4 September 2019

Newsletter Articles

P&C Meeting

The next P&C Meeting for 2019 will be held on Wednesday, 18 September at 6.30pm in W Block Conference Room. Everyone is invited and encouraged to attend.

Finance Office News

Please see below any upcoming or overdue payments dates. If your payment is overdue, please pay this as soon as possible.

To ensure you are eligible for inclusion in future optional programs/activities, please pay invoices by the due date.

Thank you for your cooperation in these matters.

Michelle Black
Business Manager

Order Your 2019 Yearbook Now Only $20

Orders Close Friday 6 September 2019

Don’t miss out on your 2019 Benowa State High School yearbook. Enjoy combing through the pages of the year that was, photos of friends old and new, magical memories in images and text. Books will be delivered in Term 4. Please check with the Cashiers Office that all outstanding fees have been paid before you place your order.

Book week

Benowa Teachers are Reading Super-Heroes for Book Week!

Book Week 2019 has been and gone but it is definitely not forgotten! Read through the overview to discover the fun for this year. Congratulations to Wake House for winning the annual Book Week cup. During the week, students took super hero selfies in the Library as a celebration of reading, which fostered a considerable flurry of activity and dressing up in capes and masks! Once again, Benowa State High School teachers demonstrated their passion for reading and attired themselves in various super hero and character costumes to promote books.

Super Star Readers of Benowa State High for 2019:

Senior students: Ramsha Khan Year 11. Sebastian Cording Year 10.
Junior students: Arianna Gregory – Ducomon Year 7. Jordan Miles Year 7.

Monday was a ‘sweet’ launch to Book Week with each school House submitting a ‘Book Cake’ decorated to reflect a book. Over 140 students and teachers voted to decide upon the winner, resulting in what is known as ‘incidental’ book talk, where students discussed the pros and cons of book titles and series whilst they viewed the cakes. Wake House presented a phenomenal, double-sided cake depicting ‘Maleficent’ and ‘Sleeping Beauty’, made by Ellie Humble of Year 7. Here’s just a few of the fantastic book cake entries.

Tuesday entailed each House creating a book character costume and with an early bird entry, Wake House again took out first place with their realistic Cruella Deville from ‘101 Dalmations ’.

Wednesday featured some creative use of technology to design a book trailer. Wright House won this event with Mikaela and Tahlia Jensen’s highly entertaining, original interpretation of a futuristic Harry Potter book that they scripted and acted in themselves.

Thursday was the much anticipated, House Battle of the Books competition, where students participate in a literary quiz based on three different books selected each year. This year students demonstrated their knowledge of ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’, The Hunger Games – Catching Fire’ and ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’. An opportunity for students to sign up individually and join in, or form a team of up to six members, this event was once again graced by our school Principal, Mr Mark Rickard! House flags and banners added to the festive atmosphere.

To conclude the week of all things related to reading, once again the annual visiting author presented a writing workshop to the entire cohort of Year 7 students. Working collaboratively, the English department and the Library facilitated this incredible experience for the junior students, who learnt some key creative writing tips first hand from Casey Ardron, professional author, before writing on their own. Class teachers still wore their Book Week costumes such as Mr Kane Soares and Mr Paul Clare, pictured: a great inspiration for their students! Our Library has this author’s book, pop in to see it!

Friday is always our Character Costume Carnival and the teachers went all out to inspire in our students a love of reading by dressing up as super heroes and other book characters. Student prize-winners for the boys are: Aiden Spoto and Blair McDiarmid with their home-made action character costumes. For girls, our senior winner was Jasmine Diviney for her amazing Superwoman costume; Ellie Humble for her Dorothy outfit in the Wizard of Oz plus Hallie Brailsford for Super Girl as Junior students. Each teaching department donned costumes and spent the day teaching as Superman, Batman and more. Benowa students are so lucky to have these outstanding reading role models as teachers, motivating the school community to enjoy books and support the school Library!

Results summary: WAKE House Cup Winner 2019

• House ‘Book Cake’ – Individual = WAKE
• House ‘Character Costume Design’ = WAKE
• House ‘Book Trailer’ – Individual = WRIGHT
• House ‘Battle of the Books’ - Team = WAKE
• Daily Library Quiz - Individual = FLOREY
• Costume Carnival - Individual = BANDLER, FLOREY, LAVER, WAKE
• STAR Readers – Junior = Ariana Gregory Ducommun, Jordan Miles
• STAR Readers – Senior= Ramsha Khan, Sebastian Cording

By Ms Kate Stanley Library Teacher

MLTAQ Speech Competition

On Sunday, August 18, the annual Modern Language Teachers Association of Queensland (MLTAQ) Speech Contest was held at Griffith University with students from all over the Gold Coast competing in a variety of languages.

