Welcome one and all to Semester 2 2020 and a special welcome to new students and families who have commenced in our community. Thank you for ensuring that your sons and daughters were well prepared for their return to school and for your continued support and understanding during this ongoing pandemic that has forced change and constrained community life.

Staffing

We welcome back Mr Ben Rosenblatt after a period of well-earned Long Service Leave and thank Mrs Deanne Kertesz for assisting in Term 2 in Mr Rosenblatt’s absence. We welcome back Mr Ben Ram who was teaching in Junior High at the end of last term in Mrs Knight’s absence and continues with us this semester in a part-time capacity teaching Junior High Technology. Mrs Alison Pomerenke also joins us in a part-time capacity teaching Lower Primary Music. Some of you would know Mrs Pomerenke from her longstanding service in our community as a Private Tuition teacher for instrumental music. Both Mr Ram and Ms Pomerenke have joined the teaching team due to increased elective offerings in Year 10 for Semester 2.

Mrs Teresa O’Hara joins the Prep team as our Prep S Teacher Assistant with the departure of Mrs Kellie Parsons at the end of Semester 1. Mrs O’Hara is already familiar with our educational programs and community, having been involved in supporting teaching and learning in our Primary School over the past few years.

We congratulate Ms Emily Tormey, former OSHC Educational Leader, on her appointment as a teacher to Biloela State School over the holidays. Ms Tormey has already commenced at Biloela and we pray that God bless her richly in her new calling. We also congratulate Mrs Jennie Awcock on her appointment as Educational Leader in our OSHC team.

COVID-19

While restrictions have eased in Queensland, considerable constraints remain in schools. On Monday, I sent out a letter to families with information pertaining to COVID-19 hotspots. Within 24 hours the hotspots list was expanded to include two new locations in NSW. We can be thankful for how well we have been doing in Queensland but it is not a time for complacency but continued diligence and care as responsible members of our school, local, state and national communities. 

In fulfilling our duty of care to our community, we continue to monitor and follow the advice of the Chief Health Officer and the government. As such, we continue to have special Prep drop-off arrangements and staggered Kiss-and-Go pick up times to avoid gatherings of adults on site and minimise interaction between year levels. Management and limitation of adults on site remains an important requirement.

Any student who is unwell (even with the mildest symptoms) must remain at home and we thank you for your cooperation, should we have to call to send your child home if they become unwell during the day.

Additional cleaning programs established in Semester 1 continue and have been expanded in Semester 2. We continue to emphasise important health and hygiene practices within our community. 

While assemblies are now technically permitted, we will not be immediately commencing assemblies as it remains important to minimise interaction between year levels. We can resume some student activities on a case-by-case basis and within prescribed parameters and COVID-safe planning. Mr Lohe and the sports team have been working hard to get sports training and competitive sport underway again and we have been able to begin to plan and run some excursions and student events. 

I mention these things cautiously, in the knowledge of increasing cases in Victoria and New South Wales and with Queensland borders currently open albeit not to everyone. I hope and pray that Queensland does not have to return to higher levels of restrictions, but at the same time we must be aware that this is a possibility, as it is that at some time we may have to return to at-home learning.  Should this happen, we will cope and we will adjust again together. I say this here not to create worry, but simply to reiterate the importance of all of us remaining diligent, careful and responsible.

Looking forward

Amidst the challenges we continue to move forward.  We are progressing inquiry learning in Primary School, our Contemporary Learning Team continues towards the evolution of life and learning in Junior High (congratulations to our first Junior High leaders appointed at the end of Term 2) and in Senior School Year 12s are finalising Internal Assessments and preparing for mock external examinations at the end of this term ahead of state-wide External Assessments occurring in Term 4.

Your continued support is invaluable to us and has been the topic of conversations in the first days back. Your support makes our task easier, encourages, enables us to focus on caring for each child and quality teaching and learning, and sets a fine example from which our young people learn. 

