24 April 2018

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Dear Parents,

Welcome back to all our students, parents and staff after what I hope was a restful and enjoyable break for you and your families. Whilst the weather wasn’t always the best on our shores here in Coolum, at the very least the Commonwealth Games provided lots of entertainment, inspiration and pride as we watched elite athletes compete at an international level. I hope all of our students have come back to Coolum State High School with some of that same energy, with Term 2 proving to be very busy already.

One past Coolum SHS student who will definitely have a spring in her step is lawn bowler, Kelsey Cottrell, who won Gold in the women’s four team event. Kelsey is an excellent example of how perseverance and hard work pays off, having competed in two previous Commonwealth Games before finally securing her ambitious goal and the Gold Medal in 2018. Congratulations Kelsey from everyone at Coolum SHS!

Kelsey Cottrell

Inspiring stories and tales of incredible determination have abounded from the Commonwealth Games. From athletes pushing themselves to breaking point and falling just short of glory like the courageous Scottish marathon runner, Callum Hawkins, to David Liti, the New Zealand weightlifter whose compassion and selflessness in helping an injured rival from the winners’ podium earnt him the David Dixon Award for outstanding sportsmanship (he also won a Gold Medal for lifting four times his own bodyweight!).

However, I was particularly struck by a story unfolding from the Games, where a number of athletes from developing nations are missing from their teams and events, and are considered ‘on the run’ in an effort to avoid returning to their home countries. It is sometimes difficult to comprehend just how fortunate we are to live in a beautiful part of the world, where all of our human rights are amply met and our quality of life is comparatively very, very high to those living in less developed nations. It is a reminder that we are so privileged to live in Coolum, to have access to excellent education at Coolum SHS, and belong to a supportive community.

Every Commonwealth Games story is an inspiration to our students to believe in themselves, strive for excellence, work hard, be disciplined in achieving their goals and have compassion for those sitting next to them, as well as those not as fortunate across the globe. These kinds of values are linked closely to those associated with ANZAC Day also, where courage, endurance and mateship are ingrained in our national spirit.

Having attended a number of ANZAC Dawn Services at the Coolum RSL, I am keenly aware of the important role Coolum SHS students have had in the observation of this very significant national day of remembrance. Not only does their participation in the marches, ceremonies and just as importantly, their attendance to the services on ANZAC Day show a deep reverence for Australian traditions and values, but also an undeniable respect and support for the community of Coolum.

Lest We Forget

Troy Ascott
Principal

Deputy Principal - Junior Secondary

Our Vision: That students have the confidence, desire and belief to succeed through strong foundations in literacy and numeracy.

Year 7 Water in our World project

Well done to our Year 7 students for their enthusiastic work as part of their Water in our World project. This culminated on Friday with a fundraising barbeque at school. The money raised will go to building water tanks in the Solomon Islands. It has been great to see the students learn about sustainability and water in our world whilst also giving for such a good cause.

Electronic devices and Social Media

Our school’s policy is that students may bring their devices to school, but they must be off and out of sight during class time (including earphones). They also must be used appropriately. This will be a focus as we begin Term 2 as students get back into this routine upon return from holidays.

In Term 1 we had very important information sessions and guest speakers with students about cyber-safety and appropriate behaviours online. This is a whole-of-community effort with adults leading the way in educating and supporting our young people to make good choices; and also setting the best examples for them to follow.

Even when situations arise outside of school hours or online, inevitably they have an impact on our students during the day with us. We will continue our high expectations of appropriate interactions and behaviour online, treating any issue seriously on its merits.

We strongly encourage students or parents to make contact with the relevant Head of Year whenever needed.

Terry Proctor
Deputy Principal Junior Secondary

Deputy Principal - Middle Secondary

Fostering a Growth Mindset in our Young People

One of the things that always excites me is seeing students persevering in subjects and at tasks that are incredibly challenging for them, long past the point when they may be expected to give up. What is evident in these situations is that students find tasks engaging when they are challenging, but they believe that they have the ability to get there eventually.

