In this issue

School Musical

Wizard of Oz Casting

After being blown away by the talent, perseverance and enthusiasm of our musical auditionees applicants, we are pleased to announce the cast of our 2020 musical, The Wizard of Oz.
Over 40 students acted and sang their way into the audition panel’s hearts last week, making the final casting decision a challenging task! Congratulations to the following performers who make up our cast:
Jenny 6K, Kimberly 6K, Cruz 5CB, Macey 5CB, Ella 6J, Genevieve 5CB, Eli 6B, Poppy 6J, Max 6J, Frankie 6K, Samantha 6K, Alia 5N, Abigail G 5CB, Harriet 5N, Sam 6B, Micah 4T, Max 4W, Curtiss 4W, Josie 5CB, Charlotte 6K, Mary 6B, Chloe 5CB, Rrithesh 6B, Mitchel 6K, Kenzi 5N, Abigail 4W, Imogen 4T, Alisha 5CB, Sibella 4T, Jordanna 6J , Sena 6K, Abigail 5N, Isabella 5CB, Hannah 5CB and Noah 6K.

Which groups are involved in The Wizard of Oz!

The following ensembles will be performing in the musical along with our junior school’s pre-concert performances (All students in Prep to Year 3).

• Prep Dance
• Junior Jazz Dance Troupe
• Junior Ballet Dance Troupe
• Senior Contemporary Dance Troupe
• Mixed Boys & Girls Junior Hip Hop
• Senior Girls & Senior Boys Hip Hop
• Junior & Senior Choir
• Boys With Beat
• Junior Dramatists and Musical Theatre Drama Classes
• Private/Paired/Small Group Drama Students

When and Where?

Performances will be held at the Redcliffe Entertainment Centre on Friday June 5 at 6pm, Saturday June 6 at 2pm and 6pm.
Tickets go on sale through the Redcliffe Entertainment Centre’s website on Friday May 1, 2020 at 9am. We will sell out so please be sure to mark your diaries!

Kyren Luostarinen
Director of Performing Arts

LOOSE PARTS PLAY at Grace

Loose Parts Play – Philosophy

What We Believe

• Childhood should be cherished and valued
• A connection with nature is essential for healthy development
• Unstructured play is as important to children as food, shelter and education
• Children are capable and competent
• Exposure to appropriate risks provides opportunities to develop and learn
• Children need time (to develop ideas…with friends…alone…to finish play)

At Grace Primary teaching staff recently, have had a comprehensive professional learning session on the values of Loose Parts Play for children. Our students have embraced the concept, engaged with others, problem solved and created during their play breaks. A staff team has been formed to order the parts, manage the provision and safety of parts, so that students can be supported in their learning capacity at play times. There are three zones in the Playground area for Loose parts play and a further Dramatic Play Loose Parts area in the pole play area near the tuckshop. Students can play with others of different year levels and each can learn from the other as they consider their constructions and play opportunities with the parts. Safety rules for play have been shared and discussed with all students and respectful play with care for others and the environment is the focus.

Parents can help promote this play by providing the following items and taking these to the STEM room for Loose Parts Play.

ALL ITEMS MUST BE SAFE, CLEAN, and IN GOOD WORKING CONDITION to be a LOOSE PART ITEM

1. Old small saucepans, metal cake tins, whisks, egg flips, ladles, safe kitchen utensils
2. Small baskets or trays, plastic bowls, plastic cups, jugs
3. Old large cardboard boxes
4. Rope pieces, netting, sheets, elasticized sheets
5. PVC pipe, joints (all shapes), conduit tubing etc
6. Large pieces of colourful flowing material (silk/satin/lycra pieces/ sheer light drapes)
7. Dramatic play props (hard hat, adult shirts, hats of all sorts, play crowns, wands, scarves, flowing skirts, dresses, coats, etc)

Further information about Loose Parts and Outdoor play and the benefits it can bring for learning and wellbeing can be found at the website – jumpupoutdoors.com.au

Kathy Stock
Deputy Principal, Student Wellbeing

How You Can Get Involved @ GLPS This Year

This year we will be running our events a little differently. We will be pulling together event teams from within our school community to be involved in the coordination of some of our schools most treasured events such as Mother’s Day and Father’s Day Stalls and special events, Grandparents’ Day morning tea, School Disco, Musical teams, Trivia Night, World Teachers’ Day, and Carols on the Green. We would certainly value your help and know we will have lots of fun along the way.

