20 July 2016

Newsletter Articles

From the Principal

Welcome to our first newsletter for semester 2. It was great to see our students fresh and happy on Monday. When I had the chance to walk around and talk to our students, I kept thinking, I have the best job in the world! To work with our youth and future community leaders, for me, is a privilege. Sure they have days when they are down but when they shine, wow, it makes you feel that you are part of something special. My first wow moment for this term, was when one of our indigenous student leaders, Leonie, gave a genuinely outstanding speech to the whole school, on our school parade about NAIDOC and what it means for everyone. I know, deep down, that this will be one of many wow moments I will be privileged to be a part of, this semester.

Staffing Changes

• Mr Shannon has replaced Mr Tuppak, our Year 9 & 10 Deputy who has won a permanent position at St George State High School. Mr Shannon has substantial skill in junior secondary and is already working on our improvement agenda.
• Welcome to Mr Sikwila who is replacing Mr Miller in Maths and Science classes.
• Ms Veness, Ms Doherty, will be commencing next week repacking Ms Hannah and Mr Chetty. Ms Hannah will be an acting guidance officer at Barcaldine.
• Mrs Prior will be returning as Learning support teacher at the start of week three who will replace Mr Bork-Smith.
• Welcome back to Mrs Hunt who will be teaching and acting as our literacy coach.

Upcoming events

• End of Semester 1 reports emailed Monday 18th July
• End of Semester 1 reports handed to students Tuesday 19th July
• Parent-teacher evening Wednesday 27th July
• Central Highlands Athletics 28/29 July
• Geography excursion to Brisbane Week 4

The annual School Opinion Survey will be conducted 11 to 29 July 2016. All families, school staff and a random sample of students will be invited to participate. We encourage you to take this opportunity to have your say about what this school does well, and how this school can improve.

• Access details for the Parent/Caregiver Survey will be sent home with students this week.
• Parents/caregivers are welcome to complete their survey online at the school, and school computers will be available in the school’s B Block
• Survey queries or requests for translations can be directed to Mr Ryan on telephone 07 4988 2222.

2016 Early School Leavers survey

The Queensland Government is conducting its annual state-wide survey of students who left school in Years 10, 11 and prior to completing Year 12 during 2015. The Early School Leavers survey is a short, confidential survey that collects information about what young people are doing the year after leaving school. The information from the survey helps our schools to understand the pathways young people follow after leaving school and to plan services to support transitions into study or employment for our students.

Between July and August 2016, our students who left school in Years 10, 11 and prior to completing Year 12 last year, can expect to receive an invitation to complete a web-based survey or a telephone call from the Queensland Government Statistician’s Office to complete the survey. Please encourage early school leavers to take part. For more information, visit the link below or telephone toll free on 1800 068 587.

Special Mentions:

• Mrs Ross has been selected as one of several teachers across Queensland to represent us at the Premier’s ANCAC tour 2017. Congratulations and well done!
• To our sports tour squad and Mrs Weatherly who will be seen as one of the NRL faces for women in rugby league. How good is that?
• Ms Wilcox, our Chappies and Mrs Parter for organising a great NAIDOC week and Elders Luncheon on Thursday.

“The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.” - Sydney J. Harris

Have a good weekend,

Ray Clarke
Principal

From the Deputy

Welcome back to term three. After a busy semester one including camps, NAPLAN, sport and plenty of instrumental music we move into term 3 with an eye towards our incoming Year 7s for 2017. On Monday September 5th we will welcome over 150 students from our feeder schools to Emerald State High School for the first of three transition days. Students will experience four different subjects on the day and begin to gain an understanding of how high school works. Regardless of which school students plan on attending, we welcome all Year 6 students from throughout the district on this day. Between today and then we will be hosting a parent information and enrolment night as well as getting out to some of our primary schools to speak to their students about high school. If you have any questions throughout this time please contact our office.

With the beginning of a new semester we again re-focus on our attendance as a year level. Our school goal is >92% attendance for every student. Students last term who achieved 100% attendance for the term were rewarded with an ice cream treat on the last day of term. This term, any student with 100% attendance for the term will join our year co-ordinators at the movies in the last week of this term. Every day counts at school. Make sure you do everything you can to encourage your child to be at school each and every day.

All the best,

Hayden Ryan
Deputy Principal – Years 7 & 8

School Opinion Survey

The annual School Opinion Survey will be conducted 11 to 29 July 2016. All ESHS families, school staff and a random sample of students will be invited to participate.

The online survey should take less than ten minutes to complete. A blue online access letter for the Parent/Caregiver Survey will be sent home with the eldest child of all ESHS families during week of 11 July- 15 July 2016.

Participation in the survey is anonymous and all information that you provide will be treated confidentially. Information provided will be used for analysis purposes only. No names will be obtained, sought or stored with responses and no data will be reported in ways that could allow for individual respondents to be identified.

