Connect @BalCC Edition One 2021

What's Inside

Principal's Message

Yr 3&4 Ecolinc Plant Adaptations Athletics Australia Coaching

Yr 9 Micah 6:8 Program

Alumni News: Class of 2011

BalCC Swimming Carnival

Staff Professional Development Prep & Yr 12 Walk Around Lower Primay Launch Alumni News: Class of 2019 Yr5 Solar Cookers Yr6 Food Tech Soup

Yr10 Good things are Growing VCE Excellence Assembly Event Calander

New Staff Cert II Building & Construction : Multicultural Day

Cubby Houses

Year 7 Halls Gap Camp

Yr11 Physics Experiment

Yr 7&8 STEM Excursion

VCAL Furniture Refresh

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Year 6 Artwork - Alexis Westblade

s ' l a p i c n i Pr e g a s s e m

After the disruption of 2020 it is wonderful to enjoy some return to normality in Term 1, albeit with some constraints still in place and the little hiccup that was the 5-day lockdown. As we move into Term 2 we expect to be able to relax or withdraw most of the remaining restrictions, enabling us to welcome back parents and visitors into the College.

During 2020 the College took advantage of the extended absence of students by bringing forward a number of improvement projects around the College grounds. Some projects continued into 2021, including improvements to the appearance and utilisation of the Creek area and the provision of a significantly enlarged classroom in the old Primary wing, which will be mainly utilised for the teaching of Visual Arts. The former Primary Art room was refurbished to become the Secondary Art room, which in turn allowed the conversion of the former Secondary Art room into a much-needed additional Science room for Secondary and upper Primary classes. As we welcome parents and visitors back onsite, we would love the opportunity to show you around the College. If you would like a tour, please contact the College office with your details.

Our new Year 9 Micah 6:8 program is off and running and being well received by our Year 9 students. In keeping with the Scripture text after which it is named, the program seeks to encourage students to build positive relationships, help others and develop a sense of

personal investment in the College. During the year they will be involved in partnering with Primary classes, participating in careers-focused activities such as gaining a food handling certificate, barista-style coffee making, obtaining a first aid certificate, preparing resumes and inductions. They will also participate in two camping experiences in addition to their usual Year 9 studies.

Throughout the program the aim is to develop students’ confidence, resilience, problem-solving skills and their ability to work as a member of a team.

I take this opportunity to welcome our newest member of staff, Mrs Ashleigh Dalton, who was recently appointed as a member of our Student Wellbeing Team.

Ashleigh will take up her role in Term 2 alongside our College Chaplain, Ps Steve Shaw.

I wish all members of our College community a restful, safe Easter holiday. May it be a time where we can reflect on the magnitude of God’s love for us and the eternal hope and assurance that the Easter message brings.

Ken Nuridin Principal/CEO

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Around BalCC

Ecolinc Plant Adaptations

Athletics Australia

Our Years 3-8 students took part in a Health & Physical Education lesson with a coach from Athletics Australia as part of the Sporting Schools athletics program. In the Year 5 class the coach took the students through a vortex throwing activity to teach them throwing and running skills, before moving on to hurdles.

During Term 1 our Year 3 and 4 students went on a plant adaptations virtual excursion with Ecolinc Science and Technology Innovations Centre. The students were introduced to a number of different plants and tried to determine why they have their specific adaptations. The students took part in Kahoot quizzes and watched online live demonstrations, as well as receiving information for extension activities. Ecolinc provides a wide range of exciting and engaging onsite or outreach curriculum programs for P-12 students and teachers.

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BalCC is running an exciting new Year 9 program this year titled, Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Alongside the core curriculum students participate in Micah 6:8, a program that is designed to build resilience and life skills, and encompasses subjects such as Careers and HPE, as well as tying in with the requirements for the bronze level of The Duke of Edinburgh Award. During the program students will focus on areas such as resilience, mental health, life skills, voluntary service, physical recreation and skills.

The program will run every Wednesday and will see the Year 9s involved in groups to run a café, mentor Primary students and participate in outside work.

Within the program students will also have the opportunity to attend three exciting camp opportunities: • Job Camp: a 3 day incursion that provides training in Food Safety, First Aid, Resume and Cover letter creation, Job Application and Interview skills, and Barista and Café skills.

• A five day coastal camp at Portland.

• A five day high country camp at Lake Eildon.

The program launched at the start of Term 1 and has seen the Year 9s already undertake their Food Safety, First Aid, Job skills and Barista and Café skills courses. These courses were conducted onsite by Short Courses Australia, one of the leading national training providers. We are so excited to have the Micah 6:8 program rollout at BalCC and to see the wonderful opportunities and learning experiences it will afford our students.

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Alumni News

Amy Lewis CLASS OF 2011

Congratulations to Amy Lewis (nee Leviston) on being appointed to the College Board as a Director. Amy is the first past student of Ballarat Christian College to be appointed as a Board member.

