The back-to-school season is a good time to consider what you expect of your children. Having expectations that are high, yet also realistic, is essential for school success. Finding the right balance of expectations will stretch children to grow without frustrating them. So, as we consider expectations for the new school year, I would like to share with you tips for our younger learners as well as for teenagers.

Tips for younger children:

• Help children develop predictable routines around waking up, getting ready for the day, eating nutritious meals, going to bed at a regular time and getting enough sleep. Children are more likely to be successful when their routines help them thrive.
• Build on your child’s interest. They are more likely to meet high expectations when they are doing what they enjoy.
• Encourage children to grow and develop at their own pace. Don’t compare your child to other children. Some are early walkers, some are late walkers. Both are normal, so follow your child’s lead.
• Watch out for pressures you place on your child because of your preferences rather than your child’s needs. For example, not all sports-mad parents are going to have sports-mad children.
• Give young children extra time to practice new things. Expect the processes to be bumpy and slow. Be encouraging and don’t expect perfection.
• Have high expectations for schoolwork and home learning [homework]. Make it easier for your children to do their home learning every day by sitting with them. You can do your own work and still be available for questions.
• Help children break large, challenging tasks into smaller, more challenging tasks. This is called ”chunking” and can build confidence as they achieve each part.
• Talk with your child about the goals which you have set and achieved in your life. Explain how you overcame obstacles to meet your goals.

Tips for teenagers:

• Don’t let puberty lower your expectations. Just because your children may become moody and resistant doesn’t mean you should let them pull back on household chores, their activities or schoolwork.
• Work out reasonable routines for the year. Allow for schoolwork, chores, sports, casual work, regular bedtimes and leisure. Agree on technology use for fun rather than just for schoolwork.
• Don’t be surprised if your child focuses more on friendships. This is common but friendships aren’t the only important aspects of your child’s life and need not crowd out other important activities and responsibilities.
• Expect that children grow and change and encourage them to find new activities to replace the ones that are no longer interested in.
• Help your teenager to find challenging classes that stretch them. The easy options may look inviting but might not do your teenager justice or supply the foundation needed for further studies or employment. Speak to and take advice from the staff at our College.
• Continue to support your teenager’s activities. Help your teen to find helpful coaches, teachers and club leaders who have high expectations and great relationship skills. Go along to support and cheer them on.
• Encourage your teen to look for opportunities after graduation that are exciting and stimulating. Some get excited about university. Others get excited about a trade. Others want to join the army.
• Accept you may have to take more of a back seat, but “back seat” drivers can also be effective in making sure the course is steady and safe. Remember, that teenagers are still hearing what you say even when they seem not be listening. [Acknowledgement: Principals’ Digests]

Do not hesitate to call in for a chat, advice or an update on how your child is travelling and what the College can do to assist and support you.

The College will again in 2023 make available, free for your use, two tennis courts across the road from the Senior College gym. The key to the courts will be available from reception at the Stephen Street Campus. So, pack a morning tea picnic for under the large trees next to the tennis courts and enjoy a game of tennis.

Have a safe weekend and week ahead.

Yours in Christ

Mr Anton Prinsloo
Head of College

Quote of the week: Families are the compass that guides us. They are the inspiration to reach great heights and our comfort when we occasionally falter. [Brad Henry]

Concordia is part of Lutheran Education, which has some 80 schools and many early childhood centres across Australia, and we are also part of the Lutheran Church. We might be a relatively small college, but we are not travelling alone in our endeavours to develop our college and to provide a contemporary Christ centred education in this region. We can draw on the experience and insights of others and we also contribute to the larger community we find ourselves part of. This is both gift and responsibility.

We also seek to help our students understand that they are part of something larger and that being part of something bigger not only gives support, but can also provide purpose and meaning. We believe God places us in community in certain places at certain times for a reason and God has a plan for us, for our college, for the Lutheran Church as we journey together with one another.

St Paul reflects on this when he writes in his first letter to the Corinthians:

¹² There is one body, but it has many parts. But all its many parts make up one body. It is the same with Christ. ¹³ We were all baptized by one Holy Spirit. And so we are formed into one body. It didn’t matter whether we were Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free people. We were all given the same Spirit to drink. ¹⁴ So the body is not made up of just one part. It has many parts. …

²⁶ If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is honoured, every part shares in its joy. (1 Cor 12)

So ,we walk together here at Concordia, supporting and encouraging one another in the knowledge that we are also part of something bigger, something that finally is God’s gift and it is that God who leads us and travels with us and encourages us to see the bigger picture.

