Newsletter error re Hats for Middle Students
In my last article, I mentioned that from 2015 Middle School students would need a formal hat to wear with their formal uniform. Please note that this will not be the case and I apologise for any confusion this may have caused. Middle School students may wear the formal hat with their formal uniform but it will not be compulsory. However, it will be compulsory for all senior students to wear their formal hat from 2015.
Sports Awards Night
Congratulations to all of our Sports’ students. Every year new records are broken and new personal best scores are reached. This year the honour of Primary Sportsman of the year went to Bakani Kombanie while Emily Roach and Sophie Trevan tied for the Primary Sportswoman of the Year. Secondary Sportsman and Woman of the Year went to Cameron Shervey and Jacqueline Roach.
Matt Beattie has written more fully about the night in his article and you can see all the photos by clicking here.
Middle and Senior Awards Night
This is our second year using the Caloundra Event Centre and the night went even smoother than last year. It is a little further for us to travel but the larger venue and better seating means parents have a good view and our larger class and award groups all fit on the stage.
Our Middle and Senior School Captains hosted the night in a professional and polished manner as the culmination of their duties throughout the year. Well done to Alisha Mens, Rory Tait, Ben Giles and Courtney Sinclair.
Congratulations to Troy Fullerton and Calista Theron who were made College Captains for 2015.
The Awards Night not only celebrated our students’ academic achievements. It also celebrated the quality of character of all our students. We celebrated the perseverance that has helped them become the best they can be. We celebrated the attitude of going above and beyond what is required in the classroom. We celebrated their servant hearts, their leadership skills and their desire to have a positive impact on the people around them.
Not everyone can receive a prize or a medal but I use this time to acknowledge the quiet achievers; students who have been working hard in the background, doing their best and helping others along the way. You are the backbone of our College. Even though you have not received a medal for your efforts, as long as you did your best, you deserve to be congratulated.
I am incredibly proud of all of our students and the new heights they reached this year.
MacBook Airs for all Middle School Students in 2015
For the past two years Middle School students have been issued with iPads. The iPads have been a very useful and cost-effective machine but increasingly we have been finding they are falling short of what we expect from them as an educational device.
For this reason the College is investing in MacBook Airs, which is the newest apple laptop, for each Middle School student in 2015.
The MacBook Airs have a lot of advantages over the less powerful iPads including their computing power, better monitoring of student behaviour, better for word processing and research tasks. The computers themselves are very robust and very portable, almost as portable as the iPad and the battery life is also similar.
The laptop, the case and the programs will be at no additional cost to your fees. This is very expensive for the College to provide as the cost of a laptop is much larger than an iPad, but we think providing a 21st century education for your child is vitally important.
There will be more information coming soon about how the new Middle School laptop scheme will operate.
Collection of iPads
Ipads will be collected during the end of Week 8. Students need to ensure that they submit the iPad and the charger at this time. Ipads will be inspected for damages at this time. Please recall that the cost for repairing a damaged screen is 100 dollars.
All MacBooks and MacBook Airs will be collected before the holidays.
This will mean that students will not have their laptop over the Christmas holidays. This may be very welcome in some families and may cause great distress in others, I apologise if your family is the latter but it is necessary for the maintenance of the machines and to ensure their longevity. In 2015 students will be reissued the machine that they submitted at the end of the year. Students will need to back up their data as each machine will be reset over the holidays.
Upcoming exams
Many of our students still have exams to conquer so I thought I would remind them about an insight that goes back to 1620. Francis Bacon wrote, “If you read a piece of text through 20 times, you will not learn it by heart so easily as if you read it 10 times while attempting to recite if from time to time and consulting the text when your memory fails.”
In 1916 psychologist Arthur Gates conducted experiments and found the best way to memorise Shakespeare was to spend a third of the time trying to memorise it and two-thirds of the time trying to recite if from memory. Testing is a form of studying that leads to constant improvement.
So when your children are preparing for exams remind them that just going over and over the course material is not enough. They should also spend time setting themselves tests. Maybe this is something you can help them with.
Have your child write down questions and then write down their answers. Check the answers in the revision material then write down the correct answers and read them again. Focus on retrieving knowledge as much as storing it.
Mike Curtis, Principal