Spotlight on New Staff
Maddy Macdonald — Year 2 Teacher
What have the first weeks at PoP been like for you?
My first few weeks at PoP have been exciting and eventful! It has been delightful to get to know the children in my class of 2M and also the wider school community. My favourite part about my first few weeks at PoP of course has to be the fun we are having with learning in my classroom. I have had a great and welcoming start to my career at PoP.
What’s something most people would not guess about you?
Something that people wouldn’t guess about me is that I love camping! One of my favourite past times is setting up camp on the beach, listening to the waves crash and cook a BBQ with friends by the fire. I’m an outdoorsy gal!
What made you decide to become a teacher ?
I had the most amazing and inspirational Year 1 teacher, Miss O’Gorman. I grew up always wanting to be like her—a groovy, engaging, fair, encouraging and caring teacher. I hope to be a teacher that my students remember.
Angela Irving — Prep Teacher
What have the first weeks at PoP been like for you?
Not unlike everyone else, the first half of Term 1 for me was challenging with COVID and floods, but I’ve also had many reasons to be thankful. It’s been lovely getting to know the students and the wider PoP community.
What’s something most people would not guess about you?
My family and I are relatively new to Brisbane having only moved here in December of 2019.
Most school holidays we enjoy exploring new places in QLD. We are yet to head back home to Canberra but are praying that we are able to go skiing sometime this year.
If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Lasagne! It’s always been a favourite of mine! My daughter who is 13 now makes an amazing lasagne!
Bronte Allan — Year 3 Teacher
What have the first weeks at PoP been like for you?
My first few weeks at PoP have been a bit like a rollercoaster, as we have had quite a crazy start to the year.
However, considering all of these things, it has been exciting, challenging and unexpected.
What’s something most people would not guess about you?
This is a bit of a tricky question because what you see is what you get with me, but I would have to say that I drive a van (campervan/surfer van).
What advice would you give your young self?
My advice is to always be your authentic self and to not let the fear of failure prevent you from trying new things.
Keeping Watch
Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Matthew 26:38
Jesus knows what is going to happen to Him as he takes His disciples out to pray in the garden of Gethsemane that fateful night. He goes there knowing that soon the walk to the cross would begin, His hour was coming. He is overwhelmed knowing that He would not only take the sin of the whole world of all time upon Himself, He would become sin for us. He would take on Himself what we deserve. But out of God’s great love, in grace and mercy, God would offer in Jesus suffering and death, forgiveness and a fresh start always. In His sorrow Jesus asks the disciples to stay with Him in the garden and to keep watch with Him.
But as human flesh is weak, the disciples fall asleep leaving Jesus alone.
Jesus came to save the lost, to rescue the prisoners from the chains of sin, to set the captives free and to bring sight to the blind. All of these phrases Jesus uses to explain why He came. He came to die on the cross and by doing so He destroyed sin, death and the power of the devil. He came so people who live under the power of sin would see again, with hearts of faith to receive forgiveness, eternal life and salvation, for all who believe in Jesus.
Jesus knows that His journey ahead, is one of suffering. He knows that the walk ahead is one of shame, of hurt, of sorrow, of beatings and mocking and one of death. All this, to endure for us, in order to win life forever for all. Anyone who believes in Jesus will live forever. Yes our life on earth will end but in Jesus we have hope now and hope for eternity. We are confident each day that we live in our eternal life now. So in living our eternal life we can forgive, we can love, we can serve, we can help and we can share God’s love in all we do or say and all this through God’s strength in us.
Do you have something in life that you are facing right now? Do you have things that have and continue to overwhelm your soul even to the point of giving up, to the point of death?
In your suffering who do you call out to? Who do you ask to keep watch, to support you? Do you cry out to Jesus? Jesus keep watch and pray for me. Hold me, rescue me, heal me, forgive me and renew me. Yes, see, unlike the disciples, Jesus will always keep you in His watch and care and loving arms never falling asleep. Jesus knows what it is to suffer to have sorrow to the point of death so call on Him. If you are overwhelmed today, if your soul is weary call on Jesus name and He will lift you up. I pray today that Jesus meets you in your struggles and may He renew you by His mighty power. Amen.
Pastor Mark Gierus
College Pastor
Positive Reflection
What can we say about Term 1, 2022? We started in an unusual COVID fashion, had hiccups and storm damage in the middle and we are finishing in flurry of student and staff absences. In an amongst this crazy 
term we have seen many moments of learning, cross country, excursions, tuckshop, cyber safety presentations, a Gala day, chapels and so much more.
As I reflect on all that has happened, my heart is full; grateful for the way people have handled the situations with a spirit of determination and understanding that it will be okay.
