Bookings are made in Compass by selecting ‘Conferences’. You will find instructions on how to book meetings here on the Compass website. This is a live booking system that allocates bookings based on the order they have been lodged. 

Bookings will close on Tuesday 8 September at 7pm.

Mr Paul Carter
Deputy Principal

Our Secondary students gave up their lunch break times each Thursday to meet and foster their mentee's ideas, whilst also modelling how to research, reference and shape their ideas. It truly was a delight to witness Learning for Life in action. Students have produced websites, posters, dioramas, books, videos and animations on their significant historical person. 

We would love to invite you (students, families and friends) to view these projects and hear from the students themselves before school on the morning of Friday 18 September in the IRC from 8-8.40am. 

We look forward to seeing you then,    

Mrs Rachel Robinson and Mrs Leonie Hampson
Academic Head and Junior School Enrichment Coordinator

Our Heads of Department are currently discussing the best way forward with their teachers, to enable our students to engage with deep learning, maximise opportunities to show their skills and knowledge whilst adhering to the guidelines in each of their subjects. At the heart of these changes by NESA, is the desire for formal assessment tasks to demonstrate a student’s own knowledge, skills and understanding. This means that results must not reflect a student’s use of generative AI. As such, we will be pausing our recent trial of AI in assessments for Years 10-12, but still continuing it for Years 7-9. 

An important consideration with this is the importance of attending school each day. As assessments will now be completed at school (with the exception of major works and a small percentage of other tasks), unless a student is unwell or other approved leave is granted, being at school and on time is the best way for students to learn and then demonstrate this learning. The usual illness and misadventure processes will still remain, however loss of preparation time, by missing school or attending family holidays during term time is considered unapproved leave and may adversely affect students in their assessments and possible results. 

At the heart of what we do here at Shire is the Learning for Life framework, as reflected by the five domains that we seek to develop students who are resilient, resourceful, relational and reflective, deep in their understanding of the renewal that hope in Christ brings. We will continue to prioritise and value the learning dispositions that contribute to both school-based knowledge (including the NESA syllabuses) and in life beyond school. 

As planned, communication for changes to future assessment tasks will be reflected in the upcoming assessment schedules and Compass notifications, which will be published in due course.

Mrs Rachel Robinson
Academic Head

This week, our Junior School students took to the stage with incredible performances in vocals, instrumentals and dance. From solo pieces to duets and group items, we were in awe of the calibre of talent on display! A huge thank you to our Music Department for their creativity, dedication and hard work in preparing such a memorable evening.

Last week we thoroughly enjoyed our Book Week celebrations! There was a buzz of excitement as students showcased their imaginative costumes, took part in a Coloring in and Poetry Competition, explored our very Book Fair and joined in the much-anticipated Dress-Up Parade.

A special highlight was seeing our Year 12 students visit Junior School classes to read with the younger students, fostering a love of reading across all age groups. It was also wonderful to see our learning community come together, staying afterwards to enjoy fellowship and connection over ‘Brunch in the Breezeway’.

Last Friday marked the final week of our Term 3 Interschool Competition with Danebank, Inaburra and Scots College. It has been fantastic to see our students enjoying the soccer sessions this term, and we look forward to moving into basketball next term. This program is a wonderful opportunity for students who are looking for additional sporting experiences and opportunities to develop their skills. I encourage families to keep an eye out for further information from Miss Hackfath early next term. Miss Hackfath does a spectacular job overseeing this program, which involves three-hour sessions from 3:00pm to 7:00pm on Friday evenings. We are incredibly grateful for the time, energy and enthusiasm she invests in providing this valuable opportunity for our students.

Mrs Ruth Cooper
Head of Junior School

The team for 2026-27 is:

This year the Student Leadership Team will be split into four teams. There will be a team that focuses on Christian Leadership, School Community, Fundraising and some students who look after specific areas such as Sport, Production, Music and Learning for Life. The Leadership induction ceremony will be held during the Secondary Assembly on Monday 7th September. The smaller teams will be announced to the school community early in Term 4.