Yugambeh

On Sunday, Borobi introduced the Yugambeh Language to the Contest for the first time. It was an honour to watch Cecilia Schultz, a student from our school, speak at the opening of the Award Ceremony using the native language of the traditional owners’ ancestors: a language that was forbidden for some time and was not allowed to be spoken among its native speakers from about 1980. Yugambeh, the language of the 7 clans of the region in which we live, is not only being used by the descendants of the ancestors, but also by other locals. We want to revive the Yugambeh language and Benowa staff and students are striving to do so. Well done to those intrepid linguists in our student population:

Marinda Pasanai, Celicia Schultz, Sophia Tranter-Sleep and Miah Williams.

Baugull wanyi (Thank you).
Julia Martinez Garcia

French

On top of exams coming up and homework to do, these students showed their dedication and their passion for the French language, versing other students from different schools on the Gold Coast. Because our students are doing or have done French Immersion, they competed against students from a year level above their own.

I would like to congratulate all of the students! I am sure that you had a great experience you can be proud of, being able to overcome your stress, to memorize a speech and master the pronunciation of the French language.

Francoise Escot - French Immersion Coordinator

Spanish

Italian

Japanese

The Awards Ceremony was a full house with the representatives of each of the languages in the Contest, including Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian and Spanish.

Senior Schooling

As we near the end of Term Three, please remind your child to meet deadlines for assignments and fully prepare for any in class tests or exams. We are still taking names for the RSA course for Term Four and 2019. Students really need to read their emails and listen to notices on assemblies. Please contact me if you or your child would like any further information.

Year 11 Students

Have you checked the QCAA website yet? You should have. This is where you track your QCE. Please see Mrs Price for more details if you haven’t accessed this site yet.

Year 12 Students

Provisional statements checked? Student Connect Account checked? QTAC application underway? Rank calculated? School assignments up to date? Responded to feedback? Best draft handed in? Planning for the future?

If you need help with Provisional Statements, Student Connect Account see Mrs Price in the Senior Schooling Office. If you need help with QTAC, see Ms Mitchell-Watson or Mr Ramsay in the GO office.

QCS is here. Today, our students finished sitting the QCS tests.

This is a momentous occasion as it is the final year of QCS, so your child will go down in history. Thanking you for your on-going support since 2018. You should be very proud of your child, this has been a long journey and sitting QCS is a huge achievement.

Sarah Price – HoD, Senior Schooling

And now some good news from our industy liaison officer

Why traineeships? What comes after?

Sage Reynolds and Shannon Love

I first met Sage Reynolds early in 2013. I had been assigned to be his trainer for his Certificate III in Business as a school-based trainee with Subway in Ashmore. I remember thinking at the time that here was a boy who had the world at his feet. Full of humour and a certain level of bravado, I felt that he had a measure of self-belief that I could only hope to instill in my own son, due to be born a few months later.

Sage was like many of us at school, performing well in the subjects he liked and not so well in the subjects he didn’t feel as interested in. As a result, his marks started slipping in some areas. Looking back, Sage says now that he didn’t ever feel that he fitted in. Whilst he had great respect for his teachers, he was disruptive and didn’t relate well to his classmates.

He enrolled in a Civil Construction course and even though he did not think this course was ‘for him’, it made him think about what other courses he could do to help him graduate and more importantly, find something that would fit with him. He decided to sign up for a school-based traineeship in Business with a local Subway. He thought that doing a traineeship would give him an actual confidence in himself that he had previously projected but not necessarily felt.

The first time I met with Shannon Love in 2016, it was also in the capacity as a trainer, inducting a student to start a Certificate III in Business, once again in a traineeship, also with a Subway franchise. Shannon was as shy as a mouse, a beautiful girl with a wary smile. She was also unsure of herself and where she fitted in. Struggling with the academic demands of school and a recent move from one school to another, she was desperately trying to navigate her way through her new surrounds.

A previous A grade student, Shannon had been dedicated to surf lifesaving and was gifted at other sports as well. One day she simply lost her passion for her oceanic pursuits, her other sporting loves and academically she felt adrift. This obviously impacted on her relationships with friends and family, all of whom were trying to help her regain her confidence and herself. It was at this point that I realized that the two individuals were interconnected. Sage had suggested to Shannon that she take up a traineeship, as he thought this could help her finish school and also give her something to work toward and enjoy.

Let’s fast forward to August 2019, shall we? Where are they now and how did their experience affect and shape them? What did they learn through the process? So many questions. I am exceptionally proud to say that the young adults I met with this week are far removed from their previous selves. Yes, they are still inherently themselves, however much has changed.

After Sage finished school, (yes, he graduated with the points he was able to gain from his certificate), he continued to work with the Subway outlet in Ashmore. Through the networking opportunities that he was exposed to and the relationships he made with company employees, he soon transferred to Subway Mermaid Beach as a Manager. Whilst he was managing this store he studied in security and gained his security license. He left Subway a year or so ago and now works in security for the casino.

