31 October 2018

Newsletter Articles

Executive Principals Report

Dear Parents and Friends

Crack the Code – Speech Night 2018

What an amazing evening of celebration we had last week at our Annual Speech Night. I could not feel more proud of all of our students – performers, presenters and of course award recipients. We have received such wonderful feedback from many people and it seems that the new venue was also a very successful aspect of the event.

I would like to take this opportunity to extend my congratulations to all award recipients and especially to all our students who were awarded Special Awards. We certainly have a broad range of talent in our school and our students have certainly ‘Cracked the Code’ for 2018.

Dance Night 2018

Our Annual Dance Night was also a very successful and enjoyable evening. Each year the standard just gets better and it seems that there is an increase in interest in this subject area. This is one part of our school that is very much alive and continues to grow. Congratulations to all our performers and Dance staff – a very successful year of Dance at Corinda.

Seniors 2018

Our year 12 students are on the countdown as they prepare for final pieces of assessment. It is important that these final pieces count, and some students are dependent on these final pieces in order to push up their results a little more. An exciting but anxious time for our year 12 students and we wish them all the very best as they complete their assessment. I look forward to celebrating the completion of this in the coming weeks.

Helen Jamieson, Executive Principal

Coming Events

Golden Opportunities

On Wednesday 24 October, we hosted 25 primary school students for the Humanities Golden Opportunity Day. The students became archaeologists in the morning session studying the technique of stratigraphy, conducted a field walk on the oval and excavated a site locating and logging a variety of artefacts. No dinosaurs were harmed in these activities.

During the afternoon Geography session the students engaged in water testing local samples for colour, temperature, conductivity and turbidity. These results were then graphed using excel.

Thank you to Mrs Judd, Mr Kidd and Ms Pearce for their enriching and engaging Humanities activities.

Women in Sport

Eight of our most dedicated and talented sports women had the opportunity to attend the Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation (ACHPER) Women in Sport Breakfast on Wednesday 24 October at the Brisbane Convention Centre.

The Women in Sport Breakfast is a yearly event that is attended by approximately 800 schoolgirls from across the South- East Queensland area. Each year our HPE and Sport Faculty offer this opportunity to girls who have made a significant contribution to the sporting life of the Corinda community. Congratulations to the following students who were selected to attend this year; Christina Amajouyi, Talijah Blackman-Corowa, Olivia Brown, Jade Diaz, Arieta Kurukitoga, Natalie Ward, Maddison Whelan and Michaela Williamson.

The students had a wonderful morning in which they enjoyed a delicious breakfast and inspirational speeches from the Minister of Sport - Mick de Brenni and elite female athletes Ali Brigginshaw - Australian Rugby League Player and Rosie Malone - Australian Hockey Player.

German Week

With 4 weeks to go until our year 12’s graduate, Corinda’s German students decided to celebrate Oktoberfest with the soon-to-be legal school leavers. Our tuckshop embraced this celebration by adding traditional German meals to their menu, including the famous Bratwurst, potato salad and black forest cake (Schwarzwälderkirschtorte), which was greatly enjoyed by all students. Following a week of exciting German competitions in the library, the school houses are tied for points. Students waited in high anticipation for the epic soccer game between our Borussia Dortmund (International) and Bayern München (Corinda) soccer teams, the final showdown match won by Borussia Dortmund (International) 2-0.

Our year 12 students also enjoyed their final school excursion, sharing a dinner at The German Club while witnessing traditional German dances and Glockenspiel performances. The atmosphere was wonderful with the students thoroughly enjoying the experience of being surrounded by German culture before they finish their language studies.

Written by Rebecca Gibson, Dhruv Singh and Hana Yavari

Science – UQ School of Pharmacy

On Wednesday 24 October a large group of students from grades 10 to 12 took up the opportunity to attend the Pharmacy Australia Centre of Excellence (PACE) at the UQ School of Pharmacy.

Whilst there they experienced a drug compounding workshop, career information session and toured the state-of-the-art dispensary facilities.

This activity would not have occurred if it were not for Ms Engler and Ms Luu who herself, is a qualified pharmacist! The students all gained a valuable insight into the world of pharmacy by participating in the day.

The Arts Happenings

Visual Arts

Three Year 9 Visual Art Excellence students – Rhylee Upton, Lisa Nguyen and Katala Fitzgerald, have been exceeding expectations, and will have their recently completed Cubist Pastel Drawings framed and hung in the Taringa “Headspace” office. Alex Woods from Headspace approached the students’ teacher, Mrs Emma Waite, asking to acquire a series of these amazing student works for display. She was extremely impressed with the quality of the works, and her aim is to provide bright and inspiring artworks for their clients to view at their Taringa office. These artworks combine fractured cubist styled imagery of a musical instrument, coupled with collage and pastel drawing techniques. Congratulations to all three students on having their work selected for display.

Cubist Pastel Drawings

Lisa Nguyen

Corinda SHS Drama and Queensland Theatre Company’s Scene Project

The Scene Project is a participatory style drama project, which involves schools in the creative process of performance, from rehearsal through to production. It is not a competition but a sharing of work, and acknowledges drama students and teachers as artists, encouraging live performance in a professional space and manner. The Scene Project involves students from Years 7 – 12, from Queensland Secondary Schools, private and state..

The Scene Project gave Corinda SHS the opportunity to access a newly commissioned unfinished script, “Good Grief”; written by Merlyn Tong. Creative License was given to us to analyse the script, as we wanted, choose bits, change, add and delete to create a work especially for our students and school. Groups had a term to work on their scenes. Corinda SHS participated as an extracurricular Drama project, working every Wednesday afternoon for two hours, with a cast of 19 from years 7, 9, 10, 11 & 12.

On the day- sharing our take on the script

Being with like-minded young emerging artists and their teachers was an incredible experience. Our scheduled day was shared with the St Augustine’s, Loganlea SHS, Springwood SHS and Somerset College. Each school’s performance was different in style and dramatic meaning. Corinda SHS created a musical comedy that explored the script’s political exploration of gender roles, entitled, “Eternal Joy of Domesticity”. Travis Dowling, Associate Director, praised our school for its fresh and unique treatment of the script, saying that, “the risks we took turning a tragedy into a comedy created a more poignant artistic work.”

When most off campus opportunities for the Arts are about competitions, we applaud the Queensland Theatre Company’s initiative, which is more about appreciating the unique, individual artistic treatment of a script and the celebration of students having a voice.

Parenting Ideas

Preparing for High School

Beginning the journey of High School is a time of great excitement and anticipation for many children, yet also a source of great apprehension for countless others. The good news is that there is a lot you can do as a parent to help prepare your child for this next step of their school journey.

In this webinar popular parenting educator, author and secondary teacher Sharon Witt will share a bag full of practical strategies guaranteed to remove the stress and ensure a smooth transition to secondary school.

When: Tuesday 27 November 2018 at 7:30 PM - 8:30 PM AEDT

Price: This webinar is $37 per person or free to Corinda SHS families using this coupon.

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