Middle Senior School Communications, 20 July 2023

Term 3 - Week 2

OUTLINE OF NEXT WEEK
Tuesday  - Y10 Classroom in the City
Wednesday - Y10 Classroom in the City / Beach Sport Precient Grand Opening 
Thursday - Safe On Social Presentations
Friday - ThinkUKnow - Police Presentations
Saturday - Mt Gravatt Show - Show Team

KEY EVENTS THIS TERM
25 Jul –  26 Jul - Y10 Classroom in the City
07 Aug – 11 Aug - Prayer and Mission Week
11 Aug – College Bush Dance
14 Aug – Logan Public Holiday – EKKA
15 Aug – 20 Aug - Ekka Show - Show Team / Science    Week
24 Aug – College Book Week Parade
25 Aug - Outdoor Movie Night
31 Aug - Active Afternoon Colour Fun Run
01 Sep - Pupil Free Day
09 Sep - Showcase Concert
12 Sep – 15 Sep Y9 Service Trip Chinchilla / Y7 Water    Walk
15 Sep – Exo Day / Free Dress / Term 3 concludes

Dear Parents and Carers 

It’s an exciting time to be in Year 10. Across this term, our Year 10 students will be engaging in our Classroom in the City experience where they will be exploring parts of Brisbane and engaging with experts from UQ, Griffith, and QUT to look at sustainability issues in the Brisbane city and surrounding areas. Students will be pursuing authentic learning, with real world applications, around what they can do as students and future leaders to improve their local area. This is a new initiative of the College, and I would like to acknowledge our wonderful Year 10 HASS team for their work in creating this experience, and particularly Mr Paul for taking the lead in offering these opportunities to our students. Later in the year, our Year 10 students will also be going out on a week of work experience, which is also a new initiative for the College. 

I will be speaking to the Year 8 students about subject selection opportunities for Year 9 in 2024. We are doing this a little earlier this year as we are offering a range of new subjects at this year level and want to organise the logistics of this early. I will send information onto Year 8 students and parents in the next week, and don’t worry, students can always change Middle School electives across the next two years.  

Next week we have our Safe on Social and police presentations to our students about navigating social media platforms thoughtfully. Poor choices on social media remains one of the most prevalent issues facing teenagers across Australia and I will write some reflections on this in the coming weeks. As a pre-emptive question/s – do you know what types of social media your child is using and who they are engaging with on those platforms? Asking this of your child, in a curious and non-judgmental way, is a good start to opening the door to further discussions about how they are using these programs.

Mr Josh Wilson
Head of Middle & Senior School & Innovative Learning Design

General Notices: 

The College App can be downloaded on your smart phone by using this download link* or by going to the App Store/Google Play and search for 'Parent Orbit'. The school code is calvarycc.

Please note the link will only work on a device that has access to the App Store or Google Play. 

Upcoming Student Presentations

Safe On Social Presentations

On Thursday 27 July Safe on Social will be addressing the students across the College to help equip them with the knowledge and skills necessary to manage their digital devices and distractions. Students from Stages 2 – 6 will participate in age-appropriate presentations about:

• Online safety and using social media with awareness.
• Online stranger danger and what grooming might look like and what to do.
• Group Chats and strategies to manage them better
• Posting and sharing photos and the law.
• Respectful online relationships and consent.
• Cyber-bullying, online harassment, and how to report it.
• Online gaming safety.
• Strategies to build resilience.

Please speak with your child following this presentation, and empower them to create more positive online behaviours, habits and experiences.

ThinkUKnow - Police Presentations

On Friday 28 July 2023 the QLD Police will be presenting their age specific ThinkUKnow presentations to our students to help further highlight the importance of being safe online, provide proactive steps to take to protect one-self, how the issue of consent online is a growing concern and the possible consequences for individuals who fail to protect themselves. 

If parents are wanting any additional information or resources the QLD Police ThinkUKnow website has a parent information page which can be accessed using the following link:

https://www.thinkuknow.org.au/resources-tab/parents-and-carers

Tutorials and Homework Hangouts

Please see the below link with the list of tutorial times and offerings at the College for students to engage with if they are needing eaxtra support with their academic work from our staff.

We're excited to introduce "Homework Hangouts" a new initiative led by our Senior School students (years 11 & 12) to support their Middle School Students with homework, assessments, and classwork. Middle School students can now meet with our Senior Students during second breaks on Mondays and Wednesdays in the LIC for additional academic help. 

Co-Curricular Activities and Clubs 

At Calvary we believe that developing the whole child and every aspect of their abilities is important. In order to do so we ask that students engage in at least one of our various co-curricular or extra-curricular offerings. If your child is currently not involved in any extra-curricular or co-curricular activities at the College could you please take the time to review the list of clubs and co-curricular activities for this semester and encourage them to join at least one.

Update from the Health Hub

To safeguard our students as much as possible, if your child is unwell with a temperature over 37.5 and has viral symptoms such as runny nose, sore throat or coughing, please keep them at home until symptoms improve. Students also need to be encouraged to wash their hands and cover mouths when they sneeze or cough. Any further questions or queries please feel free to contact the Health Hub.

Grand Opening Beach Sport Arena

On Wednesday 26 July we are officially opening our Beach Sporting Arena. Volleyball Queensland will be coming to help us open our courts and play a trial match for our students. We invite you to attend the opening.

Mango CAFE Specials for Week 3

Calvary Blog

Upcoming Events

Calvary Events

We have a number of new events happening during Term 3. Please click on the link to go to our Events Page: 

https://www.calvarycc.qld.edu.au/events/