Issue 3 Term IV 2015

Newsletter Academic Christian Caring

ISSUE 3

TERM IV 2015 2016 Kindergarten Orientation

Headmaster our local community. The 2015 group of students were no different, from the moment they met their campers they all showed the compassion and caring nature we have come to expect from your students and this was reassuring for all parents as we took their children away for the weekend. The students all had a varying range of disabilities to support and at no stage throughout the three days was I ever concerned for the safety and welfare of our participants.

This week I received a letter from Disability Trust which augmented pride I have in our students and the opportunities they have at TIGS change lives for good.

The the that can

TIGS has established a partnership with The Disability Trust and the Sony Foundation which allows students with disabilities to be cared for by our Year 11 students for a weekend. It is an important opportunity for our students to serve others, one of our School’s core values. This year 40 Year 11 students provided care for 25 children with disabilities over a weekend in October.

The letter read in part as follows: “Dear Mr Kinsella I wanted to write to you and say thank you to The Illawarra Grammar School (TIGS) for your support in planning, developing and running this year’s Sony Foundation Camp.

The weekend was a great success with all participants having a time to remember.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank all the students from TIGS for giving up their weekend to support the 25 participants from The Disability Trust. Over the past six years we have been fortunate enough to be supported by some fantastic individuals who are a credit not only to their school but more importantly to their families and

Last weekend together we were able to provide 1450 hours of meaningful respite for families here in the Illawarra. Some of the families unfortunately do not have the supports required to access this type of respite and it is the first time they have been afforded this opportunity in the past 14 years. For others it meant they were able to completely focus upon their other children and have uninterrupted time because supporting a child with a disability this is not always possible.

The Disability Trust is proud of our partnership with TIGS as the support extends from the Sony Camp to our weekly sport and recreation programs.

Since we formed our relationship we have been fortunate enough to employ six (TIGS) students who have become casual staff members with our organisation. Some of these former students of TIGS have commenced careers working full time in disability support units, something they openly say would not have happened if they had never volunteered through this initiative. We look forward to continuing this valuable partnership for many years to come.

Michael Norris Manager Sport and Recreational services The Disability Trust”

Some of the comments from the parents of the children attending provides an interesting insight into the impact and benefit of the camp: “Hi Olivia, Madison has not stopped talking about you all afternoon and night.

Thank you for attending and sharing your weekend with our daughter. You all make a difference to each child that attends these camps. You all make memories that last a life time not just a weekend for each of these kids. THANK YOU.” “Thank you Lilly, for all your help. Destiny thinks you’re wonderful!!! We all do. You lifted her spirits so high and gave her that extra bit of confidence she needed. Can’t thank you enough.”

“Thanks to everyone from Disability Trust and TIGS… Sean had an awesome weekend… scrapped knee and all!!

Fantastic memories made.”

“A big thank you to everyone involved in the Sony TIGS and The Disability Trust camp. Tiana had a wonderful time and is already talking about her next camp.”

“A huge thank you to everyone involved.

Daniel had the best time, and the scrapbook of photos he was given by his buddies was amazing.”

“Well Miss Bailey is in bed exhausted after a massive three days at camp. What can I say, I have tears in my eyes reading the amazing scrapbook that her buddies made. You melted my heart.”

“From the bottom of my heart I would like to thank TIGS for sending your students on the camp. My daughter was in the care of Nathan and Milli and their level of empathy and caring nature shown toward my daughter was of the highest standard. The scrapbook they produced is something I will treasure forever.”

Congratulations to all the students and staff that had such a positive impact on these children. Christian care in action.

Well done.

