Compass No 409 - February 2016

Among 37 Best Year 12 Students in 2015

We congratulate Lachlan McKay, 2015 College Captain, who was recognised as one of Queensland’s top performing Year 12 students at the Queensland Certificate of Education awards last weekend. He was one of 37 students from the state to receive an award for outstanding academic achievement in their senior studies. The 37 students were ahead of more than 50,000 of their peers. Lachlan has been accepted into a Doctor of Medicine at the University of Queensland through the Provisional Entry for School Leavers pathway and was also awarded a Vice Chancellor’s Scholarship.

Lachlan is an inspirational, unassuming young man who provided great service to this community. He tutored his classmates, maintained excellent relationships with his peers and contributed strongly to the College sports program. He set goals and worked hard to achieve them. This same achievement of personal excellence was the story of many of our Year 12 students from 2015 in many varied forms. We celebrate with the entire cohort their achievements and who they have become. We wish them well as they now embark on the next phase of their lives. Many of them will be engaging with university life for the first time this week, while others have started in the working world or pursued other areas of interest.

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is a national assessment for students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 that is undertaken annually. NAPLAN tests the sorts of skills that are essential for every child to progress through school and life, such as reading, writing, spelling and numeracy.

NAPLAN is made up of tests in four areas (or ‘domains’) of:

• Reading;
• Writing;
• Language conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation); and
• Numeracy.

This year, NAPLAN is on from Tuesday 10^th May – Thursday 12^th May with any catch up tests to be completed by close of business on Friday 13^th May.

Parents seeking further information about NAPLAN testing may like to visit the National Assessment Program website: http://www.nap.edu.au/naplan/parent-carer-support/parent-carer-support.html.

This term, staff and students have been focusing on positivity. Students have contributed a range of ideas on how to grow positive language and habits in young people. Research shows that people who think optimistically see the world as a place packed with endless opportunities, especially in trying times. Each evening, our College Captains have been writing down three positives from their day and sharing them with students. At the recent Pastoral Care Action Group Meeting, students discussed how to grow positivity in each other. They developed a poster that is now displayed across the school. They are also interviewing students about what positivity means to them and creating a video to show at assembly.

Drama students are also working on a short piece on ‘Positivity’ to be presented at assembly. The senior music class have also promised the performance of a positive song. Some of the other ideas that students developed include:

• Concentrate on being positive at all times by thinking about what is good in this situation;
• Perform one selfless act every day to help others;
• Treat everyone nicely, even those who are rude to you;
• Control your emotions;
• Pay attention and enjoy life as it happens;
• Every morning, read or watch something that inspires you;
• Exercise for 30 minutes everyday; and
• Spend some time in the evenings on what went well.

In recognition of Clean Up Australia Day in March, at assembly on Monday I will be discussing the important role each individual can play in keeping our environment litter free. If you are interested, there are websites that provide further information and detail the effects pollution is having on our ocean, such as: http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/3583576.htm.

The environmental footprint of a school can be quite large due to water usage, electricity and rubbish generation. To minimise our environmental impact, the College has implemented initiatives such as rainwater tanks, solar panels to generate electricity, a recycling program and also supports environmentally friendly forms of travel.

Much of the College’s non-recyclable rubbish is generated from food wrappings, which do not readily break down and unfortunately can end up being washed into the ocean. We encourage parents to consider this when preparing food for their children’s lunches and morning teas. Even though students generally do a great job in keeping the grounds clean, unfortunately not all litter is placed or remains in bins.

As a parent, I appreciate the convenience of snap lock plastic bags, plastic food wraps and fruit juice packaged in tetra packs with straws. However, there are alternatives to replace much of the plastic used in lunches. Although the use of paper bags is not ideal, it is certainly preferable to plastic. Reusable stainless steel water bottles and cutlery can be used instead of plastic ones. Reusable plastic containers are great for storing items like fruit, yoghurt, spaghetti and baked beans. More information regarding eco-friendly lunches can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ9FXCbyUBM.

If every student’s lunch contained one less piece of plastic per day it would equate to over 160,000 pieces of rubbish removed from the environment annually. Remember every little bit helps!

The following LibGuides have been added this week:

Year 8 Food Tech
http://libguides.pacluth.qld.edu.au/home/farmtofeast

Year 8 Enterprise Education
http://libguides.pacluth.qld.edu.au/home/consumers

Year 12 Biology
http://libguides.pacluth.qld.edu.au/home/ivf

Vacation Care is just around the corner! The program has been finalised and is due to be sent out within the next week… so please keep an eye out for it! As usual, it will also be available on the College website. If you would like your child to attend, please ensure they are enrolled with the Outside School Hours Care service. Due to limited vacancies, it will be a first in, first served situation.

We have a few new experiences planned, which we believe the children are going to thoroughly enjoy. Using a programming tool called Mind Maps, we have collected many ideas for the program directly from the children themselves. We encourage all families to read the program carefully as you may recognise where the ideas have come from! We are hoping that families can help in gathering some items for our special days, particularly our ‘Recycled Art and Craft Day’. OSHC needs plastic milk and soft drink tops, old CD’s, plastic soft drink bottles large or small, buttons and old pieces of material. If you have any of these items we would love to take them off your hands. Please just drop them in to staff at OSHC.

