15 November 2022

The Year 12 students looked stunning in their attire and very much older than what they did even a week ago in school uniform. We congratulate our Year 12’s on finishing their formal schooling and pray that each of them trust in the Lord as they venture into work, studies and life in 2023.

It was brought to our attention, that one of our music alumni students from 2021, Liana N, was recognised for her exemplary achievements in her HSC exams late last year. With the disaffected examination timetable of 2021, the school and the student were not informed of this wonderful accolade. Liana appeared on the Honour Roll for her Musicology Viva Voces in the Encore program held early this year. We congratulate Liana such a tremendous ending to her music studies last year.

Year 6 students from RJ and surrounding schools recently joined us for the Year 7 (2023) orientation days hosted by our Head of Secondary and his team. From all counts, the two days were a fabulous success with students starting to connect in friendship as they begin their journey into secondary next year. We look forward to welcoming them all back on January 27 for their first day of high school in 2023.

Two Saturdays ago, we held the last of our Open Days for our Marsden Park Campus for 2022. Over 60 families from across The Ponds to Colbee and Marsden Park to Box Hill attended the morning. There was great interest shown in enrolling students in our school, particularly for Year 7 in 2024. Many families were keen to ensure that their children could also secure a place within our Primary School. If you have friends or family who are wanting to enrol in our School at the Marsden Park Campus, please encourage them to jump onto the RJ Website and complete an application form, even if is still a few years away they are wanting a place.  

Let’s not forget about our K-2 Twilight events that are launching next week. Our K-2 students can’t wait to dazzle you with their singing and acting as they present a short musical presentation of the Christmas Nativity. Families are encourage to bring a picnic dinner to share together while Coffee, Tea, Hot Chocolates and ice creams will be on sale through our external vendors. Don’t forget to bring a blanket and some soft cushions or pillows to sit on as well.

As we approach the end of the year we become full of mixed emotions as it also brings news of staff members who may be retiring from teaching, looking at taking on promotional positions in other schools or simply looking to enrich their career experiences as they continue to grow and learn as educators. 

As such, we will farewell the following staff as they head on their journey beyond RJ in 2023: Mr Steve Millard and Mr Darren Hua have both accepted promotional positions as Dean of Students (Mamre Anglican School) and Assistant Head of Maths (Norwest Christian College) respectively, Mrs Sierra Whittle and Mrs Vivian Abdala are both relocating closer to their homes in Sydney’s Southwest and will be teaching at Macarthur Anglican School, Mr Bunsell is looking to spend more time with family and do some casual teaching in the next foreseeable future, Mrs Claire McCormick (Central Coast) and Miss Danica Potgieter (Camden) are both making relocation moves, and Mrs Christine Bare is looking at further studies in School Librarianship. Lastly, Ms Belinda Hunter, our Hospitality/Food Tech teacher aide is relocating with her family to the Gold Coast.  

We wish our departing staff God’s best for their future endeavours and are grateful that our paths have crossed at RJ. I do, however, look forward to sharing with the RJ School Community our full complement of new staff appointments for 2023 in our next edition of the RJ Review. God has been gracious in providing us with some exceptional educators to join our team and I can’t wait to share this news with you. As we continue to grow our school and the second campus, the list of new staff continues to grow also… and God has been ever faithful in meeting our needs. 

Well, let's continue to enjoy the fast slide of the next four weeks to the end of the year!

God Bless,

Mr Alan Dawson | Principal 

On the contrary, was my reply. I am very proud to have played a part in establishing a tradition of farewelling our students that I know will continue for years to come. There is great joy in being able to celebrate with students all they have achieved over the last thirteen years of schooling. Being able to enjoy one another’s company and pray for them as they leave the confines of school is a blessing. Each year I am reminded of the significance of this occasion, knowing that life can change in a day for any person. These opportunities should never be taken for granted – let’s rejoice in each day God gives us and make the most of the blessings He showers upon us! I am truly thankful for the privilege of having seen so many students finish their school life at RJ, knowing that they go into the world as confident and capable young people, keen to make a positive contribution to society, and assured that God will continue to grow the seeds of faith He planted in them while they were a part of our School community.

