Compass No. 579 July 2020

Next week, current Year 8 students and families will have the opportunity to learn about the exciting range of elective subjects offered in Year 9. The Year 9 Subject Information Evenings will be run via Zoom on Tuesday 4th August and Wednesday 5th August. Students and families will have the opportunity to hear from our Head of Learning Middle College and Heads of Department about the range of elective subjects available.

Detailed information, including Zoom links, has been emailed to Year 8 families this week.

How’s your communication technology going? Ironically in the 21st century, we have the most advanced forms of communication that human history has ever experienced. We can text, Zoom, connect wirelessly via Bluetooth, speak and see people on the other side of the world through our devices. This sort of communication is unheard of and would surely seem like an alien world for people born centuries ago. Yet, when it comes to communication in the home within our families, how advanced is it? How is our human communication going? Breakdown in communication continues to be central to many conflicts in family life. Face to face communication in the home with our children, parents and siblings can be lacking. It is easy to get home after a day at work or school and get stuck behind a screen rather than sit, talk and listen together. The thread for this week and next is about children and young people knowing they have family members they can turn to for support and positive communication. 

Jesus put it this way in Luke 6:44-45;

How is your heart communication going? Communicating with your family from the heart, from what is happening deep down inside is vital; being open to connecting from our emotions, our will, our spirit, our soul. That is what Jesus means in these verses. We bear good fruit from what is planted deep inside of us. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. We can use our mouth and our tongues to do significant damage. A family can damage each other with negative communication. Jesus directs families to the centre of the issue; work on the heart. Plant good seeds in your heart. Listen to God's word, His call to confess our wrong and hear His word of forgiveness. God's word can soften our heart and set our minds on a good path, to seek peace and pursue it in our families, at school and in life.

Pastor Tim Jarick, College Pastor

There are several definitions that researchers have used to describe resilience. Invariably there are references to bouncing back, coping under pressure and returning to a level state after dealing with some form of adversity. Director of the Resilience Centre in Sydney, Lyn Worsley, has described resilience as “the process of continual development of personal competence while navigating and negotiating with available resources in the face of adversity”. I cannot think of a more appropriate way to describe how Year 8 students demonstrated this during their Outdoor Education program last week. I am confident that Year 8 students have dried out by now and are still telling tales of climbing a giant’s ladder, mountain biking, hiking and dealing with the falling rain whilst preparing meals using headtorches. It was definitely their capacity to navigate and negotiate with the available resources that enabled them to achieve success each day.

I was fortunate to be able to witness firsthand how students dealt with the various challenges and tapped into their resilient selves over the five days. We thank Ms Kim Wood for her leadership of this program and to the Pacific staff who were in attendance; Mr Joshua Cummins, Pastor Tim Jarick, Mr Brett Kersnovske and Mrs Sharon Middleton.

Year 11 Leadership Interviews

This week we held interviews for Year 11 students applying for leadership positions at the College for 2021. I have been incredibly impressed with the calibre of applicants and the manner in which all students have interviewed. Whilst several will ultimately miss out on securing a leadership position, I have no doubt that these students will continue to develop their personal competencies with good grace and demonstrate leadership collectively with their peers as a Year 12 cohort. We thank Mr Mark Hauser for his leadership of this significant process.

Virtual Talent Competition

Open to Middle and Senior College students (and staff), budding performers are encouraged to enter the upcoming Virtual Talent Competition. Further details will be made available to students in coming weeks. We thank Cultural Pacific Action Group Captain Katelyn Connors and Head of Drama Mrs Janine Delaney for their organisation and leadership of the competition.

Photo Day

A reminder that next Wednesday 5th August (Week 4) is the School Photo day for all Prep – Year 12 students. All students are required to wear their formal winter uniform for the day.

Mr Ben Ryan, Director of Students

In a Year 1 learning space this week I was fortunate to see a circle time in action. Circle times provide an opportunity to teach, discuss and express emotions regarding events or incidents that occur. This particular circle used a famous fable to emphasise an important message for our young people to understand.

The fable involved six men who were born blind. They had each heard various stories about what an elephant was. At first, they theorised and spoke about what it could be. Are they powerful? Are they graceful? Or even something dangerous?

