WELLBEING

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

The theme for this term has been Moving Forward. This has meant different things to different year groups. Years 7-9 have been looking at making plans and moving on from the frustrations and disappointments of the past. Year 10 has been focusing on moving forward to the end of Year 10 and their senior years. Our new Year 12 students have been looking at moving forward with their goals and plans for their HSC year. So it has been busy! All of this while we were all getting used to being with each other again. Some have found this more challenging than others, but it has been so joyful to see everyone again.

Our new Year 12 student leaders have been very busy. They have painted welcome banners, delivered lunches, attended leadership training, and regular meetings and developed initiatives for the school, including our recent Christmas dress-up and fundraiser for worthy organisations. They have been meeting and greeting parents for our special events. They spent time with our newest students at the Kindergarten orientation and then served a spectacular breakfast to our outgoing Year 12 students. They have done all of this with enthusiasm and pride and we look forward to seeing their leadership in action in 2022.

This term our wellbeing sessions have linked in with our Chapel services and have had students completing hands-on activities including piecing together a jigsaw with their hopes for the future, playing trust games and making some Christmas stars. Students were also busy contributing to the Samaritans Christmas Appeal. Thank you to everyone for participating so enthusiastically in these activities.

This term we have seen old friendships renewed, new friendships made, difficulties worked through and have finished the school year on a very positive note. I look forward to our new academic care program in 2022 which will see our students develop even further into flourishing young adults.

As always if you or someone close to you is having difficulties coping, especially at this time of year, please seek assistance with any of the following organisations:

We managed to celebrate our outgoing Year 12 students on the final day of their HSC examinations with a graduation breakfast. Parents, students and staff enjoyed some time together and finished the day with their formal at Kooindah Waters. Although the photos were disrupted with a storm, students and staff enjoyed the night celebrating their final schooling moments. Some exciting news has come through from our outgoing School Captain, Joshua Hattam. He has successfully gained a position with the Australian Government Digital Apprenticeship Program linked with a Government organisation. Through intense application and stage interviewing since May, Joshua has reached his ultimate goal which is such an honour and fantastic experience for him. We congratulate Joshua and wish him well as he embarks on the beginning of his career.

Finally, I wish you and your families a blessed Christmas. May you take time to reflect on all that the year has been and be able to count numerous blessings. I am looking forward to next year and all that it will bring and no matter what happens, we will thrive by working together and being positive and kind to one another.

Mrs Alison Maclarty

Senior School Student Wellbeing

CAPA

Our lakes grammar Creative and Performing Arts students continued to thrive in Term 4. They produced innovative and creative plays, imaginative artworks, original music, and refined photography. They expressed themselves creatively making a wonderful range of pieces. 

Congratulations to the Year 10 music students, Sophie and Will who have been awarded their Year 10 Music Honours certificates. Both students persevered throughout the year to refine and develop their repertoire, culminating in a very special recital. They entertained Mrs Clancy and special guests at a small performance featuring selected pieces from their Honours program. Sophie then played beautifully for the school community at the final senior school awards assembly and Will performed a dramatic piece at speech day. Many thanks to Mrs Rabbets who has continued to encourage and support these talented musicians.

YEAR 8 COGNITO ART CLUB

Wednesday, 1 December the Year 8 Cognito art club students finally had a chance to finished their young Archie inspired oil paintings of their chosen teachers. They had a highly productive day, refining features, and building tones and textures within their portraits. They all managed to capture the emotion and character of their subjects while building a variety of techniques and skills along the way such as blending, layering, and building up glazes.

Congratulations on some amazing artworks Year 8

SCIENCE

This term has passed at a lightening pace. It was wonderful to return physically to the Science labs and complete many experiments, something sorely missed when home learning.

Our science students are to be commended on the enormous amount of resilience shown throughout the year as they completed work both inside the laboratory and at home using anything they could find to make models and perform simple chemistry experiments. A greater insight into the amount of chemistry we use daily in our lives became increasingly evident as lockdown continued.

It has been wonderful to hear the majority of our HSC science students have already secured university entry; enabling them to relax for a while before commencing their tertiary science studies. We wish them all the very best in these endeavours.