Stephen Kinsella Headmaster

Chaplain’s Message A CALL TO PRAYER

I am reading through Luke’s Gospel in my morning readings at the moment. I have been reminded how important prayer was to Jesus. Right at the outset of His public ministry, as He is being baptised, Jesus is seen to be deep in prayer no doubt seeking God’s counsel and empowering for the enormous task that lay before Him (Luke 3:21). Soon after, as the demands of His early ministry start to mount, Jesus is seen to retreat very early in the morning for prayer. He enjoyed solitary moments with God in isolated places devoid of distraction so He could devote himself to His Father’s call on His life (Luke 4:42). Even as the news about Jesus spreads and the crowds increase, He refused to be swept up in all the hype. Instead, we are told in 5:16 that He “often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” On another occasion, again quite early on in His public ministry, Jesus spends the whole night in prayer. This was just before the important decision to choose the Twelve Disciples. While the text does not explicitly say this, it is safe to assume that the importance of the decision demanded a night wrestling with God the Father, just so Jesus would know fully His mind on this matter.

(Luke 6:12-16) That’s where I’m up to in my reading but I think that’s quite significant. In each chapter of Luke’s Gospel – chapters 3-6 – as Luke records the beginnings of Jesus’ public ministry significant statements are made about Him valuing and practicing prayer. It was vital to the work He had come to do; indeed it was an important part of the work He had come to do. For Jesus prayer was essential. As He is our master and teacher, prayer must also be central to our lives as well.

We would be neglectful as a School community if we did not make time for prayer. I am glad to say we are not neglectful with respect to prayer. We are a praying community. One of the special opportunities we have for prayer is our Prayer Breakfasts, held twice per year. In this newsletter you will find details of our upcoming Prayer Breakfast. I hope it might agree with your schedule. It is for parents, friends and staff.

The date is Thursday 12 November from 7.30am-8.20am in the Library. There is a separate breakfast and supervision for children.

I believe our approach to prayer at our Breakfasts is quite non-threatening.

There are times when we read common prayers together, occasions where selected people lead us in prayer, as well as time for free prayer around tables. We really try to make all feel comfortable.

Our Prayer Breakfasts are so vital to our School’s operation. I hope you can join us for this next one.

Rev James Rogers Chaplain

Parents, staff and friends are invited to gather to pray for our School community Breakfast and supervision is available for children

Thursday 12 November 7.30am - 8.20am In the

TIGS Goodhew Research Centre (Library) Academic • Christian • Caring

An International Baccalaureate World School

TIGS

Prayer

Breakfast

RSVP Tuesday 10 November VISIT www.tigs.nsw.edu.au Please contact Mrs Douglas on 4220 0284 or email mdouglas@tigs.nsw.edu.au

Senior School

Last week I wrote about the extensive Co-curricular offerings available to students in both 2015 and 2016. Today at Assembly we heard personally from students who had been involved in specific Co-curricular activities this year and through their involvement had achieved either outstanding success in their chosen field or had their lives and perspectives changed through service to others.

Kate Read spoke passionately about Year 12’s commitment to service through the Disability Trust’s ‘The Sky’s the Limit’ day last Thursday. Each and every Year 12 student dedicated themselves to support, encourage and empower a mini-Olympic participant and everyone achieved success on the day, none more so than our students many of whom had never been responsible for the care of someone in that way before. At the weekend a group of Year 12 students provided respite care for the families of young people with disabilities at our annual Sony Camp. Everyone had fun at Jamberoo and then good times together at Deer Park where they stayed.

Connor Papageorge and Michaela McGrath, on behalf of a group of Year 10 students, also spoke passionately but about their trip to the Crossroads Mission in Hong Kong where they helped renovate a unit and pack boxes and supplies for Africa.

They went through simulation exercises for which Crossroads is world renowned, where the students experienced famine, being blind and being refugees. For those students too the trip was life-changing. That physical realisation of one’s privilege, of the suffering and disempowerment of others can be confronting but within the Crossroads Mission, together with the support of their teachers, the lessons seemed to be sensitively and effectively managed.

