We are quickly drawing to the close of the Old Testament as we make our way through God’s Big Story. God’s people were ‘doing quite well’ under David and Solomon, 1000 years before Christ’s time on earth but unfortunately, it unravelled over the next 300 or so years. The people’s determination to embrace practices of idolatry resulted in the Babylonians conquering Jerusalem in 587 BC and destroying the city and magnificent Temple that had stood since 957 BC. They dragged off many of the inhabitants of the area back to their lands. 

With this occurring, things looked very grim for God’s people but it is amongst this tragedy that God sustained amazing heroes such as Daniel and his mates Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. God blessed Daniel with an unshakeable faith. So much so that when the decree came down outlawing the worship of anyone or thing other than the King, Daniel ignored it and continued to worship the one true God. This resulted in him being arrested by the government officials who were jealous of Daniel’s standing before the King. Due to the nature of the decree, the King was left with no option other than to throw him to the Lions even though he respected Daniel immensely and did not wish to execute him.

Mrs Hancock shared with the Junior School during chapel how God was at work for Daniel. God listened to Daniel’s prayers. He remained with him through the great trial of the Lion’s den and protected him from danger – He does the same today, 2,500 years later! God promises to always hear our prayers. He never leaves us and provides protection from all sorts of dangers. 

God’s people suffered immensely due to their sinfulness and keenness to embrace the values of the people around them but amongst their abandoning of God, He never abandoned them. He always pursues us with a love that changes everything – all He needs is for us to be receptive of His claim on us as His children and welcome Him as Lord of our lives. May this be true for all of us – to follow Him as our loving God, it is where true life and love can be found.

TEACHING OUR CHILDREN TO BE SUCCESSFUL AND CARING

At St Andrews we are about educating the whole person and educating for good. We want our students to succeed and achieve their very best, yet also show great empathy and care towards others. Parenting expert Michael Grose, suggests the focus on success and achievement doesn’t have to come at the expense of our children’s empathy and wellbeing. Grose suggested five ways that parents can be influential in developing both aspects in their children;

DEVELOP A LANGUAGE FOR CARING

Parents invariably develop a deep language around the things they value. If caring is important then you need to develop language for caring (look after your brother; do the right thing; do unto others) just as you have probably developed a language around success (persist, work hard, do your best).

MODEL CARING BEHAVIOURS

Parents need to model caring and relational behaviours if they want children to develop these behaviours. Positive displays of intimacy such as a kiss and a hug for every family member as they walk out the door each day is a great way to teach healthy caring behaviours. It’s the small acts of kindness and caring that happen on a consistent basis that has the most lasting impact on kids.

FOCUS ON COOPERATION RATHER THAN COMPETITION

It’s easy to develop competition between kids. As a parent all you need to do is praise one child and criticise another and you’ve established the conditions for competition. It’s far harder to develop cooperative behaviours, but it’s worth the effort. Encourage kids to help each other; ask them to do jobs in pairs so they learn to work together; and teach older children to give way to younger children rather than always have their own way. Caring kids learn that not everything goes their way and that they need to compromise and give way to others in the name of being social and getting on.

ENCOURAGE NURTURING BEHAVIOURS

In the past families were larger than today and they had a natural advantage in developing caring and empathy. Elder kids would invariably have to look out for, or look after younger siblings, often at the expense of their own interests. In an era of small families kids have fewer natural opportunities to look after each other. However, parents can develop nurturance by encouraging children to look out for younger friends and relatives; to care for pets and also to be respectful of older relatives and friends.

PAY ATTENTION TO CHILDREN’S EMOTIONS

Now more than ever it’s important for parents to be attentive to children’s emotional lives, and also to develop an awareness of their own feelings and the feelings of others. Empathetic kids rarely use power and bullying to get their own way. Empathy always starts with an awareness of a child’s own emotional state.

As parents we want our kids to grow up to be successful and achieve their full potential. It’s the default position for most parents. But that doesn’t have to come at the expense of caring for others. In these times of small families and a more competitive landscape, parents need to work harder than ever to develop nurturance, caring and respect for others in kids. (Adapted from article “Be careful what you wish for as a parent”, by Michael Grose)

FINAL WEEK OF TERM

This is a particularly busy time of the semester for students and teachers as learning begins to culminate in a variety of assessments. As we move into the final week of term, I remind parents that teachers are always happy to hear from you. If you have any questions, concerns or sentiments of gratitude to share, I encourage you to send an email or to contact the College. One of the best ways to support your son/daughter is to continue to ensure they get enough sleep, a healthy diet and that they continue to keep a positive mindset towards working hard to achieve their personal bests.

