How wonderful to have yet another edition of The Vine to finish the year! A fitting end to 2021 indeed, giving me another chance to acknowledge the efforts of the Junior School students and staff.

Last week, we celebrated significant events in the Junior School calendar. Firstly, the Prep Nativity, which has been performed in its current form since 1983. It was delightful to have in attendance Mrs Joyce Simpson, who wrote the Prep Nativity and was the first Prep teacher at Oxley. In addition, we welcomed Pastor Hal Oxley’s wife, Jill, who greatly enjoyed the performance. The Prep students were truly inspiring as they shared the story of when God sent to Earth the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and King.

The Year 6 Graduation provides the opportunity to celebrate students in a special way. Students enjoyed a dinner with current and former teaching staff prior to the arrival of family members for the Graduation Service to follow at LMC. We take this opportunity to thank the students for a most successful year and for outstanding service to the College community. We pray God will continue to lead and protect them as they transition to secondary school.

Students enjoyed an exciting end to the school year, participating enthusiastically in the annual Tabloid Sports event on Monday. Thanks to Mr Joshua Gaschk for organising an engaging program for students and staff. Congratulations to Team Black, who finished in first position.

It was an honour to host Final Assembly on Tuesday 7 December at LMC. The performances of the Combined Choir and Junior School Orchestra were exemplary. Such a special way to celebrate the year and acknowledge the efforts and achievements of every student on stage. A highlight was announcing the school leaders for 2022. I commend these students to you and look forward to their leadership of the Junior School in the year to come. We congratulate the following students on their leadership appointments:

School Captains – Rachel Jansen and Reuben Talpan
School Vice Captains – Mahi Jain and Steffan Sween
Zion Crusaders Captains – Jasmine Jones and Matthew Tartaglia
Tabor Trojans Captains – Elizabeth Pham and Ryder Holland
Gibeon Warriors Captains – Lily Hogan and Joshua Lynch
Performing Arts Captain – Amelia McLeod and Bryce Moulton

Thank you to every student and family for their ongoing support of Oxley Christian College. We wish you and your family a safe and blessed Christmas and look forward to welcoming you back for what promises to be another positive year of learning in the Junior School, under the leadership of Mrs Amy Liddle, the newly appointed Head of Junior School. Staff look forward to welcoming students back to school on Monday 31 January. Thank you and Merry Christmas to all!

For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

Sharee Gaiser

Head of Junior School

What Did You Do at School Today?

Prep

Dear Prep Students and Parents,

We thought we would do our Vine article a little bit differently this time. We want to acknowledge you and share how proud we are of you! While remote learning was not what anyone expected this year, one of the positives was having the chance to talk regularly with the whole family. It was lovely to meet baby siblings, grandparents and even family pets. We understand how challenging many aspects of this year have been, however, we are so thankful for the support of parents and the determination of our students.

This year, we have achieved so much together, including:

Moving into a new building
Navigating remote learning
Participating in Annie JR.
Multi Genre Writing Projects
Prep Nativity

We are so proud of how you continuously showed tenacity and perseverance. We wish you all the best as you continue your schooling journey in Year 1.

With love,

Mrs Rodgers and Mrs Lee

Year 1

Wow! Times goes fast when we are busy in the classroom learning about the birth of Jesus, watching the Prep Nativity, Athletics Day, Tabloid Sports and Final Assembly. We have really enjoyed being able to go to Chapel in person and interacting with our Buddies. It was wonderful to celebrate our Buddies’ learning, spending Oxley dollars at their Bizarre Bazaar. Our teachers are so proud of what we have achieved in Year 1. We are looking forward to being big Year 2 students next year.

Year 2

2021 has been an enormous year for Year 2 students, and their teachers could not be more proud of their unwavering resilience, joy and commitment to doing their best through every challenge! The end of year has been full of creativity, teamwork, and laughter. Our Multi Genre Writing Project Presentation was a very proud moment as we had a chance to celebrate everyone’s hard work! The imagination flowed right through this term as we finished by designing, constructing and exhibiting our robots that we created in Integrated Studies. Each robot was uniquely designed to perform a function with their very own personality! We are sad to end the year and say goodbye, however, we are equally overjoyed with the possibilities and excitement that 2022 will bring us in Year 3!

Miss Newton and Miss Wynne extend a very warm thank you to every parent and student for a truly memorable and precious year. We send prayers and blessings for a safe and happy holiday!

Year 3

We have had a wonderful end to our school year! We have:

Met with our Buddy class in Kinder and had a scavenger hunt at The Barn.
Enjoyed watching the stop motion animations created during Integrated Studies.
Participated in Tabloid Sports.
Been honoured at the Final Assembly.

It is now time for a well-deserved rest!

Year 4

We had challenges and times that we managed to navigate. There was the lively and thrilling swimming carnival to introduce us to the outstanding year. Next, we enjoyed our first ever enthralling camp and moved into new state-of-the-art classrooms. However, there were also many complex and confusing times due to forced remote learning because of the pandemic. The Multi Genre Writing Project began unexpectedly during lockdown – being isolated at home affected us both mentally and physically. Then, just when we were beginning to feel hopeless, things fell into place. We returned to school and we felt free and safe once more.

Even though we had hard times this year, we learnt so much from those experiences. We were amazed at how this year unfolded. At the start of the year, we had no idea what we would have to cope with and face. A monstrous and barbaric virus affected not only us but the entire world. 2021 had many ups and downs, but it was an eventful and memorable year that we’ll never forget.

Jessica Sia (4K) and Leah Chen (4K)

Year 5

We have had an amazing last two weeks of school! Here are some student quotes from some of our events over this time:

Bowling

Having fun as a year level with our friends. Rachel Jansen (5R)

Our teachers tricked us and told us we were doing a Maths Kahoot. It was really fun! Reuben Talpan (5M)

I was so surprised by the bowling! Jaqueline Hu (5M)

Year 5 Fun Day

We did an eggstatic egg challenge! Amelia McLeod (5R)

I loved watching the movie surrounded by my friends. Cindy Chen (5M)

The pizza was great and we had an amazing Amazing Race. Bryce Moulton (5R)

Leadership

I was so excited to celebrate my friends who were elected. Nicole Moses (5M)

Even though some people don’t have a badge, we are all leaders, and we are all going to be amazing at showing the Oxley values. Sophie Degenhardt (5R)

We are so thrilled to have celebrated our students in these last couple of weeks and we know they are going to be positive influencers in the Junior School community. We hope everyone has a fantastic holiday and Merry Christmas!

Year 6

We were giddy with excitement last week! We thoroughly enjoyed our Graduation Dinner in the College Staff Room, followed by a Graduation Service at LMC. It was lovely to have our families join the celebrations, either in person or online. The Year 7 Transition program helped to prepare us for next year and we cannot believe we are now Year 7 students! What a wonderful end to the school year.

New Prep Playground

What a joy it was for our Prep students to see the new playground equipment being installed. With such an innovative design, the students will enjoy using this equipment and the sandpit nearby during play. We are grateful to Chris Smith and the team from a_space, for their support in the planning and installation phase. Our incredible Maintenance Team worked tirelessly to prepare the site and ensure the project was completed with excellence! Play time has never been so much fun for our Preps!