18 March 2016

Newsletter Articles

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL

As we approach the end-of-term there have been many things that further demonstrate the continued growth of Shailer Park High.

Recently, we welcomed the arrival of a 25-seater bus to further our educational and co-curricular programs. We have leased the bus in order to support our excursion, sporting, musical, dance and primary school partnership programs. The bus has already been active in taking students to excursions and sporting competitions. Our bus will allow for more and greater opportunities for all of our students.

Our sporting successes continue to grow with our U/19 girls' futsal team currently competing in the final stages of the South-East titles. This team is a very talented and hard working group of girls who deserve all of the success that comes their way. Our futsal program this year is a fusion of internal and external talents, with Mr Luke Simpson combining with high-level external coaches to deliver a tailored and high functioning program. We wish the girls all the best as they compete for the title!

Shailer Park has recently acted as host of the ENABLE volleyball competition, which brought together athletes from a wide range of schools. Our senior boys won this competition over some very strong rivals. Congratulations on wonderful achievement boys! A mighty thank you must go to Mrs Anneline Oberholzer for her excellent organisation of this event. Shailer Parch High will also be hosting the ENABLE chess competition later in the year.

Our Dance Academy students continue to excel with a number of Shailer Park High students selected for Creative Generations, Queensland's biggest and best showcase of student performance in music and dance. I can proudly announce that Tiara Singh and Emily Spinks have been chosen as Featured Dance performers while Sam Page, Liana Crouch and Nastajia Arjona have been selected in the Massed Dance. Congratulations students on this wonderful achievement!

One of the privileges of being the principal of Shailer Park High is attending the annual ENABLE Dux Dinner at Windaroo Valley High School, which this year was held on Tuesday, 1st March. This event draws together the students who finished as top of their year 12 cohort at each of Logan's state high schools. The dinner was attended by Logan Mayor, Pam Parker, Education Queensland's Assistant Director General, Patrea Walton, and a range of other local politicians, councillors and prominent citizens. Our own 2015 Dux, Caitlyn Flanders, who was also our school captain, represented the school with distinction. Caitlyn is a role-model for all of our students in how to conduct oneself with respect, responsibility and integrity and to truly achieve with dignity.

As we enter the end of term, it is timely to explain that success in high school is the direct result of hard work. All students are encouraged to work and study hard in the lead-up to end-of-term exams and assignments. It is by working hard that we show the world everything we can do! In building a hard working culture, we are giving our students the opportunity to excel and be in a position to choose from a world of opportunity. Good luck with your studies, students!

DEPUTY PRINCIPAL:
YEARS 10, 11 & 12

2016 Next Step survey

The Queensland Government is conducting its annual state-wide survey of all students who completed Year 12 in the previous year. The Next Step survey is a brief, confidential survey that gains a comprehensive picture of the employment, study and life choices made by Queensland school completers in the year after they finish Year 12.

Between March and June, all our students who completed Year 12 last year can expect to receive instructions to complete a web-based survey or a telephone call from the Queensland Government Statistician's Office to complete the survey. Please encourage them to take part. If their contact details have changed, please assist the interviewer with their updated details or forward the survey to their new address so they can participate.

Thank you for your support of the Next Step survey in 2016.

Further information on Next Step is available online at the below link or on toll free telephone 1800 068 587.

DEPUTY PRINCIPAL:
YEARS 7, 8 & 9

DEPUTY PRINCIPAL REPORT

POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR FOR LEARNING (PBL): At Shailer Park SHS we use PBL to explicitly teach our schools expectations of SAFE, RESPECTFUL and RESPONSIBLE to our students. Students are then rewarded when they are behaving in ways that uphold our expectations through the issuing of 'blue slips' in classrooms and in the playground.

Rewards include:

Free and frequent: every lesson, every day receiving 'blue slips'

Short term: Every 5 weeks, students place all of their 'blue slips' in a draw and students are drawn out to win prizes

Medium term: Rewards Day on the last day of each term. Students who have 92% attendance for the term and 1 or less behaviour incident on One School will be invited to attend the Rewards Day activities. The Junior Secondary students will attend at Lunch 1 and Senior Secondary will attend at Lunch 2. Activities will include a Teacher Dunking machine, Jumping Castle and Karaoke machine.

Long term: Recognition at end of year Awards Evenings and invitation to celebration events such as Formal and Wet and Wild excursion.