Finally, the day arrived when they encountered an elephant. A small boy walked around and placed the hand of each man in a different place on the elephant. The man whose hand was placed on the side of the elephant said, “An elephant is smooth and strong like a wall! Surely we can agree on that”. The man whose hand was placed on the trunk said, “An elephant is like a snake! Surely we can agree on that”. The man that had his hand placed on the sharp point of the tusk exclaimed, “This must be a deadly and dangerous creature. Surely we can agree on that”.

One by one, each man offered his opinion as to what they thought an elephant was. Each argued strongly that they were right and eventually they woke the wise man of the village. He approached them and said, “An elephant is a very large animal. Each of you touched only one part. If you put the parts together, who will finally see the truth”.

As he left, the men agreed, “To learn the truth, we must put all parts together”.

Teaching students how to recognise difference and perspective is central to who we are as community. Tolerance and acceptance of each other as well as validating experiences are at the core of our pastoral care. In the fable, it took someone separate to the group to bring clarity and form the bigger picture. Often issues can seem as big as an elephant! As part of restorative justice model at the College, circle times and restorative discussions aim to bring individual viewpoints to the surface so that we can put all the parts together and see the whole picture. By listening and acknowledging individual perspectives, we are heard by others and also have the opportunity to build our understanding of our peers.

Conferences and Connections

Thank you to all parents who took advantage of the opportunity to connect with your child’s teacher last week. The conferences provide continuity between home and school and we encourage you to maintain communication with your child’s teacher on an ongoing basis. Under the current guidelines, unfortunately we are unable to meet face-to-face with parents and carers on campus. Please keep this in mind when communicating with your child’s teacher. Phone calls and video conferencing are absolutely acceptable in lieu of traditional meetings.

Food From Home

Under current guidelines, we are unable to distribute food items for student birthday celebrations. We are unable to hand out cakes, lollies or toys within the school environment. If they are brought to school, they will be returned to you unopened. We appreciate your support in keeping our environment as safe as possible.

Take care and God bless.

Mr Damian Davis, Head of Staff and Students P-5

Talking with your child about the school day shows you’re interested in what’s going on in their life. This interest boosts your child’s mental health, happiness and wellbeing. It can also have a very positive effect on your child’s behaviour and achievement. It shows your child that you value school and education, which encourages them to value it too. For more information, visit: https://raisingchildren.net.au/.

Mrs Annie Williams, College Counsellor

ORDER NOW! Go to www.advancedlife.com.au and enter the code B7H 8V9 RRH.

Class order envelopes were distributed to every child this week. Whilst envelopes have been distributed, if possible it is preferred by the photographers that orders are completed online.

Orders for packages and sibling photographs can be placed securely online at www.advancedlife.com.au using our school’s unique 9 digit advancedorder code (as per above). Portrait and group package orders are due by photography day. Sibling order envelopes are available from any of the College’s receptions.

Should you wish to purchase a sibling photograph online, the order must be placed no later than the day before photography day (Tuesday 4th August). Sibling photographs will only be taken if an order has been placed.

All students will be required to wear their full formal winter uniform through the day.

We have been celebrating 90 Years of Nancy Drew in the library with special ‘Mystery In the Library’ activities and displays. I have chosen three mystery titles to highlight here, but there are plenty more to choose from in our collection!

Junior Years Readers

‘The Peski Kids – The Mystery of the Squashed Cockroach’ by R.A. Spratt

R.A. Spratt, author of the Friday Barnes mystery series, returns with a new series about the Peski Kids. Joe, Fin and April Peski have to move to a small country town called Currawong to live with a father they’ve never met after their palaeontologist mother is kidnapped. The town of Currawong is obsessed with cockroaches and when they start dying, everyone points to the Peski kids. They set out to prove their innocence and find out what is really happening to the cockroaches of Currawong. If you like page-flipping action and lots of laughs along with your mystery, then the Peski Kids series is for you.

Middle Years Readers

‘Scoop McLauren Detective Editor’ by Helen Castles

What would you do if a reporter was publishing awful predictions each night and the next day all of them came true? Scoop McLauren is a detective editor. She checks the news stories for facts and errors before publication and decides to do something about the evil predictions. She and her best friend Evie Andrews set out on a thrilling adventure to uncover who is behind it all. Scoop shares her best tips for writing and editing along the way. This book ties in perfectly with the Year 7 Fake News library unit, as they themselves are working at being detective editors and determining which news is real and which is fake.

