In the first United States presidential debate, President Donald Trump exhorted his supporters to stand back and stand by. It was a puzzling choice of phrase with a confusing message. To stand back generally means to retreat. The Oxford Dictionary defines the phrase as withdraw; take a position further from the front. Likewise stand by implies a passivity, a reluctance to be involved, to look on without interfering. (Concise Oxford Dictionary).

Over recent weeks, political commentators have analysed and dissected the President’s words with many arguing that Mr Trump meant the opposite of the dictionary definitions. Some went as far as interpreting his words as a rally cry to his followers to prepare for conflict. But was the President encouraging unrest or were his words a plea for reflection and caution?

It is easy for words to be misinterpreted and meanings to be miscommunicated. Sometimes a student can be hurt by an offhand comment made in jest by a classmate. Often, they will cover their hurt with laughter and say nothing. When made aware of the hurt they have caused, the comment-maker is usually surprised. They had not deliberately set out to cause pain and had no idea of the impact of their words.

This is why we remind students through assemblies, chapels and Pastoral Care classes that words are powerful. Words can wound. How many of us have held on to childhood taunts long after we reached adulthood?  Words can heal. The reassurance from loved ones when we are broken is balm to the rawness of hurt. Words can tear down and they can build up.

In his book, Love as a Way of Life, American pastor and author, Gary Chapman describes words as being either ‘bullets or seeds’. If we use our words as bullets to condemn and belittle others, we create distrust and suspicion but if we use our words as seeds we build relationship that are positive and life-affirming.

At St Peters, we encourage students to use words wisely; to become young people who think before they speak and who choose their words carefully.

Our Graduate Tree nominates ‘articulate’ as one of the attributes we desire for our students and being articulate encompasses more than being able to express ideas clearly and justify opinions; it also means using language to connect to others with compassion, sincerity and empathy.

Sue Grotherr
Head of Secondary

Arise is a Christian Community where people gather each Sunday morning at 9am in the St Peter’s Hub, to meet Jesus the Light of the World. "Arise, shine, your light has come!" Isaiah 60:1

All are welcome.

The video on Facebook is of the complete worship service.

View video of worship service

St Peters Prayer Group Next Meeting:

We’d love you to join us.

Monday 16 November, 2:00 pm Ministry Centre below Cafe 45.

To pray for: staff

Staff, especially Mr Kotzur
Chaplains
Students
Ironbark
Families
Guidance, wisdom and safety for Year 12s
Fatigue
Rest and recuperation in the holidays, remembering Jesus’ birth at Christmas
If you have anything you’d like us to pray for, even anonymously, please let us know.

Judy Rice  & Karen Smith.    Rice.family7@bigpond.com

St Peters Prayer Group is made up of parents, some past parents, School Chaplains, Pastors and sometimes teachers. We pray for the needs of the school, the staff, students, families and some things happening in the wider world. We also pray for specific requests from members of the school community. Some of us get together in the Ministry Centre underneath Café 45 to pray once a month, usually from 2:00-3:00pm, in term time (or on Zoom when face to face meeting is not possible). Others can’t make the meetings but pray at home. We organise occasional social events to get to know other parents. We also organise an annual Gingerbread House Making event in November to share Jesus and fundraise for Christian charities, though due to Coronavirus, not this year. We’d love to have some new members, so If you are interested in joining us or would like more information, please let us know.

Last Wednesday, our  St Peters Lutheran College Springfield P&F committee organised a wonderful thank you breakfast as part of the celebrations for World Teachers’ Day on Friday 30 October 2020.

In what has been an unprecedented year our teachers, and wider school support staff, continue to strive every day to inspire our students to enjoy learning and to support them in all areas of their development. By commemorating World Teachers’ Day across our school community, we took the opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the wonderful work of all our teachers.

Link to Facebook thank you video from Head of Primary, Mrs Debbie West McInnes: https://fb.watch/1ujd6d2S9z/

Link to Facebook album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=stpetersspringfield&set=a.2468807283244430

On Friday, 30 October, Senior Visual Art students experienced White Rock Conservation Estate as artists. Ms Elizabeth Perry, Pastor Matthew Wilksch and Ms Julia Sirianni facilitated this experience for the students to reflect on the landscape, cultures and histories of the area to inspire their art making.

White Rock — Spring Mountain Conservation Estate is over 2,500ha in size. It features the weathered rocky outcrops of White Rock and Spring Mountain located within a large area of regionally significant bushland supporting some of the highest natural and conservation values in the region.

