2 June 2021

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Coolum high is on the crest of a major wave.

Last weekend, Coolum High students competed in their first ever robotics competition and WON, and came runner-up in the 2021 RoboRAVE High School Open SumoBot Competition. In fact, the top 3 teams were all Coolum SHS. In the middle school LEGO Sumo competition, our students also competed with distinction. I have absolutely no doubt that as we go deeper into the 21st Century, the ability to use computer coding for robotics, 3-D printing and laser cutting will be skills of enormous value for our students. I would like to pay special tribute to Mr Barry Butler who has led the charge of Coolum State High School into robotics.

As has been shared with the community, last week our amazing Coolum Voices students performed at the Queensland Secondary Principals’ Association conference at the Hilton Hotel in Brisbane. The students were amazing, and were the talk of the event. The level these students have reached under the influence of exceptional teachers is just incredible. We are consistently making our mark in music.

And, in sport, Coolum High just keeps getting better with our Year 7 Netball team undefeated and the Year 8/9 team suffering only one loss so far this season. Surfing students have performed brilliantly at Regional trials, basketball keeps surging forward, AFL teams have performed with distinction and the running club is almost oversubscribed each Friday morning. Our students keep proving themselves at sport over and over again. They are very talented!

Academically, Coolum High leads the region with enviable results that are sustained from Year 7 to Year 12. This year’s seniors are set for some of the best results yet seen at Coolum High, due to their continued diligence and commitment. Results recently confirmed through the QCAA show our students doing amazing things, with too many students currently sitting on 100% across a range of subjects to mention. In fact, if anything, we don’t celebrate or showcase our students’ academic results enough. The results are exceptional as are our students when you have the opportunity to work with them.

This week, construction has begun on our security fence that will keep our students, staff and assets even safer. Construction has also begun on replacing the Performing Arts roof. Before too long, new classrooms will be built under the Wandama Centre before our 20-classroom super-structure at the rear of the school begins taking shape. With outstanding academic results, combined with demonstrated excellence in sport, music, robotics and even chess, Coolum High is most definitely the place to be!

Troy Ascott
Principal

Deputy Principal - Junior Secondary Year 7

2022 ALPHA Applications

All applications for the 2022 Year 7 ALPHA program were due on the 21 May 2021. All applicants will receive an email by the Friday 4 June advising the dates and times of the next stage of the selection process. If you have applied and have not received an email by this date, please ensure you contact our school office.

Parents/Children and Social Media

The internet is having an increasing influence on the social development of children and how they interact with each other. Social media, smart phones and other technologies provide children with wonderful opportunities to learn, be creative and socialise. However, just as with face-to-face interactions, sometimes bullying and harassment can occur online. This is not a localised issue but one faced by parents in all locations. Often these behaviours occur on weekends and in the evening. I have attached a resource document for parents to assist with protecting and responding to inappropriate online behaviours.

Harassment, bullying and other inappropriate online behaviour can be distressing and may be difficult for children to talk about. It is important that all families have this conversation with their children and express their family values.

It’s important to contact your school if your child is being harassed through school ICT resources, or if inappropriate content has been published by another student at their school. Help your child capture evidence, report content and unfriend and/or block anyone who makes them feel uncomfortable, harassed or bullied. Encourage your child to refrain from responding to the bully; this may further inflame the situation.

Parents should notify the police if physical threats are made or if you have concerns for your child’s safety.

Click here for a parental resource for “Online Awareness: Information for Parents and Caregivers”

Anthony Swan
Deputy Principal Junior Secondary

Deputy Principal - Junior Secondary Years 8 & 9

Assessment Time

Assessments are an important feature of education to gain insights into the progress of our students. Our year 7 and 9 students have recently completed NAPLAN in week 4 this term. Students completed four tests including language conventions, writing, reading and numeracy. Students will receive an individualised report on their performance across each of these areas that compares their performance against peers across the nation. It was fantastic to see the efforts that all students gave to completing these to the best of their ability. I look forward to celebrating our achievements when the results are released.

As the term moves into the assessment phase for many subjects, it is vital that all students are attending school every day. Attendance is one of the biggest predictors of academic success. It is important for students to notify their teacher if they are going to be away for a planned absence that may impact the submission of an assessment item. I encourage all of our students to stay committed to active learning in class and regular study at home. Students are also able to access the tutorials session on a Wednesday afternoon in the library for further supports with their learning.

Nicola Worthington
Deputy Principal Junior Secondary

Deputy Principal – Senior Secondary Years 10 & 11

Hello World excursion – University of the Sunshine Coast

On Wednesday 9 June, Year 10 students will be taking part in an excursion to experience the University of the Sunshine Coast. This is a wonderful opportunity that will allow all students to be able to visit and experience the various aspects of the university’s campus and courses.

