6 September 2019

Newsletter Articles

From the Principal – Mr York McFadzean

As we reach the “pointy end” of the term it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the hard work of my staff and the student as they engage in the often challenging business of educating our young people each day. Staff who are involved with the Year 11 cohort have worked diligently all year preparing lessons and developing the new assessment modules that will be used next year. This has been a challenging and demanding task that has been taken up and completed in an excellent fashion. Well done to all those staff who have worked in this learning space! Likewise, many students are tackling their assessment items and rising to the challenge – I want to especially mention the Year 10 group who this semester, have been linked to classes that will bear resemblance to the types of courses and study they will experience in Year 11 in 2020. Keep up the fine work you are doing.

This last month has seen the Show Team spend a week at “the Ekka” to great success. They also conducted a very successful car wash last Saturday at the Caltex station to raise funds for their next journey to compete at the Murwillumbah show. Year 12 students are this week engaged in the annual – and final – battery of QCS tests and, from all reports, have conducted themselves well in this demanding process.

The highlight of the last few weeks had to have been the visit from Jonathan Thurston and his Academy to address the school last Tuesday. I want to thank the Balonne Shire for making this valuable exercise possible. I know JT had the students and staff fully engaged in what he had to say and that they truly enjoyed the experience! To my mind the real message he gave was as simple as it is important – to treat each other kindly, to have a focus and drive to succeed and to look to teachers as just one of the “coaches” students can and should access as they make their way through school. This idea that we should treat each other “kindly” resonates with me at present since it bears a direct relationship to the quality of the experience that staff and students have each day at school. As I mentioned on parade this last week, school should be no place for violent, racist, sexualised or vulgar comments. Staff and students have a right to learn in an environment free from such verbal abuse.

This concept links firmly with the major finding of the recent Priority School Review where our school was visited by a team of experienced staff to review what it was we do. This process involved talks with staff, students, parents, community groups and local members of Parliament; it involved class visits and an examination of our processes and procedures. So begins our 12 months of support to focus clearly on our goal of providing an explicit improvement agenda for the school. The major finding – and call to action - of this panel was to

“Collaboratively develop, implement and monitor a systematic and consistent whole-school approach to managing student behaviour.”

This is the challenge I have placed before my staff and have begun engaging with the student body. This is the clear focus of our work over the next 12 months. I encourage parents to contact me to provide their input into this process and will be soon announcing specific times when we can meet to have this sort of forum. Such a meeting will be delayed until I receive the new Code of Conduct for students that senior officers of the Department have been developing this past 12 months. This document will replace the existing “responsible behaviour plan for students” and will be the bedrock of our school’s approach to developing responsible, independent and accomplished learners.

As we leave winter behind and the mercury climbs over 30 again I am thankful that the air conditioning program has almost reached its conclusion. When completed, all learning areas will have reversible air-conditioning to allow us to provide a stable temperature all year round. I know all staff and students will see the great benefit of this program when Term 4 arrives! To this end also I will be sending out a Facebook message this week notifying all parents that we can now begin again to wear the formal uniform each Monday and Wednesday.

Winter has provided us with a large collection of unnamed jumpers that have been left around the school. Can I ask all parents and carers to ensure that all items of clothing are clearly labelled with the name of student. That way when they are left behind we can easily have them returned to their rightful owner.

Continuing this theme, it is now time for students to consider bringing water bottles to school again so they can keep hydrated during the day. This is extremely important for their own physical health and wellbeing. Students are reminded that they cannot use valuable class time to go and get a drink of water given the lesson duration is only 70 minutes before a break occurs. At this time they should re-hydrate and refill their water bottles.

It would be remiss of me not to use this opportunity to discuss sun safe practices as we enter the warmer weather. Queensland is blessed with wonderful summer weather – and the world’s highest rate of skin cancers. Hats can be purchased from the uniform shop if students do not possess one. We need to consider seriously instituting a “no hat, no play” strategy as is done in many school across the state to ensure our young people have the best opportunity to avoid the serious health risks that skin cancers can create. I welcome your input to this discussion.

With just over two weeks before the term holidays I wish all students the very best as they tackle important assessment and remember to use your assessment calendar to check what extra work lies ahead each week.

