7 March 2019

Newsletter Articles

Our School Values –

Reminder what’s coming up

March

7 Northern Collegiate Meeting
7 South East QLD Futsal Titles
7 Year 12 Police Forensic Photography
8 Stem Girls Day Aviation
12 HOTA Photography Workshop
12 AFL Schools Cup vs Southport – Jnr
13 SPL Round
14 Year 12 South Bank Photography
18-22 Year 11 Block Exams
19 Year 7 Immunisations

From the Principal

Dear Helensvale State High Community,

Every school, every business and every family has its challenging moments from time to time, but it is how we respond during these times that is most important. I am so proud of the resilience, absolute sense of pride and united ethos that has been demonstrated by our staff, our families and our students over the past few weeks.

Through our regular Facebook posts, newsletter articles, celebrations and community events we showcase who we are, what we stand for and what we aspire to; that being for each and every child to succeed.

One Community

“There is no more neutrality in the world. You either have to be part of the solution, or you’re going to be part of the problem”. (Eldridge Cleaver)

Schools across Australia are getting involved and taking action on the ninth National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence (NDA) on Friday 15 March 2019. Helensvale State High School has registered as an NDA school to stand united against bullying and violence with school communities across the nation. Whilst the actual day is Friday 15 March, Helensvale State High School will be educating students through a range of activities throughout this entire week, including: guest speaker, Rob Priddey from the Department of Education Cyber-Safety and Reputation Management Team; lunch time activities; and in-class discussions focused on bullying, cyber-bullying and our school values of respect, responsibility and resilience.

Taking action against bullying is the responsibility of the entire school community. We need to unite to be part of the solution so we can create safer communities for everyone. We will be offering information sessions on the topic of cyber-safety and bullying for parents and carers, led by experts, with an opportunity for focussed discussion on how we can move forward as a community. The timing of these sessions will be dependent on the availability of presenters. Further information on when and where these sessions will be held will be communicated once known.

Yours truly
Karen Lindsay

From our Year 7 Dean

Welcome to week 6! The Year 7 cohort has made an outstanding start to their high school career. Exceptional effort, behaviour and uniform have only been matched by outstanding attendance rates! These components are essential to success over the next 6 years. I would like to congratulate each and every Year 7 student on reaching the high expectations set each week.

Congratulations to those students who have received a weekly ‘Deans Award’ or have placed in the Top 5 for attainment of Positive behaviour points. In order to receive a ‘Deans Award’ students are nominated by their classroom teacher for displaying one or more of three values of Helensvale SHS including Respect, Responsibility and Resilience. I am overwhelmed by the number of nominations received each week.

As we move further in to Term 1, students will begin to receive assessment tasks across most of their subjects. Please be aware that there are afterschool tutorials held in SWeLL after school where students are provided with additional support to complete any tasks where they may be experiencing difficulty.

Once again, thank you so much for your ongoing support.

Jarrod Baker
Year 7 Dean

Reading Corner

Hi everyone,

Can you believe it’s already Week 6? This week I wanted to share with you a tool that all teachers at Helensvale State High School use. Teachers use an annotation bookmark to assist students in making specific annotations while reading to help them with the breakdown and comprehension of texts that they engage with in the classroom. Below are some images of our annotation bookmarks in action during a Year 7 science lesson.

Our annotation bookmark is the first step in teaching students how to have a conversation with the text. Students that use the annotation bookmark are able to develop higher thinking skills that are associated to improved study skills and comprehension of texts.

Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.

Miss Garibaldi

DANCE ACADEMY 7, 8 & 9

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

By Evelyn Magree – Year 9

On Wednesday 27th February, Miss Kelly and Mr Kook departed HSHS with the Dance Academy students from Years 7, 8 and 9. They were off to the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in Brisbane to see the enthralling Australian Ballet’s production of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The students were eager to see this colourful production and they were not disappointed. The costumes for the production set the mood and maintained the audience’s attention from beginning to end. Many theatre goers were surprised by the beautiful Queen of Hearts’ costume and skilful performance, marvelling at how it helped change the status between the characters on stage. It was evident the hours put into this production, the technical skills of the company and creative production team collaborated to produce a rich ballet experience.