All Year 10 students are required to come on this excursion, with no regular classes running on this day. This is a free excursion and students will be bussed to and from USC. Our school group will remain together and engage in an array of different study areas and career presentations. Students will also be able to explore the campus and experience what uni life on campus is like.

Please note that students who are already undertaking apprenticeships, traineeships or other courses (e.g. plumbing/construction course) that are off-campus on a Wednesday are not required to attend this excursion – they attend their scheduled training or employment as usual. We are very proud of these students who are already on a positive career pathway to success.

An online permission form has been sent via email to all families of Year 10 students – please complete this by no later than Monday 31 May. Please do not hesitate to contact the school if you have any questions.

Year 11 2022

Thank you to all families who attended the Year 11 2022 information night in Week 5. It is great to see such a keen interest into the pathways available for your child as they complete Year 10 and look forward to 2022.

Subject Information Books for 2022 will be available later this term – just in time to have a look over during the holidays. This is a great opportunity to continue discussions about the best pathways to success for your child and what subjects are necessary to achieve those goals.

Senior Education and Training (SET) Plan meetings will occur with parents and students early in Term 3 (27 and 28 July). These are individual meetings that are required for every student with their parents, and take about 15 minutes. These help to ensure the best possible information is considered to make successful decisions for your child’s pathway for 2022. Further information about SET Planning and booking a meeting time will come out early in Term 3.

Terry Proctor
Deputy Principal Senior Secondary

Deputy Principal – Senior Secondary Year 12

Well done on academic results!

We are well into Term 2 and our Year 12s have been busy creating, composing, building, writing, drafting and perfecting assessment and completing exams. We have been very proud of the results and this shows that we have many hard working students who are dedicated to completing their studies, gaining a QCE and attaining the highest ATAR possible. Students should now have a steady study routine in place and limiting the hours of part time work. It is always great to have a healthy work-life balance, this also applies to our young people. It is a long marathon to the end of the year, not a sprint, so we need our Year 12s to have the energy to maintain their assessment and exam schedule up until the end of the year. If you feel your child needs support, please contact a member of the Senior School team.

Midwinter Ball

I am sure the talk on everyone’s lips at the moment is the Midwinter Ball. We are excited to be able to organise this event, which will take place on Thursday 17 June. Students are to begin the evening with red-carpet arrivals at Coolum State High School from 5pm. MSP Photography will be set up in the Administration Office if you wish to have any professional photos taken of your child and family/friends. These will be able to be purchased directly from MSP starting from $10 per photo. Students will then depart at 6pm by bus to the wonderful ballroom at the Maroochy RSL. This event will be attended by students and staff only. Students will return to school by bus at approximately 10.30pm.

This is an alcohol free school function and students who are 18 years of age will not be permitted to purchase any alcohol at the event. We know student behaviour will be exemplary and we can’t wait to celebrate with our young men and women.

Midwinter Ball tickets are $125 per student is payable to the Administration office in person. Payment must be made no later than Monday 7 June.

Hello World Excursion

We are pleased to offer our Hello World TAFE and University Experience to Year 11 and 12 students on Wednesday 23 June. This event was postponed from Term 1 due to the unexpected COVID lockdown.

Year 11 and 12 students who are completing an ATAR pathway will be attending the Brisbane University Experience.

Year 11 and 12 students who are on a VET/ Non-ATAR pathway will be attending the Sunshine Coast TAFE Experience.

Business Services News

Statement of Accounts

Last week we emailed 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 make that payment as soon as possible, with final payment made by preferably end of this term please. All other fees are also due and payable, please make payment through our various payment methods. Please don’t hesitate to contact me to discuss your financial options with me, I am here to support you.

Facilities

You will see a lot of activity around our school in the coming months as we prepare for a range of major capital works programs. We are very excited about the upcoming works and the large investment from the state government into our facilities and grounds. We have started the Performing Arts block Roof Replacement Project and the Fencing Project and look forward to the wonderful and positive changes their completion will bring. I will keep you updated as we progress through the projects.

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

P & C

We are very excited to announce that the P&C have been successful in our application for a Building Fund. This means that we can start receiving donations for the Building Fund and those donations are tax deductible. This is a wonderful step forward and it means we are inching more and more everyday towards our ultimate goal of supporting the school’s need for a state-of-the art Performing Arts Centre and multi-sports hall.

