18 September 2018

Newsletter Articles

From the Principal

Outstanding NAPLAN results!

Once again, we are delighted with our 2018 NAPLAN results, particularly improvements in Writing. Rockhampton SHS reversed the national, state and ‘like schools’ trend in this domain, as our year 9 students showed significant progress.

On Sunday 16 Sept the Courier-Mail summarised the performance of all Queensland schools according to how much students had improved from years 7 (2016) to Year 9 (2018). Schools were deemed to have improved if they added more than 5 performance points in the two years. RSHS was one of only a few schools (private or state) to show improvement, which was in the top quartile of all Qld schools. Our teachers are to be commended on their hard work in engaging our learners, and our students on their efforts to improve.

Stem Academy

As I mentioned in the last newsletter, Rockhampton SHS was selected to host the regional STEM Academy (Queensland Virtual STEM Academy).Well done to Breeha Sinnamon, our QVSA co-ordinator, who has worked hard to establish a virtual classroom, enrolling students from all over Central Queensland. Please see the attached article for more information

Young Achievers

Congratulations to Kayne Duncan and Phoebe Keable-Sutton who won a position in the University of Queensland Young Achievers Program! This initiative aims to support the tertiary study and career aspirations of ATAR eligible senior secondary school students. The focus of the program is on nurturing and developing the educational ambitions of participants through mentoring, financial assistance and opportunities for personal growth and leadership development

Lastly, well done to our hard working and successful staff and students for the numerous academic, sporting and cultural achievements in this newsletter- grand final wins, packed performances and success at inter school competitions to name a few! I would like to wish all members of our school community a fun and relaxing holiday.

Regards
Kirsten Dwyer

Important Dates

Rugby League Grand Final Win

It was a case of ‘lights, camera, action’ for Rockhampton High’s Year 7A rugby league team when they played Yeppoon SHS in the 7A Reserve grand final at Browne Park last Wednesday. The game was played under Browne Park’s TV standard lights and livestreamed on the internet. The action came in the form of a highly entertaining game which was won by the RHS by 28 points to 16. Sean Haagman’s powerful running earned him the David Taylor Man of the Match Award, Captain Tas Comollatti led with fearless defence and halfback Lincoln Saunders dazzled the crowd with his footwork.

Many thanks go to Mr Kilpatrick-Brazier for coaching the boys and parents Mr Quentein Comollatti and Mr Guy Van Dreumel for their sideline assistance.

GOOGLE RDSSRL Grand Finals 2018 Day 1 to watch the game on Youtube.

Senior Girls make Soccer Grand Final

The girls soccer season culminated in a grand final appearance for RHS Senior Girls after a long season of nine games. Unfortunately, the team couldn’t manage what would have been a fairy-tale win, going down to a very talented Heights College team by 4 points to 0.

Undoubtedly, the highlight of the season for the girls was their exciting extra-time semi-final win over minor premiers, RGS. That game was drawn at full time and won in a penalty shoot-out with goalie, Pepper Hoare, the heroine of the day.

Many thanks go to Chappy Damo for his coaching this season and best wishes go to the Yr 12 girls who will be leaving school next term.

Touch Football Grand Final Win

On Tuesday the 11th of September, our two touch football teams played in the grand final. Our grade 7 girls won theirs against Heights College with Tegan Kelly named player of the match. Our open team lost in a close game against North Rocky with Shauna Barnham being named player of the match for that game.

Thanks to all the parents, staff and students who supported the girls throughout the season.

Jessica Austin
HPE and Science Teacher

School Based Youth Health Nurse

‘Tis the season to talk about mental health as World Suicide Prevention Day (10 September) and R U OK? Day (13 September) have just been celebrated.

Rockhampton State High School kicked off mental health celebrations by attending the R U OK? Conversation Convoy on Thursday, 30th August, 2018. This event was to help remind us to connect with those around us, at school, at work and the communities in which we live by using the four steps to help navigate conversations:

1. Ask R U OK?
2. Listen without judgement.
3. Encourage action.
4. Check in.

Students and the wider school community of Rockhampton State high School need to have the space to have critical conversations every day and know how and where to access support.

Take advantage of the opportunity to start a conversation in your family about anything from self-care to managing stress, and being a good friend to supporting others.

Need a bit of extra help?

The Arts

Combined Schools 2018

Back row: Amy Malick, Jolie McNamara, Mr Samuels
Front row: Pamela Castaneda Cardenas, Kasey Nugent

Rockhampton State High School students performed clarinet pieces at the CQ Combined Schools evening at Allenstown State School. The evening show was sold out show with crowds filling the auditorium and standing in the corridor. It was a fun evening for staff and students.

Students worked well together to deliver a very enjoyable performance.

