News

WHAT A BLESSING

Our evening with Dr D. – ‘How to be a light in darkness’ was a truly wonderful evening of worship, sharing, teaching and challenges. Students shared on our theme for the year, ‘Jesus, the light of the world’; students performed beautiful music and led us in worship; students created amazing posters and clay houses which adorned the MPH; lamps, rugs and candles created an atmosphere of peace, warmth and comfort; we enjoyed scones and jam; together wrote encouragement notes and prayers to Dr D. and his family.

It was a glorious night of fellowship where Dr D. and his family were able to witness and share with us all, that despite their difficult life and persecutions as Christians, they are able to live in peace and confidence and be a light for Jesus. It is their relationship with Jesus that makes the difference, the assurance of their faith. When connected to Jesus and living in relationship with Him, it is His light that shines.

Matthew 5:14-16 

 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Thanks to the many people who came to share the evening with us (well over 400) and to the many staff (led by our Middle School) and students who put this evening together. You are all amazing!

Shalom,

Catriona

ALL NIGHT PING-PONG MARATHON

Thanks to the staff who supported and participated in the Ping-Pong-a-Thon this year. It was great to see our student leaders organise and publicise fundraising events. Thanks to Andrew and Emily for getting their students to participate during the day. A special thanks to Irena, Natalie, Jo, and Marina (who pulled the ‘all-nighter’) to support our students overnight! At the moment we have raised over $5,000 to assist in the end of human trafficking and slavery in SE Asia, with more funds to be tallied! Well done to our students, Audrey Ang, Chloe Chandaraj and Caylee Hendricks for organising!

From Audrey Ang

Last week, August 2-3rd, for the 4th year, we participated in our annual Ping Pong-A-Thon. Having raised over $500 for people that are currently in human trafficking and exploitation, this event was a huge success and was extremely enjoyable! We are so proud of all our efforts as a school, this event has brought our community stronger and we are so appreciative for everyone's support. Alongside playing PingPong for 24hours, we had an 80s/Bright Colours Dress Up Day. It was amazing to see so many people dress up. Though the night session was tiring, everyone had fun and some people even managed to get some sleep in! Thank you to all teachers, especially Mrs Heading who stayed awake all night to keep all us Year11-12s safe and continually playing. Mrs DeMeester came at 7am to cook us all breakfast, so special mention to her as well! Many other teachers were also such an integral part in planning and organising, thank you to Mrs Law, Mr Farmer, Mr Presant, Mrs Hughes and Mrs Farmer, could not have done it without you guys! It is not too late to donate! Thank you to you all! Link to donate: pingpongathon.com/standrewschristiancollege2019 Any donations are welcome! 

YEARS 5 & 6 DO THIER BIT FOR THE PIN-PONG CHALLENGE

We had over 100 Year 5 and 6 students playing some form of Ping Pong in support of the 'Pin-Pong Challenge'. The Year 5 and 6 cohort were split between the MPH gym, using the floor and goal nets as their pin-pong nets and some students in the classrooms using their school desks as ping-pong tables; ingenuity at it's best.

SUCCESSFUL SENIOR SCHOOL EXPO

The Senior School held their annual Senior School Expo night on Thursday 8th August and by all accounts it was an informative and well attended night. The primary purpose of the night was to introduce parents and students to the range of  VCE and Senior School subjects offered by St Andrews and ways to navigate all the various options available. Additional presentations were given by VCE Coordinator Natalie Farmer on 'What is VCE', 'How Does Scaling/ATAR Work' by Physics & Maths teacher Greg Crotty and as well as other topics. According to many parents "It was a night well worth attending because it gave us a real insight into Senior School Education."

WISE ADVICE FOR VCE STUDENTS

FROM ALUMNI CALEB WU

Past student Caleb has some wise advice for our VCE students leading up to exams.

Hi all, I’ve been invited to share some advice for current students, particularly for those completing their VCE. My name is Caleb, and I graduated last year (2018), so the memories of Year 12 are still quite fresh. VCE is a long journey, but there is a long break ahead. And Uni, if you plan to go, is very fresh and exciting, so look forward to that! I hope my advice is helpful to you. But I know that what worked for me may not work for some people, so feel free not to follow any of it.

Firstly, most of this only works if you actually want to do well, if you want to do the best you can. If you aren’t motivated to do well, and can’t maintain that motivation throughout the year, it can be very hard. I learnt early on in Year 12 that it was going to be a long and hard grind. This knowledge helped me pace myself, because I knew I had to last the whole year. But it also reminded me that it had a definite endpoint, and that I only had to hold out until November, and then it would be finished. A lot of VCE was about finding out how far I could push myself and making sure I could get as close to that as possible without collapsing.

Study

Study hard, but make sure your study is effective. Do what works for you, but make sure it works. For me, 90% of my study was doing past/practice exams or Checkpoints. Application of learning is usually better than writing notes, and practice exams make you think, help you familiarise yourself with the content, and makes you focus. And not to mention that sometimes VCAA is lazy and repeats old questions. I didn’t start by timing myself, but I found that having time pressure and simulating exam conditions helped me reduce distractions. And I guess not having social media also helped. Finally, there is a point when sleep becomes more important than study. If your study is not being effective because you are too tired—sleep! There’s no point staying up late studying if you can’t perform your best during the SAC or exam. 

Breaks

I think this is where it gets most subjective, because some people take too many breaks, and some take too few. What worked for me was taking good quality breaks. I studied hard during the week, and late on Saturday nights, sometimes a couple hours into Sunday morning. But I made an effort not to study or even think about school on nearly every Sunday. Spend time to pray and remember that VCE is just a small stage of your life. My advice is don’t take too many days off, but make sure you make full use of them. Don’t plan to do too much on your days off, just relax and forget about school for a moment.

Conclusion

I know everyone says this, and maybe I’m not the right person to be saying this, but your ATAR does not define you. Enjoy your last years at school. Appreciate your teachers. Even if they are going through the most tedious material, sometimes their offhand advice can be golden. Enjoy the intimacy of knowing the people around you and seeing them every day in the same building. And cherish your time with people, because it goes by so fast.

RESILIENT KIDS CONFERENCE

In todays intensely pressurised world there's a myriad of influencers impacting our children's attitudes and behaviour and at times it can be overwhelming trying to deal with those issues and raise our children to be resistant and resilient.  For those parents wanting to be better informed and seeking help, this is the conference for you. For bookings and more information go to www.resilientkidsconference.com.au