Newsletter Issue 7 term IV 2016

Newsletter Academic Christian Caring

Issue 7 Term IV 2016

Golden Jubilee Wall Hanging

Headmaster The report identifies two core skill types needed for the future job market: ‘Hard’ (specialist knowledge) and ‘soft’ (people) skills. “Young people are required to know how to program and interface with technology, but they also need to know how to communicate, collaborate and think critically for success.”

‘Hard’ or specialist skills, are found in the Academic disciplines: • • • • • • •

Stephen Kinsella Headmaster A study has been released by the Regional Institute, supported by the Australian Government, about the shape of work in the 21st Century. The Report, The Future of Work: Setting Kids up for Success, predicts the jobs that will be in high demand in 2030, the year students currently in the Piper Centre 3-year-old programme will graduate from Year 12 – a somewhat alarming thought!

The report predicts that when our Prep students leave school the jobs that will be in high demand can be grouped into three categories: •

High Tech Jobs: Know-how specialists, from designing the next drone to teaching, e.g. electrical engineers, teachers

•

High Touch Jobs: Do and deliver, from house renovations to creatively pursuing a passion, e.g. plumber, personal assistant, photographer

•

High Care Jobs: Personal and emotionally engaged, from looking after young people to taking care of the household, e.g. childcare worker, fitness instructor.

The report advocates educating students now for ‘future’ jobs that will require a high degree of digital specialisation and technical skills as well as ‘changing’ jobs that are similar to current jobs but will require a higher level of people and/ or technical skills.

Science, Technology, Engineering, Art Maths Entrepreneurship Design

You will often hear these referred to as STEM, or STEAM or even STEAMED subjects. (I would add literacy to this list – literacy in its broadest sense including digital literacy. However, an additional ‘E’ will ruin the acronym.) What this means for our students is that there is no avoiding mastering the academic disciplines if they are to match the needs of the future job market.

The report groups ‘Soft’ or people skills into six categories.

•

critical thinking (problem solving, higher order thinking skills, interdisciplinary approach, real world problems, project based learning),

•

communicate clearly (effective communication, self and peer review, information fluency, media fluency, digital fluency),

•

work collaboratively (team building, effective communication, self and peer assessment, collaborative mediums, suitable technologies),

•

utilise connectivity (interdisciplinary approach, encourage collaboration, enable technology, information fluency, encourage reflection),

•

develop creativity (imagine, incorporate design, integrate function, interdisciplinary approach) and

•

embrace culture (context of information, exchange respect, collaboration, build community, real world problems).

Chaplain’s Message THE WORD OF THE YEAR Each year Oxford Dictionaries chooses its word of the year. The word or expression is the one which, in their mind, best captures the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the year. You may have heard that the Oxford Dictionaries’ Word of the Year for 2016 is post-truth.

Post-truth is an adjective defined as ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief’.

Apparently, the concept of post-truth has been in existence for the past decade, but Oxford Dictionaries has seen a spike in its use this year in the context of the EU referendum in the United Kingdom and the presidential election in the United States.

I must admit I am concerned that this word (and more importantly, this concept) has become so dominant in our culture. It means our notion of truth has become devalued. This cannot be good.

The Bible believes in truth, a truth that is not dependent upon our proclivities, perceptions or appraisals. The Bible affirms what has come to be termed ‘absolute truth’. Absolute truth is a truth that is not relative to something else. It is true no matter what. It is.

From the Bible’s perspective, God is truth. What we think about God or how we respond to the reality of God is beside the point. It does not alter the fact of who he is. God is.

The reality of God’s being is the foundation of all truth. Because he is, the world is, and we are. When God created the world he created an entity that truly exists. It has real being and can be explored and measured and quantified and substantiated. This includes the reality of our own being.

The scientific enterprise is founded on this understanding. No one, I think, would be happy to get into a plane and fly to the other side of the world unless they were certain all safety precautions had been met. In other words, we demand that the facts be rightly considered. That is basic and, I would contest, biblical.

This is not to deny that some of our knowing is provisional. If Postmodernism has taught us anything it is that we are to be humble with our pronouncements.

But that is quite different to believing that we cannot know truth at all or that facts don’t matter.

The wonder of the message of Christmas is that Jesus the Son of God came into the world to bear testimony to the truth. Here’s how that is stated in John’s Gospel in the famous interchange between Jesus and Pontius Pilate:

As members of an IB World School community we have no difficulty in recognising the close correlation between these ‘soft’ people skills and the IB Learner Profile. All students at TIGS are learning, through the PYP, MYP and DP/HSC, to acquire the attributes of the IB Learner Profile: • • • • • • • • • •

Inquirers Knowledgeable Thinkers Communicators Principled Open-minded Caring Risk-takers Balanced Reflective

Rev. James Rogers Chaplain “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.

Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. (John 18.37-38) I look forward to joining with you at our Infants’ Pageant and Christmas Celebration as we bear testimony to the Truth and in so doing prove ourselves to be on the side of truth.

Rev. James Rogers

The report says having a mix of these skills will lay a solid foundation for work in the future.

TIGS is only the second school in NSW to offer IB programmes from Prep through to Year 12. A key reason for adopting the IB programmes at TIGS is its close alignment with the needs of students for the future. Our graduates have a distinct advantage over students that have not been prepared for the future world of work.

The full report can be found here.

Stephen Kinsella Headmaster

Junior School Teachers have finished writing reports and they are ready to be posted home to parents. This means that it is time to begin planning for 2017.

The class construction process in the Junior School is complex, requiring the input and expertise of all classroom teachers to design learning communities for the next academic year.

Judi Nealy Deputy Headmaster, Head of Junior School

ASSEMBLY/CHAPEL

The Junior School Captains will be hosting next weeks Chapel in the IGC from 12.10pm.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARIES

Wednesday 7 December A Christmas Celebration 5.30pm Picnic on the Oval 7.00pm Concert in the IGC

Friday 9 December Year 3 - Year 6 Presentation Day 1.00pm – 2.30pm in the IGC

Tuesday 13 December Students last day – Dismissed at 12.30pm Piper Centre will be closed at 12.00pm

During this process we discuss each child’s academic, physical and social needs and construct intentional classes designed to support learning. There will be movement between classes and being with a friend is only one element that is considered when placing a child in a learning group for the next academic year. In fact, sometimes being with a particular friend is not the best decision for constructing a learning (not purely social) environment. In each grade there will be cluster groups formed for children who are gifted and talented or who have a particular area of skill or need. This allows us to cater specifically to these needs.

I encourage parents with any particular concerns regarding class placement to come and speak to me over the week. I will be happy to hear your perspective.

However we will not construct classes based on teacher or even friendship requests, as this is not a good method for creating purposeful and positive learning communities.

The 2016 teachers will spend a considerable amount of time handing over to the 2017 teachers so that continuity of information and care is maintained. The children (and their parents) will find out who their 2017 teacher and classmates are on the first day of school in February.

On the first day of school, all children go back to their old classroom, catch up with their old teacher and classmates and then we progress each Year up into their new groups over the course of the morning. This is the most organised and stress free way to do this for the children. Meet the Teacher evenings will occur in Week 3 of Term I so you will all have an opportunity to get to know your new teachers very early in the year.

We all start to get excited as we plan a new year of learning, but it is important that we finish 2016 well. It is my expectation that the children will all work right up until the end of the year as well as maintain their high standards in the areas of uniform and behaviour.

Thank you to our parents who support us in ensuring a great finish even as we look to the year ahead.

The final weeks of the term have been a true indication of our entire year of learning in 2016. Student centred, authentic and action based with a focus on service, collaboration and the clear and consistent message of Jesus.

There has been much to celebrate this year in the Junior School. I have read the student reflections as I have signed all reports and it is wonderful to observe how our learners are really thinking about their goals and reflecting on the extent to which they have achieved them.

Thank you to our community for a really positive and productive year together in 2016. I wish each of you a wonderful holiday break celebrating the birth of our Saviour Jesus, some time of relaxation and reconnection with families and friends and I look forward to learning with you, and from you, in 2017

WEEKLY AWARDS 1Y

Johanna Hernandez

2C Yananai Chibanda,

Aston Di Donato 2M Riya Bahl, Callum Perrins 2T

Connor Hutchinson, Aahan Rakheja

3C Samuel Robinson, Ava Santos 3S

Jocelyn Ayers, Abha Mundada, Saxon Parrish, Noah Sweetland

4M Ishe Chibanda, William Dolan,

Lili Fellowes 4R Joel Turner 5H Connor Burrows,

Marley Stephenson 6C Jordan McRae, Daniel Grieve

MERIT CERTIFICATES

Academic

Sophia Windsor Evelyn Sanzone Saxon Parrish Andrew Neal Jannah Kermali Toby Jinks Bridie Hughes Aston Di Donato Ishe Chibanda Campbell Boardman

Service

Bridie Hughes Certificates will be presented in our Chapel on the 8 December. This Chapel will be held in the IGC commencing at 12.10pm.

Co-curricular Club ART FROM THE HEART Imagine – Express – Create ‘Art From the Heart’ is a specialised after school Art tutoring program held on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday afternoons at TIGS between 3.30pm - 5.30pm.

During each term students study many diverse artists both contemporary and the Masters recreating the style of the artist in their own individual and creative way.

This term our artist of inquiry has been Leonardo Da Vinci. The students have learnt about the great artist’s life and become familiar with all of his works.

