18 May 2016

Newsletter Articles

From the Principal

Welcome to this fortnight’s newsletter. Last week our Year 7s and 9s undertook their NAPLAN Testing regime. I wish to thank all the parents who have assisted their child to work through the NAPLAN testing program. Also to the many staff who helped our students through the program. Why NAPLAN testing? I wish to give my reasoning about its benefit. Firstly, the best predictor we have for academic success in Year 12 is Year 9 NAPLAN results. Secondly, NAPLAN’s focus on literacy and numeracy has forced schools to really emphasise these elements in a student’s education. After Year 9 NAPLAN, the students face many career decisions and opportunities. The students with sound literacy and numeracy skills will have many more career and certification options than those without them. So our “main game” is to ensure ALL students enter Year 10 with sound literacy and numeracy skills. NAPLAN helps us track and achieve this endeavour.

Uniforms

The uniform this year as has been quite good however with the change of weather arriving, it is timely that students and parents look at cold weather uniforms. Our winter uniforms are available at our tuckshop and are well priced. Please ensure your child wears the correct uniform each day, especially during the winter months.

Special Mentions:

• Special thanks to Mrs Sharman and Mrs Gilbert and Ms Prior for organising the BBQs each day for our Year 7s and 9s during NAPLAN testing. Thank you to the many teachers who helped them out.
• Thank you to Mr Ryan for managing the whole NAPLAN assessment program; it was a huge administrative program to implement.
• Congratulations to all of our students who have made Capricornia representation in sport.
• Special thank you to our hard working P&C who have already developed a grounds improvement program. They are a really progressive group and very goal focussed. Mrs Weatherly and Mr Horsfall are looking for more helpers with Octoberfest, please contact the school office to be connected to them if you wish to help.

“I am convinced that unconditional love is the most powerful known stimulant of the immune system. If I told patients to raise their blood levels of immune globulins or killer T cells, no one would know how. But if I can teach them to love themselves and others fully, the same changes happen automatically. The truth is: love heals.” Bernie Siegel

Have a happy and safe weekend.

Ray Clarke
Principal

From the Deputy

NAPLAN, NAPLAN, NAPLAN!

After a huge week last week, the Year 7 and Year 9 students are settling back into the routine of regular classes. The NAPLAN testing took place over three days and was comprised of language conventions, writing, reading and two numeracy tests. All of our students who took part in the testing gave it their best go and demonstrated that they can work exceptionally well under test conditions. It was fantastic to move throughout the school and see the quality planning that took place prior to the writing task. Students had thought through their stories, planned them out and therefore delivered a number of well written pieces responding to their unseen stimulus.

Junior Secondary Awards and Trivia Night

The term 2 awards night will be held on Tuesday 24th May in the UCA starting at 6:30pm. All students and their parents are invited to attend for an enjoyable evening of trivia questions with a number of awards being presented to students after their efforts in term 1. Students will receive awards for excellent Effort and Behaviour on their term 1 report card as well as academic excellence. Parents are encouraged to attend with their children and to bring a plate of food to share (a bucket of KFC was popular last year). Flyers will be given to students this week and a text message reminder will be sent home later in the week. We hope to see many of you there on the night to celebrate our student’s successes and to challenge yourselves with some trivia.

Hayden Ryan
Deputy Principal – Years 7 & 8

Year 9 News

The Year 9’s have continued their smooth transition into Term 2 with achieving an average weekly attendance rate of 90.5%. Our attendance goal for all students is 90%, so it is clear that the students and their families value every day at school. Research shows that higher student attendance is generally associated with higher student achievement. Just a reminder, if a student is sick or unable to attend school please call the administration department on 4988 2222 and report the absence.

On April 28th the student representative council held a whole school disco to raise money for Relay for Life Teams. The disco was a huge success and it was great to see the Year 9 students getting involved and having some fun.

The Year 7 and 9 students also participated in NAPLAN on 10th – 12th of May. I would like to commend the students on their effort and behaviour over these three strenuous days. It was also great to see the students attending the NAPLAN BBQ each morning before the tests began.

