School Newsletter

Recently, in my Bible reading, I have found myself parked in the book of Philippians. I have enjoyed sitting and reading through the entire letter repeatedly and reflecting on so many rich passages. You may have heard of the practice of Lectio Divina, where you read God’s word slowly and thoughtfully, allowing the true significance of the message to resonate with you.

Whilst there are so many rich passages in the book of Philippians (Chapter 2 is especially well known), I was particularly enamoured with Philippians 4:8. I expect many of us will be familiar with the words; "Finally, brothers and sisters, 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."

The Netflix program Adolescence has been getting a lot of media attention recently. If you haven’t watched it yet, I would recommend it to you. It certainly creates a lot of questions regarding teenage boys and the influences they are under, particularly online. It also raises issues around what good parenting looks like in the digital age. These are not easy topics to navigate. The dangers of toxic masculinity are being highlighted in a range of ways, and there is growing evidence of the impact this influence is having.

I was challenged in helpful ways to reflect upon how we can help our teenagers be more discerning about what they listen to, read, watch, and are influenced by. At the same time, I have recently been reminded, and perhaps convicted, that this is not just a teenage issue.

Even though I am not on social media and would struggle to name more than one influencer, I have been reminded that we all expose ourselves to things that will either encourage us and point us towards Jesus or entice us into thinking about or aspiring towards things that are not going to be helpful. The music we listen to, the TV shows and movies we watch, and perhaps, the online celebrities we embrace, will all impact how we think. Whether they are excellent or praiseworthy may be a subjective issue. But I think we all have the wisdom and understanding to acknowledge whether they are helpful or not.

The sheer magnitude of media coming at us makes this a constant challenge – and a great challenge for our young people. What a blessing we have a Heavenly Father who we can ask for help, and He promises He will provide the Holy Spirit. As Romans 12:2 reminds us, "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is - His good, pleasing and perfect will."

God bless,

• Junior School Grandparents' Morning - (9:30am) Friday 16th May (Week 3)
• Understanding Faith Course (Night 1) - Wednesday 21st May (Week 4)
• Winter Uniform Change - Monday 26th May (Week 5)
• Understanding Faith Course (Night 2) - Wednesday 28th May (Week 5)
• K-12 Chapel - Friday 30th May (Week 5)
• Understanding Faith Course (Night 3) - Wednesday 4th June (Week 6)
• King's Birthday Public Holiday - Monday 9th June (Week 7)
• Tribes & Tongues Event - Wednesday 11th June (Week 7)
• Understanding Faith Course (Night 4) - Wednesday 11th June (Week 7)
• School Photo Day - Thursday 12th June (Week 7)
• Aladdin JR. Performances - Tuesday 1st, Wednesday 2nd and Thursday 3rd July (Week 10)
• Junior School Celebration Assembly - 9am, Friday 4th July (Week 10)
• Secondary School Celebration Assembly - 12pm, Friday 4th July (Week 10)
• Last Day of Term 2 - Friday 4th July (Week 10)

REMINDER - EARLY DEPARTURE PROCEDURE

As indicated in our School Information Handbook, any parent/carer needing to sign their child out of school early must come to the office to sign them out at our Kiosk and then collect the student from the classroom, providing the office slip to the class teacher. If you are heading to an appointment, please allow enough time to do this.

Due to the demands within a busy school environment, it is not appropriate to ask our office staff to collect your child for you, or to expect that an email to the teacher with little notice will be received in time.

If you would like your child to meet you at the office, you will be required to:

• Write a note/email to the class teacher and school office (Junior School)
• Write a note/email to the school office (Secondary School)

It will then be the student's responsibility to inform their teacher (at the required time) of their early departure, prior to coming to the office to meet you.

Where possible, please avoid booking appointments during school hours to ensure your student is not missing out on valuable learning time.

Thank you for your understanding and support in this matter.

EDSMART NOW ON THE WCCS APP

We are excited to let you know that you will now be able to access your EdSmart communication via our School App. You will be able to read, respond to and quickly find Broadcasts and Permission Slips.

