In this issue

We look forward to welcoming Mr Peter Westhead as our new Deputy Principal at the beginning of 2024.

With a professional background that includes a wide range of experience in schools in England and Australia, Peter comes to TSAC from Westbourne Grammar School in Melbourne. Peter has extensive experience in senior leadership roles and looks forward to utilising his expertise in pedagogy, human resource management, strategy development, building staff capacity, and supporting staff as they coach, mentor and lead others. He looks forward to relocating to Queensland to be closer to his family.

In other news, our Director of Student Life,  Mr Heath Del Favero, will leave us at the end of this year. We will have the opportunity to farewell Mr Del Favero next term.  The College will be shortly recruiting for this role.

The Senior Wind Ensemble and Stage Band performed at two MusicFest events. The ensembles performed three pieces at each performance, which they had been preparing for the past months. Under the conductorship of Mr Craig Alloway, they gave thrilling performances and achieved Silver Awards at both events. Congratulations to all of our musicians on two exceptional evenings of music!

This Term, primary students played Football and Basketball in the round-robin Primary GBC competition, while our secondary students played Boys’ Basketball and Football (soccer), and Girls’ Volleyball and Touch Football in the GBC competition. The season was very competitive, and we were proud to see three girls’ teams progress to the Finals, our Senior First Girls Touch Footballers, our Senior First and our Senior Second Girls Volleyball teams. Though all teams showed courage and determination, sadly all teams were unsuccessful in winning their Premierships.

This season all of our TSAC teams displayed exceptional teamwork and athletic ability, and have shown commendable growth in skill and resilience. A special thank you to our coaches, coordinators, volunteers, and supporters who have helped make the season a success for our students.

Our Primary Leaders, Middle School Leaders and our College Academic Prefect were excited to visit Queensland Parliament House. They were hosted by Charis Mullen MP who thanked them for the fantastic leadership of our College community this year. Students went on a tour of Parliament House and enjoyed some fine dining in the ‘Stranger’s Dining Room’.

During the last week of Term 3, Year 6 held their annual Solar Buddy Expo. Year 6 students were challenged to raise funds to gift solar lights to energy poverty countries.  We are extremely happy to announce that this year, the Year 6 students were able to raise approximately $3781, which will go towards changing the lives of many children.

It was well supported by parents and friends who were treated to an informative evening about supporting children living in energy poverty and the United Nations’ Sustainability Goals.

The College dancers have continued to compete in local Eisteddfods.

Lockyer District Dancing Festival

All six of our Primary dance teams competed at the Lockyer District Dancing Festival. They all did an amazing job and received the following awards:

Rumble Dance Competition

The TSAC Hip Hop crews competed at the Rumble Dance Competition, one of Brisbane’s biggest and most respected Hip Hop competitions.

Both the Junior Beats Crew and the Boss Beats Crew performed exceptionally in front of a packed crowd and panel of nationally renowned judges. Congratulations to the Junior Beats Crew, who came second in the Primary School division.

Thank you to the choreographers, teachers and coordinators who helped bring this together, and to our families and supporters who are amazingly encouraging!

Our Year 3 students participated in the much anticipated Sleepover, the first (of many) outdoor education adventures at the College! Students set up their sleeping bags in classrooms before enjoying a large helping of everyone’s favourite dinner – pizza. The evening was filled with science-themed night-time activities, including experiencing the Star Lab dome planetarium, Ozo bot coding, and using Virtual Reality headsets and Merge Cubes to learn about the Solar System.

The students enjoyed shooting their paper rockets and measuring the distance, searching for Nocturnal animals, and stargazing through telescopes, before eating ice blocks and snacks while they watched Wall-E before getting ready for bed. A fun night was had by all!

Book Week is a highlight on everyone’s calendar! This year, there were many exciting activities held across the Primary and Secondary Campuses, including the highly anticipated Book Week costume dress-up. So many creative costumes were designed and worn with much excitement by students and staff. Special mention to Ms Teresa Jenkins and Ms Kelly Whitehorne for organising all the Book Week festivities.

This Term, all of our Primary classes have been collecting hygiene products to donate to Anglicare, and to support people in need. Each year group was assigned a specific product, such as travel tissues, shampoo, deodorant, and toothbrushes. The response from the TSAC community was tremendous !

The Year 6 Leaders, in collaboration with Anglicare, would like to thank everyone who joined us in the Toiletries Drive. Our College families have gone the extra mile to donate an overwhelming number of hygiene products, and your kindness is making a real impact in the lives of those less fortunate. Together, we are making a positive change, one small act of kindness at a time!

