26 May 2023

Newsletter Articles

From The Principal

Dear Students, Parents, and Guardians,

We hope this newsletter finds you well as we reach the halfway mark of Term 2. It has been an exciting time at our school with several noteworthy developments and achievements to share. Here are some of the highlights:

Construction Update:

We are delighted to inform you that the construction projects on campus are on track for completion this year. These improvements will enhance our learning environment and provide our students with modern facilities to thrive in their academic pursuits. We appreciate your patience during this period of renovation.

Celebrating Student Success:

I have noticed the immense pride in the community relating to the achievements of our students. We have been sharing as many of these success stories as possible on our Facebook page. For those without access to Facebook, you can find the updates on student accomplishments through our school's website. We commend the students for their dedication and hard work, and we encourage everyone to celebrate their achievements.

School Website Updates:

We are continuously updating our school website to provide you with the latest information and resources. However, we want to acknowledge that due to potential changes in curriculum, policies, and other aspects of our school's operations, there may be some information gaps. Rest assured, we are diligently working to fill these holes and ensure that all necessary updates are reflected on the website. By 2024, we aim to have a comprehensive and up-to-date online platform for our school community.

Stay Informed:

To keep up with the latest news and updates, we encourage you to regularly visit our school website. It serves as a valuable resource for announcements, event calendars, curriculum details, and much more. We also encourage you to follow us on Facebook if you have access to the platform, as it provides an interactive space for sharing student achievements and school-related information.

Thank you for your continued support and understanding as we navigate through these exciting developments. We are committed to providing the best educational experience for our students and fostering a strong partnership with our school community. Should you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to our administrative team.

Wishing you a successful and productive second half of Term 2!

Yours in education,

Thomas J. McKenna
Principal

From Deputy Principal

Parent Teacher Interviews

On Wednesday 31 May 2023, we have our Parent/ Teacher Evening. This is a very important event for us at St George State High School as we put significant value on the partnerships between parents, staff and students, and its importance in ensuring success for our students. We wish to strongly encourage you to please make use of this opportunity to come and discuss the progress of your students with our staff. Bookings for Parent/Teacher interviews are now open on SOBS:

Bookings for interviews will close at 6pm on 30 May 2023.

For all instruction on using SOBS to book a parent teacher interview, please follow this link:

If you are experiencing challenges around the SOBS process, then please feel free to contact the office and we will support you in making the bookings you require. If you cannot attend at this time, please consider making contact with staff to discuss the progress of your student.

From Deputy Principal Senior School

School-Based Apprenticeships and Traineeships

The School-Based Apprenticeships and Traineeships Policy aims to provide students with valuable opportunities to combine their secondary education with practical work experience in specific industries. This policy supports students in gaining industry-specific skills, increasing their employability, and exploring potential career pathways.

St George SHS is actively reviewing all policies and procedures following the School Review to ensure compliance with department of education legislation. As part of this review, the School-Based Traineeship/Apprenticeship program has been identified as an area requiring attention. The school will be reaching out to individual parents and employers to keep them informed of any updates regarding their students.

In order to participate in a new traineeship or apprenticeship, students will need to meet specific requirements both before and during their placement. These requirements will include meeting academic and attendance criteria. Each placement will be assessed on a case-by-case basis, with final approval granted by the principal. The school acknowledges the value of these placements for students and the local community, and therefore, will continue to support the program. However, there will be a renewed emphasis on education and QCE attainment, aligning with the policy guidelines.

Once the overall process has been developed, it will be shared with the entire school community, ensuring transparency and inclusivity in the decision-making process. By reviewing and refining the School-Based Traineeship/Apprenticeship program, St George SHS aims to uphold educational standards and provide enhanced opportunities for students while fostering a strong relationship with the local community.

Ben Muller

From Deputy Principal Junior School

Over halfway through the term, time is flying past, and assessment has been hitting the students. Some classes have had one piece already, with another to go later in the term, others have one that they are working on now.

Assessment is an integral part of your child's educational journey, serving as a means to gauge their progress, identify areas of improvement, and provide targeted support. In the junior school, we utilise various assessment strategies to gain a comprehensive understanding of your child's skills and knowledge.

The school encourages you to maintain open communication with your child's teachers regarding assessment results. This collaboration enables us to work together to support your child's growth and identify any areas where additional assistance may be required. I know that teachers are contacting home via phone, email and/or text to keep you updated. If these have changed, please ensure you update this information with the school office. You can email admin@stgeorgeshs.eq.edu.au to give any new details.

