28 April 2023

Newsletter Articles

School photos have been given out. Anyone that haven’t received their order please check with the front office.

From The Principal

We hope this message finds you well. Term 2 has kicked off to a great start, and we are pleased to inform you that we have increased our communication efforts through Facebook and are continuing to update our website regularly.

Our P&C meetings have been productive, and we welcome anyone who is interested in joining. For information on how to become a member of the P&C, please visit our school website from the link below. The P&C has been instrumental in endorsing the school's annual implementation plan, providing feedback on school finances, and securing grants that benefit all students at the school.

We are also excited to announce that there are some significant developments happening behind the scenes with our school and community partners. These include projects in Agriculture, embedding indigenous perspectives, GPs in Schools, and student support. We encourage you to stay tuned to our Facebook page and website for more information.

We want to inform you that we will be conducting a school review from May 8-11. We highly encourage parents to participate as this will provide valuable feedback on how we can continue to improve our school. For more in-depth information on school reviews, please visit the link below or visit the school website.

Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to another successful term.

Best regards,
Thomas J. McKenna
Principal

From Deputy Principal

Now is a great time to reflect on Term 1 with students. Celebrate their achievements, discuss areas for improvement and set some goals for Term 2. Developing a plan for study and homework can be beneficial. Research has shown that frequent smaller sessions of spaced practice is much more effective than cramming for a long, intense period of time close to an exam.

Homework also provides students with opportunities to consolidate their classroom learning and develop a pattern of behaviour for lifelong learning beyond the classroom. It provides meaningful and deliberate practice of skills learnt during class time.

Students can start developing a plan for study and homework by mapping assessment items and due dates. Semester Assessment Planners can be used to determine what your child has in the way of exams and assignments this term. This information can be accessed through OneSchool. Instructions on how to access these resources can be found on our school website.

Parent-Teacher Interviews

Our Parent/Teacher evening will be held on Wednesday 31st May. Further information regarding the booking system in SOBs will be forth coming. If you cannot attend at this time, please consider making contact with staff to discuss the progress of your student.

Donna Potter

New Staff – Mr Ben Muller

Ben Muller is the new Deputy Principal at St George SHS and comes to us from the Moreton Bay region. Ben is a former PE teacher and has been teaching for the past 18 years at various locations around Queensland and abroad including Tannum Sands, the Redcliffe Peninsula and even a small stint in England. More recently, Ben has been working as a Head of Department for an alternative flexible learning program for the last 5 years in the Redcliffe district.

Ben is a very family orientated man and comes to St George with his wife and three boys aged 7, 6 and 4. He and his family love the outdoors, sports and caravanning and they are looking forward to exploring the St George greater region as much as possible. Ben is also very community minded and hopes to get involved in the community as much as possible. His other interests outside of his family include Seinfeld, playing or watching sport and is a massive supporter of the mighty Brisbane Broncos!!

From Deputy Principal Junior School

Term 2 has started extremely well. I have been given the exciting opportunity to work in the junior school for the next few years.

This is a job I am already enjoying. I am keen to work with students and families to ensure best outcomes for every child. It has been wonderful getting to know the year 7s and they are a lovely group of students.

A part of my role will be working with local primary schools to assist students transition to high school, whether at St George or away. Mrs Laura Sheriff has already made connections with these schools to improve our transition process to start earlier.

Year 9 students are in 3 classes this year, this means smaller groups. There has been some wonderful work happening in classes. Some students are struggling with engaging and need to ask for help if they need it. Please have a chat to your student and check in with how they are feeling with all classes. If they are struggling and don't feel confident in asking for help remind them of homework club.

Overall, I am looking forward to this new adventure.

Deb Addison

From HOD Agriculture

In the last week of term one, 8 of our students attending the first Blue Light Shearing camp for the year at ‘Dunwold’ Dirranbandi along with students from Charleville, Tara and Mitchell Schools. The students worked exceptionally hard and displayed excellent teamwork, behaviour and leadership throughout the week. Our students will once again be making a TV appearance as we had an SBS film crew filming the students throughout the week for their new series titled ‘Our Law’. The series focusses on the positive impact that programs like Blue Light shearing have on Youth in rural communities. Stay tuned for further information regarding our student’s TV appearance!

