Emerald State High School
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Old Airport Drive, P.O. Box 419
Emerald QLD 4720
Subscribe: https://emeraldshs.schoolzineplus.com/subscribe

Email: the.principal@emeraldshs.eq.edu.au
Phone: 07 4988 2222
Fax: 07 4988 2200

7 March 2019

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Welcome to our fortnightly newsletter. As I write this, we are coming off a period of hot, dry weather and into autumn. As a school community, we experienced some frustrations however; I credit our teachers with maintaining the momentum of a good start to the year in the classroom.

This year our Year 11’s are commencing a new senior curriculum. As with all change, there will be stresses on them and their teachers first time around. Parents please be aware that the rules that may have applied to their older brothers and sisters may no longer apply to the current Year 11’s. The main point I wish you to remember is that failure of a subject means no conceded accreditation when it is time to graduate. Put simply if you fail a subject in Year 11 it may mean you lose the option to gain a QCE in year 12.

With an increase in enrolments this year and the small group of year 12’s leaving at the end of the year, it means classroom space will be at a premium in 2020. Therefore, we are already in talks with regional infrastructure managers to accommodate the expected increase in classroom demand. Hopefully we will have a clear plan by the end of the of this semester.

Special Mentions

  • Thank you to our special education department for managing the growth of special education students with high needs. They have been operating understaffed and have worked hard to set up the new year.
  • Congratulations to our tuckshop team for making each day a new food experience.
  • Special thankyou to Mrs Bridgeman who has been working to bring a headspace centre into Emerald

New cybersafety resources launched

New resources are available to help manage cybersafety incidents and promote positive online behaviour.

Schools and staff can check their digital footprints and remove unwanted posts. Secondary students can complete an online course while the Cyber Heroes teach primary students safe and positive online behaviour.

“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”
- Thomas Edison

All the best,
Ray Clarke
Principal

From the Deputy Principal – Senior Schooling

I have been encouraged by the work our senior leaders have started this year – induction, Valentine ’s Day and the way they welcomed our Japanese visitors to our school. Most students are now settled in their subjects and engaged in assessment tasks.

Support Services

The school is very lucky to have a number of support services available to students and parents to assist them in the areas of academic, emotional and personal issues.

Students have access to the School Based Youth Health Nurse, Guidance Officer and Chaplain through Support Worx. Students can also access the Heads of Departments with any queries regarding their curriculum studies.

Assessment

All students have now received a copy of their assessment calendars. These must be used to plan effectively their time outside of school. Students should put this up somewhere visible. It gives an overall view of the extra busy times so they can organise and prioritise around them. At a minimum, students should be at least reading over their notes from their work completed that day. I am currently in the process of creating the term 1 exam block timetable. This timetable should be out to students in week 7. Students in years 11 to 12 will only be expected to attend school during the times they have their exams.

OP predictions

I have now met with most of our year 12’s looking to gain an OP. At the meeting we are reviewing university prerequisites and past OP scores. Students are given their OP prediction within a 4 point range. From there we are looking at what subjects are contributing to their OP and what would happen if students improve in certain subjects. After term 1 data has been collated I will recalculate the OP predictions for each student. If you would like information regarding this please let me know.

My Year 12 Life

The ABC is currently showing a documentary of the life of a year 12 student. The program follows 14 students in year 12 in NSW. The program documents the pressures year 12 students face. As someone who completed year 12 too many years ago and in a very different era/environment it has been an education. It has also been a conversation starter between myself and my son at home. I encourage you to watch an episode.

Regards
Tanya Shaw

From the Head of Year 11

Year 11 is an exciting time for our students as they begin the important journey of working towards their Queensland Certificate of Education (QCE). At ESHS, staff work tirelessly supporting students to receive their QCE and, as a school, we are very proud of our running tradition of 100% of Year 12 students receiving their QCE.