Thank you for your continued support in assisting your student/s growth at the school. We are looking forward to seeing you on Wednesday night. For any questions or concerns you may have regarding your Junior Secondary students please email me at daddi4@eq.edu.au or call 4620 8222.

Deb Addison

From HOD Senior Secondary

Senior Subject Selection

On Wednesday 24/05/23, Year 10 students began the process of learning about senior subjects and the senior curriculum. Year 10s were introduced to the senior subjects that we can offer and key terminology, for example, the difference between "General" and "Applied" subjects.

Families of Year 10 students, over the following week, please read through the subjects with your student at home, as they have received a pack of information regarding this process. This is an important and valuable process, as next Wednesday (31/05), students will have the opportunity to vote (anonymously and digitally) on the six subjects they would be most interested in. Subjects will be offered based on student demand from this voting process.

Please also read the pre-requisites for these subjects, outlined in the subject information pack provided.

Please visit the QCAA website for more information on senior subjects.

If there are subjects available on QCAA that are not offered in 2024, most other subjects can also be offered via Distance Education.

Year 10 Subject Information night and Year 10 SET Planning are also currently being organised, and information about these evenings will be provided shortly.

Please contact us if you would like any further information:

Miss Jessica Embrey jembr14@eq.edu.au or Mr Ben Muller bmull68@eq.edu.au

Jess Embrey

From HOD Junior Secondary

We had another great week in the junior school! Students have been engaging in a range of fun activities during their lunch breaks, with lots of positive encouragement from peers.

It is wonderful to see students enjoying a variety of games and activities, allowing them to positively interact with peers across multiple year levels.

Students are working hard coming into assessment time, with multiple opportunities to show what they know. It is extremely important that students keep attending every day, to ensure they are not missing important content, or revision leading into assessment time. As always, students can attend homework club on Monday and Thursday afternoon. If students have concerns about completing assessment due to absences or other commitments, please ensure you contact teachers in regard to this.

Laura Sherriff

From HOD Agriculture

As we pass the halfway point of Term 2, students and staff have been continuing to work hard both in and out of the classroom.

The Show Team students are busily preparing to head away to Farm Fest in Toowoomba from the 5 – 8 June to compete in cattle parading and judging competitions. The students have been dedicating their time during lunch time and after school to work with the livestock to ensure they are prepared for the show ring. If any community members are attending Farm Fest, we would love some local support! Main events for our students occur on Tuesday 6 June and Thursday 8 June.

Students have been enjoying beginning to play with the IFarm technology and explore its capabilities. Junior Ag students have been observing and measuring root growth that can be seen through the Perspex sides, in particular they have enjoyed seeing the growth cycle of carrots. Senior students have been learning how to set irrigation schedules using the touch screen control centre and monitor soil moisture using subsurface sensors.

Last week, a group of 12 Agriculture teachers from across the southeast region visited St George State High school as part of the Agriculture, Water and Environment Collaboration. The group were given a tour of the school Ag plot and were impressed by the scale and range of opportunities available to our students. The group also travelled out to MoonRocks where they learnt more about production and management of horticultural products. Thank you to the MoonRocks team for taking the time to share your knowledge with us. Mrs Killen, Mr McKenna and I thoroughly enjoyed being able to collaborate with other passionate educators to improve agriculture education programs.

The birth of a new Droughtmaster calf by the student's favourite cow Mary and bull Dynamite Dave was an exciting new addition to the Ag plot family. The little bull calf will be trained as a lead steer for next year's show season.

School Subject News

Chemistry –

As part of their assessment, the Year 12 chemistry students must refine, extend or redirect an experiment they have conducted in the classroom. Jack Coltzau is investigating the electrolysis of copper electrodes.

When a voltage is applied, the positive electrode is oxidised, causing its mass to decrease and the copper(II) ions in the blue solution are reduced to copper, causing the negative electrode to increase in mass. According to Faraday’s First Law of Electrolysis, the change in mass is directly proportional to varying the current and the time over which it is applied.

By collecting lots of data and graphing it, Jack is hoping to confirm that this is true. Keep your ION the prize, Jack – we don’t want any oxidants to happen.

Karen McKechnie

Early Childhood Studies –

Year 11-12 Early Childhood Studies students were invited to accompany Balonne Kindergarten students at St George Community's Under 5s Day at St Patrick's School on Wednesday 17th May. Kindy & high school students all enjoyed the activities, sausage sizzle & helium balloons.