We also value help from families with our Sporting Carnivals and Tuckshop throughout the year.  If we all work together and do one thing, then our year is sure to be filled with lots of memorable moments together and a strong school community spirit, all to benefit our children and families.

Please let me know by email (karenmisso@glps.qld.edu.au), advising reception or telling me in person at drop off/pick up if you are able to help with either one or more of the following:

• Special school events
• Sporting carnivals
• Tuckshop
• Library

Thank you to those families who signed up on our Volunteer teams sheet at our Parent Information. We appreciate it.

Introducing… our 2020 PARENT REP TEAM

At Grace Primary we are blessed to have a warm school community and parent volunteers who are taking on a Parent Rep role for every class in the school. Please make yourself familiar with who your parent reps are for 2020. Their role is to help you stay informed of key dates and activities affecting your class, social playdates and catch ups throughout the year, and class specific celebrations. Over the coming weeks they will be sending out text message consent forms for you to complete and return to either Reception or your child’s teacher, to join you to their weekly text update groups. We encourage you all to join these groups as they are a valuable way of staying on top of what’s happening.

A big thank you to all of our Parent Reps this year. It’s wonderful to see so many new faces join our team this year.

The Parent Reps are:
PR Shannen
PB Bec
PW Ziggy & Kate
1A Anna
1P Valarie & Shiloh
1N Fleur & Skye
2F Melany & Mel
2W Izzy
3H Lisa & Lyndsay
3N Julia & Mel
4T Ashlea & Rebecca
4W Megan
4A Rachel & Petra
5CB Nicole
5N Carol
6B Katy
6K Jenna
6J Helen

If you would like to help out with upcoming events at the school, we will be setting up event teams this year. Please email me at karenmisso@glps.qld.edu.au to register your interest. Thanks and I look forward to working with you all this year.

Karen Misso

All Families are Welcome

On Sunday, 23 February we will join together to worship with the Grace Congregation for Education Sunday at 8:30am in our school hall. We encourage families to attend this event. During the service, our staff and new students will be dedicated and prayed for as they begin their journey at Grace. All students in the school are also welcome to attend and there will be time in the service to acknowledge them too. After the service, families are most welcome to stay for morning tea and the students may like to have some time playing in the playgrounds. I look forward to seeing families on Sunday.

Shrove Tuesday – Pancake Day

It’s almost Lent! Traditionally, pancakes are associated with the day preceding Lent because they were a way to use up rich foods such as eggs, milk, and sugar, before the fasting season of the 40 days of Lent. Our students won’t be fasting but do we love pancakes. This year we will be having a free Pancake Breakfast on 25 February served by Grace Lutheran Church in the waiting area. Gluten free options will be available and a coffee cart will be onsite for parents to purchase a coffee. We hope to see you then.

NISSA Swimming

We had our first sporting event last Friday afternoon (14/02), the NISSA Swimming Meet was a great afternoon where 21 students from Grace travelled to Genesis Christian College to showcase their swimming talents in the pool.
The Grace team came 2nd overall and 1st in the percentage award! A special congratulation to Macey who came first in every individual event on the afternoon. Well done to all our relay teams who all came second in the Freestyle and Medley Relay Races.

District Swimming

On Wednesday 19 February, the Grace Swimming Team travelled to Redcliffe War Memorial Pool to complete at the District Swimming Carnival. This was another fantastic day with some awesome results across the day. Grace placed first overall in the schools competition and we had three age champions; Macey (11 year girls), Max (11 year boys) and Darcy (10 year boys). Along with a lot of other placings on the day our Grace swimmers swum amazingly! Being one of the smallest schools in this competition it is very impressing and a real credit to our swimmers on winning the first place school over all. Well done Grace swimmers, you have done us all very proud and you should be very pleased with your achievements. Grace has a number of students who will now head off to compete at the Regionals at Burpengary on the 4th of March.

Grace Running Club

The Grace running club has started up again for students in Years 3-6 with sessions on Tuesday afternoons and Thursday mornings. See Mr Denny for more details.

NISSA News

We have our first NISSA Gala day for our Year 4-6 students coming up on Friday 28 February. Students will be participating in 3 different sports (Touch, TeeBall and Basketball) across 4 different venues, good luck to all our NISSA students next Friday!

