2019 Term 3, Week 3

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 on the Department of Education website: https://www.education.gov.au/privacy-policy

The  Fact Sheet for Parents, Guardians and Careers is available on the NCCD website: https://www.nccd.edu.au/sites/default/files/fact%20sheet%20for%20parents%20guardians%20and%20carers.pdf

If you have any questions about the NCCD, please contact me via email at: [email protected]

Dr Paul Browning
Headmaster

CRITERIA:

Students should submit a covering letter detailing their performance in pursing the Aims and Goals of the School and must show evidence of consistently caring for others and helping them to live worthwhile and meaningful lives; students must have pride in their School and demonstrate this in their dealings with their peers and indeed the whole School community.

In addition to the covering letter, students should submit a 1000 word essay on “Building a Christian Caring Community in the 21st Century.”

In awarding the Ray Geise Bursary, particular attention will be paid to the performance of the applicants in pursuing the Aims and Goals of the School, and to any financial need which exists in the family.

APPLICATIONS:

All Bursary applications and offers are to be treated as private and confidential and are not for public discussion or announcement.  Applicants should submit:

1. A Bursary Application Form
2. A Covering Letter
3. An Essay

A separate application should be submitted for each child within a family.

Bursary Application Forms are available from the Headmaster’s Executive Assistant, Ms Sam Beeney, via email request:  [email protected]

Bursary applications (including the completed Application Form, Covering Letter and Essay) should be submitted in a sealed confidential envelope by Friday 18 October 2019 (the end of the second week of Term 4) to:  Dr Paul Browning, Headmaster, St Paul’s School, 34 Strathpine Road, BALD HILLS  QLD  4036.

By now, I trust you are becoming familiar with the student wellbeing framework we have developed here at St Paul’s, called “Ways of Being”. As the name suggests, this framework aligns with our holistic view of education. We are not only interested in learning, thinking and doing, although those things are obviously central to the work of all schools. Rather, we believe it is important to pay attention to the development of the whole child – mind, body and soul. We believe that being (the type of person your child is becoming) is at least as important as doing (their school results; musical or sporting accomplishments.)

As I have previously described it, the Ways of Being framework has five inter-related elements –
1. Character and virtues
2. Values and ethics
3. Physical health and wellbeing
4. Mental health and wellbeing
5. Spiritual formation

The first four of these elements are probably fairly self-explanatory, but perhaps you have been wondering what we mean by “spiritual formation”?

On the broadest level, we aim to help children, as they journey towards adulthood, to address some of the deepest questions of human existence – Why am I here? What is the meaning of life? How can I find and fulfill my destiny? We acknowledge that the world offers many answers to these questions (including the deeply unsatisfying “There is no purpose or meaning to human existence”), but we reject secular-materialist and Eastern philosophies and instead offer to students for their consideration the biblical worldview that underpins our Anglican heritage.

Some of you may remember a scene in that deeply philosophical movie, “City Slickers”, in which the Billy Crystal character (Mitch) is discussing the meaning of life with the wise old cowboy (Curly). Curly asks – “Do you know what the secret of life is? It’s one thing…” and the rest of the movie follows Mitch in his quest to discover what that one thing is.

Of course, it’s an age-old question to which many have attempted to offer an answer. What is the meaning of life? What is the “one thing” that can act as a unifying principle, a guiding light though the ups and downs of life? As I think about spiritual formation, I suggest that Danish philosopher Soren Kirkegaard (1813-1855) had it right when he said – “The thing is to understand myself, to see what God really wants me to do… to find the idea for which I can live and die”.

Os Guiness, with whom I began, suggests that the “ultimate why” for human living can be found as we – “Become an entrepreneur of life and see all of life as an enterprise transformed by (God’s) call. Count the cost, consider the risks, and set out each day on a venture to multiply your gifts and opportunities and bring glory to God and add value to our world.”

This language, when applied in the context of spiritual formation at St Paul’s School, neatly describes what I would call holistic faith. This is not just a religious veneer, not just something to be taken out at Christmas and Easter, or at christenings, weddings and funerals (hatching, matching and dispatching), but a meaningful, living faith that gives purpose to my every day and which provides satisfying answers to life’s biggest questions.

Mr Nigel Grant
Executive Director of Faith & Community

We will kick off on Monday 19th with our whole-school Book Week Parade. This annual event, which brings together Junior and Secondary students, staff and parents will be held in the Walker Centre from 9am on Monday 19th August. More specific details regarding organisation will follow, but start planning your costumes now! Also, both the Junior and Secondary libraries will be getting into the spirit of Book Week with activities each lunchtime: watch out for Trivia competitions, guest speakers, colouring, Kahoot challenges and much more!

One of the exciting competitions, run nationally, is the Children’s Book Council Book of the Year Award. Have a look at the short-listed titles for each of the categories here: https://cbca.org.au/shortlist-2019 Winners will be announced at noon on Friday 16 August.

Looking forward to seeing you at the Book Week parade!

Judy Bolton
Head of Information Services

Year 9 Camp

The camp is designed to build a sense of team work and belonging within the year level and builds on the skills of independence and resilience that the students have learned across their Year 8 and 7 experiences.

