Caboolture

To raise awareness of the issues around bullying and cybersafety, St Paul’s students participated in an orange accessory day.

Leading up to the day students were encouraged to share a selfie on Seesaw (an internal learning platform). In the selfie the students wore orange and held up a poster that said ‘I Say No Way to Bullying’.

The students attended a whole school assembly where the eSmart Captains presented a video about bullying and cybersafety, and at morning tea the students were treated with orange iceblocks.

Mr Prinsloo, met some students and staff at the entry to the school in the morning and took some selfies with the students.

Above all the student’s enjoyed a great day while raising awareness about an important social issue.

What is your vision for your school community in 2021?

Our vision for St Paul’s Lutheran Primary School is to have a community where everyone feels safe, comfortable, and happy. It would be great if everyone could speak freely about their experiences and concerns if they have any.

We would like to see the students co-operating, collaborating, communicating, and having fun.

At St Paul’s our learning is exciting and challenging. We encourage other students to have a go and know that it is OK to make mistakes.

We feel honoured to be the School Captains for this amazing school. We look forward to serving our school community in 2021.

– Jorja, Cooper, Ruby and Noah.

Each morning the Prep children participate in a fun Perceptual Motor Program which develops their coordination, balance, core strength and midline capacity.

The livelihoods of more than 33,000 Queenslanders and almost $5 billion worth of economic activity rely on a strong and growing independent schooling sector. 

These are among the headline findings of a comprehensive examination of the contribution of Queensland’s more than 200 independent schools to the economy.

In 2020, Independent Schools Queensland commissioned economic analysts, AEC Group, to quantify the sector’s contribution to the Queensland economy and to the local economies in which they operate. The report, which is based on the latest available 2017-18 sector data, updates modelling undertaken for the first time in 2016 using 2013-14 data.

To see the full report and other resources from ISQ go to https://www.isq.qld.edu.au/

Due to the bushfires in New South Wales and over the Christmas period, our Term 1 Service Project was fundraising for the Port Stephens Koalas.

This not-for-profit organisation provides care to sick, injured and orphaned koalas to give them the best opportunity to be returned to the wild while supporting research and collaboration to preserve their habitat to ensure that future generations may continue to enjoy seeing wildlife in their natural setting.

If you as a family would like to donate and adopt a Koala, please check out their Facebook page or go to www.portstephenskoalas.com.au

The current Covid-19 crisis has seen schools working tirelessly to adapt and roll out distance learning quite quickly. St Paul’s Lutheran Primary School in Caboolture has already been providing an innovative learning environment that encourages students to take charge of their learning and to be independent workers who set their own individual learning goals. This learning framework has provided a strong platform for their teachers to navigate the current challenges related to the changing environment of education.

To gain some insight into how schools are handling these challenges, we chatted with St Paul’s Principal, Anton Prinsloo and the Head of Teaching and Learning Emma Bird.

“Within our school, we have a 1:1 iPad program where all students have ready access to devices. St Paul’s has for some time has been incorporating a software application into school time activities and home learning, which is also used as a daily parent-teacher communication tool.”

“Although distance learning has presented its challenges to all schools, St Paul’s has felt well positioned in the changes that need to be made as our students are already familiar with online programs and can communicate their learning in a range of ways because they are taught from a young age to work to their individual learning goals and to be responsible for their own learning.” Emma Bird said.

Principal Anton Prinsloo acknowledged that Student Wellbeing and Pastoral Care are at the centre of what our school is about. We care about the child as a holistic learner and care about every individual in our school community. Not only do we plan to provide a rigorous academic program, we are also putting layers of Pastoral Care planning in place so that students, parents and teachers feel supported, should we move to distance learning.

To prepare for the unknown, our school has taken a three-tiered approach in planning for possible distance learning. We have planned for what it could look like in the short term, the long term and we have also developed a ten day hard copy plan for all students, should they have internet connectivity issues throughout the distance learning period.

Along with their iPads, all students have been provided with a bag of essential learning items (including Literacy and Numeracy resources, writing books and pencils) to ensure the continuation of learning no matter what ‘schooling’ may look like next term.

“Families were provided a drive-through service to collect book packs, where staff members greeted them and placed the essential bag of items into their car window or boot,” Anton Prinsloo said.

Looking after our school community is our number one priority. By providing transparent and clear communication with families as well as by going above and beyond to show them that we care, we feel that our community are feeling supported and ready for whatever Term 2 will bring. 

As Year 6 leaders of the school, we found our leadership day, run by facilitators from Lutheran Youth Queensland (L.Y.Q.) held last Monday, was a great opportunity to learn new leadership skills. Some of our favourite activities included Tarp Turn-over, The Death Grid and River Crossing. These activities taught us skills such as teamwork, listening skills, good communication, patience and strategising as a team. These skills could help us in our leadership roles and in future leadership roles such as in high school and our future jobs. The whole Year 6 community enjoyed and embraced this opportunity and found it a great learning experience.

We thank L.Y.Q and our School and Teachers for making this great day possible. 

Year 6 Captains

Book Week is celebrated annually at St Paul’s and we started the week off with the opening of our Book Fair.  A very big thank you to everyone who came and supported this event.  It was a huge success enabling us to purchase new resources to benefit the students.  Congratulations to Addy who won the $50 book raffle which was generously donated by the Book Warehouse. 

Next we had our Book Blanket with the Year 6 students reading to students from Kindy to Year 5.  This was a wonderful event as it really showcased the idea behind Book Week –  where children and books are brought together.  Well done to all our readers!

It was great to see the students and staff getting into the spirit by dressing up as as a book character for our Dress-up Parade.

As part of the celebrations for Book Week, the students were invited to create a poster based on the Book Week theme ‘Reading is my secret power’.  All students who entered did a fantastic job, congratulations our winners.

The Year 3 students had an amazing first camp experience at YMCA Petrie in Week 5. We all participated in pottery, low ropes, an environmental walk, catapult building, and Indigenous art and boomerang throwing. There were smiles all round at mealtimes with everyone enjoying the great food. We arrived home exhausted but happy with wonderful memories and experiences we will remember for a long time.