Principal's Log

Welcome to the start of the 2017 school year. It has been exciting to see young people come into the College across Kindergarten to Year 12. There has been great energy and good focus and I thank the teachers and administration staff for the effort they have put into ensuring that young people from 3 year olds to 18 year olds have had a smooth start to the year. Thank you to our parents for your organisation and preparation for the start of the year and patience with the traffic.

Well done to all of our students who have started with very good spirit and purpose. Prep children enjoyed their first day hunting around the College for the green sheep, meeting many people and seeing new places on the way. The start of the year was enhanced by our Year 12 student leaders, who on their own initiative, hung welcoming signs throughout the Middle and Senior College and blew bubbles around the junior students as they returned to school on Monday. 

Thank you to all students and parents for their support of the Year 6-12 Commencement Service where we enjoyed the didgeridoo and welcome to country provided by Mr Kerry Neill of the Gubbi Gubbi people and commended ourselves into God’s care and guidance as we welcomed students and families, rededicated continuing staff and installed new staff and the student leaders. Thank you to Mr Kerry Neill, Pastor Tim Jarick and Ms Anita Morton and her team for their leadership of this event.

Social media is a valuable communication tool for learning, networking and social connection. Many different groups within the College also make use of social media pages to connect. To safeguard people and to ensure the College is compliant with the many legislative requirements of our community including Privacy, Discrimination, Bullying and Harassment, the College has developed Social Media policies for staff, students and parents in consultation with Lutheran Education Queensland. These policies provide clear guidelines for the use of social media to ensure that we protect people from publishing material that breaches these legal requirements. Our community has been very positive in its use of social media and we encourage all parents to make themselves familiar with the concise version of the policy later in this newsletter and the full policy available in Parent Lounge. 

We welcome Ms Margaret Gunn as the new Director of Staff. Ms Gunn was previously the Dean of Co-Curricular at Brisbane Girls Grammar where she had also been the Head of Mathematics. Ms Gunn is a passionate and talented educator, leader and sports coach with highly developed organisational and interpersonal skills. We also welcome Mr Brett Kersnovske as the Acting Head of Sport (Year 7-12). Mr Kersnovske was previously Head of Sport at Grace Lutheran College Caboolture Campus. Ms Emma Lendrum is teaching Food Technology, having previously taught Hospitality and Physical Education in Canberra where she also held a variety of leadership roles. Mrs Emma Middleton is teaching Information Technology and Business Education to Middle and Senior College students. Mrs Middleton has previously taught in the United Kingdom where she was accredited as a Digital Technologies Coach and also fulfilled the role of Senior Examiner for the Level 3 ICT Diploma. She worked in International Schools before moving to Queensland where she has most recently worked within Education Queensland. We have also enjoyed welcoming Ms Ceilidh Peers who is teaching English and SOSE across the Middle and Senior College. Ms Peers joins us after successfully completing her prac teaching at the College last year. 

We welcome back Ms Sue Arahill (Director of Teaching and Learning) and Mrs Gisela Hohls (Science and Biology Teacher) from long service leave and Mrs Kirsty Ridley (Foundation College Teacher) from maternity leave. We also welcome Mr Mark Hauser to his new role as Head of Mumba House. 

We look forward to the various information evenings over the coming weeks and encourage all families to take the opportunity to learn more about the next phase of learning for their children.

May God equip us to be people who strive for quality in ourselves and are “upstanders” who encourage and inspire it in others.

Dr Bronwyn Dolling, Principal