The Ag Plot now has a fancy new addition with the school receiving an IFarm. The IFarm is a fully automated interactive agriculture research station, which can be used to conduct plant trials, collect data and support the investigation of plant science within our curriculum. We are one of only five schools in Queensland to receive an IFarm. This project is supported by funding from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry as part of the ‘Educating Kids About Agriculture: IFarm Program’. Each IFarm is valued at $60 000 and includes the following features:

• 8 x 1 meter squared garden beds
• Subsurface drip irrigation system that can be individually programmed
• Surface level spray Irrigation that can be modified for desired purpose
• Wind Turbine and Solar Panel for generation of power
• Weather station
• Touch screen control centre
• Moisture, pH, Temperature, sensor probes
• Worm Farm
• Perspex viewing panels to observe root growth

The Ag students and teachers are very excited to work with this amazing piece of technology to further support the Agriculture Curriculum at St George State High School. A video showing the IFarm can be found at the following link:

A group of year 10-12 students attended the ‘Seeds to Crop’ Career Taster Day where students travelled around to four different local agricultural sites where students were able to explore a range of agricultural careers within the St George community. The students visited Saunders Farming, Moonrocks, Beardmore Cotton Gin and Riversands Winery. The day was hosted by Department of Employment, Small Business and Training and was a beneficial day for all involved. Thank you to the local businesses for taking time out of their busy schedules to host our students.

The Agriculture Department is taking part in the Interschool Merino Wether Pilot competition, where students will feed and look after 5 merino wethers, that will be taken to EKKA later this year. Part of this program includes a wool and carcass assessment masterclass later this term, as well as Merino Education clinics whilst at EKKA. This program is coordinated by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and provides an excellent opportunity for students to learn more about livestock nutrition, wool handling and judging, carcass assessment and the dual purpose of Merino sheep.

Cotton Australia has released a video featuring our year 9 students on the cotton excursions they attended last term as part of their Cotton Production unit. These excursions to local cotton farms really helped to further develop their knowledge and understanding of the cotton growing process. Thank you to Sally Rigney for her work in producing the video and helping with organisation of the excursions. The video can be viewed from the following link:

The Show Team will be attending the St George Show this Sunday 30th April with the school cattle. The students have been working very hard with the new cattle purchased earlier this year and are excited to show off their hard work with weekend. It would be great to see as much support as possible for these students if you are able to stop by the Cattle sheds.

Kind Regards,
Miss Caitlin Crowe

From Senior HOD Secondary

Meet & Greet: St George SHS alongside the P&C are eager to host a "Meet the Teacher BBQ" on May 5th at 4:30pm to support positive and professional relationships, and give everyone a chance to get to know each other. The event will be held on the school grounds and is open to all students and their families. The BBQ will be provided and it is a BYO event. This event hopes to provide a platform for open communication and collaboration, which is beneficial for a successful school experience.

Army Helicopter: On Monday, our senior students were lucky enough to see an army helicopter in action, landing at the hospital site. Our Yr10-12 students spoke of their newfound appreciation for the dedication and sacrifice of the men and women in our armed forces. Witnessing technology and skill that goes into creating and piloting these machines was an experience to remember.

Careers Expo: The 2023 Career Expo will be held on Wednesday May 10th May during Period 1 and Period 2. The Career Expo is an excellent opportunity to bring employers, industry, education providers, students, those looking to upskill or reskill together to showcase employment and pathway opportunities available in the region. Students will have the opportunity to discover a wide range of study, career and employment opportunities that exist in the Balonne. Students can also speak directly to the Universities, Training Organisations, support services about courses, career pathways and study options.

Jessica Embrey

From Junior HOD Secondary

We have had a great start to the term in the junior school.

Students have settled back into their learning spaces and are enjoying new topics in all subjects.

It is wonderful to see students and staff positively engaging in all activities.

Year 7s are now in their second term of high school, and it is great to see them enjoying school life, as well as new elective subjects.

