In this issue

Upcoming School Events

Next Friday on the last day of school, we would like to warmly welcome you to our Learning Expo. From 8:30 – 9:30am, our classrooms will be open and our learners will be presenting their learning to you – our audience! Having an audience where dialogue, discussion and debate can occur is so beneficial to the learning process. Our learners are also feeling proud and would like to celebrate with you. We would also really encourage families to go and visit other classes and year levels to celebrate the learning of our community. For those families that won’t be able to attend due to other commitments, we will endeavour to share our learning with you on Seesaw too.

TRIVIA NIGHT

Our Trivia Night is coming up on 24 July.  Grab your friends and join us for a fun night. Tickets are on sale now via this link.

What makes you important…?

Have you ever been involved where people are selected to be chosen for a team, and you were towards the last one picked?

We all know the importance of having good self-esteem. Self-esteem is how much people value themselves and how important they believe they are in their world.

Self-esteem can start as early as babyhood. It develops slowly over time. It can start just because a child feels safe, loved, and accepted. It can start when a baby gets positive attention and loving care. As babies become toddlers and young children, they’re able to do some things all by themselves. They feel good about themselves when they can use their new skills. Their self-esteem grows when parents pay attention, let a child try, give smiles, and show they’re proud.

But sometimes people may feel they are not important. Sometimes people may feel like they are not ‘good enough’.

In the Holy Gospel for this Sunday (Mark 4:30-31) we hear Jesus say to people, “What can we say God’s kingdom is like? What story can we use to explain it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. But when you plant the seed, it grows. It becomes the largest of all garden plants. Its branches are so big that birds can rest in its shade.”

When we think about Jesus words, we can remember that a seed is a beginning. A seed is often very small and it looks like it could never be anything important. Seeds look like they are small and not important but seeds are only the beginning of something. A very small seed can grow into something very big.

So much of our culture tells us that what we do is more important than who we are. And this can put enormous pressure on us to perform. It’s so easy for us to fall into the trap of thinking that our identity is caught up in what we do rather than who we are. For Christians, our identity is entirely bound up in Jesus. Through faith in Jesus’ perfect performance, God declares us His children (1 John 3:1). This is the identity that should define us, shape us, and direct us the most.

Our performance will always be up and down. But our identity as children of God is not based on our performance. God doesn’t accept us or like us because of what we have achieved or the type of person we are. God accepts us despite all this. God accepts us because He is a God of lavish love. If you struggle with self-worth, let Jesus’ words bring you comfort today.

Worship
Grace Lutheran Congregation gathers in worship every Sunday at 8:30am and 5:30pm. For more details please visit our Facebook page or our website.

May God bless you today in His love and care.
Together in Christ,
Pastor Mark

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

AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUM @ GLPS

So much work goes on the background to provide our students with the knowledge, understanding, skills and dispositions for lifelong learning and shaping the world around them. The Australian Curriculum provides us with the content and skills that need to be taught – the ‘what’. Schools determine ‘how’ it will be implemented.

Australian Curriculum is currently under a review process which is focused on defining, realigning, and decluttering the curriculum. We teach the Australian Curriculum here at Grace, but several years ago we too considered how we could move from teaching at a surface level within a crowded curriculum and move towards developing a deeper understanding for our students.

Using research to inform decisions, we moved from teaching subjects separately to integrating different subjects through a conceptual lens. Through this approach, students are able to integrate perspectives, grow and learn at a deeper level, and transfer their learning to other contexts. In the education world this is called ‘transdisciplinary learning’, but here at Grace Primary we call it ‘Integrated Studies’ to make it simple for our little learners.

Integrated Studies integrates Australian Curriculum’s subject areas of Science, Humanities and Social Sciences (History & Geography), Media Arts, Visual Arts, Technologies and Health. Across the school we have mapped out the Australian Curriculum to ensure that every content descriptor is taught. For Integrated Studies, students have four units over the year – one per term. Some units may include more Science, others more Visual Arts etc. But throughout their units, students will experience all content descriptors within the Australian Curriculum. A summary of our Integrated Studies Curriculum Map has been uploaded to Seesaw for families to view.

