Issue 3 Term IV 2014

Newsletter Academic Christian Caring

ISSUE 3

TERM IV 2014 Year 6 PYP Exhibition

TI G S

The Illawarra Grammar School

Headmaster The School Council has accepted a proposal to introduce the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (DP) at TIGS. The School is currently making application to the IBO and it is hoped that approval will be received to commence teaching the Diploma Programme for Year 11 in 2017.

The HSC will still be offered at TIGS. Once TIGS is authorised to teach the Diploma Programme (2017), students entering Year 11 will have a choice of two pathways through Years 11 and 12 – the HSC or the DP. TIGS students achieve excellent results in the HSC and this will continue for those students that choose the HSC as their course of study. The School remains committed to offering the best HSC programme in the Illawarra.

There are many families requesting that the opportunity be given for their children to continue the IB approach to learning through to Year 12. The Diploma Programme will provide this opportunity.

The DP is acknowledged world-wide as an outstanding course of study for students planning to progress to study at Tertiary level. It has been recognised by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority

(ACARA) as an alternative to the Australian Curriculum and the HSC. The DP was the first of the IBO programmes to be developed. It began in the 1960s as a service for the children of diplomats that were having their education disrupted because of family relocations. The DP is now recognised as the leading academic credential world-wide at Year 12 level and I am not aware of any university that does not recognise the DP credential. Australian universities typically have a recognised pathway for enrolling DP students that stands separate from the HSC/ATAR pathway.

It is common for IB students to be given advanced standing by Australian universities for high achievement in the DP. DP students are at an advantage over HSC students when applying for university study overseas as the DP is recognised world-wide.

The DP is implemented differently to the MYP and PYP. The DP stands alone and has no connection to the HSC, unlike the PYP and MYP frameworks that are superimposed on mandated BOSTES curriculum requirements.

The DP is offered in 63 Australian Schools and 2,608 schools world-wide.

Schools in NSW that offer the DP include Kambala, MLC, Monte Sant’ Angelo, Newington, Queenwood School for Girls, St Andrews Cathedral School and Trinity Grammar.

A more detailed overview of the IB Diploma Programme can be found on the IBO website at: http://ibo.org/ diploma/curriculum/ I can think of no stronger endorsement of the IB approach to learning than the wonderful presentations made by our students at the Year 6 Exhibition.

It is astonishing what students can achieve when they are empowered with the skills to engage in studentcentred learning and the freedom to pursue lines of inquiry for the pure joy of learning. I learnt so much about sustainability, nuclear fission, animal rights, immunisation, multi-cultural society… the range of topics was impressive in itself.

I asked two specific questions of the Year 6 exhibitors: •

How did they find the process of collaboration with their fellow presenters? Their replies indicate that they learnt some very important life skills when working together to develop their exhibits.

Chaplain’s Message CRUSADERS

Crusaders is a Christian organisation which has been working since 1930 to support young people in Independent Schools to be able to grow in their Christian faith whilst at school. The primary expression of Crusaders in schools week to week is the voluntary lunchtime meetings for Bible reading, prayer, fun, food and friendship.

Crusaders do not run these groups themselves, they simply support and resource schools who do.

•

How well did the PYP prepare them for their task? Without exception, the students could describe how the PYP has enabled them to engage in some quite complex lines of inquiry. What was even more impressive was that they could describe the learning process and how it could be applied to any challenge they face in learning. It is a marvellous thing to have acquired such a skill as they prepare to enter our Year 7 programme and the MYP. I can’t wait to see their results in Year 12.

Congratulations Year 6. Your Exhibition was fantastic.

Stephen Kinsella Headmaster

We are one such school who has benefitted from the support of Crusaders over many years. Nigel Vaux from Crusaders visits our chapels about once per term and usually stays on to attend our lunchtime groups. He has been a huge support to our students, teaching them what it means to be a Christian at school and regularly praying for them. Nigel has also been generous in the use of his gifts and passions to teach our Junior School students skills in leadership.

At the moment we have three voluntary Christian lunchtime groups: Lifesavers in the Junior School for Years 3-6, Fish in the Senior School for Years 7-9 and Xplore in the Senior School for Years 10-12. Each of these groups has grown wonderfully over the course of the year. They are not huge in numbers but the students who do attend have developed a real ownership of the group and are growing in their commitment to one another, their understanding of what it means to be a Christian and their desire to appropriately express their Christian faith at school.