Entrepreneur Studies

In year 9 Entrepreneur Studies the students were given the task in groups to come up with a two minute presentation to present to the class on “Glow in the dark toilet paper”. They had the task of creating a business name, how to advertise the product, work out the target market, the costs involved to produce and sell the product and then lastly they had to pitch their product to the Dragon’s Den audience. It allowed the students the opportunity to work in a short time frame their unique ideas and personalities.

What’s happening in Ms Rodriguez’s classes

7 BAM: Swimming activities once a week and learning about how to stay safe when going to the beach, how to swim out of rips and things like that.

8 BAM: We are learning the negative effects of drugs and alcohol in our system and the importance of decision making and how making a single decision can impact the rest of your life.

9 BAM: We are playing indigenous games and also learning how the indigenous communities are more likely to suffer from health issues and the factors that influence this.

10 BAM: We are learning about nutrition, what we need to include in our daily intake in order to stay healthy, what we should try to avoid eating on a daily basis, etcetera. We are also analysing how a poor diet can affect us in all of the health dimensions (physical, emotional, social, environmental, spiritual and intellectual).

Year 8 Humanities – History

Do you know the answers???

1. What years were considered the Middle Ages?
2. In which country did the Black Plague originate?
3. Approximately, what percentage of Europeans died from the Black Plague?
4. Which 2 creatures were mainly responsible for carrying the Black Plague?
5. What was the nickname given to King Richard?

Students have been working hard learning lots of interesting facts about the Middle Ages and how the era has impacted our society today. Did you know that the Black Plague saw the rise of the perfume industry, hospitals and more clinical medical techniques, improved literacy and the English language, and much more! The students were very relieved to learn that we no longer have the torture methods and weapons that existed at this time (thank goodness!) With the first exam on the horizon, all of the teachers wish the students the best of luck.

Laura and Charlotte getting ready for a trivia game of Shot Gun! Winning team receives chocolates!!!

Answers: 1.500-1500CE 2.China 3.50% 4.Rats and Fleas 5.Lionheart

Tutorials and assistance at school

Coming into assessment time students may find they need some extra assistance. We have a number of avenues open to them –

Chat and Chill - Monday 2.15-4pm, Wednesday and Thursday 3-4pm – a drop in session where there is staff and fellow students on hand to help with school work.
Science Tutorials - Monday both lunch breaks on Mondays in CB05.
English Tutorials - Wednesday 3-4pm in SWeLL.
Maths Tutorials - Thursday from 3-4pm in S306/S307.

If students are unable to attend these, and need help, please be aware they are able to ask their teachers, who are more than happy to assist.

What’s been happening in EXCITE so far this term.

Year 7 EXCITE parents and students joined us for a family night of creative and critical learning; focusing also on the importance of WELLBEING in achievement and success at school and in life.

Parents and students listened to Jordy Kelly our Yr. 7 and 8 Guidance Officer give some hints and tips about coping in EXCITE and high school. The parents participated in two dynamic lessons, one English/Humanities and one Maths/Science with our Core Excite HoDs- Ms Lewis, Ms Scott, Mrs Macrea and Mrs Walsh. Creating a few anxious parents! Mrs Eaton explained the HSHS EXCITE model to the parents and our focus on the mastery of the Australian Curriculum.

Thank you Miss Young for pulling the night together!

Wendy Chambers
HoD Junior Secondary Transitions

EXCITE Academy

What an EXCITE-ing journey it has been so far this year for students within the EXCITE Academy.

The Excite Academy Program is a program for high achieving students to engage in critical and creative thinking. Students within the EXCITE Academy thrive in the focused environment with their like-minded peers all with a common goal of achieving their full academic potential.

This ensures the best possible future for our students and allows them to have a large variety of opportunities to choose from as a future career.

At Helensvale State High we believe in three core values; Respect, Responsibility and Resilience. In the Excite Academy, these three values are demonstrated within every classroom, every day. Students work alongside one another in a team environment always ensuring each member of their team is on the path to success in all of their studies.

Growth mindset is key to success in leading a successful life, with students in the EXCITE Academy employing this mindset with every new task or challenge presented to them. Growth mindset allows us to learn from our challenges and reflect on the effort and persistence required to succeed. This focus inherently leads to inspiration to maintain this level of effort and persistence moving forward onto new challenges.

