11 October 2017

Newsletter Articles

Executive Principals Report

Dear Parents and Friends

It is hard to believe that we are in the final quarter of our school year and our year 12 students are busily preparing for their final exams and proposed celebrations. An exciting time for our Seniors, however it is important that they stay focused and make sure every piece of assessment counts pushing up their results as high as they can.

Term 4 is always presents a very full calendar of events and I encourage you all to take the time to come and be a part of our celebrations. We have so much amazing talent in our midst and I know our students really appreciate your support and encouragement.

Prior to the vacation I joined 20 other Principals and the Director General of Education on a World Class study tour of Shanghai and Singapore to observe their education systems, visit schools and universities and better understand how we can develop our Asia capabilities. I learnt so much about their systems, their direction and how we as a country will be competing with them on the global scale. It was interesting to note that all three of our countries have similar skills sets (general capabilities) that we are trying to develop in our young people.

I had 10 very full days in Shanghai and Singapore learning about their education systems, doing school visits and visiting Trade and Investment Queensland listening to developments in these countries. Both countries were quite a contrast, but reinforced the importance for us to be Asia literate.

In both countries I counted a minimum of 40 students in classrooms. They traded this off for more planning time. Singapore had a strong focus on holistic education, Shanghai had a strong focus on their performance in PESA. We also had the opportunity to visit an international technology company called Huawei (pronounced Warwei). We toured their research and innovation centre and saw their vision for 5G (2020), and what we expect with wireless connectivity, self-driving cars, drones and more. It was very interesting. Their vision is for ‘Designed in China’ as opposed to ‘Made in China’.

A big welcome back to our overseas French trippers! What a fantastic opportunity this was for our students, parents and staff. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our parents and staff who gave up their time to accompany our students. Thanks to Tracey Hall and Rebecca Stanton for all your hard work in making this happen!

I am pleased to advise that one of our year 12 students have accepted an invitation to act as Masters of Ceremonies at the 2017 Showcase Awards for Excellence in Schools Gala Dinner in Brisbane on Friday 27 October. Congratulations Anna Heckenberg. Anna was invited to share the role with Kai Johnson from Palm Beach-Currumbin State High School, following their involvement at Creative Generation – State Schools Onstage in July.

Term 4 here we go….

Welcome back and I do hope you had an enjoyable Spring break.

Helen Jamieson
Executive Principal

Coming Events

Open Classrooms – After School Tutoring

Students can get expert help for assignments and assessment, every Monday to Thursday 3 - 4 pm in the air-conditioned comfort of the library. Each day offers a different tutor for each subject area.

Student Services

Student Leadership Program

Last week, the inside and out academy class, along with the year 9 SLP volunteers, supported the charity 'Share the Dignity' by holding a dignity drive. The students were successful in gathering a large volume of donations and we are proud to say that we have been able to provide approximately 16 pre-loved handbags filled with sanitary and toiletry items to women in need. Congratulations volunteers on your efforts to support this worthy cause.

Free Dental Check Ups

Have your children had a recent dental check-up, we have free dental appointments available right now!

All children aged four through to yar 10 with a current Medicare card are eligible for FREE dental care at our clinics. All adults and children with a Centrelink, Healthcare or Pension Card are also eligible. You can choose the clinic most convenient for you.

Please call 1300 300 850 to book an appointment for your child.

• There is know no need to wait on line when you call– just leave your contact phone number and our friendly staff will call you back.
• You can choose the dental clinic you wish to attend.

For more about Metro South Oral Health and services we provide please visit our website or contact us via email metrosouthoralhealth@health.qld.gov.au.

QParents

Have you joined QParents?

Parents will have received an invitation email or letter by now and it’s great to see that so many parents have registered already. If you have not received an invitation, please advise us immediately by emailing info@corindashs.eq.edu.au. Over time, QParents will become an integral part of how we communicate with parents. Get on board to enjoy the ease and convenience that QParents offers.

Languages

Japanese Film Festival

The Japanese Film Festival in Australia (JFF) is presented by The Japan Foundation, Sydney. The JFF started in 1997 with three free film screenings by former festival director Masafumi Konomi, and is now one of the largest celebrations of Japanese films in the world. If you like Japanese films, now is your opportunity to see them in Brisbane. Please visit the website below to find screen times and information about each film.

