19 August 2022

Newsletter Articles

From The Front Office

Lateness – Students who are persistently late will be investigated and disciplinary action may be implemented.

Leaving School Grounds – Students are not permitted to leave the school grounds during the school day. Parents must sign students out from the office for medical and dental appointments or other short absences. On return students must present themselves to sign back in at the office. Permission will NOT be given for students to depart school for the purpose of shopping or purchasing lunch down town.

Mobile Phones – are prohibited from 8.45am to 3pm without consent and supervision of a staff member. Phones that are confiscated can be picked up from office at 3pm on the first and second time of confiscation from the offending student. From the third time on wards a parent/carer will need to pick up the phone. Students who refuse to comply with the mobile policy may be issued a range of consequences from school detentions to suspension.

From The Acting Principal

Welcome - Welcome to our school newsletter. We are in Week 6 with only four more weeks of Term 3 to go.

School Mantras: Be Safe / Be Respectful / Be Prepared / Be Responsible.

We are respectful: We co-operate with staff and other students. There is a very interesting book about anarchy written by William Golder called “Lord of the Flies” It describes the descent into Anarchy of a group of teenage boys whose plane crashes on a desert island during World War II. Co-operation in any communal setting is essential and best practice. Essentially though as the young men on the island found out, a structured order of designated leaders and an obvious decision making process is also essential for any communal group to function effectively.

Doctor’s Surgery: Please ensure if your child needs medical attention that you avail yourselves to the opportunity of seeing our friendly Doctors Karen Benn and Dr Ben Brimblecombe. One of them attends the school practice on Thursday morning. Bookings are, however, essential.

A-C Data: Our school Explicit Improvement Agenda this term and most probably for the rest of the year is improving our students A to C data. Basically, what this means in shifting our cohorts / year levels from a B to an A, C to a B, D to a C and so on. I had an interesting conversation about this with one of our teachers discussing how that could happen in that particular class. Her reply was interesting, “ If students want to achieve higher results on their assessments they need to be prepared to invest more time in analysing, interpreting and discussing their responses to questions on the answer sheets.”

An answer to a question such as, A: “she hit the ball” could be elaborated into “How hard was the ball hit? Where was the ball hit to? Who fielded the ball? With appropriate use of adjectives and cognitive verb explanation for example in this context analyse and interpret.

Camp Draft Bar Catering: The P&C are catering for the Bar at the upcoming campdraft. The P&C will need help with shifts on the bar on Friday afternoon and night 16 September and Saturday afternoon and night the 17 September. All help will be greatly appreciated.

Truck Pull: The P and C are organising the BBQ for the Thallon Truck Pull on the Saturday 27 August. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Get your teams sorted and entered.

Uniform Expectations: Once again we are having issues with students wearing non uniform clothing. Could we as a school community make an effort to ensure students are arriving at school in the correct uniform.

School Food Drop Off Expectations: Once again I have had to ask parents not to drop food off to students at the back gate or at the back car park. There are several reasons for this which include safety, supervision and responsibility. Many of our students are playing touch on the oval and a car travelling over the 10km speed limit which is very easy to do is not able to stop for a child who inadvertently runs across the road. So please if you must drop food off to students take it to the office.

Rob Nowlan.

From The Deputy Principal

2022 Early School Leavers survey

The Queensland Government is seeking the support of the school community for the annual survey of Year 10, 11 and 12 students who left school in 2021, before completing Year 12. This short, confidential survey collects information about what young people are doing the year after leaving school. The results of the survey help provide valuable information to improve services available to school leavers in the future.

Between August and September, these school leavers can expect to receive instructions to complete a web-based survey or a telephone call from the Queensland Government Statistician’s Office. Please encourage them to take part. If their contact details have changed, please assist the interviewer with their updated details or forward the survey to their new address so they can participate.

Thank you for your support of Next Step post-school destination surveys in 2022.

For more information, visit the link below or telephone toll free on 1800 068 587.

Improvement Agenda

The impact our teachers make in supporting each and every one of our students towards success is a very real achievement worth celebrating at St George SHS. They focus on improving student learning outcomes by engaging and supporting all students.

Levels of achievement against the Australian Curriculum tell us how effective our teaching and learning strategies have been. They indicate how we are tracking towards our vision of excellent outcomes for every student.

The focus of our improvement agenda is to improve the A-C data. It is important to remember that every increase we see in the data is a celebration of achievement for yet another student in our school. We cannot underestimate the very real impact that each gain has for individual students, some of whom might be achieving a C for the very first time.

We can all work together to ensure this improvement occurs.

FACE MASKS

Currently, there is no public health requirement for wearing a face mask in schools except in certain circumstances (e.g. for 7 days after having COVID-19, or being a close contact).

You are a close contact if:

• you live with a person that has COVID-19 or
• you have been with a person that has COVID-19 for more than four hours in a house or other accommodation.

Wearing masks in state schools is a personal decision for individuals to make and any staff member or student who wishes to wear a face mask will be supported to do so.

Nicole Hyland

New Staff

Samuel Waters (Teacher Aide)

Charmaine Easton (Cleaner)

YEAR 6 TRANSITION DATES

Please be aware of the Year 6 transition dates.

The parent walkthroughs are for parents to see the school and how we operate.

(Please note the link in last newsletter wasn’t working. Please use the above link.

Nicole Hyland

Lunchtime Activities

Last Thursday, a handful of students raced down to the Library to play Mario Kart on the Nintendo Switch. This lunchtime activity has been organised by the PBL committee and will run for the rest of the term during Lunch 1 on Thursdays. Students are able to “buy” a turn with 2 zingers. It was great to see students from all grades participating and I look forward to seeing more eager faces join as the term goes on. Also, a big thank you to Kyle who kindly offered his Nintendo Switch after a we had a few technological issues.

