24 May 2019

Newsletter Articles

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Dear parents and carers

In this newsletter, I would like to go back to basics and address some fundamental topics that are important in setting the culture of our school and maximising outcomes for our students. We ask for your support with these fundamentals to establishing a quality learning environment.

Uniform

Schools work together with parents and community through P & C Associations to set the Student Dress Code for the school. At Bribie Island State High School, this means a formal uniform to be worn on Mondays and for formal occasions, and a sports or day uniform to be worn at all other times. Pride in belonging through wearing of a uniform supports the setting of high expectations and the tone for a school.

Last week, the P & C supported a change to the uniform that students had been asking for. Students are now able to wear white or black socks with their day or sports uniform. Please note, students must continue to wear white socks with their formal uniform. This demonstrates the willingness of both the P & C and school staff to provide students with voice in school decisions. We ask that parents and students support the dress code on a daily basis. The school has recently sourced a fleece pullover for the cooler winter period. We expect that the jumper will be available within the next 3 weeks. We will inform parents as soon as it is available for purchase.

There is a process for students who are unable to wear the correct uniform on any given day to loan items from the uniform shop. Please use the link below to see the accepted Dress Code for Bribie Island SHS and the process to be followed if a student is unable to wear the correct uniform to school.

Attendance at school

Research clearly shows the link between school attendance and achievement. It is very difficult for a student to be successful at school and achieve to their full potential if they are not in regular school attendance.

Latest information provided in the publication “Australian Jobs 2019” produced by the Department of Jobs and Small Business states the following (page 39):

“Overall work is becoming more skilled. The vast majority of jobs created in the future are likely to require a Vocational Education and Training (VET) or university qualification. The workforce has also become more skilled, with 61% of the working age population (aged 15 to 64 years) now holding a post-school qualification (up from 39% in 1989). Consequently, the jobs market is increasingly competitive and research shows that, on average, there are 20 applicants per advertised vacancy, of whom only three are interviewed. Completing Year 12 is the minimum requirement for most employers, however your chances of gaining a job improve substantially with a certificate III or higher qualification.”

As adults are aware, most employment awards support a maximum of 10 days of paid sick leave per year. Schools need to prepare students for employment and as such, the required attendance rate for all students is 90%. This equates to no more than 4 days of absence per term.

Bring Your Own Device

Bribie Island SHS no longer has a school laptop program and as such, students are required to bring their own device to school. All textbooks are now being accessed through our e-text platform ReadCloud.

During term 1, we celebrated over two thirds of students having connected to the BYoD network solution. This is an outstanding response from our community and our students. We need to ensure that students not only continue to bring their devices to school, but that these devices are charged and ready for use. Many students are arriving at school with no or limited battery charge and while the school provides access points for students, there is not sufficient for every student to be able to charge their laptop at school. We ask parents to support the school by ensuring that students are charging devices each night ready for the next day.

If any family is unable to purchase a device due to current financial hardship, I encourage you to contact the school about access to the Laptop Equity Program.

Date claimer – RACQ docudrama and road safety presentation

On Thursday 27 June (final week of this term) our Year 12 students will be involved in an RACQ and emergency services combined road safety presentation. A mock road accident scene will be established and students will experience the emergency response at such an accident scene. Members of the road safety team will then debrief and discuss road safety with students.

This is a wonderful learning opportunity for our students who, due to their geographical location, regularly drive in 100 km per hour speed zones. I encourage all students and parents to come along and be part of this day.

Date claimer – Year 12 exam block

Year 12 students will be involved in a block exam period at the end of this term. This exam period will run from Thursday 20 June to Thursday 27 June. A full exam schedule will be published leading up to the exam period.

Kerri Holzwart
Acting Principal

SENIOR SCHOOLING REPORT

Senior Schooling

QTAC Parent Information Night

ACU is holding an event for parents & carers of students wishing to go to university. This is a FREE event and is open to all parents/carers & students.

As a parent or carer you play a vital role in supporting your young person’s journey to university.

This journey can be daunting and stressful at times and it’s been our experience that students and parents and carers would benefit from additional information on how to maximise their chances of being made an offer to university.

Thursday 30 May

5.30 - 7pm
Australian Catholic University
Gaudete Centre, Building 216 (Rooftop)
1100 Nudgee Road, Banyo

A representative from the QLD Tertiary Admissions Centre (QTAC) will be presenting, as well as:

• A panel discussion offering insights and advice on how to best support students
• Information on scholarships, fees, support services, entry programs

If you have any specific questions about the event please email wp.qld@acu.edu.au.

