We are excited to welcome renowned Christian sexologist Dr Patricia Weerakoon to our school on Friday, 5th September. Dr Weerakoon will be speaking with students in Years 7–12, offering a thoughtful and faith-informed perspective on relationships, identity, and wellbeing. A separate note has been sent home with further details about this important visit.

On Wednesday, 10th September, we will be recognising R U OK? Day across the whole school. From Prep to Year 12, students are encouraged to accessorise with yellow socks, ribbons, hats, or armbands to show their support for mental health awareness and the power of a simple conversation. It’s a great opportunity to remind one another that asking “Are you OK?” can make a real difference.

Finally, we look forward to and pray for our Stage 3 and Year 9 students as they head off on camp next week. We pray that it will be a time of growth, fun, and connection for all involved.

I also draw your attention to the Father’s Day Breakfast on Friday 12^th September. All welcome for ham and cheese croissants and a viewing of some classic cars from the Gnoo Blas Classic Car Club.

Our students are looking forward to exciting learning experiences over the coming weeks. Stage 3 will head to Canberra next week, where they will explore government, democracy and science through visits to Parliament House and Questacon. The following week, Stage 2 will travel to Bathurst Goldfields Education Centre to step back in time to the early settlement and gold rush era.

Activities will include gold panning, damper cooking, bush games, mud brick making and tent-site set up. These camps provide valuable opportunities for students to grow academically, personally and spiritually while developing initiative, perseverance and character. We pray our students enjoy a safe and memorable time away.

What an exciting week ahead for Stage 5. With Year 10 heading to Work Experience and Year 9 Urban Camp kicking off on Monday morning. Please pray for safety, growth, friendships, and plenty of fun as they navigate their way around Sydney and Cockatoo Island on buses, trains, and ferries.

Our talented Year 12 Music and Art students will be showcasing their HSC pieces TONIGHT at the Orange Regional Conservatorium, commencing at 7.00pm. For those who can make it, you are in for a treat. Entry is free and light refreshments will be provided.

What a busy term it’s been at Prep! Recently the children were involved in an important and fun activity -Dental Checks! Dental professionals from OAMS came in to give tips on maintaining good oral hygiene and checked the children’s teeth. The National Science Week brought a burst of excitement as the children celebrated this event by engaging in science experiments and other scientific investigations. Children have a natural curiosity, and it is their desire to understand the world around them. The children also went to the Civic Theatre to see the performance of The Gruffalo’s Child. This is a fantastic way to bring the book to life and offer an unforgettable experience for our Prep children.

Two dates to remember –

Wednesday 3^rd September – Early Childhood Educators’ Day. This day recognizes and appreciates the vital role of early childhood educators in the development and well-being of young children. It is a day where the community can recognise the important role they play and say thank you.

Friday 19^th September – Prep’s 20 year celebration – The countdown is on and the excitement is building! You need to put this event in your calendar. The formalities will begin at 5.00pm in the Learning Hub with guest speakers, followed by relaxed time in Prep as together we can share the joy of this event. Oh and can you guess who these past Prep children may be?

Prep was very excited to have dental health staff from Orange Aboriginal Medical Service visit us to talk about keeping our teeth healthy and clean today. The wonderful dental helpers from OAMS taught the children how to eat well, drink well, clean well, stay well and play well.  

To have healthy teeth children need to eat well, this includes eating healthy food and not eating sometimes foods as often. Drinking well is also especially important with water being the absolute best drink for healthy teeth. Milk can also help our teeth grow strong, but we should avoid fizzy drinks, cordial, and juice. Clean well is about looking after your teeth by brushing them twice a day. Prep got to watch as the dental health staff cleaned a huge pair of teeth with a giant toothbrush. They did circles and flicks to clean both the teeth and the gums. Stay well is about looking after your body and resting when you are ill and play well includes looking after your teeth when playing, trying not to bump them but if you do let an adult know. Looking after out teeth helps to keep us healthy! 

After our dental health talk the children were able to have a quick check up. Using a small mirror the dental health staff had a look in the children’s mouths and helped them guess how many teeth they had. Most children had twenty teeth, although a few children have already lost a tooth! The children were all very brave and received a dental health packet afterwards to take home. 

The list of businesses and individuals that have generously donated their goods and services for our silent auction is below – we can’t thank you enough for giving to our school!

Businesses

Nestle Purina

Cricket NSW

BnB Made Easy (Night in Nashville)

Golden Bowl Chinese Restaurant

Gracie’s at 4Pines Restaurant

Sugar Mill Café

Lawn Tips

Totally Workwear

Iko Iko Hair

Forever Beautiful Souls

Jenny’s classroom

Chocnotes

Chloe Gray Alterations

Robbie Mortimer

The Sweet Hive

Apix Photography

Coffee Link

Contemporary Homes

Laurie O’Brien Equipment Finance

Seven Miles Coffee

Mortimer’s winery

Whitey’s Pies

Individuals

Louise Childs

Rosa Cunial

Jaimie Honeysett

It’s been a big few weeks of sport! For many of our Primary athletes it has been a huge term of sport already. In Week 2, many of our primary students headed to the Zone Athletics Carnival, then backed up the following day for a 4am start, to head to Sydney for the annual CSSA State Netball Gala Day. Our Stage 3 Senior Girls team had a strong start to the Gala Day displaying good teamwork and proving they can hold their own with the city friends throughout the round games. Success was theirs, placing 2^nd in their pool. They headed into the quarter final with confidence against the formidable Norwest. A tight game that could have gone either way at times, the girls lost but showed what ‘never giving up’ looks like on the court.

The Junior Girls team, our stage 2’s, had a cracking day and really showed the depth of netball at OCS coming equal 1^st in their pool but coming 2^nd due to countbacks. Progressing to the quarter finals they came up against a stronger ACC Marsden Park. Leaving nothing on the court and playing with heart until the final whistle the girls lost their match. Despite the loss this young team displayed strong court presence and distribution of the ball from one end of the court to the other.

This was the first year our boys have competed in the Open Boys division, previously OCS has competed in a mixed division. It was a hard tournament for the boys coming up against schools that have boys playing netball regularly. Despite the losses across the day, the boys continued to improve and learnt a lot about perseverance and resilience all whilst showing good sportsmanship and honouring God in the way they conducted themselves throughout the day.

A big thank you to our parent helper Mr Pyle for driving the bus and to Mrs Drummond, Miss McKeown and Mrs Buckerfield for coaching our teams for this event.

Next sporting adventure for OCS saw our 14 Primary students head in Week 4 to Blacktown International Sport Park for the CSSA State Athletics Championships – and the day did not disappoint. Despite the inclement weather our students achieved a few personal bests and displayed a positive and determined attitude in their events. IOCS continues each year to go from strength to strength in Athletics and I know there will be many years on the horizon that will see more students progressing to the next level. A huge congratulations to Jacob Price in Yr 5 who smashed every event he went in on the day to achieve Age Champion, making it to the next level, CIS, in every event he went in – no easy feat!

Congratulations also to Dimity Buckerfield – Yr 6 who will also progress to CIS for High Jump. Both these athletes will head to CIS on Friday September 5^th.

Stay tuned for the results from the CSSA State Athletics Carnival for our Secondary students who headed to Sydney Olympic Park on August 28^th. There is sure to be some outstanding results.

One for the 2026 calendars…Events are locked in.

• OCS Swimming Carnival: Friday January 30^th
• Zone Swimming Carnival: Friday February 6^th – YES, it is back here in Orange for the next 3 years!