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Hills Adventist College Newsletter - 25 May 2018

Principal's Message

On Thursday I, along with our College Captains, Dilpreet Hayer and Dillon Steyn attended the Secondary Student Leadership program offered by the education office of the Parliament of NSW. The program included presentations from members of Parliament, whilst sitting in the gallery of both lower and upper chambers of the Parliament. Students were encouraged to further their leadership aspirations through ongoing engagement with their communities.

The afternoon was spent on a tour of Government House and a presentation from Chief Justice Tom Bathurst, (Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales from 1 June 2011 and Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales)

The program concluded with afternoon tea in the grounds of Government House.

Exam season is upon us, and we think of our Year 11 students in particular who have been sitting exams this week. This is a busy time for our students and we wish them all the best as they study and prepare for the weeks ahead.

Our College Captains with the Lieutenant Governor of NSW at Government House

Counsellor's Corner

Mrs Sarah Kross - College Counsellor

Seeing the good in a difficult situation can be hard. A bad situation can be overwhelming, and can often feel like too much to handle. This can be especially true in parenting. It can be easy for our loved one’s struggles to overwhelm us, and we can become blinded to the rest of their qualities. How can we change our perspective?

Recently, a family member gave me a Gratitude Journal as a birthday gift. A Gratitude Journal looks like this: A simple page with a sentence up the top of the page that says: “Three things that I am grateful for today”. This is followed by space to write what you’re grateful for. To do this, you don’t have to have a special journal to write your thoughts in. Grab a spare piece of paper, or write it somewhere in your phone.

How can this be applied to parenting? When parenting gets tough, take two minutes to write about the good, the strengths, and the virtues that you see in your child. For example, list “Three of my child’s strengths”, “Three things I love about my child”, or “Three positive things I saw my child do today”. This may help you take a step back and see a difficult situation more objectively. You may see that while your child is struggling today, this week, term, or even year, they still have good in them that you can focus on and reinforce during the difficult times. This can have a powerful effect on your child. Strengths based parenting is known to be one of the most effective ways of building resilience in children and adolescents.

I see life from a Christian perspective. Seeing the good in others always reminds me of the good that God sees in us while we still reject Him, and sometimes hurt ourselves and others. This is shown so clearly through the Bible, specifically in Romans 5:8 – “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” It is God’s love for us that draws us back to Him. In the same way your love, encouragement and intentional affirmation of your child may draw them back to you.

Meet New Staff

Mrs Karen Thomson

Mrs Thomson is a born and bred Sydney-sider who has spent her life in and around the Hills District. She obtained a Bachelor of Music Education from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music after leaving school. Since that time, she has been working as a musician playing in bands, as a music tutor and classroom teacher for the past 20 years. Mrs Thomson has been involved in the Hillsong Church music team, in addition to working as a music tutor and lecturer in their Bible College. She believes music can be taught to anyone who is willing to learn it and enjoys giving students something that they can succeed at through practice and perseverance. We welcome Mrs Thomson to our staff in 2018 and hope she enjoys her time sharing her love and knowledge of music with our students.

College Announcements

New Enrolments for 2019

For our existing families, if you have another child you would like to enrol for 2019, NOW is the time to complete your application form. Places are filling fast and as a family that is already part of our College community, you will have preference over new families in the application process. Either collect an application form from Castle Hill or Kellyville Reception or go straight to our website and complete an online application. Please note the $100 Application fee does apply to each child you are enrolling, in addition to the $600 bond once you have received a Letter of Offer. This bond will be refunded to you either when your child completes Year 12, or one term's notice is given on departure of the College. If you have any questions, please contact our Registrar, Mrs Reilly at registrar@hills.adventist.edu.au

Information Night for Current Year 10 Students

School App

For information for parents and guardians of our College, at your fingertips, download the School Stream app from the App Store or Play Store. You can use the app for such things as reporting absences, checking canteen menu, and to find Home Room teacher details. We also send out alerts periodically to remind parents of special events and activities coming up. This service is in addition to our other forms of communication, such as our newsletter, Facebook page and official emails from the College.

2018 Hope 103.2 Winter Woollies Campaign

We are proud to partner with Hope 103.2 in their 2018 Winter Woollies Campaign. We would encourage our College Community to get involved by donating winter apparel (new or good used condition) to this cause, which will then be collected by the team at Hope 103.2, and delivered to the Parramatta Mission and Wesley Mission and used to help the homeless keep warm this winter.