Year 8 students have also changed elective subjects this term, allowing them to further develop their skills and interests for the future.

Students are working hard to set learning goals and reflect on what they achieved in Term One, allowing them to better prepare for the term ahead.

I look forward to working with students to focus on their strengths and celebrate their accomplishments.

As we are in a new term, it is always a good idea to check in with your child in regard to their school equipment and what they need.

We want all students to be prepared for learning, so making sure they have all equipment at school for their appropriate subjects is recommended.

Laura Sherriff

From Senior YLC

Welcome back to school for Term 2! There are a few exciting events coming up to look out for. Student council will be running a Mother’s Day Stall in Week 4 selling cards and small gifts for Mother’s Day on Sunday the 14th May. Towards the end of the term, we will also be running a Jeans, Jumper and Jersey Day to raise funds for projects around the school. This was highlighted as one of the areas that students would like to see improved.

Jacob Hiles will also be facilitating the Push Up Challenge in June in which each morning students will gather together to complete push ups in weeks 7-10. Our goal will be to complete 3,144 push ups as a school to raise awareness for mental health. We will be looking at raising money for this charity so stay tuned on how to contribute.

In addition to this, student council would like to run the Pony Tail Project. This is an event to help raise awareness and funds for the Cancer Council, in which anyone can donate their hair to be made into wigs for those living with cancer. We are in the process of seeing if there are students interested in donating their hair towards the end of October. If you are interested, please let a student council member or me know – if we have enough interest, we will run this as an event during Term 4!

A reminder to year 10s, 11s and 12s that the Career Expo is coming up on Wednesday the 10th of May which will be a fantastic day down at the Hub where students will be able to check out stalls and talk to professionals in a number of career pathways. Additionally, Tertiary Tour will occur in July for year 11s and 12s so start thinking if this would be something you are interested in attending!

Finally, the Year 11 jerseys designs will be released later this term to be voted on and ordered ready for their senior year next year. If you are in year 11 and are wanting to purchase a jersey, please start thinking about putting a little bit of money aside ready to place your order. I am hoping to have these ordered and paid for by the very beginning of term 3!

Have a lovely term 2!

Vanessa Beavan

From Junior YLC

I am excited to be the new Junior Year Level Coordinator for the remainder of this year.

For those of you who are new to our school community, this is my second year at St George, and I am soon approaching a decade of service with the Department of Education. Predominantly, I teach English, with 1 Geography class – across nearly all year levels. In my spare time, I love to play golf, spend time with my family and watch the odd game of AFL.

A key part of my role is to contribute to our positive school culture through our Gundi Group competitions, and other school activities. Additionally, I will also work with the students to celebrate success across all areas of school.

Additionally, I will be helping to support student wellbeing. If students are not feeling themselves or just want someone to talk to, I will be available throughout the day in G-Block staffroom and will be out and about during lunch breaks.

Parents and carers, you can also contact me via the school (07) 4620 8222 or email jjsyn0@eq.edu.au with any questions you may have.

Thank you!
Mr. Synot

School News

Year 7a Science - 7A have been conducting experiments in science this term. The volcano experiment with vinegar & bicarbonate of soda is shown in these photos. No one predicted that the hydrogen test demonstration would make a sound. The loud POP surprised everyone and their reactions entertained Mrs Acton.

Year 8 Health - The year 8 students were spoken to by Sam Davis in their first Health lesson of term 2 about the cultural and historical significance of traditional games from the Indigenous culture. Students were then able to participate in some of the Yulunga traditional games and learn about their history and language.

April McLaren

Early Childhood Studies - Early Childhood Studies Class visited Balonne Kindergarten preparing resources for ANZAC activities, completing an outdoor area safety checklist & creating a fun & safe obstacle course for the children to enjoy.

Lucille Acton

Past Student Spotlight
Dr Andrea Crampton

Dr. Andrea Crampton
SGSHS Class of 1990

To start, how others might end (occupational habit perhaps, communicating the more relevant information before my students fall asleep), life is easier, more fun, and much more rewarding when you can make choices. The capacity to make choices and explore the places outside the box of others' expectations requires not only education but, perhaps more importantly, an understanding of how you learn and apply those skills when you want to.

