Our staff and I enjoyed meeting many of our secondary parents at the Welcome night on Tuesday this week. Thank you again for taking time out of your busy schedules to meet us. At Wahroonga Adventist School our vision is ‘a Christ-centred thriving community’ so opportunities to connect are so important. Our vision statement consist of three aspects: 1. Christ-centred. 2. Thriving. 3. Community.

Christ-Centred : Jesus is the central figure not just of the Christian faith and the Bible, but of our world, e.g. 2025 is a reference to His historical existence. But what does it mean that our school should be Christ-centred? Ideally, and this is what we are striving for: Jesus is to be integrated into every facet of what we do and why we do it. Worship is our first appointment each day for staff and students. Chapels and the annual week of worship bring us back to this spiritual focus.  John 3:16 reminds us that ‘God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only (one of a kind) Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life’. God’s love was superbly displayed in the life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus and gives everyone value and significance. Our goal is to care about people as Jesus did. Are we there yet? The history of the Wahroonga Adventist School shows us that we are on our way to being Christ-centred in the way we relate to one another, value our students and staff, and strive to make Jesus the centre of it all. Thank you for your Christ-centred example to staff and to your child/ren. How can you and we do this better?

Thriving . What comes to mind? Perhaps the idea of having everything under control and in balance: financially, relationally, emotionally, spiritually, physically? What a challenge that is on a personal level?! To thrive in a school setting means to view staff and students in a wholistic way as revealed in our teaching and learning, services and opportunities we provide like counselling, sport, Bible classes/chapels, etc. We want students and staff to thrive. It is so inspiring to see everyone grow in their knowledge, skills and understanding of our world and of our God. Our goal as a school is to create an environment where children can flourish. I encourage you to consider the ways your child is/ isn’t thriving this year? What are some milestones that are achieving/ should be achieving? What are some of the roadblocks to them flourishing in all areas of their lives? How can we help to support you and them? Reach out and ask. We’re in this together.

Community. Daily observable connections between students, teachers and parents reveal community. Community building is the focus of the Home and School Committee, who are meeting for the first time this year on Tuesday, 25 February from 6.30-7.30 pm. Come along and find out how you and your family can get involved in the many community focused activities planned for 2025, like the Gardening and Environmental group, or the Working Bee on March 30 to tidy our school, which is a practical way to build our community spirit.

Thank you for being part of our Christ-centred thriving Community, whether it is by getting your child/ren ready everyday with correct uniform, ensuring they have the social-emotional support they need, or by engaging and supporting school activities and initiatives.

Greetings, Wahroonga school families and community!

Chapel Team Summercamp Event

We recently held our first chapel team Summercamp event, and it was an awesome experience for all involved. This camp is an opportunity for those who serve in chapel team to bond with our core chapel leaders and build stronger connections within the chapel community. During this event, we were blessed to witness the baptism of Archie. B, a remarkable young individual from Wahroonga Adventist School and Fox Valley SDA Church. We are immensely proud of Archie for making the decision to dedicate his life to Jesus. His decision to be baptised inspires us all and reminds us of the blessing it is to have Jesus in our lives.

Weekly Chapel Routines

We are glad to be back at school and have settled into our weekly routines. Chapel remains a significant appointment each week, and we warmly invite all parents to join us. We gather at Fox Valley Church most weeks, and hot drinks are served for you and the staff, on the house. Primary school chapel takes place from 8:45 AM to 9:30 AM, followed by the high school chapel from 9:40 AM to 10:25 AM. We welcome all parents to attend freely and be part of this meaningful time together.

A Thought for today

In our fast-paced world, it's easy to feel weighed down by various burdens. However, in Jesus, we find true freedom and peace. Jesus' invitation to come to Him for rest and comfort is a powerful reminder of the freedom we have in Him. As we navigate our daily lives, let us remember to embrace this freedom and rely on Jesus.

We look forward to seeing you all at our upcoming events and chapel services.

Pr Nicholas Kross

Lead Chaplain

When: 9:00am - 12:00pm Sunday, March 30th, 2025

Roll up your sleeves and join us for our autumn Working Bee! Bring the whole family along.There will be tasks suitable for all ages and abilities. We will have a lovely morning tea together, so you can enjoy a well-deserved break and chat with other families while helping make our school an even better place.

How to Join:

Keep an eye on our next school newsletter for the sign-up link.

Hope to see you there.

Brad Crossman (Parent helper) and the Garden sub-committee.

As a parting gift to the school, the year 12 Industrial Technology class designed and built picnic tables to be placed around the school. It was a large undertaking, but a big thank you goes out to everyone involved, especially to our Home and School for financially backing the project. Keep an eye out for these in our green spaces.