Items to be donated include:

Thick Socks

Scarves

Beanies

Backpacks

Reusable Water Bottles (New only please)

Raincoats/Ponchos

If you would like to assist, please send in your donations before June 30, and we will collect them on behalf of Hope 103.2, who will send their on-air team to come and collect them in the first week of July. We appreciate your involvement to help those less fortunate in our community.

National Simultaneous Storytime

Mrs Weslake's Kindy Class reading for National Simultaneous Storytime

National Simultaneous Storytime is held annually by the Australian Library and Information Association. Every year a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read at the same time around the country in libraries, schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, family homes, bookshops and many other places. The aim is to encourage literacy development, the enjoyment of reading, the involvement of family, friends, and media in reading experiences, and promoting library storytime, while also highlighting Australian authors and publishers with young people.

Kindergarten to Year 6 students across both campuses, joined an estimated one million participants around Australia (and New Zealand this year), on Wednesday 23 May at 11:00am to read this year's picture book, Hickory Dickory Dash, by Tony Wilson and illustrated by Laura Wood. They were also able to watch a Storybox Library podcast reading by Jay Laga’aia from Play School.

Tony Wilson likes taking well-known nursery rhymes and telling a possible story of how the nursery rhyme came to be written. Hickory Dickory Dash, like last year’s book, brings out the theme of persistence and never giving up no matter how many challenges you face. It also reminds students of the strong love that God has for them, as he never stops searching for his lost children until they are found.

Castle Hill News

Parking Safety

Following on from our feature in the last newsletter, we share with you some more guidelines for parking at our Castle Hill Campus:

Thank you for you co-operation with the College's parking guidelines

Number Crunch

Twice a year, students from Years 3 & 4 participate in an exciting learning activity. Number Crunch sees students competing in House teams in order to solve a variety of number problems. Each correct question wins points for their House. Thank you to all the parent helpers that assisted in this week's Number Crunch. The students had a fun experience utilising the Mathematics knowledge they have gained in class

Working Bee this Sunday

There is a Working Bee on at our Castle Hill campus this Sunday from 8:00am. Thank you to all those who are able to take some time out and volunteer to keep our campus looking so good.

Kellyville News

Habits of Mind Used to Succeed in ASX Sharemarket Learning Activity

Our Maker Club on the Kellyville campus, under the guidance of our Technology teacher, Mr Taskis, were busy making something special for Mother's Day a couple of weeks ago. Students constructed their own light-up Mother’s Day cards! They had fun learning about basic electronic circuits by using copper tape, LEDs and a battery to make a fun gift for Mother’s Day. We hope the lucky mums who received these enjoyed something a bit different from your average card on Sunday morning!

Teachers Chapel

At our Kellyville campus, students have opportunity to be heavily involved in the running of our weekly Chapel program, under the guidance of our Chaplain, Pr Ian. This week, the tables were turned and the teachers led out in Chapel, with songs and prayer, a skit featuring “Beatrice and Eugenie” and Mr Gates as our featured speaker. They did a great job and students enjoyed seeing a different side to our teachers!

SPORTS NEWS

Representative Sport

This term has been a busy one sport wise. Our after-school sports for Semester 1 has wound up and the final standings for our teams are as follows:

Junior Girls Netball:

- Team 1 Division B finished 6th

- Team 2 Division C finished 4th.

Intermediate Girls Netball

- Division B finished 6th

Senior Boys Basketball finished 5th.

It was great to see that all our teams had some solid wins during the season. We will be taking nominations for Semester 2 after-school sports in the next couple of weeks.

Hills Zone Football Representation

Nattasha D and Ijaz M were both selected to play on the open girls and boys Hills Zone football teams. Both of these students are in Year 12 but choose to take the day to participate in the competition. Nattasha had the honour of being the captain of the girls team; she had a great day and their team made it to the semifinal. Ijaz also had a fantastic day of competition and his team made it all the way to the grand final but lost. Awesome job guys

NSW All Schools Swimming Championships

This Championship was held towards the beginning of Term 2. Preston A and Zeke N both qualified for the events which is a fantastic achievement. Preston came first in the 100 m Freestyle bringing home a Gold Medal, and Zeke’s relay team came third so he achieved a Bronze Medal. We are very proud of both boys – well done!

Zeke and Preston with their medals

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