For all the parents who were told by their Year 11 students that the biology excursion was just ‘good’, this is for you. To start the two-day excursion, we headed up to a boardwalk through the Maroochy Wetlands. Apart from the endless battle against mosquitos and the boiling sun, the experience was quite interesting. We learnt about many different mangroves and became very attentive when hundreds of red crabs swarmed the riverbank. We tested the water levels for dissolved oxygen, salinity and more, with $8000 equipment provided by Maroochy Water Watch, which we were sure to guard with our lives! After this we left for Mary Cairncross Reserve, which provided a refreshing change from the sweltering sun. The trees and paddy-melons were beautiful. On day two we made four stops, testing the water with the expensive equipment at each location. We went from creeks in Nambour, to Wappa Dam and then back to Maroochy River. Wappa Dam was huge and the smaller creeks in Nambour were beautiful. Overall, the day made us much more aware of the effect humans have on our waterways. The more we travelled, the more we learned and the more we appreciated the wildlife and outstanding environment that we are blessed with on the Sunshine Coast!

Georgia Woods, Year 11 Student

University of Queensland (UQ) Undergraduate Study Guide 2017

• This guide provides an introduction to studying at UQ as an undergraduate student. It includes information about programs, entry requirements, how to apply, living costs, accommodation and much more. Copies are available from the Careers Office or visit, https://future-students.uq.edu.au/publications-and-forms.

Australian Catholic University (ACU) Student Speak Videos

• Hear from ACU students as they share details about student life and some of the practical points of starting university: http://www.acu.edu.au/study_at_acu/future_students/undergraduate/experience_uni_before_you_start/open_day/student_speak.

Bond University Campus Tours

• Bond University organises campus tours for prospective students so they can find out what it’s like to study at Bond. Student ambassadors lead the tours and they are personalised to suit the individual’s interests. Register for a personal tour by emailing campustours@bond.edu.au or phoning 07 5595 1067. Further information is available at: http://bond.edu.au/future-students/study-bond/see-for-yourself/campus-tours.

University of NSW (UNSW) Engineering

• Through engineers' eyes: experience engineering mechanics by experiment, analysis and design through an online course. This free online course will provide information on the techniques of engineering mechanics as well as use the theory to interpret experiment and designs. The course consists of four hours per week over a seven-week period. For more information, visit: https://www.engineering.unsw.edu.au/all-events/free-online-course-through-engineerseyes-engineering-mechanics-by-experiment-analysis.

Congratulations to all students who competed at the Independent District Swimming Carnival last Wednesday at Noosa. The team spirit amongst the junior team was very high and all students were well behaved throughout the day. A number of swimmers performed exceptionally on the day and finished in the top three places in their age group events. Congratulations to the following students:

• Ainslie Carter – 1^st place, 9 years girls 50m breaststroke
• Jayda Lowe – 1^st place, 12 years girls 50m breaststroke
• Tom Chapman – 1^st place, 11 years boys 50m breaststroke
• Aviva Kelly – 3^rd place, 11 years girls 50m backstroke and 3^rd place, 11 years girls 50m butterfly

Some of our relay teams also finished in the top three places. Congratulation to the following teams:

• 11 years mixed 4 x 50m medley relay – 3^rd place
• 11 years boys 4 x 50m freestyle relay – 3^rd place
• 11 years girls 4 x 50m freestyle relay – 3^rd place

At the completion of the carnival, both Tom Chapman and Jayda Lowe were selected to represent the district at the upcoming regional carnival. Well done on gaining selection into this team!

Last Thursday, the Pacific swimming team travelled to Noosa to compete in the District Schools Swimming Carnival. Thank you to all who attended on the day and represented the College. Special mentions to the following students on their individual performances:

• Kaylee McKeown, 15 years girls – 200m IM (1st); 50m breaststroke (1st); 50m freestyle (1st); 50m butterfly (1st) and 50m backstroke (1st)
• Taj Kelly, 14 years boys – 50m breaststroke (2nd) and 50m freestyle (3rd)
• Ella Smith, 16 years girls – 50m breaststroke (3rd)
• James Brown, 14 years boys – 50m freestyle (1st) and 50m butterfly (1st)
• 15 years girls medley relay team – 1st

Kaylee McKeown was also named the 15 years girls champion swimmer of the carnival and broke district records in the 200m IM and 50m backstroke. James Brown was named the 14 years boys champion of the meet and Taj Kelly came third overall in the 14 years boys division. Well done to James, Kaylee and Taj!

Congratulations also to our 15 years girls and 14 years boys teams, who were both named age champions for their divisions. A fantastic achievement!

Four Pacific athletes were selected to compete at the regional trials next week. We wish Kaylee McKeown, Ella Smith, James Brown and Taj Kelly all the best at the next stage of competition.