15 February 2023

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report.

Dear Friends of Emerald High,

We are approaching the halfway mark of the term already and students are hard at work.

Our Senior Leaders Induction ceremony was held on 7 February, at which we formally inducted our sensational new leaders to their vital roles as student leaders in the school. My thanks to Lauren Jarvis and Tanya Shaw for their work in coordinating this event, to Dana and the Instrumental Band for their amazing performance and to our Hospitality teachers and students for the super morning tea.

In Week 2 Lauren Jarvis took our amazing leaders to Rocky for the 'GRIP ' Leadership program. This was a great opportunity for our leaders to be involved in a quality leadership program in the company of student leaders from all over the region. Thank you Mrs Jarvis!

Our annual school Art Exhibition "Nothing is as it seems" opened at the Emerald Art Gallery on Friday 3rd February, at which a wide range of student work was on display. The standard of our students’ work continues to get better and better each year and the evening itself was presented professionally.

The senior winners were Meisha Greentree and Tori Kavanagh and the runner-up was Claire Busst. The Junior winner was Daniela Quiroz and runner up was Emily Agius.

Well done to Art teachers Amy Cochrane, Kate Meyers and Lisa Eagles for their work in supporting our students and making the event a reality. A huge thank you also to ‘Bites’ for the very professionally presented (and tasty) snacks that help make the event even more amazing and to Kathy Ross, Heather Te Amo and Jacinda Stefaniuk for serving and greeting guests.

Thank you also to Alisa Finn and Claudine Cilliers for their work behind the scenes organising and coordinating the judging and to everyone who attended.

The school and P&C will be conducting a special 'Meet the School Leaders and P&C' on Thursday 9th March between 4:30pm and 5:30pm. This will be an opportunity for new and existing members of our parent community to meet the Principal, Deputy Principals, HoDs and P&C Executive. The afternoon will include a free barbeque, an informal 'meet and greet' and a tour of the school. The P&C Annual General Meeting follows on for anyone interested in staying and finding out more about the P&C. Further information will be available shortly.

Here are three ways in which families can support their children be to be successful at school - some of the themes will be familiar.

• Attendance. Regular attendance is one of the most important elements that contribute to student success. Missing lessons is the quickest way to get behind. I ask for your support in ensuring that students are at school as often as possible and are only absent for genuine reasons. This alone can make a huge difference. An attendance rate of at least 95% should be our aim.
• QParents. Parents can access a wide range of information about their children through the on-line platform 'QParents', including such things as their timetable, attendance, behaviour, payments, reports and enrolment history. It helps us as parents keep a close eye on how our children are going at school. Contact the office for information about how to sign up!
• Student Diaries. All students this year have been provided with a student diary to help them to stay organised and plan their study. The diary also contains a wide range of information about the policies and procedures in our school that is useful for them (and parents). Parents can help by encouraging students to use these diaries wisely to plan and organise their study.

“If you can imagine it, you can achieve it; if you can dream it, you can become it.”

• William Arthur Ward

Have a fantastic fortnight
Mr. Sean Maher
Principal

From the Head of Year 8.

Welcome back to another year at Emerald State High School! It has been wonderful to see our Year 8 cohort get back into the swing of things – it’s been a great start to the school year.

Whilst in Year 7, we saw this cohort navigate the new world of high school and explore new interests and activities. This year, we are looking to focus on developing leadership capabilities within these students, in preparation for selecting our Junior School Leaders in Term 4.

As a way of giving our students a stronger voice around the types of activities run at lunchtimes, and the days we run throughout the year, we have developed a new program for this cohort: Year 8 Class Representatives. Two representatives from each PC group will be selected to assist in the organisation and promotion of school activities and to be role models to other students, by actively participating in school events. The selected students will be invited to attend fortnightly Student Representative Council meetings, so they can bring their own ideas forwards. The aim of this program is to give students a taste of Junior Leadership prior to the election in Term 4.

