It has certainly been a busy term with lots of things happening in the Senior School.
There have been some great community activities over the last couple of weeks. On 6 March the Senior School ran its annual Clean Up Beerwah Legacy Cup Competition as part of the CleanUp Australia program. It was fantastic to see our Seniors going around the streets of our community helping to clean them of rubbish. Amongst the piles of rubbish they collected they also found and returned three shopping trolleys and a bicycle. The three houses were judged by staff and the scores were tallied. In third place was Zion and in a tie for first place came Ararat and Sinai.
Last week our Senior students in Years 11 and 12 witnessed one of the most powerful docudramas designed to help students understand the importance of safe driving.Our students were briefed as a group and then they made their way to the oval. There they were confronted with a staged motor vehicle accident carefully set up by RACQ to bring home a powerful message to our young people. As the drama unfolded, the actors, who were students of our College, played out their parts and we suddenly realised how sad this situation was. All of a sudden there were sirens as an ambulance and police car rushed onto the scene. Paramedics worked on one of the actors as police breathalysed the others. The driver was arrested and then a hearse arrived to take away the young person who died at the accident site. At this stage our students went back to class where RACQ presenters explored what they had witnessed and the students developed strategies to ensure they are not one of the horrifying statistics that we see almost daily. I wish to thank RACQ, our Ambulance and Police services as well as the undertakers who just happen to be Mrs Bullock’s parents. Mrs Bullock our Year 11 Coordinator did all the organisation for the program and so I especially want to thank her. Finally I’d like to thank our actors Mitchell Baker-Spence, Jordan Bull and Tenaia Owens who really helped bring true meaning to the drama.
On 14 March our QUT young Ambassadors participated in a workshop held at the QUT Caboolture campus. For the first part of the workshop the students participated in a marketing focus group, where they answered a series of multiple choice questions relating to university, TAFE and school. In the second part they heard from Deborah Fisher. Deborah is a Creative Industries lecturer at QUT’s Caboolture and Kelvin Grove campuses. Entitled ‘she never wears beige’ the presentation is based on Deborah’s own experience as a local Caboolture girl travelling to New York in search of adventure.
17 March was the National Day of Action against bullying. Our College is fortunate to have minimal bullying however it is always important to help empower students as a group to join together to stand against bullying. All our students were given armbands which they have been allowed to wear all this week to demonstrate visually that we do not accept bullying in our community.
As we finish this term and focus on Easter and the amazing message it holds for us of love, sacrifice and forgiveness, I wish you a wonderful Easter break and I look forward to Term 2. I trust our students will use the holiday break to recharge and refocus on their goals for this semester.
David Heyworth, Head of Senior School