Last week our Fish and Xplore students attended a special Crusaders event at St Andrews Cathedral School.

They met with around 400 other students from a range of Independent Anglican Schools in NSW. They sang out their hearts to God; they prayed for themselves and their School; they heard testimonies from other

students about some of the delights and difficulties of being a Christian at School; and they heard an inspiring talk about how they could maximize their opportunities whilst at school. It was an inspiring time.

For me, an important part of the day was the time we spent together on the train and over dinner after the event.

Fish and Xplore meet separately at school. While there are benefits to this, there is also the disadvantage that the two groups don’t really have a shared identity. Events like the Crusaders Inter-School Celebration gave us an opportunity to foster this broader identity.

If you have a child who identifies as a Christian then I hope you might encourage him or her to come along to one of our lunchtime groups. They will receive a very warm welcome and will be encouraged and strengthened in their Christian faith. If you have a child who would like to learn more about the Christian faith then our lunchtime groups exist for that purpose as well. I am always delighted at the way enquirers are warmly welcomed by their fellow students.

Rev James Rogers Chaplain

Senior School This year has seen the Senior School develop and implement IB MYP Units of Work.

What does this mean in real terms for your children’s learning both in the classroom and in themselves?

As an example I’d like to focus on a Unit of Work devised by the English Department to illustrate the new way in which learning is now informed by students, is centred on students and then empowers students to take action to make a positive difference in the lives of others.

The Units are informed by student needs.

At our regular once a Term Boardroom Meeting the Student Representative Council presented a proposal that the Year 11 Community Service Programme be initiated in Year 10. Year 11 is only three Terms in length and once students are informed of all of the service opportunities it is often difficult for them to fit everything into such a crammed and academically demanding three terms of senior study. This proposal had been formulated from a suggestion at one of their regular SRC meetings and had gone through a focus group to be formally presented.

Monica Watt Head of Senior School Deputy Headmaster

Explicit skills are taught.

The proposal met with the approval of the Chaplain who runs the Community Service Programme and together with the English Department a Unit of Work was written which would explicitly teach students listening, talking, reading, writing, researching and note taking skills. It would also involve them in debates and journaling.

Real world experiences and scenarios are involved.

In the Unit, Community Service Organisations, that have been supported by our students in the past, have each sent representatives to give presentations on the work that they do and how our students could assist.

The students will choose to be involved in acts of servant leadership within the Illawarra community or they could research other service organisations for which they could volunteer.

Assessments are authentic tasks.

At the end of the Unit students will select the Service Organization and/or make a proposal for the work they will undertake as their Community Service commitment in Year 11.

So, well done to the English Department - Jean Burton, Jo Graydon, Joanna Locke and Andrew Rout - for initiating the Unit, to the SRC for alerting us to the students’ needs and to Rev James Rogers for working together with all of them to make this happen.

TIGS

Prayer Breakfast

Parents, staff and friends are invited to gather to pray for our School community

Thursday 13 November 2014 7.30am - 8.20am TIGS Goodhew Research Centre (Library) Breakfast and supervision is available for children Please contact Mrs Moore for more information on 4220 0284 or email nmoore@tigs.nsw.edu.au

Great IB Collaboration!

RSVP: Friday 7 November 2014

Vist www.tigs.nsw.edu.au

Last chance to have dinner with Adam Gilchrist!

Extend at TIGS

This week, the children made sequin elephant craft in conjunction with the Diwali festival.

We also made lots of Halloween craft and had a mini party. We made jelly with chocolate eyeballs and pizza fingers with tomatoes as red fingernails.

ONLINE BOOKINGS: extend.com.au

CALL OUR OFFICE: 1300 366 437

Week 5’s Activities:

Monday 3 November: Organised Sports with Prep & Kinder Soccer on the Oval Crazy Craft Tuesday 4 November: Extend@Library Playlawn/Sandpit

Wednesday 5 November: Futsal in Rees Hall Prep and Kinder Craft Thursday 6 November: Acting/Drama/Play Twister DVD/Karaoke Friday 7 November: Crazy Craft - Rainbow Clouds Movie (G) and Popcorn

Junior School Years 3 and 4 returned tired but happy after a great camp experience last week.

Please enjoy this student report about their time in Nowra.

