Welcome back to Term 3!
This term is already looking like it will be extremely busy. Just this week all the Year 10s attended the Sunshine Coast Careers Expo at the Sunshine Coast University. Our Year 12s have had their final Study Skills program which was delivered to them on Thursday titled “The Finishing Line”
For our Year 12s, the end is in sight. The last thing we want now is students stressing and forgetting the skills they’ve been taught. Topics covered by the presenters include:
♦ How to set (or reassess) short term goals for the final exams
♦ How to work effectively during the exam period itself
♦ Holiday work, and how to avoid putting it off
♦ The importance of sleep and what bad sleep patterns do to their productivity
The seminar was a great final motivation for our students to do their best in the lead up to the QCS examinations and the very important end of Term 3 exams.
Next week we have parent teacher interviews and I encourage those with any concerns to come to these and bring your child as well. Let your child hear straight from the teacher the concerns they have or ways they can better address their learning to improve.
Term 3 is very short, only 9 weeks. Our Year 11/12 block exams are changed slightly this term to occur in Week 8. Year 11 students will be heading off in the final week to either Fiji or to the Year 11 camp being held at Emu Gully near Helidon. There are approximately 20 Year 11 students going on the Fiji Mission trip and I am really excited for them. From my experience of attending this last year, the Fiji trip is “life changing”. My prayer for these students includes:
♦ Safety;
♦ Opportunities to serve;
♦ Opportunities to see how richly we are blessed in Australia;
♦ Fantastic learning; and
♦ that each student sees first hand God’s hand at work on their lives and those around them.
Please uphold them in prayer as they meet each week to train for this trip.
Assembly Awards:
We have a fantastic group of Senior students. After the reports were published, I did what all nerdy maths teachers do and compiled a few statistics:
Firstly, have a look at the graph below.
Only one student in senior received an E grade in one subject. Likewise only 6 A+ grades were awarded. It is pleasing to see that the graph is not normally distributed but rather skewed to demonstrate students generally are getting higher grades.
Academic Awards
There were 28 students who received A’s in at least half their subjects and these received an Academic Certificate on Assembly this week. This represents 14% of our student population.
Diligence Awards
What impressed me much more was this statistic: 46 students got “Very Good” for effort in all or all but one of their subjects and will get a Diligence Certificate on Assembly. This represents almost a quarter of Senior students (22%).
Important Calendar Date
Sunday 9 August the University of the Sunshine Coast will transform into a wonder-filled place devoted to your imagination.
Be intrigued and inspired, delighted and excited – with activities designed for all ages!
Curious? Good! All will be revealed in time, so sign up to find out more.
Sunshine Coast Imaginarium, including USC Open Day
Sunday 9 August 2015, 10am – 2pm, USC Sippy Downs campus
David Heyworth, Head of Senior School