19 June 2020

Newsletter Articles

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Dear Parents / Guardians / Caregivers,

Welcome to Week 9!

As I reflect back over my first semester at Mackay High, it is one I will certainly always remember. COVID-19 has left a mark on our world and the change in educational practices that we have adapted to, has been extraordinary. I believe Mackay High has done a wonderful job, particularly over this term, and I would like to take a moment to acknowledge my staff for the enormous additional workload they encountered. Whilst some may think it was easy to have students not at school during our lockdown, we certainly found every day a challenge and we were delighted to see our students return to us! A special thank you to you, our parents, for your patience and support. What I have taken away from my first semester, is the truly special culture of the school and the amazing student, staff and parents that belong.

Mackay State High School
“We Believe …. We Achieve”
#Mackay High Pride

School Opinion Survey

The 2020 School Opinion Survey is now open. Parents and Caregivers are invited to participate in this year’s School Opinion Survey and have a say about schooling during the COVID-19 lockdown. The 2020 survey is specifically looking at the school’s response to the COVID-19 period to comment on how the school responded during these unprecedented times. You are also given the opportunity to provide feedback about our school more generally.

Participation in the survey is anonymous and you are encouraged to take this opportunity to provide feedback (both positive, and for consideration in the future). The survey form has been designed so that it can easily be completed on a computer or smartphone. The online survey will be available until Friday, 17 July 2020, and should take less than five minutes to complete.

To access the survey, please click on the link below or copy and paste it into your web browser:

Senior Subject Selection

Our Year 10 students have commenced the process of subject selection for year 11 in 2021. They were presented with a talk on the new Queensland Certificate of Education and ATAR system for Tertiary Entrance from 2020, and were provided a copy of the Mackay SHS Subject Offerings handbook to begin exploring. In the coming days, students are also going to be provided with links to the schools YouTube Channel, where we will be sharing short videos from our Heads of Department on all subject being offered at our school. It is important that students start discussing pathways post year-12, so that appropriate subject choices can be made. We are here to support you and your child in these conversations.

Semester 1 report cards & Education & Career Pathways (ECP) Week

You child will be issued with a Semester 1 report card during Week 3 of Term 3. These report cards will be a culmination of the work that they have undertaken throughout Term 1 and 2. Report cards will be emailed home to parents, so if your email address has changed, can you please notify our school office.

Following the issuing of report cards, we are hosting an Education & Career Planning Week (in Week 4, Term 3). Every child and their parent will be given an appointment time to meet with a member of staff to discuss their Semester 1 performance, set goals, and to discuss your child’s future pathway. We are excited to provide this opportunity, as we would like an individual pathway plan for every child at our school. More information regarding our ECP week (including your child’s appointment time) will be provided in the first week back after our holidays.

VIRTUAL OPEN DAY – DATE CLAIMER

On Wednesday 15th JULY, we will be hosting a virtual Mackay High Open Day! We will post a map of our school and provide opportunities for members of our community to click on different buildings to view our facilities and hear from our students, teachers and administration team. We will provide information of how to access our Open Day, through face book over the next three weeks.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone for the wonderful support you have offered me in my first semester at Mackay State High School. Please enjoy your upcoming holidays and stay safe.

Yours in Education

Felicity Roberts - Principal
#mackayhighpride

JUNIOR SECONDARY DATE CLAIMERS

STYMIE

SCHOLARSHIPS

The Mackay SHS P & C are offering eight scholarships for students attending our secondary education institution in 2021.

Scholarships on offer are;

  (a)  Academic excellence and
  (b)  Sporting prowess/potential and
  (c)  Arts – Cultural excellence

Scholarship holders will receive their benefits for Year 7 at Mackay State High School, provided they attend, abide by the school’s expectations, and maintain the excellence for which they were chosen.

Applications and your 200 word essay must reach your Primary School Principal by Monday 24 July 2020 to be considered. Late applications will not be considered. Scholarship packages can be downloaded from our Website or can be collected in person from the General Office.

POSITION VACANT

Mackay State High School would like to currently advertise for 2 X Permanent Part-Time Agriculture Assistant positions. This advertisement will also be posted shortly on our website and newsletter platforms.

The future positions requires excellent organisational skills, the ability to prioritise a diverse range of administrative and agricultural tasks, and the ability to work as part of a dynamic school operational team. The role also calls for the ability to communicate effectively with staff, students, parents and members of the wider community.

How to apply:

Applications should be submitted in writing by Close of Business 3rd of July 2020 in person at the school office or via email directly to admin@mackayshs.eq.edu.au.

SPORTS REPORT

Term 2 has been an interesting time for the HPE department. With the cancellation of sports at all levels, it has left many of us putting more time in to spending time on the individual skills of our students. Over the time of the home based learning, we were able to create YouTube videos for our sporting academy students to allow them to continue to develop their skills also including the Workout of the Week. Now with the return of students we are able to see the very important need that physical activity has in our lives. Physical Activity and sport provide an outlet for majority of the population to help their physical, social and mental health. There is no more important time than now that Health and Physical Education department owe it our students to provide them with opportunity to run around and be around their peers.

