One of our Flinders values is Humility and last Friday I was privileged to have a 1:1 conversation with Canon Andrew White who became well known by leading the Anglican Church in Baghdad, Iraq, during the reign of Saddam Hussein and then the turmoil which arose afterwards when he was deposed.

Two things struck me about Canon White. First, he has a profound grasp of politics, sociology and theology. He is a learned man who has rubbed shoulders with some of the world’s most famous – from prime ministers, presidents and Christian leaders such as Billy Graham and Mother Theresa – and has been able to have significant influence in the world – particularly in his efforts towards Middle East reconciliation.

Second, he is a profoundly humble man and was just as interested in finding out about Flinders and the staff and students here as he was in sharing his story and his learnings along the way.

Canon White – although struck down with MS which leaves him dependent on the support of helpers and an electric wheelchair – has epitomised to many of us the value of ‘costly discipleship’ – of following Jesus in ways which challenge and encourage all of us.

Regards


Geoff Grace
Head of Secondary

Thank you for your patience while we waited for the photos to be completed and printed. SchoolPix has confirmed that photos will arrive on Monday 8 May 2023.

Kinder photos will be taken during Week 4:

Monday 15 May: 4 yo Kinder

Thursday 18 May: 3 yo Kinder

The internal roads were reopened this week while works have been paused. A huge ‘Thank you’ to all drivers who have respected the constant changes and have followed the signs and staff directions. Please continue to approach the entrance to the College with caution while works are completed.

We are looking for a Barista to work in our Rotunda Café on a casual basis. If you are interested, please contact Kate Rowe on 9785 0000.

Live online cybersafety webinar series available to families. Click on the link below for further information.

We look forward to hosting the Mums or another special person for our Kinder Mother’s Day Celebrations.

Wednesday 10 May

• 4yo Gumnut 8:50am – 9:50am

• 4yo Banksia 9am – 10am

Friday 12 May

• 3yo Lorikeet 1:50pm – 3pm

Photo Day is coming to Kinder! Keep an eye out for the SchoolPix form we will send home with details on how to order the Kinder Photos.

• 4yo on Monday 15 May
• 3yo on Thursday 18 May

All students must be in correct Kinder Uniform on photo day, including the Rugby Jumper and hair accessories must be burgundy.

Flinders College Carrum Downs Primary entered two Grade 5/6 teams at the first ever CSEN Primary Basketball Championships held at MSAC on Tuesday 2 May 2023 and both teams came home with gold. Congratulations to all players for playing amazingly well and conducting yourselves with grace and sportsmanship on and off the court.

A huge thank you to Mrs Pallot for arranging this day and Mrs Mitchell, Mr Cappel, Andrew and Spencer for their support and coaching of these teams. Go Flinders!

Come to school with Crazy Hair on Tuesday 16 May to show your support for the Leukemia Foundation. All funds raised will help people with blood cancer get access to better care, better treatments and better information.

Students should come to school in their PE uniform and bring along a gold coin donation.

Crazy hair could include wigs, temporary hair colouring and fancy hair ties.

The Flinders values award is presented to two students at each chapel that really exemplify one or more of our Flinders values. Congratulations to Jade and Sienna for receiving a Flinders Values award during this week’s Primary Chapel Service.

Sienna received her award for displaying Humility and Love by showing genuine care and consideration for her classmates, always willing to lend a helping hand and spreading joy with her optimism and cheerful attitude.

Jade exemplified the values of Perseverance and Love through her unwavering dedication to achieving her goals, even in the face of challenges, and her love and compassion for others is evident in the way she supports and encourages those around her.

WELCOME TO TERM 2

As we head further into this 9-week term, may I thank the students and staff for the very smooth start. There is a positive calm around Secondary as we re-engage with our teaching and learning, as well as the many additional events and opportunities which lie ahead of us in Term 2.

There are many things to be thankful for, including the addition of a number of new and returning students to Secondary and we pray that they will settle in well to life at Flinders.

We will continue to encourage students to embrace the 2023 theme of ‘The Best Version of Us’ including attitude, effort and ongoing consistency with the Ready, Respect, Safe theme we have adopted.

WEEK 2 SECONDARY ASSEMBLY – SERVICE AND MISSION THEME

At yesterday’s Secondary Assembly, we took on the theme of Service and Mission as an integral part of our core mission and vision to be a Christian call defined by Hope and Purpose.

Here are some key highlights from the assembly.

