BLESSED - Millennium

Greenacre Baptist Christian
Community School Newsletter
TERM 2 WEEK 8 TUESDAY, 12 JUNE 2012
BLESSED
As many of you would be aware, GBCCS now has waiting lists for Kindergarten for the next two years.
Even 2015 is filling up quite quickly as younger siblings consume a large number of places. We have even
had several enquiries for Year 7 in 2013 that will help fill the places of those who are leaving to join
older siblings at other schools. Some of those have turned into positive enrolments!
Over the years, GBCCS hasn’t advertised the school anywhere other than the broader Christian School
information books or websites or similar generic independent school sites. Enrolments tend to come
from extended family, church connections or other “word of mouth” situations. We are very grateful for
the positive words that are spoken about GBCCS and endeavour to live up to expectations. Our teachers
and general staff are not perfect and in recent times, I have received a range of feedback on issues.
There are ways in which we can improve and we will try to do so! Much of the feedback has resulted in
positive comments and we do feel richly blessed by the graciousness and the positive community in
which we serve.
After many years in maintenance mode, the school is on the verge of great growth. It is important we
keep our focus on the things that make GBCCS such a vibrant community. We don’t want the positive
focus of the secondary school to outshine what happens in K-6. We are therefore very conscious that, as
we look to employ two new primary teachers in 2013, we seek the best possible people who will continue
the good work undertaken by Mr Shume and Mrs McCarron in the upper primary this year. One of
the new teachers will probably teach in the K-2 area so that we have “GBCCS experience” in the upper
primary.
Please pray for the GBCCS board as we seek interest from prospective teachers for the two K-6 positions
and the new part-time Secondary Music teacher position as well as for our continuing quest for someone
to fill the government-funded Chaplain position.
God bless
Ken McCarron
Parents are reminded that, under new government legislation, any families going on extended holidays
must given written notice to the principal. In return the NSW Board of Studies requires principals
to give permission for such trips. There are not many cases where a family holiday is likely to
be refused!
NB: Thursday, 28th June 2012 is a pupil free day so that Parent/Teacher Interviews
could be conducted throughout the day. CHILDREN WILL NOT BE ATTENDING
SCHOOL THAT DAY!
Forms will be forwarded home soon with available time slots. Parents will be notified of their
interview time in the beginning of week 10.

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PRAYER POINTS
1. Pray for Year 3 and Mrs Datta. Please pray for Alana Greige who has had a series of sinus
operations and has been recovering slowly from much discomfort.
2. Praise God for the funding for a chaplain for two days per week. Pray that this ministry will be
a blessing to the whole school community. Pray that the right person will be appointed to this
position and the other ones being advertised.
3. Pray for the board and staff as we prepare for secondary schooling in 2013 and look to main
taining what we have across K-6.
THANK YOU
A big thank you to Mr Peter Chan who took photos of our Athletics Carnival. You can see
some of the wonderful photos of the day on our display board under the awning.
THINGS HAPPENING AT SCHOOL
Assembly: The last assembly of term will be held this week (14 th June) starting at 2:20pm, featuring Year
5 (main item). There will also some art work displayed by Year 2 and some of our pianists, drummers
and singers will perform. All families are welcome!
Cross Country: The CSSA State Cross Country was unfortunately run the day after our athletics carnival
(which we have booked well in advance) and we didn’t expect our students would do as well as usual.
However, there were still some great results:
Kelly Wilson 52 nd (11 year girls)
Sabrina Kemala 88 th (9 year girls)
Rachel Giles 93 rd (12 year girls)
Matthew Zeinoun 94 th (11 year boys)
Isaak De Luca 99 th (10 year boys)
Intra-school Gala Days: Last week, Years 3-6 enjoyed a morning of relaxed and friendly inter-House
competition in soccer and netball. Booth House won the netball with Liddell coming second. In the soccer,
Anthony Dalleh showed great leadership in igniting Court House to two wins after a draw in their
first game while Nikola Vucetic-Cafritza also demonstrated good leadership for Booth which finished
second after a win, a draw and a loss in their three matches.
Attendance in May: Once again this year, we have monitored student attendance during May as a federal
government requirement. The attendance figure appears on the “MySchool” website. This year our
boys were outstanding with a 97.9% attendance across the school. Girls had an attendance rate of
95.8%. Year 4 was the best attended class with only eight absences across the month including just one
day from the boys! The next best class was Year 1 followed by Year 2 and Year 5.
Debating: On Friday, the debating team hosted Northcross Christian School’s second team on the topic
“Libraries are Obsolete”. Once again the debaters performed well but were just beaten by one point.