In regards, to school sports there are positive signs coming out of meetings that we will see a return of Interschool Sport in Term 3. We will provide you with more information as soon as we know. We also welcome more exciting news for the HPE department, as we announce that our Netball & Football academies will be extending into years 11 and 12. Over the next week, we will be talking with our current Year 10 academy students and finding out who will be continuing through to the senior years. Our three academies have also started to slowly get back into the swing of training with our Aaron Payne Cup squad training Monday, Wednesday & Friday mornings. The Cowboy Challenge squad are training Monday afternoons and Wednesday mornings. Our Football Academy are training at lunchtimes on Wednesdays and our Senior Vicki Wilson team are training Monday and Wednesday morning. I appreciate all of the time that our teachers Mr Graham, Mr Brock, Mr Kelly and Mr Radunz take out of their time to provide the best opportunities for our students.

As the term starts to come to an end a reminder that we are carrying out assessment task across all year levels so it is important that you attend school so that you’re able to complete your assessment for report writing. Once again thank-you for all of your patience through home-based learning and we look forward to being back at full capacity as soon as it is safe to do so.

Emma Forster
HOD HPE Department

Sports Equipment Hire

As a HPE department, our goal for the past few weeks has been to get students active at lunchtime. To combat this our sport and house captains have set up a gear hire system where every Tuesday and Friday students can hire sporting equipment. It has been a great success; students love the assortment of options available and the freedom to get outside a kick a ball around with their friends.

Wellness Walk Wednesday

Along with our gear hire, we have introduced Wellness Walk Wednesday. Students are encouraged to come to the oval on a Wednesday and are challenged to walk or run as many laps as they can within 20minutes. Every lap gains them one point for their house and the student with the most laps gets bragging rights and a whopping ten points for their house. We have had outstanding numbers and have had a lot of fun being active. With a few weeks to go our current house points are as follows:

1st Chataway- 231
2nd Forgan- 205
3rd Mackay- 195
4th Denniss- 178

COOK’S CORNER

Year 8

The year 8 Home Ec Food classes enjoyed cooking breakfast with a difference. They prepared a breakfast wrap consisting of egg, bacon, spinach, tomato, mushroom, grated fresh beetroot, and cheese with sauce of their choice all enclosed in a wrap which was then toasted before being devoured. They wished they could have this breakfast everyday.

Year 11

The year 11 Hospitality class practised making crepes filled with chicken and corn as preparation for their upcoming coffee shop next term.

SENIOR SCHOOLING

Work Experience

Year 11 Work Experience
14 – 17 July (Week 1 of Term 3)

These work placements allow students to experience the use of new and different equipment and technologies, and to develop a positive work ethic for future employment. Structured Workplace Learning also gives the student the opportunity to put into practice skills learned in the classroom. We have had many success stories from students participating in work experience with placements leading to part time work or school based apprenticeships and traineeships.

KP Placements arrange the location for the students in their preferred field. The cost for this service is $40.00 which is to be paid in cash to the school office prior to the application being accepted. Due to the COVID restrictions and having to wait for a decision to be made, there is a really short turn around for the paperwork to be returned. Applications were handed to interested students in class during week 8. Receipt of payment and applications should be handed to Mrs Esau in E6 this week.

Try Trades Program

The program will run in Term 3, however, dates have not been finalized due to COVID restrictions at some businesses. Students will attend the Mackay Engineering College one day a week for up to 5 weeks (likely during weeks 4 to 8).

All Year 10 students were told about the program last Wednesday in their VSW lesson and interested students were given an application form. Applications for the program were due back in Week 9. Ten successful students will be notified and the payment of $60 will then be requested.

MATHS TUTORING

QParents

The Qparents app is free and secure online portal that has been created by the Department of Education to provide parents of Queensland state school students with 24-hour access to their child's information.

The portal allows you to securely access information about your child and communicate directly with your child's school eg. Access Timetables, attendance details, payment of invoices, report cards and assessment dates plus more.

Find out more about QParents and download the app today.

WINTER UNIFORM

The Uniform Shop has been extremely busy with the cooler weather upon us. To make life easier you can purchase uniforms through our online store in the link below, the order can be collected from the General Office.

Students can wear the school jacket/track pant or a plain navy jacket/ trackpant during winter. Year 10, 11 & 12 students only may wear the nominated senior jersey. Girls can wear plain flesh coloured stockings. Hooded sweatshirts are NOT acceptable. Uniform passes will not be given for incorrect jackets.

The Uniform shop hours are Monday, Wednesday and Friday 8am to 11am

STUDENT SUPPORT SERVICES

SCHOOL BASED YOUTH HEALTH NURSE

Men’s Health Week (June 15-21) is about developing awareness of preventable health problems in men, encouraging men to attend regular medical check-ups and to seek medical help when needed.

Everyone’s physical and mental health fluctuates during their life – we all have ups and downs, and it is okay to ask for help when you need it. Seeking help does not make you weak – it makes you responsible.

Whether it’s your husband, partner, dad, brother, son or friend, you can help support the health and safety of the men in your life.

Breakfast Club

Yay!! We are finally open. Breakfast club is open on a Thursday morning only from 8am – 8.30am. Breakfast club is running a little differently at the moment. Students will served through the window to the hall kitchen. Hopefully soon we will be back to normal.

MACKAY STATE HIGH SCHOOL P & C

Next P and C meeting is on Monday 22nd June 6pm, in the staff common room.

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