Compass No 461 - June 2017

We congratulate Courtney Callaghan who won the Breakthru Secondary School Dance final held at the Sunshine Coast Plaza last weekend. Courtney gave a powerful performance entitled Medicine that told a personal story of courage. All who were present were moved by her skill and passion. This is an outstanding achievement where Courtney, as a solo performer, was competing against teams of dancers from other schools. Courtney won $3000 for the College and $1000 for herself to be spent in the Plaza. We look forward to discussing with Courtney how she would like to see these funds being expended to support the Performing Arts within the College when she returns from camp. We thank Mrs Laura Bonner for her support of all of the dancers who took part in the competition this year.

We congratulate our Year 8 debaters who have been undefeated in the Queensland Debating Union Sunshine Coast competition and will now compete in the Brisbane finals in Term 3. We wish the team members of Noah Beasley, Dempsey Hall, Alessandro Papallo, Alex Jose, Thomas Grey and Lachlan Buchanan all the best as they now move on to the next level of competition. We thank Mrs Tina Cox for her generosity of time in coaching this team and leading the debating within the College.

Congratulations to the U13 Rugby 7’s team who reached the SCISSA grand final on Wednesday night. Our boys showed great spirit and commitment in a tightly contested game that saw St Andrew’s Anglican College take the victory. The game was well supported by parents and we thank them and coaches Mr Andrew Block and Mr Darren Hooper.

The new Queensland State Budget included announcements of additional funding for schools across the State as part of the Maintaining Senior Curriculum Offerings for Students in the Prep Half Cohort initiative. These funds are set aside to ensure that current Year 10 students, who were the first Prep cohort across Queensland, have access to the full range of subjects in their final years of schooling. Pacific has committed to have our full typical offering of courses for our Year 10 students and is appreciative of the government’s recognition of the benefit of providing special funds for this smaller cohort. For the full Independent Schools Queensland media release click here.

We thank God for all the blessings He has given us over the term and pray that He would continue to keep all members of our community safe and moving forward with good energy through the final week of this term.

Dr Bronwyn Dolling, Principal

Emotional Resilience is essential in our daily lives, especially to help us deal with confrontations, making choices, getting bad results, encountering negative situations that are beyond our control or struggling with difficult day-to-day activities.

As adults we generally face such difficulties with varying levels of resilience. Equipping children with the skills to develop emotional resilience is an important facet of their growth.

Negative Habits of Mind greatly fuel emotional discomfort. These negative habits of mind include self-downing, the need to be perfect, the need for approval, the ‘I can’t do it’ or ‘I can’t be bothered’ mindsets and being intolerant of others. This week, I would like to continue to share some strategies from the You Can Do It Program, which may help eliminate or help to balance these negative mindsets.

To Eliminate ‘I Can’t Be Bothered’

Explain to your child that while it may seem that life should always be fun and exciting, this isn’t always the case. Life is a mixture of fun activities and also some more mundane things. While it is natural to try to avoid uninteresting activities such as homework or chores, the more they avoid these things, the greater chance they have of not achieving their potential.

Other suggestions for eliminating an ‘I Can’t Be Bothered’ mindset:

• Explain the meaning of the expression ‘no pain, no gain’ (in order to get ahead in life, one has to do things that are ‘painful’ to do).
• Point to the experience of others and show how, in part, their success has come from doing things that are not pleasant to do.
• Provide examples from times in your own life when you avoided doing unpleasant work and how it held you back from achieving your goals.
• Model for children examples of how doing unpleasant things in the short term can help to achieve pleasant results in the long term.
• Teach children the 5 Minute Plan. Ahead of time, identify aspects of schoolwork that children find to be boring or tedious. Have children agree to work on this for five minutes. Then, after five minutes has passed (set a timer), encourage them to work for another five minutes. In this way, children obtain evidence that challenges their belief that they cannot be bothered with things that are not exciting and fun.
• When you catch children avoiding work they find tedious, provide feedback: “By not doing this work, you are making the choice to not be successful”.
• When you catch children doing work they find tedious, offer feedback: “You can stand doing boring things. By doing it, you are choosing to be successful”.
• Show children concrete evidence that by doing tedious work they are more successful.

Mr David Druery, Head of Staff and Students P-5

This week, emails were sent to all families whose child has overdue library books. Please ensure that overdue items are returned before the end of term. Students may then borrow up to 10 books over the holidays if they wish.

Ms Nell Keen, Teacher Librarian

Our Year 8 debaters have completed the Queensland Debating Union Sunshine Coast competition undefeated. Over four rounds, the students triumphed over other very capable teams and will now go on to Brisbane finals in Term 3. Well done to team members Noah Beasley, Dempsey Hall, Alessandro Papallo, Alex Jose, Thomas Grey and Lachlan Buchanan.

The Year 6 Speaking Competition was held on Wednesday this week. Three students from each house presented their speeches, nominating an Australian public figure for inclusion in the Hall of Fame. The representatives were:

• Bula: Eamon Mahoney, Allegra Pollack and Dan Whittingham
• Mumba: Zaida Williams, Riley Holliday and Gabby Gorham
• Wira: Kelsey Punter, Harry Hockam and Ella Jarick

Jack Packer was a very competent chairperson for the event. Well done to everyone who participated. The judges were Mrs Rae Hall, Ms Alisha Janssen and Ms Farlow and they were all impressed by the candidates’ speeches and ability to engage with the audience.

Congratulations to:

• 1^st Gabby Gorham
• 2^nd Dan Whittingham
• 3^rd Ella Jarick

As well as the speech competition, a group of Year 6 students is currently working on their debating skills for the USC competition next term. We wish them clear voices and quick minds.

Mrs Tina Cox, Head of English

It was back to the Caloundra District Netball Association for normal rounds this week. The Mustangs, Ponies and Arabians all had great performances against teams that are ranked well above them on the ladder. Consequently, the club is well placed heading into the final rounds with all eligible teams in a position to make the finals!

The highlight of the week was the completion of the formal training element of the Foundation Umpiring Course. The club has 11 girls from Years 6 to 9 who will now embark on the mentoring phase of the course, which involves officiating competition games under supervision. To mark this achievement, the girls will be formally presented with their umpiring shirts on Saturday morning at a team breakfast. We wish them all the best in their endeavours.         

Again, it was difficult to select our players of the week, however this week the recipients for their efforts on 10^th June are:

• Mustangs – Huntyr Wortley for great team play;
• Ponies – The whole team for a great effort that made us all proud;
• Brumbies – Alice Hindmarsh for great shooting and defensive work;
• Fillies – Gabby Gorham for great shooting; and
• Arabians – Sophie Heidrich for a great all-round effort.

Finally, the club AGM has been scheduled for 12^th July at 6.00pm in room L13 at the College.

Mr Trevor Colton, President PLC Netball Club

Pastor Ray Morris, St Mark’s Lutheran Church Caloundra

In July, a free two-day workshop is being held in Maroochydore for parents and carers of children on the autism spectrum. Topics covered at the workshop will include understanding the impact of autism, forming positive partnerships with schools, support network information and planning tools. Click here to view the full event details. Registration can be made online at: https://autismtraining.com.au/public/index.cfm?action=occurrenceInvitation&occurrenceId=437.