The estate contains a great diversity of life. Over 600 plant species and 150 fauna species have been identified there, including five threatened flora and three fauna species. It also supports three endangered vegetation types and functions as the headwaters of seven major waterways.

Our Year 10 students have been creating models of organic compounds such as methane with modelling kits. Organic molecules are three dimensional structures, and are difficult to draw on the flat plane of paper. Making the model shows the three-dimensional structure. It also shows that organic compounds can have single, double and triple bonds between the carbon atoms, and the changes in structure as a result of this.

Students made plastic by combining milk and vinegar. This is a very old technique first used in the early 1900s. Buttons for soldiers’ uniforms in World War 1 were made using this technique. Plastics are made of smaller units called monomers. The proteins in the milk are made to link together. The temperature of the reaction is important: too low and the reaction does not happen. If the amounts of vinegar and milk are not correctly measured, the result is a plastic that does not stick together. We had some failures and some successes with this. A good exercise in reaction conditions.

Students combined soluble ionic compounds on the laminated sheet to see if a precipitate formed. Precipitation is a method used to make a specific compound, particularly in industry. Knowing what soluble compounds can produce a precipitate when mixed is valuable knowledge. Knowing the solubility of compounds at different temperatures helps scientists to detect compounds in water, e.g. plants need nitrogen to make proteins. They absorb the nitrates from the water in the soil, because all nitrate compounds are soluble.

From the Year 8 cohort: Year 8 have been learning about service this term and have chosen to help serve the community by serving with Baby Give Back (BGB). Mrs Lovell came in one day to talk about BGB and how we can put service into action by helping BGB. The donations will go towards helping parents who are in need of necessities for the baby so that the children can have a safe upbringing, including safe travel and a safe place to sleep. Year Eights have been inspired to help Baby Give Back and will be collecting donations from 2nd to the 10th of November. The location you will find the donation boxes will be – PC room for primary students, and the Hub and the Junior High Building for secondary. We will also take money (any quantity) that will go towards buying larger items, like change tables, car seats or cribs. This money will only be collected on the 10th of November. Items you donate must be of a high quality and clean. 

More details about what items can be donated has been sent out as a letter to all families. The classes who donate the most items or money will get a prize of Zooper Doopers to share together. Please contact year 8 students, Mrs Sarah Calder s.calder@stpeters.qld.edu.au or Mrs Kathryn Boase k.boase@stpeters.qld.edu.au for more information. 

Thank you in advance for your support!

Thank you to all our talented artists who submitted their artworks, and to the teachers, and families for supporting our inaugural Secondary School Art Exhibition competition. We have the winners as follows:

Junior prizes

Best colour collage: Lana VJ.
Best pencil sketches: Aurelia Y.
Best abstract collage: James T.
Best colour cubist work: Isobel M.
Best cubist collage: Pranay R.

Senior prizes

Best multimedia work: Emma C.
Best abstract painting: Amreen C.
Best charcoal drawing: Beck Q.
Best senior realistic drawing: Themys AM.
Best photo collage: Mikayla B.
Best surrealist painting: Naomi D.
Best sculpture: Nina T.
Best installation and overall best art piece: Renieke VJ.

Students from Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 received their certificates for attending the inaugural Greater Springfield Learning Coalition  Maths Competition. The competition was hosted by Woodcrest State College and involved teams of students working together to solve mathematical problems as quickly as they could. Congratulations again to: Our Year 3/4 team (Olivia W. 3S, Asher C. 3T, Krishna B. 4S, Amani V. 4T, Jacob T. 4T.) who came second in their division while our Year 5/6 team came third (Nikki S., Hannah S., Kayden G., Tushitha S. and Ian K.) Incredible effort and fantastic team work everyone.

Our students worked hard throughout the week to prepare gifts for their Grandparents as part of celebrating Grandparents Day. This is celebrated annually across Australia in October and recognises the significant contribution grandparents make to their families and communities.

This year’s theme was ’Staying connected’. The theme highlights that, despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the bonds between grandparents and grandchildren continue to flourish as we find new ways to connect.

To recognise Grandparents Day, we spent time celebrating with grandparents and the central role they have in our families and within the community. Students interviewed their grandparents and found out more about their lives, and presented a new insight to the class. They also made gifts and shared their thoughts, words of wisdom and prayers about their grandparents. It presented a wonderful chance for everyone to thank grandparents for their love and support.

