Issue 10 - 2023

Thank you to all who joined us for the Friends of SVACS Father’s Day Breakfast! It was a great way to start the day and a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the amazing Fathers and Carers in our school community.

We are delighted that our new School Chaplain, Father Toby Sherring, has finally joined us. Toby was previously School Chaplain at The Peterborough School in England. Prior to this, he was School Chaplain for 13 years at St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls in Mosman Park WA. A highly experienced School Chaplain and qualified teacher, Toby is greatly enjoying getting to know our students and staff and has been very impressed by our warm and welcoming community.

Congratulations to our Secondary athletes who placed 2nd overall at the ACC Interschool Carnival. This fantastic result was a collective team effort with some athletes being asked to fill in for events or even compete in a higher year group.

A special mention to our athletes who were individual Champions for their year group: Leonardo Clampett (U/13) and Jeremiah Gatluak (U/15); as well as our Champion Runners-up: Imoh Etim (U/14), Florence Quayson (U/16) and Brock Johnson (U/16). 

A number of school records were broken this year:

U/14 Boys 90m Hurdles: Imoh Etim with a time of 14.30
U/16 Boys 100m Hurdles: Brock Johnson with a time of 14.51
U/19 Girls 800m: Ocean Bulkoch with a time of 2:48.27
U/19 Girls 1500m: Ocean Bulkoch with a time of 5:42.20
U/13 Boys Relay: Leonardo Clampett, Taj Mullineux, Luke Robinson, Tomuda Galufu (55.15)
U/13 Girls Relay: Princess Quayson, Taj Kaur, Taylah Andrews, Zaheedat Owode (57.69)

All athletes should be extremely proud of themselves. Well done!

A number of school records were broken this year:

U/14 Boys 90m Hurdles: Imoh Etim with a time of 14.30

U/16 Boys 100m Hurdles: Brock Johnson with a time of 14.51

U/19 Girls 800m: Ocean Bulkoch with a time of 2:48.27

U/19 Girls 1500m: Ocean Bulkoch with a time of 5:42.20

U/13 Boys Relay: Leonardo Clampett, Taj Mullineux, Luke Robinson, Tomuda Galufu (55.15)

U/13 Girls Relay: Princess Quayson, Taj Kaur, Taylah Andrews, Zaheedat Owode (57.69)

A big thank you to everyone involved – students, staff, parents, caregivers and supporters. An event of this scale does not happen without everyone coming together as a community.

It was a tremendous season of NEAS, with nearly all SVACS volleyball teams making it into the finals. Impressively, the Year 7 and Year 8 teams were undefeated for the entire term and ended the season as NEAS champions. Congratulations to all students who competed for our school!

Well done to our Junior Years students who competed at the WACSSA Basketball Carnival. Both the girls’ and the boys’ A Division teams came first and ended the day with Championship Flags. The boys’ B Division also played brilliantly and came second.

Congratulations to all of our “SVACS Got Talent” winners and contestants. The competition this year saw students from Primary and Secondary competing in a variety of categories, including Dance, Instrumental, Drama (Stand-up Comedy) and Song. This was the first time that the competition was held in our new Performing Arts Centre Theatre.

If you have not already done so, please submit application forms for future students by contacting our Registrar on 9297 9506 or by email enrolments@svacs.wa.edu.au.

Term 4 Group Tour Date

Friday 24 November 2023 at 9.00am

All Group Tours depart from the School Chapel.

To register for a Group Tour, please contact our Registrar on 9297 9506 or email enrolments@svacs.wa.edu.au

WITHDRAWALS

We have already started organising our timetables, classes and staffing for 2024. To enable us to offer the optimal teaching and learning opportunities for our students, it is important that we have a complete picture of our enrolments for next year.

We understand that this is also a time of year when some families may be considering moving out of the area as job opportunities arise, or other family circumstances change.

To assist with our planning for 2024, we would appreciate families advising us as soon as possible of any future student withdrawals. This will also enable us to offer any available places to families on our waitlist.

Please also take into consideration the school policy for student withdrawals:

One full term’s notice in writing is required of your intention to withdraw a student.

This means that you must give at least 10 school weeks’ notice of any withdrawals (a school week is defined as a week during school term time—not school holidays).

If you do not give sufficient notice, you are required to pay a term’s fees in lieu of notice.