Miss Ella Harrison

Congratulations Jackson

Earlier this term, Jackson Halliday was awarded Student of the Week from Vocational Training Queensland, an organisation through which he is completing a Course in Initial General Education for Adults. This is a significant achievement for our Year 11 student, Jackson, as he has been recognised from all students participating in vocational training across Australia. Keep up the great work Jackson!

Mrs Jodi Hyland

9B English

Last week in English we FINALLY finished reading the novel Lion: A Long Way Home. To wrap things up, 9B competed in a round of trivia to test their knowledge of the novel. It was great to see their competitive spirits coming out!

Miss Ella Harrison

Year 9 Health Talk

Students in Year 9 have been learning about drug and alcohol campaigns to better understand the current messages from state and federal government towards teens and adolescents. Students were visited by the local St George Police and spoken to about current fines and consequences of engaging in drug and alcohol related behaviours.

Miss April McLaren

Year 10 HPE - Squash

For the next five weeks the students in Year 10 will be participating in a Squash unit at the St George Squash centre. Students have been lucky enough to have three scheduled visits from Squash Queensland representative Robyn Prentice who has a wealth of knowledge and experience in the sport. Here, students are receiving their first lesson and learning the basics of the forehand and backhand.

Miss April McLaren

Hospitality

We have been super busy focussing on our theory work ready for our exam next week. Students have been continuing with the coffee delivery service for staff each Wednesday and began offering a menu selection each week. Some of the highlights have been sausage rolls, caramel slice, jelly cakes and cob loaves. The students particularly enjoyed getting back to weekly cooking despite our enthusiasm for coffee making waning. Moving forward, we enter our International Cuisine focus for the remainder of the Semester. Students will be studying popular dishes from various countries such as Italy, Thailand and Mexico. Fresh pasta will be our first dish! I look forward to updating you with our successes.

Mrs Jodi Hyland

Getting To Know…………

Maddison Kings

Favourite Colour:- Pink

Favourite Day Of Week:- Friday

Favourite Holiday Destination:- Gold Coast

Where Would You Love To Go On Holidays One Day:- Europe

Favourite Food:- Thai

Favourite Movie Series:- Harry Potter

Favourite Sport (Play or Spectator):- Swimming

Favourite School Subject:- Legal Studies

One day I would like to work as a:- Lawyer

Josiah Timmer

Favourite Colour:- Dark Green

Favourite Day Of Week:- Friday

Favourite Holiday Destination:- Moreton Island

Where Would You Love To Go On Holidays One Day:- Antarctica

Favourite Food:- Burritos

Favourite Song:- Off The Grid, by Kanye West

Favourite Book series:- The Stromlight Archives, by Brandon Sanderson

Favourite Movie:- The Dark Knight

Favourite Sport (Play or Spectator):- Basketball

Favourite School Subjects:- Physics and Chemistry

One day I would like to work as a:- Mechatronic Engineering Officer in the Australian Defence Force

Wellbeing

Our second element of a healthy mind is MANAGING IMPULSIVITY.

Quite often we aren’t able to achieve our goals because we act on instinct without thinking our decisions through.

In order to manage impulsivity effectively it is important to recognise when to think first, and then act. Every day there are multiple times when we are faced with situations like these such as when we are angry, learning in class, taking an exam, or even going shopping. So why is this important? Researchers have found that people who have better self-control (are able to effectively manage their impulsive behaviours) tend to be healthier and happier, both in the short term and in the long term.

So how can we learn to gain better self-control? Here are some strategies that you can try:

• Write down your goals and focus on only one at a time
• Make a schedule
• Ask for help
• Wait and think before responding
• Use self-rewards
• Think through possible consequences related to your actions

Balonne District Sport

There is now a Facebook page dedicated to providing information about district sport. Please like and follow Balonne District School Sport Noticeboard for updates.

Calendar

From The P&C President

The St George SHS P&C would like to sincerely thank past President Scott Brimblecombe and Craig Saunders for their donation of eight cotton bales and Queensland Cotton’s Ben Suttor for reducing the sale fees of the bales. As a result we have had an extra $4980 injected into our funds! Thank you all so much for your ongoing support of the St George State High School.

The Thallon Truck Pull in on Saturday 27 August 2022 and the P&C have taken on the job of catering for the day as a fundraiser for our school. We would appreciate some volunteers throughout the day. The event kicks off from 11.30am and will finish at 8.30pm. If you can assist, please email pandc@stgeorgegshs.eq.edu.au

The P&C have donated $5000 to the school to purchase a livestock trailer. This decision was made at the monthly meeting on Monday. This money will be recouped by the P&C working the bar at the upcoming St George Camp draft on 17-18 September 2022. Volunteers are required to help with this fundraiser. Please email pandc@stgeorgeshs.eq.edu.au if you can spare a few hours.

Our executive team is still missing a Secretary – if you are interested in this position and want more information please contact President Julie Davies on 0418 739 411.

The next P&C meeting will be held on Monday 12 September at the School library from 6pm. All are welcome to attend. We are doing some great things for our school and would love your support!

Julie Davies

Community Notices

Choose how to add this event to your calendar:

Apple Calendar iPhone, iPad, Mac - Download .ics file

Outlook Desktop Outlook - Download .ics file

Android Calendar Android devices - Download .ics file

Other Calendar Google Calendar, Yahoo, etc. - Download .ics file

Download Event