Monica Watt Head of Senior School Deputy Headmaster

Our wonderful FPS and CmPS teams were extremely successful at the National Championships. Robert Martin and Meena Jasim were very proud to tell us that they had beaten Knox, Loreto Normanhurst and a few other well known Sydney schools to snare success in their divisions. But this wasn’t achieved easily, it was achieved by a long and sustained commitment to their project Michaela McGrath and Finley McLaren spoke about their recent successes in Surfing Championships. Our Sports Prefects, Grace Hennessy and Alexandra Lavalle interviewed them about their sporting journey: involvement in Co-curricular Sport was a significant feature together with regular practice.

Another group of Year 10 students were awarded Outdoor Education Badges. These students have been involved in numerous Camps, providing outstanding leadership not only to students in Years 7 - Year 9 but also to their peers – which can be quite a daunting task.

Our students are making their mark, making a difference in the world and communicating their passion to their peers.

They and we have so much to be proud of.

MYP Personal Project Our Year 9 students have begun the process of deciding their topics for the 2016 MYP Personal Project (PP).

This project presents a unique opportunity for students to develop approaches to learning that are advantageous for success at Senior Secondary and Tertiary levels of study. They will be guided and supported throughout this process at School by a number of staff. Students can also access all necessary information via the MYP Personal Project OLLE page.

If you would like more information regarding the project, please contact Mrs Margaret Dubowski via mdubowski@tigs.nsw. edu.au

TIGSFOUNDATION Fundraising Event

TIGS Foundation

"Not so secret" Men's Business “Rugby World Cup Wash Up” with

Glen Ella

Former Australian Rugby Union Player

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6.30pm Friday 13 November 2015 North Beach Surf Club, North Wollongong

Tickets

Includes gourmet BBQ, beverages and entertainment SPONSORED BY

TICKETS ON SALE NOW Visit www.tigs.nsw.edu.au or enquiries to Lisa Wilson on 4220 0264

HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT ADVERTISING YOUR BUSINESS THROUGH OUR TIGS COMMUNITY? Have you been online recently to visit the new initiative of TIGS Foundation? The TIGS Community Business Directory is enabling TIGS families to promote their business/s by advertising their details on the TIGS Website.

There is an annual fee of $300 per business each calendar year for advertising in the Directory. Upon approval, immediate applications for 2015 will receive a bonus of several weeks’ free advertising, expiring 31 December 2016. Applications for 2016 are currently being finalised.

The Business Directory will provide an opportunity to strengthen and tighten the bonds between the School, parents and the businesses contained within the School Community.

If you are interested and would like to be involved please phone, Lisa Wilson on 4220 0264 or Joanne Danckwardt 0426 264 771, or email: foundation@tigs.nsw.edu.au TIGS reserves the right to decline any advertisement or request changes before accepting any submissions.

Junior School Car Line Blues

Car line this week was tricky. On Tuesday particularly, we had a car parked in the wrong space which had our 3 lane process reduced to one lane to exit the premises. Thank you to our community for being patient and encouraging as we did our very best to work around this difficulty.

Thank you also to our parents who happily do another loop if their child is not waiting in the loading area. For your information, the children are called when you first enter the School gate and again as we see your car turning the corner ready to load. This will have given them more than ample time to walk to the loading area and be ready for you. We cannot call for students once you have reached the front of the line as this stops us from loading the multiple cars waiting behind you. When the red area parking spaces are available, we do allow parents whose children are not ready to park in those spaces while we call for the children again. However, the process must remain that if your child is not ready, then another loop is required. We have found that if we stick to this process, the whole system works as smoothly and efficiently as possible.

As a last point for car line, I remind all families that only cars picking up Kindergarten students should be in the car line prior to 3.10pm.

This allows us to get our youngest students safely into their cars. It is wonderful that our parents are so eager to see their children at the end of the day, but I encourage those of you with older children to wait another 5 minutes before arriving so that our car line can function smoothly and we can avoid sending you around the loop!

Orientations

This week is the start of an exciting process with both Kindergarten and Year 7 orientation programmes commencing. Orientation is an important process for our children as they move on to the next stage of their education. At our School it is both specific in terms of what happens at TIGS but also general in terms of how is Senior School or Big School different to their previous experience. The children always finish the orientation programme excited about what is to come and looking forward to the next phase of their learning.

