21 March 2019

Newsletter Articles

Our School Values –

Reminder what’s coming up

March

22 South East QLD Futsal Titles
22 STEM Ambassador Conference
22 STEM Big Day Out
26 Veto Trophy – Open Girls Football
27 Year 12 Hospitality Function
28 Year 12 Aquatics Sailing and Snorkelling

April

1-5 Year 12 Block Exams
1-5 ABW
2 Love Bites Program
3 Year 11 Aquatics
3 Year 7 A Night at the Museum
4 School Cross Country
4 Year 10 Aquatics

For more info please see at the link below

From the Principal

Dear Helensvale State High Community,

On behalf of Helensvale State High School, I offer my condolences to those families who may have been impacted by the terrorist attacks on two mosques in Christchurch last week. Our One Community is a multi-cultural community where we show respect for all; respect for all races, religions, nationalities and cultural backgrounds. As One Community we reach out to our families to offer our support through this difficult time. Our thoughts are with you.

One Student: Learning and Wellbeing

Helensvale State High School treats the learning and wellbeing of students and others in the school extremely seriously. Our staff makes every effort to meet with parents and carers to address any learning or wellbeing issues as soon as they are reported or the school becomes aware.

If it is a learning issue, please make a time to discuss this matter initially with your child’s classroom teacher or the Head of Department of that program area.

If it is a wellbeing issue, please contact your child’s Year Level Dean or Guidance Officer in the first instance.

While the school can discuss learning or well-being issues with a parent or carer relating to their own child, it is important to remember that the school has a legislative responsibility to protect the privacy of all students. In that respect, the school cannot provide information regarding other students or their families.

One Community: National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence

Last week Helensvale State High School was one of many schools and community organisations that participated in a range of activities to promote the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence. The Department of Education Cyber-Safety Team spoke to our students about the responsible use of technology and how to stay safe on line. The key messages to reinforce with your child, our student include:

• Set social media accounts to private. As simple as this sounds, do not expect your child has done this, or even knows how to do this.
• Only accept a friend or follow requests from people they actually know. Once again sounds simple, but some children have tens or hundreds of friends that they have never met and know nothing about.
• Report and block any accounts of people who cyberbully others or who they don’t know, yet continue to request to follow them.
• Refrain from being involved in cyberbullying and the distribution of inappropriate or offensive media. This could become a criminal matter.
• Do not overshare personal information such as birthdates, school and home addresses, photos which may identify your whereabouts such as which school you attend or other details that may leave you vulnerable.
• Keep passwords private. However, this does not include parents or carers who wish to monitor your child’s social media activity.

As taking action against bullying is the responsibility of the entire school community, 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.

From the Deans

National Week of Action against Bullying

What an amazing week we have had at HSHS for the National Day of Action against Bullying. So many students from all year levels participated in fun daily lunch time activities. We had Movie Monday, Trivia Tuesday, Walk around Wednesday, Thank You Thursday, Football Shoot Out Friday, plus many more activities in Swell and with the Chaplains. The main focus of the week long program was to provide opportunities for students to engage in fun activities and discussions that build their personal skills to assist in having positive interactions with their peers. Anti-bullying strategies were discussed such as being proactive, spreading kindness, being safe and positive on social media and looking out for and after each other in the playground and in class. Thank you to all of the students who engaged in the fun activities throughout the week.

Another wonderful activity included students from our school, under the guidance of Miss Lawrance and Mr Baker, working together with students from Helensvale State School. Our year 10 Northern Collegiate leaders as well as a handful of Year 7’s who were former Helensvale SS students, worked alongside year 5 and 6 students to develop their chalk pathway of anti-bullying messages. What a lovely opportunity for the 2 schools to work together.

RTI Will – a brief summary

RTI Will sessions are held Monday afternoon 2.15pm – 3pm

Teachers nominate students who comprehend the work but have failed to hand in the work.