END OF SEMESTER REPORTS

Reports will be published through Parent Lounge from Wednesday 23 June through to Friday 25 June. The reports will include Year 7-10 reports, Year 11 Unit One Reports and Year 12 Year to Date reports.

A VERY POSITIVE END TO SEMESTER ONE

Our Year 9 Boys have now returned from Googa and our Year 9 girls are out there until the end of term. What an incredible growing experience it has been for these young people.  

Well done to our Year 7 and Year 8 students who competed in the Readers Cup Gold Coast, at Saint Stephen’s College.  This 2021 Readers Cup team battled their way into an honourable 5^th place out of 16 schools. Thank you to Mrs Kristo for her coaching and organisation for this tournament. 

Last week it was awesome to witness the inaugural Fashion Runway Show, a fashion show involving students in the Years 7-10 Fashion Elective.  Mrs Polentas did a fantastic job creating this event for our creative students.

Last weekend also saw five St Andrews’ Kokoda teams compete in the Brisbane 30km event.  Meanwhile our 12 Gold Coast Kokoda teams continue to train for their event in mid-July.

Our Drama Students have also excelled in their performances in the GC Drama Festival.  Please see Mrs Scott’s report for full details. 

As part of our Service-Learning program, last weekend also saw some of our senior students assist with the Rosies’ Student Engagement Program.  Staff often give of their time on weekends to give opportunity and involve our students in these programs.

Finally, as we end the term, we wish our Year 11 students the very best as they head out on their Year 11 Leadership Camp to Emu Gully, Helidon on Wednesday. 

Adele Ramsay  
Deputy Principal Head of Secondary School

I came across the below Maya Angelou statement and it got me ruminating on recent events and how it is so important for us all to feel safe and valued in our communities no matter what our race, religion, background, gender or identity. What a boring and monochromatic world we would live in if we were all the same. Unfortunately, our social media platforms trick us into thinking we need to be alike and to aspire to a certain stereotype and that if we are different we are wrong or of less value. True justice, fairness and humanity is when all of us are respected, supported and part of the team. No person has the right to intimidate, harass and openly judge someone else to the point that they no longer feel safe or part of the team. Inclusive behaviour is something we all need to practice. However, we are not naive enough to think that exclusion or judgement does not occur but it is important that we all know that schools as an organisation are under the Queensland Government Workplace Bullying and Harassment Legislation and that St Andrews takes any form of bullying very seriously. Students or parents can report concerns to their child’s Year Level Coordinator or Head of Sub-School.

VAPING

In response to reported increasing incidences of vaping, that is, the use of e-Cigarettes across Gold Coast schools, a letter was emailed to families this week with some specific information to support parents and address our student body on the issue of vaping to ensure they are more aware. The College takes incidences of vaping very seriously and as per Queensland Government legislation vaping is banned at all Queensland schools.

Congratulations to:

• The Student Representative Council (Skyla G, Fynnlay R and support crew Courtney S) for another successful connections BBQ with the Year 11’s.
• Emily M for her win at the NT Foursomes Championship by a whopping 10 shots. Emily went on to finish Runner Up out of 65 women and juniors in the NT Classic with a great 3 round score of +6.  Emily is now sitting fourth in the Golf Australia National Girls Rankings.

     

• Kris H for this first place at the recent District Cross Country Championships. 

  

• To all our Year 11’s for their conduct and focus during the recent block exams.

If you have any queries or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me on tanias@salc.qld.edu.au

Tania Stewart

Head of Senior School

BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURIAL EDUCATION NEWS

Thirty of our students ranging from Year 8 to Year 10 worked with Scott Millar and Annie Butler from BOP Industries on Thursday, 27 May.  It was a one day intensive workshop that investigated Entrepreneurial skills and concepts such as ideation, customer personas, branding and marketing essentials, rapid prototyping and pitching ideas.  BOP Industries is a Brisbane based technology and education company on a mission to inspire the next generation of digital creators, showing students around the world how they can do amazing things at any age from anywhere.  With a focus on entrepreneurship, technology and the future of work, Scott and his team are working to build a generation of change-makers.  Scott has recently been named one of Australia’s Top 30 Under 30 in Business.  The students thoroughly enjoyed the day and the energy and passion that Scott and his team bring to their presentations.