From our discussions with key stakeholders, this type of building costs approximately $10M so we need your support! I urge you to spread the word and I encourage all families to donate whatever amount you can to support our worthy venture because our children deserve not only the best in teaching and learning but also access to functional and modern facilities.

For some inspiration, our P&C Executive travelled down to the newly opened Baringa State Secondary College to view the amazing facilities they have. Their hall has a capacity of 2,200 as well as a dance studio and fully equipped commercial kitchen, it was amazing! Our aim is to have something similar here at Coolum State High so that we can hold whole school parades and other important events instead of going to other schools or hiring external venues. Outside of school hours the hall would be available for community use and therefore everyone would benefit for years to come!

Please make your donation now! We need your support! Here are the bank details.

Account Name: Coolum State High School P&C
BSB: 633 000
Account Number: 1829 48810

Creative Arts Department

Production 2021 – Ghost Light

In honouring the biannual tradition of school productions at Coolum SHS, the performing arts team have consulted to propose a small-scale cabaret style production for 2021. We are inviting students in Years 10-12 Drama the opportunity to audition for a casting role in our production, Ghost Light.

This year we are prototyping a production format that utilises already embedded curriculum repertoire from the school vocal program and are inviting senior drama students into casting roles as an opportunity to realise their practice alongside their curriculum studies. We are looking to build upon already developing work in both the Vocal Program and Senior Drama courses in an effort to put in place authentic realisation of work and cross-curricular collaboration.

Auditions for casting roles are taking place on Tuesday the 1st and Tuesday the 8th of June and the sign on sheet for all senior drama students (or vocal program students interested in a casting role also) is on the G Block PA staffroom. Students will need to sign up for an audition slot to register their interest.

We will be running the production on Thursday the 14th and Friday the 15th of October. We may also potentially be running the event at a venue outside of our school, considering renovations about to commence to our PA building over the next 3-4 months.

I would like to thank Ms Puncheon, Ms Bradshaw and Ms Hardy for their initiative in working together to put together the proposal and for their time developing the concept and pitching the work for students to engage in at our school.

Instrumental Music and Vocal Program Showcases

Coming up on the 21st of June (Week 10) we will be running our end of Semester One showcase concerts for Instrumental Music. More information will be released shortly to students, detailing the running time and venues for the showcase.

All students are required to wear our black band uniform, which can be purchased from School Locker in Maroochydore.

If you have any questions in the meantime, please don’t hesitate to contact me at rohan.hardy@eq.edu.au

PA Roof Renovation

Coming up soon the PA roof will be replaced and re-pitched as part of a grant successfully awarded to our school. Whilst we are very excited about the upcoming works to our building and the potential end to our leaks to our valuable resources, things are going to be quite disrupted to our regular scheduled classes and co-curricular programs.

Our staff have relocated to the project room outside of the maths staffroom in G Block (on the north eastern side) and our instrumental music and vocal lessons and ensembles have moved to the Brahminy Kite room adjacent to the staff room in G Block.

Once the work commences for phase one, we will be out of the building for approximately 5-10 weeks and we will guarantee continuity of curriculum without too much interruption to music making and our regularly scheduled classes.

Creative Generation

This year, Education QLD’s Creative Generation (CGen) event is returning to the calendar at the Brisbane Convention Centre on the 15th, 16th and 17th of July. The performances will feature more than 1,500 students, including dancers, choristers, symphony orchestra members, a massed string orchestra, the James Morrison Creative Generation Big Band, drumline, drama, featured and backing vocalists, media and stage crew. Year 7 student, Layla Barnett has successfully auditioned into a featured vocalist role, which is a converted achievement for any vocal student across the state. Layla’s performance will also be broadcast on Channel Ten and she has already completed some radio interviews and performances as well as some news for local press.

If you’d like to attend and show your support for Layla, I do encourage families to consider purchasing a ticket for CGen 2021 from the Ticketek website for any of the dates above. Congratulations Layla and we’re all looking forward to seeing you on stage in July!

SongMakers

Last week, we hosted a two-day APRA SongMakers workshop with some emerging song writing talent with 16 students in Years 9-12. We were the only QLD school to run SongMakers in 2021 and were trialling the format as an exemplar to be rolled out for other schools and students in our state. It was an amazing opportunity and I’m so proud of the students that took part.

This year, our students work with mentors, Tia Gostelow (independent artist and song writer, Holy Holy and Middle Kids), Nina Jirachi (producer – Kota Banks, Mallrat and Flight Facilities), Joel Quartermain (Eskimo Joe) and Lily Richardson (CLEWS, DMAs and Tash Sultana) in helping to write a song on day one and record and produce their song on day two. The final mixes of the songs were mind blowing and we can’t wait to share them with our school community shortly.

