The Trial HSC Examinations are now over and the Year 12 students are now focussing on the actual HSC Examinations in October.  They will be receiving their results in the next week or so and finalising the content in each of their subjects prior to revision commencing.  Please continue to pray for our Year 12 students as they prepare to end their thirteen years of schooling.

This Friday is the Create 2016 showcase of the HSC Music and Drama performances.  This is always a thoroughly enjoyable evening and if you do have a chance to come let me encourage you to do so.  The talent of the HSC students is something to behold.

The NAPLAN results have just been released. Parents of children who sat these examinations will be receiving their results once they have been sent to the School. I am particularly pleased with the results again this year as the students achieved above the State average in every domain in every year level.  This is testament to the great teaching that takes place at Macarthur.  It is of course important to realise that these tests are diagnostic in nature and so their intent is to show what areas are a weakness both individually for students and as a cohort and even as a School.  While no obvious weakness is evident across cohorts or the School for that matter, it does allow our teachers to reflect on their teaching programmes and prepare better for the future.

There have also been a number of other very successful academic results across the school in the various university competitions.  More will be said about these in the coming days and weeks.  Over the years, the number of students attaining Distinctions and High Distinctions has been steadily growing.  Considering that generally only students from the better schools enter their students in such competitions, the extend of excellent results is even more pleasing.

I am very much looking forward to a wonderful evening on Saturday night with the Annual Fundraising Dinner. As always this is unashamedly a fundraising event, as is the Annual Appeal, which you should have received in the mail recently.  Parents new to the School may not realise that the fees paid to the School for the tuition of students has to be spent on just that and the opportunity for the School to accumulate a surplus for future building is significantly restricted.  If the School charged higher fees then surpluses for future buildings would accumulate much faster.  As a result the School depends on the very generous nature of our parents in supporting future building works through their donations.  The School understands that for some parents, finding extra money to donate is very difficult and as such we do not expect all families to contribute.  However, other parents are able to be generous and so whatever you are able to contribute to the future development of the School is very much appreciated.  The current student body are significant benefactors from the generosity of past parents and so in the same way I encourage those of you who are able to donate to the Annual Appeal or Annual Fundraising Dinner to do so for the benefit of future generations.

David Nockles

NAPLAN Results 2016

Parents will soon be receiving the 2016 NAPLAN results for students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 (these will be mailed home as soon as soon as they arrive at the School).

At Macarthur, we do not undertake lengthy NAPLAN preparation in the lead up to the tests, but instead rely on the quality teaching and rich learning opportunities that we present to the students. We realise that the NAPLAN results represent a student’s performance at one point in time on one particular day and do not want to place undue emphasis on the results.  At the same time, however, we recognise that there is valuable information that we can obtain from the NAPLAN data that can be used to help raise literacy and numeracy levels.

Traditionally, the NAPLAN results are strong and this year is no exception.  Macarthur is above State average for all year groups in all domains with Numeracy being particularly high. 

Over the coming weeks, relevant teachers, Heads of School and I will further analyse the NAPLAN data to assist us in identifying trends of areas that require further improvement.  At the same time, we will be evaluating the Years results for Reading, Writing and Grammar to give us an indication of any students who we anticipate may not achieve Band 8 results (the new requirement for the direct pathway to the HSC).

Highly Accomplished Teachers (HAT) Recognised

Many of you will be aware of prestigious restaurants that have been awarded HATs.  Macarthur now has two HATs of our own – but not of the culinary kind.  Mr Scott Bedingfield and Mrs Susan Byers have been recognised by BOSTES President Tom Alegounarias for being Highly Accomplished Teachers.  There are currently only 151 Highly Accomplished Teachers in NSW and so for Macarthur to have two HATs on staff is a credit to both Scott and Sue who undertook the accreditation process as part of their professional learning.

