Students Inspiring Hope through the Salvation Army Red Shield Appeal

The Month of May at Pacific Lutheran College is known as Red Month. Each May, students within their Year 7-12 Pastoral Care Groups and Prep-6 classes collect nonperishable food and household items and raise money for the Salvation Army Red Shield Appeal. This year, the Pacific community doubled the College’s previous record of 1800 items with contributions of over 3780 items. Students also raised additional money throughout the month, with a Casual Clothes Day and ‘Guess the number of red frogs in a jar’ competition. In total, the Pacific Lutheran community raised $2,202.80, presenting the monetary donation to Mrs Karen Clarke, representative of the Caloundra Salvation Army Branch at the Year 6-12 assembly on Tuesday. Donated food items along with money raised will provide a sense of hope and faith to those in the local community who need it the most. Well done, Pacific!

Thank you to the Year 12 Spirituality and Service Captains, Zofia Hopcott and Sebastian Box, and Chaplain, Mr Mark Hauser for their leadership and support of the Red Shield Appeal during the month of May.

For College community members who would like to learn more about what the Salvation Army does for our local community, and how you can continue to support them beyond the month of May, please click on https://www.salvationarmy.org.au/get-involved/

Courage Conversations, Enhancing Student Wellbeing and Safety at Pacific

Over the past fortnight, the Year 7 and Year 8 cohort participated in a 90-minute workshop led by Dr Dolling and Ms Finter with the aim of providing a safe space for students to engage in courageous conversations about current student safety and wellbeing at Pacific. Using reasoning routines to guide students’ thinking, students collaborated in small groups to unpack realistic scenarios and to share and give space to understand other students’ perspectives. Students were invited to courageously share their learning and how their perspectives and thinking had grown over the course of the workshop. The session finished with students using a design thinking concept to ideate ways of enhancing student wellbeing and safety.

The aim of this workshop is to use these ideas to grow student voice, and develop student agency and accountability for self and others across the College community. Students left the workshop excited about new ways and approaches to enhancing student wellbeing and safety. Year 7 students will have the opportunity to reflect further on their ideas at their Outdoor Education experience in Week 10, Term 2, and Year 8 students will have the opportunity to reflect at their Outdoor Education experience in Week 3, Term 3. Year 10 students will have the opportunity to engage in the Courageous Conversations, Enhancing Student Wellbeing and Safety at Pacific workshop in Week 10, and Year 12 students will participate in their workshop at the Year 12 Retreat, Saturday 18^th June. Year 6 and Year 9 students will participate in the workshops in Term 3.

For more information on these workshops, please do not hesitate to contact the College or email lfinter@pacluth.qld.edu.au

Ms Leigh Finter, Acting Director of Students