The College was honoured to have 12 students and 3 staff visiting from Gushan Senior High School in Taiwan. Our TSAC families played host for each guest and each student was assigned a student buddy for the 4 day visit. Students attended timetabled classes with their buddies and they were also excited to visit Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary on the Brisbane Show holiday, giving our visitors a chance to practise their English, and learn our Australian culture and way of learning. The tour was a wonderful educational experience for students from both countries, and strong friendships were created in a short time. Special thank you to Secondary Teacher Maggie Lee for organising the experience.

Thank you to the teachers from Gushan Senior High School for putting together a highlights video of the students’ visit.

Five Secondary Opti-MINDS teams competed in the Brisbane West regional event this Term. The students have worked for the previous six weeks to create a solution to a Language Literature, Media Communication, Science Engineering or Social Sciences challenge. They demonstrated this prepared response to a judging panel and needed to showcase their problem-solving and creative skills for an additional spontaneous challenge.

The five teams (four pictured) competed admirably and were commended for their teamwork and out-of-the-box thinking. Congratulations to all teams, especially the Media Communications Division 3 Team, who won their event and will now progress to the State Finals. Three teams also received Honours awards, and three teams received Spirit of Opti-MINDS awards!

A special thank you must be extended to Mrs Beer, Mrs Tucci and Mrs Haines-Shipman for their mentorship. This was the 13th year that TSAC competed in Opti-MINDS, and we look forward to the upcoming State Finals as well as next year’s competition!

Our Primary and Secondary Athletics teams showed incredible sportsmanship, determination and athleticism at the GBC Athletics Carnival held at the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre (QSAC).

PRIMARY TEAM

We were proud to see our Primary students outstanding performance as a team, with the Primary Girls finishing second and the Primary Boys finishing third. This contributed to the TSAC Primary team’s overall result, and they finished second overall! Congratulations to Piper Bozhoff, who was the age champion for 10 Years girls. Congratulations also to Liliana Titley, Daniel Masunungure and Michael Schneider, who came second place in their age division and to Hayden Robertson and Heath Rotbauer, who came third place in their age division.

SECONDARY TEAM

Our Secondary team also competed commendably and secured third place overall. Congratulations to our two Age Champions: Leila Alexander (14 Years girls) and Josh Milne (16 Years boys). Congratulations also to Alannah Draper, , Elke McAuley,  and Lachlan Ashwell, who came second place in their age division and to Luca Gigliotti who came third place in his age division.

The College recently celebrated Cultural Week, which coincided with Harmony Day. The College’s week-long program was an opportunity for students to share parts of their cultures with their classmates, as they also deepened their understanding of cultural diversity throughout the College, and participated in a number of cultural activities.

On Monday, staff and students on the Secondary Campus wore cultural dress or orange to represent harmony. Several students had prepared cultural dances and musical performances, which they performed for staff, students and parents in attendance at the College’s Assembly. We were proud to welcome Uncle Joe, who gave the Acknowledgement of Country address and impressed our students with the value of diversity in our society. Throughout the week, students participated in Lei making, Henna tattoos and Bollywood dance workshops, enhancing the feeling of inclusiveness and respect within the College student community.

A special thank you to the College’s Cultural Captains, Jaeda Eva and Helna Aloshious, and our Heads of Clan for their hard work and for organising the events and activities!

Under beautiful warm sunny skies, the Secondary Inter-Clan Athletics Carnival was held at the University of Queensland. There was a highly competitive atmosphere in both track and field events with many students eagerly participating on the day, and earning points for their Clan.

In the end, Clan Sinclair was declared the winner after very tight competition from the other clans. This win caps off a successful year with a clean sweep for Clan Sinclair, winning the Interclan Swimming, Cross Country and Athletics carnivals, for the first time in College history. Well done Clan Sinclair. A big thank you to Miss Lanigan and Miss Schuler for their coordination of the carnival and congratulations to all the students and staff involved on a very successful day.

The College celebrated National Science Week (12 – 20 August). This year’s theme was Innovation: Powering Future Industries, and TSAC are always discovering new and exciting ways for our students to engage with the curriculum and provide exciting ways for students to explore content.

Our Primary students participated in the ever-popular It’s Rocket Science activities with practical activities launching rockets. On the Secondary Campus, students were involved in activities centred around innovation which provided students the opportunity to create, build and think outside the box.

