26 April 2017

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Thoughts

Introducing the Helensvale State High Junior Certificate of Education (JCE)

One of the most important fundamentals for a school seeking continuous improvement is to have high expectations when it comes to student performance and behaviour. In my experience, students really like structure, positivity, clarity and a school that expects the best from them.

For this reason, our school is introducing a Junior Certificate of Education (JCE) that all students in years 7, 8 and 9 can aspire to accomplish by the end of Year 9. This certificate is unique to Helensvale State High and aims to:

• provide a school based qualification for Junior school students
• define a minimum required standard of learning attainment and attendance
• define minimum literacy, numeracy and attendance expectations
• motivate all students to achieve this defined standard by the end of year 9

Importantly, the JCE will provide a benchmark to which all students are expected to reach. This will also provide an intervention point for us to respond and support students in their learning if they cannot reach the JCE standard across years 7, 8 and 9.

To motivate our top students, the JCE awards two high achieving categories. These awards are:

• JCE Honours awarded to students who achieve a minimum of ten As and two Bs in Year 9
• JCE Distinctions awarded to students who achieve a minimum of eight As and four Bs in Year 9

High rates of attendance is another important aspect to ensure JCE eligibility is maintained. To be JCE eligible, students must attend school for a minimum of 90% of the time averaged across both semesters (unless medical certificates or other relevant documentation can adequately justify absences). Research shows that high rates of attendance have a very positive impact on improved learning achievement.

Over the next weeks we will be explaining the JCE qualification to our junior school students and we are planning to hold a parent information session later this term.

Ultimately the success of the JCE initiative will be judged on whether it produces improved achievement and attendance outcomes for our students.

Kind regards
Mark Blackshaw

ANZAC Day Ceremony

Last Friday we celebrated ANZAC Day in our Junior and Senior parades. The themes of this year’s parades were “The Landing of Gallipoli,” “The role of our Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander peoples in the war,” and “Those that didn’t return home”. Attached are some of the students’ speeches. Also if you missed the wonderful performances by our choir and the Wind Symphony, the links are included - they will give you goose bumps!

Musical performances:

Junior Leadership

Helensvale SHS students Aria Smith, Travis Forbes, Aaron Taplin and Simran Kumar are participating in the Gold Coast City Council's Junior Council Leadership and Civic program. This program provides students with the opportunity to develop skills in communication, public speaking and leadership whilst learning about local government and community issues. Well done students!

SEP

A group of SEP Senior Functional students participated in swimming and water aerobics during Term 1 as part of their Individualised Programs where they are working towards gaining their Queensland Certificate of Individual Achievement.

Improving our literacy skills through our daily guided reading sessions down in SEU.

EXCITE CAMP

Our three day EXCITE camp experience was jam-packed full of team building activities. Some of these activities included – archery, rock climbing and searching for macro bugs. We participated in a competition to build small bridges that had to withstand the most weight.

We experienced real camping, sleeping in tents with our friends and trying to fall asleep to the sounds of screeching possums and the loud thumps of the macadamia nuts falling from the trees, as well as making damper in the fire.

Overall we had an amazing experience at Currumbin Farm campus, becoming closer with our fellow EXCITE classmates. It was an opportunity not to be missed.

Ashantee Wolter and Samara Kurtz.

STEM Ambassadors

STEM ( Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics ) Ambassadors Chaise, Lachlan, Aaron, Samantha, Cal, Claire & Miss Le Plastrier attending the annual STEM Ambassador conference at Griffith University in Brisbane. The Ambassadors will be learning all things STEM today & forming a strategic plan around STEM activities within our school for the coming year.

CERTIFICATE II IN VISUAL ARTS PHOTOGRAPHY NEWS

On Thursday 16th February, the Yr 12 photography students had the opportunity to attend a Police Forensic Photographer talk at school conducted, by Detective Sergeant Andrew O’Shea. The students learned about the equipment he uses, the photographic techniques needed to shoot the crime scenes, how the photographic evidence helps to convict suspects as well as how to become a forensic photographer in the QLD police force. Thanks again for a great workshop Andrew!

On Thursday 16th March, the Yr 12 photography students along with Mrs Caughley, Mr Karsten and Ms Hancox, caught the train to South Bank in Brisbane and spent the day “On Location”. Most students had a 35mm SLR camera with zoom lenses as well as digital cameras. This enabled them to walk around and shoot a variety of subjects experimenting with photographic styles and techniques like perspective, motion, wildlife and portraiture. The next step is to develop their black & white and digital images to accompany a magazine article that they create about their day at South Bank.

On Thursday 20th April, the Yr 11 photography students had the opportunity to attend a workshop at school, led by professional photographer Craig Tuffin. Craig started with a History of Photography PowerPoint, he then took the students outside to look through his huge home-made daguerreotype cameras. They then watched him prepare and develop a Perspex plate in the classroom. It was the perfect way to introduce the students to their next unit of History of Photography.

