Latest News

Our Indian Feast Celebration

This term Year One and Year Two have been investigating the amazing country and culture of India. To celebrate our learning, we took part in an Indian feast. We ate butter chicken, rogan josh, rice and naan bread (are we making you hungry??) and everyone thought it was amazing! So much so, many of us went up for seconds. 

We would like to thank Kohli’s Indian Restaurant for doing such a great job – the food was absolutely delicious. Thank you too, to Mr Hefferan for being our Menu Log driver, and to our staff for serving us on the day.

Forty-Four Go To Canberra

From 15-17 November, our nation's capital city, Canberra experienced a massive increase in its collective I.Q. That's right, forty-four students and seven staff and parents from NCS gave their brains a work out learning about civics, citizenship, history, science, sport, nature and art whilst visiting ten places of interest. A number of students answered so many questions, they probably needed to have an enforced period of silence when they returned home on Friday!

Here are a few highlights: 

We ran, jumped, climbed, peddled and even tobogganed our way to Olympic and Commonwealth Games glory (well in our dreams) at the AIS. We drew and admired fabulous masterpieces from renowned artists whilst at the National Gallery. 

We experimented, pondered, wondered and marvelled at the amazing universe that our God has created whilst at Questacon. We learnt about and experienced democracy in action at Old Parliament House, Parliament House and The AEC. We saw and touched history at the National Museum. We played games at the park and had fun with friends at the Australian Mint (unfortunately we couldn't bring any of the money home!). 

We got to know one another by telling riddles and jokes on the bus trips and generally had stupendous times over our three days and two nights away. Canberra was memorable for our Year 5's for all the right reasons.

Thanks to our servant-hearted parent helpers and NCS staff members who attended: Mrs Varga, Mrs Thuaux, Mrs Powell, Mr Graham and Mr Skilbeck. Your presence was very much valued. Your input made the excursion extremely wonderful.

Blessings, Mr Parker and Miss Gordon

We Pause to Remember

On Friday 10 November, the entrance and walkways at NCS were lined with red poppies, marking the commemoration of Remembrance Day for 2023. Despite the passing of over a century since the signing of the Armistice in 1918, Remembrance Day continues to hold a special place in our memory. We remember with gratitude and sadness the many lives that were lost in service of our nation during The Great War and in all wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations since.

As 11am approached, staff and students gathered for a special commemorative service, which was opened by Mr John Morrison with a performance of Amazing Grace on the bagpipes. In the commemorative address, Mr Jolliffe encouraged us to reflect on the sacrifice of the men and women who gave so much in order to secure our freedom and to continue to pray for peace throughout the world. It was encouraging to see primary and secondary student students taking an active role in the assembly and we were particularly thankful for Mr Peter Williams, who played the Last Post and Reveille on his battered bugle. Thank you to the many staff, students and the maintenance team who made this commemorative event possible.

Following the service, our Kindergarten and Stage 1 students were treated to a demonstration of the bagpipes by Mr John Morrison from the Kiama Pipe Band. Students were shown, rather humorously, how not to play the bagpipes, before being given a few tips and tricks on playing this rather fearsome instrument. We are thankful to Mr Morrison for entertaining us with his pipe antics and for answering all our questions. We may just have some young bagpipe enthusiasts on our hands - our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause!

In the lead up to Remembrance Day, our year 4 students had the opportunity to participate in a program run by the Nowra RSL called Draw To Remember. Students met with a local veteran, Mr Barry Tait known to us as Grumpy, who encouraged students to consider the importance of Remembrance Day and presented each class with blackboards and an assortment of chalk to complete their designs. Students made some pretty amazing artworks that were displayed at the Remembrance Day assembly. Students were very pleased to present their artworks to Grumpy and Mr Fred Dawson from the Nowra RSL and thanked them for running the activity and connecting with them.

A Very Special Farm Experience

Kindergarten have had another special farm experience over the last few weeks. We’ve been incubating chicken eggs, and we watched some hatch! We first noticed a hole in the egg, then we could see the chick’s beak pecking from the inside. We could even hear the chick chirping from inside the egg! The egg felt warm against our ears as we listened carefully. We learned that the next step is called zippering – it’s when the chick pecks around the egg to create a lid they can push off as they hatch. Some students could be heard giving gentle encouragement to the hatching chicks, saying “come on, push! You can do it”.

Our chicks were a never-ending source of amazement, wonder and fun as we watched them grow a few tiny adult feathers, and learn to jump up on surfaces in their nesting box. We watched them create art and we designed and built a chicken playground, having considered what they would need and enjoy. We learned how to safely hold a chick and described how they felt. They’ve moved one step closer to their forever home now, and we wish Monday, Shoelace, Jazzy, Speedy and Strong Chick a wonderful future laying eggs for their new family. A huge thank you to the Thuaux family for providing the eggs, the incubator and coaching so we could experience being chicken farmers! Kindy is so grateful!

Year 7 Technology prepare ‘Spinach Gozleme’

This Term, 7 Tech A have been busy in the NCS kitchen, learning about safe, hygienic food preparation. They have developed skills in safe knife handling, baking, time management, teamwork and cleaning; while learning to understand and follow a recipe. We have been learning about the importance of a balanced diet to provide essential nutrients for growth and development and preparing a variety of tasty dishes. Students have been given the opportunity to experiment with balancing flavours and creatively plating their food to optimise the diner's enjoyment of a meal.

This week the students were asked to prepare a ‘Spinach Gozleme’ dish and creatively style their food to be photographed. Mrs Rogers was very pleased with their efforts and the enthusiasm that all the students demonstrated throughout the task.

Next week, they will be completing their final design task; to prepare an original ‘Snack Wrap’ with packaging, aimed at a teenage target market and evaluated for its nutritional content.