Newsletter-2015-04-02 - Clifton State High School

CLIFTON HIGHLIGHTS
From the Principal’s Pen
I would like to take this opportunity as we finish Term
1 to wish all of our students
and our families a Happy
Easter and a relaxing holiday break. We look forward to welcoming our students back for the commencement of Term Two on Monday,
20th April.
Events of the past fortnight have included Kokoda Challenge, Darling Downs
Basketball Trials and our P & C AGM.
Congratulations to all the students and
staff who competed in the Toowoomba
Kokoda Challenge. Clifton State High
School entered five teams this year,
four in the 30 km event and one in the
15 km event. The track was gruelling
due to the wet weather and our school
is very proud of these students and our
intrepid staff members. Special thanks
to Mr Clarke for coordinating training
and registration of our teams.
Congratulations also to our newly elected P & C Executive for 2015. This
year’s team comprises Dee Schwerin
as President, Des Schwerin and Angela
Campbell as Vice–Presidents, Susan
Smith as Secretary and Bernie Sutton
as Treasurer. Thank you also to our
out-going Executive comprising President Kevin Flynn, Vice-President, Glenda Harris, Secretary, Julie Earl and
Treasurer, Ali Gillam. The support of
our dedicated P & C Executive and
members is essential for the effective
achievement of school goals and programs. Our next P & C meeting will be
Tuesday, 21 April at 7 pm and all parents/carers are welcome to attend.
TERM 1
Special congratulations to Year 12
student, Eden McKee who received
a Certificate of Participation for her
involvement in the recent Centenary
of ANZAC Poetry Competition—
Don’t forget me, cobber. It is fantastic to have a student receive a certificate of recognition. Well done,
Eden!.
02 April 2015
CALENDAR
April
20
Term 2 commences
21-23 Naplan Practice Tests
21
P & C Meeting
27 & 29
QCS Training
Mighty Minds
28
Parent Teacher Interviews
Parents are reminded that our Parent-Teacher night will be held on
Tuesday, 28th April with further details to be provided.
teachers, so do try to attend.
Over the holidays is also a good
time to make sure that students
have the correct uniforms for the
We look forward to another busy and winter months. Track suit pants
productive term, when school reshould be blue and jeans of any desumes on the 20th April.
scription are not part of the uniform.
We do not want to see a proliferaTill next time ….
tion of coloured jumpers, so please,
if the student does not have the corYours in learning,
rect jumper or jacket, wear a navy
Joy Craig
blue one.
From the Deputy
Please note that you will be receiving your student’s report for Term 1
over the holidays. This report is for
Effort and Behaviour. The N in the
Achievement column indicates that
this was not reported on this term.
You will also find in with the report, a
letter regarding Parent Teacher Interviews which will be held on 28th
April. There is also a booking sheet
which you need to send with your
student to make bookings for you
with their teachers. Teachers will
certainly be able to provide you with
an update and discuss the student’s
achievement at the end of Term 1.
This is a great opportunity to build
the partnership between parents and
We have some students still reporting for school in the incorrect shoes,
so could you also attend to making
sure that students have the correct
shoes over the break.
Have a happy and safe holiday.
Charlotte White
Notes from the Senior
School
DREAM, BELIEVE [WORK]
SUCCEED
Clifton Cluster Pedagogical
Framework
Last newsletter, I focused on the
Discipline Mind which required that
students learn in different ways;
this week, the focus is on learning
in meaningful ways. This newsletter
is the Synthesising Mind. Basically,
synthesis is an important cognitive
ability allowing us to integrate ideas
from different sources or from different disciplines into a coherent
whole and communicate that to others. In the modern world, we are
deluged with information [facts, data, subject matter] and the questions are. What do we do with it?
What do we pay attention to and
why? What do we ignore and why?
When we do attend to it [ie take
account of it] how do we put it together and do so in a way that we
can hold on or retain the information and then convey it to others.
People have been synthesising in
the past, but the notion that it is
very important is newer.
To synthesize, we acquire information, probe it, evaluate it and use
or sideline it.
Exams and Assignments
Students and parents are reminded
that students need to submit check
dates and assignments on or before the due date. Extensions can
only be provided by the HOD or will
be advised by letter or on the
school newsletter, if it is a whole
group extension. Students failing to
submit an assignment on time will
require a medical certificate if ill
– the alternative is to email the assignment to the teacher on the due
date. Extensions cannot be provided to individuals on the day an assignment is due – prior arrangements are necessary. Exams must
be completed on the scheduled day
– absences also need to be cov-
ered by a medical certificate.
Prior arrangements can be made
to submit assignments or complete
examinations, if students are going
to be absent on a scheduled day
for important appointments or
events. (Please refer to the Assignment/Assessment Policy in the
Student Diary.)
All Senior students are expected
to complete all assessment – this
is critical for the eligibility for a semester credit in terms of the QCE.