• At Grace, we structure our units around the four big ideas of:
• Celebrating – Society & Expression
• Exploring – Organisations & Our World
• Respecting – Service & Cultures
• Restoring – The Environment & Sustainability

Our units then have a conceptual lens, inquiry questions that drive the unit, and then the Australian Curriculum content that has been mapped to the unit.

Below is a quick summary example of our current Year 5 Integrated Studies unit that has a large History component, but also integrates Media Arts, Visual Arts and some Christian Studies.

Big Idea: Respecting
Concept: Transformation, Influence

Inquiry Questions:

• How have past and present individuals and groups influenced change?
• What influences transformation?
• Are transformations respected and celebrated?

Australian Curriculum Content Descriptors: ACHASSI095, ACHASSI096, ACHASSI097, ACHASSI098, ACHASSI099, ACHASSK106, ACHASSK107, ACHASSK108, ACHASSK109, ACHASSK110, ACAMAM063, ACAVAM114, ACAVAR117 and CSCF CC3.2.

A traditional approach would have students learning about events from the Gold Rush. Through our approach, students are still learning the Australian Curriculum content, but are developing lifelong learning skills that allow them to transfer their understanding of big concepts. Last week, one student from Year 5 started to talk to me about the Mabo Day. It was clear that his understanding about influence, change, respect, questioning actions of the past and celebration from his Integrated Studies unit were being applied to this new context. Each child not only can learn the content of the Australia Curriculum, but can then apply it to contexts that are meaningful to them in their life, or future learning that is just around the corner.

English, Mathematics and our Specialist Subjects also follow and implement the Australian Curriculum. In addition, we also follow Lutheran Education Australia’s Christian Studies Curriculum Framework for teaching Christian Studies, which has elements that are incorporated into our Integrated Studies units too.

Students won’t know that they are learning the Australian Curriculum, as that’s not an effective way of engaging our learners. Rather they delve into the inquiry with their teachers and learn content, skills and who they are as a learner. The implementation of the Australian Curriculum is the quiet and unseen work that goes on the background at a whole school level with mapping the curriculum, at a year level through the collaborative design of a unit and at the teacher level as modifications and adjustments are made for individual learners.

LEARNING EXPO – FRIDAY 18 JUNE

Next Friday on the last day of school, we would like to warmly welcome you to our Learning Expo. From 8:30 – 9:30am, our classrooms will be open and our learners will be presenting their learning to you – our audience! Having an audience where dialogue, discussion and debate can occur is so beneficial to the learning process. Our learners are also feeling proud and would like to celebrate with you. We would also really encourage families to go and visit other classes and year levels to celebrate the learning of our community. For those families that won’t be able to attend due to other commitments, we will endeavour to share our learning with you on Seesaw too.

SEMESTER 1 ACADEMIC REPORTS

Teachers are busy finalising Academic Reports for families. These reports are written for parents/carers and will be released via Parent Lounge during the first week of school holidays. A Seesaw announcement and email will be sent to families once active for parent viewing.

A rating is not enough to understand your child’s achievement. I would strongly encourage families to focus on the effort rating, comments that been written and evidence of learning on Seesaw. If you have questions, concerns or would like to discuss your child’s learning journey, please make an appointment with your child’s class teacher after the holidays.

Thank you again for the opportunity to work with your beautiful children. Term 2 has been a busy term filled with joy and celebration of our little learners.

Jasmine Deighton
Deputy Principal – Teaching and Learning

Junior Athletics Carnival

On Friday the 4th of our Prep to Years 3 students enjoyed a half day athletics celebration. Students participated in various jumping, running and throwing events and highlighted all they have been learning during their PE lesson this term.