Vet Department

Our recent year 10 work experience block, between the 10th and 14th May, had students working at locations all over the Sunshine Coast. The students received some amazing feedback and had some wonderful opportunities. Many students have cemented full time jobs or school based traineeships and apprenticeships as a result. We are very grateful to our community for supporting our students and offering them these opportunities that they will remember for a lifetime.

Japanese Department

Japanese Department news – Education Perfect Language Championships 2021

Recently students from the Japanese department took part in an online competition which was conducted over a number of weeks. The students were asked to answer a range of questions, most of which involved translating Japanese words and phrases into English. It is my great pleasure to inform our school community that Coolum State High’s results were simply phenomenal! When compared to other schools in Queensland that entered 51-100 students, we finished 1st out of 18 schools state wide for most questions answered and incredibly, 4th out of 63 schools across Australia!

Individually, the good news keeps coming. The following students attained credit awards, which placed them in the top 20% of over 208 000 students worldwide: Year 9 - Rhys White, Liam Loffler & Ayden McDonald. Year 10 – Jessnee Ng, Gracey Fleischfresser. The following students attained Bronze awards, placing them in the top 10% globally (meaning they answered over 3000 questions): Year 9 – Elle Barrie, Jake Byron. Year 10: Olivia Gray & Emily Lucas-Crockett. Finally, we had two students finish in the top 2% of the world! Well done to Amelia Williams (year 9) who answered over 4900 questions, earning her a Gold award. And last, but certainly not least, congratulations Aoife Dancer in year 9, who also earned a Gold award for answering 9973 questions! Simply unbelievable.

Well done to all competitors and also to our amazing Japanese teachers, who not only build a love of languages in our students every day, but also provide them with the skills and opportunities to take part in competitions like this.

Well done all!

Mr Van Dorsselaer
Head of Department Japanese & Junior Secondary

Science Department

The Santos Science Expérience 2021 – 2022,

The Santos Science Experience STEM Program is essentially a 1, 3,4 day/s hands on science experience conducted across Australia and is open to all current Year 9 and 10 Students in 2021.

The Program includes;

• Hands on activities in laboratories
• Lectures
• Site visits – scientific institutions and research institutes.

Aim of the Program/s;

• Future career understanding – possible careers
• Work with like minded students
• Work in universities including current students and lecturers.

The full cost for a student is;

• 1 Day program - $65
• 3 Day program - $190
• 4 Day program - $260

All Students are welcome. Sponsorship is also available if financial issues are a concern.

For further information go to the Website –

Ocean Youth

District Surfing

Coolum High School surf team absolutely excelled at the district trials recently. The conditions were solid, clean and almost picture perfect.

Kai Barraclough won the open boys in a clutch performance, up against a strong contingent of very talented surfers. Not to mention how much of a gentleman he is and how great he is giving advice to our younger surfers.

Anna-lei Petit came second in the open girls, one of the most positive young ladies you will ever meet, she came to school for the morning as she didn't was to miss classes, surfed her heat, then came to say thank you and told me she was headed home to do study, need I say more

Jarvis Pelikan came into the event as a spritely, positive, super well-mannered young man in grade 7. Competing in the under 16 division he barnstormed his way through the event to a finals appearance and a 4th place overall.

In the under 16 girls we completely dominated, taking out first, second and third in the finals.

Stella Scudamore taking out he event with consistent solid performances in every one of her heats.

Layla Johnstone came second after a strong performance in all her heats.

In third place, was Brissa Canina who also came into the event as super positive, energetic grade 7 who showed maturity beyond her years competing in the under 16 division.

It's safe to say, that the future of our schools competitive surfing is looking strong.

But even the kids who didn't get results in the finals were amazing, positive, and supportive throughout the entire day. When you arrive at the carnival at 5.50am and leave at 4.45pm, it's a big day. But then to turn up at training the next day and see all the same kids there at 6.10am with positivity and energy it makes it very rewarding.

Massive thanks to Beth and Ryan for being, just awesome, all year so far.

The list of student competitors is as follows, every one of them deserves a congratulations for their conduct and commitment.

Kai Barraclough
Finn Walsh (out with a back injury)
Finn Conry
Kai Booth
Cian Mallon
Caleb Rivers
Anna-Lei Petit

Ashton Pignat
Jye Pegg
Fletcher Cooper
Jarvis Pelikan
Ryder Chevins
Zac Conry
Layla Johnstone
Stella Scudamore
Brisa Canina
Esmee Johnson
Makayla Cuthbert
Ruby Chalmers

Dates for your Diary

Tutorials – Term 2

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