Mr Denny
Sport Coordinator

“Why is the sky blue?” “Why is the grass green?” “Why can’t we have Maccas?” “Why is grandma sick?”
One of the joys and challenges of being a parent is answering the question “Why?” Sometimes these are fun questions to answer (as we reflect on science, relationships, and other things). At other times we are especially challenged in seeking answers.

Here it is helpful to have good books and resources to help find answers (and encourage good reading habits). It’s also good to help develop good research skills needed for life. Sometimes we need the help of others in responding to the question “Why?” And, of course, it is also good to sometimes answer, “I don’t know.” Sometimes we simply don’t have an ‘answer’.

On a very important day Jesus went up a mountain to pray, and He took with Him Peter, James and John. (These were those disciples who provided leadership among Jesus’ other disciples). On this special occasion Jesus was ‘transfigured’ before them. The Bible says that His clothes shone with a white brighter than any bleach could make them. And at this time a voice spoke to the disciples, “This is My Son, whom I love. Listen to Him.”

Who are you listening to in your life? We can hear all sorts of different voices. And it is important to consider which voices we listen to as we make decisions about morality, values, ethics, and character. We may also ask to whom we shall listen to when it comes to life, death, and salvation. God’s voice still echoes, inviting us to listen to Jesus.

Education Sunday

This coming Sunday we will be worshiping in the School Hall at 8:30 am, celebrating ‘Education Sunday’. In our Grace Congregation, this worship includes prayers and blessings for teachers, students and staff in all schools.

In the coming week the Church around the world will begin the journey known as ‘Lent’. We will prepare for this on ‘Pancake Tuesday’, with a special Worship Service at Grace Church on ‘Ash Wednesday’ (26 Feb) at 7pm.

May God’s blessing be with you.

In Christ
Pastor Mark

Email: mark.brinkmann@lca.org.au
Phone: 0499 014 189

Education Sunday Service this Sunday

Parents are reminded that this Sunday (23 Feb) our Education Sunday service will occur commencing at 8:30a.m. in the school hall. We hope all families come along and help celebrate schools and education with our Grace Lutheran Congregation.

Notification of Contagious Diseases at Grace

At Grace Primary, we are very quick to advise all parents of any contagious illnesses are circulating amongst the students in our school. This is so parents can make decisions about their own child especially if symptoms occur. We appreciate parents advising us of any diagnosed illnesses so we can advise our whole community. We must have a doctor’s diagnosis rather than a parent thinking his/her child has a particular condition because in our school we have young children with chronic conditions and when a particular illness is in our school (chicken pox, influenza, school sores or other contagious illnesses) we advise them directly as sometimes they need specialist care to ensure their well-being. It is interesting to note that nearly 99% of our students are immunised and yet some illnesses for which children are immunised still circulate, hence us advising our whole community when there is a diagnosis in our school.

Please be further advised that when a situation occurs such as the current Corona virus, we are advised by the Department of Health, ISQ (Independent Schools’ Queensland) and LEQ (Lutheran Education Queensland) to ensure we have up to date and relevant information to disseminate amongst our families. The latest advice is that students coming from Hong Kong are no longer at risk and requiring quarantining, only students who have recently been in China.

Our staff ask students to regularly wash their hands and wherever possible, fresh air is allowed through the classrooms to avoid any contagions taking hold in our school. We do have viruses though which children share about and we do try to keep you informed if this happens. If your child is unwell, we appreciate it if you keep him/her home as the risk to all is then minimalised.

Chickens

Some of our observant students and parents have noted that our chickens are no longer in our school. We had to make the difficult decision to have them taken off site for a variety of reasons. Firstly, the chickens over the holidays and weekends were becoming distressed at not being able to roam free and secondly, during the very inclement recent weather, their physical condition deteriorated. A family purchased the chicken coop and took the chickens to a property so that they could live out their lives happily.

Carpark

A parent has reported to us his concern about parents turning right out of the Dalton Oval carpark. This is extremely dangerous and we ask that parents only turn left out of this carpark. To control this in the past, we have alerted police who fine people not abiding by the rule of left turn only and we ask all parents to be completely safe around our school grounds to avoid any accidents or incidents where children may be hurt.

Trudy Moala
Principal