Students were encouraged to creatively incorporate Innovation by designing a marshmallow tower strong enough to withstand a jelly earthquake, building a rocket with a special chemical fuel, and testing their Science knowledge with a Science Quiz. The week culminated in a cinematic experience where students watched science fiction become reality as scientists work out how to deflect asteroids from Earth.

It was a very busy week across both campuses to celebrate all things Science.

On Thursday, 17 August, the talented dancers from The Springfield Anglican College presented its annual Live to Dance Showcase at the Ipswich Civic Centre. This year’s showcase was an energetic display of jazz, hip-hop, and contemporary lyrical. This year’s showcase celebrates the College’s 25^th year of educating young people. To mark the occasion, we opened the Showcase with a slideshow of photos looking back at the College’s long dance history. The first dance of the evening was dedicated to the College’s milestone year and featured music from 1998, the year the College opened, involving students from Year 1 to Year 12.

Congratulations to all of the dancers who displayed wonderful technical prowess, passion, teamwork and emotion, and to our teachers, choreographers, coordinators and supporters for your tireless work behind the scenes. You put on an incredible show!

This year, 52 of our Primary and Secondary school musicians have participated in the Griffith University State Honours Ensemble Program (SHEP). SHEP offers several programs that have been taking place over the past few months.  Students get to play or sing with fellow students from other schools, under the direction of eminent international and national conductors in pursuit of musical excellence, before performing in a concert before family, friends and music lovers alike at the Queensland Conservatorium, South Bank.

This year, TSAC students were selected for the Primary, South East Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, and Australia ensembles. They performed in a Wind Orchestra, String Orchestra, Celtic String Orchestra, Guitar Ensemble and Vocal Ensembles.

A special mention goes to Daniel Berry-Porter (Year 11), who has been accepted for the third year to join the Australian Honours Ensemble Program later this year.

What a fantastic night for our Year 11 students who enjoyed their Semi Formal at Brighton Homes Area on Tuesday evening. Under the blue light towers, and with the College’s name in lights on the scoreboard, the students had a wonderful evening together, dancing the night away. Congratulations Year 11s and a big thank you to all staff who attended the night.

The Secondary Campus held the third annual Film and Arts Festival, which, for the first time, was held at the Springfield Event Cinema on Wednesday, 30 August.

The event showcased the diverse artistic endeavours of students on the big screen. The film portion of the event featured more than 30 entries across 10 film genres, and the submissions were judged by renowned University of Southern Queensland film lecturer Dr Daryl Sparkes. The festival also featured an array of captivating artworks, which were also shown on the big screen, the winners of which were voted by the audience in real time.

Dr Sparks said of the festival, “Films from The Springfield Anglican College have been exceptional. The stories in the films have a broad range from comedy to suspense to tragedy. The quality of the filmmaking techniques from the students is well above the standard I would expect from high school students. The great thing about the films is that they all connect with the audience, so I then look at how inventive the film is in telling this story, both visually and through sound. Events such as this are very important for the artistic development of the students. They are also good calling cards for the students in the industry as well. I think quite a number of the TSAC films should also be entered in industry festivals as well, they’re that good!”

If you do not intend to send your child to The Springfield Anglican College next year (2024), you are reminded that you must give a full Term’s notice to avoid incurring fees as part of the College Enrolment Agreement.

If your student is not returning, please get in touch with the Enrolment Officer by phone on 07 3814 8100 or email: enrolments@tsac.qld.edu.au

We are excited to announce a SALE on old-style College uniform items (Primary students). A range of items are available for only $10 each!

Please note that the old-style uniform can be worn until the end of 2024.

Available items include:

• V neck vest (sizes 12-18), $10
• V neck Jumper (size 4), $10
• Jnr Girls Blouse (sizes 2-16), $10
• Jnr Girls Pinafore (sizes 2-12), $10
• Jnr Boys Formal Shirt (sizes 2-8), $10
• Board shorts (sizes 8-14; XS-XL), $10
• Unisex sports shorts, red(sizes 2, 6, 14; M-2XL), $10
• Long cricket pants (S-XL), $10
• Socks (various), $10
• Tartan Ties (various), $10

The uniform items are available in limited sizes, and once they are sold, they are gone. You can purchase the items from the Secondary Campus reception. Please be aware there are no changing facilities to try on garments. Payments will be made at the College, and no refunds are available.