After finishing Year 12 Amy took a gap year and did a teaching placement in North India for three months. On her return Amy began studying a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting) at Federation University graduating in 2015 and moving on to work at MOR Accountants in Ballarat. After her marriage Amy moved to Stawell then Ararat and worked as a Tax Accountant at Sertori & Co and commenced study to become a qualified CPA.

In 2018 Amy left tax accounting and started working in the finance team at McCallum Disability Services in Alfredton, where she found working in the not-for-profit sector rewarding.

That same year Amy and her husband, Simon welcomed their little girl, Evie Grace into the world. Amy now works part-time at McCallum Disability Services as an Accountant. and will shortly welcome a new addition to the family.

In the past Amy has attended Rise Christian Church where she was involved in the running of the youth group, helping start a young adults group and a teen girls bible study group.

Together Amy and Simon have been involved in youth ministry in Ararat and since their return to Ballarat have been part of a local home church group.

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g n i m m i w S arnival C

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Professional Development

As part of their start of year professional development days, our staff took part in first aid and anaphylaxis training at the start of Term 1. Thank you to First Aid Training Group (Ballarat) for providing the training and skills for life.

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Excellence

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"W w

Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things.”

Philippians 4:8

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Around BalCC

Prep-Yr12 Walk Around It has become a tradition at BalCC for the Year 12 students to welcome our new Preps and take them for a tour of the College. At the Year 12 Graduation Assembly the Preps return the favour and walk the Year 12 students in to their final assembly. It’s a wonderful way for the two year levels to get to know one another.

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Lower Primary This year the Year 1 and 2 classes have been combined to create two lower Primary composite classes. Lower Primary Aqua is being taught by Evette Walter and Bianca Francica. Lower Primary Blue is being taught by Kirsty Johnson.

During Term 1 both classes used the book ‘Are we there yet?’ as a lens and the students took a virtual trip around Australia visiting and exploring significant places along the way.

Students were provided with everyday scenarios which incorporated maths including having spending money to shop at Mindil beach, paying for petrol, reading clocks and timetables in Sydney and using money wisely. Students completed a digital travel journal and learned letter writing through making postcards. They also considered the importance of places to people in their community and people from different cultures. Both classrooms featured a tree and campfire, with the Lower Primary B room even having a caravan for our happy campers!

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Alumni News

Yual Reath CLASS OF 2019

Congratulations to Yual Reath on winning the Men’s High Jump at the 2021 Victorian Country Championships. Coached by Paul Cleary of Ballarat who said “The most exciting part about this performance is that Yual only trains twice a week….he’s just pure natural talent.”

On completing Year 12 Yual secured an apprenticeship as a Landscaper. While at BalCC Yual was a Vice College Captain and received a number of awards and set records for high jump. We look forward to hearing more of Yual’s sporting achievements and wish him well.

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Around BalCC Solar Cookers Our Year 5 students designed and built parabolic solar cookers during Term 1. Parabolic solar cookers use a parabolic-shaped reflector to direct sunlight to a small area in order to generate heat for cooking. The Year 5s placed marshmellows in their cookers to see if they would melt. The experiment was part of the Year 5s research into the sun and how it heats and creates energy, and was part of their Science space unit.

Food Tech Soup Carrot or vegetable? That was the two types of soup that the Year 6 students had the choice of making in Food Technology this term.

The Year 6s have split in to two groups to take part in Food Technology and Design Technology classes throughout the year. The Design Technology class is currently building wooden robots, while the Food Technology students have made soups and will now move on to making muffins. All the Year 6s came together to enjoy the soups with them all agreeing they were delicious!

s g n i h t d o Greo a Growing Our Year 10 Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) students have started the year off by presenting vegetables grown at BalCC to the Ballarat Salvation Army food program. The students have started learning how to germinate seeds, propagate, cultivate, tend and harvest plants. As part of the Civics component of their HASS studies the students will be learning about being good citizens and about regular giving. This is all part of the HASS Ships 10 program which will teach them about discipleship, stewardship and citizenship.

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Event Calendar Term Dates

Term 2 – Wed 21 April and finishes on Fri 25 June 2021 Term 3 – Wed 14 July and finishes Fri 17 Sept 2021 Term 4 – Mon 4 October and finishes Wed 8 Dec 2021 April 27 Parent Teacher interviews

October 19 Year 12 Graduation Assembly

May 6 Mother’s Day stall

November 25 Christmas stall

June 11 Report Writing Day (pupil free day)

December 2 Christmas@BalCC event 7 Celebration Evening

September 2 Father’s Day stall

BalCC families for the full Ballarat Christian College calendar, please head to

Parent Lounge HOMEWORK CLUB

Wednesdays 3:30-4:30pm (during term) Years 6-12

MUSTARD BIBLE STUDY GROUP

Wednesday Lunch 1 11:20-11:50am (during term) Years 6-12 28 | BalCC

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Cubby Houses

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Our Certificate II in Building and Construction students have started the year by continuing on with the construction and painting of two cubby houses that they commenced in 2020.