May God give us wisdom, joy in the daily tasks to which we are called, and all we need for each day.

Craig Schmidt
Principal

Welcome to Term 3

It’s good to come together as a whole community again as we start the second semester of this exceptional year. One thing we have learned from last term is the importance of that face to face community for learning and growing together. While we are capable to facilitate remote learning and teaching, and keeping in touch through various social media, there is something in us as humans that deeply desires and needs that face to face presence.

Perhaps that is why the Psalmists so often implore God not to hide His face from them (eg Psalm 27:9), and why in the Aaronic blessing we declare, “may the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you”.

Being face to face is a blessing, smiling upon one another provides connection, enables us to share emotions, thoughts, needs in a unique way and also read each other in a way that is not possible through media (where we need emojis to try to convey what we normally perceive in a natural way).

But, as we also have found out, being face to face can bring disease – which makes this virus so insidious - we may need face masks to protect others, and sometimes even to refrain from being face to face, to isolate ourselves, for the greater good.

As we continue to move through this year, let us give thanks for the blessing of being able to be face to face as community again, but let us also tread carefully and work within the continuing restrictions and conditions to manage our togetherness and protect one another.

And let us never forget that our Lord’s promise is to travel with us, that his face is turned to us in love and that he desires to let his face shine upon us and give us peace – even in the midst of this tumultuous time.

May His peace indeed fill you as you move into this new semester!

“The Lord bless you and keep you;

25 the Lord make his face shine on you

    and be gracious to you;

26 the Lord turn his face toward you

    and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)

Pastor Thomas
Indooroopilly College Senior Pastor

Arise returned to public worship on Sunday 12 July at 9.00am. You are invited to come and share in the warmth of the fire of God’s love as it burns in our Community of faith and worship.

The video on Facebook is of the complete worship service.

View video of worship service

Our students have found a great way to keep positive this year. Year 12 student, Renieke VJ, says “there’s this one quote I specifically love and it says that ‘Gratitude helps you fall in love with the life you already have’. So in the past few weeks I’ve been intentionally focusing on the idea of gratitude. I have a gratitude box, I write down things I’m grateful for every day and it helps me reflect on, and feel grateful for, the things I have in my life. By reflecting on all of these things I’ve found it helps with my mood and it helps me have a deeper appreciation for the little things.”

Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in line with the NCCD guidelines (2019).

Information provided about students to the Australian Government for the NCCD includes:

• year of schooling
• category of disability: physical, cognitive, sensory or social/emotional
• level of adjustment provided: support provided within quality differentiated teaching practice, supplementary, substantial or extensive.

This information assists schools to:

• formally recognise the supports and adjustments provided to students with disability in schools
• consider how they can strengthen the support of students with disability in schools
• develop shared practices so that they can review their learning programs in order to improve educational outcomes for students with disability.

The NCCD provides state and federal governments with the information they need to plan more broadly for the support of students with disability.

The NCCD will have no direct impact on your child and your child will not be involved in any testing process. The school will provide data to the Australian Government in such a way that no individual student will be able to be identified – the privacy and confidentiality of all students is ensured. All information is protected by privacy laws that regulate the collection, storage and disclosure of personal information. To find out more about these matters, please refer to the Australian Government’s Privacy Policy (https://www.education.gov.au/privacy-policy).

Further information about the NCCD can be found on the NCCD Portal (https://www.nccd.edu.au).

If you have any questions about the NCCD, please contact Stephanie Wise s.wise@stpeters.qld.edu.au  

Here at St Peters Springfield we are committed to the wellbeing of our students, families and staff. We have recently joined forces with Lilley Place to offer on site Psychological services to better serve the wellbeing of our community.

Support arrangements for St Peters Springfield Students - Information (PDF) click here.

Lilly Place Referral & Authorisation Form (PDF) - click here.

