Compass No. 619 August 2021

Train up a child in the way they should go; even when they are old, they will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

It is timely that after a week of lockdown in Queensland, the thread for our College community at the moment is parent involvement in schooling. Like the extended lockdown last year, parents appreciate the work of teachers anew when there is home learning, especially for younger children. Being at home for those who can do so and helping your children engage with classes and learning online is no easy task. In this scenario, parents are involved in the learning as much as the teachers on the other side of the screen. However, even apart from lockdowns, there are plenty of ways parents can encourage their children’s learning.

Evidence shows that parents who are actively involved in helping their children and teenagers succeed in school are more likely to have resilient children engaged in their learning. When parents communicate with their children about school, support them in their homework and study, and attend school and community events, the positive value of education and learning is modelled. The value and love of lifelong learning is instilled in children and teenagers through their parents, caregivers and adult role models. Reading together as a family is one of those simple things parents can do for their children. Passing on values, traditions, customs and spirituality is done precisely this way, embedding these regular practices into the life of a child, family, school, church, community. One of the most practical ways we pass on what matters most to us in life is by telling stories of faith to the next generation. What stories do you tell your children that help them develop trust, belief and faith?

Pastor Tim Jarick, College Pastor

I think it would be fair to say that a lot can happen in a week. Reflecting on the past seven days, I have experienced a range of emotions and moods. Joy, wonder, disappointed, awe, tired, calm, grateful, proud, and optimistic are just some of the ways to describe the headspace I have been in the past week. I can only imagine how you and your young ones would have felt as we transitioned back to home learning for a short period of time. Importantly, it was the collective efforts of all; staff, families, and students that allowed us to adapt to change so seamlessly. The late theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking, is credited with saying, “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change,” and how apt this is to describe our community at this time. I thank all students for their perseverance, resilience, growth mindset, and intelligence to deal with the constancy of change. The following are comments made by students on their return when asked the question, “What did you enjoy most about home learning.”

“It was good. I enjoyed learning online.” Anonymous Yr. 8

“I can manage my time a lot better, I enjoyed brain breaks, they helped.” Anonymous Yr. 12

“I got to sleep in.” Anonymous Yr. 9

“I loved it – I liked the chance to get things done.” Anonymous Yr. 8

“…accustomed to it – it was smooth.” Anonymous Yr. 12

“It was alright; got lost at times. Got to sleep in. Easier to learn at school with the teachers.” Anonymous Yr. 10

Buran House

There has been, and will continue to be, a great deal of discussion, discernment, and of course excitement, surrounding the announcement of our new House, Buran, to join our existing three Houses of Bula, Mumba, and Wira. Students will have substantial opportunity to engage in dialogue as to the decision to be pioneers for Buran House. I look forward to walking alongside PCGs and families as these conversations are had. Likewise, please contact any one of the College’s Pastoral Care team, including Ms Finter, Mr Danzey, Mr Kersnovske, Mr Cummins, Pr Tim, or I, and indeed any of the PCG teachers if you have any questions.

Mr Ben Ryan, Director of Students

From the earliest days of the College, one of the great strengths is the willingness of parents and families to lend support wherever necessary. This week’s thread of parental involvement has been especially apt for the changes that were required last week and during the past 18 months. We thank you for the way you have supported your children during online learning last week and especially for the way you have communicated and assisted our teaching staff. We understand that the transition to online learning isn’t without its challenges, however your interaction has made the shift as smooth as possible. Additionally, we look forward to your involvement in the shaping of our fourth house, Buran. I ask you to read the College correspondence and discuss with your children, what this exciting journey entails. At the College, we truly value the energy and benefits that parents and guardians generate. We couldn’t function as fluently without the gifts you bring. Thank you.

Physical Health and Wellbeing

The impervious nature of technology in our all our lives has created challenges for parents, educators, and students. An increased access to ‘screens’ in their many forms, can begin to take the place of physical activity for all of us. Qld Health has easy to follow guidelines about the number of interactions deemed appropriate for younger children: Healthy Screen Habits.

Of course, when we increase our screen time, the time devoted to movement can diminish. Devices emitting blue light can also affect our sleep patterns and of course, the content that younger children can be exposed to can have potentially harmful impacts. Technology is a wonderful resource when used well. When misused it can do more harm than good.

This week in our assemblies we continue our journey of the storeys of our mind. Our ground floor deals with our physical health, sleep patterns and diet. As science continues to investigate the connections between our body and mind, our students are being encouraged to understand the link between how our daily actions can impact our state of mind. The ability to manage our resilience and emotional regulation in many ways can be attributed to how we are sleeping, eating and perceiving our view of self.