Our Social and Emotional Learning program—Growing with Gratitude—includes an element called Positive Reflection. Positive Reflection is the practice of looking back at our progress to see how far we have come. It is an opportunity to celebrate our growth, development—our journey.
When I look back over this term, I see growth and development in so many ways; independence, confidence, resilience and ability to adapt. Both children and adults have grown in dealing with sudden changes due to COVID or floods or other life circumstances. At times when we walk through challenges it is easy to get distracted with the negative but I encourage you to seek out those moments of growth to fuel your optimism.
As we come to the end of the Term 1, I encourage you to find a moment to share with your child/ren just how amazed you are by them. Explain to them the growth you have seen and help them understand that through the challenges we have faced they have truly overcome and learnt so much.
I want to take this opportunity to wish you all a safe and restful holiday break. May you find time to reconnect with your family and loved ones, rest and recuperate. As the holiday period includes Easter, I pray that you will also find time to celebrate the love of Jesus in this world as we remember His death and resurrection.
Be blessed
Anne-Marie Schmidt
Head of Junior Campus
Year 5 Students off to Mt Binga
Year 5 students headed off to Mt Binga Outdoor Education Centre yesterday, located in the Black Butt Range, for four days of fun and personal development.
Their camp is full of challenging individual and team-building activities and also teaches the children to appreciate the natural bushland environment. It gives our students a wonderful opportunity to become familiar with the Mt Binga environment before attending the camp again in Year 9 when they undertake new, age-appropriate challenges and activities for four weeks.
Bookings for Parent Teacher Interviews (Junior Campus)
Parent Teacher Interviews will be held on Thursday 28 April (Week 2) and Tuesday 3 May (Week 3) from 3:30pm-7:30pm in classrooms at the Junior Campus. These interviews will be on the same night as the Senior Campus interviews, so parents do not have multiple nights out across this fortnight.
A direct message with a link to SOBS online booking system will be sent to parents to make bookings with individual teachers; the interviews will be ten minutes in length.
Preventing Online Child Sexual Exploitation
Last week we were fortunate enough to hear from Senior Constable Ricky Blanckensee who is the Crime Prevention Coordinator for the North Brisbane District. Senior Constable Blanckensee spoke to our students and their families about staying safe online.
He introduced our school community to the Think You Know Cyber Safety Program. As parents and carers, you play an important role in protecting your child from harm.
This program aims to support you in preventing and managing safety challenges that your child may face, as well as guiding your child to understand these and feel empowered to take action. Senior Constable Blanckensee has five top tips for you to prevent online child sexual exploitation. The top tips are drawn from key advice areas including building safe online habits, technology settings and getting help.
These tips apply to parents and carers of children and young people of all ages.
- Have open conversations, often
The most important tip we can give you is to start talking to your child regularly about their online activities and interactions.
- Supervision is essential
This means knowing what your child is doing online, who they are interacting with and what platforms, apps or games they are using.
- Be approachable if your child needs help
Coming forward isn’t always easy and your child may feel reluctant to tell you about online issues if they believe they will be punished or have their devices taken away. This also makes children more secretive about device use and at greater risk of exploitation.
- Check privacy settings
We recommended that you research and understand app settings, including privacy settings. This could include turning off location settings, setting profiles to private, or turning off chat functions.
- Know how to report
If something goes wrong online, it is critical your child is supported. You need to know how to take action and report. For more information about this program and how to keep your children safe online, go to https://www.thinkuknow.org.au/
Let’s all work together to keep our children safe online.
Coreta Lennon
Deputy Head of Junior Campus
Seeing Hope in the Now and the Future
To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven, Ecclesiastes 3:1
God cares for every one of His people and creations from the littlest bird to the mightiest lion. He gives us all a unique purpose in this life. We can rest assured in any time of happiness or uncertainty that His love and provision for us will never fail.
Ecclesiastes gives us many examples of seasons we’ll face in life: times of birth, death, weeping and joy. The Bible shows us that experiencing good and bad times in our lives is normal and to be expected. Though it’s easy to hold onto our hope in happy situations, we shouldn’t let changing circumstances cause our faith to falter. God is with us in every season of our life. When we face the unknown, we can trust that He is in control and working out every situation for our good.
In our last Middle and Senior School Online Assembly this term we encouraged our young people to see the good plans that He has for us and our future. This focus creates in us a firm foundation that never sways in the face of change and uncertainty.
Mr Jonathan Klupp and I encouraged students in our online messages to wonder about what has worked well for them, what are they most proud of in how they have worked through a point of challenge this term. They were encouraged to set a learning goal that is specific, measurable, realistic, and achievable for Term 2.
We encourage parents to watch these video messages below and sit with your child to discuss these questions to reflect on the term of learning and growth.
