College Executive Principal – Regan Neumann ■ College Deputy Principal – Elizabeth Foster ■ A/Business Manager – Paul Hillier Principal Senior School – Duncan Steel ■ Principal Middle School – Mike Loftus ■ Principal Junior School – Damien Greig ■ A/Senior Deputy Principal – Kerrie Richards ■ Middle Deputy Principal – Linda Greitschus th ISSUE NUMBER: 4 FROM THE DESK OF THE COLLEGE EXECUTIVE PRINCIPAL Dear Families During the first part of this term the college has been emphasising with students the importance of making our vision real in our college practices – the pursuit of excellence with all our might. We have been trying to make the point – in everything we do – studies, sports, interaction with others, helping out – we do it to the best of our ability. We would appreciate it if you can also take some time to reinforce this at home. Our values underpin our vision. Our college values are: Courage and resilience – “With All Thy Might” Refuse to give in to doubt and fear. Draw on moral and physical courage in times of adversity. Realise that no matter what happens, you can cope with dignity and strength. Creative and critical thinking - “Scientia ad Sidera – The Pursuit of Excellence Through Learning Engage in lifelong learning. See empowerment through problem solving, analysis and creativity, enjoy the pursuit of excellence through learning. Integrity and honesty – Think and act ethically. Do what you know to be right rather than what is easy or convenient. Be accountable for your own actions. Ensure consistency between what you say and what you do. Be honest. Respect – Believe in the inherent worth of each person. Respect yourself and others and act with compassion. Show empathy by working to understand the viewpoint of others and how they are feeling. Responsibility – Recognise the connections among personal, social and environmental wellbeing. Act responsibly, ethically and in a disciplined way to make the world a better place. Understand that our choices and actions affect the rights of others, including future generations. Valuing Diversity – Recognise the common humanity of all peoples. Advocate for fairness and support the rights of others. Challenge injustice and promote understanding. These values shape our culture of trusting relationships, allowing all members of the college to build a productive community where Happiness is valued. DATE 27 February 2015 All students at our college are currently undertaking a formal program that talks about these values. This happens during the first term each year at the college. They are also revisited at various times during the year. We encourage students to live out these values in all that they do at school and beyond. Warm regards Dr Regan Neumann FROM THE DESK OF THE SENIOR SCHOOL PRINCIPAL Last week I included information from the ‘Learning Curve’ which is associated with our Senior School Diary. Throughout the students diary there are weekly tips to help students to manage themselves throughout the school year. Here is some further information from the Learning Curve on memory coding and reviewing notes. Taking accurate and comprehensive notes is an essential component in high level student understanding and thus achievement. More importantly, these notes have to be reviewed regularly to embed them in students’ long term memories. Following are facts relating to how much the brain retains: 1. Should notes not be reviewed within 24 hours, 60% to 80% of the learnt material is forgotten by the brain 2. After a month with no reviews, only 3% to 4% is remembered 3. When the brain doesn’t see learnt material regularly, it doesn’t see it as important because there are no patterns and as such dumps it. 4. When 50 minutes of learning is not reviewed regularly, it takes 30 to 40 minutes to relearn it - why learn it in the first place? As renowned Polish pianist, Ignace Paderewski, once said, “If I miss one day’s practice, I notice it. If I miss two day’s practice, the critics notice. If I miss three days practice, the audience notices it.” Whereas when the material is continually revisited the brain sees it as important because there are patterns. Real learning occurs when students are required to retrieve it regularly through reviewing. An excellent way to review notes is to use interactive Thinking Tools to organise the learnt material visibly in students’ brains. Students regularly train for sport and practise their musical instruments to improve their skills and capabilities; the brain is no different. Duncan Steel Senior School Principal KEY DATES TERM ONE  Wed 4 Mar  Thurs 5 Mar  Mon 16 Mar Yr 8, Yr 10 Vaccinations Non Uniform Day P & C Meeting, AGM Student Absences Please note the following direct phone numbers and email addresses: Junior School (Years 1 – 5) 3552-7420 or email: [email protected] Middle School (Years 6 – 9) 3552-7302 or email: [email protected] Senior School (Years 10 – 12) 3552-7303 or email: [email protected] FROM THE DESK OF THE MIDDLE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL We have reached the mid - point of Term1 and things are starting to get really busy in the Middle School. Hopefully, by now all parents should be aware of the assessment schedules that their children have (if not, please consult the College Web Site and if further help is needed please contact the relevant Year Coordinator). This week our Year 8 students have received the first of three presentations around Cyber Safety. This week, the topic was cyber bullying and the further presentations will be around inappropriate materials and posting and then online predators. I would like to thank one of our Year 9 parents, Tricia Munn, for her time and effort in presenting these topics. All Year 8 students should now have received a letter about the Year 8 camp which is in the first week of Term 2. Please contact Adam Gilmore the Year Coordinator if you have not received one. Finally, I would like to finish this week with :A quote to note ‘Success,’ writes Colin Turner in Born to Succeed, ‘is the continuous accomplishment of planned, meaningful objectives.’ ‘The majority of people measure their success as compared with others, but genuine success is what people do with their own potential, their development and improvement of it, and must be related to their individual objectives and personal goals.’ ‘Success, however, does not lie in the achievement of the goal, although that is what the world would have us consider success; instead it lies in the journey towards the goal.’ Yours sincerely Mike Loftus Middle School Principal FROM THE DESK OF THE JUNIOR SCHOOL PRINCIPAL State Principal Conference The 2015 Principals' Conference was held on 26 and 27 February at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. The conference brings together all Queensland state school Principals. The theme of this conference was 'A great school has a great school down the road - Collaborate, Innovate, Elevate'. The two day event featured keynote and guest speakers with panel discussions. Many new ideas and initiatives from the conference will be discussed as a college over the coming weeks ensuring that all children have the best learning opportunities at KG and have access to the most current education practices and initiatives. Facilities Update Over the last two weeks further work has taken place around the school to repair some of the damage from the storm last year. The windows in each of our classrooms have been replaced as has some of our shade sails. Over the coming weeks we are hoping that the main sails over the handball courts are reinstalled. We have also been monitoring our oval and will be advised by the company that have been contracted to complete the work as to a date when the children will be able to play on the surface. There is still some top dressing and levelling to occur however, we feel that work is proceeding as expected. Camp Payment The Year 5 Mudjimba Camp is getting closer. The dates are Wednesday 18 March to Friday 20 March, 2015. Final payments are due by Friday 06 March at the latest. From our Staff City District Swim Carnival KG took a team of 17 swimmers from the Junior and Middle schools to compete in the City District trials at the Valley Pool. We had a fantastic day and all students competed strongly in various events and did so in the right spirit. They showed sportsmanship and determination and represented our college amazingly. The Junior school students that attended were Emma P (5DK), Chloe M (5G), Arabella G (5G), Isaac R (4D), Finn L (4KD), Willem L (4P), Claudia C (5P) and Julien A (5G). Emma, Chloe and Finn all swam qualifying times to be eligible for the City District Team, with Emma smashing a 100m freestyle record! Emma and Chloe are to compete in the Met North trials this week. A huge congratulations to all swimmers for doing themselves proud. Mr Philpot Year 5 Teacher + JS Sports Co-ordinator Damien Greig Junior School Principal PEFORMING ARTS NEWS Snapshots from Home – March 12, 13,14 7pm “We just carried on... even with our loved ones away for so long. Everyone shared things... food, knitting and dressmaking patterns. There was this great feeling of pulling together... of making do.” Snapshots from Home, Margery Forde Students, staff and parents of the College have been enthusiastically working towards the 2015 Production, Snapshots from Home. Based on the wartime memories of men and women from Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, Snapshots from Home shares the stories of ordinary people living through extraordinary times. An honest, heartbreaking, and hilariously funny glimpse at the realities of life on the home front during World War Two. Commissioned to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of WWII in the Pacific, the play combines a series of ‘snapshots’, linked together by visual images, radio broadcasts, dance, music and song. The production promises to be a poignant step back in time. The College hall will be transformed to the era with tabled seating for guests who may purchase a ‘ration pack’ of refreshments. Please note that the evening performances are now SOLD OUT. Ration packs are available We are especially pleased that Margery Forde, the scriptwriter, will be attending the Friday evening performance. Music and Instrumental Music News The Music Excellence classes have been busy working with ICT Edstudios. One of the Year 7 Music Excellence classes has been working with John Willsteed, Director of Music at QUT to create a soundtrack for the short animated film The Bowl. The workshops have been a great introduction to the benefits of the BYOx program in the class and its relevance for music composition. The Instrumental