Melissa Brown and our students congratulate our Extension and Enrichment Coordinator, Amanda Drain, on this special award.
Upcoming Events
Mother's Day Morning
- Friday 9 May
- 7.30-8.30am
- Undercover basketball court and then the Hall
- Mums and their children are warmly invited to join us for coffee and a light breakfast as we celebrate and honour the mothers in our community.
- Tickets will go on sale Friday 4 April and close on Friday 2 May for catering purposes.
- More information to come soon.
This week at Covie
Get to know Mrs Mawson
This week we have the pleasure of getting to know Mrs Bec Mawson just a little bit better.
When "I don't know" sparks growth
What's been happening?
So much happens every week at Covenant. Below are some things that have happened lately:
Year 6 Camp
Congratulations to Mrs Drain
Secondary Zone Swimming Carnival
Year 12 CAFS Parenting and Caring Incursion
Year 12 Fundraiser Mutfi Day
Year 12 CAFS visit from HammondCare
Secondary Debating Club
Year 6 Camp
Year 6 camp was an amazing time in God's creation near the water at Port Hacking. The students had a wonderful time, showing bravery and determination to overcome fears and try activities outside their comfort zone. It was great to see new friendships develop and students being welcoming and encouraging. The leaders were excellent, helping the kids feel safe and confident under their guidance and care.
Congratulations to Mrs Drain
Our Extension and Enrichment Coordinator, Mrs Amanda Drain, has been awarded the Keith Frampton Memorial Award! Keith Frampton began the Future Problem Solving Program in 1988 and the award was created to recognise coaches that go above and beyond to provide challenging opportunities to their students. Amanda has been doing exactly that at Covenant since 2019. Congratulations Mrs Drain - we think you are the BEST!
Secondary Zone Swimming Carnival
The Secondary Zone Swimming Carnival was an exciting day of competitive swimming against our strong North Met schools. Our students put forward their best efforts on the day and Mrs Carnell and Mr Moody were thoroughly impressed with our students determination and effort in their individual and team events. We proudly celebrated two age champions: Caitlin P (15 years) and Macsen VG (12 years). Caitlin and Macsen were also record breakers: Caitlin - 15 year girls 50 Backstroke, and Macsen - 12 years 50m Freestyle, 50m Backstroke and 100m Freestyle.
Congratulations to the following students who have progressed to the CSSA State Swimming Carnival: Luke A, Olivia B, Luke G, Molly H, Maddison M, Caitlin P, Adalia S, Isla T, Susanna T, Isaac T, David V, Emma V and Ethan Z.
Year 12 CAFS Parenting and Caring Incursion
Sarah Marriott and her parents, Mr and Mrs Marriott, made a guest appearance in the Year 12 Community and Family Studies (CAFS) class to bring insights into the complex and rewarding world of Parenting and Caring. At only 29 days old, Sarah made a huge impact on the class, with her quiet and gentle ways, and finally woke up for the last 15 minutes for some cuddles.
Mr and Mrs Marriott shared for over an hour on the experiences of being parents and gave valuable insight into many aspects of the Core Module our students are studying at the moment.
We thank them for their generous, honest and informative contribution this morning at school.
- CAFS teacher, Mrs Freestone
Year 12 Fundraiser Mutfi Day
Earlier this week, our amazing Year 12 students swapped their uniforms for high-vis vests, hard hats, and tool belts to fundraise for the wonderful work that Anglicare does!
For over 160 years, Anglicare has been providing care to older people and services to the vulnerable, enriching lives and sharing the love of Jesus.
A huge thank you to everyone who participated and donated. Your support makes a real difference to those who need it most!
Year 12 CAFS visit from HammondCare
As part of their Parenting and Caring unit, Miss Hawkins from HammondCare North Turramurra Residential Aged Care visited the Year 12 CAFS class to speak about the formal and informal supports that provide specialised residential aged care to people with complex health conditions, including dementia. Miss Hawkins is part of the expert care team and specialises in the spiritual and emotional support for the residents. It was very helpful in building a larger picture of what is needed to care for those who are unable to fully care for themselves.
- CAFS teacher, Mrs Freestone
Secondary Debating Club
The Debating Club visited Oxford Falls Grammar this week to participate in three debates. The Covenant teams argued:
- The Department of Health should ban sugary drinks for children.
- The Police should all wear body cameras.
- The Department of Education should ban the use of AI in all high school assessments.
Each case was passionately and ably argued by our students, most of whom have only been debating since the beginning of the year.
Our sugary drinks team pleaded with us to agree that the irritability, mood swings and fatigue attributable to sugar rushes necessitated a complete ban of these liquids. Our body cameras team posed robust arguments about how the use of this technology could heighten the accountability of officers and civilians alike and would rebuild public trust in police officers. Our banning AI team educated all of us about the challenges posed by the closed source model of AI which might be allowing lies, inappropriate content and bias to slip into the AI tools being used by students.
Our body cameras team convinced the Adjudicator and Covenant was the victor in this debate! But all our students learned lifelong skills as they defended their positions, respected their opponents and practised resilience in defeat.
- Debating Coach, Mrs Newcombe
Covenant Information
Helpful information for parents
Qustodio Parent App
Winter uniform from Term 2
Relevant information from past newsletters
Qustodio Parent App
The Qustodio Parent App provides Covenant parents with advanced controls for your child’s school laptop (plus one personal device such as their mobile phone) outside of school hours, allowing you to play an active role in your child’s digital life.
At Covenant, we recognise that technology is an essential tool for learning. The internet offers incredible opportunities for learning and connection, but it also comes with risks for children and families including:
- Cyberbullying: The anonymity of the internet can lead to hurtful and damaging interactions, affecting children's mental and emotional wellbeing.
