15 May 2020
Newsletter Articles
Executive Principal’s Report
Dear Parents and Friends,
It was wonderful to be able to welcome back our year 11 and 12 students this week. Our school is starting to come alive again with students and it so good to have some life back in our school. This week has been quite an adjustment to routine for our senior students and we have dedicated significant time to allow for catch up and reinforcement of learning from the past three weeks.
We continue to implement strict hygiene routines across the school with additional cleaning of school facilities and grounds. Our staff are equipped with hand sanitiser and disinfectant to wipe down areas as required in classrooms. These practices will be continually reviewed to ensure we are taking all precautions required for providing a safe and healthy environment for staff and students.
Our House Masters have spent a large part of their days making calls to families, checking in on student progress and engagement. I have heard very positive reports about the conversations and check ins, particularly with students who have experienced frustration with the learning at home model. I am so proud of the way our staff have referred any engagement concerns to our House Masters, which then has resulted in prompt intervention enabling students to get back on track. I acknowledge that it has been really difficult for some families and I thank all our Parents and Carers for your patience and efforts in working with us through this very challenging time.
I am truly amazed at the way in which our staff have built systems and processes to respond to the needs of our students and ensure continuity in learning. I have talked to many other people involved in a range of different schools and I believe what our staff have provided has been exceptional at every level.
Facilities Update
We have a lot of facilities work being undertaken at the moment. Construction has begun on our new Innovation and Resource Centre and this weekend work will begin on the refurbishment of A block with the construction of new Art studios and flexible learning areas. This will be a welcomed improvement for our Visual Arts programs.
Uniform Shop
Parents wishing to purchase from the Uniform Shop are able to do so via Flexischools. The Administration checks this daily and will arrange to have the items available for collection as soon as possible. We understand the cooler weather has prompted the need for purchase of sweaters. Once students return to school the Uniform Shop will be open again.
P & C Association
Despite the challenges of COVID-19, the P & C Association continues to meet via Zoom meetings. These have proven to be an effective mode for conducting meetings with members being able to attend from their own home. The P & C Executive has managed to fill all positions except for the Treasurer position. We are still looking for an interested person with some knowledge of financial management procedures to take on this role for 2020. If you are interested in volunteering for this please do not hesitate to contact either Naomi Henry via pandc@corindashs.eq.edu.au or myself via the school administration.
Helen Jamieson
Executive Principal
Coming Events
|
Date |
Event |
|
Mon 25 May |
All year levels return to school |
|
Mon-Fri 18 – 22 May |
Year 12 Exam Block |
|
Mon-Fri 1-5 June |
Year 11 Exam Block |
|
Fri 26 June |
End of term 2 |
Some of our best
Japanese
We recently celebrated the Japanese holiday Children’s Day on Tuesday 5 May. Mr Sayers celebrated by cooking up a Japanese curry with a group of students. This was part of our temporary period 5 classes to give students the opportunity to explore different faculties and activities.
School News
Student returning to school
As we welcome back our year 11 and 12 students, we want to remind all parents and students that bus services will be running as normal. We have been notified that school buses are exempt from social distancing laws, but students must board from the rear door and all buses are operating with cashless payments.
New Resource Centre
Our new resource centre construction is well underway. The old resource centre has been demolished and this contemporary learning environment will provide a dynamic and adaptable space to enable students to pursue their passions through collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, discovery and innovation.
The facility will incorporate spaces to support several evolving programs that embrace 21st century learning. In particular, Multimedia, Digital Technologies, Maker Space and Robotics will be included, allowing us to grow our STEM program and support student engagement and innovation for “Future You.”
Write That Essay
Write that Essay is an important tier in our writing instruction across all subjects. If you would like a virtual tour of this site, an instructional video was posted on Facebook earlier this week, or you can access it through Clickview public.
https://clickv.ie/w/mYTm
We've received some lovely feedback from a parent on the Write that Essay platform.
“Every teacher I’ve spoken to, regardless of subject area, has recommended Write That Essay for improving my son's writing. It’s really clearly helped him. Last year he wasn’t sure how to go about writing his assignments – his ideas were all over the place. But now he’s got clear scaffolds of how to organise his thoughts and it’s made a massive improvement to his writing overall.”
EXCELLENT NEWS! AND THANK YOU FOR THE FEEDBACK!
Online Learning Resources
Learning@Home with the Housemasters
Housemaster Ms Brown has created three videos to help students navigate their OneNote at home.
https://www.facebook.com/CorindaSHS/videos/788324935026672/?__xts__%5b0%5d=68.ARDWsDp6WirkP5Ong16rpGAl9pcSMr39ElYQWC2diMgTCT88b8wuxUz0HQp7DN_VdRYADX7usOBsYotiZtQYDoHD7DhW8TtkYnBNGrP21dTPuWy-NeLWhNyUMe9A5DTQsr1NRCMQd9RyjTJ-Zoq5eFvKUzEXSDCXVwKvNrRwjUJ02mYpgo
https://www.facebook.com/CorindaSHS/videos/665261607368151/?__xts__%5b0%5d=68.ARBHxOuU1BIzyiqmYhZPGTjQ_uoXyJrxDlMsiAw6Rih-3Dbe_KQuBpPfIXbw5Apv2A9xRCha14V734e_kZvn7kZzSg8qRs6iJi6p7w4gw4_YOe66xCmRqlCP6Sqv3ZOsF7IsgDhg8d5j33hzJbLmJYDSKWrNiGmbXrUDBiKSFDJ1IhT_vI
https://www.facebook.com/CorindaSHS/videos/1757763947712670/?__xts__%5b0%5d=68.ARACKYsaf176XwY-9MB-1YfZjZtIgFlMSCswC7QUAixucfT_lSMjX2M9ogej_RdDEaezX7oO-zG_ToV9_kzl0HeV0Ge7w4ypxTqt5dqVd_X3RkNTzbp8QF1QVB3Rkj8iPIg5feJ7QTMEhkKZNfoEZE71CSeOSTbC7864eU1uas15UtUaj
Parenting Ideas Insights
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Community News
Pocketnote – Online Tutoring
Pocketnote have developed a piece of tutoring software. The company was founded at the beginning of this year with the intention of creating an easy-to-use online platform connecting tutors and parents. Since then, we have grown to have over 100 verified tutors on the platform, as well as over 100 parents.
Our platform covers Prep to Year 12, where our tutors range from qualified teachers, to University students and professionals. All of our tutors offer online tutoring.
How it works
The parent simply finds the tutor in the particular subject (they have star ratings/ reviews, school attended, background etc), the tutor creates an event, the parent accepts the event and payment is processed at the completion of the event.
What is the problem you are addressing?
- We believe that there isn't an easy to use platform connecting private tutors and students.
- We want to completely remove the disconnect between random third parties and the classroom. Our software connects the school, the teacher, the parent, the student and the tutor in one place.
We also have included a function to ensure that when searching through our tutors, you can search by school. We understand that alumni tutoring current tutors is preferred. Feel free to visit our site here and sign up as a Parent to have a browse.