All OP students are expected to
maximise every opportunity to deliver their best work.
Late assignments must be submitted but, unless there is a prior extension authorised by the HOD
Senior School, will not receive a
grading; they will, however, be
used to complete the folio and
show completion of course work.
In the event of Special Consideration, decisions will be made by the
HOD Senior School in conjunction
with the advice of the Guidance
Officer. In the event of Special
Consideration, it is important that
advice is timely so modifications
and changes are made prior to
assessments.
QCS TEST Preparation –Monday
27 and Wednesday 29 April, Pittsworth, 9.00am to 3.00pm. All OP
students need to attend.
QCS Test - calculator requirements – advance notice. Students
completing the QCS test need to
abide by these calculator requirements and should be using them
prior to the event to develop familiarity with the routines. Students
sitting the test will also need a protractor and a good quality compass. It is important that students
develop competence with the compass before this test.
Margaret Miller
HOD Senior School
QCS Test
QCS Test items are developed on
the basis that the type of calculator
used should not constitute an advantage or a disadvantage for a
student. The calculator should be
able to perform the basic functions
of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, square roots and
powers. Mobile phones are not
permitted; therefore, you will not be
able to depend on using the calculator facility of a mobile phone during the test. The calculator you
use is to be hand-held, solar or
battery operated, noiseless and not
attached to a printer.
The calculator must NOT have a
spellchecker, dictionary, thesaurus or translator. The calculator
must NOT have a computer algebra system (CAS) - whether inbuilt or downloaded. Graphing
calculators without CAS may be
used. These restrictions apply
since these capabilities could
prevent the proper testing of
some common curriculum elements (CCEs).
You must sign the Calculator declaration to certify that the calculator
you will use in the test meets the
requirements for approval and to
acknowledge that the use of any
other calculator is an act of academic misconduct in terms of sitting the QCS Test. Your calculator
will be checked before the test.
Junior Secondary
Every Student, Every Day
At our final JS Assembly this week,
we celebrated the successes of
our students who recently completed the Kokoda Challenge. As Mr
Clarke reported to the whole
school a few weeks ago, this was
an enormous undertaking for all of
our students, let alone our Year 7,
8 and 9s, and it was fantastic to
see so many of them accepting
this challenge and complete the
course of either 15 or 30 kms in the
mud and humidity. We also awarded a number of Red Car Licences
to our Year 7 and 9 students who
have been displaying exemplary
behaviour throughout this term. We
look forward to being able to enjoy
an exciting and well-deserved rewards day with them at the end of
Semester 1.
At our next JS Assembly, halfway
through Term 2, we will be inviting
the Gideons International to speak
with our students. They will deliver
a short talk on the history of the
organisation and will make copies
of the Bible available to students.
The collection of a Bible is optional
and will only be available to those
students attending the presentation; no student is obliged to take a
Bible. Parents have the option to
withdraw their child from the GI
presentation by informing the
school via a consent form which is
available, on request only, from
Care Group teachers or the office.
Students who are not participating
in the presentation will be removed
from the assembly at the start of
the presentation and supervised in
another part of the school.
Could you please arrange payment
to the school office. Thank you.
Wishing you all a happy and safe
Easter break.
Registration forms for the school
dentist have been handed to Year 7
-10 students, recently. If you would
like your child to participate in the
free dental care program, please
complete this form and return to the
school office by Tuesday, 21st
April.
Alice James & Ekta Sharma
HOD Junior Secondary School
Newsletter via email
If you would like to receive a copy
of the school newsletter via email
please contact the school office or
contact nbiel1@eq.edu.au
Statements
Oral Health
Dental Health Van
Yr 12 Easter Raffle
Congratulations to the winners of
the Year 12 Easter Raffle.
1st—Lucy Campbell
2nd—Taryn Turl
Account statements have been included with the report mailout.
On Friday, 20th March our school participated in the National Day
of Action against Bullying and Violence. This day provided a focus
for our school to say Bullying. No Way! which helped strengthen
the existing everyday message that bullying and violence at Clifton State High is not okay. As a school, we supported this campaign by introducing a week of activities in our morning care
groups outlining a number of issues relating to bullying. We also
participated in an ‘odd socks’ day which was aimed at supporting
the difference and diversity within our school.
Special thanks to the Anti- Bullying Committee and all students
and staff who got involved in the day.
Focussing on what we want to see more of !
On March 18th Az Hamilton from Just Motivation presented a talk to our Grade 9-11s. Az
shared his experiences as a radio show host on the Sunshine Coast who was invited by
Compassion International to visit Haiti in 2008. He described the eye-opening experience of
visiting a third-world country, as well as the sheer terror he felt being caught up in the deadly riots that engulfed the island a few days after he arrived.