Having spent 9 years at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, some may say I overdid the education. However, I did graduate with a PhD in microbiology and parasitology (ticks, fleas, worms), and it gave me time to interact with a wide range of people. I focused on parasites because, unlike the big animals we read about going extinct every other week, the parasites, the "little guys", create new variants just after humans have spent millions of dollars trying to kill them. I like their attitude and wanted to know more; I also want to learn about molecular biology and DNA analysis to have a skill set I could apply beyond parasites.

After Brisbane, I found myself knee-deep in snow in Blacksburg, VA, USA as a postdoctoral researcher at Virginia Tech working on malaria in a lab partially funded by the U S Army. This was fun work involving dissecting mosquitoes analysing gene expression, and looking at how their immune systems responded to the malaria parasite (Plasmodium spp.). We found that the genes activated in mosquitoes were the same as some of those activated in humans when infected with the same parasite; therefore, despite the big differences between humans and mosquitoes, the first responses to the same single-cell organism are very similar. During this project, I got to travel to villages in Kenya, Africa, with U.S. Army researchers and suck, via a plastic tube, mosquitoes off the wall of mud huts and insect screens, much to the amusement of the village elders. We also got a private tour of a game reserve which meant being meters from a pride of lions, water buffalos and rhinoceros or which I momentarily forgot as I walked several metres to take photos of a lake of flamingos

Three years later, I returned to Australia to work as a research officer at Queensland University of Technology on a forensics project to identify genetic markers for human facial characteristics so it would be possible to predict what someone looked like from a sample of their DNA. I next moved on to another parasite-focused position as a senior research officer at the University of New England, working on an Australian wool innovation project targeting sheep parasites. It was rewarding to apply scientific research to real-world scenarios in consultation with people whose families had worked the farms for many generations and taught me much. I'm not sure I miss directly extracting faecal matter from thousands of sheep or the nerves associated with handling rams worth more than my car. My next move was to Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, which allowed me to be close to my grandmothers and apply various skills to different roles at the university.

The roles have varied from lab manager to an international award-winning lecturer of forensics, Sub Dean Learning and Teaching in two different faculties, Associate Head of School Biomedical Science and now a more low-key role of Senior Lecturer microbiology. I've enjoyed working with a wide range of people in these roles. In many ways, following the school motto, "Together We Achieve", has been an important part of ensuring I could enjoy the opportunities as I learned a lot from other people and focusing on a project rather than future promotions helped build rewarding networks and enhance job satisfaction.

Today, I teach microbiology, parasitology, research skills and science communication online and occasionally in lecture theatre or laboratory. I supervise honours, PhD and Masters students from around Australia and sometimes further afield. I have co-authored several publications (the first of which my grandmother put on the fridge next to my cousin's finger paintings), which can be found on Google scholar If you’re having trouble sleeping.

Andrea Crampton PhD
Senior Lecturer Microbiology
School of Dentistry and Medical Science
Charles Sturt University

Please email admin@stgeorgeshs.eq.edu.au with past student’s stories and images – attention Nichole Taylor. If you would like to be added to the newsletter list (comes out fortnightly) please email to request this as well.

School Calendar

Getting To Know…….......Mr Pitcher

Annette McLean – Guidance Officer

I am now based at St George State High School on a full- time basis. I work closely with the Leadership Team, Student Support Team, Community Education Counsellor, Youth Support Coordinator and School Based Youth Health Nurse to support the needs of students and staff. I confer regularly with my Line Manager - our Senior Guidance Officer Annette Woodrow.

Guidance officers External link  ( (GOs) contribute to the development of a comprehensive student support and wellbeing programs At St George State High School some of these include the Wellbeing in Schools program- students can access fortnightly support from a Psychologist. I also support the GP in schools’ program with referral to the GPs. I build connections within the community to support both students and families, engaging the support of community services.

Support provided by guidance officers includes advice and counselling on educational, behavioural, vocational, personal, social, family, and mental health and wellbeing issues.

