29 March 2018

Newsletter Articles

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Term 1 has been very productive and our students and staff have recently completed assessments to gauge the learning of students. Teachers have been very busy completing marking and reports, which will be distributed in Week 1 of Term 2.

A reminder to all students and families, the school will recommence for all students on Tuesday 17th April, with Monday being a Pupil Free Day related to Commonwealth Games.

Recently Mackay State High was announced as one of three local school to commence the Advancing Clean Energy Schools program enhancing the clean energy initiatives in Queensland schools to cover power costings. Assigned contractors will assess our school, as part of the ACES program, for energy savings, including installation of Solar panels on roofing areas at our school. We are very keen to be involved due to the environmentally friendly initiatives being excellent modelling in our community, while also contributing to the large costs of power in a school this size.

On 21st March, our school recognised and celebrated Harmony Day. The theme for the day in 2018 is “Everyone Belongs”. Our school is a great example of the successful acceptance and encouragement of growing our community together, using the positive influences of all of the different backgrounds, students and staff, from which we come, A display from one class, showed the countries of origin of the students’ families and had 16 flags.

Congratulations to Izi Uluiviti, who travelled to Brisbane recently for final rehearsals and testing, as we were advised late in Week 9 of his success to be selected as one of only four Feature Vocalists in Creative Generation - State Schools Onstage 2018 to be staged at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, South Bank for four performances on Friday 13 and Saturday 14 July 2018. Over 1000 students nominate for the positions and this makes Isi’s achievement so outstanding.

Parents of students who are heavily involved in school sports are encouraged to check the site Aspiration 4 Kids in Sport, where there is financial assistance offered for families. Support is available for a range of costs and families should apply for this support.

In recent weeks we have had a couple of resignations from staff from their roles. Dave Warrell, our Facilities Officer, has finished up and his position has been advertised. Catriona McGuire also advised that after several years overseeing the students with English as an Additional Language/Dialect (EALD) and advising staff around strategies, that she is finishing at the end of Term 1. Karen Bayliss is retiring at end of Term 1 from her Administrative role as Attendance Officer and prior in the Office after nearly 20 years of service to students and staff. Catriona, Karen and Dave have given outstanding service to our students, staff and school community and their efforts are greatly appreciated. They will be sadly missed and present a challenge to replace their roles

In closing comments for Term 1, I advise that I will be taking 4 weeks of Long Service Leave at the start of Term 2 and Donna Drinkwater will replace me as A/Principal for this period, with Roxanne Aprile as A/Deputy Principal in her role. I wish everyone a Happy Easter and safe and relaxing holiday for staff, students and families.

Mr Steve Paulger
Principal

ARTICLE: FROM THE DESK OF A DEPUTY

Mackay State High School Term 1 Report Cards

Some important dates around our Term 1 Reporting for students in Years 7 – 12:

• Tuesday 17th April – Reports emailed to parents / handed to those without email addresses to take home. Instructions for booking interviews handed to students to take home.
• Tuesday 17th April, 4.00 pm – online environment opens for parents and carers to make Teacher Interview bookings.

• Tuesday 24th April, midday – online environment closes for making interviews.
• Tuesday 24th April, 3.30pm – 7.30pm – Parent / Teacher Evening in Mackay SHS Hall

The purpose of our interim reports is to:

• invite parents to participate in the upcoming Teacher Interview evening
• provide parents with a summary of their student’s progress for the year-to-date
• provide school based Achievement Data for analysis.

Uniform

• The weather is starting to cool down. Students may choose to wear:

• the school tracksuit (only available from the uniform shop) or a plain navy or maroon tracksuit. This item is not to include any form of hood.

• Students in the Senior years may wear their Senior jersey, ordered through the school.

Girls may wear plain flesh coloured stockings.

Tania Cheers
Deputy Principal

JUNIOR SECONDARY NEWS

General News

Dodgeball is off to a start again this year. We've only played 2 games so far, but the spirit is fantastic. See some pictures below.

It's good to see the attendance levels of the Junior school so high. Our target is 90% attendance or better (for each year level as a whole). Even at 90%, this equates to 1 day per fortnight off school, or 20 days per year. Adults are only awarded a maximum of 10 days per year sick leave. Obviously some students are having many more than 20 days per year away, as many students don't miss a day.

'I'll just have today off" is no excuse!!