After returning to Australia, Az has spent the last few years challenging and motivating teenagers to make a difference in their world, starting with the TAG-Your IT program. Operating
from the premise that, “If you aren’t willing to change your own backyard, you won’t change
the world”, TAG operates by challenging teenagers to do one nice thing for someone and
then to encourage that person to pass on or “TAG” someone else with a good deed.
The program has been phenomenally successful across Queensland and has served to
help break down many negative stereotypes that society has regarding teenagers.
Our Clifton students interacted really well
during the sessions and “Tagging” has already started at Clifton High. Let the
“Ripple Effect” begin……
Chappy Doug
Chappy Doug with Ax Hamilton from TAG
On Sunday, 22nd May, five teams of four students and one adult
braved the extremely wet and muddy conditions to undertake either
the 15km or 30km Toowoomba Kokoda Challenge. This challenge
is based on Australia’s most gruelling endurance challenge held at
the Gold Coast and money raised by the competitors goes to the
Kokoda Kids Foundation to aid at risk Australian youth.
The event is designed to
push the competitors to
their physical and mental limits, in an effort to mimic some of the challenges faced by Australian troops on the Kokoda Trail. The tough
course snaked its way through Redwood and Jubilee Parks and led the
competitors up and down the Toowoomba Range, a total of four agonising times.
The goal of the Kokoda Challenge is to ensure that every competitor
completes the entire distance of the event. To achieve this goal, we
needed to be very fit and as such, we trained for 90 mins, two times a
week, since the third week of Term One. We also took time on weekends and holidays to travel to Toowoomba to tackle some more difficult
terrain. The commitment shown by everyone involved was because we
were determined to achieve our goal of all competitors crossing the finishing line. Many thanks to our personal trainer Mr Dom Clark for the
hours he spent working with us to ensure that we were at peak fitness
on Challenge day.
The first of the Clifton State High teams across the line was the 15km
team of teacher, Angela Campbell and Year 7 students Clayton Brady,
Shyne Pointon, Bella Ebneter and Yr 11 student, Georgia West. This
team achieved their goal shortly after 11:00am on Sunday, crossing the
finish line together as a team. A really brilliant effort!
Four teams set out to compete in the 30km Challenge event. The three
remaining 30km teams took a bit longer to get to the finish line, but I’m
extremely proud to report that every single student did cross the line,
and unlike a large percentage of other school teams, had no competitor
pull out of the race.
The teams were:
Ekta Sharma, Darcy Brady, Mark Smith, Alek Ebneter and Cody Jackson (2:15pm)
Dom Clarke, Sarah Mantova, Laura Neilsen, Dan Coughran and Jackson Free (2:30pm)
Ian Craig, Asher Casley-Priest, Tzani Casley-Priest, Emily Craig and
Phil Lowry(2:30pm)
Michael McCulloch, Will Auld, Elijah McCulloch, Lachlan Harris and
Rylan Saville (3:17pm)
Special congratulations to parent team of Anne and Glenn Casley-Priest
who completed the 30km 2 person team event finishing at 2:40pm.
This was a fantastic effort and one that adds another chapter to our
schools success with the Kokoda Challenge.
A challenge like this cannot occur without support and there are so
many to thank for helping make this success a reality. Firstly, all of the
competitors’ families made huge sacrifices to ensure we were able to
compete. Thanks for transporting and cooking and massaging and putting up with the whinging and providing the hugs and hot chocolates
that made us feel so good at the end of a tough day. It is very much appreciated by all of us. Thanks also must go to Mrs Tracy Kirby, who
supported our teams by manning the start and finish lines on the day.
The Clifton State High team is a combination of competitors and supporters who banded together to achieve sporting success.
Ekta Sharma
E
den McKee was recently presented
with a certificate on parade for her
participation in The Hon. Bruce Scott MP’s
Centenary of ANZAC Poetry Competition
- Don’t forget me Cobber.
In his letter to the school, Mr Scott said
that whilst Eden was not successful on this
occasion of winning a placing, he was impressed at the high standard of the entries
received and the understanding of the
Spirit of ANZAC.
Congratulations
K
iara Bressington started 2014
with a Junior Sporting Australia Day Award for her contribution to
horse sport.
In May, Kiara won Reserve Champion in her age group at the Texas
school horse sports and then in August she was Age Champion at the
Goondiwindi School Horse Sports.
Throughout the year, Kiara and her
horse Jackson placed in the top five
of every gymkhana they competed
in. They do all aspects of horse riding and their favourite events are:
Barrel Racing; Cainbooya Classic;
Flag Race; Jumping; and Campdraft.
At the P.C.A.Q Championships held at Taroom in September 2014, Kiara and Jackson placed 3rd in
the formal Gymkhana. The next day she placed 1st in the Sporting Gymkhana; a dream Kiara has
had since she started competing.
