Mutual Responsibility

Communities function best where there is a strong sense of mutual responsibility.  When this occurs, we think in terms of ‘we’, rather than ‘they’ and understand that every action is about ‘us’, rather than ‘me’. At Pacific there is the invitation for every person to see themselves as part of a strong interconnected community. There is high value placed on the partnership between parents, students and staff. The strength and quality of these connections is dependent on our sense of mutual responsibility. As staff, parents and students we each play an important role in ensuring that we have a rich positive and effective learning environment within a supportive, connected, thoughtful and welcoming community. Each person brings a diversity of strengths. We are each challenged to bring our best selves into every moment. It is by bringing our best selves that each of us plays our part to enhance a supportive, connected, and welcoming culture of rich learning and deep thinking.

God’s invitation is for us to think always in terms of ‘we’. He invites us to be in constant relationship with Him and with others, to love our neighbour as ourselves and to have responsible stewardship of our environment. We are invited to see our mutuality and co-dependence and to see ourselves as interconnected and equally loved, responsible and valued parts of his creation. Out of love for all of creation, we have a mutual responsibility to use our gifts and strengths to care for others and the environment. Together with God we can do great good.

Principal’s Log

The energy and excitement amongst students, parents and staff as we returned to learning on campus on Monday was palpable. This excitement highlighted the value we place on being able to physically connect with each other. We greatly appreciate the way parents, staff and students have followed the COVID-safe directions of the College. We understand the challenge this  presented for some families, particularly in the first week of returning to the campus. I am sure we are all looking forward to increasing opportunities to connect directly with each other through the full range of experiences in the coming weeks. 

The first week always presents some challenges with traffic at the end of school day as families become familiar with how to use our car park and there is an adjustment to increasing numbers of families, students and staff at the College. Traffic flows relatively well in the morning because arrivals are spread across the full 25 minutes. Congestion in the afternoon can be decreased if families with only P-2 children plan to arrive after 2.50pm, those who are only P-5 families arrive after 3.00 pm and those with Year 6-12 students plan to arrive after 3.15pm.  Families waiting for Year 6 to 12 students are asked not to be in the car park prior to 3.15pm.  Younger children will be supervised by staff while waiting for older siblings. This simple step can mean that there can be greater flow through the College car park, and everyone spends less time in their cars.  Even this week, both car parks were flowing freely at 3.25pm on Wednesday afternoon.  This is a simple example of how we can each play our part to make an improvement for all within the Pacific and the Kawana Forest Communities.

We are pleased to be making the transition to using the NAV Parent Portal as a main means of communication to our parents.  Families who have logged onto their NAV Parent portal will note that they are able to access Parent Lounge via Links through this same page.  There will be a transition phase through this term with parents receiving communication via email and the NAV Parent portal.  Parents who are yet to connect onto their NAV account can do so by going to https://nav.pacluth.qld.edu.au and using the directions of the email ‘Parent Login Changes' sent on the 19th January.

Over this past fortnight families have had the opportunity to connect online for the parent information evenings.  The Middle College Information Evening planned for next week is being pre-recorded and a link will be emailed to families early next week. We apologise to the Year 10 families and students who were sent the wrong link and were unable to connect with the live stream on Tuesday evening. We understand the inconvenience this caused for some families. The P-5, Year 10, and Year 11 Information evenings have been recorded and links have been emailed to families. Links can also be found on the NAV Parent Portal under Learning/Parent Information. Families and Year 6 -12 students are encouraged to make sure they have viewed and discussed these communications. We thank the staff who have prepared and led these sessions.

Families are reminded that they need to inform our Director of Staff, Mrs Kim Bonello by email kbonello@pacluth.qld.edu.au if a student in their family tests positive to COVID-19 after recently being on campus. This will enable us to inform staff and families to monitor their health and be mindful of their community connections particularly with vulnerable people. In our communication of positive COVID-19 cases, we keep a balance between informing families of important health matters and the privacy of individuals and families. Where a positive COVID-19 case is reported to the College, we will notify the staff and families of that year level and the groups with whom the individual has interacted that there has been a staff member or student who has tested positive. Individuals or families will not be identified. There will be only one communication per year level or group per week. Our best protection within highly connected communities such as schools is to keep each other informed, limit our time on campus, socially distance, wear a mask correctly when on campus, maintain high standards of hygiene and follow the advice and guidelines of Queensland Health and the College. We thank our community for your obvious support in following the 'COVID-19 Guidelines 7th February - 4th March' emailed on Friday 4th February.  For ease of reference, we have now placed the guidelines on the Nav Parent and Student portals. Parents will also find a tile that they can use to send a notification of a student testing positive on the front section of the NAV Parent portal.

We pray that God will enable us all to play our part in the enhancement of a rich, supportive, connected, welcoming, and thoughtful learning community.  We pray that God will guide people to find ways to protect the people of the world from the impacts of disease and to live in peace.

Dr Bronwyn Dolling, Principal