By Mr Simon Fleming - Principal

We have a small but dedicated P&F Committee. This group meets twice a term and plays a significant role in the school. Each family that attends ACW pays a levy to the P&F. The committee, in consultation with the college, then makes decisions on how these funds will be spent. The last project was significant which was the setting up of the bore, tanks, pumps, and an irrigator so that we can consistently maintain the oval. This legacy will have a lasting impact for the students at our college. If you would like to become part of the P&F just contact the school and we will provide you with the information. The next meeting is not until the 10^th May, which will be the AGM.

The college has begun a publicity campaign, which started on Monday 8th March. We will have a stall at the shopping centre. We will also be at the Show. Please come over and have a chat and invite any friends that may want to become part of the ACW community.

In staff news, Mrs Yates began her twelve-month maternity leave last Friday and Mrs Cantwell will leave us this Friday to prepare for a new addition. Mrs Susan Wegert will be covering for Jess and we welcome her to our community. Mrs Anna Hardy will be taking maternity leave from term 3. Mr Bruton will be taking long service leave for term 2.

Our Year 12 Faith & Social Justice leader, Lauren Hutchinson, has won the Zonta Young Women in Public Affairs Award. Our two other award nominees, Kaitlyn Newley and Lillie Clarke had great applications.

The Zonta Club of Warwick Inc offered the Young Women in Public Affairs Award for young women aged 16-19 years who are active in community service. This is part of an international award program, where the initial award is given at club level with the recipient at each level referred to District and International levels for further recognition. The panel said that on any other occasion Lillie and Kaitlyn would have been winners as well.

Years 10 and 11 have now attended Mass at St Mary’s Church with local parishioners. Father Bony was very pleased with the respect and reverence of our students and the parishioners enjoyed the company as well. Year 12 will attend Mass later in the term.

It has come to my attention that there is a Year 7 snap chat site that has content posted that reflects very poor standards of behaviour. I would encourage all parents to check your son/daughters' devices regularly and to take appropriate action should you come across material that you do not want your child accessing. The department of esafety has some great parent resources for how to support their students online, and if they are being cyber bullied. Parents | eSafety Commissioner for those that are on the receiving end of cyber bullying they are also to report it here: Report abuse | eSafety Commissioner.The esafety commissioner has the power to remove posts.

Finally, thanks to all who were able to attend the welcome BBQ. It was an excellent evening and allowed parents to mingle with staff.

Kind Regards,

Simon Fleming

By Mrs Anna Hardy, Deputy Principal

In the lead up to National Day Against Bullying it is important for parents to reflect upon the world of cyber-safety and bullying.  Below is some information that can support parents in knowing what their child is using and how to monitor the use of internet safe behaviour at home.

What to do about group chats?

Group chats can be an excellent way for several people to participate in an online conversation together. They most commonly happen through Whatsapp, Instagram Messenger, Facebook Messenger, Facebook Messenger for Kids, and Discord. Participants are getting younger and younger.

They can be both helpful and harmful. Notifications ping all hours of the day, stacks of unread messages build up until they are not worth the effort to catch up on, and important information gets lost in the stream which can cause some issues at school.

Drama, exclusion and cyberbullying.

There have also been many times when young people have engaged in nasty behaviour about another person in a group chat, then deliberately invited them into the chat to see those comments. The deliberate nature of this abuse makes it cyberbullying.

Group chats mostly happen outside of school hours. Nevertheless, schools are asked to manage the behaviours of the young people involved in the chat by parents, but more often than not, these chats are happening at very late hours of the night. Parents need to help their kids build some intellectual muscle too by teaching them the life skill of politely exiting a social situation that they feel uncomfortable in, online and off.

This should serve as another reminder of everyone's role to combat negative online experiences, especially parents. Removing access to the devices late at night helps avoid interrupted sleep caused by the group chat notifications and beeps. If they need it for an alarm clock, trot on down to a store and buy one of those ones with the big red numbers that we had before smartphones. 

Remove the ability to engage in conversations at night when the emotional part of the brain switches on, the rational part of the brain takes a break, and we are therefore left more emotionally vulnerable.

Helping young people take control.

Leaving a group chat without warning can offend the remaining group members and become an awkward situation for this text-obsessed generation.

Teach them the skills to know how to leave a group chat that is not helpful or is harmful in any way, including the actual words to use should they need to leave. Fear of missing out (FOMO) is a significant factor in a tween/teen's life, so you will need to navigate around that as well.