Melissa Gould-Drakeley

Masterclass

“A group of fourteen students from Years 10 and 11 along with Mrs Wong and Reverend Hayman attended the NSW Bible Masterclass run by the Bible Society on 4 August.  We were privileged enough to hear multiple internationally renowned speakers; including John Dickson, Mike Frost and Patricia Weerakoon.  The speakers spoke on topics that were topical, foundational and missional including ‘why we should trust the gospels’, ‘how we can live missionally’ and the practicalities of that.  During the morning tea and lunch breaks we had the chance to interact with many of the hundreds likeminded students from all parts of NSW and Canberra.  Overall the day was both challenging and inspiring as we learnt a lot from some of the best speakers in the country.”           

Tom Wood and Jack Jansen

Victorian High Country Adventure

Every two years the school offers current Year 7 and 8 students the opportunity to join a four day adventure in the Victorian High Country. Students will enjoy each other’s company, ride horses, walk to the top of mountains, cook damper on an open fire, experience Ned Kelly bush, visit a zoo and cook up a ‘feast’, among other things.

Eighteen have registered interest so far but if you would like be included in the twenty-two for whom we have places, please contact Rev Hayman asap on 4629 6225 as bookings close on 25 August. See brochure for details.

North Queensland Outreach

From the 8 to the 14 August, I had the great opportunity to experience the North Queensland Outreach with four teachers and twenty-four Year 6 students. On Monday we started by flying to Cairns, which took three hours, then we drove to Cooktown where we checked in for the night and woke up to lovely water views. On Tuesday we met Mrs Alberta Hornsby who gave us an Indigenous tour of of Cooktown township and told us about when Captain Cook came to Cooktown. Then we went to Hope Vale, to an aboriginal school, where we joined them for the afternoon classes after which we gave them some sports and music equipment. We played some games with them as well. That was definitely a highlight of the trip for me. The next day we drove to the Daintree National Park, stopping at Black Mountain and getting a tour of Mossman Gorge. On Thursday we went to the Daintree Discovery Centre where we walked through the Daintree forest, where we made our way up a twenty-three metre tower and saw beautiful views on top of the trees. After that we traveled to Cairns where we went swimming at the Esplanade and then to the night markets. Friday, we went to Yarrabah Aboriginal community and Yarrabah school. Saturday was another highlight, we woke up early to catch a ferry to Green Island where we visited a crocodile enclosure and then went snorkelling in the ocean. I enjoyed the snorkelling very much because we got to swim with turtles. On our last day we went to a church service in Yarrabah where we sang songs to the Yarrabah community which I enjoyed. We then flew back to Sydney.

On behalf of the Year 6 NQ Outreach students, I would like to thank Mrs Stewart, Mrs Williams, Mr Hayman and Mr Davies for showing us a great time and I would suggest this trip to all students, as I had so much fun and learnt about so many new things.”         

Claire Sich

The Reverend David Hayman 

The School’s Annual Fundraising Dinner is this Saturday evening and it’s shaping up to be a wonderful night!

We have music by SoulArte, Giant Chess to play and a Lolly Bar!  We’re delighted to welcome Cameron Ferris PhD (class of 2004) as our Guest Speaker and Carmelina’s Art will be creating an art piece for us through the evening.

We have a huge Chocolate Hamper up for auction alongside a Joy Flight, a Family Portrait Package, a morning with Alan Jones’ Breakfast Show, tickets to Cal vs Hawaii College Football game and so much more.

And you don’t need to be attending to view and bid on our Silent Auction items! Simply visit https://www.galabid.com/wonderland and register to browse and bid.

Of course, a Fundraising event is never a success without support and I’d like to say thank you to all of our sponsors and donors.

A very special thank you also, to our GOLD Sponsor for 2016, Wards Accounting, the largest provider of Accounting Services in the Macarthur District.

Karyn Ingram - Community and Fundraising Manager

The above event will be taking place from the 22 to 28 August 2016.  We congratulate and wish the following students every success in their races:

Sascha Masjuk (Year 5), Joshua Hand (Year 9), Lincoln Bartlett, Taylor Drayton, Samuel Egan, Jack Franklin, Jessica Hall, Ryan Kennedy, Callum Masjuk, Leon Vogeler-Schmid (Year 10), Virginia Glover, Claudia Kennett-Smith, Sheldon Taylor (Year 11) and Addison Kubik (Year 12).