Finally, next term we will be ramping up our orientation programs for the Year 7 class of 2020 when we welcome students from the Primary School and St Pat’s to our school. I am sure you join with me in wishing them well as they begin this important transition to high school.

Till next time

York McFadzean
Principal

From the HoD Senior Secondary – Mrs Deborah Addison

Term 3 is drawing to a close and the senior school students are working hard to maintain their attendance and stay on top of their assessment.

Year 10

Please find an informative brochure from the QCAA attached regarding Preparing Students for Success. This includes great information and has some good talking points for parents to have with their students.

Year 11

A reminder that any unscheduled days off will require your student to catch up with the teacher in their own time. All time off can have major influences on students ability to stay on top of their studies so please try and organise holidays and appointments for outside school hours.

Term 4 Exams will be Week 4 and 5 for General and Essential subjects and Week 5 and 6 for Applied. During this time classes will continue to run and general classes will be run as tutorial classes leading up to their exam. The schedule for exams is due to be released by the end of this Term.

Year 12

The last ever QCS test has been sat this week and the students involved gave it a great attempt. They hope that it will be enough to help their OP. Well done to all involved.

The year 12s will gladly tell you how many weeks and days they have left and every day counts for these students. Their final grades for this semester can mean the difference between gaining a QCE or not. If students are struggling please advise them to talk to their teachers and/or myself.

For any questions or concerns you may have regarding your Senior Secondary students please email me at daddi4@eq.edu.au or call 4620 8222.

Mrs Deborah Addison

Brisbane Ekka

On Monday August 12, the St George State High School Show team packed the trailers full of camping equipment and their prize winning sheep and headed down to Brisbane to Show at the Royal Brisbane Show (EKKA). It was an exciting time for many newbies and experienced show team members! It was Sharon, Stavrianna, Oscar, Toby, Kelsey and Kaise’s debut Royal Show with many ribbons and awards won among them. While Bronte, Ashleigh, Tilly and Lachy were coming back for a second time, it was the first time the team were able to show off their new travel shirts.

Once the team arrived and unloaded their gear into their rooms. The students set up their display with banners, ribbons, some grass decorations a shearing shed and green and gold bunting and ribbons. That night at dinner the team were introduced to ‘Felix’ who was the prize sheep for the time we were at the Ekka. Felix was awarded to the person who showed the most initiative, enthusiasm and workmanship throughout the day. The person who won ‘Felix’ was responsible for looking after him for the rest of the day.

It was an early rise on Tuesday morning, mucking out the sheep pens and practicing their junior judging in the fine arts section. Among approximately 65 other students, Bronte, Sharon, Toby and Oscar were chosen to speak about their leather work. It was a clean sweep from the green team with a 1st from Toby, 2nd from Oscar, 3rd from Bronte and a highly commended from Sharon. The judge was very impressed with their attention to detail. Oscar was the only contender to speak about china work and received a highly commended for his efforts. The next highly contended junior judging competition was the iced wedding cakes. The St George Team were excited to receive a 3rd by Oscar and a highly commended from Stav and Kelsey. The 3D sculptures were the next on the list with Sharon taking home a second place, Ashleigh and Kelsey taking home a tied 3rd and Toby scoring a highly commended. The last junior judging competition for the day was Goldfish. It was an interesting experience with students having to speak and judge fish on their ability to swim around the tank as well as have an evenly proportioned body. Toby blew the crowd away with a 2nd place, and Bronte won 3rd place. That afternoon the students watched the Australian vs New Zealand wood chop final, for some it was their time! The winner for the first day of Felix was Bronte. Day 3 was People’s Day and today it was Lachy’s chance to take care of Felix. It was another early morning rise, mucking out and feeding the sheep, and getting prepared to answer lots of questions from the public. There were many excited faces when they saw our well-conditioned Poll Dorset stud, with many people wanting a pat and a photo. Half way through the day the students took a break to judge some dairy cattle. This time amongst approximately 100 others, Tilly was chosen to speak and received a highly commended for her order placement and ability to convince the judge of her views. Later that day Oscar scored himself another ribbon as he spoke about the Mohair fleece. With judging and Peoples Day finishing around 5pm, the team explored the show grounds and watched the Ekka Nites entertainment show. There were monster trucks, flashing lights on quad bikes, chicken dances and everything in between. The team got dessert before heading to bed for an exciting adventure to South Bank awaiting them the next morning.