Dr Carol Dweck, a professor of psychology at Stanford University has shown that students who persevere, who are resilient in very challenging situations, are those students who do not have a fixed idea of their own ability. They believe that working at something, practicing, trying and failing are all necessary components of success. Students who have this growth mindset – who believe they can develop their intelligence – often frequently have better outcomes for school achievement, engagement and happiness.

We can help our young people to foster a growth mindset by praising their effort, rather than their intelligence. This helps students to see themselves in control of their success, rather than seeing it as out of their control. We can also help them by praising the process they use to tackle a difficult problem, rather than praising the output – try to praise their study routine rather than their test scores. And of course, it helps to remind them that their brain is a muscle that grows with hard work, and lots of practice.

Finally, encourage them to persevere when things are hard. Mistakes and failures are to be learnt from and tell us that we have taken on something that is worthy of our efforts.

You’ll know when it happens; the look on our children’s faces when they finally break through to the other side of something they found extremely challenging is unbeatable. That’s a growth mindset, and that is a recipe for success in all facets of life.

Wendy McDermott
Acting Deputy Principal Middle Secondary

Deputy Principal - Senior Secondary

With the Easter holidays now behind us, we quickly move into Term 2, which will again, be an extremely busy term for our staff and students. On the last day of Term 1, Report Cards were emailed home to parents. If you did not receive your child’s Report Card, please contact the Administration Office. On Tuesday 1 May, Parent Teacher interviews will take place in the Smart Futures Centre. Information letters have been sent out informing parents how to request an interview with your child’s teacher.

In 2019, the Queensland Government will introduce a new senior assessment and tertiary entrance system (ATAR) for Year 11 students. The new ATAR system, or more commonly called new QCE, will replace the current OP system for students looking for direct entry into tertiary education. To ensure parents have the necessary information and knowledge to assist their children through the senior subject selection process, we are holding a parent information session from 6:30pm to 7:30pm after the Parent Teacher interviews. We strongly encourage all parents of Year 10 students to attend this important session.

During the first few weeks of this term, senior reporting, attendance and behaviour data will be analysed to identify students who are ‘at risk’ of not receiving a Queensland Certificate of Education (QCE). QCE ‘at risk’ interviews with senior students will be taking place to identify the areas of concern, and developing improvement strategies to ensure success in the next reporting period. Research has clearly identified that academic success is strongly linked to student attendance. This has been identified as an area in which we can improve. Coolum SHS places great emphasis on student attendance and we have set a target of 95% to reflect this. At the end of Term 1, senior students achieved the following attendance rate below:

Lee Merrett
Deputy Principal Senior Secondary

Business Services News

This is an important time on the school financial calendar as we send out a number of communications to you via email and text regarding your account and the amount owing for fees, subjects, excursions and other charges. It is important particularly this term for Year 12 who have the upcoming Midwinter Ball in June. Without full payment of SRS and other fees outstanding, it may affect your child’s participation at the event and other non-curriculum events. It is very important that you have paid SRS in full by Week 5 this term (18/5/18). It is also crucial that all payments are paid in full by Week 4 in Term 3. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you are experiencing financial difficulties and we can discuss the options available to you.

It’s also very important that you have made full payment towards fee-paying subjects. If you have not made full payment or entered into a payment arrangement with the school, your child may be withdrawn from this subject and placed into a non-fee paying subject.

I remind you that BPOINT is available for direct debits into the school bank account, call the Administration 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 effective and efficient payment method.

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

During the school holidays, the school has undergone some maintenance and facilities works such as whole school gutter clearing and cleaning which is a big undertaking, given the size of the school. Gutter cleaning is particularly important for the maintenance of our gutters and roofs, given the amount of trees and wet weather we’ve experienced this year. We have also had all carpeted areas across the school professionally steam cleaned and our cleaners have performed the end of term clean which involves more extensive cleaning of fans, window sills, shelving, walls, offices, classrooms, paths and amenities.

Nolly Griffiths
Business Manager

Dates for your Diary

P&C

The 2018 P&C Executive was elected at a meeting last Monday. We are very pleased to announce the successful candidates were: –

Nicole Sklenars – President
Monica Kutt - Vice President
Nolly Griffiths – Secretary
Suzette Warnes – Treasurer

The new members are extremely enthusiastic to provide support to the school and students.

Our sincere thanks to the outgoing members of the P&C Executive, for their work over the past years.

