2 December 2022

Newsletter Articles

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From the Principal

Dear Helensvale State High School Community

During this term we have hosted many events celebrating the wonderful achievements of our students. Such achievements demonstrate how we, together as One Community, are committed to achieving our vision for each and every student to succeed. I would like to share with you some of this year’s major highlights.

Our community

• Our wellbeing team has further expanded as we welcomed our GP and 2 social workers to our school.
• Student Voice continues to be a focus, the centre-piece of which is our Student Council. Student Council is now blossoming and has sparked numerous initiatives throughout 2022, including the Carnival of Colour and Active Smart Travel promotion. Students have also been involved in ABC Gold Coast’s ‘Pick Me Up’ segment during the afternoon drive home slot, entertaining a wide audience with anecdotes about school and selecting a ‘pick me up’ tune.
• Our theme for this year - ‘Go Beyond’ – was the result of student voice. ‘Go Beyond’ was designed and selected by the students to encourage each other to be confident, curious, open-minded and humble. It’s about tackling challenges with a growth mindset and doing those little extra things to make sure that you have given yourself every opportunity to succeed.

Academic success in a variety of fields

• Seventy-one of our students have already received early offers into universities locally and nationally, with more offers yet to come. Kate has been offered (and accepted) a placement at the University of London to study Bachelor of International Business & Law. How exciting!
• The Honours Program, which commenced in 2019 with 57 students, has its first group of Yr 12 graduates this year and now has over 180 students, all of which are high performing students in various fields.
• This year we participated in the 2022 Education Perfect Maths Championships, answering 41 966 questions. A special congratulations to Olivia who received an Elite award for her participation in this international competition.
• In partnership with the IMPACT Centre and University of Queensland, a group of our year 11 Honours English students were involved in the Youth InQueensland writers project. These talented students are published journalists of the InQueensland Media Academy. An outstanding achievement!
• Breanna, Year 12 Literature student, received 2nd place in the state-wide prestigious poetry competition run by the English Teachers Association.
• Our hospitality students continue to cater for numerous events throughout the year, producing meals that would rival our top restaurants.
• Our students were finalists in the QTIC Salute to Excellence Queensland competition.
• And we look forward to the return of the 7 Course Degustation Dinner for 2023.
• Year 7 Humanities History students created amazing historical artefacts and took great pride in exhibiting their creations at Night at the Museum!
• Whilst our Year 8 Humanities Geography students held a sustainability EXPO to demonstrate their global environmental awareness, showcasing their recommendations for sustaining threatened world environments.

STEM has gone global at Helensvale this year!

• The Singapore virtual exchange saw students from our school and Swiss Cottage in Singapore participating together in real-time STEM activities.
• Students have been working with schools across Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia and the South East Queensland, together with The University of Melbourne and Griffith University as part of the STEMpathy program.
• Three of our students, Riley, Jessica and Olivia have worked on the solar power generator for a satellite that will be launched into the Earth’s orbit mid-2023.
• Seven Year 12 students have already completed 1st year Chemistry of an undergraduate degree at Griffith University through participation in the Griffith GUEST program.
• Twenty Year 12 students are receiving awards from the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and the Australian Institute of Physics for their outstanding achievement in Chemistry and Physics this year.

Our science faculty and students are truly leading the way, locally and internationally.

The entrepreneurial nature of our students never ceases to amaze.

• Emma, Mariya and Beth achieved 'Highly Commended' in this year's Buy Smart Competition, the ceremony being held at Parliament House in Brisbane.
• Emma was also awarded third place at the 2022 Mayor’s Technology and Innovation Awards. Emma was the youngest of all the ten finalists and experienced mentoring by a successful CEO provided by Study Gold Coast who hosted the event.

The level of talent of our arts students is inspirational, with so many outstanding achievements across dance, drama, visual art and music.

• Our school musical, My Fair Lady, was a standout performance, with a level of talent and professionalism that only our school has.
• Instrumental music had 3 students involved in the Australian Honours Ensemble Program (Arnav, Cameron and Edison) as well as a further 15 students participating in the State Honours Ensemble Program.
• Instrumental music also represented the school at FANFARE and were regional finalists for three ensembles, receiving 4 Gold awards, 1 silver and our Big Band receiving Platinum
• Our ensembles were also successful at the Gold Coast Eisteddfod with 2 x 3rd places, 2 x 2nd places and one 1st place awarded to our students, with our saxophone ensemble and Big Band receiving Platinum recognition
• Our choir entered the Gold Coast Eisteddfod receiving a Silver award
• One of our year 11 instrumental music students, Arnav, was awarded his Associate Diploma of Music which is an outstanding achievement for someone still at high school
• We had 3 artists selected as part of the Wollumbin Youth Art Awards with Ava winning for her age group and Emma receiving highly commended.
• Matilda had her artwork selected to be displayed at the ENERGIES exhibition at the HOTA gallery
• Dance entered two competitions, the Beenleigh Quota Eisteddfod where they received 3 x 3rd places, 3 x 2nd places and 1 x 1st place award; and the Future Stars Finals where they were awarded 1 x Highly commended, 3 x 3rd places, 2 x 2nd places and 5 x 1st places in this competition.

Sporting successes were many!