In addition, they have created their own original charcoal pencil drawings, watercolour paintings and oil pastel images.

The students enjoy working with clay to produce functional and colourful ceramic pieces which are glazed and fired here at school, the students love to take these home and display them with pride.

Art from the Heart encourages children to express themselves in a comfortable fun and friendly environment developing confidence through the exploration of the creative process.

Senior School As you read this article, Year 10 will be returning from their final week of “official school business” related to this phase in their school journey. Students have been involved in one of three final activities. They are able to “choose their own adventure” or sign up for a week of meaningful work experience, where they have the opportunity to be part of a workplace in an area of interest to them.

Greg Lanyon Head of Senior School

Those who chose an outdoor education experience will either have been with Outward Bound hiking in the Snowy River Country or white-water rafting on the Snowy River. These demanding and rigorous programmes have provided the opportunity to apply the skills and resilience acquired in the sequential outdoor education programmes from Year 7.

The Outward Bound course consisted of hiking and camping in breathtaking high country, rafting on the Snowy River and an introduction to survival in an alpine wilderness area.

Those students on the white-water programme have been rafting between camp sites, setting up a shelter each afternoon and also experiencing breathtaking scenery and wilderness.

This has been their first experience paddling on fast moving water, surviving in a wilderness area and maintaining a campsite in an alpine environment.

It is also worth noting that this group of students is the first to have completed the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP), which has involved them this year in designing and making a product to complete a Personal Project, which was of special interest to them. I

have written about this in previous articles this year and commended the students on the way in which they have approached this demanding task. All of the reflections from the Personal Project have now been marked and will be included in the MYP credential, which students will receive with their final reports.

Students who have been at TIGS from the Junior School will now have completed two internationally recognised courses of study on the IB continuum, the PYP and MYP. Because the NSW Board of Studies Teaching and Educational Standards (BOSTES) no longer provides the School Certificate credential, this group of students are among a relatively small number of students in NSW who will receive an international credential at this educational milestone before entering the final two years of Senior School.

This group has also had the opportunity for the first time to choose two alternative pathways for the final years of school. Sixteen students have chosen to be the first to undertake the IB Diploma Programme, including new students, while the rest of the cohort will undertake courses of study in the NSW Higher School Certificate.

This is a really exciting time for these students as they complete their final commitments in the middle years and celebrate their achievements at the Year 10 Formal on Thursday evening, 8 December and their final day at the Senior School Presentation event on Tuesday 13 December. We are looking forward to celebrating with them this important milestone in their educational career.

Golden Jubilee Wall Hanging In 2008 a small band of enthusiastic volunteers began producing an artwork to commemorate TIGS Golden Jubilee. The group decided to handcraft a quilted wall hanging with an original design which showcased all aspects of school life.

Over 25 volunteers were involved in the sewing and production of the individual scenes on the wall hanging which were then expertly quilted into place. This time consuming process became a labour of love for many involved but resulted in a truly magnificent piece which now hangs proudly in the Goodhew Research Centre (Library).

The volunteers involved in the project were invited back to TIGS this week to celebrate the completion of the artwork and recognise the incredible effort of the volunteers over many years. Meredith Hutton, current school parent and alumni, reflected on the history of the School and stories behind each element of the wall hanging. The Headmaster thanked all those involved, with special mention to Bev Pallister, Library Assistant and past parent, who has been the driving force bringing all parties together to produce the final piece. The School greatly appreciates the incredible efforts of these dedicated volunteers. All members of the TIGS community are encouraged to drop in to the Library over the coming weeks as they attend various end-of-year events to see this beautiful artwork and reflect on the history it so beautifully depicts.

Back row - Meredith Hutton, Judith Miller, Sue Nairn, Pamela Rouse, Jennifer Cowie, Tess McMaugh, Liz Corfield, Kerry Goonan Front row - Robin Hutton, Val Nicol, Elaine Bagnet, Bev Pallister, Doreen Turnbull, Penny Cross, Gay Kinsella

Junior School Sport NATIONALS ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS TIGS community congratulates Junior School student Jamaya Wayne, who came 3rd in Australia for under 10 Discus at the Australian Schools Championships at Homebush. She was coming 5th with 33 metres and her last throw was a personal best of 37.70 metres which placed her with bronze. The winner broke the national record. Jamaya also competed in the team’s Shot Put with her fellow NSW members and placed 1st against all other states.

She has trained so hard for 18 months to get this far so it is really pleasing it has come all together for her- well done!

TIGS JUNIOR TENNIS TOURNAMENT Last Friday 40 Junior School students participated in our annual school tennis competition. There was some great tennis played and the students showed substantial growth in their individual game.

