Schools are busy places and certainly Good Shepherd has had a very busy start to the year. As the college continues to grow in size and attempts to accommodate the myriad of changes brought on by new educational systems, a new leadership structure, a new intake of Year 7 students, new staff and increasing demands for accountability and efficacy, I thought it's important to take time this week to reflect on how we have started and some of the great things that are happening at the college.

Our Year 7s and Year 12s have settled quickly into the year, the Year 7 “Meet & Greet” was very successful in enabling new parents to the college an opportunity to meet the teachers. Meanwhile Year 10s and 11s have been fully immersed into the “new” senior. A recent Parent Information Night for Year 10s on the transition to senior was very well attended and they will soon be moving on to developing their plans for their senior pathway.

A new program entitled “Arrow” has commenced for Year 6s from St Joseph’s and St Kieran’s. Sixteen students has been selected to partake. The program, instituted by our Leader of Learning and Teaching, is designed to embed deeper learning which we hope will enable them to pursue more challenging academic pathways when they embark on their senior studies in years to come.

The Student Representative Council has reformed for 2019 under the mentorship of the college deputy and already have raised some important projects for the year. Our Anti-Cyberbullying Committee has commenced their great work in earnest and have been invited to present at Central State School on assembly in the coming weeks.

The college musical production of “The Wiz” is now in full swing. A select group of very talented actors, singers and dancers are working their way through this modern version of “The Wizard of Oz”. We are also managing to put a “local” spin on the story which we’re sure Mount Isa audiences are going to love. The production plays at the Civic Centre later in term two.

It was great to see so many of our students nominating for MISSA trials in sport and also to see the success of our triathletes recently. This week our Open Boys Rugby League team and our Open Girls Netball teams will travel to Charters Towers for the Columba Carnival. This annual event is a great warm up for the Confraternity and QISSN State Carnivals in June. We wish them well.

This week of course we celebrate the beginning of Lent with Pancake Day (which was also “Farmer’s Day”– a fundraiser for those farmers effected by the floods) and Ash Wednesday. Also this week we commence our Emerging Leaders Program which is a TCEO initiative to improve indigenous education in our school. Our afternoon Homework Tutorial System is also underway and students may avail themselves of this program between 3 and 4pm.

In all these things we must also continue to focus on our core business which is learning and teaching and ensuring we have a holistic vision for our students that grows them physically, intellectually, social-emotionally and spiritually. This year will be a year of change in almost every dimension of the college. As parents and friends of the college I ask that you continue to support us, keep engaged in the life of the college and look to build the community of Good Shepherd that is striving to offer a quality holistic education in a caring Catholic environment.

This week the College celebrated Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday as well as fundraised for the farmers in North West Queensland who were affected by the recent floods.

The day before Ash Wednesday is popularly known as Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Tuesday. Shrove is the past tense of the English verb shrive which means to obtain absolution for one's sins by way of confession and by doing penance. With Shrove Tuesday taking place before the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday, it was the day when Christians were encouraged to go to confession in preparation for the penitential season that would end 40 days and 40 nights later with Easter Sunday.

Shrove Tuesday not only became a day for confession but a time for Catholics to fast. It was because of this fasting that people would feast on eggs, sugar and dairy and try to use them all up before Lent. The feast of these foods would become pancakes, hence the name Pancake Tuesday.

Our College leaders cooked over 500 pancakes for our staff and students to feast on during first break on Tuesday. It is was a small reminder of the upcoming season of Lent.

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday with the marking of ashes. This public sign reminds us to live the way Jesus wants. It is the beginning of our preparation for Easter when Jesus dies on the cross and rises from the dead. Lent is a special time when we stop and think about how we can play our part in God’s hope for a world that is fair, just and peaceful. Through prayer, fasting and almsgiving we take the focus from ourselves and instead focus on our relationship with God and how serving others draws us closer to God.  

