St Pauls

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.

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

It’s my privilege to welcome every family to St Paul’s for the start of the 2021 school year. It’s wonderful to have you all back safe and sound. I trust and hope that you have had the opportunity to connect with those closest to you as a family and have also had a time of rest and relaxation – I call it creating your own busyness! We thank God for rest, reconnecting and safe travels during this holiday time.

An extra welcome is extended to those families, across Prep – Year 6, who are new to our school community. We look forward to establishing a strong, rich and transparent working relationship with you as a family, as together we nurture, share and grow our partnership.

Thank you for the incredible patience and support given to the school last year as we navigated our way through the COVID-19 challenges and expectations which were put on us as a community. We will again be calling on your patience, understanding and co-operation at the start of the 2021 school year as we endeavour to land every student and family successfully in this regard. To our current families, please be understanding of any different arrangements which may be put in place for our newest families and students as we settle them into our community. Please be assured that any arrangements implemented will be done under the guidelines of the government to ensure the safety and wellness of everyone.

Thank you to those families who took up the opportunity last week to be part of a slightly modified Family Administration Day (FAD) which is designed to help with the settling in process to the new school year for you as a family.

Our next initiative to help you connect with us and settle into the new school year is the Parent Information Evenings which begin next week. Please note that each year level has been assigned its own evening, to allow those families with more than one student at St Paul’s the opportunity to attend their required evening. To accommodate the necessary COVID-19 physical distancing rules, the following arrangements will now apply to each of the Parent Information Evenings:
– Your student’s learning space (classroom) will be available for you to visit and walk through from 5:15pm onward. At around 5:40pm all parents still in the learning space will be asked to move over to the school’s Chapel where the year level teachers will further host you as they present the necessary year level information to you. These arrangements will ensure that we can all physically distance safely on the evening.

Both the Teaching staff and the Executive propagate a strong open-door policy at St. Paul’s. Open and transparent communication are vital to the success of your child’s time at school. We are proud of the innovative learning philosophy and programs being offered at St. Paul’s. Our goal in 2021 is to continue improving on our reputation as a school which is forward-thinking and which provides quality learning experiences for all our students, within a safe environment, under the guidance of a highly committed staff. I warmly invite you to walk this journey with us.

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

It’s my privilege to welcome every family to St. Paul’s for the start of the 2021 school year. It’s wonderful to have you all back safe and sound. I trust and hope that you have had the opportunity to connect with those closest to you as a family and have also had a time of rest and relaxation – I call it creating your own busyness! We thank God for rest, reconnecting and safe travels during this holiday time.

An extra welcome is extended to those families, across Prep – Year 6, who are new to our school community. We look forward to establishing a strong, rich and transparent working relationship with you as a family, as together we nurture, share and grow our partnership.

Thank you for the incredible patience and support given to the school last year as we navigated our way through the COVID-19 challenges and expectations which were put on us as a community. We will again be calling on your patience, understanding and co-operation at the start of the 2021 school year as we endeavour to land every student and family successfully in this regard. To our current families, please be understanding of any different arrangements which may be put in place for our newest families and students as we settle them into our community. Please be assured that any arrangements implemented will be done under the guidelines of the government to ensure the safety and wellness of everyone.

Thank you to those families who took up the opportunity last week to be part of a slightly modified Family Administration Day (FAD) which is designed to help with the settling in process to the new school year for you as a family.

Our next initiative to help you connect with us and settle into the new school year is the Parent Information Evenings which begin next week. Please note that each year level has been assigned its own evening, to allow those families with more than one student at St Paul’s the opportunity to attend their required evening. To accommodate the necessary COVID-19 physical distancing rules, the following arrangements will now apply to each of the Parent Information Evenings:
– Your student’s learning space (classroom) will be available for you to visit and walk through from 5:15pm onward. At around 5:40pm all parents still in the learning space will be asked to move over to the school’s Chapel where the year level teachers will further host you as they present the necessary year level information to you. These arrangements will ensure that we can all physically distance safely on the evening.

Both the Teaching staff and the Executive propagate a strong open-door policy at St. Paul’s. Open and transparent communication are vital to the success of your child’s time at school. We are proud of the innovative learning philosophy and programs being offered at St. Paul’s. Our goal in 2021 is to continue improving on our reputation as a school which is forward-thinking and which provides quality learning experiences for all our students, within a safe environment, under the guidance of a highly committed staff. I warmly invite you to walk this journey with us.

The School Office will close on Friday 18 December 2020 and will re-open on Monday 11 January 2021 from 10:00am until 2:00pm.

For all urgent enrolment enquiries please email: enrolments@stpaulslps.qld.edu.au

Enrolment Forms are available at: https://stpaulslps.qld.edu.au/enrolments/apply-now/

Book a Tour Forms are available at: https://stpaulslps.qld.edu.au/book-a-tour/

St Paul’s Lutheran Kindergarten will continue until Friday 18 December 2021 and will return in the new year on Wednesday 6 December 2021 from 6:30am until 6:00pm.

Outside School Hours Care will operate from 6:30am to 6:00pm until Wednesday 23 December 2020 and will resume on Monday 4 January 2021.

Book Pack Collection will be from 10:00am until 2:00pm, Monday 11 January – Thursday 15 January 2021.