Mr David Collins
Head of Secondary

Regional Results

Following our fantastic success at Regionals, 18 of our teams represented our school at the State Competition at the Whitlam centre, competing with over 220 teams  from across the state.  This was our biggest team yet with 63 students competing in  18 teams in both the On Stage and Line Rescue divisions.

Congratulations to all teams for their incredible dedication, creativity, and technical skill. A huge thank you to our robotics parents for your ongoing support, encouragement, and commitment to changing family schedules so that our robocup teams can stay after school and work each Thursday. 

A special thank you to Mr Pinn for bringing his coding expertise to Robocup and supporting many of our teams use Python coding to program their robots, Mrs Denny for working alongside our On Stage teams - particularly with completing their Technical posters and Mrs Veltmeyer for her support leading up to the competitions and helping manage teams on the day. Thank you also to Miss Hackfath for supporting our teams and myself each Thursday.  Our amazing Junior School teachers, Mrs Cooper and Mrs Robinson, who have also supported teams each week by volunteering for an extra afterschool playground duty so that our teams can have a break on a Thursday afternoon!  

State Competition Results

The creative process required real precision and patience. Students began by sketching out their designs, carefully balancing positive and negative space to fit the skate deck canvas. After prepping their wood surfaces, they layered acrylic paints, paint pens, and custom stencils to build depth.

The enthusiasm in the art rooms was electric throughout the entire unit. Year 8 embraced the hands-on challenge, enjoying every step from initial concept sketches to the final protective varnish layer. The finished decks were on display in the library in a mini exhibition August 13th, and are about to be displayed in the artrooms - a fantastic celebration of student creativity, skill, and contemporary youth culture!

Miss Susie Yock
Head of Visual Arts

At just six years old, Ava has achieved something truly remarkable, winning the NSW State Championship and adding her name to the same prestigious perpetual trophy that her sister Ruby won three years ago, at the very same age. Ava has shown incredible resilience, dedication, and commitment to her sport, especially for someone so young. Her hard work and determination have been evident throughout her journey, and seeing her dream become a reality makes this achievement even more special. 

Ruby achieved an incredible result, placing 5th in her age group and earning herself a place at the World Championships in Belfast in early 2027. Reaching World Qualifier status is no easy feat, but Ruby’s perseverance, dedication, and countless hours of training have truly paid off. Her hard work was evident in every performance, with her dances being outstanding from start to finish. This is a wonderful achievement and a testament to Ruby’s commitment, determination, and passion for her dancing.

Matilda placed 10th in one of the hardest age groups. She shone brightly on stage, demonstrating incredible focus, a positive attitude, and a genuine determination to achieve her very best. Her mindset, confidence, and energy were truly outstanding, and she approached her performance with such strength and enthusiasm. It was wonderful to see her embrace the opportunity and give her all on stage.

The girls have Nationals coming up in September and we wish them the best of luck. 

Miss Ashleigh Hackfath
Junior School Sports Coordinator

The CIS Softball team went on to win the championships for the very first time in CIS history. Alexi and Jack were part of this history-making team — an amazing achievement they can be very proud of.

Alexi’s success continued when he was selected to represent NSW PSSA at the National Softball Championships in October.

For Alexi, the highlight of the championships was pitching for his team and being selected to represent NSW.

Jack’s highlight was getting on base almost every time and making lots of new friends along the way.

What an incredible achievement for both Jack and Alexi! Well done, boys, on being part of CIS history!

Miss Ashleigh Hackfath
Junior School Sports Coordinator

These students represented our school extremely well throughout a fierce day of competition. Thank you to all the teachers, parents and spectators who have supported our Athletics students this year. We can’t wait to see you all compete next year.

Miss Ashleigh Hackfath
Junior School Sports Coordinator

A big shout out to Mr Hibbard and the ICT team for all the logistics support throughout the day. Looking forward to another strong performance next year!

