Illalong Newsletter - 11 November 2022

News from our ICT Department

Bula Vinaka (Goodbye & thank you in Fijian)

I am pleased to let you know that it is my last year of service to the College and with my last article, I want to thank you all for the support you have given me and the ICT Department over the years. It is without any doubt that A.B. Paterson College is one of the best institutions on the Coast and will continue to do so in years to come.

On a leaving note, I want to talk about the importance of Cybersafety and protecting yourselves and your children.

Understanding the concept of Zero Trust

Cybersecurity seems to be on the tip of everyone's tongue at the moment. With data breaches dominating headlines across the media, it has never been more important for us to emphasis how vital it is to be cyber-aware. Cyber-awareness does not emanate from schools only, it is a joint responsibility of parents, teacher and students.

In tackling this issue of cybersecurity, I want to introduce the concept of Zero Trust. It means exactly that, ‘Zero Trust’ – trust nobody, no device, no applications or platforms. Always verify!!!

Zero trust was coined by John Kindervag, a Forester research analyst when he presented the idea that nothing should be trusted internal or external to the organisations.

Any emails or messages that you receive must be treated with ‘Zero Trust’ as well, unless it is already confirmed. Verification is a must to ensure that the messages or emails received are genuine. Parents, staff and students must feel free to pick up the phones and verify if the email/message is genuine or not.

Further to that, ICT Dept has embarked on many ambitious projects at the College. This year we will see an implementation the new firewall security system “PALO ALTO” which will help in promoting the Zero trust policy and mitigating cyber risk. Please do note the vulnerability in any system starts with user, so it means that while we are protecting data and information with technology, one must always be vigilant as well.

We are also implementing a new filtering system for staff and students. SAASYAN is widely used in K-12 environment providing high levels of filtering using artificial intelligence.

This year the College will rollout new laptops for Years 4,7 and 10 again, Further correspondence will be coming in the near future.

Other projects that we have embarked on are high speed 10 Gig internet services to the College, state of art Aruba Wireless rollout to all areas of the College and a new Cloud based phone system.

Wishing you all a wonderful safe holiday and prosperous 2023.

Afzal Shariff | Director of ICT Services

Stepping Back in Time for Year 1 Students

Last week, Year 1 students and teachers visited the Gold Coast Hinterland Heritage Museum and were treated to a taste of what life was like for our ancestors.

The volunteer staff guided us through the exhibits sharing their own stories and detailing how the items on display were used by their pioneering families.

Thank you for giving us a thrilling introduction into the joys of learning about history.

Angie Hall, Steve Farmer, Natalie Pierron and Jade Lucy | Year 1 Teachers

Queensland Primary All Schools Touch Football Championships

On Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 November the Primary All Schools Touch Competition was held at Redlands Touch Association in Cleveland and, for the first time in the College’s history, A.B. Paterson College had two teams, a combined Year 5/6 Girls Team and Year 5/6 Boys Team, representing it at this tournament. This competition is the state’s premier primary school touch football event, and the 2022 Championships had 183 teams participating across three days filled with terrific Touch Football.

Both teams competed in the King’s Touch Football competition a couple of weeks prior to this event as a warm-up competition, so after playing several matches together and getting some more training sessions under their belts, the coaches and players alike were extremely eager to get underway and test themselves against some of the best Primary School Touch Football teams the state of Queensland had to offer.

The Girls Team was incredibly competitive in every fixture they played and, after the first day, teams were seeded according to their results. Resultantly, the girls qualified for the ‘Plate Final’ which was a knock-out series where, after the first match, if victorious, the team would qualify for the Quarter Finals. Our Girls team managed to secure victory in this first fixture 4-2, which was an incredible result. Unfortunately, they lost the Quarter Final 2-1, but the teams were very evenly matched and in the end it could have gone either way.

After the first day of fixtures, our Boys Team qualified for the ‘Bowl Final’, and this series took the same path as the ‘Plate Final’. The boys were also triumphant in their first match 5-4, which meant they, too, progressed to the Quarter Finals. Like the girls, the Quarters was where the competition ended for the team, going down 5-2.

Considering this was the first time the Junior School entered teams in this tournament, they both performed incredibly well, and we look forward to building on the progress both teams made over the past few weeks in the future.

There were many standout performances across the two days, so to select an A.B. Paterson College ‘Player of the Tournament’ from each of our teams was rather difficult; however, Olive Davis was selected as the Girls Player of the Tournament and Oliver Watson as the Boys Player of the Tournament. Congratulations to all players for the level of improvement and outstanding sportsmanship displayed throughout the competition – they can feel very proud of their achievements.

It would be remiss of me not to say a huge thank you to our coaches who have worked with these teams since they were selected prior to the King’s Touch Football Competition: Tait Rolfe, Nikkita Halloway-Samuels, Mr Dean West, and Chantelle Halloway-Samuels. I would also like to thank the parents and family members of the players for their support over the course of the weekend which created an amazing environment for our competitors.

Lachlan Webb | Head of Touch Football