To help students achieve success, we have a number of proactive strategies in place. One such strategy is our fortnightly Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) focus. Our latest focus is for students to be motivated learners. Here students identified what makes someone a motivated learner and what they were already doing to be one. When students display behaviour within the expectations, they can receive VIVOs, positive postcards and positive parental contacts as some of our positive behaviour strategies. Students can use their VIVOs to buy various items, including discounts on their senior jerseys.

This year, students will have the opportunity to purchase senior jerseys, attend leadership camp, and apply for leadership positions. If students want to be part of any of these opportunities, they need to be attending school 90% of the time. Specifically, this would be fewer than 20 school days absent for the year or an average of fewer than 5 days per term. It is very important that we monitor student attendance closely as research indicates that higher attendance rates increase academic achievement.

I look forward to working with our students for another year, and should you have any questions relating to Year 11 students, myself (mmcke211@eq.edu.au) or Tanya Shaw (tshaw20@eq.edu.au) can be contacted via email or by phoning the school on 4988 2222.

Mrs Melinda Prior
Head of Year 11

From the Head of Year 8

A massive hello to all year 8 students and of course the whole community at Emerald State High School. For those who might not be aware, my name is Kate Deighton and I am Year 8 Head of Year. My role as Head of Year is to monitor student attendance as well as monitoring student welfare. It is my aim and hope to see all Year 8 students, not only attend school daily, but to use their words to promote kindness and to always believe in their capabilities.

This term has been quick to start, and with the athletics carnival just around the corner, things will only get busier. It is a suitable time to remind everyone about the importance of participating in all school events. This year will go much quicker and everyone will have a more rewarding time if everyone is having a go at things. This week our behaviour focus continues with being a motivated learner. It will be great to see every single class working hard to be motivated learners and working to the best of their ability.

Every single day students are encouraged to follow the 3 Ps and set a high standard for behaviour for the rest of the school. In the wise words of Professor Dumbledore, “It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." I hope to see a lot of positive choices made around the school.

Kate Deighton
Year 8 Head of Year.

From Head of Department – VET

VET or Vocation Education and Training enables students to gain qualifications for all types of employment, and specific skills to help them in the workplace. Students completing VET courses obtain nationally recognised certificates, whether through Emerald State High School as a registered training organisation (RTO) or through one of the many external RTO’s we partner with. VET courses teach employability skills that employers look for, whether students are going to be looking for a job immediately post school or for their employment post university. 21st Century skills such as communication, collaboration and teamwork along with personal and social skills are integral in VET.

Why attendance is so important

The nature of VET courses requires students to attend every lesson to ensure no aspect of the skills being taught are missed. Absences can lead to gaps in knowledge or skill, which can be difficult to catch up. VET courses often have requirements of hours (or shifts) spent practicing skills in industry or simulated industry environments. Absences can lead to students having to make this time up in order to fulfil the course requirements.

Year 10 Skills for Work

This year all year 10 students are completing Certificate II in Skills for Work and Vocational Pathways in combination with the QCAA Short course Career Education. Student’s report cards will show both with the Certificate achievement reported as competent/working toward competency, and the short course graded A – E.

Assessment for this term includes students preparing a resume, completing a week at work experience and a work experience logbook. Students will also use their work experience time to speak with employers and gather information to complete a presentation next term.

Students will receive their work experience insurance paper work this week. This document needs to be signed by the workplace, parent/guardian and student, and then returned to Alarna Wills in the library staff room.

Year 12 Privacy Notice

Under the Data Provision requirements 2012, Emerald State High School is required to collect personal information about your year 12 student and disclose that personal information to the National Centre for Vocational Education Research Ltd (NCVER). More information is contained in the Privacy notice and Declaration which must be signed and returned to Alarna Wills in the Library staff room as soon as possible. If the form has been misplaced, students may pick up a copy from the library staffroom or print the attached.

Annette Carter
Head of Department for VET

From the Head of Department – Special Education

I’d like to welcome all the new families to the Special Education Program and welcome back the families who were with us last year. 2019 is going to be an amazing year and we look forward to sharing it with you. A very warm welcome to our new teacher, Natasha Vought, who joins us this year. Mrs Vought taught in the English Department last year and has many years of teaching experience in SEP and Visual Arts. We welcome the artistic talent and enthusiasm that she readily shares with the students. We also welcome Kathleen Wills and Claudine Cilliers who join our teacher aide team, ensuring that your children get the best support possible both in the unit and around the school.