Of specific interest to parents of children moving to Year 7 is the introduction of the Diploma Programme (DP) from 2017 as an alternate pathway to the HSC. Whilst parents of Year 7 2016 may feel that the HSC or DP is a long way off, in fact there are decisions that will be made in early high school, particularly with regard to language choices that may have an impact on later opportunities.

If you would like more information on the DP, so that you are fully informed to assist your children in making good decisions for their future learning, please contact Melina Sangster, the Director of Teaching and Learning via email msangster@tigs.nsw.edu.au

Judi Nealy Head of Junior School

A COGNITIVE PROGRAMME The Arrowsmith Program will be offered after school at TIGS in 2016. This will allow more of our TIGS families to benefit from the great results we are seeing. If your child is under performing or has an identified learning difficulty, cognitive exercises may help them to learn more independently in the future.

There are two delivery options avalable. The at-home option requires 1 hour at School each fortnight on a Wednesday and a commitment to complete homework each week.

The part time program will be held Tuesdays and Thursdays 3.30pm - 6.00pm in term time.

We have limited places. Please register your interest by the visiting the TIGS website. www.tigs.nsw.edu.au/events-and-bookings

Please join us any time between 5.00pm and 8.00pm to catch up with Monica and wish her well in her retirement DATE Friday 20 November 2015 AT The Illawarra Grammar School In the Goodhew Research Centre (Library)

RSVP Essential - Friday 13 November 2015 Visit TIGS website

www.tigs.nsw.edu.au/events-and-bookings

Academic • Christian • Caring

An International Baccalaureate World School

DATES FOR YOUR DIARIES: Friday 30 October Thursday 19 November Saturday 28 November Monday 7 December Thursday 10 December

Professional Learning Day/Pupil Free Day Year 6 Progression Dinner Infants Pageant 10.00am – 12.00pm to be held in the IGC Christmas Celebration Years 3 - Year 6 Presentation Evening

WEEKLY AWARDS KD KP 1T 1Y 2M 2Mc 3R 3S 3WJ 4M 4Y 6C

Poppy Bambrick, Aushada Ranamuka Rallage Naomi Fock, Kaj Eriksson Parrie Mizori, Elizabeth Hoskins Callum Perrins, Daniel Llewellin Victoria Di Martino, Tom Armstrong Nikita Nicholson Lilli Fellowes, Daniel Radojicic, Mia Taylor Ashika Bahl, Hamish Dutch, Kai Baker, Aiden Da Deppo, Jude De Araujo Ella Fennell, Thomas Devlin, Mayank Aurangabadkar Rebecca Winn, Emily Sutherland, Terrance Tsakiridis, Jack Parker Rosemary Zaki, Angkit Jeyachandran Aditya Sinha, Sarah Hutchinson

MERIT CERTIFICATE

Academic

Mathilda Hoy Molly Buikstra James Brewer Hollander Petersen Noah Bottele Addison Tarrant Naomi Fock Josie Lowe Diya Mehan Alexander Attorre Miranda Golding

Senior School Sport Douglas Shield Cricket Wednesday 21 October 2015

Rain threatened to interrupt the match against Georges River Grammar (GRG) but held off and a full day of cricket took place. TIGS bowled first after losing the toss and witnessed an impressive century from the GRG opening batsman. TIGS were set a decent total of 253 to chase with Adam Galanti the pick of the bowlers taking 2/26 off 6 overs.

The TIGS run chase required one solid partnership, however the GRG bowling attack and fielding was too good. Samuel Okely was the only TIGS batsman to demonstrate any form of longevity at the crease, scoring 54 runs.

After a tough day of cricket, the TIGS boys should be congratulated as they represented their School with great esteem and displayed fantastic sportsmanship.