STAGE 2 CAMP REPORT

By Beth Michelmore and Enuri Gamage When we got to Sid Parrish Park, we knew it would be hard to leave our parents but what fun lay ahead! When we reached camp, we were welcomed with a delicious lunch. We met our cabin mates and instructors. Our cabins were the classic pictures of a hotel room.

Then we went to our first activity. The jetty jump! It was a long walk but it was truly worth it. Rowan, our instructor had to check the water and then it was our turn. At first it was scary but once you tried it you didn’t want to stop. The walk back seemed shorter because we were wet.

Judi Nealy Head of Junior School

Our next activity was just as fun. Waterslide time! Even though it would be better if you landed in the pool, it was so fast and fun. It’s better than any waterslide we’ve been on. The best thing about the slide was the curves. You go so fast you think you’re going to fly out of the slide!

Free time is when you can do your own thing, but there are limits. The games room is open and there is a lot of noise.

Mr ‘Robbo’ does soccer no matter the weather. Dinner that night was sausages and mashed potato. The sausages were delicious and it was lots of fun to sit with your friends. The mashed potato was not to our liking, though everything else was fine. The atmosphere was fun and cheerful.

That day was exciting, and it was hard to get to sleep. Some people were scared, as knock-and-runs were heard. Our cabin’s bathroom light made a hilarious sound! It was like a tractor going on a road! We finally got to sleep and made it through the first night!

The rest of the camp was awesome too. We can’t wait for next year! Thank you teachers!

STUDENT ACTION Congratulations to our school community and in particular Year 5 whose Market Day stalls managed to raise the staggering total of $4,395.80 towards their various charities. What an amazing achievement!

It is great to see our Year 6 students taking action as part of their exhibition learning. So far I have observed tin food drives, awareness raising videos, web page designs, letters to council and other governing bodies. Our students really take their learning into practical and authentic action. I’m looking forward to sharing The Exhibition report with our School community next week in the newsletter.

DIARY DATES • • • • • • • •

Pupil Free Day (Professional Development) Sports Presentation Evening JS Prize Giving Assembly Year 6 Progression Dinner Infants Pageant P&F Meeting Year 3 – 6 Presentation Evening A Christmas Celebration

Friday 31 October Wednesday 5 November in the IGC Thursday 27 November Thursday 27 November Saturday 29 November 10.00am - 12.00pm in the IGC Tuesday 2 December 6.00pm - 7.00pm in the Library Monday 8 December Wednesday 10 December

A GIFTED & TALENTED SCHOOL HOLIDAY PROGRAM CONNECT: LITTLE LEARNING LABS & EARLY LEARNING LABS Both Little Learning Labs and Early Learning Labs are designed for academically gifted and talented primary school students.

All workshops are held over two days and cover a range of disciplines, presented by teachers with specialist training or a specific interest in gifted education.

LITTLE LEARNING LABS

EARLY LEARNING LABS

For students in Year 1 and in Year 2 during the 2014 school year.

When: 12 – 13 January, 2015 Fee: $110 Where: UOW Main Campus

For students in Year 3 to Year 6 during the 2014 school year.

When: 15 – 16 January, 2015 Fee: $135 Where: UOW Main Campus

For more information about individual workshops, sponsored places and how to apply, please visit www.uow.edu.au/in2uni/learninglabs or contact Sarah Smith at sarsmith@uow.edu.au A note for schools: Places for this program fill up quickly. Please distribute this information to students whom you think would benefit from the program as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

WEEKLY AWARDS

MERIT CERTIFICATES

KD KM KP 1M 1T 1WJ 2H 2M 3B 3R 4R 5Y 6G

Academic

Summer Thomas, Luca Baxa Ashwin Gogulan, Riya Bahl Oliver Johnson, Shlok Murty Harry Fuller, Alizeh Syed Matilda Hughes Oscar Kiely, Toby Jinks Alexander Vartazarian, Ella Smith James Brewer, Mayank Aurangabadkar David Abdukeyum, Charlotte Palmisano Terrance Tsakiridis Mia Cawley John Taiwo, Tanay Shrestha, Aria Bacic-Johnston Zipporah Corser-Anu, Zaynab Panju

Sholk Murty Summer Thomas Vanshika Daruvuri Joel Turner Daniel Llewellin Yasmin Matar Oliver Johnson Oscar Ryan John Taiwo Jahzara McCann Ruby D’Rozario

