10 March 2021

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

I can’t begin to tell you how important I think education is for every single student. The Department of Education’s long-term strategy has as its central concept the idea of “every student succeeding.” It’s a powerful concept and it definitely shapes everything we do at Coolum High. All of our actions are focused on ensuring the success of every single one of our students.

Increasingly, research is showing that the single greatest determinant in the opportunities available to people in life is the level and quality of their education. Education opens doors, it builds understanding of concepts and ideas that underpin nearly everything in our society, it creates social connections and it empowers action. Within this, the attitude of the learner is so important – a positive attitude to learning and an understanding that learning and education are valuable, and that it is powerful, helps to shape the long-term outcomes of the student.

At Coolum High, we aim to accommodate a wide range of learners. We are the community’s school, with as many options and opportunities as our resources allow. We have CAST and Academy programs to offer a broad range of extra-curricular experiences, and academic and vocational programs to launch a wide variety of careers. At all times, we are doing our very best to create successful pathways for every one of our students. We are doing everything we know to have every student succeeding.

Recently, many parents have commented on the traffic situation in both Havana Road East, and Havana Road West. Please note that we agree with everyone’s concerns. Solutions to these issues are complex as they rely on a mix of the school’s actions, council improvements and upgrades, policing, and state and federal government support. Coolum High is not unique in having traffic issues around it given our growing and changing community, however these are our students and resolving these issues is high on our agenda. Please note that I have asked our Deputy Principal, Mr Anthony Swan, to lead the “SafeST” Committee that is focussed on finding solutions to these issues. Mr Swan has already made headway on the issues involved and communicated this progress to parents. Mr Swan has also written to a number of relevant authorities in an effort to find the relevant support needed. Mr Swan has shown that he is prepared to work tirelessly to find the solutions that we need to resolve the complex issues involved. If you have concerns, please don’t hesitate to discuss them with Mr Swan as we work to improve safety for all students on their journeys to and from school. This is a very important issue for us at this point in time. On a final note, I would like to thank Brendan Pender, from CDC buses, who has worked patiently and cooperatively with us throughout this process. Brendan’s is a thankless role and he has remained calm and dignified throughout – thanks Brendan!

Lastly, I would like to congratulate our student leaders who were recently inducted into their roles. Led by school captains, Ethan Irvine and Charlotte Luck, and vice captains Tom Oxley and Ziah Harvey, we have a group of leaders and role-models of whom the whole school is very proud. Everyone at Coolum High believes that 2021 will be a special year and it will be in no small part due to the quality of student leadership that we have in place this year.

Troy Ascott
Principal

Deputy Principal - Junior Secondary Year 7

ALPHA Information Night for Year 6 Students

Reading to Learn is the signature teaching pedagogy used at Coolum State High School. This strategy is research proven to have a dramatic effect on improving student outcomes. You may have noticed highlighted sections of your child’s school work. This is but one small part of our teaching strategy. Reading to Learn is used throughout all faculties at Coolum SHS and thus it is important to share with you some details of the program.

WHAT IS IT?

• Reading to Learn is a set of strategies that enable teachers to support all the students in their classes to read and write at the levels they need to succeed.

• Strategies vary according to the needs of students, their year levels, the subject area and the kinds of texts they are expected to read and write.
• The program is focused on how teachers and learners interact to build knowledge through the use of texts.

WHY WE USE IT?

• In a secondary school context, we use the texts that they are expected to read in each subject area, to guide them to learn through reading, and to demonstrate what they learnt through writing.
• It will enable teachers to teach the skills that students need to independently learn in the curriculum from reading and writing.
• We are preparing our students to be successful in every phase of schooling, particularly for the external exams.

HOW WE USE IT?