Year 10 Senior Evening (Repeat)

On Monday 3 June a Year 10 Senior Evening will be held in the Library at 6pm. This is a repeat of the one held on the 8 May for parents and students who were unable to make it. The new Queensland Certificate of Education will be discussed along with support in selecting subjects and Senior pathways.

Please RSVP to the office to secure your seats.

Year 10 University Visits reminder

Year 10s have the opportunity to visit QUT on Friday 24 May.

Year 10s have the opportunity to visit USC Sunshine Coast Campus on Friday 7 June.

Permission forms will be available soon and need to be returned to the office or to Mrs Duke to secure attendance as places are limited.

Senior Schooling Team

Supporting the Year 11s and 12s during 2019 will be:

Mrs Sharyn Bryce
Senior Schooling Deputy Principal

TEACHING AND LEARNING

Helping Your Child with Assessment

As a parent, assisting your child at home with an assignment can become daunting when confronted with the language and look of an  assessment piece. Providing assistance does not rely on having knowledge of the content or skills being assessed by the assignment. In fact, parents are not able to assist with these elements of an assignment (it would be cheating!).

At Bribie Island State High School, we are aiming to make assessment more accessible for students through clear set out and terminology. Providing your child with assistance to understand the task is more than appropriate.

Assessment tasks have some common elements:

Discussing these elements with your child will help to clarify what they need to be doing to complete the task. It may also generate very specific questions to ask a teacher in class. As always, feel free to contact the school if clarification is required.

Goldy Sodhi
Deputy Principal

JUNIOR SCHOOL AND SCHOOL CULTURE REPORT

NAPLAN 2019

NAPLAN has concluded for another year. Thank you parents and families for ensuring that your children attended as per normal school routine expectations and were well prepared and stress free for this annual process. We believe all students should participate and feel comfortable participating. The data derived from the suite of tests is aligned with the ACARA (national curriculum) and is not used to make judgments about student ability because we understand that this is a ‘snap shot’ of knowledge and skills, taken at a particular point in time. We should expect individual student reports in August/September which will be posted home to families.

Shout outs to:

Mrs Hogg for organising our 2019 NAPLAN. Thanks to her thoroughness and forward planning, our NAPLAN days occurred without a hitch.

Chappy Bec for organising a NAPLAN breakfast each day for our students as well as our YSOs for assisting with its administration and supporting our students during the days.

Global care for supplying a yummy breakfast to our students on each morning before NAPLAN.

Mrs Leishman and Ms Adams and the English faculty for administering and supervising the Literacy papers.

Mrs Brady and the Maths faculty for administering and supervising the Numeracy papers.

The Bribie Way

This term’s focus is on our school value: Unity

From our school’s Positive Behaviour Matrix, students at Bribie Island High will:

In classrooms:

• be considerate of others by leaving my space tidy and damage free
• learn together during group activities
• get permission before using another person’s property

During Interactions:

• work with others and be understanding
• accept differences
• show care and understand the needs of others

In the playground:

• allow others to spend their time as they choose
• include others in our games
• tell staff if something is not safe or comfortable

In the canteen:

• wait patiently in line
• buy items only for myself

In the toilets:

• allow others privacy in the toilets
• keep my phone in my bag whilst using the facilities.

Attendance – Every Day Counts

We have had a great start to Term 2, although a strange first week with the two public holidays. I am hopeful that this is the only aberration responsible for the downward trend in attendance data. Since January, there is a clear decline in attendance across all year levels and particularly in Years 9 and 10. Please discuss the importance of attending school every day with your child/children. Evidence-based research tells us that attendance does have an impact in determining future success. If students miss new critical learning due to absence, and continue to fall behind, we know that this has the potential to become a knowledge gap that may not, if continued absence occurs, be caught up. If this happens across a number of subjects and the absence becomes a pattern, a cycle of disengagement becomes extremely hard to reverse – hence the need for us all to be working together to ensure students attend school every day, apart from illness, of course. ‘Every day counts’ and we will continue to promote this message across all year levels. We appreciate your support to work with us to achieve maximum attendance rates and therefore the best chance of expected successful achievement for your children.

Attendance as of end Week 4; Term 2 2019 (Our Target is 90%)

Kim Bowes
Deputy Principal Junior School & Culture

VETLO Vocational Education Training Liaison Officer NEWS

School Based Opportunities

SkillsTech at TAFE School Application now open for Semester 2 mid-year intake, 2019

• This will be a small intake with only 1 class being offered per qualification, at each location.
• All programs are offered at no cost to students that have not yet used their VETiS funding entitlement.
• Programs will run one-day-per week from July 2019 to June 2020.
• Preference will go to Year 11 students that have not yet done a VETiS funded program.
• Year 10s are welcome to apply and will be considered after Year 11 students.