St Peters Lutheran College Springfield has had a tradition of celebrating French Week at the beginning of Term 3. The choice of week ties in with the fact that the 14th July is Bastille Day, the French national day which marks the storming of the Bastille Prison in 1789 and the beginning of the revolution which led to the first French Republic.

In previous years, this is the time in the Senior School when our French exchange students from our French sister school, Lycée St Vincent, would be visiting. These students would have been involved in organising activities for younger students. Junior School Assemblies would have had students performing French plays and songs and the Tuckshop would be selling French food.

This year, the celebrations are necessarily restricted for the safety of students in accordance with the Covid19 guidelines pertaining to students gathering together from different year levels. Resultantly, our French teachers, Madame Rae Morgan (Years 9 – 12), Madame Elisabeth Knowles (Years 7 – 8) and our Junior School French Teacher, Mademoiselle Ashleigh Cutcliffe have been doing activities in the classroom to mark the day.

During Pastoral Care today, years 7 – 12 enjoyed completing a quiz on French culture, with the winners being awarded French lollies. The French flag flew high. Primary students did a skit and Junior High had mini-history lessons on the significance of the day.

Look out for French food treats available in the Tuckshop next week as well!

From music buses, rainbow days, to lego challenges, our Outside School Hours Care provided an incredible Vacation Care Program for the June/July school holidays. The Music Bus provided some great workshops for the children where they played instruments in small groups and they were able to learn more about music. For a hobbies galore day, the children were able to share their gifts/hobbies and learn in a number of ways as teacher and student. They also got messy with slime time and also had some fitness fun where they focused on teamwork. Taking advantage of the cooler weather the children wore their pyjamas and had a chill out day watching some great G rated movies. To finish off the week they had their own mini-fete, where they made up their own games, for some carnival magic and finally the children brought in their favourite furry animals to share some treats with during their Teddy Bears picnic. A huge thank you to Carol and all the OSHC staff for continually creating their wonderful holiday (before and after school) programs. We look forward to seeing what they have prepared for the next holidays!

Changes to OSHC staff:

Congratulations to our Educational Leader, Ms Emily Tormey, who has moved to Biloela for a teaching position – she will be greatly missed and we wish her well in her future endeavours. Emily will be replaced by Mrs Jennie Awcock who is an existing educator with over 15 years experience in childcare. We welcome Jennie to our OSHC community and look forward to introducing her to our children and their families!

Before the holidays our Preps celebrated Opposite Day by wearing their pyjamas to school. It was a huge success—we had so much fun doing things in the opposite way and sharing our different pyjamas! We played games, completed tasks in the opposite direction. Understanding the concept of opposites is important as it helps a child to learn how to compare two different things and to develop a more concrete understanding of a specific concept (e.g. hard vs soft). Learning opposites also improves a child's ability to describe things. It is also a lot of fun!

Last term Year 3 students were working hard using Bee-Bots, they’re an exciting programmable floor robot for Primary students. It’s a perfect starting point for teaching control, directional language and programming to young children. Bee-Bots are also used as a resource tool to enhance learning in literacy, science and numeracy through a multitude of activities. Before the holidays our Year 3 students were practicing their digital technology skills by coding the Bee-Bot to get around a maze. They’ve been working hard on their knowledge and understanding of digital technology and will ‘bee’ doing more this term.

In Term Two, Year 5 students have been exploring the properties of light and the role of optical engineers. The unit culminated with a Design Technologies challenge – students were required to design a light system in an Egyptian tomb to illuminate six hieroglyphs. After completion of Challenge One, they then needed to follow the engineering design process to make a change to their system that increased the intensity of at least one hieroglyph – without compromising the intensity of others. A challenge that certainly required students to think critically and creatively!

Dr Steven Berryman, Director of Music at City of London School for Girls, and cultural and creative learning strategic champion in the Education Strategy Unit of the City of London, believes that the arts have the potential to support us in times of trouble. Berryman believes that a focus on the arts has the potential to increase engagement and to help students to cope with the challenges presented during COVID19.