- Exposure to inappropriate content: Children may inadvertently encounter or be targeted with explicit or violent content online.
- Excessive screen time: Unrestricted access to devices and online platforms can lead to unhealthy habits and impact sleep, academic performance, mental health, and social interactions.
By partnering together, we can empower our children to navigate the digital world safely and responsibly.
Covenant’s partnership with Linewize
Filtering and Reporting: We already implement robust filtering and monitoring systems to protect students from harmful content, cyber threats, and online distractions. This ensures a safe and secure learning environment.
Online Safety Resource: The Covenant Christian School Online Safety Hub is a dedicated resource offering a wealth of information, including app reviews, how-to guides, and expert advice, empowering you to have open and informed conversations with your child about their digital development.
Parental Controls: The Qustodio Parent App enables you to take an active role in your child’s online journey with robust online safety features. This enables you to supervise your child’s online activities on their school-managed device outside of school hours.
The Qustodio Parent App
Qustodio extends digital visibility and management of school devices (plus one personal device) to parents, allowing parents to steer and direct their children’s online behaviours and habits.
- Manage your child’s school device outside of school hours: Take an active role in safeguarding your child’s school device outside of school hours.
- Ultra Personalised Settings: Allows you to add your own filtering rules, alerts, reports, and more to support your child’s digital needs and uphold your household rules.
- Safety Net Always in Place: The school has established a baseline of cyber safety rules across all SLP devices. You can add to these by creating family rules on all your family devices, keeping your child safe online when at school and at home.
- Filtering Content and Apps: Enables you as parents to create a safe online space for your kids by blocking inappropriate apps, games, websites or entire content categories in addition to the school's baseline set of rules.
- Custom Reports and Alerts: Provides parents with detailed daily, weekly, and monthly reports on your child’s online activity. You can also set real-time alerts to be notified immediately when your child tries to access blocked websites or engages in risky behaviour.
- Setting Time Limits: Helps you balance your child’s online time. This tool helps prevent screen addiction, preserve family time, and encourage healthy sleep routines by establishing consistent time limits and scheduling downtime.
- Protection of Personal Devices: Every Linewize Connect licence includes protection for one personal device per school student, allowing parents to secure mobile phones, iPads, and more. This step further supports your child’s online safety and wellbeing.
Create your free account HERE.
If you are experiencing any issues with Qustodio, their dedicated support team is easily contactable at myschool@qustodio.com or use the Help Centre Form.
Winter uniform from Term 2
A reminder that from Term 2, all students must wear full winter uniform. Changes to the uniform from Term 2 are shown in bold.
Kindergarten to Year 2
- All students can continue to wear their sport uniform every day.
- Alternatively, girls can wear the winter pinafore with long-sleeve blue shirt, navy socks or tights.
- Alternatively, boys can wear the blue short sleeved shirt with grey shorts or grey long pants worn with ankle length grey socks.
Years 3 to 6
- Girls can wear either the winter pinafore and blue long-sleeve blouse with ankle length navy socks or tights or the blue short sleeved blouse with either navy pants or shorts worn with ankle length navy socks.
- Boys continue wearing the blue short sleeved shirt and grey shorts or grey long pants worn with ankle length grey socks.
Years 7 to 9
- Girls can wear either the navy skirt with blue short sleeved blouse, navy socks or black stockings or navy pants or navy tailored shorts worn with blue short sleeved blouse with ankle length navy socks.
- Boys continue wearing the blue short sleeved shirt and grey shorts or grey long pants worn with ankle length grey socks.
Years 10 to 12
- Girls continue to wear the white short sleeved blouse with navy skirt or navy pants with ankle length navy socks and blazer.
- Boys continue to wear the white short sleeved shirt with grey trousers, ankle length grey socks, school tie and blazer.
Uniform Shop
The uniform shop is open:
- Monday 2.15-3.15pm during term dates.
- Wednesday 8.00-9.30pm during term dates.
- The Uniform Shop will open on Monday 28 April from 9.00am-12.00pm. No appointment necessary, just walk in. This is a staff professional development day. Students return on Tuesday 29 April.
Relevant information from past newsletters
It can be hard to stay on top of all the information. Below is some information from the past few weeks that you might need a reminder of.
'Australia My Country' Writing Competition (Years 3 to 6)
What? A writing competition sponsored by Forestville RSL sub-branch. The topic is either 'Commemorating 100 years of Anzac - an enduring Legend' or 'August 1945 - Victory in the Pacific and Returning Home from War'.
Prize monies awarded by Forestville RSL sub-branch for each section will be: 1st place - $200 | 2nd place - $150 | 3rd place - $100
When? It will take place at lunchtime on Wednesday 9 April (Week 11) in the Junior Library.
What does your child need to do? Students who wish to enter must sign up with Mrs Watson. Permission notes will need to be signed in order for the child to enter.
Mrs Chapman will also be conducting a question and answer session from 12.50-1.10pm on Tuesday 8 April.
For more information please speak to Mrs Watson or click here.
Covie Holiday Program
Need to complete some PIP hours?
Wondering what PIP is? The Parent Involvement Program (PIP) gives our parents the opportunity to enjoy a hands-on role in the education of their children and an opportunity to engage with other members of our community. You can learn more here.
Current opportunities:
- A Netball umpire (badged or experience required) and a Netball/Soccer coach (experience required) for Peninsula Cup. If you are interested, please contact Jonathan Chor, via email - jchor@covenant.nsw.edu.au.
- Our Learning Support team needs parents to assist students with reading or writing during tests/exams. If you are interested, please contact Learning Support Coordinator, Sally Rofe, via email - srofe@covenant.nsw.edu.au.
- The Term 1 Working Bee is coming up on Saturday 5 April. If you are interested, please RSVP here.