Flynn Kellner (Year 10) was also selected to participate but has had to withdraw due to a broken wrist.

Scott Bedingfield

Last weekend a group of nineteen show team students competed in the Western Sydney University Uni-steer completion. The competition involves fifteen Sydney schools covering Department, Catholic and Independent schools where the University donates steers and feed and the students are involved in preparing our steer “RM” for competition. As part of the completion students gained skills in designing a suitable ration, gentle and taming, grooming and parading him at a show. Together with  the steer competition the students were also involved in the preparation of our stall, beef junior judging, beef appraisal teams as well as herdsman/ student choice awards

Results for Saturday were very impressive with Codi Gibbeson placed first in his junior parader class,  Grace Jansen was also placed first in her class, Sean McIntosh was placed second and Jamil Azeem was placed fifth.

RM was place second in the Best Presented steer class and third in his steer class and was paraded by Abbie Jenkins.

Special thanks must go to Mr Gower and Mr McCarthy for attending the day and for all the background work that needs to be done prior to this event.

It was nice to see alumni students Abbey Glover (2015) and Caitlin Bowman (2014) at the competition to support our students.

Sadly it was Sean’s and Abbie’s last show with the School and a special mention needs to be expressed to them for their leadership and mentoring of “the next generation “ of show team members. We will all miss you.

Final results will be presented on Friday 9 September at Western Sydney University closing ceremony.

David Baker

Congratulations to the following students for their outstanding achievements in the recent UNSW Science Competition.

CREDITS

Isaac Barrett - Year 4

Osian Burge - Year 4

Rebecca Dunbier - Year 4

Ella Johnson - Year 3

Felix Petrin - Year 3

Nathan Simpson - Year 3

DISTINCTION

Andrew Towell - Year 4

Mikayla Butler - Year 3

Jessica Doria - Year 3

Summer Herta - Year 3

Jake Jensen - Year 3

Siena Latham - Year 3

Lucy-Lei Mingay - Year 3

Jackson Neumann - Year 3

HIGH DISTINCTION

Max Medich – Year 3

Stirling Knox – Year 3

HEADMASTER’S AWARD

Stirling Knox – Year 3

Kylie Elling

This term we are enjoying some of our favourite Fairy Tales.  We listen to stories and share our ideas. We write and draw about our favourite characters.  When we read the ‘Gingerbread Man’ we baked some delicious gingerbread men to eat and we had fun making up a play about the story.  Our playdough gingerbread men were pretty good too.  Each week we look forward to reading another Fairy Tale.

Mrs Katharine Morse - Transition Teacher

The following students’ artwork has been chosen to be a part of the IPSHA Travelling Art Show for 2016.  Their artwork has been on display at a range of Independent schools throughout New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory over the past two terms.

T-6 held an exhibition on Tuesday where the boys and girls were art ‘critics’ and thought critically about how the different works made them feel.  T-2 placed emoji’s to show their emotions. Students in Years 3-6 wrote as though they were reviewing the art for a local newspaper.

Jasmine Beck

Paige Prpic

Lachlan Siemon

Michaela Acres

Ethan Hartley

Amelia Pei

Jemma Whatson

Jessica Doria

Amelia Krvavac

Amelia Semrani

Paris Williams

Alyssia Tummarello

Samantha Pei

Keely Grounds

Marcel Rickman

Andre Lombardo

Marley Henson

Aurora Grabowski

Jensen Knox

Year 3’s writing is based on the drama unit 'Werewolf Knight.’  Students are writing as the prince who is lost and trapped in the forest forever as a wolf.  He is too noble to eat other creatures so is slowly starving and missing his life in the castle with his lost love Fioran.  

I'm stuck out here in the woods. Oh how much I miss my love.

