Principal’s Log

Over this fortnight students and their families across P-12 have the opportunity to be involved in parent, student and teacher conferences. Our Year 7-12 students will also be involved in care conversations with their pastoral care group teachers. These conferences and conversations provide a rich opportunity for learning through feedback. The Year 7 -12 students will also be involved in the formal development of smart goals in response to the feedback provided through their assessments and reports and their own reflection around their engagement with the opportunities on offer at the College. Parents play an important role as they support their young person in their reflection, goal setting, acting and responding to feedback as plans unfold. Language such as ‘we haven’t learnt that yet’ or ‘haven’t got our plan right yet’ can help to encourage action toward better learning. Building on what has been achieved or learned helps each young person engage with the next step of their learning journey. We thank our staff, students and parents for the time and energy committed to making the most of these experiences.

Yesterday afternoon the Sunshine Plaza announced Pacific Lutheran College as the overall 2023 Sunshine Arts Fest Winner. This is an outstanding achievement in an inaugural year of competition. At the beginning of June, Pacific students installed an art display in the very first Sunshine Art Fest Competition. We were selected from eighteen applications to be one of six participating schools on the coast. Sixteen students nominated themselves to collaborate on this project, utilizing our community’s strengths from Visual Arts, Design, Media, Film, Manufacturing and Music. We congratulate students Olivia Boland, Mya Boyall, Cooper Darlington, Hudson Horne, Erin Lacey, Mya Masson, Samantha McVicar, Hanna Meager, Trisha Nugent, Dion Owen, Eva Pressland, Samuel Roberts, Frank Smith, Meckenzie Stanieg, Roze Stockwell, Brooke Williams and Eden Williams, and teachers Mr Paul Cusick, Mrs Lara Masselos and Mrs Denise McMahon, capably led by Mrs Marnie Whittiker. We celebrate our young creative minds for their commitment to the project and competition which provided the community with the opportunity to engage with unique art installations through augmented reality (AR) technology.

We congratulate our Roborave teams who performed well over the weekend with four of the eight teams progressing to the finals as part of the top 8 in the Middle School Sumo Competition. We congratulate all students and particularly the team of Dean Gertler, Emanuel Espinosa and Lucas Morse who won silver. We thank Mrs Janine Stone and Mrs Nicole Schirripa for their leadership of these teams.

As an exciting new initiative, Pacific has entered into a partnership with UNIQ YOU which provides our Years 9-12 girls with a unique opportunity to engage with and be mentored by inspiring women involved in non-traditional areas of work. These areas of work include aviation, engineering, technology and construction and are intended to inspire young women to pursue careers in any area of their choosing. Twenty of our Year 12 girls are currently taking advantage of this program which provides links to businesses such as Boeing, Urban Utilities and Shell’s QGC Business. Parents can join a free online session on Tuesday 25^th July. Further details can be found in the Learning Hub article later in the newsletter.  We thank Mr Wes Warner for his work in bringing this initiative to life.

We continue to celebrate the Pacific Arts through ‘Immersive Light’, tomorrow evening. The L block will transform into a temporary outdoor theatre space for an evening of creative light. We look forward to connecting at this innovative light projection event to enjoy a creative film prepared by Donna Maree Robinson MCA, artist, filmmaker and digital installation artist.

May God equip us to be discerning and effective in our use of feedback.

Dr Bronwyn Dolling, Principal