Good Shepherd Grapevine – 21 October 2021

Upcoming Events

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Humility

Do not exalt yourself in the king’s presence, and do not claim a place among great men.

Proverbs 25:6

Humility is a virtue that is often overlooked and seldom appreciated in our world. It’s the gifted athletes, musicians, actors, and entrepreneurs of the world that are admired. Seldom will you find a rich or famous person described as being humble. Humility, however, is a virtue that God loves.

To understand what it means to be humble, we need only look to Jesus. His entire life and ministry were lived with humility. When the Lord God came into this world, he was not born in a palace but in a lowly stable in Bethlehem. Jesus’ entire life was spent in the humble service of others. His life and work weren’t about “ME” as so many live today. Jesus dedicated his life to the humble and loving service of others.

Why else would the Lord have allowed himself to be hung on the cross like a criminal? How else can we explain his willingness to endure his Father’s wrath and the torments of hell? What other reason could there be for Jesus to lay down his life for lost mankind?

God doesn’t ask us to endure death by crucifixion or face the wrath of God, nor do we need to. Jesus took care of that. He has saved us from our sins and gained for us eternal life. What God wants of us, the ones who have experienced his mercy and love by faith in Jesus, is that we live our lives with humility. Let us live, not to make a name for ourselves, but live in the loving service of others. Live not for our glory but to the glory of God.

Submitted by Dan Hausler

Prayer Corner

This fortnight, staff and students pray for:

FAMILIES

LAWRENCE: Sam, Sarah, Dexter and Scarett
THOMSON: Anouska, Adam, Bennett and Poppy

STAFF

Dan Hausler – 2/3 Teacher
Jayden Evans – 6/7 Teacher
Anne Marschall – Principal
Fiona Lloyde – Chaplain

PRAYERS
We pray for each of our Year 6 and Year 7 students as their time at Good Shepherd comes to an end. We wish them all the best as they prepare to continue their educational journeys into secondary school.

Birthdays

October

4 Chase Brooks
6 Jasper Podolski
10 Ruby Bawden
14 Georgia Barrett
17 Bella Harvey
20 Bailey Johnson
21 Oscar Doyban
22 Tom Noack
23 Judith Ratsch
24 Karlo Scholz
25 Lily Brooks
26 Harvey John
26 Charlie Klemm
28 Deegan Evans
28 Luke Scanlon

Baptisms

October

24 Natalia Leon
25 Nash Jachmann
28 Amelia Klemm

Dear Parents,

After three months of leave it was so good to return and see the children’s smiling, happy faces and hear about the exciting things that had happened in my absence. I am very grateful to Darren Altus for his strong and caring leadership of Good Shepherd and his willingness to share his gifts and experience to bless our school community. In our handover session Darren said he also felt blessed by his time at Good Shepherd and very welcomed by the whole school community.

As you know next year, we will no longer have a year seven class which in the short-term means reduced numbers of students at Good Shepherd. The GSLS Board has made the decision to not reduce teaching staff. We will maintain five classes, our fabulous teaching staff and the specialist subject teachers for Arts, Sport and German. Foundation: Mrs Fiona McDonald, Year 1/2: Mrs Abby Mann, Year 1/2: Mrs Jen Grieger, Year 3/4: Mr Jayden Evans and Year 5/6: Mr Dan Hausler. The classes will be smaller, but this gives us a wonderful opportunity to collaborate closely together across class groupings with teachers working together to better target individual student interests and abilities. The teachers are already very excitedly planning how to maximise the use of the learning spaces including using the German room as an extra breakout meeting space on the days when it’s not being used for German. We are also keen to incorporate the ideas of our students as we reimagine the learning spaces for 2022. New year – new possibilities!

Next year will also see changes to the school day (refer to my letter dated 15/10/21 for more details). Aside from aligning us more closely with the other Barossa schools, the earlier start and finish time will allow for a greater level of supervision and safety for those students who catch buses or are dropped at school very early as well as reducing the amount of instructional time that is missed by a number of students who access the afternoon feeder buses.