Have a blessed week.

Pastor Thomas Böhmert
College Pastor

As part of my role at the College, I am also running the Media Club this year as part of SPARC. I am looking forward to facilitating creative projects and helping students gain hands-on experience in the media industry. I am excited to see what the students will produce and to help them achieve their goals.

One of the things I'm most excited about is the potential for more media exposure. Concordia Lutheran College has a great story to tell, and I'm eager to help spread the word. I plan to create strategies to increase our presence in the media, such as through social media campaigns and press releases.

In addition to working on our media exposure, I am also looking forward to welcoming a new team member to the marketing team shortly. We have an exciting team of professionals that have dedicated their time and energy to making Concordia a success.

I'm so grateful for the warm welcome I have received in my first few weeks at Concordia, and I'm excited for the future. After 23 years at ABC, I was beginning to feel like I needed a change. I knew I wanted something different, but I couldn't put my finger on what that was. I felt like I had found the perfect fit in Concordia Lutheran College. It offered me the opportunity to use my skills and knowledge from my time at ABC, while also gaining new experiences and learning new things.

The College strives to better its students through its dedication to providing a comprehensive and rigorous education. Through its innovative teaching methods, we strive to challenge students to reach their full potential. We also place an emphasis on fostering a sense of community among our students and provide many extracurricular activities to further engage and develop their potential. All staff are committed to providing a safe educational environment for all students and work hard to ensure that all students feel respected and valued.

It’s a school I feel privileged to be part of, and I very much look forward to meeting you all throughout the year.

Ms Belinda Sanders
Director of Marketing & Enrolments

By this stage of the year students are starting to settle into their new classes and are engaging in new learning. It can take time for students to feel comfortable with new routines and class dynamics. However, it is important to allow time for these procedures to be well established in classes which will form positive habits for future learning.

Managing our time can sometimes becoming overwhelming for both students and our families. We all strive to reach a good work/school/life balance, but it is important to remember to look after our own wellbeing along the way. This can be achieved through developing good routines early and balancing our time within a schedule.

The link provided below offers some advice to students and parents on how to deal with situations when feeling overwhelmed. These strategies along with focusing on doing the “little things” well, will ultimately result in reduced stress and improved wellbeing. If your child is needing some assistance please contact one of our members of the Pastoral Care Team.

SPECIAL REPORT: Managing Overwhelm | Concordia Lutheran College

God Bless!

Mr Tony Manteufel
Director of Pastoral Care and Wellbeing

Each classroom across the Junior College teaches the importance of a Growth Mindset compared to a Fixed Mindset. Our students are encouraged to look for new challenges and embrace them as learning opportunities. If they face struggles, they are encouraged to persist, and if they fail, they learn that these are indeed not failures but opportunities to help their brains grow.

A Growth Mindset is essential for learning and the majority of learning and habit building happens when we are children. Our students are primed and ready to learn. All they need from us is a nudge in the right direction, but how do we give them that nudge? As parents and educators we need to do the following things:

• Be a positive role model - show your children that you are willing to do challenging things.
• Use the power of “yet” - I can’t do this “yet”.
• Praise effort not results and
• above all it is important to remind our students that FAIL actually means First Attempt In Learning.

Blessings for the week ahead

Click here to view HSC's Events for Term 1, Week 4.
Click here to view WSC's Events for Term 1, Week 4.

Mrs Juanetta Priest - Director of Campus (Hume Street)
Mrs Jackie Minnikin - Director of Campus (Warwick Street)

Many of you will have noticed that your child has bought home a copy of edition one of The Scholastic Book Club News. For new families, Scholastic sells a great variety of popular and educational age appropriate fiction and non-fiction books. The books are available to purchase either online or by filling out the form on the back of the brochure, enclosing the cash amount required and returning it to the respective Junior Campus Office. Once the orders arrive, I will distribute them to the students to take home. To place an order online visit scholastic.com.au/LOOP or download the LOOP app. Your order will be electronically linked to the rest of the school’s order. You do not need to complete the order form. The closing date for orders for edition one is Wednesday 8^th February.

PLEASE NOTE – Orders for Hume Street Campus Kindy are now to be added to the Concordia Hume Street Primary Campus.

Can you please remind your children of their allocated library day to ensure they return their books on that day to enable them to borrow new ones for taking home? This avoids disappointment especially for the younger students when they are unable to borrow with their classmates.

