7 August 2019

Newsletter Articles

Executive Principal’s Report

Dear Parents and Friends,

As you may be aware our school is currently developing its new Strategic Plan for 2020 – 2024. As part of this process we would like to invite parents to attend a special workshop with our facilitator Grant O’Hara from Strategy 1st. This workshop has been designed especially for parents and community members to contribute to the identification of the school’s goals for the next four years. I would like to encourage all parents to take up this opportunity to be a part of our visioning and future direction.

When: Monday 12 August
Time: 5.30 – 7.00 pm
Where: Paradox Room

Look forward to seeing you there.

Digital Wellbeing

An additional strategy to support the implementation of our Mobile Device Policy is being planned at our school. We have identified two strategies for implementation, one of them being YONDR and the other being Family Zone. We believe that these are essential strategies to reinforce the importance of Digital Wellbeing as part of our whole school approach to Student Wellbeing. Research has also highlighted that schools need to develop students to be ‘distraction proof’ as we face the challenges of the digital age. We find that classroom learning and social behaviour improve drastically when students are fully present and engaged with their teachers and peers.

As you are aware, our school has had a policy which does not allow students to use their devices at school unless under the instruction of the teacher in a structured learning activity. We acknowledge that mobile devices can be valuable learning tools and this will not change. However there are loopholes to managing this policy with 2000 students, and given the increasing complexity of issues relating to social media, we believe there is a need to implement additional strategies to support the policy. As a school we want to guarantee to parents that students will be removed from distractions and ensure that they will not be engaging in social media while at school. Over the past 2 years we have experienced some challenges in relation to:

• Mobile phone addiction
• Students hotspotting laptops to access inappropriate sites
• Students engaging in inappropriate social media in discrete locations
• Students challenging the policy and utilising devices when unsupervised
• Students videoing and photographing inappropriate behaviour.

The first strategy will be rolled out from the beginning of term 4, and the second from the beginning of 2020. In term 4 we will be introducing a system called Yondr to ensure our school is a phone-free space and distractions are removed. In 2019 Yondr surveyed over 400 school partners to measure the effects of their phone-free learning environments. These schools achieved notable progress in multiple areas:

• 69% of schools saw an improvement in academic performance
• 84% of schools saw an increase in student engagement in the classroom
• 80% of schools saw a decrease in behaviour referrals

Yondr is currently used across the world in over 1,000 schools, at concerts, comedy shows, weddings and special events of all kinds. The goal of these spaces is to encourage people to engage with each other and their surroundings.

The Yondr Program employs a simple, lockable pouch that stores a cell phone. When students enter the school, they will place their phone in a Yondr pouch which is then locked. Students maintain possession of their phones but will not be able to use them until they are unlocked at the end of the school day. Should a teacher decide to use phones for an educational purpose, the teacher will be able to disable the pouches at the beginning of the lesson and then enable as students leave the classroom.

More information on this will be made available to parents during this term, and a special parent information evening is also being planning to provide further details on the two programs being introduced. I encourage all parents to come along and learn more about these strategies. It is important that we give our students a very clear message about what it is we are trying to instil in them as responsible young adults.

For those of you seeking to understand the impact that electronic devices are having on student wellbeing, another parent recommended a very interesting book – Teen Brain by David Gillespie. This explains the epidemic we are facing in society and gives some very practical and simple strategies for parents. We will be working closely with our students as we roll out the two strategies to ensure they understand this need and the impact that technology is having on their wellbeing.

Some links for further reference are set out below:

Helen Jamieson
Executive Principal

Coming Events

Some of our best…

Debating Results

We hosted John Paul College on Friday night for round 4 of debating with the year 8 team, consisting of Eloise Nutley, Ella Gover and Olivia Hollis. We had another win and Olivia took out another best speaker award. Thank you to all the coaches: Simon O'Brien, Alex Griffin, Amy Heymer and Patrick Duggan for all their hard work. Thank you also to the adjudicators: Jeremy Green, Miriam Byrne and Mel Blacklock for their time and expertise.

2019 USQ Mooting Competition

The Corinda High team of Ravena and Jemima have progressed to the Grand Final of the 2019 USQ Mooting Competition. The team won its fourth moot in a row when they travelled to Toowoomba to face Fairholme College in the semi-finals. The Grand Final takes place in August where the winning team will share a $1500 prize. The best speaker in the Grand Final also takes home a $2000 prize, and all students in the Grand Final are also eligible for USQ scholarships.

The USQ Mooting Competition involves 28 schools from across Brisbane, Ipswich and Toowoomba. Students spend weeks researching and writing in preparation for a simulated criminal appeal. Students must present oral submissions and face intense questioning from judges. In the Grand Final, students will face questioning from real Supreme and District court judges.

Congratulations to the Ravena and Jemima on this amazing achievement. Well done also to Aleizalyn, who was part of the team in the preliminary rounds, and to Legal Studies teachers Ms Heymer, Mr Griffin and Mr Gilroy who have coached the students in this competition.

