars, 'Cantina Band'. One group even covered Beyonce’s 'Halo' in a Jazz style.
The evening started and ended with a very cool Funk Band headed up by Adam Sharaf on keys. Year 9, we can’t wait to see what you can do over the next few years!
Thank you to our Junior School students and families who have already supported our annual ‘Coins for Missions’ fundraiser. Your children have been encouraged to do extra jobs at home and bring in the coins they earn to support our sister school, Divine Junior School in Uganda.
Through the generosity of the students we have been able to provide Divine Junior School with much needed resources, including; student Bibles, teacher training, a much needed water tank and a photocopier. This year, we are hoping to raise enough money to provide the school with some of the following needed items: laptops, school resources, paint and a music keyboard.
Your coins are changing lives Junior School- thank you!
Well done Junior School on being so amazing at bringing nude fruits and veggies for Crunch and Sip every Wednesday.
Our next goal is to make recess and lunch as waste free as possible. In Year 2 this week we have been discussing how we can reduce the packaging of recess foods. We have been using reusable containers to put fruit, chips or snacks in.
Also, if you have 10c recycleable signs on your plastic bottles or cans at home and you would like to send them to school, our Blue Vinnies recycle bins will not only help Vinnies but PCS too!
Saturday 31 August saw the culmination of five weeks of creative work by fourteen ambitious students from across Years 4, 5 and 6. Forming two teams, these fourteen students accepted the challenge of participating in the Tournament of Minds, a new experience for each of them.
Tournament of Minds is a problem solving program for teams of students from both primary and secondary years. Tournament's aim is to enhance the potential of our youth by developing diverse skills, enterprise, time management, and the discipline to work collaboratively within a challenging and competitive environment. They are required to solve demanding, open-ended challenges from one of the following disciplines: The Arts, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), Language and Social Sciences.
Probably the most difficult aspect of participating in the Tournament of Minds is that the chosen challenge must be completed by the students within the team only, with no outside assistance. A close second on the difficulty scale was the need for each team to be able to work as a cohesive unit. Teamwork is not an easy thing to develop when thrown together with people from other classes and other Year groups. After a bit of a rough start, both of these teams came together really well.
Year 4 students and parents are warmly invited to our Transition to Middle School evening on Tuesday 24 September 2019 (6.00 pm - 7.30 pm in the iCentre).
This event provides an opportunity to:
find out the differences between Junior and Middle School at PCS
learn about Year 5 timetables, diaries and other day-to-day changes
Last Tuesday 27 August, we welcomed back Collett Smart to present her seminar for parents; 'Selfies, Self-worth and Self-objectification: Helping teens navigate Social Media Culture'.
Collett is an international speaker, who provided attendees with a wealth of information in relation to social media and strategies for assisting our children as they utilise it. While there were many valuable insights, a key message and warning was this:
60% of parents don't monitor their children’s social media usage. Collett likened this to dropping your children off at Kings Cross for the night. Especially when they first use social media, our children need their parents to walk alongside them, teaching wise usage and navigating the dangers.
We hope our PCS dads enjoyed our ‘drive through’ breakfast (or a leisurely feed with your children in the cafe) on Friday 30 August. A huge thank you to ‘Ash & Sons’ for donating 45 dozen eggs! And thank you to all the staff, students and parents who organised, cooked, served and greeted. Our younger students also had some shopping time today, choosing a special present for dad. Happy Father’s Day PCS dads and grandads!
Last week, our annual Book Week reached its dramatic conclusion with Wednesday’s Book Day. Throughout the week leading up to the event, excitement was building as students completed colouring competitions, book displays and visited the Book Fair. When the big day arrived, we were greeted with students from all across the school in amazing costumes, all wearing smiles on their faces.
CLICK HERE for Junior School Book Day article and photos
CLICK HERE for Middle School Book Day article and photos
On Wednesday 5 September Junior School held its annual Book Week Day. One of the highlights was the Book Week Parade where our students excelled themselves with patience and delight as they paraded in their dress up costume based upon a book character of their choice. The National theme for this year was ‘Reading is My Superpower ’.
Other organised events for the children were visiting guest authors who came and shared their insights, there were book rotation activities within the classes, book displays to see in the library that each Grade had designed, the talented Boost Drama item and a Book Fair where books were purchased to encourage a love of reading. Thank you for your support; it was precious sharing this event with your family and friends as we enjoyed this day together.
Melanie Woods
Thank you for your support for Book Day – especially the late nights sewing and trips to the shops to get the costumes just right. The kids had a lot of fun and we enjoyed celebrating reading and books together. We tried some new things for Middle School Book Day – each student wrote a story to share in Junior School and we had some fun reading-themed games in our assembly (thank you to those who could make it along!) Our guest author, Mick Elliott, was really great with the kids; he was funny and shared helpful ideas about how to get our audience’s attention with our writing.
Mark Gee
Head of Middle School
Thank you Penrith City Council for once again approving our grant application for sponsorship of Girls Rising and Man Made. This grant enables some girls and boys in our Western Sydney community to attend this program.
We very much appreciate this grant and look forward to continuous partnership with the Council.
Lyn Jagger
Year 2 had a fabulous day at Warragamba Dam last week. It was such a rich and engaging excursion where the children learnt all about our catchment area, and how they can care for water.
We got to drive across the dam wall, and we were able to walk along and under the dam, learning about its fascinating history. We loved the story of the long eels, and we so enjoyed spotting some kangaroos and even some wombats.
We invited all the families to join us for a picnic together, and we played a super fun game of stuck in ‘roo poo’, even the parents joined in too.