Our School App is an excellent place to find WCCS resources, staff email addresses, our calendar, Newsletter and important updates. We hope this extra feature will be helpful for your family.

ISABELLE B - KOKODA TRACK EXPERIENCE

One of our Year 12 students, Isabelle B, recently had the incredible experience of walking the Kokoda Track. She shared her journey at our ANZAC Assembly, and you can read more about her experience here.

JUNIOR SCHOOL GRANDPARENTS' MORNING

WINTER UNIFORM CHANGEOVER

Our winter uniform changeover date is Monday 26th May (Week 5). All students must be wearing their full winter uniform from this date.
For details on our uniform policy, please refer to the 2025 School Information Handbook.

The Alinta Uniform Shop's opening hours during school terms are as follows:
• Mondays: 8-10am
• Wednesdays: 2-4pm
• Thursdays: 8-10am

To make a fitting appointment with the Uniform Shop, please email or phone the Uniform Shop (wyongchristian@alinta.com.au or 0413 353 787).

SCHOOL PHOTO DAY

School Photo Day will be held on Thursday 12th June (Week 7, Term 2). Families have received an email with information about ordering school photos.

EVERY TRIBE AND TONGUE EVENT

On Wednesday 11th June (Week 7, Term 2), we will be celebrating our diversity and uniqueness by gathering as a whole community. We are all part of God’s Big Family! The vision for this day, as part of our Wellbeing Week, is to provide an opportunity for students to interact with many people, from many cultures, and to learn more about their uniqueness and value. The inspiration for the name comes from Revelation 7:9 - a picture of God's children uniting in heaven.

Are you interested in setting up a ‘Country Stall’, presenting cultural themes from your country of origin? This could include artwork, music, costumes, food samples etc. You may even be keen to set up a game or share a performance on the day.

If you are interested in setting up a ‘Country Stall’, putting on a cultural performance, running a game or have another brilliant culturally aware idea, then please email Mrs Katie Worboys before Friday 16th May (Week 3). Please include your family name, country, food and/or the activity you would like to share with the students on the day; and any other needs such as power points and tables for your stall.

Thank you so much for bringing your story so that we all might grow from sharing together in our beautiful school community.

STAFF BABY ANNOUNCEMENT

Congratulations to Mrs Jade Dobson and her husband, Chris, on the arrival of their baby girl, Hayley Grace. A baby sister for big brother, Judah. Hayley was born on Monday 5th May 5:30am, weighing 3kg on the dot.
Please keep them in your prayers as they settle into being a family of four.

JUNIOR SCHOOL AUSKICK AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAM

ELEVATE EDUCATION WEBINARS

Live Parent Webinar: How You Can Help Your Child Prepare for Exams

Wednesday 21st May 6:30-7:30pm (AEST)

Click here to register for free

Here’s what Elevate will be covering on the night:

✅ Prioritise your child’s high-impact work to maximise marks

✅ Improve your child’s time management to avoid last-minute preparation

✅ Help your child study effectively using past papers

HEADSPACE GROUPS

• Give thanks for the Secondary School Athletics Carnival, that it was a fun day with beautiful weather.
• Give thanks for the beautiful Mother's Day breakfast we held with our community.
• Pray for some fine weather so our ovals can be used again at break times for our students.
• Pray for our students in Years 11 and 12, as they work through their assessments.

I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the many staff who made it possible for me to take some Long Service Leave during the second half of Term 1. In particular, I want to acknowledge Mrs Worboys and Mr Kennedy, who stepped into additional responsibilities during this time. Their leadership and dedication in overseeing the school ensured continuity and excellence in my absence.

NEW INITIATIVES AT WCCS

As part of our commitment to continuous improvement and the fulfilment of our school’s Vision and Mission, we are excited to introduce several new roles in 2025. These positions, with a K–12 focus, aim to support our ongoing growth and professional learning across key areas:

• Instructional Coaches: Mrs Smithers, Mrs Livette-Vial, and Mrs Gierhart (Secondary School)
• ICT Instructional Coaches: Mr Crumbley and Mr Hellyer
• School Values Integrator: Mr Newman

Each term, these staff members meet with our Senior Leadership Team to share updates, plans, and insights, ensuring their work is aligned with whole-school priorities.