Within School TV, there is an excellent channel called Healthy Body Series. Inside this channel, there is abundant resources that deal with managing our bodies with a specific focus toward young people, with units such as body image, mindfulness and managing diet. I encourage you to use this resource if you see a need.

https://pacificlutheran.qld.schooltv.me/

Carpark changes

With QLD Health restrictions remaining in place until the end of next week, we are asking for your co-operation in an around our pickup and drops in the mornings and afternoon. Parents are asked to remain off-site and communicate via Junior Reception should individual circumstances change throughout the school day. P-2 students will be walked out to the carpark in the afternoon and we encourage you to have the identification you were provided at the beginning of the year, in the front windscreen of your car for ease of collection. If you arrive well in advance of 2.45, we are asking for your co-operation by parking in the spaces provided and not blocking the drop zone. This has an on-flow effect of increased congestion onto Woodlands Blvd and impacts the residents of Kawana Forest. We kindly remind that the front carpark is for use of students in Prep-2 and their siblings. Students in Years 3 and above should be using the second entrance to the College and accessing the drop off zone there.

Take care and God Bless.

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

Why they’re not as bad as you may think.

Living with teenagers? Are they making your life challenging?

For a lot of parents, growing with teens can be difficult at times. After all, there are occasions where they do not want to spend time with you or the family, they do not want to listen, and can seem to lack basic respect. While it may seem that your teenager has turned to the dark side during these moments, that isn’t necessarily true. A certain amount of rebellion is normal for your child’s development and ultimately, can lead to an emotionally healthier child. Click on the link below for more information

https://www.psychologytoday.com/

Mrs Annie Williams College Counsellor

We are very excited to see so many families have already booked for our Aussie World Family Fun Night!  Our event has now moved to Term Four. Please contact Friends of Pacific should you require further information.

Aussie World Family Fun Night rescheduled to Friday 22 October 2021, 5 – 9pm

Get your tickets at Flexischools Aussie World Tickets or scan the QR code to link

Planning continues for our 20th Anniversary Soirée Under the Stars. Invitations for this 18+ event will be sent out in the coming weeks to the College’s Alumni, current Parents, Staff, College Council and FoP.

Next Meeting

Our next Friends of Pacific meeting is to be held on August 24th. We meet at 6:30pm and all are welcome. We anticipate this month’s meeting being held via Zoom, please email Friends of Pacific to register your interest in attending. 

Click here to follow our Friends of Pacific Facebook page.

Pacific Together

Pacific Together is a discreet helping-hand offered by Friends of Pacific, in conjunction with Pastor Tim, to College families in times of need.

If you or someone you know within our College community needs extra support anytime during the year, the Pacific Together care group may be able to help in some small way or offer a care package in times of need.

We invite you to contact Pastor Tim Jarick or Pacific Together via FoP email: fop@pacluth.qld.edu.au

Click here to follow our Friends of Pacific Facebook page.

Mrs Jenny Lee, Friends of Pacific Chairperson

Class and sibling photos have arrived and handed out in class this week.

Please check your child’s bag if you have not received it.

It is not too late to order. Order online at www.advancedlife.com.au, and use the code B7H 8V9 RRH. Please note there is a late fee.

Miss Carolyn Sainty, Administrative Executive Secretary

Anyone who is planning on entering the Telling Stories writing competition, make sure your story and completed entry form is sent to Ms Keen by next Friday, 20th August

Library Lessons During Lockdown

Last week, our Year 4-6 students analysed the official poster for Book Week, designed by Shaun Tan, and then used that as a springboard to do some creative writing. Below are a couple of examples of the imaginative stories that students produced.

The Aftermath by Lucas von Plessen 4D

The man and his son trailed over the hill covered with poppies. The war had finally ended and the smoke was clearing from the sky to welcome freedom. The sky ships had returned from the great battle, now sitting motionless above the city surveying their homeland. Kites were soaring higher than ever before, narrowly dodging the large flocks of birds. Today was the first time since the Great War that the birds had taken flight, finally sensing no danger.

The last eagle statue to remain intact towered over the people and the chaotic land. Every colour of the rainbow was shown in the sky, not by a rainbow but by colossal air balloons. As the man looked up, the sky was crowded with a variety of objects. He then looked down to the child next to him. He could feel the boy’s innocent grasp.

In his other hand he dragged along a battered suitcase filled with items collected from his vast travels. Souvenirs from his many adventures in places and times. He carried it today with the hope of a new home as his old home was filled with anger and pain. The boy carried the most valuable item, the time travel enabler strapped to his back, the coloured lights flickering as it recognised the new time and land. In the boy’s left hand was the last book on Earth. This book held the key to a new future.

My Story by Georgina Pike 4A

In the dark of the gloomy clouds, two people lie amongst the chaos around. With splashes of every coloured flag swinging around in the strong, cold breeze. Ribbons tied to the end of rainbow kites flew out of grasp from the others around, taken away by the gloomy battle ships in the greyish sky. Battle ships flew around the air in packs watching over the city in awe. Hot air balloons rose to the sky flying up, up, and away! “Cough, cough,” black smoke filled the air coming from the engines in the sky. From the lush green grass with the little pinkish roses father held my hand well, rising to his feet. He was holding my hand tight, too tight, but I didn’t complain. Father picked up his brief case and pulled his hand up, as I staggered to my feet. I gripped on tightly to my book. And prayed we would be ok.

