College Principal News - Stretton State College ·...

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Cnr of Gowan Rd and Illaweena St Stretton QLD 4116 Subscribe: Subscribe: http://strettonsc.schoolzineplus.com/subscribe Email: Email: [email protected] Phone: Phone: 07 3723 0222 Fax: Fax: 07 3723 0200 4 May 2017 4 May 2017 College Principal News As I write this Newsletter at the beginning of another action-packed Stretton term, I am reminded of Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge, a much-loved book by Mem Fox. In the story, Gordon embarks upon a mission to discover what a memory is. He finds that memories are precious like gold; they come from long ago and while some might make you cry, others make you laugh and still others are warm. I often talk to our students about the importance of creating memories during their years at Stretton. The events which make the long lasting memories embedded deep within their soul will quite often be those moments where they were involved in the school Musical, pedalling laps in an overnight HPV race, celebrating an individual milestone in the Cross Country, cheering for their House at the Athletics Carnival, competing against another school in a Debating Competition, marching through the streets of Sunnybank on Anzac Day. We want our students to become involved in the holistic life of our College, and by so doing, they will be able to take many such memories away with them from our unique and very special school. We are exceptionally placed to provide our students with the capacities of creativity, invention, innovation and entrepreneurship that they will need in years to come. I am deeply grateful to the staff across the entire College who create those golden memories for our students, as they go above and beyond in the care of our students. This is what makes Stretton such a special place! We understand that co-curricular activities, sport, music, family obligations and out-of-school commitments are different for every child and every family. We value, appreciate and celebrate the extraordinarily different home lives that our children experience. This diversity is integrated into personalising the curriculum delivery for each student. During Term 2 and Term 3, we will be revising homework guidelines across the entire College. Homework should be a catalyst for reflective practice. These guidelines will be primarily focused on supporting your child’s learning and providing another opportunity to strengthen our partnership in the education of your child. Is Homework worth talking about? We think it is. Myers and Berkowicz who have written The STEM Shift, suggest that we need to stop thinking about homework as a stand-alone issue rather than an importance piece of the curriculum jigsaw puzzle, centred on student experience rather than simply the repetition of extra information and skills. John Hattie’s meta-research indicates that homework has little real impact on students’ learning. Homework that involves new materials, projects, or work with which a student may struggle when alone is least effective. It is a misguided belief that the rigor of schooling is raised by assigning more independent learning that students complete at home. Studies have shown that this can be potentially harmful. The important question to ask is: How does the Homework Policy of our College support the success of each student? We look forward to involving parents, students

Transcript of College Principal News - Stretton State College ·...

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Cnr of Gowan Rd and Illaweena StStretton QLD 4116Subscribe:Subscribe: http://strettonsc.schoolzineplus.com/subscribe

Email:Email: [email protected]:Phone: 07 3723 0222

Fax:Fax: 07 3723 0200

4 May 20174 May 2017

College Principal NewsAs I write this Newsletter at the beginning ofanother action-packed Stretton term, I amreminded of Wilfred Gordon McDonaldPartridge, a much-loved book by Mem Fox.

In the story, Gordon embarks upon amission to discover what a memory is. Hefinds that memories are precious like gold;they come from long ago and while some

might make you cry, others make you laugh and still others arewarm. I often talk to our students about the importance ofcreating memories during their years at Stretton. The eventswhich make the long lasting memories embedded deep withintheir soul will quite often be those moments where they wereinvolved in the school Musical, pedalling laps in an overnightHPV race, celebrating an individual milestone in the CrossCountry, cheering for their House at the Athletics Carnival,competing against another school in a Debating Competition,marching through the streets of Sunnybank on Anzac Day. Wewant our students to become involved in the holistic life of ourCollege, and by so doing, they will be able to take many suchmemories away with them from our unique and very specialschool.

We are exceptionally placed to provide our students with thecapacities of creativity, invention, innovation andentrepreneurship that they will need in years to come. I amdeeply grateful to the staff across the entire College who createthose golden memories for our students, as they go above andbeyond in the care of our students. This is what makes Strettonsuch a special place!

We understand that co-curricular activities, sport, music, familyobligations and out-of-school commitments are different forevery child and every family. We value, appreciate and celebratethe extraordinarily different home lives that our childrenexperience. This diversity is integrated into personalising thecurriculum delivery for each student. During Term 2 and Term3, we will be revising homework guidelines across the entireCollege. Homework should be a catalyst for reflective practice.These guidelines will be primarily focused on supporting yourchild’s learning and providing another opportunity to strengthenour partnership in the education of your child.

Is Homework worth talking about? We thinkit is. Myers and Berkowicz who have writtenThe STEM Shift, suggest that we need tostop thinking about homework as astand-alone issue rather than an importancepiece of the curriculum jigsaw puzzle,

centred on student experience rather than simply the repetitionof extra information and skills. John Hattie’s meta-researchindicates that homework has little real impact on students’learning. Homework that involves new materials, projects, orwork with which a student may struggle when alone is leasteffective. It is a misguided belief that the rigor of schooling israised by assigning more independent learning that studentscomplete at home. Studies have shown that this can bepotentially harmful. The important question to ask is: How doesthe Homework Policy of our College support the success ofeach student? We look forward to involving parents, students

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and teachers in this important homework discussion over thenext two terms.

There’s nothing more rewarding than the start of a new termand Term 2 has definitely got off to a roaring start! It isheart-warming to hear the sound of laughter and conversationas the students reconnect with each other and with staff, andthe sight of two thriving, engaged campuses where activitybegins early in the morning and extends well into the evening.

I look forward to watching the studentsassume a ‘laser like focus’ as they immersethemselves in learning, laughter, love andlife.

Until next time,

Jan MarescaExecutive Principal

Illaweena Principal NewsOur term has begun with three consecutivefour day weeks. However our wonderfulstaff created an amazing array of extensionsto class work and extra-curricular activitiesthat have enriched the lives and learning ofour students across these weeks. This

week alone will see students travel to QUT to enhance theirresearch skills, visit the PA hospital to explore future pathwaysin allied health, develop their creativity through an excursion toGOMA and our Hospitality students will be guided through theinner workings of three of Brisbane’s top restaurants. Alongsidethis our sporting students are competing in the Bill Turner Cup,the first round of Metropolitan finals, the GIO trophy andSunnybank District Cross Country carnival.

All of this is happening against a backdrop of positive learningin all classrooms every lesson. We are indeed fortunate thatour dedicated, high quality staff continue this commitment toyour students and their education throughout the year. For thisreason we continue to experience strong enrolment growthfrom within our catchment, with nearly 50 students joining ourCollege since the beginning of the year. This is a strongendorsement of everything that we are doing at the College.

If you would like to join me for a tour of the Illaweena Campusto witness this in action we are conducting a Tour and Talk onMay 16 starting at 9:00 am on each Campus. I look forward toseeing you at this or future College events.

Geoff LattaIllaweena Campus Principal

Gowan Principal NewsWelcome to Term 2, we have had anexciting start to the term already with aspectacular Easter Bonnet Parade for allour Prep and Year 1 students and theirfamilies. Our College Cross Country washeld successfully in Week 1 for our Prep toYear 12 students. We are looking forwardto hearing all about how our students

perform shortly at the District Cross County.

Gowan Campus this term welcomed Mrs Wuanita Meyrick ournewly appointed permanent Deputy Principal for Years 2 and 3.Mrs Meyrick has been busy visiting our Year 2 and 3 classes,getting to know the students and the teachers. Please makesure you say hello to her when you see her around the College.We also welcomed some new teaching staff this Term - MsKatrina Barron and Ms Megan Linneth who are teaching inYear 3, Ms Alexandra Bennett who is teaching in Year 4 andMs Mimi Xu who replaced Mrs Nicole Perry our Primary MusicTeacher who went on maternity leave this week. All new staffhave thoroughly enjoyed their first weeks working at Strettonand we look forward to having them as part of our StrettonCommunity.

ANZAC Ceremony and Sunnybank March

A big congratulations to all of our Gowan students on thewonderful service last Monday. All our students were extremelywell behaved and this was clearly seen by our visiting guests.Please congratulate our leaders on their professional mannerat both the Stretton Ceremonies and the Sunnybank Marchon Tuesday. Stretton was represented by 120 parents andstudents at the Sunnybank RSL March and Ceremony. All ofour P-12 Student Leaders and students were extremely wellpresented and proud of their participation in this event. A bigthank you to all the staff who also joined us to proudly attendthis Community event.

P&C Mothers’ Day Stall

This year our wonderful P&C have organised a very excitingMother’s Day Stall for our loving Mothers, Aunts andGrandmothers. The Stall will be held in Week 4, Monday 8 May

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and Friday 14 May. All students in Prep to Year 6 will get anopportunity to visit the stall, please see the timetable below.Please help support our fabulous fundraising committee byallowing your child to purchase a wonderful present, all profitsgo back into our school to support all our students and families.

P&C Mother’s Day Stall will be held in the Gowan Hall Foyer

Class Schedule below:

Traffic Management

As you know we are currently working on aTraffic Management Plan for the College toease the traffic situation. The ExecutiveAdministration Team have sent the BrisbaneCity Council our school plan and suggestions to help alleviatethe congestion around the College at drop off and pick uptimes. The Traffic Management Plan will be reviewed by theTransport Department and Brisbane City Council and once thishas been confirmed we will advise the Stretton community whatstrategies are going to be implemented.

In the meantime please ensure you are being great role modelsfor your children, I ask that parents observe the Stretton SPIRITwhen using the car park and pick up zones. DemonstrateSincerity to your children by following the road rules and

observing the traffic signs. Demonstrate Perseverance bywaiting your turn patiently. Your child will not be left on thestreet by themselves if you are five minutes late to the pick-upzone (administration staff are on duty until 3:15pm).Demonstrate Integrity and be mindful of the way you speak tofellow parents. There are little eyes watching, so make sureyou speak politely and with dignity and control. DemonstrateRespect and Responsibility by not only obeying the road rules,but by being courteous and considerate of others – not parkingin the two minute collection zones and not deliberately blockingcars from moving through the drop off zones. Our car park is avery busy place, but with cooperation and respect of the trafficrules, this can be a safe and respectful area for all students andparents to arrive and leave school each day.

NAPLAN

Next week all of our Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 students will sit the 2017NAPLAN tests at the College. As a school administrator, this“point in time” test is a great way for our staff to assess exactlywhere your child is, regarding their literacy and numeracydevelopment and to apply added support and funding intoareas where there may be identified deficiencies. This testallows us to ensure that ALL students at our College arereceiving the best and most relevant form of learning possible.The NAPLAN test results have no bearing on current classroom(A-E) achievement, but can only help to improve your child’sA-E results in the future by identifying areas now where we canbest support them. I look forward to NAPLAN and have alwaysencouraged our students to do their very best on the test toprovide us the most accurate information to best support theirlearning. If parents have any concerns about the test I stronglyencourage them to contact the school with any queries.

Racheal JonesGowan Campus Principal

Year 2/3 Deputy Principal NewsI have thoroughly enjoyed my start to Term2 here at Stretton. Thank you to allstudents, staff and families for making me(and my family) feel so welcome. I lookforward to working with you all over thecoming years.

Sizzling Starts – Seven Steps toWriting Success

Briana and Joyal from 3C visited me on Wednesday to sharesome of their ‘Quick Writes’. These daily quick write activitiesfocus on ‘Sizzling Starts’ . Briana and Joyal certainly addedsizzle to my office and returned to class as ‘Sizzling StartSuperheros’.

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Wuanita MeyrickYear 2, 3 Deputy Principal

Year 6 Deputy Principal NewsANZAC Day is always a special time of yearwhere we, as a College, remember thosemen and women who fought for ourcountry. On Monday 24 April Stretton StateCollege took the time to remember and paytheir respects to the ANZACs.

Congratulations to our school leadersacross both the Gowan and Illaweena

campuses for leading our remembrance ceremonies. Also aspecial thanks to all of the performers who performedthroughout the ceremonies.

On Tuesday 25 April approximately 60 students marched aspart of the Sunnybank and District RSL ANZAC DayCommemorative Service. This was a great sign of pride for ourCollege community.

Brad StewartYear 6 Deputy Principal

Year 9, 10 Deputy Principal NewsIt is that time of year again when we undertake our NAPLANTesting for our Year 7s and 9s. Testing will occur on themornings of Tuesday May 9, Wednesday May 10 and ThursdayMay 11.

For the students undertaking the tests it is important that theyare on time to school, prepared with the correct materials andare well rested.

Students should feel well prepared for the tests having had anumber of practice sessions. “Turbo Mornings” and a numberof information sessions.

The tests are as follows:

TUESDAY May 9: Language Conventions and WritingWEDNESDAY May 10: ReadingTHURSDAY May 11: Numeracy

Each student will need:

Good luck to all our students next week.

Craig HynesYears 9, 10 Deputy Principal

Student WellbeingTerm 1 was an action-packed period for our Year 7 and 8students at Stretton. The Year 7’s experienced the manychallenges of starting high-school; meeting new friends andteachers, the excitement of Camp Moogerah and theheightened trials of adolescence. For most students this hasbeen a rewarding period as they attempt to ‘take charge’ oftheir lives and learning.

Year 8 students are also endeavouring to increase theirindependence at school as they ‘take charge’ of their studiesand relationships. All students should model their behaviouron our SPIRIT values to ensure their interactions with othersare constructive and admirable. We encourage you to remindyour sons and daughters of this commitment at Stretton, todemonstrate sincerity, perseverance, integrity, respect andresponsibility, inclusivity and thoughtfulness each day. I’m sureyou would agree that these are traits that will not only see yourchildren experience an increased sense of well-being at school,but will also foster a positive sense of self and community intheir adult lives.

Respect and responsibility have been highlighted in Term 1as the majority of students have shown an increasedaccountability in wearing their uniforms correctly. Hats areexpected to be worn as part of both formal and sports uniformsand it has been a pleasure to see so many of our Year 7and 8 students reacting positively to this directive, viewing itas an opportunity rather than an obligation. Thank you for yoursupport with our sun-safety message!

Our Pastoral Care program for Years 7 and 8 continues toexplore issues of well-being each Tuesday. The ‘take charge’mantra will remain as a strong focus as students learn theimportance of positive self-talk, over-coming thinking errors andproductive decision-making. These areas will also incorporatecyber-safety as this is an area that is increasingly impacting thesocial and academic lives of our students.

Should you have any questions or concerns, or if you simplywish to touch base throughout the year, your child’s Care

• 2B or HB pencils

• An eraser

• A pencil sharpener

• A calculator (for the Numeracy: Calculator test onlyon Thursday)

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teacher is the first point of contact. Your son or daughter seestheir Care teacher every day and as a result will have a goodunderstanding of their progress and wellbeing at school.

If you would like more resources or strategies on well-being orhow to help your child through the angst of adolescence, theStudent Well-being Hub is a great site to start your journey.

https://www.studentwellbeinghub.edu.au/?utm_source=e

If you have any concerns or further queries, please don’thesitate to contact myself at [email protected].

Ms Sue BaileyYear 7/8 Coordinator

P&C NewsWe have a big a term coming up, with the Mother’s Day stall,Under 8’s day and Gowan Campus Disco.

Mother’s Day stall

Monday 8 May - Years 3 -6Friday 12 May - Prep – Year 2

Under 8’s Day Devonshire Tea Stall

Friday 26 May

Gowan Road Disco

Friday 16 June

If anyone is available to help with these fundraisers pleasecontact us via the email [email protected] orcontact the office and they can get a message through to us.

It was great to see so many people at our last P&C meeting.Our State and Federal Members, Duncan Pegg and JimChalmers were impressed by the number of membersattending our meetings. We appreciate the continued support

of our College. We look forward to seeing you at our nextmeeting scheduled for Wednesday 17 May.

P&C Executive

Parent WorkshopsPlease find this term’s updated Parent Workshop Schedule.Literacy workshops run on a Tuesday and numeracyworkshops will run on a Thursday. All workshops will bepresented twice – 1:45pm-2:45pm and again at 5:00pm –6:00pm. This Term we have also added an eLearning workshopwhich will be held on Monday.

We look forward to seeing you at the workshops.

Workshop Topic Year

Level

Week Presenter

English Workshops - Tuesdays (1:45-2:45pm and5:00-6:00pm)

Get Reading Right(repeat session: dayonly)

P-2 3 Bec Solomonand JayneWright

Supporting childrenhaving difficulty withReading

P-2 4 Carolyn Grantand BecSolomon

Supporting childrenhaving difficulty withReading

3-6 5 Carolyn Grant

Maths Workshops - Thursdays (1:45-2:45pm and5:00-6:00pm)

Development ofFractionalUnderstanding

P-2 4 TraceyBlackman andBec Solomon

Development ofFractionalUnderstanding

3-6 5 TraceyBlackman

E-learning – Monday (1:45-2:45pm and 5:00-6:00pm)

“eLearning philosophy -How our iPads are usedin class”

3-6 5 Luke Fleming

Tracey Blackman (HOD Maths/Science/Technology)Carolyn Grant (HOD English/Humanities/The Arts)

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EAL/D News'Language exerts hidden power, like a moon on the tides' -

Rita Mae Brown

Firstly, to all continuing EAL/D students, a warm welcome toTerm 2. In Term 1, many students from Years 7 to 12 receiveda letter explaining that an exciting on-line program ‘EducationPerfect’ would become part of their studies. This programincludes not only EAL, but also English and Literature, as wellas other subjects. Along with practising vocabulary, grammar,terms and definitions, students are exposed to the skills ofListening, Reading and Writing and for Years 7 and 9, thereare also NAPLAN exercises. During the recent holiday period,a large number of students took advantage of the opportunityto use the program, and as a result, they have alreadyexperienced much success. It was a pleasure to see so manystudents on-line during the holidays, studying. The scores weremost impressive and increased rapidly in a very short time,with more than 208 hours spent on-line and more than 130000 questions answered, up to 19 April. The highest scoreswere achieved from: Year 7 – Anthony Wang; Year 9 – KhushiBhardwaj; Yebin Lee; Year 10 – Suet Yee Kong; Year 11 –Michelle Ting; Year 12 – Site Li.

All students who returned their permission letter, and have beenregistered to use Education Perfect, will also be able to enterdifferent competitions.

From May 15 to 25, we will be participating in the WorldChampionship competition. As this is our first year to useEducation Perfect in such a way, support from parents will begreatly appreciated. We invite parents to join their sons anddaughters on the journey; perhaps even try using the interactivecomputer program together.

Ms Anna WilkieEAL/D Teacher

Instrumental MusicTerm 2 has seen a busy start for Instrumental Music students.All students should have now settled in to their routine forlessons, rehearsals and home practice. This will be a very busyterm with ANZAC Day, Gowan workshops, the College musical- The Wizard of Oz, and our Gala concert in Week 8.

ANZAC Day

On Monday, April 24, our College paused to acknowledge ourfallen and surviving servicemen and women for ANZAC Day.For the first time, we had our Year 6 Concert Band provide thehymn and the anthem for our Gowan ceremony. This younggroup performed exceedingly well and represented themselvesadmirably in what is a very sombre occasion. Special mentionmust go to one of our Year 5 trumpet players, Mitchell Stewart,who’s haunting rendition of the Last Post captivated all whoattended. For a young musician, this is an extraordinaryachievement to perform this difficult piece of music at such animportant occasion.

The Symphonic Band provided the hymn and national anthemsfor the Illaweena service. Again, our students played admirably

to help our college honour our veterans. The Last Post andRouse were performed by Ana Manu and Quyen Pham whoshared the duties for this ceremony. It is great to have so manytalented trumpeters who are willing to volunteer for this specialoccasion and I thank them for their excellent performances.

Singapore 2018

As you may have heard, we are off to Singapore in 2018to perform at the Singapore International Band Festival. Thisfestival attracts the best school, university andsemi-professional bands from across Asia. After the successof our tour to Hawaii in 2016, this will be another amazingopportunity for our students to perform on the world stage.Planning is well under way for this tour and we had the pleasureof presenting information to some of our very excited families atan information evening last week.

Music Folders

Music folders are available through the payments window onboth the Gowan and Illaweena campuses. All students in theprogram are required to have a music folder for rehearsals andperformances. Folders cost $12. If students currently have afolder that is severely damaged, now may be a good time toinvest in a new one.

Unpaid Levies

There are currently are large number of unpaid InstrumentalMusic levies across the College. If you have received an invoicefor unpaid levies, or have a payment plan in place, can youplease arrange payment for these as soon as possible. Theselevies are used to assist with the purchase of resources andinstruments for our wonderful program. If these levies areunpaid, it may prevent students from participating inperformances or other school excursions. If you have anyquestions or concerns about your child’s levies, please don’thesitate to contact me.

Performance Uniform

The instrumental music performance uniform is worn by allinstrumental music students at performances. It is compulsoryfor all performances and students may not be allowed toperform if their uniform is incorrect. The performance uniform isoutlined below:

Girls Boys

Band performance shirt

Girls Stretton music slacks

Black socks

Formal black shoes

Band performance shirt

Boys Stretton music trousers

Black socks

Formal black shoes

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Girls Boys

Stretton maroon scrunchie

Stretton maroon clips (optional)

As there are a large number of new students in the programthis year, please ensure you have purchased your uniform fromthe uniform shop as soon as possible. Please see Janet O’Neillin the Uniform Shop and she will be more than happy to assistyou with sizes and orders.

Thank you for your support of Instrumental Music!

Adam HornagoldDirector of Instrumental Music

The ArtsWe are certainly following the Yellow Brick Road – all the wayto the Logan Entertainment Centre for our show “The Wizardof Oz” in Week 7 of this Term – Friday 2 June and Saturday3 June.. Tickets will go on sale very soon and this will beannounced via our Stretton Facebook page. Our show isstarting to take shape and all of our Munchkins big and little aredoing a wonderful job in rehearsals.

We are now getting to the busiest part of our production withmany, many jobs still to be finalized and of course many piecesof the puzzle to be put together before anything can be polishedin the final phase of the production process.

Across the holidays and during the first 2 weekends of Term 2,some of our amazing staff and school community have beenbusy designing and sewing costumes, purchasing all sorts of bitand pieces for costuming and props, painting sets and gettingorganized for our biggest musical yet. If you are at all ableto help there is still a large amount of outstanding jobs andyour assistance would be greatly appreciated. The great newsis there is no previous experience required. Again these staffwill be acknowledged in future newsletters and of course theprogram.

Our students have hopefully had a good break and are ready tohit the weekend rehearsals which will now run right up until theperformance week. For those students and families involved,the rehearsal schedule can be viewed using the link below.We would like to thank parents, guardians and students for theirconsistent and reliable attendance to our weekend and weeklyrehearsals. We know it will all be worth it!

I would like to leave you with some of the happy holiday snapsof our wonderful staff who came into school to make sure ourMunchkin Land is going to be the brightest and most magicalland of all.

STRETTON STATE COLLEGEpresents

2 and 3 JUNE 2017

Tickets sales available soon.

Leona DangaardHead of Department – The Arts

Applied Technology NewsIt’s been a very busy start to the year in the Applied Technologyfaculty. By far the best way to showcase the enriching learningexperiences which are regularly delivered to our studentcommunity is through a pictorial display.

Prop and Set construction for ‘The Wizard ofOZ’

Senior Construction and Engineering VET students have beenbusy building props and set pieces for the upcoming Collegemusical ‘The Wizard of OZ’.

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Hospitality Herb and Veggie Garden

Senior Construction students were enlisted by the Hospitalitydepartment to build raised garden beds for herbs andvegetables. The students cleared and levelled the area priorto construction and learnt to use various levelling techniques,paving and construction methods. The students receivedassistance from our Bluedog Training trade mentor- TimNewton.

Bunnings Browns Plains is kindly donating all the seedlings andwill be out over the next week to assist in the planting. Weintend on completing the fence around the garden this week,then wait to taste the produce!

Brad JohnstoneHOD – Applied Technology

Library News

Gowan Library News

Welcome to Term 2!

We have drawn the winners of the “Library Gotcha” raffle.Students receive a library Gotcha ticket for showingoutstanding behaviour during their library lesson. Each winnerreceives a small prize pack and certificate.

The winners are as follows:

Katherina 1ASonny 1BBailey 1DIris 1EJulian 2CNishan 2GHuma 2HLachlan 3F

Our library monitor of the week is: Deborah

Congratulations for displaying the Stretton SPIRIT in the library.

We are currently celebrating Mother’s Day in the library! Wehave Mother’s Day bookmarks for students to colour and takehome in our lunch time drawing club. We also have a range ofMother’s Day books displayed. Please feel free to come downand read or borrow a book about this special day.

Student borrowing has commenced, please ensure you havea library bag each week so you are able to borrow. If you do

not have a bag, these are available from the Uniform Shop onIllaweena campus.

Scholastic Book Club catalogues have been sent home. Youare also able to place your order online via the Scholastic Loopwebsite:

https://mybookclubs.scholastic.com.au/Parent/Register.aspx

Orders are due by Friday 5th of May.

Happy reading,Sara EffronTeacher Librarian

Year 5A Jacobs Well ExcursionIn Science this term 5A are learning about animal and plantadaptations and on Monday 24 April, they visited the JacobsWell Environmental Education Centre to see some of thesein real-life. Students had the opportunity to walk through themangroves (and mud) to see how the plants and animals onthe edge of the water have adapted to survive. They also metthe resident blue tongue lizard, fresh water turtle and snakeand learnt about their different adaptations to differentenvironments. The excursion provided students with a greatopportunity to expand their knowledge and understanding ofadaptations with hands-on experiences.

Demi Bourke5A Classroom Teacher

Human Powered Vehicle News

First win for 2017!

The Bundaberg HPV Twilight Super Sprint 6 hour race tookplace on 24 April and was our first race of the season. Aftermany years of regional schools supporting and helping buildthe HPV identity in South East Queensland, it was time forus to return the same commitment. Many schools travelled tocompete at the new addition to the HPV calendar and oursquad has been busy training and preparing the equipment forour 2017 campaign. For this event we entered two teams; oneSenior Mixed and one Senior Boys.

The squad travelled up on Sunday 23 April and camped onsite for the two nights of the event returning to school onANZAC Day. Our Stretton HPV Teams opened the season

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with a big win in the Senior Mixed category and a respectableperformance in the Senior Boys. Well done to all involved and abig thank you to the many families that made the journey up toBundaberg to support the team.

This short video shows one of our bikes, ‘Stretton Stormers’(yellow) with Fusion IT decals. The company Fusion IT hasbeen an ongoing supporter of the HPV program for a numberof years and is owned by parents from the College. If youare interested in supporting the program and displaying yourbusiness graphics on bikes and team shirts for the 2017season, please contact the College. The bikes are exposed toboth print and television media at events. The support can befinancial or targeted goods or services.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFqJmlh_7jM

The addition of the Bundaberg Super Sprint has meant that wenow have four HPV events for the 2017, with our next on 18-19May at the Gold Coast, RACQ Aquinas College Pedal Prix.This event is a great introduction to the HPV world, there is notrialling for this event- for further information see Ms Santoroor Mr Parker. There are three remaining events for the yearculminating in the 24 hour Maryborough Technology Challengein September.

Brad JohnstoneHOD – Applied Technology

Visual Art News

On Saturday, 8 April I had the pleasure of attending the openingof the 2017 Creative Generation Excellence Awards in VisualArt. These awards celebrate the best of the best of artworksproduced by senior visual art students in the State. This yearheld special meaning because one of our own was on exhibit.Year 12 2016 student, Jarek Yan’s animation, “TheExtraordinary in the Ordinary’ is the first work on show as youenter the gallery. Jarek has gone on to pursue his career inanimation via University studies and I’m sure we all wish himwell with his very promising future.

Sandy FriendVisual Art Department.

LOTE NewsStudents of 6C, 6E, 6G and 6H had a round or two of Chinesetea tasting after an introduction to a Chinese Tea Ceremony atthe end of Term 1. This was presented by our guests, Ms Chenand Ms Wang.

Chinese Language teachers,Ms Huang & Mrs. Wee

Interschool ChessDo you play chess and enjoy a challenge? Why not register forthe Brisbane High School Inter-school Chess Championshipsto be held at Churchie on May 16. See link below for details.

Year 7 Spell OffThere was an English spell-a-bration on Thursday April 20 atthe inaugural Stretton State College Year 7 Spell Off. It was aspell-tastic event! The best spellers from each of the Englishclasses were selected to compete against each other. Studentshad to spell words such as: irrelevant, twelfth and vacuum. Aftera nail biting final the winner was Charli, second place went toSana Nasir and in equal third were Ardra Anil and Neel Patel.The winning students took home prizes and certificates. Welldone to all competitors!

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Inger BeulahEnglish Teacher

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