We congratulate our students on an outstanding start to the year and look forward to our upcoming Rewards Day on Thursday 24 March. Remember that all students who have an attendance rate of 92% and 1 or less behaviour incident report will be invited to this fun event!

Regards,

Sharyn Angel

HEAD OF YEAR 12

I am very pleased to say that our Honour Board has been updated with our 2016 names. Needless to say our leaders were slightly excited to see their names up in lights!

On Wednesday 2nd March the entire Year 12 cohort spent the day looking at the concept of 'leadership'. For a number of years now we have worked with Ylead, a leadership organisation that offers positive educational and leadership opportunities within schools. The workshops enhance self-awareness, promote positive thinking and behaviours and empower students to utilise their ideas, talents and influence to positively contribute to the community of Shailer Park State High School.

Throughout the day, students were exposed to not only inspirational stories, but also participated in a number of activities that fostered the notion of them as a single, powerful group. The biggest challenge of the day, (in addition to surviving the excessive heat), was to see how fast the entire 120 students could pass under the very large skipping rope. Believe it or not, the goal was less than five seconds, a record set by the previous years. Unfortunately the group could not quite get there, but this in turn provided a very valuable learning opportunity. The day concluded with positive comments about each other written on pieces of paper on their backs, a wonderful piece that could be kept and reflected on in the future. Some of the student responses below sum up the experience:

'The day was fun and very enjoyable. I learned a lot about leadership and the choices that can be made.'

'Good, not quite my thing, but good.'

'It was an eye opening experience, to understand what people do to overcome their fears and how motivating it can be for others.'

HEALTH, PHYSICAL EDUCATION & SPORTS

SPORTS NEWS.

Week 3 we held our annual swimming carnival at Cleveland Aquatic Center. The results for the 2016 Swimming Carnival are :

4th place 234 - VIKINGS
3rd 344 - TROJANS
2nd 350 - SPARTANS
1st 399 – GLADIATORS

> Age Champions 2016:

For our next carnival, which is Cross-country (the last Wednesday of this term) lets have even more colours and costumes and fun!!

Course Maps, posters and details will be coming out this week!!

This year our school will be involved in the District Round Robin days. These are now be called Pacific Rivers Championship Days. The coaches will ONLY take away teams that are of a high level, attending training days; bringing back permission slips and money ON TIME!! Each coach will have a sign up day for each sport, you will need to listen to your morning notices. Also, all sign up dates and anything else to do with sport will be posted on our notice board at the back of the MPS.

Championship Day 1 saw our Volleyball Boys win in the 13, 14, 15 and Open Divisions. Our 15 year Touch Girls finishing a credible 3rd, just missing out on the final on count back. Championship Day 2 last week saw our Volleyball Girls win in the 13, 14, 15 Divisions. 'Championships' day 3,4 & 5 will occur after Easter with Basketball, Soccer, Boys Rugby League and Girls Netball featuring. Students should see their coaches for the relavent teams and further details.

Any students that are interested in trialling for a district sport; you also need to check the sport notice board in the back of MPS). See Mr Lee to pick up a letter with information about when to pay and where the trials are.

Next trial day is for 15Years Boys and Girls Basketball after Easter

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY/SENIOR SCHOOLING

SENIOR SCHOOLING

It has been a very full few weeks for seniors. Year 12 students participated in a Leadership programme held by YLead which was quite inspirational. We have also celebrated the success of all of our students at assemblies,

The seniors really are starting to lead the way for the junior school – and are setting great examples. With your support, attendance has been very high with our senior students these last few weeks – exceeding 90%. It really is a great result. Students really will be benefitting from this, and assessment results should reflect this effort as well.

STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS

• Start your revision as soon as possible. Read around your subject.
• Revise regularly and test yourself regularly.
• Use a revision timetable or allocate time each day for studying each lesson you take during that day.
• Revise subjects you're less keen on at least as much as those you like.
• Revise in an atmosphere conducive to study.
• Compile revision summaries and use them to help you answer exam questions or assignment tasks.
• Practice answering questions with and then without your notes, then to time.
• Take an active approach to learning. Use whatever memory tricks work for you.
• Lots of short sessions are much better than few marathon ones! Research shows that about 40-45 minutes is optimal, after which you should take a break before starting the next session.
• Get enough sleep (8-10 hours each night)
• Ensure you have balance in your life – that means as much time studying as socialising or working.