Facebook Image Gallery Link - Click Here

Prep students, teachers and volunteers attended an all-day excursion to Ipswich Queen’s Park. We saw Australian wildlife, such as wombats, bilbies and pademelons in gardens that have been recreated to represent local bushland and flora communities. Next was the Art Gallery where we explored how moving air affects everyday objects. We marvelled at the aerodynamics of the flying objects we had made — learning how the movement is affected by weight, gravity and shape. After lunch we attended the production of ‘Gruffalo’s Child’. Watching a familiar story come to life boosts literacy and vocabulary skills, encourages communication, imagination and curiosity, and helps to develop our Prep students’ concentration. Our excursion generated much conversation and thought from our Prep Students. We had the most wonderful day.

Frequent readers of this column will be familiar with the name, Dr Anita Collins – leading Neuromusical Educator and Researcher. Last weekend, both Ms Krist-elle Hill and I had the pleasure of a Professional Development weekend with Dr Collins, further exploring the research around brain development through music. 

Listening to music uses multiple parts of the brain, as it separately dissects music into its integral parts of melody, harmony, timbre, texture, dynamics (etc) and then puts the music back together into a unified musical experience.

Playing music is the equivalent of a full-body workout for the brain. Neuroscientists have been observing the multiple brains of musicians at work, watching multiple areas of the brain, as it simultaneously processes information in intricate patterns at astonishing speeds. They have found that playing an instrument engages practically every area of the brain at once, but the visual, auditory and motor cortices are especially active. 
The disciplined, structured practice while playing an instrument strengthens brain functions, making it easier for musicians to apply these skills to other non-musical tasks.

Playing a music instrument is very important is it involves fine motor skills which are controlled by both hemispheres of the brain, and combines linguistic and mathematical precision (Left hemisphere) with novel and creative content (Right hemisphere). As a result, musicians have been shown to have a larger and more active corpus callosum, the bridge between the two hemispheres, which allows messages to be transmitted across the brain faster and by more diverse routes.

Our young musicians are therefore, not merely playing an instrument, or playing in the ensemble, they are, in fact, building their capacity as active and capable learners in a way no other activity allows. I was struck by this as I watched the members of Cantabile Strings rehearsing on Monday. Their focus as they simultaneously performed their individual parts, listened carefully to each other to provide balance between parts to achieve a blended sound, and watched Ms Crellin, the conductor, was outstanding. The ease with which they were able to perform is a testament to their practice and the fine work of their tutors, but also belied the hard work being done by their brains.  Just a “heads up”, their performance at Presentation Evening will be a stunner!

Preservice Teacher

Mr Jacob Bahr, a preservice teacher from University of Queensland, will be joining our classes for the next three weeks. Mr Bahr plays bassoon, bass clarinet and saxophone. He has already been working with classes and is looking forward to assisting with the co-curricular programme. We welcome Mr Bahr to our school, and hope he enjoys his practicum session.

Girls Sport Coordinator:  Anne-Marie Champion

Last Friday saw the conclusion of our QGSSSA Junior Softball competition for 2020. A mixed season with stormy, wet weather cancelling two game days but well done to our Junior Softball girls, I loved watching them improve over the season with many close games, lots of team wins and a few loud bus trips!

The group came together on Tuesday morning for the Awards Presentation to celebrate the season. Special mention and thanks to our Softball Team, Coordinator Natalie Holman, our Head Coach Vaughan Whitworth and all our valued coaches – Marni Dittman, Loryn D’Roza, Gil Bygraves and Nat Wright.

Last Saturday our 8A, 10A & 11A Touch girls ventured to Labrador to play in the QGSSSA Touch Gala Day. The day was a big success with the girls enjoying the opportunity to play Touch for St Peters in 2020. Unfortunately, the storms saw the day cut short and the heavy rain last week also saw the 7A & 9A competition at Whites Hill cancelled due to the state of the fields.

Well done to our girls who turned up bright and early for the bus and gave their all throughout the day.

Thanks to our Touch Coordinator Annie George and our team of coaches who gave up their time to prepare the girls for this tournament.

Water Polo continues and each week the improvement in our teams is great to see. This week our Open team received their Open shirts and our Captains & Vice-Captains for the 2020/2021 season were awarded. Congratulations Girls.

Water Polo Captains: Claudia L & Anna K
Vice Captains: Milly T & Zoe W

Good luck to our Water Polo girls playing for St Peters this weekend.   

