Dear Parents and Caregivers

It has been wonderful to experience College life as normal as possible again this week. On two or three occasions on Monday I found myself backtracking, when leaving my office, to go back for a face mask and then remembering it wasn’t needed. It’s great once again to see facial expressions, to see a laugh and share smiles all round. 

The power and importance of uninterrupted face-to-face human interaction can never be underestimated or, in our case, be taken for granted anymore. I need to thank both the parent body and staff for how they continue to manage the finer details surrounding community safety and protocols while isolated Covid outbreaks continue amongst the student body. Thank you for being vigilant and so supportive in this space.

College Captains

I need to acknowledge the various College Captains and leaders across all three campuses on maintaining momentum around their respective portfolios by staying connected online with the student body and staff as well as meeting with the Directors of Campus to discuss future initiatives and activities for 2022. We can now look forward to getting many of these events underway with full parent participation. Please check your campus calendar for several school events, chapels and assemblies taking place over the coming three weeks.

International Women's Day    

The first of these events kicked off on Tuesday when the College celebrated International Women’s Day with a special high tea event. With over 90 mothers, daughters and staff in attendance for this inaugural event, I am sure that it will now become an annual fixture on the College calendar. Thank you to our Director of Marketing and Enrolments, Mrs Bianca Coleborn, and her team of helpers for hosting the event. 

The Rite Journey Calling and Departure Ceremony

This Friday morning our Year 9 students and their families have been part of the Rite Journey Calling and Departure Ceremony at Picnic Point. What a wonderful opportunity to set the tone for this relationship between the students, families and staff as the Year 9 students begin their journey of self-awareness as they learn more about becoming responsible, respectful, resilient and resourceful young adults. Thank you to Mr Stephen Miegel for his leadership and planning in this program.

QCIS Swimming Carnival    

Congratulations to the Concordia Swimming Team on winning the Percentage Trophy at the QCIS Inter-school Swimming Carnival, which was held this week, while placing a very close third overall. This is the first time in five years that another school has won the percentage trophy held by the previous school. This is a clear sign that swimming at Concordia is going from strength to strength. Well done to all our swimmers on being outstanding ambassadors on the day. Thank you to Mr Darryl Fry and Miss Katharina Riehl for supporting the students on the day as well as Mr Troy Chandler from TJ’s Swim School for his support of and strong working relationship with the Concordia swimming community.

MMG Survey 

Last week every family received a letter informing you of the upcoming MMG Survey. This survey, which will assist us in confirming and fine-tuning our strategic direction for the coming years, has now gone live for the next fortnight and I ask each family to please make the time to complete the survey when you receive your email invitation during this time. Thank you in advance for your time, transparency and support of the College in this important future-focussed process.

Wishing everyone a safe and relaxing weekend.

Yours in Christ.

Mr Anton Prinsloo
Head of College

This week, for the first time this year, we were able to gather as a community in assemblies and chapels (unfortunately, Hume Street Campus has to wait another week). I enjoyed the excited chatter and the face to face connection in those gatherings and was impressed by the leadership of our College Captains and Faith leaders on these occasions. It really drove home again the importance of coming together, of not just talking about but also seeing, hearing and experiencing the community that we are and drawing together in these forums.

At the SSC Assembly, the College Captains announced an initiative for Lent that they had deeply thought about and discussed with their fellow leaders. Last week I wrote about the meaning of Lent. In the Chapel, I also spoke about some traditional Lenten practices: fasting – foregoing something in our lives for a period of time (a symbol of remembering the suffering of Christ who gave his life for us), giving – sharing our gifts with those in need (a reminder to recognise our blessings, to look beyond the self to others and allow God’s love to come to them in some way), and prayer – deepening our connection with God (spending time both listening and speaking to God).

The Captains wanted to invite our community to use this time of Lent to look beyond themselves and offer some support for a local charity. After some research they came up with Tony’s kitchen, which supplies meals, showers and other support to the homeless in and around Toowoomba.