Mr Watt's devotion was based on our visit last Friday of Canon Andrew White, the ‘Vicar of Baghdad’ who spent a lunchtime with many staff and a number of students. His inspiring stories were a real encouragement to all who made the effort to hear him. When asked about where our students would find hope in a dark world, Canon White’s challenge was for us to embody hope and to go out to ‘take risks’ for the good of the world. What a challenge! I then went through an outline of the planned trip to Thailand in Nov/Dec for Year 10-12 students and have since forwarded the necessary information to those who are keen to apply by Tuesday May 16.

We had Ps Julie Grant come from the local Salvation Army group to encourage students to help at the upcoming Red Shield Appeal. More details are to be sent to interested students.

Abian, Chloe and Daniel spoke of the enormous success of the World’s Greatest Shave fundraiser at the end of Term 1. The initial target of $7500 was clearly broken – around $11,500 was raised towards Leukemia research. A massive congratulations to all of the staff and students – particularly the VCAL/VM group – who helped to plan and run this very successful event.

Mrs Emanuel (Head of Nicholls House) and Chloe (Nicholls House Captain) then got up to speak about the upcoming fundraiser on May 30 to support the local indigenous community of Naijm Marr.

We then had a Performing Arts presentation as well as the regular Sports announcements, finishing up with five of our students receiving Flinders Values Awards for quietly going about serving their school community through works of service and/or excellent role modelling.

YEAR 9-11 EXAMS

End of Semester 1 exams are being finalised, to be held from Friday 2 - Thursday 8 June. For Unit 1 students, all subjects are to be examined; for Year 9 and 10, it will be English, Maths and Science only.

The exam timetable is being finalised and will be published as soon as it is complete.

Kind regards,


Geoff Grace
Head of Secondary

This coming week, Week 3 of term, the Year 10 students will be on camp in the city. The first two days will be day activities with students returning home each day. The Wednesday to Friday section will see the students staying in the city at the CYC Camp, returning to school on Friday afternoon.

During Week 5, the Year 9s will have their own City Camp from Monday to Wednesday; followed by the Year 11 Camp at Phillip Island from Wednesday to Friday. Later in the term – in Week 8 - there will be one-night retreats for the Year 7 students (and a similar experience for the Year 9s early in Term 3).

'READY, RESPECT REWARD' HOUSE CHALLENGE

The Term 1 trial went very well with Flynn winning by a single point. 15 Flynn students were randomly chosen to receive a canteen voucher as a thank you.

This House competition has been developed to encourage good uniform, good attitude and punctuality to class. It is seen as a complement to the accountability structure (lunchtime detentions etc) we already have in place. It starts this week with a 3-dimensional approach as follows:

- A uniform check at a randomly selected Mentor Group on a Wednesday and Friday morning.
- A check of the House common rooms and locker areas for cleanliness and tidiness.
- An audit of lunchtime detentions.

Scores/100 will be tallied and uploaded to the Student News page on a weekly basis.

The goal will be to reward the winning House at the end of Term 2 with a free lunch – pizza or otherwise.

Updated scores will be published in the next couple of Newsletter articles.

Year 9 and 10 families are invited to attend the 2023 Senior Pathways Expo on 16 May at 6pm. Please click on the link below for further details.

Flinders Basketball Club warmly welcomes you to winter season 2023! Our welcome extends to our new ballers, coaches, team managers and the ever-enthusiastic family group of supporters that come along to games – we hope you enjoy being part of our community and wear our uniform with pride. Basketball continues to be a popular sport within Flinders College and our extra-curriculum teams have commenced the weekly winter season competition. Winter season competitions run until the end of Term 3.

We’re going into week 2 of grading games and Flinders Basketball teams are off to a flier. Win, lose or draw, we have seen our ballers give their all for their respective teams in games that are considered grading only. This passion is wonderful to see. This is very important that we understand that grading games are just that. The associations must assess all games and results and after 3-4 weeks, and re-grade teams accordingly. Whilst most games are close, there are a few blowouts. THAT’S OK! This is grading and team matchups won't always be correct. The Associations allow 4 weeks to correct these situations so please be patient and show your grit through the grading phase. Parents are to be mindful of our code of conduct at all times. Referees have zero tolerance for abuse. Please do not “coach from the sidelines”. There is to be one voice only - and that is from the coach.