Mrs Karen Maben
Junior College Library Coordinator

Staff Movements
Mrs Carolyn Lynch from our HSC Reception will be acting in the role of Registrar until 3 March while Mrs Michelle Price is on long service leave. In the meantime, Miss Rebecca Turner and Mrs Leanne Ivanov will be assisting us in HSC Reception.

Morning Supervision
Students with siblings on the CLC bus in the mornings are welcome to come to Reception from 7.50am. All other students, our supervision begins from 8am. Please do not enter the school grounds unless the drop off/pick up gate has been opened.

Lunch Time Activities
Over a week, the lunch time activities are many and varied. We thank our staff hugely for supporting and organising these activities.

• Library – Storytime, Lego, table games, games, puzzles, origami, Lego, popsticks art etc.
• Chess – Tuesday 1st break for enrolled students
• Gardening – Wednesday 1st break
• Student Council – Tuesday 1st break as required
• Playground fun times – soccer, zipline, rock pit, bikes, sandpit.
• Other sporting opportunities and training will be added as the term progresses.

If you have any board games that you no longer want, we would love to use them.

Concordia’s Got Talent
Georgia and Isaac, our Year 6 Cultural Captains are busily organising a Concordia’s Got Talent for Year P-3 on 9 March and Years 4-6 on 14 March during 1st break. This is a simple way of giving students the ability to share a talent with other students at lunch. It might include singing a song, playing an instrument, doing a magic trick. They are in the planning phase at the moment doing up posters etc and will begin to communicate this with students early Week 3.

Here is the list of activities available to students in Term 1:

• Circus / aerial skills (through Pinnacle Dance Academy)
• Cricket (coaching from QLD Cricket)
• Futsal / Soccer
• Basketball
• Chess (coaching by Les Lord)
• Debating
• Media Club
• Volleyball
• Service Learning (includes work with charities and aged care)
• Peer tutoring at Junior Campuses
• Graphic Novel Design
• Kokoda Challenge prep (Years 10-12)
• Yoga
• Rotation activities (students change activities throughout the term)

Please see the photo at the end of the article.

Scholars Assembly and Parent Information Evening
Next Monday 6 February, we will be holding our Scholars Assembly and Parent Information Evening.

The Scholars assembly is held to recognise the achievements of our 2022 Year 12 students following their successful completion of external exams and final results calculation. We also will be announcing our 2022 Dux. It has been wonderful hearing how our past students are already taking on the next challenge in life, whether it be through extra study or work. We look forward to catching up with them again.

Our teaching staff will welcome parents and carers at our Parent Information Evening. This is an opportunity for parents/carers and staff to get to know each other more and celebrate the wonderful students we have at Concordia. Following an initial informal gathering, we will move to the Function Centre to go over the 2023 school year, with several staff presenting about different facets of college programs and events.

Sport
I wish to thank Mr Darron Skinner-Martin for his early work in promoting the sporting opportunities available to our students. As a new staff member, Darron has not only had to get to know the Concordia community, but also get out key information at the busiest time in the sporting calendar. You will have seen communication through the form of a survey requesting volunteers to assist with some of our sporting teams. We see this as a vital ingredient in our future success, so I would encourage those in our community with the applicable skills and interest to get in touch via Darron’s survey.

Musical
As I was leading a school tour with a future family on Wednesday, I was very proud to walk into the gym and see the musical rehearsal in full swing. The Arts staff communicated that there were so impressed by the enthusiasm and focus of students during the afternoon. Anticipation is building fast for the May performance. Well done to all staff and students involved – we can’t wait!

Have a great week.

Yours in faith,

Mr Jamie Pukallus
Director of Campus

We are starting to organise teams for a range of competitions and need more players. Please keep referring the students to their email to ensure they do not miss out on any great sporting opportunities we are offering. The following sports are currently looking for players and this was emailed directly to students this week.

1. Girls AFL
2. Mixed Cricket
3. Boys and Girls Basketball
4. Mixed Netball
5. Girls Rugby League
6. Futsal followed a different process through Mr Rentell and the students and teams are ready to go. See Mr Rentell if you are interested and if there are any more players required for teams.

Please Note: Representative Sport Trials Expressions of Interest are required by Tuesday 7/2/23.

• Rugby League
• Volleyball
• Cricket
• Netball

Please Note: Touch forms were due 3/2/23.

We have some competitions starting next week, so please feel free to show your Concordia Lions Pride and support our sports teams by spectating or assisting on the day.

Darron Skinner-Martin
HOD HPE & Sport