The next P&C meeting will be held on Monday 30 April at 6:00pm. All welcome.

P&C Executive

Science

I hope this newsletter reaches you all well. This week I want to talk about opportunities that your child will have in Science at school. This may include field studies, excursions, guest speakers and facility visits (ie hospitals, universities etc).

In 1987 (I am showing my age), when I completed Year 12, I went for a walk around our local hospital as a school visit and I observed the different areas of health. I vividly remember meeting the Chief Pathologist and he displayed his passion for Medical Science. Well, I was hooked, and since this point and post my undergraduate studies, I have had a lifelong passion for understanding Science and more specifically, Medical Science.

As mentioned, during your child’s time at school they will have opportunities like myself to see and listen to different scientists and organisations and this could spark their lifelong passion or a future career.

Excursions, facility visits including hospitals and universities, field trips and guest speakers are a valuable activity in schools and I encourage students to attend, and parents/carers to encourage their students to be involved.

Among the many potential outcomes, research has shown that these opportunities:

• Expose students to new experiences (real life modern facilities, scientists and labs) and can increase interest and engagement in Science regardless of prior interest in a topic (Kisiel, 2005; Bonderup Dohn, 2011);
• Result in effective gains such as more positive feelings toward a topic (Csikszentmihalyi & Hermanson, 1995; Nadelson & Jordan, 2012);
• Are experiences that can be recalled and useful long after a visit (Salmi, 2003; Falk & Dierking, 1997; Wolins, Jensen, & Ulzheimer, 1992). They also enhance the learning and engagement for assessment tasks.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at school on 5471 5333 or by email at polse3@eq.edu.au

Random Science Fact

Paul Olsen
Head of Department - Science

Tutorials – Homework Club

Vocational Education and Training (VET)

Year 12 ‘Hello World Day’

During the last week of Term 1, Year 12 vocational pathway students had an exciting career planning day. They had the opportunity to explore the Nambour and Mooloolaba TAFE campuses to explore future options as they determine their pathway into further education, training or employment. A great day was had by all.

Year 10 Work Experience

This term all Year 10 students will be participating in our work experience program during Week 5. This is an invaluable opportunity for the students to link to the world of work and to gain insight into a specific industry. Work experience can be the start of one’s career pathway and it is important to try to source a placement which matches your career interests. Please return all forms to your home group teacher so that we can process your work experience placement.

If your child is having difficulty finding a placement, please encourage them to visit the VET office in DBA Block for assistance.

School-Based Apprenticeships and Traineeship Opportunities (SATs)

Under a SAT arrangement, a senior school student is released from school time to undertake an apprenticeship or traineeship in their chosen field. Current opportunities are shown below:

Current Vacancies

SIT301616 Certificate III Hospitality - Bao Down Restaurant, Mount Coolum
SIT30616 Certificate III Hospitality – Goodness Gracious Café, Yandina
SIT30616 Certificate III Hospitality – Aromas, Noosa

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

Patrick Walden
Head of Department - Vocational Education and Training (VET)

Becoming global citizens in our complex world

Throughout Term 1, Year 7 students were involved in a Deep Learning Project in order to make them aware of local, national and global issues facing communities. Our theme was ‘Water in our World’ and focused on creating global citizens who can help to solve complex problems in our world.

With a specific focus on the Solomon Islands, students were able to deepen their learning across English, Humanities, Math and Science to contribute to a culminating day where we endeavoured to raise money, through hosting a sausage sizzle, to donate all funds to purchasing water tanks to assist with providing clean drinking water. A fabulous $585 was raised. Rotary Noosa Daybreak came along on Friday 20 April to talk with all Year 7 students about their role in the community and how they volunteer their time help others communities across the globe. Thank you to Ian and Robyn from Rotary for their continued support for Coolum State High School.

We are very fortunate to live where we do and it is vital for students to be able to understand that they can contribute to other less fortunate communities. It is important for students to realise they can make a difference; it only takes one person to make a change.

We look forward to continuing to develop these ‘soft skills’ of citizenship and character across our school community. Thank you to everyone who was involved and contributed to the event.

Emma Curnow
Head of Department - English

Staff in Focus