22 July 2016

Newsletter Articles

A Message from the Principal

A big welcome back to school to all our families after the mid-year break!

Hopefully, all parents, guardians and students have had a chance to review and discuss their Semester One report card. As principal, I am delighted to report that students’ results have improved across the board since Semester 1, 2015. I am constantly amazed by our students and their achievements, with many of our students working extremely hard for their success. The following Yr 12 subjects currently have ALL students with grades of C or above:

• Ancient History
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Engineering Studies
• Industrial Technology Studies
• IPT
• ITS
• Legal Studies
• Mathematics C
• Modern History
• Music
• Music Studies
• Physical Education
• Physics
• Recreation Studies
• Social and Communities Studies
• Visual Art
• Visual Art Studies

Added to this, the following table shows the number of Shailer Park High Yr 12 students currently receiving ‘A’ grades:

Over the weekend, five of our talented performing arts students participated in Creative Generations, Queensland’s premier performance showcase for state school students - Sam Page, Emily Spinks, Nastajia Arjona, Tiara Singh and Liana Crouch. The students involved added greatly to their school experience and to their lives through their involvement with this amazing spectacle, as well as having the opportunity to work with famous and highly accomplished mentors from the worlds of dance, music and performance. The event will be televised on Saturday 15th October at 1:30pm on Channel TEN. Congratulations students on your success!

On Friday, 15 July, we successfully hosted our annual Athletics Carnival. The carnival was a great show of athleticism and school spirit, with terrific leadership from our student leaders. Successful athletes will now compete for district and regional selection. I would like to thank our sports master, Mr Anthony Lee, for his organisation of this event and all staff for their support of events on the day.

I would also like to congratulate two of our students who have been nominated for prestigious School Based Trainee of the Year awards. As a school, we will all be supporting the following students:

Teagen M (Yr 12) – currently completing her Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care with School Based Employment Services and Woodland Childcare Centre

Yean T (Yr 12) – completed her Certificate III in Aged Care with Logan Hospital (via the Health Inspiration program run by DET)

Congratulations also go to Tiaha T . Tiaha has been successful in securing a School Based Traineeship with the Logan Hospital under the Health Inspirations 2016 intake.

Out of 55 applications, only 9 were successful. This is a great start for Tiaha and we wish her every success in this incredible opportunity.

Last but not least, many parents will have received an email explaining the need to pay Resource Hire Scheme fees to ensure that students receive all of the resources covered by the scheme. It is very important that these fees are paid to allow the school to offer the best possible education to all students. Could parents and guardians who have not yet paid these fees please contact Lesley in our finance window as soon as possible.

Senior Schooling

Term Assessment Calendars and Tutorial Timetables

A reminder to parents - Term Assessment Calendars are distributed to students each term. This information, including Tutorial Timetables, can also be found on our website:

Year 12 – Tertiary Applications Opening Soon

All year 12 students are reminded that QTAC applications are opening soon. This application process is for students wanting to study all post-secondary (Cert III and above) and tertiary level courses (Diploma and above). The QTAC Guides were distributed Week 2 of Term 3. This Guide and the website are an extremely valuable resource to investigate all kinds of study options for 2017.

There is an abundance of information about upcoming key dates, courses and common application questions on the site.

We encourage all students to familiarise themselves with the website – QTAC Application processes begin in August and we will be working with students to ensure they are informed about the application process during the term.

Upcoming Career and Study Information Sessions (for ALL Senior Students)

Recent Career and Study Information Events

Careers that Shape the World

Our Year 11 and 12 OP Eligible students attended UQ for some inspiring insights, careers and course guidance on Tuesday 12th July 2016.

There were a range of available sessions covering careers in maths, physics, robotics, law, economics, social enterprise, philosophy, engineering, human rights, biology, marine science and beyond.

TSXPO

The TSXPO is Australia's largest tertiary studies expo and the ideal event for all senior school students, parents and career seekers. TSXPO gives access to over 250 qualified representatives in one location!

Many students with a range of career and study paths attended the event. A great opportunity to speak to representatives from TAFE, Defence Force, Private Education Colleges, student support services, as well as a significant number of graduate employers and government agencies recruiting for graduate placements.

Year 10 SET Planning and Career Information

Students in year 10 will be choosing their subjects for Senior this term. This will be based on discussions and investigations in ACE classes in Term 2 and this term about career and study pathways.

Information about SET Planning will be discussed at our COMMUNICATIONS EVENING on Thursday 21 July which has been communicated via Facebook and letters have been sent home with information. These sessions are important for students and parents to attend as it will outline the year 11 and 12 subject model, year 11 subject selection processes and pathways after school. These sessions will be run by Kylie Woodgate, DP Senior Schooling. We look forward to seeing you all there.

