Concordia CONNECT Term 4, Week 4, 2018 In this issue... From the St John's Campus Principal From the Head of Middle School Year 7s in Canberra Year 3 City to Henley Bike Ride University of Adelaide Ingenuity Expo Year 2s learn about Digital Technologies Diary Dates St John's Campus Hear from the Principal about our new nature play area and read about some recent learning activities. In this Section From the St John's Campus Principal City to Henley Year 2 'How We Organise Ourselves' Unit Indigenous Storyteller visits Year 1 Christmas Market Stall Save the Date - Concordia Gala Ball 2019 Concordia Campus The Head of Middle School reflects on Millennials' use of social media, plus read about Year 7 Canberra Trips and more. In this Section From the Head of Middle School Year 7 Canberra Trips Save the Date - Concordia Gala Ball 2019 Year 12 Exam Timetables University of Adelaide Ingenuity Expo Business Breakfast Year 8 Dad Joke Competition COCA 50 Year Reunion Student Achievements From the Archives: Brown and Blue - Changes to the College Uniform Sport Click here for the latest news and results. In this Section Concordia Campus Results Cricket Achievement St John's Campus Results Music Read about a recent public performance at the Strawberry Fair, as well as the upcoming Barossa Strings event. In this Section Jazz Collective and Big Band 3 play at the 2018 Strawberry Fair Barossa Strings Music Notes for 2019 Noticeboard Diary dates, events and notices from around the College and the wider community. In this Section Diary Dates Upcoming Events The School Shop An Update from the LLL: Toys that Teach Public Notices & Events St John's Campus Hear from the Principal about our new nature play area and read about some recent learning activities. In this Section From the St John's Campus Principal City to Henley Year 2 'How We Organise Ourselves' Unit Indigenous Storyteller visits Year 1 Christmas Market Stall Save the Date - Concordia Gala Ball 2019 From the St John's Campus Principal At Concordia College we are blessed with a community that provides outstanding support in so many different ways to the programs and broader vision of our College. This volunteer support allows us to achieve so much more than we would otherwise be able to achieve and is greatly appreciated. We recently opened our amazing new nature play area here at the St John’s Campus with students now enjoying utilising this exciting new space within our grounds. The bubbly noise of excited young students playing in this wonderful new space at recess and lunch times is lovely to hear. This innovative project was made possible by the generous support of funds from our St John’s Parents and Friends (P&F) group. Our P&F is made up of volunteer parents who generously give of their time to support the strengthening of our community while at the same time raising valuable funds to support projects like this. You may like to know that through the combined efforts of many volunteers led by our P&F we raised $18,000 at our Quiz Night last term. This money along with other funds raised by the P&F fully funded the nature play area. At our campus we have many different ways in which parents provide support to our community including: our Parents and Friends committee; our Year Level Coordinators; sporting team coaches and managers; helpers on excursions and a variety of ‘in classroom’ support. We are always encouraged by and thankful for this generous support that is willingly provided by our parents. Later this month we will be holding our Annual General Meeting of the P&F where we will receive reports from our Co- Presidents, our Treasurer and myself. We will also conduct elections for next years P&F Team. With the retirement of a number of members this year we are looking for new members to join this team to continue providing community building and fundraising opportunities into the future. Next year we are already planning for a different approach in the operation of our P&F with much greater support from our College Community Relations team. I would strongly encourage all parents to consider supporting our P&F next year by possibly joining the team. As well as general members we are also looking for a few new leaders to steer our team into next year and beyond. If you would like more information about this please contact either myself or a member of the current P&F team. In the coming weeks you will receive an invitation to join us at the AGM and hear about our vision for moving forward. Please consider joining us for this important evening. Michael Paech Principal - St John's Campus City to Henley Another great learning adventure was had by the Year 3 students last week as they rode from the City to Henley Beach. This was a culmination of our unit of Sharing the Planet where we looked at how we can interact responsibly with our local environment. The students stopped to see the changes as they progressed along the river, including a historical wander through the old cemetery. A sense of achievement was evident on all of the young faces as they enjoyed a well deserved ice-block at the end of the ride. Well done to all involved. Anita Ruggiero and Mike Kriewaldt Year 3 Teachers Year 2 'How We Organise Ourselves' Unit Over the past six weeks, the Year 2s have inquired into the following Central Idea: Digital Systems change in response to needs and ideas. This has been a wonderful unit, with students engaging in various learning experiences to help build their understanding in the important learning area of Digital Technologies. Students have dismantled hardware; learnt about how digital hardware, software and coding work together; discovered the importance of coding to ensure digital systems work correctly; worked with Year 8 students from Concordia Campus to learn more about block coding; worked on coding mini Sphero robots themselves; and had a guest speaker share information about how digital systems function and where they are used in everyday life. It has been an engaging unit with many wonderful understandings being developed and great action taken by the students in response to their learning. Alicia Puiatti, Jasmin Dinno and Jenny Kowald Year 2 Teachers Indigenous Storyteller visits Year 1 In line with our current ‘How we Express Ourselves’ unit, the Year 1s invited Trent Hill, an Indigenous storyteller, to share a Dreamtime story with us. We were captivated by his unique storytelling style as we listened intently, learning several life lessons along the way. Trent also shared artefacts from Indigenous culture, explaining how they were made from bush materials and used for everyday living. Following on from Trent’s visit the children have been keen to explore stories from other cultures around the globe. Celina Read, Rachel Harrip and Maddy Russell Year 1 Teachers Christmas Market Stall Please join us as we celebrate the Christmas spirit at our St John’s Campus Christmas Market Stall. Christmas carols will be sung as you buy Christmas decorations and there will be mini gingerbread house kits, ice-blocks and Christmas food: Friday, 30 November at 2.45pm in the Courtyard We hope to see you there! Save the Date - Concordia Gala Ball 2019 Please save the date for the Concordia College Gala Ball 2019: Saturday 2 November 2019, 7pm Panorama Ballroom, Adelaide Convention Centre Back to top Concordia Campus The Head of Middle School reflects on Millennials' use of social media, plus read about Year 7 Canberra Trips and more. In this Section From the Head of Middle School Year 7 Canberra Trips Save the Date - Concordia Gala Ball 2019 Year 12 Exam Timetables University of Adelaide Ingenuity Expo Business Breakfast Year 8 Dad Joke Competition COCA 50 Year Reunion Student Achievements From the Archives: Brown and Blue - Changes to the College Uniform From the Head of Middle School I came across an interview with Simon Sinek recently about the ‘Millennial’ generation, and how they bring particular points of view that sometimes produce challenges. Of course, stereotyping a generation is not always applicable or helpful, but in his responses I found some useful information and affirmation for what we value at Concordia - and maybe some good advice for us as parents and families. He talks about the use of technology in general, and social media in particular, and the effect of their use - that of the release of dopamine in the brain. This dopamine effect is the same as that produced by gambling and drinking alcohol. In his opinion, ‘unfettered’ access to devices at a young age prevents children from learning to develop deep, meaningful relationships because they don’t practise or develop the necessary skills. They turn to social media instead of friends and family because it gives them an instant (albeit temporary) solution, and it is well documented that people who spend a lot of time on Facebook are more likely to suffer from depression. There is nothing wrong with cell phones or social media per se, this is just about balance. At Concordia we have strengthened our policy in relation to the use of technology at break times, encouraging our students to interact socially and get some physical exercise instead. Just as we don’t allow our young people unrestricted access to the liquor cupboard, neither should we allow them unrestricted access to social media. At school we often need to deal with the fallout of relationship breakdowns between students due to the after-hours use of social media.