We hear reports of young people trying to "catch up" on the hundreds of messages that they have received overnight first thing in the morning (the record being a Mum reporting there was almost 800 messages her 13yr old daughter was trying to catch up on). Their brains are bombarded first thing in the morning, sometimes after a night of often broken sleep checking messages in the middle of the night. They are often anxious and exhausted from it.

Kids have come up with statements such as "sorry guys, this is getting pretty nasty, I am out of here" as words they can use when they need to remove themselves. There have also been some hilarious responses that can add some humour when they exit a toxic chat that may also help to defuse a situation. "I don’t have to go but I am pretending that I do," "I am going to practice my ninja skills and sneak away now." "Do you want to see my impersonation of a tree whilst I leave" "I have to go the planet needs me" and do not forget the timeless "my battery is low" excuse.

Getting kids to realise that they can be "guilty by association," even if they are not the ones saying the nasty stuff is also a necessary part of growing up and parenting.

We want to give young people the skills and confidence to put boundaries around their friendships. We do not have to be accessible all the time just because we can be. We want our kids to know their friends will not go away if they are not involved for thirty minutes while they have dinner. Teach them to be in charge and confident in their relationships. Their friends will understand that their refusal to engage at every moment has nothing to do with the state of their relationship. They will understand this is the way they manage their time, their devices, and their priorities.

Tips to teach young people (and yourself):

Keep group chats positive, helpful, and supportive. These are not places where we have a whinge about someone else, share images without the consent of others, reveal secrets, or create drama, gossip, or spread rumours.

Learn how to leave. Often kids are in multiple chats at once. If the chat is getting toxic, bullying is happening or images circulated, or anything that may be deemed illegal, make sure they know to take a screenshot and log out, so they do not find themselves in a "guilty by association" situation if something gets reported. They need to speak up to a trusted adult immediately. 

Sometimes they have no other option but to leave a group chat, the notifications have become too much, the conversation has become increasingly irrelevant, and their phone has become cluttered with too many group chats for them to keep across them all. In most cases, the exit button is easy to find. In the case of group chats on Instagram for example, tap the header banner in a group conversation to see its participants and then tap on Leave Conversation to quit it. 

Make sure they know they should not feel compelled to respond straight away or be a part of every single interaction. 

Remember that just because there are only six participants in a private chat does not mean that the chat will remain private. There are plenty of ways these chats can become very public.

Avoid using late at night or let people know when they are signing off for the day.

If getting overloaded with alerts, change the way chat notifications appear. Make those pings silent and invisible quickly on both Android and iOS. On Android, open up Settings, go to Apps & notifications, and choose an app to make changes. On iOS, take even more control over the alerts style: From Settings, pick Notifications, then tap on a particular messaging app to see the available options.

It is also useful to silence individual conversations temporarily. It is easy to make sure alerts from certain people come through while limiting the number of pings from everyone in the chat. Most messaging tools and group chat apps allow conversations to be muted for a period, and the option should be easy to find in the app of choice. If not, a simple google search will give instructions.

Welcome BBQ – 26^th February 2021

Thanks to all the families that joined with us to welcome the new staff and the new families into our community.  We launched our Annual Action Plan for 2021 and of course, welcome any feedback or comments around this.  A copy will be made available on our College website. 

By Mr Michael Simpson - Assistant Principal - Curriculum 

Senior

Year 11 and 12 students are now entering the halfway point of Unit One and Unit Three, respectively. Students will be engaging in or have completed their first assessment piece and it is important that they reflect on their grade. It is essential that Year 12 students are striving for the best mark they can achieve, as every mark can significantly affect their end results, especially those students completing an ATAR pathway. Teachers are on-hand to offer any advice on how to improve.

During the year we will provide information to students about how they are progressing towards their academic goals. This information will come in the form of academic interviews and parents are encouraged to attend. Please understand the following advice around the provided information at these academic interviews. Any estimates for QCE points and projected results will only be based on historic data, up until the point of the interview. Any information cannot include confirmed marks by the QCAA, during moderation processes, or External Assessment (EA) results. EA contributes 25% or 50% to subject scores. The College is not liable for differences between the information provided and the actual results.