Psychoeducational assessments and  career development External link  also form an important part of the work GOs undertake to enhance positive educational outcomes and career pathways for all students.

In addition, GOs are able to provide training and support to staff in order to build their understanding and capability about how best to support students' mental health and wellbeing.

Guidance officers provide leadership, support and case management in responding to some of the most complex and challenging of circumstances, including student protection matters, critical incidents, mental health issues, and suicide prevention and postvention support.

For information about the role of guidance officers, contact a senior guidance officer via the  regional office External link .

For any further information or if you would like to discuss the needs of your young person, please feel welcome to contact me at school.

Annette McLean

School GP News

Autumn is upon us and that means we are coming up to flu season. The “flu” (influenza) is not just a cold. It is usually more severe and people can get very sick from this, sometimes needing to be admitted to hospital. It can affect anyone at any age, with some young people even becoming very unwell from this.

There are multiple places where you can get a flu vaccine. Pharmacies and medical centres (including the St George Medical Centre and Goondir) are all able to provide flu vaccines.

A flu vaccine is recommended for everyone over 6 months old, and strongly recommended for certain groups for whom the flu vaccine will not cost anything. These include people who have lung conditions like asthma or other chronic diseases such as diabetes. It is also strongly recommended for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, very young people and elderly people.

It is safe to have a flu vaccine at the same time as a covid vaccine. These are also available from health providers.

The best way to protect yourself against getting the flu is to have a flu vaccine, to help your body and to help protect other people around you who might be more vulnerable to getting sick. It is also important to practice good hygiene including washing hands very well, covering your mouth if you have a cough and minimising spread if sick (which can include staying home, social distancing and wearing a mask).

Dr Karen Benn & Dr Ben Brimblecombe

Sport

Rugby League – On the last week of school Term 1 the 11-12 Rugby League trials took place at Rowden Park for the selection of the Balonne team. The Balonne team has then trialled at Roma for the South West team earlier this week. Well done to the High School students who were selected in the Balonne team being:- Izaiah Weatherall, Rhyder Hooper , Riley Robertson , Cameron Hams and Keeanna Saunders. Congratulations to Rhyder and Keeanna who were selected in the South West team and will now travel to Gladstone to State trials.

State Netball – Good luck to Kelsey Weribone, Emalie Hams and Bella Cubby who are attending State Netball trials this week in Brisbane.

Cross Country - What a great day it was for Cross Country and sports games last Friday! Throw in a free BBQ and Zooper Doopers and you could say it was a fantastic day to be at school!

Individual Cross Country Championship Trophies 2023

St George SHS Overall Points Winner: -

1st Leichhardt 119 points
2nd Nixon 87 points
3rd Mitchell 49 points

Sports Calendar

P&C News

Wow, what a busy month the P&C have had. We started the month catering for the Balonne Branch Australian Stock Horse Society Camp draft over the Easter weekend - catering for many hungry horseman and community members. A huge thank-you must go to Candice Cross & all her helpers for the mammoth effort made over the weekend. And if that wasn't enough, the P&C backed up by catering for the Oasis Music Afternoon on the last Thursday of the school holidays. It was a great evening along the banks of the mighty Balonne, listening to some beautiful music.

In other news, the P&C have been very fortunate to be successful in applying for some grant funds to help support our tuckshop with new equipment and the library with new books. Thank-you to Ruth Beeson for compiling a very last minute application.

Finally, the P&C would like to extend an invitation to all new, existing & prospective school and community members to join us for a 'Meet & Greet' afternoon on Friday, 5th May from 4.30pm at the High School Rec Centre. This is the perfect opportunity to meet the new & existing staff members, as well as join the P&C for a free BBQ. Principal McKenna has also extended the invitation for anyone wishing to bring along a beer, bubbles or your choice of beverage and have a chat while enjoying the cooler change in the weather.

Please contact Candice Cross if you are able to assist with the BBQ at the Meet & Greet afternoon.

Looking forward to seeing everyone there,

Regards
Bec Halliday
Secretary

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