Music program classes and ensembles have commenced for 2015. Ensembles rehearsals are on the College website and are as follows: Ensemble* Day Time Venue Corelli Strings Monday 7:20am Piccolo Strings Percussion 1 Percussion 2 Symphonic Wind Ensemble Wind Ensemble Allegri Strings Percussion 3 Big Band Monday Tuesday Tuesday Wednesday 7:20am 7:20am 3:00pm 7:20am Music Resource Centre, JS campus JS Music Room Auditorium MS/SS Auditorium MS/SS Auditorium MS/SS Thursday Thursday Thursday Friday 7:20am 7:20am 3:00pm 7:20 am Auditorium MS/SS Hall Foyer Auditorium MS/SS Auditorium MS/SS *Beginner Band and String Ensemble will start in Term 2. Over 400 students are currently enrolled in the program for 2015 across the subschools. Student timetables are displayed on noticeboards in both the Junior School Music Classroom and Music H Block in the MS/SS campus. Students have each been issued with a new Kelvin Grove black music folder that must be returned at the end of the school year. Any parent/carer who is not currently receiving email communication regarding the program, needs to contact the Music Department in H Block 3552 3341. Instrumental Music Camp 2015 This year the Music camp is at Camp Warrawee from Sunday April 26 to Tuesday April 28. Students involved in the following ensembles will be attending camp: Allegri Strings, Corelli Strings, Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Wind Ensemble, Big Band. This is a wonderful opportunity for Instrumental music students to have intensive rehearsals, develop team spirit and work with visiting Instrumental specialists. SUBSHOP NEWS Wicked On Wednesday February 25, selected Performing Arts students were able to attend the production of Wicked at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre. A fantastic evening was had by all who attended. Many thanks must go to Ms Bonnie Logan who organized the event. Pay On Line An easier way to pay for your students accounts and activities is on line. Use your internet banking provider and our College Bank Account is BSB 064157 Account 10000544 In the reference area ensure you identify Your Surname, Initial and student EQ ID and an abbreviation of the activity. Eg: Smith B 0583736254H Camp P & C MEETING Please see attached documents regarding up coming P & C meeting From Monday 2nd March, 2015 IT INFRASTRUCTURE NEWS The IT infrastructure team have been extremely busy in the first few weeks of the year enabling and supporting students who wish to connect their devices to the College wireless network. As you can imagine this means dealing with a wide variety of hardware platforms (Mac, PC, Android and Chrome) and to a similar variety of operating systems (Mac OS, Windows 7, Windows 8, Android). Not all devices have been connected without difficulty and we are still investigating technical issues that have arisen in the process. Please encourage your child to bring their devices to the TechHub where Rad, Serge and myself will do our best to see they are connected without fuss. Malware We are noticing a few student-owned laptops have malware installed. Malware is short for malicious software - any software used to disrupt computer operation, gather sensitive information, or gain access to private computer systems eg. Trojans, worms, nasty browser plugins, etc. If we discover malware or other viruses on your child’s laptop we will not allow the laptop to connect to the College network. Please ensure that anti-virus and anti-malware software is installed on the private device. The following sites have free malware protection software which you can install at home… • http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows/securityessentials-download (Microsoft called Microsoft Security Essentials for Windows 7 or higher - free for home users and up to ten users in a business environment • https://www.malwarebytes.org (click on the Free Version Download – or pay the money if you wish) • http://housecall.trendmicro.com • https://www.avast.com/en-au/index Do you have an eLearning, BYOx or PYOD question or issue? Please contact the Head of Department, Teaching and eLearning, preferably by email using the following email addresses: [email protected] (general eLearning queries) [email protected] [email protected] … The 393 bus will be travelling from Teneriffe Ferry Terminal (at bus stop at Skyring Terrace) to Kelvin Grove State College (drop off is in L’Estrange Terrace, right in front of the school). While we would have preferred for the bus to come down into New Farm, we see this is as a positive change. The timetable below shows the ONE morning bus at 8:15am and then the ONE afternoon pick-up from school (directly across from where the children got off in the morning in L’Estrange Terrace) at 3:12pm. Of course we’d like more services, however this is it for the duration of the trial period, which will finish at the end of Term 2. If our Kelvin Grove/New Farm families could support this change and give this new route a go, we’d appreciate it. Your child can catch the 199 from New Farm up to the Teneriffe Ferry Terminal and then catch the 393 to KG . In the afternoon, they just reverse the trip. This will save them a trip through the City AND some time (18 minutes + the 199 trip, so a lot better!). If you have any questions, please [email protected] Kind regards, Tracy Musgrave contact me at