We receive many requests from parents leaving the school to waive the late withdrawal fee, which is a standard charge and standard practice in independent schools in Western Australia. To be fair to all our parents, and to keep our fees as low as possible, we must adhere to the policy of enforcing the late withdrawal fee for all students.

Addressed to the Principal (Ms Melissa Powell), a withdrawal notice should be sent via email to enrolments@svacs.wa.edu.au

If any of your children will not be returning to SVACS in 2024, the school must receive written notice of your intention before Wednesday 11 October 2023.

Thank you for your assistance in helping us with our planning for 2024.

Aarav Nagaraju

Huge congratulations to Aarav Nagaraju (Year 1), who secured a bronze medal at the recent Australian Taekwondo State Championships. At just 6 years old, Aarav was the youngest participant in his Poomsae Division. Well done!

Xander Goh

Congratulations to Xander Goh (Year 10) who has been selected to join the Western Force State U/16 rugby team. We wish him all the best for the upcoming Super Rugby competition – what an achievement!

Naika-Grace Mutitu

Well done to Naika-Grace Mutitu (Year 5) who received Honours in her recent Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB) Violin Exam. Naika-Grace was commended by the examiners for demonstrating a superior level of achievement for her grade level – great work!

Carpe diem! Seize the day!

Melissa Powell
Principal

Greetings to all in the School community. At the time of writing, I have been here less than a week and have been warmly welcomed. My thanks to the Revd Andrew Burr who has taken Chapels in this transition period and to all who have helped with our move from the UK.

Leaving one place and starting out in another is a common feature of all our lives, whether we physically move house, state or nation, change schools, careers or take a new path in other aspects of life. Change is never easy, even when the final outcome is good, and we can resist moving on to the next step in life to avoid the disruption and effort required.

Jesus offers frequent encouragement to his followers not to be afraid of going through a difficult process in order to achieve what is right and good. He asks us to see the challenges of life as our own form of his Cross: to take up the challenge and move forward through it. We call this Vocation, listening to the call from where we are to where we should be, and we all have a unique vocation: to find our life. When we desperately try to preserve our life, we will lose it, he says. When we are prepared to give up, to give away, to change, to leave behind what we think is precious, we find fullness of life, unburdened by the baggage: physical, mental or spiritual, that we have, perhaps reluctantly, left behind.

I have recently loaded a shipping container with all sorts of baggage – some of practical importance, and lots of emotional or sentimental value. However, I have survived several weeks with just a few suitcases’ worth of possessions, and it has made me reflect on that old paradox: the things we gather and long for may not be the things of true value.  Jesus calls us to engage in this question of value in last Sunday’s Gospel:

What will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life?

Blessings and peace

Father Toby
School Chaplain

O God,
whose Son has shown the way of the cross
to be the way of life:
transform and renew our minds
that we may not be conformed to this world
but may offer ourselves wholly to you as a living sacrifice
through Jesus Christ our Saviour;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen

It was wonderful to see so many parents attend our Early Years Open Morning and pop in for coffee and cake afterwards. It is a day that I know the children love and are so proud to show their parents all their hard work. As I popped into each classroom, during the morning, it was lovely to see parents engaged in activities and conversation with their children. I do understand how busy life is and if you are unable to attend an open morning on a particular day, we are more than happy for you to arrange an alternative time, before or after school, with your child’s class teacher.

Mrs Jo Crawshaw
Head of Early Years

During our Numeracy sessions, the Pre-Primary students have been learning about positional language. We listened to the story ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ and discussed words that can help them explain their location in space and develop their sense of position. The students then had a chance to strengthen their understanding by walking around the playground with a friend and directing them where to go. Some examples of where the children went were through the tunnel, over the bridge, up the ladder, down the climbing wall and across the balance beam. They had a great time using positional language in a real-life situation, while having fun with their friends!

Mrs Georgina Arch
Teacher: Early Years

The Kindy classes celebrated 100 days of school on Friday the 8th of September. It was a very exciting day and a wonderful milestone for the children to reach.

The children and teachers came to school dressed as an elderly person or wore a shirt that represented 100 days. We celebrated the day with many activities such as crown making, dauber counting 100 dots, painting self-portraits and of course our wonderful 100 days certificates and some smarties to celebrate being 100 days smarter. It was such a wonderful day and everyone had a fantastic time.