The Flinders Basketball Club has seen a growth of 11 teams this year – we now have 79 teams playing across the Frankston, Westernport, Chelsea, Casey and Mornington Associations in age groups ranging from our youngest Preps in u8 to our “seasoned” Men’s Masters 35+ (a team with coaches, team managers and dads).

Flinders Basketball is a school-based community club whose teams train after school in the Carrum Downs and Tyabb gyms. Flinders Basketball is supported by an amazing group of 150+ volunteers in the role of coaches, assistant coaches and team managers - all working together to support our children being active playing basketball.

The season ends at the end of Term 3, and we look forward to seeing our teams in finals games!

We wish you all a fabulous season of basketball. Go Flinders!


Cindy Shacklock and Natalie Chatfield
Flinders Basketball Club Administrators

basketball@flinders.vic.edu.au / cindy.shacklock@flinders.vic.edu.au / natalie.chatfield@flinders.vic.edu.au

Some of our youngest players - u8 boys and girls

The Flinders Community is invited to our annual Movie Night. We are excited to announce that we will be screening DC League of SuperPets here at the school on Friday 19 May at 6.00pm.

Gates open at 5.00pm

Book your Movie Ticket

Tickets for this event are $35 per car and they are available for purchase on the Flinders Connect App.

- Please click on My Account and choose Activities
- Select the Activity: CD 2023 Drive-In Movie Night
- Click on the 'Attending Button' and follow the prompts to pay.

Alternatively follow this link: https://connect.flinders.vic.edu.au/my-account/activities

There are only 100 tickets available, so please book your ticket early to avoid disappointment.

Sausages and drinks are also available to preorder on your Flinders Connect App.

The P & F will be holding a Mother’s Day stall on Friday 12 May.

Each Primary class has been allocated 15 minutes of shopping time to allow them to make their purchase, accompanied by their class teacher.

Secondary students will have the opportunity to shop at lunchtime.

Helpers are needed to serve the students as they purchase gifts for their mum. If you hold a current Working with Children’s Card and would like to assist, please contact Marianne at Marianne.morgan@flinders.vic.edu.au

Our fundraising evening will take place on Saturday 20 May in E Block. You may purchase a ticket for the event through Flinders Connect under activities. Mr Mason will be hard at work on the BBQ with his daughter Chloe who is playing Liesl, and Secondary school cast members will also be selling drinks and lollies.

Tickets will be $20 per person, which includes a burger and a soft drink and $15 per person for those who do not wish to eat. Mr Davidson will be our MC for the evening and sound provided by Mr Anderson.

Please register and pay to attend the Trivia Night on the Flinders Connect App

1. Click on ‘My Account’ tab
2. Choose ‘Activities’ from the list
3. Event is called: CD 2023 SOM Trivia Night / Silent Auction
4. Click on ‘Attending’ on the RHS of the event and follow the prompts to pay

Entertainment will be provided by selected cast members and by amazing Bollywood dancers. We have some super items for you to bid on with monies raised going towards The Sound of Music and a project in India which Chloe Mason (Year 12) will tell us about during the evening.

Remember to bring some small change for the extra games we will be having.

I am looking forward to welcoming you all and for a great night of fun and friendship.

Diane O'Hare

Flinders Got Talent will take place in E Block on Thursday 8 June from 6:30pm until 8:30pm. Audience tickets at $10 per person will go on sale through Flinders Connect on Monday 8 May. All proceeds will contribute to The Sound of Music.

Staff and students should now start emailing diane.ohare@flinders.vic.edu.au to register their act, informing Diane of what they will be performing.

The Sound of Music production will take place at The George Jenkins Theatre, Monash University at their Frankston campus. Our cast will be performing three shows on the following dates:

Friday 16 June at 7pm
Saturday 17 June at 2pm and 7pm.

Watch this space for booking details.

Hoodies and t-shirt merchandise will soon be available for anyone interested in purchasing them through Flinders Connect. T-shirts will be $20 and hoodies $50. Please remember to note your size when ordering.

Artwork of the month

Tylla in Year 9

Tylla created a mixed-media artwork of a landscape.

Being a parent is an important job. It’s easy to get caught up in looking after your child’s needs, but looking after yourself is important too.

MyTime is a place where you can unwind, and share ideas and experiences with others who understand.

MyTime is for all parents and carers of children under the age of 18 who need a higher level of care than other children. This might be because of disability, chronic medical condition, or other additional needs including developmental delay. MyTime members come from different backgrounds and their children have different abilities and needs.

For further information, please visit www.mytime.net.au