19 July 2018

Newsletter Articles

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Welcome to Term 3 and I hope that all of our students have reviewed their Semester 1 Report Card and commenced to set goals for this term to build on the performances across all of their subjects. Most students’ Reports are delivered to parents on-line and a small number without digital access are provided with paper copies. Across the school, performance is quite good, however everyone can identify subjects that with some targeted effort, will improve the rating.

Our Interhouse Athletics Carnival was held at the end of Term 2, with a couple of excellent days of competition, with excellent participation levels across all year levels. Congratulations to Chataway who won overall, but in the end it came to the results of the final event to split them from Denniss house. Age champions and Records broken were announced at the end of the carnival and these students will receive medals at the Sports Awards night in early Term 4.

Over the holidays many of our students continued to achieve great outcomes in their chosen fields. At Creative Generations 2018 Tanya Dator, Issy Uluiviti and Ms Nicole De Brueys were involved with about 75 top level student performers and quality professional musicians as coaches over a week in Brisbane. The finale was a huge public performance in the Brisbane Entertainment Centre to a wide audience. Hopefully a copy of the event will be forwarded to allow us to put it on our school website. Henri Stocks and Payton Douglas were selected in their respective sports of Rugby League and Squash to represent Queensland at National level.

Payton Douglas

Congratulations to Mr Andrew Gercken and Mr Nathan Doyle who convened the National Championship for Under 15 Rugby League in the first week of the holidays. They were ably assisted by several RL Academy students supporting the visiting State teams during the week and the Netball Academy girls and Ms Forster managed the gate for the event, assisted ably by many supportive parents.

Congratulations to Ariane Rose Molina who has shown her writing talents by winning the Whitsunday Writing Competition with her item "Boys don't cry, they wear masks" taking out first prize. Congratulations

Seventeen students travelled to the South Island of New Zealand, on a tour arranged each two years for Year 11/12 students. Thank you to Ms Nutt, Ms Whitehead and Mr Lee who gave up some of their holiday to attend the trip and add to the experiences of the students. All students returned home fit and well but having seen them at the airport on return, I’m sure, after sharing the important stories with family, they slept soundly that Saturday evening.

On Wednesday, our school assembly focused on our NAIDOC celebration about the theme for 2018 “Because of her, we can”. After a special smoke ceremony as students entered the Hall, we adopted traditional Elders from our Indigenous communities. We presented Phillip Kemp (Aboriginal), Julianne Kennell (Torres Strait Islander) and Marion Healy (Australian South Sea Islander) with certificates of office. We were entertained by a South Sea Islander Dance Troupe, as part of the parade. After the ceremony, Indigenous students participated in a Careers Fair and some cultural and sports events. During the ceremony I mentioned that Mackay SHS is probably the only, if not one of a very small number, which has a Statement of Reconciliation, prepared by students in 2008. The text is included in our Newsletter this week.

About 41 of our Year 11 cohort of students accompanied by several staff have travelled to Magnetic Island for the annual Leadership Camp. Students participate in a range of activities including hiking, abseiling, snorkelling with challenges between the four teams over the time on camp. Students learn a great deal about their peers as well as about themselves with the activities and challenges in the evening. The “garbage bag formal” is a highlight, followed by the groups setting some goals for their Senior Year.

This week we welcome 8 students from Castleford Academy in England, who are visiting Mackay for the next 6 weeks. Each year we host a small number of students from NE England and return the visit when the RL Academy students visit every second year in September. Sincere thanks to the Academy families who have accepted one of these boys into their home and family for the 6 weeks.

The CQU Jazz Festival will be held next weekend with the culminating performance on Sun 22nd July at CQU Conservatorium of Music.

Mr Steve Paulger
Principal

RAISING RESPONSIBLE TEENS PART 3

By Professor Matt Sanders

If you’re the parent or carer of a teenager, here are some tips to help you cope with, and enjoy, your child’s teenage years. These are the third and fourth key elements raising responsible teens. Next newsletter I will share the final two.

Being Respectful and Considerate

If teenagers learn to be considerate with members of their family, they are more likely to develop good relationships with other people. To encourage your teenager to be respectful and considerate parents the following hints can help:

• Be respectful with your teenager.
• Praise your teenager when they are polite.
• Remind your teenager to be polite in a calm but firm voice, perhaps giving an example of preferred behaviour.
• Help your teenager to follow reasonable requests.
• Agree on a few family rules, and involve your teenager in setting the family rules. When you see your teenager following the rule, let them know how much you appreciate it. If they are not following the rule, stop your teenager and get their attention. Ask them to tell you what the rule is and what they should be doing instead. Then ask them to follow the rule. Once they are following the rule, tell them you appreciate their effort.

