25 July 2018

Newsletter Articles

Executive Principals Report

Dear Parents and Friends

A very warm welcome back to term 3 to our Corinda SHS families.

We are heading into a very important time for our year 12 students as they finalise their tertiary admissions applications and prepare for their Queensland Core Skills (QCS) test. We have been working closely with our students to ensure they perform at their optimum level in the QCS test, and we have additional preparation classes planned to assist students with their identified areas. Please encourage your students to take up these opportunities, as their performance on QCS will have a big impact on subject contributions to their OP score.

Student’s levels of achievement will be verified by the QCAA at the end of this term. It is very important that the students continue to perform at their highest level as ‘fullest and latest’ is taken into account when determining a student’s final level of achievement

NEW QCE heading into the future

Our year 10 students and staff have been preparing for the implementation of the New QCE (Queensland Certificate of Education) and SATE (Senior Assessment and Tertiary Entrance). Year 10 students and families have completed their SETplanning for 2019/2020 with the senior schooling team at the end of term 2. Students are encouraged to monitor their goals regularly and book a review meeting if needed as soon as they meet their goals.

Teachers have been preparing the units and new style of assessment for the new subjects being offered. The next phase is to prepare the students for success in this new style of assessing and learning. The students will have to retain new information for a much longer period of time then ever before.

As a school we are making sure we stay in front of the curve by having specialist staff attend all available professional development, researching what happens in other states in preparation for ATAR, and participating in various cluster groups of high schools so that we can share our collective knowledge and learning.

Reporting and Parent teacher interviews

By now, all families should have received their report cards and had any required Parent / Teacher interviews. It is always great to see parents taking up the opportunity to come and meet with teachers and obtain some more detailed feedback on student progress. This sends a very strong message to students that their education is important to you and reinforces the partnership between home and school. If you were unable to attend these interviews due to other commitments, the staff are always happy to make alternative times for interviews that are more suitable to your family routines. Please do not hesitate to contact us and we will do our best to accommodate your needs.

Preconditions for learning

At Corinda SHS we believe there are some simple preconditions for learning for student success.

• It is an expectation that teachers know their learners. Part of this is teachers examining the data associated with your student to build the best picture of their strengths and weaknesses so they can lift and stretch their performance.
• We have high expectations on student presentation and behaviour. The reputation of the school in the greater community can play a large role in helping your student be successful in their post school options.
• Lastly it is important to focus on what is most important to success - your student being in class as much as possible. We have a minimum school target of 95% attendance. The work of the Engagement teacher, housemasters and support staff has seen an improvement of the standard across the school.

It is important that the school continues to question how change impacts a student’s ability to succeed. Will the change of routine support or hinder student learning?

Helen Jamieson, Executive Principal

Coming Events

Important Notice

Please note that Education Queensland has amended the guidelines for telephone payments and for security reasons schools are no longer able to take credit card payments over the phone.

Should you wish to pay your student fees via telephone, please call the Education Queensland BPoint secure number: 1300 631 073.

It is important to note that when calling this number, you will need to provide your CRN number which appears on the bottom left hand side of your debtor statement or invoice.

Should you have any further queries on this change, please feel free to contact our student services staff.

Arts Happenings

Dance

Dance in focus

Our mid-year dance celebration, Dance in Focus, featured dances from Years 7 to 12 classes, Dance Excellence classes, Dance Troupes and 37 excited dancers from Sherwood State School. The night was an amazing showcase of our talented dancers. We thank our dancers, teachers, parents, Sherwood SS and the Corinda SHS community for supporting a fantastic night of dance! We would also like to thank those who donated to our fundraising raffle or purchased/sold tickets – we raised over $600.00 to go towards improving our dance change rooms. Thank you also to the Friends of Corinda Music who sold snacks and drinks on the night.

Creative Generations State Schools on Stage

Some of our very talented dancers performed in Creative Generations – State Schools on Stage over the last weekend of the holidays following months of preparation and rehearsal. The girls performed in the featured dance and massed dance sections throughout the show. We commend them on their dedication to developing their industry dance skills by being involved in this large scale professional performance.

