14 February 2018

Newsletter Articles

Principals Report

Dear Parents,

The first few weeks of Term One have been busy for our staff and students as we accustom ourselves to the routines of teaching and learning after what was a long summer break. I am so impressed with the way our students have embraced the high expectations placed on them in regards to their uniform and behaviour: they truly look magnificent. It was wonderful to see so many parents at our recent ‘Meet the Teacher’ night and to make some great connections. Schools and parents working in partnership is the key to success for our students! We have had many other reasons to feel pride in Coolum State High School so far this year, with our swimming carnival a wonderful day of laughter and competition and students like Jye being awarded Coolum Lions Club Young Person of the Year.

You may have seen some of the photos from these events on our Facebook page, where we have been celebrating ‘Excellence’ at Coolum SHS. Social media platforms such as this are fantastic as a means of keeping our community and parents informed with the goings on in our school: we can share photos or important information and have it reach thousands of parents within a matter of hours, whilst maintaining a community of belonging and inclusion. Unfortunately, the use or rather abuse of social media and the Internet has become of great concern Australia wide.

The suicide of 13-year-old Amy ‘Dolly’ Everett in January has rocked our country, with politicians and anti-cyberbullying groups galvanised into action. As a schooling community we are at the forefront of what is hitherto unchartered territory. Whilst some of our parents are employed or have businesses based on the Internet, others may not have any social media accounts whatsoever. Wherever you might sit on the social media spectrum, it is worth noting that your children are most certainly navigating their way through the Internet with at times little to no concept of how to remain safe whilst doing so.

As the first generation of parents to raise their children with social media, our efforts to keep up with the kinds of technology our children seem so comfortable with has not always been consistent. We must be more involved in keeping our children safe and aware of the dangers which can present themselves on the Internet. Simply having a conversation with students about who they speak to online, what kind of social media and networking accounts they have and whether they have ever felt harassed or excluded by online ‘friends’ is a reasonable start. With one in five teenagers reporting being bullied at least once a year online, it is clear that any student, just like the intelligent and loved Dolly Everett, can be targeted.

Coolum High is taking a determined stand on cyberbullying and safe uses of social media by engaging Internet Safe Education to work with our students, teachers and parents on Thursday 22 February. We encourage ALL our parents to attend the session with Internet Safe Education on Thursday 22 February, from 6-7pm, at the Coolum High hall.

Within our Student Network and Internet Access Policy, students have agreed to be online appropriately and in particular “not use the Internet to annoy, intimidate or offend anyone else.” Every young person in the country has the right to feel safe online and at Coolum State High School we want our students to not only feel safe, but to be exemplars of what it is to be a responsible and respectful digital citizen. Our policies have clear guidelines in regard to this, but these parameters must also be supported from home. I would urge each member of our schooling community to have those conversations with their students about what it is to be safe and also respectful whilst on social media, social networks and the Internet in general.

If you or your student have any concerns regarding cyberbullying, our Student Network and Internet Access Policy or know of a Coolum SHS student who might be subjected to cyberbullying, please contact myself or the school: acting together is the most effective way of stamping this repulsive behaviour out.

Troy Ascott
Principal

Deputy Principal - Junior Secondary

Wind Symphony

Over the weekend our music academy students had an intensive two-day development and rehearsal program coordinated by Mrs Guest. I would like to congratulate the students for their efforts and dedication to achieve success. I would also like to thank our many staff members who assisted, supported and performed with our students over the days culminating in a performance for parents on Sunday afternoon.

The Coolum State High School Wind Symphony also performed brilliantly on school parade and I look forward to the many successes that they will achieve this year.

Junior Secondary Review

Junior Secondary is a distinct phase of learning that differs greatly from both upper primary and senior secondary. At this time in adolescence, the brain undergoes the most significant structural changes and growth since the early years of life. As such, we understand the importance of this for learners and we are determined to ensure quality teaching and learning practices for our students.

To support this review, Ms McCann and I are this week meeting with Associate Professor Michael Nagel PhD from the School of Education at the University of the Sunshine Coast to review the latest cutting-edge research about this stage of learning.

This further cements the quality relationship between Coolum State High School and our local university – one that greatly benefits our students. Our continued path to outstanding performance begins with research, and we are excited to study evidence-based practices that will further set up our junior secondary students for success.

