College Newsletter Issue 1 / 24 February 2017 From the Principal Learning All The Time The St Andrews Lutheran College Motto of Celebrating the Gospel, Nurturing the Individual, Empowering Lifelong Learners truly embodies our aspiration at St Andrews to foster graduates who are competent, confident and optimistic, armed with skills and knowledge to make a positive mark on society. Of course, the whole context of Lifelong Learning has particular relevance to me personally at the moment, as I continue to receive and process a considerable amount of information and data about all things ‘Andrian’. What have you learnt in the past 12 months? Some of the things published in print media last year included the following facts: octopuses need mental stimulation; carrots used to be purple; the world’s deserts produce 1,700 million tonnes of dust; whales catnap; men eat more broccoli than women; a petaflop is a measurement of computing speed equivalent to one thousand trillion calculations a second; pears sink while apples float; e-mail addresses beginning with A, M or S get more spam that those starting with Q or Z; Henry V invented passports; the Sydney Opera House was inspired by a peeled orange; the world’s longest insect is 56cm long.
foci this year for ourselves and for our students is the catchcry of ‘Stretch Yourself’. I can only think of the great inventor Thomas Edison who famously said “I have not failed; I have just found 10,000 ways that it did not work” on his way to developing the first patented light bulb. In our quick and click lifestyle there can be an expectation of instant success and a willingness to give up on anything that does not come quickly or easily. Real learning occurs where we have to think and problem-solve. Learning is like food. The quick takeaway version is easy, but a constant fast food diet leaves us flabby and eventually bored. For good growth we need a good solid diet that takes time to prepare and consume. It gives us something really worthwhile to chew over. I am delighted to be learning at St Andrews. Now… I must persevere with people’s names. After all, there are only about 4000 of them in the immediate Andrian community! Truly, I give thanks to God everyday for the privilege that is serving in this, your School. Peace David Bliss Principal
Chaplains Chat For it is by God’s grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God’s gift, so that no one can boast about it. Ephesians 2:8-9 (GNT)
All learning is interesting and we never know where it will lead us. Irrespective of the mode of learning, and there are many, it is the attitude to learning which is paramount to realising one’s potential to thrive as a learner. To that, I would add the notion of quest. In an age of ‘instant gratification’ for too many, I become concerned that the virtues of persistence and perseverance are not valued highly enough, by adults and children alike. As staff at St Andrews, one of our
How good are you at handling defeat? My two oldest children (aged 6 & 5) have begun playing chess (God bless them) after the Gold Coast City Council library network held chess education programs during the school holidays, which they attended. It has been wonderful to see their eyes delight in learning the different moves and coming to understand the strategy and fun of playing chess. At least, it was wonderful, until the games became more serious and one child began to feel the pain and anguish of defeat! I think we have all been there. Whether it is chess – or perhaps more recently – with the school swimming carnival – whenever there are winners, there are also losers. I remember when I grew up as the youngest of four children that I desperately wanted to win everything but often it didn’t happen, no matter how hard I tried. It wasn’t my incompe-