In this issue

A highlight this month for Year 3 was our Science unit. We conducted a number of experiments relating to the transfer of heat, which are always a hit. The students are getting great at making predictions, being safe during experiments and making sure experiments are fair. They all loved taking temperature measurements in our last experiment and then reporting back to their groups.

The students worked really hard on publishing their persuasive texts this term and did a marvellous job convincing us that cats truly are better than dogs and that KFC is definitely better than Subway!

After completing all of our assessment, we had fun being able to sit next to our friends. We completed some winter related activities and ended the term with a movie, fun rotations and special snacks!

Next term we are looking forward to our Athletics Carnivals. Year 3 is in the unusual position where part of the class will go to different athletics carnivals depending on which year they were born. No matter which carnival we will be attending, we are all looking forward to it.

Year 3 were supposed to be leading worship at Chapel in Term 2, however this had to be changed at the last minute. We are really excited about leading worship at Chapel on the 27th July instead!

We hope and pray you all have a blessed, relaxed and safe holidays. We look forward to seeing you all next term for our carnivals and lots of new learning!

The Year 3 Team
Dayna Davis, Renee Imms, Sue Martin and Christine Uwamurera

Year 5E

Primary Athletics Day

A reminder that we had to postpone our Primary Athletics Day Carnival and the new Term 3 date for the athletics carnival is FRIDAY 15th July.
A letter explaining the day’s process, procedures and program will be forthcoming!
We are looking forward to seeing lots or parents and grandparents attending the carnival and supporting the students as they give of their best!

Teacher News

Mrs. Jessica Bourchier, who has been on maternity leave this semester, has indicated she wishes to spend more time being a ‘full time mother’, so has tendered her resignation and will not be returning to Parklands. Miss Cindy Orellana, the Year 5 teacher this semester, will continue on to the end of year, which we are all very happy about!

Mrs. Christina Colanis, the Year 4 teacher is wishing to ‘semi retire’ and move to supply work so has resigned from the end of this term. Mrs. Miranda Powell, a caring, loving, very experienced, Christian teacher, will replace Mrs. Colanis.

We wish these staff members everything of the best for their future and know that their replacement/in-coming teacher will do a wonderful job of teaching and caring for our students!

Parents worry about Transition into Secondary

The Transition to Secondary School longitudinal report by the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) found parents worry more about their children moving from primary to high school than their children do! While students rate ‘making friends and missing their old friends’ as the biggest challenges, parents fret about “how to cope with largescale change and deal with more subjects with different teachers”.

AIFS executive director Dr. Sharman Stone said children who were social and emotionally stable were most likely to have the smoothest transition into high school. “Students are thinking about their immediate experiences whereas parents are thinking about it in the context of primary school and secondary school,” she said.

Children of “angry” parents were some of the most likely to report difficulties. “That kind of behaviour is not going to create a supportive environment when they transition into school … that harsh parenting can cause those problems and is not a supportive thing to do,” Dr. Stone said.

Education Minister Grace Grace said the Department of Education was overseeing a review of individual schools, including looking at how to get parents more involved in schools. “We want to ensure the transition to high school is smooth for every student and making new friends is a big part,” she said.

We at Parklands look to make the process as “easy as possible” by starting the transition process at the beginning of Year 6 by trying to offer subjects like Science presented by Secondary staff / or their class teacher in the high school Science labs! We also have other Transition opportunities like the Middle School Display morning, the Parent Information Evening and the Transition Day – when the Year 6s visit Middle School to meet the teachers, see classrooms and have fun learning what to do when!
At the commencement of Term 3, Year 6 students start to experience middle school RTC processes and procedures such as ‘late/incomplete work’ plans, uniform infringement slips and fail grade meetings.

All this is to set them up for success when they move into Secondary School next year.

Helping Children Bounce Back!

Life is a wonderful but sometimes bumpy journey. Everyone experiences setbacks, frustrations and hard times at different times in their lives. We cannot protect young people from the stress of all the possible setbacks in their life but we can teach them the coping skills that promote resilience. Recent research studies have suggested that today’s children may be less resilient than those of previous generations and more in need of opportunities to learn resilience skills.