It is NOT a detention; it is a time for students to spend catching up on their work.

Parents will receive a text on Friday, informing them of the need for the student to stay after school on the following Monday.

Students will be reminded throughout the day, Monday.

IF WORK GETS COMPLETED PRIOR TO 2.15 MONDAY – AND HANDED IN, STUDENTS NO LONGER NEED TO ATTEND THE SESSION.

We appreciate parent support in having their students hand in assessment work.

Year 9 Visual Arts

Do you remember shooting your first roll of film? Year 9 Art Academy flash back visiting HOTA capturing moments and stories on film with local photographer, Aaron Chapman and Josh from Shibui Film. #colourfilm #disposablecamera #analoguelife #filmisnotdead #WeareGoldCoast #shibuifilm

Year 12 Visual Arts

What a busy month for our year 12 Certificate II in Visual Arts (Photography) students. We had the privilege of attending a presentation given by Detective Sergeant Andrew O’Shea, a police forensic officer with the Queensland Police Force. Detective O’Shea discussed with students all aspects of his work that goes into forensic investigation at any scene, from crime scenes to traffic accidents. The students were heavily engaged and eager to see the importance of photography within his work.

A week later, we headed up to the beautiful location of South Bank where the students were given to opportunity to capture and record their day in the life of South Bank. Using black and white film cameras and DSLR’s, students have captured not only creative shots but recorded moments in time that will accompany their creative writing task.

Year 12 Block Exams

Junior Secondary

How has your child taken to High School?

The keys to transition:

Keep the lines of communication open between you and your child, the school and your child’s teachers.

Is your child using their Student Diary to manage their homework and due dates? Ask your child to have a look at their diary.

If your child tells you they have no Homework - it may or may not be true, but they can always be revising for a text or working on an assessment task coming up.

Ask your child what assessment they have due in the next four weeks. What is it? And when is it due? How have they planned their time to get everything done? Assessment task sheets are yellow to stand out in your child’s bag. Ask to see the yellow task sheets. If they don’t have them, ask them why.

Contact your child’s classroom teachers, if the information is scant.

Take the time to read the various permission notes, emails and newsletters sent home from school.

Talk to your child about the work they are engaging in each class at school and find ways to assist them in their endeavour to learn. You could assist them in researching a topic or take your child to the library or help with finding resources to help them complete their assignments.

Continue to encourage your child to read.

Contact the school or your child’s teacher/s or Yr. 7 Dean, Mr Baker, when there is a concern (don’t let it fester and become bigger than it has to be) - open communication is the key to success.

Talk to your child about the Helensvale State High School Values of Respect, Responsibility and Resilience. Our Year 7s are showing great resilience currently in their new environment and on their new learning journey - new teachers, new friends, and new expectations.

Wendy Chambers
HOD Junior Secondary Transitions

EXCITE EXAM Year 7 2020

On Saturday the 9th March we had over 120 year 6 students sit our EXCITE Entrance Exam for our Year 7 2020 Excite cohort.

The exam tests numeracy, reading and writing skills over a three hour period.

The day always starts with quiet reserved, nervous energy and then ends in happy faces and high fives.

I particularly loved one young applicant’s comments when moving off to the exam rooms after Jordy Kelly’s Resilience and Relaxation session …”So what, we have to do an EXAM now!”

Thank you to our wonderful staff and student leaders who represented on the day and made the event stress-free for all.

Well done to all who sat the test!

We love school on a Saturday morning!

Wendy Chambers
HOD Junior Secondary Transitions

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 staff and fellow students are on hand to help with school work.

Science Tutorials – Monday both lunch breaks in CB05.

English Tutorials – Wednesday 3-4pm in SWeLL.

Maths Tutorials -Thursday 3-4pm in S306/S307.

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

Year 10 Poetry

Well done to Emmerson who was happy to have his poem published!

