Lutheran School

St Paul’s Lutheran Primary School in Caboolture has been announced as a finalist in the Primary School of the Year category in the 2018 and 2019 Australian Education Awards.

This national recognition is an affirmation of the incredible people who make up our community – students, parents and the staff, said Principal, Anton Prinsloo. St Paul’s is not about any one person, any one program or a culture of empire building – it’s all about the children and what is best for all the students in our care. He went on to say that this recognition is an affirmation of the outstanding learning programs, the contemporary learning philosophy, and numerous opportunities on offer at St Paul’s.

We are a smallish primary school involved in programs and providing offerings normally associated with large primary schools. Every week, without fail, our school newsletter is filled with acknowledgements, celebrations, and stories of our school community. Key to this are strong, honest, trusting and very transparent working relationships which the school has with its parent community, he said.

St Paul’s has, over the past 6 years, been at the forefront of transforming its teaching and learning philosophy to research-based innovative primary school teaching and learning programs to ensure improved student engagement and ultimately improved student outcomes. The school has during this time introduced a 1-1 iPad program from Year 1 to 6, flexible learning spaces consistent flexible learning frameworks for literacy and numeracy from Prep to Year 6 as well as Inquiry Learning Framework across all year levels. The school also differentiates across its learning programs for all the students, meaning that they don’t prescribe to a one size fits all mindset when it comes to delivering the Australian curriculum.

Mr Prinsloo said that high quality whole staff professional development, the exceptional staff which model an attitude of selflessness, every day, growing a culture of it’s okay to make mistakes, conducting parent workshops and keeping the parents informed about their child’s journey at St Paul’s underpins the culture which is our community.

Sport at St Paul’s in Term 2 has focused heavily on Athletics: Track and Field Events.

For senior students, weekly PE lessons and Friday afternoon sessions were timetabled to give students the opportunity to experience and practices different Track and Field Events: 800m, 200m, 100m, Shot Put, High Jump, Long Jump & Team games. All working towards beating and being their personal best, as well as trying to qualify for the District and/or Inter Lutheran Athletics Team. 

Junior students also experienced the fun of particular Athletic and Team Game Events: Long Jump, High Jump, Target/Rainbow Throw, Tug of War, Ball Games, Egg and Spoon races, & Sprint races. The Juniors were very excited and enthused to practice these events, as they knew they had to perform them at the recent Junior School Sports Day Carnival.

Next term, Junior School classes get to explore the art and skill of Gymnastics – fundamental movements. Information of a performance showcase at the end of term will be highly likely. Senior students will be involved in a few units: Tradition Indigenous Games, Ultimate Frisbee & Touch Football. They can also look forward to representing St Paul’s at the annual Inter Lutheran Athletics Carnival, and being involved, once again, in the Sports Gala Days: Girls Netball or Touch Football & Boys Cricket, as well as nominating at Year 4-6 team for the Netball Primary School Cup mid-September.

2019 has seen a busy start for our RISE groups. Years 1 and 2 are honing their independent study skills while learning about islands and becoming citizens of the world.  Years 3 and 4 are becoming investigative superstars by immersing themselves in studies of Ancient Greece. Our Year 5 and 6 groups are building their arsenal of design thinking skills in preparation for high school. This term they are experiencing the “Ideation” stage while they prepare a prototype app or game to raise awareness of childhood obesity.

Last Friday, the Prep children were thoroughly excited to have their mothers visit in order to spoil them for Mother’s Day. They made their own flower arrangements, set up tables and served them afternoon tea.

In Year 1, we remembered ANZAC day. We talked about what ANZAC stands for and what sorts of traditions occur on ANZAC day. Reading the story, “Lest We Forget” helped us to understand why it is important for us to remember the people who fought for our freedom in Australia. We also spent some time thinking about what we are grateful for in our beautiful home country of Australia. We made lots of poppies out of patty pans so we could decorate two wreaths.

‘LEST WE FORGET’

Week 1 of Term 2 has been spent celebrating our ANZAC’s with the St Paul’s whole school Ceremony, the School Captains representing the school in Brisbane and on the 25th April 2019, Students represented the school in the Caboolture/Morayfield ANZAC Day Parade on the Public Holiday. Many thanks to everyone for their efforts in participating in these events.

They were actively involved in learning about the planets we know about in our solar system. They discussed what astronauts would need to survive as they travelled in Space. A space suit was worn by an excited “would be” astronaut!

The Year 3s were engaged in their “hands-on” experiences as they developed and explored their knowledge about the sun, the seasons, day and night and gravity.