Geelong Lutheran College, St John's Newtown

Term 3 ☑️

We wish all GLC St John's Newtown students, families, and staff a well-deserved holiday break.

Please note that our office is now closed, and will reopen on the first day of Term 4, Monday 7 October.

A reminder to all our families that this Friday 20 September is a Student Free Day at GLC St John's Newtown.

"I’m tired because I just walked 6km. It feels challenging, and I understand the big walk they had to do. I feel empathy for them because they carry buckets of water every day."

This was the common sentiment of our Year 3 students after undertaking Australian Lutheran World Services' Refu.Me Challenge 3: 'Walk A While In My Shoes.’

This challenge is about building empathy and understanding of the reality many women and children in Africa face just to collect water. Representing the 6km journey (the average distance to get water) our students walked to Rippleside Park carrying an empty bucket, which was then filled with water, and then shared carrying on the return back to school.

Refresh worship is on this Sunday 15 September at our Armstrong Creek campus.

Join members of the GLC community from both campuses in Luther Hall from 5pm for a meal and conversation before the worship begins at 5:30pm. With the blossom of spring and the longer days, we are reminded of God’s love for us. This week we will explore how Jesus showed this great care for his people through the miracle of multiplying some fish and bread to feed thousands of people!

We hope you can join us on Sunday afternoon!

A core part of our GLC Year 4 curriculum is the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program.

This program provides our students with an opportunity to learn about planting, cultivating, harvesting, preparing, cooking, and eating produce, mainly from our own gardens.

Last week, our Kitchen Garden students were busy cooking Fried Rice, planting, watering and digging in the garden, and as always, taking care of the chickens.

Year 5 were captivated by the majestic animals during their recent excursion to Werribee Zoo.

Linking in with this term's Transdisciplinary Learning Theme of 'Sharing our Planet', this trip up the highway included such highlights as a facilitated Education Program focusing on taking action to fight the extinction of vulnerable species and the always popular Safari Bus ride.

Recently, the children from St John's Lutheran Kindergarten travelled over to the Geelong Lutheran College, Armstrong Creek campus for a day of activities.

They read Gymnastica Fantastica by Briony Stewart and made their own special ribbons. They enjoyed games and a special play in the playground. It was a fun way to continue to foster the children’s school readiness.

Thank you to children's picture story book author Ruth McGurk for recently visiting our Year 1 students.

Ruth shared her wonderful books with the students and engaged with our budding authors in an interactive and inspiring sessions. We're so grateful for the time she spent encouraging the young writers, who have been learning about the different ways they can express themselves.

Happy Father's Day!

We hope all our GLC St John's Newtown Dads and special people have a fantastic day today. We loved having so many of you visit your child or children's classrooms, watch the talented String Orchestra and Year 5/6 Choir, and enjoy a complimentary hot drink on Thursday morning as part of our Father's Day Coffee and Connection event.

Thank you to our Year 6 student helpers who assisted at the photo station and handing out chocolate for the Dads on arrival.

A fantastic night was had at the recent GLC Blue & Gold Gala organised by the Armstrong Creek P&F committee! It was great to see so many parents and College friends from both campuses at the Captains' Room at GMHBA Stadium.
Thank you so much to the Gala Organising Committee for putting on such an enjoyable evening that helped raised funds for future College projects.

A big thank you as well to the many generous sponsors who donated items to the night's Silent Auction: Payne, Armstrong Barbecue, Novotel Geelong, Two Noble, Live Wire Park, Dayna Lauren Photography, Paddington Cafe, Bronzium, BracesNFaces Orthodontics, 360Q, Sip & Savor Catering & Private Chef, BeYOUty by Kate, MoPA, Geelong Cats Foundation, Colour Me Cake, Entertainment, Searoad Ferries, Razor, Amazing Co, Kaiser Craft, Maestro at Geelong Quarter, OKAY Therapy, Grovedale Quality Meats, Armstrong Real Estate, Barwon Edge, Hair by Nat V, Aviva Dental, and Mike Seaman.

What a brilliant day our four Year 6 debating teams had last week at the Regional Debating Competition.