Congratulations to our Cultural and Sporting Medallion winners in 2022. These students accumulated points through their involvement in a range of different activities during the course of the year. Points are awarded on the level of commitment or representation. It will be good to see more students in Primary and Secondary become further involved in 2023, especially as Music groups are re-established post-pandemic and grow in numbers.

While we were intending to badge our new secondary School Leaders on Friday 18 November, we have decided to hold this event over until 2 December. This is due to our Sports Captains and House Captains having the unique opportunity to attend the CSSA Sports Leadership Summit on Friday with Mr Hyde. Hence, we will announce the new House Vice-Captains and House Leaders on Friday, but save the badging until as many as possible are present at the next Assembly.

Parents are again reminded of the RJ Uniform and Presentation Policy, particularly as we get closer to the end of the year and shoes wear out and hair needs cutting. Normal rules still apply – parents can’t give their children permission to break the rules and expect there to be no consequences. The expectations apply equally in Primary and Secondary, and at both campuses. Students who fail to comply with expectations, despite repeated warnings in Secondary, or phone calls home in Primary, will be sent home for the matter to be addressed.

The situation is the same with attendance. I have written many times of the need to be in attendance and the dramatic impact that frequent absences can mean for a child’s learning. As a parent, you are setting your child up to fail if they are well, but you keep them – or allow them – to stay at home. They are only learning avoidance, and this is not a skill they want to have as young adults. When competition for jobs increases, an employer wants to know that a student attended school regularly. They want a reliable worker if they are going to invest time and money in their employment. For students who are unwell, or spending time in hospital, we have various processes in place to make sure they can stay up-to-date or engage in catch-up post illness. Legally young people between the age of 6-17 are required to be at school each day it is open. Make that the goal for 2023 if it has been an issue in 2022.

Today I have the pleasure of working with our new Deputy Principal, Mr Scott Roby. Please welcome him warmly to RJ. I know he will want to give his best, just as I have done, to make RJ a place where your children can belong, serve and succeed. I will miss you all.

God bless

Mrs Jenny Clay
Deputy Principal  

The lovely Spring weather has been such a blessing and many students are giving me their daily ‘jacaranda count’ as these beautiful trees bloom all over Sydney.

Our ‘Word of the week’ last week was Responsibility. Even our youngest students can be expected to help with little jobs around the home. Does your child make their bed, help unstack the dishwasher/dry dishes, feed or care for pets, water plants, put their washing away? It’s a great habit for children to get into and helps them feel that they are contributing to the running of the household.

SWIM SCHOOL

Swim school concludes this week for K-2 students at nearby Little Fishes indoor pool centre. Please think about building on these learn-to-swim lessons by enrolling your child for further instruction over the summer break. Contact your Local Government-run pool and inquire about swimming lessons for children. Check your Service NSW app for discount vouchers for swimming lessons. A special thank you to Mr Mitchell for his work in organising and running these sessions.

PRIMARY LEADERSHIP 2023

Well done to Year 5 students who applied and interviewed for Primary Leadership positions for 2023. The students did a wonderful job in the interviews and in the running of House games at the recent House Meetings. Captains for the Oakhurst Campus will be announced at the Year 6 Graduation Assembly on Friday 2 December and House Leaders will be announced at the Presentation Afternoon on Wednesday 7 December. Parents of Captains and Leaders will receive notification of their child’s appointment to a leadership position but should keep this to themselves until the official announcement events.  

CHRISTMAS TWILIGHT NATIVITY & PICNIC

Everyone is invited to enjoy a BYO picnic on Friday 25 November at 5:30pm in the Primary Courtyard.  An ice cream van and a coffee/tea van will be onsite to complement your meal. Please plan to attend, to bring a picnic blanket, and be entertained by our vibrant K-2 students as we celebrate the Christmas season together.

TOYS ‘N TUCKER

Thank you so much for the donations already received for Anglicare’s Toys ‘n Tucker appeal. Both Primary campuses are currently collecting for this worthwhile cause. There are baskets in each classroom for donations of non-perishable food items and toys in good condition. The Anglicare van will collect our donations in Week 8 of term.