 Date claimers

Academic Detentions

Assessment is one of the most important parts of a students' learning journey. It is an opportunity to obtain feedback on their learning and create opportunities to improve. Therefore, the College has high expectations regarding assessment. Any student who fails to meet the requirements of the College’s assessment policy, may be subjected to an after school academic detention. These will occur on Tuesday afternoons, from 3.00pm to 4.00pm. If your child falls into this category, then you will be notified by the classroom teacher, and a letter sent home outlining the procedure. The College would like to thank parents for their continued support of high expectations for academic success.

IXL Update

The school community has taken IXL and exceeded expectations. The current statistics are:

• 80,938 questions completed across the school.
• 875 skills mastered across English and Mathematics.
• 1121 skills practiced to a proficient standard.

Research shows that striving toward mastery (a SmartScore of 100) is the most effective way to drive student growth. Mastery is not the only goal that impacts learning, however. Achieving proficiency (a SmartScore of 80+) has also been proven to lead to improved student outcomes. Students always have work to do, so if your child says “I have no homework”, they can practice on IXL. I look forward to sharing more statistics later in the year.

By Mrs Carol Sharp, APRE

Social Justice News

Lent & Project Compassion

We are now in the third week of Lent with the Project Compassion story of Oliva, a 22-year-old woman from Tanzania. She did not have the opportunity to go to school and was embarrassed that she was unable to read, write or count. As an adult, her business was losing money because she couldn’t add up her money and give the right change to customers.

Then Oliva enrolled in Caritas Australia’s literacy and numeracy classes. She also set up a home classroom to teach her neighbours, for free, because they were too shy to attend larger classes.

Oliva has now graduated, attendance at her classes are growing, her kiosk is thriving and she is helping her children with their homework. She aims to become a pastor and run for leadership in the next local election - to help her community to ‘Be More.’

• Approximately 260 million children don’t have the chance to go to school (org)

Watch a short film about Oliva’s story here.

 “Aspire not to have more, but to be more.”  Please support Project Compassion: lent.caritas.org.au

Vinnies

With Project Compassion well and truly up and running, the Vinnies students have moved on to planning their next major initiative – advocacy around the issue of mental health. We will publish more in future newsletters but, in short, we are planning to work with Headspace and other experts around how to look after our mental health and become more resilient.

Masses and Liturgies

Year Level Masses

Thank you to our Year 10 and 11 students who have both attended their year level masses since the last newsletter was published. The students represented the school well through their excellent behaviour and appropriate participation in the blessed sacrament. The Year 12s will have their turn on Thursday of week 9.

Prayer

Creator God,

We give you thanks for the huge progress that has been made to increase levels of education for women and girls, and that far fewer women now face complications or death in childbirth.

We also give thanks that around the globe we see women of initiative and courage who together and as individuals are starting businesses and exercising greater say over how money is spent within their homes.

God of hope and love, we know too that many women and girls still face challenges in their communities to take an equal place in community or household decision-making.

We pray that change would happen, and that we will see women and men, boys and girls, living, working, and striving together, as equals, sharing the gifts, skills and wisdom you have given each of us, to bring about real change in the lives of our families, communities and nations. Amen.

By Mrs Alison Porter, Program Leader Student Pathways

Congratulations to our newest School-based Trainees and Apprentices!

Congratulations to William Denny, Matthew McGahan, Lane Eastwell and Hanna McIvor on their recent sign-ups into school-based traineeships and apprenticeships. I offer them best wishes for success in their work and training.

“Thank you” to those businesses willing to support opportunities for our students; Green Homes Australia, Red Rooster Warwick, Maxheath Pastoral and Killarney Co-operative limited.

Sun Safety

Just a reminder to parents of Year 11 & 12 students attending practical sessions at TAFE for the Certificate II in Rural operations course, that the college has a sun safe policy whereby students must wear a wide brimmed hat during outdoor activities. Students are welcome to wear their college hat or a wide brimmed hat of their own choosing whilst completing practical activities at TAFE.

Supporting your child’s career development: tips and tools from myfuture webinar

Wednesday, 24 March 2021, 1–2 pm AEDT

The earliest and often the most powerful learning about careers is shaped by the adults in a child's life. Myfuture, the National Career Information Service, has tools and resources available to help parents guide and support their child as they explore career options and occupations of interest. Myfuture is offering a webinar for parents during which Michelle Maes, Careers Manager, will demonstrate the career development resources that are freely available on the myfuture website to assist the career development process. To register for the webinar please visit https://myfuture.edu.au/assist-others/webinars.