Students will have their first piece of assessment due for a range of subjects in the coming weeks. I would encourage all students to attend Study Club during this time. Study Club is run Tuesday and Thursday afternoons in the Library from 3:00 – 4:00pm. Students can use this time to catch up on work, complete assessment and revise for their subjects.

If you need to contact me regarding your Year 9 student’s wellbeing please feel free to email me at egilb23@eq.edu.au .

Have a great week!

Elyse Gilbert
Year 9 Manager

From the Head of Department: English

Welcome to Term Two. It has been a very busy and productive term so far with staff feverishly marking drafts and providing valuable feedback to students. Students in both years 7 and 9 have completed the NAPLAN testing during the week and we look forward to receiving their results next term.

Staffing:

Sadly, we farewelled Mrs Elsden at the end of Week 4 as she commenced her maternity leave. Mrs Elsden will be dearly missed by her students and those who worked with her. We wish her all the best with her new bundle of joy and we can’t wait to meet baby Elsden in the very near future.

Junior Secondary
Years 7-10 Assessment:

In term one, students in Years 7-9 created entertaining narrative short stories based on the themes of fantasy, horror and science fiction. Our focus this term has been around expositions or persuasive texts. Students have been busily creating persuasive essays using powerful persuasive devices such as high modality, ethos, logos and pathos. Students in year 10 have just completed writing a personal reflection based on their experiences of viewing Redfern Now: Stand Up. In their assessment they had to include experiences, ideas, and observations they have had in response to the film studied, referring to the film techniques and discuss what they found confusing, inspiring, difficult, interesting, and WHY.

Term 2 Assessment - Our next assessment items will be due at the end of this term.
Year 7 - students will choose a topic from a selected list and write and present a persuasive oral to their peers.
Year 8 - students will be composing a persuasive Letter to the Editor to express their opinion and point of view and then present it to the class.
Year 9 - students will write a critical review of the effectiveness of Australian print advertisements and then present their analysis to the class in a well-structured oral.
Year 10 - students will complete a novel study. Most students have chosen the novel Tomorrow When the War Began. Students are required to read their novel at school and at home. The assessment task will be to create a physical representation of a character and perform an oral presentation explaining their choices.

Reading:

This term we have been focussing on how to infer or make inferences. Teachers have been using the ‘think aloud’ strategy and explicit instruction to model how to answer questions that require you to use information from the text and your own knowledge. We will continue to focus on this strategy for the remainder of the term. Students in years 7-8 will continue to use the ‘Literacy Box’ kits to reinforce their reading comprehension skills, vocabulary and grammar. Students in year 9 will continue to use the SRA kits to practice their reading and comprehension skills. Year 10 students will begin using the SRA kits in Term 3. We have just purchased new kits so that our reading focus can be extended throughout the whole junior school.

Senior Secondary
Drafting and Feedback

As you are all aware, all students have now received an interim report card which indicates their level of achievement, effort and behaviour throughout Term 1. A number of students in Senior English, whether in English Communication or Board English, did not receive satisfactory results for their English subject. After several discussions with teachers and these students, two clear factors were identified.

1. Minimal evidence in the drafting stage and not acting on the feedback given from teachers.
   Drafting is a vital part of the assessment and feedback process. All assignments have a draft date. Drafting is a process to provide students with feedback on their assessment piece and provide you (parents/carers) with feedback. Teachers also use drafting to ensure that they have a tentative result for students, well before the due date. One of the most critical parts of the learning process is feedback. Feedback is systematic, specific and aimed at showing students how to improve. It is important that feedback is acted upon as it gives the student specific recommendations as to what needs to be improved or if more evidence or analysis is required to enhance their assessment task. Feedback is often written after the draft has been submitted and then handed back to the student. Feedback can also be a discussion as to what the student needs to add to their assessment task.
2. Preparation- being prepared and organised is a major contributor towards being a successful learner. It is vital that all students use their diary or have a study plan to organise their time effectively. Class time is also valuable and to have success, students need to participate and use this time efficiently. Teachers plan lessons that demonstrate the content and skills required for each assessment task. If students are unclear about their task then it is essential that they seek help and ask for clarification.
   Student absence is also huge contributor in students not being prepared to complete their draft or assessment piece. Please ensure that your child/children speaks with their teacher to find out if they have missed a vital piece of teaching in regard to their assessment task.

