2022 Term 3, Week 5

I’d love to tell you that this makes me an expert in marriage and parenting, but I’m afraid to say it just means that I’ve had more time to make more mistakes than most people.

Making a good marriage, and raising well-adjusted, decent, loving and responsible children, are the most important and most difficult tasks of our lives. Perhaps it is because, simultaneously, we are trying to become well-adjusted, decent, loving and responsible people ourselves! Or is that just me?

Remaining happily married, and continuing to parent effectively, are both also made more complicated because our spouse and our children continue to change. My wife is no longer the girl I married, and my children are no longer the babies that my wife gave birth to. And so, in each role (husband, father and now grandfather), I have had to continue to learn and adjust my own thinking and behaviour.

It is for that reason that I will be attending Dr Kaylene Henderson’s seminar in the St Paul’s Chapel next Tuesday evening. She will be speaking about “Tackling anxiety and building resilience in children aged 2-12 years”. I believe it is still not too late to purchase tickets, if you would like to join me.

I also commend to you the latest Parenting Ideas Insight which is titled “How to change your parenting for the teenage years” (click here to read). This important topic is also supported by a webinar that Michael Grose will be presenting on Wednesday 31 August. Because St Paul’s subscribes to Parenting Ideas, this webinar is available to you free of charge – details also available on the link above.

Consider this: when your child first comes into your life, they are utterly dependent on you, and you make all decisions for them. Yet, by the time your job as parent is over, your child needs to have become independent of you, and needs to be capable of making important decisions for themselves. How does that happen? How and when should we hand over control? I like the way that Michael Grose puts it in his Insight – “Gradually involve teens in creating rules that govern their own behaviour (but) keep challenging their choices and provide emotional support when they make poor decisions”

Nigel Grant

Executive Director of Faith and Community

Any students in Years 4-12 are welcome to join Garden Club, which meets each week on Tuesday afternoons, from 3.20 – 4.30 pm, in the Community Garden precinct near the bus stop on Strathpine Road.

Our activities usually focus on growing vegetables, flowers and herbs, but we also learn about propagating garden plants (tree and shrubs), from seed and cuttings.

Interested parents, grandparents and other members of the wider St Paul’s community may also be able to become involved. I would welcome expressions of interest from people who would like to come and “potter around” at various times during the week. The Community Garden already includes fruit trees, garden beds in a range of sizes, composting bins, and several shade- and green-houses. We also have a good range of garden tools, including a motorised rotary hoe.

If you are keen on propagation, we have also established a little nursery, with plants being offered for sale from time to time as a means of meeting the on-going running costs of the Community Garden.

For further information, or to express interest in helping, please email – [email protected] or [email protected]

You can also check us out on the School website – https://www.stpauls.qld.edu.au/community-garden/

A team of sixteen driven, passionate, and courageous students are working closely with each other, Mr Osborne, Mrs Handyside, at the team at JLL. JLL is a global real estate services firm specialising in commercial property and investment management.

Students ranging in year levels from Year 7 to Year 10 kickstarted their DLV journey this week, with a welcome breaky with their parents to introduce the program. The students started out by getting to know each other a little better, fleshing out their strengths and weaknesses and identifying which Realms of Thinking Dispositions they would like to work on during the program.

Over the next 10-12 weeks students will work together through the phases of engaging, ideation and prototyping, which will culminate with these students presenting a functional, fresh thinking solution to JLL to propel their vision for the future!

So, what is a Design Led Venture?

Design Led Ventures (DLV) is a program aimed at growing organisations and students as creative and entrepreneurial thinkers. The program produces innovative solutions that enhance business, communities, and how we live.

The DLV is a way of working with the St Paul’s School Realms of Thinking model and the Centre for Innovators and Entrepreneurs (CIE). Realms of Thinking is all about nurturing and developing our learners’ creative dispositions to enhance their learning, their perspectives, and to prepare them for life after school. The CIE harnesses those creative dispositions to teach and guide students’ entrepreneurial thinking and doing. The DLV program is a way of working with both; to connect creative dispositions and entrepreneurial thinking in a seamless way to real world challenges and opportunities. Students see how both are critical to making a difference for individuals, businesses, the community, and the world!