Date: 25 - 29 October 2017
Venue: Event Cinemas Brisbane Myer Centre

International

On the last Thursday of term our international students spent the day at Sea World. On the day the students get to know each other and enjoy a local attraction. Many of the students had never seen a dolphin or a shark before. All students watched the awesome penguin show and were mesmerised by the clever dolphins. Some lucky students had an opportunity to see the baby polar bear. Sea World is all about conservation and preservation of the sea. It is important that our students understand how precious sea animals and the environment are to our local communities. Each year we take our international students out to a tourist attraction to help showcase our beautiful home, Queensland.

Humanities

Saron Shines at Constitutional Convention

Last Thursday, legal studies students from 15 schools across the region gathered at the Queensland Parliament House to investigate the topic “Should Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples be recognised in Australia’s constitution?”. They were given the opportunity to share their thoughts with other students, listen to a presentation delivered by interest groups and to participate in their own referendum to decide the issue. Also a part of the day’s proceedings was the chance for one representative from each school to share a two-minute speech outlining their opinion. Of these, the top five students were selected to represent Queensland at the National Constitutional Convention in Canberra in March 2018. Corinda’s representative, Saron Libanos, placed second and will be travelling to Canberra next year. This is the second year Corinda will be sending a representative, with Didi Mulligan attending the 2017 National Convention earlier this year.

Ms Amy Heymer

Mathematics

The Mathematic Challenge for Young Australians (MCYA)

In term 2, the year 7 – 9 Maths/Science Excellence classes participated in the challenge stage of the MCYA’s. This 3 week staged program is designed to motivate, stimulate, encourage and develop young mathematician’s interests and talents in complex problem solving. The types of problems the students had to try and solve are very difficult and may have taken the students a few days to work through. Last term we received the results and our Maths/Science Excellence students performed incredibly well. We had 9 students awarded with a Credit, and 3 students awarded with a Distinction.

Year 8 Credit and Distinction Awardees

Front Row L-R: Katala, Maryam, Ruby and Phoebe
Back Row L-R: Vincent, Mack, Tri and Andrew

Gifted and Talented

Golden Opportunity Learning Day

On Friday 15 September, we hosted a fantastic design and built environment workshop for students from Corinda, Oxley, Sherwood, Goodna and Darra State Schools as well as students from St Joseph’s Corinda. The children from year 4, 5 and 6 worked incredibly hard all day to complete their space station design. Mr Stephen Thrum, our resident space guru, was a huge hit with the students as always and every child left feeling inspired.

Program of Excellence 2018

On Thursday 7 September, we hosted the first of our welcome events for students joining our Maths/Science and English/Humanities Programs of Excellence in 2018 at Corinda SHS. This first welcome afternoon was attended by both parents and students and allowed families to get to know one another and have a detailed look at the type of learning students will participate in next year. Once the final letters of invitation have gone out to families in the next few weeks, incoming families will be invited to a further Program of Excellence event on Thursday November. (Invitations will be emailed to parents)

Year 10 Honours 2018

Letters of invitation to Year 10 Academic Honours for 2018 will be send out in the following weeks. Students may be invited to participate in one or more honours classes. If you would like detailed information or to enquire if your child is eligible please feel free to contact Erin Clare at echud0@eq.edu.au.

The Applied Studies

On Tuesday 12 September 2017, the partnership luncheon was held at the Corinda State High School hall. It was a smooth and well run event that had a lot of helpers. A big thank you to our year 10 Certificate I in Hospitality class for helping cook and prepare the food before the event and cleaning up dishes after the event, year 12 Certificate III and Certificate IV in hospitality students looking very professional and smart in their chef uniforms helping with serving and carrying the hot food. Lastly, a big thank you to year 11 Certificate III in Hospitality students for helping set up the, cutlery, menus, flowers, carrying down equipment and tables for the whole function, it was a great experience seeing them learn how it would be if they wanted a future in events. The students were very well behaved, listened to the teachers’ instructions and it was fantastic seeing everyone working as a team. A very huge thank you to the following teachers; Miss Bunce, Mrs Hackett, Miss Rice, Mrs Shearer and the school tuckshop chef, Jason for preparing the meat. This function was very successful as the food and service was a wonderful positive representation of Corinda State High School.

Science and Agriculture

Junior Science

Actively Global: Solar Buddy

Find a problem and do something about it! That is exactly what a keen group of students from year 8 did. The students built solar buddy lights that will be sent to children in less fortunate countries so they are able to learn at night and do homework.

Children in Ethiopia have experienced energy poverty, forcing them to use kerosene lamps which have been linked with the same adverse health effects as smoking two cigarette packets a day. These negative effects lead to numerous deaths each year, throughout Ethiopia.

The solar buddy lights charge throughout the day as sunlight enters them and converts it into electricity. These lights can last up to four hours.

The year 8 students feel very privileged to have participated in this initiative to help the children of Ethiopia. We are really grateful to our teacher, Miss Rippon, for helping us with this global enterprise. Throughout this project, we were able to reflect on how lucky we are.

If you want to make a difference to other children and communities that live in energy poverty, visit the link below. The website will show you how to get involved as an individual or as a group. Even just giving a little donation will change their lives.

Callista Doan and Tam Le 8A

Year 8 - Toohey Forest Incursion

On Wednesday 13 September, 100 students in year 8 attended a Toohey Forest Environmental Education Centre (TFEEC) incursion. The incursion was called Energy Futures, and focused on informing and teaching students about how electricity is used, how electricity is maintained, where electricity comes from and the current situation regarding electricity in and throughout Australia. Throughout this incursion, students participated in many exciting activities, these activities included measuring electricity in everyday household items, using batteries and different insulators to turn a light bulb on, creating a diverse range of mini windmills and testing their ability at creating electricity and overall, growing an understanding about electricity and how much we rely on it. On behalf of the year 8 cohort, we would like to thank the TFEEC staff who came out to Corinda to share their valuable knowledge with us.

Bogdan Radovanovic 8L

Amy Scott-Preimonas Head of Department – Science (Junior)

Resource Centre

A busy start to term 4 in the library. This week our senior open readers cup teams had their competition at Indooroopilly State High School. Teamwork and enthusiasm was in abundance and the whole evening was fun for all. Well done teams! Junior competitions start next week.

Halloween is just around the corner and our students have already started working on decorations for the library.

Teacher Spotlight

Erin Clare - Teacher and Head of Gifted and Talented Programs

1. What is the best thing about Corinda High? Our incredible students, they are the best kids I have ever worked with.
2. What is your favourite colour? Blue
3. What TV show do you love? Vikings
4. What is your Junk food of choice? Pizza…the whole thing… I do not do sharing!
5. Do you have a Hobby? Yoga
6. Who is the best band/singer of all time? No question…. Zac Brown Band
7. What sport do you love to watch? Hmmm none, I am rubbish at sport so I am not a huge fan of watching others do what I cannot… hehehe
8. If you could only travel to one more destination in the world, where would you go? To the tiny village in Scotland where I used to live.
9. What do you love about teaching? My students, I love them!
10. What is your favourite life quote? Work out what it is that you really want and then learn how to ask for it.

Positive Parenting

The things parents say in front of their children have wide-ranging effects on their learning, confidence and behaviour.

Ever said something about another person in front of your children, only to hear one of the kids repeat those words in public when the subject of your comments is around? Yes, children’s blatant honesty can embarrass the hell out of their parents. We need to be mindful of what we say in front of our children.

But being embarrassed by our children is only half the communication story. As celebrated US psychologist Martin Seligman found in his ground-breaking research about optimism, children usually reflect the explanatory style of their primary parent by the age of eight. So, for instance, if a parent is a raging pessimist there’s every chance that their kids will pick up and convey the same ‘woe is me’ way of viewing the world from an early age. As parents, this means we need to be really mindful of how we present the world to our kids.

