ConcordiaLutheranCollege

Monday 13 March to Friday 17 March 2023

From the Head of College

Dear Parents and Caregivers

I hope that as a family you have had a safe and productive week at home and at school. I hope that you are also enjoying this late summer which has brought with it unseasonably warm, dry weather as we have rolled into Autumn. Since moving up from Brisbane in 2021, my wife and I do appreciate and enjoy the cooler night temperatures followed by beautiful warm days at this time of year. This past Wednesday saw a lot of pink appear across the College as we celebrated International Women’s Day with a focus on breast cancer awareness. Thank you for your support of this wonderful initiative.

As our College swimming program draws to a close for Term 1, we couldn’t have scripted it any better than the resounding victory at the QCIS Inter-school swimming carnival last week on Friday. Congratulations and thank you to every swimmer for the significant contribution, dedication, team spirit and encouragement of one another. Concordia came away with both the Aggregate and Percentage trophies on the day. The final scores were as follows: Concordia 1104, Downlands 990, Toowoomba Anglican School [TAS] 957.5, Our Lady of the Southern Cross 883.5, Scots PGC Warwick 590. Our girls’ team placed first overall, while our boys’ team placed second. Thank you to all the parents, who have supported and continue to support their student in this chosen sport, and to the coaches and staff who have contributed to this very successful swimming season. Good luck to those swimmers who will be continuing through to the next round of championship swimming carnivals.

Well done to the 8 students from our Junior College who participated in the Toowoomba District Primary Individual Chess Championship this week. Chess is one of the Tier 2 sports at the College. Congratulations to Andrew Ye on being announced as the Outstanding Male Open Division Awardee. Thank you to all 8 students on representing Concordia so well on the day. It’s great to see sport going from strength to strength on the Junior and Senior College campuses.

Given that the past fortnight has seen Concordia focus on the Year 9 Rite Journey and the Year 10s attending Work Experience, I have decided to focus on and share some thoughts on helping our teenagers do well. When our children reach adolescence, just when it seems that they are beginning to pull away, your support and involvement matter profoundly. Parenting practices in early adolescence predict educational achievement, especially parents helping teens set goals and explore interests.

Three parenting practices become more important during adolescence, as young people assume greater control over their own development.

Autonomy support- providing opportunities for young people to make choices, make decisions and develop solutions to problems independently.
Monitoring – providing clear and consistent guidelines and knowing where young people are, what they’re doing and who their friends are.
Warmth – a supportive relationship between parent and child.

These parenting practices have both short-term positive associations with aspiration, assessment results and school engagement and long-term effects on further education. Aspirations are the key to engagement; when connected to aspirations, engagement in school becomes self-motivating.

Parental warmth, including trust and connectedness, provides the emotional security and foundation young people need to explore their ideas and interests. It enables parents to both affirm and shape who our adolescents will become.

[Acknowledgement: Nancy Hill, Harvard University]

As NAPLAN comes around again next week for our Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 students, I need to assure each family that Concordia doesn’t view this national assessment task as a defining moment in the school year or as a means to defining any learner in our community. The College’s approach to NAPLAN is that of NAPLAN being one of various assessment tasks happening throughout the year and not a time to stop all teaching and learning, for a few weeks, in order to “train” the students involved to ace a one-off assessment task. Just as we use other assessment data to set new learning goals, as well as reflect on where an individual learner or group of learners may be journeying, we also apply the NAPLAN data to providing feedback and feedforward for our learners. Thank you to those staff members who will be supporting our students through this process.

Next week on Saturday, 18 March, Concordia will be hosting its annual Open Day from 9:30am – 12:30pm. This is an important event on the College calendar as it allows the community to visit the College, meet the staff, see the many opportunities on offer and to gain further insight into the rich world of living and learning at Concordia. Please remind any friends, family or neighbours, who are considering their current or future schooling opportunities to visit the College on the day.

Have a safe weekend.

Yours in Christ.

Mr Anton Prinsloo
Head of College

Quote of the week: Our aspirations are our possibilities. [Robert Browning]

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From the College Pastor

Community News

LYQ Winter Christian Life Week Camp 2023 - Years 7-12

Christian Life Week (CLW) Camp is coming up midyear – All welcome!
Book at Winter Christian Life Week 2023 | Lutheran Youth of Queensland (lyq.org.au)

Sports News

Congratulations to all of our students who were a part of all of our recent events.