The online survey should take less than ten minutes to complete. We encourage you to take this opportunity to have your say about what this school does well and how this school can improve. A link to the online survey is available at the link below. Survey opens on 11th July.

Year 7 News

Year 7: Prepared People are Positively Perfect

Last semester our whole school focus was on being POLITE, one of our 3Ps. This term we are focusing on being PREPARED. Being prepared for class looks like arriving to the classroom on time, lining up in two straight lines for the teacher and holding their pencil case, exercise book and any other equipment they need for the lesson. Being prepared for school looks like, arriving at school before 8:45am in the correct school uniform, the school shirt and shorts. While the weather is still cool, students are expected to wear the school jumper and track pants over their school polo shirt. If they do not have this, plain black pants or a plain black jumper with no hood and no logos or other markings are acceptable. Students who do not comply are sent to the uniform room to change for the day. If students are persistently out of uniform detentions will be given.

The attendance of the year 7 students has continued to be excellent, but if your student is absent please ensure you contact the school that day so students are not ‘unexplained’. If it is a planned absence, please let the school know prior to that time so the student’s teachers know and any assessment can be either brought forward or extended so they don’t miss out.

Upcoming events to look out for are the Parent-Teacher Interviews occurring in week 3, Wednesday 27 July, and the Junior School Trivia Night coming up in week 5, Tuesday 9 August. The Trivia Night will be held Tuesday, 9 August in the school’s Under Covered Area and everyone is encouraged to bring along a plate of food to share with your table. This night will also be an opportunity to recognise those students with excellent effort and behaviour, and those who have improved their academic results since term 1.

My contact details are 07 4988 222 or mshar155@eq.edu.au.

Megan Sharman
Head of Year 7

Year 12 News

Hello all!

Welcome back to Term 3 - the biggest term for the Year 12 students. This term brings a variety of new challenges for the cohort such as: Queensland Core Skills (QCS) test; final submissions of assessment before they are sent for verification; completion of integral competencies; and planning for future events including the formal. Preparation for the QCS test is already underway with students who are participating in the examination completing a practice run to give them a taste of what to expect. Formal preparations are also in progress with fundraising events already being held such as the Sports Day BBQ and the ‘Now You See Me 2’ movie premier night.

We were also privileged to have guest speakers from the Mathew Stanley Foundation who provided the cohort with an emotional and engaging presentation on their “Walk Away – One Punch Can Kill” campaign. Many students were left with a valuable insight into alcohol-fuelled violence and the severity of the situation.

Can I ask of all Year 12 students to tackle each task they have in this term head-on to ensure a successful and rewarding end of the year in Term 4? If parents have any further questions regarding their student’s progress, please do not hesitate to contact me in the near future. Regrettably, I will not be at Emerald State High School from Week 4 until the end of this current term. The person that will replace me in my role has not yet been determined, but I am looking forward to coming back in Term 4 to see the cohort out in their final weeks of schooling life.

Thanks again to all the efforts of the Year 12 students and their parents. Have a fantastic Term 3!

Kind regards,

Kris Curd
Head of Year 12

From the Head of Department: Humanities & Honours

Hey all, welcome back to an exciting term 3. This semester we are changing from History to Geography in years 7-9. Students in year 10 have elected the subject they wanted to study from 3 choices – Legal Studies, History and Geography. Some year 10 students did not return their selection form and will continue with the same teacher they had in Semester 1. Year 11 and 12 will now have time to reflect on their results from first semester and make changes if necessary.

The year 11 and 12 Geography students will soon be attending their camp to Brisbane to look at urban renewal. This will provide an excellent real life opportunity to see other parts of the state and reinforce their theoretical learning. I wish them all the best at a great camp – I know that in previous years it has proven very popular.

If you have the chance, please ask your student about the changes to Humanities and how they are progressing.

Thanks

Ben Van Hees
Head of Department: Humanities & Honours

From the Head of Department: Technologies

Hi my name is Mark McMullin and I am the Acting Head of Department for Technology. I am thrilled to be joining the team at Emerald State High School and I am looking forward to getting to know the all the charms of Emerald State High School and the surrounding areas have to offer. I previously taught at Nambour State College and Biloela State High School in the Industrial Design and Technology Department. If you have any concerns in the area Technology, INTAD and IT please do not hesitate contacting me at the school.

The end of term 2 saw the culmination of our Co2 Dragster units in year 8 and 9 INTAD classes, with racing happening in the under covered area. Students were excited to see the race car zip along the track with some cars reaching impressive speeds around the 50km/hr mark with times for the 20 metre track at 1.2 seconds. With another cohort of student designing, making and racing the Co2 cars this term we are on the lookout for the fastest race cars to go to the State and National Titles held at the Maryborough Technology Challenge in September.

