Welcome back to all students and their families to Term 4. Special welcome to all new students and their families. By now your students would have met new staff members Sarah Perry-Guidance Officer and Ian Perry-Technology Teacher, welcome.
Many thanks to our Deputy Principal Barry Duncan and Guidance Officer Annie Cardillo who acted up in my absence over the last week.
QLD Principals Conference
During my absence I attended the Department of Education Qld Principals Conference. This was indeed an affirming few days. Miles State High Schools focus on student curriculum outcomes and wellbeing is exactly the ongoing focus of our department which before long will be releasing its new QLD Department of Education Strategic Plan which will guide our work for the next five or more years.
Junior Secondary
One key area, I was particularly interested in aligned to our current planning around Junior Secondary. The important foundation work for high school students sit in the early years of high school. I wish to congratulate our current Junior Secondary Team of teachers and Heads of Department who have spent two days in workshops led by our Regional Principal Advisor – Teaching and Learning unpacking and planning for the educational and life needs of our Junior Secondary students. Our staff are focusing on providing learning experiences that will build and support the necessary foundation skills for successful outcomes at high school and into the future. The work they have undertaken is student focused, research based, innovative and creative. I know our students in Junior Secondary 2023 will thrive and succeed.
The team is currently putting together an outline to share with our students, parent carers and wider community for feedback.
Engage - Students at School and Learning.
Term 4 is now underway and I look forward to our students building further on their efforts and results in Term 3. Special congratulations to our Year 12 cohort in all their achievement outcomes for Term 3 please remember, by no means are finished you are on your final sprint, this one really counts!
Every Day Counts
A reminder of the importance of students not only attending school but being at school on time and all day. It is surprising how even being away for one lesson can impact on a student’s understanding and success in their subject due to not being engaged in classroom activities, discussion and feedback. We urge all families to continue to get behind the importance of ‘every minute of every day counts.
Why does school attendance matter?
Regular school attendance gives students a better chance at life. Students achieve better when they go to school all day, every school day because:
As you are aware students are required to attend school each and every day. Not only is there a strong departmental accountability for us to record and track each child’s attendance, but we firmly believe it is our role to ensure and support every child to have the best opportunity to engage and succeed in education. Attendance is paramount to this success. Too many times and too many of our students are arriving late, not coming or leaving for an appointment but not returning. Often when we follow up parent/carers tell us their child has told them they are finished everything and there is nothing on. Please I urge you to confirm with staff, because this will not be the case and their attendance at school is compulsory. If you have concerns regarding your child’s attendance please do not hesitate to contact our HOD Wellbeing and Engagement Mr Moore or our Deputy Principal Mr Duncan. We thank you all for continuing to working with us to ensure your child is attending and experiencing every learning opportunity that lays the foundations for their future success.
I look forward to seeing our families and wider community members at many of our upcoming celebratory events. Till then take care.
Josette Moffatt
Education Beyond the Classroom
Today our Year 11 students and some Year 10 students have embarked on their leadership journey with an excursion to Emu Gully. The excursion provides an opportunity to work collectively as a team through a range of challenges. I am looking forward to hearing their stories of the day.
This is just one example of how important it is for our students to undertake educational activities beyond the traditional classroom and to a more recent phenomena – away from a computer. Our role as a school is to educate and prepare our students for the future – academically, socially, emotionally and job-ready. Real world challenges and interactions gives them multiple opportunities to understand the real world that they live in.
At Miles SHS we offer many opportunities for students to participate in activities beyond the classroom – it would be wonderful to see that more of our students are taking up these opportunities as they arise. Many of these are locally or regionally based but others are at a state, national or even global level. Some cost money and others are subsidised.
Quiet Lion Tour
An example of a global opportunity that past students from Miles SHS have participated in is the Quiet Lion Tour. The Quiet Lion Tour embraces the story of the Burma-Thailand Railway and the experiences of POWs, particularly Australians, in the course of those terrible times.
The tour is conducted by the Burma Thailand Railway Memorial Association whose objective is “To perpetuate the memory of the privations and sacrifices of Allied Military personnel and the selfless dedication of the medical personnel during the construction of the Burma Thailand Railway in World War 11 by informing current and future generations through all forms of education and particularly with Quiet Lion Tours featuring “Hellfire Pass and Anzac Day”.
The tour is for 11 days (10 nights) and the focus is on the story of the Australia POWs, their hospitals and camps and the Australian doctors. The ANZAC Day Dawn Service in Hellfire Pass and the later Memorial Service in the War Cemetery at Kanchanaburi are highlights. The Bridge on the River Kwai, museums and other areas of interest are visited as part of the tour.
Descendants of ex-POWs and experts on the Thai Burma Railway travel on the tour and provide commentaries in addition to English speaking Thai Guides. http://www.btrma.org.au/?itineraries=quiet-lion-tour-2020
Students interested in participating in the 2023 tour are invited to send an Expression of Interest to Mr Duncan via email bdunc62@eq.edu.au by Friday 21 October 2022 so a meeting of interested parties can be organised ASAP.
The trip costs approximate $3000 per person and our P&C are the custodians of a fund set up by the community a number of years ago to provide some subsidy and support to participants who choose to go on the tour.
WHS, Chewing Gum and food in classrooms
The number of students chewing gum at school has been on the increase of late. Chewing gum is on the Prohibited Items list at the school – lately, the amount of chewing gum that is ending up on the ground, on walkways, under tables, chairs, etc has become unacceptable. Students are to be advised that if they are seen with chewing gum, they will be asked to place it into a bin. Failure to do so or if they are found with gum again, they will be issued with a 10-minute detention. This is considered a failure to follow direction.
As the weather starts to warm up, we are starting to see the re-emergence of mice in and around the school grounds – food should not be consumed in classrooms at all – this attracts mice. All students are reminded that they are not permitted food in any classrooms – it should be consumed outside and any scraps are placed in bins. Again, students will be asked to leave the room with their food and if they fail to follow this direction they will be issued with a 10-min detention.
Gum in particular is a workplace, health and safety issue as cleaning staff are having to handle it to remove it from wherever it has been placed.
Barry Duncan
In collaboration with the non-government school sector, the department has undertaken a review of Queensland's Respectful relationships education program and has strengthened and expanded these materials to develop Queensland's Respect Program.
The department has also developed information to support students, parents and carers to encourage healthy discussions about respectful relationships, including consent.
In 2023, Miles SHS will continue to imbed the importance of respectful relationships as everyone has the right to be respected, to feel valued and to be treated equally. We all have a role to play in fostering respect. Below is a parent and carer factsheet on their role in building respectful relationships from The State of Queensland (Department of Education) 2022.
Our Year 12s have just completed their final practice run of mock exams in readiness for their actual QCAA external exams from Week 4 to Week 6. I would like to acknowledge the students and their commitment to the process and wish them all the best for the upcoming exams.
A group of staff members came together for a two-day workshop to develop engaging curriculum for our Junior Secondary for 2023 and beyond. We remain in the early phase at this stage but we will be informing parents and carers of the new look throughout this term in readiness for 2023. Thank you to the staff that nominated to participate in the workshop and be the leading team for the new look.
Welcome to Term 4 🙂
This term for Miles SHS will be packed with a wide variety of activities, celebrations and goodbyes. For our Year 12 students you are well and truly on the downhill slop and ready to jump into the next chapter of your lives. Unfortunately, you haven't quite made it to the end yet, so for the next few weeks, work hard, study harder and put your best effort into completing finals assessments and exams.
It was great to see a majority of our students return from holidays injury free 🙂 Furthermore it was great to see students return to school ready for learning and settling back into classes/ routines quickly and effectively.
Just a reminder that in Term 4 students are required to wear formal uniform on a Monday as it is no longer cold enough to wear the sport uniform. If you have difficulties finding or do not have a formal uniform, please see myself so arrangements can be made. If a student is not wearing a formal uniform on Mondays, then they will be sent to the uniform exchange and provided with a clean formal uniform to wear for the day.
Miles SHS is a phone free school. Students are expected to leave their phones in their bags or in their pockets, turned off or placed on silent. If a parent/carer needs to make, contact with their student then they are required to contact the school office. This is the same for students needing to contact parents. If a student is caught using their phone, then they will be requested to put it away. If the student is then caught using their phone again, then they will be asked to hand it in to student services until the end of the day.
Have a great Term 4, I look forward to celebrating with our students finishing their schooling chapter later this term and I am sure there are some families that are excited, as well as slightly frightened.
Stay safe and be well 🙂
Josh Moore
Our new banner can be found in each classroom displaying the expectation of our students in allowing others to teach and learn. As part of Positive Behaviour, we illustrate the benefits of following our school expectations and the logical consequences when we don't.
Welcome to term 4!
This year is going by so fast. This week is Mental Health Week and I believe it is a great opportunity to open up conversations with our young people about kindness to ourselves and to others.
Encouraging our students to be inclusive of others if beneficial for both parties. Teaching them to accept differences in people and in themselves is the key to creating an inclusive and kind environment.
This term is an exciting one for many reasons. For me, I was lucky enough to collaborate with some of my colleagues and plan for Junior Secondary next year. It was great to hear different perspectives and ideas and I am excited to see the final product.
Have a great week.
Kelli Buchbach
Welcoming Mr Ian Perry and Mrs Sarah Perry.
Ian has an extensive background in ITD and will be joining us in the Trade Centre and Sarah brings us knowledge as Guidance Officer and providing support to the small schools Guidance Officers Circuit.
Last Friday a group of students got the chance to engage in virtual reality games, movies and other technology experiences as part of the RISE Rewards Activity. The RISE Reward is for students who have met the requirements in Term 3. It is based on students' effort, behaviour and attendance throughout Term 3. Students who have achieved a combined EPA and BPA of 4.5 or above and an attendance of 90% or above are eligible. Students also were provided with a light lunch, snacks and refreshments. A HUGE thank you to Shelley for organising so much yummy food for our students!
In Year 8 Maths students are currently calculating perimeter of 2D shapes with unknown sides and area of rhombuses, parallelograms and kites. These are new formula’s for the students to learn. After this, students will calculate the volume and capacity of a range of 3D shapes. Whilst doing these calculations they are learning how to convert between units of measurement for length, area and capacity.
Mrs Steel
In Year 9 Maths students are currently solving problems related to surface area and volume of complex shapes. They are soon to start on the magical path of Pythagoras and trigonometry.
It has been great to see the students working so diligently while they try to solve quite complex problems.
Mrs Steel
AN EMAIL FROM ORIENTEERING AUSTRALIA TO OUR PRINCIPAL
Dear Ms Moffatt,
It is with great pleasure that I advise that Ben and Luke Moore and Charlie and Ingrid Young competed at the Australian Orienteering Championships (AOC) during the Spring break. The AOC, held in the heart of Victoria’s historic gold country, involved students competing in 9 events over 9 days against the best orienteers in Australia and New Zealand. The events included the Australian Schools Championships (3 events), as well as the Australian Sprint, Middle and Long Distance Championships, Australian Relay Championships and the Victorian Middle Distance Championships. Orienteering is a challenging adventure sport, pitting athlete’s navigation and racing skills against often unfamiliar terrain. Participants use very detailed maps to select routes and navigate through the course in the fastest time. The diversity of the races over the 9 days of competition required excellent map reading skills, together with concentration and the ability to make quick decisions under pressure while running at high speed. Ben, Charlie, Ingrid and Luke should be proud of the following results they achieved over the 9 days.
Ben
Orienteering Grand Prix – 22nd in M16A
Australian Sprint – 40th in M16A
Charlie
Orienteering Grand Prix – 2nd in M20A
Schools Sprint – 41st in Snr Boys
Schools Long – 24th in Snr Boys
Schools Relay – 7th in Snr Boys
Australian Sprint – 12th in M18A
Australian Middle Distance – 16th in M18A
Australian Long Distance – 13th in M18A
Victorian Middle Distance - 3rd in M18A
Ingrid
Orienteering Grand Prix – 21st in W16A
Schools Sprint – 30th in Jnr Girls
Schools Long – 21st in Jnr Girls
Schools Relay – 9th in Jnr Girls
Australian Middle Distance – 17th in W16A
Australian Long Distance – 24th in W16A
Australian Relay - 5th in W16A
Victorian Middle Distance - 23rd in W16A
Luke
Orienteering Grand Prix – 5th in M12A
The results represent the commitment Ben, Luke, Charlie and Ingrid have shown to the sport of Orienteering during 2022. I hope you will consider sharing their success with the school community.
Yours sincerely,
Annette Rogers
Orienteering Queensland
It is with great regret to inform Butlers Road Families and the local community that the bus run P1040T will cease operation as of December 10, 2022 due to decreased student numbers.
Reg and Sharryn Gilmour would like to thank all families who have utilised the service over the last 50 years and thank the Pye’s and the Marshall’s also for their years of contribution.
It has been an absolute pleasure to transport your children to school over the last 10 years.
Sharryn Gilmour
If you wish to register your student for the Homework Centre please collect a registration form from the Front office or Student Services. Once the form is returned you will then be provided with a SOBS link to book online. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact the school office on 4628 5111.
https://eq.sobs.com.au/pt3/parent.php?schoolid=70139Please keep your eye out for a Homework Centre Survey to ascertain preferred days and times for Homework Centre.
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Application Form to join the P and CDownload |
It’s important we all understand everyone has the right to be safe in our schools and workplaces. The department does not condone occupational violence and aggression (OVA) where a student or staff member is threatened, harmed or injured by another person in any form.
Miles State High School is proud to be part of a community that embraces PARTNERS IN LEARNING together our students, their families, our wider community and our staff are committed to working together to ensure that every student succeeds.
Respect | Integrity | Safety | Engagement