Subject offerings in the Special Education Program change each semester and vary year to year depending on the student needs and interests. Last year we were able to offer a range of social skills lessons and extreme literacy lessons on a weekly basis. These were popular and we have already had enquiries about what will be on offer in 2019. These classes will start in term 2 and will focus on literacy and numeracy assistance as well as targeted social skills. You will receive more information on these at the end of this term in readiness for a term 2 start. These classes are non-compulsory but an optional extra for any student who feels they will benefit from them.

Assessment assistance will continue this year with Gillian Wilkins, our teacher aide, giving up her lunchtimes to assist students with homework and assessment from Wednesday to Friday. This is not a detention room but is available for all students seeking a little extra assistance. Homework club is also running after school twice a week, so there is a lot of extra help available for those who wish to access it.

All students in our Special Education Program study the core subjects of English, Mathematics, Science and SOSE. In addition to these, we are lucky to have specialist teachers coming to teach Manual Arts and Music this semester. Mrs Somerville is running her Active and Agile class focusing on gross motor skills and fitness. Later this term she will team up with one of our Physical Education teachers to implement a training program in the school gym. Our Special Education programs this term are focusing on school rules and social skills as well as hygiene and self-care. Mrs Sibley is teaching a class on basic computer skills and touch-typing with the challenge on to see which staff member or student can show the biggest improvement in their typing ability. Mrs Vought is improving our artistic ability by sharing her amazing talents while Miss Lucht is teaching some basic sewing skills in an effort to support some local charities in our subject called “Volunteers Program.” Once we are more familiar with the sewing machine and the overlocker, we will be sewing some Wildlife Rescue packs to help wildlife carers in our community. Meanwhile, we are collecting bottles and cans to fund some craft projects for the CQ Pet Rescue and revamping the garden beds to provide a range of fresh herbs to the Home Economics classes and the school tuckshop.

The Volunteers Program has a sustainability focus with the students learning to “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle”. We are using a range of old materials to re-fashion them into useful items for animal care. In particular, we are chasing old T-shirts of any size, old rubber backed curtains and children’s mattress protectors, craft fabric and crocheted or knitted baby caps. If you are having a spring clean out, and can donate any of these items we would appreciate that greatly. Please drop them into the SEP (Fraser St entrance) or ask any student to deliver them to us. Watch this space for updates of our volunteering adventures and other fun ahead of us in 2019.

Deanne Lucht
Head of Special Education Services

From the Guidance Officer

I would like to begin with a small introduction and thank you! I’m Kelly Lawton the Guidance Officer for term 1 here at Emerald State High School. Thank you to students, staff and community for welcoming me so warmly into the school.

ESHS is fortunate to have a fulltime Guidance Officer alongside other important support staff, including a School Based Nurse, Chaplain, Youth Support Coordinator and Community Education Counsellor – all located within SupportWorx. The SupportWorx team are dedicated to ensuring that ESHS students are healthy, resilient and purposeful members of the community through providing personal development, health/wellbeing and career support.

Our students are now over half way through term 1 and particularly for our senior students this will mean that the number of assessments due is increasing. For many students and their families this becomes a time of high stress. In attempt to alleviate this SupportWorx has been helping students develop effective study skills for senior schooling and beyond.

Some pro-tips:

  • Find a quiet place to study. Where possible this should be somewhere easy to avoid distractions - Turn your phone off! Attempt to study in the same place each time.
  • Create a study routine. Do the same things before beginning to study; create the same conditions. This helps to train our brain to learn when it is time to focus.
  • Use the school planner. Students have a very valuable resource within their school planners. Using this tool can ensure that students stay on top of deadlines and are beginning assessment pieces in a timely manner.
  • Homework Club. Two afternoons a week teachers volunteer their time to provide extra tutoring to students. This is an invaluable resource for our students to get help with those extra questions.
  • Self-care. In times of stress it is easy to neglect our bodies. Through busy times it is important that students are eating well and regularly, getting 8hrs sleep each night and making time to connect with friends and family.

