WOREEHIGHLIGHTS

Issue 2, March 2011

Using the Mission Bridge SimulatorPremier Bligh pilots a ship into the Cairns port.

Above: The Mission Bridge Simulator- a technological first for Queensland

Left: The Immersion Training Pool

Premier Bligh, Ms Desley Boyle and Principal Tony Fuller

The Woree State High School Beacon Ambassadors with their guests from Tully State High School

Name suppressed helps with the unloading of stationaryfor the Tully State High School students.

IMPORTANT DATES

31 MARCH• QCS Practice Test

5 APRIL (Date Change)

• Inter House Cross Country (nominated students only)

7 APRIL• WSHS & Primary School Bands Workshop

13 APRIL• Parent/Teacher Interviews 5.00-7.00pm

14 APRIL (Last Day Term 1)

• ANZAC Ceremony Lesson 2

15 APRIL• Student Free Day

25 APRIL• Easter Monday Holiday

26 APRIL• ANZAC Day Holiday

27 APRIL• School Commences Term 2

29 APRIL• Years 8 & 9 Brainstorm Theatre Performance

2 MAY• Labour Day Holiday

9-13 MAY• NAPLAN Testing Year 9

• Work Experience: Year 12 D2C

10 MAY• JCU Faculity Road Show- Years 10-12

18 MAY• Year 7 into 8 Parent Information Evening

Q Block Theatre 6:00pm

Woree State High School

Administration Team:

Principal: Mr Tony Fuller

Deputy Principals:Ms Susan McQuillan Mr Kirk Findlay

Business Services Manager:Mr Peter Stone

Student Support Services:

Guidance Officer: Mr Daniel Laifoo VET Coordinator: Ms Desley FerrandoLearning Support: Ms Mette MorrisonCEC: Mrs Ruth WoneSchool Nurses: Ms Karin Klein Ms Lou WiseYouth Support: Ms Leanne Doyle Chaplin: Mr Andrew Boardman

Heads of Department:

The Arts: Mr Robert Crookes Business/IT/HPE: Mr Neville Stibbs English: Ms Helen Tenison-WoodsINTAD/Home Ec: Mr Sandro CossaMathematics: Mr Vince MusumeciSchoolTech: Mrs Carmel IivonenScience/Marine: Mr Ray GrundySoSE: Mr Steve LippingwellSpecial Education Program: Ms Caron Ryan

Year Coordinators:

Year 8: Mrs Melissa D’ArcyYear 9: Mr Caleb De VriesYear 10: Ms Allie MoyleYear 11: Ms Kristen WattYear 12: Mrs Cathy Brauns

Newsletter Editor:

Mrs Norijah Hardaker

CONTACT US:

Woree State High School

Phone: 4081 5222

Fax: 4081 5200

Student Absences: 4081 5260

Office Hours: 8.00am-4.00pm

Email Address:

admin@woreeshs.eq.edu.au

Website: www.woreeshs.eq.edu.au

UNIFORM SHOP OPENING TIMES

Our opening times for 2011 are as follows:Every Thursday: 8.00 am - 9.00 am

EFTPOS is now also available for purchases

FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK

OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE GREAT BARRIER REEF INTERNATIONAL MARINE COLLEGE

What an honour it was to be MC for the opening of the Great Barrier Reef International Marine College, an innovative and unique marine training facility to Australia. Whoever thought it would ever come to fruition and can you think of a better place for it to be located than Cairns? It was fantastic to have Premier Anna Bligh and the Honourable Desley Boyle performing the official opening.

The Great Barrier Reef International Marine College is the formal name used to identify this marvellous facility. GBRIMC, as an acronym, may be a tongue twister, hence the College will be often referred to as the IMC and you will notice the IMC featured more prominently on the emblem. The IMC has been many years in the making with many people providing advice, encouragement and wonderful support during that time. On behalf of Woree State High School it has been a pleasure playing a lead role in gaining the funding, designing the key features, forming important partnerships with a range of training providers and becoming the foundation for the budget and staffing for the centre in the future. Congratulations to Kim Anderson for his excellent work as project manager. He will now step into the role as manager for the college.

The college is certainly one of a kind and will provide a career path for local secondary school students, Northern Australians and international guests in our tropical paradise. The message I clearly received after first becoming involved with the Marine Industry was that they were frustrated by the frequent turnover of employees and that their employee base was often drawn from international visitors. Providing local school students access to these career pathways is one answer to meet industry needs and has become the driving force behind this trade-training centre initiative. Woree State High School will host a secondary school program known as MarineTech, offering senior schooling courses that are not available anywhere else in Australia.

BEACON AMBASSADORS SUPPORT TULLY STATE HIGH SCHOOLCyclone Yasi affected all of us, but especially those living in the Tully area. We invited students and staff from Tully State High School to join us on Wednesday 16th March to offer our moral support.

Name suppressed, a Beacon Ambassador, had suggested a stationery collection to which Woree staff and students donated generously. We presented the Tully State High School representatives with a variety of pens, pencils, note pads and rulers.

It was fantastic to spend the day with the Tully students. When their school captains accepted the stationery and spoke about their ordeal during and after Cyclone Yasi, it made it all worthwhile.

Name Suppressed YEAR 10 STUDENT

The facility offers a comprehensive mechanical workshop, boat storage area, electrical workshop, simulated ship engine room, bridge simulator, instructor room, tug boat simulator, navigation room and communications room, charts room, simulated galley, toilets/showers and staffroom. We also have a four-metre deep training pool designed for all forms of safety training and still to be completed is the Emergency Response Training Facility.

The IMC is not only a facility, but an organisation that has been carefully planned to be truly responsive to industry and government needs. A Business Management Group of

nine representatives, chaired by Mr Chris White, has just been recently appointed by the Premier. This group will provide the strategic direction and management of the centre

and play host to a number of training providers. To achieve the vision of a one-stop shop to marine-orientated training, a broad service delivery is needed. The College has formed key partnerships with a range of training providers such as Tropical North Queensland Institute of

TAFE, Queensland Training Services and Queensland Fire and Rescue Services. As the years progress, we envisage this list will grow. MOU’s between all parties and the IMC are a key to ensuring commitment to the vision of the college.

Tony Fuller

THE BEACON BUSINESS BREAKFASTOur first formal event for the year as Beacon Student Ambassadors for 2011 was a business breakfast. We had prepared our speeches, rehearsed our routine and even baked some gifts for our guests.

We were all a little nervous – not only representing our school, but meeting all our invited guests from the business world. We also wanted to impress our parents who were in the audience.

The speeches went well, with names suppressed for the web representing the Beacon Ambassadors. Ms Georgina Brewer gave an overview of the philosophy of the Beacon Foundation and Ms Robyn van Roy, from Dawson’s Engineering, spoke very positively about the importance of making connections with the business world before leaving school.

We are looking forward to a very busy year ahead!

Name Suppressed YEAR 10 BEACON STUDENT AMBASSADOR

Above: Name suppressed was a force to be reckoned with!

Right: Name suppressed with

a masterful dodge!

Far Right:Name suppressed

lines up his next shot.

¼ Time Report

TOP ROW: Names suppressed for the web

SECOND ROW: Names suppressed for the web

THIRD ROW: Names suppressed for the web

BOTTOM ROW: Names suppressed for the web

7 to 9 Scores Year 7 to 9 Relative GainQueensland Raw Score Results from Year 7/2008 to Year 9/2010

Queensland GainWoree State High School

Raw Score and Gain

READING 528.1 - 564.1 36 36.4 1.01

WRITING 522.7 – 564.0 41.3 53.4 1.29

SPELLING 528.0 – 572.9 44.9 56.5 1.26

GRAMMAR & PUNCTUATION

518.0 – 573.3 55.3 66.8 1.21

NUMERACY 539.0 – 576.7 37.7 46.5 1.23

AVERAGE GAIN FOR ALL WOREE STATE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS 1.2

A SNAP SHOT OF 2010Woree State High School

We have certainly hit the ground running again this year. Despite some wind and rain the sport has

been absolutely full-on for Woree State High School students.

Already there have been a number of our students selected to represent Trinity Coast South (TCS) across an array of sports which

has been fantastic. Our latest students to be selected in a Peninsula side to attend a state championship are: name suppressed and name suppressed (yr 12) Opens Rugby League, name suppressed (yr 10) U/15 Rugby League, name suppressed (yr 9) and name suppressed (yr 8). These athletes will be honing their skills and working hard at team sessions before leaving for the state titles where their ultimate goal would be selection in the Queensland team. Well done to these students and best of luck.

The Rugby League season is well under way with all three teams having utilised a number of training sessions leading up to their opening rounds. The latest round saw the sides come up against Trinity Bay State High School.

Coach De Vries is again mentoring the U/13 side and, judging by the quality performance, particularly in the first half, he and the team have obviously worked hard. The boys had a tremendous start, piling on a number of points creating a lead that Trinity Bay would never overcome. The final result was a 42-12 thrashing! Coach De Vries was pleased with his team’s effort. However, he felt there were still a number of areas that, as a group, they could work to improve. names suppressed (yr8) were the side’s best.

The U/15’s, coming off a heavy defeat at the hands of Djarragun College, were determined to put in a more determined and focussed team performance and Coach Jeffries had them primed for this. The torrential rain made conditions difficult for both sides but this didn’t stop some of the monstrous hits both sides were scoring. In a very physical encounter the Trinity Bay side ground out a tough win over a greatly improved Woree side. Coach Jeffries drew a number of positives from the clash and felt that these were the main things he and the side would concentrate on in the coming weeks. He noted the performances of name suppressed (year 10), name suppressed (year 9) and name suppressed (year 10) on the day.

Our Open side had been ready for their opening fixture for a long time due to starting their training in the first week back to school. Both sides struggled with the atrocious conditions and a number of early mistakes were made. Although the boys went down by six points after allowing a try almost on fulltime, the group has addressed some of the issues and the senior player group are confident the side will bounce back hard. name suppressed (year 12), name suppressed (year 11) and name suppressed (year 12) were named as Woree’s best on ground.

There has been no rest for the Sports Liaison Officers and the House Captains either. After helping out with a very busy swimming carnival, this group have been sacrificing their lunch hours over the past few weeks to run a Dodge-ball competition for the school.

The first competition was run for the seniors (year 11-12 students), and proved to be extremely popular, drawing large crowds during the lunch time. Gemini entered the final as the underdogs against a hot and in-form Pindar side. Always up for the challenge the “green machine” unleashed the fury to win 2 – 1 in the final. Trojan and Apollo took out the minor placings. The junior competition was taking place as this article went to print.

Stay posted in the next issue for details of the season ahead for the Woree State High School netball teams and super coach Moyle’s thoughts on her teams’ chances.

Alastair YeabsleySPORTS CORDINATOR

There have been many highlights during the year, the following being some of the key academic achievements:

ACADEMIC DATA

FNQ Regional relative gain data has demonstrated that Woree State High School has achieved the greatest 1. gain in improving NAPLAN performance from year 7 to year 9 among all the high schools in the region.

The table below outlines our success in accelerating student learning in year 8 and 9. The second column indicates the raw score in student results for each key area of the NAPLAN test for all Queensland students. The third column identifies the gain for all of these students. The fourth column indicates the raw score gain for Woree State High School students. The right hand column indicates the factor of improvement compared with Queensland results. On average, Woree State High School improves individual students’ results by a 1.2 factor compared with other Queensland schools. This is a satisfying result and is a direct reflection on the specialised literacy and numeracy programs in place and our belief that all students can achieve.

The release of 2010 senior schooling data demonstrates that Woree State High School has achieved the 2. best results of the FNQ Region in:

Percentage of students attaining a Queensland Certificate of Education- 79%•

Highest number of School Based Apprenticeships and Traineeships- 82•

Highest number of students awarded one or more VET qualification- 135•

Troy McCormack graduated in 2010 with an OP score of 13.

State and National recognition:4.

National winner of the BEACON Innovations Award•

Regional Showcase Award winner for Senior Schooling and Middle Schooling categories•

State finalists in State Showcase Awards in Brisbane- only school to ever make two finals in the •one year.

National Training Award for Innovation•

SchoolTech • SchoolTech • SchoolTech • SchoolTech • SchoolTech • SchoolTech • SchoolTech • SchoolTech • SchoolTech

SchoolTech SchoolTech SchoolTech SchoolTech SchoolTech SchoolTech SchoolTech SchoolTech SchoolTech SchoolTech

Above: The Commonwealth Bank facilitator Dave Cater highlights the pitfalls to be aware of when looking for a job.

Left: Names suppressed for the web help to demonstrate the difference between pay awards.

Above: Name suppressed makes a careful examination of her worm.Left: Name suppressed looks on as Mr Williams begins to dissect the specimen.

HAIR SHOW EXTRAVAGANZASaturday 5th March was one of the biggest days of my working life so far. For any hairdresser, styling hair at a fashion show is one of the most exciting, not to mention stressful, jobs anyone can attempt to do. It all took place at the Hilton Hotel and started at 7 in the morning and did not finish until 9 at night!

I am a school-based apprentice for Tokunai Hair Studio and it was our responsibility to work on models incorporating the theme of Alice in Wonderland. In the space of two minutes, we had to change hairstyles for the models so they could go out and strut their stuff on the catwalk in front of more than 200 people. Two hours felt like ten minutes!

The fashion show was hectic but exhilarating. Working under pressure can bring out the best and the worst in all of us. It has not put me off and I am now looking forward to next year’s show and I have the opportunity to come up with a theme of my own!

Name suppressed YEAR 12 HAIRDRESSING STUDENT

YEAR 11 SCHOOLTECH GO CABLE SKIINGAfter surviving the start of a new year at a new campus and after surviving Cyclone Yasi, what better way to celebrate than to go Cable Skiing and chill out at the local pool?

That is exactly what our new cohort of forty-six year 11’s did on February 9. It was a time for the students and teachers to forget about books and get to know each other in a social setting.

The day started with the students showing off their physical prowess at the Cable Ski Park before heading over for lunch and a swim at the Smithfield Pool. The weather was perfect and it was great to see such a fabulous group of young people from different backgrounds enjoying themselves.

Well done Year 11’s! We wish you every success this year!

Catherine Garrone TEACHER

STARTSMART FINANCIAL SKILLS WORKSHOP Recently, Woree State High School hosted the annual StartSmart workshop which complements the existing Financial Skills Mathematics unit in the year 10 Mathematics course. As a result, all year 10 students had the opportunity to attend the workshop in Q03. The presentation consisted of an in-depth look at four different topics: earning, saving, spending and investing. Each topic included an interactive learning experience that was designed to engage students and empower them in making their personal financial choices. StartSmart provides young people with practical skills to manage their money.

StartSmart is the largest face-to-face financial literacy program in the world. In 2011 alone, StartSmart will reach over 220,000

THE QUEENSLAND CHILD ORAL HEALTH SURVEY UPDATEThank you to parents who have responded to the Queensland Child Oral Health Survey so far. Your involvement in this Survey is greatly appreciated!

We look forward to assisting your school to contribute to this very important program, but we can’t do it without help of parents who have received invitations.

The information from the Survey is used to evaluate the level of oral health in our children across the State, tailor services to communities most in need and identify contributing factors to both decay and good oral health. Other information we can collect are the facts on when our children are brushing, with what and at what age, what they are eating and drinking, where they were born and where they have lived, and document patterns of dental service use.

Our clinicians are currently coordinating school contact in your district, so if you have not as yet responded with the ‘Survey’ or the ‘Do Not Wish to Participate’ slips, please do so as soon as possible.

Above: Name suppressed “carving it up” on the water

Above:Current SchoolTech student name suppressed, working with 2010

SchoolTech graduate Nick Takai-Bosen

Above: Name suppressed: showing us how it’s done!

CASE STUDY OF A FABRICATION STUDENTI recently enrolled in SchoolTech learning Fabrication as my trade and to get my QCE (Queensland Certificate of Education). I did work experience at Silverback Engineering for a week, and will continue doing it every Monday until June.

I did a bit of everything in the workshop: wiring lights, cutting steel on a bandsaw and marking out small jobs. I really enjoyed working at Silverback Engineering because they gave me a variety of work to do and they are easy to get along with. I would like to thank them for this opportunity. This work experience has shown me what it is like in the adult world as a boiler maker. I am looking forward to all the skills I am going to learn during my two years at SchoolTech.

Name suppressed SCHOOLTECH STUDENT

SCIENCE PROVIDING A LESSON ON LIFE In our Special Education Program science class we dissected an earthworm. Mr Williams, our teacher, explained about earth worms. Our science lesson is on Friday during period 3 in M07, a science laboratory.

We discovered the earthworms are segmented and when we touched the worm it felt soft on the outside. We saw the digestive system and the worm’s blood.

We enjoy our science lessons as we study science in everyday life. The experiments are awesome and we are learning so much. Thank you Mr Williams. Names suppressed for the web YEAR 10 SEP STUDENTS

students in almost 5,000 sessions. As you can see from the photos, our facilitator, Dave Cater, made the learning experiences to over 120 students, accessible, engaging and inspiring.

The Commonwealth Bank is a proud supporter of the StartSmart program and is helping young Australians take control of their financial futures.Vince Musumeci HOD MATHEMATICS

Above:Name suppressed for the web shows off her styling skills.

Above: name suppressed is impressed by the visitors Origami skills.

Above: Name suppressed receives her School Captains badge from Mr Clive Dixon

Above: Ms Donna Field

Above: 2011 Senior Leaders (L-R):Names suppressed for the web.

Above: The Senior Pledge

Mrs Cathy Brauns

Left: Name suppressed helps his new friend to finish his design

Above: The WSHS Senior Debating Team (L-R): Names suppressed for the web

Woree has three campuses:• Woree Main Campus (Year 8-12)

• Great Barrier Reef International Marine Collage (Year 11-12)• SchoolTech (Year 11-12)

PARENTS CONNECT AT YEAR 8 BBQA big thank you to all the parents of our Year 8 students who attended the Parent BBQ on Wednesday 17th March. It was wonderful to see so many parents and students given the inclement weather. This BBQ was a fantastic opportunity for parents to get to know their students teachers and begin the process of building strong partnerships between home and school.

Throughout the evening we were reminded of a couple of key focus topics for 2011 – these were the “Every Day Counts” campaign and the importance of the School Planner in the strengthening of communication between school and home. These links are important to make the next five years of the students’ lives more productive and enjoyable with parents and teachers working together towards the shared goal of preparing students to be strong, smart and confident young men and women of the future.

I appreciate and thank you again for your support and for helping us to begin the high school journey on a positive note.

Melissa D’Arcy YEAR 8 COORDINATOR

LEADERSHIP INDUCTION CEREMONY After writing their pledge at the Leadership Camp, it was onto the next major event on the 2011 school calendar: Induction. The stage was set for Thursday 3 March 2011 – seniors looked resplendent in their formal uniforms, practised and ready for their cue, badges were polished and new, speakers were ready to impart some wisdom of the ages.

Our school captains compered the occasion and spoke very well for their introductory piece. Guest speaker, Donna Field, (who was a past school captain-1991) spoke of her experiences both in and out of school, including the opportunity to work with “Survivor” over the past eleven years. It was a whirlwind adventure, documenting that anything is possible when you believe. Mr Fuller gave a discourse on his Principals’ Conference, highlighting the school’s position and advances made over the past few years. Time came for the seniors to stand united and commit to their pledge which becomes the cornerstone of their role in the school this year. They also received senior badges from their form teachers.

Inductees included School Captains: names suppressed for the web; Music captains: names suppressed for the web; Beacon Ambassadors, Sports Captains

WOREE SENIOR DEBATERS ENTER THE FIRST ROUND OF COMPETITIONOn 2nd March, three brave Woree State High School students attended St Mary’s College for the first round of the annual debating competition to battle it out against tough competitors, Mossman State High School. Students were given the task of preparing the negative side of the argument, ‘More dams should be built in Australia’. The first speaker, name suppressed, did remarkably well by charming the audience and putting the team’s arguments forward. The second speaker, name suppressed, came out with all guns blazing to show the affirmative team that she meant business, arguing the team’s main points. The final speaker, name suppressed, gave it his all to sum up the team arguments and fight back against the building of more dams. Unfortunately, our students lost the battle against Mossman; however they did not go down without a fight.

Annual debating is a fantastic competition that is organised by Mario Calanna of the Rotary Club of Cairns Earlville. Students of Woree State High School will battle it out in the second round of the competition on 30th March against Trinity Bay.

Alicia Thompson ENGLISH TEACHER

CROSSING CULTURES WITH JAPAN Recently year 10 students enjoyed the special opportunity of acting as student ambassadors to visiting Japanese students from Ritsumeikan High School (an elite, private school in Japan).

Name suppressed welcomed our guests with a speech and then a teacher from Japan thanked our school for accepting their request to visit. It seemed news of Cyclone Yasi had reached Japan in February and the visiting students and teachers were concerned when they saw the extent of damage that this cyclone had left on the North Queensland coast. From this news, Ritsumeikan High School committed to make a generous donation toward the recovery effort to help our local region.

Once the formalities were complete, the day continued with students and buddies participating in a range of activities. My favourite activity was when the visitors organised us into groups and, through games, helped us to understand more about their Japanese culture and way of life.

We then took our Japanese students to the Recreation Centre where we shared a light morning tea and the Japanese visitors sang “We are the World” (by Michael Jackson). This was very moving for us to listen to as the Japanese students sang so beautifully and in English! Before the buses arrived there was just enough time to take a few photos of our new friends before we had to say our goodbyes.

Throughout the years I have been lucky enough to help host many exchange visitors, but I felt this visit from the Ritsumeikan High School students was the most enjoyable as we were able to learn many more phrases in Japanese while providing them with insight into the life of a student in Cairns.

Name Suppressed YEAR 10 STUDENT

and Liaison Officers, and Student Councillors, including president, name suppressed. These students all received their badges of honour.

Guests were then invited to morning tea, catered by the Woree Hospitality students.

I would like to thank staff and students for their support and participation in this annual event. Seniors, now is the time to step up and be the positive role models you have committed to be. I look forward to working with you all and seeing you mature into responsible young adults.

Catherine BraunsYEAR 12 COORDINATOR

Woree State High SchoolYear 7 into 8 Parent Information Evening

Date: 18 May, 2011Venue: Q Block Theatre, WSHS

Time: 6:00 pm

You are invited to our Year 7 into 8 Parent Information EveningDiscover how Woree State High School

can support your student’s future!