11 September 2015

Newsletter Articles

REMINDER P & C Meeting - 15 September at 6.00pm in Administration Block All are welcome

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Shailer Park High just keeps going from strength-to-strength. On Sunday, August 30, I had the privilege of watching as our Concert Band perform with the Queensland Youth Orchestra Wind Ensemble at the Old Queensland Museum, Bowen Hills. The students’ performance, alongside Queensland’s most elite young musicians, was superb as was their attitude and behaviour.

Adding to this occasion, the Queensland Youth Orchestra (QYO)’s founding director, immediate past direct and current director were all in attendance to watch our students perform, as was our local Member of Parliament, Mr Mick de Brenni. It was also a thrill to learn that the Queensland Youth Orchestra’s conductor is a past student of our esteemed instrumental music teacher, Glenn Court. Both Mr Court and our strings specialist, Di Alley, are doing an amazing job in making Shailer Park High a centre of high performance in instrumental music, all of which led to our invitation to perform with the QYO. Congratulations to all students involved for their dedication to learning and performing such wonderful music.

On the first and second of September, our Yr 12 OP-eligible students sat their very important Queensland Core Skills (QCS) test. These students have been attending school early each Friday all year to follow a preparation program devised by Dr Terri Bourke, from QUT. Over the two days of the tests the students were amazingly responsible, respectful and persistent, with each of them doing their personal best. I would like to thank Ms Cecilia Hall for her organisation of the tests and Ms Kylie Woodgate, Mr Andrew Pirie and Ms Ros Christopherson for their dedication in turning up early each Friday to lead the preparation program. Best wishes go out to our Yr 12s as we await the results of these tests and as they prepare for important upcoming exams and assignments.

The homework culture amongst our Yr 7, 8 and 9 students is growing rapidly with 80% of students completing their homework at last count (and avoiding detention). The aim here, of course, is to make this 100% and with the support of all parents this is possible! Developing a homework habit will assist all students to develop the academic habits they need to succeed at secondary school.

Recently, I have enjoyed a number of principal’s tours of our quickly re-emerging school. It is terrific to meet parents and students who are considering making Shailer Park High their choice for secondary school. I look forward to meeting any prospective future parents, or current parents, on one of these tours. I would also like to point out to any prospective parents that Shailer Park High’s Yr 9 NAPLAN results now make the school a leader in Logan, and higher performing than a range of private schools. A schedule of tours can be found in this newsletter.

Troy Ascott
Principal

HEAD OF YEAR 11

I have had the privilege of accompanying a group of aspirant Year 11 girls to participate in a Leadership program with Optus. All the girls were nothing but exemplary and were a credit to Shailer Park. Below are summaries of our experiences from two of our students.

For the last three Thursdays, six Year 11 girls had the privilege of participating in a ‘Focus’ Program facilitated by Optus in Fortitude Valley. To get there we travelled in by catching two buses. We were very lucky to be on the ninth floor of the Optus building which gave us magnificent views over the Brisbane Showgrounds and the Storey Bridge, two of Brisbane’s iconic landmarks. The program is one that all should attend, it was great fun and we got to meet and work with like-minded girls from Bray Park State High, a school from the north side of Brisbane. We were divided into small groups with each group being assigned a mentor, a business woman from Optus. Through numerous activities, we discovered what it means to be a leader and the characteristics one needs to be such. It was interesting to take a closer look at ourselves and discover our strengths and weaknesses in order to help each other to devise strategies for improvement. Quite importantly, the food was great! To add a bit of excitement, on our last session, some metal panelling fell off the front of the building due to the wind which meant the entire building went into lockdown and no-one was allowed leave or enter the premises. We were ‘stuck’ for a little over an hour. The upside of this situation was that we got to know the other girls even better by playing a number of social games and chatting. What a way to end a great program, I would thoroughly recommend next year’s students to take the opportunity to participate.

Tiffany Smith Year 11

“Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others.”

- John Maxwell.

