School Newsletter

Last week I had the pleasure of sharing a meal with our latest group of parents who are completing our Understanding Faith Course. Many of you will know that for families who are joining our community for the first time and have not been involved in a church community and the Christian faith, we partner with Wyong Baptist Church to run a four week course on what Christianity is about. It’s our way of being open and transparent about who we are and what we are committed to.

Last week, I had a great conversation at one of the tables with a couple of fathers. One asked me what I felt was the reason people don’t think more about important issues of faith. I thought about it for a moment and then offered two reflections – comfort and distraction. I suggested to him that in our western lives, particularly here in Australia, generally speaking we live comfortable lives. We are not fearful of war being on our doorstep, we have food to eat, friends around us, access to health care, financial independence or social security to help - all in all, a rather comfortable life. In that context, there is a tendency to think, "I don’t need God, I’ve actually got this all sorted myself." You may have heard the quote largely attributed to the 13th century poet Rumi: "When the world brings you to your knees, you're in the perfect position to pray." Perhaps for many in our times it reads more like “When life’s going well, prayer is the last thing on my mind.”

Similarly, I wonder whether distraction is another powerful influence that limits us from thinking deeply and critically about things of eternal significance. Perhaps that is even more the case for our young people. Data has existed for some time that says the majority of Christians come to faith before they become adults. Smartphones, social media and online algorithms are working tirelessly to prevent our adolescents from stopping and thinking through important questions like, what do I believe? Who do I want to become? What is truly trustworthy?

There is a fantastic song called Death Row, written by Thomas Rett about an experience he had as a country singer. He went to a prison in Nashville and performed for prisoners on death row. As part of his time there, he also told them about the salvation that exists in Jesus. The song itself depicts a man coming to faith and then a week later, his sentence was fulfilled. It occurred to me why the inmates may have been more open to the message of Jesus. They had little comfort in the prison and little distraction from their imminent death, but for at least one inmate, he now gets to spend eternity with our Lord.

It's not my desire to end up in prison, but I do hope that I can remind myself of the words the Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:18, ‘So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.’

God bless,

• Understanding Faith Course (Night 2) - Wednesday 12th November, 7pm for prospective families (Week 5)

• Year 12 Formal - Thursday 13th November (Week 5)

• Understanding Faith Course (Night 3) - Wednesday 19th November, 7pm for prospective families (Week 6)
• K-12 Orientation Day - Thursday 20th November (Week 6)
• Evening of Eminence - Tuesday 25th November (Week 7)
• Private Music Tuition Recital - Wednesday 26th November, 4-5.30pm (Week 7)
• Understanding Faith Course (Night 4) - Wednesday 26th November, 7pm for prospective families (Week 7)
• Junior School Grandparents' Morning - Friday 28th November, 9:30am (Week 7)
• WCCS Christmas Fest - Tuesday 2nd December, 4:30-6:30pm (Week 8)
• Junior School Carols Evening - Tuesday 2nd December, 6:30pm (Week 8)
• Year 6 Graduation Evening - Thursday 4th December (Week 8)
• Kindergarten Graduation - Tuesday 9th December (Week 9)
• Junior School Celebration Assembly - Wednesday 10th December, 9am (Week 9)
• Secondary School Celebration Assembly - Wednesday 10th December, 12pm (Week 9)
• Last Day Term 4 - Thursday 11th December (Week 9)
• K-12 Presentation Evening - Thursday 11th December, 7pm (Week 9)

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

We have a number of employment opportunities within our school community.

• Director of ICT
• Head of Secondary School - Teaching & Learning
• School Counsellor
• Student Learning Support Officer (SLSO)

If you, or someone you know, would be interested in partnering with us to equip young people to be responsible and responsive disciples, we would love to hear from you.

CHRISTMAS FEST

WOOSH VACATION CARE - DECEMBER 2025

Please click here to view the WOOSH Vacation Care program for December. The January program will be available at a later date.

SECONDARY SCHOOL SWAPTOBER

WCCS is partnering with Baptist World Aid this November to bring our Secondary School its first ever Swaptober event. On Thursday 27th November, after Chapel, Secondary students who wish to participate in a mass clothes swap will be able to do so.

Baptist World Aid are aiming to educate our students about the negative effects of Fast Fashion. Our Swaptober event is a way that our students can get involved in fighting Fast Fashion.