On Thursday morning, students wore free dress to South Bank. Sharon was looking after Felix for the day. The students boarded a train and learnt how the public transport system worked in Brisbane. Oscar was chief navigator, using a GPS to get us to our first stop in South Bank… the movies! Everyone enjoyed a relaxing break watching the Lion King and eating popcorn. Our next stop was a team lunch and a stop in at Cold Rock to finish off a nice break to the very busy Ekka week.

Friday was show day, and the day the students had been waiting for all week. Felix was in the care of Oscar for the day. From over 160 competitors, it was very tough competition in the sheep junior handler’s competition. Amongst the competition, Ashleigh made it into the finals and the experience paid off when Bronte received a highly commended. Overall the Ekka was a fantastic experience and one that all students should be very proud of. From over ten schools, St George State High was the overall 3rd most successful school.

Mr Scott Brimblecombe and Mrs Rochelle Ferguson were the parent helpers for the trip. They cooked breakfast every morning and organised lunches and dinners. It was an incredible experience and one that would not have been possible without their tireless volunteer efforts.

Miss Alanna Ives

Year 12 Ag Practices

On Thursday afternoon the Ag practices students dissected uterus bovine (the uterus and ovaries of a cow) and identified the important anatomical parts of the reproductive system. The students said it was an interesting experience!

Miss Alanna Ives

Year 10 Home Economics

This Term Year 10 Home Economics assessment was to educate our School community about the problem of food packaging waste. Here are a couple of examples of students samples:-

Food plays a massive part in our everyday lifestyle. Food keeps us going throughout the day, gives us nutrients and vitamins to help our bodies run and most of the time, it just tastes amazing. However, there is one thing that few people know about the food containers, wrappers or bags in which our food is packed. Forty percent of plastic produced is used for food packaging, and of that, 40 percent is used just once and discarded. Fourteen percent of this is recycled or used for energy recovery and 26 percent ends up in a dump or pollutes our waterways. Eight million tonnes of plastic and other waste is dumped in the ocean every year, which is then ingested by birds and other marine life causing strangulation and a slow painful death.

It’s important to reduce the amount of plastic and non-recyclable materials that is being thrown away as well as increasing recycling and minimising the impact of plastic packaging on the environment.

Here are some ways we can reduce the amount of waste in our communities and schools:

• Put rubbish in the bin. Although this is one of the simplest things we can do, not enough people do this - hence the amount of rubbish lying around our school
• Reuse plastic containers. All they need is a wash and they can be re used at least 3 more times
• Reuse your plastic “one-use bags” to get as much use out of them as possible
• Use paper bags rather than plastic bags - paper breaks down more quickly than plastic does.

If you have read this article please email hmolo5@eq.edu.au Add a comment if you have changed your recycling and waste habits after reading this article.

Haley Moloney Grade 10

Thanks to the Yr 10 Home Ec class who gave free taste tests for meat alternative meals and milk alternatives as part of their assessment of looking at reducing food waste and looking at food for the future. It was yummy!

Mrs Julie Worboys

School Based Apprenticeship and Traineeship

Year 7 Gala Sports Day

Last Thursday the year 7s participated in the Balonne Gala day. Students were involved in many different sports such as; netball, touch, AFL, modified rugby, Indigenous games, cricket and softball. Students conducted themselves in a respectable manner and are to be highly commended for their encouragement towards younger students. It was a great day. Thanks to all those involved in organising such a successful event.

Miss Kymberley Weatherall

Year 9 Students v Staff Touch

Year 12 Badminton

Lunchtime Hand Ball Competition

Optiminds

On Sunday 25 August, seven students from St George State High School, Years 7 to 9, competed in Opti-MINDS 2019 at St George State School. The students had prepared for this event for a number of weeks. Performing really well, the students came second in the Division II, Social Science, prepared presentation activity. In fact, the judges were really impressed and awarded the students the Spirit of Opti-MINDS award for best teamwork. St George State High School would like to express appreciation for the tremendous effort the students’ parents made to encourage the students to achieve their results.

Mr Peter Towney

The phone policy at St George SHS

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