St Peters Lutheran School Newsletter

Do you remember an award winning TV ad from about 10 years ago for Honda cars?  It was an incredible sequence of ‘domino-like’ chain reactions where various parts of the car moved in a way that caused the next part to move and so on, all the way around the room until the ignition was switched on a shiny new Honda that then rolled off the line. The tag line at the end was “Don’t you love it when things just work”.

Take a look at it here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5rlhEkmbc4

Don’t we all long for things just working?  The frustration of a broken appliance, not being able to start the lawn mower, wifi dropping out, the teenager on the couch. Please… just work!!

God did not design a world that that doesn’t work. In fact, he did the opposite. Think of the complexity of any living creature, the order of the seasons or the way a bird flies.  He knows what he is doing.

In Genesis One we read about the order, completeness and perfection that God designed. A place where the natural world and humanity live together in complete harmony. Do our hearts not yearn and ache to be in a place where we are at peace with all around us? No wonder we seek the beach or the mountains or beautiful places for somewhere to rest and be restored. No matter what you think about climate change, people do not want to live in a world that is far removed from what was intended.   We were created to live in a peaceful state and connected in relationship to all around us, especially to our creator - a place where things just work. Sadly, for us right now, we live in a broken world that is out of sync with how it was meant to be, but…. there is a way back.

Jesus came for just that purpose, to restore the relationship and connection that was lost in Genesis. He lived, died and rose as one of us to put back together all that was broken.

Flick from Genesis to the back of book in Revelation. Here we get the picture of complete restoration. As Jesus returns, the wonder, beauty, completeness of God’s creation in all its form is once again in sync.   

It just works!  Hope we see each other there.

“See, I make all things new.” Rev 21:5

Mark Rathjen
Principal

Welcome back to a new term.  The final term of the year is once again full of learning opportunities, activity and events. The term started with a bang for our Year 5-7s as they headed to Victor Harbor for their aquatics camp. Coming up in the next few weeks is the Disco, Music Festival, our workshop with Bill Hansberry, 3/4 Camp and the Seniors' Exhibition.  Please mark the relevant dates on your calendar and keep an eye on Skoolbag for any related information. 

1.      School Disco – Friday 25 October

2.      Southern Music Festival – Wednesday 30 October

3.      Bill Hansberry Parent workshop – Wednesday 30 October

4.      PYP Exhibition – Wednesday 6 November

5.      New Families Welcome and Information night – Wednesday 13 November

6.      PE Week – Starts Monday 25 November

7.      Colour Run – Monday 25 November

8.      SPLASH Day – Friday 29 November

9.      End of year service – 10 December 

This term, we are pleased to welcome Adelaide S and Jack T to our Early Learning Centre.  We trust that they will settle in quickly and that they and their families feel at home as part of our St Peters community. 

We have heard some fantastic news about some of our old scholars from the ‘Class of 2015’. 

Congratulations to the old scholars of St Peters that have been named House Captains for 2020 at their respective High Schools.

It's fabulous to see St Peters students in leadership roles and using the many skills they gained at Primary School to start them on this journey! 

Well done to Olivia Ledson, Ben Pruszinski, Jacob Newman and Ella Hobbs (Emmaus Christian College), Josh Martin and Sarah Harper (Concordia College) and Nik Gacic (St John's Grammar School). 

We pray every blessing on you as you assume these important roles.

Henry Smith was recently selected to play in the NAB All Stars Futures Clash as one of the 44 best under 17s in Australia.  Henry was privileged to play in the curtain raiser at the MCG on Grand Final day.  Not bad after playing in a winning Grand Final with the Eagles at the Adelaide Oval just a fortnight before and then also playing in a curtain raiser on SANFL Grand Final day.  Who knows, maybe he will feature in the AFL draft this time next year?  Congratulations Henry.

At the beginning of a new term it is good to take stock of uniform.  Most students this week are looking good in their Summer uniform.  Some attention needed for a few students on – hats, the right socks and correct shoes.  We often have unnamed pieces of clothing in the office too.  Please ensure everything is clearly named. 

We had a very productive day on Saturday 21 September cleaning up in our nature play spaces. We whipper-snippered all the grass, moved bark chips for soft fall, pulled out dying bushes, cleaned away some rubble and old sticks and overall made our space much more friendly for students. In the next few weeks we intend to erect some garden beds and extend the chook run.  Thank you to the band of willing helpers (about 20) from both school and church who braved a bit of rain to get the job done.

NB We have recently applied for a federal grant to help us do some other work in that space (eg a little creek) and are hopeful to hear good news later in the term.  

We have two more Principal’s Tours this term. They will be on Wednesday 30 October and 27 November starting at 9.00am. Please encourage anyone you know who is considering schooling options to book in for a tour.  We are always flexible to offer tours at other times if those dates are not convenient.