Read more about Design Led Ventures here.

Here are a few pictures of their journey so far!

What’s up next?

Session 2: Working as a DLV Team

Session 3: Meet the Client

Session 4: Client Research & Stakeholders Identification 

Mr Osborne and Mrs Handyside

DLV Facilitators

The group departed on the Tuesday and returned to school Friday afternoon. This camp is always one of the highlights of the year for this grade and throughout the week away the students were tested both individually and as House groups as they worked through some extreme challenges.

The camp has a narrative based upon Australia’s wartime experiences with each activity posing unique challenges for the students. The challenges begin with the Emu Gully Group Leader giving the students background to the theatre of war the particular activity is based upon. This context allows the students to gain some understanding of the challenges our military personnel faced through the particular campaign which acts as stimulus for the challenge. It also allows the students the opportunity to apply their understanding of these historic events which they have recently been studying in year 9 history.

The challenges ranged from group problem solving activities to, the hard, physical slog of carrying ammunition boxes over steep, muddy inclines to driving motorized buggies across a demanding rally circuit. The students also presented for morning inspections at their camp sites performing drills and maintaining their camp equipment to the highest possible standard.

The students thrived in these demanding circumstances and this camp is always a revelation into the high standards our students can reach, given the most difficult of challenges.

Students camped out in their Rite Journey groups and worked through the activities in their House groups. These two different groupongs work extremely effectively for the specific tasks the students must complete while in these organizational structures. The activities allow students to problem solve and work together to achieve specific outcomes under pressure, allowing each House group to grow in terms of cohesion and teamwork. The camping groups allow students to work with their Rite Journey classmates in a familial type environment where they are planning and cooking meals together and ensuring their campsites is organized and maintained appropriately. Responsibilities must be shared and all members need to take on tasks to ensure their group functions as a positive little community.

The students loved this camp and the demands it placed upon them. The entire camp is a tremendous challenge which they invariably rise to meet. The camps program is a real strength at St Paul’s and provides real-life opportunity for students to live out the personal values that comprise our school’s character framework. We still have camps for the year 7s this term and our year 8 and 10 students in term 4.

During Monday lunch time Student Volunteers from all year levels assisted in putting together kits to be sent to PNG. The Aiyura National High School will utilise the solar power to use energy as a light or torch and the kits have USB charging capabilities.

Read more about the benefits of this volunteer program and how it assists communities who experience energy poverty:

StudentBuddy – SolarBuddy

Read more about Energy Poverty here:

Energy poverty | Habitat For Humanity

This year we would like to trial a different approach to our Book Week celebrations. Rather than holding a formal Book Week parade this year, we’re looking into how we can encourage more interaction between our families and students. As such, parents are invited to a ‘Celebrate Book Week Gathering’ on Friday, 19 August starting at 9am in the under covered area. This is where the Junior School Choir and Year 6 classes will sing and The St Paul’s Chorus will lead a community sing-a-long centred around the theme of ‘books, reading and dreaming’. After this, parents and caregivers will be invited into classrooms to participate in some special Book Week activities until 10am when tea and coffee will be served until 10:30am.  This will provide parents and caregivers a unique opportunity to celebrate Book Week with their children, which we hope will be really rewarding.

As the theme is ‘Dreaming with eyes open’, we’re encouraging students to come dressed in their pyjamas on Friday, 19 August. If instead, your child would like to come dressed as their favourite book character they are of course welcome to do this and we look forward to seeing everyone with big smiles on their faces.

At the end of this trial, we will review its success in authentically bringing our community together in celebrating the joy of reading, books and Book Week and assess what Book Week will look like in the years ahead. We are really looking forward to this special week with lots of celebrations including the Prep-Year 2 drawing competition, Years 3-6 micro fiction competition and Thursday, 18 August being ‘Poem in your Pocket’ day. In the Library at lunchtimes there is also Kahoot, dreaming circles, ‘Paint your dreams’ with watercolours, Year 3-6 Scavenger hunt, and making origami birds with students from our International School. Book Week, here we come!

JS Parent Invitation

JS Message for Parents RE: Competition

Writing Competition (Year 3 – 6)

They performed three songs including:

• Whisper Not
• Always and Forever
• Ginger Bread Boy

The students then attended a workshop lead by Vincent Gardner, who is the lead Trombonist for Jazz at Lincoln Centre Orchestra.

They walked away with industry knowledge, tips and advice.

Reuben is a Year 8 student who blew us all away with his drum performance on Monday morning, performing for the whole school.

Being in the midst of Year 12 exam block, Summer is looking forward to traveling with her team to Bendigo next month for the Volley Ball competition.

Please welcome the girls with a smile and wave around campus if you see them and say farewell on Wednesday!

Have you considered becoming a homestay family?

• Families are paid a generous daily rate for hosting
• Long term and short term hosting opportunities 
• A rich cultural experience for both visiting students and host families
• Great opportunity for students studying a language at school
• Ongoing support from the International School Staff
• Homestay Coordinator available 24/7 for emergencies

For more information or to register your interest, please visit our website.

Dr Browning is profiled extensively by the newspaper as one of Queensland’s leading educators. You can read the full article here (please note, it is behind a paywall)

Tackling Anxiety and Building Resilience in Children aged 2-12
Cost is a discounted price of $25 per person and tickets can be purchased from Trybooking using the following link:

Dr Kaylene Henderson – Parent Connections Supporter Group

Dr Kaylene Henderson is a medically trained child health specialist and one of Australia’s leading parenting experts.
She is also a grateful mother of three zany young kids. Kaylene is passionate about ‘translating’ research-based information into practical tips
and sharing these with parents and educators since you’re the ones who spend the most amount of time with our next generation!Kaylene will be focussing on building resilience and anxiety in children at this seminar.

For more information please contact Kathy Wright 0412 039 142

Anxiety_Seminar_Flyer_for_Changing

Family & Friends Day – Sunday 28 August, 9.00 – 11.00am

Team up with a family member or friend for a fun morning of social tennis at the school courts.  All levels of play welcome.  The morning includes:

• Short, 15-minute friendly matches
• Serving competition – hit a target to win a prize!
• BBQ
• Raffle drawn on the day

This is a fundraising event for the Tennis Supporters’ Group.

Tickets:  $10 per player (includes one free raffle ticket valued at $5)

Get your tickets here

Tennis Raffle

Don’t miss your chance to win some fantastic prizes including:

• $100 Skin Care Pack (x2) – donated by Dare to Australia
• $50 Hart Sport voucher (x2) – donated by Councillor Sandy Landers
• $50 La Zucca Italian restaurant voucher (x2) – donated by La Zucca
• $50 Rebel Sport voucher – donated by Bart Mellish MP
• $50 Bunnings voucher – donated by Bunnings Carseldine
• Family Bowling Pass (value $47) – donated by Aspley 10 Pin Bowl
• $25 Mia Bella’s Coffee Drive Thru voucher (x3) – donated by Mia Bella’s

The raffle will be drawn at the Tennis Family and Friends Day on Sunday 28 August.  You don’t need to be in attendance to win (we will contact you afterwards if you are a lucky winner).

Tickets: $5 each.  Buy 4 and get a 5^th FREE!

Get your tickets here

Next TSG Meeting – Tuesday 16 August, 7.30pm (online)

Join us for this online meeting where we’ll be finalising plans for our “Family & Friends Day”.  New faces always welcome!  Email [email protected] to receive the meeting link. 

TSG Facebook Page

Don’t forget to follow our TSG Facebook page for photos and videos from match days and training sessions and information on upcoming events.