Terri Myles
Head of Business Department 

ENTERPRISE GERMAN – UNTERNEHMEN DEUTSCH 

The Year 10 German class are taking part in an Australia wide young innovators competition called “Enterprise German” established by the German Goethe Institute in Sydney. 

“Enterprise German” promotes the collaboration between schools and German companies or Australian companies with a relationship to one of the four German-speaking countries in Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein). 

The project combines aspects of professional orientation with creativity and inventor spirit. Students are researching German companies in the region, are interviewing the German-speaking staff and will present their results in German class.

As part of their project a group of German students interviewed Katharina Loesche from SBS Radio reversing the normal roles of interviewee and interviewer. She told them about the SBS German Radio program and answered the students’ question about her profession, the importance of languages in a global community and the German-speaking community in the area. 

Earlier this term another group of students where connected to Melbournian entrepreneur Michael Santagati via Video-Link who gave them a tour through his Pretzel Bakery down in Victoria. 

The students are now entering the next phase of the project which takes them back to the drawing board to come up with an innovative new product or service for their partner company. They will pitch their ideas in German to a Jury of high-ranking German officials like the German Ambassador, the head of the German-Australian Chamber of Commerce and the head of the German Goethe Institute. 

The Language Department is proud of these students and wishes them all the best of luck for the competition. 

Jochen Schaich
Middle/Senior School Teacher

On Wednesday, 19 May, Mrs Carrie Dart, a Town Planner, came to speak to the Year 8 cohort about the history and future of the Gold Coast. During her informative talk we learnt about the current issues affecting the Gold Coast and what its future is predicted to look like. This included learning that the population will approximately double in size by 2050 and how the Gold Coast City Council sustains our city by planning to maintain both the natural and built environment. 

We also learned about Carrie’s life as a Town Planner and were given valuable insight into why the Gold Coast is the way it is today. As the Gold Coast is evolving, we learned it is important to protect the nature and wildlife of the Gold Coast while still upgrading the city in a sustainable way. Through this experience the Year 8 cohort gained a lot of knowledge, not only about the infrastructure of the Gold Coast but also about the different aspects of work as a Town Planer. 

Zoe R & Oscar C 
Year 8 students 

OLD COAST GREEN WEEK & WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY 2021

Get involved with events in the local area to coincide with World Environment Day on Saturday, 5 June. Gold Coast Green Week (4 June – 13 June) celebrates our unique natural environment here on the Gold Coast, through showcasing initiatives and hosting local events. Check out Gold Coast Green Week for more information on how to get involved and for a list of upcoming events including tree planting, dune care, guided walks, and clean up days.

We also have a wonderful display here in our Library celebrating our fragile and precious environment this World Environment Day.

2021 PREMIER’S READING CHALLENGE

The CRC Senior Library is promoting the reading challenge.  Students can read any fiction or nonfiction book they like during the Challenge. Children and students who complete the Challenge have their efforts recognised by receiving a Certificate of Achievement signed by the Premier of Queensland.  

Who:  Students in Years 7, 8 and 9
Criteria:  Read minimum 15 books (any book)
Reading period:  Now until Friday, 27 August

ESPORTS 

Congratulations to our two Esports teams who enthusiastically represented St Andrews in the FUSE Cup over the last two weeks. FUSE Cup is the State’s largest school-based Esports competition, with hundreds of students competing from schools across the Southeast. See the FUSE Cup and our students featured in this great Courier Mail article.

Years 7 and 8

Sam K., Lochie C., Jack O., Hunter T.

Years 9 and 10

Tenby D., Zane T., Asha C., Lavinia B.

READERS CUP

Please congratulate our 2021 Readers Cup team who battled their way to an honourable 5^th place out of 16 schools on Tuesday, 1 June. The Readers Cup competition challenges students to read widely, work collaboratively in a team and continue developing a love of reading. 