On the IT front, I witnessed some fantastic games being developed and then trailed in classes with some interesting creatures to be avoided and skills on display. For those of us outside of this culture this is a daunting task and concepts to understand, but I saw on the news that one of the Kardashians made millions on a gaming app, so you never know one of our budding game developers could be competing on the world stage soon.

Our senior students are preparing for the last great push in completing their schooling in the classroom and the workshops. During this time it is import to remember to allow plenty of time to complete these task, do not leave it to the last minute. It is not the time to drop the ball with the try line so close.

“Sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step of your life. Tip Toe if you must, but take the step.” - Healthy Place.com

Mark McMullin
Head of Department- Technologies

Junior English News

Term 2 concluded the Persuasive unit in which Years 7, 8 and 9 were required to present their written pieces orally. To prepare for this, classes held various speaking tasks and competitions. An example of these were 30 second speaking challenges without saying “um”, and peer feedback on practise presentations through counting instances of eye contact. The message to students was that as much as they may not enjoy public speaking, it will be something they will be required to do throughout their schooling and beyond, and therefore they need to challenge themselves to practise.

Term 3 sees English classes move into studying Poetry. Year 7s will study Australian ballads, Year 8s will study songs with social commentary and Year 9 students are looking at indigenous poetry. The level of analysis builds from the previous year, with students all applying the SPECS/SLIMS analysis. This looks at subject matter, purpose, emotion, craft and a summary, looking at the overall impact and effectiveness of the poem. This unit is just 6 weeks, requiring students to be participating well throughout in preparation for an exam in week 6.

Home Economics News

Well, we have finally made it to the end of Term 2, the longest term of school year 2016. It was great to see HEC 9A junior students participate in the 2016 Emerald Agricultural Show for Home Produce High School Vegetable Art and Baking Divisions. Jade-Lee Jacques won first prize for her attractive and colourful Gingerbread, Mckenna Howard also garnered first prize for her Chocolate Cake and Logan Howlett got second prize for his ANZAC Biscuits and creative Vegetable Art.

This term, HEC072B will be exploring healthy, delicious and easy to follow recipes designed to maximise the benefits of demonstrating the various skills in the preparation and production of good quality food products such as caramel-flavoured popcorn, chocolate Weetbix slice, banana smoothie, cheesy omelette, healthy hamburger and fabulous fried rice. These junior Home Economics year 7 students will focus on the unit Cooking for Health and Happiness wherein they will learn about the fundamentals of the importance of a balanced diet and apply nutritional concepts that promote healthy eating and the prevention of lifelong diseases. Specifically, they will learn about personal hygiene, kitchen safety, accuracy in measuring ingredients, handling basic utensils and develop their knife skills.

Students in Year 8 HEC of Mrs Angela Gilbert are exploring combining cultures to create fusion foods and for their assessment this semester, they will design a food product incorporating 2 to 3 cultures in one dish (e.g. meat pies, fajita, hamburger, calzone, tacos) using hero ingredients from various cultures. This term, they will produce healthy food products such as pancakes, scone-based pizza, chicken burrito, sushi roll, meat pie, savoury cheese ring and sausage rolls. Our multi-cultural school environment provides an excellent opportunity for these students to share their own cultural experiences and backgrounds with other students and showcase specific skills. A range of practical and theoretical activities and assessments are completed across the board giving students life skills for healthy living.

The HEC 9A and 9B students this term will focus on methods of cooking. They will produce dishes applying basic methods of cookery such as baking, boiling, poaching, shallow frying, grilling, etc. The food products to explore are friands, fruit flan, chicken risotto, beef skewers, Caesar salad with poached egg and pork san choy bow. In week 7, these students will be assessed on their food literacy skills demonstrating their theoretical understanding as well as their practical knowledge in the design, implementation and evaluation of their chosen dish from the mystery box challenge.

Ms Megan Sharman will provide a wealth of sewing knowledge and creative resources to the sewing and craft enthusiasts of HEC 9C. Students are developing their sewing safety skills and will be learning to identify the different parts of the sewing machine. This term, they will do a hands-on of attaching buttons and zippers, blind hemming and simple hand sewing stitches. In response to the curriculum, students use creativity, innovation and enterprise skills with increasing confidence, independence and collaboration.

News from the Library

ICAS

Congratulations to Eli Cabrera of Year 8 who completed the Digital Technologies ICAS in May. The Digital Technologies ICAS assesses general digital technology skills, word processing, graphics/multimedia, internet/email, spreadsheet/database, and programming. The results & certificates have arrived, and Eli achieved a Merit! This means that he achieved in the top 39% of Year 8 students across Australia who sat the test. Well done Eli!

Competitions

There are a number of writing competitions currently open, most with cash prizes:

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

Position Vacant

123 Magic & Emotion Counselling

Our Rainbow House Fundraisers

Emerald State High School supports Our Rainbow House through our Student Representative Council. Below are some upcoming fundraising activities that they’re organising to raise funds for their school in Zambia.