Saint Mark's Anglican Church

This month, St Mark’s The Gap welcomes their new Priest in Charge, The Reverend Ann Edwards. “St Mark’s is a great group of people, and The Gap is a great community,” says Ann. “I’m so excited to be part of what’s happening here.”

Rev’d Ann is brand new to ministry, having previously worked as a speech pathologist and academic. She is putting the finishing touches on her PhD thesis, just in time for this new challenge.

Rev’d Ann lands in The Gap as St Mark’s emerges from the COVID times of online worship and social events. “It is so good to be able to see people again. At its heart, the Anglican church is deeply immersed in its community. That’s our DNA. It feels like we’re reawakening, as we can start offering things in our community again, like our book club, our site is in use by lots of community groups again, and Christmas is the icing on the Christmas cake. I’m most excited to be a part of a committee looking at setting up a local Repair Café, which is a regular event where volunteers repair all sorts of things for the local community, which is one more way to reduce unnecessary landfill and live more sustainably”

A key activity this month has been joining the other churches in The Gap, in collecting goods for the Hampers of Hope. As the economic impact of COVID continues, parcels of Christmas treats, necessities, and gifts will come as a relief to locals doing it tough. “I have met amazing locals in The Gap, both those that are donating to the hampers, and those

Merv Probert, Alysha Milland, Kate Kasper, Ann Edwards,

Di Norton, and Penny Probert - Photo by Mark Boltman that are reaching out to us for this practical assistance. That is the real joy of this job.”

Donations for Hampers of Hope will be finished by the time of publication, but the churches are collecting names of local people and families to receive a hamper. For more information about the Repair Café, please contact Rev’d Ann at ann.edwards@anglicanchurchsq.org.au You will find more information about what’s happening at St Mark’s on facebook and stmarksthegap.org.au

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Payne Road State School

We celebrated National Outdoor Classroom Day this year with a strong focus on connecting to nature – a key element of our personal wellbeing at Payne Road State School. We intentionally drew on the inspiration of Dr Miriam Rose Ungunerr Baumann, Senior Australian of the Year 2021 and Aboriginal Elder, for the concept of ‘DADIRRI’ – using our senses to connect the natural environment and centre ourselves by feeling the grass/wind/sun, listening to rustling leaves and breezes, smelling the trees and floral scents and looking at natures bright and varied colours with eyes open or closed.

Our P&C and parents of our indigenous students were invited to a community consultation earlier in the term where they interacted with the work of Dr Miri am Rose, with a view to drawing inspiration for our new ‘Heal Country Mural’. Our First Nations parents shared authentic stories of their families’ experiences which helped us all to connect to country with event stronger purpose, and in the true spirit of reconciliation.

Our next steps are for Ms Shannon Gibbs, our resident Art Specialist, to do the same with our indigenous students and their friends. They will come together in our Yugari Muk garden (meaning spirit of creative energy in Turbal language). All of our students have engaged with Miriam Rose’s documentary on ‘Dadirri – the deep inner listenin g” and have spent time with their classes being quiet and centred in nature. Student feedback from our schoolwide Dadirri experience will provide valuable input into Education programmes in schools and parishes throughout Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA. The songs each year level performed have been recorded and will be made available to families to enjoy.

Year Three Festival Frenzy - Year Three held their annual Festival Frenzy Showcase on Monday 22 November. We are most grateful to the Parents who were able to help set up the stalls in the morning. The students were so excited to share their learning and loved having the other classes visit their stalls over the course of the morning.

Small Biz - Big Change Market Day: This year’s ‘Small Biz - Big Change’ market day on Wednesday 24 November for our Year 5/6 students is the culmination of their classroom learning about business and economics within the learning area of Hass, as well as applying mathematics concepts of budgeting and finance, which have been taught to both year levels throughout the term.

St Vincent De Paul Christmas Appeal - Thanks to all those families who continue to give so generously to our Christmas Appeal. Next week we will be handing over these beautiful baskets to St Vincent de Paul representatives.

Christmas Stall - The Parents and Friends are again running a Christmas Stall for the children to purchase gifts for all their family members. This year’s stall will be held on Friday, November 26. Many thanks again to everyone who has already kindly offered to donate items for the stall.

Paul McGlone - Acting Principal

the final design of our historic mural. We look forward to collaboratively creating our Heal Country Mural in the spirit of reconciliation, and as a place for all students to be reminded of their connection with nature – key to our wellbeing!

Nicky Brazzale – Principal

The Gap State High School

Our Interact Club have been collecting donations from our generous families for the Brisbane Basket Brigade. This is a non for profit organisation that provides food and gifts for people that need a hand during the Christmas season. Our school has been asked to donate hygiene and personal bathroom products to help those that are less fortunate than themselves.

Our Year 9 English classes have been engaging in a unit on contentious issues in the media and have been looking at the way Indigenous Australians are represented in media texts. Ben Barker came to the school to speak to the classes about his experiences with media as an Indigenous person as well as playing his music for them. Both students and teachers were very engaged and benefitted from the authentic insights into the culture of our first nations people.

In November we celebrated National Tuckshop Day. Our Tuckshop have recently introduced a breakfast menu and includes lots of delicious and nutritious home made options. They even make their own bread rolls and croissants. We are very grateful to our Tuckshop staff and volunteers who work tirelessly everyday to provide our students and staff with tasty and affordable food.

On Thursday 11 November, Junior School captains Amelia and Mahima, represented The Gap State High School at the Remembrance Day ceremony at the Walton Bridge Reserve. Amelia and Mahima read the poem In Flanders Field and laid a wreath on behalf of all staff and students of The Gap SHS. It was a beautiful and touching ceremony.

The Gap SHS would like to wish all our families and The Gap community a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year. We look forward to seeing everyone in the new year for 2022!

Anne McLauchlan – Principal

St Peter Chanel

Prep Orientation - We welcomed our new Preps for 2022 on both Wednesday 3rd November and Thursday 11th November. Our new Prep’s were made to feel at home by our Senior Primary students who spent time reading to them in small groups. The children then spent some time participating in a series of activities with their new teachers and classmates. We are looking forward to welcoming our Preps and their families to our community in 2022.

Michael Mangan Christmas Concert - On Wednesday 17th November the students enjoyed participating in a Christmas Song Workshop with well known Michael Mangan. Michael Mangan is a composer, teacher, performer and liturgist who is based in Brisbane, Australia. A former specialist music teacher, he has composed over 250 pieces which are widely used in Liturgy and Religious

(Continued on page 23) The Western Echo December 2021/January 2022 Page 22 website: http://www.westernecho.com.au