Tom A., Evelyn A., Paddy D., and Aaron T. represented St Andrews Lutheran College this year and stood out with their enthusiasm, kindness and relaxed attitude amongst some rather intense competition.

ASK A LIBRARIAN

Your Librarians are always happy to help with research, finding resources, book recommendations and IT support. We also love to chat about books, life and the universe.  Come in and chat to us or email us directly:

• Teacher Librarian: Barbara Kristo
• Digital Content and Resource Integration Library Aide: Briana Norton
• Literacy, Reading and Resourcing Library Aide: Yvonne Barrett (M-Th) Trudy Slabosz (F)

The CRC Senior Library

SPELLING

Learning to spell is an important skill in learning how to write. It helps us to convey a message to someone else in written form. In each of the classrooms you will find charts that look like the picture below. It shows all of the consonant and vowel sounds and the letters used to make those sounds. The ‘b’ sound can be represented by a ‘b’ or a ‘bb’. For example, balloon and ribbon both make the same ‘b’ sound but are represented differently. We take the time to explicitly teach all of these sounds to the students to ensure that they have the skills necessary to write clearly and effectively. 

Through our daily reading and writing we come across words that don’t fit into these rules. An example is brooch. While it has the same vowel sound as ‘oa’ in boat it is an exemption to the rule. No wonder learning to spell is such a difficult skill to learn. 

TEACHERS AT ST ANDREWS

I have spent quite a bit of team observing our teacher’s teach. It reinforced in me that we have a high calibre of teachers at St Andrews Lutheran College. I often share with my colleagues that if I were ever to take up a classroom teacher role, I would be a far greater teacher due to what I have learned whilst observing our teachers in action. 

I often receive feedback from families about what a wonderful job their child’s teacher has done or how they have gone out of their way to help. If you would like to show your appreciation for the work of a teacher, you can do this by nominating them for a National Excellence in Teaching Award (NEITA). It is a relatively straight forward process https://www.neita.com/ I know our teachers appreciate the recognition. 

YEAR 5 CAMP

I had the honour and privilege of attending the Year 5 Camp at Coolum last week. The focus for the camp was to develop leadership and teamwork skills. This came through in abundance with the activities and the way that the students conducted themselves. It is always great to serve a community where we have such wonderful students who make our school and their parents proud every day. 

FATHERING PROJECT

One of the greatest joys in life is being a parent. While there is so much joy associated with being a parent, it can be one of the most challenging things we do in our lives. The fathering project is an initiative that we have started this year where fathers or father figures can come together to share the joys and challenges of being a father. We launched the night with a paper plane and pizza night. Some of the dads brought along instructions on how to build the best plane and there may have even been youtube videos watched. It was a great night with lots of fathers and father figures in attendance with their children. Next term we plan to have 2 events. The first event will be for father/father figures only. It will be a chance to talk about a topic and share some joys and challenges of being a father. The second event will be for fathers/father figures and their children. It was great to see the joy and excitement on the children’s faces when they were doing something memorable with their father/father figures.

Darrin Schumacher
Deputy Principal / Head of Junior School

RESTORATIVE PRACTICES – WHAT IT IS? WHAT IT IS NOT?

Traditionally poor behaviour has meant punishments or consequences – many, many years ago it was the cane, then it was time out or community service and the list goes on…. You yourself may have experienced some sort of consequence based ‘discipline’ while at school. Our justice system is based around it and as parents we often feel the necessity to punish poor behaviour.

Research suggests that poor behaviour is not effectively changed through punishments but rather through education and natural consequence. At St Andrews we use Restorative Practices to aid in this learning.

Restorative Practices is:

• an approach that encourages reflection on the ‘why’ of the behaviour
• an opportunity for harm and hurt to be explored so that it can then be restored or resolved
• a process to make things right so that relationships can move forward
• an opportunity for all members of the community that have been involved to be heard
• a way for those involved to learn from the situation and make changes necessary to be a caring member of the community

Restorative Practices is not:

• a soft approach
• a ‘get out of jail free’ card if I say sorry
• a quick, instant process
• based on consequences or punishments, although these might become an action out of the process

If you would like to know more please reach out to any staff member who can give you further information.

