“Ehara taku toa takitahi, engari he toa takitni”
Any success should not be attributed to me alone; it was the work of us all.
Whakatauki (old Maori saying)

Over the past few weeks I have spoken at length to the students about team GSCC. Last week on assembly we practiced the college “war cry”. The purpose of this was firstly to remind students of their responsibility to be part of the GSCC team and how membership is what will give them a sense of identity and a pride in that belonging and secondly the idea that as a team we will achieve so much more that as individuals. This is in every aspect of college life; academic, sporting, cultural, pastoral and spiritual.

In his book Legacy, an examination of the success of the New Zealand Rugby team the mighty All Blacks, James Kerr identifies why this has been the most successful team of all times and not only plays great football but has also shaped a national identity, the very soul of NZ culture. To summarize his extensive observations Kerr identifies the following 15 characteristics as essential to the team’s success;
1.  Sweep the sheds – never be too big to do the small things that need to be done
2.  Go for the gap – when you on top of your game, change your game
3.  Play with purpose – ask why?
4.  Pass the ball – leaders create leaders
5.  Create a learning environment – leaders are teachers
6.  Suffer no fools – follow the spearhead
7.  Embrace expectations – aim for the highest cloud
8.  Train to win – practice under pressure
9.  Keep a blue head – control your attention, be aware, stay focused
10.Know thyself – keep it real
11.Sacrifice – find something you would die for and give your life for it
12.Invent a language – sing your world into existence (a shared language of understanding)
13.Ritualize to achieve – create a culture
14.Be a good ancestor – plant trees you’ll never see
15.Write your legacy – this is your time

A rugby team has 15 players who work together towards a common purpose, to win. These principals work the same in any team. Each individual in the team has a role, each has a responsibility and each has a position on the field. Combined they are the mighty All Blacks, one of the greatest teams ever. Just as important, they have the support of the whole nation.

Here at GSCC we have seen some great spirit recently, the first of the tri-series league clash between Spinifex and our teams was a great success, our Athletics team performed wonderfully last Friday, the Musical team are very busy preparing for their performances of “The Wiz” this Saturday and the Confro and QISSN teams are working towards their respective carnivals over the June/July break. Their success however is not only down to hard work, dedication and commitment but also to the support of the GSCC community.

I ask all of you on the GSCC team to take a moment and consider how you can contribute to our success. It is the work of us all!

Please Note

I will be taking three weeks long service leave at the end of this term, Weeks 8 – 10. In my absence Ms. Kathleen McCarthy – Deputy Principal of St. Margaret Mary’s College Townsville will be Acting Principal. Kathleen brings with many years’ experience in secondary education with TCEO. Please welcome her to Good Shepherd Catholic College.

Safe on Social Media

Snap Map is a location sharing feature of Snapchat and automatically updates while you have Snapchat open. Its default setting is “Ghost Mode,” which prevents friends from seeing your location. However, some students may turn it on to let their friends see their whereabouts. Besides location sharing, Snap Map also has an “Our Story” feature. When you click anywhere on the map, various public Snap stories taken in that location will pop up. All Snapchat users can post and view these stories, whether they’re friends or not. If your child posts a story to the Our Story feature, anyone in the world can see their snap. Earlier this term, Safe on Social Media spoke to all students at the College and recommended that students do not enable this Snapchat feature. For more information on the app, refer to our Snapchat and Snap Map cheat sheets.  

Over the past week, I have received a number of enquiries from students in regards to how many hours they can work during the week. There are restrictions in place for school-aged children to ensure they can effectively manage work and schooling commitments without falling behind. Below is information in regards to this:

Maximum Work Hours for School-Aged Children

The Child Employment Act 2006 outlines work restrictions for school-aged children.

 A distinction is made between the maximum hours a school-aged child can work during a school week and a non-school week.

 A school week starts on a Sunday, when the child is required to attend school on any day of that week. During a school week a school-aged child can work a maximum of 12 hours. During a non-school week a school-aged child can work a maximum of 38 hours.

 The following table outlines the maximum allowable hours of work for school-aged and young children:

Prohibited hours when children are not permitted to work

In addition to the prohibition on employing school-aged children when they are required to be at school, an employer must not allow a school-aged or young child to work between the hours of 10pm and 6am. A further restriction prohibits children between the ages of 11 and 13 years from carrying out delivery work between the hours of 6pm and 6am.

The Child Employment Guide provides more details regarding these laws; however, if you have concerns regarding your child’s hours of work, please contact their employer as soon as possible.

The majority of our Year 11 students are currently finishing off their first Unit of work in the new QCE system. As they come to the end of Unit 1, students are at the stage where they need to be more discerning with their subject choices. Currently, subject changes have ceased for Years 7 - 10 students and will resume again at the start of Term 3. However, as the Year 11’s in the new system are working by units, they are encouraged to make these changes and reconsider their subject choices soon.

More information will be provided to Year 11 students regarding tracking and QCE eligibility in the new system. If parents/students have any questions, they are also welcome to visit QCAA website.

The end of the Semester is fast approaching, and the assessment schedule for students is starting to reach its peak. It is important that students continue to apply themselves fully to their classwork and assessments in order to achieve their very best. Students are reminded that drafting forms an integral part of the assignment process. They are encouraged to ensure that they plan ahead and do a little bit of work on assessment each night for their subjects. This proves to be far more advantageous than cramming work at the last minute.

Some assessment time is provided during the school day, however, depending on the conditions of the task, much of the response is required to be completed away from the classroom. Students in Junior/Senior school should be following these guidelines in relation to the time they allocate for studying/assessments, homework or exam preparation each night:

• Year 11 and 12 - approx. 2.5 to 3 hours
• Year 10 - approx. 2 hours
• Years 8 and 9 - approx. 1 – 1.5 hours
• Year 7 - approx. 1 hour

The College is here to support students, and understands that at times, life can throw a few challenges our way that may impact the ability to have assessment completed on time.  If there is reasons that you feel that an extension is warranted, an application form, available from the Office, can be completed, and in most cases the College will approve an extension of time for valid reasons. Please don't hesitate to discuss this with your child's teacher, or the relevant Curriculum Leader.

The Senior Exam Block this term, will run for Year 10 and Year 12 students only. Year 12 will commence their exams on Thursday of Week 8, 13th June. Year 10 students will commence their exams on Wednesday of Week 9, 19th June. All exams are scheduled to be completed by Thursday of Week 9, 20th June, as Friday is the Show Day public holiday.

Exam block timetables will be emailed to parents/students with more information, and can be found on the College website. It is important that students arrive on time and fully prepared for their exams. I wish all students the best of luck for this term's exams.

Finally, with the busy assessment period approaching I wanted to reinforce a key message to all students, and that is “don’t give up”. I saw this fantastic video on Facebook of a young boy who was learning to master a martial arts move. The boy, at first, fell over trying out the move. The boy got back up and tried another couple of times. He then began to cry, and stated that he ‘couldn’t do it’.

All of his peers and teachers started to cheer him on and encourage him to keep trying. He wiped his tears away and tried again. Still nothing. He doesn’t stop though. He kept trying until finally, the boy completed the task. He was embraced by all of his friends and met with a roar of applause to celebrate his achievement. The boy learned one of life’s most important lessons, and that is, in any situation don’t give up.

You can view the video for some motivation on Facebook following this link: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=462264681194685

Thank you to all of the Year 10 students and parents that joined us last Thursday for the Senior Phase of Learning Information Night (SPOLIN). It was a great opportunity for students to explore the requirements for subjects that are being offered in 2020.

It was also great to have businesses from our local community come in and provide information on their field for students that are interested in that pathway. A big thank you  to James Cook University, TAFE, Glencore and Busy at Work for joining us on the night.

Below is a list summarising the key points for the night:

• To qualify for a Queensland Certificate of Education (QCE) students must achieve 20 QCE points. The students receive a point for each subject as long as they have been enrolled in it from the beginning of year 11 and have met the satisfactory requirements for each unit;
• Students must meet the numeracy and literacy requirements to receive a QCE;
• All students must study English, Mathematics and Religion in both year 11 and 12;
• To qualify for an ATAR students must study either 5 General subjects OR 4 General subjects and 1 applied or cert III subject;
• Students need to explore the prerequisites for their future career path before choosing their subjects.

Students will have an opportunity to discuss the requirements for 2020 again in their SET Plan Interviews. If the students would like some more advice on subject selections or career pathways they can contact any of the following:

• Curriculum Leaders
• Classroom Teachers
• Homeroom Teachers
• Ms Conway (Year 10 Pastoral Leader)
• Mrs Coghlan (Careers Advisor)

We are right in the middle of Athletics season here at Good Shepherd. All students are working towards our Inter House Athletics Carnival that is going to be held on Friday June 7 (Week 7). All students have been emailed a google form from Mr Schofield to fill in to nominate for events. Please get them filled in and returned by Thursday evening at the latest. Please remember attendance is compulsory for students and the carnival will be held at Sunset Oval starting at 8am.

Last Friday GSCC competed at the District Athletics Carnival, having lost the overall shield for the past three years the athletes of GSCC who competed did the school proud and held off Spinifex to win the overall shield by 30 points. A huge congratulations to all the athletes that turned up, competed hard and even ran events they didn’t want to – just to earn us points. Every one of our athletes should feel a great sense of achievement in winning both the Junior and Overall shield.

Some notable performances were:

Dean English setting a new District U15 High Jump record of 1m 70cm.

Age champions were: Shakeda Crebbin (13 girls), Madison Clauson (14 girls), Rico Waerea ( U14 boys), Jayden Kerr-Burrell ( U15 boys), Darcy Webber ( tied U15 girls)

The U15 mixed relay team which beat all comers in the relay event.

Over 40 students have been selected for the MISSA District team to travel to Longreach for the Regional trials in early June.

The Rugby Tri Series against Spinifex continues this Friday with Game 2. It all starts at 3.45pm with the Open girls, followed by the U15 boys at 4.30 and the Open boys at 5.30. It is a wonderful evening of rugby and we encourage you to come down and support our teams.

The first game was played on Thursday the 16th. The Open girls won 12-4, after going behind early; and the U15 Boys dominated to win 46-0. In a close game the Open boys came back form 16-0 down to take the lead at 22-16, but were not able to hold onto it to the end, going down 24-22. There were encouraging signs for the team though, and hopefully they can turn it around in the upcoming fixture.

Congratulations to Samuel Winks and Pratik Seegoolam who have been selected in the NW MISSA U12 Soccer team to attend the state championships later in the year.

Meet the Graduates - for Year 12 Students

Employers will speak with “job ready” students about work opportunities in 2020.

4th June, Mount Isa Civic Centre

3.00pm-5.00pm

Afternoon tea provided

Parents are most welcome to attend

James Cook University Open Day

Excellent opportunity to ask about all health pathways.  This could help students decide about their future.

Tuesday 23rd July, Tjirtamai Hall, Mt Isa Hospital Campus

4.30-6.30pm

Please find below link to our latest Careers Newsletter.  

Topics include:

•         Australia’s highest paying jobs
•         Where can Biomedicine take me?
•         Literacy and Numeracy Skills for Traineeships and Apprenticeships
•         Volunteering – why you should do it
•         How to become a Set Designer

https://www.careertools.com.au/resources/newsletters/qld/2019/t2_w4_2019_qld.pdf

Oresome Futures

QMEA recently launched its Oresome Futures initiative to show students the many and varied jobs within the resources sector.  Check out the following link to find out more. You can click on the interactive hubs to find out what jobs are available in the different sectors.

www.oresomeresources.com/careers

QLD Police Service

Recently Senior Constable Scott Adamson and Constable Darryl Ross met with Year 12 students to discuss consequences of incorrect road use.  

The information included fines, demerit points and loss of licence for various offences.

Girls4Mining Mentoring Program

Congratulations to the following students who have been selected to participate in the 2019 Girls4Mining Mentoring Program hosted by Glencore.  

The students will have the opportunity to learn from their Mentor key components of their day to day job, how they started, what they studied and more.

Year 10 - Jorja Bell, Piper Gosney, Emily Logan and Amy Kuhne

Year 11 - Jasmin Rogers, Kelsey Verhoeven, Sydneh Corrigan, Shannon Anderson, Maddison Reinke & Jorja Kuskopf

Year 12 - Courtney Boshoff, Breanne Waerea, Taylor Vassallo, Lillian Blanch, Tara Gavan, Claire Smith & Linzee-Kate Reitano.

Visit from our State Member of Parliament

On Monday Year 12 Students had the opportunity to meet with Rob Katter. Rob talked to students about the different sectors of politics and how the system works. He advised students to do their research on future candidates so they can make an informed decision about who to vote for and what their policies are.

As promised in our last newsletter and recently featured on ABC Radio here is some more detail about our upcoming production of “The Wiz” at the Mount Isa Civic Centre on June 1 at 1.30pm and 7.30pm.

Based on the classic 1900 tale “The Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum and the 1939 Film version starring Judy Garland, the Wiz is a 1975 super soul rework which featured as a film starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson (the stage version winning 7 Tony Awards).
The musical is an adventurous romp with lots of great songs, funny lines and an important message for young and old alike.

For this production we’ve looked to localize references to the narrative and characters. In our tale Dot and her pet kangaroo Skippy are caught up in cyclone Dorothy and whisked from their home town in Cairns and dumped in the vicinity of Cloncurry in North West Queensland. With advice from a bunch of koalas Dot heads off along the red dirt road to Copper City (Mount Isa) to find the Wizard (Mine Manager) with the hope of a charitable contribution to getting home again. Along the way she is joined by a Scarecrow, a Tinman(retired Country singer) and a Frilled Necked Lizard (Queen of the Desert). They have lots of mishaps along the way, including a “run in” with the Isa Rats after a KFC debacle, but eventually make it to Copper City and meet the Wiz. Their hopes are short lived however as they are set a task “to kill the Wicked Witch of the West, Evilene who runs a steam laundry in Cloncurry…….
Will they succeed in this most difficult task? Will they make it safely back to the Wiz? Will the Wiz give them all the things they’ve asked for? Will Dot ever make it back to Cairns?

Come along to the Mount Isa Civic Center on June 1 to have all these questions answered…and more.