I'm growing thin and skinny. Oh I miss my clothes. I'm starved.

I've got no food at all. No matter what, I will come home to

My Love. I'll sit there each night howling Fioran! Fioran!

Oh how much I miss my old life feasting by the fire with Fioran.

I can't go back or they'll kill me.

Fioran!

By Rhys Daley – Year 3

I miss all of the food and the very very comfortable bed I used to have. After all, all I have to eat is wild berries and nuts and the only thing I can sleep on, the hard ground. I miss my lovely family who would love me no matter what and Fioran was just about to marry me. She would probably be disgraced and outraged when she found that I wasn't there on the wedding day. I remember when I lived in a castle and had lots of food to eat but the thing I miss mostly is Fioran who must hate me now and will probably be crying all night.

By Jessica Doria – Year 3

The food in the palace is so nice. It was so warm yet now it is cold in the woods. I will have to find Fioran. Wait! I can not! I wonder who stole my clothes.  The palace was so warm and I had a nice warm bath and now I do not.  I wish I was not vegetarian, I am just so hungry. The berries are not helping at all. I am so skinny you can see my rib cage. This is the worst day of my life. I bet the wizard is up to something. 

By Aneeka Willis – Year 3

Students in Years 3 & 4 are invited to join Mrs Pesic each Tuesday lunchtime for ‘Coding Club.’ Here students will have fun with coding using different programmes and apps.

On Friday the 5 of August I was privileged to be chosen to represent Macarthur in the Mayor for a Day competition and I was successful in securing my place as Mayor for a Day. There were a number of other Year 6 students from the local Camden area who were also representing their schools in the competition. We were each asked to prepare a two minute speech. This is what I said.

My name is Hannah Davey, representing Macarthur Anglican School. Consistent with our motto ‘enter to learn go out to serve’ I continually strive to improve as a leader and to learn and grow, that I might serve those in my community better. It is for this reason that I think I would be a good candidate for mayor.

In my years at Macarthur I have grown and developed my leadership skills, informally and formally through being a student leader, leading a bible study, a friendship bible study and debating. I have a keen sense of justice, a passion for helping my community, a servant heart and I have developed the ability to think critically and speak publicly, which I love.

Camden is becoming more multicultural. It is growing, because of this we need to make changes. I will try to do this, still keeping Camden's character and heritage. I approve of the Council putting in the new pedestrian lights but we need one to get across from the library to the NAB side. If we don't want people getting hurt this is a great step to take.

Driving around to find a parking spot for forty-five minutes is inconvenient, we need to fix this problem. We could put in another swimming pool. Maybe in Oran Park. One that can be open in winter. We should organise an automatic warning system that can be emailed to people in the case of a flood with SES and the fire brigade. But my priority would be to create a fun multicultural day where everyone brings their own cuisine in and shares it this is a great idea for Camden is growing in multiculturalism.

Camden is a gorgeous place and I would love to be able to serve as mayor here, always remembering, ‘enter to learn go out to serve’.

Hannah Davey

History students ask the questions was Ned Kelly a hero or a villain? Does he deserve to be an Australian icon?

To this end we spent time visiting Glenrowan – the place of his capture and where he wore is iconic armour then we saw his armour and his famous Jerilderie Letter in the State Library of Victoria. We examined whether he received a fair trial and then saw the place of his execution inside the Old Melbourne Gaol. In history it always important to examine both sides of the story and so we hear a presentation at the Victoria Police Museum to consider their views (hint J the police do not think he’s a hero!)

But it wasn’t all work…dinners including Italian and gelato on Lygon St, movie, jazz and a visit to the Southern Hemisphere’s highest observation deck to have a night view of Melbourne.

Mrs Erica Looyen - History Teacher

The Geography Major class completed two full days of a study focus on Sustainability and Liveability in Melbourne. This involved the completion of an assessment task that involved a fieldwork booklet and iMovie summary. The focus of the first day was sustainability. This involved an in depth study of the Eureka Sky Tower as well as a long walking tour around the major landmarks throughout the Melbourne CBD. 

