Pathways | Volume 42 Number 6 | 1

Wednesday 29th April, 2020

From the Principal

A Faithful, Loving God.

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an

end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” — Lamentations

3:22-23. Sometimes the world seems hopeless. With the rapid surge of the

Coronavirus affecting many facets of our lives, it can be easy to fall into a dark

tunnel of anxious thoughts. Where is all the good news? Like no other time

before, that I can recall, I am really clinging to the good news stories I come

across. Whilst I need to know the facts, the numbers, and the terrible reality

of the situation, I truly believe that each day brings new mercies and blessings

from a loving and faithful God. We just have to notice them, seek them out,

and even be a part of the good news stories ourselves. In our recent, Holiest

of weeks of the year, we were invited into the most wonderful of Good News

stories ever told. God loves us so much He came to live among us, as a man

named Jesus, who spent time here on earth sharing God’s love and compassion. He was sent to save us from a

world of brokenness and sin. Jesus paid the ultimate price, His death for the sin of the world. For all of us. So great

and immense is God’s love, he gave his only son, so that whoever believe in him, will not die, but will have eternal

life. I could list quite a few current good news stories and I am sure you could too. God is at work every day. There

are wonderful opportunities to see God at work in the world and to express our gratefulness for His protection and

provision. As the book of Lamentations says, His mercies “are new every morning.” There are ways to help us cling

to that truth: Reading God’s word can take the place of worried, anxious thoughts, seeking out opportunities to share

the love and peace of Christ and praying for wisdom and for God’s will to be done. He can be trusted. He is a faithful

and loving God.

Cited

Welcome to Term Two!

I hope that you have had a relaxing and enjoyable Easter break with your family and that you are ready for another

exciting term of learning at St John’s Lutheran Primary School. Term Two will present many wonderful opportunities

for our students to grow, develop and strive for their personal best in a variety of pursuits – even though we are

operating in very different circumstances at present. We ask that you continue to work with us as educators, so that

together we can encourage our children to give their best effort always.

Volume 42 Number 6 Email: school@stjohnsbundaberg.qld.edu.au

Pathways | Volume 42 Number 6 | 2

Achieving Your Best

The idea of a Personal Best or ‘PB’ encourages students to meet and exceed their own best performance and

standards. Athletes tend to judge their own performances by how close to their ‘PB’ it is. And, it can be a huge source

of disappointment to fall below this in a major championship.

During this time of change and uncertainty in our lives I thought it apt to refer to a recent article I read regarding

work/life balance where the following was noted:

Your ‘PB’ can be used as a tool to navigate your own performances and expectations. A ‘PB’ is an acknowledgment

that an individual gave their best possible response based on the knowledge and capabilities they had in that

moment. In our normal day-to-day life, some of the criteria we can use for assessing our own ‘PB’ is to ask ourselves

some of the following questions:

- Am I thinking clearly here?

- What can I learn from the feelings I have in this situation?

- Are these feelings an accurate representation of reality?

- How can I solve this problem in the short-term?

- What steps can I take to ensure it doesn’t happen again?

- Have I done my best?

There’s a satisfaction and honour that comes with doing your ‘PB’ in any given situation. I commend to our students

this notion. Commit to doing your ‘PB’ this term – even though your learning may ‘look and feel’ different from normal.

Contact Information

If any changes to contact details (home address, phones, email contacts etc.) has occurred in recent times and these

have not been updated at school, please contact our front office as soon as possible. This is extremely important

should we need to contact you urgently regarding your child.

Community Commendation

I wish to thank the entire St. John’s Lutheran Primary School community for showing such tremendous courage,

resilience, endurance and tenacity during what continues to be difficult and trying times owing to Covid-19. It is often

in the face of adversity that we find our inner resolve and endure much stronger as a result.

Especially, I thank my colleagues – the staff of our school. They have done, and continue to do, a wonderful job.

Please know that we are all available to assist you in whatever way possible. I’m humbly confident that if we continue

to work together, we will remain strong and united as a community.

Be Strong and Courageous

Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God

will be with you wherever you go.

Joshua 1:9

Thank you for working in partnership with us.

Grace and Peace

Chris Mallett

Principal

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Curriculum Connections

On behalf of our Learning and Teaching team I would like to say a big thank you to all of our school families for the

level of engagement with our Learning at Home program. We have had a high level of task completion across all

year levels, especially for our first formal week of this new mode of learning. We continue to understand that all

households are under different pressures at this time and encourage you to continue to reach out to us if we can be

of further support.