• We first acknowledge that the central step to learning is the task and that knowledge comes through teacher-learner interactions.
• We use the Gradual Release Model – ‘I Do’, ‘We Do’ and ‘You Do’.
• We identify the purpose of our lesson – this will determine what strategy we are using.
• We carefully prepare our classroom interactions, so every student can always give the response we want, get affirmed, and be ready for the elaboration. This gives a powerful boost to learning for all students and enables all students to succeed.
• The first level is directly connected to learning the curriculum.
• The second level enables all students to read a short text with complete understanding and to use its language patterns in their own writing.
• The third level provides maximum support for students to develop foundation skills in reading with understanding, spelling and writing.

How Successful Is It?

In the second year of using this pedagogy our students received the highest writing results in Year 7 and 9 out of all state secondary schools on the Sunshine Coast. All faculties have achieve fantastic improvement in students understanding and achievements. We are excited for the future of our students and are confident, that with this approach, we will achieve successful destinations for all students.

Anthony Swan
Deputy Principal Junior Secondary

Deputy Principal - Junior Secondary Year 8 & 9

Attendance Matters!

As we are moving into the final weeks in term 1, it is extremely important that every student attends every lesson, every day. Our teachers are working closely with students at this stage in the term, to ensure students have a clear understanding of what is required to achieve outstanding results in their assessments. It becomes increasingly difficult for students to achieve their best if they miss key learnings through school absences.

Currently our year 8 cohort is achieving 91.9% and year 9 at 92.1% attendance which are great results but I am confident that through working together, we can increase these even further. There are numerous reasons that a student may have difficulty with establishing a regular pattern of attendance at school every day. If you or your child requires support to increase your child’s attendance at school, please contact me so we can work together to develop a supportive solution. I have no doubt that our students will achieve great results and experience a deep sense of connectedness to our amazing school through our unified approach to supporting their attendance. I look forward to seeing the amazing achievements in the end of term report cards.

Nicola Worthington
Deputy Principal Junior Secondary

Deputy Principal – Senior Secondary Year 10 and 11

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

Planning for Excellence

I am a firm believer that excellence is most often reached when someone has a plan to achieve it, and then puts in the required work and effort to get there.

It doesn’t matter whether it is through your performance in a sport or musical instrument, your job or your school work – the principle of achievement through effort and persistence has stood the test of time.

Some people do fluke it, but they can’t do it very often.

Over these remaining few weeks of the term, when the assessment load is increasing, is a critical time for students to be planned be achieve their best. This may be as simple as time management, increased study efforts at home, or putting that extra 10% effort into their class work.

Please have a conversation with your child and ask what they will be doing over these next few weeks to plan for excellence. Simply talking it through can be the first step towards doing it.

Cross Country

Our school Cross Country is fast approaching and is being held on Thursday 01 April. Our excellent HPE staff have been busily planning and preparing for this event.

All students who wish to compete in the Cross Country must have parental permission completed by the due date as much of the course is off the school campus.

All families will be emailed a permission form for completion. No parental permission means no participation for students in this event.

Terry Proctor
Deputy Principal Secondary

Deputy Principal – Senior Secondary Year 12

I am extremely proud of our Year 12 students who have completed their first round of Internal Assessment in their exam block in Week 6. Students were organised and well prepared. This assessment is important in ensuring students gain their Queensland Certificate of Education (QCE) and also contributes towards their ATAR score. As part of the assessment process, drafting is a vital part of ensuring student work is completed to a very high standard. Students are expected to submit a full and complete draft in order to receive feedback from teachers. Please continue to have conversations with your child about their assessment and make sure they are planning their time at home effectively, and prioritising school over part time work.

Thank you to those parents and carers who were able to attend the investiture Ceremony in Week 5. Students were exemplary in their conduct and proudly accepted their leadership badges. A special thank you to the Hospitality students who helped cater for a celebratory morning tea, and thank you to the students and staff from Coolum State School and Peregian Springs State School who took time out of their school day to attend the ceremony.

Monday 8 March was International Women’s Day (IWD)and I was fortunate enough to take four of our leaders, Ziah, Charlotte, Taryn and Sequoya, to the Zonta IWD Breakfast at the Boathouse Restaurant in Noosaville. There were motivational female presenters who inspired our current and future female leaders to dream big and challenge things in life.