Why arts education matters

Research highlights the therapeutic effects of engaging in the arts, and how creative activities can help to make meaning out of difficult situations. These are benefits that young people need now, perhaps more than ever.

Encourage pupils to think differently 

While important to promote engagement through the huge amount of arts and cultural material to watch and listen to, there is also a need to foster the creative behaviours the arts enable, such as considering novel and unexpected approaches to problems and collaborating creatively with others.

Students can be encouraged to consider quirky and unusual ways of responding to their school work, for example. Instead of a written response to a question, could they respond by making something? Could they use literature to prompt an artistic response – such as creating a soundscape to illustrate a moment in a story? Can they use an app, if they are using a device to help them to respond in an unusual way?

Help pupils to be agents of their own creativity

It’s important that young people get to pursue their interests, and to engage in activities they enjoy and have a genuine interest in. Or, it might be an opportunity to uncover new interests. Encouraging young people to consider how their interests connect with their school work, and how they can utilise their creative expertise in how they engage with their studies can help to sustain them as they work through our continued societal upheaval.

These are difficult times for everyone, but the arts still have the potential to inspire us, to connect people and to help us heal. We must prioritise the need to embrace creativity and promote creative behaviours, to encourage mental wellbeing. 

DIGITAL RECITALS

Sincere congratulations to participants in the Private Tuition Recitals and Music Education Showcase which took place at the end of Term Two. Given the current health situation, onsite recitals were replaced by digital recitals, using Flipgrid. If you have missed these performances, they can be accessed via Teams / Flipgrid, using student number and password.  Congratulations to students for their performances, and for their tutors and ensemble directors for recording and uploading performances.  While not the same as a physical concert with a live audience, these recitals still present an array of talent and variety of repertoire.  In all contexts, it is wonderful to witness the wealth and depth of enthusiasm and ability on display.

PRIVATE TUITION

Music lessons resume this week. Teaching schedules for tutors have been completed and are being distributed by tutors. Speech and Drama lessons will commence in Week 2, and the schedule will be distributed at the end of this week.

Welcome back to Term 3!

We are looking forward to a massive Term 3 of Sport for all students. There will be opportunities for students from Prep through to Year 12 over the coming months. There will be a range of information from the following people:

• Mr Lohe – Head of Sport St Peters Springfield
• Mrs Champion – Girls Sport Coordinator St Peters Indooroopilly
• Mr Donatini – Boys Sport Coordinator St Peters Indooroopilly
• Mr Dawson – Primary Sport Coordinator St Peters Indooroopilly

We ask that you read all information carefully as there as significant changes to draws and fixtures, particularly for Boys Sport. Detailed information will also be provided regarding COVID Safe Site practices implemented by St Peters as well as respective schools and associations we play against.

All sport will be commencing in Week 1 with most students having already been through trials for their respective sport.

Registering for Sport Bus

It is vitally important that all students using the Sport to travel to and from St Peters Indooroopilly for training register their names on the Sport Bus Manifest. This online document has been shared to all Year 4 – 12 students’ Google Drive Account. Students are required to place their name on the Bus Manifest at least the day before they require a seat to ensure all students can be catered for.

As there are extra sports taking place this term, there are more students needing to travel to Indooroopilly for training than would normally occur in Term 3 due to revised programs. Students are responsible for adding their names, however, can parents please remind their child/children to register as well.

WDNA Primary Girls Netball

WDNA Primary Girls Netball will begin this Saturday 18th July. You will have received communication regarding the season from Mr Peter Dawson earlier in the week. Training will resume at normal times from Week 2 as follows:

• Mondays from 3:00pm – 4:00pm (at the courts across the road) (all teams)
• Thursday from 6.45am - 7.45am (at the courts at school) (U9/10)
• Fridays from 6:45am – 7:45am (at the courts at school) (U11/12)

Girls will not need to purchase a new St Peters Netball uniform given the short season ahead. If parents have already purchased this uniform it can still be worn. Girls will just wear their PE uniform for training and games. We look to a fantastic season ahead.