“The secret to getting ahead is getting started”

Miss Kelly Lawton
Acting Guidance Officer
Klawt27@eq.edu.au

Attendance and Participation

Making a Study Timetable with your child

Elevate conducts parent sessions which provide parents an opportunity to ask questions and seek guidance as to how to best assist their child during middle school and high school. One of the most common questions we get asked is, "how much study should my child be doing" or "how can I get my child to put in more hours"? Invariably, time management is a major issue of contention between parents and their children.

The solution we provide, is to encourage parents to make a study timetable with their children. In this way, parents and their children can be on the same page (literally) regarding how much study the child should be doing. Also, by having a study timetable that is written down, it keeps both parties accountable: parents are accountable to it and therefore don't need to incessantly ask their children, "should you be studying?" Equally, a student is accountable to the timetable and the activities that they have committed to completing.

So how does it work? How do we make a study timetable?

Step 1: Determine the 'non-negotiables'

Most people mistakenly begin making a timetable by optimistically filling it with study. This is a massive mistake. By putting in the study blocks first, students get overly optimistic and overcommit to hours, which they can never keep to. This often leads to students getting stressed, overwhelmed, and ultimately giving up on the entire process of using a timetable at all.

Instead, we suggest that you ask your child to list all the activities that they love doing during the week and the things that they just don't want to compromise on. We then ask students to nominate a time that they would most likely allocate to these activities. For example, a list might look like this:

Basketball: Mondays, 6pm - 7:30pm and Sundays 2pm - 4pm
Xbox: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7pm - 8pm, Saturdays 3pm - 6pm
Seeing friends: Weekends, 11am - 6pm
Game of Thrones: Mondays, 8pm - 9:30pm
Social media: Daily, 8:30pm - 9:15pm
Work at the pharmacy: Saturdays, 10am - 2pm

Of course, it's difficult to know 'in advance' each leisure activity your child will do, but getting a rough estimation will be a good start. Once you have identified the key times for leisure activities, we encourage students to move on to step 2.

Step 2: Put in the fun stuff first

Once you have identified all the leisure and extra-curricular activities, the next step is to put those activities into the study timetable.

Step 3: Put study in the gaps

Finally, you will notice that the study timetable has many blank spaces or gaps left in it. These gaps are the times that your child can study in. Rather than putting in specific tasks here, they should just nominate these time blocks for studying. That way, they have a clear picture of the time they should be investing in their studies and once they sit down during that study block, they can determine their priorities and focus on completing their homework and revision tasks during that period.

By reversing the process of organising a study timetable (fun stuff first, study second), we reverse the student's perception of a study-timetable. It is no longer a 'study-timetable' that life fits around, it is a life-timetable that study fits around. This means that they are prioritising the things that they love, while still leaving plenty of time to study. In turn, this means that they are more willing to study in those periods because they know that they are not sacrificing the things that they truly love. This empowers students and gives them a sense of autonomy and control over their priorities.

By going through this process, you child will realise that there is always time to enjoy life and still have plenty of time to study - provided that we plan for it in advance. By laying out all the specific activities, we come to realise that we have more time than we previously thought. Also, it's important to keep in mind that this study timetable should be used as a guide, not as a rule book. The aim is not to stick to it 100% and live life by such regimented time-slots. If your child can stick to the timetable 60% of the time, that should be considered a 'win'.

School Contact Information

SOBS

Over the holidays the SOBS link for parents access has changed.

https://eq.sobs.com.au/pt/parent.php?schoolid=70275

From the Positive Behaviour for Learning Team

Behaviour Focus

Our current behaviour focus is to “be a motivated learner”.