The course helped us to identify qualities of ourselves we would have never discovered, or taken the time to ponder without. We truly learned the meaning of the term ‘leadership’; we learned that a leader is not someone who simply leads others, but a person who is capable of standing for their opinion despite ridicule, and someone who uses every second of their day-to-day lives to benefit both themselves and the people around them.

We had the privilege of meeting some of the most successful business women in the Optus Company, including the ambassador of Optus for the whole Queensland state! They inspired us with their stories of how they rose to success, and how they managed to balance their work and personal life on an even scale.

From this amazing experience, we learned that anyone is capable of being a leader in their day-to-day lives. It does not matter whether you are an introvert or an extrovert; someone who raises their voice or someone who prefers to blend with the background. We are all leaders in some respect, and we do not need to have the microphone handed to us in order to speak our minds. And it is up to us to manage our time, manage our confidence, and strive for what we want in life.

One hour of confinement in the Optus building, two trips to doughnut time, and twelve tedious bus rides later, we now emerge as six Shailer Park State High students ready to create our legacies upon the world, ready to be great leaders, and ready to influence others to do the same. We owe thanks to Mrs King, the ABCN Network and Optus for allowing us to take part in this life-changing experience

Sarah Todd Yr 11

Zoe, Kitarna, Tiffany, Jen, Sarah and Logan

Anne-Maree King
Head of Year 11

HEAD OF YEARS 7 & 8

We are nearing the end of a very busy and productive term. The Year 7 and 8 students have had a lot to celebrate, let’s keep up the momentum and good practices til the very last day.

A big congratulations goes out to the Year 7 and 8 students for all their successes and achievements throughout the term. Some of the highlights for this term have been:

Excellent NAPLAN results;
Outstanding reviews for their contributions in the Creative Arts programs;
Sporting accolades;
Fabulous results in the Mathematics and Science competitions;
Amazing journey and distance travelled in their reading and writing outcomes and,
Improvement in our attendance data, which will only get better now that we heading into our beautiful Brisbane weather.

The impending holidays will certainly be a well-deserved break for the students and staff, giving us the opportunity to recharge our batteries; to get ready for the last term of the Year 7 and 8 students first year of High School!

There are numerous activities and events to get involved in if you are staying in Brisbane over the school holidays. Visit the Brisbane kids website below, to see what you would be interested to do with your children.

Have a very safe and happy holidays!

Ra’fa Ali
Head of Years 7 & 8

CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

SPSHS Instrumental Music News……………

August is traditionally a very busy month for our instrumental students, and this has again been the case in 2015.

On August 1 & 2, four of our students (Beth, Kath, Tiffany & Caitlyn) performed in the orchestra for “UNDER THIS SKY”, a musical spectacular held at Logan Brothers Rugby League ground in Logan Central. This activity, which was a major activity of the Queensland Music Festival in 2015, featured an orchestra of 80 Logan musicians, 200 singers and 400 dancers, performing songs created by Logan songwriters and arranged by maestro, Shaun Dorney. The 2 shows were presented to a total audience of over 10,000 people.

During the EKKA week, Shailer Park High hosted the LEAN cluster music workshops, which consisted of a 2 day string and a 2 day band workshop. Over 90 string and 120 band students from the feeder primary schools attended which culminated in a gala concert for parents on the Friday evening.

The annual Shailer Park High Band Camp was once again held at KIndilan OECC from August 26 to 29. A total of 62 instrumental students from Shailer Park High and feeder primary schools attended this 3 night residential camp which provided intensive instruction in playing in a string orchestra, concert band and stage band. A concert was held for parents on the final day which showcased how hard the students had worked at the camp and their progress as ensemble players.

On Sunday August 30, our concert band performed as special guests of the Queensland Youth Orchestra wind ensemble at the Old Museum Building at Bowen Hills. Our concert band was chosen out of all state high secondary concert bands in the greater Brisbane area to participate in the QYO School Outreach Program. QYO wind ensemble director, Mr David Law, described our band’s performance as the best by any state school concert band that he had worked with during his nine years at the QYO.