Last Friday our Year 11 and 12 Visual Arts students enjoyed an excursion to be inspired at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art.
Our Year 12 PED students enjoyed the day at the The University of Queensland exploring excercise physiology concepts specific to their unit four studies.
Students participated in fitness tests that assessed their muscular power, speed and agility, as well as helped facilitate and cheer on Tom, who engaged in the VO2max test.
Students had the opportunity to learn through mini workshops about energy systems and training methods, then finished the day with some Tabata interval and HIIT mini workouts.
This is our prayer as we come to the end of Term 1 and we encourage you to share this prayer we us:
Dear God, we give thanks for the joys and challenges that we have experienced in our lives. May each of these moments teach us more about the person you have created us to be and a hope for a future that is grounded in your love for us. Amen.
Sarah Hoff-Zweck
Head of Middle and Senior Campus
Continuous Feedback (Progressive Reporting) Term 1 2022
One of the areas we are focusing on this year is progressive reporting and continuous feedback to students and parents on learning. What this means is twice a term for each subject, students and parents will receive feedback on SEQTA on assessment for learning in real time. As parents you will gain a notification through SEQTA that feedback has been updated and you can check the feedback teachers have given.
This is our mode of reporting for this term and there will be two pieces of feedback by the end of this week before parent teacher interviews in Term 2. An end of Semester 1 report will be issued in Week 10 Term 2 that will report on overall grade for the semester, work habits for success and a pastoral care teacher comment.
This mode of reporting was shared with parents on the Middle and Senior School Parent Information Online Night.
At any time you wish to communicate with teachers about your child’s learning, please do not hesitate to contact individual subject teachers.
Bookings for Parent Teacher Interviews (Middle & Senior Campus)
Parent Teacher Interviews will be held on Thursday 28 April (Week 2) and Tuesday 3 May (Week 3) from 3:30pm-6:30pm in R block and Library on the Middle and Senior Campus. These interviews will be on the same night as this Junior Campus interviews, so parents do not have multiple nights out across this fortnight.
A direct message with a link to SOBS online booking system will be sent to parents to make bookings with individual teachers. The interviews will be ten minutes in length and we encourage students to be at the interviews, as we believe students should be at the heart of conversations about their learning with their parents and teachers.
Careers @ PoP
With the end of term in sight, there is a lot happening at PoP. To make sure that all the information gets out to students, I have created a TEAMS page for Year 10, 11 and 12, focused on sharing all things Careers and Vocational Training that are current and in the near future.
Currently there is information about:
- Start QUT (complete some University subjects while still at school. Years 11 & 12)
- WellCamp Airport Toowoomba is having a Careers expo on everything aviation
- New courses available at Brisbane Northwest Trade Training College (Mitchelton High)
- An Aquatic and Community Recreation Traineeship at Dipadees, Everton Park.
I will also post any employment opportunities that I receive.
As a parent, if you are wanting to access this page to see what is on offer to be able to support your child, please contact me on via a SEQTA message with the email address that you would like to use, and I will add you to the group.
Yours in Christ,
Mrs Julie Grosas
Careers and VET Leader
Junior Campus Sport
Congratulations Nate
Nate in Year 6 produced some more outstanding results in the pool at the Queensland State Swimming Championships last week.
Nate finished 5th in the 100m Freestyle, 7th in the 200m Individual Medley, 5th in the 50m Freestyle Relay, 16th in the 200m Open Freestyle and 16th in the 100m Backstroke.
Nate also swam six PB’s across the two days of competition. To say we are proud is an understatement!
Met North District Sports Team Selections
The students at PoP continue to punch above their weight with four more students being selected for Met North District Sports Teams. It is so pleasing that for a school with a relatively small student population, we continue to match it with the larger schools. Please join me in congratulating the following students:
- Piper Hastie was selected for the Girls 10-12 Years Met North District Basketball team.
- Charlie Gilfillan was selected for Boys 10-12 Years Met North District Touch Football team.
- Kirra Harvey was selected for the Girls 10-12 Years Met North Hockey team.
- Kaelan Harvey was selected for the Boys 10 – 12 Years Met North Hockey team.
We are so proud of all of your achievements!
Gala Day Sports – Years 4 – 6 Term 1
On Friday of Week 9, students in Years 4–6 represented Prince of Peace at the first Gala Day for Term 1.
Students were able to choose from Tee Ball, Touch Football and Basketball.
The focus of the day was on participation and engaging students in a range of different sports, however this did not stop our students from competing with determination and vigor.
I was particularly impressed by the sportsmanship and the manner in which our students conducted themselves.