Personal Presentation

Natasha Karakousis Benjamin Lu

Senior School Sport STUDENT SUCCESS: Daniel Cannon - Last week Daniel and his brother Aaron (TIGS Alumni 2013) represented NSW at the National Special Olympics in Melbourne for swimming. Daniel finished the competition with a Gold Medal in the 50m Breaststroke and a Silver Medal in the 4 x 50m Medley Relay. Aaron won Gold in the 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay and finished third in the 200m Freestyle and fourth in 400m Freestyle. A tremendous achievement from both boys - Well done.

DOUGLAS SHIELD CRICKET – SENIOR CRICKET Our senior boys cricket team on Tuesday played St Andrew’s

Cathedral School in damp conditions at North Dalton Park. St Andrews batted first and made 182.

Jonathon Fowles took 4/47 off 10 overs. TIGS valiantly took to the run chase with Raman Wadhwa scoring 66 runs.

TIGS unfortunately were not good enough on the day and fell short by 23 runs.

NASSA JUNIOR BASKETBALL Several TIGS students have represented the School and NASSA at the AICES U15 Basketball Tournament. Benae Kuiper, Chloe Lavalle and Renee Thomson were members of the Girls team while Vincent Chauvet and Blake McDougall were members of the Boys team. Both teams won the

tournament with the Girls team coming away from the tournament without loss and the boys team having drawn one game and winning on points for and against.

Each player made valuable contributions to their teams results and should be congratulated on their efforts.

On the 20 October the Year 7 Girls and Boys teams as well as the Year 8 / 9 Girls and Boys teams travelled to Penrith to compete in the NASSA Gala day for Basketball.

Year 7 Girls 5th Year 7 Boys 2nd Year 8 / 9 Girls 3rd Year 8/9 Boys 5th The Year 7 boys lost the final 13 – 10.

Overall an excellent result and all competitors represented the school admirably.

YEAR 9 LEADERSHIP CAMP Earlier this term, Year 9 attended the Leadership Camp. The three days away is an integral part of our leadership programme developing the whole child. The activities are carefully selected and facilitated in a way that prepares the students to be a leader. Just prior to camp, students were asked to nominate for one of four leadership positions: Peer Support, Outdoor Education, Peer Reading and or Student Host.

During camp, staff go through the process of evaluating each student and then allocate them to a position. Every student is encouraged to nominate for a leadership position. Although not all students will get their first preference, every leadership position makes a positive difference to the TIGS community. The camp was set in the Southern Highlands and was a great success. The students exhibited plenty of leadership potential and it was pleasing to see students enjoy themselves whilst taking up the challenge of the activities.

Junior School Sport DRAGON TAG Last Thursday 20 Year 5 and 6 students represented TIGS at the Cedars Dragon Tag Gala Day at Centenary Training Fields, Albion Park. Both the Boys and Girls team displayed great skills and spirit while playing four rounds and winning all games played. A huge well done to all of the students who participated.

Present

Durati ow

90 mins

on

6 Nov 7.00pm

Sh

Thursday

General Public

University Hall, Northfields Ave, University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW

Free

Bookings : factorfictionwollongong.eventbrite.com.au For more information : factorfiction@ansto.gov.au or 02 9717 3090 Cost - Free Science Fact or Fiction is proudly presented by ANSTO. People aged fifteen and under must be accompanied by a parent or adult guardian.

UPCOMING

EVENTS

WEEK 5

Sports Presentation Evening

6.30pm Wednesday 5 November 2014 in the IGC

WEEK 6

TIGS Prayer Breakfast

7.30am Thursday 13 November 2014 in the Library

Brass, Woodwind and Guitar Concert

6.30pm Thursday 13 November 2014 in the Recital Room

WEEK 7

P-12 Singing Concert

6.30pm Monday 17 November 2014 in the Recital Room

WEEK 8

House Quizzes

Monday 24 November 2014

P-12 Piano Concert

6.30pm Wednesday 26 November 2014 in the IGC

Junior School Prize Giving Assembly 10.50am Thursday 27 November 2014 in Rees Hall

Year 6 Progression Dinner

5.30pm Thursday 27 November 2014 in the IGC

Year 10 Formal

Friday 27 November 2014