SACC NEWS

Supporting parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) meeting

A number of families in the College have students who have a diagnosis of ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). Towards the end of Term 2, we invited parents of these students to meet via Zoom to share advice and experiences and to encourage one another. Eight families were represented by at least one parent at this meeting.  

Mrs Shirley Gillie, our Head of Learning Support, Mrs Wendy Punay, our Primary Learning Support Teacher and our Chaplain Rev Warwick Grant attended. We agreed that it was good to encourage one another in the challenges that we face caring for these children at home and school. Of course, those attending were not compelled to share, but for those who did, we agreed that we would trust one another not to share beyond the group any information that was not about our own family. 

At our second meeting (details below), we will share strategies that parents have found successful with their children in online learning, and in life in general.  We will also discuss helping them transition back to face-to-face classes whenever that may occur.  We had hoped to have our second meeting at the College in person, but for obvious reasons, this has not been possible.  

The second of these meetings which will occur online via ZOOM will be at 8:00pm – 9:00pm on Thursday, October 7.  

Parents of children with ASD are most welcome whether you were able to attend the first meeting or not.

NB. These Zoom details are strictly for the use of St Andrews Christian College families only.

The meeting will be led by Head of Learning Support, Mrs Shirley Gillie and College Chaplain, Rev Warwick Grant. Other St Andrews Christian College Learning Support staff plan to attend also. Please do not hesitate to contact either of us via email if you have any questions.

God bless,

Warwick Grant (wgrant@standrews.vic.edu.au) & 

Shirley Gillie (sgillie@standrews.vic.edu.au)

August 2021 Colouring Competition Winner

It is an honour to announce that the talented winner of our August 2021 Primary School Colouring Competition is Raene Kuy, from 5L! 

Raene captivated us with a stunning, inspired and lively entry glowing with imagination and skill. I'd like to commend the skillful rendering, it really  enhanced the submission and stood out amongst the other beautiful, shortlisted entries. Congratulations Raene! The colouring competition's prize will be awaiting collection from the office reception when we return to face-to-face learning at the College. 

We had an amazing plethora of 40+ entries to choose a winner from, submitted by creative and talented primary school students!! It was difficult to make a decision, so I would like to congratulate the shortlist nominees for their phenomenal efforts and encourage students to participate again in the October 2021 Colouring Competition next term! Stay creative, everyone! 

Sophia Tran

St Andrews Christian College 2021 Visual Art Captain

CyberSafety Webinar - Parent Information Night

First Day of Term 4 : Monday 4th October 2021

Due to the current lockdown, this Parent Information Night will be hosted as a Webinar on Monday 4th October at 7:30pm.

We have invited Susan McLean, author of “Sexts, Texts and Selfies” and an expert on Cyber Safety to speak at our College. Susan is Australia’s foremost expert in the area of cyber safety and was a member of Victoria Police for 27 years. Widely known as the ‘cyber cop’ she was the first Victoria Police Officer appointed to a position involving cyber safety and young people.

Please keep this date free and we look forward to you joining us in this important webinar!

John Presant and Yvonne Hughes

Head of Secondary and Head of Primary

STEPtember Challenge

The St Andrews Sport Department are excited to invite all our families to participate in our “STEPtember Challenge”. 

Students will be competing in their Year Level (along with the help of some of their teachers) and can submit their daily steps via the hub. At the end of the challenge, the Year Level with the most amount of steps will be declared the winner of the inaugural St Andrews STEPtember Challenge. 

Additional winners will be announced per Year Level for… 

• The student with most amount of step entries
• The student with the highest daily step entry
• The student with the most consecutive daily entries
• The staff member with the most entries

 We’re so excited to see our families staying active during this lockdown and making the most of the beautiful sunshine. 

Submit your entries on the hub Sport Page. 

Keep on walking! 

Andrew Farmer and the Sport Department 

Parenting Ideas

Parenting Ideas are hosting a series of Webinars with highly credentialed parenting experts during 2021. These webinars can be attended free of charge (regular value $39) by using the Webinar Voucher below. 

The final webinar for the year is being held on November 10th 8:00 pm – Using birth order knowledge for a parenting edge.

For access to the Webinar or more great ideas and articles to help you in your parenting journey, explore the Parenting Ideas website. Click here

Michael Swanborough

Head of Learning and Teaching

Outside School Hours Care Newsletter

PRIMARY SCHOOL FAMILY KAHOOT NIGHT

On Thursday 16th September around 170 Primary School families joined together for one giant Zoom call – to enjoy an amazing night of trivia and games!

We were all laughing until we cried and had such a fantastic time competing against each other in a variety of Kahoot quizzes. Players enthusiastically joined in guessing which staff member Mrs Hughes was describing in rounds of 'Who am I?' or keenly spotting the staff members wearing a crazy piece of clothing in our games of 'Where’s Wally?'. Monty Mouse even managed to make an appearance!

Well done to our top 6 finalists of the night:

• Nathan Elbourne (Year 5L)
• Gabriel Fong (Year 3E)
• Zachary Lim (Year 6L)
• Marcus Chong (Year 5L)
• Edrick Soh (Year 4V)
• Zachariah Wong (Year 2H)

After a very tight sudden death round…it was EDRICK SOH (Year 4V) who walked away with the win and the $100 Uber Eats Voucher! What a fantastic effort Edrick, we hope you and your family enjoy a special meal or two together. 

Well done to all involved, and thank you St Andrews Primary School. What a fun way to end the Term!