Principal's Log

This week we farewelled our two Seishin Gakuen exchange students, Akito and Mayumi. Throughout this term they have developed strong friendships and fully engaged with all aspects of College life. The warmth, sincerity and humour exhibited in their farewell speeches reflected just how much this exchange has meant to them and our Pacific students and families. The opportunity to spend time and learn with people from other countries enhances our cultural understandings and our humanity. We thank Akito and Mayumi for their engagement and openness in connecting strongly with this community and wish them all the best for the future. We thank Mrs Michiko Hauser for the considerable time and expertise she puts into leading these exchange experiences. We also express appreciation to our hosting Dines, Watson and Cheney families for their generous hospitality. Thank you to our community for welcoming Akito and Mayumi so very well. We wish Austin Beasley and Tamika Cheney all the best as they spend Term 4 as guests at Seishin Gakuen.

This week we had eight senior staff visiting from St Peter’s Lutheran College in Brisbane to learn about our integrated approach to developing staff and student wellbeing. They very much appreciated hearing how we have implemented the learnings of research in the areas of positive psychology and emotional intelligence with those of Lutheran theology to create rich learning experiences. We thank Mr Brendan Delaney, Miss Kim Stone and Mr David Druery for leading the growth of this culture as well as this professional learning activity.

We wish our Laboratory Technician Mrs Chantal Khoury every blessing as she enjoys long service leave after having provided excellent support to staff and students for many years through her rich Science background. We thank Mr Gus Gillespie who has provided very good support to staff and students in his role as IT Assistant while Mr Alan Palethorpe has been on long service leave. We thank Mr Pat Gawthorne who has kept all of our IT running smoothly as he has been the Acting System Administrator. We also thank Mr Terry Rubesaame who has capably taught English and Senior History while Mrs Elley Wood has been on maternity leave. Mr Rubesaame has been a very committed teacher and we wish him all the best into the future. Both Mrs Wood and Mr Palethorpe will be returning at the start of next term.

During the second week of the school holidays, Mr Wes Warner and myself will be joining other Lutheran educators in the Lutheran Education Agile Learning Tour, visiting schools in San Diego and San Francisco that support student learning in successful and innovative ways. Our tour includes a visit to High Tech High, which was featured in the award-winning documentary ‘Most Likely To Succeed’. We look forward to sharing our learnings with the community on our return.

Thank you to all of our staff, students and parents for your support and leadership over this term. There has been a great deal of growth as we have engaged in a variety of activities both within and outside of the classroom. We trust that the change in pace over the school holiday period provides some time of rest and rejuvenation for all members of our community.

May God grant us all times of deep inner stillness and peace where we can rest in His love and the beauty of His creation.

Dr Bronwyn Dolling, Principal