EXCITE-ing Events:

Students within the EXCITE Academy have had the opportunity to engage with one another throughout a variety of activities this term.

In week one, students were invited along to the EXCITE Big Day In; during this day students were involved in a variety of activities. Students met with our Guidance Officer Tina Meni to engage in a presentation of how to best manage their time, balance their studies and have time to enjoy activities outside of school.

Ms Lewis created a cryptology activity for students to undertake; this proved to be challenging for many of the students in the beginning with many of them employing their critical and creative thinking skills to complete the challenges. We still have student’s looking for the hidden caches throughout the school with new codes being presented to students each week within the daily notices.

We also had a visit from Matt from Character Builders who spent time talking with students about how to foster a positive growth mindset to ensure for success within our studies. Matt presented students with real-life context and practical applications of a growth mindset within his career as a professional baseball player, with many students drawing inspiration from his experience.

In week three we had seventy year six students from schools within the Northern Gold Coast visit us for an EXCITE Experience Day. During this day, students spent time with Ms Young, Mrs Larkin, Mr Zanussi and Ms Chambers undertaking activities that students within our EXCITE Academy experience.

In week four, we celebrated our students’ success in their studies from 2018 with fifty-six year 8 and 9 students from the EXCITE Academy invited to a morning tea. Students invited to the morning tea were praised for their success in achieving excellent for their effort and behaviour in all subjects for their semester two report. Students were presented certificates by their year level Dean’s Mr Goldsmith (Year 8) and Ms Le Plastrier (Year 9) before enjoying a variety of sweet and fruity treats.

EXCITE-ing Classrooms:

Students in the EXCITE Academy are currently working hard to master concepts being taught in all of their subjects. We are also focusing on preparing ourselves for upcoming assessments in our classes.

In Mathematics, Year 7 have just completed their first assessment for 2019 which was a non-calculator exam covering the four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division), order of operations and exponents. Miss Young was very pleased with the results within her class seeing 24 of her students achieve an A or above, all attributed to their efforts to study and focus within their learning. Students across all year levels are currently undertaking their first Math Mate exam of the year; this is a formative check-in for students based around their weekly homework sheets covering many different concepts in Maths.

In Science, students are studying a variety of topics. Year 7 is studying Earth Science with a focus on Earth’s phenomena such as tides, moon phases and seasons. We are looking forward to our up and coming excursion to the Skylab where we will have a chance to consolidate our learning for our assessment in week 9. In year 8, students are studying biology, currently looking at cells and body systems. Students have been working hard on their cell research report and model. In year 9, students are focusing on physics looking at electrical circuits and Ohm’s Law.

In English, Year 7 are currently studying argumentative writing in order to create a speech whilst Year 8 is studying the novel Parvana. The novel has a focus on human rights giving students real-life perspectives; from this they will create a persuasive speech. Year 9 is studying a variety of persuasive texts which has allowed them to choose a topic that appeals to them to create argumentative writing pieces.

In Humanities, Year 7 are learning about Ancient Egypt with an assessment coming up this week before they prepare their artefacts for the Night at the Museum. Year 8 have been looking at Medieval Europe; featuring the Black Plague, Peasant’s Revolt and fall of the feudal structure and gruesome punishments of the era. Focus being on this being the birthplace of modern justice, human rights (1215 CE Magna Carta) and shift in values from religion to science (medicine to cure the black plague) whilst Year 9 is focusing on the industrial revolution.

EXCITE Staff Spotlight:

Name: Shay-Maree Young

Role: EXCITE Academy Director and STEM Ambassador Teacher

Years Teaching: 6 years

Education: Bachelor of Applied Science majoring in Marine Science and Management, Graduate Diploma in Secondary Education and a Graduate Diploma in Geography Teaching.

What inspired you to become a teacher? I was living and working on islands along the Great Barrier Reef as a Marine Biologist, it was in this role that I started working with many of the universities from Australia and America teaching students from across the world about our amazing marine life and ecosystems. It was from my experience in working with students that inspired me to go back to university and complete my teaching degree. After completing my degree, I headed on a working adventure to Europe to work for Disney Cruise Lines as a Youth Counsellor, this truly cemented that I belonged in an educational environment.