Year 6 into 7 transition

We’ve only just had the meet the teacher information evening for our Year 7 students and parents but already Ms McCann have begun visiting the local primary schools as part of our Year 6 transition to high school program. This Friday I look forward to attending the Leadership Investiture at Coolum State School in the morning, and then speaking with Year 6 students at Peregian Springs State School in the afternoon.

We are excited to share information about our quality Academy Programs and other fantastic learning opportunities to support these students transition to Coolum State High School in 2019.

Terry Proctor
Deputy Principal Junior Schooling

Deputy Principal - Senior Secondary

Senior secondary is definitely moving in the right direction in the first three weeks of Term One.

The Senior secondary team which comprises of the Senior secondary Deputy Principal, Senior secondary Head of Department, Vocational Education and Training Head of Department and Guidance Officers have developed a clear agenda that focuses on student’s outcomes and support.

The Senior Schooling team is committed on achieving 100% QCE for our Year 12 cohort in 2018 and the Year 12 cohorts into the future. To start this improvement process, Mr Ascott and myself have or are interviewing the Year 12 cohort to get an understanding of the types of destinations our students are looking to move into and to discuss academic performance and outcomes. These meetings have been extremely positive allowing both Mr Ascott and myself to build strong relationships with the Year 12 students and has identified a strong foundation of academic ability.

The Senior secondary team will now be working hard to develop programs to improve student’s awareness of academic performance to ensure Coolum SHS achieves 100% QCE. As we are moving quickly through the term it is important that all students are developing good time management skills and study habits. We recommend that for those students on an OP pathway they study upward of 3 hours a day. This will give students the foundation to be successful in their chosen subjects.

Lee Merrett
Deputy Principal Senior Schooling

Business Services News

As we head into the middle of the term, I remind families to please submit their Student Resource Scheme forms for 2018. It’s also very important that we have these forms returned and payment made by week 5, particularly for fee-paying subjects. If we have not received the SRS form and full payment of fee-paying subjects by the end of week 5, your child may be moved from that subject to a non-fee paying subject.

We don’t want your child to miss out, so don’t hesitate to discuss your financial options with me. And I remind you that BPOINT is now available for direct debits into the school bank account, call the office to find out how to set this up. It’s very easy to do and takes only a couple of minutes to set up. I encourage all families to take up this new option.

Before a student can be considered for participation in an optional school activity, a parent is expected to have:

• fully paid all outstanding fees or
• paid the Student Resource Scheme and other outstanding fees up to and including the term in which the school activity takes place or
• made regular on-going payments towards these fees, as previously arranged with the Principal or Business Manager
• been exempted by the Principal from paying all or part of these fees

We also ask that you remind your child to lock and secure their bike if they are riding them to school. The school is not responsible for the loss or damage of the bikes and any use of the bike racks within school grounds is at the responsibility of the owner. We are busy working on more favourable options for bike storage at the school but in the meantime please ask your children to take responsibility and lock their bikes. For scooters, skateboards and surfboards we have a small enclosure that is locked at the start of school and opened at the end of school. Whilst care is taken, students who use this facility do so at their own risk.

Lockers have to be under cover and locked away, this limits our options to provide more around the school. Therefore we have approximately 100 lockers in total and we first make them available to year 7 students and year 8 students as a priority. Any remaining lockers will then be made available to other year levels. A locker is $20 per year to hire and a key is provided to the student upon hire. At the end of the school year, the locker must be emptied and the key returned. Please contact the office if you would like to know more.

Nolly Griffiths
Business Manager

P&C News

We would like to welcome everyone to the P&C meeting on Monday 19 February at 6:00pm in the school Administration building. This is a great opportunity to get involved with the school, share your ideas or just to find out what is planned for the year ahead. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible.

P&C Executive

Dates for your Diary

Mathematics

How can I help my child at home?

This week I spoke with parents of Year 8 students as to how they can help students be more confident with their numeracy and maths at home. The key talking point was that there is ‘no magic in maths’. Students who struggle with maths/numeracy often believe that something miraculous occurs when working with numbers in order to get an answer. Maths/numeracy is all logic and logic is built around steps and processes. Parents of students who struggle can help by reassuring that solutions are based on steps, if something isn’t working for them then they should focus on finding the missing step. This leads to persistence, nobody gets ‘it’ the first time. Athletes don’t break records on their first attempt, they practice and spend time improving by listening to feedback from coaches and adapting to fix the problems they encounter along the way, the same is true for any academic or life pursuit. Persistence is a life skill that goes beyond the classroom.

