On Tuesday, 31 October, eight DCC students travelled to Bundaberg to take part in the annual Bundaberg District Children's Chess Tournament held at Avoca State School.
This year's school play was a massive success. With almost 200 guests in the audience, performers were pumped and primed to give their best performance.
On Friday, 27th October, DCC took part in 'Day for Daniel'.
We are very excited to introduce the DCC Surf Academy. This new and exciting initiative will be rolled out in 2018 and is designed to provide our talented surfers with the training, support and industry exposure to inspire, motivate and enable them to turn their passion for surfing into career opportunities.
Students who gain entry into the academy will receive high quality training and conditioning to improve their surfing, entry into school surfing competitions and limited regional surf competitions, as well as gain access to courses in surf business management, surf coaching and surf lifesaving.
To help promote our surfers and the DCC Surf Academy we are running a photo competition. Students are invited to submit their top photos (max of 5 per person) of themselves or of other DCC surfers to Mr Osborne either via USB or emailed to james.osborne@discovery.qld.edu.au. If submitting a photo of another surfer, written permission from that surfer must also be submitted with that photo.
The closing date for this competition is November 17th by 3pm.
If you have any queries or questions please contact Mr James Osborne.
There is a well known phrase that we often use in our Christian communities and churches. I am sure those who are not overly familiar with these communities will have still heard the word "Gospel". This word comes from the Old English word gōdspell which is a translation of the Greek word euangélion. The meaning of this word is "good news".
I am sure, as parents, when you heard that Discovery Christian College was finally going to be opening in 2015, you would have thought that this was Good News. I would certainly agree with this sentiment as I have seen so many good news stories over the last three years as principal. But although our school is indeed good news, it is nothing compared to the good news that the Christian message as a whole brings.
Jesus is God with us, come to show us God's love, save us from sin, set up God's Kingdom, and shut down religion, so we can share in God's life.
There are many metaphors for what God's kingdom looks like and all of them are attractive. I don't think you will find many people who wouldn't want a community which values every individual equally and recognises each person as a unique child of God created in His image. That is what we are striving for here at Discovery Christian College. We will always have a long way to go but if we all work together with that common aim, there is no telling what we can achieve together and that's good news indeed.
The sad news is that this is my last newsletter article before the end of the year. The next newsletter will be coming from Discovery's new principal who we will be announcing in the next few weeks. I would like to thank you all for your support over the last three years and look forward to celebrating the year with you at presentation night on 5th December at 6pm in the Agnes Water Community Centre.
Mrs Mollentze moved to the Yorke Peninsula, South Australia from Pretoria, South Africa. She studied a Bachelor of Science degree and a post graduate diploma in Secondary Education at North West University. She proceeded to work in a fast paced, multi-functional, diverse, solution focused, energetic, growth mindset and collaborative classroom environment. In quieter moments she enjoys working with pewter as a craft. Although she teaches biology she still keeps a respectful distance between her and spiders of all shapes and sizes. Married to Willie (a quieter sort of guy who loves fishing), they have a married daughter and a younger daughter studying nursing at Adelaide Uni. Grateful for the opportunity invested in her by her friends, family and community in South Australia, as well as her new colleagues at Discovery, she is looking forward to joining the team and experiencing a summer rainfall area compared to a winter rainfall area where wheat, barley, lentils and chickpeas were the main agricultural industry.
I am excited to be teaching in the Primary school at Discovery Christian College in 2018. My wife and I have spent the last 6 years in Brisbane where we were blessed with a son, Jacob (5) and a daughter, Natalia (3). Previously to that I was teaching in Melbourne where I spent most of my life. Teaching at a Christian college is such a privilege, sharing about what Christ has done for us. I look forward to meeting my new class and settling into Agnes Water.
Hi, my name is Mrs Kathleen O'Brien. I am wife to Craig who is also a teacher at DCC. In my free time I enjoy cooking, bird watching and I am learning to speak German. I grew up in the Redlands, south of Brisbane, and moved to Agnes Water in July of this year. In 2017 I have worked as a supply teacher for DCC and have enjoyed getting to know the students. 2018 will be my 6th year as a Primary teacher. I look forward to becoming part of the DCC community.
My family and I are thrilled to be heading a little bit further north from the Sunshine Coast to Agnes Water and Discovery Christian College, to continue our love for the coastal life style. As a family of six, we love to get out and about hiking, camping, mountain bike riding and are looking forward to exploring everything our new home has to offer.
Currently I am teaching Prep which is such a joy to see the students move through so many learning phases in one year and become so confident in what they can achieve. It is with excitement and anticipation that I look forward to joining Discovery Christian College. I am delighted to be given the opportunity to become part of a team of people in a community that embraces new endeavours to empower young people and build the kingdom of God.
