10 November 2017

Newsletter Articles

Executive Principals Report

Dear Parents and Friends

We are fast approaching the end of the school year and our year 12 students are currently sitting their final block exams before their graduation next Friday. Our students are busy completing assessment across the school as well. It is important that our students stay focused at this time of year to ensure they complete all assessment tasks to the best of their ability.

Term 4 is always very busy with special events and it is critical that students are well organised and have time management strategies to ensure their academic studies are not compromised.

Year 12 QCS Data

Last weekend some of our year 12 students discovered that QCS results were entered into their accounts. We were informed by the QCAA that this was preliminary data and it has since been removed. The final QCS data will be published in student learning accounts on 15 November.

Music in the Night

Congratulations to all students who performed at Music in the Night last Friday evening. It was a fantastic showcase of our students’ musical talents and I was so impressed by the standard of our ensembles. I was very excited to see the newly developed Drum Line perform – and what a performance it was! Our instrumental staff are to be congratulated on the work they have put in with our students. It was obvious on the night that the staff and students really enjoy working together – and as a result the standard of performance is reflected in this.

Graduation 2017

We are once again excited to be able to have our Graduation Ceremony at the Queensland Tennis Centre where our whole school community can join in this very special celebration. I do hope you can join us and celebrate with the class of 2017. Please be sure to read the information provided to all students in relation to logistics and uniform requirements on the day.

Look forward to seeing you there.

Helen Jamieson
Executive Principal

School Dux

The Dux of the School is considered to be one of the most prestigious academic awards in our school. It is awarded to the year 12 student with the most outstanding academic results.

Congratulations to Didi Mulligan, Corinda’s 2017 Dux.

Didi successfully applied herself to a very demanding academic program and achieved straight As or Very High Achievements in all her subjects – which is an amazing achievement.

She also received the subject prize for Chemistry, English, Japanese, Legal Studies and Visual Arts as well as being awarded Debater of the Year.

Remembrance Day – Lest We Forget

A very moving ceremony was conducted on Friday for our Junior Secondary students. The Year 9 Humanities Excellence students researched and organised this event. Congratulations to our students. Hannah Hall-Young and Dhruv Singh attended the Corinda ceremony with Mrs Tracey Hall on Saturday representing our school. Some of our students also participated as Cadets. Great to see a Corinda presence at our community event. Thank you to all students and staff for the efforts made with this significant part of our countries history.

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

Breakfast Program

Earlier this term and following on from the success of the volunteering program, our year 9 leaders, Kiara and Hannah, approached the student services team to see if there was a way to provide support for young people at school. After much planning with the Youth Support Coordinator - Rachel Logo, Chaplain - Jeff Thomson, and our Indigenous Support Officer - Jacob Fauid, it was agreed to begin a breakfast program. With generous support from Citypointe Church at Inala we are now able to offer breakfast options on Friday morning. The program has had a successful start. Look out for the leaders before school on Friday mornings.

Code it Club

"CIY Club has been running since the beginning of term 3 and our students love learning about coding, 3D printing and website and app development. Why not come and join us on 15 November for a 4 week club to see if you like it too! Please visit our website below for further information or email Samantha at samantha@scopeiteducation.edu.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.

University of Queensland

The University of Queensland are calling for students to participate in research and earn $30. Please click on the attached pdf for more details.

The Smith Family

The Smith Family delivers a program which assists families with $500 to be used towards school costs. The aim is for participants to achieve a savings goal of $500, which Saver Plus matches with a further $500 per family to be spent on designated educational expenses. The program has now been running for 13 years and has assisted over 32,000 families.

Many of our successful families have received $500 in matched savings to assist with costs such as:

• School uniforms and shoes
• Text books and stationary needs
• School camps and excursions
• Sporting, art, dance or music fees
• Laptops or ipads

With the end of the school year looming, parents will soon be looking towards managing back to school costs for 2018. Saver Plus can assist greatly in this regard.

Science

Junior Science News

Wildlife Whisperers

Christopher Butcher-Agricultural Sciences Coordinator

Recently, the Wildlife Whisperers took part in a nocturnal frog survey at Oxley Creek Common. Andrew Schwenke, a senior student from QUT ran the activity. He started by leading students down to a pontoon on Oxley Creek. Holding up his mobile phone, he used an app to generate the call of Litoria fallax (Eastern Sedge Frog). Later, students skirted the edge of the wetlands in search of the calling frogs. One exciting find was Limnodynastes peronii (Striped Marsh Frog). It was perfect weather for frogs (but not for people) as there were scattered showers throughout the evening. As Andrew said: “That’s field work for you!”

Year 7 Science – Balloon Power

Katrina Engler-Year 7 Science Coordinator

This term, the year 7s are studying physics, specifically how forces impact on objects in motion. Students are designing and building balloon powered vehicles. Once they are built, they will test their designs to find the vehicle which travels the farthest and the fastest.

The students of 7F will be visited by Randeep Agarwal, a Scientist from CSIRO, who will provide a look into Newton’s Laws of Motion.

Year 8 Science - Under the microscope

Shoshanna Rippon-Year 8 Science Coordinator

Throughout this term, year 8 students have been learning all about the fundamentals of biology. Students have been practicing their slide making and microscope skills, looking at all kinds of weird and wonderful specimen.

Moving on through the term they are delving into cells, specifically types of cells and what they are made up of. Finally, they will be finishing up with the body systems and how they all work together to create life.

Amy Scott-Preimonas Head of Department – Junior Science

Agriculture

Sheep team success at Murwillumbah Show.

After a 3am start to cross the border, our sheep show team has achieved:

3rd place in 4-tooth ram
2nd place in 4-tooth ewe
2nd place in breeders group and
1st place in under 6 month ewe!

Congratulations to our dedicated students, parents and staff.

Corinda Farm

Our crops are growing well and the students are packaging them up to sell! Please see our student services counter. We have eggs, vegies, fruits and honey for sale.

The Arts

A huge thank you to the parents and friends who attended this year’s Music in the Night Awards evening. On the evening we showcased the different repertoire students have worked on this year and we welcomed along our first year with Drumline (and what a spectacular performance that was!) We celebrated the achievements of our students:

Resource Centre

We are all about making connections through the library.

Recently Ms Beamish related her adventures on the Joides Resolution. She spent 60 days on board the research ship as the education officer. The task of the scientists on the JR is to better understand climate change, geology and the earth’s history. And along the way they are finding out about the 8th continent of the world – Zealandia. Thank you Ms Beamish for such an entertaining and informative talk.

Dan Fallon and Pam Lanham led a session on some of our favourite picture books. This was aimed at all Corinda High people who had small children at home. We got involved in some spirited discussion and came away with a lot of suggestions for Christmas presents. Dan and I compiled a list of our top 10 picture books. If you would like a copy, please email me at planh1@eq.edu.au and I will send you a copy.

And we haven’t only been talking about picture books. Year 8 students are giving a talk on a favourite book they have read this year – and even though only two half classes have presented so far, we have heard about a wide variety of books. Some of them are shown below.

Year 12 students are reminded that all of their resources should now be returned to the library and their Clearance forms should be signed. All other students have received a courtesy notice which lists those resources that they have on loan from the library or Resource Hire. This list is not an overdue notice (although if an item is overdue we ask you to return it). This list allows students to reconcile the computer record with the resources they have out so there are no unpleasant surprises just before they leave school. If a student feels that this list does not reflect the items they have on loan, they are asked to come to the library to discuss the matter with the staff.

When all books are returned for 2017, returning students may borrow books for holiday reading.

Community Notices

Positive Parenting

Managing Christmas Chaos as a Sole Parent

Did anyone else blink and miss 2017? December is hard to navigate at the best of times, but when you’re a single parent it can be particularly challenging logistically, physically, emotionally and mentally.

The end-of-year school concerts, presentation ceremonies, work parties, school parties, social catch-ups, Christmas shopping, decorating, more parties … anyone else exhausted just reading this?

Nevertheless, here we are just weeks away from the busiest time of year, so it’s time to get proactive about managing the chaos that comes with Christmas.