I look forward to continuing to support the Year 12 cohort and their families throughout the year.

2021 Year 12 Investiture and 2021 International Womens Day

Key term 1 dates for Year 12 students:

Key term 2 dates for Year 12 students:

Emma Curnow
Deputy Principal Senior Secondary Year 12

Business Services News

Statement of Accounts

Last Friday we emailed home your Statement of Account which details what is outstanding on your child’s account. If you see a negative amount, that means that you are in credit OR we have adjusted your account based on non-attendance at excursion or you have received a refund for whatever reason. It is important that your account is up to date and payments are made in a timely manner, to avoid your child missing out on an activity/excursion. Also if you have yet to make payment towards the Student Resource Scheme of $300 I urge you to do so as soon as possible, with final payment made by preferably end of Term 2 please.

Academy Programs

We have started invoicing for these programs and full and final payment is due week 9 this term, to secure your child’s place in the Academy. The Young Entrepreneurs Academy and the AFL Academy will start in Term 2. Our website is currently being updated with revised Academy information and schedules and will be finalized this week. For any Academy matters, please contact me.

If you would like to discuss your financial options please don’t hesitate to contact me, I am here to help and support you.

QParents information

QParents is an Education Queensland Portal that allows parents to access their student’s financial invoices/payments, reports, absences/attendance and timetable all in one place. You are also able to make payments directly from this portal for outstanding invoices and is Education Queensland’s preferred method of payment. Please refer to the flyer below for more information.

Nolly Griffiths
Business Manager

School Sports Update

North District Swimming

Recently, 25 of our best swimmers competed at the North District swimming trials at St Andrews.

All swimmers competed brilliantly and were pivotal in scoring us our highest placed finish ever – third, just 6 points ahead of St Teresa’s in fourth. Well done to our age champions and students who made the North District Swimming team below

Age Champions:

13 Girls – Imogen Johnstone
15 Boys – Locki Rahui
15 Girls – Hailee O’Sullivan
16 Boys – Regan Johnstone – 2nd
16 Boys – Jakob O’Sullivan – 3rd
Open Boys – Beau Pattison – 2nd

North District Swimming team members:

Imogen Johnstone, Regan Johnstone, Hailee O’Sullivan, Jakob O’Sullivan, Beau Pattison, Locki Rahui, Britney Murray, Jake McHale, Morgan Benati

Best of luck at regionals!

Sporting Success

Well done to students that have made rep teams recently.

District reps

13 – 15 Years Netball – Deborah Bertwistle
13 – 15 Years AFL – Remy McDonald, Tarryn Stephens, Luke Hall
16 – 19 Years Soccer – Chloe Baker
13 – 15 Years Touch – Henry Smyth
16 – 18 Years Touch – Rubin Smyth

Upcoming trials

CLOSING FRIDAY 12 MARCH

12 Years Soccer – Girls

CLOSING FRIDAY 19 MARCH

12 Years Hockey - Boys and Girls
12 Years Tennis - Boys and Girls

Students are to see me in the Hall for forms to trial for any of these sports.

Cross Country

This year’s Cross Country will be run on Thursday 1 April along the pony club track behind Emu Mt. Keep an eye out for the nomination email (same as swimming) that will come out shortly. Students will need to nominate to run in the competitive Cross Country. For everyone else, there will be a fun adventure race during period 4 on the day.

2021 North District Swimming Team

Eric Smyth
HPE Teacher and Sport Co-ordinator

Work Experience

Last week our year 10 students began organising their Work Experience. Work experience is an excellent opportunity for students to gain an insight into careers they may be interested in.

This year, Year 10 Work Experience Week will occur in Week 4 of Term 2 commencing Monday 10 May until Friday 14 May. Work Experience Week is a compulsory activity and no classes will be timetabled at school for Year 10 students during this time.

To ensure a placement for Work Experience Week, it is imperative that students commence sourcing a placement immediately. Some businesses, such as veterinarian clinics, are extremely popular options for students doing work experience positions will fill quickly.