We look forward to sharing more about the impact of these roles throughout the year as they contribute to equipping young people to be responsible and responsive disciples of Jesus Christ.

LIVING OUT OUR VALUES - SERVICE

We place high importance on all of our core Values, and one of the more practical expressions of these is service. Mr Newman, in his role as School Values Integrator, has been working with staff and community partners to create meaningful service opportunities for our students and staff. We hope, in future, to also extend this to our wider school community, including parents and carers.

Highlights from Term 1 include:

• Year 11 LIFE students serving at The Salvation Army Equine Connections, Dooralong.
• Years 7–10 Merge students supporting the Oasis Centre, Wyong, through various activities.
• Student involvement in Love Lanes Festival and local ANZAC Services.

What’s coming up:

• Monthly Friday night meal service at Coast Shelter, Gosford (staff and students), planned to start in Term 3.
• Student visits and performances at Warnervale Gardens Aged Care Facility.
• A potential student service trip to Moree, in partnership with Moree Christian School and local church organisations. Once this is confirmed, we will share more in late Term 2.

As a Christian school, we believe service is not just an activity but a vital part of discipleship, demonstrating Christ’s love through our actions and building character through compassion and connection.

2025/26 PREFECTS

During Term 2, Year 11 students will be encouraged to apply to be our new Prefects for 2025/26. Students will have to go through a thorough application process that includes answering questions on an application form, obtaining references, being interviewed by a panel of staff, and public speaking to Secondary students. Please pray for our students and the selection panel in appointing the right students for these important roles.

God bless,

As promised in the last newsletter, here is a bit of a follow-up to our tricky dinosaurs in the Bible question.

Many kids have followed up with a question about Adam and Eve and the dinosaurs (did they coexist?) since these first humans get a mention in Genesis Chapter 2, after the Creation Story in Genesis Chapter 1.

So there are a couple of things worth mentioning about how we read those first 11 chapters of Genesis, which takes us through Noah’s story too. In the ancient world, before we started to write our stories down, people told stories around the campfire. These stories were retold from generation to generation and would not change. As these oral cultures shared stories, some would be put to music and others would be in a question-and-answer format. Still others would be attached to sacred events. These stories were eventually collected together and then written down. Within Jewish history, it is widely believed that Moses put down in writing those first stories of creation we read in Genesis. What is fascinating is that scholars believe the 6 day story of creation and the Adam and Eve story of creation come from two quite separate traditions within Jewish history.

But why would that be meaningful?

Well, the first story (in Chapter 1) is on a cosmological level. It’s massive, and some other cultures' accounts of how the world was created (from the West Asia, North Africa regions) have this cosmic sense to them. In a way, they can feel almost impersonal, as though God is up there and humans are down here. The beauty of having this second Creation Story (about how Adam and Eve were created) is that it is deeply intimate. The Adam and Eve story speaks of a God who intimately knows His creation, of which humans are designed to be in perfect relationship with God as Creator. These humans are known to God by name, and He speaks directly with them. It is a beautiful picture that becomes fractured by sin and the consequences unfold quickly across those next few chapters until we get to the great flood and Noah. And just as we see God’s rescue plan with Noah take place, we again witness God seeking relationship with His people, and the rest of the Bible points to His ultimate rescue story through His son Jesus. God, unlike other ancient gods, is a self-revealing God who desires a personal relationship with each of us. So whether Adam and Eve hung out with dinosaurs or not is actually irrelevant.

Next fortnight we will look at something completely different. I hear that some Year 6 students may have some more questions for me. Hope that this Q and A has helped today.

God bless,

MATHEMATICS COMPETITIONS

Over the past two weeks, our Mathematics Extension students have enjoyed competing in the Bebras and Maths Olympiad competitions. It is such a delight to hear thoughtful “maths talk” fill the room for the Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge and to see the great determination and focus of our students as they complete the 5 challenging questions of the Olympiad papers.

