4 March 2020

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report.

Dear Friends of Emerald High,

The term is flying past. Many students are now preparing for, or have completed, assessment and the school is looking very green and fresh after the rain.

Some exciting student news. This weekend Madison Iles and Paxton Hayes will be representing our school in the Lions' Youth of the Year, attending interviews, giving speeches and answering impromptu questions. It is a fantastic achievement that they have made it successfully to this stage and I wish them all the very best on Saturday night.

This week has been HPE Week and the HPE Faculty arranged a wide range of lunchtime activities to keep our youngsters active and engaged. There was a bit of everything, from a fitness challenge, to dodgeball, volleyball, dance and netball. The culminating event will be the Park Run at the Botanical Gardens this Saturday. A particular huge 'Well Done' to our Sports Coordinator, Maggie Pembroke, who has been the driving force behind the week, along with all teachers and students involved. It has been fantastic!

Our swimming carnival is also fast approaching in Week 8, so the opportunities to participate, keep fit and have some fun continue unabated!

As we are all aware, attendance is a focus at the moment, as it has is one of the biggest impacts on student outcomes. An attendance of 90% should be the very minimum we should be seeking. Even 90% equates to one day away a fortnight, which is enough to have an impact on student results.

These are the current attendance figures, that are pretty solid at the moment and better than any point last year. I am very pleased with this, but I would encourage everyone to keep this good start going. It is vitally important!

When I spoke to the Year 11s and 12s a few weeks ago, we spoke about the need to be organised and make good use of our diaries and wall planners to help us stay on top of assignment work. We also talked about making sure that we were doing a bit of work all of the time, rather than doing no work for a period of time, followed by a huge panic and rush as assignment time approached.

Organisation and planning are the keys to minimally stressful success at school, a principle that applies to junior students and much as senior students.

And minimally stressful success is what we all want…

“Keep your mind focused on the work, be alert and ready to handle any situation that may arise – this is mindfulness”

Thich Nhat Hanh

Have a great fortnight
Mr. Sean Maher
Principal

From the Deputy Principal – Middle School.

How time flies

Just like that we are half way through Term 1 2020. There are many events still happening for the second half of this term. These include 7th March – Park run take over for HPE week, 19th March – Swimming carnival, and lots of different subject camps and excursions. We are also entering into the busy end of term, with students starting assessment and studying for exams.

Assessment

All students have now received a copy of their assessment calendars (emailed to their school email address). 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 that they can organise and prioritise around them. At a minimum, students should be at least reading over their notes from their work that they had completed that day/week.

Attendance

Attendance at school is a vital to success. You will receive text message if your child is marked as an unexplained absences in PC (8:45-9:00am). If students are late to school, they MUST sign in at the attendance window at the office. If your student is late/sick/away for a day, please inform the school as soon as possible, or if a planned absences, prior to the day. The details of how to advise of this are attached.

Regards
Mrs. Rebekah Pillay
Acting Deputy Principal – Middle School

From the Students.

Learning about Legal Studies at Emerald State High has allowed me to think about all the different career options that have caught my attention, and I have now reconsidered what I want to achieve once I have graduated in 2022. I wanted to go into the defence force to become a helicopter pilot, but I have been considering all the different options that the legal system offers.

As a cohort, we were lucky enough to go to the Emerald District Court, meet the judge, and ask him our questions about different scenarios he has experienced. At the courthouse, we examined the role of each person within a courtroom, and spent time meeting the local police officers.

I am eager to go to the Supreme Court and QUT when we go to Brisbane on Sunday the 8th of March, as this will really help my studies. The people there have a lot of experience and can help answer my questions about legal research. Moreover, I know the Geography students also going on the camp will have a great time interviewing people for their fieldwork.

Regards
Mr. Blake Shields
Year 10 Student

From the Head of Department – Humanities.

2020 is shaping up to be a busy year for Humanities, with three camps in Term 1 alone. In Week 7, the Year 10 and 11 Legal Studies students will be heading to Brisbane to visit the Supreme Court, the QPS Museum and the QUT Law Faculty. Also headed to Brisbane, is the Grade 11 Geography students who will be conducting a field investigation with the Brisbane Outdoor Education Centre at Brunswick Mall, where they will examine issues around urban planning. The Year 12 Geography students will be conducting their fieldwork with the Nudgee Beach Environmental Education Centre, with a focus on land cover transformations. In Week 8, our Year 10 Modern History students will be touring key World War 2 sites in Charters Towers and Townsville. These are all wonderful opportunities and learning experiences for our students, which have direct links to either the curriculum or their assessment.

