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TRUE BELIEVERS
Please forgive me if I quote former Prime Minister, Paul
Keating, “This was a victo-ry for the true be-lievers”.
Mr Keating was talking about the 1993 election win.
I am, of course, speaking about our Secondary Cross Country
success for the tenth year in a row.
Our success has been built for so many years on great
preparation by our coaches and students. We have worked hard and
received the reward for that effort. However, it is fair to say
that the other schools have not worked as hard and for some of
those 10 years the competition was not as strong as it should have
been.
That changed this year, with both Columba and BTC putting in
great effort in an effort to stop our domi-nance. The students also
felt a lit-tle like they were the ‘hunted’ and the weight of so
many victories started to weigh heavily. Nervous “nellies’ like me
started to wonder if the run was over, and I mentally started to
prepare what I would say to students in dealing with the
disappointment of defeat.
I should have known better. When Souls students decide that it
is time to put the effort in, then they do. Our Seniors led by
example and were great role models. One of the outstanding elements
in the 10 year run is that the Open age group has always performed
well, even though they may not have done so well as 15s or 16s. It
be-comes a leadership issue for them. But our younger ones have
also picked up the spirit, and in the 12
Contents Headmaster’s Report Page 1
Deputy Head Page 3
Dean of School Page 3
Dean of Students Page 4
Bush Ballads in the Park Page 5
Cootharinga NQ Notice Page 5
School Chaplain Page 6
School Prayers Page 6
Values Education Page 7
Career Education Date
Claimers 2015 Page 8
Cattle Club Page 8
QCS Test -
Who Should Sit It? Page 9
Sport News Page 10
Cross Country Photos Page 13
Junior School Page 14
Junior School Sport Page 16
Junior School Support Group Page 17
Come and See Us!! Page 17
Head of Boarding Page 18
Feetham House Page 19
Ramsay House Page 19
Page House Page 20
Alban House Page 21
Chad House Page 22
Becket House Page 22
Becket Slumber Party Photos Page 24
Out & About Page 25
Important Notice Page 26
Staff Profile Page 27
The Last Word Page 28
Headmaster
Issue No 7/2015 15 May 2015
Cross Country Captains Mitchell Drenan and Bianca Peace with the
Cross Country trophies
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years Boys division, our six runners finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd,
4th, 5th and 6th for a total of 129 points, which is the maximum
possible score. Considering that we have very few boys in this age,
that is a marvel-lous effort.
We may, or may not, make it 11 years next year. At this point 11
doesn’t matter.
But I do know two things. The stu-dents and coach Darryl Fry
should be so proud of their efforts when their backs were against
the wall. It is a victory to savour. And, when 2016 does come
around our Souls students will not give up their hard earned title
without a fight.
WELCOME In the last edition of Phoenix Rising I mentioned that
we were looking forward to the arrival of Mr Ross Kelly as our
Acting head of Man Arts/Design Technology. Ross has arrived after
‘hotfooting’ it from Vic-toria and he is welcome. It is great to
see you, Ross.
We are also welcoming back Mr Ovidiu Trusca who is returning
from Romania after his mother’s sudden death.
CATTLE CLUB RETURN Our Cattle Club have returned from Beef Week
2015 in Rockhampton very weary, but very proud of their
efforts.
Wherever they went they received plaudits for their behaviour
and commitment as they assisted studs, attended lectures and
participated in numerous competitions. They even found time to chat
with the Prime Minister, Mr Abbott when he attended Beef Week and
asked them about the Beef Industry. They were also interviewed by
the ABC and photographs about the “Day in the Life of a Souls
Student at Beef Week” featured on the ABC North Queensland’s
website.
They certainly have returned with some wonderful experiences and
great knowledge.
My thanks go to Lionel Hartig for
his organisation, Jon Teichmann for keeping an eye on the
students whilst he represented the school at Beef Week, and the
McDougall fam-ily who put the students up on the overnight stop
between Charters Towers and Rockhampton.
SEARCH FOR A NEW HEAD I thought that I should update the school
community on the new Head of School search. Whilst I obviously
cannot share confidential infor-mation such as names with you, I
can provide the following infor-mation:
The Board of Governors has con-tracted Mr Mark Vincent (who has
been a regular consultant to our school over 15 years) and Rev Paul
Bland, a former principal of three schools, and my former Principal
before I first came to the school in 2000, as their consultants to
assist in the search process. Advertise-ments appeared in The
Weekend Australian on 8 & 15 March and on the Seek Jobs website
requesting that interested candidates should contact Patrick McHugh
for an ap-plication package. This package consisted of a School
Leader Pro-file developed by our Board of Gov-ernors and our Senior
Staff in meet-ings that they had with Paul Bland. The package also
contained other material on the town and the school.
21 potential applicants asked for a package.
Our consultant, Paul Bland contact-ed all of these 21 by email,
provid-ing many with sample interview questions they may have found
in-teresting as they prepared their ap-plication, and he had
informal dis-cussions and meetings with a good number of these
potential appli-cants.
Eleven applications were received by the 24 April deadline.
8 of the 11 applicants were from Qld, 2 applicants were from
inter-state, 1 was from overseas. All 10 of the Australian
applicants are cur-rently employed in independent schools.
PAGE 2 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015
Paul Bland and the selection panel were generally encouraged by
the quality of the responses received.
The eleven applications has been reduced to a short list of four
strong candidates and interviews will take place later this month.
During this process, I will meet with the candidates informally and
take them on a tour of the school. Partners will also be invited to
ac-company candidates to Charters Towers .
After the interviews the panel will meet finally to review the
inter-view process and make a decision. Final referees' checks will
then need to be completed, before the position is offered, accepted
(hopefully) and the name of the successful candidate is sent to the
Board of Governors for final ap-proval, perhaps as early as the end
of Week 6 of term.
Therefore, the Board of Governors is still on track to make an
an-nouncement of the new Head, to-wards the end of this term.
Be aware though, that such time-lines are liable to late change.
Ne-gotiations over contracts can sometimes take more time than one
may imagine over minor mat-ters, and it is unwise to make
an-nouncements unless complete agreement has been made and
documents signed. There is also a protocol where both schools, the
school the new Head is departing and the school that he/she is
com-ing to, make simultaneous an-nouncements to their respective
communities. This can slow things down.
It is a detailed, careful and deli-cate process as you can see.
It is also time consuming. But the pro-cess is on schedule.
Please keep those charged with making the decision, and those on
the shortlist, in your prayers and thoughts over the coming
weeks.
Gordon Royall Headmaster
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Sam Kelly Deputy Head / Academic Dean
New Staff We have had quite a busy start to the term again. In
the last two weeks, we have welcomed Mr Pat-rick McCann (Maria
Tanase’s re-placement) and Mr Ross Kelly (Terry MacErlean’s
replacement). I am very grateful for two things: that they have now
both arrived, and for the amazing “extra mile” support staff have
given both Karen Storey and I in covering classes whilst we waited
for them. I never had a snarl, or “I’m not doing this”, just true
ASSG style of helping out when help is needed. Thank you, staff,
and thank you students and parents for being patient during our
waiting time. I am encouraged that both Mr McCann and Mr Kelly have
been straight to the core business of helping students with their
studies. Hard Yards It’s the start of the “hard yards” with
students as many have started their assignments and larger
as-sessment pieces. By now, all par-ents (via email) and students
(hardcopy) should have received the assessment planner to help
or-ganise their time. A reminder to all that my last copy of
Phoenix Rising had handy hints on how to obtain academic help:
teacher assistance, ringers club or night time prep. From time to
time, teachers run night time prep support for their students that
may need extra assis-tance or individual attention e.g. computer
assignment time, Maths B support.
Teachers in their term communica-tions can sometimes give extra
in-formation about timings for this, or parents can request time to
catch up with their child via e-mail. Teach-ers do appreciate the
“heads up”, especially with assignment work as some students can be
masters at “looking productive,” but in actual reality have baulked
or are stumped in one part of a question. Most of the time we as
teachers can see
PAGE 3 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015
straight through this but from time to time we can be duped! We
do appreciate the “heads up”.
NAPLAN Naplan has been and gone for an-other year. The more I
read about Naplan, the more I get discouraged about why we actually
have it. On the very first day, Mrs Akers (Head of Junior School)
said that more tis-sues were needed for day two. The reason? Some
Year 3 students were upset that they didn’t finish in time. What
possible positive mes-sage is this test sending to small children?
If this is what is happen-ing in our school that doesn’t place huge
emphasis on this test, imag-ine the emotional damage this
“snapshot” is doing to those other students in other schools who
place quite a lot of importance on NAPLAN? The mind boggles. I am
sure my Tola score from Year 7 has never been used. A Mars bar is
up for any parent who can email me what the maximum Tola score was
(you have to be a certain age to know). Year 10 Selection We had a
very successful Year 10 student subject selection infor-mation expo
during last week. I had quite a few students who were unsure about
subjects make their choices after the day. Many thanks to Mrs
Salisbury for organising this and the Heads of Department and
specialist teachers who assisted students with information on the
day. The forms are due by 15th May. Reports Teachers are busy
writing Semester One reports. For those new to ASSG, end of
Semester reports are sent by post during the holidays. The exam
block will be in Week 9 with the alternate program in Week 10.
Students are expected to be in attendance week 10. A reminder to
parents of students in Years 11 and 12: we follow QCAA (Queensland
Curriculum Assessment Authority) with regards to attendance and
as-sessment procedures. Students
who do not submit assignments/assessments due to unexplained
absences may not satisfy the re-quirements of the course. In other
words, students must submit all work and be in attendance for the
required hours per course (200 hours) for a grade to be awarded.
Permission must be sought and granted by the school for changes to
this. Permission can be granted by either phoning me on 0409 783
658 or via e-mail on: [email protected] . Thank you to
the many parents who have contacted me over the years about this.
Mrs Salisbury will have the fi-nalized details of the alternative
Program in the next edition of Phoenix Rising.
Dean of School Karen Storey
Communication As the weeks continue to fly by at an astonishing
rate I am continu-ally reminded that the end of the semester is not
far away and along with that, semester reports for all students. As
the term rolls on and the increasing demands of assessments and
extra-curricular commitments take their toll on some students it is
perhaps a good time to remind parents that early contact and clear
communi-cation is the key. If your son or daughter is struggling or
needs extra assistance please get in touch with the relevant people
early to ensure that a strategy can be put in place that will
assist all concerned. By now all parents should have had at least
one con-tact (either in person at parent-teacher interviews at the
begin-ning of term or a phone-call, letter or email) with each of
your child’s teachers. Please do not hesitate to get back in touch
with these teachers should you have ques-tions or concerns about
how your child is travelling. For Year 12 stu-dents this is
particularly important
Deputy Head
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as we are quickly progressing to-wards their final school report
and the last written account of their strengths in a co-operative
class (learning) environment. It is, there-fore, vital that what is
written in student reports is largely positive and, of course, this
can only be the case if that is what teachers are seeing in class.
Should there be any reason to have concern for your child’s ability
to produce work to the best of their ability it is essential that
teachers are made aware of the situation early so that support
mechanisms can be put in place.
Year 12 Futures Dinner One of the most enjoyable events for our
Year 12’s this term will be the upcoming Futures Dinner. This
occasion was established as a spe-cial ‘Year 12 only’ event
designed to provide our senior cohort with op-portunities to speak
informally over a meal with a number of successful businesspeople,
industry personnel and employees and in the past has been an
evening that the students have found this to be a very worth-while
occasion. This year the Fu-tures Dinner will be held in Halse Hall
from 7:00pm on Tuesday May 19th. I hope that the Year 12’s find
this to be both an enjoyable and in-formative event.
It’s cold Having been in Kingaroy for the past 5 days at the
State Netball Championships, I am now acutely aware of the fact
that winter is al-most upon us. I would just like to take this
opportunity to remind par-ents and students about the uni-form
expectations for keeping warm. Please see a summary below.
PAGE 4 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015
We are aware of some supplier is-sues with the grey pullover
jumper in some sizes. Students who do not have the grey pullover
jumper need to communicate this with their tu-tor so that
arrangements can be made for alternative jumpers until the
additional sizes arrive at Ti-tley’s.
Dean of Students Shannon Lee Online bullying report goes live In
2014 the PCT (Pastoral Care Team) conducted a bullying survey and
the results are being used to in our efforts to make ASSG a bully
free zone. Two areas for develop-ment included; raising the profile
for how we manage a report of bul-lying as 52% of students
indicated they know there is a process but don’t know what it is
and, develop an online reporting process to give students greater
opportunity to re-port incidents of bullying to a mem-ber of staff.
In recent weeks the PCT have final-ised the development of the
online reporting system for students and the form is now live. By
the end of Week 7 all students will have been shown how to use the
report through their Lifeskills classes. Stu-dents will not only be
able to make reports for incidents of bullying re-lated to
themselves, but are also able to report incidents of bullying if
they are a witness to incidents involving other students.
Reports are received by myself and the rest of the Pastoral Care
Team to help with the situation. Report-ing students are given the
oppor-tunity to select which member of the PCT they would like to
com-plete the follow up interview.
A third area of development from the survey was the need for
fur-ther education regarding exactly what constitutes bullying.
Some of the results indicate there were a few misconceptions. This
will also be covered in class but I have pro-vided definitions
below for some clarification.
Bullying is repeated verbal, physi-cal, social or psychological
behav-iour that is harmful and involves the misuse of power by an
individ-ual or group towards one or more persons.
Behaviours that do not constitute bullying include: mutual
arguments and disa-
greements (where there is no power imbalance)
not liking someone or a single act of social rejection
one-off acts of meanness or spite
isolated incidents of aggres-sion, intimidation or violence.
However, these conflicts still need to be addressed and
resolved. Physical Bullying Physical bullying happens when there is
hitting, kicking, punching, taking peoples' belongings or other
acts that hurt people physically and that happen repeatedly (not
just one time). Verbal Bullying Verbal bullying happens when
peo-ple are repeatedly teased or called hurtful names. Cyber
Bullying Cyber bullying occurs when people are repeatedly teased,
taunted, or threatened through the use of e-mail, mobile phone,
text messag-ing, instant messaging, or other electronic
methods.
Girls Boys PE uniform with ASSG track-top and
track pants (old or new) is permitted on designated PE uniform
days
Day uniform may be worn with black tights underneath for extra
warmth. The jumper for the day uniform should be the grey pullover
jumper or blazer, not tracksuit jacket.
The grey pullover or blazer only (not the tracksuit jacket)
should be worn with the formal uniform
PE uniform with ASSG track-top and track pants (old or new) is
per-mitted on designated PE uniform days.
The jumper for the day uniform should be the grey pullover
jump-er or blazer, not tracksuit jacket.
The grey pullover or blazer only (not the tracksuit jacket)
should be worn with the formal uniform
Students who have not been able to purchase grey pullovers will
be excused the above conditions temporarily.
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Indirect Bullying Indirect bullying mostly involves damaging
another's social reputa-tion, peer relationships and self-esteem.
Indirect bullying can include: repeatedly using hand gestures
and weird or threatening looks repeatedly whispering,
exclud-
ing, turning your back on a person
repeated ly b lackmai l ing, spreading rumours, threaten-ing,
stealing friends
repeatedly breaking secrets, gossiping, criticising clothes and
personalities.
Finally if you feel your child is a vic-tim of bullying please
do not hesi-tate to contact me or any member of PCT.
Ainsley Murphy
Rae Evans
Amber Aspinall
PAGE 5 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015
Bush Ballads in the
Park Kylie Kempster Drama Teacher On Tuesday 28th April, the
commu-nity gathered to listen to dinky-di, true blue original
Aussie bush bal-lads in Centenary Park as part of the Ten Days in
the Towers event organised by Gold City Lions. Amber Aspinall,
Charlee Keleher, Thea McMahon, Adam Hensley, Ainsley Murphy, Rae
Evans and Patrick Washington entertained an appreciative audience,
accompa-nied by the smooth vocals and gui-tar of Jack McDougall.
The stu-dents were then repaid with the most valued currency among
growing teens – great food! We finished the evening with delicious
corned beef and damper before washing it all down with billy tea
(or Coke as taste dictated). Thanks to the Gold City Lions for
allowing us to showcase the stu-pendous talents of our
students.
Thea McMahon
Patrick Washington
NOTICE Cootharinga NQ - Allied Health Outreach Service
Cootharinga North Queens-land has been assisting indi-viduals,
with the provision of specialised services, across North Queensland
since 1951. Our Allied Health Service consists of a team of
dedicat-ed professionals delivering both Speech and Occupation-al
Therapy. We are currently exploring the option of extending our
outreach services to include Charters Towers and dis-tricts.
Initially our outreach team will provide Paediatric Occu-pational
Therapy to children via group or individual ses-sions. If you are
interested in regis-tering your child to receive Occupational
Therapy please call Michelle Cakalic, details below, to register
your inter-est. Contact Deails: Michelle Cakalic Co-ordinator
Allied Health Service Phone: 07 4759 2060 Email:
[email protected]
Charlee Keleher
Adam Hensley
mailto:[email protected]
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School PrayersSchool Prayers
Dean of School
School Chaplain Br Nathan-James SSF
Honour one another above yourselves The Apostle Paul would write
letters of encouragement and admonition to churches he was
affiliated with in Rome, Corinth, Ephesus and oth-ers. One of the
issues he addressed was a concern for the way the Christians in
those places treated one another as members of the body of Christ,
the church. He en-couraged them to show honour and ‘brotherly love’
towards one anoth-er. ‘Love’ for the other was viewed as the
highest ideal in the teach-ings of Jesus. This of course was not
new nor was it confined to Christian circles. However, even
op-ponents of the Jesus movement re-marked at how well Christians
cared for each other, especially in their concern and care for
widows, orphans, and those in need. The school is founded on the
princi-ple of viewing service to others as an important ideal.
Indeed, as I have said before, Bishop Feetham viewed education, in
its holistic sense of mind, body and spirit, not for the gain of
the individual but for the gain of the community that stu-dents
would belong to. That is, he hoped that providing a holistic
edu-cation and forming students within the context of spiritual
discipline would produce quality graduates who would become
valuable con-tributors to society and advance the human endeavour.
Feetham be-lieved that by teaching students to think of others
first they would be agents of change to a world that had been
experiencing great dis-trust, anger and conflict. As a general
observation I think our students do very well at showing their
concern and care for others. Indeed, there are particular mo-ments
when our students especially shine; one only has to look at the way
in which the student body pre-
PAGE 6 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015
sented themselves at the recent ANZAC Day commemorations to see
this. They pushed through the hours of marching practice and
en-dured the long warm service to show a very high level of respect
for those whose lives had been lost in service to their country.
Even as I marched alongside students on the day I heard so many
positive comments coming from the on-lookers about how well the
stu-dents looked and the wonder of how the school was able to
achieve such a high standard. I wanted to say, that it’s because
when it comes to the crunch, our students know when to ‘rise to the
occasion’. There are, however, small expres-sions of what could be
described as a lack of thought or concern for the other that I
think we can work on as school body. I don’t believe that I am
talking about malicious intent to harm or cause distress to
another, these instances thankfully are rare. I’m referring to
those who think in their own mind that they are playing a joke on
another person but clearly the other does not see it as a joke. Or
when eat-ing and living areas are left in dis-array because
‘someone else will do it’ – leaving the ‘some’ to be al-ways
looking after the ‘other’. I’m also talking about when staff put in
a great effort to prepare classes, run tutoring sessions or lead
extra-curricular activities only to me met with contempt and ‘moody
teenag-ers’ who seem to lack a sense of thankfulness or courtesy.
In the wide scheme of things we do well as a school community. I
have friends who work in schools that can be veritable battle
zones. However, I don’t think we can be-come complacent. As it has
been said before, the standard we walk past is the standard we
accept. Let us continually strive to honour one another above our
selves.
In our thoughts and
prayers; We pray for candi-
dates for the posi-
tion of Head of
School for 2016 and
members of the
Board of Governors
charged with the re-
sponsibility of dis-
cerning the ap-
pointment.
We give thanks for
the success of our re-
cent representation
at Beef Week and
positive moves by
the government to
recognise and re-
spond to the needs
of struggling bush
communities.
We give thanks to
each other, may we
always show a spirit
of respect and hon-
our for one another.
We pray for all in
sickness and grief,
may they be com-
forted.
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Values Education Barbara Salisbury Head of Values Education
Self-Esteem All Year 8 and Year 10 students en-joyed an informative
presentation with Katie Dunlop and Kaylee Cum-ming from the
Charters Towers Neighbourhood Centre. Katie and Kaylee easily
related to the students and shared important messages about body
images and how the media can portray unrealistic imag-es of how we
would like to look.
IMPORTANT – LAST WEEK OF TERM The last week of Term 2 is very
im-portant for our career aspirations program. I can understand
boarders keen to get home for holidays, but this is the ideal time
for us to run these alternative programs. Time and time again we
witness student’s higher commitment to their studies when they are
aware of the require-ments for future training or employ-ment. It
is through our career aspi-rations program that student’s learn
enough to make an informed choice about their future and are
inspired to set goals. A timetable of the week will be in the next
Phoenix, below is what is planned for Year 11 and 12 students so
far. Short Courses We have organised two courses for our Year 11
and Year 12 students. The Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA) 1
day course will be run by TAFE and cost $75. The First Aid Course
will be run at School with a cost of about $50, with the finer
de-tails still being finalised. Permission
PAGE 7 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015
letters explaining the courses in de-tail will be emailed to
parents, plus handed to interested Year 11 and 12 students. This is
a great oppor-tunity to gain useful skills and valu-able
certificates for their career portfolio. Mock Job Interviews Year
11s spend Term 2 preparing for their Mock Job Interview in Week 10.
Being confident and pre-pared for a job interview will serve them
well in the current competi-tive job market. Each student
re-searches jobs of interest, prepares an application letter and
resume, plus practices answering interview questions. On the day,
students must wear appropriate clothes for an interview. We have a
team of business people who then conduct the interviews and provide
feed-back to students. In 2014, all Year 11s appreciated this
opportunity to practice some very important skills for their
future. QCS Test Practice Year 12 OP eligible students will be
doing a complete practice run of the QCS Test. It is critical that
all students attend this. Students are given 2014 papers and then
these are marked. Ian Dietrich will pro-vide individual guidance to
students on how they can improve for the real thing in September.
QTAC Application Process Applying to University is part of most
students’ career plan, wheth-er it be the first option or the
back-up plan. The Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre (QTAC) is
the central body who manages all the applications and it is
important that students understand the process. Applications are
due in Term 3 which is a very busy term, so the end of Term 2 is
the best time for us to explain this so students have time to think
over their options while at home on holidays. Smart Futures 4 North
Queensland On Thursday our Year 10 students found the SF4NQ Careers
Expo in
Townsville very informative with its trade focus. Many
organisations make an extra effort to have inter-active displays
which really helps keep students interest. We took part in the
‘Skills on Show Chal-lenge’ and had the best time of 1 min 46 sec
at 10.45am, so I’m not sure if we won this trophy but they took a
photo just in case!
Subject Selection On Friday the Year 10s heard from each Head of
Department about the subject offerings for Semester 2. Students
made the most of the opportunity to then choose 5 ses-sions to
learn more detail about senior subjects of interest to them. By the
time you read this they should all have their subject selec-tion
forms in.
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Date Event Year Tue 19 May (evening)
Futures Dinner – variety of business people join our Yr 12s for
dinner
Year 12
22-23 June (2 days)
QCS Test Practice - Extremely important complete practice run at
PCYC
Year 12 OP
22-23 June
Mock Job Interviews Year 11, Year 12 English Com
Mon 22 June
Year 9 Career Aspira-tions- Went to JCU in Year 8, one day
pro-gram at ASSG with ac-tivities run by JCU stu-dent
ambassadors.
Year 9
22/23 June
Year 8 Career Aspira-tions Two day program, one day at ASSG,
other day at JCU.
Year 8
Wed 24 June (8.30-12.30)
QTAC application pro-cess presentation
Year 12
July Holidays (TBC)
Year 10 Get into Uni Camp
4 places available
13-15 July (3 days)
University Experience at JCU – great oppor-tunity for students
to take a closer look at 3 courses of interest to help them
decide.
Interested Year 11 or 12
Wed 22 July
DTTC Careers Expo Year 7-10, interested Year 11/12
Late August
JCU Open Day Int Yr10-12s
Career Education Date Claimers 2015
Please look over the calendar for upcoming events these holidays
and for Term 3. The Year 10 camp is still being finalised by JCU,
but full de-tails are available for the Year 11 and 12 Camp.
Yr 11 and 12 Camp at JCU Year 11 and Year 12 parents will be
emailed shortly with detailed infor-mation about the JCU
Experience
being held July 13th to 15th at a cost of $150. This is a
fantastic oppor-tunity for students to learn details about courses
that interest them and really helps in decisions about future
study. We have many attend that are in two minds about going to
University at all. Most return feeling more confident about what
they plan to do and have a sense of relief as they cross things off
their possibility list.
PAGE 8 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015
Cattle Club Jessica Lusk Rural Activities Prefect As I write
this we all have arrived safe and sound back from Beef Week.
Needless to say it was an amazing week in which we all had an
unforgettable experience. We went from judging competitions to
working with various professional stud cattle breeders and
exhibitors. From a handlers competition to the trade fair full of
the new, emerging technology beholding our industry. We came away
from the entire week with a third in one age group of cattle
judging, even though sev-eral made the top ten as well as memories
and knowledge that will stick with us forever. After leaving Beef
Week we travelled to a place not far from Emerald named Goonoo. We
visited and toured the feedlot, looking over the thousands of Wagyu
cattle currently being fattened there. Our tour guide, a Filippino
man who had been in the business for around 10 years, gave us a
great insight into the specifics that go into running such a
suc-cessful operation as well as some great life advice that left
an impact on all of us and definitely gave us
all a little bit to think about. This is just a brief overview
of what we got up to and a full report plus photos will be in the
next newslet-ter. Next weekend on the 22nd May, Cattle Club will be
taking a small cohort up to the Malanda Judging School to further
our knowledge in judging and showing. It will be a new experience
for most of our group who have never attended the school or
attempted judging and showing. Several older stu-dents will also be
attending to fur-ther their own experience. With Winton show also
coming up, there are some exciting weeks ahead!
-
QCS Test – Who should sit?
Background The education system in Queensland relies heavily
upon reviewed school-based assessment and teacher judgement in the
calcula-tion of final subject results. This is in comparison to
southern states relying upon a mixture of school-based assessment
and sepa-rate subject external examinations. For the Queensland
system to keep its integrity, not only does it rely upon external
moderation and review of school-based subject results, there is
also a common external test of core skills that should have been
acquired throughout 10 years of schooling and re-fined in the
senior phase of learning. This is known as the Queensland Core
Skills Test (QCST). The test is made up of four separate papers
conducted under strict examination procedures over two days. All
Year 12 students in Queensland are able to sit the test and receive
a result (A, B, C, D or E) on their Senior Statement. Students
wishing to receive a numerical score used to gain direct entry into
most tertiary courses in Australia should have been studying the
correct number of Authority Subjects during their senior years and
also need to sit the QCST in September. The result on this test and
the subject results of students in the cohort are used by the
Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA) to calculate
the ranking number known as the Overall Position (OP). OPs range
from the top (1) to the bottom (25). OPs are mainly used by
tertiary (Universities, TAFEs and Colleges) to rank students from
across the state and then offer placements into courses according
to this ranking. Do OP-ineligible students sit the test? Students
with subject combinations that would not lead to the possibility of
receiving an OP can still sit the QCST. These students are known as
OP-ineligible students. If they sit the QCST they will receive a
result (A, B, C, D or E) on their Senior Statement. However, their
result will not be used in the calculation of OPs for OP-eligible
students. OP eligibility would have been a decision made in Year 10
or early Year 11 as students and parents looked at Career Pathways
and ultimately subject choices. All Souls St Gabriels School joins
with the QCAA and encourages OP-ineligible students to consider
sitting the test in September. A good result on the QCST could be
an advantage in an employment application. A good result on the
QCST can be used to improve a Tertiary Rank (used by OP-ineligible
students gain entry to tertiary courses). However, the flip side of
these comments is that a poor result on the QCST would not be
advantageous for future career options. Sitting the QCST is not
compulsory for OP in-eligible students. At this stage of planning
at ASSG, all OP-ineligible students in Year 12 will be continuing
with normal classes during the time of the testing in September and
they will undertake a separate alternative program in the final
week of this term. OP-ineligible students deciding to sit the test
must sit the practice test arranged by the school in the final week
of this term. If you wish your OP-ineligible son or daughter to sit
the QCST, please send me an email by the end of May so arrangements
can be finalised for the practice and real testing days. Can
OP-eligible students decide not to sit? As I stated earlier, OP
eligibility would have been a decision made in Year 10 or early
Year 11 as students and parents looked at Career Pathways and
ultimately subject choices. As your son / daughter moved through
their senior years, career paths and deci-sions made at this time
may have changed. It is now possible for a student studying the
right combinations of subjects to be OP-eligible and yet decide to
not sit the QCST. Not sitting the QCST will mean the student will
not receive an OP. However, all subject results will be listed on
their Senior Statement. If your OP-eligible son or daughter is
considering not sitting the QCST (and therefore not receiving an OP
score), they need to book a time to meet with Mrs Salisbury by the
end of May to review their career planning. Parents will certainly
be included in these dis-cussions and written parent permission
will be required to finalise this process. QCST Preparation Up-date
Our current Year 12 OP-eligible students have been completing a
preparation course for the QCST. They have had some very promising
practice results. Practices and full day workshops with an
experienced, external Literacy Consultant, Mr Matthew Rigby, have
been very well received and completed by the Year 12 OP group. We
continue this preparation course with a full two day practice in
the final week of this term. I will share more on this practice in
future editions of The Phoenix Rising. In the meantime, I am happy
to answer any questions regarding the QCST. Please feel free to
either email me or call the school.
Ian Dietrich QCS Test Chief Supervisor
[email protected]
PAGE 9 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015
mailto:[email protected]
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Sport News Sport News
Karen Storey Secondary Sports Co-ordinator Inter School Netball
and Rugby League The last few weeks have been jam packed with
sporting action. On Sunday May 3rd we commenced Rugby League and
Netball fixtures with games against BTC held at All Souls St
Gabriels School. These games were a great specta-tor event and it
was pleasing to see many parents and friends of the School turn out
to support our teams. The re-sults of the games played appear
below.
INTER SCHOOL SPORT The first round of Secondary sports fixtures
were held on Sunday 3 May on O'Keeffe Oval and in the Rebgetz
Sports Centre. It was a wonderful day with lots of students and
parents supporting the teams. Both Firsts Rugby League and Netball
teams enjoyed handsome wins, with the boys scoring after the final
siren to reach 50 pts. Results:... Rugby League Netball 1st XIII:
ASSG 50 -12 BTC Open A: ASSG 26-9 BTC 2nd XIII: CCC def ASSG
(friendly game) Open B: ASSG 13 - 8 BTC U15: ASSG 40-18 BTC U15:
ASSG 21-15 BTC U14: BTC 28-10 ASSG U14: BTC 36—6 ASSG U13: ASSG
44-6 BTC U13: ASSG 22—7 BTC U12: BTC had no team U12: BTC had no
team This week we take on CTSHS. Good luck to all teams. Inter
House Cross Country Friday May 1st saw the annual Inter-House Cross
Country held at All Souls St Gabriels School. In warmer than
ex-pected conditions students gave their all for their houses and
achieved some excellent results. The Age Champions, Runners-Up and
the Champion Houses along with their respective points are
summarised below:
Age Champions
Champion Boys and Girls Houses Overall Championship
PAGE 10 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015
Age Group Age Champion Runner-Up
Open Boys Mitchell Drenan Mitchel Rankine
Open Girls Bianca Peace Seanne Santo
16yrs Boys Dylan Knuth Clancy Schaefer
16yrs Girls Katie Jones Georgie Clark
15yrs Boys Joe Bode Lance Shephard
15yrs Girls Breanne Peace Sarah Santo
14yrs Boys Darby Godfrey Charlie LeFeuvre
14yrs Girls Chantelle Reynolds Josephine McKellar
13yrs Boys Todd Thorn Cody Bucklar
13yrs Girls Luka Hall Amber Aspinall
12yrs Boys Tom Marshall Corey Stanger
12yrs Girls Piper Davey April Tabo
Place Houses Points
1st Becket and Feetham 312
2nd Chad and Page 249
3rd Alban and Ramsay 218
Place Girls House Points Boys House Points
1st Becket 153 Feetham 159
2nd Alban 114 Page 149
3rd Chad 100 Ramsay 104
-
Monday 11th May saw the top 6 runners in each age group on their
way to the Charters Towers Airport Reserve
in a quest to defend their boys, girls and combined aggregate
titles for the 10th year running. I know Mr Royall
will have stolen my thunder and published news of our success so
I will merely say a huge congratulations to all
students involved in the team, even those who didn’t get to run
at the Inter-School Carnival but attended many
morning training sessions.
I would also like to sincerely thank Mr Darryl Fry who has spent
hundreds of mornings over the past few years
training and preparing students for the Cross Country and this
year was no exception. Thankyou Darryl for your
commitment and dedication and the pride and dogged determination
that you instil in our runners.
The results of the Inter School Cross Country appear below:
Age Champions
Champion Boys and Girls Schools
Thomson - Morris Shield for Overall Champion School
GIRLS Open Girls 1st 104 points 21 starters 1.Bianca Peace, 5.
Seanne Santo, 7. Sarah Salisbury, 10. Rose Elliott, 11. Taylor
Ievers, 12. Kate Blennerhassett
16 Girls 3rd 77points 24 starters 5. Katie Jones, 6. Georgie
Clark, 9. Aby Philipson, 14. Megan Rigato, 17. Jacklenn Dart, 22.
Anna Winsper
15 Girls 1st 113points 21 Starters 2. Breanne Peace, 5. Dianne
Fulford, 6. Sarah Santo, 7. Danielle Milton, 8. Natalie Teece, 9.
Zoe Godfrey
14 Girls 3rd 47points 24 starters 12. Josie McKellar, 13. Faith
Whelan, 14. Amy Liddle, 19. Claudette Wilson, 20. Freya Stewart,
DNF. Chantelle Reynolds
13 Girls 1st 105 points 24 starters 1.Luka Hall, 5. Amber
Aspinall, 6. Chelsea Mosch, 7. Cacey Campbell, 11 Chekoda Bethel,
15 Camryn Guldbran-sen
12 Girls 2nd 69 points 21 starters 5. Brooke Tindall, 7. Piper
Davey, 15. Indy Schaefer, 16. Sarah Suhr, 18. Kuage Koglkia, 20
Kate Johnson
PAGE 11 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015
Open Boys Mitchell Drenan Age Champion
Open Girls Bianca Peace Age Champion
16yrs Boys Dylan Knuth Runner Up
15yrs Girls Breanne Peace Runner Up
14yrs Boys Darby Godfrey Runner Up
13yrs Girls Luka Hall Age Champion
12yrs Boys Tom Marshall Age Champion
12yrs Boys Corey Stanger Runner Up
Place Girls Points Boys Points
1st CCC 533 ASSG 621
2nd ASSG 515 CCC 489
3rd BTC 507 BTC 454
4th CTSHS 226 CTSHS 224
Place School Points
1st ASSG 1136
2nd CCC 1022
3rd BTC 961
4th CCC 450
-
BOYS Open Boys 1st 111 points 23 starters 1.Mitchell Drenan, 5.
Jack Fitchett, 6. Mitchell Rankine, 8 Max Allingham, 9 Rowan
Fittock, 10 Clayton Gough 16 Boys 1st 97 points 22 starters 2.
Dylan Knuth, 5. Clancy Schaefer, 8. Liam Durington, 11. Casey
Rankine, 14 Billy Dakin, 18 Will Healing 15 Boys 1st eq 94 points
22 starters 3. Joe Bode, 5. Lance Shepard, 10. Brendan Dawson, 11.
Brent Marshall, 13. Clay Pierce, 15. Duncan Elliott 14 Boys 1st 112
points 24 starters 2. Darby Godfrey, 4. Toby Rankine, 5. Time
Ievers, 6. Charlie LeFeuvre, 10. Josh Walsh, 11 Griff Gordon 13
Boys 3rd 78 points 24 starters 5. Todd Thorn, 10 Douglas Keough,
11. Connor Lerch, 13. Cody Bucklar, 16. David Walsh, 17 Patrick
Washington 12 Boys 1st 129 points 22 starters 1.Tom Marshall, 2.
Corey Stanger, 3. Will Sibson, 4. Josh Fraser, 5. Zac Stevenson, 6
Brandon Finger The following students were selected in the Charters
Towers team to participate in the North Queensland Cross Country
trials in Townsville on Tuesday 26th May: Boys Girls Mitchell
Drenan Bianca Peace Mitchell Rankine Breanne Peace Dylan Knuth Luka
Hall Joe Bode Clancy Schaefer Darby Godfrey Tom Marshall Corey
Stanger Will Sibson Josh Fraser Good luck to you all!
PAGE 12 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015
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Cross Country Photos
PAGE 13 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015
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Junior School
Tina Akers Head of Junior School JS Staff have a strong moral
pur-pose when it comes to valuing and nurturing our students and of
course, a strong commitment to delivering a quality education.
Loy-alty and teamwork are strong fea-tures of our staff. They are
dedi-cated in their approach to the cur-riculum and to working as a
mem-ber of a collaborative team, in or-der to meet the needs of
every student. They support each stu-dent as they strive to achieve
their personal best, not just in the aca-demic areas but on the
sports field,
during after school activities and when playing with friends and
classmates. We have already had many reasons to celebrate this term
and I congratulate all our stu-dents for their application and
ef-fort. NAPLAN over for another year! The annual NAPLAN testing is
com-pleted for this year and it was pleasing to see our students
ap-proach the assessments with a positive attitude. Well done to
the Year 3 and 5 students for staying focused during the 3 days of
test-ing. We look forward to learning more about their achievements
and gain some understanding of how our School performed later in
the year. Country Music Festival The JS students celebrated the
be-ginning of the Charters Towers Country Music Festival by
parading in their best country gear. We would like to thank Joe and
Shar-ron, the official judges (from Cen-tral State School), for
judging the most creative costume and the overall best dressed
country boy and girl. Thanks also to Patrick Gal-vin (School
Captain) and Dempsey Currin (Senior School Prefect) for
judging the best dressed boy and girl in each class.
Congratulations to:
Overall best dressed country boy Henry Jesberg Overall best
dressed country girl Leearna Campbell Runner up best dressed
country boy Tex Chapman Runner up best dressed country girl Dale
Beatty Most creative country dress Lincoln Coleman Class Prizes
Pre-prep class Gabriel Pattison Mikaela Geaney Prep class Bailey
McGuire Clayne Musk Year 1: Bridget Boyle Jack Rixon Year 2: Jae
Mossman Tex Chapman Year 3: Lauren Atwell Steve Hare
Year 4 : Zali Downes James Mann Year 5 : Kaci Whelan (Year 5
boys were attending the Soccer Trials) Year 6 : Danielle Curley
Kellan Knuth
The day continued with a buzz of excitement as everyone was
work-ing hard to make sure our float was ready for the evening’s
Country Mu-sic street procession. The theme for this year’s country
music float pa-rade was ‘Standing by your mate’ and what better way
to demonstrate this, than by honouring the cen-tenary of ANZAC. The
song “Spirit of Anzac,” from Lee Kernaghan’s album of the same
name, was the song we chose to inspire this year’s theme for our
float and pay tribute to those who have given their lives, those
who have served, and those that
still today step bravely into the un-known to serve our
country.
PAGE 14 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015
A project like this does not happen without a vision, and
someone who is prepared to take on the responsi-bility of pulling
it all together. This year, Mrs Polsen and Mrs Marshall took on
this enormous task with the co-ordinated efforts of a great team;
students, staff, parents and the wid-er School community. Thank
you: Weston Carrying Services for provid-
ing us with a truck; Mr Jim Polsen for driving the truck so
smoothly; the Kirkwood family for providing the hay bales and Hugh
Polsen who vol-unteered to walk at the back of our procession in
the extremely hot Phoenix suit. Thank you to all the parents and
friends of ASSG who gave their time to help prepare and dismantle
the float. The children looked incredible and once again showcased
All Souls St Gabriels as a fantastic school. Con-gratulations and
thank you to every-one involved. All Souls St Gabriels School won
the Best Decorated float
this year and came second to Colum-ba Catholic College in the
School Float section of the parade.
-
Inter School Cross Country Congratulations to all the students
who represented our School at the Charters Towers District Primary
In-ter School Cross Country Carnival on Tuesday 5 May. The day
began with much anticipation and plenty of butterflies. These
feelings soon transformed into a sense of deter-mination and
resolve to do the very best for ASSG. Encouraged by the strong and
sup-portive cheers from their team ma-tes, each competitor gave it
their all. We are very proud of their indi-vidual efforts and
collective suc-cess, as they once again All Souls St Gabriels
Junior School brought home the Average Shield. Congrat-ulations to
the 9 Years Champion girl: Charlotte Jesberg and to Anni-ka Peace,
Danielle Curley, Reagan Butler and Orry Ferguson who were selected
to join the Charters Tow-ers Cross Country Team. Thank you to our
JS Sports Co-ordinator Miss Taylor and staff who helped make this
another day of celebration for ASSG. JSSG Mother’s Day Stall On
behalf of the Junior School Sup-port Group (JSSG), I would like to
thank everyone for the wonderful donations for the ‘Mother’s Day
Stall’ and the raffle. Our thanks are also extended to everyone who
vol-unteered their time to sell and wrap the gifts.
The students were very excited and had lots of lovely gifts to
choose from thanks to our very generous School community. I trust
all our Mothers and Grandmothers were treated to a very special day
on Mother’s Day. Congratulations to the Mother’s Day Raffle
winners: Tio Chong Braxton Friend Torino Brodie Hunter McKellar
PAGE 15 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015
The money raised by the JSSG is filtered back into the Junior
School. This year the JSSG have already contributed significantly
to the purchase of new sports equipment for our athletics pro-gram
and have provided funds towards the purchase of the hardware items
for the Country Music Float and prizes for the Country Music Dress
up. Thank you I would like to thank the JS Staff for the amazing
amount of work they have done to ensure a smooth start to Term 2.
The ex-tremely positive approach our JS staff have to getting on
with the job and doing their best for your children is terrific. To
all our par-ents, families, and members of the wider school
community, thank you for your continued support of all our learning
and extra-curricular activities. It is a pleasure to work with such
a sup-portive school community.
-
Junior School
Sport
Pia Taylor Junior School Sports Coordinator It has been a busy
start to Term 2 when it comes to JS Sport. On Fri-day 1st May a
number of ASSG stu-dents participated in the Charters Towers U/12
Soccer trial day. The following students should be con-gratulated
on the way they repre-sented the School, as it was a very long day
for all. ASSG U/12 Soccer Team William Holt, Matthew McKellar,
Matthew Luxton, Corey Guldbran-sen, Jackson Peagham, Bailey Maff,
Ryan Fox, Darcy Deans, Orry Fergu-son, Jayden Brazier and Karen
Tweedie Congratulations to Corey Guldbran-sen and Karen Tweedie
(Year 7) who were selected in the extended boys and girls Charters
Towers squads. Karen made the final girls’ squad and will travel to
Bowen to participate in the NQ trials. Inter School Cross Country
Tuesday 5th May ASSG co-hosted the Charters Towers Primary Inter
School Cross Country Carnival with BTC. It was a great morning with
all students putting in their best ef-forts. ASSG JS won the
Average shield. Congratulation to Columba Catholic College won the
Aggregate Shield with ASSG JS placing 3rd. Congratulations to the
following stu-dents who gained selection for Charters Towers team
who will be travelling to the NQ trials in Towns-ville on the 26th
May.
Thank you to Marnie Wilson and Tim O’Rourke from BTC who
assist-ed with the organisation of the car-nival and to the staff
and students of all competing schools who help to make it a great
morning.
Inter School Touch
Inter School touch rounds start this week for students in Year 5
and 6. As ASSG has the bye this week we will be using the time for
training to fine tune our skills ready for our first game on 15th
May. Games start at 1:20 pm. Please see below for the detailed
draw.
On Friday 22nd May the girls and boys touch team will
participate in the Charters Towers U12 Touch trial day with the
possibility of being se-lected to play at the NQ trials being held
here in Charters Towers on the 14th and 15th June.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions
regarding the Inter-School Touch program .
[email protected]
Congratulations to all our ASSG stu-dents for continually doing
their best and showing great sportsman-ship during all our sporting
events.
PAGE 16 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015
CT Cross Country Representatives in action
Reagan Butler
Annika Peace
Danielle Curley
Orry Ferguson
10 Year
Girls
11 Years
Girls
12 Years
Boys
Reagan
Butler
Annika
Peace
Orry
Ferguson
Danielle
Curley
Date Teams Venue
Friday 15th
May
ASSG vs
CSS
ASSG
Friday 29th
May
ASSG vs
MSS
MSS
Friday 5th
June
ASSG vs
RHSS
ASSG
-
PAGE 17 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY
part was hearing the lovely feed-back from visiting families
about our catering and hospitality. Our last little adventure was
our mother’s day stall. It was very cute watching the little ones
pur-chase gifts for their mothers. We had lots of helpers in to set
up the stall as well as run it on the day. Thank you for your help
as well as the donations of gifts to sell. It hasn’t all been fund
raising. JSSG has donated $2,000 towards the purchase of sporting
equip-ment. With the addition of $3,000 provided by the school, the
junior school has purchased some athlet-ics equipment including
high jump mats. We also donated $650 to-wards the cost of the
students at-tending ‘Squaring the Wheel’ at the World Theatre, and
$200 to-wards the float for the country music festival. Thank you
for all of your help and donations as all monies raised go back to
our school.
On the 31st March we had our Big Breakfast. We had our biggest
at-tendance and estimate that we ca-tered for over 300 people for
breakfast. The morning was en-joyed by all and a big thank you to
our families for helping us with the cooking and catering. A big
thank you also to everyone who pur-chased tickets in our Easter egg
raffle. We raised just over $1,500 which is a fabulous result!! We
have just recently co-hosted the primary school Inter School Cross
Country. A Big thank you to all the parents, teachers and friends
for making the delicious baked goodies. Without your sup-port and
fabulous baking we would have nothing to sell. THANK YOU. To the
ASSG P & F THANK YOU!! It was a pleasure to work with you and
we cannot thank you enough for your help and support. Our day was
very successful and the best
Junior School Support
Group (JSSG) Report Sally Kirkwood JSSG President The JSSG has
had a busy but suc-cessful start to 2015. On behalf of the JSSG I
would like to give a little update but more importantly show our
gratitude and say thank you to all of our wonderful parents,
friends, teachers and the P&F who have helped us along the way.
We kicked off the year with our JS Disco, I was unable to attended
however by all reports the night went off with a bang. We would
like to thank the ASSG dining hall staff for the delicious mini
pizzas that they whipped up for us. Also a big thank you to Sarlina
Teti for her fa-mous noodles and to the parents for their baked
goodies.
Come and See Us!!
Jon Teichmann our Marketing and
Enrolments Officer will be at:
Longreach Show Saturday 16 May
Clermont Show Tuesday 26 &
Wednesday 27 May
Hughenden Show Friday 29 to
Sunday 31 May
Emerald Show Tuesday 2 and
Wednesday 3 June
Winton Show Saturday 6 and
Sunday 7 June
Cloncurry Show Friday 12 and
Saturday 13 June
-
PAGE 18 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015
Head of Boarding Darren Guldbransen Head of Boarding Mobile:
0415 903 479 Email: [email protected]
Boys’ Boarding Feetham House Chris Lerch Senior Resident Mobile:
0419 471 433 Email: [email protected] Page House Davin
Marshall Senior Resident Mobile: 0409 071 433 Email:
[email protected] Ramsay House Brendan Travers Senior
Resident Mobile: 0400 751 433 Email:
[email protected]
Girls’ Boarding Alban House Narelle Kelly Senior Resident
Mobile: 0419 771 433 Email: [email protected] Becket House
Senior Resident Mobile: 0407 142 493 Chad House Yvonne Schaefer
Senior Resident Mobile: 0439 764 638 Email:
[email protected]
Dormitory News Dormitory News Head of Boarding Darren
Guldbransen Cross Country This years Inter School Cross Coun-try
has been the most talked about sporting event for years, as much by
us as the other schools. We were chasing 10 victories in a row, and
all the other schools have been training and preparing like never
before to try and knock us off. I have no doubt Mr Fry has had some
sleepless nights wondering if his troops had done enough, but in
the end they had. It ended up being the closest result in the ten
years, but after some really courageous runs from many members of
our team they held them off for another year. The girls went down
to CCC by 18 points, but boys got home by nearly a hundred so we
have re-tained the aggregate trophy for yet another year.
Congratulations to Mr Fry and all the runners, it is a feat I don’t
think will ever be bettered so you should all be extremely
proud.
Cross Country Captains Bianca Peace and Mitchell Drenan receive
the trophy
Will Sibson, Corey Stanger and Tom Marshall
Open Boys: Mitchell Drenan, Mitchell Rankine, Clayton Gough,
Jack Fitchett, Max Allingham
and Rowan Fittock
Bullying Report In the coming week Mr Lee will give all our
students access to a new electronic bullying report that can be
lodged using their mobile phone or computer. We will be
en-couraging our students to use this report to notify staff if
they feel they are being bullied. One of the real pitfalls of
mobile phones and technology is that par-ents often know before
boarding staff when their child is doing it tough or is being
picked on. They don’t go anywhere without their phone, so when
someone has said or done something to them their first reaction is
to either ring or text home when they are at their lowest point.
Sometimes the first boarding staff know of an incident is when they
get a phone call from home. We ask our students to come and talk to
staff when something bad has happened, but too often they don’t.
Because they will be able to access this report on their phones
-
or computers students will be able to tell all the relevant
people all at once because the report will be sent to a number of
different peo-ple at the same time. This means we will be able to
not only act on reported incidents quicker, but to also track
repeat offenders. Hanging out It’s been a busy couple of weeks, so
it’s great to see some of our girls just hanging out enjoying some
down time. That’s it for now.
April Tabo
Sarkeitha Burns, Tara Yung and Dianne Fulford
Zoe Godfrey and Casey Campbell
Feetham House Chris Lerch Senior Resident I would like to
congratulate all Feetham boys who contributed to-wards All Souls
success at the Inter School Cross Country. Led by cap-tain Mitch
Drenan, all the early morning wake up calls and training sessions
evidently paid off. Feetham had many place getters on the day which
all played its part in the suc-cess while Mitch took out the much
coveted open boys champion title. Rugby League fever has been
prev-alent in our dorm since start of term and a large number of
boys have been heavily involved in the footy program at school with
train-ing and fixtures, it was a great day last Sunday when the
boys took on BTC , with mixed results in different age groups. Good
luck to all teams again this week when they take on Charters Towers
State High School. Feetham Year 7 students Gareth Mercy and John
Durack and Year 9 students Riley Candy, Tom Durkin, Tim Ievers,
Toby Rankine, Dylan Rodger, Ben Wilkinson and Jack Winsper are
sitting for their Naplan tests this week and we wish them all the
best, while seniors, Clayton Gough and Brandon Shephard have been
away at Beef Week in Rock-hampton and it was interesting to catch
up with these two and hear what they had learnt in their week away.
Both had a great time and had gained valuable experience at the
expo. I think the “all you can eat” buffet proved quite popular!
The boys seemed to have settled into Term 2 quite well with a
little less home sickness experienced by the younger boys than in
Term 1 now they have developed new friendships and are keeping
them-selves busy with extra-curricular ac-tivities which is
pleasing to see. Any queries or concerns please call.
PAGE 19 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015
Ramsay House Brendan Travers Senior Resident
Winter is Coming! The stark reali-sation that warm mornings are
be-hind us has set in as we prepare for the chilly months to come.
Ex-tra blankets have surfaced, jackets and jumpers have been dusted
off and boxer shorts and singlets have made way for tracksuit pants
and flanno’s. Being indoors at night is no longer a pesky hassle
and more an essential requirement. Despite the colder weather, the
mighty Ramsay boys have found them-selves busier than ever.
On the second Friday of term we all took part in the Inter House
cross country with Ramsay finish-ing an admirable third. Once
again, Feetham house showed its athletic superiority with a
dominant display, trouncing all other houses. Ramsay house saw some
promising signs for the future though, with our Year 7 contingent
putting in a strong performance. Corey Stan-ger, Zac Stevenson,
Will Sibson and Brandon Finger came in 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th
respectively. With an-other Ramsay day student finishing third in
the age group it gave Ram-say five of the top six positions. It was
a super effort by our younger boys and we congratulate them all for
their performances.
On the Sunday following the cross country, we took part in a
mam-moth day of sport, taking on BTC in Rugby League and Netball.
The vast majority of Ramsay dorm competed for their respective age
groups in what turned out to be a very successful day for All
Souls. I was fortunate enough to be in the grandstand and witness
command-ing victories in the 13’s, 15’s and 1st’s with a narrow
loss in the 14’s. From Ramsay dorm we had some stand out
performances, with Cody Sibson bagging three tries, Kacy Kelly
kicking a difficult conversion to bring up the half century for the
1st’s and Patty Galvin doing what
-
all good props do and winning the battle up front. A massive
thank you must go to all the people involved in organising,
refereeing and catering for what was a great day of enter-taining
sport.
While we were all enjoying our-selves watching the sport here at
school, a small group of All Souls 12 year olds made the journey
out to Ayr to compete in the North Queensland Rugby League trials.
This included Ramsay boys Corey “The Raging Bull” Stanger and Zac
“The Axe” Stevenson. Both boys competed wholeheartedly, with Zac
gaining selection in the possible probable’s team. Zac was the only
boy in the Charters Towers team to make it that one step closer and
we congratulate him for doing so. Both the boys put in a monumental
effort with training for the CT team twice a week, the Souls team
twice a week and Miners twice week. Well done boys!
During week three, Ramsay dorm missed the company of Bryce
Franettovich, Mathew Finger and Harrison Finger as they represented
All Souls at Beef Week down in Rockhampton. The boys have re-turned
to us safely and with plenty of stories to tell, the least of which
is the tale of Harrison Finger meet-ing the Prime Minister. From
all ac-counts it was an extremely fun and rewarding trip with the
boys gaining invaluable knowledge under the tu-telage of Lionel
Hartig.
That’s all from Ramsay Dorm for now. If there are any parents
wish-ing to contact me, please don’t hes-itate to do so via email
or phone.
Bryce Franettovich at Beef Week
PageHouse Davin Marshall Senior Resident We are well into second
term now and the dormitory is running smoothly. Generally everyone
knows what is expected of them and they are treating each other
with respect and tolerance. I would like to see an improvement in
the tidiness of the dormitory in general and I will be working with
the boys on this throughout the term. I also commend the Year 10’s
on the re-sponsible approach they are show-ing towards the cleaning
of the common room in the mornings. Well done, boys. The Rugby
League season is under way and last weekend we had a Sunday
carnival against BTC. It was a great day and we had wins with the
U13’s, U15’s and Firsts. All three teams won by good margins and
the only team to lose against BTC were the U14’s. The Seconds
played against CCC and lost despite putting up a good team effort.
Ernie Wilkie surprised himself and had a great game for the Seconds
and earned himself a spot on the bench for the Firsts. Well done,
Ernie. The U12’s didn’t get a game due to lack of opposition, but
they will play this week hopefully. The Inter House Cross Country
has been and gone with a very good level of participation by the
Page Dorm boys. We had three Age Champions from Page. They were
Dylan Knuth for the U16’s, Joe Bode for the U15’s and Darby Godfrey
for the U14’s. Thomas Elliott also com-pleted a full circuit on
crutches to earn a point for his house. That is leadership and
commitment and a great example for others to follow. Feetham won
the Boys Cross Coun-try and Page was runner up by 10 points, so
next year will be interest-ing.
PAGE 20 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015
I am happy with the behaviour in the dorm overall, though I know
it is not always perfect. If you have any concerns about the
dormitory please don’t hesitate to contact me. I always appreciate
feedback from parents as the boys will often tell their parents
things before they will tell me.
Kade Banset representing NQ in Rugby League
Billy Dakin being interviewed at Beef Week
Page Inter House Cross Country champions: Dylan Knuth, Joe
Bode,
Darby Godfrey and Todd Thorn
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Alban House Narelle Kelly Senior Resident Alban Girls were
treated to a night out with Miss Meyer and Mrs Chap-man. First they
consumed A LOT of pizza, then off to the movies, for which they
were all excited about. The Longest Ride, proved to bring tears to
some of the girls and when they returned back into the dormi-tory
the ones that didn’t cry were happy to mock the girls that showed
their compassionate side. Thank you to the teachers for tak-ing
them. They look like they are having fun at the Inter House Cross
Country Katie Green and Emelia Bode (Becket) were given the chance
to show off their art ability, the Thurs-day before the Country
Music Festi-val. Sherree White from How Bi-zarre Hair was on the
lookout for someone to wave their magic on her window front. The
girls were gone a few hours, when they came back to the dorm they
were very happy with their art work and pleased to be given the
opportunity to get out of the dorm and do something they like to
do.
Sarah Frohloff and Tara Yung Sunday 3rd was a great day out with
their being heaps of action on the netball court and football
field. All boarders had to attend and they all had a great day, if
they were not playing they were socialising. I ac-tually enjoyed
watching my Alban girls play netball; this is not a chance that I
normally get.
Nikita and Taylor against BTC girls
Running hard are the 14 year old Alban girls The dormitory was
very quiet over Week 3. With the cattle club girls Ceelena and
Gayleen Lawrence trekking off to Rockhampton for Beef week. Isabel
and Kate Blen-nerhassett also had the opportunity to escape the
dorm for a week.
PAGE 21 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015
Cross Country is not complete without a water pistol. Isabel and
Annabel cooling off Congratulations’ to Becket House for winning
the Inter House Cross Country. Amber Aspinall, Chelsea Mosch, Andie
Stanger, Annabel Hatch, Kate Blennerhassett and Taylor Ievers made
it into the In-ter School Cross Country, so the seniors have the
job of convincing a small number who are not keen to get out of bed
to train. I would like to thank Taylor and Kate for always lending
a hand to get the girls up for running training in Term 1, and now
Term 2. Thanks, girls. Alban Seniors: Kate Blenner-hassett, Seanne
Santo and Taylor Ievers Wow and Wow! We have just come back from
the 2015 Inter School Cross Country. From a spectator’s point of
view what a nail biter, waiting for the final Tally total to be
announced. We are all very proud at this moment to be walking away
with 10 years in a row. See girls, the early morning training
sessions really do pay off. Thanks to all Alban girls for get-ting
up to training.
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Open Girls - Alban and Becket sen-iors: Rose Elliott, Sarah
Salisbury, Seanne Santo, Kate Blennerhassett, Bianca Peace and
Taylor Ievers That’s about all for me this issue. Please feel free
to ring should you need anything.
Back: Sarah Suhr, Anastacia Chap-pell, Sarah Clark Front: Zoe
Godfrey, Casey Camp-bell, and Brooke Tindall are all ready to go to
the movies.
Chad House Yvonne Schaefer Senior Resident NAPLAN As you read
this, NAPLAN Testing will be over for another year. Sadly, we
already have some girls stress-ing about their results. I read a
great article that told of the things that NAPLAN doesn’t test. I
see these things everyday. I have seen girls comforting a friend if
they are homesick, waiting for the last per-son in the classroom,
even if they are not particularly close to them, sharing their
pillow as they watch a movie, senior students inviting the younger
girls to share with their food and conversations and girls sticking
up for girls who are doing it a bit tough. These are the sorts of
things that matter in the world of boarding school, the things that
show the moral character of our girls, and as far as I'm concerned,
they pass with flying colours.
Netball We are looking down the barrel of another big weekend of
netball. The Powerade Cup is on this week-end in Townsville and a
large num-ber of girls will be attending. Georgie Clark and Hollie
Grant will compete for Gabes Inferno, Ngarita Chappell, Hughina
Tindall, and Kim Andison in the Gabes Heat, Ellie Rohan and Dianne
Fulford in the Gabes Fire, Kayla Barrett in the Gabes Scorchers,
Vivienne Elliott, Vasenai Dabea, Casey Campbell, play for the Gabes
Blaze and Anastacia Chappell, Sarah Clark, Jemma Mafrici, Ainsley
Murphy and Lydia Lindsay play for the Gabes Sparks. I am sure they
will all go well and come back with lots of sto-ries. Weekend
Adventures It has been all about the movies this term, with lots of
good movies coming on at the drive-in and at the cinemas. The girls
thoroughly enjoy the opportunity to dress up and go out.
PAGE 22 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015
Cross Country
Aby Philipson, Georgie Clark, Katie Jones and Anna Winsper
waiting for their race
Brooke Tindall, Indy Schaefer and Piper Davey waiting for their
race
Becket House The Becket girls have started the term with
enthusiasm. There has been lots on to keep them busy. Emelia Bode,
with the assistance of Katie Green, did a wonderful job for How
Bizarre Hair creating a great window display for the Country Music
Festival. Emelia did-n’t hesitate when asked and once again showed
her creative flair. Emelia and Meg Burge are active members of the
debating team which has started with a win each. Thursday night
Touch is well un-derway with many of the girls playing. Megan
Rigato proudly ac-cepted the role of team captain
-
for the Second girls team. Bianca Peace is a strong First girls
player, and was also part of the NQ Club Rep team that went to
Coffs Har-bour. Bianca has just returned from Kingaroy, but this
time she was part of the NQ Netball Representative Team.
Karen Tweedie was very pleased to be selected for the NQ Soccer
Rep-resentative Team. Although the tri-als were held the same day
as Inter House Cross Country which Karen was sad to miss.
Courtney Teece and Teana Rafter are enjoying the Diploma of
Busi-ness they are studying at the DTTC. Both have put in some long
hours to complete recent assignments.
Lisabelle Smith, Katie Jarmey, Na-talie Teece and Emma Golding
are all active Horse Club members. At a recent Gymkhana, Natalie
received overall 3rd.
Kayla Gough has had a busy time at Beef Week.
At our Year 11 and 12 Becket din-ner, towards the end of Term 1,
the girls came up with the following five main goals: Work together
well as a team
with all seniors participating Achieve to the best of our
ability
in all events Win House Cup Have more House activities HAVE FUN
with lottttttttts of
HOUSE SPIRIT
We have certainly started Term 2 on target. The lead up to
cross-country saw the girls encouraging each other to train and to
partici-pate on the day. We started the day with a crazy warm up
drill to
Eye of the Tiger, with Ms Marley do-ing her best impression of a
cheer leader. The girls laughed and laughed, but it seemed to do
the trick because we ended up winning. Many girls dug really deep
to come in the top ten which was our ulti-mate aim. Our age
champions were Piper Davey, Luka Hall, Breanne Peace, Katie Jones
and Bianca Peace. Special mention must also go to April Tabo, Josie
McKellar who came second and the 14s girls who had 6 of the 7
runners in the top 10 which earned them the biggest score of 35
points towards our win! The most exciting finish was when Katie
Jones entered the last lap just 10m behind Georgie Clark. As Katie
passed the grand stand Bianca and Sarah screamed “SPRINT KATIE” and
she did, just beating Georgie across the line before she collapsed
exhausted!
The Becket Slumber Party was en-joyed by all. In the weeks
before we brainstormed ideas which ended up being a kids party
theme. Each sen-ior had a team distinguished by their strip of
material. We started with a donut eating competition which was
hilarious. We decided that the Peace girls obviously trained for
this as well as sport. We had movies as backup if the girls were
too tired after cross country, but at 9.30 the dancing and games
were still going and they finished with ‘Murder in the Dark’. This
is just a handful of the 100s of photos taken by Teana Rafter, who
I re-cently discovered is a very good photographer.
PAGE 23 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015
Claudette and Rae with their ba-nana phones
Having a photo break from shoot-ing hoops
Rainbow team well ahead in the smarty challenge (Sarah, April
and Natalie)
Katie Jones taught the girls how to make 'smalls' with the left
over marshmallows, chocolate and jatz biscuits from the party.
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Becket Slumber Party Photos
PAGE 24 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015
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Out & About Sarah Valentine The Catering students of the
four high schools put on a special Moth-er’s Day afternoon tea on
Friday at The Dalrymple Trade Centre. Some of our cooks for the
after-noon tea; Marshell Smallwood, An-nabell Hatch, Liam
Durrington and Emma Andison. Kim Andison and Aby Philipson pre-pare
to receive the visitors for the Mother’s Day afternoon tea. Trey
Perrier having personal in-struction at the Dalrymple Trade
Centre.
Natalie Teece and Charlee Keleher chilling out in the dorm.
Claudette Wilson and Rae Evans joined the Air Force Cadets in
Feb-ruary. They took part in the Anzac Day Parade with their
squadron.
Karen Tweedie doing her assign-ment in the dorm.
Kiara Henry-Nash and Chelsea Hislop supporting the school in a
competition against BTC.
PAGE 25 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015
As any school team can tell us, there is nothing quite like
support from the ranks during an exciting competition. Courtney
Teece, Teana Rafter and Katie Jones are always available for the
school cheer squad. The Inter School Cross Country race at the
Airport each year is a big item on the school calendar.
The Open Girls Team; Seanne Santo, Taylor Ievers, Kate
Blenner-hassett, Team Captain and Open Girls Champion Bianca Peace,
Rose Elliott and Sarah Salisbury.
Open Boys Team; Team Captain and Open Boys Champion Mitchell
Drenan, Clayton Gough, Jack Fitchett, Rowan Fittock, Max Al-lingham
and Mitchell Rankine.
-
Sister Kate Letford and the Senior Cheer Squad with mascot ‘Ash’
The Phoenix.
Students presented a large Mothers Day card to Flo (Flo is seen
by many of the students as their 'school mum' - so it's nice to
recog-nise this.)
Past School Captain Megan Stafford graduated from James Cook
Uni-versity with a Bachelor Of Arts-Media & Writing and
received the Medal for Academic Excellence on March 18th 2015. She
also won a Zonta Bursary and The Junior Wakeley Award earlier
on.
IMPORTANT NOTICE
Parents, please note the following:
Term II is 10 weeks long and stu-
dents have 3 weeks holiday at its conclusion.
Week 10 is as important as any
other week.
Much time and effort goes into
preparing this important week
Events in Week 10 include
QCS Preparation
Year 11 Practice Job Interviews with Charters Towers
Business
People
Year 10 Bronze D of E
Expedition
Year 8 and 9 Career Aspirations
No student should be absent unless ill during this week.
Any requests for early departure, must be made to Mrs Kelly
(Deputy Head).
PAGE 26 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015
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PAGE 27 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015
Staff Profile
Staff Name: Patrick McCann
Duties at ASSG: Teacher of Chemistry, Science and
Mathematics
How long you have been at ASSG? 3 weeks
Where you are from? Originally from NSW, however I
Have spent the last 9 years in
Victoria
Something people may not know about you? I breed Australian
Stock Horses
and Thoroughbreds
What encouraged you to do this job? The chance for a new
challenge
What work did you do before coming to ASSG? I have been a
teacher since
1988; I have worked mainly in Catholic and Independent
boarding schools
What is the favourite aspect of your job? Seeing students who
struggle
academically who work hard and realise their full potential
and get into the profession they want.
And your least favourite? Marking
What was your favourite subject at school? Geology
What was the most important part of your education (may not be
school)?
Teachers who made me realise what I was capable of
achieving and thus having the confidence to complete a
number of post graduate degrees
Which person (or thinker) has had the greatest influence on your
life?
My Grandfather
What would you never do, no matter the price? Go in the water
with sharks;
I am terrified of being eaten by a shark.
If you had a motto, what would it be? Never, ever give up.
If you could choose, what would you have for your last meal?
Seafood platter and a glass of nice white wine.
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PAGE 28 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015
Public v Private: A Media Beat Up There has been much discussion
in the popular media over the last month, with another outbreak of
the Private v Public education debate. This happens every now and
again, when editors or tv programmers want to generate headlines or
ratings. They manipulate the general public with a very shallow
debate based upon little fact and lots of emotion. As one
commentator says, “It really does lend itself to very simple
sensationalism which does not reflect the complexity of schooling
across the country.” I have included in this week’s edition a
letter from Geoff Ryan as the Chief Executive of the Association of
Heads of Independent Schools Australia. This is followed by an
article from one of the online educational news sheets with quotes
from the WA Director of the Association of Independent Schools WA
and Professor Luke Connelly from UQ who was one of the co-authors
of the study which generated this debate – Gordon Royall 14 April
2015
Letter to the Editor, The Australian -
[email protected]
Making claims about student outcomes and school type (14/4)
based on results to Year 5 is like comparing the building quality
of houses
based only on their floor plans.
Looking at the research evidence right through to Year 12,
independent schools demonstrate a very significant “value add” for
their stu-dents. After allowing for both prior achievement (or
student ability) and socio-economic advantage, the average value
add for students in
independent schools is six points on their tertiary entrance
score.
Analysis of data from the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian
Youth (LSAY) also shows that, after controlling for students’
socioeconomic background and academic ability, the odds of
university participation for independent school students are still
twice that of government school students. Recent analysis of data
collected for the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in
Australia Survey shows that, having entered university, students
educated at independent schools are almost three times more likely
to graduate. The quality of education in our nation’s schools is of
vital importance to Australia’s future and public debate about
schooling must therefore be encouraged. Misleading headlines,
however, do not assist debate; they undermine it. Geoff Ryan Chief
Executive, Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia
Public vs private report overlooks ‘complexity’ of schooling - The
Educator, 23 April 2015 A leading voice in independent education
says a recent report which suggested there is no academic benefit
to private schooling “doesn’t reflect the complexity of schooling
across the country”. Ron Gorman, director at Association of
Independent Schools WA (AISWA), said that it was not fair to make
such a claim based on a “narrow measure”, referring to the NAPLAN
tests. Gorman’s response follows the recent study by the Australian
Journal of Labour Economics, which suggested there was no academic
value in sending children to private schools. The findings prompted
headlines such as ‘No benefit in private schooling’ and ‘Public vs
Private: the inconvenient truth’. “The very, very simplistic view
that a small data set based on NAPLAN is a very, very narrow
measure of some elements of literacy and nu-meracy progress, is
that which creates a ‘you're no better off or you're no worse off’
between a public school and an independent school,” Gorman told
Imageseven's Brad Entwistle. “It really does lend itself to very
simple sensationalism which does not reflect the complexity of
schooling across the country.” Co-author of the study, Professor
Luke Connelly from the University of Queensland, said that some of
the headlines “over-simplified” what the study was trying to
convey. “We’re looking at measures of what we call cognitive
development, but we recognise that those are just indicators.
They’re good indicators but to measure learning is a complex thing
to do,” Connelly said. “We're not making a broadcast and
broad-brush claim about private schooling, per se”.
http://www.imageseven.com.au/smc026