Middle Senior School Communications, 18 January 2024
Term 1 - Week 0 and 1
Friday 19 January
- Student Leadership training day (Student Leaders were notified at the end of last year). 10am - 2pm – lunch provided.
- Year 7 book drop off and laptop collection (optional). 9am-11am (CCC).
Monday 22 January
- First day of Term 1 (School starts at 8:35am)
- MSS Information Night 6pm in the Calvary Community Centre
Friday 26 January
- Australia Day Public Holiday
Upcoming important dates:
Wednesday 7 February
- MSS Leadership Induction Service 9am in the CCC. In this service we induct our Year 12s, Year 7s, and Student Leaders. We will invite parents of all these students, by email, to this event (we will also take plenty of photos for you).
14-16 February (Week 4) Year 7-10 Camp week (Wednesday to Friday).
16 February Year 12 Formal
Dear Parents and Carers
The summer holidays are at an end and our teaching staff are eagerly looking forward to the return of your children to our campus – we hope they are also looking forward to starting school. Just a reminder that we are asking all students to come in the sport uniform (House shirt the first day) for the duration of the first week back at school.
I have several important notices I need everyone to please engage with:
Facilities update and entering school grounds
Our facilities team has done a tremendous job of working through the holiday break to deliver new learning spaces and areas for us to enjoy. Our new Stage 4 area will be open to students on the first day of school, but the constant rain has slowed the work around the entrance to the building and the College. What this means is that we may have to block off part of the foot traffic entrance area to the College for a few days next week and redirect people through the middle of the Western Carpark Hanger. You will still be able to access the College safely, but please follow any redirection signs that you see. Unfortunately, it also means that we need to move our Year 7 book drop off (tomorrow 18th January) to the CCC as access to this building won’t be available until next week (we will invite you in to see it a little later – sorry). Thankfully, this will only be a very short inconvenience.
Uniform (apparel) update
Thank you for your patience during our current uniform transition. The motive in making changes to our formal uniform was and still is to provide an updated style that would also improve the comfort of students. Of equal importance is helping to ensure the uniform is cost effective for parents, which was why we removed the previous Middle School uniform and moved to a Prep to 8 and Years 9-12 uniform. I would like to remind everyone that there have been no changes to the sport uniform at all and there is no phase out process on any sport item currently available at School Locker.
To make things easier for our parents we wanted to provide a short list of the only items (circle logo) that we are currently phasing out of the high school uniform (which may be a little different from previous information). The following items will be phased out by the end of 2025 and none are currently available for sale at School Locker:
- Senior girls’ white blouse (with band across bottom and worn with tie)
- Senior boys’ white shirt (worn tucked in and with tie in terms 2 and 3)
- MS striped girls’ blouse
- MS striped boys’ shirt
- Ties for boys and MSS girls
- The purple wool jumper
Students who currently own these items in a state of good repair, may continue to wear them until the end of 2025. If you get these items second hand, you may still use them until the end of 2025.
School Locker have notified us that they have had trouble with the neck style (and collar) of the new Senior Boys’ white shirts styled to be worn out and without ties. They are selling the ‘wrong’ shirt and once the correct new stock arrives, they will exchange these for new correct stock without charge. In cases where there are out-of-stock issues for uniform items at School Locker, the College will provide an adaptive response – we don’t want anyone penalised over uniform items that are out-of-stock.
Uniform items with the old shield logo
For some time now the old shield logo has not been available on new items to purchase from School Locker. This initial change was made in 2020 and this old shield logo will no longer be acceptable on garments from the end of 2025. Any uniform garment worn this year must be in good repair.
There are still school bags in use with the old shield logo. As long as these are in good repair they may continue to be used until they become ‘too shabby’ for continued use (the phase out process only applies to clothing).
Thank you for your patience as we have worked with School locker to resolve the many challenges that have been brought about owing to many factors beyond our control.
What you can’t wear or bring to school (students) – please read
While some of our uniform items are changing, our expectations for hair have remained the same. I want to remind our students (who have been told many times in the past):
- Mullets and rat tails are not permitted – if you show up with a mullet or a rat’s tail on the first day of school, you will be sent to the office and we will ask your parent to collect you to rectify your haircut.
- Long hair must be tied up.
- Hair must be a single natural-looking colour, not multiple colours
I would like to remind everyone wearing earrings:
- to be worn in the lower lobe of the ear only and have only one earring per lobe.
- A clear/invisible stud can be used for other piercings.
- Students are permitted to wear a set of plain silver or gold studs (no stones).
- Earrings should be small (small thin sleeper or small stud e.g. 6-8mm). Hoops are not permitted. Essentially, the correct earrings are the small sleepers you buy from a chemist – not thick hoops you buy from a jewellery store.
Smart watches and jewellery
Smart watches are not to be worn at school (the Queensland Government has mandated this across the entire state sector this year). We will permit you to have some wearable technology (e.g. fitbit), but if you can receive a text message on it or can browse the internet on it – you can’t wear it at school and we will treat this the same as our mobile phone policy.
You can wear a necklace, but it shouldn’t be easily visible. You can’t wear rings.
Parents Meet the Teacher Night
I want to encourage you to come to our MSS Meet the Teacher Night at 6pm in the CCC on the first day of school. We will outline our goals for the year, give you a chance to hear from our main cocurricular groups, meet our wellbeing team and counsellors, and importantly meet your child’s teachers. We want you to contact us across the year with any questions or concerns you have and being able to put a face to a name is really helpful in this regard.
Mr Josh Wilson
Head of Middle & Senior School & Innovative Learning Design
General Notices:
College Bus Services
The College is transitioning to RollCall to manage our Bus bookings. You will receive an email from Rollcall with the information on how to set up the Parent app or web portal. Please note you will need to create your login within 24hrs after the welcome email.
For more information on the Bus Services and to view the routes please visit our website here.
Calvary 40th Anniversary Umbrella
To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Calvary Christian College we have limited additional umbrellas available for purchase.
Umbrellas are $30 each and can be collected from reception at our Springwood or Carbrook campus. To purchase please use this link: https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1162111
Events at Calvary
Please see below the Term Flyer for Events for MSS this Term.
Our current College events can be found on our website: https://www.calvarycc.qld.edu.au/events/
All of our Parent Information can be found on our Website: https://www.calvarycc.qld.edu.au/parent-information/
Sports Update
Calvary is getting ready for another fantastic year in sports. Kindly take a moment to go through the important sports information below.