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Public Speaking Competition: Well done to all finalists in the Public Speaking competition. What an effort,
to get up and speak in front of the whole school. Final place getters and finalists are to be congratulated!
Finalists were:
Kindergarten: Joel Tilaye (1 st ), Amy Sorial (2 nd ), Fine Haumono (3 rd ), Lachlan Tang and Gabrielle Timothy-
Samy
Years 1 and 2: Jennifer Pilarinos (1 st ), Mekayla Ibrahim (2 nd ), Phoebe Tilaye (3 rd ), Jeffrey Lin, Boram Woo,
Faith Son, Viliami Haumono, Sharon Choi, Shekinah Lowe, Joanne Kay and Jordan Jang.
Years 3 and 4: Madeline Curtis (1 st ), Victoria Truong (2 nd ), Lara Saad (3 rd ), Tony Hall, Justin Stojanovski,
Rachel Glossop, Rebekah Thompson and Mary Lee
Years 5 and 6: Jeannie Back (1 st ), Kayla Saad (2 nd ), Lisa Soliman (3 rd ), Jodie Sia, Matthew Zeinoun, Gianna
Bernardo and Caitlin Rinaldi,
SCHOOL PHOTOS
If parents would like to order Year 6 candid and the Year 6 Leaders photos, please see
Ruth. We have order forms and samples of the photos in the office.
SECONDARY FOCUS
•Small School Focus: We live in a world where we often see things from the “Bigger is Better” viewpoint.
Sometimes, larger businesses, including churches and schools provide great opportunities for those that
are involved. However, there is a great advantage in a small secondary school: it is very difficult for students
to become lost in the system and that can be an issue in even the best of big schools, including selective
and major independent schools. In a small school, the teachers have such a great involvement
with the students and it’s rare for that involvement not to translate into a greater interest in their wellbeing
and academic progress. I believe that the students at my previous school “punched above their
weight” to a large degree and this was mainly due to great teachers who were vitally interested in their
classes. The pioneer years of a school also attract great interest and input. The first few years at GBCCS
will certainly not be lacking attention on their progress and general well-being!
* Year 7 Arts: There are two components of this subject at Stage 4 (Years 7 and 8):
Visual Arts and Music. Mr Shume will be teaching Visual Arts although it is the
school’s intention to introduce a specialist to this position by 2014 or 2015. We are
fortunate that we already have a pottery kiln and the new multi-purpose room will
easily provide for the requirements of the syllabus. We are intending to introduce a
part-time music teacher from next year. We see Music as an extremely important
component of what makes a Christian School and we are blessed to have some wonderful
Music people within our school community already.

TERM 2 DATES
Major Events of Term 2 2012
Week 8
Monday 11 June - Queen's Birthday public holiday
Wednesday 13 June - Year 3/4 Maritime Museum Excursion
Thursday 14 June - Year 5 Assembly
Week 9
Monday 18 June - ICAS Writing competition
Tuesday 19 June - ICAS Spelling competition
Wednesday 20 June - Kindergarten & Year 6 Zoo excursion
Thursday 21 June - Soccer/Netball gala day at Kellyville
Week 10
Monday 25 to Wednesday 27 June - Year 5 & 6 Canberra trip
Thursday 28 June - Parent/teacher interviews
Friday 29 June - Last day of term (Mufti Day)
Year 1 & 2 Swap Day
Major Events for Term 3, 2012
TERM 3 STARTS ON MONDAY 23RD JULY 2012
Week 2 Tuesday 31 July - ICAS English competition
Thursday 2 August - Zone Athletics Carnival
Year 1 Assembly
Week 4 Tuesday 14 August - ICAS Mathematics Competition
Wednesday 15 August - Mini Olympics
Thursday 16 August - Year 4 Assembly
Week 5 Monday 20 August - Metropolitan Cup Finals
Thursday 23 August - CSSA State Athletics
- World of Maths visit
Week 6 Thursday 30 August - Poetry Reading Assembly
Week 8 Thursday 13 September - Year 3 Assembly
Week 9 Monday 17 September - First Orientation day (Kindergarten 2013)
Wednesday 19 September - Kindergarten Transport excursion
Friday 21 September - Last day of term (Mufti Day)
Greenacre Baptist Christian Comunity School
38-40 Shellcote Rd, Greenacre NSW 2190
Phone: 9642 3512
Fax: 9642 6137
Email: office@gbccs.nsw.edu.au
Website: www.gbccs.nsw.edu.au