Nominations for these positions will open during Week 4, with the selection process happening in Week 5. Nomination forms will be available for collection from D Block, or from PC teachers.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, you can contact me via email or by calling the school directly.

Regards
Miss. Michelle Watkin
HOY – Year 8

From the Head of Year 9.

Welcome back to another year at Emerald State High School! It’s been a great start to the school year, with our Year 9s getting back into the swing of learning

On Monday 20th February, during our Junior School parade, our leaders will be inducted.

Our leaders have already shown great leadership and with Valentine’s Day coming up and further inter-house school competitions that will be run, I know our leaders will conduct themselves appropriately as role models to the rest of their cohort.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, you can contact me via email or by calling the school directly.

Regards
Mr. Leon Coromandel
HOY – Year 9

Student Achievement News.

Emerald State High School would like to extend a big congratulations to Year 12 student Josh Russell! Josh has recently returned from Canberra where he competed in the Australia Day Benchrest Championship. Whilst competing, Josh achieved first place in the Men’s Light Brenchrest – 100 and 200 category, and fourth place in the Men’s Heavy Brenchrest. Because of this achievement, Josh is now ranked 4th in the entire nation for competitive shooting! Congratulations Josh, this is a fantastic achievement and we can’t wait to see where this takes you in the future.

Regards
Mr. Graham Fandrich
Teacher

Community Partnerships.

On Saturday 11th of February, staff members from Emerald State High School had the privilege of attending Kestrel Mines, to tour their underground mining operation. A total of seven staff travelled to Kestrel South, where we were inducted on the safety processes for being underground. After this, we travelled almost 300m down and 2km across, to witness what it’s like to work underground in a metallurgical coal mine. This was an awe-inspiring sight, and it certainly made us more than aware of just how vast the resources are in our amazing community! What was truly wonderful, was to bump into former students of ESHS currently working in the mine, including Miss Maddison Devlin, a 2021 graduate.

ESHS would like to extend a very large thank you to Mr. Maher and Kestrel Mines’ Casey Aitkenhead the Business Partner People & Culture supervisor, as well as our underground guide Mr. Bernie Lambley.

Regards
Mr. Graham Fandrich
Teacher

From the Maths team.

It has been a busy first few weeks to the school year regarding Maths at Emerald State High School. All classes are off to a great start, getting stuck right into their learning for the year.

The Year 7s have all made good starts to the year and their first real taste of high school Maths. All classes have been working through the units of work, which this week is calculating the area of rectangles, triangles and parallelograms, to develop their mental strategies.

The Year 8s have been learning the ins and outs of integers, rational numbers and percentages, leading up to their exam in Week 5.

Since the Year 9s have the first rotation of laptops within the school, they have been working on analysing and interpreting data, through excel and other software, leading up to their assessment which will be handed out this week.

Whilst the Year 10s have been discovery the joys of algebra. Senior Maths classes have all been making good head way on their learning in their respective classes.

This year the junior classes have started a new homework system called ‘Maths Mate’ which is very exciting. The Maths department have decided to go away from ‘Mental Maths’ and choose a more productive and efficient method. ‘Maths Mate’ is designed so students are completing one set of homework tasks each week at home, then checking them in class every Friday. The team hopes to see large benefits and returns from this new homework strategy.

Regards
Mr. Slade Blunt
Teacher

From the HPE team.

We’ve had a busy start to the HPE year with our sport program, Central Highlands and Capricornia trials in full swing. Well done to students who have been getting involved and signing up at J block staff room.

Our Year 7 students are learning about adolescents and going through their teenage years. Whilst nutrition is being learnt in Year 8. All junior school students are participating in Bat and Ball games for their practical lessons. Year 10s are enjoying their topic of Gridiron, where they are getting better every week. In Year 11 PE, the students are learning about motor learning and applying their findings to Netball. In Year 12, our Sports and Recreation students will be visiting the pool throughout the term.