Communication at home

As parents/carers, it is important that we have discussions with our child/children so that we are aware of what they are doing at school. Some of the questions that you may like to ask this term may include:

BEFORE DRAFT DATE:

• What is your assessment task this term in English?
• What are you learning in English? What is your topic?
• When is your draft due?
• Can I see your draft?
• Does your draft meet the required word limit that is on your task sheet?

AFTER DRAFT SUBMISSION:

• Can I read your feedback?
• What advice has your teacher given you to improve your assessment task?
• How have you changed or improved your assessment task before you submit your final piece?
• What feedback did you receive on your final assessment piece?

As my role of Head of Department (HOD), I will continue to monitor students and have conversations regarding drafting and using feedback effectively with all senior students this term. I too will be asking students some of the questions provided above. I would encourage all parents/carers to ask your children about their assessment task and when their draft is due. I would also like to ask you to read the feedback that our teachers spend many hours providing your child/children so that they can enhance their assessment task and have a greater chance of success.

Until next time,

Regards,

Terri Weatherley

Head of Department- English (Acting)

Science News

This term 12 Biology students went to North Keppel Island Environmental Education Centre to conduct field work for their extended experimental investigation. This involved snorkelling in coral reefs and assessing the biodiversity. Meanwhile, Science in Practice students are currently growing crops in the schools agriculture plot. Their goal is to find out which farming techniques produce the highest yield. Year 12 Chemistry students are testing orange juice for PH and vitamin C content and the year 11 chemistry students are preparing for their first external exam in preparation for the new curriculum which will be implemented next year. Stay tuned for the next science update at ESHS!

Computing & Business News

Year 11 & 12 ITS

The Year 11 students are using Game Maker that has its own proprietary programming language called the Game Maker Language (abbreviated to GML).

• Scripts. A script is a (usually) short snippet of code in GML that you write to create your own functions.
• Events. You can use code within object events to control the behaviour and interactions of instances of those objects. You can even mix Drag'n'Drop with code!
• Room Creation Code. Each room can have a special "create event" specific for that room. Here you can add the code you need and it will be run when every time the room is entered.
• Instance Creation Code As well as the code you insert into the events of an object, you can also add code to individual instances when you place them in the room. This code will run after the create event of the object and is specific to the instance that you add it to. So you can have four instances of the same object, yet each one can be made to have some different properties thanks to this code.

The year 12 students are busy working on Website designs for one of the specialty stores within the Emerald Village shopping centre on Hospital Road. We have also conducted a client consultation that saw us go on an excursion to the centre.

Year 10 ICT

The year 10 ICT students are busy learning the skills of Graphic Design focusing on magazine covers. They are busy learning the skills of Photoshop and image composition.

Year 9 Information Communication Technology

Stop motion is an animation technique that physically manipulates an object that appears to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence.

Year 7 Information Communication Technology

Kodu Game Lab is a visual programming language that allows anyone, even those without programming knowledge and experience, to create rich 3D games. Kodu uses intuitive icons to control the characters and objects with character behaviours expressed in physical terms.

Through designing and creating their own games, students will learn how powerful and interesting games can be created with simple building blocks and techniques.

Japanese News

Konnichi wa to Japanese for Term Two, where the Year 7 students are studying seasons and weather and the Year 8 Students are studying time with daily routines. As the Japanese Department gradually introduces concepts and processes from the recently released Australian Curriculum for languages, the students are developing a richer understanding of intercultural appreciation and linguistic reflection of English. This new curriculum outlines that it is important to reflect upon the grammar and manner of English expression in comparison to Japanese. Also the sounds of language and realistic classroom interaction have been given higher prominence, with the desire to go to a deeper depth of learning with less vocabulary.