Student News

Junior Secondary leaders have just been announced. 20 students applied and all were seen to be quality candidates. The school has decided to limit the number to 14. In choosing our leaders, all applicants wrote an application and were interviewed. We looked at each students strengths and chose a balance to allocate to the role of Junior Secondary leader or student council member. Both Junior Secondary Leader and Student Council representative drive school improvement. Each receives a badge of office, and both groups work side by side to help drive improvement in the school culture from a student led perspective. The 6 unsuccessful candidates have been invited to be student council members.

All students involved will be part of an ongoing training program in leadership and teamwork, to help build capacity within the school. Our next challenge is to find more boys to step up to the role and be seen.

Our 2018 Leaders are:

Grace Clarkson
Chelsea Bycroft
Amber-Lee Davidson
Abbie-Jane Whibley
Isabella Bugeja
Graciella Davidson
Charley Lee
Holly Edwards
Sarah-Jane Ryan
Tia Harlow
Savahna Byrd
Taylor Goodhew
Nina Boys
Benica Solicar

I hope to see double the number of applicants in 2019 so we can provide even more opportunities for student led school development.

What's On Soon

NAPLAN letters were sent home recently informing parents of year 7 and 9 student of the upcoming NAPLAN dates and structure. If you do not want your child to sit NAPLAN, there are instructions on the letter.

Good News Stories

Mr Patti's year 9 Music class smashed their composition (music writing) assessment and performance. 90% of the students are sitting on A standards. He is very proud of their hard work and dedication toward success.

Again from Mr Patti. He has some high flying photographers in his year 8 media class. They have just submitted some outstanding fill stills they have created.

Here is an example of their work

Thought of the Newsletter

Have a great holiday and recharge your batteries. Stay safe!

Matt Skinner
HOD Junior Secondary

SENIOR SCHOOLING NEWS

This is a great opportunity for any female students in Years 10, 11 and 12 who are interested in doing a trade after finishing school. Numbers are limited so any interested students need to give their name to Annamaria Esau in E6 as soon as possible.

Annamaria Esau
Senior Phase Officer
49579152

SPORTS REPORT

Term One has been extremely busy to say the least. There have been a total of 17 Mackay District School Sport trials for the 13-19 age group. Many of our students that have represented the school were selected to be a representative of our sports district at the Capricornia trials. This is a fantastic representation for Mackay State High School and highlights the sporting talent at this wonderful school. I believe that a round of congratulations should be given to the following students for their chosen sports.

Coles Sports For School Vouchers, A MASSIVE THANK YOU to all of the wonderful people that have been supporting our school by donatin

g your vouchers. Please keep on collecting as many vouchers as you possibly can. This incentive concludes on the 7th April. Hold on your vouchers until term two or please drop off to Coles at Parkside Plaza where regular collections will take place during the holidays.

Cross Country news will be outlined in the first newsletter in Term 2. The HPE staff would like to wish everyone a safe Easter holiday break.

BUSINESS EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY

Equity Laptop Program

Equity applications received after week eight of this term, up until week three of term two will be processed in week four, term two. Students who required a device prior to this meeting are to see Head of Department, Kylie Stanger to discuss their needs.

Parents and guardians of students who have already applied and are pending a payment plan are reminded that a payment plan must be set up through CentrePay or BPoint. Details of these payment options can be found out through the school office.

Equity application packs can be collected from ICT Services in P Block and will be accepted at any time but only processed in week four of each term unless exceptional circumstances arise. These packs also contain the details of interest free loan schemes and support agencies that may be able to assist parents obtaining a personal device for their child.

BYOx Program

With 75% of the school now onboarded we encourage parents and students to continue to have their devices connected. There are many digital resources available for students that could be accessed from home as well as school. If you are looking for a device to purchase for your student there is a selection of devices on our school Dell and Acer portals. These devices are guaranteed to meet our school’s specifications and will ensure that your child is set up with the right device for their education needs.

Software is available for free for students through Microsoft. Students are able to download up to five copies of the Microsoft Office 2016 suit. Adobe Packages will be available for $25 through the school office.

Students and parents with questions about our BYOx Program are welcome to contact ICT Services.

Sphero Program

Term two will see the commencement of our Sphero Program. Sphero’s are little robots that are able to be programmed through an android device. The aim of the program is to give coding skills to students in the junior school. Coding does not only involve the programming language but also encourages creativity, problem solving and communication, which are all highly valued skills for our 21st Century Learners. Students who have not yet returned their note to Miss Stanger are encouraged to get them in as soon as possible so that they can be added to the online environment.