WRITING COMPETITIONS

Last week, I submitted 15 wonderfully creative stories to the Ripple Effect Writing Competition. I look forward to submitting more entries to the What Matters Writing Competition this week. Our talented and enthusiastic Years 3-6 writers are loving the challenges of these writing opportunities!

SCIENCE FAIR

Seventeen young scientists in Years 2-6 have decided to take on the challenge of Science Fair 2025. These enquiring minds started with an area of interest (gliders, electromagnets, paper planes, cars, light refraction, bubble mixture, plants, electric circuits, etc.), then narrowed down their scientific question, completed their research, developed their hypothesis and have now outlined their experiment – what a great start to an exciting scientific adventure!

DEBATING

The debating season has begun! This year, we are competing in both the Australian National Virtual Debating Competition and the Hunter and Central Coast Debating Competition. Each Tuesday, the wonderful Mrs Danielle Yates joins me to train our large number of enthusiastic Years 5 and 6 debaters, and each Thursday our Years 7-9 debaters meet for training. We wish our Year 7 debaters all the best for their very first debate on Monday of Week 3.

ICAS

We are looking forward to once more offering our students the opportunity to further develop their higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills through ICAS, a highly acclaimed online academic competition. Every student who participates is celebrated and recognised with a printed certificate in each subject area, and a results report to track their development each year. Top performers are eligible for one of the highly coveted ICAS medals.

The dates of this year’s competitions are as follows:

• ICAS Digital Technologies Competition: Monday 4th - Friday 8th August (Years 2-7)
• ICAS Writing Competition: Monday 4th - Friday 8th August (Years 3-12)
• ICAS English Competition: Monday 11th - Friday 15th August (Years 2-12)
• ICAS Spelling Competition: Monday 18th - Friday 22nd August (Years 2-12)
• ICAS Science Competition: Monday 18th - Friday 22nd August (Years 2-12)
• ICAS Maths Competition: Monday 25th - Friday 29th August (Years 2-12)

  If you wish for your child to participate in ICAS this year, please complete the following steps:

• Read about ICAS subjects and prices here
• Visit the Parent Portal to sign up for the chosen subject areas here
• If needed, our school's access code is – YUV807
• Enter your child’s details, select the subject areas your child would like to participate in, and then proceed to payment.  
• The last day to sign up will be Friday 25th July 2025

Mrs Anne Livette-Vial | High Potential & Enrichment Teacher

MOTHER'S DAY BREAKFAST AND STALL

Last week, we were delighted to celebrate the wonderful mums and mother figures in our school community. Our Mother’s Day Breakfast was a beautiful morning of connection, conversation, and appreciation. It was lovely to see so many families gathered together, enjoying breakfast and coffee.

Our Junior School Mother’s Day Stall was also a big hit! Students had a great time selecting thoughtful gifts to surprise their mums, and their excitement was contagious.

A big thank you to Mrs Lynda Lucas and our amazing staff, students and volunteers who helped make these events so special. We are grateful for the opportunity to honour the incredible women in our community.

JS CROSS COUNTRY AND ATHLETICS CARNIVALS

Last term, Junior School students showcased their athletic talents and endurance in two exciting events.

The Athletics Carnival was held at Mingara on Thursday 3rd April. Students from Years 2-6 enjoyed a day of running, jumping, and throwing, competing with enthusiasm and sportsmanship. The Kindergarten and Year 1 students also participated in events such as the 70m sprint, relays, and field events. Some of the students achieved outstanding results, breaking school records.

A week later, on Thursday 10th April, the Cross Country Carnival took place. This K-12 event was combined with our Community Picnic, creating a wonderful atmosphere of celebration and community. Students demonstrated their long-distance running abilities, with the 8/9 Years students leading the way, followed by all other ages, and concluding with the Kindergarten and Year 1 fun-run. Participants ran with smiles, and all finishers were rewarded with an ice block.

Both events were a testament to the students' dedication and the strong support from teachers, staff, families and the school community.