Kirstyn Larcombe, Amber Neilson, TJ Robertson and Mr Samuels are Rockhampton State High School’s flautist group. Conductor Mr Samuels has been diligently working with this group of aspiring performers to achieve an articulate and well-played performance that captured the audience’s attention and kept them on their toes during the upbeat and exciting performance.

Cindy Mills
HOD The Arts

Visual Art

Year 9 Visual Art students were given the task of creating an underwater watercolour painting of an issue that impacts on our beautiful Great Barrier Reef. Issues such as littering, fishing, endangered animals and coastal development were researched and portrayed in their artwork.

These are just a small sample of the beautiful watercolours that will be on display at this year’s Art Exhibition. Save the date: 23 - 25 November.

Sarah Clarke
Visual Art Teacher

Drama

QUEENSLAND THEATRE’S SCENE PROJECT

On Tuesday 27th and Thursday 30th August students from Rockhampton State High School’s afterschool Theatre Troupe and Year 10 Drama class participated in a workshop with professional actor and director, Damien Strouthos. Damien came to share his knowledge with the groups over two days in preparation for their performances in the upcoming Scene Project, run by Queensland Theatre. The students worked very well sharing their ideas and creating numerous scenes, Damien was impressed with the hard work and dedication of the students and the big ideas they had created. After workshopping with Damien, the students are now on the fast track to creating incredible performances ready for the Pilbeam Theatre in early Term 4.

Katelyn Woodbine
Performing Arts Teacher

A Night with Shakespeare

On Friday 24th August, Drama students from RSHS participated in their first A Night With Shakespeare performance. A Night With Shakespeare was Rockhampton State High School’s first foray into a night purely dedicated to the magical and epic nature of William Shakespeare’s plays. The evening consisted of students from grades 7-12, exploring plays such as: Twelfth Night; King Lear; Romeo and Juliet; The Tempest; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Julius Caesar; Hamlet and Macbeth. Over 58 students were involved with 15 items from monologues, duologues, scenes and dances performed throughout the night. Congratulations to all involved on a very successful and entertaining night bringing Shakespeare to life.

JULIUS CAESAR

On Saturday 8th September students from Rockhampton State High School attended Bell Shakespeare’s performance of Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar is Shakespeare’s political thriller, a masterpiece of intrigue and treachery. Students were treated to a surprise as past Rockhampton State High School Student, Ghenoa Gela was involved in the production. In her debut performance with Bell Shakespeare, she portrayed the characters of Casca and Messala. Congratulations to all involved on a fantastic and thought provoking performance, a highly enjoyable evening for staff and students alike.

Lynda Dowley
Performing Arts Teacher and Creative Writing Co-ordinator

QVSA Project

Students from around the Central Queensland District have begun participating in an exciting new partnership between their schools, the Department of Education and Central Queensland University through a project facilitated by the Queensland Virtual STEM Academy for students who are academically gifted in the realms of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

Course participants have already delved into the world of virtual learning through generating an avatar, which encompasses the use of their webcam and microphone, and explored the Virtual World of iSee. All of the participating students have already displayed an amazing ability to navigate the program, move through the various zones and effectively communicate respectfully with teachers and students from all over our region. At present, 14 students are enrolled in the Local Cohort with the possibility of enrolling three more from another local school. At the end of this week, students will have completed a pre-survey on their prior exposure to online STEM programs and have achieved an iSee licence ready to start their first Grand Challenge in Week 10.

The students participating from Rockhampton State High School are Will Cho (Year 7), Samantha Patterson (Year 7), Jared Brandon (Year 7) and Claire Cho (Year 9).

Breeha Sinnamon
EXCEL Coordinator & Science Teacher

This screen grab is an attempted ‘group selfie’ from the Local Cohort’s first collaboration.

EXCEL

The year 9 EXCEL Maths class have been very busy over the past fortnight completing their statistics assessment. The students worked on their Microsoft Excel skills to compile a report, investigating a chosen topic using census data. Both Excel and report writing will feature heavily in senior mathematics.

Our class ‘Squizya’ champions were also awarded with their certificates recently. Claire Cho, Oliver Howkins and Senuji Kumarapeli were the top 3 class achievers for weekly Squizya homework tasks. Well done to these students and keep up the great effort.

As part of Year 7 Geography’s Place and Liveability unit, students have been studying factors that add up to a community's quality of life—including the built and natural environments, economic prosperity, social stability and equity, educational opportunity, and cultural, entertainment and recreation possibilities, to explore how much these factors influence people in making decisions about where they might want to live.

The EXCEL class travelled to Emu Park on Thursday of week 8 with the aim of comparing liveability there to a suburb of Rockhampton. To collect data to inform their inquiry, students interviewed local residents, completed field sketches of homes and streetscapes, and used aerial photography to survey the local area, classifying land use in Emu Park. On their return to school, students are to prepare a presentation addressing their local council outlining which suburb is most livable and suggest strategies to improve liveability in the less liveable area, explaining the expected effects of their proposed strategies to improve the liveability.

Year 8 STEM – Energy for the Future Workshop

Year 8 STEM students left at 6am last Thursday for a workshop on “Energy for the Future” held in Blackwater. This was a higher order thinking activity for year 8 students with an interest in science, technology, engineering and maths.

Students worked in teams and were tasked to determine the best energy type or energy mix for that country now and 50 years into the future. Several prominent representatives from companies across a variety of mining and energy sectors were there to help our students piece together an exit strategy from fossil fuel for their country. RSHS came away the winners tied with TCC after a very enlightened and detailed proposal put forward for the beautiful country of Denmark.

Collis Holloway
Year 10 Coordinator & Science Teacher

Fraser Coast Technology Challenge

Rockhampton State High School sent a Junior and Senior team to contest the Fraser Coast Technology Challenge, a 24-hour race held in Maryborough. The teams competed against 144 other vehicles from 48 schools across the state. Pit lane kept students busy with rider changes, management of food and nutrition, fatigue management and vehicle maintenance. This event teaches students that great things can be achieved when they work as a team. The seniors completed 348 laps (488km) and the juniors finished a total of 223 laps (312km). This is a combined distance of 800km - the distance between Rockhampton and Byron Bay!

This year we entered out first school built vehicle constructed with a full carbon fibre frame. A very light and robust vehicle that provided great protection for the riders in busy and high speed race. A special mention to the riders of the junior vehicle as they completed the 24 hours in a new vehicle. The team has some work to do for next year with rider geometry as the number one priority. The vehicle build was completed 40 minutes prior to race start. The team truly pulled together to get the vehicles race ready.

The team farewells year 12 student and senior team captain Danielle Ruff as she completed her last race as part of the team. Danielle looks forward to providing team support in future years. Thank you Danielle for your hard work in establishing a strong team culture of hard work, sportsmanship and resilience.

A massive thank you to the companies/organisations that have provided generous support to help get the teams to the event:

• Ecosure
• PJ Evans
• Pierce Engineering
• Bikes on High
• City Centre Cycles
• Centre State Signs
• Rockhampton SHS Excel Program

Finally a sincere thanks to the members of the school community for their commitment and support of the team:

• Schools Administration team for supporting this program in the school,
• P&C Association for generous funding support,
• Ms Rosin Murphy – Catering, vehicle support and camp and pit lane management
• Mr Josh McCall – Junior Vehicle design and construction and vehicle modification
• Ms Andrea Von Doom – Catering and camp and pit lane management
• Ms Janita Ray – Grant/Funding submissions and camp management
• Brett and Adonna Ruff – Vehicle maintenance/construction, camp and pit lane management
• Manual Arts staff – support and advice through vehicle construction
• All parents that have attended races this year to support and cheer on the teams.

We now look forward to 2019 and plan on participating in the QLD Human powered Vehicle Super series.

Phillip Richards
HOD Materials Technology

Big Science Competition.

The Big Science competition is organised by Australian Science Innovations (ASI) which is based at the Australian National University, Canberra. It is Australia’s premier provider of innovative and challenging science programs, competitions and residential camps for high achievers such as the Australian Science Olympiads. Over 37 000 students throughout Australia participated in the Big Science competition this year.

This was the first year that students participated (90 in total) of which 2 distinctions, 8 credits and 80 participation certificates were awarded:

Year 7

Credit - Sophie Anderson, Lachlan Balmain, Jared Brandon, Emma Daley, Lucas Yuskan
Distinction – Tara Matheson

Year 8

Credit – Cooper Armstrong-Hall, Aaron Dean

Year 9

Credit – Ethan Malcolmson
Distinction – Cooper Clark

UNSW ICAS Exam

UNSW has delivered ICAS exams for primary and secondary school students for more than 30 years. These exams focus English, Maths, Science, Digital Technologies, Spelling and Writing. This year there were over one million student entries from over 6,300 schools in Australia and New Zealand.

Both competitions are multiple choice exams that are aligned with the Australian Curriculum – Science. The questions focus on real-life examples and contemporary issues to test students’ skills in critical thinking, problem solving and scientific literacy.

This year, 91 students participated and were awarded 9 Credits, 11 Merit and 71 participation certificates:

Year 7

Merit – Scott Rose,
Credit – Jared Brandon, William Cho, Caden Ruff
Distinction – Tara Matheson

Year 8

Merit – Claire Arstell, Zarlee Carvosso, Summer Neilson
Credit – Cooper Armstrong-Hall, Aaron Dean, Nhi Nguyen

Year 9

Merit – Lillian Boswell, Tess Hill, Ethan Malcolmson, Joshua Malick
Credit – Shenae Fray

Year 10

Merit – Toby Spencer, Laine McNamara, Hannah North
Credit – Shaliilah Harvey, Phoebe Keable-Sutton

Special mention to Tara Matheson who received a Distinction in both exams and Cooper Clark for a Distinction in the Big Science Competition. An outstanding achievement. Well done.

Stephen Ladley
HOD Science

2017 Graduate is a ‘Future Ag leader’

Past student Lochlan Jepson is currently progressing with his CQUniversity Bachelor of Agriculture degree. He is also the successful recipient of this year’s AgriFutures Horizon Scholarship. This entitles him to a cash injection of $10 000, over two years.

The scholarships were awarded following an extensive judging process focused on the applicants’ commitment to agriculture, leadership impact and potential, plus career aspirations.

Lochlan, who lives in the rural community of Alton Downs, has grown up helping with family cattle herds. He is looking forward to the promise of work placements with his scholarship sponsor, the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC). He also attended an agricultural leadership workshop in Wagga Wagga in July this year. The workshop featured special guest speakers, industry experts, field trips and the opportunity to network, meet sponsors and discuss innovations and challenges in the agricultural sector.

Lochlan says the scholarship will give him extra confidence to strive for a career as an agricultural consultant or extension officer. He says he is thrilled to receive the scholarship and thanks the Grains Research & Development Corporation, which will support his Horizon journey.

“It’s an honour to receive the scholarship; not only will it open doors and connect me with industry professionals, but I will gain valuable experience in the grains industry,” he says.

“I’m excited to meet other students involved in the program, learn more about the challenges and trends across the agricultural sector and how I can make a positive impact on the future of Australian agriculture.”

Rockhampton State High School staff and students congratulate Lochlan and wish him all the best with his future studies and career goals!

Trudy Crow
Head of Department – Senior Schooling

Golfers on the World Stage

Two Rockhampton High students recently returned from a golfing tour of the west coast of the USA. Makayla Fraser ( Yr 10 ) and Sam Atwell ( Yr 12 ) played in the IJGA World Stars if Junior Golf in Las Vegas, Nevada and in the West Coast AAU Junior Olympics in Temecula, California.

Makayla earned 15th place in the World Stars and won the bronze medal at the Junior Olympics. Sam was 12th at the World Stars and the Silver Medallist at the Junior Olympics.

Robert Brodie
Teacher Librarian

Year 12 students improve communication skills to enhance careers

During Term 3, our Year 12 students participated in “Communication 2 Careers”, a mock interview event where students meet local business people to improve their communication and interview skills. The event is organised by RING (Rockhampton Innovative Networking Group) and our FEET First Coordinator, to provide the students with the opportunity to practice their face-to-face communication skills to better prepare them for future job interviews.

The Year 12 students and employers discussed the students’ plans after leaving school as well as how to perform well at an interview. The students found that the experience greatly improved their confidence to communicate with potential employers. The students also received career advice and information on further education and training.

Rockhampton State High School would like to thank the 18 representatives from 14 local business and government agencies who participated in the event including:

JM Kelly Group
Ecosmart Solar
CQUniversity
Stanwell Corporation
Rockhampton Regional Council
Big Sis Lil Bro
MJ Doyle International Pty Ltd
Army Reserve
Platinum Electricians
Capricorn Caves
Roadtek
Preplab Testing Services
ANZ Bank
Department of Employment, Small Business and Training

For more information, contact FEET First on 49204391.

Samantha Sinclair
FEET First Coordinator

RACQ – Road Safety

As part of our school’s Senior Schooling Program, RACQ will be presenting their Docudrama at Rockhampton State High School on Friday September 21st. This is a road safety initiative aimed at educating senior students; particularly learner and provisional drivers; about the potential risks of travelling in a vehicle as both drivers and passengers. Docudrama takes a community approach to road safety issues by involving emergency service workers and other local professionals to help demonstrate a powerful ‘mock crash’ road safety scenario. Students are then given the chance to seek knowledge from these professionals and are equipped with real world strategies for combating the ‘Fatal Five’ road safety issues; Drink and Drug Driving, Fatigue, Not Wearing a Seatbelt, Speeding, and Distraction. Please be aware that there will be a number of emergency vehicles and personnel at the school the morning of Friday 21st September. Due to the content discussed and the representation of the ‘mock crash’, please contact the school if you have any questions, or concerns about your Year 12 student participating.

Choose how to add this event to your calendar:

Apple Calendar iPhone, iPad, Mac - Download .ics file

Outlook Desktop Outlook - Download .ics file

Android Calendar Android devices - Download .ics file

Other Calendar Google Calendar, Yahoo, etc. - Download .ics file

Download Event