Natalie Leonard is a trusted and familiar face at WAS, having been part of our school community for the past three years. Natalie is a provisional psychologist who has completed her Master of Professional Psychology and is currently completing her Master of Clinical Psychology. Together with her previous experience as a speech pathologist in schools, Natalie is a safe and supportive presence for our students. She is on-site three days a week, ready to provide advocacy, guidance and care.

This year Erica Weir will be joining Natalie in the counselling team. Erica has a Master of Counselling and brings extensive experience working with students from Kindergarten to Year 12 across various schools. Erica will be filling in for Mr. Ben Stewart and will be on-site four days a week.

Together, Natalie and Erica are here to assist students with their emotional and social needs, offering a compassionate space for support and advocacy. They can also help families with external services if needed.

They are looking forward to connecting with our school families as well as the students throughout the year.

This term in Bible, Stage 1 have been looking at the miracles of Jesus. This week we have learnt the miracle of ‘Jesus walking on water’. Students had so much fun creating their very own craft of Jesus and Peter walking on a sea of jelly!

Lots of excitement yesterday poolside for our Primary Year 2-6 Swimming Carnival. There was a wonderful atmosphere poolside yesterday with the new House banners adding a vibrant touch. The students were incredibly enthusiastic, cheering on their housemates with great spirit. A big thank you to Mr Fulton for organising such a successful and enjoyable event, providing ample opportunities for our students to showcase their talents. Your presence and encouragement at the carnival meant a lot to the students. We appreciate your understanding with the bus delays, and we're pleased that we were able to complete the event on schedule.

Ribbons for the individual events will be distributed to the students over the coming days. Once the trophies arrive, we will notify you of the date for the trophy presentation ceremony.

I'm delighted to announce that the selections for SRC, House Leaders, and Environmental Ambassadors for 2025 are now complete. It's inspiring to see so many students eager to contribute to making our school a fantastic place. Teachers will inform the selected students in their classes shortly, and they will be presented with their badges during chapel on Friday, 28th February. Communication will be sent out via email inviting parents of students who have been selected into one of these leadership roles.

Secondary Swimming Carnival Awards

The Secondary Swimming Carnival was held at the Knox Aquatic Centre on Thursday 13 February. The day was filled with plenty of swimming, loud chants and a fashion show to experience the house competition. Congratulations to all participants and to the winning house, Sisley!

Below are significant achievements from our students.

New Records

Jude. S                14 Yrs Boys 200m IM

Oscar. S               16 Yrs Boys 200m IM

Aidan. P               14 Yrs Boys 50m Freestyle, 50m Butterfly, 100m Freestyle

Eliza. M                18 Yrs Girls 50m Breaststroke

Hayden. L            17 Yrs Boys Breaststroke

Zach. P                16 Yrs Boys 50m Butterfly, 200m Freestyle, 50m Breaststroke

Salani. S               17 Yrs Girls 50m Butterfly, 50m Backstroke

Library Classes

Library borrowing has started for the year so please check the library times below and remind your children to bring their library bags on the appropriate day.  Prep-Year 2 may borrow a maximum of 3 books, Years 3–6 a maximum of 5 books and High School students a maximum of 6 books.  Library bags are required for all junior borrowers (P-4) but are optional for middle and senior students.

Please note that we are currently waiting for more Library bags to arrive for new students in Years 1 to 4 – please keep using the spare bags until they arrive.

Library WebAPP

Wahroonga Adventist School Library has an online catalogue which makes searching for resources easy from any device.  To visit our Library WebAPP go to bit.ly/waslibrary .  On the guest page you will find instructions on how to access your child’s personal details. Please visit the Library WebAPP for more information relating to the Library.

Premier’s Reading Challenge

The Premier’s Reading Challenge website will become active from February 24, 2025 . All books read from September last year can be added to this year’s list so keep a written record of these books to add online once the website is active.

Please note:

To improve security, all our students have been reissued with new passwords this year. These will be given out to returning students this week and class teachers will also be given a copy. Please discard the old passwords and use these new log-in details to access your child’s reading log.

Students new to our school will receive their log-in details during the first week of March. If your child has completed the challenge at previous schools please email Mrs Savage ( [email protected] ) stating the name of the school and the years that the challenge was completed so we can merge their challenge history to our school.

‘Book Fair Blizzard: Chill out With a Good Book!’

Our annual Scholastic Book Fair will run from Wednesday, March 19 to Monday, March 24 (Week 8/9), so watch this space in coming weeks for more information.

Wednesday 8-9.30 am

Thursday 2.30-3.30pm

Please order through Flexischools for any orders where you know your sizing and what you may need. Flexischool orders will be collected from the office for High School and dropped to classes for Primary school on Thursdays and Fridays.