These programs are not suitable for Year 12 students as they will not complete by November 2019. Therefore, Year 12 students are unable to apply. Courses will fill fast.

To submit an application, students need to:

• Go to tafeapply.com
• Enter the application code of TQST1902
• Enter their personal details, including their USI number
• Choose the program and training centre that they wish to attend
• Once the application is submitted, an email will be sent to parent/guardian for approval and to the school for approval

TAFE School Application now open for Semester 2 mid-year intake, 2019

To register your interest or for further information contact Bron on 3400 2412, email ACLO@bribislashs.eq.edu.au or students in person in A27. Students may visit me during break times for information on any of the programs and vacancies.

Thank you to the local businesses that continually support our students through work experience, employment, traineeships and apprenticeships.

If you would like to hire a Bribie Island SHS student as an apprentice/trainee or as a casual employee, please feel free to contact me via email bedwa181@eq.edu.au or phone 34002412.

Bronwyn Edwards
VETLO

CURRICULUM NEWS

Dance

Sunshine Coast Dance Eisteddfod

Mathematics

Murrumba Mathematics Teams Tournament Success

On Wednesday 1 May, we had 31 students from Years 7-12 represent Bribie Island State High School at the 2019 Murrumba Mathematics Teams Tournament.

This is the biggest Mathematics competition held in our district and involved students from both state and private schools. Students participated in a team of five students, with each student on the team representing a different school. In this tournament format, it was pleasing to see students work together collaboratively to problem solve their way through the rounds of the competition.

We had four students who achieved success at the tournament:

• Jeremy Jenkins and his team placed 1st in the Year 9-10 division
• Phoebe Griffin and her team placed 2nd in the Year 11-12 division
• Ellen McDonald and her team placed 2nd in the Year 7-8 division
• Eve Longman-Hayes and her team placed 3rd in the Year 7-8 division

Congratulations to these four students and the Bribie Island State High School team on such a successful Murrumba Mathematics Teams Tournament experience.

Mrs Tanya Brady
Head of Department, Mathematics

Instrumental Music

Join the Program!

Do you play an instrument? Would you like to learn a new instrument?

There are positions available in the Instrumental Music Program for students who would like to learn (or can already play) one of the following instruments: tuba, euphonium/baritone, trombone, trumpet, clarinet, bass clarinet, oboe, french horn. School instruments are available for hire.

Students in the Instrumental Music Program are required to attend a 45 minute – 1.5 hour rehearsal once a week and one 30-minute lesson each week.

If you are interested please contact Miss Emma Killey via email (eskil8@eq.edu.au).

Emma Killey
Instrumental Music Teacher

GENERAL NEWS

Rotary Pride of Workmanship Award

Our Rotary pride of Workmanship Award nominee for 2019 was Kirsty Leishman-Winney.

She has outstanding commitment, an extremely strong work ethic and is a role model to our staff and students. She not only has a vast knowledge of Language, Literature and Literacy - she is also a fabulous public speaker.

Kirsty has coordinated and coached the school’s highly successful QDU debating program where students have repeatedly won debates against their private school compatriots. Her passion and drive have influenced many of our staff to become debating coaches so the success and future of this program is assured.

The fundamental purpose of school is to ensure that all students learn and not merely that all students get taught. This is a quote from Professor John Hattie and it describes Kirsty’s contribution to Bribie High perfectly. Her drive and passion ensure that students are learners in control of their own journey and that they are not merely passengers.

Congratulations Kirsty!

Mountain Bike or Foot Orienteering: think, race and ride!

Sunday 26th May, 2019. Beerburrum State Forest. Enter by Thursday 23/5.

Solo or Team. Race or Social. Navigate your way to targets. Mountain Bikers 8:30am. Courses up to 3 hours. Foot Competitors: 10am. Courses up to 5km.

Cost: $5 to $25

Limited $5 entries through Council "Healthy and Active Moreton" Event # 1033 and 1035

ENTER: www.sunshineorienteers.com.au
More info: info@sunshineorienteers.com.au

KEY DATES

Coming Events

CONTACT LIST

Print this Newsletter

To print this newsletter, please use the grey button at the top - left hand side of the screen marked “PDF Print Version”.

Advertise in this Newsletter

To advertise in this newsletter, please contact:

Dion Guthrie
Advertising Accounts Manager
Schoolzine
P 07 5450 2710 / MB 0416 890 824 | F +61 7 5636 0956 | www.schoolzine.com.au
Passionate people delivering uncompromised, personalised, customer service.