WHAT’S COMING UP?

Ahead in Weeks 6 and 7 we have – 

CSSA Basketball Gala Day Years 5/6
Mon 14 November (selected students)

Final Swim School lessons
Wed 16  November   (K-2)

CSSA Basketball Gala Day Years 3/4
Mon 21 November  (selected students)              

Christmas Twilight Nativity event
Fri  25 November  5:30pm (BYO picnic dinner)   

Enjoy the rest of your week,

Mrs Karen Shannon-Duhigg
Head of Primary - Oakhurst

Along with Belonging and Success, our third pillar at RJ is Service. Below are some details of an upcoming opportunity for the students to participate in Service. We have signed on to participate in Toy’s and Tucker. Toy's 'n' Tucker Anglicare Sydney provides a way for churches, schools, businesses and community groups to share the joy of Christmas and demonstrate God’s love by providing food and gifts for those who would otherwise go without. Both Primary campuses will be collecting for this worthwhile cause. In 2022 Anglicare’s goal is to distribute 5000 food hampers and 4000 toy hampers to families in need this Christmas. There will be baskets in each classroom for donations of non-perishable food items and toys in good condition. The Anglicare van will collect our donations in Week 8 of Term. 

Assemblies 

This last week saw our final class assembly for 2022. While class assemblies are finished there are still plenty of other opportunities to share with us over the coming weeks, including the community Christmas Nativity Twilight event at 5:30pm on Thursday 24 November (with entertainment provided by K-2, BYO picnic dinner; icecream and coffee can be purchased onsite).  There is also the Marsden Park Presentation Event which is listed below.  

Swim School  

This week coming will be the last week of swim school. In week 7 we will be back to the normal timetable. A great time has been had by all students and thankfully the weather has been warm and perfect for swimming. I am told it has been great to see the improvement of the student’s swim skills, especially as we head towards the summer season.  

Year 6 Graduation and Activity Day 

There will be communication sent home this week for Year 5 and 6 students who are involved in those events.   

Marsden Park Primary – Presentation Event, Monday 5 December 1 pm. 

It is with great pleasure that I can announce that the 2022 final assembly and award presentation will take place at the Marsden Park Campus. The school Executive believes that this is an important step forward for the Marsden Park community and it is my hope that as many parents can support us for this celebration of learning at RJ. 

Term 4 Events (Still to come)

Please see an overview of Term 4 events below. Dates will be confirmed in the note to families in Term 4.

Assemblies
Assembly Schedule for term 4 is as follows: -  
We will be looking specifically at Isaiah 9:6-7.  

Parents, please arrive by 9am as the assembly being shortly after that. No sign-in is required at the front office, and masks are no longer required to be worn.

Housekeeping  

• Friday Lunch Order Cancellations: Please be aware that any orders cancelled on Friday mornings are non-refundable.
• Contact Details: From time to time, phone and contact details can change. If that is the case, please contact the school if you changed any contact details i.e. mobile numbers, email addresses or home addresses, please contact the school via email on mpadmin@rjas.nsw.edu.au or the Parent Portal. 
• School Uniform: Students should be wearing their full Summer Uniform in Term 4. To protect students from harmful UV rays, all Primary students must wear their hats at school daily. Students may wear the Primary broad-brimmed hat or legionnaire cap during Recess and Lunch breaks and during PE/Sports lessons as per the Compulsory School Uniform and Student Presentation Policy. Please ensure hats, like all uniform items, are clearly labelled with your child’s name. 
• Absences: Please email the absences email address:  absences@rjas.nsw.edu.au or SMS 0438 657 339. 
• Student Medication: Students are not to have any form of mediation in their school bags be it anti-histamine, Panadol, ointments etc. Only Asthma Puffers and diabetic medication are the exception. All other medication is to be brought to the office for safe keeping and a permission form filled in which can be found on our website under resources.     
• After school care arrangements: If you have arranged after school care, please remind your child before dropping them to school. Please call the office to ensure the message is not missed in an emergency.  