Today I had the pleasure of working with a small group of Year 10 girls to further develop our Native Edibles garden at the end of G-Block. A timed watering system has been installed so we will return after the break to a flourishing garden.

Mrs Jenny Charker

Science Coordinator

ENGLISH

This term, our students in Years 7-10 engaged in personal interest projects to keep up engagement and fine-tune their life skills. Students created ‘student how to guides’ for the safe and ethical use of social media, engaged in different style of creative story writing and wrote travel blogs and poetry after planning hypothetical back-packing trips to Asia and Europe. I am happy to say that students found these tasks exciting and my apologies to parents if your child expresses a sudden interest in taking an HSC gap year, to attend India’s Colour Festival on a shoestring budget!

I would like to finish this reflection by commending students in junior English who took the opportunity to participate in our extracurricular English Honours Program during Terms 3 and 4. Students who participated in this program submitted a Major Work, showcasing their writing skills on an area of personal interest. Warm congratulations are due to the following students:

• Rhys, Year 7 – Distinction. 'The continuation of the Pied Piper of Hamelin.' Appropriation of German Fairytale. Short story.
• Anugraha, Year 9 – Distinction. 'On a range of topics including human emotions and social equality.' Poetry anthology.
• Alyssa , Year 9 – High Distinction. 'War in Pieces.' Poetry anthology.
• Scarlett , Year 9 – High Distinction. 'Love – from platonic to romantic, to growth and realisation.' Poetry anthology.

Mrs Serena Hart

English Coordinator

HISTORY

I would like to congratulate all students on the way in which they have engaged in their learning in History throughout Term 4. It has been a tumultuous second half of the year and our students demonstrated incredible resilience and commitment to their learning. In particular, I commend our Year 12 2021 students for successfully completing their HSC examinations and our Year 12 2022 students for the way they have applied themselves to the beginning of their HSC course in modern and ancient history.

Some highlights for Term 4 in our junior years include:

Year 7 - Lakes Grammar MasterChef Competition which saw the following students awarded first place for their homemade chinese cuisine: 7L – Giselle S, 7G – Khloe F, 7S – Ava M.

Year 8 – constructed historically accurate Minecraft Medieval towns, including detailed replica Medieval cathedrals, housing and weapons.

Year 9 – delved into a close study of Australian prisoners of war during WWII and produced some historically accurate empathy responses from the perspective of POW veterans.

Year 10 – created a new capital city as part of their Roaring Twenties study, complete with sustainability ideas, a pitch to the class and a vote for the best city design.

Mrs Fiona Crawford

History Co-ordinator

LIBRARY

There were quite a few award recipients this term for WABIAD – Write A Book In A Day. In both Year 9 and Year 10, there were certificates and a copy of their own book for each participating student. There were two teams of writers:The Space Camels Year 9 team - Anugraha , Pahal , Georgia and Tahlia , who wrote ‘The Space Station Spectacle’. Team Penny Penne Year 10 - Chloe , Raphael, Kani  and Brooke , wrote ‘Finn Crabbens and the Tale of the Terrifying Teapot.’ Well done to each one of you.

Certificates of participation for the Cognito in-house reading challenge and a QBD Book voucher prize were awarded to: Beau , Chloe , Mekenzie , Juliet, Mackenzie and Brooke . Congratulations on collectively reading 339 books during 2021 – an impressive effort. Enjoy the books you buy for yourselves with your book voucher.

The Premiers’ Reading Challenge was completed by: Abigail , Beau , Mekenzie , Dexter, Ryan  and Boyd  – A special mention to Boyd who has participated every year from Year 3 - 9 inclusive, and this year received a medal to recognise his consistent efforts.

Finally, well played to all members of our SS Chess this year. At the end of last week we received individual plaques and a school trophy for our intermediate grade division winners from our Central Coast Chess Gala Day held at Central Coast Grammar School earlier this year. These will be handed out at our first assembly next year to Thomas , Tex , Rohith , and Gianni. We hope to be able to resume face-to-face chess tournaments next year.

Mrs Anne-Marie Nichols

Teacher Librarian