A tear ran down her cheek as she read the words he wrote
His Dad sat at the table with a lump in his throat
The letter was stained with blood mixed with sand
It was a letter from their son in a far off land
The letter said,
Dear Mum,
The fire, the fury the fear all around me
Steel clashing, blood spraying, arrows raining
The whistle of arrows and bows, flying past me, each one could end my life
Marching, soldiers splintering of wooden doors
This was a fight we weren’t winning
The waves were crashing against the rocks, blood stained the sand
I was fearful, fearful, for you
Because I know I will never see you again
Never get to be a real son
I will never feel you, see you, lead you or be with you again
As they break through the gate and storm the fort, butchering us like pigs
A big brute of a man stared me down
I leave this letter by reminding you
I love you.

Helensvale Rugby Union

The Helensvale U15 Rugby Team has spent the last 3 weeks competing in the newly formed Gold Coast Rugby Super Schools Cup. This competition is an initiative of the Ramsey Foundation and Gold Coast Rugby to provide opportunities for students in non-traditional rugby schools to participate in the game.

Week 1 saw the team take on Ormeau Woods SHS in a very close encounter. With a number of students playing in their first game ever, our boys performed extremely well and with limited preparation and came away 10-5 winners. It was fantastic to see every player do their best to play within our structure and work hard at the breakdown.

Week 2 was another extremely close encounter against Marymount College with our boys conceding a try after full time and going down 3-5. The effort shown by the entire team was outstanding and losing a close game is an opportunity for us to develop our tactical knowledge of defending a lead and shutting down games.

Week 3 saw the team down a couple of players due to injury but the response from the previous week’s loss was outstanding. Playing against Hillcrest Christian College the boys stuck to our shape and played some high quality attacking rugby to come away 40-12 winners. Discipline limited our time with the ball but we were able to take advantage of our possession and maintain our defensive structure, limiting Hillcrest’s opportunities.

The team has 2 more competition games to play and then will head to the final playoff round at Bind University in week 10, term 1. We would like to extend our thanks to the Helensvale Rugby Union Club for hoisting our games each afternoon and for providing specialist coaching prior to the competition, Gold Coast Rugby for their support and organisation of the competition and to Gilbert for supplying our team with training equipment, balls and playing kit free of charge. Also, a big thank you to Miss Reeves and Miss Fainges for supporting the boys with coaching and first aid.

The boys would love as much support as possible over the next couple of weeks so we encourage the school community to come and watch, with games starting at 4:30pm every Wednesday. Every member of our team has shown great sportsmanship and respect to our opposition and to the officials and I congratulate them for representing our school so well.

AFL

The AFL program is flying this year with massive wins over Park Ridge State High School and Southport State High School. The junior boys are on track to replicate their 2018 State Championship win with 2 massive wins so far for the year. They defeated Park Ridge and Southport by over 100 points in each game and were respectful and humble towards both teams on both occasions. Leo Trueman was a standout player in both games and has become an amazing leader for the team.

The Senior Boys have only played the one game against Park Ridge and won very comfortably by over 100 points also. Shae Walsh, the skipper, lead from the front kicking six goals and showed great respect and humbleness towards the opposition at all times which filtered down through the rest of the side for the day and was applauded from the opposition coaches at the end of the game. The Senior boys are hopeful of going one better in 2019 and are looking to be the State Champions after last year’s nail biting loss to Palm Beach in the State Final

Congratulations to Leo Trueman, Sam Mercer, Jedd Riddle, Cody Nias and Jarod Eckersley on their selection for the South Coast U 15 AFL boys’ side to contest the state championships in May on the Gold Coast.

From the Uniform Shop

Winter is coming! Best to get prepared now.

Holiday Programs

Need ideas for keeping your student busy over the holidays? Check out these programs!!

Parent Tools for Cyberbullying

Please see the Australia Government eSafety Commissioner website for tips and tools to assist your child.

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 below 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 at the link below or on toll free telephone 1800 068 587.