Mr Scott Newton
Year 7-9 Welfare Coordinator

Corinth was a busy and influential trading centre where people of different backgrounds interacted together on a daily basis.  The Corinthians were moulded by a worldview that saw Mankind as the measure of all things, and therefore that considered human ‘wisdom’ as the benchmark of ‘truth’ by which to measure everything else - much like secular humanism has captured the imagination of our society. To think otherwise was to be considered ‘foolishness’.

Into this situation came the Gospel of the the Lord Jesus Christ, the rejected, crucified, Saviour who claimed to be the Son of God and the Jews’ ‘Promised Messiah’. To align oneself with this enigmatic figure put one on a collision course with the commonly accepted way of thinking. Sound familiar? And, understandably, the Church that was founded consisted of people who were influenced by the surrounding culture probably more than they realised or were prepared to admit. 

Secular humanism spawns individualism, sectarianism and competitive pride of achievement. Through the ministry of the Holy Sprit among them there developed an emphasis on spiritual gifts of a more impressive ‘spectacular’ bent, and in particular being able to exhibit the gift of tongues – spiritual utterances, that were obviously inspired by an intrusive force that temporarily occupied the individual thus possessed.

The problem facing the Apostle Paul as he sought to inject true spiritual maturity into this volatile situation was that the ingrained influence of secular humanism made them very critical of his ‘foolish’ teaching.

Fortunately he was not deterred because, as Luke tells us in Acts 18:9-10, “the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, ‘Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.’”

What comforting and reassuring words these would have been to the faithful apostle.

In Chapters 12-14 of 1 Corinthians Paul deals with the question of the significance of ‘tongues speaking’, recognising its value if understood correctly, but pointing out its dangers if misunderstood. 

In Chapter 12, he cleverly uses the example of the unity and diversity in the human body to place the more ‘spectacular’ gifts in their proper context. I admit that I have a big problem with the way all English versions translate the last verse (31) of 1 Corinthians 12 (which makes me nervous because the translators would be much more familiar with Greek than I am). The problem is this. For regular Greek verbs the 2nd Person Plural Indicative is exactly the same as the 2nd Person Plural Imperative, and ‘and’ and ‘but’ are interchangeable, which means that verse 31 could be translated “And you are earnestly desiring (fact) the higher gifts.  But I will show you a still more excellent way.”, equally as validly as “But earnestly desire (command) the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.”

Because Chapter 13 starts “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”, and then goes on to take a full chapter to expound what this true ‘love’ (agape) looks like in practice, it seems to me quite clear that the first option fits the context much, much better (at least the ’84 NIV has the first one as a footnote which means that at least one person on the translating committee agrees with me!).

Sorry to be so long winded but there seems to me to be an important, significant difference. In the body of Christ we are all given different gifts and we should use whatever gift(s) we have received to benefit others in the body.

But our fallen nature, and the cultural climate in which we find ourselves, can lead us to emphasise the more ‘spectacular’ gifts, like tongues speaking, at the expense of good, genuine, sacrificial, self-giving love.

Let’s really think about it – is Paul telling them to strive for the impressive gifts, or is he just stating his observation that this is what they are doing, and therefore showing them a better way?

How am I seeking and using my gifts?

Rev Bruce Christian

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Families can set up an account online or via the app using the instructions provided . Please set up a profile for each child to help us distribute the food.

Orders can be placed up until 8am on the day of delivery, an added convenience for families, now able to decide at the last minute to order lunch for their children. This time will be reviewed and adjusted if demand requires, and parents will be notified in advance by email.

While limited snacks are available on the School Fuel menu, parents should be aware that with delivery later in the day to keep the food fresh, snacks should still be provided for Break 1.

Junior School students will have their orders brought to their classroom. Secondary School students can collect their order during Break 2 (12:27pm) in the Year 12 area outside Student Services. Secondary students are responsible for collecting their orders from this location.

We hope this arrangement will provide a healthy convenient option for our families.

Whether you say a prayer, or feel more comfortable saying ‘Amen’ at the end, please come and join us. It’s a great way to get to know some others and bring our requests to God together.

"Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”  1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Andrew & Ruth Barry