Well done to all students who participated on the day, we are so proud of your amazing efforts and the talents you showed while competing your events. A special thanks to all our year 6 students who ran the celebration and encouraged their younger peers to try their best and participate to progress!

Senior Athletics Carnival
Good luck to all our Years 4-6 (and 9 YO Year 3) students who will be participating in the Senior Athletics Carnival at Langdon park this Friday 11 June. We are looking forward to another great day showing casing the talented athletes at Grace Primary.

Mr Denny
Director of PE & Sport

 BACK TO GRACE

Our next 50th event is our ‘Back to Grace’ evening on 20 August.  If you would would to join us for this evening, please RSVP here.

SAVE THE DATE

Karen Misso & Jessika Cameron
Marketing and Events

Upcoming Events

Friday 11 June
Year 3-6 School Athletics Carnival, Langdon Park 9am-2pm
Trivia Night tickets available from today – click here for link

Monday 14 June
Sausage Meal Deal (rescheduled from last term)

Wednesday 16 June
NISSA Athletics Carnival, Zammit Oval, Deception Bay 1pm – 5pm

Thursday 17 June
No Chapel today.  It will be tomorrow at 2pm

Friday 18 June
Last day of Term 2
Subway Day
Learning Expo 8.30am-9.30am
Special Concert with Dan Warlow 2pm-3pm

SCHOOL HOLIDAYS – Monday 21 June – Friday 9 July

Monday 12 July – First day of Term 3

Thursday 15 July – Principal Tour 9am

Mon 19 & Tues 20 July – District Athletics

Mon 19 – Wed 21 July – Book Fair in the Library

Saturday 24 July – Trivia Night at GLPS

Wednesday 28 July – Parent & Friends AGM 6pm

Friday 13 August – School Disco – Tickets go on sale 12 July

Friday 20 August – Back to Grace Evening (50th Event)

Grace Team Spirit

What is the Grace Primary Team Spirit Day all about? Is it just about football? Is it about rivalry and competition? Is it about the Food Deal? Or the cool outfits we can wear? Sometimes it may seem like these are our focus points for the day, but our aim is to build community spirit and encourage one another to work together to achieve.

Team Spirit Day at our school is an opportunity where student can engage team games or activities that are engaging, fun and serve to promote the understanding of TEAM. (Together Everyone Achieves More)

The Student Representative Council have met and planned the day and each rep has taken on the responsibility to prepare, set up and run their activity with supervision support from a teacher.

Students can sign on for one activity per play break session. The activities can be active games such as Volleyball, Capture the Flag or Boot Ball. However, for those who want something creative and artistic, teams for Dancing, Art Expression, Lego Masters and Chalk Drawing Art is offered.

Most students love to engage in relays and this builds their ‘self-worth’ as a contributor and helps them develop cooperation, collaboration and negotiation skills to work as a TEAM.

The Play is the Way concepts are incorporated also. “Do your Personal Best, no matter who you work with” and ‘Treat others as you would like them to treat you’, are as such, goals to help students on their pathway to empathy.

Grace Team Spirit Day allows students to engage with other year level peers in a team setting that promotes collaboration and participation and is definitely FUN! Stickers may be given to those who show TEAM SPIRIT in their efforts, cooperation and acceptance of others in the TEAM activity.

Whilst students engage in wearing Team outfits, the 2021 State of Origin NRL match is recognized as a great time to celebrate this event within this learning opportunity.

Parents, Teachers, Teacher Aides and Medical Professionals also practise TEAM work when we take time to meet, share and listen to one another about student learning progress. Last term’s Parent Teacher Conferences added value to this goal and resolves to have a greater collaborative approach to enriching a TEAM effort for each student.

TEAM work is encouraged at Grace as it focuses on relationship and community building. The ultimate goal of sharing God’s love and Growing in Grace with others at our school, is evident when we serve together as a TEAM so that others are uplifted, loved and supported in our community.

Kathy Stock

Deputy Principal, Student Wellbeing