TCC News

What you may not know...

Our most successful SBAT (School Based Apprenticeships & Traineeships)

Stephanie Skender is one of our amazing  2018 Year 12 students who spent the last two years completing an SBAT (School Based Apprenticeship or Traineeship). 

This involved studying subjects at College - TAFE (one day per week) to gain a Certificate II in Childcare, and working (100 days minimum) as a childcare trainee at Dolphins Childcare Centre, Tuncurry.

An Interview with Stephanie:

What did you like most about this experience? 

The hands on experience, and the extra support I received from people in the childcare industry.

What did you find difficult?

Balancing TAFE, work and school work – although it did get easier.  I was nervous at first. I had to find a balance between work, TAFE and school. I am so glad that I did this.

Would you recommend for anyone else to do an SBAT?

Yes, you gain a qualification from TAFE (a Certificate II) and you get to find out for sure if it is what you want to do. It is great, especially if you don’t want an ATAR. You are not at school five days a week.

What is your advice to others considering an SBAT?

Be serious and put in lots of effort. Don’t stress.

What are you going to do now?

I am starting my Diploma through TAFE. Working full time at Dolphins Childcare Centre.

Thank you Stephanie and all the best for the future.

Mrs Wallis

We said Goodbye to Mr Mark Drury

This term we said goodbye to Mr Drury our Business Manager, he has given our College 13 years of faithful service and we shall miss him greatly. Our God has called him to move on to another challenge as the CEO of Dundaloo here in Taree, we wish him all the very best and he will now become a faithful parent of the College. 

Here are some photos of our Admin Team at the breaky farewell ;)

Graduating student... Chloe Hargreaves, as featured in the Focus Magazine

congratulations Chloe :)

This is what Chloe donated to the College back in 2015, a very talented young lady!

Sleep in Teens

Adolescents are notorious for not getting enough sleep. Studies show that the average amount of sleep that teenagers need is between 9 and 9 ½ hours. Statistics show most only get between 7 and 7 ¼ hours. As a result, most adolescents are very sleep deprived. Sleep deprivation will impact on many aspects of your teenager’s functioning:

  • Mood. Sleep deprivation will cause your teenager to be moody, irritable, and cranky. In addition, she will have a difficult time regulating her mood, such as by getting frustrated or upset more easily.
  • Behaviour. Teenagers who are sleep deprived are also more likely to engage in risk-taking behaviours, such as drinking, driving fast, and engaging in other dangerous activities.
  • Cognitive ability. Inadequate sleep will result in problems with attention, memory, decision making, reaction time, and creativity, all of which are important in school.
  • Academic performance. Studies show that teenagers who get less sleep are more apt to get poor grades in school, fall asleep in school, and have school tardiness/absences.
  • Drowsy driving. Teenagers are at the highest risk for falling asleep at the wheel. Drowsy driving is the most likely to occur in the middle of the night (2:00 to 4:00 AM), but also in mid-afternoon (3:00 to 4:00 PM).

How to help your teenager get enough sleep

  • Maintain a regular sleep schedule. Your teenager should go to bed and wake up at about the same time each day. Their sleep schedule should also ensure adequate time in bed.
  • Avoid oversleeping on weekends. Although catching up on some sleep on the weekends can be helpful, sleeping in until noon on Sunday will make it hard for your teenager to get back on a school schedule that night.
  • Take early afternoon naps. A nap of 15-20 minutes in the early afternoon can be beneficial.
  • Turn off televisions, computers, and radios. Television viewing, computer-game playing, internet use, and other stimulating activities at bedtime will cause problems falling asleep. Turn them off an hour before bed.
  • Do not have reminders and notifications on devices going off during the night. This is fairly self-explanatory. Interruptions to sleep and thinking about messages will not allow deep REM sleep.
  • Avoid caffeine, smoking, alcohol, and drugs. All of these cause sleep problems.
  • Contact your teenager’s doctor. Speak to your teen’s physician if they have difficulties falling asleep, snore, or seem excessively sleepy during the day. 

Adapted from: Mindell JA & Owens JA (2003). A Clinical Guide to Pediatric Sleep: Diagnosis and Management of Sleep Problems. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

And: Sleep in Adolescents. Nationwide Children’s Hospitals. https://www.nationwidechildrens.org/specialties/sleep-disorder-center/sleep-in-adolescents

Mr Elith

Kids Lit Quiz

On Friday, 15 March Taree Christian College hosted the Mid North Coast heat of the Kids’ Lit Quiz. The Kids' Lit Quiz is an annual literature quiz for students aged 10 - 13 years. It promotes ‘The Sport of Reading’ and encourages a love of reading in students. Teams of four students are asked to answer 100 questions on children’s literature divided into ten categories, which vary each year. Quizzes are held in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Indonesia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, United Kingdom and USA. The quiz was founded by New Zealand quizmaster Wayne Mills who reads enough books to write several thousand questions each year.

14 teams competed on the day, with the Taree Christian College Year 8 team winning the heat. Scholastic sponsored the event, and donated 50 reading books as prizes, accompanied by canteen vouchers and a 1st place trophy for the winners. It was a fantastic day, and we are hoping to have even more schools register for the event in 2020. For more information please visit https://www.kidslitquiz.com/australia.php.

 

Senior Chapel - Mr Coleman giving his testimony :)

With Sam James asking the questions. Thank you Mr Coleman for sharing.

Senior students -  a note from Mr Green

Access to YouTube Years 11 and 12

Due to tight filtering systems around our computer network at the College, many students who are researching and endeavoring to create work for assessment tasks are finding the restrictions around the use of YouTube a disadvantage to their learning. As a result I have been working in consultation with Dave Fitzhardinge to advise me on the best way to give our Senior Students better access.

As of next term, Year 11 and 12 students will be given open access to YouTube while at school. This is not open access to the internet; just YouTube. There will not be restrictions safe guarding what students have access to on YouTube, however, we will trust that our Senior Students will be wise in their search and decisions as to how they utilise this privilege. If students are found to be abusing this privilege they will be blocked again from using YouTube and may face other disciplinary actions in line with our IT Use Policy. If you would rather your child not be given this access, please call Wayne Green. We can block individual students from having access.

Wayne Green

Head of Secondary

TCC New Website!!!

We are pleased to announce the launch of our new website! We encourage you to explore it. It’s only the beginning and we will be adding more content over time. Check out https://www.tareeccs.nsw.edu.au/tcc/index

David Coleman

Principal