Compass No. 517 November 2018

The thread for this week, interpersonal competence is very appropriate for this time of the school year. The Year 12 class is graduating this week, Middle College students are getting ready for exams soon, Junior and Foundation College students are looking forward to the end of year celebrations. In the midst of this, students get tired, staff have limited time to complete all their tasks, and we start to plan to do it all over again next year. It takes a lot of strength of character and interpersonal skills and awareness to finish the school year well. It takes great courage to show grace to others when we are under pressure.

We all need ongoing practice with interpersonal skills. Meeting people, maintaining friendships and relationships, living peacefully with one another when we are stressed, these are some aspects of this thread. We can’t assume that children and young people are automatically skilled and naturally mature in these things. Many people pick up interpersonal skills by watching significant others such as parents, older students and staff members relate to one another. So as we farewell the Year 12s this week we can be particularly thankful for their leadership, growth in character, and the positive role modelling they have provided for our student body and their Year 2 buddies. Our student leaders and Senior students play such an essential role in modelling interpersonal skills for the rest of the student body. As we swiftly move to the end of the school year here is a prayer of thanks for our graduating Year 12s;

Thank you, Gracious God for our Year 12 class of 2018. You have brought them safely through their years of high school. Your grace has sustained them, and your kindness has supported them. Thank you for the many blessings our college community has experienced through this year’s cohort. May the legacy they have left for our school continue to bring blessing to the students of Pacific. Be with them now and always. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Ps Tim Jarick, College Pastor 

Annual General Meeting ALL WELCOME

We warmly invite all new and current families, together with College staff, to attend our Annual General Meeting.
Please join us for wine and cheese at 6.30pm on Tuesday 20^th November in the College Library.

COLES Sports for Schools

Thank you to everyone who collected the Coles Sports for Schools vouchers earlier this year.
Our College has now received valuable sports equipment from participation in the program!  

Christmas Carols BBQ

Friends of Pacific will be hosting a BBQ at the upcoming Christmas Carols event on Friday 30 November!  Look out for the Containers for Change to aid in our campus recycling efforts.

A Red Carpet Welcome to SAVE THE DATE  

Trivia Night is BACK in 2019… Saturday 17^th August!

With planning already underway for our 2019 events, we look forward to welcoming many new faces to our volunteer committee.

Mrs Jenny Lee, Chairperson

Parents must have a strong sense of their moral authority – their right to be respected and obeyed. Psychologist Diana Baumrind’s research has identified three styles of parenting: authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive. Permissive parents are high on affection but low on authority. By contrast, authoritative parents are high on authority, reasoning, fairness, and love. The authoritative parent “explains reasons behind demands, encourages give and take, and sets standards and enforces them firmly but does not regard self as infallible.” Baumrind finds that at all age levels, the most self-confident and socially responsible children have authoritative parents.  To establish an authoritative parenting style, we should have a zero tolerance policy for disrespectful speech and behaviour. When kids engage in disrespectful back-talk, they need immediate corrective feedback (“What is your tone of voice”, “You are not allowed to speak to me in that way, even if you’re upset.”). Allowing our children to speak to us disrespectfully will quickly erode their respect for our moral authority, our rules, our example, and our teaching.

http://psychology.about.com/od/childcare/f/authoritative-parenting.htm

Mrs Annie Williams, School Counsellor

• 21st November – Check your SAI’s – speak to the College if you have any concerns.

• 15th December – OP/Ranks are released. Log onto Student Connect with your LUI number to see your final results and OP/Rank.

• 10am, 17th December – Make any changes to your order of preferences in your QTAC account by this cut off (if required). Keep in mind cut-offs can change each year and adjustment factors could be added to your QTAC Rank (converted from your OP) when being considered for offers so keep your ideal in there.

• 20th December – The first major QTAC offer round. You will have 4 days to respond to your offer (This may be extended due to Xmas). You will be sent an email and SMS to check your account. Offers can occur weekly from here. Remember that you can ‘Accept’, ‘Conditionally Accept’, ‘Defer’ or ‘Conditionally Defer’. See the QTAC website for further information on responding to offers. https://www.qtac.edu.au/applying/apply-here/offers

• 16th January – Major offer round for competitive courses at some Universities. You will have four days to respond to these offer.

Key dates are noted in your QTAC guide on page 20.  Students applying interstate are encouraged to note their key dates as listed in UAC, VTAC, SATAC, etc.

Remember to apply for your Tax File Number to allow you to defer your fees. This can take 28 days to be processed.

Wishing all of year 12 cohort a safe and smooth transition from school and all the best in reaching their individual post-school goals.

Mrs Natasha Purcell, Careers Counsellor

On Saturday 3^rd November two teams of students attended the First Tech Challenge at Grace Lutheran College. The challenge involved developing a robot to fit in a 46cm cube. The robots were amazing to build, and program and the boys worked for weeks to develop their particular robots to meet the challenge presented. The challenge included an autonomous period and also a joy stick controlled period. The teams learned a great deal on the day especially in terms of meeting engineering design challenges and successful programming. The day was a success all round and we will be competing again in 2019.

Last Saturday, 10^th November, two teams of students represented the College in the First Lego League Competition in Noosa where over 30 schools participated. The boys, Liam Brown and Ashton Clues from Year 6 and Varsh Surapaneni and Jordan Doughty from Year 8, have been programming and planning their robotic solution to the ‘Into Orbit’ Challenge for the last few weeks. This year the challenge was quite difficult and presented enormous engineering challenges as to the types of additions needed for the robots to perform the different tasks. The day was a qualifying round for the state Challenge to be held in Brisbane in the coming weeks. The teams did an enormous job on the day and learned a great deal about the First Lego League though did not move into the finals.

I would like to thank these teams as well as all the other team members who have represented Pacific Lutheran College in competitions throughout the year. This now concludes the Robotics club for 2018.

Let’s hope 2019 will bring another wonderful year for the Robotics Club.

Mrs Janine Stone, Head of Department - IT, Robotic Club Organiser

Calling all parents, grandparents and friends of the Pacific community! If you can volunteer for only 45 minutes, (from 12.45 to 1.30pm) then we'd love to hear from you! We have volunteer positions available to serve at the front counter.  We would love to see some new faces at the Tuckshop this term! Your time and effort will be most appreciated by staff and students. If you are unsure about what is involved, please feel free to pop in, meet our Tuckshop Convenor and have a look around. There are jobs to suit everyone and it’s a great way to meet new people and lend a helping hand. Click here to download the Volunteer Form.

Ms Carrie Dickson, Tuckshop Convenor

The Uniform Shop is open from 8.00am to 9.30am every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Orders can be placed online via www.flexischools.com.au and will be delivered to your child the following day.

This year the Uniform shop will be closing for stocktake on Friday 23^rd November.  Please ensure that, if you are in Year 9, that you have purchased your Blazer and Trousers (for male students) and Blazer (for female students) before this date. 

We will reopen on Monday 21^st January 2018.  For appointments please contact the main office on 5436 7300.

If your child is commencing Year One, please see the below pictures for formal uniform requirements.  All of these items are available from the uniform shop.  Formal shoes for Year One are black leather lace ups.

Foundation and Junior College Formal Uniform

If your child is commencing Year 6, please see the below pictures for formal uniform requirements.  Year Six students require a formal hat to be worn with their formal uniform. The bucket hat continues to be worn with their sports uniform.  All of these items are available for purchase in the Uniform Shop.  Formal shoes are black leather lace ups. 

Middle College Formal Uniform

Mrs Peta King, Uniform Shop Convenor