Student of the Week

Week 4

Week 4 Students of the Week with Staff Member of the Week Mr Cal Tyack

Lucca Santos (8C) for being a focused student and always doing his best. He is a valued member of the class.
Brandon Allen (9F) for always demonstrating the 3P's in class
Paige Sudholz (10E) as she always upholds a positive attitude, is helpful and shows integrity inside and outside the classroom.
Ryan Caygill (11C) as he has an excellent work ethic and takes pride in his work.
Rachell Kucks (12D) for demonstrating the 3P's both inside and outside the classroom.

Week 5

Week 5 Students of the Week with Staff Member of the Week Miss Jess Ralley

Riley Thompson (7C) for demonstrating exceptional maturity, participation and being positive role models while on camp.
Brianna Weeks (7D) for demonstrating exceptional maturity, participation and being positive role models while on camp.
Emily Thompson (8E) for consistently demonstrating the 3P's in class.
Claire Reinke (9E) for consistently following the key values of the school and engaging in all work in class.
Nateisha Keller (10F) for always giving her best effort in class and having a positive attitude.
Luis Magsino (11C) for participating in his learning by applying attention to detail in his work.
Celine Eri (12C) for her keen attitude and willingness to help those around her.

P&C News

The P&C committee are excited to be celebrating 50 years of Emerald State High School in our community during 2019. Along with the 50th Jubilee celebrations there are many reasons why joining the P&C committee is a great idea. You can enjoy being part of your child’s education, meet and network with a wide variety of like-minded people, enhance your skills in various roles, get to know your school community and be a part of a variety of decisions that relate to your child and family.

Locker Waitlist

Did you miss out on securing a locker? The P&C Association has a locker waitlist where you are able to lodge your interest in being allocated a locker. At this stage we have 7 students on the waitlist but will need a minimum of 24 before we can go ahead and order more lockers. The next three banks of lockers purchased will also be housed at the end of B block with the others already installed.

Placing your name on the waitlist does not require payment however will be recognised as an expression of interest should further locker purchases be made, and you will be given first option to secure the locker with payment.

Working Bee

To prepare for our jubilee events, our school environment needs a make-over and we need your help!

Come for as little or as long as you can. Morning tea will be provided by the P&C Association. Please bring sun protection, water, closed-in shoes and gloves (if you have them).

Task include – gardening/landscaping, painting, cleaning and a range of other things. Please follow the event on our Facebook page as we add specific tasks.

Colour Run – Save the Date

P&C Meeting Schedule

Emerald State High School 50th Jubilee News

TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE VIA TRYBOOKING

After our trial of the Qkr platform and listening to feedback, we have migrated our ticket sales to Trybooking to make it easier for everyone wanting to attend our function 'Cheers for 50 Years' on Friday the 28th of June

To purchase your ticket, please go to:

https://www.trybooking.com/ZNWQ

For those people who have already purchased your tickets via Qkr, your tickets are still secured.

Local Businesses Support our 50th Jubilee

We would like to thank the following sponsors for supporting our jubilee. If you know of a business who would be interested, please let us know via email emeraldshsjubilee@gmail.com or call Sam Elsden 0417715663. Please note, the paver orders have closed but if you would like to add a paver, we will place another order once the minimum numbers are met. You can find our sponsorship package here.

GOLD SPONSORS

Emerald Taxis and Ensham Resources

SILVER SPONSORS

The Capricorn Bank, MRAEL and Central Highlands Regional Council

BRONZE SPONSORS

Allen's Cabinets and GKM Building Services

We have also secured funding through Kestral Coal Resources and BHP Benefiting My Community Program

BHP.jpg

PERSONALISED PAVERS

Over 200 pavers were ordered by past and present staff and students. Orders for pavers have now closed for Round 1. This is to ensure that the pavers get printed and back to us for installation before the jubilee. Round 2 will be opened in Term 2 for those people who are interested but we will need to wait until the minimum order of 100 pavers is reached.

COMMITTEE MEETINGS

The small committee would love some help with plans for this year. We will be having another meeting very soon. If you would like to contribute, please contact the group via email emeraldshsjubilee@gmail.com or call Sam Elsden 0417715663

Keep an eye out for updates in this newsletter and on our Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/eshsjubilee2019

Community Notices