Primary Sport Clubs

A number of Primary Sport Clubs will take place this term. It is not too late to join with the following available:

• Lower Primary Basketball - $100 for 6 sessions beginning Monday 27th July. Please register interest at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScb5rbTctKXjpvTuOVaZRPfd97MX83_iZ75Mp-8DbsZK-kh9g/viewform?usp=sf_link
• Upper Primary Athletics Club - $125 for Term 3 beginning Wednesday 15th July. Please register interest at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSenbH4DhyWI6nBJQD31F5KS1ypGGw8V4ai2piq0dlowX6FtOQ/viewform?usp=sf_link
• BASELINE Tennis – information has been sent out to parents. Please contact BASELINE Tennis to register interest.

GIRLS SPORT – Term 3

How fantastic it has been over the holidays and this week to see such an amazing number of girls enjoying their Sport again.

Participation number across all our Girls Sports are very strong and our first Trial game fixtures for Netball, Hockey and Volleyball are this Saturday 18 July, all draws can be found on the St Peters App.

A big thank you to our Sports House team, our Coordinators and our Coaches for all their work to get the sports up and running in a very small-time frame.

Our amazing Coordinators will be communicating directly with the girls and their parents with further details for the Trial games and the importance of our Sports following the COVID Safe plans in place for each venue.

Restrictions across the venues are challenging and we ask Parents to please read carefully the instructions of pickups/drop offs and the NO SPECTATOR rule put in place by the QGSSSA for the next two weeks.

Our Rowing girls are back on the water and Mr Hicks has done a wonderful job organising the logistics to get the girls back Rowing. Buses, breakfasts, boat repairs just to name a few.

I had the pleasure of joining the girls on the water in holidays and I was so impressed with the wonderful community that continues to build and the girl’s commitment to the Sport.

QG NETBALL
Coordinator: Mrs Champion – a.champion@stpeters.qld.edu.au

The Netball Trial Game Draw for this Saturday 18 July can be found on the St Peters App.

DATE CLAIMER – Vicki Wilson Cup is on again! Saturday 3 - Monday 5 October – Nissan Arena, Brisbane.

QG VOLLEYBALL
Coordinator: Mr Singh – j.singh@stpeters.qld.edu.au

The Volleyball Trial Game Draw for this Saturday 18 July can be found on the St Peters App.

QG HOCKEY
Coordinator: Mr Glass – c.glass@stpeters.qld.edu.au

The Hockey Trial Game Draw for this Saturday 18 July can be found on the St Peters App.

If your daughter would like to learn the game of Hockey, please contact Mr Glass. Due to injures any interested girls will be very welcome.

QG TENNIIS
Coordinator: Ms Franco – r.franco@stpeters.qld.edu.au

Selection trials and training will continue in the normal Tuesday and Thursday morning time slots before the Round two fixtures on Saturday 25 July.

BSRA ROWING
Coordinator: Mr Hicks – p.hicks@stpeters.qld.edu.au

Please see the St Peters App for the BSRA statement released on Tuesday 14 July.

QGSSSA TRACK & FIELD
Coordinators: Mr Luke Donatini – L.Donatini@stpeters.qld.edu.au
Mr Shaun Nodwell – s.nodwell@stpeters.qld.edu.au
Mr Jeremy Lohe – J.Lohe@stpeters.qld.edu.au

DATE CLAIMER – QGSSSA TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS – Thursday 17 September

Training commences in Week 2 – please see the St Peters App for the Training Schedule.