In the school holidays in April, 2015, Kiara and Jackson are off to Coonamble to ride in the Queensland Team to compete in the N.S.W. State Championships. They will do the Sporting Gymkhana on
the Saturday and the Campdraft on the Sunday.
Good Luck, Kiara!
Y
ear Eight student, Lucy Mantova, last week competed at the
Queensland State Secondary School Swimming Championships
held at Chandler in Brisbane.
Lucy was selected to represent the Darling Downs at the Championships in the 13 years girls 50m Freestyle and the 13 years girls 4 x
50m Freestyle relay.
Lucy swam a personal best (PB) time of 31.19secs in her individual
event, improving her Freestyle time by .17secs and placed fifth in her
heat.
This is the sixth Darling Downs sporting team that Lucy has been selected in, over the past three years.
Lucy Mantova competed at the Queensland State Secondary School Swimming Championships last
week.
H o s p i t a l i t y As s e s s m e n t
During this last week of term, I had the opportunity to visit the students
undertaking the Cert II in Business while they were on work experience. I was blown away by the incredible feedback that I received from
each student’s host employer. Every student was praised on the enthusiasm, hardwork and professionalism they displayed, while on work
experience. Many host employers were so impressed that they said
they would not hesitate to take on other Clifton State High School students in the future.
A huge congratulations to: Adam Barton, Dylan Cougar, Bailey Dong,
Sally Gilbert, Amber Goodall, Lachlan Trimingham, Stacey Christensen, Josephine Derkos, Emma Facer, Stuart Flynn, Anthony Gillam,
Rachel Grice, Michael Kelk, Jessica McKenzie, Shania Newman, Caleb
Thompson and Georgia West.
Your fantastic attitudes and work ethic have positively
reflected on yourselves and Clifton State High School.
Good work!!!
Year 11 and 12 students Nathan Watson (Yr 12) and Branden Torcetti (Yr 11) were recognised at
school assembly recently as the number one students for topping their manufacturing classes. Each
received their own special pair of welding gloves, purchased and donated by their course instructors.
Manufacturing is offered as a Study Area Specification (S.A.S) subject at Clifton State High and these
two young men are showing their classmates how to weld and are giving them a good run for their
money at the same time.
Instructors, Brendon Thorpe and Graham Smith, assessed the 18 manufacturing students on a points
system and Nathan and Branden came out in front of their colleagues.
Students were scored out of 10 against six criteria related to their practical work and study. The criteria
were based on Attendance, Being Ready and Prepared with their Personal Protective Equipment
(P.P.E) for their lessons, Motivation, Etiquette
during class, Consistency and leaving a tidy
workspace at the end of sessions.
Brendon Thorpe is new to staff this year and has
come from the Longreach District to teach Manual Arts and Manufacturing. Graham Smith is the
Groundsman here at the school and, with over
20 years of experience in the manufacturing
trade, was quickly seconded into the Trade
Training Centre to share his knowledge and expertise and help with instructing.
The kids have taken to the course really well
Brendon said. “They are all really keen and
seem to want to learn as much as they can and get as much practical experience as possible which is
good to see. I haven’t taught manufacturing as a S.A.S subject before to be honest and had to go back
to both University and T.A.F.E to get accredited and pass competency tests on the machines used in
the manufacturing industry. But for my first ever senior manufacturing classes, I couldn’t be happier
with the kid’s progress and eagerness.”
It was good to see the Trade Training Centre up and running and in full swing this year. Graham said
that he enjoyed seeing the kids improving and gaining confidence. “At least 50% of the students in both
classes hadn’t welded before, or if they had, they had done very little. To see them come in to class
confidently now and jump on any of the six welders and master but welds and fillet welds etc in 8
weeks or so makes you feel proud when you know you’ve taught those kids something in a couple of
months or so. I get a kick out of teaching them and enjoy it. It’s a skill they’ll have for life and can take
with them wherever they end up in the next few years”.
Brendon and Graham both commented that even though Nathan and Branden came out on top of the class this time,
there was a good number of students
very close behind them and trying harder
than ever to knock them off and claim the
title for the next set of gloves.
LEARN ABOUT YOURSELF!
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new
eyes”. (Marcel Proust, 19th century novelist)
Volunteer to host an international high school student through Southern Cross Cultural Exchange and prepare to be amazed at how this unique and rewarding experience can help bring
your family together, understand themselves better and see the world in a new light.
We have students aged 15-18 arriving from France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Scandinavia in July
2015 who are seeking welcoming families all over Australia, in both rural and urban communities. They will live like a local, attend a local secondary school, arrive with their own spending money and comprehensive insurance cover – all arranged by Southern Cross Cultural Exchange.
Capture the spirit of family and friendship - visit us on Facebook or at www.scce.com.au, email
scceaust@scce.com.au or call us toll free on 1800 500 501 to request a booklet of international
student profiles.