Finally, we would like to congratulate all the students getting involved in sport and encourage them to bring a hat, water bottle and appropriate footwear to their practical lessons. Sunscreen is always available and we promote sun safety in all of our lessons. We are looking forward to another term of HPE with our classes and our cross-country carnival taking place in Week 7 (Wednesday the 8th of March).

Regards
Mr. Louie Beatty
Teacher

From the Arts team.

VISUAL ART

Year 7 & 8 Art

• Students are undergoing Part A of their assessment, the Experimental Folio. So far, they have created a continuous line drawing, inspired by Pablo Picasso, and are about to begin their watercolour painting of the same design.

Year 9 Art

• Students have just begun Part A of assessment, the Experiment Folio. They have begun creating a mixed-media work using spray paint, acrylic and POSCA, inspired by Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Year 10 Art

• Students have just begun Part A of assessment, the Experiment Folio. They have been introduced to a number of street artists and types of street art. Their first experiment involves producing 4-5 different ‘tags’ using various styles of street art fonts in their Visual Art Journals.

Year 11 and 12 Visual Art in Practice

• Students have just commenced their Investigation into Module 1: Portfolio, which is based on the topic, ‘Emerald and Surrounds’. Students have started experimenting with mixed-media to ultimately produce a number of postcards that represent the past, present and future of their local environment.

Year 11 & 12 Visual Art

• Students have recently been on an excursion to the Botanic Gardens and are now using this experience to prompt the direction for their IA1 and FA1 assessment tasks.

MUSIC

Year 10 Music

• This semester the Year 10 music students will be focusing on Music Fusions. This requires the students to analyse the musical elements in pieces of music that fuse different styles/genres together and also perform a piece of music that showcases more than one genre.

Year 11 Music

• The Year 11 music students are well underway into their first unit of senior Music. The first unit they are completing is ‘Designs’. Within this unit they will complete a performance and a composition.

Year 12 Music

• The Year 12 music students have been working hard on their first piece of assessment (performance) for their ‘Innovations’ unit. The students need to showcase an innovation in music. An innovation may include an innovation of an instrument, an artist or genre/style of music. Once the students have completed their performances, they will move onto creating a composition that showcases an innovation.

DRAMA

Year 7 Drama

• All the students are really engaged and having a good time in the skill building process!

Year 12 Drama

• We have performance drafts due at the end of the week, all the students are progressing well, they’re all really enjoying the play Hoods.

MUSICAL

The Rock of Ages: Teen Version musical is progressing nicely with Act 1 well underway and Act 2 having final touches added. The costumes, props and sets are also starting to come together thanks to a very dedicated group of supportive teaching staff.

2022 STUDENT SHOWCASE

The “Nothing is as it seems” student exhibition opened last Friday night and was a huge success! Over 200 individuals braved the muggy weather and supported our event. We would like to thank the SRC for donating the awards for the Viewer’s Choice Awards for senior were presented to Meisha Greentree, Tori Kavanagh and Claire Busst and the junior were taken out by Daniela Quiroz and Emily Agius.

Regards
Miss. Amy Cochrane
Acting HOD

From the LOTE team.

Welcome back Minna-san to the 2023 school year!

We trust you had an amazingly long and eventful holiday as always! This term, Languages classes will be back as per usual, and our focus for Weeks 3 and 4 is ‘Following staff instructions’, so ensure that you are living and breathing by the 3Ps, which are... Polite, Prepared and Participate. Be sure to come to class with all your necessary equipment and be on time for every class!

The Languages program this term has students studying a variety of topics across Years 7 – 11. These include:

Year 7 – “Meeting new people”

• In this unit, students will learn how to introduce basic information about themselves to others, whilst discovering the differences between Japan’s culture and traditions versus Australia’s. Additionally, they will also be learning the Japanese alphabet (Hiragana and Kanji) as part of their studies.