The camp is facilitated by the Emu Gully Adventures group and is situated at the foot of the Toowomba Range at Helidon. The camp is based upon Australian military history and each of the activities the students complete is linked to a significant piece of Australia’s Military legacy. The activities are keyed toward working positively together as a team. The camp is structured in a way that requires the students take individual and group responsibility for the organization of their camp areas and their meal preparation, so this builds a sense of independence within each student and their group. It is a fantastic camp and comes at the ideal time in the development of these young people. The students return with a greater confidence in their ability to take charge of their own lives and develop self-reliance, a quality that is increasingly missing in society as a whole.

Service Learning

On the Service Learning front, last week our students continued their strong support for our Eat Up program. This initiative sees our team prepare lunch packs for students in primary schools whose families are experiencing distress and are not able to provide adequate lunches for their children. Last week the Service learning team provided 100 lunch packs to two primary schools within our local community. We continued our support of our nearest neighbour, Bald Hills State School, and for the first time we made up packs for students at Lawnton State School.

This is a fantastic initiative and enables our School to network in a positive way with local learning communities. This initial contact through the Eat Up program is the first step in building a mutually beneficial relationship with our neighbouring schools. This can then grow into a situation where the connections made between staff and students allow our communities to learn from the other, sharing our strengths and developing mutually beneficial programs together.  So, from little things big things can grow.

Any students wishing to get involved with the work of the Service Learning Committee simply need to attend the committee meetings held each even week on Monday lunchtimes at the Sutton Theatre.

Mr Cameron Howes
Head of Experiential Learning Development

By: Jess Gentle and Anneka Platts, Grade 9

“On the 23rd of July, Grade 9 travelled into Brisbane City for a RaVE excursion to better understand places of religious worship. The cohort was separated into two groups which initially travelled to separate destinations. Mrs Emslie’s group attended Ching Chung Taoist Church, where they learnt ancient philosophies and gained a deep understanding of Taoism. Reverend Mark’s group travelled to the Greek Orthodox Church. Here, a Greek priest taught them the denomination’s unique history and customs. As the day progressed, both groups arrived at the Baptist City Tabernacle and the Jewish Synagogue. The architectural design of the two buildings was unique and reflective of their respective religions. Listening to the member of the Jewish Synagogue was highly enlightening and factual; she imparted her knowledge of Judaism’s history upon the students, and gave them a unique insight into the beliefs, customs and history of the religion. Meghan Gall, upon reflecting over her time in the synagogue, said, “I really enjoyed learning about Judaism because it showed me different religious perspectives on life and new interpretations of the Bible.”

Please click on the link below for more information and to register. After sign-on you will received further information from Mr White prior to commencing the program.

Register here: https://tinyurl.com/y77r8t8b

The first is our SPS Fest Songwriters’ Showcase on Tuesday August 13 at 6.30pm in the Music Centre. This is open for any musicians who have original songs to perform but will also feature some of our Year 10 students who have been involved in I Heart Songwriting Club for the past couple of months. In this time, each student has written an impressive 10 new songs, and they’ll each perform a couple of these at our showcase.

Secondly, our musicians will battle it out at our SPS Fest Band and Solo/Duo Competition on Friday August 16 from 3.30-7pm in the Walker Centre. The members of the winning band for the last couple years, Full Distortion, graduated in 2018 so the top prize is well and truly up for grabs! The Music Supporters’ Group will also have food and drink available for purchase. Finalists for the competition will be announced on Monday at assembly and posted on our social media accounts shortly afterwards, so check Instagram and Facebook to see if your favourite musicians made it through!

To be involved in any of our SPS Fest activities, please contact Mrs Green.

There have been two combined rehearsals so far and the pieces sound wonderful… and we’re sure the choreography will be just as great in another rehearsal or two…

Our Auditioned Choir will also be doing a piece on their own during the concert. Tickets are available on the QPAC website, and we encourage all parents and families of our singers to what is sure to be a brilliant night of music.

Tickets are selling fast so CLICK HERE to book your tickets now!

St Paul’s students from Prep to Year 9 are invited to be a part of the Premier’s Reading Challenge this year.

• – Students will be required to read a certain number of books between now and 23rd August . Students in Prep to Year 4 will need to read 20 books; students in Years 5 – 9 are asked to read 15.
• – Students in Junior School will be participating in the program via their Library lessons. Year 7 – 9 students can access a reading record sheet from their English teacher, or from the Secondary Library.
  Students who complete the challenge will have their efforts recognised through the receipt of a Certificate of Achievement signed by the Premier of Queensland (and JS students will also be featured on our Super Readers wall in the JS Library!).
• – Students are encouraged to read a range of fiction and non-fiction titles (and these can be in languages other than English), and to record their reading by title on a Reader Record Form. While there is no compulsory reading list for the challenge, booklists are available to help students, teachers, parents and guardians select appropriate reading material. Book lists can be found here: https://readingchallenge.education.qld.gov.au/about/booklists

If you are unable to make the meeting or have any queries please direct them to [email protected]

Looking forward to seeing you at the meeting!

Peter Deane
FSG Vice-President

We would love to see some new faces join our small but enthusiastic supporters’ group as general committee members. Hope to see you all there!

Touch Football Supporters Group