Mrs Nicole Roberts
Teacher: Early Years

In the last Wellbeing Check-in Survey of the Junior Years students, we asked them some questions about their patterns of sleep. Of the 286 responses, 70% identified between 7.30 and 9.30pm as the timeframe for going to bed on a weekday. In addition, over 50% reported not struggling to fall asleep at night and not waking or waking only once a night.

In terms of strategies to help them fall asleep, reading for pleasure and listening to music made up 56% of the responses. It was pleasing to note that students identified mindfulness and breathing techniques as other strategies.

We will continue to develop the student’s ability to use self-care as a way of improving their wellbeing. The results continue to tell us that being tired remains a feeling that the students are experiencing regularly, so we encourage you to talk to your child about it. What is excellent to note is that most of the students reported feeling of happy, excited, chilled, and thankful.

I hope that the upcoming holiday will give everyone the opportunity to relax and spend quality time together.

The Tournament of Minds is an international educational program ‘challenging the world’ to develop creative problem-solving skills. It provides the opportunity for students to solve authentic, open-ended challenges that foster creative, divergent thinking whilst developing collaborative enterprise, excellence and teamwork.

This year our Primary School Team tackled the Arts Challenge: ‘Immersion’.

The challenge asked the students to develop a 3D immersive art installation to represent one modern or contemporary artist and a piece of their work. The exhibition needed to be portable and easy to assemble. They needed to choose an artist from the given list, research their artworks and choose one to use in the immersive art installation. As part of their presentation, they needed to assemble their installation, explain its significance and persuade the judges that it should be included in the exhibit.

The team chose M.C. Escher as their artist and the painting ‘Belvedere’ as their installation piece. It was a challenging choice! They worked together to write an interesting play, and built an ambitious structure based on the painting. The judges were particularly impressed with their voice projection and the way they worked together to assemble their installation.

The students worked enthusiastically after school for two terms and, as we approached the tournament, they gave up lunchtimes to rehearse and perfect their performance. They worked superbly as a team and it was a joy to work with them!

Gillian Dawn
Head of Learning Enrichment

On Monday 11 September three teams of students from Primary and Secondary school competed in the annual ‘Write a Book in a Day’ competition.  An amount of $1,500 was raised through the competition entry fees and fundraising sponsorship and went towards scientific research to help children with cancer.

It was a wonderful opportunity for our young writers and illustrators to work together to create a book over a twelve-hour period.   Each team was provided with a unique set of parameters which included the inclusion of an identifiable Australian content, a cover, contents and blurb.

Year 7 Immunisation update

The WA Department of Health has confirmed that adolescents aged 12-13 years only need one dose of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to be considered to be fully vaccinated. On Thursday November 9th only students who were not vaccinated on Wednesday May 10th will receive the HPV and dTpa (protection against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough) vaccines.

Year 7 Parents/Carers who have not provided consent are encouraged to do so online https://vaccinatewa.health.wa.gov.au/s/login/

Alternatively, hard copies have been provided to students and are also available at Student Services.

Last day of Term: Free Dress Day

As a thank you for all the students’ hard work and commitment to learning this term, Friday 22 September will be a FREE DRESS DAY for our students. The theme this term sports gear that represents your favourite sport or sportsperson.

As with all FREE DRESS DAYS, we ask that all students follow the dress code as indicated below:

- No torn jeans
- No singlets or uncovered shoulders
- Shorts must be no shorter than the normal school shorts
- Skirts/dresses must be to the knee
- Shoes must be enclosed
- Students must have a hat to wear whilst outside
- Hair, make up and jewellery rules apply
- No inappropriate wording or images on clothes

Term 4 Uniform

All students should return to School Term 4 in formal summer uniform. Students who are unexpectedly unable to wear the formal summer uniform should bring a note of explanation to Ms Davies or Mr Field.

Please note that all students should arrive and depart from School in formal uniform (even if they have PE/Dance/Drama) period 1 or 6. Students who have more than one uniform change in a day may apply for permission to wear PE uniform all day.

Student who wear PE uniform without a reason/explanation will serve a lunch time detention.

Debbie Davies
Head of Secondary (Pastoral Care)

Uniform Shop Opening Hours

Monday: 8am-11am | Wednesday: 8am-11am | Thursday: 12.30pm-4pm

Please note: pre-booked appointments will take precedence over walk-ins.

Extended Opening Hours October School Holidays

Below are the uniform shops extended opening hours during the second week of the upcoming October holidays.

Please see the School Website for more information and online ordering.