Year 8 – “Free time and Hobbies”

• This term in Japanese, we will be covering the unit of ‘What’s in a Time Capsule’ and focusing on discussing our hobbies and free time activities. Students will be given an assignment where they will be required to present a speech and reflect on the different Japanese alphabets.

Years 9 and 10 – “How do youth subculture represent themselves?”

• This term in Years 9 and 10 Japanese, we will be covering subcultures, fashion, music and interesting Japanese expression as we make meaning. Furthermore, students will also get to learn about a subculture which is exclusive to Japan.

Year 11– “My world - Family/Carers/Friends”

• As the name of the topic suggested, Year 11 students will explore a range of sources that focus on discussion around the concept of family, carers and friends and how it connects or contrast in relation to themselves.

Year 12- “Our Society”

• Year 12 students on the other hand will explore a range of sources that focus on discussion around the concept of society and community structure in the 21st century! How exciting!

At this stage, assessments for LOTE are given within the start of Week 7 and will be due in Week 9 of this term.

The best way to improve achievement is short, but regular, review of vocabulary. It is recommended that you also use your spare time to learn Japanese writing symbols and new vocabulary, by regularly using Quizlet. Additionally, book work is important as always! Neat handwriting and well organised notes are the greatest way to achieve a desirable outcome.

Have a great term – we look forward to seeing everyone back in class!

Regards
Mr. Huu Nguyen
Teacher

From the Humanities team.

Welcome back to 2023 school year. This year we have a lot happening in the Humanities space in both the Junior and Senior School.

Our Senior Humanities students will be headed off to Brisbane for our annual Humanities Tour which had unfortunately been cancelled last year due to COVID. Please pencil in our tour dates – 30th July to the 3rd of August. This trip is compulsory for the Year 11 Geography students, as they will complete field work that informs their final Year 11 assessment piece and their first Year 12 task. For our History and Legal Studies students, this in an opt-in trip with lots of amazing experiences such as: visits to the law courts, university tours, Victoria Barracks and a whole lot more. Permission forms and deposit information will be sent home early in Term 2.

Many of our Year 12 Humanities students have already completed their first Internal Assessment piece and have begun their second piece. It is therefore vitally important that the Year 12s are keeping up with their assessment schedules and attending all lessons. Staff will contact home should there be any concerns around your child’s participation, as the three internal assessment pieces they are required to complete, go towards their ATAR results.

In Junior humanities we have moved to a new model this year, with our History and Geography units running in a 14-week block for three lessons a week and Civics and Economics and Business running in a 6-week block with three lessons a week also. This will mean classes will not all being doing the same assessment at the same time.

Regards
Mrs. Kerrie-Ann Van Hees
HOD

From SBA/SBT/Work team.

Emerald State High School would like to congratulate the following students on their achievements in securing a school-based apprenticeship or traineeship over the Christmas holidays:

Tim Cunningham - Farm and Construction Emerald

Follow the Emerald State High School Facebook page for all school-based apprenticeship and traineeship opportunities.

Certificate II Salon Assistant and Certificate III Aviation have both started again and it is great to see the students really enjoying these programs. For more information, please refer to the subject handbook located on the school website.

Regards
Mrs. Alarna Wills
Traineeship Coordinator

From the Guidance Officer.

The Support Works team at Emerald High are glad to be back for 2023 providing support to assist our students’ well-being. This may range from helping them engage and be included in learning opportunities and the school community, attending to learning tasks, develop additional resilience skills, problem solving or planning for future careers.

With our increasing student numbers, we are fortunate our current staff includes a full time Head of Department – Student Services, Guidance Officer, part time School Nurse (Wednesday to Friday) Youth Support Coordinator (Monday to Thursday) and two part-time Chaplains who work on separate days except for Thursday.

The Queensland Department of Education recommends the following tips to support students return to secondary school.