The Personal Skills of RESILIENCE

There are many skills that we can teach students to provide them with a resilience ‘tool kit’ for coping with life and being successful. We can teach our children to be optimistic by, for example:

• Showing them how to find the positives (however small) in negative situations;
• Helping them to understand that negative situations in your life are temporary and that bad situations are specific and do not necessarily flow over into all aspects of your life.

Many children become unnecessarily distressed and fearful because they distort a situation or they have incorrect and unhelpful beliefs that make it less likely that they will attempt to solve a problem.

Examples of such thinking include:

• I must be perfect and never make any mistakes
• If something bad has happened to me once it will happen again

Young people also need to learn skills for being confident as part of their ‘resilience tool kit’. These skills include:

• Knowing their own strengths and limitations and being prepared to work hard and not give up despite encountering obstacles; (parents don’t always look to solve their situations / fight their battles for them)
• Realize that not everyone will treat them kindly and nicely all the time; (parents to give examples of own situations and instances)
• Making good decisions and seeking advice from parents and teachers is wise so their decisions are more likely to be good ones; (parents offer good advice not always solutions)
• Solving problems creatively or telling a teacher helps to solve the situation; (this is not ‘dobbing’, but allows staff to assist them by attending to matters)
• Knowing that mistakes are OK (parents to reinforce students that mistakes are Ok)

It is evident that young people with well-developed social skills are more likely to be resilient and to have a good support network of friends when needed. Key social skills can be taught and practiced in a range of classroom and playground situations. Skills for knowing triggers of anxiety or anger can be taught and finding the confidence to act courageously when necessary, are also an important part of a young person’s resilience ‘tool kit’.

Through many areas of the curriculum, teachers can encourage their students to develop and try to live by our values such as respect, cooperation and acceptance of differences. Parents can reinforce and role model these situations and ideas at home, thus offering the child every opportunity to see resilience in action.

Looking forward to a wonderful term of doing your child’s education together.

Dear Parklands Community,

As our students take a well-deserved break, it’s a busy time for us here at Parklands. Right now, we are implementing a few key changes to the way we are working so that we may improve our interaction with families and enhance our systems for our staff.  These changes have been driven by a desire to meet the contemporary needs of our community and address some inefficiencies in our procedures that sometimes hamper our working relationship with our families.

It is important to me that our community stays connected, and that we continually improve the way we communicate, interact and serve. I am also conscious that my generation of parents (Gen X) work differently and have different expectations to Millennials (1989-1994) and Gen Z (1995-2014).  I find it fascinating to talk to people at the beginning of the parenting journey as they tell parenting stories and imagine a future vision for their children. As I listen, I am inspired to prepare our students for a vision of the future not yet realised, and a world that continues to change at a rapid pace.

Someone recently told me that each ‘COVID year’ is worth five normal years in terms of the rate of general change and social reform. And some days I certainly feel like I have aged almost 15 years since 2020. Yet, even though older generations at times pine for slower progress, our children are increasingly embracing the new normal. It has not been easy for our students, but in many ways, I think they have coped with all that COVID has thrown at society better than most.

The family unit operates in a vast variety of ways these days, as parents work habits and commitments drive new family norms. During enrolment interviews, I see the growing strain on double income families as they balance professional and personal expectations. I see parents that aspire to provide a solid and sound foundation for their children’s lives, and a desire to partner with a school who will approach this task holistically. I see complex family units, and an emerging generation of students with a variety of needs. And in all of this, I see the opportunity to serve.

Schools are no longer places where simple reading, writing and arithmetic takes place, and nor should it be.  Societal needs have changed, and our education system needs to change with it. More recently I have been reading “Most Likely to Succeed: preparing our kids for the innovation era” by Wager & Dintersmith (2015). The book suggests that there is a contradiction between what occurs in school versus what makes a student most likely to succeed beyond the formal schooling years. While this is an age-old debate, I am inspired to keep checking for evidence of this in our own approach to schooling and to step up where we need to and celebrate what we are already doing well.