They have encouraged SSC students to bring in non-perishable food items, toiletries or money (perhaps collect loose coins during the next few weeks and bring them in in the last week of school) and leave them with the Home Class or in the Open Door. We will bless these items in the last Chapel of the term in Week 10 and then hand them to Tony’s kitchen to support their work, which in the light of recent floods is becoming even more important.

I think that is a great initiative and worthy way to use this Lenten season to not just reflect but also act and join together to provide a tangible expression of God’s love to others.

St Paul writes in his letter to the Galatians (6:10): Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. 

May our Lord bless you this week and guide your Lenten journey.

Rev Thomas Böhmert
College Pastor

It was wonderful to have 90 plus women and girls come together for our inaugural International Women's Day High Tea on Tuesday 8 March! Our guests were delighted when they walked into the Function Centre that had been transformed into a beautiful High Tea setting resplendent with stunning floral arrangements, ornate crockery, glamorous lights and delightful gift bags. 

It soon became apparent that the 1.5 hours allocated to this event was far too short. The consensus was that this will become an annual event and we'll have to allocate more time to enjoy each other's company.

Many thanks to our kitchen team who helped with the set-up and clean up for the event and prepared a delicious high tea for our guests. We really appreciate your wonderful work.

Special thanks also to Mrs Jolene Healy, Mrs Linda Knott and Mrs Karen Watson for all their help cleaning up on the night. We also really appreciate Mrs Linda Lester who loaned us her beautiful tea sets and cutlery for the event, but also stayed back to help clean it all up at the end of the night.

Finally, I would like to say a very special thank you to Mrs Michelle Price for all her amazing work to make the event visually spectacular for our guests. 

Although the invitation was there for everyone to attend this event, no brave men decided to join us this year, but we extend an open invitation to you all to join us for next year's event. Keep an eye out for the International Men's Day event that will take place in November.

Mrs Bianca Coleborn
Director of Marketing and Enrolments

On Monday 14 March we are asking students to wear their craziest socks to school and bring along a gold coin donation to help support World Down Syndrome Day. 

On Monday 21 March 2022 the Koojarewon Youth Camp staff will be leading the JC Year 6 SMART Leadership Day at our Stephen Street Campus.

Event details:

• Parents are required to drop off your child at the AFL Oval, SSC at 7.30am as the program will commence with a BBQ breakfast
• Parents are invited to attend the breakfast and a jotform has been sent out for RSVPs
• Activities will conclude at 11.45am
• WSC students will be walked back to their Campus by Mr Paul Baker and HSC students will catch the bus back to their Campus with Miss Kellie Maddock
• Breakfast and Morning Tea will be provided for the students. The cost will be covered by the Year Levy.

Students are required to:

• Wear their sports uniform and College hat
• Bring a packed lunch to eat at their normal second break

Permission required:
Parents are requested to go to Parent Lounge to submit your permission by Monday 14 March 2022:

• Login to Parent Lounge >
• click on Events & Payments >
• click on JC 2022 Year 6 SMART Leadership Day >
• Accept / Decline >
• Save

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

Week 7 welcomes back Parent Volunteers in classrooms and excursions/camps. Before being any volunteer work please check in with your Campus Reception to ensure that all Volunteer Compliance Requirements have been fulfilled. This includes:

• Volunteer Registration Form
• Valuing Safe Communities Online Training
• Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccination (See 2022 Letter from Head of College)

On Thursday 24 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 24 March 2022 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.

Permission required:
Parents are requested to go to Parent Lounge to submit your permission by Friday 11 March 2022:

• Login to Parent Lounge >
• click on Events & Payments >
• click on JC 2022 Year 5 Leadership Day >
• Accept / Decline >
• Save

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

The Year 4 Hume Street Campus and Warwick Street Campus students will be attending a three day camp from Wednesday 27 April to Friday 29 April 2022 at Gold Coast Recreation Centre, Tallebudgera located at 1525 Gold Coast Highway, Palm Beach, Qld 4221 (Phone – 5507 0200).

The students will participate in a variety of activities suitable for their age and ability levels. The activities are designed for fun, experiential learning, personal development and building team skills.