The focus of the second day was liveability. This involved a two hour walking tour with a guide from Melbourne Walks and the students producing an iMovie highlighting the main liveability features of Melbourne through the compilation of the photos and video footage taken on their iPads. The busy two days also involved having great lunches in the cafes in the CBD and Victoria Markets and a little bit of Melbourne shopping to experience first hand why Melbourne has been voted the most liveable city in the world for the last five years.

Mrs Nadine James - Faculty Head - Social Science 

Melbourne is renowned for its variety of restaurants, so what better focus for the Indonesian programme in Melbourne than delicious, spicy Indonesian food. Masterchef is also a huge phenomenon in Indonesia and our students enjoyed their own Indonesian Masterchef challenge in a commercial kitchen. After spending an afternoon researching Indonesian dishes at the State Library, we headed out early the next morning to the Queen Victoria Market to buy fresh produce for our dishes. The students cooked up a storm and the results were delicious! 

We also enjoyed eating lunch at an Indonesian restaurant, ordering our food in Indonesian. We were also privileged to be guests of the Asia Education Foundation to learn about Indonesian environmental issues from Kirra Watt, an Asia Literacy Ambassador. The students, accompanied by Ranga (our orangutan mascot) had a wonderful time.

Miss Joanne Fenton - Faculty Head - Foreign Languages

Macarthur Year 9 Music students had a great time in Melbourne experiencing and soaking up the music culture of the city. The students had the wonderful opportunity of spending their first morning at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) located at the South Melbourne Town Hall. ANAM is dedicated to the artistic and professional development of the most exceptional young musicians from Australia and New Zealand. ANAM's vision is to develop the country's future music leaders, distinguished by their artistic skill, imagination, courage, and their contribution to a vibrant music culture. The Year 9 Music Major class had the opportunity to spend the morning with Jonathan Bekes, former Macarthur student (2010) who is in his second year of a fully funded post graduate scholarship, pursuing his performance dream. Jonathan walked and talked the students through all the many aspects of what it is to pursue a performance career in Music. The morning culminated in the students attending a solo recital on one on ANAM’s young and upcoming pianists.

The second music highlight was going to one of Melbourne’s most well-known Jazz venues, Bennett’s Lane Jazz Club. Students, both music and others enjoyed a fabulous evening of live Jazz which featured the Tony Gould Band.  Respected pianist and composer Dr. Tony Gould is one of the most lovingly recognised figures on the Australian jazz scene. Tony is a multi-award winner with accolades, fellowships and scholarships. A number of well- known Jazz standards were performed by a variety of talented soloists.

The Music class had a rich experience of exploring Melbourne’s colourful lanes, tasting it’s great food and exploring the different recital and concert venues that Melbourne is so well-known for. Students had a wonderful time joining forces in the Indonesian Masterchef cook-off. All in all, it was a highly successful time away.

Mrs Inés Marrable - Faculty Head - Music

The Year 9 Commerce students each year complete a unit on “Running a Business.” As part of their assessment task within the unit they are required to form groups and develop products that they sell to the students and staff at lunchtime for a week. This year there were some very clever concepts and ideas of products that were sold. It always has a sense of community for the week as students from Year 5 to 12, and staff come together in the inner area of the School to purchase the products for sale. All the proceeds of the sales in 2016 were donated to The Children’s Hospital at Westmead - a sum of $1648.70. It is very rewarding for the students to give back to the community in this way.

Mrs Nadine James - Faculty Head - Social Science

Year 12 Music student Claudia-Rose Hackney presented her Extension Recital ‘Let Me Entertain You’ to a supportive and enthusiastic audience last Saturday, 13 August. Claudia treated her audience to a wonderful hour of music including an exciting number of all-time favourites from ‘On My Own’ Skyfall by Adele, Gravity by Sara Bareille, Second Hand White Baby Grand’  culminating  in ‘The House of the Rising Sun’ with the School Stage Band.