I believe what we are doing at Parklands is something special. I know this may be a claim of many schools, but I can’t help but celebrate the way our community works. I am proud of our current review process, and the way our staff are responding to the contemporary needs of the learners and their families. I am impressed by the way our students help us drive change as they participate in the learning journey with our teachers. I love the innovation and change in and around our school, and the desire of our community to engage and connect. I believe we are well positioned to meet the contemporary needs of our students, parents and staff. As we look at a busy yet exciting future, I am proud to be called to serve in a season such as this, and I invite us all to be open to the challenges ahead and approach the years to come with hopeful expectation.

Gary Cully
Principal

National Poll on Attitudes to Christian Schools

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Looking back, Semester 1 proved a wonderful time for books, reading and our Library!

It was wonderful to see so many students not only pursuing their reading journey, but also spending time building Lego marvels, creating paper crafts and planes and volunteering to assist in the shelving, labeling, scanning, stamping tasks that are a daily necessity in a library.

At the end of the Semester, the administration of Textbooks, Teacher Reference and Class-set novels (stored in Student Services) was moved to Accessit!, the library catalogue.  This will streamline the management of all PCC’s resources.

All Primary students participated in the National Simultaneous Storytime and 40 students took on the Read More in May Challenge.

A brief snapshot of Semester 1.

Number of books borrowed: 6596

• Early Readers : 445
• Fiction : 1123
• Graphic Novels : 1440
• Junior Fiction: 336
• Non-Fiction : 546
• Picture Books : 1435
• Young Adult Novels : 45

Top Year Levels for Borrowing:

Primary –
Year 2 : 1034
Year 1 : 937
Year 4 : 932

Secondary –
Year 8 : 246
Year 11 : 235
Year 12 : 195

• Number of times Primary Students volunteered (Term 2) – 125
• Number of books added to Library Collection (New purchases, donations and 2021 copies) – 551
• Top Staff Borrowers:
• Mrs. Foster/ Ms. Colanis
• Mrs. Hope
• Mrs. Uwamurera
• Mrs. Potts
• Mrs. Edwards

What to look forward to in Semester 2:

New Books available for borrowing:

Book Week 2022:

Details of library contests and the much anticipated Costume Parade will be announced soon.

Can you wait until 25 October 2022?

Credit: Penguin

Greetings everyone,

We have completed a very busy semester which has been filled with many memorable moments, both in and out of the classroom, and has included some great excursions, incursions, and sporting events again. Senior students have also participated in Elevate Education seminars and Year 10 attended the annual Careers Expo at the Brisbane Convention Centre along with attending a Careers Week culminating in attending a visit to Tafe and University. We have also seen our College Captains run some special events at school and also attend events for young leaders such as the ANZAC Day Commemoration Ceremony. All in all, it has been a semester filled with rich learning experiences and we are very proud of our seniors.

Study in Holidays: Years 11&12

The new QCE system is rigorous and work in some of the holiday time may be required. Some Year 12 subjects have their third Internal Assessment due early in Term 3. The amount of work will also depend on your child’s progress with their study notes, which is key preparation for the Year 12 External Assessment exams (EAs) and for the Year 11 exams in Term 3, where students will be tested on a larger part of their subject syllabus (in preparation for the EAs). We equally promote rest and relaxation and will continue to promote working hard in term time with a block of time devoted to relaxation in holidays.

Parent-Teacher interviews

Coming up next term is our secondary parent-teacher interviews. These are scheduled for Tuesday 12 July, from 3:30pm. These events are important for many reasons including getting the chance to speak with your child’s teachers, see how your child is progressing, and to talk through any plans about how teachers can further support your child.

We also welcome and value your child attending the interviews with you. Thank you for looking out for the email with details on how to book, which is scheduled to be sent on Friday 24 June.