Drama

Year 7 and 10 Drama Evening

On Wednesday 20 June our talented year 7 and 10 students performed their term 2 assessment pieces. The year 7 students presented a collage drama performance on the topic of bullying to which they contributed their thoughts, ideas and feelings.

The year 10 physical theatre performance focussed on the issue of refugees through Sally Mackenzie’s play ‘Scattered Lives’. The emotional and thought provoking performance evoked memories from some members of our audience who were impressed that both these very important topics were included in the performance.

Visual Art

Our Year 7 Art Excellence students have been completing some exciting and innovative work through clay mask making and dot painting based on the concept of DNA. The students’ work is pictured, and will be displayed in the school library.

Music

Last term our senior music students performed for their assessment in the drama studio. The standard displayed was impressive and featured performances ranging from vocals to piano, violin to woodwind and exciting drum solos! The students were well-prepared for the evening thanks to our talented Music teachers.

Instrumental Music

Our very talented Saxophone Quintet led by Mr Tom Stewart and Amadeus Strings led by Mrs Fiona Lougheed performed at the Peak to Points Festival on Sunday 15th July showing great dedication as this was the last day of the school holidays.

Creative Generations State Schools on Stage

Some of our talented string students also performed in the Massed String Ensemble at Creative Generations – State Schools on Stage over the last weekend of the holidays following months of preparation and rehearsal. We commend them on their dedication to developing their music skills by being involved in this large scale professional performance.

Language News

Scholarships

Kyarah Keane of year 10 has been successful in gaining a scholarship to China. The 2018 Queensland Student Study Tour to Jiangsu China will take place in September. This trip is fully funded and Kyarah will have an opportunity to visit famous landmarks, immerse herself in the culture and of course use her Chinese language. Congratulations Kyarah we know you will have the trip of a lifetime.

We are pleased to announce that Van Ngo (Year 11) has been shortlisted for the Iwasaki Sangyo Japanese Scholarship. This is a prestigious scholarship that has been offered to Queensland students for the past 20 years. It is very difficult to be shortlisted and we wish Van all the best for the next part of the selection process.

Competitions

At the end of May the majority of our language students took part in the Education Perfect World Language Championships. We have received certificates for these students and in the next few weeks we will distribute them to all students. Over 100 students will be receiving these certificates. In particular we would like to congratulate Cindy Cao and Andy Le for earning over 10 0000 points and receiving an Elite Award. Well done to all the students who participated, your language results are sure to improve.

International News

New Students

We have had a very busy start to term 3. We would like to welcome 22 new students to our school from Norway, Germany, Italy, China, Vietnam and Brazil. All students have spent the first week settling in and getting to know many of our Corinda students. On Tuesday we took the group of students to Lone Pine to have a true Australian experience where each student had an opportunity to feed kangaroo, watch a sheep show and meet the new platypus that are on display.

Suzhou News

This week we have also welcomed Suzhou visitors from China to our school. During their time at Corinda they will be going to specific English lessons and joining their buddies in classes to experience Australian school life. This group of 19 students will be with us for about 5 weeks. Each. year we welcome our friends from China and we know many life- long friendships will be formed.

Student Sporting Achievements

Kieran Rocks – U/14 Football Queensland Representative

CONGRATULATIONS to our Year 9 Football Excellence and Lions FC Under 14 NPL midfielder, Kieran Rocks, who has been selected in the Football Queensland U/14 State team to compete at the FFA National Championships in September.

Kieran has been in great form this season and is an excellent example to younger students - giving back to the game by volunteering his time every Saturday morning to referee Mini Roos (U/5 - U/11) football.

We are very proud of you Kieran - best of luck at the National Championships!

Romain Aliphon – U/15 Australian Futsal Team

CONGRATULATIONS to our Year 9 Football Excellence midfielder, Romain Aliphon, who has been selected in the Australian U/15 Futsal team to tour Brazil throughout August.