Hopefully students have been approaching businesses and enquiring about opportunities. As there are over 250 students in year 10 we will require a lot of assistance from local businesses. If you manage/own a work place that would be interested in taking on a work experience student, please email me and I will pass it on to the students.

We look forward to hearing about the exciting opportunities our students will participate in during Work Experience Week.

Tracy Ford
Head of Vocational Education and Training
tford42@eq.edu.au

Online Safety

Staying safe online is everyone’s responsibility….

Now that school is back in full swing you may have noticed that your teenager always appears to be on a digital device. If it’s not the laptop where homework is being completed for school, it may be one of many gaming devices or it may simply be the phone again.

Are you aware of how long your teenager is on a device?

Are you aware of what content your teenager is accessing?

Teenagers can spend a lot of time online — instant messaging, sharing photos and videos, playing online games and using online chat and voice chat through social media services can be a big part of their social identity. It can be a great experience but there are risks. You can help equip them with the skills to manage these risks and deal with negative situations. Should you have concerns or simply do not know where to start please take a look at the link below to ‘begin the chat’;

I have also attached a worthy read ‘5 Principles to Stay Safe Online’ – Internet Safe Education (Brett Lee). I urge all parents to take some time evaluate where your family is at with regard to social media and digital devices. Remember when our teenagers were taught to ride their bike for the first. We, as parents were close by and guided the skills needed to stay upright.

The time spent setting expectations, taking charge and communicating consistently with our teenagers will result in respectful online behaviour for all.

Robbie Koch
Head of Department - Student Services

COOLUM STATE HIGH SCHOOL

Don’t forget National Ride2School Day is coming up on Friday 19th March 2021.

We encourage our students to use active travel to get to and from school because:

• children arrive at school feeling more alert and ready to learn
• active travel helps students to achieve their recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity, and
• fewer cars on our local streets improves road safety around our school.

Students who ride, skate or scoot to Coolum State High on Friday 19 March will be greeted by staff and offered a healthy breakfast to make a great start to the day.

Sunshine Coast Council is offering great prizes this Ride2School Day including

4 x $500 bike shop vouchers. A schoolbag flyer will be coming home soon.

You can register your children for Ride2School Day at Councils website Children can ride, scoot or skate to be eligible.

This year Council is encouraging students to ‘buddy up’ with their friends and ride to school together. Parents can join in by riding with children.

Families who live far from school can still participate. Just park the car a kilometre away and ride, scoot or skate the rest of the way.

All students riding to school are required to wear helmets (this includes children on scooters and skateboards).

We would love to see our students continue riding to school throughout the year.

Dates for your Diary

Tutorials – Term 1

Bus Pass Information 2021

Do you need to apply for a school bus pass?

The Queensland Government’s School Transport Assistance Scheme (STAS) provides assistance to enable eligible school students to attend education facilities.

There are two types of assistance available to students travelling on bus services to school:

• Distance based assistance
• Safety-net assistance

Apply for STAS online

Did you know that you can now apply online for STAS?

• One form
• Up to five children
• Any device

For more information:

Need help with your application?

Email STASdigital.Helpdesk@tmr.qld.gov.au or call 1300 119 289 for technical assistance with your online application.

FAQs & handy tips to get you started

Once you are familiar with the application process and steps to get you started, you will find the ‘apply now’ button located towards the bottom of the STAS  Apply for school transport assistance  page.

After you’ve successfully lodged your application online, information will be generated by the Department of Transport and Main Roads to your local CDC office in Kunda Park, Sunshine Coast or Gladstone for processing.

Please note: it is Department of Transport and Main Roads policy that STAS applications for students placed under a Child Protection Order by the Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services must be made using the  paper application form relevant to the transport assistance . This form can be found once you commence your application online.

Bus Routes

A list of bus routes servicing Coolum State High School can be viewed on this page:

Parents can also contact us by phone 07 847 666 22 or email info.sunshinecoast@cdcbus.com.au