A reminder to parents that Term Assessment Calendars and Tutorial Timetables are distributed to students each term and can also be found on our website:

We are working hard to support Year 12 students in their learning in QCS preparation. The last afternoon session for the term was held this week. Any students who are sitting the QCS test who did not attend are reminded to collect resources from me in the Administration block.

Finally, reports for this term will be sent home in week 1 next term. We will be monitoring senior student performance based on their progress in these reports. I know students will be trying their best to succeed, improve, and make progress on their results.

Year 12 Information Technology Systems students have been investigating issues of Accessibility for their first assessment of 2016. They have discovered how many disabled Internet users access websites, and some of the assistive technologies available to these groups. Their focus has been on visual and motor impairments and how website developers can improve access to websites for these groups. They have written an in-depth analysis and synthesised their findings to make recommendations to website developers. They also produce some impressive Fact Sheets to communicate key ideas quickly to potential web developers.

Abigail

Leon

Kanal

Lauren

Storm

ICT Excursion - Technology

Year 8 and 9 Information Communication Technology classes went to QUT last week to discover technology and its implications. It was a very engaging day that fit in with the programming that both classes had been doing in classes. Here are some words from the students who attended:

"On our excursion we travelled to QUT, when we got there some students took us to a workshop where we learnt how to program and fly a rocket. It was cool testing our rocket and to see what the best combination of weight/thrust gets it the highest. We also went to The Cube, a massive interactive screen that was really fun to play with. At The Cube we learnt about dinosaurs. We then ate lunch and explored the university. I enjoyed the excursion a lot."

By Zac Hodsdon

"First we did the Rockets 101 workshop. In this workshop we got to use a rocket simulator. We got to change different things to make the rocket slower or faster. This helps with our ICT class because it taught us about programming. The Cube was educational and interesting. It taught us what 'dinosaur' wasn't really a dinosaur, and it was very colourful. At last we visited the Botanical Gardens. It was beautiful, very vibrant and full of life. We walked around the campus."

By Gabby Tyson

Thank you to Ms Tiainen who organised the excursion, and also to Mr Culverwell who attended on the day. Your efforts are appreciated.

P & C NEWS

Andrew Huggins
Chairperson, Music Support Group
andrew.huggins@bigpond.com

Jo Quelch
P & C Assn President

PRACTICAL TECHNOLOGY & BUSINESS

Congratulations Senior Hospitality and Kitchen Operations students, who prepared and presented a four course menu for 44 customers at Sapphires on Tuesday evening, the 8th of March. Canapes and mocktails were served on arrival at Facets Art Gallery, followed by a main course of Spiced Lamb Cutlets and Mediterranean Chicken, desserts and petite fours. Lemon Myrtle Cheesecake was a customer favourite. Our special guests included Desley Scott, Judy van Manen, and Logan City Councillors Lisa Bradley, Luke Smith and Darren Power.

Hosted by Soroptimist, the function celebrated International Women's Day and featured Guest Speaker Denise Proud from Wakka Wakka Country, Cherbourg. The event provided real-life experience reflective of industry, and the nine students involved met every challenge with professionalism. Students attribute their success to "great team work under pressure, effective time management and thorough planning."

Well done Leniesha, Trinity, Jontae, Devlyn, Emily, Abby, Monique, Aimee and Alyssa. You are an amazing team!

SCHOOL-BASED YOUTH HEALTH NURSE

Support for parents if their child says they are being bullied

In support to the school's process on how to deal with bullying there are some websites parents and carers can go to for to help feel supported if their child says they are being bullied or they have been called a 'Bully'. Relationships are tough to work through sometimes when you are a teenager and they need our support as parents so that our young people grow into healthy happy adults.

What is bullying?

A repeated behaviour intended to create a power imbalance which intends to hurt another individual physically, mentally or emotionally. It is repetitive and by the same person or group. It is not friends fighting or someone saying something unkind once or a student telling another student that what they are doing is annoying them and to go away (though we encourage them to say this respectfully).

Below are some websites that will help with the friendship issues too.

Your child is saying that they are being bullied.

Your child is being called a bully.

Listening so they feel heard

'Frienemies' and toxic relationships

Discuss with your child what a good friend is and how to be a good friend themselves.