Age champions for both events will be announced and presented with medals/trophies at a Primary Assembly in the coming weeks.

CSSA TOUCH FOOTBALL TRIALS

On Wednesday 30th April, two of our students, Noah M and Ryder K, travelled to Penrith to participate in the CSSA Primary Boys Touch Football selection trials. With 72 students vying for a place in the representative team, it was a fantastic opportunity for both boys to test their skills in a competitive environment.

Ryder made the most of the experience, enjoying the day and developing new skills along the way. Noah stood out among the crowd and was honoured as the first player selected for the final team - an incredible achievement!

Well done to both boys for their positive attitude and willingness to step up to the challenge. We’re proud of your efforts!

Mr Rob Higgins | Junior School Sport Coordinator

SS CROSS COUNTRY

Last term’s Cross Country Carnival was a great success, bringing together students and staff for a day of fitness, competition, and community. The competition was strong, with students giving their best effort across all year levels, including some incredible determination from our staff joining in the fun!

A highlight for many was the Colour Run, which added an element of novelty and excitement. It was truly a great way to conclude our Carnival. It was great to see so many students getting involved and enjoying themselves, cheering on others, and giving their best.

I’m looking forward to witnessing our students who have qualified to represent WCCS at the CSSA State Cross Country in Week 5 (more details to follow). A big thank you to our Secondary staff, Grounds Team, and Admin Team for their work in the lead-up and on the day. Their continued support doesn’t go unnoticed, making the day truly enjoyable for all.

CIS SWIMMING

In Week 1, a few of our Secondary students individually represented WCCS and Hunter Christian Zone Sport (HCZS) at the annual CIS (Combined Independent Schools) Swimming Carnival in Sydney. The Carnival was held at the amazing Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre. Isabelle B (Year 12), Mathias W (Year 8) and Arlya R (Year 7) gave it their all and represented well. This is an incredible opportunity and achievement to compete at this level. We want to acknowledge their sustained efforts as they prepared and trained in the lead up to this event. Their performances in the pool last week at CIS were excellent. Congratulations!

SS ATHLETICS CARNIVAL

Our Secondary School Athletics Carnival was held in Week 2, with perfect weather conditions, making for a great day of racing and participation. Students competed across a full schedule of events, with many also taking part in novelty activities that added some fun to the day.

It was great to see staff getting involved and parents and community members showing their support — their presence made a big difference and was appreciated by all. A big thank you and acknowledgement to all our wonderful students who made the day special by getting involved and having a go, representing their sporting House.

A special thank you goes to our Grounds Team, Secondary teachers, Learning Enrichment Team, and Admin Team for their efforts in organising and running the Carnival. The smooth running of the day was a direct result of their teamwork and planning. Results can be found on the Secondary School Sport page on Canvas for students to view. Zone Athletics will be held early in Term 3. More details about this will be sent to families.

House Results:

Congratulations to Cuthbert for a significant comeback win down the stretch from Liddell to take the 2025 Athletics Carnival victory!

• 1st Cuthbert - 1,206 points
• 2nd Liddell - 1,163 points
• 3rd Ashe - 1,121 points
• 4th Bannister – 721 points

Record Breakers

The day also saw a series of records broken. Congratulations to the following students in their events.

12 Year Girls

• 100m - Morgan R 14.11
• 200m - Morgan R 29.61
• High Jump - Morgan R 1.24m (equalled the record)
• 800m - Arlya R 2.49.64

12 Year Boys

• 100m - Marlo E 13.55

13 Year Boys

• 100m - Tom F 12.61
• 200m - Tom F 26.92
• Long Jump – Tom F 5.18m

14 Years Boys

• 100m - Orlando G 12.05
• 200m - Orlando G 25.14
• 800m - Orlando G 2.19.27

18 Year Boys

• 200m - Micah B 23.37
• 800m - Micah B 2.05.42
• Senior Boys - 1500m Micah B 4.33.00

Relays

• Junior Girls - Liddell 1.00.08
• Junior Boys - Bannister 54.02

Mr Nathan Irvine | Secondary School Sport Coordinator