From the Principal
Dear Parents,
It is great to be back, I pray you enjoyed or survived your holiday period with your children. We had a wonderful first week back, our students have come back settled and focussed ready for another exciting term. A calendar was sent to you last week, which has some key days, I encourage you to familiarise yourself with it.
At risk of boring everyone to death, I did want to give you a brief update of how my trip to Zimbabwe went in the holidays. As I let you know at the end of last term, I had the privilege of traveling to a number of different Christian schools throughout rural Southern Zimbabwe. They were amazing schools, in so many ways, with incredible teachers who are so heavily under-resourced and sometimes with very limited training, doing their very best. I was able to help with some teacher training for their teachers and run some mentoring sessions for some of the younger principals. I’ve attached a few photos.
You may have remembered last year that we did some fundraising (pancake days, mufti days, fun days) for a school called Lendy Park Christian School, which is a school in Marondera, about 90 minutes out of the capital city, Harare. I had the pleasure of visiting this school as part of my trip. It was just a small amount of money that we raised, but it was enough for us to sponsor one student to be able to go to school. In Zimbabwe, no money generally means no education or a government school, where oftentimes the teacher doesn’t show up and classes are between 90-120 students! A Christian education means that a student gets to engage in a proper educational environment. I had the pleasure of meeting Tinashe (pictured below), from Lendy Park, which our fundraising money was able to sponsor him to go to the school. I know how incredibly grateful to our school he and his family were.
The other visit which moved me powerfully. was being able to spend some time in an orphanage. Many of the children had experienced extreme poverty and trauma. The staff at HPCS collected some resources for the orphanage and I was able to deliver it to them, which they were very grateful for. Here I am pictured with the staff.
I shared a few thoughts on this at Chapel today. Small groups of people change the world. We must never limit our kids to thinking they can’t have an enormous impact. We should continue to encourage our kids to have ambition, not just in the type of profession they want but also in how they can use their gifts to serve the world.
Camp:
A permission note has gone out to all of our 4-6 students about camp this term. I want to particularly say to our Year 4 parents, that many of your children will be experiencing different emotions upon the lead up to their first school camp, from sheer excitement to some possible anxiety. The more that you as parents, project calm and look at the positive elements of it, the easier the preparation will be. It is important to remember that the school staff are incredibly supportive of all of our students and will guide them through it. If your child is feeling anxious, they are not the first person to have felt this way. In the six years at this school that I have attended camp, there have always been some tears, some anxiety but by the end invariably our students don’t want to leave, and great moments of personal growth occur.
My door is always open,
Joe Britton
Lunch Orders
Our Term 3 Lunch Orders are open! Thank you again to Georgette and her team for providing this service to our school community.
Lunch orders will take place every Friday for Term 3, starting Friday the 2nd of August 2024.
If you would like to volunteer and help out with the lunch order preparations, please be so kind as to email Mrs. Jordaan.
Please see below the menu and associated link for you to order the lunch orders for the term.
Week 1, 02 Aug: Sausage Sizzle with or without a drink (click here)
Week 2, 09 Aug: Cheeseburger with or without a drink (click here)
Week 3, 16 Aug: Chicken, lettuce and mayo roll with or without a drink (click here)
Week 4, 23 Aug: Pasta and red sauce with or without a drink (click here)
Week 5, 30 Aug: Sausage Roll with or without a drink (click here)
Week 6, 6 Sept: Rice with chicken and meat with or without a drink (click here)
Week 7, 13 Sept: Chicken burger with or without a drink (click here)
Week 8, 20 Sept: Ham, cheese and tomato sandwich with or without a drink (click here)
Week 9, 27 Sept: Sausage Sizzle with or without a drink (click here)
A reminder our orders close on Thursdays at 11am.
If you have any questions, please email or speak with Mrs. Jordaan (pa@hpcs.nsw.edu.au).
Musical Ticket Sale is live!!!
We are very excited to announce that our Musical ticket sales are now live.
You can access the tickets for the 12th and 13th of September by clicking here.
Come and support all the hard work our students have put in to make this musical come to life.
NAIDOC Day.
In celebration of NAIDOC week our classes did a variety of fun activities. A year 6 student shared some amazing things about his culture and heritage with the school.
Students of the Week
Congratulations to the following students for receiving Merit Awards this week:
Kindergarten – S
Joshua F. for excellent effort and improvement in Spelling!
Elijah C. for excellent contributions in Maths discussions!
Alana C. for her enthusiasm and courage in class!
Sean F. for his kind, gentle and Christ-like attitude in class!
Kindergarten – G
Ruqayah E. for retelling the story “The Potato People”.
Ethan K. for writing numbers correctly.
Year 1
Taylor P. for fantastic understanding of suffixes.
Lorenzo R. for a brilliant start to Term 3.
Arabella B. for making great connections in Writing.
Year 2
Louise C. for always having a great attitude towards learning.
Isaac K. for active participation in Geography class discussions.
Year 3
HopeK. for working collaboratively with others in partnered tasks.
Vika T. for presenting her bookwork with pride.
Henrique B. for creating a detailed map in Mathematics.
Gabriela S. for ger dedication to her work in reading groups.
Year 4
Micaiah N. for his detailed & captivating holiday recount.
Jonatas B. for his effort when learning his times tables.
Aseel K. for approaching all taska with a smile & good attitude.
Isabella G. for writing with good punctuation.
Rai B. for her cohesive recount an engaging title.
Year 5
Adam A. for an excellent start at HPCS this term!
Mason M. for displaying brilliant work habits when completing all tasks
Tahlia M. for producing an impressive piece of writing about her holidays
Year 6
Gabriel H. for a terrific start to the term.
Mia S. for effectively adapting to change with a positive attitude.
Pen Licences:
Micaiah N.
Save the Dates: Upcoming Dates
29 July: Term 3 start
29 July: Musical Rehearsals
31 July: NAIDOC Day
02 August: Year 5 Chapel
05 August: Zone Athletics Carnival
05 August: Musical Rehearsals
09 August: Year 4 Chapel
12 August: Musical Rehearsals
16 August: Year 3 Chapel
19 August: Musical Rehearsals
19 August: Book week
20 August: Book week
21 August: Book week
22 August: Book Parade
23 August: Book WeeK
23 August: Year 2 Chapel
26 August: Musical Rehearsals
30 August: Father’s Day Chapel
02 September: Musical Rehearsals
06 September: Year 1 Chapel
09 September: Musical Rehearsals
12 September: Musical Showcase
13 September: Musical Showcase
13 September: No Chapel
18 September: Year 4 – 6 Camp
19 September: Year 4 – 6 Camp
20 September: Year 4 – 6 Camp
20 September: KS Chapel
27 September: KG Chapel
27 September: End of Term 3