Developing a Healthy Lifestyle

Habits formed when we’re children and teenagers often stay with us as adults, and these can affect our personal relationships and health.

• Decide what you expect of your teen. This might relate to diet, exercise, showering, washing clothes or keeping their room clean.
• Find out what other parents expect of their teen’s lifestyle.
• Once you’ve decided, model these behaviours yourself. Your teen is more likely to eat well, exercise etc if they see you and other family members doing these things.

Professor Matt Sanders is founder of the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program®.

JUNIOR SECONDARY NEWS

General News

Welcome back to term 3. I hope everyone's batteries are recharged after the holidays. Term 3 is normally a big term academically. Students are expected to be able to apply knowledge learned in the first semester to more and more situations. We never learn anything in isolation and then put it in the background only to forget how to use it. Long term consolidation of concepts and skills is vitally important.

Mums and Dads can be a big help here by getting their children to show them concepts learned previously and explain it to them. It takes some time and effort, but has big rewards for your children in the long term.

What's On Soon

Some of us will soon be visiting our local primary schools to speak to Year 6 students about enrolment at Mackay SHS in 2019. If you have a child in Year 6 in our catchment, keep an eye out for an enrolment pack provided to your child to bring home. We will be visiting primary schools in week 5.

The other big event on the horizon is our Year 7 camp. We'll be heading off to Fairbairn Dam in week 8. We have only ever been there for Year 8 camps during mid term 1 with the mercury pushing 40 degrees at times. It will be fantastic to experience camp in the colder weather.

Good News Stories

Some good news about the efforts and exploit of our students in and out of school.

A huge congratulations to Payton Douglas for selection in the Qld State Squash team during the vacation.

The following students from 7G achieved Personal Best results in their Semester Maths Mates assessment:

Murillo Brandini
Rafael Decano
Sophie Dunn
Ashton Green
Lachlan Macre
Reynan Mayores
David Rioveros
Ronald Silvania

These students have regularly completed their homework sheets each week. As a result, their assessment results have improved.

Congratulations!

Thought of the Newsletter

Matt Skinner
HOD Junior Secondary

SPORTS REPORT

Athletics Carnival

WOW, what an end to Term 2! The theme for the carnival was house colours on Thursday and Sports Athletes on Friday. This was an initiative by the House and Sports Captains that was received well by all staff and students. A special mention to the English/SOSE teachers who dressed up as champion ping pong players. Miles Jackson and Clayton Campbell as Cricket players. Andrea Pozza featured as an 80’s Athletics athlete. Jillian Stork as a Michael Jordan basketball extraordinaire. The HPE Crew dressed as Mackay High Immortal Rugby League Team.

The carnival was split into a track and then a field day of activities. Track day Thursday, kicked off the carnival. The house captains fired up their house teams with team chants to create some spirit amongst the school community. Students then had the opportunity to compete in the 800, 200, 100 and 400 to gain valuable house points. The prestigious MSHS 100m gift, showcased at the end of the day. This race highlights the fastest 100m runners across all age groups within the school. Each competitor is given a ‘handy cap’ bases on their time from their 100m age group race. Both the boys and girls finished very close with Arthur Miller-Stephens being the fastest boy and Thelma Ndhlovua being the fastest girl in the school.

Friday saw competitors throw & jump to new heights. Each age group had a 45 minute set time block to compete all six field events. These included; High Jump, Long Jump, Triple Jump, Discus, Javelin and Shot put. A lot of participation points were accumulated on Friday. New records were made in the following events, congratulations to the following students;

Tyler Hixon 100m 15.28, Javelin 23.04m
Ryan Collins 100m 13.71, 400m 1 :08 :90, 800m 2:40:14
Olivia Shailer 200m 33.11, 400m 1:08:90, 800m 3:34:17, High Jump 1.15m
Dawson Harch 200m 22.90, 400m 54.05,
Jaelee Tillack 400m 1:11:90, Shotput 11.60m
William Morgan 1500m 4:46
Jasmyn Ayles High Jump 1.27m, Triple Jump 7.72m
Mashayia Beveridge Long Jump 3.78m
Reece Del Simone Discus 26.40m

Students who placed 1st and 2nd in each event will be provided with a nomination form to compete at the MDSS Inter School Athletics Carnival which OUR school is conducting and hosting on the 1st & 2nd of August. This is an excellent opportunity for students and what better way to represent our school with pride. A meeting will take place at the end of the week where paper work will be distributed. It is essential for students to return this ASAP to ensure their place on the team. If students do not wish to represent the school, they need to pass on this information to Miss Russell so that other students have the opportunity to fill that position. We hope to have one of the largest school teams again at this interschool carnival and be very competitive yet again against the other 11 schools in this district.