Here’s how it works. Over the next month, students can put aside 3-5 items of clean clothing that they no longer want. They then bring these to school in Week 7 (Monday 24th to Wednesday 26th November) where they can be sorted, ready for the Swaptober event. For each item of clothing brought in, the student receives purchase tokens. These tokens are then exchanged at the clothes swap after Chapel on Thursday 27th November. Those involved will essentially be getting new clothes without Fast Fashion being rewarded. Items to donate include:

• T-shirts, shirts, blouses etc.
• Shorts, skirts, pants, jeans etc.
• Hoodies, jumpers, jackets etc.
• Shoes, sandals etc.

So, start thinking about some clean items of clothing you might normally give to an op-shop and save them for Swaptober. Stay tuned for more info next newsletter. You can also donate to Baptist World Aid via our school’s personalised link if you would like to assist in their work. Click here to donate.

Thanks for getting involved.

Rev Matt Shorten | School Chaplain

LEGACY 2025 SCHOLARSHIPS

• We give thanks that the HSC has come to an end and for the efforts of our students, exam supervisors and teachers.
• We give thanks for our Years K-2 Swim Scheme being fun and helping our young ones stay safe in the water.
• We pray that on completion of our new buildings, our students and staff will have a smooth transition in to them.
• We pray that our teachers will be energised as they write reports and reflect on the year that has been.

Greetings friends of Junior School.

Things are certainly going ahead at full speed this term. Not unlike our new access to the playground via our veranda slides. The kids are loving our new slides almost as much as the teachers are. For us oldies, the slides are so much easier on the knees than the stairs, time efficient too.

We are already in the final week of Swim Scheme and we are so happy that our infants students are swim safe as we head into the summer months.

Thanks so much to the wonderfully generous parents and grandparents who have volunteered to drive our swimming bus, especially those legends who are on the road when the temperature soars. Praise God for air-con!

2026 JS TEACHERS

We are pretty certain that the 2026 Junior School teacher roster is the worst kept secret in our community, but we have heard some interesting whispers. So let’s set the record straight, God willing. This is the star-studded lineup for 2026:

2026 ORIENTATION DAY

In Week 6, we have our annual Orientation Day, where all of our students get to experience their new classrooms and teachers (where possible). Year 6 will be evicted for the day as our five classes of 2026 Kindergarten students take over the Northeastern corner of B-block. It will be a veritable Kindy invasion.

We are excited that the new 2026 Year 6 rooms will be open, even if not fully functional with IT, for our current Year 5 students to experience. We’re pretty sure that Caesar will want to go and see what has been done to his play area. We will be relocating our wonderful Bible timeline. Can you guess where it is going to be displayed?

UNIFORM

We appreciate your support in keeping our uniform and jewellery standards high. We are starting to see more jewellery and dangly earrings on our girls and some of the boys’ hair length is starting to grow beyond their collars. Please help us avoid having those awkward conversations with the kids and yourselves by keeping an eye on these areas.

NEW SLIDES

JUNIOR SCHOOL SING-SATIONAL CHOIR

Our Junior School Choir recently participated in a combined Christian Schools Choral event at Charlton Christian College. Here is a summary of the day written by Alannah W and Maya F in Year 5:

"We enjoyed the Sing-sational choir day because we were with our friends and we all had fun. We got to meet some other kids and teachers from other schools. We liked the songs that the other schools performed. We got to reunite with our old friends and teachers. At the end of the day, we all learnt a song with all the other choirs and sung it together in a round. We were amazed at how well the other schools performed. It wasn’t a competition, it was just a day where we could perform, have fun and get feedback."

God bless.

Hello to all our wonderful Secondary families.

Throughout the past two weeks, there have been many highlights, including reaching the completion of the HSC examinations, excursions, and focused teaching in our classrooms. With more year groups having completed their formal examinations and assessments, our wonderful teaching staff are busily marking assessments and writing reports to reflect the progress your children have made throughout the semester. We would like to congratulate all our students for their commitment to learning throughout the recent examination period. Many of you have shown great dedication in preparing thoroughly, studying hard, and applying yourselves with focus and determination.

Weeks 5 and 6 are filled with adventure! We have a range of excursions taking place over the next two weeks for students - PDHPE, Modern History, Marine Studies, Engineering, English and SLR. Later this week, Year 10 will be participating in a Your Choicez incursion focusing on respectful relationships. At long last, after studying hard for their HSC Exams, our outgoing Year 12 students will finally have the opportunity to let their hair down at their formal on Thursday evening!