This year we have for the first time ever offered Tourism to our students. There are approximately 45 students across Grades 10 and 11 who have chosen Tourism, which is an Applied Subject that provides students with opportunities to examine many aspects of the tourism industry, from travel planning, niche tourism, sustainable tourism to procedures and policies around travel. We hope to begin making some community links to the tourism industry, to provide students with as many real life opportunities as possible.

Regards
Mrs. Kaz Van Hees
HOD – Humanities

From the Head of Year 11.

This year is a huge year for the Year 11 students, who are transitioning into senior schooling. This year, the Year 11 students begin their journey towards attaining their Queensland Certificate of Education (QCE). All staff at ESHS work closely with all students, supporting them to receive their QCE and any other qualifications and achievements they are working towards.

To assist students in gaining success, there are a number of strategies in place within the school environment. Students participate in fortnightly Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) focuses. Our current focus is ‘Come prepared with all necessary equipment’. It is a requirement for students to come prepared to all classes with their required equipment (pens, books, etc.), however, if a student is struggling to come prepared, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will make arrangements for them. When students are displaying the correct behaviours in and outside the classroom, they can receive VIVO rewards, positive postcards and nominations for Student of the Week. Students can accumulate their VIVO points to buy items from the online shop, including discounts on their senior jerseys.

Later in the year, students will have the opportunity to purchase a senior jersey, attend leadership camp and apply for leadership positions for 2021. For students who are wishing to apply for a leadership position, please note that expressions of interest forms will be given out in the near future for Leadership Camp (Term 3, Week 1), and an application process will be involved. The camp will be held at Fairbairn Dam, where the students will develop their leadership skills. If students are wanting to have the opportunity to be involved in any of the above, they must be attending school a minimum of 92%. The Year 11 Wellness team meet weekly to discuss attendance and wellbeing for Year 11 students and how we can offer support where it is needed. It is crucial that if a student is sick or unable to attend school for a period of time, that contact is made with the admin staff or myself and/or a medical certificate is provided.

I would like to wish Madison Iles and Paxton Hayes all the best in competing against local schools in the Lions Youth of the Year this weekend. You will do Emerald State High School very proud.

I look forward to working with the Year 11 students this year, and should you have any questions, myself (jfehl8@eq.edu.au) or Tanya Shaw (tshaw20@eq.edu.au) can be contacted via email or by phoning the school on 4988 2222.

Regards
Miss. Jacinda Fehlhaber
HOY – 11

From the Maths team.

Maths Club

Our Maths club is expanding this year, with many exciting mathematical opportunities for our students. Recently, we conducted a video chat with UQ about our investigation into the circumference of the Earth. Mr Bhar will also be running the Annual UQ/QAMT Problem Solving competition in Week 7.

Being Prepared in Maths

Parents can help their children be prepared for success in Maths, by ensuring they have; a scientific calculator, textbook, subject book and pencil case.

Assessment Time

Towards the end of term, students will be entering into assessment mode. We encourage parents to request revision work from teachers and remind students about homework club. Homework club is on Wednesday afternoons from 3pm to 4pm in D002.

Regards
Mrs. Jessica Ralley
Teacher – Maths

From the Languages team.

The Languages programs this term sees students studying a variety of topics across Years 7 – 9. These include “Me, myself and I” in Year 7, which has students reflecting upon their self-identity, exploring differences in formalities between cultures and delivering a self-introduction.

“What’s for Dinner?” in Year 8, gives students the opportunity to reflect on the ways in which food reflects culture, how certain foods, special meals, and celebrations represent the practices, traditions and beliefs of other cultures.

Year 9s are currently learning to create biographies of personalities they admire, developing their intercultural understanding and appreciation of the cultural components of language and communication by reading biographies of Japanese personalities. The Year 9 unit will culminate in students creating and presenting their own personality/ celebrity profile.

Year 10 students are working hard on developing their reading skills, to analyse advertisements. They will examine the differences between the way products and services are advertised in Australia and Japan, and explain what features of language and culture are responsible for such differences.

The best way to improve achievement is short but regular review of vocabulary. Years 9 and 10 students should be aiming to learn their hiragana and katakana as soon as feasible. Short bursts of regular review, will always be more effective than last minute cramming! 10 – 15 minutes, three or four times week is an excellent start.

Regards
Mr. Riley Neill
Teacher – LOTE

From the Technology team.