With these guiding principles in mind, the Year 7’s are learning of the four seasons, and are more confidently creating small sentences such as “It’s Spring” “Winter is cold” “Autumn is not hot” “Summer is rainy.” Along with the focus on Hiragana ひらがなalphabet writing and Kanji characters　夏秋春冬 they are also connecting their learning to cross curricular understanding of the science of seasons and geographical variations around the world.

In Year 8 the students continue to build upon their Year 7 scripts and construction of sentences by extending and revising vocabulary which is giving them the positive emotions of achievement, recall, the spiral progression through language and a wonderful balanced perspective on their own native language of English. They are learning how to build longer sentences by inserting time phrases, am, pm and will be assessed on their own typical day. It’s exciting for our Year 8 students to realise how far they have come since the beginning of Year 7 when the foreign symbols seemed so difficult, and now they write them with general ease and understanding. Reflection by Paige B…”Japanese is very fun and interesting to me. Their culture is formal and polite; everything is balanced and well thought out. It has been very different to Australia’s…the Japanese symbols are challenging. I have learnt the best way for me to memorise Japanese is through songs and books…I have found it is so enjoyable to speak another language. It has been fun to be able to read it and understand it.” Kristine Baron

School-based Apprenticeships/Traineeships News

2016 has seen a rise in students gaining School Based Apprenticeship and Traineeships. Emerald State High School would like to congratulate the following students signing into a Traineeship or Apprenticeship with local businesses.

Jayden Castles – Carnarvon Panel Works
Cameron Dunn – McDonalds
Karla Stirrat – McDonalds
Chris Juett – McDonalds
Brock Hamblin – Milne Bros.
Connor Mathews – Antz Antennas
Shyann Dale – McDonalds
Tom Gimbert – McDonalds
Chris Day – KFC
Shakarie Mitchell – Direct Chemist Outlet
Kat Mitchell – Genisis Hair Design

Term 2 will see year 10 students entering the work force in week 9. The feedback from local businesses from Term 1 was excellent and a credit to the students. This term many will experience a different industry to help them decide on a career path and subject selection for year 11 and 12.

Student Council News

It’s been a very busy month for the SRC. We’ve made a start to fundraising for our Relay for Life Team by holding two BBQs, outside of BCF and for the Neighbourhood Centre Garage Sale. We have two more BBQs planned for June and July as well in order to help us raise money not only for Relay for Life but for other community and school projects.

We have also just launched the annual Winter CQ Pet Rescue House Challenge. Students and staff are encouraged to donate pet food and items in order to fill a 60 litre bin. The House which fills their bin the most (or the most often) will win the House Cup. All of the pet items will then be boxed and handed over to CQ Pet Rescue at the end of the term. If you wish to make a donation then just write the House on the bag and leave them for Ms Ross in F Block. The winning House will be announced week 10 on parade.

We are also preparing this term for our bi-annual talent show, Shines. Staff and students will be performing in the second week of next term but auditions will be held later this term. Dancers, singers, performers and bands are all encouraged to take part. More information on the evening will be forthcoming.

Upcoming Events

• 20th May – Relay for Life THEMED DRESS DAY
• 28th May – Red Shield Appeal
• 16th June - All Day Breakfast and Lunch BBQ at the Athletics Carnival
• 21st July – Shines Talent Quest
• 5th August – Jeans for Genes Day THEMED DRESS DAY
• 20th-21st August – Relay for Life
• 21st Oct – Loud Shirt THEMED DRESS DAY for Hear and Say

News from the Library

Premier’s Reading Challenge

The Premier's Reading Challenge is an annual state-wide initiative for students up to Year 9. The Premier's Reading Challenge is not a competition but aims to improve literacy and encourage children to engage in reading for pleasure and learning. Students that complete the challenge to read 15 books between 16 May - 26 August will receive a certificate. To register, students should see Mrs Galea in the library.

Competitions

Students should see Mrs Galea in the library for more details & to submit entries. Entering into these competitions earns students vivo points.

The BILBY (Book I Love BEST Yearly) Awards shortlist has been announced It is suggested that students read through the shortlist and then cast their vote for their favourite by June 17th. Happy reading!

Rocky River Run