QCIS Swimming Carnival
Thank you to all our swimmers for an awesome day of racing on Friday 3 March. Concordia won the day with both the Percentage Trophy and the Aggregate Trophy.

Overall Team Scores - Concordia 1140 and Percentage Score - 3.04

TDPS Individual Chess Tournament
Congratulations to all who participated in and showed great sportsmanship and skill in the recent Chess Tournament. A special acknowledgment to Andrew Ye who was awarded the Outstanding Male Open Division Award.

Futsal
U13 - The under 13 boys played with a massive amount of intensity right from the first whistle and managed to come away with the win with goals to Charlie (x2), Chase (x4), Josh (x1) and Alvin (x1). This win was categorised by some stonewall defending from Klim and Josh and some amazing saves by Alvin and Lachie. The movement off the ball was brilliant and this enabled the creation of many scoring opportunities. Special mention also needs to go to Jack for the improvement he has shown over the course of his first season of futsal. U15 - The under 15 game saw a step up in the intensity of the play from both teams with goals from Bruce (x3), Freddy (x2), Linden (x2) and a whopping 4 goals for Ethan saw the boys come away with the win. Despite going a goal down early, the boys never let their heads drop and fought hard to claw their way back into the game. Some resolute defending from Ben and Ethan, and another solid performance from Adam in goal, laid the foundation for our attackers to flourish. Once again, the movement off the ball was brilliant and this opened the door for many scoring opportunities. Austin should also be commended for the growth that he has shown in his first season with the team.

Opens - The open boys once again displayed their class and skill in their game against Downlands. In what has been a traditionally tough game against our rival school, the boys made it look easy. Goals to Noah (x5), Patty (x2), Sotaro (x1), Jack (x1) and Freddy (x1) ensured that the game was never in doubt. Once again, captain Jack, Koen and Damon in goal gave a solid base in defence from which our attackers were able to build upon. Massive credit needs to go to the players for the sportsmanship that they displayed towards the end of the game.

Cricket Congratulations to our First 11 who played Scots and had their first win of the season in Week 5. Everyone was excited for our first road trip to Warwick in quite awhile. It was an extremely tight game between two teams of very similar standards. It came down to the last ball. Charlie Pietsch was on strike and Concordia needed one run to win off one ball. Ball is bowled, Charlie swings and missed but they run. Wicketkeeper throws at the bowlers stumps and misses. The overthrow went for 4 meaning Concordia won by 5 runs! This win in the Firsts Crickets is one of our first victories for a considerable amount of time. It is very clear that the boys are working hard at training and this is showing in their performance during games.

Darron Skinner-Martin
HOD HPE & Sport

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Bullying. No Way! - Change of Date

2023 brings some big changes for Bullying. No Way! and the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence (NDA). We are excited to announce the annual NDA is moving to Friday 18 August 2023.

Project Based Learning at Concordia

Junior College

JC Year 5 Leadership Day - 23 March

On Thursday 23 March, our JC Year 5 students will be attending a Leadership Day at Koojarewon Youth Camp.

Event details:
- Program activities will be led by Koojarewon Youth Camp staff on Thursday 23 March 2023 at the Koojarewon Youth Camp.

Students are required to:
- wear their sports uniform and College hat;
- bring a small bag with morning tea and lunch, water bottle, rain jacket, insect repellent and sunscreen.

Should you have any further queries regarding this event, please contact your child's teacher.

JC Open Day Activities for Students Booking Form 2023

We would like to invite you to support your College and its future growth and prosperity, by helping to promote and be a part of our upcoming Open Day on Saturday 18 March, between 9.30am to 12.30pm.

If your child/ren are able to participate on the day by taking part in one or more of the set activities, could you please indicate your preferences here. Feel free to choose more than one time slot. It is a great opportunity for students to try out some of the fun programs that our College has to offer. There are limited numbers for some of the activities.

Children will be required to wear College Sports Uniform.

We will contact you if any changes need to be made to your selection.

Thank you for your assistance.

JC Year 6 Open Day Invitation for Meet and Greet Student Volunteers

We would like to invite our Year 6 students to be a part of our upcoming Open Day on Saturday 18 March, between 9.30am - 12.30pm.

