Principal’s Message
Bible Verse for this Week
Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life. Matthew 19:29 (NRSVA)
Reflection for this Week
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me bring love. Where there is offence, let me bring pardon. Where there is doubt, let me bring faith. Where there is despair, let me bring hope. Where there is darkness, let me bring light. Where there is sadness, let me bring joy. O Master, let me not seek as much to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that I receive, it is in self-forgetting that I find,…it is in pardoning that I am pardoned, and in dying that I am raised to eternal life.
I am certain that we have all read these words in which we seek to be an instrument of the Lord’s peace. I cannot imagine anyone every finding disagreement with these words or with this prayer, and so if we believe in this, if we want all of these things, why do we sometimes fall short?
The reality is we are all fallen and are quite simply, not perfect. It is helpful however to consider what may indeed be going through our minds or our hearts, when we stray from doing with is right and proper.
When I think of situations in which I have acted poorly, or seen others do so, it is almost invariably when I focus on selfish pursuits and stray for God’s plan for me and others. It is during these moments of weakness when we speak from a position of pride, arrogance, desire, fear, or even ego. Such emotions keep us from God’s purpose and keep us from seeing the brilliance of His plan. We are blinded by the things that are truly not important and allow our hearts to be filled with false idols. This is indeed the weakness of man.
We all have the ability to choose love over hatred; pardon and grace over offence; faith instead of doubt; hope instead of despair; light instead of darkness; and joy over sadness. We can choose to focus on our needs or the needs of others – we can serve instead of being served; console others as opposed to seeking this for ourselves; we can try to understand others and prioritise this over being understood; and we can be the difference in another’s life as opposed to seeking anything in return.
It is in giving to others, loving others, showing grace to others, that these things are given to us, and that by living according to God’s plan, we have life ourselves.
Our daily lives can be challenging, full of distractions and activities that have the potential to keep us from each other and God. It is in community we find strength, connectivity, and enrichment, and when together in a faith community, we find and explore a deeper relationship with our Lord.
Belonging to Bayside Christian College has the potential to be so much more than a mere educational experience, but this takes commitment, purposeful direction, and a desire to be in communion with each other. Sadly, few schools ever achieve their potential, because they become distracted from their Mission, or are unable to deliver on their Mission because they have people in their community who are not truly aligned with each other of the organisation.
Bayside Christian College has the tremendous benefit of being a small and tightknit community. This enables us to hold true to our values, and through the actions, beliefs, and connectivity of our committed members of the community we can indeed create the community we all seek. My wish for our community is that we can indeed develop to choose love over hatred; pardon and grace over offence; faith instead of doubt; hope instead of despair; light instead of darkness; and joy over sadness.
These wonderful attributes will only be established and grow with our committed efforts. A commitment to each other, a commitment to Christ, and a commitment to the formation of a community of faithful servants and believers. I seek your help and deliberate drive to build our sense of community, to attend functions even when we are busy to show each other that we care, and that we believe community is important.
I pray that you too want such a wonderful and committed community around you as well, and that with your help, we can achieve this for our students – for those who walk our grounds every day, and for those who are yet to come, but ultimately for our Lord and His Kingdom.
Greetings and Peace to all.
Brian Grimes
Principal/CEO
New College Website
You are reading this newsletter as part of the new College website. The new website was launched over the term holiday break with many new pages filled with information, news and photos in a cleaner, easier to navigate look.
We encourage you to look around and we will be releasing details of a website competition in the coming week.
Sunshine Kindy
Spring has arrived and our Kindy children have been enjoying outdoor gardening, sunflowers and their garden crops of peas and tomatoes.
Thank you to Lowis for assisting our giant sunflower crop to flourish. Thank you to Mr Brett, Mr Rickey and Mr Tallis for visiting our Kindy yard and re-potting all our plants. Thank you to Bayside Christian College, and Shademakers Hervey Bay for our two new shade structures.
The LORD God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it. Genesis 2:15
Mount Walsh Multisport Excursion
On the second last week of term three Mr Meyers, Mrs France and Mr Olsen took the Multisport Excellence students to Mount Walsh. Students embarked on a 2km trek to the top of the mountain which included incredibly challenging terrain consisting of steep rocky surfaces. Students were tested both physically and mentally to overcome the high degree of fitness required to reach the top. The steep decent to reach the bottom also proved to be a challenge. Students also visited Utopia falls for a well-deserved swim. Well done to all the multisport students for embracing the challenge and conquering Mt Walsh.
Fraser Coast Waste to Art Competition
The students in Year 5 and Year 6 have created artworks for the Fraser Coast Waste to Art competition. Entries will be displayed in Gatakers Artspace, 311 Kent Street, Maryborough, from 11 November, 2022 to 8 January, 2023.
Fraser Coast Regional Council invited aspiring and professional artists to create a work of art using items destined for landfill. With a prize pool of $3,500 across four categories and people’s choice, we wish all our aspiring artists the best of luck. We encourage you to visit the Artspace during the exhibition period.
Medieval Day
What an amazing day, filled with costume, games, food, fun and laughter! Parents went all out kitting their children in costumes and props, an incredible effort. But it wasn’t just the students who dressed up, be sure to have a look at photos of the teachers and staff who also put a huge effort into their character costumes.
Many games and activities ensured everyone had a great time: Glitter Jars, Stick Horse Racing, Shield Making, Donuts Challenge, Skittles/Bowling, Goblets & Crowns, Stocks Jousting, Sock Wrestling, Quoits and Horseshoes, Face Painting, Hammer Throwing, Catapults, Fort Castle Building, Medieval Colouring and Games and Flower Crowns.