The Yr 12 Certificate II in Visual Arts students have some of their Creative Effects photographs on display at the Runaway Bay Library for a month. Call in and have a look!

Janelle Caughley
Cert II in Visual Arts (Photography) VET Coordinator

Music Department News

At Helensvale SHS we have a very high performing Music department, with some of our students experiencing great success. Here is a snapshot of what is happening!

CGEN

We have 9 students who were successful for the Drum line - three in the featured and six in the Mass.

Aaron Hamilton and Sydney Maple both auditioned and were accepted into the Choir.

Shana Sun (violin) and Millie Antliff (double bass) were successful in gaining a place in the Orchestra.

MOST

Shana Sun (violin), Millie Antliff (double bass) and Chris Regtien (Trumpet) were also successful in gaining a scholarship in the Musically Outstanding Music Camp. Only 77 students were chosen from over 350 students that auditioned throughout state schools in QLD. The camp will be held in the last week of term 2 and first week of the holidays.

CAMP

The Helensvale SHS Music Camp was held in the last week of term 1 at QCCC Mt Tamborine. We rehearsed each day and had a guest conductor come in to work with the students. The students had a fantastic time and performed at Oxenford SS at the conclusion of camp, which was extremely well received. We had 65 students attending.

MUSICAL BAND

The rehearsals have started and it is VERY challenging!!!! We are looking forward to getting together with the cast in the next few months.

Creative Generation Excellence AWARDS in Visual Art

8 APR 30 JUL 2017

GOMA | FREE

The annual 'Creative Generation Excellence Awards in Visual Art' showcases the outstanding achievements of senior visual art students from schools throughout Queensland. This year, year 10, 11 and 12 students visited the work of Ryley Johnson, a 2016 graduate whose compelling work ‘Shallow’ hangs in the esteemed gallery space for thousands to see.

The exhibition includes works that hold a quintessential Queensland flavour, whilst exploring cultures and identities. The artworks invite conversations, stir feelings, and embody ideas not easily expressed in words. Students personally engaged in the white space of the gallery to see the professional artistic practice of peers and challenge their critical thinking and sense of self as young people in this generation.

Positive Behaviour for Learning

Positive Behaviour for learning (PBL) is a professional development framework used to guide our school teams through the development of proactive schoolwide systems of support for defining, teaching, and supporting appropriate student behaviours in order to create successful and positive learning environments for students and teachers.

PBL is a broad range of systemic and individualised strategies in schools aimed at achieving

social and learning outcomes, while preventing problem behaviour.

Each week at Helensvale State High School, as part of our official engagement with PBL, we have a PBL focus behaviour, which is explicitly taught to all students and its importance emphasised across all settings the following week.

The recognition of positive behaviour is extremely important at Helensvale SHS and forms part of our School Wide Positive Behaviour for Learning system. Students who display behaviours that uphold the school values of respect, responsible and resilient can receive PB’s from both teaching and non-teaching staff. PB’s are recorded on OneSchool as a positive behaviour entry and students also go into a fortnightly draw to win a $5 tuckshop voucher.

The Cheerleading and Dance World Championship

Students Madison Winter and Sophie Scott departed Australia for Orlando Florida 20th April, to compete in the most prestigious cheerleading event in the world. The team they compete with “ROYALS,” based at ZOO Athletics in Helensvale, received a partially funded Bid to compete at the USASF WORLD Championships. They will compete in International Small Coed Level 5 on Sunday 30th April and Monday 1st May.

The United States All Star Federation (USASF) is host to The Cheerleading and Dance World Championship annually. More than 120 USASF/IASF member event producers across the U.S. and in over 40 countries around the world qualify top teams at their premier national championships to compete at The Worlds.

This international event brings together more than 9000 cheer and 3500 dance athletes to vie for world champion titles in senior and international club divisions and categories. The first Cheerleading Worlds was held in 2004 and the first Dance Worlds in 2007.

Parent Teacher Night

Information as emailed:

Dear Parents and Carers,

For Parent Teacher Interviews we are again using the internet-based booking system “Parent Teacher On-Line” (PTO). Using this system you will be able to book the interview times that suit you best from any internet-connected computer. If you do not have internet access, please contact the school on 5573 8555 for assistance.

Please access the system as follows:

• Go to the school’s home page www.helensvaleshs.eq.edu.au
• Click the PTO icon as shown here …
• Click “Register for Use” (not Login)
• Immediately after you have registered, an automatic email will be sent to your nominated email address containing your password
• Login to PTO using the details provided in the email

Due to security and privacy requirements of Education Queensland, we are not permitted to load parent and student names into PTO without first obtaining individual consent from parents. PTO allows this consent to be obtained as a part of the login process. Please follow these steps to log in to PTO and make your interview bookings:

• After you have received your login details, click “Login” on the PTO login screen and enter your surname and PIN as shown in the email.
• Enter the Education Queensland ID (EQ ID) number of the student for whom you wish to book interviews. EQ ID’s have ten numbers followed by one letter. You can enter more than one EQ ID if you have multiple students at the school. The EQ ID is on the students ID card underneath the barcode. Enter the name of the students for each EQ ID entered. This will help you when making bookings and will also help teachers to know who they are having the interview with.
• After you have entered your student’s EQ ID you can proceed to make bookings as instructed on the screen.
• You will only see time slots which are available at the time you are using the system. As time slots are booked for teachers, those timeslots are no longer displayed as available. PTO prevents double-booking of teachers or parents/guardians for any given student. You will be able to liaise with the teacher direct to make an appointment for further discussion if necessary.
• When you have made all the bookings you require, you can print a report of your bookings in time order. You can log in and change bookings any time up to 2pm Wednesday May 3rd 2017.
• Other parents may be making bookings at the same time that you are using the system. It is possible, though unlikely, that a timeslot is displayed to you as available, but is then booked by another parent shortly afterwards. If you then attempt to book this timeslot it will not be available and a message will be displayed to indicate this.
• Interviews will be held in the Student Activity Centre (SAC). A school map is available on the PTO website; accessible via the school’s home page

• If you encounter any problems using PTO please notify the school office, preferably via email at admin@helensvaleshs.eq.edu.au

Below is an example of the questions that you can ask our teachers:

• At what achievement level is my son/daughter at and how does this compare to the rest of the class and year level?
• What does my son/daughter need to do to improve his or her grade?
• What is my son/daughter good at and what do they need to work on?
• How does my son/daughter behave in class and how can they change any behaviour to improve learning?
• What can I do as a parent to help my son/daughter achieve in this subject?

Naplan News

As you may be aware, the NAPLAN tests will occur in the second week of May this term for Year 7 & 9 students at our school. Below is the test schedule:

• Tuesday 9th May - Language Conventions and Writing Test
• Wednesday 10th May - Reading Test
• Thursday 11th May - Numeracy Test

This is a big week for our students and we are confident that they are well prepared to perform well. We expect that most students will sit the NAPLAN test and if parents have any questions or concerns regarding the testing then please contact the school.

Below is an excerpt from the 2017 NAPLAN Handbook that outlines the rights of parents and carers regarding student participation in the test:

“Students may be withdrawn from the testing program by their parent/carer. This is a matter for consideration by individual parents/carers in consultation with their child’s school.”

If you would like to further discuss your child’s participation in the NAPLAN testing, please contact Mrs Heidi Booth on 5573 8555 or via email at hboot21@eq.edu.au.

Term 2 Finance / TEXTHIRE News

Student ID cards are currently being issued from the finance office. Cards for 2017 are issued to students who are up to date with their 2017 Resource Hire payments. The 3rd and final payment is due on 1 May.

All students should have now received their required textbooks. Any outstanding books from previous years need to be returned or paid for before students will be issued books for 2017.

All payments for the 2017 School LAPTOPHIRE program or BYOD are now overdue. If you intend to keep your child in either of these programs and have not yet completed the 2017 agreement this can be collected from the Finance counter or from this provided link on our website. Please contact the finance office if you are unsure if you have not completed either/both of these steps.

We would like to thank those parents/caregivers who have paid and are up to date with their student’s fees. If you are experiencing difficulty in paying outstanding fees we urge you to contact our finance office, in confidence, on 55738569 to discuss payment options.

Uniform Shop Update

New Stock Item

Navy blue scarves are now available for purchase $22.00

Pop in to purchase yours before they sell out! A terrific addition to your uniform with the cooler months approaching!

Due to unforeseen circumstances we have had to endure a price increase on our school socks. From the 8th of May they will increase to $6.00 a pair.

Important information for students with Epipens

The Therapeutic Goods Administration has advised that four batches of EpiPen 300 microgram adrenaline injection syringe auto-injectors are being recalled.

If your child’s EpiPen is from batch 5FA665, 5FA6651, 5FA6652 or 5FA6653 (all of which expire in April 2017), return it to your pharmacy for a free replacement or refund.

It has been identified that EpiPens from the four affected batches may contain a defective part that could result in the auto-injector failing to activate or a need to apply more force than normal to activate.

It is important to keep the current auto-injector until you get the replacement, and use it if required (being mindful that you may need to apply more force than normal to activate it).

For further information see the TGA Recall Alert at the link below. If you have further questions or concerns, talk to your health professional.