Kids take their cues from parents as trusted adults

But it’s not just with optimism or pessimism that we need to be careful about our messaging. Kids take their cues from their parents as they work out how to behave and belong in all sorts of ways. Tell a child he has a learning difficulty and he’ll believe it. Tell a child she has a behaviour problem and she will believe that. Tell them they are no good at maths and the message will more than likely stick. And why not? Children look at parents as wise, trusted adults who know a thing or two about the world. Even adolescents, who are renowned for wanting to challenge the authority and world view of their parents, still use their parents as significant reference points .Parents who talk down other people – including teachers, friends and family members – in the vicinity of their children are teaching those kids to devalue those same people. Even when we vent about someone else out of sheer frustration we are shaping our children’s views about those people.

For all these reasons, as parents we need to be so careful about the messages we give out.

‘I don’t have to do that work’

Recently I heard how a thirteen-year-old girl refused point blank to work for a teacher as her mother had said that the teacher’s expectations were unreasonable. Miss 13 cited her mother’s views when she refused to get to work saying, “My mum says I’ve got a problem with learning. She says you need to take it easy on me but you don’t. I don’t have to do your work!”

This type of entrenched view is very difficult for a teacher to encounter without ridiculing the parents and the young person. However, stories like this are more common than most people think. They reinforce the notion that parents need to be mindful of what they say in front of their children, whether that be about the child’s abilities, their teachers or anyone else.

Negative views can easily shut down kids’ learning. Some children are quicker than others to latch on to even a skerrick of their parents’ negativity as an excuse either not to work or to lower the expectations of others.

Sometimes it best to say nothing at all

As adults we have all sorts of opinions that don’t necessarily need to be shared with our kids. We may hold strong political views for example, but if young people are to formulate their own opinions then it may wise to curb our opinions when they are around.

Similarly, it may be smart to keep mum if our views about religion, sexuality and ethnicity are intolerant or don’t follow the mainstream. That’s not to say we don’t discuss these issues at home. Children and parents in healthy families are able to discuss all manner of issues, with even extreme views tolerated and challenged rather than mindlessly expressed and held as if they are the only possible truth.

Community Notices

UQ Research

Currently, intelligence testing often fails to engage students, which results in test scores that are not reflective of true ability. This failure of cognitive ability testing poses a number of problems and can limit educational opportunities. To address this problem, we are hoping to validate new measures of IQ resulting in a more accurate and equitable approach to cognitive ability testing.

What would be involved for the students?

Each student will be asked to complete a formal IQ test, the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, and measures of memory and mental control. They will also complete a range of iPad games, which are designed to be reflective of a number of cognitive abilities typically measured in formal IQ tests. The testing session is expected to take one-and-a-half to two hours in total. The research has been approved by the ethics review board at the University of Queensland.

What benefit is there for the students?

Each student will receive $30 for their participation and parents will also have the option to be given the results of their IQ test (which would typically only be available at substantial expense).

Sherwood Arboretum

Sherwood Arboretum’s ‘open house’ – a tree walk on Saturday 14 October.

The Curator and volunteer guides of Brisbane Botanic Gardens invite you to an ‘Open House’ with a difference – the opportunity to discover Sherwood Arboretum’s stunning tree collection on Saturday 14 October.

This FREE 90-minute guided walk, starting at 9.30 am from the Jolimont Street entry, is being held to celebrate Arbor Day, which recognises the importance of trees to our world. With the help of the Oxley- Chelmer history group, you will also learn the history behind this heritage-listed collection of more than 1000 trees.

The Friends of Sherwood Arboretum Association (FOSA) is joining with Brisbane Botanic Gardens in presenting this guided walk, which finishes with morning tea among Queensland’s rainforest giants.

The $5.00 cost per adult (students and children are free) for morning tea supports FOSA’s voluntary work in the Arboretum.

Our numbers are limited so please remember to RSVP to info@sherwoodarboretum.com.au or call 3278 6525 as soon as possible.

Brisbane City Council marks Arbor Day with the free distribution of trees to local school. For the record, Arbor Day was first held in Nebraska in the United States in 1872.

RSPCA

Choose how to add this event to your calendar:

Apple Calendar iPhone, iPad, Mac - Download .ics file

Outlook Desktop Outlook - Download .ics file

Android Calendar Android devices - Download .ics file

Other Calendar Google Calendar, Yahoo, etc. - Download .ics file

Download Event