On Thursday September 3 our stage band performed at the Loganholme State School Flag Raising ceremony. The ceremony, which was attended by the Mayor, the Federal Member and several Logan City Councillors, celebrated the 114th anniversary of the first raising of the Australian flag in 1901. The stage band played 2 jazz pieces, Code Blue and Birdland which entertained the invited guests and the entire Loganholme State School community.

On Sunday September 6th the stage band performed at the Logan River Parklands at Beenleigh to help celebrate Fathers’ Day along with professional entertainers and other school groups.

Simone Filippow
Head of Department

ENGLISH & LOTE

ENGLISH MATTERS

Year 9 English

Even though the term might be winding down, the Year 9s aren’t. They are busy preparing their radio interviews with the author of their class novel.

The whole term has been devoted to the study of the set novel. Students have already completed a reflective writing task and some of the work produced has been simply superb.

Homework this term has also revolved around the novel and provides support for their learning. A reminder that students should be reading at least thirty minutes every night and recording this in their Reading for Pleasure booklet.

We look forward to an enjoyable Term 4, when we move on to our study of the play.

Deb Errez
Year 9 English Co-ordinator

Year 8 English

Year 8 students have been working very hard this term focusing on texts which present Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives. Students read and watched various Dreamtime stories including The Mimis, Wagalak Sisters and Brolga Song to learn about the values of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Students then used this knowledge to write a persuasive discussion which illustrated their understanding of how audio and visual features work together to form representations of Indigenous people’s place, history and culture. Students have thoroughly enjoyed this unit and this is evident in the high achieving results teachers are seeing.

The end of the term will be used to begin our new unit of work, a narrative unit which will see students write a new episode of a television show. Students will study episodes and script excerpts from the ABC television series Noah and Saskia. Students will examine characterisation, film clips and the construction of drama scripts, their text structures and language features.

Melissa Pilcher
Year 8 English Subject Co-Ordinator

Year 7 English

This term Year 7 students are undertaking a novel-based unit in English. We have been completing many activities surrounding this novel in our lessons, in addition to spelling and literacy activities. Students have just submitted the first of two assessment tasks which was a recount discussing an event from the novel. Students are currently working towards writing a persuasive argument that will be due at the start of next term. Teachers are always happy to hear from parents so please feel free to contact us if you would like to discuss your child’s progress.

Sharon Scheiwe
Year 8 English Subject Co-ordinator

Cay McClelland
Head of Department

GUIDANCE

VET Pathways and career interest

The Australian Apprenticeships and Traineeships Information Service (AATIS) has launched a new resource called the ‘Career Interest Explorer’ to help students interested in VET (Vocational Education and Training) pathways identify their career interests. The Career Interest Explorer is based on seven work types. You respond to statements about the work types to show how interested you are in them. After you finish, you can search for career information on the AATIS website related to the work types you were most interested in. You can access the ‘Explorer’ at:

You can explore a wider range of jobs based on the seven work types on the Job Guide website at http://www.jobguide.thegoodguides.com.au/occupation/search Do an advanced search by selecting a work type from the ‘Select Your Type of Work’ dropdown menu.

Occupation, Occupation, Occupation.

Want to find out more about the jobs you are interested in? One way to do this is to watch videos about the jobs. The myfuture website at http://myfuture.edu.au/occupation-videos has videos on a range of occupations. Each video lasts approximately three minutes. After you have viewed each video see if you can answer the following questions.

• Name at least three of the main duties and tasks required in this occupation.
• Would you like to do this job? Why or why not?
• List some things you learnt about this occupation.

(Questions derived from the myfuture website)

STUDY TIME!!!!! Do you put the Pro in Procrastinating?