It has been a busy, but productive, start to 2020 in Technology. Students in Years 7 & 8 have been learning how to send and receive email messages with attachments. Years 9, 10, and 11 have been learning about the principles of good design, contrast, alignment, repetition and proximity, while Year 12 have been filming and editing. Both Years 7 & 8 have just completed their first assessment task, which saw them learning to write sets of instructions for sending and receiving an email with an attachment. See if you can follow their steps…

Coding for games, web development, spreadsheets and a lot more exciting activities await. Best wishes to all.

Regards
Mr. Noel Cavanagh
HOD – Technology

From the SEP team.

I would like to welcome all the new families to the Special Education Program and welcome back the families who were with us last year. 2020 is going to be an amazing year and we look forward to sharing it with you. I’d like to extend a very warm welcome to our new teachers, Jemima Johnson, who joins us from Blackwater and Heather Te Amo, who has recently returned to Australia after teaching for several years in the Middle East. Both ladies bring a wealth of experience and talents that they are ready to share with the students of Emerald State High School. We also welcome Julie Doan back to the team this year. Julie is our Speech Language Pathologist who will work with students across the school. Julie is with us every Friday and works with teams of teachers, as well as small groups and individual students, as needed.

This year we again have an amazing group of dedicated teacher aides who ensure that your children get the best support possible, both in the unit and around the school. These women are the unsung heroes of the school, who have intimate knowledge of our students and their individual needs. These ladies work alongside the students every day, encouraging them to do their best and supporting them in little ways that often go unnoticed. They are an invaluable resource in our school, and I thank them for all their hard work.

Subject offerings in the Special Education Program change each semester and vary year to year depending on the student needs and interests. All students in our Special Education Program study subjects across all eight Key Learning Areas. In addition to this, we are sometimes able to offer some customised subjects to small groups of students. 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 2020. 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.

If you have any concerns or questions at any time, please call your child’s case manager or one of their teachers. I am looking forward to another great year.

Regards
Mrs. Deanne Lucht
HOSES

From the Glee Club (Euphonix).

The Emerald State High School’s 'Euphonix' Glee Club was established last year, thanks to the skill and enthusiasm of both students, and Mr Coromandel. Very soon after its inception, we were asked to sing with Troy Cassar-Daley at the community event in Capella, Legends & the Locals. It was a fantastic night and resulted in Glee being invited back to sing at the Capella Christmas Carols.

Members of 'Euphonix' also sang with the Community Rotary Carols Choir, held at St Patrick's. It has been a fantastic start to this new school club, made even more so by the fact our numbers have swelled this year, with a great new group of Year 7s joining.

This year 'Euphonix' has been asked to perform at the Emerald State Fete on Friday 27th March. We will be performing a ten-minute program of songs chosen by the students. This will be our first solo performance so we are looking forward to it. It will also be a precursor to other appearances this year, including the school’s Anzac Day service and more excitedly the Eisteddfod. We have already started preparing our songs for the Eisteddfod and thinking about what else we could add to our performance. Having to combine four parts and movements is a challenge we are looking forward to. Stay tuned for future announcements where we will be performing.

We’ve also got plans to engage students in professional workshops later in the year, and continue to develop our sound. That is the good thing about a choir – you only really need enthusiasm not necessarily the great personal voice (we can always blend a voice).

Glee Club is held every Tuesday and Thursday at First Break in K1. It would be great to keep adding to our numbers, so we look forward to more students coming along and giving it a go.

Regards
Mrs. Leanne Ross
Club Coordinator.

From the Positive Behaviour for Learning Team

Behaviour Focus

Our current behaviour focus is “Come Prepared With All Necessary Equipment.”

Student of the Week

Week 5

Cheynne Causton 7A For looking out for others, showing helpfulness and being polite student to her peers.

Chelsea Smith 8D For demonstrating a positive attitude towards her learning and always displaying an exemplary standard of book work.

Avon Arconada 9D For consistently completing work to the best of her abilities and helping her peers to do the same.

Sophie McKenzie 10F Sophie is always engaged, a proactive learner and prepared for class.

Felicity Jorgensen 11C For her dedication and work efforts which has led to the offer of a school based traineeship.

Sheriece Pegg 12F For being a role model for others and a delight in the classroom.

Week 6

Lachlan Harris 7F Lachlan is a dedicated, proactive student who works well independently or collaborative. He is a delight to teach.

Jasmine Shaxson 8 For being a role model for her peers and a positive ambassador for the school.

Maggie McColl 9 For exceptional effort in class, participating in tasks and extension work.

Ethan Edwards 10 For his enthusiastic attitude towards his learning and setting his work out neatly.

Courtney Spires 11C For engaging willingly and actively via independent and collaborative activities.

Daniel Willans 12 For always putting in 100% in effort and attendance.

Community Notices