Thank you so much for your support this week as we worked to minimise the spread of our latest cases. We have had far less cases since Monday and we are feeling very positive about this. Thank you for your very kind messages as well as a few hilarious ones. They do say laughter is the best medicine and I fully support that.

So that we don’t undo the success of this week, we are going to continue for one more week of classes not joining inside. This will mean no assembly, buddy times etc. We are planning on being able to get together for our Chapel/Bully No Way Day Assembly on Friday. 

Have you ever thought that your child is not eating enough at school or that they may not be drinking enough water? We do hear this regularly and would like to do something to assist this issue.

Starting in Week 9, we are introducing a Crunch and Sip into our morning Brain Break for P-6. We are also going to swap our playtimes and eating times.

Research shows that some of the advantages of this change will include:

• Students will eat more as they are not rushing off to play.
• Students will be more ready to eat after playing.
• Less food wastage - as some students throw food out or leave food just to be ready to play.
• Students will cool down while eating before focusing on learning again.
• Any playground issue can be discussed during eating time as required. This eliminates dealing with these issues during teaching/learning time.

New Play and Eating Times at HSC – times may be adjusted as required once we begin the swap.

Brain Break: between 9am-9.30am Classrooms

First Break
Play time: 10.35am-11.10am
Eating time: 11.15am-11.30am

Second Break
Play time: 1pm-1.20pm
Eating time: 1.25pm-1.35pm

What we need from parents … please pack a piece of fruit or a container of cut fruit or veggie sticks. Put their name on the outside of the container as most classes will have a Crunch and Sip basket for these.

This week gave us a taste of the cooler weather and could act as a hint to make sure we are prepared for it. Please remember, the microfibre sport jacket can be worn with both sport and formal uniforms for both girls and boys. The woollen jumper is also an option and can be added under the sport jacket for extra warmth.

If your child is still cold, layers may be added under the uniform but must not be seen. Girls may wear navy stockings or school socks (not both). Slacks are available for girls from the uniform shop. Please find the Uniform Guide in Parent Lounge.

HSC Campus Photos – Monday 28 March
Our Campus Photos are scheduled for Monday 28 March. Please ensure your child/ren are in the correct uniform. Students in Prep and Year 1 will wear their sports uniform.  All students from Years 2 to 6 are required to wear their formal uniform.

Family Photos
To enable parents to purchase a family photo of all or some of their children who attend Concordia Lutheran College, photos of siblings will be taken in the Hume Street Campus Hall between 8am and 8.15am on photo day. If you would like family photos please collect an envelope from the Campus Reception.

It will be the parents’ responsibility to get their SSC children to HSC for the family photo and then take them to SSC ready for school before 8.30am. If you would like family photos done could you please collect a family photo envelope from Reception prior to photo day. 

At HSC, tuckshop is held on a Thursday. All orders are to be completed online at My Student Account by 3pm each Wednesday. Please notify Reception by 9am on Thursday if your child is absent and we will cancel their order. 

Please note: Week 9 is the last week of Tuckshop.

Thank you so much for continuously supporting our school, especially through fundraising. This term, we are hosting a Colour Explosion School Fun Run.

Start fundraising today.
Did you know? Students raise 3x times more when they fundraise online! Visit myprofilepage.com.au to create your child’s cybersafe fundraising profile. Instructions are in your child’s sponsorship booklet. You have until Friday 23 April to fundraise, so make sure you get cracking!

The big day is coming!
We are so excited to host our Colour Explosion School Fun Run on Thursday 31 March. On the day, make sure your child brings a white shirt and old shorts for the Fun Run and waterslide! They will be covered in non-toxic, high quality colour powder from head to toe! They will also need a water bottle and their hat. Sunscreen will be provided in the classrooms prior to the event.

Each year the Year 4 students attend a Cycle Safety Program with the PCYC at Groom Park. Please find below the details of the program.

Time and Dates:
Thursday 17 March and Thursday 24 March - 9am to 1.30pm

Students are required to:
• wear their sports uniform and College hat;
• bring a packed lunch, water bottle and sunscreen (please do not order tuckshop on these two weeks);
• if you have a bike helmet you are welcome to bring it along. Bikes will be provided by PCYC.

If you haven't already done so, please log in to Parent Lounge to submit your permission for your child to attend.

We are celebrating Harmony Day on Monday 21 March 2022. The students are invited to dress in the colours of their favourite country/flag or wear their national clothing. We will be participating in a variety of activities this day to celebrate the countries represented within our school.

A few dates to add to your calendar

• HSC Community Afternoon Tea –24 March 3.30pm-4.30pm more details in this week’s The Week Ahead (TWA)
• Harmony Day – Monday 21 March – more details below
• Colour Fun Run Thursday 31 March – more details in this week’s The Week Ahead (TWA)

Hi, my name is Andreas Elms and I love Drama! 

I am very excited, as this year I will be joining the Concordia family, teaching Speech and Drama, and coordinating the brand new drama clubs for the Junior College campuses. We have called them "Drama Squad - Hume Street" and "Drama Squad- Warwick Street". 

I have been teaching drama and working with young people in the creative arts for many years and I can't wait to start working with the Concordia students through drama games, improvising, vocal activities, poems, plays, skits and building confidence along the way. 

The Speech and Drama lessons will take place during the school day, where the students can work together in pairs or on their own. The Drama Squad is Wednesdays from 7.30am-8.30am at Warwick St and Fridays from 7.30am - 8.30am at Hume St.

If you would like your child to join the Drama Squad and or speech and drama lessons, please feel free to contact me. 

If you were fortunate enough to receive a Free Plant Voucher with your rates notice this week and do not want this voucher, we would love to collect it. Our students are always looking to extend our planting program and these vouchers can help us considerably. We currently have about 40 bushes/trees to plant in the coming weeks as a result of this program 2021.

With parents and visitors on campus and Assembly and Chapel up and running this week, Warwick Street Campus felt like it was well and truly back for 2022.

At Assembly on Monday, I spoke about the importance of having a lunchbox full of healthy food options each day. Research shows that children who eat healthy food throughout the day have greater concentration and can perform better when they are at school. At WSC we encourage our students to be mindful of what they are eating each day to make sure they are keeping their energy levels up. To assist our students in making sure they are eating enough food each day, we will be introducing some new lunchtime processes.

We will be holding our first Parent Connect Meeting on Monday 14 March at 5.30pm in the Resource Centre. If you would like to come along and meet some new people and find out about all the things happening at WSC, please feel free to come along. We look forward to seeing you there.

WSC Campus Photos – Wednesday 16 March
Our campus photos are scheduled for Wednesday 16 March. Please ensure your child/ren are in the correct uniform. Students in Prep will wear their sports uniform.  All students from Years 1 to 6 are required to wear their formal uniform.

Family Photos
To enable parents to purchase a family photo of all or some of their children who attend Concordia Lutheran College, photos of siblings will be taken in the Warwick Street Campus Shed between 8am and 8.15am on photo day. 

It will be the parents’ responsibility to get their SSC children to WSC for the family photo and then take them to SSC ready for school before 8.30am. If you would like family photos done, please collect a family photo envelope from Reception prior to photo day. 

'Welcome Back' to Campus afternoon is being organised by the Campus Captains. 

We are seeking your assistance with selling boxes of chocolates to help the Warwick Street Campus Parent Connect raise funds for our campus.

In order to estimate how many chocolates we need to order, could you please complete and submit the fillable form below by Friday 18 March, indicating the number of boxes you would be able to sell on our behalf.

More details on the fillable form.

WSC Parent Connect Chocolate Fundraiser 2022

On Monday we will be wearing our craziest socks for Lots of Socks Day to support people with Down Syndrome. We would love to see all parents who are coming on campus to drop their students off on Monday morning, to join the fun and wear their craziest socks!! Prizes are included!!

Hi, my name is Andreas Elms and I love Drama! 

I am very excited, as this year I will be joining the Concordia family, teaching Speech and Drama, and coordinating the brand new drama clubs for the Junior College campuses. We have called them "Drama Squad - Hume Street" and "Drama Squad- Warwick Street". 