Lucille Acton

HPE –

Go for Gold Success!

The St George SHS HPE department has been a successful applicant in receiving a $5000 Go for Gold grant fund for 2023. Round 1 of the funding focused on providing sporting equipment that encourages active play and increases participation in sports, resulting in the more effective use of existing infrastructure.

This funding has already been used to purchase new heart rate monitors for students in years 9-12 who complete fitness units that require heart rate monitoring. The funding has also been used to buy new sports equipment such as badminton racquets, fitness equipment, pop-up goals and sporting bibs.

Round 2 of the Go for Gold initiative aims to enhance and build new sports infrastructure in schools for students and local communities across Queensland to encourage greater participation in sport and to increase active pathways in communities that may experience lower student participation rates in sport. The HPE department plans to apply for this grant also to build new shade structures, resurface existing playing surfaces and to build an athletics track and field facility.

April McLaren

Guidance Officer

Upcoming parent webinar: Online relationships and consent

Did you know eSafety research found 7 in 10 young people aged 14-17 have seen sexual images online and 1 in 5 have been asked by someone on the internet to send sexual pictures of themselves?

As parents and caregivers, it's essential to support young people in developing skills that protect their privacy and boundaries online. Learn how you can help build these skills at our upcoming webinar, Online Relationships and Consent: sending nudes and sexting . The webinar covers how to recognise and respond to requests for sexual images, set boundaries and report incidents if they occur.

Remember to reassure young people that it is never their fault if a nude is shared without their consent, and adults can help report and get images removed. Find out how we can help at eSafety.gov.au .

When should you start talking about online safety?

Introducing online safety to children at an early age is essential. Even before they access devices, children learn about tech from parents, carers and other adults in their community.

eSafety's picture book, Swoosh, Glide and Rule Number 5 , helps families explore children's everyday technology experiences and highlights safe online practices. The book follows the adventures of a fun family sleepover for Swoosh and Glide with their sugar glider cousins. Use this book to start the conversation about online safety with your children.

Past Student Spotlight
Dr Ben Brimblecombe

(Ben graduated in 2006 – School Captain and Senior Dux)

I grew up in St George and enjoyed so many things about living in the country. One of these was doing school at St George State High, which was a great experience and I still feel privileged to have done school out here.

After school I went to Brisbane to study at UQ doing a Bachelor of Science as I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do. I then went on to do an honours year looking at some environmental microscopic organisms called testate amoebae (which make tiny shells around themselves – pretty amazing). During this period I decided to do medicine and continued on at UQ to study my Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery, completing this in 2014. The first two years of this I studied in Brisbane, but then I was able to do the final two years in Toowoomba at the Rural Clinical School there which was wonderful, to have a smaller more personalised environment for study. I would encourage anyone studying medicine to consider rural clinical school placements (most medical schools have these). During medical school I was fortunate to see a bit of the country during some placements, including the Kimberley in Western Australia for a month. After graduation I stayed working at the Toowoomba Hospital for 3 years, with the final year of that period doing a job based in the Emergency Department. Then I was keen to go more rurally and lived and worked up in Theodore in Central Queensland for a year working as both a trainee GP and a hospital based doctor. After that I was fortunate enough to be offered a job back here in St George at the St George Medical Centre, and I have been here for nearly five years now. It is a real privilege to be working as a doctor in my hometown and I have appreciated how gracious everyone has been at seeing me as a GP. It has been great helping to staff the high school GP clinic, which I do every Thursday morning now during term time. Talk about coming full circle!

Dr Ben Brimblecombe

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
School Nurse Mrs Chew

Sport

Sports Calendar

Rugby League State Titles

The boys from the bush headed to Townsville this week with the South West Rugby League teams. The 14-15 years SW Team included Tyerell Lacey, Riley Tattam, Christopher Neven and Cohan Neven. The 16-18 years included Nate Davis, Amdes Saunders, Dom Walters, Shontayne Prince and Jacob Hiles. The boys enjoyed the experience and Nate and Christopher were also awarded players of their match.

Cross Country South West Trials

Good luck to Josie Small, Eli Champion, Jack Kirby and Danii-Elle Mellifont who will be competing at the South West Cross Country trials in Wandoan on Monday.

Vicki Wilson Netball

Good luck to the junior and senior netball teams competing in Toowoomba next week at the Vicki Wilson Competition. School fees to be paid and $54 for netball trip by Monday.

Community Notices

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