BWPI WATER POLO

Coordinators: Mrs Elaine Ripamonti & Mrs Tracey Bruce – waterpolo@stpeters.qld.edu.au

We are approaching the middle of the first half of the girls Water Polo season.  The girls are hitting their stride and enjoying the fast-paced game of Water Polo.  Parents would be aware of some relaxation of pool venues to allow parents to spectate at their daughter’s game as outlined in last week’s Water Polo weekly newsletter.  As parents have been so courteous in following the BWPI’s ruling we are working our way to having all parents able to watch their girls soon.  Last week due to the impending storms it was a disruptive week for the girls.  Cancelled training sessions at the pool is always difficult as any pool training the girls are able to receive is beneficial going into the games on the weekend.  With Saturday’s rainfall there was some last-minute cancellation of games. Keeping the girls safe in view of lightning is always a priority so games are only called off if absolutely necessary.  The girls took in in their stride and enjoyed what team time they received.  Parents please ensure you check the website on Friday evening for any last-minute changes to game times as was the case on Saturday.  The games can be viewed at  https://www.revolutionise.com.au/bwpi/games/ . Each week through your Team Manager the Water Polo Weekly is emailed to parents so you able to keep abreast of any updates and games the girls have played the previous week.  It’s a great snapshot of the week in review.

QGSSSA SENIOR SOFTBALL - Years 9-11 Girls

Coordinator: Ms Natalie Holman – n.holman@stpeters.qld.edu.au

For girls currently in Years 9 – 11, trials for our 2021 Open/Senior Softball teams begin this week.

Trials will take place on Harts Road Oval, 6.15am - 7.30am on the following days:

• Thursday 5 November
• Tuesday 10 November
• Thursday 12 November

Please note that these trials are for all our Opens and Senior teams, including Senior B teams and all teams will be selected by the end of Term 4 so it is very important that girls attend these trials. Girls have been sent a sign on for these trails and we look forward to seeing all interested girls.

For those girls who will be in Year 10 next year (current Year 9) please be aware that this is your only opportunity to play Softball in 2021 as the competition moves to Term 1 for girls in Years 10 - 12 instead of Term 4 for Years 7 - 9.

QGSSSA TOUCH FOOTBALL

Coordinator: Ms Annie George – a.george@stpeters.qld.edu.au

2021 OPEN TOUCH PRE-SEASON TRIALS

For girls currently in Years 9 – 11, trials for our 2021 Open Touch team begin in Week 7. Please note these trials are ONLY for girls who wish to make the Open team. All Senior and Year level trials will commence in Term 1 next year.

Trials will take place on Mayer Oval, 3.30pm - 5.00pm on the following days:

• Tuesday 17 November
• Thursday 19 November

Girls will be sent sign on details for these trials next week.

QGSSSA BASKETBALL

Coordinator: TBA

2021 OPEN BASKETBALL PRE-SEASON TRIALS

Trials for the 2021 Open Basketball team commenced on Monday, it was great to see many girls arriving keen to get training in preparation for the 2021 season. This was the first of four sessions and all girls wishing to be considered for the Open team are required to attend.

Sessions will be in the Indoor Gym, 3.30pm – 5.00pm on the following days:

• Monday 10 November
• Monday 17 November
• Monday 24 November

RUN CLUB

Coordinator: Mrs Kerry Schreiber

RUN CLUB IS ON THIS FRIDAY!

Run Club is a fun way to improve your fitness and meet new people. As our Sports are winding down towards the holidays, it is important to maintain your fitness.

Great news, we will run a 4-week block of Run Club in November - Friday 6, 13, 20 & 27 November, please meet at the St Peters Bus Stop at 6.30am.

ATHLETIC DEVELOPMENT

Coordinator: Mr Trent Hacking – t.hacking@stpeters.qld.edu.au

All girls interested in Athletic development in the Gym with Mr Hacking, please contact him to arrange a meeting.

Have a great week in Sport!

Boys Sport Coordinator:  Luke Donatini

AIC Boys Sport - TERM 4

AIC Water Polo Gala Day In Review

St Peters Junior Team

The St Peters Junior Team (Years 7-9 students) were very keen to continue the form from the previous two AIC undefeated seasons, however, they started the day with a six all draw against Padua College. After this, the boys rallied with their coaches for their second game against Marist College. Defeating Marist College in a tightly contested game, St Peters were excited for the games ahead.

St Peters third game against Iona College was another strongly contested game. With much controversy surrounding the final score, the end result did not go St Peters way resulting in a loss. This did not by any means reflect the dominance which St Peters exhibited throughout this third game.

The final game of the day for the St Peters Junior Water Polo Team saw them defeat Villanova College with clinical precision. Overall finishing off a great day of AIC Water Polo with two wins, a drew and a loss.

Special mention must go to Thomas B and Hugo B for getting back from Ironbark on Friday to play the Gala Day on Sunday. There were also some very strong games from all who participated, in particular, Marcus M, Harrison C, Joseph G, Michael T, Sam K, Jack M and Elijah K.