Sage explained that the greatest thing that he has developed through all of this is real confidence. Not just the chest puffing confidence of youth, but the self-belief derived from the life skills he has learned. “Turning up to work on time, having pride in my appearance, learning how to manage my time and how to effectively communicate with the range of people that I had to deal with, really helped me grow up. It was also beneficial for me to have some structure once school had ended and this helped me make the transition from school to the full-time world of work”. He plans to one day set up his own security firm in true entrepreneurial style.

As far as Shannon is concerned the benefits have been life changing. Shannon did not graduate school as she left at the end of year 11. She tried to finish her schooling by going to TAFE however she still struggled in a classroom environment. She eventually completed her certificate course as an industry-based trainee and has not looked back since. Shannon explained that she loved going to work and really responded to the one on one teaching that students receive when they are in traineeships. She feels that this really helped cement her knowledge and understanding.

She has learned how to be a good communicator, how to confidently interact with customers, the finer nuances of managing stock and par levels, marketing, recruiting and managing staff, how to budget and manage the financial aspects of the operation as well as how to constantly find ways to improve the business. This personal growth has also had a knock-on effect on her personal life, with a noticeable improvement in her relationships with her family. Where they were once nervous about her choices and worried for her future, Shannon says that her mum has recently expressed how proud they are of her and her achievements. Her dream these days is to complete a Certificate IV in Frontline Management, manage multiple stores and to hopefully become the franchisee of a number of outlets.

After watching them both interact with other business owners where the store is located, I can see that they have made new friendships with like minded people. Both explained that these people have become almost like family and that there is a mutual respect and camaraderie that has supported them through their journey. When I asked them both what message they would pass on to prospective trainees they said, “take the leap of faith, milk it for all that you can and learn from those that have the experience. Do as many courses as you can, as you can only gain from it”.

This is not a story of redemption but a real account of transformation, of a successful transition from teenage years to early adulthood. Their paths may have differed slightly, but the results are the same and yes, these childhood sweethearts are still a team that tackles life’s challenges together. The future seems very bright indeed.

Janneke Pignolet – Industry Liaison Officer BSHS

Alumni

We would like to invite past students and staff to join our Alumni and continue to be a part of our school community. Visit our website today at the link below:

Have you or one of your classmates achieved something great since graduating from Benowa State High School?

Keep us up to date with the great things you or your classmates have achieved so we can share this with our alumni community and inspire our current students. Email us anytime on office@benowashs.eq.edu.au with any achievements and other good news for us to share with Benowa SHS staff, current students and the Alumni community.

Lost Property

Are you looking for Lost Property? The Bookroom currently has a large amount of lost property for collection. Collect your lost items today!

Bookroom opening hours:

8.15am to 3.15pm - Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday
8.15am to 12.30pm – Wednesday

Does your child have a Medical Condition?

Providing medication to the school

Before you provide the school with your child’s medication, check the expiry date to ensure it is in-date and there is enough for the agreed time period. It is also a good idea to take a note of the expiry date so that you can replace the medication before it expires.

Please note, school staff will not administer medication that you can buy over-the-counter at chemists and supermarkets (e.g. paracetamol, eye drops, cough syrup) unless it has been prescribed by your child’s qualified health practitioner. For example, the school would administer paracetamol to a student only if it has been prescribed by their dentist to be taken for a short time after dental treatment.

School staff are bound by these regulations and we hope that all parents will acknowledge and cooperate with these rules.

It is safer for all students if you can provide medication to the school in person (rather than send medication with the student). If you can’t provide the medication in person, contact the school to determine the easiest and safest approach for the school to receive the medication.

If you believe your child is capable of self-administering their own medication at school, please contact the school office to discuss, as this requires the Principal’s approval.

When your child’s medication is no longer required to be kept at school, please collect all unused medication.

Requirements for students at risk of anaphylaxis

If your child is at risk of anaphylaxis, it is important for you to provide the school with your child’s emergency medication and their ASCIA Anaphylaxis Action Plan, completed by your doctor. This Anaphylaxis Action Plan provides the instructions for the school to administer your child’s medication in an emergency, which is specific to respond to their health condition.

Requirements for students at risk of asthma

If your child has asthma and requires assistance to administer their medication, it is important for you to provide the school with your child’s emergency medication and their Asthma Action Plan, completed by your doctor. An Asthma Action Plan provides specific instructions for the school to administer your child’s medication.

We recognise that some students are capable of managing their asthma without adult assistance. If you are confident that your child can confidently, competently and safely self-administer their asthma medication, let the school administration know. The school will record your decision and will not require your child’s Asthma Action Plan. Please note that if your child requires assistance in an asthma emergency, staff will provide Asthma First Aid.

Thank you for your assisting the school in keeping our students safe and healthy.

If you have any further queries, please contact Sheree in Administration to ensure your child’s medical action plan is current.

Michelle Black
Business Manager

Young drivers – the facts.

Young drivers (drivers aged 17 to 24) are one of Queensland's most at risk road user groups. Research suggests that young drivers and riders, aged 16 to 24 years, are 60% more likely to be involved in a serious crash than licensed mature adult drivers and riders, aged 25 to 59 years.