Cyberbullying and Online Safety

Ten Hints for Creating Resilient Families

Andrew Fuller

Resilience is the happy knack of being able to bungy jump through life. When the inevitable pitfalls and setbacks of life occur, it is as if you have an elasticised rope around your middle that helps you to bounce back from hard times.

• Belonging
• Have some smooch time
• Rediscover some family rituals
• Spontaneity and curiosity
• Listen to them but make it clear who is in charge
• Love kids for their differences
• It is clear who is in charge after listening to everyone's input and it is not negotiate till you change your mind.
• Consistency
• Teach the skills of self-esteem
• Know how to argue
• Parents are reliably unpredictable

Regards,

Michelle Clekovic
School Based Youth Health Nurse
School Based Youth Health - Brisbane South
Children's Health QLD
0447161221
Springwood SHS - Mondays Thursdays and 4th Wednesdays of the month.
Shailer Park SHS - Tuesdays, Fridays and 2nd Wednesdays of the month.

Keeping our Community Healthy

The cold and influenza season is nearly upon us again. Hormonal fluctuations bring a lower immunity and teenagers do get unwell easily. Droplet infection is common and simply breathing in an enclosed space can pass on viruses. To protect some of our more vulnerable members of the community please keep your student home if they have:

• A regular cough and are sneezing frequently
• a temperature
• a very sore throat
• generalised moderate muscle aches
• green secretions
• a gastro-intestinal virus (return 72 hours after it has ceased)

Also think about the influenza vaccination for your family. Talk to your doctor about this.

Could you ensure your young person has some hand gel to use at school before they eat and after use of amenities? There is always some at the front desk and I have some in my office.

Young people need breakfast and lunch despite what they say and do.

I think I do not have to tell any parent of a teenager that their sleep pattern changes and they have trouble waking in the morning. It is difficult to get them up in the morning and this also impacts on another thing…………..eating breakfast and making their lunch.

We are finding more and more students are not eating breakfast and trying to get through a day without eating. I know that we are trying to get them to be more self-sufficient but can we ask that if you can make sure they have had something before they come to school and assist them with management of making their lunches. Why not make their sandwiches with fresh bread and a filling on the weekend and freeze them so it is not an effort to get something in the lunchbox before we all fly out the door. Not having enough nourishment has a major impact on their concentration, learning, problem-solving abilities, relationships and coping skills.

You may have to pack that lunchbox for one more year even though they are more than able to do it themselves.

Good Health

SCIENCE

STEM News

Shailer Park State High School – Griffith University Science Ambassadors' Update

Our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Science Ambassadors have been working quietly behind the scenes for some time and our Senior Science Ambassadors have now attended the first Griffith University Science Ambassadors event for this year.

It was held on Friday 11th March at Griffith University Southbank Campus at South Brisbane and was a full day of team building activities, leadership training, sharing of ideas and planning for the year ahead.

In the afternoon, they attended a session of the World Science Festival being held in Brisbane and actually listened to the Scientists who were involved in landing a Probe on the 67P Comet in 2014, during the "Chasing Down the Comet" presentation.

Our chosen STEM Science Ambassadors have the following Qualities and Responsibilities:

STEM Ambassador Qualities

• Passionate about Science
• Display leadership
• Active member of the school community

Roles and Responsibilities

• Promote Science in school community
• Engage school community in Science events and activities
• Represent/support peers at Griffith Science Annual events

Our Senior STEM Science Ambassadors are:

Allana, Brianna, Tiffany, Cassidy, Jessica, Nikhil

We wish to thank Mrs A. Hendrikx and Mr J. Amarandos for taking our STEM Ambassadors to this great opportunity.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION

PARK RIDGE CRICKET CLUB is looking for 14 to 16 year olds who would like to play Warehouse Winter Cricket this year starting 30 April. The games are 5 one days and 5 two days at 70 overs per day starting 11.45am – 4.35pm.

Training starts this Wednesday night at 6pm at Hubner Road, Park Ridge the home of the "Panthers". Interested Players contact Lewis Mills on 0413 656 058.

Park Ridge Cricket Club has joined forces with "Joshua Henderson Cricket Academy" to enhance cricket skills for junior and senior players alike. Joshua is taking an U14 team into the Warehouse Winter Cricket this year and this will be our second year in the competition.