If so, check out the article at the link below to find out how NOT to avoid studying. The article provides information on goal setting. Information you probably already know but still can’t get to work for you! However, this article puts a slightly different slant on the topic. 4 easy steps to follow with an interesting story to start things off.

Year 12 information

QTAC Applications Visit

Financial penalty applies after the 30th September. Make sure you application is submitted prior to this date. See Dean if you have any concerns or questions relating to your application to University or TAFE.

Scholarships

Information will be sent out to year 12 students on Monday 14th September to their school email accounts relating to scholarships to local grants, community grants and tertiary studies.

Have a safe and happy holiday break!

Dean Thomas
Guidance Officer

HEALTH, PHYSICAL EDUCATION & SPORTS

SPORTS AWARDS BREAKFAST 2015

29TH OCTOBER (WEEK 5)

Our Annual Sports Awards Breakfast will be held on Thursday the 29th October (week 5 next term) and promises to trump last year’s event! Last year special guest ‘Natalie Cook’ delighted students and guests with her flamboyant retelling of her Olympic gold medal glory.

The morning has been a tradition at the school for nearly 30 years and serves to award students that have excelled in our major carnivals (swimming, cross country and athletics) and the anticipated ‘major awards’ of junior, senior and all-rounder sports person of the year.

This year we will have another special special guest for everyone to look forward to. Students will be invited to the Awards morning via invitation at school and parents or guardians are encouraged to attend.

Amanda Donaldson
Sports Coordinator.

Anneline Oberholzer
Head of Department

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY/SENIOR SCHOOLING

During term three, our Year 12 Information Technology Systems students have been very productive an creative. They have learnt a great deal about project management and have working in video production teams to produce interactive commercials. They are almost complete and are currently in the process of testing and improving their products.

The team below are selling beans and using the traditional fairy tale of Jack and the Beanstalk as their theme.

Another team have chosen to promote berries through the story of Hansel and Gretel.

The third team use the story of Cinderella to sell grapes. The groups had a great deal of fun filming and editing these videos. Users have the opportunity to choose their own ending.

Year 11 Information Technology Systems students are currently working on Learning Objects for primary school students. They are due for completion at the end of this term. Here is a taste of the different themes taught:

Year 10 Information Communication Technology students have also been creating animated Learning Objects. Their task was to teach simple words to pre-school children. They have created some very appealing and enjoyable games. Here are some of their designs:

Brianna:

Shaun:

Tim S:

Tahlia:

Thorn:

Alisha:

Kylie Woodgate
Head of Department

P & C NEWS

P&C NEWS

NEXT MEETING: 15th September at 6pm in the Administration block

2015 Future meeting dates: 20th October 17th November

All are welcome to attend.

Each meeting, our special guest speaker will provide a “spotlight on” a particular area of the school. Thank you to Mr Andrew Pirie, HOD - Science, who addressed our August meeting. In a very informative talk we were treated to a lot of information regarding Science curriculum and extra-curricular activities in the school, as well as a question and answer session. It is great to see such enthusiasm in the Science Department.

Congratulations also to the Year 9 students on an exceptional result in the recent Naplan testing. Recognition also goes to the many teachers who are working hard to assist our students in achieving these results. Well done all!

We also wish the Year 12 students who recently sat their QCS tests, all the best with their results. We hope that they reflect the effort that has been put in by the students and staff throughout the year, in preparation for the testing.

It has been wonderful to see some of the great things happening within our school, printed in the local newspaper over recent weeks. Our students are doing a great job of representing Shailer Park State High School in academic, sporting, dance, music and chess events to name a few. Congratulations to all those involved.

We have received a letter confirming that our application for State Government Funding under the Smart School Subsidy Scheme (SSS Scheme) has been successful. This will provide more upgrades to facilities within the school. Watch this space for more information and details of works as they are undertaken.

Special mention to the grounds staff, who have made a noticeable difference to the garden areas within the school. Combined with the uniformity of paintwork to the buildings earlier this year, we hope that this makes for a more pleasant workplace for both staff and students.