Senior Years Readers

‘A Trio of Sophies’ by Eileen Merriman

Three Sophies. Best friends. They’ve all got different interests, but they’ve remained friends throughout high school. But when one Sophie disappears and the police can’t find her, the two other Sophies decide to do some investigating. A Trio of Sophies is written in journal form by one of the non-missing Sophies and starts 64 days after Sophie has been missing and counts backwards to the day she disappeared. Deceit, secrets, lies; what really happened and why?

Ms Madison Dearnaley, Teacher Librarian

Over the last two weeks, it has been great to see more of our secondary students participating in inter-school sport as well as representative sport.

Our open basketball teams continued in their Friday night competition with both Senior A teams unfortunately going down to Mountain Creek. The Senior E Boys and Senior B Girls also had narrow losses. Both the Senior D Boys and Girls teams recorded wins, with our Senior D Girls now undefeated so far this season. Thank you to Mr Mark Hauser and his team of coaches and scorers who give up their time on a Friday evening for these teams.

The Sunshine Coast Open Water Polo competition started this week. Pacific is fielding an Open A Girls team and they played against St Andrew’s Anglican College, who are competition favourites. Unfortunately, our girls lost the game but played very well against a much more experienced team.

Lastly, our touch football teams played their first games with the Intermediate A Girls recording a convincing win over Suncoast Christian College. However, our Junior A Girls lost to Matthew Flinders Anglican College.

Athletics Carnivals

• Year 3-6 Athletics Carnival – Thursday 20th August
• Year 7-12 Athletics Carnival – Friday 21st August

With the rescheduling of our carnivals, we have planned to reduce the number of events at the Year 7-12 carnival in order to fit everything in. These events will not be for house points but results from these events will be used to determine age champion results and also selection into our District Athletics team. The events will be held in Week 5 as follows.

Javelin and 1500m Events

• 13-18 years javelin – Wednesday 12th August (7.15am – 8.00am on the Primary Oval)
• 10-18 years 1500m – Wednesday 12th August (1.00pm – 1.40pm on the Meridan AFL Field)

Under 12 High Jump Event

The under 12 high jump event will also be held prior to the carnivals on Tuesday 11th August from 3.20pm. Students from Year 7 who would like to be considered for district selection or intend on going for age champion will need to attend this event. Year 6 students who would like to compete in the district high jump event need to attend this afternoon as well as participate at their Carnival to earn age champion points.

Students wishing to compete in these events need to email Mr Darren Hooper (dhooper@pacluth.qld.edu.au) to register prior to Thursday 6th August.

Virtual Surfing Contest

A final reminder that the Virtual Surfing Contest finishes this Friday 31st July. Students who are registered need to submit a short clip of their best two waves to Mr Darren Hooper by 3.00pm tomorrow afternoon. We have some great vouchers and prizes on offer for the winning students, so get your entries in!

District Basketball Trials

This week, a number of students participated in the rescheduled district basketball trials across the 13-15 years age groups. Congratulation to the following Pacific students who were selected to be part of the Independent District Basketball teams to play in upcoming Sunshine Coast regional trials.

• Brock Rudes
• Ryan Salvesen
• Katie Graves
• Kiana Campbell
• Laayla McAuliffe

Good luck to these students in their upcoming trials.

Parent Spectators

A quick reminder that under the current guidelines there is a blanket rule of no parent spectators at any training or games for both Pacific and inter-school sporting competitions. All schools are working under these arrangements. We thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Mr Darren Hooper, Head of Sport

Monthly Worship with Holy Communion on Sunday 16th August

14 Bombala Terrace, Caloundra

All welcome!

Choice of times: 8.30am, 9.30am, or 10.30am. Under the current guidelines, there is a maximum of 35 people allowed at each service, which run for 45 minutes.

All safety precautions are being taken including hand sanitising, social distancing, recording of people attending and sanitising and cleaning of high-contact surfaces between services.

Bookings are essential and can be made at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/worship-with-holy-communion-16-august-2020-tickets-114127404138

Phone or text Janelle for assistance on 0488 556 150.

Alternatively, online worship resources can be found on Facebook or our website.

Pastor Ray Morris – 0429 856 532

Pastor Ray, St Mark’s Lutheran Church