Watch this space to see the completed cubby houses and the exciting plans for their future use.

Physics Experiment The Year 11 Physics students worked with Mr Baldry this term on a latent heat of fusion experiment.

Furniture Refresh The start of the new year has meant a refresh for the VCAL classroom with some of the existing furniture to be painted. The VCAL students spent time dismantling the furniture to sand and prepare for painting. This project is an opportunity to upskill students and expand their capabilities. We look forward to seeing the end results.

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Congratulations

Charleigh received an award for having a Study score of 44 for Sociology and the College Dux award for attaining the College's highest 2020 ATAR score of 92.8. Charleigh has accepted an offer at RMIT to study a Bachelor of Criminology & Psychology.

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Esther McKee

Charleigh Hocking

We held our annual VCE Excellence Assembly to honour those VCE students who demonstrated the value of excellence in their studies, and to encourage future students to follow their example. Congratulations to Charleigh Hocking and Esther McKee from the 2020 Year 12 cohort on receiving awards.

Esther received the 2020 Year 12 Excellence award. Esther has accepted an offer from Monash University to study a Bachelor of Education (honours) in Primary and Secondary inclusive education.

Our New Staff Shellie Peters

Mrs Peters joins our Primary teaching staff in a part-time role in the Year 4 classroom, alongside Mrs Brown. Mrs Peters’ most recent role before coming to Ballarat Christian College was at Rokewood Primary School, where she worked as a classroom teacher and for a period as Acting Principal.

Alan Baldry

Mr Baldry will be teaching both of our VCE Physics classes in 2021 and also covered some of Mrs Tauelangi’s classes during February. Mr Baldry taught at Lighthouse Christian College for many years.

Brian Hamilton

Mr Hamilton taught as a CRT at our College during 2020 and is now assuming a part-time role teaching Performing Arts in the upper Primary and lower Secondary years. Mr Hamilton taught at Waverley Christian College and more recently Northside Christian College in Melbourne. He is also currently working with ‘Ballarat Christians at Uni’ at both Federation University and ACU’s Ballarat campuses.

Russell Barter

Mr Barter recently served as a Director on the College Board and is now assuming a part-time role teaching HASS to Year 10 and one of the two Year 9 classes. Mr Barter served for many years as the Farm Manager at Christian College’s farm at Scotsburn and is very keen to use his experience teaching groups of Year 9 students in that context to the benefit of students at our College.

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Mu

ulticultural Day

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Multicultural Day

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Halls Gap Camp During Term 1 our Year 7 students headed off for a three day camp at Halls Gap. The camp program included a trip to the Halls Gap Zoo, archery, bush cooking, orienteering, night activities, group discussions, initiative games, and a talent extravaganza!

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S T EM Programs 40 | BalCC

Virtual reality, robotics and future foods were the three workshops our Year 7 and 8 students could take part in on a recent excursion to Ballarat Tech School. The students rotated through each workshop on the day long excursion hearing from the BTS teachers on each topic before getting hands on to explore the exciting world of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths). The future foods workshop gave the students an opportunity to hear about algae, fungi, edible insects and alternative meats, as sources of food.

The Ballarat Tech School, hosted by Federation University, is a shared learning centre established by a partnership of local schools, industry partners, higher education providers and other stakeholders in the region.

The Ballarat Tech School is a centre of STEM excellence that engages students from partner schools in a high-tech learning environment with innovative learning programs that challenge students to solve problems in a real-world context.

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BalCC Alumni

At Ballarat Christian College we are keen to be involved with our students beyond graduation and recognise that being part on an alumni community can be a rewarding and fulfilling experience.

Through our alumni community you can: • Stay connected to the people with whom you studied and socialised.

• Contribute write ups and photos for our website News page about what you’ve been involved with since graduating from BalCC. • Keep up to date on the happenings and developments at BalCC. • Enquire about work experience placements at BalCC. • Advise, help and inspire current students by providing career or study advice at BalCC Career and Study Skills days.

• Alumni To join our alumni community and get involved please connect with us on email with your preferred contact details to connect@balcc.vic.edu.au

To stay connected to happenings at BalCC head to: News

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Connect Publication Team Ruth Orr, Tim Weatherstone.

Disclaimer: The Connect Publication is a depiction of the first term of 2021 and is not a detailed record of all events at the College during that term. If a person has been omitted or errors have been included, please do accept our apologies.

03 5337 5900 bcc@balcc.vic.edu.au www.balcc.vic.edu.au Ballarat Christian College P-12 Cnr Yarrowee & Vickers Streets, Sebastopol, Victoria 3356

Every learner reaching their God-given potential