AICES Basketball Success Renee Thomson, Blake McDougall and Jacob Upton were selected in the NASSA U/15 Basketball team who won the AICES U/15 Basketball Tournament last week. All three players were instrumental to the success of the NASSA Team on the day and were commended for their efforts across the day by the NASSA coaches.

The 2015 Sports Presentation Evening

Our annual Sports Presentation will take place next Wednesday November 4 in the IGC from 6.30pm for a 7.00pm start. Recipients have been sent invites. Please RSVP your family’s attendance using the online booking system www.tigs.edu.au/events-and-bookings We are looking forward to a fantastic celebration of sporting success at TIGS across the year.

School Surfing School Surfing is run by Pines Surf Academy on Monday and Tuesday mornings at Wollongong City Beach. Over the years this has been one of our most popular options in our co-curricular sports programme. We currently have 35 students participating in the programme with Mr Tregonning and Mr Grieve.

We also have a team of keen surfers who have competed in various surf competitions throughout the year.

Ollie Birt George Birt Timothee Chaperon Billy Fisher Riley Hanlon Michaela McGrath Finley McLaren Jai Tuckwood Zachary Winter Grace Hennessy Lilly Sands Andre De Ruyter Last Friday TIGS competed in the Undercard School Surfing Development Contest at Thirroul Beach. Our team surfed really well across the day. Finley McLaren came 1st and Billy Fisher finished in 4th position. Finley also competed in the NSW State Championships in Port Macquarie back in July.

We wish our surfers all the best as they take on their next surfing competition and head off to the AICES Surfing Championships at Collaroy Beach next week.

Uniform Shop News We have now commenced fittings for children entering Kindergarten in 2016. Could all Preparatory parents please contact the Uniform Shop to ensure your child is fitted out before the end of Term IV. Please note all existing Year 6 students who are entering Year 7 in 2016 should have their uniforms fitted and purchased by 20 November 2015.

Current Year 10 students should visit the Uniform Shop this term to have their complete Senior Uniform fitted. The Senior Blazers need to be ordered by the end of Term IV.

Extend@TIGS

Extend@TIGS has a lot of different and exciting upcoming events organised. Last week we had heaps of fun creating candy houses, sweet apples, chocolate spiders and playing soccer and dodgeball. This week we have a range of exciting science, craft and cooking activities planned so please come along and join in all the fun.

Once a year Extend launches a major Extend-a-Hand initiative that equips children to contribute to the wider community.

This year we are partnering with Meals on Wheels so that the children in Extend’s programmes can make placemats for Meals on Wheels recipients. Come along to After School Care for an opportunity to contribute to this great team project!

ONLINE BOOKINGS: extend.com.au CALL OUR OFFICE: 1300 366 437

WEEK 5 ACTIVITIES:

Monday 2 November Craft: Crazy Door Hangers Outdoor sport: Soccer Tuesday 3 November Library and play lawn Outdoor sport: Crocodile Crocodile, stuck in the mud, buzz off hairy legs Wednesday 4 November Craft: Make your own Puzzle Outdoor Sport: Soccer Thursday 5 November Science: Tornado in a jar Outdoor Sport: Bowling Friday 6 November Craft: Recycled craft Outdoor Sport: Cricket

UPCOMING

EVENTS

WEEK 5

2016 Pre-Preparatory and Preparatory Parent Information Session (2 day)

11.30am Monday 2 November 2015 in The Goodhew Research Centre

TIGS Sports Presentation Evening 6.30pm for 7.00pm Wednesday 4 November in the IGC

Pre-Preparatory and Preparatory 2016 Parent Information Session (3 and 5 day) 11.30am Thursday 5 November 2015 in The Goodhew Research Centre

Year 7 2016 Orientation Day 2 Thursday 5 November 2015 in the IGC

Year 7 2016 Orientation Day 3 Friday 6 November 2015 in the IGC

WEEK 6

TIGS Prayer Breakfast

7.30am Thursday 12 November in The Goodhew Research Centre