College Newsletter Issue 2 / 23 May 2017 From the Principal Do you have a child who automatically assumes the worst case scenario in any risky or new situation? If so, you have a catastrophiser on your hands. This is a “phenomenon” which by my reckoning as an educator is on the increase (and not just in children). At St Andrews, we talk a lot about developing and practising a “Growth Mindset”. In overly simple terms, it refers to a consistent, insistent and persistent determination around a “you (I) can do it” attitude, approaching tasks with a sense of optimistic purpose. In contrast, catastophisers exaggerate their worries and place enormous pressure on themselves. Their default position in their thinking goes to the most negative outcome possible. The results won’t just be bad, they’ll be catastrophic! “If I don’t do well in this test, my uni application is a waste of time”. They won’t just fall over in a game. They’ll break a leg, end up in hospital and miss out on school camp … or so they say. They won’t just be rebuked by a teacher for arriving late to school. They’ll be kept in at lunchtime, miss out on sport and have all other kids making fun of them … or so they say. Catastrophising makes kids (and adults) feel miserable. Worse, they often don’t want to do anything or experience new opportunities and personal challenges because they expect the worst possible outcome. So what do you do with a catastrophiser? Your approach, as with all things, will depend to some extent on the child’s age. Under fives generally don’t overtly catastrophise, however even young children can be negative. Ensure you model upbeat, positive thinking. Being a significant adult in the life of a child carries wide-ranging responsibilities, and presenting the world as an exciting, positive place full of opportunity is just one of those responsibilities! School-aged children need to be encouraged to keep things in perspective. Challenge a child’s propensity to catastrophise. Here are a number of practical methods which may be used to challenge a child’s catastrophic thinking: •
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What’s the most likely scenario? Sometimes it’s useful to introduce a dose of old-fashioned ‘rational thinking’. “Yes, you may break your leg, but it’s unlikely”. That’s unhelpful thinking. Sometimes kids’ thinking is so out of step with reality that they become anxious
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about minor things. Thinking such as “everyone must like me”, “I must not make a mistake”, and “bad things always happen to me” are extreme and need to be replaced with more moderate, realistic thoughts … “It would be nice if everyone liked me but not everyone will. It’s important to have some good friends”. Replace extreme words for feelings with more moderate descriptors. Today’s kids talk in extremes – awesome, sick and gross roll off their tongues easily. Extreme language leads to extreme thinking. Encourage kids to replace “I’m furious” with “I’m annoyed”, “it’s a disaster” with “it’s a pain”, or “I hate it” with “I don’t like it”. Sounds minor, but by changing kids’ language you change how they think about events and more importantly, how they feel.
I suspect that many parents will identify strongly with some of the above. Perhaps it is even an opportunity to consider our own turn of phrase/modelling. We all catastrophise from time to time, particularly when under pressure. As is often the case, the key in the first instance is to be consciously ‘on guard’. David Bliss Principal
Chaplains Chat Your love will never stop chasing after me…. This is the chorus of a song by Urban Rescue that Middle and Senior School sing periodically in chapel. It paints a picture of our God pursuing us. It is the reassurance that God longs to connect with us in a meaningful and significant way. Unfortunately, our natural inclination is to turn away from Him. We tend to be proud people who feel we can make it on our own. We don’t need God holding us up and directing us. We want to be self-reliant, where we decide what is best for us, make our own decisions and then live with the consequences. Our God certainly calls us to work hard and to be self-sufficient. We are not to be lazy and become a burden on others but He does desire that we call out to Him for guidance and to work closely with others, not simply just look out for ourselves, or worse, in competition with our neighbour. As we live in God’s presence and pursue His will, community is built. God’s love is enacted in the world. God endeavours to work this in the St Andrews community, day in and day
out. Of course it, is not always a reality because our human pride gets in the way. We resort to competing with others, wanting to prove we are better. We may even speak poorly of others to gain advantage for our self. In amongst us getting it wrong, God keeps pursuing us and reminding us how much He loves us and desires for us to experience a life of goodness, love and peace.
thrive-in-the-fourth-industrial-revolution/ the top 10 skills needed in the workforce in 2020 are listed in the graphic below. As more and more jobs get replaced by robotics and computers, the skills needed to thrive in a future society are different to those needed when we left school.
The love God has demonstrated for all of humanity through the event of Easter where Christ gave up his life for us so that we may be forgiven is so powerful and transformational. It is the evidence that proves that God will never stop chasing after us. May the beauty of this fact continue to colour all that takes place within the St Andrews community so that God’s goodness is experienced by all whom pass through our gates and He is clearly seen amongst us. The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.” Jeremiah 31:3 NIV Graeme Schache Chaplain
Junior School News The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is an annual assessment for students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. It is a part of the school calendar and has been since 2008. NAPLAN tests students in the areas of reading, writing, spelling and numeracy. Last week our students, with the rest of the students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 nationwide sat the test. The College is looking forward to analysing the results. We are looking for strengths, weaknesses and how we as a College can improve our delivery of reading, writing, spelling and numeracy. You may have heard about another test that students sit, called the PISA tests. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a worldwide study of 15-year-old school pupils’ scholastic performance on mathematics, science, and reading. Schools are chosen at random and students sit this exam. The results from these tests are used by Governments to inform policy and analyse trends. While there is valuable learning to be had from evaluating the data from these tests, we shouldn’t make too big a deal of good or bad results. Countries like South Korea, China and Singapore have traditionally performed well in the PISA tests. The question that I often ask though “At what cost for these results in these countries?” Having lived in South Korea and worked in a Korean school, I have seen first hand the huge amount of pressure that is put on students to memorize and learn material by rote to respond to questions in a test. This has meant that they have performed well in tests that ask for recall of knowledge, often at the expense of critical thinking and creativity. According to the World Economic Forum, https://www. weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-10-skills-you-need-to-
These skills are not tested in PISA or NAPLAN tests but are crucial for a student’s development. The PYP programme that is implemented in the Junior School has a focus on developing skills necessary for our students graduating in 2020 and beyond. Getting students to pose questions to complex real life problems and then using their critical thinking skills to generate solutions to these problems is giving children the skills needed to thrive in an ever changing society. Darrin Schumacher Deputy Principal Head of Junior School
Middle & Senior School News Flourishing Learning Futures At this time of year, I have the great pleasure of interviewing new students who are hopeful of coming to St Andrews in 2018. It is a part of my job that is a real blessing. The interviews are a time to connect deeply with young people and their families and to share the story of our great community. There are basically three key messages shared. As a College of the Lutheran Church we are an authentic Christian community that is driven by the lived expression of God’s love. St Andrews is a community where there is a strong sense of belonging and shared values; where everybody is somebody. While we unashamedly pursue academic excellence, a St Andrews education is about so much more. We want our students to discover and grow their strengths, gifts and talents in all areas of their being and doing, but not for themselves alone. To that end, we are about more than a good education; an education for good. And finally, individually and collectively, from our youngest students in the ELC to our College Principal, we
are about embracing a growth mindset and getting better all the time. We are highly aspirational and strive for personal bests and excellence, embracing challenges with grit, hope and optimism. In and out of classrooms, teachers continue to encourage students to embrace the notion of ‘hard-fun’ and the skills of collaboration, creativity and critical thinking that will help them to flourish. The invigorating pursuit of goals that push the boundaries of one’s comfort zone and lead to personal growth sees our students growth mindsets in action. It is also the time of year where we look to forward planning to ensure our subject offerings and academic programs continue to encourage flourishing and futures focused practices that nurture the individual by providing a wide range of offerings and personalised learning experiences for our students. Next year, we are looking to introduce new electives in Year 7 to 10 in the areas of Health, Design Technologies and Innovation as well as expanding our STEM program. There are also new electives and possibilities being explored in our flourishing Arts program.
The many hours spent training in the lead up to the Kokoda challenge is but one example of setting long term goals and working on specific actions, training regularly, in order to perform and achieve meaningful success with that internal dialogue that says, ‘I did it and I did it well.’ The introduction of the Kokoda Camp this year has further enhanced this important St Andrews tradition. Thank you to Miss West and all staff involved in the Kokoda Challenge program this year.
Year 12 students Olivia English, Jarred Connolly and Kara Batchelor recently competed at Bond University’s Mooting competition where they developed a greater understanding of court procedure and processes, advocacy and research skills. This is the first time St Andrews has been invited to compete and having listened to their arguments in preparation, we are immensely proud of these young people for their dedicated efforts. Of the 76 teams from across Australia competing the team progressed to the finals having placed in the top 10 teams. We wish them well in their finals which will be held early in June.
Last weekend was our College Fete and we celebrated as a flourishing learning community. Thank you to all involved in making it a special event. Virginia Warner Deputy Principal Head of Secondary School
Performing Arts News Fete is a wonderful opportunity for our performers across the College to showcase their talents. This year we ran two separate stages – one in the MPH and the other outside the Junior School library.
JS Arts Week Week 7 of this term, we shine a spotlight on the Arts in the Junior School. With First Break Concert Series, SCOPE Photography Competition, Arts Assembly, Mini Muso Debut Concert, String Open rehearsal and workshops for classes as well as Golden Clefs and selected JS Dance Troupes it promises to be an exciting week
Thank you to all of our performers for sharing their talent.
JS Arts Week Schedule Monday Before School
Tuesday
Thursday
Friday
Strings Open Rehersal
Session 1
First Break Concert Series 11 - 11:30am JS Music
1 Pianco (John Whyte)
Session 2
12 - 1 Express Lyrical Dance Workshop
Childrens Choir: 100% Hope Performanc MPH
ELC Music with Year 10’s
Golden Clef Choral workshop Experience
1 Speech and Drama (Moyra)
1 Vocal (KD)
Vocals (LO)
1 Vocal (KD)
2 Piano (Learne)
2 Speech and Drama (LD)
Mini Musos Open Rehearsal 1111:30am
2 Speech and Drama (LD)
Year 5 Dance Workshop Dance Studio 11:30 - 12:30
11:30 - 12:40 Preps and Year 12s Nursery Rhymes Drama
Battle of the Bands Worship Centre
Year 3 Dance Workshops Dance Studio
Lunch
Session 3
Wednesday
Concert Band POP UP Concert Under MPH 1:30 - 2:30 Jazettes Dance Workshop
Arts Assembly 1:40 - 2:50 MPH
Sport News Futsal Recently 12 teams represented the College at the Northern Rivers Futsal Titles held down at Byron Bay. Our students did extremely well with over half the team making it through to the semi-finals. Our 13 girls won their competition and our Open Boys and 15 Boys both came runners up. We now have the following teams who have qualified to enter the Champion of Champions Titles held in July.
Visual Art News Congratulations to Zoe Wright Year 5- artist of the month
- 13 Years Boys - 15 Years Boys - Open Boys - 13 Years Girls - 14 Years Girls - Open Girls Congratulations to not only these teams but all our players who did an outstanding job representing the College.
P & F News School Fete was another huge success for all. After the torrential rain on the Friday the skies opened and the sun shone on the day. With record numbers of chocolate, prizes, wine and cakes donated by the community the P&F would like to thank everyone for their support. People turned out in their droves to support the St Andrews College Fete. The P & F committee would like to thank all the volunteer’s, helpers and committee members who made this such a successful event. St Andrews students were fabulous with their help on the stalls, performances on stages and excellent musical performances which gave us ambient music for a wonderful and successful day. The Fete raffle winners are: 1st - Katherine Eller 2nd - Cathie Hanson 3rd - Phil Collis
Libby Wood Secondary School Sports Coordinator
Cent Auction winners are: SPECIAL DRAW: Paul Ainger Lot 1 - Greg Clayfield-Hoskin Lot 2 - Toni Gisinger Lot 3 - Jeremy Inglis Lot 4 - Ross Gonano & Justine Lot 5 - Kate Dalby Lot 6 - Matt Janetzki Lot 7 - Carly Taylor Lot 8 - Darren Redwood & Maxine
Lot 9 - Brian Gardiner Lot 10 - Kim Gayle Lot 11 - Melissa Lot 12 - Robin Vindolac & Tanya Jennings Lot 13 - Toni Taylor & Kate Jorgensen Lot 14 - Tania Jennings Lot 15 - Kiza Lot 16 - Kylie Andrews Lot 17 - Margaret Gardiner & Niamh Lot 18 - Hillary Floate Lot 19 - Ruth Porter, Rebecca Newing & Steve Day Lot 20 - Mardi Frost Lot 21 - Kate Jorgensen Lot 22 - Jodie Lopez Lot 23 - Sandy McEwen, Ruth Porter & Venessa Lot 24 - Robyn Fuller Lot 25 - Keith Stephens Lot 26 - Heidi Luxton Lot 27 - Sophie Gibson Lot 28 - Angela Baldwin Lot 29 - Carolyn Rogers Lot 30 - Susan Lot 31 - Vademeyer Ria Lot 32 - Darren Redwood Lot 33 - Paulina Horan, Liz & Paul Ainger Lot 34 - Dianne & Kate Jorgensen Lot 35 - Jeff Gehrke Lot 36 - Julia Ackland Lot 37 - Vademeyer Ria Lot 38 - Lauren Glover Lot 39 - Marisa Mansfield Lot 40 - Chelsea Boeren Lot 41 - Steve Day & Nikki Beaver Lot 42 - Sarah Buddee Lot 43 - Amanda McDonald Lot 44 - Gemma Davies Lot 45 - Rosemary Avakian, Trish Munro & Gregory Katterns Lot 46 - Heather Milburn Lot 47 - Roslyn Campbell Lot 48 - Dianne Stokes & Kellie Lot 49 - Catherine Scott Lot 50 - Tammy Buckingham Lot 51 - Peta Hall Lot 52 - Nicole Miller Lot 53 - Janice Hayward Gray Lot 54 - Daniel Craig Lot 55 - Tania Sparks Lot 56 - Geoff Yates Lot 57 - Sarah Ashley Lot 58 - Karen Laming Lot 59 - Kirstie Bowlag Lot 60 - Jodie Lopez Lot 61 - Heather Milburn Lot 62 - Melissa McGuiness Lot 63 - Jamie Crowe Lot 64 - Fiona Scott Lot 65 - Kat Owens Lot 66 - Nick Caruana Lot 67 - Geoff Yates Lot 68 - Ailsa Day Lot 69 - Jodie Lopez & Kate O’Rourke Lot 70 - Keith Stephens Lot 71 - Darren Redwood Lot 72 - Ruth Porter Lot 73 - Wendy Lot 74 - Amy Priestner
Lot 75 - Amanda Ellis Lot 76 - Team Fenton Lot 77 - Paul Ainger Lot 78 - Kizzie Lot 79 - Geoff Yates Lot 80 - Trudi Karos Lot 81 - Jayde Lot 82 - Carol Makintosh Lot 83 - Jodi Watkins Lot 84 - Stu Monk Lot 85 - Jack Baczyk Lot 86 - Liza Lot 87 - Peta Hall Lot 88 - Liz Clarke Lot 89 - Tony Conforti Lot 90 - Maxine Lot 91 - Clare Atkinson Lot 92 - Tanya Lot 93 - Kim Allan Lot 94 - Jill Griffiths Lot 95 - Tammy Buckingham Lot 96 - Julia Mason Lot 97 - Peta LeMarshall Lot 98 - Darren Redwood Lot 99 - Jack Baczyk Lot 100 - Dean & Kelly Cheffers Lot 101 - Nikki Beaver Lot 102 - Ky Brown Lot 103 - Seaton (Ell) Lot 104 - April Rentoule Lot 105 - Olivia Walsh Lot 106 - Alison Dore Lot 107 - Amber & Robbie Nichols Lot 108 - Helen Garwood Lot 109 - Alesha Walsh Lot 110 - Ray Lot 111 - Tania Stewart Lot 112 - Kate Jorgensen Lot 113 - Merley Lot 114 - Amy Priestner Lot 115 - Emily Collis Lot 116 - Kane Lot 117 - Lesley Russell Lot 118 - Nicole Lot 119 - Amber & Robbie Nichols Lot 120 - Lauren Lot 121 - Vicki Butterworth Lot 122 - Teresa Wyatt Lot 123 - Tracey Austin Lot 124 - Ruth Porter & Dean & Kelly Cheffers Lot 125 - Jacqueline Tyrrell Lot 126 - Angela Baldwin Lot 127 - Diane Lot 128 - Jo Levey Lot 129 - Zoey Cheeseman Lot 130 - Blair Schooley Lot 131 - Kim Audsley Lot 132 - Clare Atkinson, Kelsey Caruana & Lani Caruana Theatre Chair Donations J block recovery is progressing well with the project running to time. Completion is expected later this year. The P&F meetings are held in one of the new rooms in upper J Block where the feel and decor are fabulous. Friends of the Theatre chair donation forms for the Ruth
Butler Theatre are still available Main Reception. There are different levels of donation that any present, past or future families can make to go towards the new chairs. Platinum $200 Gold $100 Silver $50 These donations are tax deductable. Donations will be acknowledged in some form with the finer details are yet to be released. Next P& F meeting is 14th June at 7.00pm in the J Block Upper West. We welcome all parents and guardians to attend.
Dates to Remember MAY Wednesday 24 Year 5 Camp @ Coolum ( 24 May - 26 May ) P-5 Auskick Week 4 Thursday 25 Years 7-12 Badminton Tourn Ex (Selected Students) Year 7 da Vinci Decathlon Seagrass Survey (Selected Students Years 6 - 11) Years 7-12 Sports Assembly/ Practice BoxBall (Years 1 - 6) Friday 26 Years 7-12 Assembly Years 5-6 InterSchool Winter Sport Week 6 Monday 29 Junior School Arts Week Year 12 Griffith Uni Guaranteed Entry Tuesday 30 Junior School Arts Week ICAS Comp Science Racquet Sports - Tennis Experience JS Arts Assembly Wednesday 31 Year 12 Hospitality Lunch Junior School Arts Week Year 10 Hospitality Cafe Excursion (Selected Students) Big Day Out - Griffith Uni GC P - Year 5 Auskick Week 5 JUNE Thursday 1 Junior School Arts Week Battle of the Bands JS Mini Muso’s Debut Concert Friday 2 Junior School Arts Week QCS Workshop Years 5-6 InterSchool Winter Sport Week 7 Lending a Helping Hand at Rosies (Selected Students) Saturday 3 Kokoda Challenge Training Session