Age champions

These students need to be commended on their superb efforts exhibited over the two-day carnival. Well done, all students will receive recognition at the annual sports awards night to be held early term four.

The final element of the carnival was the overall winning house and the tally of points. Well done to all the Houses Captain, the house spirit was felt by all who attended. Thank you to all of the staff, days like this cannot take place without the support of you, your flexibility and willingness to help does not go unnoticed.

Congratulations Houses

4th Forgan 1010
3rd Mackay 1184
2nd Denniss 1627
1st Chattaway 1667

ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE ACADEMY PERSONAL PURSUIT (AAPP) INFORMATION EVENING

DATE CLAIMER

We would like to take this opportunity to invite current Year 9 Academic Excellence Academy students and their parents/guardians to attend an information evening to discuss details regarding an exciting opportunity available to Year 10 Academic Academy students in 2019.

Date: Tuesday 24th July 2018
Time: 6.30 pm
Place: Mackay SHS Auditorium

Please contact Kellie Bryan (Academic Excellence Academy Co-Ordinator) for further information.

ACCESS CENTRE

UGLY DUCKLING CAFÉ

The story of the ugly duckling is known by all (most) and it has many messages embedded within them but wholly the most important is the message of HOPE. Hope that our kids can find a way in this world, they can find their place in it and find their power. “Just because you don’t fit in with the ducks doesn’t mean that you don’t have a place in the world” The message speaks of guidance and support and a journey they will find their meaning and beauty. I also feel the name within itself is effective in making people think and making people pause and wonder what this is all about. It also can mean perseverance and determination…If you really try you may be able to spin it negatively but that goes for any such story or message…Again the message has meaning, the program should have meaning…By teaching the students how to work together, understand the processes of the work environment, understanding the value of learning and doing every job within the process and being able to feel what it means to actually work hard as a mindset is what this program is about (Work education is the subject after all)…As I said the coffee and the serving of it are just a very small part of what is actually important within it. Words from Mr Hood, founder of the Ugly Duckling Cafe

NEW LOOK FOR OUR CAFÉ!!

Thanks to the P & C for our new look logo and merchandise for the Access Centre – Ugly Duckling Café. With funding from the P & C we were able to purchase a new coffee machine, advertising posters/signs, stickers, new printed aprons and printed hats with our wonderful logo created by Deezyns – Deanne Brown, Graphic Artist. Jackson Stone a Year 11 student completed a rough draft of the duck and submitted to Deanne for formatting and adding of font. Thank you Jackson for your design work.

Thanks also to our wonderful teachers that support this great program and enjoy a coffee and slice throughout the day!

CONTACT DETAILS

Parents and carers – do we have your latest contact details?

There are times when we may need to get in touch with you. Do we have your most up to date details? If not, please contact the general office on 49579179 or email admin@mackayshs.eq.edu.au so we can update our records. These details include your name, address, phone numbers, email address and emergency contact details. Please remember to let the school know if any of these details change.

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.

MATHS DEPARTMENT

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

Brisbane Writers’ Festival

Academic Excellence Students in Years 8, 9 and 10 have been handed out Expression of Interest forms for the Brisbane Writers’ Festival in September in Brisbane. Please ensure these forms are back to your student’s English teacher by 20 July 2018. It’s a great chance for students to attend writing workshops and sessions held by renowned authors – past authors have included John Marsden, Andy Griffiths, Deb Fitzpatrick etc.

2018 Ipswich Feast International Poetry Competition

Write a poem on a theme, form and length of your choice, although some constraints exist for the open categories.

Different age categories – closing date Friday 27th July 2018

Head to the Poetry Feast website for details on prizes and how to enter.

2018 Trudy Graham/Julie Lewis Literary Award

The competition has an open theme and entrants may submit prose up to a maximum of 2000 words. Entries must also be unpublished and not have received any previous awards or recognition in any other competition.

Closes Friday 10th August 2018

Head to the Peter Cowan Writers Centre competition page to find links to the flyer and entry form.

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

COMMUNITY NOTICES