What are some highlights of Your Teaching Career? My first teaching placement was at Hayman Island State School with a small population of 14 students in years prep to seven in one classroom. This is where I believe I truly mastered the art of differentiation teaching all students at the same time at a variety of ability levels. I was lucky enough to have a classroom that overlooked the Great Barrier Reef!

I have been lucky enough to be a part of Helensvale SHS for a number of years now and have learnt so many things about our students and how they learn. I am so privileged to be able to work with students in the years 7, 8 and 9 EXCITE Academy and see them put all their efforts into their studies every day and see the successful outcomes for their schooling as they venture into the senior schooling system. I also work with our STEM Ambassador students which allows me to see students demonstrate leadership skills and communication around their passion of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). I am looking forward to working with our students within the STEM Cup Challenge this year after taking out first, second and third position last year!

I have been lucky enough to be recognised for my work within EXCITE and STEM at Helensvale SHS. It is seeing students pursue their dreams and see success in their passion that makes teaching at Helensvale SHS such a rewarding job.

It has been a busy, yet exciting start to the year for the EXCITE Academy. We look forward to sharing our journey with you throughout the year.

Written by Boston Zeng and Ms Shay-Maree Young

From the Chaplains

Kindness / Encouragement Cards for a Nth Qld school affected by the recent flood:

Thank you to those students who participated in making beautiful and thoughtful cards during Random Acts of Kindness week with Nurse Joy and myself, Chappy Samantha. These creative and encouraging cards are being sent to the students attending Townsville State High School to uplift them after experiencing the recent floods. We will be sending them up to their School Chaplain, Jessica.

Jessica is aware that we are sending up cards and has written an update for us, here is an extract....

"Townsville State High school itself did not have a heap of flood water go through the school but had issues with mould and power which stopped us for 9 days of learning this year.

We have close to 800 students from years 7-12. Students travel from various suburbs in and across Townsville to attend our school, including a group of students who live on Magnetic Island and travel each day by ferry to the mainland. Bus transport is a major mode for students travelling to and from Townsville State High School.

The lowest point in our grounds was the school sheds and so our grounds people lost a lot of equipment to help keep our school grounds beautiful. Our school has already collected uniforms and basic stationery for kids to collect if they need. We have also had lunch provided for the first week to bring kids together who could make it along and for Student Support to be available for students. Many students live nearby where the water did go through houses and about a dozen staff have been impacted greatly by the water (a few of them have young families too). I have connected them up with clean up crews, donation areas and disaster recovery hubs. "

If you would like to help in a material way, Chappy Jess is suggesting buying items such as drink bottles ($1), craft and fun stationery online from Officeworks and having them delivered direct to the school.

Another idea was for her to be able to print photos for people who have these ruined in the flood. If you would like to help her by sponsoring the items needed to do this, please email me -Chappy Sam on sbond69@eq.edu.au.

Thank you Helensvale High students for your thoughts and creativity to lift other students spirits after experiencing the heartbreak that goes with natural disaster type events. You are all stars!

Support Staff

As part of our Learning and Wellbeing framework, we have created a wellbeing hub for students and parents, which can accessed through the Helensvale State High School webpage. The hub includes links to other websites and apps which can help to support student wellbeing, as well as provide information on career pathways. To access these ‘well-being hubs’, click on the icons below, or, go to the HSHS website, scroll down the page and click on the relevant icon.

2019 Next Step survey

The Queensland Government is conducting its annual state wide survey of all students who completed Year 12 in 2018. The Next Step survey is a brief, confidential survey that gains a comprehensive picture of the employment, study and life choices made by Queensland school completers in the year after they finish Year 12.

Between March and June, all our students who completed Year 12 last year can expect to receive instructions to complete a web-based survey or a telephone call from the Queensland Government Statistician’s Office. Please encourage them to take part. If their contact details have changed, please assist the interviewer with their updated details or forward the survey to their new address so they can participate.

Thank you for your support of the Next Step survey in 2019.

Further information on Next Step is available online in the link below or on toll free telephone 1800 068 587.