University Tennis Open 2019

Congratulations to two of our students, Jemma and Troy, who competed at the University of Queensland in the Tennis Open 2019. Jemma took out first place for under 18 girls and Troy was the runner up for under 18 boys. Congratulations to both students for a fantastic effort and result!

SEQ Champion of Champions Futsal Championships

Recently, a number of teams competed at the SEQ Champion of Champions Futsal Championships. The Corinda team competed with great effort and were successful in a variety of age groups with a total of 4 teams (12 Years Boys, 14 Years Boys/Girls and 15 Years Boys) qualifying for this year’s Australasian Futsal Titles in November.

We want to give a special congratulations to our 12 years Boys who finished in first place and our 15 years Boys Green who finished in second place in their respective age groups.

Well done to all players and congratulations to the teams who have qualified for Australasians. We are excited to see their successes in the future!

Dance Excellence – Louisa

Year 7 Dance Excellence student Louisa spent the last week of the school holidays in Melbourne attending an intensive training program at the Australian Ballet School. She was selected last year through an audition to be part of the Interstate program at the ABS to participate in this fantastic program. During her week she trained alongside the most talented young dancers in the country. She had an amazing time and learned a lot. We are so proud of all of your hard work Louisa!

Corinda Open Boys Football team

Congratulations to our Open Boys Football team who qualified for the ISC CUP Grand Final last week after winning their Semi-Final against Palm Beach Currumbin SHS 4-1. We wish them all the best for their Grand Final next week!

Boys Basketball Tournament

Congratulations to our boys basketball program on advancing to the State Titles in September. We topped our pool in the Champion Basketball School of Queensland (CBSQ) tournament, defeating St. Andrews Lutheran College 51 - 23 and Beaudesert SHS 75 - 24. Well done boys!

Gifted and Talented

On Thursday 25th July we were again lucky enough to have Michele Juratowitch from Clearing Skies present a parent seminar: Supporting Student’s Study Skills.

Some of the key takeaways included:

• Optimal nutrition, sleep and physical activity are important to achieve high quality study habits
• Highly capable students need to experience struggle to achieve skills in persistence.
• Parents need to act as a brain coach for students providing support from the sidelines.

Thank you to Michele for once again providing a thought provoking look at our highly capable students.

Michele Juratowitch is author of Study: The Simple Facts, an introduction to study skills, used in numerous Australian schools. Michele draws on research and has extensive experience working with high-ability students, to help students identify a range of critical study skills required to achieve academic success.

Michele worked in schools for over twenty years before establishing a consultancy practice, Clearing Skies, to provide a range of services including study skills programs for students and parent education.

Michele was awarded a Churchill Fellowship; is a member of educational advisory committees; has worked with all educational sectors and levels; is a researcher, a frequent conference presenter, resource developer and author.

School News

2019 Dance Night

Each year the Dance Department holds an annual concert. For the first time at Corinda, we will be hosting our concert off site this year to accommodate the larger audience numbers we previously have not been able to cater for. The venue has their own booking system and therefore seating for our Dance Concert will be allocated via Riverlife’s Brushfire booking system. All students that participate in any dance classes or troupes at Corinda will be performing on the night.

The tickets cost $15 each and are allocated on a “best available” basis. A maximum of 4 seats are available per order. Whilst the wording might suggest otherwise, you can purchase multiple orders from the same computer if you want more than 4 tickets.

Corinda Cares

Last week Corinda Cares welcomed some of the local aged care groups to attend a Christmas in July morning tea as part of our Corinda Cares program. It was a great morning of conversation, eating and most of all getting together to share with one another. We hope our guests enjoyed themselves and thank you to those students who helped out this morning. A big thank you in particular to the Arts department for their help in organising singers, dancer and Saxophone ensemble.

QCAA Public Exam papers

The introduction of external assessment in General subjects is a key feature of the new QCE system. To give school communities a sense of what external assessment will be like, the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA) has published sample papers on its website located in the Assessment tab on each syllabus page.

We will incorporate these sample resources in our teaching and learning program to help our students prepare for next year. In the meantime, students and parents are encouraged to view the sample papers.

International

Japanese Students

Recently, Corinda welcomed 20 Japanese students from Fukushima, Japan. All students have a Corinda buddy and are staying for 2 weeks. We hope they have an enjoyable time learning about Australia culture.

Community News

Bunnings Oxley Father’s Day Family Night

Bunnings Oxley is holding a Father’s Day Family night on Thursday 29th August from 6pm to 8pm.

University of Queensland Parenting Experiences Survey

The Parenting and Family Support Centre at the University of Queensland is conducting research into parents’ opinions about parenting and programs available for parents. If you have a child between 2 and 12 years, we would love to hear your views on parenting and the services that are available to you as a parent. You will need to complete a short survey, which will remain open until the 31st August 2019. To find out more or to participate please visit at the link below:

Sherwood Indooroopilly RSL Sub Branch 100th Birthday

This September the Sherwood Indooroopilly RSL Sub Branch celebrates 100 years in the community. To commemorate this special occasion they are holding a one off Concert with great prices by the Qld Pops Orchestra and their amazing choir at St Aidan's Auditorium on September 21st.

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