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.
It’s a busy time of the year for Year 12 students who are in the middle of presenting their major projects for marking.
Industrial Technology Timber and Multimedia were marked on Thursday and these projects include a Practical Project and a Management Portfolio which have been developed throughout the year. For Timber, the students made a range of projects including a Guitar case, a Skate Board Rack and Drawers, a Computer and Study desk, an octagonal Games Table with storage, an Outdoor Double Sofa seat, and a Gaming Desk.
In Multimedia, students produced a variety of Books and Videos including: a Game, illustrated children’s books including a QR code activated narration for one of them, and a range of Video productions. Students can now relax a bit as the projects are now finished.
Book Week started on Thursday 22 August 2019. This is the best week in the year, culminating in our amazing Book Day this Wednesday 28 August.
The Book Fair has arrived and is busily being set up. The authors are booked and ready to entertain and inspire. The displays and costumes are being finalised.
We hope you’re as excited as us!
Our Year 7 students have been performing brilliantly in this year’s Word Mania and achieved First Place in the Sydney West Region on the first round of competition, which ran until Friday 16 August.
We are in first place in Round 2 at the moment, and in order for us to qualify to play in the Australia and NZ wide (Oceania) finals, we need to maintain our first place position.
We are currently eleventh on the National Leaderboard; however, these scores are a culmination of the Practice Round, Round 1 and Round 2. The leaderboard is then wiped clean for the finals.
Last Friday 16 August, our Commerce Year 9 Class held our annual ‘Running a Business’ day where all students got to take part in running a small stand during lunch time. Everyone was so excited for the day and couldn’t wait to sell their goods. We had an amazing time bonding and sharing some laughs as we rushed around trying to set up and have the most successful business.
The day concluded when the final lunch bell rang. We were all relieved it was over but are still grateful for the experience and knowledge that we were able to gain. If anyone is looking at doing Commerce for their Year 9 electives, I would highly recommend it!
Chloe Miller
David Quinn in Year 7 has won, with his NSW Ice Hockey Team, the Australian Nationals U/13 Championship.
David was the top defenceman point scorer at the championships with four goals and more importantly, seven assists and no goals scored against the team on his shift.
Well done David!!
We are so pleased to announce that the Girls Rising partnership with St Marys Band Club (The Bandy) continues in 2019, with confirmation of our grant application for yet another year.
We are truly blessed to receive this grant from The Bandy, enabling our Girls Rising event for Year 10 girls in public and private schools around the Western Sydney area to continue and to grow. The students who attend this one day event, hear positive messages to contrast the bombardment of negativity towards women in our society. Girls Rising gives them courage to believe they can make a difference and that their voice matters.
We show them how to be BOLD and stand against injustice.
Over the past four years I’ve had the pleasure of coaching and mentoring the PCS PSSA Netball Teams.
One of my favourite parts of coaching is watching the girls become brilliant little netballers and young ladies. We finished off the last game of PSSA with two wins and a draw! The girls have been training on Mondays and Wednesdays every week and they have worked hard all season to improve their skills. I am so proud of each and every one of the girls and I will definitely miss them all next year!
The best of luck for the future girls. It’s been my absolute pleasure being a small part of your netball journey.
We have an exciting new opportunity for students who are above beginner level. Group Performance Classes will bring together different musicians (on different instruments), at a similar level, in order to learn, not just how to play their instrument, but how to play it with other people.
This is different to concert band, which is typically 15+ students and multiples of the same instrument. This will be 4-5 students; for example: a drummer, a bassist, a guitarist and a singer.
Here's what it will entail:
You are warmly invited to celebrate the fun of our Book Week activities with teachers and students on Wednesday 28 August 2019. Please click on the links below for Book Day information and programs specific to Early Childhood, Junior School and Middle School:
Click here for EARLY CHILDHOOD (THURSDAY/FRIDAY STUDENTS) Book Day information and program (Friday 23 August)
Click here for EARLY CHILDHOOD (MONDAY-WEDNESDAY) Book Day information and program
Click here for JUNIOR SCHOOL Book Dayinformation and program
Last Tuesday the Year 11 Physics class went to Penrith iFly to physically experience the laws of motion, perform experiments in a wind tunnel and explore the practical applications of physics principles.
‘This was a thrilling experience and a great learning adventure. This has inspired me to find out more about the physics of freefall.’ – Josiah
‘This was a great way to experience the forces of Physics.’ – Anna and Aksa
On Thursday Year 10 travelled to the Sydney Opera House for part of their Australian History course. It was an insightful day as students were given an in-depth tour of the site. Below is a reflection by Ellen Margetts of Year 10:
‘An interesting aspect of the Opera House that I learned on the day was that the Opera House roof contains 1,056,000 glazed white granite tiles that were made in Sweden. These tiles are self-cleaning and seek to reflect a glacier effect from the sun. Furthermore, the site’s architect Jørn Utzon never saw the finished Opera House yet was honoured before his death in 2008 when UNESCO placed the Sydney Opera House on the World Heritage List.’
The students learned that the Sydney Opera House is the youngest cultural building to ever be included on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Term 3 has started and the children are firing on all cylinders as they immerse themselves in the learning tasks that are happening within the classrooms. The teachers have been impressed with the improvement in knowledge and skills that the students have developed when working collaboratively.
Our Science topic for this term is called 'Look! Listen!' and the children will be investigating the sources of light and sound, how they are produced, and how light and sound travel. The students have explored sounds around the school and located several areas with near and far sounds. They have also spent some time in the classroom after our sounds expedition classifying and sorting the sounds we heard. The children will use guitars to see how vibrations can cause sound and will feel the vibrations in their throat as they speak. Over the coming weeks the children will have the opportunity to share items that they have at home that produce light or sound with their classmates.
The students have been diligently applying themselves to the hands-on learning tasks that have been provided in Mathematics. This term the students have been developing their problem solving skills when working on a variety of addition and subtraction problems. Over the next few weeks we will be investigating area and volume in measurement as well as position skills and concepts.