I have been teaching drama and working with young people in the creative arts for many years and I can't wait to start working with the Concordia students through drama games, improvising, vocal activities, poems, plays, skits and building confidence along the way. 

The Speech and Drama lessons will take place during the school day, where the students can work together in pairs or on their own. The Drama Squad is Wednesdays from 7.30am-8.30am at Warwick St and Fridays from 7.30am - 8.30am at Hume St.

If you would like your child to join the Drama Squad and or speech and drama lessons, please feel free to contact me. 

At WSC, Tuckshop is held on a Wednesday. All orders are to be completed online at My Student Account by 3pm each Tuesday. Please notify Reception by 9am on Wednesday if your child is absent and we will cancel their order. Tuckshop will finish in Week 9.

What a great pleasure it was to start this week with our first whole campus assembly in the Chapel. While advances in meeting technology have certainly transformed our lives in the past few years, nothing compares to the ability to look out at a group of people greeted with eye contact and warm smiles. 

Our College leaders did a great job preparing and running the assembly and encouraging all students to become actively involved in College life. This was also an opportunity for me to speak for the first time to our 2022 College theme – Imagine the possibilities. My key message was that we often limited not by external factors, but by conditioned internal dialogue that stops us from setting ambitious goals and taking risks. 

We have such amazing talent and potential within our student body, and we must all seek to support our young people in realising their personal possibilities. 

Hello to all our Boarding families

Unfortunately there was a mix up with my article last week - apologies to you all. I have included last week's article as well as this week's so that you are all up-to-date.

Week 7

Rain, rain and more rain! As I write this summary of the past week I think of a text message I received from a parent on Friday, “I guess you have your duck feet on”. That indeed was very true! We spent the weekend indoors, unknowingly building great friendships and learning new things about each other. We are all feeling blessed that all our families are safe and well.

Our week ended with having the Basketball comp cancelled on Friday night due to the rain and the upside to the rain was that we all got pizzas for dinner. School closed early and everyone arrived back to boarding around 2.15pm.

We went to Clifford Gardens for shopping on Saturday so our students did not miss out. On Sunday, we had Church followed by a barbecue brunch and a splash (big splash) in Concordia's heated swimming pool. Our photos are a testament of the fun the students had. Thank you to Troy Chandler for opening up.

Monday was a sluggish start to the week, sun is shining and the rain has moved south. School as normal. Let the week begin.

Activities for the coming weekend will be shopping at Grand Central on Saturday.  Picnic at Queens Park on Sunday. If you are in town please feel free to join us.

I would like to welcome Mr Wally McIntosh to our boarding team and look forward to his contributions to boarding. Wally is our Indigenous officer at the school and it will be great to have his leadership and experience integrated into boarding. We all look forward to working with you.

Students are excited to have Wally on board – Word around the boy’s name is “Where’s Wally?”

Week 8

This week has been a tad quieter than normal, students are working hard trying to get assessments completed while juggling sporting commitments.

The International Women’s Day High Tea was on Tuesday evening and Concordia Old Scholar Lara Stiller attended with her sister, current student Kerri Stiller. The feedback was that the food was superb and totally enjoyable. Big shout out to Mrs Bianca Coleborn, Mrs Michelle Price and their team for your great organisation.

Covid has reached our doors and I would like to thank our nurse, Sister Libby, for her expertise and lovely manner in which she has trained myself and Mr Andrew with the RAT testing.

Sister Libby has a calming allure which settles the students, as it is not the nicest. Libby calls all parents to request the RAT Test first and then follows up with the results.

You are a real asset to our boarding community, Miss Libby. Please feel free to contact Nurse Libby on 0458 827 528 between 8.00am and 4.00pm, Monday to Friday.

Activities for this weekend will be Shopping at Grand Central on Saturday and  Cloud Nine on Sunday afternoon.

Hope you all enjoy our photos!

Take care and stay safe. 

Mrs Maureen Taurima
Boarding Houseparent