Preparing our students for the future

A key focus for maths teachers in 2018 is preparing students for the changes occurring in the senior school. Preparing students for the pressures of external exams that cover content and skills over many terms and an increased emphasis of communicating through mathematical reports is a priority. Teachers are currently reviewing resources from across the state in order to create a CSHS maths/science writing guide that will help students produce high-quality reports. We are also networking with other schools and trailing external style exams with our Year 10 students in Term 3.

Preparing teachers for change

Professional development of teachers continues with staff involved in workshops related to the new mathematics subjects starting in 2019 as well as reviewing the way in which we cater for our high performing students. Our faculty meetings will focus on how we continue to develop students’ fluency and understanding while increasing the opportunities for furthering their problem solving and reasoning skills.

Decision making

Do you have an important life decision to make? Mathematicians will tell you to observe, but not choose, the first 37% of the options before committing. Check out this recent episode of Catalyst to find out why.

Dean Hose
Head of Mathematics & Numeracy

Science

During the school year, science will be undertaking excursions, field trips, competitions, extra-curricular activities and Gifted and Talented programs. I will be endeavour to disseminate this information via Notices to students, Emails, Newsletters and Facebook to carers and parents. Please understand that on some of these activities time is of the essence and deadlines do exist to help with organisation, so please help us by meeting these timelines.

This Term the Year 8’s during Week 5 and 6 in Science Classes they will be undertaking a field study of our Coastline, “Rock Tour”. Notes will be given on the WB 12 February and all students are expected to attend.

Other opportunities include the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Engineering Challenge at the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) for 24 Year 9 and 10 students, students will be selected for this activity on the basis of their skills and interests by STEM Teachers.

Please see an opportunity below at the University of the Sunshine Coast for girls interested in STEM. All nominations must go through myself as the school only has limited places.

Any questions please do not hesitate to contact me at school on 5471 5333 or by email at polse3@eq.edu.au.

Paul Olsen
Head of Science

Year 12 Biology Excursion

On Thursday 1st Feb, 37 year 12 Biology students met at school at 6.50am to head to Brisbane. Luckily, traffic ran smoothly and we arrived at the Queensland Institute for Medical Research (QIMR) at 9am. From here the students were split into 2 groups. One group remained at QIMR and the other headed over to the Integrated Pathology Learning Centre (IPLC).

The IPLC is located in the heart of the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH) campus on the north side of Brisbane. The UQ Integrated Pathology Learning Centre (IPLC) is a 21st century facility incorporating an outstanding collection of over 2500 pathology specimens in a dynamic teaching and learning environment. Displays incorporating objects from the Marks Hirschfeld Museum of Medical History collection along with the most recent information on health-related topics highlight the progression in understanding of human disease from past to present. The students thoroughly enjoyed the presentation apart from a few very shocking specimens. No photos are allowed to be taken but if you would like to know more there is a video on the UQ IPLC website.

QIMR Berghofer is a world leading medical research institute. Our research is focused on four areas: Cancer, Infectious disease. Mental health and Chronic Disorders. They are working closely with clinicians and other research institutes, we’re translating discoveries into prevention strategies, new diagnostics and better treatments that save lives. The students were able to use QIMR’s world class laboratory and equipment to learn some scientific techniques.

It was a very informative and intriguing day. The student’s behaviour and interaction with staff was exceptional. At both places staff members commented on how engaged and intellectual the students were. It was an absolute pleasure to accompany them.

Tracy Ford
Biology Teacher

Health & Physical Education News

Welcome back to all students for 2018. The HPE department has another very busy year ahead to further add value and opportunities for students. Due to the popularity of the subject area and increased enrolments there are a number of new staff on board for 2018. We welcome Mrs Jade Tatnell, Mr Sam Barrow and Mr Eric Smyth to the HPE staff in 2018. There are now 20 staff at Coolum SHS that teach a HPE related subject.

As the weather can be a little unpredictable at times it is important that students are prepared for the conditions expected on the day. Water bottles, hats and sunscreen are a must for students doing practical activities outside and we ask parents to support us in ensuring that their child has these items in their bag ready for the day ahead. If for any reason your child has an illness or injury that will prevent/restrict their participation in any practical lesson please ensure you send a dated and signed note in with your child to explain the illness or injury and expected length of time they will be incapacitated for.

