Toongabbie Christian College

NATALIE BARON (née DAVIDSON) Student 1987-1999 Teacher 2012-Present Parent 2017-Present

Firecracker night was always a highlight as families gathered around to watch the crackers go off on the high school oval and enjoy the annual tractor ride. Two Presentation Night Musicals, Pilgrim’s Progress and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat were fun times working alongside younger and older students and staff. The Year 10 School in the Bush camp involved roughing it in tents, cooking our food over fires, washing in the river and a helicopter landing metres from us. The first Toonie- Hunter competition in Year 11 was one of the best times where selected students travelled to Newcastle, were billeted out and competed against Hunter Christian School in various team and individual sports over two to three days. For weekly School Chapels, before the MPC was built we would walk up Metella Rd to the Baptist Church. Besides all these fun events and opportunities, my most valuable memories are of the loving, dedicated and caring Christian staff. Their lasting impact went beyond teaching a subject in a classroom. They were invested in our lives and their care was evident. I am thankful for the leadership of Mike Budden and Gary Brummell who were the Principal and Assistant Principal for most of my High School years. I am thankful for leadership opportunities and all the prefect camps. I’m forever thankful for those key members of staff who helped shape me, especially near the end of High School in my most vulnerable, insecure and stressful years. Their genuine love flowed from knowing Jesus. I was led to search for Jesus and encouraged to read the word and grow in my faith. This was lasting fruit! I believe one of the main reasons I chose to become a teacher was due to their influence, seeing how, as a Christian, I can impact students’ lives for His glory. Although the name of our school changed in the year 2000, the year after I left, to Toongabbie Christian School and now to Toongabbie Christian College, forever etched in my memory and heart will be TBCCS!

On the playing fields we’re tough and strong and always give our best. Good sportsmanship we’re noted for, so watch out all the rest, we’re Toongabbie... Christian Community School... a verse from our school anthem which she also led up the front. This would be bellowed out during the morning assembly, across the creek and to Girraween field for all the neighbours to enjoy. Good sportsmanship we were noted for. This was an aspect of Primary and High School I thoroughly enjoyed - inter- school competitions. Then there was the paddock! The smell of gumtrees and dust! This was the entire area that is now the primary basketball court and classroom block. Hours of playtime were spent here, from collecting cicada skins off the gumtrees, to making mud pies with the acorns we collected, to playing endless games of fly with gumtree sticks. A fun memory was using the consecutive lamp posts that lined the path to the library as vaults we could straddle over, the gymnast in me coming out. I loved being involved in the wider school community and am so glad my parents took an interest in all the school events and extracurricular activities. The Ministry Choir, run by Lynette Hester and later Rosemary Douglass, would travel to the city and sing for the Wesley Mission Church and go to nursing homes. In Year 1 we danced on stage with ribbons for the 1988 Bicentennial Celebrations with many other students at the State Sports Centre in Homebush. The whole school played a part from the youngest to the oldest, along with hundreds of other students from Christian schools. Our family billeted students from other Christian schools. I remember hat parades, Book Week dress ups, NTT - New Talent Time - where we could perform a talent such as play an instrument, sing or dance. There were family fun nights at Wenty pool which were purely for community building and involved lilo races.

It’s a crisp Monday morning and here we are doing ‘Huff and Puff’ on the painted lines outside what is now known as The Weather Shed. Our morning exercise and stretches, led by our Primary Head Teacher, Lynette Hester, in her boots and shin length skirt.

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