Uniform Shop Fittings by appointment only will be from Friday 15 January until Thursday 21 Janaury 2021.

Family Administration Day will be on Thursday 21 January 2021 from 8:00am until 3:00pm.

On Wednesday 14 October, the Year 6 students, accompanied by Mr. Riley, Mrs. Cottrell, Mrs. Schneider, Chappy Teneille, Mrs. Mali, Mr. Bloxham and Mark, our wonderful bus driver and guide, departed for a three-day, two-night tour of Hervey Bay!

Although this was a change from the style of camps Year 6 has been on in previous years, it was the perfect experience and location to enjoy after all the hurdles 2020 has brought.

It really was a stress-free, rewarding experience for every student! The camp we stayed at, Camp Pialba, provided delicious food and activities such as basketball, volleyball, pool, table tennis, air hockey, and even a movie night with fresh butter popcorn! We got to travel back in time with visits to the extensive, interesting Hervey Bay Historical Village and the Mary Valley Rattler steam train. We enjoyed a spectacular morning on board The Spirit of Hervey Bay, where we were lucky enough to sight a mother humpback whale with her week old calf. Fun was had in spades at ten-pin bowling, enjoying a morning stroll along the Urangan Pier, souvenir-buying, and cooling off at the Wetside Water Park, Hervey Bay. 

As the Year 6 cohort for 2020 nears the end of our primary school journey, every student treasured this opportunity to enjoy some time out of the classroom with our friends before preparing to head to different high schools in 2021. We have no doubt that the memories we made on this tour will stay with us for years to come!

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

For the last two weeks, Year Three has enjoyed their swimming program. They were divided up into five groups and taught a variety of valuable swimming skills, which included stroke correction, diving, kicking with kickboards and appropriate breathing techniques for the strokes learnt. The two week program has seen an improvement in their overall abilities and stamina.

This week in Junior Japanese the Year 1 students have been learning weather vocabulary.  Our focus for the week was on the word ‘hare’ which means sunny.  We also learnt how to ask the question, “Tenki wa dou desu ka”, which means, “How is the weather?” Students enjoyed making a ‘hare’ craft to help remind them of their new vocabulary.

In Senior Japanese this term we have been focusing on learning ‘jiko shoukai’ which means how to introduce ourselves in Japanese. We practise having a conversation in Japanese with a partner every week. Here is an example of what we are practising to say currently:

*Hajimemashite (Hi. How do you do?) + Rei (Bow)

*Konnichiwa (Hello / Good afternoon)

*Watashi wa (name) desu – girls OR Boku wa (name) desu – boys

*(Grade) nensei desu (I am in grade _______ )

*(Item) ga suki desu (I like _______ )

*(Suburb) ni sunde imasu (I live in _______ )

*Douzo yoroshiku onegaishimasu (Nice to meet you)

*Arigatou gozaimashita (Thank you very much) + Rei (bow)

We have also made tanuki (Japanese raccoon dogs) in Year 4 and koinobori (carp kite streamers) for the Children’s Day Festival in Years 5 and 6.

They look fabulous in the Japanese classroom!

Thank you to everyone who has entered the Japanese Festival’s Art competition too. Final entries are due this Thursday, 1^st August 2019. Ganbarou – Good luck!

Arigatou gozaimasu,

Walker Sensei and Miller Sensei

Year 2 have begun an exciting journey into exploring their capabilities in Digital Technologies. They are discovering how to program and control Blue Bots and Spheros to move around a variety of maps both 3 Dimensional and 2 Dimensional in nature.

They are also currently finding out if seeds can grow in a plastic bag and if so, why?

There have been some experiment woes with some seeds growing and some not growing so a change of seeds has been employed.

This week in Junior Japanese we have been learning about the sakura (cherry blossom) festival, hanami. Cherry blossom festivals are an important custom and are held all over Japan during the spring. The students designed and decorated their own sakura trees. These are displayed in the Japanese classroom. I invite you to come and see our beautiful display.
Arigatou,
Walker Sensei

Last week in Senior Japanese class we learnt about the Hanami festival in Japan. We watched a very interesting video that taught us many Japanese keywords in which the Japanese people use to describe the sakura (cherry blossom) trees. We drew our own sakura tree and wrote the Japanese keywords on the branches of the tree. They look Sugoi (amazing)! We are also learning eight classroom instructions which help us to understand classroom directions from Miller Sensei.
These include: *Mou ichido kudasai (One more time please);
*Shizuki ni shite kudasai (Please be quiet);
*Mite kudasai (Please look);
*Kaite kudasai (Please write);
*Akete kudasai (Please open);
*Te o agete kudasai (Please raise your hand);
*Yonde kudasai (Please read);
*Kiite kudasai (Please listen).

We have also been studying an enquiry unit about the geography of Japan.
These are our key questions:
a) Where is Japan?
b) What does Japan look like?
c) What are some customs of Japan?
It would be great if you could please have a conversation with your child about the wonderful things that we are learning in Senior Japanese class each week. For example, ask them to sing for you the ‘Japanese Classroom Instruction song’ this Thursday, which is to the tune of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”
Arigatou Gozaimasu (thank you very much),
Miller Sensei.