Hello, my name is Karen Hall and I am excited to be joining the teaching staff at Discovery Christian College in 2018. I moved to Agnes Water in December 2016 with my husband and four children, as my husband, Peter, had accepted a teaching position for 2017. I enjoy playing netball, tennis and baking, when I have a spare moment. This year I have had the opportunity to coach the netball team and work as a teacher aide at DCC. I have a Bachelor of Human Movement Studies/Education and I am looking forward to teaching PE and Sport next year at DCC. I am looking forward to getting to know all the students at DCC in 2018.
On Tuesday, 31 October, eight DCC students travelled to Bundaberg to take part in the annual Bundaberg District Children's Chess Tournament held at Avoca State School. Students played a total of seven rounds of 30 minute games during the day, and this year over 190 students were involved! A great day filled with the fun of playing chess and gaining lots of experience was had by all.
Thing One and Thing Two narrated with gusto and purposely annoyed almost all of the characters, taking great joy in causing mayhem.
The star-crossed lovers dramatically brought the Bard's classic to life, all the while channelling Dr Seuss.
Complete with a mysterious cameo performance by an unknown guest, a Taylor Swift inspired dance number, a vicious bumballoon battle and a slightly wonky Love Machine, 'The Seussification of Romeo and Juliet' will not be forgotten any time soon.
This semester the students from Years 5 and 6 have been introduced to coding via the computer program, Scratch. The students created some interesting shapes and patterns using Scratch.
They also created some fascinating paintings in the style of Jackson Pollock and made a simple game ustilising only the arrow keys on the keyboard.
These last couple of weeks the students have been working on the Fish Game. Once this has been completed they will begin to develop and modify the game further with different characters and outcomes. For example the students might change all the fish to flying saucers.
The students have enjoyed thoroughly creating code in Scratch and for many of them this was the first time at ever using Scratch.
On Friday, 27th October, DCC took part in 'Day for Daniel'. A great opportunity to honour Daniel Morcombe and to spread the child safety message set up by his namesake foundation. This message was discussed in our morning assembly and the primary school students completed activity sheets in their classrooms on the topic. Red jellies were sold to raise funds for the foundation at recess time and posters sharing strategies on how to recognise, react to and report on unsafe situations emblazoned our walls.
So important to keep our kids safe.
It was fantastic to once again support Operation Christmas Child-the Shoeboxes of Love initiative of Samaritan's Purse. We ended up filling 14 shoeboxes this year. Each one burgeoning with gifts that will be sure to bless the recipient this Christmas. We were able to send at least two boxes to a boy and a girl in each age group. So wonderful to be able to give to these children at such a precious time. Thank you so much to everyone who contributed.
The Woolworths Earn and Learn programme is over for another year and although we don't have a local Woolies store, we were still able to collect quite a number of points. Early next year will we receive the STEM resources we ordered which include Mathematics flip cards, anatomical puzzles, bug stencils, various posters for Physics and Geology and a wheel and axle apparatus for classroom demonstrations. Well done to all who collected. Thank you for your support.
The Festival of Light 2017 will be held on November 15th in the undercover sports arena at DCC from 4pm-7:30pm. Market stalls and food will be open until 5:00pm when the show begins.
This year's performances will include the primary classes, the String and Big bands, and as always, the much awaited House Singing Competition. To finish the night our first ever graduating class of seniors will perform their final song of farewell!
The theme this year is "Colour Me Happy" so come wearing your brightest colours for a night of food and entertainment.
During Term Three the Prep/Year One class had the privilege of working with one of our very talented Year Twelves. Our class practised a rap that we wanted to share with our dads on Father's day. Chris Brennan was our photographer and turned our rap into a cool video.
I enjoy working with my young students, but I'm always in awe of the talent of our older students, alias young upcoming professionals. The rap is written by another past student, Lewis Jonker, of a previous school, who is now a very successful Magician and Youth worker in NSW. Chris Brennan quickly became the new hero amongst our Preps and Year Ones and we are very excited to see more of his work in the future.
These are a couple of snapshots from our video. More of Chris's amazing work can be viewed on his Facebook page, 'CNB Visuals'.
Our senior Business Communication and Technologies (BCT) students in year 11 and year 12 had the privilege of having expert guest speakers present to them in class this term. Mr. Alexei Domorev from Greenlamp Marketing, an expert and advisor on marketing in business, and Mr. Bill Meade, principal of Ray White real estate, engaged us and expanded our knowledge of business marketing.
Year 11 students in BCT have been learning the ins and outs of event administration this semester and have had the privilege of learning from a marketing expert in their classroom. Mr. Alexei Domorev shared his insights with the year 11 students on the purposes and foundational principles of marketing before showing them real world examples of marketing for the big day out music festival. Mr. Domorev's insights and 'pro tips' helped students to understand how theory and practice meet hand in hand.
Likewise, Mr. Bill Meade from Ray White engaged the year 12 BCT students in a discussion on the use of social media for marketing in real estate. Mr. Meade explained and gave us real world advice about marketing and its development into the 21 st century – from word of mouth and posters to drone marketing videography, intelligent databases and inclusive social media practices.
Thank you Alexei and Bill for sharing your expertise with us! We hope to see you again in BCT in 2018!