Through school banking you may be aware of the LLL (Lutheran Laypersons League), a charitable banking institution. The LLL has recently made available bursaries for 50% of school fees (up to $5,000) for eligible students in their first year of formal education at primary and secondary school who otherwise would not be able to attend a Lutheran school due to financial hardship. If this is of interest to you the application forms are available from the Front Office or you can access via this link. Please note that applications close CoB Friday 5th November 2021. Please remember that regardless of whether families are eligible for bursaries or not we will always support families experiencing hardship to access a Christian education at Good Shepherd.

At present COVID restrictions are much as they were at the end of last term. Parents are welcome to attend Assembly and Chapel but must physically distance, wear a mask and QR check in. We will recommence cuppa time after Chapel (following recommended guidelines). At this point in time all the special end of year events such as Christmas Assembly, Graduation Dinner and End of Year Graduation Service can still go ahead. The Graduation Service may not be able to be a whole school event. Arrangements will be subject to SA Health directions at that time. As always, we will communicate any changes with you as soon as we are made aware.

Blessings,

Anne Marschall
Principal

IB PYP Learner Profile Awards

Week 2 – Monday 18 October 2021

FDN: All Students (Reflective Thinkers with Amazing Communication Skills)
Last week, the Foundation class showed their amazing thinking skills each time they reflected on their first time trying rounds of Daily 5. They spoke knowledgeably and listened actively as they made observations in circle time about how their new learning had gone. We are so very proud of them!

1/2: Charlie Kenny (Communicator)
Charlie demonstrates his developed communication skills when he shares his ideas and knowledge with others. He has a strong voice when speaking and has grown a great reading and writing confidence also.

2/3: Amelia Klemm (Inquirer)
Amelia displayed plenty of commitment towards her inquiry into the many different roles that exists within an Angaston business. She revealed some interesting information and enthusiastically worked with her partner.

4/5: Deegan Evans (Principled and Caring)
Deegan is a kind and helpful student at GSLS. He gets along well with his peers and is a valued member of the year four/five class. Deegan demonstrates he is a great teacher and role model. He is principled; regularly seeking justice for himself and others. Deegan makes good choices even when it is difficult, sometimes putting aside friendships to do what is fair and just.

6/7: Heath Atyeo (Knowledgeable)
Heath has displayed a fantastic attitude to his reading this term and is completing novels independently and has shown an increased love of reading which has been amazing to see.

Classroom Snapshot – Mr Hausler’s 2/3 Class

The Year 3 students in Mr Hausler’s class have just commenced their “How we Organise Ourselves” unit of inquiry. It has the central idea “Interconnected communities rely on invested citizens to thrive”. Students found this a little difficult to understand, so worked in small groups to break down to meaning of the key words within the Central Idea and decided to re-define it as “A group of citizens who are connected in lots of different ways need each other to contribute to grow stronger”.

Students have begun to explore some of the different businesses within their immediate community, Angaston, and identify the types of jobs that could exist within these businesses to ensure that it was able to thrive. Some of the businesses the students inquired into was a café like D&M’s, the hospital, Foodland and the butchers shop.

Students are now starting to identify other businesses which need to exist to ensure these businesses can thrive, such as truck delivery drivers, garbage collectors and farmers. Students considered which jobs are interconnected and what might happen if people in the community didn’t have these skills.

Library News

Scholastic Book Club Issue 7 is out now! Orders need to be returned to the school by Monday 25th October.

As usual, there are 2 ways to order;

Fill out the order form on the back page. Rip it out and return to the school with the correct cash.
Order online (LOOP). Go to scholastic.com.au/LOOP and register your details. You are able to order and pay online.

If the books are a gift and you do not wish them to go home in the class tray please select the gift box when ordering online or leave me a note and I will arrange to get the books to you another way.

BOOK FAIR will commence Tuesday of Week 5, the 9th of November.

It will run from the Tuesday until the Thursday; Before school 8.30-8.55am, first half of recess and from 3.30-4pm in the Library.

See you there!

ICAS and Premier’s Reading Challenge – Awards

Toward the end of Term 4 we will hand out certificates and medals from both the ICAS assessments and the Premier’s Reading Challenge. Stay tuned to find out what week this will happen in as we are still awaiting the arrival of all of these items.

P&F News

GSLS 60th ANNIVERSARY
In 2022, Good Shepherd will be celebrating its 60th year. This is a great milestone for the school! As part of the 60th celebrations, the P&F will be creating a cookbook, with your favourite recipes. We are forming a sub-committee especially for this event and would love if you could help in any way. Please contact Virginia Harvey or Amanda Pech to express your interest!

BILLY G’S COOKIE DOUGH
For our Term 4 fundraiser, we are selling Billy G’s Gourmet Cookie & Biscuit Dough. Billy G’s dough comes in 1kg tubs of dough. You can either eat it straight out of the container or you can bake up to 40 large 25g cookies, per container. There are 10 dough-licious flavours to choose from, including an option for our fur babies (dogs). Fundraising forms have been sent home with your child this week. If you require an additional form, please see the front office.

AGM 15/11/2021
Our AGM will be held on the 15th of November at 7pm. This will be held in the staff room. We have the following positions up for nomination:

· President (1 year vacancy),
· Vice President (2 year),
· Treasurer (2 years) and,
· Canteen Manager (1 year).

If you are interested in one of these positions or would like to know more about the roles please reach out to Amanda Pech or Sarah Gripton.

PIZZA & PLANNING 29/11/2021
Please mark in your diaries that the next P&F meeting is on Monday 29th of November at 7pm. The meeting will be held in the staff room (or on the deck if weather permits). This is a casual evening where we enjoy some pizza and also plan for the 2022 P&F events. All welcome.

LECTERN
Thank you everyone for all your fundraising efforts. With some of the money we have been able to purchase a brand new lectern.

Chaplain’s News

Dear Good Shepherd Community,

Wishing you all a fabulous second week of Term 4.

What is resilience?

The dictionary describes resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.

In the bible Jesus talks about having tough times, he told us that we will have tough times… but He also reminded us that He would always be with us. If He’s always with us, then He will help us. Be strong in Him and seek peace by keeping your mind on Him. We must stop dwelling on the bad. To be resistant we need to set our minds on Christ so that we have joy in times of trouble.

Joshua 1:9 says,

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not be terrified or dismayed(intimidated), for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

This weeks newsletter article by Parenting Ideas is on… Everyday resilience lessons for kids.

Gods richest blessings,

Fiona Lloyde
Chaplain

Everyday resilience lessons for kids

Muscles need to be exercised daily if they’re to remain strong, flexible and do their jobs. Resilience is no different. If it’s not exercised regularly our resilience will waste away.

Resilience is developed through regular daily use. Here are some simple ways you can encourage a child or young person of any age to flex their resilience muscles every day.

Wait until mealtime

Discourage them from random snacking when they are hungry. Encourage them to wait until mealtime. By tolerating minor discomforts such as hunger, thirst or even some worries, kids get the practise needed to help them manage bigger future hurdles that may come their way. You can build your child’s tolerance of discomfort by encouraging them to delaying immediate gratification even just for a few moments.

Do more than expected

Great sportspeople routinely train more than others and push through mental and physical boundaries. Encourage your child to push through boundaries and do more than expected in small ways. Perhaps they don’t just clean their bedroom but tidy the living room as well. They may aim to shoot 10 goals in a row at basketball practice but keep going until they reach fifteen. Going past the finish line is wonderful resilience practice. What else can you do that would encourage your child to do more than expected on a regular basis?

Save pocket money

Did you know that when you encourage your child to save some of their pocket money rather than spend it immediately you are teaching them to delay gratification, an acknowledged resilience attribute? Asking a child to set aside some pocket money for saving, some for charity and some for spending will help develop a balanced use of pocket money. It helps if a child can develop their own savings goal, and parental suggestions can assist. The delay of an immediate reward to achieve a greater or later reward needs to be practiced if it’s to become part a child’s pattern of behaviour.

Make the bed

Resilience comes from doing things that we don’t feel like doing and making a bed is one thing few people enjoy. The daily habit of making a bed (to the best of a child’s or teen’s ability) is a brilliant discipline to develop, which has the bonus of setting kids up well for a productive day at school. What other simple habits that fit into the “don’t-like-to-do” basket that benefits either your child or others in the family?