Creative Industries

Creative Generation – State Schools Onstage 2016

The work of our five very talented dancers culminated on Friday 15th July with the most spectacular performance ever staged in the history of the Creative Generation Concerts. We at Shailer High are very proud of our participants. All who were lucky enough to attend the concert eagerly watched each dance looking out for Tiara, Emily, Sam, Nastajia and Liana. These dedicated students have worked throughout the past 5 months attending scheduled rehearsals on the weekends to achieve perfect routines. None of this could have occurred without the commitment of their parents who transported them to and from the various venues and supervised them where required and also the support of Shae Westerveld their dance teacher.

Although participation in this event is a massive commitment on the part of students, their parents, Ms Westerveld and the school, the rewards for all are immense. Where else can a young performer acquire experiences such as: being choreographed and trained by esteemed professionals, interact with professional artists and participate in a show with hundreds of cast and crew drawn from more than 120 state schools from all over Queensland? The laser lights, pyro techniques and other astonishing staging effects added to a truly amazing production

Congratulations Tiara, Emily, Sam, Nastajia and Liana for superb performances and representing our school so admirably.

Instrumental Music

Trivia Night – Saturday 23rd July.

Mr Court and the Music Support Team are busily working on all aspects of the organisation for this event which promises to be lots of fun. At the moment the sound proof room in P5 looks like a treasure cave filled with wonderful and exciting prizes. We are also all looking forward to performances by the String Ensemble, the Jazz Band and the Symphonic Winds.

Senior Art

All senior students are now working on their second ‘Body of Work’ on their individually chosen focus. Work completed from their first unit looking at the notion of ‘Obsession’ produced some extremely interesting pieces exploring a wide range of individual focuses. Students used a variety of materials and techniques to explore and refine their ideas. It is too difficult to show you everything, so please enjoy the selection I have made.

Abigail

Georgia

Year 12 Head of Year Report

Welcome back to term three, the busiest and most important term of the year for Year Twelve!

This term will see students working harder than ever before. By the end of this term students will have almost cemented their subject results and for those studying OP subjects, have completed the Queensland Core Skills Test. It is a very busy term indeed. The only way that students can ensure that they achieve their very best is to maintain 100% attendance. This will give all students every opportunity to question and seek advice where necessary, and leave no doubt that they gave their very best. Please support your student and the school by meeting the expectations regarding attendance.

The finale to the year is of course the Formal. This year it will be held at Sirromet Winery. For students to be invited to this wonderful celebratory event they must continue to uphold all school expectations. I will be sending a letter home in the very near future which outlines the details for this event so that you may be informed for planning purposes.

I am looking forward to seeing the results of some very hard work by all our students.

Information Technology

Semester 1 saw many Information Technology students improve their achievement levels significantly.

Year 11

Special mention should be made of the eleven excellent students in Year 11 Information Technology Systems, who ALL achieved within A and B levels, five producing A level work. Students were asked to develop graphic design objects to promote a specific product. These included a children’s zoo, a tropical resort and an instrumental music store. Objects included logos, banners, billboards, postcards, brochures, magazine advertisements and price lists. Below are a few examples of what they produced. Well done year 11!

Ethan

Ethan

Brianna

Ash

Talia

Shaun

Brianna

Year 12

Year 12 Information Technology Systems students developed some excellent websites for local business clients. Their websites contained a minimum of six pages and included fully working hyperlinks, animated slideshows and embedded maps. All websites were created using CSS formatting and were tested and validated.

Lauren

Abigail

Jayden

Year 10

Year 10 Information Communication Technologies students conducted research into aspects of life for teenagers. The designed survey questions and analysed results from the surveys to create Infographics. Here are some of their designs.

Roger

Krystal

Ethan

Krystelle

Ashleigh

Humanities / Junior Secondary

Humanities

Welcome back to Term 3. We have a lot going in Humanities this term with students in Years 7, 8 and 9 taking a tour back in History. Year 7 students will be ‘Investigating the Ancient Past’. Their study will focus on identifying the tools, techniques and methods used by historians and archaeologists to investigate history, and the range and nature of sources that can be utilised in a historical investigation. Year 8 will be studying ‘Medieval Europe’, where they will take a close look at Black Death as a significant event in the development of the Modern world and a turning point in European Medieval Society. Finally Year 9 are doing an in depth study on World War 1 from an Indigenous and Non Indigenous viewpoint. There is so much happening across all of our diverse and exciting units this term in the Humanities faculty and I look forward to continuing to see classrooms buzzing with energy and excitement as they continue their studies.

