We have just finished celebrating the graduation of the 2018 school cohort of Year Twelve students and now the Year Eleven students are coming to terms with being the oldest students in the High School! Something that the Year Fives will shortly be doing in the Primary school as well.
I was blessed last week to spend some time at the Year Ten camp at Emu Gully. It was a well-run camp in which the students were challenged by the activities and instructors, as well as just enjoying some time away together and having fun. It also showed the spirit and team-oriented nature of this year level as they willingly pitched in and helped one another.
Most students are currently in the middle of completing assignments and exams, especially the Year Twelve students who are experiencing a particularly busy time at the moment. Whilst the important academic work is crucial to student learning, schools are about more than just exams. Some of the great memories of school, moments which people treasure are of the camps and activities undertaken with their school mates. September is certainly the month for that!
Parents send their children to school with the expectation that they will learn the core skills of literacy and numeracy. At Mueller we invest in a lot of resources in these pursuits and highly value these important skills for students. In fact, these remain a primary focus of most education systems, including the Queensland’s QCE system, however there is a growing acknowledgement that there is more to preparing students for life beyond school than reading and writing. The new QCE system acknowledges this and includes scope for students learning ‘21st century skills’.
What a great day the Mueller fete was on Saturday! The smiling faces, the music and laughter on the rides, the smell of doughnuts and pizzas cooking and the magnificent winter weather all adds up to everything we wanted the fete to be. The sense of community was palpable, and I even ran into a bunch of past students who were making the annual trip back to the Mueller Fete.
In reflecting on the many student achievements of the semester there is much to be thankful for: a wonderful musical ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’, a moving ANZAC Day service and march back in April, Year level camps for Year Eight and Eleven and lots of great learning. Even this week there has been Year Six Colonial Day, The Day of the Notables for Year Eight, Primary Athletics and ‘Principal for a Day’. No wonder we need a holiday! Whilst we are very proud of our students and these achievements, we are conscious that Mueller College is made up of 1560 individuals, each of whose development is equally important.
“Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful” 1 Corinthians 12: 7 & 8 (The Message)
This week we lead into NAPLAN testing for the Years 3, 5, 7 & 9 students. NAPLAN is not something that we put undue attention or pressure on, however it does provide us with valuable information about the literacy and numeracy progress of our students. The diversity of learning offered in Mueller places high value on not only academic pursuits but social and emotional development, interpersonal skills, confidence and creativity. We wish students ‘all the best’ this week, regardless of the activity they are undertaking and pray that will enjoy their week in the Mueller community.
Welcome to Term Two! I hope that you enjoyed a break over the Easter weekend and holidays, if you were fortunate enough to get some time off that is. In the current season at Mueller College it seems that every time the students come back from holidays there are changes which have occurred to the Mueller campus. This holiday has been no different!
A new school year is full of new opportunities. Students have had a week or so in their new classes with new teachers undertaking new learning. I pray that your children are loving the new year and if they are not that they will adjust quickly and settle in well.