WELCOME 

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Our campus at Narre Warren South is now in its eleventh year of operation and has almost 1000 students enrolled from Prep to Year 12. We continue to be encouraged by the growth of our second campus and the opportunities it is providing to extend Christian Education in one of Australia’s most rapidly developing municipalities. In 2021, construction of the final stage of the car park commenced. We have recently received planning approval for the installation of traffic signals at the intersection of Narre Warren – Cranbourne Road and Lansell Close. 

To provide for the continuing growth of the campus, planning is well underway for the construction of a Junior Secondary building at Narre Warren South with works planned to commence in late 2022/early 2023. The two-storey building will provide general learning areas for students Years 7 to 9, along with breakout spaces, specialist music classrooms, learning support classrooms, and staff spaces. 

Planning for a new Senior Secondary building at Wantirna South is currently being finalised. Once the North Wing project has been completed, the existing single storey Secondary Wing will be demolished to make way for a new two-storey Senior Secondary building which will provide classrooms, senior student study areas, social spaces, links to the library and oval, and staff spaces. 

2022 COLLEGE COUNCIL     

The College Council is appointed by the Board of CityLife Church at the WCC AGM held in May each year to manage all aspects of the operations of the College. The members of the College Council for 2022 are:

David Burr (Chair)

David and his wife, May Wan, have practiced law for 40 years. He recently retired from full-time practice to focus on running the family farm in Western Victoria.  He currently serves on a number of boards, including as chair of a NFP law firm specialising in religious freedom matters. David has been on the Council since September 2005 and has four adult children; three children of whom attended the College. 

Barney Tomasich (Deputy Chair)

After completing his Bachelor of Electrical Engineering at UNSW, Barney has worked for over 40 years in the network infrastructure and cabling field and is a trusted advisor to many of his company’s key clients. Barney relocated with his wife, Gillian, and their three daughters to Melbourne in 1990 and has been part of the school community ever since. Barney joined the College Council in 2004.   

Peter Leigh (Secretary/Treasurer)

Peter is an alumnus of WCC having attended the College from 1979-1981. He has been a member of the College Council since 1993. He and his wife, Linda, have three adult children who have all graduated from the College and completed tertiary studies. Peter commenced employment with the College in January 2022 as the Business Manager.  Peter continues as an executive member of the Council and is the Association Secretary and Treasurer.

Andrew Chisholm

Andrew joined the College Council in 2019 when he became Senior Minister of CityLife Church. Previously he served as the World Impact Director of CityLife Church for 21 years.  His wife Christine works as an EAL teacher at the College, and their three children all attended the College. 

Amy Foong

Having completed a Masters Degree in Accounting and CPA qualifications, Amy spent about 15 years working as an external auditor and currently operates her own accounting business. She joined the College Council in 2015 and chairs the Finance sub-committee. Amy is married to Freddy, and they have four children, all of whom are currently attending the College.

Amy Lim

Amy is a senior manager with over 20 years of international education experience in private and public sectors, within the UK, Australia, Sweden and China. She has served on a variety of boards and has expertise in alumni engagement, business development, marketing and communications, client relationship management, student recruitment and fundraising.  

Gavin Osborne

Gavin is the Executive Minister of CityLife Church, having commenced this role and concurrently joined the College Council at the start of 2022. Prior to this, Gavin was the Business Manager at CityLife Church for seven years and has served in a range of Christian NFPs in both operational and governance roles over the last 15 years.  

George Kanagasabai 

George commenced attending Council meetings in 2014. He has had a long association with the College, both as a former student and now as a parent. George is married to Christina and they have three children who are currently enrolled in the Wantirna South Campus. He is a Chartered Accountant, working as a General Manager in a large corporate organisation and brings a great deal of financial expertise to the College Council. Additionally, George and Christina are Co-Senior Pastors of a church in Glen Waverley.

Glen Slimmon

Glen joined the College Council in 2014. He is married to Megan (a former student) and they have two children. Their eldest graduated from the College in 2021 and the youngest attends the Narre Warren South Campus. Glen is a company director with over 20 years experience in property development, funds management, economics and finance and he has also held various governance roles.   

Leanne Smith-Caarels  

Leanne began with the College Council in 2019. She is a previous student when the College was on the Vermont site. Her three children have attended the College from prep and her eldest graduated in 2021. Leanne works in Business Management, sales, marketing and held many voluntary governance roles.

Peter Sheahan

Peter has been a member of the College Council for over 35 years. He joined the College in 1979 as a Secondary Physical Education teacher and became Principal in 1985. Peter is married to Mardi and has three sons, all of whom have graduated from the College.          

Mr Peter Sheahan (Principal)   

FROM THE HEAD OF CAMPUS (WANTIRNA SOUTH)    

THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION

The Exposition Univeselle of 1900 was held in Paris to celebrate the achievements of humanity throughout the previous century. It was an enormous exhibition that spread across 543 acres and was visited by over 50 million people from all over the world. It was a wonder to behold! 

The exhibition was designed to introduce people to ‘marvels’ that would inspire the next generation within different disciplines such as science, architecture, engineering, mechanics and much more. It was also designed to provide a vision for young people so that the future would flourish. Some exhibits displayed inventions like the hot air balloon, the first working ferris wheel, and a talking picture. Even the first underground railway was opened.     

As part of the exhibition, a series of futuristic pictures were painted on cards and cigarette boxes by a French artist named Jean-Marc Cote. Jean-Marc painted various images of what the world would be like in the year 2000.