Senior Support

If your child is feeling unsure about their Senior pathway or if you have any concerns with how your child is managing the senior load, please make a time to talk with us.

We advocate that there are always options available in Senior College. The images below outline four distinct Senior Packages, each designed to provide options with the goal of bringing success as your children prepare for work or further study.

We encourage all parents to be actively involved in discussing and exploring options for their child’s future.

The best contacts for Senior are:

Mrs Elizabeth Lenton: Careers & Vocational Coordinator elenton@parklands.qld.edu.au
Mrs Abby Dixon-Sali: Year 10 Coordinator adixon-sali@parklands.qld.edu.au
Mrs Rebecca Wallis: Senior College Coordinator rwallis@parklands.qld.edu.au

We are always pleased to meet and discuss options for your child. Please contact us at any time through Student Services or via email if we can be of assistance.

I do hope that you have a wonderful winter holiday break with your families.

We look forward to seeing you in Term 3.

Blessings to you all,

Mrs Rebecca Wallis
Coordinator of Senior College

In the last few weeks of Term 2, in preparation for a special middle-school-only assembly, I sent the Year 9 Middle School Captains on a bit of a secret mission. They were tasked with uncovering the ‘spirit of middle school’ at PCC. We did this via playground interviews, asking 4 key questions of middle school students; and let me tell you, the data gathered is pretty incredible!

Question 1: What do you think Parklands is best known for?

According to middle school students, Parklands is best known for “Christianity” and “Academics”. These two things are obviously at the core of most Christian schools, but I loved when our students identified that they tangibly show up in things like our CLEAR Values. Middle School students described a “Christian education” as translating into things like caring and compassionate teachers, our sporting behaviours and how we interact with each other.

Question 2: What’s the best thing about Middle School?

According to middle school students, the best thing about Middle School is “Freedom”. They love that they are no longer primary school students; that there are more freedoms in what they can do and choose. It was incredible watching our young men and women articulating that they have the power to impact their own educational experiences.

Question 3: What’s the best thing about going to school at Parklands?

According to middle school students, the best thing about going to school at Parklands is “Friends”. All the students we interviewed mentioned that they loved having friends at Parklands. From a staff perspective, it’s really special to watch our middle school students love on each other and demonstrate tangible acceptance. It also gave us a great opportunity to reflect on the perspective of students who may not always feel like this, and we felt challenged to ensure each person coming onsite every day knows they are coming to a place of acceptance, care and love.

Question 4: How would you describe the Parklands spirit?

According to middle school students, the Parklands spirit is best described by the word “Family”. But as we all know, families aren’t perfect, are they? Sometimes they disagree, sometimes they fight. In spite of this, our middle school students identified things like being happy and joyful for each others’ achievements. That they know each other really well, and that they always help and welcome each other.

To summarise how our Middle School students are describing their experience of schooling at Parklands, I will quote one of our Year 8 students, who said “We’re like our own little cheerleaders”.  We also seem to have three big words that seem to describe the spirit of Parklands in middle school: FREEDOM, FRIENDS, FAMILY. With these things in mind, I wanted to share with you the challenge I gave to our middle school students for Semester Two: How can you embody this incredible spirit of middle school Parklands, that you have so beautifully described to me? How can we make sure each precious student at Parklands has the incredible experience of freedom, friends and family in middle school?

Well, that’s a wrap on Semester One! This year is going so quickly, it’s hard to believe we’re already halfway through. This time of the year is a busy one in the life of all schools, as teachers and parents communicate about the learning journey of students through things like report cards and other notifications. As we prepare to read through report cards, I encourage you to look at it for both celebration of incredible achievements and encouragement for improvement for Semester Two.

We have a few key things happening early in Term 3 to look forward to:

• Secondary Athletics Carnival: The Secondary Athletics Carnival (13-18 years) was postponed from the end of Term 2, to the new date in Week 1 of Term 3, Thursday 14^th For Year 7 students who are not in the 13 years age group, there will be supervision onsite, before they compete in the Primary Athletics Carnival (9-12 years) on Friday 15^th July.
• Parent-teacher interviews: On Tuesday 12^th of July (Week 2), there will be an opportunity for parents and teachers to meet to discuss students’ progress. Please keep an eye out for a booking email, that will be released soon.