Travelling over to the GLC Armstrong Creek campus, our students took part in 12 debates throughout the day against teams from GLC Armstrong Creek, Christian College Surf Coast, Chilwell Primary School and Al Taqua College.

Three of our students received Best Speaker throughout the day which saw the teams take part in two prepared debates and one secret topic which they only received 1.5 hours in advance. Well done to all the team members!

Happy Book Week!

We started this year's celebrations with morning assembly, a performance by the Year 3/4 Choir and the annual Book Week parade in The Plaza. Our students and staff received much applause from the many families who came along to support.

Dressed up as literary characters, many students and staff took their costume inspiration from this year's theme, Reading is Magic. It was wonderful to see the thoughtfulness, creativity and effort by staff students and their families.

Book Week at GLC St John's Newtown isn't just just an opportunity for students to dress up. Throughout the week, our students will be taking part in Book Week-related lunchtime activities, including making Gymnastica Fantastica Gymnastics Ribbon Wands, Book Bingo, using chalk to create a concrete garden, and donating to or purchasing from our Great Book Swap!

Refresh is on this Sunday 18 August at GLC Armstrong Creek.

Join members of the GLC community at the campus' Luther Hall from 5pm for a meal and conversation before the worship begins at 5:30pm. This month's theme revolves around is there life after death?

If you haven’t heard of or been to Refresh in the past, it is a relaxed, family-friendly worship at our campus once a month that is open to all members of our College community.

Come along and find out more on Sunday 18 August!

Every Tuesday lunchtime you can hear some fabulous sounds coming from the hall as the GLC St John's Newtown String Orchestra rehearses.

With more than 25 members, the group perform at school events throughout the year, and are ably led by conductor Rachel Anderson. All String Orchestra members are enrolled in the private instrumental tuition offered at our school by Rachel, who teaches violin, viola and cello.

Be sure to catch our String Orchestra at their next performance at our Father’s Day Coffee & Connection morning.

Our Preps have been getting their hands dirty tending our new planter boxes, which contain a range of flowers. We look forward to seeing them grow with the care of these young green thumbs.

Our collection of string instruments has expanded thanks to support from our generous Parents & Friends Committee.

The P&F has provided funding to purchase four new cellos, which will enhance our Year 3 Strings Program and String Orchestra, and support our students how learn cello in their private lessons.

We look forward to seeing and hearing students play these new instruments throughout the year.

We've been getting into the Olympic spirit during PE lessons this term.

There were plenty of budding young young gymnasts with some great moves and lots of energy last week. The classes bopped along to Taylor Swift while completing their best gymnastic positions in a circuit around the Hall.

Our Prep students had a blast celebrating their 100th day of school on Friday by dressing up as centenarians and engaging in fun activities themed around the number 100!

From counting to crafting, it was a day filled with creativity and excitement, making unforgettable memories, including with their Year 5 buddies.

We're very impressed with the learning and growth our Preps have made in their first 100 days of schooling at GLC St John's Newtown.

Our Year 5 students recently enjoyed engaging in their first debating experience as a Literacy focus.

GLC St John's Newtown is a school of the Lutheran Church of Australia, and we value the opportunity to share God’s love with our community, including at our weekly Chapels.

At this week's Chapel, Mr I supported by some of our Year 6 student leaders led Chapel, which focused on the Bible passage about sisters Mary and Martha. We also celebrated a number of student birthdays, practised our French phrases and some students received their Wisdom, Honour and Purpose Awards.

Last chance to secure your tickets to the 2024 GLC Blue & Gold Gala! Ticket sales end at 5pm tomorrow, Thursday 25 July. You can find all the details and purchase your ticket at: https://www.trybooking.com/CPFYA

It's the final day of ticket sales for the GLC Blue & Gold Gala, with sales closing at 5pm tomorrow, Thursday 25 July! Don't miss out on a great night out, with delicious food and drinks, good company and the opportunity to secure some amazing Silent Auction items, such as a $2000 voucher from Dr Popat at Braces n Faces - Orthodontics.

Hurry - ticket sales close in under 24 hours: https://www.trybooking.com/CPFYA

Last week we welcomed our friends from Australian Lutheran World Service to run programs with our students in Years 3, 5 and 6.

