28 June 2019

Newsletter Articles

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Mackay State High School is very fortunate to have such quality staff and on Friday 14th June we held a Cleaner’s Breakfast for our hard working team. Thanks to Tony Eastwick and Lis Baldock who organised the event, recognising our Cleaners who commence from about 4am and close the school, securing rooms and buildings, after staff leave each day.

We are seeking to grow the number of parents who attend our P&C Meetings each month, supporting our students and assisting with feedback for the school operations. Our Parents & Citizens Association oversees the successful operation of our School Tuckshop and the Uniform Shop providing important services for the students and families at our school. The group also provided outstanding support to students through donations of funds to support school programs and students representing our school and region. Make the decision to come along to the next P&C Meeting on 22 July in the school library at 6pm to support your child and our school.

In one of the most successful years, the Cattle Show Team, led by Ms Stevenson and Eric Haughton, performed at a very high standard impressing judges at both the Pioneer Valley Show and last week at our Mackay Show. The commitment of these 6 – 8 students over the past 4 months in working with the cattle, preparing them to be handled and showing their best features, paid off with some excellent rewards. One of our stud Brahman heifers was awarded Champion Heifer ribbon and later competing against the other champions won the Grand Champion Female Tri-ribbon for the 2019 Show. Eric has worked with over many years and this is the first Grand Champion ribbon, won by ‘Lilli’ capably led by Damon Bust.

Lisa Veney has been appointed as A/Principal at Mirani SHS for Term 3, whilst the Principal is away on leave. Congratulations to Ms Veney and I’m sure she will do an excellent job. In her absence Ms Aprile will be A/Deputy Principal at our school, looking after Year 7 and Year 11, while Ms Althaus will fill the HoD Social Science.

Qld Teachers Union has advised that all QTU members are directed to take industrial action in the form of a strike on Thursday 18th July 2019, if there has not been resolution to halt in negotiations on the Log of Claims. Please be aware that a letter advising of actions, will likely be distributed to all families, with notes also on school sign and Facebook site as well.

End of Term 2 brings the finals of our Netball and Rugby League competitions. Two of our nine Netball teams progressed to the Finals this year and the Year 9/10 Firebirds team, played against Mercy College losing their final. The Open B team played the next evening, fought very hard in their clash with Sarina High coming out winners. Just across the road, our Rugby League students played the Div 1 clash between our Yr 7/8, Yr 9/10 against Mercy College and then our Open 13 took on St Pats College. Our boys showed great commitment in all their games and, while we did not win any of the games, they performed well, and were still giving positive efforts at the end of the games. Special mention to our Yr 7/8 boys who were down on numbers and playing larger number of bigger players, they committed to their game to the end. Congratulations to all of these students and the many staff and parents who support them through coaching and other roles.

Year 11 Subject Selections for 2020, students should have submitted their preference sheets for the calculations of the best Line structure to address these preferences. Forms were due in in the final week of Term 2. Remember that SET Plan meetings will be held in Week 3 of Term3, where all Year 10 students with at least one parent/carer will be required to attend this meeting, where final selections on the established line-structure for 2020 will be discussed.

Remember, the last two days of this Term, the Interhouse Athletics Carnival will be held at our school oval. This is an important event every year, with athletes displaying their competitive skills and importantly many more students participating in athletic and a range of novelty events to contribute points to their House total. We encourage all of our students to attend and enjoy this event celebrating the end of Semester 1.

Mackay State High has been selected as one of 20 schools across Queensland to trial a pilot program for Clean Energy options to be funded through the savings generated through the program. Team members this week have reviewed the lighting throughout the whole school to look to replace with more energy efficient LED lighting. Our school already has some solar panels, however these are to be replaced by new and enhanced panels of units to provide power to reduce the electricity costs for our school.

Finally, I wish all of our students and staff a relaxing and refreshing break and look forward to everyone returning safe and ready to commence Semester 2 on Monday 15th July.

Mr Steve Paulger
Principal

STYMIE

FROM THE DESK OF A DEPUTY

Semester 1 Report Cards

Report Cards for all year levels will be distributed to parents and carers via email on Tuesday the 23rd July – which is in our second week back at school.

Students whose parents or carers do not have a valid email address will be issued a paper copy of their report, on the same day.

Our Semester reports cards include:

• Achievement results (Semester or Unit 1 – Yr 11),
• effort and behaviour grading
• homework ratings
• requests for interviews
• comments relevant to the student and subject.

The school would like to encourage parents and carers to move over to QParents. This free ‘app’ system allows parents/carers to see student:

• Report Cards (more immediately)
• Attendance details
• Financial details
• Assessment Planners
• Timetables

Please contact the school for details on how you can sign up to have access to all of this information.

Parent / Teacher Interviews:

Our second Parent Teacher Evening for this year is in Week 3 of next term – on Tuesday 30th July. The evening will commence at 3.30pm through until 6.30pm. We invite all parents and carers to attend.

Details for making an interview booking will be distributed to students.

Year 10 SETP Interviews:

All Year 10 students must participate in a 30 minute Senior Education and Training Plan (SETP) interview. The SETP interview is conducted with the student, a parent or caregiver and a school representative. These interviews will be held across multiple days/and some evenings of the fifth week of school, next term. Details for dates and times will be available next term.

During the SETP interview students will discuss their future plans for learning and careers and will also make their second round of selections of subjects for Year 11 and Year 12.

Parents or caregivers will be required to make an appointment (in the same way that we do for Parent/Teacher Interviews) at a time that is convenient for them to attend. Year 10 students will be temporarily released from class if their interview is scheduled during lesson time.

Tania Cheers
DP Performance

SENIOR SCHOOLING

Apprenticeships

SPORTS REPORT

Interschool Netball Finals

Congratulations to Mrs Dick’s 9/10 Firebirds for making it to the Grand Final unfortunately going down to Mercy College 27-7 in a game that did not represent the fantastic season they had.

Congratulations to the Open B team who played off in the Grand Final and had a win against Sarina 17-16. Well Done girls on coming through as the underdogs and proving that working as a team can win games.

Years 10-12 Capricornia Track & Field

Congratulations to Adison Byrd for competing at the recent Capricornia trials and coming 2nd place in High Jump. Jumping a 1.33cm. We will wait and see if he gets a chance to go on to State Titles.

Year 11 Rec

This module develops students’ understanding of coaching principles and allows them to demonstrate and refine their coaching skills, particularly in the completion of the Community Coaching General Principles course, as well as in touch football contexts. Students will develop, plan and implement a Touch Football coaching session for junior students at Mackay SHS. Evaluate the effectiveness of the coaching session and make recommendations to improve future performance. The student’s performance component is a demonstration of the coaching skills and principles required to manage participants. This will be achieved under teacher direction by completing attacking and defending skills for Touch Football.

Year 11 Cert III in Sport & Rec

Our Year 11 Certificate III Sport & Recreation – Rugby League students have been working on completing their First Aid & CPR over the last few weeks. Students have been gaining an understanding of the content and have recently undertaken a range of practical assessments to demonstrate their knowledge of the first aid requirements. Students have performed a number of slings, wraps and CPR scenarios by following the DRSABCD protocol and successfully treated scenario victim to meet the requirements.

In addition to this, the students have been working on their officiating unit, refereeing primary school rugby league games to log their officiating hours. Students have handled themselves well over the past term in an unfamiliar environment and have developed new skills in communicating with players on both sides. On the back of this experience, the students will shortly undertake their Level 1 NRL Referee course to allow them to officiate schoolboy games and club games.

Another aspect of their unit has been to coordinate and run games for one another and junior HPE classes. Students have run a number of games for the seniors and junior HPE classes over this term and have gained a lot of confidence going in to their coaching unit next term.

RUBGY LEAGUE

Local finals were contested last Wednesday night between Mackay State High and Mercy College / St Patricks College. Congratulations to all our students for representing our school with pride. Unfortunately the results didn’t go our way in all three games. The year 7/8 team were soundly beaten by Mercy College but things were a lot closer in the year 9/10 game with Mercy College prevailing 18-10. To finish the night our opens played a hard fought encounter but couldn’t overcome a spirited St Pats going down 20-8. We look forward to next year’s season. Thank-you to all of the coaches that have helped out across the season and the supporters who came out to cheer our boys on.

CROSS COUNTRY RESULTS

Overall House Winners

Age Group Champions

Year 12 Recreation

This term for practical lessons the students took part in bocce and lawn bowls. For theory they learned about the history of lawn bowls and assisted a local bowls club with some marketing strategies. At school the students played bocce in teams and individually in some at times ‘interesting’ conditions (muddy terrain) as well as some health related fitness sessions to keep them mobile for the game. Towards the end of the term we were lucky enough to visit South Suburban Bowls Club where we had access to their bowling greens and a variety of bowls to suit out needs. Gary Putland from the club did a great job teaching the class some strategies to become champion bowls players.

For those who are interested in playing socially with other teens from Mackay contact Gary at Souths Suburban as he will be running competitions Monday afternoons at 3.30pm for high school students.

Staff Profile: Monica Tracy

1. Your position / role(s) at MSHS – HPE, Football & Geography teacher
2. Nickname – How you obtained this if appropriate – Mon or TRACMO
3. How Long you have been employed at MSHS – 1 and a half years
4. Hobbies/Interests – Football, AFL, golf, and relaxing at the beach
5. Favourite travel destination OR where you would like to travel – Favourite destination is Barcelona and I would love to travel to Japan or South America.
6. Highlight at MSHS – Working with a great group of people who make every day enjoyable.
7. Passion in relation to MSHS / why you do what you do. To support each student and provide them with the best chance to succeed.
8. An animal that best represents you and why – Elephant. I want to pass on my knowledge to the next generation, environmentally conscious, hardworking, and love food.
9. Favourite Quote - You are the size of your dream. Do not complain about the life you have, many people do not have half of what you reject. Thank your parents and carers every day for what you do have.

THE ARTS

XL:Art Illuminate Workshops

Keep an eye out for XL:Art’s dragon, as she roams DBCT’s Illuminate in the Botanic Gardens from the 22-26thof July as part of Mackay’s Festival of Arts. Our Dragon is a huge 3 part light puppet, created by the XL:Art group, over two full-day workshops at MSHS led by artists in residence Lalune Croker and Cheb Jeffery. Formed over cane armatures, the sculpture is skinned with tissue paper and finished with student designed details. Look for her as she features as a major part of the festival, travelling throughout the magial lightscape in search of her mate.

ACCESS CENTRE

AG DEPARTMENT

The Cattle Show Team did really well at the Finch Hatton and Mackay Show. We received quite a few ribbons, one the Supreme Champion for Lilly, one of our heifers (handled by Damon Bust) and a first for one of steers, Rusty (handled by Kaileigh Teale). There were a number of ribbons for handlers and the junior judging of which we’re very proud with the new members of our team picking up quite a few ribbons in these sections.

The ribbons and accolades are wonderful but what Eric and I were most proud of is how the members of the team conducted themselves and were wonderful to deal with. They were willing to do any work required and were great to be with throughout the experience. We would also like to thank the students’ parents for making it possible for the students to participate and also making our job easier by nothing being too much trouble.

Leisa Stevenson
SAC AG Department

EARN AND LEARN

The Access Centre is once again collecting stickers to gain some wonderful resources. Dates for sticker collection are between 1 May and 25 June 2019. Shoppers receive 1 sticker for every $10 spent. Last year (2018) we managed to collect 4740 stickers but have given ourselves a goal of 5000 stickers for 2019. A collection box will be placed in the student area of the office and another at Canelands.

MATHS DEPARTMENT

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

STUDENT SUPPORT SERVICES

P & C

We are currently seeking a secretary and would also like to obtain the services of an assistant Treasurer, as our current Treasurer Sandy is in her last year with the school. You would work alongside of Sandy learning the role of Treasurer. All other positions are filled with the P & C. Our next meeting is Monday 24th June 6pm. If anyone is interested they can contact us through the P and C email. pandc@mackayshs.eq.edu.au

Tuckshop

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