A big thank you to everyone who was able to attend their SLC at the end of last term. These are important events for our students as they share their learning and articulate what they know. The children work hard to prepare and look forward to parents coming in to see what they have been learning.  If SLC brought up any questions you might have for teachers, please arrange a time to meet with them that is mutually convenient (after school is usually the best time).

The day after the last day of school is an important day on the school calendar.  On Wednesday 11 December, we will hold our now annual Numeracy Interviews.  These have proven to be critical days for us as we run through some numeracy testing which gives us an additional insight to students’ mathematics understanding.  Over the past two years, the Numeracy Interview has helped us to build up a bank of important data for each child, to track their improvement, identify any gaps and then plan for the year ahead.  The interviews require something like 15 to 30 minutes to conduct and we like to run them with the child’s ‘next year’ teacher so that they gain an insight to each child’s numeracy needs. We would encourage every family to delay holidays until after the Numeracy Interview is completed. More information will be forthcoming on this as we get closer to the end of the school year.

We have begun the process for class structures for next year.  While we are some weeks from sharing this information, there is quite a bit happening behind the scenes.

Even in small schools, this can be a complicated jigsaw to complete as we aim to find the best fit for the needs of all of our students within the scope of resources available to the school.

As educators, class placement and the creation of positive learning environments for all of our students is something that we take very seriously.  What follows is the data we use and the process we follow.

For all our students we gather data including literacy and numeracy levels, records of behaviour and effort, individual education plans and students input into friendship groups.

We process recommendations from:

• Current teachers—based on their professional expertise and knowledge of the student’s social and learning needs.
• Learning Support (Special Education)—based on professional expertise, student’s individual action plans and knowledge of the student’s social and learning needs.
• Internal and external transition meetings in which the student’s needs are discussed.

Draft lists are reviewed and double checked. The school assigns classes to teachers, reflecting the needs of the school.   There is a great deal of time, effort and educational expertise put into this process by the school.

Should you have any requests regarding the social needs of your child, please put them in writing and send them to the Principal through the school office (please do so by Friday 8 November).  Each request will be carefully considered.

Thank you for your trust and patience as we work through this really important process for each of the children in our school.

‘Restorative Practices at St Peters – What’s it all about’ - with Bill Hansberry

We are most fortunate to be able to have the most entertaining, knowledgeable and renown psychologist Mr Bill Hansberry come to our school to lead a parent workshop on the topic of Restorative Practices.  He will lead a 1-2hr session for any interested parents on Wednesday 30 October at 6.45pm here in our chapel.  There will be a free sausage sizzle and a crèche to help all families attend. (See Skoolbag to RSVP).  We are able to engage Bill for this session thanks mostly to a ‘Parents in Education’ (PIE) grant received by our P&F received this year for a focus on Well-being in our school (It’s the ‘W’ in G.R.O.W.).

The next information sheet in our series about apps currently popular with children, kindly provided to us by the Carly Ryan Foundation, relates to YouTube (download via the link below).

The following teams are going ahead:

• Year 1/2 Basketball @ Marion Stadium
• Year 3 Basketball @ Blackwood
• Year 4 Basketball @ Blackwood
• Year 6 Basketball @ Blackwood
• C Grade cricket
  

For those who are interested - there are still a couple of spots available for students who would like to join the Year 6 Basketball team.

Welcome to Term 4! We hope you had a relaxing holiday break with your families.

Thank you to everyone who donated coins for Silver September last term.  We raised just over $300, which is a fantastic effort!

Our next P&F meeting will be held tonight at 6pm in the staff room.  Everyone is welcome to come along and find out more about our plans for this term.

The school disco is just over a week away and ticket orders are due tomorrow!  Please complete and return the order form that was sent out at the end of last term with your cash payment to your teachers or the front office.  We also need lots more volunteers to help out on the night, so please sign up to the online roster at https://signup.com/login/entry/916996818452794074.  There are 30 min time slots for Reception-Year 3 and 45 min time slots for Years 4-7.  We need volunteers for disco supervision, door supervision, snacks & drinks, tea/coffee and supper and the photo booth.  The online auction will go live tomorrow and will end on the night of the disco.  Please follow our Facebook page for sneak previews of some of the fantastic prizes we have on offer, kindly donated by our wonderful local Blackwood businesses.  We would also love the students to suggest songs they would like to dance to, so please email them to stpeterslutheranpandf@gmail.com.

There will be a couple of special food days this term - one for the Pedal Prix team, and one for SPLASH day. 

We will also be holding a colour run on Monday 25 November, the first day of PE week.  Further details to come.

Make sure you stay up to date with all P&F happenings on Facebook and Instagram @stpeterslutheranpandf

Thank you for your support.

Heather Stevens
Chairperson, St Peters Lutheran P&F

For important dates and information regarding upcoming events, please go to the Events page of our Skoolbag app.