AIC Boys Sport -TERM 3

AIC Basketball and AIC Tennis opened this past week with pre-season games against Padua, Marist College, Gregory Terrace (1st IV Tennis) and St Laurence’s College. We could not be happier with the efforts, enthusiasm and commitment of all our boys who represented St Peters at these pre-season games.

This Saturday St Peters AIC Basketball and Tennis teams will compete against Villanova College. We wish every St Peters team the very best and encourage them to represent their college with pride and enthusiasm.

For details on game locations, venues and times please refer to the St Peters App where all details can be found. Please note that each venue has a COVID Site Map which outlines both drop off and pick up details which should be adhered to.

With reference to Term 3 training for AIC Basketball and Tennis, please refer to the St Peters App. Any further information required, please contact the respective sport coordinators.

AIC Tennis Coordinator:
Mr Matt Stubbings – M.Stubbings@stpeters.qld.edu.au

AIC Basketball Coordinator:
Mr Orhan Memedovski – O.Memedovski@stpeters.qld.edu.au

AIC Football, AIC Rugby and AIC Chess pre-season training is now also commenced. We encourage all boys who are participating in these sports to ensure they know when their training is on (please check the St Peters App). For all students who are also participating in either Basketball or Tennis, please be reminded that attending Basketball or Tennis training takes priority over Rugby or Football as the are the ‘In-Season’ sports.

If you have any questions pertaining to the up and coming Rugby, Football or Chess season (last 4 weeks of Term 3), please contact the coordinator.

AIC Football Coordinator:
Mr Nathan Edwards – N.Edwards@stpeters.qld.edu.au

AIC Rugby Coordinators:
Mr Juan Gouws –  J.Gouws@stpeters.qld.edu.au
Mr Trent Hacking – T.Hacking@stpeters.qld.edu.au

AIC Chess Coordinator:
Mr Gil Bygraves – G.Bygraves@stpeters.qld.edu.au

AIC Track & Field and AIC Cross Country attracted great number of participants at holiday training sessions. It was fantastic to see the boys getting involved, having a real go and working on their fitness and event specific skills.

As per the sports mentioned above, Term 3 training for both Track & Field and Cross Country can be found on the St Peters App. Please ensure you refer to the App for updates on training times and locations of Track & Field and Cross Country.

The 2020 AIC Cross Country Championship will be conducted on Wednesday 12 August at Curlew Park, Shorncliffe.

For more specific information pertaining to AIC Track & Field and/or AIC Cross Country, please contact the below coordinators:

AIC Cross Country Coordinator:
Mrs Kerry Schreiber – K.Schreiber@stpeters.qld.edu.au

AIC Track & Field Coordinators:
Mr Luke Donatini – L.Donatini@stpeters.qld.edu.au
Mr Jeremy Lohe – J.Lohe@stpeters.qld.edu.au

AIC First Half of Term 3 (Week 1 to Week 4)

• AIC Basketball (Year 5 to Year 12)
• AIC Tennis (Year 5 to Year 12)

AIC Second Half of Term 3 (Week 5 – Week 9)

• AIC Football (Year 5 to Year 12)
• AIC Rugby (Year 5 to Year 12)
• AIC Chess (Year 5 to Year 12)

Information regarding the St Peters Lutheran College Springfield Sport program will be communicated through a range of modes including email, St Peters App and Cornerstone. Students and parents will primarily receive information from the Head of Sport at Springfield but at times may also receive information from the Girls and Boys Sport Coordinators or individual Sport Coordinators. Parents and students are encouraged to download and use the St Peters App for information regarding the Sport program. 

Please download the St Peters ‘app’ today!! 

All information regarding the St Peters Lutheran College Sport program including sport training times and venues, draws, coordinator details and wet weather arrangements can be found on the St Peters App. 

*Please ensure that you update your preferences in the Settings> Subscriptions section of the app so that you only receive information from your appointed Campus or area of interest that are relevant to your family e.g. Springfield or Sports.

The app can be downloaded free through iTunes or Google Play, please search for St Peters: