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Merryn Clarksmith

New Principal Appointed

By School Updates

I am very pleased to advise that the next Principal of our School will be Ms Merryn Clarksmith, who is currently Deputy Principal of St Luke’s Grammar School in Dee Why, Sydney.

Merryn has over 15 years’ experience in leadership positions in Christian schools. Before joining St Luke’s in 2016 she was, from 2008, Head of Senior School at Rouse Hill Anglican College. Formerly, she was at Northolm Grammar School in the Sydney suburb or Arcadia, where, over a ten-year period, she held the positions of Dean of Senior Students and Assistant to the Deputy Principal, among others.

Merryn is a graduate of Macquarie University from which she has a Bachelor of Arts and a Diploma in Education (English/Drama). She also has a Master of Educational Leadership from the University of New South Wales.

We are delighted that Merryn will join us from 1 January next year, allowing a seamless transition with Ian’s move to Trinity Christian School. Before then I will plan a families’ evening so that you get the chance to meet Merryn as soon as possible.

The educational philosophy at St Luke’s is very similar to our own, and places children at the centre of their learning experience. Merryn is very committed to the approach and has indicated her enthusiasm for the programs we have in place at Googong.

We are very fortunate to have someone of Merryn’s educational and leadership experience, and Christian commitment, led to us. Her approach is nicely summed up in the following extract from her application:

In leading a school … I strive to reflect Paul’s words to the Colossians, imploring us to “clothe ourselves in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” as we interact with each other.

John Richards
Chair, Board
The Anglican School Googong

Father’s Day

By School Updates

Happy Father’s Day to all our dads. All our Kindergarten – Year 2 students had a great time making gifts for their dads this week. As you can see in the photos we made some paddle pop stick photo frames with a photo of us at school. This was great fun and a lovely way to say a special ‘thank you’ to all of our dads on this special day.

Year 1 Camp

By School Updates

Our Year 1 students had a great time on their hunt for a house through Googong following the clues set for them. Eventually finding the home that our friends at Achieve Homes let us use for the night.

Kindy Night Out

By School Updates

Our Kindergarten children had a fantastic ‘Kindy Night Out’ last week! There were dress-ups, dancing, ping pong, chess, drawing, scooter boarding, colouring in and eating – all things we love to do. Of course we then finished with a movie and popcorn. All of this was worked out by the Kindergarten children – well done!

Check out some of the photos, capturing all the fun that was had!

Book Week

By School Updates

As we all know, there is nothing better than sitting down with a great book and so it was for Book Week 2015 when we celebrated with a ‘dress up day’. All of the children and staff enjoyed being one of their favourite characters from a book for a day. We had characters from Harry Potter, Fancy Nancy, Where’s Wally, The Little Mermaid and many, many more. These characters in the school for a day certainly helped ‘light up or world’.

Enjoy the photo gallery for a snapshot of just some of the characters who turned up at school.

Our First Sport Day

By School Updates

Thursday is sport day at The Anglican School Googong. Our students enjoyed their first sport day with a walk down Gorman Drive to Rockley Oval. Here they were ablt to use some of the great sporting facilities already available in Googong on what was cool summers day.  We all had a lot of fun playing ball games, running and creating some fun spaces with our parachute.

After our sport time on the oval we finished with a play on the adventure playground with the slide, climbing cubes, giant slippery dip and the swings. Then it was time to walk back to our new school and enjoy some lunch and a sit down.

Building Progress: Almost there!

By School Updates

The Early Learning Centre is nearing its completion ready for the 2015 year. The cleaners are booked in and we are just waiting on the final handover before we can move all of our furniture in and make it ready for the young ones.

Even during the mixed weather our landscapers have been flat out, getting the oval ready for the year ahead and putting the finishing touches on the gardens.

The entry of our school is really taking shape and the car park is almost complete with the footpaths and flagpoles in place.

Our K-2 classrooms are currently being painted and the cupboards will start going in next week.

We are currently on track thanks to our builders (www.totalproject.com.au ) for the exciting start of our inaugural year on Wednesday the 28th January 2015.

It’s not too late to join us for next year. If you would like to apply please contact us directly (enrolments@tasg.nsw.edu.au) so we can discuss this with you.

Welcoming Rachel Howden to TASG

By School Updates

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Rachel Howden as the newest addition to our teaching team at The Anglican School Googong. Rachel has a range of experience both locally and overseas having taught in Early Childhood, Upper Primary and Enrichment areas across a number of schools. She has been a Head of Department and has also been involved in the creation of an Early Childhood School.

Rachel is passionate about education and sees her role as a teacher to inspire children with a desire to learn. She believes in creating learning experiences that make use of a variety of learning spaces that can be both in and out of the classroom. Rachel sees the school as more than the four walls of a classroom. It is a community of learners and families and a launching pad from which students will enter the world beyond their schooling.

She is excited about the opportunities that are taking shape at The Anglican School Googong. Rachel is looking forward to helping create an innovative place of learning where we equip our students with the necessary aptitudes, outlooks, attitudes, skills and knowledge necessary for them to take their part as global citizens.

Rachel is committed to building Christian community. She sees this as pivotal to creating a community where students experience the fulfilment achieved in serving others so that they will dare to dream about making a difference in their world.

Welcome Portia Bellew

By School Updates

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Portia Bellew as our latest addition to our teaching team at The Anglican School Googong. Portia has a range of experience having taught Kindergarten, Year 2, Year 4 and Year 5.

Portia brings with her a passion to create a collaborative, authentic and inquiry –based learning environment where students are nurtured with strong, supportive relationships. She is looking forward to guiding her students as they develop academically, emotionally, physically, socially and spiritually.

She is looking forward to providing learning opportunities that go beyond the traditional classroom and sharing her love of learning with our community.

Portia also has a wealth of experience beyond the traditional classroom having been a volunteer in a variety of locations both in Australia and overseas. She has taught in a remote school in Vanuatu where she taught and assisted local teachers and the community learn about ‘best practice’ in education and assisted with the creation of teaching resources for use in the classroom.

Portia has spent time in Morocco supporting students and teachers in class as well creating activities to assist in the teaching of English. Closer to home she led a small group of students on a pilgrimage to Uluru to assist these students understand more about our indigenous culture through an immersion program.

We look forward to seeing Portia instil in her students a desire to learn as we create a reputation for excellence in a growing community at Googong.

Newly Appointed Music Teacher

By School Updates

It is with great pleasure that we announce our latest addition to the teaching staff team at The Anglican School Googong with the appointment of Margaret Hansen as our Primary School Music and Performing Arts teacher.

Margaret was previously the Head of Department across a very successful Pre-School to Year 12 ‘arts’ school as well as Subject Area Coordinator and Lead Teacher across numerous other schools.

Margaret brings with her a wealth of experience in music education, which includes her establishing band and choral programmes in schools as well as making Performing Arts an integral part of the school. She has been the Musical Director & Repetiteur for many school musicals and we look forward to seeing this become part of the fabric of our School over time. Margaret is looking forward to creating a dynamic, active and challenging program as we start our new school next year.

Over the coming years we look forward to having Margaret work with our staff, students and parents to grow the Performing Arts Program from Early Primary through to Secondary School making this an integral part of a ‘Googong education’ for all to engage with.