As the Year 6 students will be meeting and greeting the wider community and families coming in to view our College, they will be required to wear their College Formal Uniform.

If your child/ren is able to assist us, could you please indicate this via the jotform below. We know that weekends are busy times with sport and family events so any time they are able to spare would be appreciated.

Thank you for your assistance.

JC Year 6 Open Day Invitation for Meet and Greet Student Volunteers

Parent Connect Facebook Groups

Each campus has a Facebook page where the parents of that campus can connect, ask questions, and share information. These pages are private groups. Apply and admin will approve within a short time.

The Groups are:

WSC Parent Connect
HSC Parent Connect

ALWS Turkey and Syria Earthquake Fundraiser

Monday 27 March, the WSC and HSC Student Councils hosted a fund-raiser to assist Australian Lutheran World Services (ALWS) in their support of the Turkey and Syria Earthquake disaster. The two combined campuses raised $696.70. The Student Councils and ALWS would like to thank you for your support and generosity.

NAPLAN

NAPLAN tests well be conducted throughout Australian schools during 15-27 March 2023. All students are required to do the writing assessment on Wednesday 15 March.

The testing dates for Concordia are:

Middle College: Wednesday 15 March to Friday 17 March with the makeup day on Monday 20 March
Junior College
- Wednesday 15 March - Writing 8.45am-10am
- Tuesday 21 March - Reading 8.45am - 10am and Language Conventions - 11.30am-12.30pm
- Wednesday 22 March - Numeracy 8.45am-10am

NAPLAN assesses literacy and numeracy skills that students have already learnt through the school curriculum.

NAPLAN tests are constructed to give students an opportunity to demonstrate skills they have learnt. NAPLAN tests give you information on how your child is progressing against national standards.

Teachers have been working with students to ensure they are familiar with the test formats. Excessive preparation and discussion using the terms of NAPLAN is not useful and can lead to unnecessary anxiety.

NAPLAN test days should be treated as just another routine event on the school calendar. The best way you can help your child prepare for NAPLAN is to reassure them that NAPLAN tests are just one part of their school program and to advise them to simply do the best they can on the day.

To help prepare your child on the day, please ensure that they have a good night’s sleep, a suitable breakfast and arrive on time at school.

Outside School Hours Care

Stephen Street Campus

SSC Weekly Events

Please click here to view SSC's Events for Term 1, Week 8.

Boarding

Boarding News

Hi to all our boarder families.

With the end of term fast approaching everyone has been busy finishing off assignments and participating in Futsal and Basketball Semi-finals and Finals.

Open Day
Our Boarding houses will be open for Boarding tours this Saturday and by appointment at a later date. Our numbers are growing in boarding and we all look forward to 3 new girls starting in Term 2.

Congratulations to Max Manning, a Year 8 student, who along with Cooper Regan and Georgette May, attended the Park run last Saturday with huge improvements on their times. Well done.

Max, our youngest student has enjoyed the challenge and appreciates the change of scenery on a Saturday morning. Max enjoys keeping fit and attends Tae Kwon Do in Toowoomba as an external sport choice.

Max is a diligent student who is currenting competing in the Maths Olympian Competition that runs for several weeks. He is also very keen on the Sciences and has his focus set on becoming an Astrophysicist. We are happy to support you on your journey Max.

This week, Andrew and I have enjoyed a meal out with our Boarder Captains, George and Mason. We discussed many aspects of Boarding life. Both George and Mason have a very full timetable this year with the upcoming musical for George and a school-based apprenticeship for Mason on top of maintaining their academic workload. We appreciate your efforts in boarding and look forward to working with you both in Term 2.

Our boys are heading off to the 2023 SEQ Boarders Touch Football Tournament at Marist College, Ashgrove on Sunday. We will have pics for next week's edition. Thanks in advance to those who have organised and supported this fantastic opportunity to showcase the exceptional talent we have in our small yet talented boarding cohort.

This week Concordia set up the marque at the Pittsworth Show and we were warmly received. Many friendly and interested parents stopped in to have a chat. Thank you, Tyrone, for your assistance.

Our photos this week have a touch of “Blasts from the Past”. Hope you all enjoy our pictures below.

Until next week. Stay safe and take care of each other.

Mrs Maureen Taurima
Girls' Houseparent