Our Year 3 students took part in the Caring for God's World program, where they looked at how the way we each live affects others, and how to care for the world and people who are suffering.

Poverty, and why it still exists in the world was the focus of the session for our Year 5 cohort. This session forms the basis of their inquiry unit into what Christians believe about our responsibility towards suffering and disadvantage in God's world.

Linking in with their transdisciplinary inquiry unit, What's My Business, our Year 6 students investigated the challenges faced by people in developing countries, particularly those living with disability, people who don’t have their rights recognised, and other vulnerable groups.

ALWS is the aid and development organisation of the Lutheran Church and do important work around the world to help end suffering.

There are only three more days before ticket sales close for the 2024 GLC Blue & Gold Gala. Don't miss out on your chance to enjoy a fantastic night out with our wider GLC community. To book your ticket (or table of 10), visit: https://www.trybooking.com/CPFYA

There are just three days left to get your tickets to the 2024 GLC Blue & Gold Gala!

In addition to a wonderful three-course meal and drinks at GMHBA Stadium, attendees will have the opportunity to place bids in a silent auction full of terrific items. Among these items is a $100 voucher kindly donated by Live Wire Park. Funds raised from the auction will go towards supporting College projects.

To book your ticket (or table), visit: https://www.trybooking.com/CPFYA

GLC St John's Newtown was awash in red, white, blue and a fair few baguettes on Friday for our celebration of Bastille Day 🇫🇷

This annual event is a highlight of our school calendar, where we celebrate our French language program and all things French. We loved seeing all the creative outfits during the morning's costume parade.

Merci to all our students, staff and families for helping to make the day a big success, particularly Madame MacGadie and our French Captain for their organisation of the day!

Refresh is on this coming weekend at our GLC Armstrong Creek campus. All members of the GLC community are welcome to come along to enjoy a BBQ dinner at 5pm before the family-friendly worship gets underway at 5.30pm. We hope to see you there!

Now that we are back from the winter school holidays, we invite GLC families and friends to gather as a community again at our monthly Refresh worship, this Sunday 21 July.

Do you ever let fears get to you? Or perhaps you even experience the stress of a phobia? Jesus took control of a storm when it lashed at their boat on the Sea of Galilee, calming his disciples’ fears. He can calm our fears as well. We invite you to hear how God cares for us, especially when we are crippled by worries and concerns.

We'll start with BBQ sausages for dinner at 5pm, and begin worship at 5.30pm, before returning home again at about 6.30pm.

Once our students had started their holidays, our teaching staff were joined by their Primary counterparts from GLC Armstrong Creek to undertake the formal International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Program (PYP) training.

Our teachers worked together to consider the value of developing the international-mindedness of our students, and how we can support our students to develop greater agency and ownership of their learning journeys.

With Term 3 now underway, we’re looking forward to transferring this learning to the classroom!

Last term our Year 1 students dove deep into the fascinating world of oceans and the amazing creatures that live there. As part of the learning journey, they visited Sea Life Aquarium in Melbourne, where they had an incredible time observing marine life first-hand.

Back in the classroom, our budding marine biologists got creative and crafted stunning dioramas showcasing various sea animals and oceanic features. Their hard work and imagination brought the underwater world to life in vibrant and captivating ways.

Welcome to Term 3, GLC St John's Newtown! It's going to be a big first week back, with our Bastille Day celebration on Friday 19 July.

Students and staff are encouraged to come to school in French-themed casual dress on Friday, with French activities to occur throughout the day with the chance to win prizes.

We look forward to celebrating all things French, our terrific language program, and as always, seeing everyone's creative outfits!

Term 3 at GLC St John's Newtown gets underway next week on Monday 15 July. We can't wait to welcome students and teachers back through our gates for another term full of strong and courageous learning.

Enjoy a three course dinner of fine food, entertainment and glamour at this year's Blue & Gold Gala.

Brought to you by our friends over at the GLC Armstrong Creek Parents & Friends Committee, this event is open to the whole GLC community. For more information, and to secure your tickets, visit: https://www.trybooking.com/CPFYA