Congratulations to our Head Start students!

Congratulations to Leila Fox and Isabel Natividad on fantastic results in their recent Head Start courses. The Head Start program is run by the University of Southern Queensland and offers senior students the option to study a university subject whilst at school. The benefit of this being guaranteed entry to some USQ courses at the end of Year 12, credit to USQ courses and possible points towards attainment of the Queensland Certificate of Education.

Rural and Regional Enterprise Scholarships (RRES)

The Rural and Regional Enterprise Scholarships (RRES) program was announced in 2016 to help Australians in regional and remote areas to access higher education. It supports people studying from Certificate IV through to PhD level.

Scholarships support flexible study arrangements, and are available to eligible students:

• commencing a new course of study in 2021
• studying on campus, online or via distance education
• studying from six months full-time up to eight years part-time.

Eligible students may receive up to $18,000 each (e.g. for a full-time, four-year qualification). Shorter, part-time qualifications are paid on a pro rata basis. An extra $500 is also available to support an internship. For more information or to apply for a scholarship, visit https://www.qtac.edu.au/rres-program.

Careers in the Australian Defence Forces – Gap Year

The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is now taking applications for the “Gap Year” program. An ADF Gap Year is a unique opportunity for your students to experience life in the Navy, Army or Air Force, without needing to make a long-term commitment. Applications are now being taken from Year 12 students who would like to sign up for a twelve month commitment, rather than the general entry of four years. The range of jobs available is limited but this is a great way to ‘try’ the defence force as a career option. Interested students will need to act urgently on applications as they do close when application quotas are met. More information and application links can be found at www.defencejobs.gov.au.

General Construction White Card

The College is offering Year 10, 11 & 12 students the opportunity to participate in the ‘Work Safely in the Construction Industry’ course.  Successful completion of the course is awarded with a ‘Construction White Card’.  This card & course are mandatory requirements under Queensland's Workplace Health & Safety Regulation 2008 for all persons wishing to carry out construction type work or frequenting a construction site. Therefore, any students wanting to complete work experience, obtain employment or secure a traineeship or apprenticeship in a trade involving construction or work on a construction site, will need to have successfully completed the accredited course and obtained their ‘white card’.  Such trades that would require the card could include structural steel erection, carpentry, bricklaying, concreting, plumbing, electrical, tiling and painting etc. We are offering the white card course to students on the 17th of May. A letter will be provided to interested students in coming weeks.

ACW Open Cricket

Last week the Open Cricket team competed in the T20 Schools Cup. In the first round ACW defeated Dalby Christian College in the fourteenth over. Standout performances from Thomas Doherty with the bat and Jacob Walters with the ball. Round two saw a tough battle, having to chase 193 of St Mary’s effort with the bat. An admirable start by Laura Scheiwe and Lachlan Collins defending their opening quick edging and playing cautiously all over the ground. Assumption fell short after twenty overs. The final game saw Ryan Fischer take charge with the ball, knocking over multiple Oakey State High contenders. Chasing 93 at the break, Matt Higgins displayed his outstanding technique and crafted a seamless innings. Assumption resulted in two from three for the day. Overall, the sportsmanship and leadership from all players was outstanding. 

“The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do.” – Kobe Bryant

Students at Assumption have been heavily involved in many sports from the beginning of term. It makes me proud to see many of our students attending trials, giving it their best and honouring ACW with pride. To these students, we are all cheering for you. Keep up the fantastic efforts, keep training and keep striving for success.

Southern Downs News

Congratulations to Jazmine Cruda, Olivia Groves and Lara Santo for being selected to compete as part of the Southern Downs Basketball team. These girls will now compete for further selection on 29 March. We wish you luck.

On 12 March the following students attended trials for Hockey, Netball and Rugby League. Well done to Olivia Groves, Lachlan Corney, Angus Eastwell, Cooper Rhodes, Archer Barrett and Marty May. You should be proud of your consistent efforts on the sporting field, keep it up. 

Darling Downs News

ACW were well represented at Darling Downs Swimming in Gatton by: Archer Barrett, Claire Eckersley, Katelyn Fischer, Imogen Fox, Alyssa White, Macey Hill and Lily Osborne. It is great to see our athletes training hard and working towards a goal. Special mention to Alyssa and Lily for qualifying and making the DD Swimming team which will now compete at the State Championships from the 25-27 March. Good luck ladies.

Trials were held on 9th March for a variety of sports with interested students travelling to Toowoomba to compete. Well done to the following for turning up and giving it their best.

Hockey:- Ella Hagenbach, Kai, Macey & Jack Hill, Jia O’Dea, Mackenzie & Jada Rutledge, Taylah Eastwell & Kate Morris.

Rugby League:– Harry Boal

Squash:– Harry Hume, Mark & Alivia Hallman

Football:– Declan Clegg

Netball:– Mikayla O’Neill, Heidi Burton.

Congratulations to Ella, Jack, Taylah, Kate, Mackenzie, Jada, Alivia and Declan on their selection!

Week 8:

Congratulations to athletes on their selection to compete for Border Districts at Darling Downs Football trials on 18 March: Claire Eckersley, Denika Murray, Laura Schiewe, Jacob Darker and Alex Newley. We wish you all the best on the field.

Miss Jaime Slattery 

Welcome to Week 7! How fast the term has gone already ? Don’t forget to renew or borrow something new to read.

UPDATE: The Yo-Yo competition has been postponed until Week 8 so keep practicing and prepare for battle next Monday with Miss Ryan!

Great to see students in the library playing board games, card games and chess during our lunch time activities.    We have also been very busy with students printing out assignments – the culmination of weeks of work coming to fruition! 

The library is open from 8am on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and until 3.30pm every afternoon to allow students to access the photocopiers and any other resources they may need.

Students can also email or submit a list of books they would like via our online app ‘Accessit’ which can help them get organised from home.

By Mr Scott Clegg - Business Manager 

By Mrs Jenny Gillespie- School Counsellor

Adolescents (like all of us) can struggle to stay on top of their workloads and when school assignments are due, parents of High School students can wonder why their young person is not more organised.  Below is an edited version of an article via reputable learning resource with some useful tips. 

http://www.ldonline.org

Lazy or ?

Do you have a young person who seems lazy, intentionally forgetful, unmotivated or deliberately late? Do you have a young person who is chronically distracted? Are you constantly repeating directions to get him/her back on task when he/she gets distracted?  Does your young person underestimate how long tasks take and do they tend to leave projects are until the night before it is due?

If so, your teenager may not be engaging in these behaviours to intentionally irritate you! Rather, the cognitive skills (‘Executive Function’) needed to initiate, sequence, organise and monitor themselves are immature.

If you have a young person with these tendencies, there is no easy fix but you can help them to organise themselves.   Explain that avoidance only makes things harder and that being organised will make their life easier!  Repeat often and help them to learn what being organised involves.

Manage Work by Managing Time

• Use time management techniques such checklists and prioritised “To Do” lists
• Ask your young person to highlight the key points, draft and due dates on the top of each assignment in a brightly coloured marker.
• Ask him/her to estimate how long a task will take and consider if you think this is accurate.  Suggest they plan more time to do a project than they think they will need.
• Use a weekly planner for both home and school to help your child anticipate their workload.
• Set a designated time (with beginning and end) for schoolwork. 

Manage Space

• Schedule a weekly time to clean out desk and bedroom
• Make the school work area as distraction free as possible
• Keep assignment folders in specific and consistent places

Manage Materials

• Use a ring binder with organised sections enclosed by a zipper. Headings could include “Assignments Due,” “To Do Tonight,” “Ongoing Work.”
• Set a time each evening to organise materials needed for school for the next day.

Remember to praise effort and progress rather than focusing on areas of continued disorganisation.

by Miss Denise Ryan - Chaplain

We had some fun the past couple of weeks, with our lunchtime dance-offs and extreme musical chairs. We unfortunately postponed our Yo-Yo Comp that was supposed to start this week to next week, due to our judge not feeling well. This unfortunate turn of events has given the students an extra week to polish off those tricks and nail those performances. But other than that, we have just been chilling and brainstorming different activities and mini competitions that the students would like to have at lunchtime to showcase their unique and exciting talents.

In the outside community, Headspace have some pretty exciting events and workshops that will be taking place soon. As these events are released I will endeavor to let the students and the parents know about these amazing opportunities for them to meet new people and interact with the wider community.

Last week SU Chaplaincy released their 2020 Queensland snapshot which entails their statistics and provides an insight into what it means to be a chaplain and have a chaplain in a School. Below are some interesting snapshots that I found to help with the understanding of what the role of a chaplain is and is pretty interesting just to see how others view the same roles but in different ways.