Praying all our families have a restful and refreshing break together, looking forward to Term 3!

Kristie Schulz
Acting Middle School Coordinator

CSSAQ Primary Team Games

This year we had 4 teams compete in boys’ soccer and girls’ netball at Hubner Park.

All the teams came away with wins on the day with a stand-out performance from the Junior Boys Soccer team who defeated Brisbane Christian College in the final 2-0 to win the competition. All students trained hard throughout the term and their commitment to the team was outstanding. Thank you to the coaches for their input and for instilling the school values into our students.

FUSE Cup

During the last week of the term we had our 1st teams representing the college in E-Sports. They played in the Fuse Cup Tournament which was a great experience for the students. All students have been training throughout the term and we had Jack Gray make the Knock Out Finals and Ethan Reid make it to the Grand Final, finishing 3rd out of 60 students. Finding new avenues for students to participate in extracurricular activities is always exciting, and the introduction of E-Sports into the school has been a great success.

USL Basketball

In week 9 we had our finals for Secondary and Primary USL Basketball. We had 5 teams make it to the Grand final and it was great to see the support from our community on the day. We had 4 teams come away with a silver medal and the 9/10 Boys and 5/6 Girls taking home the sold for the tournament. Well done to all the teams for a great season.

SSDSS + Met West representatives

Term 2 we had 17 students representing the Southern Districts or the Met West region through a variety of sports. The school would like to recognise the following students for their achievements this term.

Uniform Shop location and parking: 24 Hillcrest Rd, Park Ridge
(located on the left hand side, at the end of Hillcrest Road)

Please Note:

As from January 2022 we no longer accept any additional second hand items to sell. We will still be selling second hand uniforms that we have previously received. If you would like to sell your uniforms second hand, please sell them privately or through our parent managed and monitored Facebook page: Facebook Link

Uniform Shop Facebook Page/PCCUniforms

Purchase Uniforms Online

Uniforms can now be purchased online through QuickCliq.com.au

Tuckshop news

Great News! Your tuckshop has received a 5 STAR rating on the EAT SAFE LOGAN CERTIFICATE for the second year in a row. This is a great achievement and all credit to our wonderful Tuckshop convenor and staff.

The tuckshop will be open EVERY day this year, Monday-Friday!

Secondary Students please note all hot food purchased from the Tuckshop needs to be preordered online.

There is an opportunity for parents to contribute to the life of the school by volunteering their time in the tuckshop.

The tuckshop has been growing since moving to the new facility and with growth in sales we would really love your help!

Please contact our Tuckshop Convenor, Marie Rushin, on 0422 637 370 or email tuckshop@parklands.qld.edu.au

Tuckshop Menu 2022

Term Dates 2022 final

School Transport Assistance Scheme

The Queensland Government offers financial assistance to parents of both state and non-state school students travelling to and from school daily by private arrangement. This is known as STAS (School Transport Assistance Scheme).

Please phone the Gold Coast office on 5630 8857 to clarify your eligibility. Alternatively you can visit their website http://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/schooltransport

Bus Pass Information for 2022

Bus Queensland is making a number of changes to schools runs for term 1 2022 that may impact your child’s travel arrangements. A list of these changes can be found at https://www.busqld.com.au/term-1-2022-changes. If you have any concerns or queries, please contact us at customers@busqld.com.au or 3802 1233.

PRT Term 1 2022 Notice of service changes

More Bus Services?

We have had a number of enquiries requesting if we could get our existing Bus Qld bus routes extended into more areas south of our College. For Bus Qld to consider this, they require you to email them directly. If the added service could be of benefit to you and your children, please email Bus Qld at reception@busqld.com.au

For bus travel in the Logan Reserve area, please call Logan Coaches on 5546 3077.