Junior Secondary

In term 2 our junior leaders were very fortunate to be invited to John Paul College to take part in a forum regarding Future Housing for Queensland. Kathleen H , Ayden H, Robyn P and Flynn A all represented Shailer Park State High School and our local community brilliantly to discuss and have input on Mick de Brenni's MP future housing strategy for Queensland.  There were a number of schools who came together with Mick de Brenni and his staff to share ideas and tackle some of the big issues of housing in the future.  Well done Junior Leaders you were amazing!

Introduction from the Guidance Officer

I have just been appointed as Guidance Officer to Shailer Park SHS. Having worked in the role of GO in a variety of settings for over nine years I enjoy working with young people and assisting them in navigating the ups and downs of their high school years. The High School Years are an exciting time for young people but they can also be challenging and confusing. My role is to assist students in overcoming any of the barriers which may prevent them from successfully completing their six years of High School education. I am passionate about education as I believe it can open many doors for our young people. Education has changed dramatically in the last five years. Today there are many pathways available to young people to reach their career goals and improve their educational outcomes. The pace of change is only going to increase so it is important that we prepare our young people for the future.

In order to live a meaningful life it is important that young people learn how to look after themselves mentally and physically and to build resilience and life skills to cope with the normal ‘ups and downs’ which life will inevitably throw at them. As part of the Shailer Park community I hope that I can help in developing these skills in our young people.

I look forward to working with the Shailer Park SHS community. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if I can be of any assistance to you.

Health, Physical Education & Sports

Athletics Carnival Results

Results from the Athletics Carnival are currently being tallied and will be available in the next newsletter.

School-Based Youth Health Nurse

Social networks and Online Gaming - E Safety for Parents…

Have you ever wondered what that app or platform was that your young person uses?

This revised website has a lot of useful information for consumers, parents, young people and educators to use as resource, to build knowledge and inform.

It gives guidance on how to make a complaint, report abuse, safety tips, block explicit websites, settings, security and privacy while using these platforms.

Parents and educators can find lots of relevant, useful information here

where it is outlined what can be done to help parents and families manage the use of the internet. Topics such as Sexting, managing time online, protecting personal information, and digital reputation are covered here.

Sometimes, while young people are active online, they can experience cyber-bullying.

It can look like this

• abusive texts and emails
• hurtful messages, images or videos
• imitating others online
• excluding others online
• humiliating others online
• nasty online gossip and chat.

What is known through research is that one in five Australian children aged 12 to 17 has been the target of cyberbullying in the past year.

The Office of the Children’s eSafety Commissioner can help you make a complaint, find someone to talk to and provide advice and strategies for dealing with these issues

Schools can also help with this. Most schools have policies in place to address cyberbullying and should be able to provide support to you and other students, no matter whether the bullying is from a student at your school or not.

Talk to a teacher, Guidance Officer or Youth Health Nurse you like and trust.

P&C News

Welcome back to all our families and students for Term 3.

P&C Funds Making a Difference

It’s exciting times and we are so pleased to be able to see funds raised by the P&C contributing and making a difference to the school.

As you know, the school has been undergoing major renovations and the P&C contributed substantial funds for shade structures and for the works being done on the amphitheatre.

The shade structures are now complete including:

The Amphitheatre works are continuing and the tradespeople are working hard after hitting Shailer Park’s infamous “Shailer Rock”

Major Fundraising Goal Identified

As a P&C we have numerous focus areas around the school and raise funds for many of our extra-curricular activities including Music, Volleyball and the Dance Academy.

We have also identified a major project to focus on - Ventilation of the MPS Hall. We’ve been advised by the school the investment required is in the order of $36,000. This is a big target and we’ll be working hard to raise the funds.

How can you help?

By supporting the Loyalty Programs we have in place with local businesses:

Foodworks Loganholme: Shop & Save Club - Register in store by completing the Shop & save membership application form and nominate Shailer Park High School as your local school.

Amart sports Loganholme: Community Kickbacks program - Simply register in store and nominate Shailer Park High School as your registered organisation.

Ritchie’s IGA Daisy Hill: Community Benefits Fund - Ask for a Ritchie’s CB card at the School office.

Election Day Activities

On Election Day (Saturday 3rd July) the P&C ran a fundraising BBQ for our Volleyball Support Group and a Raffle to raise funds for our major goal, ventilation of the MPS Hall.

The BBQ kept the masses fed on the day.

The Raffle raised over a $1,000 towards our goal of $36,000 to ventilate the MPS Hall.

Sonja Kalbaugh
President
Shailer Park State High P&C

For Your Information

Assessment Calendars for Term 3 are available from our website.

Junior Assessment Calendars

Senior Assessment Calendars