Mr Luke Sale
Head of Primary - Marsden Park

Students were shown experiments that blew balloons up, caused a small firebomb and exploded hundreds of ping pong balls, demonstrating examples of the forces of gravity, air pressure and friction. Students then had rotating activities where they got to apply their knowledge of push and pull and friction in a billy kart race and experiment with air pressure when launching their own rockets. Year 5 had a fantastic time and expanded their scientific knowledge and skills through the awesome and engaging hands-on experiences.

With that in mind it has been pleasing to see students in Year 10 keen to sign up for the upcoming Service Week (Week 8), with a queue of students outside Student Reception on Monday morning this week. Additionally it was great to see our Year 7 students for 2023 complete their second orientation day at RJ last Thursday. The energy and enthusiasm displayed by the students was pleasing to see. Thank you to all the staff and student leaders who made both Orientation Days a great success.

The Class of 2022 and staff from RJ had a great evening last Friday as we gathered together at the Year 12 Formal. It was great to catch up with students, celebrating the completion of 13 years of schooling and sharing our best wishes and prayers for their future. It would be great to see the students keep in contact with the School, keeping their contact details up to date to ensure we can contact them in relation to future Alumni events.

One of the pleasing aspects of being part of the RJ Community is being able to observe students who see a need and volunteer their time and energy to fill in the gap. I have seen a number of circumstances already this term where students have made significant contributions to others by simply offering to help while not looking for acknowledgement or because they were asked. This has been seen in students offering assistance to a staff member to help carry bulky items through to offering to help serve lunch to students during the Year 7 Orientation Day. Their offers to help echo Matthew 6:3, where we are encouraged to help others in a way that is not seeking reward but "in secret", a selfless act of service God will acknowledge and reward. I hope this continues to be a characteristic of our community.

Parents and students are reminded to read all communications regarding the end of year events, ensuring that permission is given via Edumate when needed. If any questions arise please contact the school as soon as possible so students do not miss out on the events, such as the end of year Swim Day at Cables Aqua Park.

Mr Brad Maxwell 
Head of Secondary 

These awards were established in 2004 in honour of pioneering cardiac surgeon, Dr Victor Chang to celebrate young, gifted students, and aim to stimulate growth in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subject areas. The Victor Chang School Science Awards aim to foster and encourage an interest in science among secondary school students, and to promote careers in STEM as a viable and interesting career path. Samaah and Lillian were selected due to their commitment to Science and outstanding results in Year 11.

Miss Naomi Roediger

Secondary Science Teacher

‘What is a Shelfie?’ you may well ask. A shelfie is a photo of your bookcase, or a subset of it. Students are trying to identify their teachers by their shelfie selection. Please encourage your students to try their skills in Shelfie identification. 

‘RJ Reads’ is a Summer Reading program designed to help students stem their ‘summer reading loss’. Over the summer holidays students can suffer from a loss in reading skill. When they stop reading, students' reading proficiency declines, and they can lose up to two months of reading skills. This can compound over the years, leaving non-readers several years behind their reading peers. However, if students read over the summer, the reverse is true, and they can gain two months reading proficiency, advancing their skills and giving them a boost as they return to the new school year. 

This year students are completing posters to recommend the books they have enjoyed so that others can get some great ideas. The library will also be open from 5 December, for summer borrowing and students will be able to bring books home for the holidays.

Students should choose books that they think they will enjoy, and ones that advance their reading level. A rule of thumb in assessing a book is to look at the first page of a novel. If it has 4-5 words on it that are new to them, then it is at the right level. If it has more words on it that they don’t know, then it is too hard; and if they know all the words, it is too easy. Ultimately the main idea is to keep reading. So, if they are interested in a book let them go for it! 

Students should record their reading on a form – that will be emailed to them. In the new school year, English teachers will be following up and issuing certificates and tokens for those who participate by reading two or more books.

So, let’s read RJ!

Have a great summer!

Mrs Sally Morrow and Miss Christine Hindeleh
Secondary Teachers

The BBQ will be held on Friday of this week, 15 November and students in Secondary are encouraged to purchase their lunch at the BBQ.