OneNote Class Notebooks

All students in the Business Education and Technology curriculum areas are using OneNote Class Notebooks. These notebooks are available to students at school and at home. Students simply need to log in to the MIS Gateway (mis.eq.edu.au) and go to OneNote. Alternatively, students will have an email from their teacher or Head of Department with a link that they can open. Students can then open this online environment into their OneNote on their device to reduce the number of steps required to access the environment. Students who are unsure how to do this can see Miss Stanger or ICT Services.

From all of the ICT Services team, we wish you all a safe and happy Easter break and look forward to working with you next term.

Kylie Stanger
A/Head of Department Business Education and Technology

THE ARTS

KMEIA Annual Choral Festival

On Sunday 18th and Monday 19th March the vocal group had the opportunity to perform with 500 other students from around the region in the KMEIA Choral Festival. On Sunday, they learnt 5 pieces of music in a 3-hour workshop in the foyer of the MECC. Monday night they performed to a full house on the stage at the MECC. Tanya Dator was a featured instrumentalist on Violin for one of the Primary School songs.

Mocktail 2018

Three Senior Music students performed in the Talent Quest for Mocktail. These students performed in front of 1000 Year 12 students from around the region. Yvette Thompson performed a Post-Modern Jukebox version of “Seven Nation Army”. Zach Fitzgerald and Isimeli Uluiviti performed an acoustic version of “Cyclone” by Sticky Fingers with Zach on Guitar and Isimeli on vocals. These students gave exceptional performances on the night.

Troy Patti
A/HOD The Arts

ACCESS CENTRE

We celebrated Harmony Day last week and created a wonderful display in the school foyer. Miss Clarke and Mrs Hoffmann both surveyed a year 8 MultiArts class. We found that over half the class came from a different country or their parents were born in another country. We then asked all the students to draw the flag of their country in the same shape, a heart, to represent diversity and equality in our classroom. We celebrate these diversities.

2ND HAND UNIFORMS

We are always in need of any 2nd hand uniforms, for students that have the incorrect uniform, we can do a quick fix with a loan uniform through the Year Coordinators room. The loan uniform is then returned to the school in a clean condition. If you have any Senior or Junior shirts and shorts we would be most grateful, just bring into the General office.

POSITIVE POSTCARDS

Other postcard recipients for this week are:

Year 8 Advanced Manufacturing and Design Kiella Grohn
Year 8 Art: Tasma Levitz and Tyke Smith
Year 9 Graphics: Disha Rabari

MATHS TUTORING

ENGLISH TUTORING

STRENGTH WORK PROGRAM UPDATE

Congratulations and well done to the young men of the Strength Work Program who successfully mulched the garden bed near the Breakfast Club recently. They showed great resilience and dedication to complete the task during the hot humid weather. Selected students from the program will be chosen to participate in the Strength Camp later in the year. This camp will reinforce the lessons learnt and give them a further opportunity to gain new skills.

Program Overview

Through manual work with the School Chaplain over seven Sessions in an outdoor work setting, Students learn

• Strength is more than physical
• How to positively change situations they find themselves in
• Make value based decisions
• Take on positive personal and work qualities

The goal of Strength is to change mindsets, instil qualities and empower young men with the “right tools” to succeed in School and life.

Chappy Phil
School Chaplain

HEALTH NURSE

Breaky Club News

Breaky club also must thank the PE department and the Academy students for donating an abundant supply of spreads for the Breaky Club.

We must also thank Brumby’s bread and our regular volunteers.

We are looking forward to our 11th Breaky club birthday celebrations next term.

Ann-Maree BRIGHTMAN
School Based Youth Health Nurse

P & C NEWS

How can I get involved?

Volunteering is time willingly given for the common good and without financial gain.

The parents and citizens’ association at Mackay State High School appreciate any volunteer contribution that you can make. Can you help at tuckshop? Do you like planning or assisting at functions and special events? There are so many ways in which you can help our P&C email pandc@mackayshs.eq.edu.au for more information

General Meeting–Monday 30th April 2018 6pm Administration building

Were you involved at your child’s primary school P&C? We invite you to come along to our April General meeting. At the AGM on Monday 23 March we filled all Executive positions. Many thanks to these parents and community members for taking on roles.

President - ToniMaree Dodd
Vice-President – Phillip Hall
Treasurer – Sandra Sinnott
Secretary – Tanya Williams

If you would like to know more about a position or how you can be involved email pandc@mackayshs.eq.edu.au.

TUCKSHOP

COMMUNITY NOTICES