You are invited to our country Fair!

A fun filled family afternoon, with entertainment, rides, market and food stalls, side show alley and more

 

Experience Bethania in action!

You are invited to experience for yourself the Bethania difference. View our students in action in various activities across the school. An informative tour with our Principal, Mrs Catherine Eyers will begin at 9am on Thursday 15th March. Light refreshments will be served. A great opportunity to have your questions answered.

Please register your interested to Kelly Layet
klayet@bethania.qld.edu.au or call 3200 5363.

We look forward to meeting you.

                                                                         

Welcome to 2018

Team Bethania is looking forward to seeing everyone Monday 22nd January.  We hope you all had a lovely Christmas and a safe & relaxing holiday.

 

To keep up to date with events throughout the year take a look at our calendar

Available on our website or App.

NB:  Dates may change.

        Calendar will be updated as required

http://www.bethania.qld.edu.au/News-And-Events/School-Calendar

 

At Bethania Lutheran School our students are the centre of everything we do!

Inspiring a love of learning

 Now accepting enrolments for 2018 & beyond for Prep - Yr 6

Every day is an open day @ Bethania.  Call now for your personalised tour.

 

 

STEAM, Makerspace, Aglie Learning Spaces, it all sounds overwhelming doesn’t it? 

Bethania Lutheran School, understands that our students participate in a world where collaborative skills, as well as the ability to design, evaluate and refine solutions to problems – be they physical or virtual are essential.

STEAM is an educational approach to learning that uses a combination of Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics, as access points for guiding student’s critical and creative thinking. The end results are students who take thoughtful risks, engage in experimental learning, problem solving, collaboration and work through the creative process.

The approach to STEAM in our school is not “technology-heavy”, it’s a mix of “hands on making” with new and emerging ways of learning.

Much like Makerspace, where students collaborate for the development of ideas and for constructing solutions to problems or projects, students share ideas, equipment and knowledge.

Depending on the project itself, it will address either Design & Technologies and/or Digital Technologies as well as connect with a range of Learning Areas within the Australian Curriculum.

Contemporary agile learning spaces facilitate movement, collaborative learning, and access to digital technologies has been a guiding factor in how each classroom is designed. By using standing desks, movable soft furnishings, adjustable tables, fit balls and stools, as well as a range of writeable surfaces, we have developed learning spaces that are flexible and engaging. All spaces are owned by the whole class, allowing for movement around the room, promoting the concept of collaborative learning. Our learning spaces include a place for “campfires”, “caves” and “watering holes”, enabling students to participate in whole and small group discussions, as well as providing the opportunity to retreat for independent learning.

At Bethania Lutheran School we pride ourselves in ‘doing education differently’ in order to prepare our students for an ever changing future.

Call for a personalised tour of our state of the art contemporary learning facilities and experience for yourself the Bethania difference.

 

Walking into one of our Learning Spaces, you’ll quickly realise that it’s very different, gone are the days of desks and chairs in a row, chalk board at the front of the room, dependence on snail mail to exchange ideas.

Today, they’re replaced with real world experiences and collaboration happening right in the palm of our student’s hands, and with that comes a great opportunity for a different kind of teacher – led instruction – one that is actually not teacher-led, but instead is teacher-facilitated. It’s called ‘project based learning,’ or PBL. Though PBL has been around since the early 20^th century, our teachers today, are finding it a very useful tool in their ever growing tool kit.

PBL expands on the popular educational theory that students learn best by experiencing real world problems and working together to find solutions. It’s giving our students a chance to critically & creatively think, and develop the problem solving skills needed as soon as they walk out the door into the real world.

Teachers are able to give students an authentic real world problem/ challenge that drives the learning. So teachers will never hear ‘Why do I need to know this?’ Students work together and solve a problem, by applying the knowledge that they learn along the way. The project may take days, weeks even months as they encounter and overcome challenges, by designing and redesigning their solutions.

Don’t get me wrong, PBL at Bethania definitely isn’t slapped together. Teachers attend professional development sessions, collaboration takes place. It’s very carefully scaffolded includes multiple subjects and assessed accordingly.

Research indicates that students involved with project based learning

• Become more engaged, self directed learners
• Learn more deeply and can transfer their learning to new situations
• Improve problem solving and collaboration skills

Project Based Learning is a way to reach all students and get them engaged to work towards a creative goal.

Bethania Lutheran School – Educating differently.

                                                         

 

 

Eye Eye Captain

Congratulations Bethania Lutheran School students on the hugely successful production of ‘Eye Eye Captain’, written by our very own, Principal, Mrs Catherine Eyers.

The students who are currently in years 5 & 6 took to the stage on June 8 for their first performance. Performing in a musical is not an easy task, but it can be a life altering experience as most of our students had never set foot onto a stage.

Laughter came from the audience from the very first minute till the very end. A story of 3 pirate crews came to life as they told the story of how the mighty Captain Golden Eye gets his golden eye back. Students certainly owned their characters, adding a little extra pizazz.

Every good story needs a twist, and boy this did not disappoint!!

We received endless reviews and comments saying how professional the show was and how energetic and fantastic the cast was.

Our 2017 cast were blown away with a surprise visit by a few original members of the 2009 cast, sharing some advice like ‘enjoy’, ‘this is a wonderful experience’, plus a few more encouraging comments.

‘I am so proud of this amazing cast! They have worked so hard and the final product was incredible. Thank you for bringing ‘Eye Eye Captain’ to life’. Mrs Eyers continues to say,

‘The amazing personal & artistic growth each and everyone has undergone in the past few months has impressed me to no end.’ Catherine also explains that she is so grateful to the brilliant crew, who helped to bring this musical to life with painting and constructing sets, costuming making, choreography and the list continues.

It was an amazing production! Personally I am so grateful that I could be a part of this experience. Watching the students grow, and become confident within themselves makes me so happy, what more could you ask for!

Looking forward to the next musical experience.

Bethania Lutheran School - A small school doing BIG things

Editorial: Kelly Layet

Photo courtesy of: Simon Woolnough

 

                                                                                   

   

 

Engaged, empowered students getting excited about learning what more could anyone ask for? At Bethania Lutheran School our students are developing positive images of themselves as learners. The dedication and commitment to excellence in contemporary learning, by all the teaching staff, has made this possible. Deputy Principal, Mrs Sarah Schnetker, has been recognised for her role by being named a ‘2017 Rising Star’. Mrs Schnetker has been named as one of the top 30 up-and coming leaders in education, by The Educator Magazine.

Rising Stars have been nominated by their colleagues for their expertise, strength of character, willingness to innovate, passion and vision. In addition to those attributes, each of the educators profiled shares an ability to lead.”

Sarah has collaborated with our teaching team with targeted professional learning that has enabled them to work along side students to facilitate flexible and deep learning. 100% of Bethania’s teaching team are applying contemporary teaching practices in agile learning spaces.

Mrs Schnetker has implemented or supported numerous activities at BLS, such as a coding and robotics program, makerspaces in every classroom, 1:1 Ipad program plus many more.

Sarah explains that she’s excited about the opportunities that we are providing our students on a daily basis. We are giving them the chance to participate in a contemporary society and not just observe. We are encouraging them to make choices about their own learning, to think critically and creatively and to collaborate with their teachers and peers to build on great ideas.

‘This is an exciting time be an educator, we have countless tools at our fingertips. This award isn’t about me, it’s about our exceptional teachers I work with everyday and our students. I am genuinely passionate about the learning that is happening here at Bethania’ Sarah said.

Congratulations to Mrs Schnetker on being named 2017 Rising Star.

Bethania Lutheran School – inspiring future leaders