Help when you don’t feel like it

It’s easy to help at home when they’ve had a good day at school or the weather is fine. It’s much more difficult to step up and help set the table, put the rubbish out or hear a sibling read when they’ve had a bad day at school or the weather is stinking hot. The seemingly small act of sticking to commitments develops discipline and conscientiousness that contributes to a sense of resilience.

Smile when you don’t feel happy

Feelings may be difficult to manage, but behaviour is a choice. Encourage kids to choose happy, or at least act happy by smiling rather than putting on a grumpy face. The brilliant thing about this strategy is that smiling changes their mood so that they begin to experience pleasant emotions.

It’s the small, everyday behaviours we encourage in kids that have the greatest impact on their behaviour, wellbeing and resilience.

Michael Grose

Michael Grose, founder of Parenting Ideas, is one of Australia’s leading parenting educators. He’s an award-winning speaker and the author of 12 books for parents including Spoonfed Generation, and the bestselling Why First Borns Rule the World and Last Borns Want to Change It. Michael is a former teacher with 15 years experience, and has 30 years experience in parenting education. He also holds a Master of Educational Studies from Monash University specialising in parenting education.

SAPSASA Athletics

On Monday 20th September, Priya Rathjen represented the Barossa & Light Sapsasa Athletics team in the 10 year old girls relay team. Priya ran the second leg in the team.

The team competed against other country districts within the state and the girls really enjoyed the experience. Well done Priya!

Finance and Administration News

School Fees – Term 4

Term 4 Fees were sent out on Wednesday 20th of October 2021 with the due date being Friday the 12th of November 2021.

Additionally both the 4/5 and 6/7 camp fees have been added to your accounts. The due dates for payment of camps are as follow:

4/5 Camp for $255.00 due on Monday 25th of October 2021
6/7 Camp for $320.00 due on Friday 5th November 2021.

Uniform Shop

Our Uniform Shop is open each Monday afternoon from 3.15pm – 3.45pm during the school term for any uniform purchases.

Notice of Withdrawal

We remind families that we require one term’s notice in writing of your intention to withdraw a student to avoid being charged an additional term’s fees.

School Card Scheme 2021

Did you know that limits for the school card have now been increased. So you may now be eligible if you have not been in the past. Applications for the School Card Scheme are available online. To check if you are eligible click on the following link or contact Sarah Loveday for further information. https://www.sa.gov.au/topics/education-and-learning/financial-help-scholarships-and-grants/school-card-scheme

Office Hours: 8.30am – 4.00pm

Please avoid phoning between 8.15 – 8.30am as staff are debriefing and in devotion. A phone call prior to 8.30am however will be taken by the answering machine for you to leave a message and we will return your call as soon as possible if required.

Student Absence

Parents are requested to call the office by 9.30am if your child is absent. An answering machine is available to leave a message after hours.

Late Arrivals / Early Departures

If your child is late for school or they depart early for appointments etc parents/carers must sign them in at the front office in the Student Sign In/Out Register.

School Banking

LLL Banking—Lutheran Laypeople’s League. Passbooks to Administration on Monday morning for processing during the week. Application forms for opening an LLL account are available from the front office.

Student Accident Cover

Children are covered 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 52 weeks per year but only in respect to any injuries that happen:

While the student is engaged in school activities and school-related extra-curricular activities (including work experience, vocational training, excursions etc).
While the student is engaged in organised school sporting activities.
While the student is engaged in organised non-school sporting activities with a club that is a member of an established sporting association. The student must be a registered and/or a financial participant of the club.
During travel to and from school, school activities, organised school sporting activities, and organised non-school sporting activities.

Building Blocks Playgroup

This week we enjoyed another great day at playgroup. We spent the morning outside, followed by a story and then fruit time. We finished off with inside play and singing songs.

We love witnessing how each of our youngest members learn through play in each of our different environments.

A big thank you to all for helping to pack up and we look forward to seeing everyone again next week.