Principal's Log

 We were very excited to hear about the way in which our Da Vinci Teams competed in the Da Vinci Challenge on the Gold Coast last week. This high profile competition, which involves activities designed to challenge the very best thinkers, attracts teams from schools across the state. Our students stood out for their persistence, strong consistent engagement and their ability to work well together as a team. We were delighted when our Year 7 team were announced the winners of the Mathematics Challenge and our Year 8 team as second place in the Ideation Discipline Challenge. This is an outstanding achievement and we congratulate our Year 7 and 8 students and all of the students who participated so well. We thank Mrs Jo Belchamber and her team for their preparation of the students.

We thank our community for the tremendous support of the Red Shield Appeal over the last few weeks. We raised over $2000 through our casual clothes day and pasta lunch and collected around a 1000 food and household items to support the Salvation Army. On Sunday students also collected over $7500 when they participated in the Door Knock Appeal. These contributions are greatly appreciated by the people of the Caloundra community, who benefit from the support of the Salvation Army. We thank Mrs Leanne Bevis, Mr Brendan Delaney, Miss Kim Stone and Mr David Druery for their leadership of this important service learning initiative.

Many members of our community enjoyed dining at The Boat Shed on Tuesday night as our Year 12 Hospitality students took over the restaurant for the evening. This was a culminating learning experience for our students and gave them the opportunity to showcase their skills in a real world environment. Well done to all students on a fantastic night. We thank Mrs Colleen Beattie and Mrs Rhana Holt for the organisation of this event and the professional development of student skills over the last two years.

On Wednesday night, members of our community came together to learn from our Year 9 STEM students as they showcased the innovative products they had created to solve real world problems. They rose to the challenge of having limited budgets and used accessible, recycled materials to design and make their working prototypes. The projects were designed to take advantage of technological advances for life in both developed and developing countries. They included the production of a robotic device that cleaned skirting boards, a digital mirror that included read outs of messages around its frame, a hydrogen producer and training wheels that could be fitted to enable an adult suffering from cerebral palsy to ride a bike. For developing countries they included roof and lighting designs that took advantage of solar power including one design that doubled as a mosquito repellent by emitting sound frequencies similar to those of a dragon fly, hats that collected solar energy and could be worn as lights at nights, water filtering devices and a solar oven. Parents, staff and students were impressed with the ingenuity, passion and deep knowledge of the students as they gave an outline of their product and answered questions. We congratulate all students and thank the University of the Sunshine Coast’s STEM Education Officer Ms Sue Lanham for opening the evening, parents and staff for their attendance and Mrs Claire Richards and Mrs Marnie Whittaker for their leadership. A wonderful showcase of talent and thinking!

We wish all of our Middle and Senior College students’ calm and insightful minds as they prepare for the upcoming assessment period and pray that God would grow us to live well for ourselves and others.

Dr Bronwyn Dolling, Principal