• The Under 15 boys are the champions of the Australasian futsal titles.
• AFL Senior Boys came 2nd in the State in the AFL School’s Cup
• Our Junior Boys SPL Football side played in the SPL Grand Final. This was the first time a Helensvale boys’ team has made the GF. Although we came second, this is still a monumental achievement.
• We had boys involved in netball for the first time – they came 8th in QLD in Vicki Wilson Championship and won the Open Mixed INFQ Grand Final.
• I must mention our girls netball team absolutely smashed our boys netball team during a friendly match.

So many opportunities; so many great achievements. Too many to mention in a newsletter. It is certainly an honour and a privilege to be the Principal of such a great school.

One of the most significant contributing factors to student success is the positive relationships between students and staff. Please take the time to look at some of the wonderful comments students have made about our staff during our positive postcard initiative. It is so rewarding for staff to finish the year by receiving these postcards. The photos on the postcards are a reflection of the skill level of our photography students.

Attendance Expectations

We are committed to ensuring that students are productive and engaged in learning up until the end of the school year. During the last week of term, students will be engaged in an alternative program. We are planning some engaging and fun learning activities during this time, including activities that will support both the learning and the wellbeing of students.

As per our attendance procedure, if your child is going to be absent from school, you must let the school know why the absence has occurred as soon as possible. If you have supplied medical certificates for your child's absence from school, we thank you as this is one way of ensuring your child's absences are explained and approved.

As this is the last newsletter of the year, on behalf of the Helensvale State High School staff I wish you all a safe and happy holiday. Start-up procedures will be communicated to families prior to the commencement of Term 1, 2023.

Kind Regards
Karen Lindsay
Executive Principal
Helensvale State High School

Year 7 Excite Camp

What a Camp! The Excite students in Year 7 travelled to Kindilan Adventure Camps for some team-building fun! They canoed, abseiled, and tested their resilience staying in their tents each night. It was such a wonderful time of growth for these students as they tested their mettle against the challenges of camp. We hope it is something they look back on proudly!

Global Futures STEMpathy Day

Our STEM Ambassadors hosted 28 Year 7 students at Helensvale virtually exchanging across the world with students around creating sustainable solutions to real-world problems. Common themes running through the day were sustainability, global warming, destruction of the natural world and combining technology into our solutions. Students thought of ways they could clean the oceans from plastics, and make our cities more sustainable. The students had some brilliant ideas that they then prototyped and presented to other students across the world!

World of Math

The Year 8 Excite students had a chance to apply their math skills on some real-world applications with World of Math. Students had some hands-on activities that they worked on in small groups. What an engaging way to apply their maths!

STEM Ambassadors

The STEM Ambassadors have been working hard all year to bring STEM to the school in new and exciting ways! They have organised or participated in National Science Week, Singapore Virtual Exchange, Global Futures STEMpathy, and Cutting Edge for Kids. They are looking forward now to next year and what they can accomplish! If anyone is interested in joining the Ambassadors for next year, email Miss Moore!

Media Arts

Well done to our Year 9 Media Arts student who designed the following works for a future festival. Well done Jager, Samantha, Manning, Maurice, Jake and Charlie.

Our School is moving towards becoming a Cashless School in 2023

As we move towards Cashless, we will no longer be accepting cash at our Finance Office, Uniform Shop or Canteen.

Payment Options:

Canteen

EFT is available for all purchases at our Canteen window during opening hours.

FlexiSchools online ordering is available for lunch pre-orders, sign up to FlexiSchools here:

FlexiSchools also allows students to pay at the canteen using their existing student ID card. Please follow this link for information on how to load funds onto your student’s ID card: Flexischools ID card

Uniform Shop

EFT is available for all purchases at our Uniform Shop during opening hours.

FlexiSchools online ordering is available for Uniform Shop purchases, sign up here:

Finance Office

Bpoint online payments are a convenient 24-hour way to pay school invoices, using the hyperlink on your invoice.

Phone payment using a credit/debit card is also available via BPOINT 1300 631 073. Please quote CRN and invoice number listed on your invoice.

EFT is available for purchases at the Finance Office during opening hours.

We are now using the Qkr! app for all non-invoiced items. Download the Qkr! app on the App Store to your iPhone / iPad or get it on Google Play for your Android devices.

Other payment options are available. Please contact the school finance office 5573-8569 for more information.

Holiday Programs

Helensvale SHS Farmers Markets

Don’t forget to support our local farmers.

Cyberbullying Help

What would you do if your child was being cyberbullied?

According to research by the eSafety Commissioner, 1 in 5 young people experience cyberbullying and online abuse and 55% seek help from their parents/carers.

Our free training is available online and has been designed to be completed on a range of internet ready devices, including smart phones.

Support Staff

As part of our Learning and Well-being framework, we have created a Well-being Hub for students and parents, which can be accessed through the Helensvale State High School webpage. The hub includes links to other websites and apps which can help to support student well-being, 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 (https://helensvaleshs.eq.edu.au/), scroll down the page and click on the relevant icon.

Acknowledgment of Country

Helensvale State High School as one community, acknowledges the Kombumerri Peoples, the Traditional Custodians of the land on which our school is built. We respect their long history, ancestry and culture. We pay our respects to the Elders, past, present and emerging for they carry the memories and traditions of past times.

We would also like to extend our acknowledgment to other First Nations Peoples: those hailing from the Torres Strait Islands and those belonging to other Aboriginal Language Groups.

We acknowledge the strength and resilience of Kombumerri peoples. We respect their enduring connection to the local wetlands and the cultural responsibility they uphold to preserve wildlife. Together, we go forward, learning in the spirit of these values.