1. Get technical

Technology has been my saviour in recent years. If it isn’t in my smartphone, it doesn’t happen! As soon as you receive an invitation or notification of an event, enter it into the calendar on your phone. This will minimise the risk of double bookings or at least get you on top of logistics early. For each event I set a reminder for a week ahead, a day ahead and an hour ahead.

Cozi (link below) is a scheduling app that can link multiple users within a family. If you and your ex-partner are on Cozi, you can both see important dates that have been scheduled, such as school concerts and end-of-year presentations. Cozi is particularly useful for families that have shared care of the kids, helping everyone to stay across important dates with much less risk of something getting missed.

There is also the Parachuute app (link below) to help with the logistics of getting multiple children to multiple locations. Created by two Melbourne mums, Parachuute is a carpooling app that allows you to tap into your trusted network for help with transporting the kids to their various events.

2. Ask for help

There is a reason the saying “It takes a village…” is so popular. It absolutely DOES take a village to raise a child, especially if you are doing it solo. You physically cannot be in two (or more!) places at once, so reach out and ask family, friends and neighbours you trust for help.

When I moved two hours away from our family home in Sydney, I didn’t know anyone. But less than a year later, I have a lovely bunch of friends – mostly parents of my sons’ friends – whom I feel confident I can turn to when I need extra help. It may feel uncomfortable, but asking for help is one of the simplest things you can do to manage the busyness of Christmas.

3. Lower the high expectations you’ve set for yourself

This was a big one for me. Once I realised that aiming for perfection was only going to lead to disappointment – let’s face it, nobody is perfect! – I relaxed the ridiculously high standards I had set for myself. These standards were borne of parent guilt, divorce guilt, any sort of guilt you can think of. I did the emotional and mental work necessary to loosen up and lower those expectations.

Why spend hours’ hand making individual gifts for teachers, coaches and dance instructors when a handwritten and heartfelt note of thanks will make just as much, if not more, of an impact?

4. Parenting down

My wonderful therapist shared this concept with me. It’s for those tough days – those times when everyone is a little exhausted, ratty and emotional. You don’t have to serve up a fresh, homemade meal with the perfect ratio of the five food groups. No way! If it’s been a tough day, parent down. That’s what 2-minute noodles or Weet-Bix for dinner is for. Give yourself a night off from your own expectations.

5. The gift of presence

Your financial situation changes when you separate, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. If money is a little tight, the kids won’t mind if there are less toys under the tree. Give the gift of your presence. Make a list of fun, low or no-cost experiences you can share together. Bushwalks, trips to the beach, even an afternoon running around under the sprinkler in the backyard. These are what memories are made of and memories last much longer than the latest Pokemon.

I also use this little ditty to keep a lid on gifts: “Something they want, something they need, something to wear and something to read.” Add some fun family experiences into the gift-giving mix and you’ll have happy kids.

Christmas can be a tough time of year for single parents. Getting on the front foot from an organisational point of view will stand you in good stead for managing the physical, logistical and emotional demands December brings.

Just keep swimming. You got this.

Michael Grose from Parenting Ideas

Fire Ants

Biosecurity Queensland needs your help to find where fire ants are. We ask that you check your property and let us know if you find any suspicious ants in your yard.

Fire ants

• have a coppery-brown coloured head and body with a darker abdomen
• are 2-6 mm in size and have multiple sizes within the one nest
• nests have no obvious entry or exit holes
• are very aggressive when their nest is disturbed
• sting and each sting comes up as a blister
• can cause allergic reactions in some people when stung. Seek medical attention if an allergic reaction occurs

Fire ants can seriously affect our lifestyle, environment and economy if not eradicated. It is important to remain vigilant and check your yard and neighbourhood regularly to help eradicate fire ants from your community.

Please discuss fire ants with your family and the risks they pose. If you see ants you think could be fire ants or a suspicious nest, please report it to Biosecurity Queensland. Let’s work together to eradicate fire ants.

To report suspect ants or for more information about fire ants, please call Biosecurity Queensland on 13 25 23, or visit www.biosecurity.qld.gov.au

A message from Biosecurity

Benarrawa Day

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