Romain is a lovely student and an excellent ambassador for our Football Excellence Program. We wish Romain all the best for his tour of Brazil – we are sure you’ll do Australia proud!

Athletics Carnival

Congratulations to all our students on their participation at our Inter-house Athletics Carnival on Thursday 19 July. Great weather made for a great day of competition – with all events hotly contested! Congratulations to Housemaster Ms Jeanette Laurie, and our Athletics Champions for 2018 – Bunar!

1st BUNAR – 469.01
2nd PIRRI – 448.41
3rd MOORI – 431.54
4th DIBBIL – 413.35
5th KABUL – 386.04
6th YARRAMAN – 364.63

Congratulations to all our Athletics Age Champions for 2018 also…

Library

The CSHS Library has had a busy first Semester, with lots of new books hitting the shelves. There is no excuse to be bored over the holidays, with some great reads waiting to be borrowed. Next Semester is also looking exciting, with some extra activities planned!

Readers’ Cup Class competitions for Years 7 and 8

The annual Readers’ Cup competitions are held during lunch break, Week 1 of Term 3. This is a competition of the minds, as teams from each English Class group (and separately each House group) participate in a battle of the books. Teams of up to six members are required to answer tricky questions about the contents of a set of four books. They collaborate to decide their answers in a fun pen-and-paper quiz and the results are tallied throughout. The winning teams receive glory, medals, and their class engraved on the class perpetual trophy.

This year we have added an exciting new dimension to Readers’ Cup with House competitions to be held in the Hall during LNP time, for year 7 (26 July) and year 8 (2 August). This competition is based on the same sets of books as the class competitions and will be staged in front of each year group in a quiz-show style event. Each team will have to answer separate questions, broadcasting their answers by microphone and cheered-on by their year group’s House cohort. The winning teams will receive the adulation of their House and an inscription on the new Readers’ Cup House perpetual trophy.

The Readers’ Cup competitions end in Term 4 with the Interschool Readers’ Cup competition. All year groups have been invited to participate in this competition against other schools in the Western Brisbane area. These events will occur in evening sessions between 11 and 25 October. It is not too late to join this competition and students do not need to form their own teams to be involved. All passionate readers are welcome to come and borrow the books from the library now! The Library is open from 7.30 am to 4.30 pm each school day and we are full during many lesson and most break times. We have also opened up extra classroom space in K-Block for students to work in groups or individually during the break times, when space in the library is at a premium. Many students meet here to play a wide variety of board, card and computer games during break times too. We host after school ‘Open Classroom’ for students to access extra help from their teachers or tutors employed by CSHS on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3-4 pm.

Reading is a high priority at CSHS and all English classes from years 7 to 10 will visit the Library on a new four-week schedule (starting in Term 3) to update their Library skills and to borrow books for personal reading. Please ask your child if they are reading every day? It only takes 10-20 minutes of well-chosen personal reading each day (typically at bedtime) to significantly increase one’s reading skill and, just as important, to develop a life-long love of reading. As we know, reading is an essential skill for life success and is a pastime that leads to unending blissful moments of being entranced by a story. I could go on…

In addition to our significant print collection, CSHS students also have access to excellent on-line resources. A perusal of the News page in our library’s on-line catalogue (Oliver) reveals our range of on-line resources: EBSCO (a massive database of magazines, academic journals, newspapers and more); WebLinks (an efficient database of educationally filtered websites); GreenR (an environmental research database); EQDigital and Wheelers (both subscription-only libraries of eBooks and audio books); and many other on-line magazines. CSHS also subscribes to Accelerated Reader for all Year 7 and 8 students. It is an international programme to track each student’s current reading level by directing them to books that they can read successfully and then testing their comprehension via on-line quizzes.

The CSHS Library is a place for our students and teachers to read, study, meet, relax and play. We look forward to seeing even more students here as the semester progresses.

Family Fun day 8 September

Community News

Bands on the Green

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