2018 brings a brand new initiative in to the school in the form of the Academy Programs. Although surfing excellence has been part of the school for a long time it will now come under the umbrella of an Academy Program. This change mean that for the first time there will be an elite program offered for students from year 7-12 who have consistently been performing at an elite level. This program will be supported by a number of scholarships for students who are also performing well at school and are striving to improve their surfing through implementing the coaching feedback given to them in their surfing lessons. Coolum SHS is known as one of the best performing schools in Australia in terms of surfing and we are confident that this initiative will further enhance that reputation. There are also academies running in touch football and basketball. These sports have an increasingly large following on the coast with a strong competitor base and representative pathways. They have been deliberately chosen to maximise the opportunities for students and build on the strengths of our current student cohort. We look forward to building these academies in to centres of best practice.

During the year there will a number of opportunities for students to involve themselves in interschool, district, regional, state and national sport. Students need to pay attention to notices and calendars outside the HPE staffroom to ensure they get their nomination in on time. If students are interested in trialling for a particular representative team they need to see the sport co-ordinator, Ms Christina Fiducioso, in the HPE staffroom. At time of writing there are a number of students who have been invited to be part of the school swimming team to compete at the District Swimming Carnival at Nambour. We wish all of those students the best of luck at this event.

Dean Whitson
Head of Health & Physical Education/Sport

Nominations are open for the following District and Regional Trials.

District:

12 years Girls Softball
12 years Girls Netball
12 years Boys AFL
12 Years Boys and Girls Basketball
16-18 Boys and Girls Basketball
13-16 and 17-19 Boys Football (Soccer)
13-15 and 16-19 Girls Football (Soccer)

Regional:

13-15 Boys and Girls Australian Rules Football
13-19 Boys Hockey

If your student would like to nominate/trial for any of the above events, they are to come and see me in the HPE staffroom during break times. These will also be advertised on the student notices.

Students will be given paperwork which will include:

• a trial notice,
• permission form, and
• Project consent.

Nomination process:

1. Students collect paperwork from me
2. Students take home paperwork and have it completed and signed by a parent/guardian.
3. Students return the paperwork back to me to sign.
4. Students will then be given back the paperwork to take with them to the trial.
   NO PAPERWORK = NO TRIAL
5. The student’s nomination will be sent away to the carnival convener & District Secretary.
6. Student makes own way to trial with paperwork.

Christina Fiducioso
Health & Physical Education Teacher

Vocational Education and Training (VET)

It was great to meet a number of parents at the Meet the Teacher evening in Week 3. This was an opportunity to hear about the current and future landscape of Vocational Education and Training at Coolum State High School. I hope that those who attended, found the session to be informative and I look forward to working with you and your child across the year.

School-Based Apprenticeships and Traineeship Opportunities (SATs)

This year we will continue to maximise the number of School Based Apprenticeships and Traineeship opportunities (SAT) available to our students due to our expanding links with industry. Under a SAT arrangement, a senior school student is released from school time to undertake an apprenticeship or traineeship in their chosen field.

Current Vacancies

BSB30115 Certificate III Business – Retail Outlet, Maroochydore
SIT30616 Certificate III Hospitality – Goodness Gracious Café, Yandina
SIT30616 Certificate III Hospitality – Aromas, Noosa
SIT30616 Certificate III Hospitality – Gloria Jeans, Tewantin
SIT30616 Certificate III Hospitality - Pitchfork Restaurant, Peregian
SIT30616 Certificate III Hospitality - Pizza Capers, Noosa Junction
SIT30616 Certificate III Hospitality - Sumo Salad, Maroochydore
Warehousing Operations – Reece Plumbing, Coolum Beach

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders

BSB20115 Certificate II in Business – ANZ Sunshine Plaza, Maroochydore
Uniting Care, various locations – Qualifications available in Business Administration, Community Services, Customer Service, Health Services, Food Services and Individual Support (Aged Care, Disabilities and Home and Community Care) fields.

Please contact me on pwald9@eq.edu.au or 5471 5333 to discuss matters relating to Vocational Education and Training within the school.

Patrick Walden
Head of Vocational Education and Training (VET)