1. Stay connected: Let your child talk about how they are feeling. Guide the conversation to what they will enjoy about being back at school.
2. Talk about their friends: Remind your child that returning to school means reconnecting with their mates. A quick call or text to close friends may help them reconnect.
3. Speak to their teachers: You don’t have to do this alone. The teachers at school can help make the transition as smooth as possible.
4. Identify learning gaps: If you know your child struggles with a particular subject, let their teacher/s know early so they can work with them on it.
5. Organise stuff: Help your child organise their school books and equipment so they have what they need.
6. Be positive: Focus on what your child enjoys about being at school such as having lunch with their friends or the fun of learning in a group.
7. Re-establish a routine: Let your child come up with a plan for their morning routine and encourage them to write it down so you can talk about it together.
8. Encourage sleep and exercise: Make sure your child gets enough sleep and exercise to help them feel calm and relaxed about being back at school.
9. Be reassuring: Remind them that they are not the only one returning to school and that their friends will be there to share the experience with them.
10. Mark the transition: Do something fun together, have a family movie night or bake some treats for your child to take for lunches.
11. Make a deal: Talk about how every day at school counts and encourage your child to attend school. Also agree what you will do to support them and recognize their effort.
12. Ask for help: The school can answer any questions you have so give us a call and have a chat.

Regards
ESHS Guidance Officer

From SupportWorx.

The Central Highlands Regional Council is coming to school on Monday the 20th February during break times to run a voluntary drop-in session for students to complete their Youth Survey. The survey responses are completely anonymous and will be used to develop the Central Highlands Youth Strategy and Action Plan 2023 – 2028.

The youth strategy will:

• Outline the programs, events and initiatives Central Highlands Regional Council will provide to enhance the wellbeing and empowerment of youth
• List council's partnerships with key agencies, organisations and stakeholders to lead, facilitate and/or fund the delivery of youth initiatives in the region
• Identify how youth, partners and councillors will be consulted during the delivery of the strategy’s objectives
• Express council’s commitment to youth development in the Central Highlands region.

Please see the information posters below.

If you don’t want your student to participate in this survey, please let me know on rcomo3@eq.edu.au.

Regards
Mrs. Rebekah Pillay
HOD Student Services

From the P&C.

The Emerald State High School Parents & Citizens Association will hold this year’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) at 5:30pm, Thursday 9th March, 2023 in the Emerald State High School Library. All staff, parents and citizens of the Emerald community are invited to attend.

Regards
Mrs. Lesley-Anne McDowall
P&C Secretary

From the Positive Behaviour for Learning Team

At Emerald State High School we are:

• Polite,
• Prepared, and we
• Participate.

Please see the attached power point of the lesson taught on parade and throughout Weeks 3 and 4 of this term.

Behaviour Focus

Our current behaviour focus is “Follow staff instructions promptly.”

Student of the Week

Week 3

Year 7: Georgia Kinnon For putting in 100% effort to all tasks and contributing constructively to class discussions.
Year 8: Ted Parker For bringing a positive attitude to every situation and always upholding the key values of ESHS.
Year 9: Cody Mobbs For participating well in all classes and being prepared for learning. congratulations on a great start to the year.
Year 10: Jayla Grant For being a polite and respectful to members of the community and going out of her way to be a kind person.
Year 11: Kelsey Graham For actively participating in class discussion and completing all work to a high standard.
Year 12: Summerlyn Clark For active participation in class discussion and always inspiring her peers.

Week 4

Year 7: Cienna Pratt For showing enthusiasm and maturity in everything she does.
Year 8: Darcy Valler For completing work in class and asking for extension work to challenge himself.
Year 9: Estera Job For always demonstrating a positive and polite attitude in and outside of the classroom.
Year 10: Cheyenne Causton For always upholding key values of ESHS and taking initiative with her studies.
Year 11: Abigail Bluhdorn For completing all set tasks with enthusiasm and to a high standard.
Year 12: Nat Mackay For always engaging in class discussion and sharing his ideas with staff and peers.

Community Notices