By lunch time, everyone was hungry. The undercover baskball court was turned into a huge medieval dining hall with a medieval feast lunch, deserts and drinks on offer. Nobody went hungry!
A huge thank-you and shout-out to all involved in the preparation and running of the day. You are all legends! Here are some photos, the full photo album can be viewed by clicking the button.
Year9/10 Woodwork Project
Year 9/10 students made these fantastic kitchen boards for their Term 3 Woodwork Project.
The streaky patterns are from a timber called Camphor Laurel – it’s actually an exotic weed in Australia, but thankfully, produces beautiful timber for woodworkers when it is removed from the environment! What a good use of resources!
The year 9 and 10 students in the woodwork elective were asked to design and produce a bread board, charcuterie board or pot stand from these timber pieces, using the skills they had learned in their initial woodwork project. Each student researched and came up with their own plans based on the purpose their board would fulfill in the home.
The result is kitchen boards that are as unique as the students that made them!
3T Test Fly Paper Planes
In English we are studying procedural text and students had fun following a procedure to make a paper plane. While having fun students identified the importance of including detailed instructions when creating procedures.
Grade 5 and 6 Gala Day
Friday of Week 9 last term saw our Grade 5s and 6s make their way to the Hervey Bay Sports Precinct for the Senior Gala Day. Netball, OzTag and Soccer were on offer for students to choose and play competitive games against their peers and friends from other schools. Even though the games were competitive, the focus for the day was fun and from all accounts everyone who participated had a great day out of the classroom and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
Netball
Year 6 Netball Team played 5 games and were defeated in all 5. However, they did manage to shoot 2 goals in their last game in the last quarter. Considering their overwhelming losses, the team stayed upbeat, encouraging their teammates and being good sports who tried their best with a smile. They did Bayside proud.
Soccer
Our Soccer team consisted of 13 boys who were all very eager to play. On the day, the students played with their hearts on their sleeves and absolutely loved every second. The boys could not believe how lucky they were to have such awesome teammates and to be able to play soccer for an entire school day. They encouraged each other consistently by cheering on and off the field for each other and the other schools. Great sportsmanship was shown by every player, and they could not wipe the smiles off their faces. Even though the day was about having fun, the Bayside boys won the majority of the games they played.
Oz Tag
The Oz Taggers had a wonderful day. The games were all extremely close all day with 2 draws, a win and a loss by only one point for one team. There was great teamwork and excellent footwork and ball skills on display. Congratulations must go to all who played.
Junior State Gymnastics Championships
On Saturday September 17 Tegan Howe was lucky enough to compete in the Junior State Championships for Gymnastics. This took place at the Sleeman Sports Centre at Chandler. Being a Level 4 gymnast, the division she competed in had a high number of competitors that led to four full sessions. This was the largest group of girls. To get to compete at this level, Tegan needed a qualifying score of 9 in all four apparatus which she achieved back in May at a local competition in Bundaberg. She was also lucky enough to meet the all-around Commonwealth Gold medallist Champion Georgia Godwin. Our congratulations go to her for doing so well.
West Ham Soccer Training Camp
Lucas Mills, Malakai Yeatman, Cassius Kearns, Antonio Firouzfar, Logan Sparks, Bo Hanley and Dorian Viljoen participated in an opportunity of a lifetime and went to the West Ham training camp held on the Gold Coast these past holidays. It was an amazing experience for all the boys. They learnt so much from a variety of new ball skills to lectures on how to become top athletes. There was also a Soccer Genius Assessment for various aspects such as dribbling and passing. They all loved it and were exhausted at the end of four full days. All who attended will find out in mid-October if any were selected for the England tour. The competition was extremely tough with kids from across the country and New Zealand attending. It was a fantastic opportunity for everyone and a awesome experience.
National School Futsal Championship
Malakai Yeatman, Cassius Kearns, Lucas and Chloe Mills participated in the National Schools Futsal Championships on the Gold Coast during the holidays. Malakai and Cassius represented Queensland Country U10’s, Lucas Mills the Queensland Country U12’s, despite him only being 10, and Chloe Mills competed in the U14 girls team. The boys competed at the Coomera Indoor Sport Centre and Chloe in the beautiful Nissan Arena in Nathan. Unfortunately, the U10 team were bumped out of quarter finals by a goal difference. The U12 team were very unlucky as well and missed out by 1 goal to make finals of their competition. The U14 girls team unfortunately did not make the finals.
It was a fantastic tournament that presented greater opportunities as Cassius, Lucas and Malakai were picked out by roaming scouts and invited to form part of the Australian team on overseas tours. Malakai and Cassius were selected to go to Fiji and Lucas to Barcelona with the U13 boys’ team in June 2023. Chloe enjoyed the games and her confidence increased with every game she played. Congratulations must go to everyone for their personal achievements. They all played extremely well against very tough competition from across Australia.
Athletics Competition in Brisbane
Sophia and Ava Carza participated in the first Athletics competition of the season and were very excited to do so. They had some heavy competition from Brisbane athletes and it was a great experience for both to run against tougher competition.
Congratulations must go to Sophia who came 2nd in 200m sprint and 4th in 100m sprint as well as the hurdles and Ava who came 2nd in 100m sprint & 200m sprint and 4th in hurdles & 70m sprint.
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
Bumper Sticker Promotion winner!
Congratulations Alison D, you are this fortnight’s bumper sticker winner! The college will be in contact with you to present your prize of a $100 dinner voucher at Café Balaena.
Scripture for the Week