Book Week Costume Parade

Book Week is fast approaching and this year our costume parade will be on Monday, 23rd August at 8.30am on the grassed area outside the hall. All students in P-6 are encouraged to come dressed as their favourite book character. There will be a photo booth in the library at lunch time for students to get their photo taken.

Ms Narelle Keen, Teacher Librarian

The Sport Department is putting out an urgent plea for all students to go through their cupboards to find any PLC Sport specific uniform items and return them to the Sport Office. This includes Netball dresses/shirts, rugby jerseys, general playing shirts and singlets. You might even still have some from previous years. Regardless of how long they have been there, we would love to have them all back! We don’t want families to have the unfortunate surprise of being charged for missing uniforms at the end of the year.

It is getting harder and harder to kit out students due to missing uniform items and we want to make sure our teams all look the part when the play in their competitions. This check will be important particularly for senior students who need to have everything returned from the uniforms registered to them before we can sign off on their exit forms.

Rugby players will need to return theirs even if they are playing Rugby 7’s in Term 4 as they may be in different teams. Once we have all the Rugby uniforms back, we can get the sets together and prepare for the upcoming season.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to have a look for these uniforms and helping to create a consistent approach to our school’s presentation in the sporting community.

Mr Cameron West-McInnes, Head of Sport

With the recent announcement by the Queensland Government that community sport is not permitted for two weeks, all soccer activities including all forms of training sessions, matches and all other soccer-related gatherings have been suspended until 4pm Sunday, 22 August for all participants and clubs. This means that the U6-U10 Rooball Carnival is unfortunately, cancelled, as well as the competitive Semi-Finals. At this stage, the Prelim Finals and Grand Finals will go ahead, even though teams did not have equal opportunities to finish their rounds.

However, despite the seemingly unfair and abrupt end to the season, Pacific FC players and teams achieved some amazing things in 2021.

We fielded 15 teams in the 2021 season, with over 170 players on fields affected by rain at the beginning of the season and building work at Pacific in the second half.

Our U11 Pacific Razors finished on top of the ladder after Round 16 as Premiers and will go straight through to the Grand Final on August 4th at 8.30am, Harmony Fields, Palmview.

Our U16 Pacific Cobras narrowly missed out on the Premiership due to covid-affected games not applying and finished as runners up on the ladder. They will play off for their place in the Grand Final on August 28th at 1.30pm, Pacific Lutheran College.

Special mention also goes to the U15 Pacific Eels who finished in 4th place on the ladder but will sadly miss out on the finals as a direct result of the restrictions on Community Sport. We feel your pain.

We had five 10-year players this season: Henry Friend, Luke Harrys, Blake Dines, Cooper Whatham, and Macey Winter. These players, along with our 10-year players from 2020, Alex Lee and Lachie Whincop, will attend SCCSA’s Adermann Awards for a special presentation in September.

We had two 10-year volunteers: Nicole Harrys and Andrew Whatham. Extra special acknowledgment also goes to our first 15-year player/volunteer – Harrison Dines. Harrison’s support of the U14 Pacific Seals has been unwavering and we thank him for his effort and encouragement of this team.

We had thirteen Sunshine Coast representative players in our club: Harley Spence, Nicholas Currey, Angus Friend, Joshua Groll, Joseph Harrys, Patrick Dale, Luke Harrys, Jessica Lloyd, Zaida Williams, Ethan Haas, Matthew Kirby, Caleb Baker and Alexander Lee. Even though all representative tournaments where cancelled due to either rain or covid restrictions, the players still trained weekly throughout the season where possible.

We are currently looking at how and when we can run an end-of-season event to acknowledge all of our players and celebrate our 20-year milestone. The current restrictions and high probability that restrictions may be placed upon us again, make that decision challenging. We will however, endeavour to work through these circumstances as best we can.

Mrs Rita Williams, Pacific FC President

Sharing a common mission and ministry with Pacific Lutheran College

“Growing in faith and sharing God’s love with others”

Weekly worship services are held at 14 Bombala Terrace Caloundra at 9.00am. We are thankful that we are able to meet together each week for worship. As we do this, there are still physical distancing, signing in, and hygiene requirements we need to follow in order to ensure the health and safety of everyone in our community.

Our worship services are intergenerational with a blend of traditional and contemporary.

You’re welcome to follow us on Facebook and visit our Church webpage.

All are welcome at any of our services.

Pastor Ray Morris, St Mark’s Lutheran Church (0429 856 532 or lutherancaloundra@gmail.com)

16        Year 4-6 SCISSA Training (3.15-4.15pm)

16-20  Science Week

19        Year 4-6 SCISSA Trial Game – ILC

23        Year 4-6 SCISSA Training (3.15-4.15pm)

23-27  Book Week & ICAS Science Competition

26        Year 4-6 SCISSA Trial Game- MFAC

30        Year 6-7 Author Visit

30        Year 4-6 SCISSA Training (3.15-4.15pm)

31        Year 12 Mock External Exams Commence

31        P-2 Author Visit

31        Year 9 Outdoor Education Information Evening (6pm)