The season of Lent is also when we launch Caritas Australia’s, Project Compassion. This initiative aims to raise money for people around the world living in poverty, especially those who are unable to earn enough money to have the basic things they need like an education, medicine, food or clothing. Each year, our homeroom classes come up with many different ways of fundraising to assist with these people and their communities.

On Tuesday students were asked to dress in their best ‘farm’ attire, for a gold coin donation, to assist in raising money for those farmers affected by the most recent floods. There were cowboys and cowgirls, as well as a variety of farm animals on show! The Social Justice Group also had a face painting stand, painting images of farm animals on the faces of students and teachers. It was a simple way we could show our support for those in need, many of whom are very close to our Good Shepherd families.

All Good Shepherd students will soon be completing 10 minutes of structured, daily, silent writing in journals during homeroom. Students will be provided with regular formative advice on their writing, to inform positive writing habits. This initiative constitutes part of our efforts to address state-wide longitudinal NAPLAN and QCS indicators that Queensland students require a greater focus on learning writing.  You can help at home by modelling and discussing your own writing with your student, and to encourage writing for pleasure, such as journaling, creative writing or reviews.

An enormous congratulations to Good Shepherd Year 11 student, La Kiera Maher who recently qualified for the CQ University Start Uni Now (SUN) program. La Kiera will begin studying her first unit of study towards a Bachelor of Nursing, whilst simultaneously completing her Year 11 studies. We are all very proud of La Kiera and grateful to CQ University for offering our students such wonderful opportunities. We wish La Kiera the very best in her studies.

Guardians of students in the Emergent Leaders Incentive Scheme attended our goal setting evening yesterday. It was wonderful to see so many students and their families on the night. This was a wonderful opportunity to build strong relationships and meet mentors. Please contact the college if you have any further questions about the Emergent Leaders Incentive Scheme, or if you were unable to attend.  

A reminder that Homework Help is available for Emergent Leaders in the library every afternoon, except Tuesdays, from 3:00-4:00pm.  Guardians are reminded that your student’s regular attendance at Homework Help is a requirement of the Emergent Leaders Incentive Scheme. Participating students must return their Homework Help permission forms. If your student requires another permission form, please collect one from Ms Sarah Keating in the library.

In a collaborative program with Good Shepherd Catholic College, Year 6 students from both St Kieran’s and St Joseph’s Catholic primary schools are now participating in an exciting differentiation program, called ‘Arrow’.

The students are attending our College once per week for engaging and challenging hour-length lessons of both Mathematics and English. Curriculum content for the program is designed to extend and deepen student learning and is matched to the Year 7 Australian Curriculum Standards Elaborations.

What our Year 6 Arrow students are saying:

Ruby: “It is an awesome learning experience.”

Alexander: “It is a challenge.”

Elizabeth: “We have learnt ‘what is a text?’, and how to find the purpose of a text.”

Winsome: “We have learnt about the language features of a Narrative.”

Corey: “It is about learning better. We have learnt how to use exponents and to convert between fractions and decimals.”

Brendan: “I’m enjoying all the fun challenges that are set in place for us.”

Eliza: “It is fun and educational.”

Next term, we will have a representative from Safe on Social Media come to the College to discuss Cyber Safety. This will take place on Thursday the 2nd & Friday the 3rd of May. Over the two days, all students & staff will partake in a 1 hour workshop. Parents are also invited to an information session which is being held on Thursday the 2nd of May from 6pm to 7pm.

The topics covered in student and parent/community presentations include but are not limited to:

Using social media with awareness; what you signed up for – explanation of terms and conditions of use and what they mean; Keeping personal information private; online stranger danger (grooming); posting and sharing photos; sexting, revenge porn (age appropriate); managing your digital footprint positively; curating your online image; cyber-bullying, online harassment and how to report it; known scams and hoaxes; Identity theft; legal responsibilities; privacy settings; online gaming safety & strategies to build resilient digital citizens.

Below is an update from Safe on Social Media regarding Gaming Classifications.

Gamers in our sessions in schools often try to point out that violent video games are often more challenging, faster paced, and more competitive than nonviolent video games, and this is why they like to play them.

Kids are continually shocked when we tell them that the majority of gamers are over the age of 36yrs. When they are playing against a stranger online, they don't know how old they are. No matter what the other gamer says their age is, kids need to be vigilant about not giving away personal information and knowing how to block and report.

We are continuing to see an extraordinary amount of School age children using Grand Theft Auto, the violent bestselling video game with an R+ rating. There are also some children using Grand Theft Auto V which is an M-rated version also brimming with gang violence, nudity, extremely coarse language, and drug and alcohol abuse. None of the main characters in the game makes for a decent role model. Also known as “GTA” it glorifies crime and violence. GTA lets a child watch such things as prostitutes performing sex acts; this prostitute can then be gruesomely murdered to take back any money they spent on engaging her services. The sound effects should be enough to make any parent cringe.Some reviews say that all the sexual content is avoidable. That is NOT TRUE. Some of the material is avoidable, like the strip clubs which offers topless dancers or the fact that you can pick up prostitutes on the street and have intercourse with them in your car (it does show the scene with an option to skip). However, the game story does have sex scenes that bare all.We see this more and more often being used by kids under the age of 12yrs.

Many parents trust their child to stay away from the optional sexual content the game provides. However, we've all been kids and did you ever do something that your parents told you not to do? Please be cautious.

The violence towards women, in this game, is unacceptable and unavoidable. Search Grand Theft Auto on YouTube you can see for yourself. It won’t be hard to find. We are not linking YouTube videos here for obvious reasons.When kids spend hour upon hour using a game console to kill people, hire prostitutes, be violent towards women it starts to impact on what is ok and not ok in real life. There have been numerous studies that prove first-person violent video games do affect us, even if we don’t realise it at the time.

Comments from fans of violent video games typically argue, “I’ve played hundreds of hours of violent video games and haven’t hurt anyone!” However, this does not mean playing violent video games does not affect. Anyone who has ever felt excited, tense, or frustrated while playing a video game has been “affected” by them.

Reading the different review articles and individual studies about violent video games can seem a bit like watching a game of tennis between sets of findings and counter-findings.

Here are our recommendations for parents and carers of gamers:

Respect age restrictions – R Rating is 18+ for a reason. Read more on classifications here http://www.classification.gov.au

We highly recommend that you take 30mins out of your busy day and sit with your child and play any game they want to use and decide whether or not it is appropriate. There are many age-specific games available, starting from as young as 9yrs when in restricted mode and with parental supervision.

Set healthy boundaries on time spent gaming.

Find out at a minimum how to help your child block and report. Remind your child not to give out any personal information online and never to meet up with anyone they meet online…..offline.

What are the alternatives? There are lots of games that are more age appropriate, but ones with precisely the elements of GTA that are kid-friendly both vary based on platform and are also hard to find.

You’ve got games with strictly driving mechanics (Need for Speed, Forza, Test Drive, etc.), you’ve got straight sandbox (Minecraft, Terraria, Roblox) Stealing cars, prostitutes, killing people and blowing stuff up is kind of hard to work into a kid-friendly game.

The first half of the term has flown by and the Year 10’s have made a tremendous start.

We had a very successful information evening where students and parents were given information about the new senior syllabus, the senior two year calendar, VET information, work experience, career options and Year 10 Camp.

The following week, our Year 10’s engaged in a high impact seminar from Elevate Education which was used to help students improve their study techniques, increase motivation, build confidence, and lift exam performance.

The Year 10’s have also involved themselves in many areas of the Good Shepherd community whether it be college or regional sport, the college musical or even excelling in the recent triathlon.

A special mention to Charlotte Coghlan, for her nomination for the ZONTA Young Woman of the Year award for excellence in community engagement - great job Charlotte!

In the area of academia, the Year 10’s have commenced meetings with the Year 10 Pastoral Leader to discuss their previous results, academic goals and future pathway plans. They will be using their upcoming pastoral lesson to learn effective time management strategies and how to plan and prioritise their time as we lead into the assessment period.

Finally, it is not too late to make the deposit payment for Year 10 Camp! The students will be engaging in a range of activities such as Kayaking, High Ropes, The Leap of Faith and Team Building/Problem solving. Not only this, but we will be spending the day at Wet n Wild Waterworld.

Year 10’s, just remember, respect all people and things, be at the right place at the right time, come prepared to learn and follow instructions the first time!

The annual Interhouse School Swimming Carnival will be held next week on Friday 15th of March from 8.30am at the Splashez Aquatic Centre. This year, we will continue and attempt to build on the new format of last year's Aquatics Carnival. All students are expected to meet at the Aquatic Centre by 8:15am for roll call. As this is a school event the student's entry into the pool will be paid by the College. However, parents/guardians and supporters will be required to pay an entry fee upon arrival.

This year will be the first year we hold long distance events for those swimmers wishing to nominate. U13-U15’s will have the chance to swim a 200m freestyle race, whilst the 16-Opens have the opportunity to swim a 400m race.

Students will be given various opportunities throughout the day to purchase snack foods from the canteen and there will also be a BBQ running. Alternatively, students can bring their own packed lunch. Although there will be plenty of opportunities to cool off in the water/in the shade this year, the day is generally quite hot and exhausting. Please ensure that you bring your own water and wear appropriate sun safe clothing (hats, shirt, sunglasses and plenty of sunscreen).

The carnival is expected to conclude between 2:45pm – 3:00pm and students can be picked up from out the front of the pool or PCYC. Student’s are NOT allowed to bring the following into the carnival: streamers, zinc, hair spray or body paints. As this is a school event, the normal mobile phone policy applies. This is a compulsory school event, and all students are encouraged to be involved in the activities, as it is gearing up to be quite an exciting and fun filled day.

If you have not yet nominated for any events, please email through your selected events to myself at: jschofieldsmyth@goodshepherd.catholic.edu.au

Dream, Believe, Achieve

Two teams represented Good Shepherd Catholic College at the recent Triathlon that was run by the IsaRat's. The teams had outstanding results at the triathlon on the 24th of February. The team of Amy Kuhne, Tristan Nicholson and Mitchell Thinee won the school section of the morning triathlon, while Pratik Seegoolam and Rylee Douglas won the U13 team event in the afternoon. The second school team of Mirari Villanueva (who came 2nd overall female in the swim), Nick Thinee and Kyra Krutzfedt made sure that GSCC won the overall school’s competition. A huge congratulations to all these competitors, you did the school proud. The senior students even managed to beat the staff team to ensure bragging rights!

The MISSA trials were held at GSCC on Tuesday the 26th February. Many GSCC students were successful in being selected for the U15 squad to move onto the NW Trials that were held in Cloncurry on the 1st March. The results of the trail held last Friday seen five students selected to move onto the North West Regional trials in Townsville on the 17th March. The successful students were Darcy Webber, Asesela Naituky, Rhylee Douglas, Rico Warerea and Te Acaula Tapu.

The MISSA trials were held on Thursday 28th February. GSCC excelled in the trials and managed to get all the U18 girls into the District team and 6 of the 10 girls in the U15 squad. Many congratulations to all those selected. For the U15 it was Kyrah Krutzfeldt, Madison Clauson, Taryn Drewe, Zoe Ryder, Amy Haddon and Charlize Pontini. In the U19 it was Maddion Hegarty, Erena Arsenic, Janelle Wolland-Rophia and Charlize Osborne.

This week is a busy week of sport at Good Shepherd. We are in the middle of HPE week. Thursday will be the Senior House Basketball Final, Friday sees a HPE Healthy breakfast before school and then Junior Volleyball Tournament on Friday.

Last Friday Matthew gee visited the school to take some keen Yr 10 students on a trail running exercise course. All student involved got a great taste of how to train effectively for trial running and learn a few new skills. Hopefully they can use these to good effect in the upcoming athletics, cross country, triathlon and maybe even the Julia Creek Dirt and Dust festival.

The final of this exciting competition will be played today between Benjamin and McKillop. Good luck to both teams. House points are at stake.

The school swimming carnival is less than 2 weeks away. This year there are more events for students to showcase their talents, including long distance and Medley relays. It should be a great day, with novelty events and chanting competitions to complement the full program of swimming. BBQs will be available, and the pool café will be open. If you haven’t nominated for one of the new events there is still time. Email Mr Schofield ASAP.

Congratulations Emily Brown, Emily has recently commenced a School Based Traineeship with Dominos and will study a Certificate III in Hospitality. We wish Emily all the best with her traineeship.

Members from the Army and Navy visited the school recently to provide information about ADF careers. It’s was great to see so much interest from our younger students which means they’re already thinking about their career options.

Glencore representatives visited Year 12 students to speak about their programs, including:

• Work Experience (available for 9 weeks each year for Year 11/12)
• Trade Camp (July school holidays Year 11/12)
• Apprenticeship Program (applications open July)
• School Leaver’s Program (applications open end of year)
• Girls for Mining (applications open mid April Yr 10/11/12)

This company understands that mining is not for everyone, however they are happy to have our students try different roles within their organisation so that they can gain workplace experience before leaving school.

Some of our Year 9 students recently attended a Beaker.Bots.Build Workshop run by Qld Minerals and Energy Academy.  They worked on a chemistry project to separate, measure and evaporate various materials. Then they had to program Lego robots to maneuver around a “mine site”.  Lastly, they worked in groups to build a structure that would allow a 20 cent coin to be propelled into a bowl.

Follow below link for latest Careers Newsletter.

Some of the articles include:

• Creative Arts – terrific short videos about different jobs in the world of arts.
• Beyond School Study Guide & Tuckwell Scholarship – Year 12’s worth a look.
• Medical Careers – over 40 to consider
• How to become an apprentice

 https://www.careertools.com.au/resources/newsletters/qld/2019/t1_w4_2019_qld.pdf

Year 12 student Jordan Dew has been nominated for the Qld Training Awards by TAFE Qld.  Jordan has had an outstanding 12 months having won TAFE at School Trade Student of the Year 2018 and being named as a QMEA Ambassador for 2019.  We wish Jordan good luck with his nomination.

Greetings from the P&F, we hope that all of our new and returning families have settled into the new school year. We have many exciting ideas already on the cards, some new events and plenty of enthusiasm to start the year.

We are up and running with our Major Raffle for the year, with only a few weeks until the big draw.  A weekend of NRL football at the Brisbane Magic Round for 2 people. All passes, 5 nights accommodation and travel voucher. Tickets have already been sent home with students. Please see our poster for details. Tickets are available from the school office, Barbara Baker at The North West Star PH-0408882744 and at the Whateva Sports Shop on Miles St.

Please help!! The first activity the P&F will be participating in, is the Ronald McDonald Ball on Saturday 16th March. We are operating the bar for the event, and are looking for some lovely volunteers to come along and help us out. Even if you can only help for a few hours, please come along for what is sure to be a busy and enjoyable night. If you are able to help out, please contact Mellissa: mjones19@goodshepherd.catholic.edu.au or 0448 913 943.

At the last P&F meeting, we had Glencore come along and do an air quality control presentation. This was very informative and we would like to thank Lara and Britt for coming along. We enjoyed hearing some new ideas from members, and look forward to continuing building our connections within the school community.

Our next meeting is Tuesday 2nd April, new and familiar faces are always welcome.