As we move into a different stage of the term, we encourage our students to focus on maintaining positive habits to assist in their learning. These include:

• Arriving to school and classes on time.
• Coming to classes prepared with a drink bottle, their materials, and a charged device.
• Wearing all required elements of the WCCS uniform, including appropriate footwear and leaving other personal items at home (e.g. jewellery).
• Being focused in class and ready for learning.

As we approach the end of the school year, it’s a wonderful time to reflect on how we can continue to live out our school values of excellence, compassion, service, respect, and integrity in all that we do. Let’s finish strong by giving our best effort in our studies, showing kindness to others, serving with a generous heart, and treating everyone with dignity and understanding. As we do, let’s remember the words of Colossians 3:23: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord.” By living out these values, we not only end the year well but also shine as a community who love and care for others and their learning. We look forward to not only continuing with quality teaching and learning in the classroom, but also enjoying the many events on our school calendar as we prepare to celebrate the Christmas season together.

Blessings,

Over the last few weeks, I have been visiting Year 6 on a Monday morning for their Devotion time at the start of the day. We have had a look at some Old Testament prophecies about Jesus and wondered how God might use things from our past to speak into our present and future; we unpacked Halloween (Samhain – ask a Year 6 student to pronounce this) in preparation for Friday 31st October and then in Week 4, I gave the students a fun activity that tested their listening and observation skills. A very perceptive student observed that there was a paradox in the instructions too, which was super impressive indeed.

For the next four Mondays, we will be diving into questions that Year 6 have written for me to answer. They have amassed 41 questions for us to wrestle with, and boy, are there some big questions! There is even a question that in 21 years of being a school chaplain nobody has ever asked me… and I don’t know the answer. Nobody who is a scholar today has any information on this question, so that is going to be a fun one for us to wonder about together. Wouldn’t you like to know what the question is? Well, I can’t let you know before Year 6, so you’ll just have to wait for another Newsletter.

What is interesting about their questions though, is the categories they all fall into. This helps in answering them and may help you as your kids ask you questions. The first category are the fun questions like, “Who is your barber?”, which are about relationship building. Then we move to the curiosity questions like, “What was Jesus’ favourite food?”, which help us think about the reality that Jesus was a human like you and I. Then there are the questions about the Bible and its integrity as a sacred document, “How do we know the Bible hasn’t changed since it is so old?”. And, of course, there are the usual questions about biblical content. Questions about Adam and Eve, Moses and even the frequency of bread and wine mentioned. Then we get to the harder ones. Questions that are around the problem of evil, suffering, sadness and pain. Questions around believing in an infinite God when we are finite. These are massive questions that deserve answers of the same scale, which can be a little tricky when time is a limiting factor.

For our Year 6 students though, we also have the knowledge of years to come, learning and growing in understanding across more years at WCCS. Keep on wrestling, keep on thrashing out with others what they think and believe.

This brings us to our last set of questions, which I think are the most important. These are the how questions. How can I grow in faith? How can I hear God? How can I trust that I am following God’s way and not being deceived? These are where the rubber hits the road and they help give students the ability to work through some of those other difficult questions.

Understanding how to answer these types of questions is a wonderful way to equip our young people with all that they need to keep on reflecting deeply. I hope too that when you next get asked a curly question to do with faith or life, you might be able to pop it into a category in your mind and offer an answer that rings with integrity. And you can always handball it to me if that doesn’t work. What a great team we make.

God bless,

During the school holidays, 14 WCCS students competed at the National Futsal (indoor soccer) Championships in Queensland. George H, Vincent B, Jude F (8s), Harrison B (9s), Harry H, Baicheng F, Bainuo F, Lily H, Kiana B (10s), Ryder K, Alfred H (11s), Rocco F, Flynn W (12s) and Kaiden K (13s) all represented Northern NSW Futsal (Central Coast). They had been selected from Gala Days earlier this year. The teams played three days of round robin competition, with a fourth day of quarter-finals, semi-finals and grand-final.

All of the teams that participated were very competitive and did really well to make finals on the fourth day. Some notable mentions were that the Under 8 Boys and Under 13 Boys went all the way to the grand final and were crowned National Champions.

Special congratulations to Vincent B for being named Most Valuable Player of the Grand Final in the Under 8s division. I would like to congratulate all of the students who competed. You did our school proud and played in great spirit. I would also like to thank all the parents who took their children up to the tournament.

Mr Dean Knibbs | Junior School Sport Coordinator