Until next time,

Karen Koehler
Deputy Head of Junior School Pastoral

NAIDOC CELEBRATIONS

This week Prep students were treated to a special guest speaker who shared her knowledge of Indigenous culture. Students also explored a range of museum specimens and artefacts from the Queensland Museum. These kits are available for loan and can be matched with Units of Inquiry. A range of Aboriginal tools and animals were on display for students to engage in and learn the significance of each item in the Indigenous culture. Students also learned the traditional animal names in Jarowair, the language of the traditional owners of the Toowoomba area.    

SOLAR OVENS – DESIGN THINKING

Year 3 students have been using the design thinking process to plan, create and test solar ovens using recyclable materials.  Students explored the benefits of solar ovens used in third world countries and compared them to using open fires which pose many health and environmental challenges. Students will test out their designs and measure the temperature of their ovens next week using a piece of chocolate!       

MILLIONAIRES CLUB

Congratulations to the following students who received their medals for the millionaire’s club. Amazing achievement!  

• Lincoln R, Year 4
• Dustin H, Year 4
• Dinae P, Year 6

Vikki Rees Teacher Librarian/ICT Coordinator

DRAMA FESTIVAL WRAP UP

Over the past few weeks, The Gold Coast Secondary School’s Drama Festival has showcased one act plays over three weeks. St Andrews entered 3 plays featuring over 50 Drama students from Years 7 - 11, with outstanding results across the sections including Runner up Best Play in both Intermediate and Senior Sections of the Festival.

JUNIOR – THE SEUSSIFICATION OF A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

Highly Commended – Samuel K, Jacob D, Shelby B, Jasper H, Tilly A.

Outstanding Comedic Performance – Samuel K.

INTERMEDIATE – ONE ACT PLAY DISASTER

Highly Commended – Evie K, Romi P, Liam W, Tenby D, Ava E

Charlie F, Sophia T.

Best Supporting Actor – Ava E.

Runner up Best Play Intermediate Division.

SENIOR – LETTERS TO LINDY

Highly Commended – Lotte R, Sophie C, Tayla B.

Runner up Best Play Senior Division.

MID-YEAR SHOWCASE

This week we have enjoyed some showcase performances from PAT Speech and Drama and JS PAT Vocal. Our Making Mini Musos (Prep to Year 2) also performed in their classrooms to share with their friends what they have been learning this semester. 

Pics on Media -Performing Arts – Term 2

Cilla Scott
Head of the Arts

While our major fundraiser and friendraising events for this term has come to an end, please keep an eye on your inbox for details on the social Trivia Night being held on Saturday 14 August in Term 3. We will be taking table bookings soon.

MEETINGS

We look forward to seeing you at our upcoming meetings:

• Wednesday 18 August 7pm

• AGM Wednesday 10 November 7pm

If you would like to add an item to the agenda, please email pandf@salc.qld.edu.au

Dr Samantha Naday

Samantha Naday, 2011 Alumni and recipient of a Group Bravery Citation from the Governor of Queensland, graciously accepted an offer to talk at the Women’s Assembly this week about the things she knows now that she wishes she knew then. Sam’s message was simple, don’t let others dim your light or make you feel small, don’t feel like you have to be perfect and don’t feel like you have to fit the narrow stereotype that the media tells us is acceptable. Be proud of who you are, get rid of toxic people from your life and let your light shine. 

We are so grateful that Sam came to share that important message with our young women and that she pumped out an Adele song for us as well – her light well and truly shone for us! 

Keep watching till the end for an impromptu song from Sam.

Freya Sambain

Gold Coast Bulletin Pg8
Thursday June 10 2021

JUNE

Sunday 13

Numinbah Kokoda Training Session at 7:00am

Wednesday 16

Fun Run Light Up Vanuatu

Thursday 17

First Nations Day

Friday 18

Term 2 Concludes

Year 5 and 6 Interschool Sport

Saturday 19

Class of 2000 and 2001 - 20 Year Reunion

Tuesday 22

Karen Young Information Evening for parents at 6:00pm

Wednesday 23

ELC City of Gold Coast ‘Be Pet Smart’ Show

Sunday 27- Saturday 3 July

QISSN Netball tournament in Brisbane

JULY

Monday 12

Term 3 Starts