If you are so inclined, we invite you to submit photos of your children engaging with their Learning at Home for us to

use on our Facebook page. We would love to see some of the suggestions below:

- Siblings learning together

- Student working with adults and learning from each other

- Learning with your pets

- Learning outside

- Parents surviving with learning at home (we would love some comedic relief!); and

- Anything you think other school families would find interesting, helpful or amusing.

Please email your photos through to the school (school@stjohnsbundaberg.qld.edu.au) with a simple statement

giving consent to publish.

I emailed Year 3 and Year 5 parents last term advising them NAPLAN will not go ahead in 2020. If you have any

questions relating to this, please contact me via email or phone.

Once again, thank you for your continued support and God Bless you all!

Jocelyn Bakker

Director of Learning and Teaching

Pastor’s Message

PSALM 23 is the most loved and well known psalm in the Bible. It was written

about 3000 years ago by David, who was number eight in his family, a

shepherd boy who became king of Israel. He fought many battles against

foreign forces, forces within Israel, forces within his family and forces within

his own heart but he continued to trust always in the LORD- the God of

Israel- the God of all creation. So he wrote: The LORD is my shepherd, I

have everything I need... He will walk with me through the darkest days,...He

will anoint me with oil and my cup will overflow... and I will live in the house of

the LORD forever.

In these difficult days we do well to pray Psalm 23 and then to hear our Lord Jesus Christ say: I am the Good

Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep...My sheep listen to my voice and they follow me. I

give them eternal life and no one can snatch them out of my hand. No one and no thing- including COVID 19 can

separate us from the love that God has for us through His Son Jesus Christ. The Lord has risen! He has risen indeed!

Peace be with you all,

Pastor Greg Graham

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School Fees

Term 2 Parent Statements were emailed out last Friday 24 April. Accounts paid by Friday

8 May will be eligible for the 5% discount on Tuition Fees. Payment can be made by

Eftpos, Credit Card or Internet Banking. If you did not receive your statement via email,

please contact the school office.

During the current health situation, we understand that this time can be very unsettling for many families. Should you

wish to discuss or make changes to your fee payments, (e.g. spread the payment over the school year by making

weekly, fortnightly or monthly payments) please do not hesitate to contact Ann Anderson who will be happy to assist

you set up a direct debit plan.

If you are wishing to make payments by direct debit, please use your Parent Code first and the surname e.g. 0532

Brown. It is important that these details are included so that payments can be allocated to the correct parent account.

If you have any queries regarding fees, please contact Ann by phone or e-mail at

aanderson@stjohnsbundaberg.qld.edu.au

Labour Day Public Holiday

Just a reminder to all parents that school will be CLOSED on Monday 4 May for

the Labour Day public holiday.

Around the Grounds – General Notices

Uniform Shop – Changes to Opening Hours

The Uniform Shop will be closed until further notice. If you need to purchase items please complete an order form,

which can be downloaded from our website and email to school@stjohnsbundaberg.qld.edu.au . We shall contact

you once the order has been filed for payment and collection.

Learning at Home and at School

We hope you enjoy a small snapshot of students engaging in learning both at home and at school.

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Happy Birthday Wishes

We would normally wish our students a Happy Birthday on Friday mornings during Chapel. Due

to the current situation we are unable to do this but would still like to celebrate their special day.

The Pathways Newsletter is now available fortnightly

on our school website

Go to www.stjohnsbundaberg.qld.edu.au

Click on News & Events - Newsletter

and follow the link to the newsletter

Issue 6, 29 April, 2020

or go to our Facebook Page and you will find the link there

Phone 4132 6888

Two Weeks at a Glance

Date Activity Venue Details

Wed 29 April Learning at Home Continues until further notice

Mon 4 May Labour Day Public Holiday School Closed

Bundaberg Lutheran Parish

Lead/School Pastor: Pastor Greg Graham

Parish Pastor: Pastor Ryan Norris

Phone: 4152 5900 Email: office@stjohnsbundaberg.org.au Website: www.stjohnsbundy.org.au

St John’s

30 George Street

Service Times

8.30am & 10am

Faith

Larson Street

Service Time

7.30am

Redeemer

Tirroan Rd, Gin Gin

Service Time

8.00am

Rosedale

10.30am

1st/3rd Sunday of the

month

Gracehaven

Chapel

Dr May’s Road

10.30am

Happy Birthday to the following students and staff:

Last Week

Term 1

Nate, Cannon, Sienna, Faith, Hunter, Mrs Johnson, Mrs Stewart

School

Holidays

Mrs Evans, Dakoda, Olyvia, Jonathan, Layla, Dylan, Dyjey, Thea, Georgia,

James, Addison

Term 2

April

Asher, Layla, Jordan, Daniel, Molly, Thomas, Connor, Olivia, Ms Linderberg