It was evident that the St Peters Junior Team was one of the strongest teams of the day.

St Peters Open Team

With this year’s AIC Open Teams not playing any Year 12 students, it made it challenging to fill the St Peters Open Water Polo Team in 2020. Playing up some of our younger boys in this competition gave these St Peters water polo players an opportunity to hone their skills and demonstrate great resilience whilst working together. Special mention and congratulations to the Junior players who assisted and competed strongly in the Open team – Marcus M, Thomas B, Hugo B, Harrison C, Joseph G, Caleb P, Michael T, Sam K and Jack M.

St Peters first game saw our Open team go down in a tough outing against Padua College. Very similar to the younger team they too rallied and lifted themselves up ready to take on St Laurence’s College in the second game. In a game that turned out to be both exciting and well executed, St Peters won convincingly to defeating St Laurence's College. Strong communication and tactical passes were very evident in this game.

The final game for our Open team was undoubtedly their toughest game and was against Marist College. With no reserves, St Peters dug in with tenacity but unfortunately could not get the win and only just losing to Marist College. They did show tremendous heart and courage to ‘level peg’ on the score board throughout this game. Some strong performances were observed but non-more-so than that of Angus H, Toby M, Marcus M, Thomas B and Hugo B.

We would like to also take this opportunity to sincerely thank the team coaches Sophie Baird and Holly Bruce for their training and guidance both in the lead up and on the day of competition. Now we look forward to the 2021 AIC Water Polo Gala day with great excitement.

Mr Alex Lawn
St Peters Water Polo Coordinator

Year 7 2021 Term 1 Pre-Season Training Sessions - Cricket, Volleyball and Swimming

This Saturday 7 November St Peters will be conducting the first of four Saturday afternoon training sessions for Cricket, Volleyball and Swimming. It is an opportunity for all current and new boys who will enter Year 7 in 2021 to spend some time to get to know each other whilst training for an AIC Term 1 sport. We look forward to meeting our new boys and families and welcoming them into our St Peters sporting community this weekend.

AIC Volleyball and Cricket 2020/21 Pre-season Continues

AIC Cricket – Mr Josh Singh j.singh@stpeters.qld.edu.au
AIC Volleyball – Mrs Danielle Tucker d.tucker@stpeters.qld.edu.au

Now that we are well underway and into Term 4, we would like to remind all students who are wishing to participate in either AIC Cricket or AIC Volleyball, to ensure that they are regularly checking both their emails and the St Peters App for updates and information about pre-season training and selection trials. 

It is vitally important that any student in 2021 (Years 7 to 12) who wishes to participate in either sport makes every effort to attend these Term 4 training sessions.

St Peters Open AFL To Compete in AIC Term 1 2021

Coordinator: Mr Mark Holman m.holman@stpeters.qld.edu.au

Preparations have now commenced for a St Peters Open AFL team to participate in the Term 1 AIC AFL competition. All interested boys who will be in Years 10-12 in 2021 have been invited to express their interest in training and trialling for the St Peters Open AFL team.

In 2021, the St Peters Open team will compete on a Friday afternoon against six other affiliated AIC colleges across the first seven weeks of Term 1. Any boy who has not signed on and registered his interest is asked to contact Mr Mark Holman (St Peters AFL Coordinator).

RUN CLUB

Coordinator: Mrs Kerry Schreiber

RUN CLUB IS ON THIS FRIDAY!

Run Club is a fun way to improve your fitness and meet new people. As our Sports are winding down towards the holidays, it is important to maintain your fitness.

Great news, we will run a 4-week block of Run Club in November - Friday 6, 13, 20 & 27 November, please meet at the St Peters Bus Stop at 6.30am.

In Term Three, students from Year 4-6 represented the school in a modified season of AIC Football. Students were extremely successful in the shortened season in 2020 with the 5B team being very competitive in each match and the 6C team finishing undefeated. Congratulations to Dominic (5B Team) and Felipe (6C Team) who were awarded the MVP awards for their respective teams.

The Springfield students involved in our school teams this season were:

5B Football Team

Year 4 – Mannraj C, Yug K, Taj M, Louis O, Joshua S., Jake T.

Year 5 – Greshman G., Kaiden H., Dominic S.

6C Football Team

Year 5 – Barack B., Hridaan G., Felipe L., Dahlair N.

Year 6 – Cameron B., Lucas D., Kayden G., Ian K.

6A Football Team

Year 6 – Xavier F., Jeremy P.

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: