13 December 2019

Newsletter Articles

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Over 90 of our Year 9 cohort were recognised in a special assembly last week receiving their Junior Secondary Certificate. These students had accumulated credit in subject achievement, effort, school engagement and attendance, in preparation for their next goal in Senior Secondary – achievement of a QCE (Qld Certificate of Education). This inaugural presentation arranged by Ms Kliese, Mr Skinner and Ms Cheers, along with the Year 9 Form teachers, was made even more special, with the attendance of a large number of the family members. Well done to all involved.

Late in November I received an email from one of our 2017 graduates Haard Shah, who is currently studying at Qld University of Technology in Brisbane, regarding a special opportunity for which he has been selected. See the brief part of his email to me below.

Hey Mr Paulger,

I am delighted to announce to you that I have been selected as one of the 124 prestigious New Colombo Plan Scholars for 2020. Over the course of next 1.5 years I will have the opportunity to represent Queensland University of Technology, Mackay State High School and my country to our closest neighbours in the Indo Pacific region.

The New Colombo Plan is a signature initiative by the Australian Government which aims to lift knowledge of the Indo Pacific region in Australia by supporting talented Australian undergraduates to live, learn and intern in the Indo Pacific region.

Starting in May I will be immersing myself in the Singaporean culture and traditions to bridge the knowledge and people to people gaps between Australia and our neighbouring Indo-Pacific region. Over my journey I will be undertaking full time Mandarin language training, diving deeper into Artificial Intelligence at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and intern throughout the Indo Pacific region.

Haard Shah

I would like to congratulate Emma Forster on her recent appointment as Head of Department – Physical Education commencing in January 2020 and thank Andrew Gercken for the wonderful role he has played as A/HoD Phys Education over the past 12 months and wish him well at his new school and becoming a Dad, next year.

Each year students and staff show there community spirit and generousity with donations of food and gifts to Salvos Christmas Appeal. Sarah-Jane from our Mackay Salvation Army attended and was very appreciative on behalf of the many less fortunate families who will benefit at Christmas. This assembly was also made even more special with our new Principal, Mrs Felicity Roberts attending and speaking briefly to the students. She is looking forward to commencing next year, but at present, like me, is finishing the many projects in our own schools.

Students who participated in the Camp Eagle event in Semester 2, as part of Access Centre, Strength and Real Me programs were presented with their Certificates. Their packs also had several photos from the Camp and achievements and contributions which they had made.

Before the departure of our Senior students, a small group of Indigenous students, staff and Marion Healy reviewed and prepared a more current Reconciliation Statement titled “Relationships, Respect and Opportunity”. This statement and that prepared in 2008, will be displayed together in our Office foyer and I encourage all parents, students and staff to read the statements.

In closing my final Newsletter, I want to thank the many parents, staff and our wonderful students, who have passed on thanks and congratulations as I happily complete my career as a teacher and Principal. I have loved my career, working closely with students, teacher, school staff and parents and carers at Texas, Dysart, Moura, Hughenden Woodford, Yeppoon and Mackay. I am so proud to have my final years as the Principal of our great Mackay State High School and to have had whatever small influence that I have been able to make here. I am confident that Felicity Roberts will be an excellent Principal and will bring her own special qualities to this school.

It has been a privilege and a pleasure to hold the reigns of our great school for ten and a half years with such caring and committed staff and the students, of which I am always so proud. My wife and I intend to remain residents in our wonderful Mackay and we will drop in at times at school events.

As always I wish everyone a safe and wonderful Christmas season and hopefully a rain affected New Year. Thank you to all.

Mr Steve Paulger
Principal

FROM THE DESK OF A DEPUTY

Junior Secondary Certificate Presentation Ceremony

On Wednesday 4th December Mackay SHS conducted its inaugural Year 9 Junior Secondary Certificate Presentation Ceremony. 88 students from the cohort were the first recipients of this recognition.

Goals for the Junior Secondary Certificate were to:

• mark the culmination of Junior Secondary, commence the transition to Senior School and to provide an achievable Goal at this point in a student’s schooling
• Reinforce the expectation and relevance of success at school
• recognise student achievement across multiple aspects of school

In order to achieve this recognition students needed to meet school standards in such things as:

• achievement
• attendance
• uniform
• behaviour and
• participation in extra-curricular activities

We believe these tasks best reflect our Core Values of Pride, Dedication, Consideration and Respect.

The Junior Secondary Certificate also mimics the process that students will commence in Year 11 to achieve the Queensland Certificate of Education.

The Ceremony was attended by some 100 parents, carers and family members who joined in acknowledging student success and achievement.

The Ceremony was made extra special with heartfelt words from the students as part of farewells to their Year Level Coordinator, Mickayla Kliese, and also to our Principal, Steve Paulger. Five Year 9 boys went on stage to perform a haka for Mr Paulger. This was a very memorable moment for all and Mr Paulger was really moved by the demonstration of respect from the boys.

The Ceremony was a very significant milestone for the students and we really appreciated having so many family and friends there to share it with us.

Ms Tania Cheers
Deputy Principal

P AND C STAFF RECOGNITION AWARDS – DECEMBER

Staff Recognition, for the month of December, has been afforded to Miles Jackson (Teaching Staff) and Mel Hall (Support Staff).

Miles’ arrangements for the Year 12 Graduates was a huge task. Planning and completion of the Formal, with venue, ticketing, program, music etc was performed with great efficiency. He also had the Graduation Ceremony two days later. Miles also took on the supervisor’s role for the School Magazine – and did a fantastic job for the entire school community. Miles was also applauded for his commitment to the 2019 Senior cohort as their year co-ordinator. He has lead a great group of students through the last 3 years, which has seen them develop and grow into young adults. This was clearly seen in the final celebrations for year 12’s at their formal and graduation ceremonies. Thank you Miles.

Mel is one of our Office Administrators. She is typically the first line on interaction for students and manages First Aid. In addition Mel does the preparation, over several weeks, of program, certificates, trophies, invites, letters and then the actual arrangement of these materials for the our Awards Night. This is a huge task. Mel carried out this task with no concern, yet had to gather information from and for so many people.

Congratulations to both of these amazing Staff Members and our thanks to the Mackay SHS P & C for their efforts, in the creation of these awards, to recognise the hard work and dedication that is demonstrated by our staff on a daily basis.

STYMIE

HPE DEPARTMENT

We would like to wish everyone a safe and happy holidays. Well done to everyone who has participated in sport throughout the 2019 schooling year. It has had many highs and lows but that is why we love sport. Always give it your best no matter the outcome and remember to represent Mackay State High School with pride. We would like to thank Mr Paulger for all of his support over the past 10 years to the HPE staff and students and we wish him all the best for retirement and the chapter after Mackay State High School. We would also like to take this chance to say goodbye to our Head of Department Mr Gercken who has been at MSHS for the past seven years. Mr Gercken has been heavily involved in the Rugby League Academy since he started here through Rugby League coordinator and finishing as Head of Department. The staff and students thank-you for your time and dedication that you have given the HPE/Academy students. We wish you all the best at your new school. We also say goodbye to Ms Tracy who has been with us for the past two years. Ms Tracy has been heavily involved in the Football Academy since being here and has brought a new approach to coaching with a vast knowledge of the game. We wish her all the best in her future endeavours.

Merry Christmas from Mr Gercken, Mr Graham, Mr Blakey, Miss Koko, Mr Brock, Miss Tracy, Ms Dick, Mrs Biddle, Mrs Kelly, Miss Cody-Davis, Mr Radunz, Mrs Radunz and Miss Forster.

Miss Emma Forster
Sports Coordinator

Our final piece of news for 2019.

Rugby League Academy

Over the past two weeks 14 girls from Years 7 & 8 had the opportunity to trial our first co-ed Rugby League Academy for Yr 8 & 9 in 2020. These girls were identified throughout the year after playing in the Girls Rugby League competition in Term 3. The girls joined the boys lessons on Mondays and Tuesdays and trained alongside the boys. The feedback from both the boys and girls was very positive. The school is currently working on how this program will be integrated into the school over the next 12months, with the aim of opening it up in 2021.

Netball Academy Break Up

Netball Academy had its last morning fitness training for 2019. The girls finished their last session together for the year with a group workout, which was then followed by a breakfast to refuel the bodies. It has been a great year with all of the girls in the Academy. It was a chance to come together and reflect on the year and then look to 2020 and what are goals as a Netball Academy will be. Have a safe and merry Christmas and I look forward to seeing you all back in 2020.

SPOTY Awards

Congratulations goes to Karmichael Dee for taking out the Sports Person of the Year at the recent SPOTY awards night at Magpies. We are very proud of the achievements of Karmichael over the past year and look forward to seeing him succeed in coming years in his chosen sports. Well down also goes to Andrew Lelliot (Basketball), Logan Rebetzke (Basketball) and Lachlan Peach (Softball) for being nominated for players of the year in their sports. Also to Mrs Biddle and Mr Graham for their contribution to coaching girls football and boys rugby league. Congratulations to all those who represented our school at Mackay and District sports over the past year. We are very proud of everyone who has trialled or gone onto the next level. We look forward to seeing everyone get in and have a go in 2020.

Integrated Bodies Workshop

On Monday of Week 9, year 7 sporting academies had the opportunity to walk down to Integrated Bodies at the showgrounds to attend an introduction session. We had 27 students who returned their forms and were able to trial a session at IB. The students were taken through a range of bodyweight, mobility and strength exercises by the very knowledgeable Brayden Smith and John O’Brien. The students thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and are looking forward to working on their strength and conditioning in 2020.

STAFF vs STUDENT Sports

Over weeks 7 & 8 the staff and students had a solid battle playing across 4 different sports to see who would win the Staff vs Students Perpetual Shield for 2019. The sports were Futsal, Touch Football, Netball and Volleyball. This saw great numbers from the Year 11 students across the 4 sports. We also saw a wide variety of staff over the 2 weeks, we even had a guest appearance from the retired Mr Baxter for the Touch Football game. We also had Mr Paulger play his last game of Staff vs Students as Mackay State High School Principal. He did an excellent job playing GK and keeping our newly appointed school captain Kara Boys goalless. The staff were able to come away with a 4-0 win over the 2weeks. Mr Jackson was awarded with the staff player of the series after some fantastic play across all 4 sports. Out school captain Henri Stocks gets a special mention for the students for playing well across the series but also for organising the Year 11s. We look forward to playing the Year 11 students for the perpetual shield in 2020.

STEM FAIR

STEM Fair 2019. Stem is a term meaning, "science, technology, engineering and mathematics". The year 8 STEM Fair was composed of 13 teams of either 1, 2 or 3 people. Each team worked hard on their projects from week one this term through to week 8. Working to achieve results proved to be a difficult task for some teams, while others focused on analysis, coding or construction. With the help and assistance of academy teacher Mr Smith and science lab assistants, each team finished with conclusive reports and well-rehearsed presentations.

After 7 weeks of hard work, teams were rewarded with the opportunity to present to and inspire young minds who are involved in the Cadets program. Teams saw this as an opportunity to receive last-minute feedback before presenting to the judges the following day. During the 2nd day of STEM Fair, presentations were given to parents, judges, teachers, peers and the Mayor of Mackay. After presentations, students and parents celebrated with pizza and cake before entering the auditorium for awards. The projects Risky Reactions, Power of Heat on My Feet, Stroop and Have you been paying attention? all received highly commended mentions. Charlize Altobar was awarded 1st place with her project Water Purification. Charlize put in extra effort all term and was a worthy winner. STEM Fair 2019 was and will continue to be a challenging task for academy students and teachers but still an enjoyable and successful event for the school.

Ned Gething
Year 8 Academic Academy

On the 25th & 26th of November the grade 7, 8, and 9 Academic Excellence Academies held the 2019 Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths Fair. This brought along 13 new projects for the grade 8 category. Some of these projects included; Placebros, Bio-mass to Bio-gas, and Glucose in fruits. I enjoying seeing what the other grade group’s projects were and how they’re ideas and results can be used. The year 8 STEM Fair projects were judged by Ryan Hardy and Carolyn Roche who work locally in the field of science and medicine and gave honourable mentions to The Heat Under Your Feet by Jacaranda Rowe-Bailey & Jasmyn Ayles, Risky Reaction by Alexis Donohue, Codi Smith & Connor Smith, Stroop by Libby Hood and Have You Been Paying Attention? by Nina Boys, Jazmine Meng and Tia Harlow. The overall winner for year 8 was Water Purification by Charlize Altobar. Overall STEM Fair 2019 was a very successful day.

Libby Hood
Year 8 Academic Academy student

ACCESS CENTRE

Good luck and best wishes to all who are leaving us this year. It has been a wonderful year full of challenges and exciting ventures, which we have shared with families, staff and the team!! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the ACCESS Centre!!

MATHS DEPARTMENT

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

ITALIAN INTERCULTURAL STUDIES

Ciao,

We have had a great term studying Italian Intercultural Studies and I am looking forward to teaching Italian (Year 7 Entry ) across classes in Year 7 and 8 in 2020. Students who have studied Italian this term have responded well to their first task which saw them reading, writing, listening and speaking in a language other than English.

Students wishing to extend themselves in Italian over the Christmas/New Year break may want to check out the Transparent Languages program on the Mackay Regional Council Library e-learning page. It is a fully featured languages learning application that offers practice lessons and testing in the four skills of language learning, perfect for the beginner learner. Access is FREE to anyone with a Mackay Regional Council library card.

You can check out Transparent Languages, as well as the full suite of e-learning tools at

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! /Buon Natale e Felice Anno Nuovo!

Andrea Pozza

P & C

Uniform Shop

The uniform shop will be open on the following dates for Back to School 2020

January - Wednesday 22nd, Thursday 23rd and Friday 24th 8am to 11am
January - Tuesday 28th to Friday 31st 8am to 11am

Back to Normal Hours from Monday the 3rd of February

Tuckshop

The Tuckshop will be open Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (9th,10th & 11th) last week of school with a very limited menu.

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