Such insight! A digital harvester, a house on wheels, an electric cleaner and a fighter plane were just some of the imagined future realities.  

What captured my interest was the way Jean-Marc Cote depicted education in the year 2000. In this picture, he paints a classroom where the teacher is not teaching. Instead, the teacher is simply inputting books into a machine. The wheel is then turned clockwise, and books are transformed into digital messages. The digital information is then fed through electric wires into headsets where students absorb the information. 

Some of Jean-Marc’s depictions of education in the year 2000 may be true (have you had problems with your child’s headphones?) However, a good education is not static but relational. It is not information driven but student centered and does not include mechanical pedagogy but empowers students to think, ask key questions and gain experiential knowledge. Above all, Christian education is Christ-centered, preparing students for effective service within society. At Waverley, we are not disconnected like Jean-Mark Cote’s predicted future. Rather, we have the enormous privilege to connect ‘person to person’ and input faith and lifelong learning strategies into the hearts of our students. For the last few years, the College has been moving from a model of learning that is results driven to one that fosters, deep learning, engagement of students through inquiry, formative practice, and a focus on visible thinking.    

NATIONAL POLICY FORUM - CANBERRA  

In May, our Principal Peter Sheahan and school leaders attended the National Policy Forum in Canberra. It was a special time as we connected with Christian Education leaders around the country while keeping in step with the latest academic thinking around Christian Education and leadership. I particularly enjoyed listening to Dr Natasha Moore from the Centre for Public Christianity, who presented on Gardening in Wartime. She posed the idea that often Christians feel threatened by antagonists to the faith and see the opposition as a battle to be won. However, she asked, what if we saw the disagreement like a garden to be tended or as soil to be watered and seeds to be sown? You can see how it reminded me of the work of Comenius! She reflected on the contribution that Christianity has made over history and the importance for Christians to avoid the trivial narratives of the ‘culture wars’ and put more effort into relationships, love, creativity and confidence in the Gospel of Jesus.    

NORTH WING UPDATE

Our North Wing building project has made enormous steps forward with the brickwork being completed and the scaffolding coming down. The landscaper is currently working on the paving and gardens around the building. Occupation is anticipated in September this year.    

Mr David Lepileo (Head of Campus, WS)

FROM THE HEAD OF CAMPUS (NARRE WARREN SOUTH)

As usual, there have been plenty of things happening in the College since the last Alumni Newsletter Issue.

Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea was held on Thursday 26th May. All funds raised from this initiative went towards the Cancer Council to help with their important work in research, treatment and support for those with cancer. Although we have run this event for many years, things had to change in our post COVID world and we served our cupcakes in individual clear plastic containers to ensure we promoted the use of safe food handling practices – amazing how even a simple thing such as serving and eating a cupcake has changed as a result of the pandemic!

The final week of Term 2 was a quiet week around the Secondary corridors with many year levels away on camps and other events. Our Year 7 students went on camp to Philip Island and our Year 8 students to Camp Coolamatong, on the foreshore of the Gippsland Lakes near Bairnsdale. I hope many of our Alumni have fond memories of their own camping experiences during their time at the College. Camping trips provide students with valuable opportunities to engage in a variety of activities in the great outdoors and promote and encourage new skill development, teamwork and collaboration, as well as helping build confidence, self-esteem and self-awareness.

YEAR 10 WORK EXPERIENCE 

Our Year 10 students were also away in the last week of Term 2 on their Work Experience visits. Can you remember where you did you work experience when you were in Year 10? Work Experience week is an important and valuable event that provides students with an opportunity to experience life in a workplace environment in a variety of different industries including retail, education, finance, medical and manufacturing sectors. I would be interested to hear from any of our Alumni who ended up studying or working in an industry they first encountered during their work experience visit.

PRIMARY EXPO NIGHT

In Primary, we held Expo Night on Thursday 26th of June. The Expo allowed parents to visit and see their child’s classroom and view their work and other projects from the first semester. It was wonderful to see how the student's work reflected all they had learned and there were many excellent work samples and projects on display. This was one of the first parent events onsite since the restrictions were lifted, which accounts for the tremendous attendance and support for this event from parents, who were most grateful to be able to return onsite to visit their child’s classroom. 

OPEN MORNING A GREAT SUCCESS!

Open Morning was held on Wednesday 25th May and was a great success. This year, Open Morning was an event for both prospective families who were keen to see the school and also our existing families who wanted to spend some time in their child's classroom.

We were blessed with wonderful weather for the event and new visitors who arrived at the MPC were greeted by our students and directed into the main auditorium to enjoy some musical performances from the Secondary students and to hear an address from myself about the College. Families were then taken on a tour by our Primary and Secondary student leaders, which included an opportunity to grab a hot cappuccino from the bright orange coffee van parked outside the MPC!

We had over 80 guests arrive during the morning, and they were very enthusiastic and complimentary about the different classes they were able to see including Primary ICT, Secondary Science, Primary Drama, Secondary Design Tech, Junior Primary classrooms, Secondary PE and our Library.

Well, that’s it for this issue’s wrap up at Narre Warren South. I look forward to catching up and seeing many of our alumni from the Class of 2021 at the upcoming 1 Year Reunion on 4th August 2022. I hope you have marked this on your calendars and can join us for this event.

Till next time, blessings on all our Alumni. 

Mr Mark Crnkovic (Head of Campus, NWS)