Welcome Back

Welcome to Pacific Lutheran College in 2024. It was lovely to unite with many continuing families and meet many new families during the week and at our P-5 Opening Service yesterday. We look forward to connecting as a P-5 College next Wednesday evening for our P-5 Parent Information session. We invite you to be part of refreshments from 5.30pm before the evening begins formally at 6.00 pm. The evening allows parents to hear wholistic aspects of college life before you hear from teaching teams relevant to their child’s teacher regarding the year ahead. Communication regarding this has been sent to families this week.

Parent engagement

A great strength of the Pacific community has always been the willingness of parents and families to support the College community by involvement in activities that strengthen relationships and foster opportunities for our students.

Parents and guardians also have the opportunity to be involved as parent connectors across the College. The role of a Parent Connector will be to serve as a link between the College and our community through a range of activities such as welcoming new families and providing social opportunities within year levels.

At times, Parent Connectors will also be called upon to support the various functions and events held by the College and Friends of Pacific. We are hoping that we may have several connectors per year level to provide support for each other and the wider community. An expression of interest will be emailed home next week.

Another rich opportunity the wider community can engage within the College is volunteering. There will be many chances to give service through schemes like parent reading, excursions, and helping in the tuckshop during the year.

Recently, legislation around volunteering changed, and all volunteers are required to undergo mandatory training once a year to comply with this change. Volunteers will be unable to engage with students unless this training has occurred.

The College is developing a more flexible platform for volunteer compliance within this area. Communication about volunteer accreditation will be distributed via email in the near future.

General Housekeeping

Communication with College Staff

Often parents need to communicate information to their child’s teachers regarding changes of routine and exemption from participation in sports, specialist lessons or activities due to injury or illness. To avoid confusion and ensure students are where they are meant to be, if changes should arise during the day, we ask this correspondence to be communicated through P-5 reception, not directly to teachers via email as teachers may not be in a position to attend to email during the day. Alternatively, students in Years 3-5 will also receive a student diary, which has space for notes of this nature.

Uniforms

A reminder that the College hat is an essential element of the school uniform. During breaks, students need to wear a hat, or they are required to stay out of the sun. Students should also wear their hats when traveling to and from the College.

Students are also required to follow the guidelines set out in the College uniform policy regarding hair and jewelry. These policies can be found via the parent handbook and also in the front of the Junior Handbook.

Students in Years 1-5 may only wear their sports uniforms to school on the days they have HPE. Years 4 and 5 students may also wear their HPE uniforms to school on Thursdays. There may also be occasions during the year when students are requested to wear their sports uniform to school for carnivals or excursions. On all other occasions, students should attend school in their formal uniform.

If, for some reason, your child is unable to wear the correct uniform to school, please send a note to your child’s class teacher. A uniform reminder letter will be forwarded to parents whose children are in the incorrect uniform without a note.

Car Parks

A reminder to all parents and students that they are to use the appropriate car park at the beginning and the end of the day. Prep-Year 2 students can use the front car park. Drop-off spaces require parents to remain with their cars. Students across Years 3-12 are to use the senior drop-off or car park at the western side of the College.

Families are reminded that there is access via Red Cedar Drive, and the Meridan Felds Car Park. These access points have supervision before and after school and provide accessibility for families living south of the College.

Additionally, parents are asked to use designated drop-off spots within the College as concerns have been raised within the community regarding the dropping off of students near Kawana Way. The lights that mark the intersection of Woodlands Blvd and Kawana way are particularly busy at the beginning and end of the days and in the interest of student safety, we ask that families use the P-2 carpark and 3-12 drop-off spaces during these times.

Take care, and God bless.

Damian

Mr Damian Davis, Head of Staff and Students P-5