Refugee Week

Our school value for this week is “Interact Positively”. We are taking every opportunity totreat each other with respect and care in the way we speak and act towards each other.

This value fits perfectly with Refugee Week. At Regents Park Christian School, we are blessed to welcome a number of families who are recent refugees to Australia from countries where they have faced or feared persecution, often as a result of their Christian faith. Some of these students have personally experienced the horror of war, violence, separation and internment. Across our school community, a large proportion of our families can trace their family history back to a time where they have fled or migrated to Australia to seek refuge.

While around us, the asylum seeker and refugee debate continues to cause division in our world, at RPCS we seek to interact positively, showing honour and respect to every person in our school community and the wider community.

The bible is very clear in its teaching on refugees. In Deuteronomy 10, God’s people are told: “He (God) defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.”

Jesus teaches in Matthew 25 that the kindness we show to others is as if we were ministering to Jesus Himself:35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

May this week be a powerful reminder to care deeply for others in Jesus’ Name, particularly those who God has sent to us for refuge.

Mr Les BarnardPrincipal

COMMUNITY NEWS19 June 2020 Term 2, Week 8

Principal’s Message

Diverse Learning: UNSW Global ICAS Assessments Year 2 to Year 10

We are delighted to inform you that Regents Park Christian School will be participating in the world-renowned ICAS Assessments this year. ICAS is developed by UNSW Global, a wholly owned subsidiary of UNSW Sydney, with over 35 years’ experience in educational assessments.

ICAS is designed to target students’ higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills in English, Mathematics, Science, Spelling and Digital Technologies. Each assessment celebrates students’ accomplishments by providing opportunities for recognition. Every student will receive a printed certificate and an online result report. Top performers will be eligible for medals and are invited to attend special award ceremonies to have their academic excellence publicly recognised.

We encourage you to consider entering your child into ICAS this year. The assessments are suitable for students wishing to extend themselves academically and take up the personal challenge of competing in an international assessment. Your child will be presented with high-quality, expert-developed questions, allowing them to apply their learning without the need for prior study or revision.

ICAS Assessments are now online, a move that reflects a sector-wide transition to computer-based assessments. This allows greater accessibility for students and faster delivery of results.

In 2020 students have the opportunity to participate in the following subjects:

Cost per test: $15.95 including GST

If you would like your child to participate in any of the subjects listed above, please visit the new online Parent Payment System to make a direct payment to UNSW Global. The Parent Payment System is a simple and secure online payment service specifically for parents to purchase ICAS Assessments.

The web link is: https://shop.unswglobal.com.au/pages/pps

Our school’s unique access code is: GZF023

Online payment closes Sunday, 26 July 2020.

IMPORTANT: Please enter your child’s name accurately into the system as it will appear on their ICAS certificate.

RPCS will not be accepting registrations through the school; you must complete your child’s registration through the UNSW Parent Payment System. RPCS has a small number of sponsorship opportunities to support equal stu-dent access to these tests. Please contact me to discuss these sponsorship opportunities.

A Parent Portal of information, links to sample questions and past papers, and FAQ section has been added to the RPCS School Box. Please click through the ‘UNSW Global ICAS’ tile found on the home page. This portal also includes the permission note that you will need to return to school.

If you have any questions, please contact Melinda Gindy, Leader of Diverse Learning.

Cumberland Council Resources

Cumberland Council has a range of resources avail-able for your family to use at home. Resources cater to a variety of age groups and activities such as Story time, exercise, music, art and self-improvement.

• Activities for kids, including Story Time to exercis-es and learning crafts, click here. https://www.cumberland.nsw.gov.au/kids

• Activities for youth, including music, art and self-improvement activities, click here. https://www.cumberland.nsw.gov.au/youth-activities

Primary Assembly Team Events

Primary assembly will continue online for the foreseeable future. Each week families will re-ceive an invitation to join the event and share with us as we worship together and celebrate what God has done in our school. While it is not the same, we do appreciate the blessing it is to share this time together.

Crunch n Sip

Good nutrition and healthy eating habits are an im-portant part of learning. Each morning our students enjoy Crunch n Sip, when they will have a drink of water and eat a serving of fresh fruit or vegetables. We ask parents to support this by providing your child with a serving of fresh fruit or vegetables for their Crunch n Sip break. Students should also bring a drink bottle filled with water.

Rather than sweets or a packet of chips, why not pack a second Crunch n Sip for your child to enjoy at recess time?

Each week, the Cancer Council of NSW provide us with nutrition snippets to encourage healthy habits. Here are some tips for packing a healthy lunch box.

Check out the website for lots ofquick and easy recipes.

Nutrition Snippet

healthylunchbox.com.au

Let the kids choose and cook (or helpcook) a healthy recipe. They will besure to eat their own creations.

Primary Afternoon Pick Up

Thank you for the patience you have shown as we endeavour to keep our com-munity safe. Until further notice, parents are not allowed on the school property unless they have specific business in the office.

This means that the Afternoon Pick up has become even more interesting!

We ask that if you are doing kiss & drop, that you please do not block the traffic or any roads. If the queue is full, please drive around the block & wait until the line has shortened. It is important that we do not block traffic flow & that we are consider-ate to our local community.

#RefugeeWeek #YearOfWelcome

“For those who’ve come across the seas we’ve boundless plains to share.”

These words are in our national anthem, in the second verse, which we don’t sing that often; perhaps we should!

This week coming, 14-20 June, is World Refugee Week (and World Refugee Day 20 June).

But what is a refugee? The Cartagena Declaration on Refugees answers “persons who have fled their country because their lives, safety or freedom have been threatened by generalized violence, foreign aggression, internal conflicts, massive violation of human rights or other circumstances which have se-riously disturbed public order.”

In our school, many families have come from ‘across the seas’ for these reasons. I am in awe of some of the stories students have shared of their journeys to Australia. Such amazing resilience, bravery and faith. Likewise, the majority of our surrounding suburbs have families who have had to flee from their home countries for various reasons.

Refugee Week provides an opportunity for us at RPCS to acknowledge and celebrate the diversity we have in our school. It is a chance to:

Listen to the stories of others, to ask questions, to develop empathy. As we consider our rule of ‘interact positively’, we can show great care and respect as we value the experiences of others, stories that can deeply move and inspire.

Pray for God’s goodness and intervention; that God would bring justice, healing and reconciliation.

The theme of refugees appears in various ways throughout scripture. It is about welcoming each other.

Israel is reminded of this truth, reflecting on their own history as God’s people: “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.” (Leviticus 19:34)

The heart of the gospel is to connect people to God and to each other. Refugee Week reminds us of a deep truth we can live out daily at Regents Park and out communities.

For more information, please go to https://www.refugeeweek.org.au/

In Christ,

Mr Jim Dayhew Dean of Students, Year 7-9