The Woolworths “Earn & Learn” promotion ended this week. Thank you to all those families and friends of our school community who passed on their stickers. Two of our P&C members have volunteered to collate all the stickers ready for sending away and choosing our rewards. Thank you Deb & Kim.

At the recent P&C meeting, the structure of the Student Resource Scheme for 2016 was also discussed.

Shailer Park State High School P&C Association has been nominated for P&C of the Year. Announcement of winners will be made at the P&C Qld State Conference to be held on 11 & 12 September. We will have two P&C members representing us at the Conference and we thank them in advance for giving up their time to attend this on our behalf.

If you are unable to come along to a meeting, but wish to contact the P&C executive team, our email address is now up and working. Emails can be sent to pandc@shaiparkshs.eq.edu.au.

As this is the last newsletter for Term 3, the P&C would like to wish all students, staff and families a restful and safe holiday period. We look forward to seeing you again in Term 4.

Music Support Group

What a big month we have had in instrumental music. After the wonderful ‘Under This Sky’ concerts, where Mr Court, Tiffany, Caitlyn, Beth and Kath did us proud, there was a week-long series of workshops during Ekka week for advanced players from local primary schools. Mr Court, Mrs Alley and a wonderful supporting cast of instrumental music teachers from our area worked for two days with band students then two more with strings, before the final concert on the Friday. Everything sounded fantastic, and congratulations to all those involved. It was great to see the turnout at the final concert.

Of more interest for the Music Support Group was the annual high school band camp. Again, talented students from the surrounding primary schools, where Mr Court and Mrs Alley also teach, were invited to attend, with a final concert on the Saturday. For many students the highlight was games night, which had a dress up theme of coming as your favourite character. We were able to provide funds for the music captains to get prizes and supplies for the night.

The final concert, on Saturday afternoon, was again well attended, and this year we provided tea and coffee and asked if the parents attending could bring a small plate to share. The response was amazing, and thank you to all those who brought food along. We had a great variety available and we were all very grateful for your support.

At the concert we drew our raffle, congratulations to those who won. Great work by the music students selling tickets at school the previous week and also on the day. I haven’t seen the final takings but it looked like a great result, with the money raised going towards the break up lunch at the end of the year for all the instrumental music students.

Of course on the Sunday the concert band travelled into Brisbane for a workshop and concert with the QYO Wind Ensemble. Music support paid for the bus, allowing all students and their instruments to make the trip. Those parents that made it into the Old Museum for the concert were treated to an amazing performance, one of the best I have seen. Our students were playing with a more experience group of young performers who would all have had private lessons, but our band sounded just as good and definitely belonged on that stage. Congratulations to all of them for doing themselves and the school proud, especially those who performed soloes during the pieces. The QYO conductor said SPSHS was the best high school band they have performed with, and we have been invited back for next year – fantastic work by the students.

Finally, our next Music Support meeting is next Monday, 14th September, at the school music block at 6.30pm. We had a great turn out for the last evening meeting, so we will continue to have some meetings in the evening to give those who otherwise could make our meeting the chance to do so. I look forward to seeing you there as we plan for the Music Awards Night and think about what we will do next year to continue our support of the fantastic staff and students in the instrumental music program.

If you can’t make the meeting but still want to know what we are planning, let Mr Court or myself (email below) know and you can be added to our email discussion group. All are welcome to help out, whether you have a student in the program, likely to join next year or if you just enjoy instrumental music and want to help it grow at our school and in this region.

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

Jo Quelch
P & C Assn President

PRACTICAL TECHNOLOGY & BUSINESS

The Australian Curriculum has created a renewed focus for Manual Arts and a name change. Design Technology incorporates the best of the existing curriculum and in the Junior School has included new programmes in Years 7-9. These new programmes are designed so students are given greater opportunities to explore design ideas within a structured brief to produce a design outcome that is “real world” in nature.