Results: Year 4 1. Ishe Chibanda

2. Alexander Vartazarian

Georgia Dolan Bhaavya Gupta

Year 5 1. Jacobus Newhouse

2. Oscar Ryan

Molly Buikstra Pia D’Rozario

Year 6 1. Nicholas Chiaverini

2. Massimo Forte

Mary Albert Jade Hyde

In the Community LEGO ROBOTICS TOURNAMENT

The 2016 Wollongong Regional FIRST® LEGO® League competition was held at TIGS on Saturday 26 November. 36 teams registered to take part in the event, with participants travelling from across the Illawarra (Helensburgh to Kiama) as well as further afield including Sussex Inlet, Bomaderry, Gymea Bay, Narooma, Nowra, Sutherland, Milton, Batlow, Picton, Kempsey, Bowral, Engadine, and Casula. The IGC proved to be a fantastic venue for the event and TIGS was valiantly represented by teams: Senior School Spicy Bots Junior School TIGS Electric Turtles Zac Hah Year 8 James Gardner Year 5 Connor Harvey Year 8 Pia D’Rozario Year 5 Sebastian Di Noro Year 8 Billy Dolan Year 4 George Barbas Year 7 Daniel Peden Year 4 Aditya Sinha Year 7 Teerth Khanna Year 4 Ali Matar Year 4 Hugh D’Rozario Year 3

A Christmas Celebration Each year as part of the School Community Service Programme, Year 7 students are involved in organising collections for the Toys ‘n’ Tucker program. Toys ‘n’ Tucker is an initiative of Anglicare Sydney which aims to share the joy of Christmas by providing food and gifts for those who would otherwise go without.

Toys ‘n’ Tucker is a wonderful way to share the joy of Christmas with people in need. Together we can provide Christmas food and gifts to thousands of families who would otherwise go without. We hope you’ll join with us to share the joy of Christmas this year.

For further information, please see the website Year 7 students have been busily preparing and informing the school about the event. The final date for collection is Wednesday 9 December when the donations are to be placed under the tree on the day of TIGS Christmas Celebration.

It is my hope that as a community we can all give generously and add some joy to those in need this Christmas. Donations can be brought in anytime between now and next Wednesday. Thank you for your support with this most worthwhile cause.

Mr Brett Ferguson Dean of Year 7

Any food provided needs to be non-perishable, standard size and nothing that breaks or melts.

Uniform Shop

Extend@ TIGS

The Uniform Shop is open from 8.30am to 4.00pm Tuesdays and Thursdays during term time. Avoid the queues! Make an appointment by contacting the Uniform Shop email tigs. uniforms@permapleat.com.au or phone 4220 0230.

Extend@TIGS has a lot of different and exciting upcoming events organised. Last week we had heaps of fun getting creative making Pokemon sun catchers, pokeballs, bottle bridges, paper plane comp and tape painting. We also played games including outside dodgeball, soccer, pacman, relay runs and handball.This week we have a range of exciting science, craft and cooking activities planned so please come along and join in on all the fun.

EXTRA TRADING DAYS

Term IV • Monday 5 December • Monday 12 December

Back To School Trading Hours 2017 • Monday 23 January • Tuesday 24 January • Wednesday 25 January • Monday 30 January • Tuesday 31 January • Wednesday 1 February

Student Success JOANNE PARK - 1ST PLACE INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION AND ASSESSMENTS FOR SCHOOLS One of our Year 3 students, Joanne Park, was placed 1st in the NSW ICAS English Test. Over 2 million ICAS tests are sat by student in over 20 countries. Joanne received the State Medal for her efforts and we would like to congratulate her on this amazing achievement.

WEEK 9 ACTIVITIES

Monday 5 December Craft: Wool eye craft Outdoor sport: Wembley

Tuesday 6 December Craft: Christmas ornaments Sport: bottle flip comp (how many flips without fail) Wednesday 7 December Activity: Pony bead lizard Sport: Pacman and helicopter Thursday 8 December Activity: Marshmallow challenge Sport: Bug catching Friday 9 December Science: Funky hair self-portraits Sport: helicopter ONLINE BOOKINGS: extend.com.au CALL OUR OFFICE 1300 366 437

UPCOMING

EVENTS

WEEK 9

A Christmas Celebration 5.30pm Picnic 7.00pm Celebration Wednesday 7 December in the IGC

Year 10 Formal

6.30pm Thursday 8 December at the Villa D’Oro

Year 10 Formal - Parent Dinner 7.00pm Thursday 8 December at Centro CBD

Year 3 - Year 6 Presentation Day 1.00pm to 2.30pm Friday 9 December in the IGC

WEEK 10

Senior School Presentation Day 10.30am - 12.30pm Tuesday 13 December in the IGC

Last Day of Term IV Tuesday 13 December