Sausage sandwiches and Soft Drink Spiders can be ordered outside the hall till Wednesday recess, 13 November. Orders can only be made in cash this time.

Prices are:

$5.00     Combo – Sausage Sandwich and Spider 

$4.00     Sausage Sandwich – (beef, chicken or vegetarian)

$2.00     Spiders – (ice cream and soft drink - sold on the day)

Stewart Rowe 

Service Learning Co-ordinator

This year, Service Week will run from Monday 28 November till Thursday 1 December. At RJ, we are very keen to encourage the students to be involved in activities that meet the needs of other people, to go beyond what they would normally to, doing something for someone else with no thought of reward for themselves. We know that Jesus served us and God has blessed us with so much. This is an opportunity to be a blessing to others. 

There are a variety of different opportunities for the students to serve others and these activities are outlined in a letter that all Year 10 students received last week. If you have a son or daughter in Year 10, please sign the parent permission form and remind them to return all the forms to school as soon as possible but definitely by this Thursday, 17 November.

In general, students will come to School at the normal times and will leave for their different activities after Home Group. The students will return to school in time to catch their bus or be collected. However, there are several activities where students will need to be at school before 8.00am. Students will be informed of particular travel times when they receive their venues for the week.

If students are going outside the School, they will need to bring their own food and drink for the day. Students will wear full Sports Uniform for the activities. This includes correct shoes, socks and School hat. We are looking forward to a week filled with many opportunities for our students to serve others. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at School on 9677 2455 or by email – srowe@rjas.nsw.edu.au

It is one of the special programs that we are involved in each year, where students bring in goods to fill shoe boxes which are then distributed to some of the poorest children in countries overseas. Last year we sent over 205 shoe boxes overseas and would love to increase that number this year.

Over the past 4 weeks, students in Stage 4, 5 and 6 have been encouraged to contribute to the program by bringing in, or collecting items for two of the categories each week.   Special boxes and brochures have been sent home with students in Stage 4 and offered to Stage 5 and 6 students so that you can start collecting items from the list at the bottom of this note. The boxes are then distributed to children around the world. 

The process for collecting gifts to pack into a shoe box is as follows:

1. Choose whether your box will be for a boy or girl

2. Choose an age group 2-4, 5-9, 10-14

3. Fill the box with new gifts that fit into the following categories. We are asking that students bring in or collect one item from two categories each week. 

• While donations of whole boxes would be wonderful, you don’t have to fill a whole shoe box if that is not possible. Any donations of new items from the different categories would be greatly appreciated

We will be checking the boxes at School on Tuesday 22 November, so please return all boxes to school by Monday 21 November.

Along with buying goods to go into the shoebox, any donations towards the cost of distributing the boxes around the world would be gratefully received. Samaritan’s Purse have suggested that $10.00 would help greatly towards distributing one box to a child.

Thank you so much for being involved in this program that brings great joy to so many young people throughout the world.

Mr Stewart Rowe
Director of Christian Ministry/Service Learning (7-12)

This was a challenge for our students with all participating schools fielding competitive teams. Our girls side started the day with a tough, fast match against Regents Park Christian School. The ball moved from end to end quickly with both teams evenly poised. In the end, Regents Park Christian School won the game, though RJ was very competitive! The girls went on to play three more games where they improved through each match. In particular, their ability to transfer the ball across the court into likely scoring positions improved significantly through their four matches. 

The boys started their rounds against a strong Regents Park Christian School team. Though the boys showed a great deal of skill around the ring, the height advantage of the taller Regents Park Christian School side proved the difference. The boys then had a hard match against the eventual winners of their pool, Northern Beaches Christian School. Several players had great games and competed well against a fast opposition. Their hard work and persistence paid off in game three where improved shot accuracy at the ring helped them to defeat St George Christian School. With this momentum, the boys were able to back this up with a more physical and fast win over Hope Point Christian School in the final game for RJ!

CSSA Stage 2 Basketball Gala Day

Our Stage 2 team competes next Monday at their basketball gala day. There will be one more training session this Wednesday afternoon.

Mr Gavin Mitchell
Primary Sports Leader