As an example of this, the Year 9 ITD class designed and manufactured a Pull Along Toy suitable for a 4 year old. A photo of Hollie Duncan’s completed toy is included below.

This is a great example of students applying the design process and complementing that with structured skill development to produce a great project. Well done Hollie.

John Ahrens
Head of Department

READING & WRITING

Reading

This Semester sees the second roll out of the Cellfield program for some of our year 7 and 8 students. An online reading program with a difference, Cellfield uses brain plasticity and clever computer science to synchronise information and deliver it directly where it is needed, quickly and efficiently. Students that have already taken part in the program have shown increased reading and writing confidence along with improved reading assessment results by up to 2 years.

This is a fabulous opportunity for those students taking part to engage in a highly successful program that is not delivered in any other school in the region.

REMINDER!

Students in years 7, 8 and 9 are to be reading every night for 30 minutes. Reading books regularly is the equivalent to an extra year of schooling for children (Nick Gibb, Minister for Education, UK).

READ! READ! READ!

Dawn Hughes
Head of Department

SCIENCE

It has been a very busy term for students in science across all subjects and year levels.

The year 7 students have been busy investigating ecology and species interactions, with our year 8 students investigating the energy content found in common foods.

Our year 9 students are busy revising as they prepare for their assessment on body systems and the chemistry of life, while our year 10 students are currently completing the analysis of results on the water rocket assignment, what a blast!

I’d like to also wish our year 11 & 12 students the best of luck as they are currently sitting their end of term exams after another hard terms work.

Homework

Can I just say how great it is to see the number of junior students completing their science homework. I am sure that continued engagement in this will result in students improving their levels of success in science.

A quick reminder for those that are still aspiring to be regular homework completers, our homework program can be found in your science booklets and is due on a weekly basis.

It goes a long way towards developing strong habits of mind!

Andrew Pirie

Monday it was great to see the senior Science Ambassadors, Josie, Gareth and Ryan introduce our new science mascots Cecilia and Neptune (Blue tongue lizards) to the Shailer Park Primary community.

They presented an informative talk on the handling and care and interesting facts about our blue tongue lizards. The primary students enthusiastically answered questions and were rewarded with prizes.

At the conclusion the primary science student leaders got to get up close and personal with their special V.I.P. guests.

Deb McKay and Annette Hendrikx

School Captain - Tirraleigh Kenny and Senior Science Ambassador Ryan Williamson

Andrew Pirie
Head of Department

FOR YOUR INFORMATION

Are you a parent/carer of a child with ADHD who is on stimulants and who is having trouble sleeping?

My name is Dr Jane Nikles and I am a researcher at The University of Queensland. I am contacting you to inform you of a trial we are currently conducting which tests melatonin for children with ADHD on stimulants who are having trouble sleeping. Participants in the trial can reside anywhere in Australia and can participate by post, email and phone. Our website contains information about the trial, details on how to enrol and all the relevant contact details and can be found at http://mbs.uq.edu.au/mynap-study.

An international research team, including researchers from The University of Queensland and Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital, is undertaking a study to look at the effectiveness of Melatonin in helping children who have a diagnosis of ADHD, are currently treated with stimulant medication, and are experiencing sleep difficulties, particularly getting to sleep.

This study is designed in a way that it can help provide information for individuals, and also group information. This information will be useful in determining if melatonin has a significant effect on sleep for your child.

Every child will receive both melatonin and placebo (identical dummy tablets) so that we can compare their response to melatonin with their response to the dummy tablet, and decide if melatonin works for them or not. It is not the usual trial where some people get active and some people get dummy tablets. This is an individual medication effectiveness test, where each child and family and their doctor will get a report at the end of the trial about whether melatonin works for them. Results from this study can be given to your doctor to help in treatment planning for your child.

Here are two links that give further information about the study.

You can access further information via the website http://mbs.uq.edu.au/mynap-study or you can contact our team directly on 07 3381 1597 or via mynap@uq.edu.au.

Dr Jane Nikles | Project Manager