Matthew Barben
Junior Campus HPE and Sport
Senior Campus Sport
Cross Country Carnival
PoP held their annual Year 3-12 Cross Country Carnival on Wednesday 23 March at Teralba Park. Unlike previous years, the day was able to be held without interruption or rescheduling which was a relief! As always, the carnival provides such a great occasion for both primary and secondary students to come together and support each other in their races.
Congratulations to the following students who were our Age Champions on the day.
8 yrs – Zara Caplice and Charlie Bliesner
9 yrs – Katie Richardson and Joshua Sullivan
10 yrs – Rosezen Johnston and William Thomas
11 yrs – Hannah McKinnon and Thomas Forbes-Schutz
12 yrs – Kirra Harvey and Finn Sorpassa
13 yrs – Matilda Forbes and Hannes Forbes-Schutz
14 yrs – Georgia East and Isaac Chen
15 yrs – Bianca Rhind and Lewyn Turnell
16 yrs – Tara Bowman and Zach Fraser
17yrs – Heidi Noon and Jonas Forbes-Schutz
18 yrs – Talitha Montgomery and Jay-R Apilado
Congratulations to all runners who competed on the day. Our seniors, yet again led from the front and should be commended for their support both at the BBQ and also with helping the younger students around the course.
A huge thank you to all staff involved. The day would not have run as smoothly as it did without your support.
Gabby Collman
Sports Coordinator
HPE, Science and Mathematics Teacher
Junior Campus Music News
Classroom Music
Recorders have been a huge hit with the Year 4s. Almost all students have already achieved their white belt.
Some have pushed themselves to learn new notes and achieved up to purple belt. Adele has skyrocketed to the front and is the first to achieve black belt.
What a Champion!
Year 6
Our Year 6 students have been travelling around the world listening to and learning a variety of folk songs from various countries. They have learnt to sing and play these songs on xylophone, boomwhackers and recorders.
They are improvising, creating and playing:
- rhythm patterns
- melodies,
- new verses
- accompaniments for songs
Choirs
Students are welcome to join choir at any time.
Upper Primary Choir (Years 4-6) on Tuesday morning and Lower Primary Choir (Years 2-3) on Wednesday mornings. Commence 7:40am in the Music Room.
Should you have any questions about the instrumental, choral or classroom music program on the Junior Campus, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Sherree Cudney
Junior Campus Music
Senior Campus Music News
Our Soloists on Show recital on Wednesday night last was an absolute joy, featuring some of the best of our individual performers as well as some amazingly beautiful duets, trios and compositions! Congratulations to all who performed. The standards were delightfully high.
Preparation is well under way for our first ensemble concert in over a year, Rhythms Riffs and Refrains which will be held on Wednesday 25 May 6 – 8pm. Put this date in your diary as it will be a great night out with over 100 students performing in a variety of styles and genre. All of our tutors and ensembles will be represented. Jazz, rock, classical, folk, pop… whatever your style, there will be a special performance for you! Plus you will be supporting the wonderful students who have dedicated so much time and love to the preparation of this material week after week.
Please ensure that students have organised their Music Uniforms so that they look as good as they sound! Please note that long pants and socks are a part of the music uniform and take care that these are done correctly. When they are on stage we do not want attention drawn to anything but the wonderful music.
Lights Camera Action! We are going to hear the Queensland Symphony Orchestra play music from the stage and screen. Students from the elective music classroom and Extra Curricular Ensembles Program have received an invitation to join us on an excursion to QPAC Concert Hall to hear the orchestra play LIVE! This is a great opportunity for any music enthusiast but especially for students who are learning an instrument or playing in an ensemble. The excursion is during school time and being invited is one of the benefits of being a part of this vibrant program. At point of this publication there are only 10 seats remaining. Next term I will open these to our ensemble members in Year 7 if available. The booking has to come from a parent or guardian.
It is wonderful how our students are all remembering how important it is for the team that everyone is at all rehearsals. Every week is important. The music just isn’t the same without you all there! Being on time and having the music and gear is all a part of the learning experience and develops disciplines and skills which will be useful in all aspect of their life.
SPEACIAL NOTE
String Ensemble will rehearse on THURSDAY mornings for the first three weeks of Term 2 as we are not at school on Mondays. Appointments will be in SEQTA as normal. Please accept these. Thank you
Let’s make music!
Linda Brady
Senior Campus Curriculum Leader of Music and Coordinator of Extra-Curricular Music
Worship
3 April
9am Worship
3:30pm Youth@PoP — Our last meeting for Term 1 will be a FootGolf competition on the oval. All ages (young, old and those in denial about their age) are invited. There will be other games for those not interested in FootGolf,
Questions? Email youth@princeofpeace.org.au
5pm Together@5
Please keep an eye on the Prince of Peace Church Facebook page for service updates.
OSHC – April Vacation Care
Download the information program for April 2022 Vacation Care »
