Smartphones and tablets allow calls, messaging and 24 hour internet access from just about anywhere. As a parent of three children ranging from the age of 10 – 14, I am in the midst of the complicated cyber world of smartphones, iPads, Wi-Fi and social media apps. I recall a recent family holiday where we could choose whether or not to have wireless internet connection at our accommodation. When this question was put to our children, let’s just say the ‘silence was deafening’. At that point it was consolidated without doubt that our students have two worlds - the physical world and the digital world. 

When you get a new device, download an app or go on a website for the first time, there are some steps you can take to keep yourself safe. This does not discriminate and these tips are as much for adults as they are for our students:

• Look closely at user agreements, terms and conditions or disclaimers.
• Check whether use of the device, app or website involves any security, privacy or cookie policies or third-party information sharing — check the eSafety guide for advice on privacy settings and how to protect your personal information.
• Set up a secure password or passphrase — a longer password that is more secure is much safer/stronger. See protecting personal information, which includes advice on setting up strong passwords.

It is imperative to remember:

• Only provide as much information as an app or website requires you to (this is often indicated with an asterisk*).
• Consider using an email account as your contact that does not use your name. For example, use SomethingGeneric@email.com, but not YourRealName@email.com.
• Check options to hide your location and consider whether you will be able to hide your information from the provider or from other users.
• Where appropriate, check your account and settings (usually located under a wheel symbol) to ensure that you are not sharing anything you wish to keep private. It is a good idea to check your privacy settings regularly as new device and software updates sometimes involve updates to default privacy settings.
• Visit the eSafety Guide for online safety information, links to privacy settings and safety centres for individual apps, games, social media services, websites and browsers.

Following these easy steps to increase the security on your devices is a starting point to ensure you have control over your settings, passcodes and biometric logins. For additional safety you are able to turn off features such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS and location services within individual apps when you don’t need them. This will also save you some battery life!

Throughout 2020 we have formed a Cyber Safety Committee which is focussed on ensuring we implement best practice teachings and practices in this ever changing digital world. You will have received a Cyber Safety parent survey link via email earlier this week. Please do take a few minutes to fill this out as the information we analyse will be used to inform how we go forward in relation to Cyber Safety at A.B. Paterson College.

Simon Edgar
Head of Junior School

Reference: eSafety Commissioner - https://www.esafety.gov.au

In Technology this term, Year 1 students have enjoyed exploring the wonderful world of ICT and coding through the use of the Scratch Junior platform to program their own interactive stories. Their ICT skills and story writing strategies have flourished this term through the opportunity to create and move digital characters, design and change backdrops and add sound effects to their digital creations.

This digital technology unit links to Year 1’s English learning where students are exploring the narrative text type, its language and features.  Students created suitable characters and settings to tell an imaginative story using Scratch Junior through showcasing their ICT skills. The use of directional language and symbols formed another important component of the students’ understanding. They needed to use their knowledge of direction to add code to their characters, enabling the digital characters to move and change in accordance with their story ideas.

Students learn important problem solving skills as part of the coding process. Year 1 enjoyed designing and drawing their own characters and choosing from a selection of characters to embed into their scene. A suitable background was selected or created to use and features of the background could be coded to show ongoing movement, such as a busy city scene backdrop with cars travelling back and forth. From here, students added their main character and supporting characters to their story scene and added sound and speech bubbles as an extension feature.

The opportunities for creativity and collaboration using ICT as a platform are endless and Year 1 students continue to engage in these valuable digital technology sessions with effort and enthusiasm!

Year 1 Teachers

On 11 November, students and staff right across our campus paused to remember the sacrifice made by members of the armed forces who lost their lives in war, fighting to protect our nation.

Our Remembrance Day Service - led by Head of Senior School, Mr Gary Smith - was watched on video link in all classrooms and offices. The video is included below.

The Last Post and Rouse were played, immaculately, by Year 10 student, Alex Vadeikis.

Lest we forget.

Congratulations to all students who took part in the annual ICAS competitions last term. All results are now in and the following students are to be acknowledged on achieving Distinction or High Distinction certificates.

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

Distinctions: Benjamin Clark, Ziqing Gao, Sahishnu Sriram (Year 3); Ivy Hamilton, Xavier Davey, Constance Huang, Matthew Lee, Aidan McIntyre, Ethan McIntyre, Scarlett Pires Ten Ham, Daniel Wang (Year 4); Mitchell Chen, Ruvindu Siriwardana (Year 6); Midori Lance, Rishabh Nama, Matthew Zhang, Jason Zhu (Year 7); Felix Chen (Year 8); and Alistair Hughes (Year 9).

High Distinctions: Nikita Harish, Lucas Liu (Year 3); Calvin Liu (Year 4); and Toby Da Silva (Year 6).

ENGLISH

Distinctions: Ethan Asquith, Ziqing Gao, Nikita Harish, Sophie Magee, Ruiyang Wang (Year 3);  Edward Dalziel, Matthew Lee, Aidan McIntyre, Ethan McIntyre (Year 4); Mika Lance (Year 5); Ruvindu Siriwardana (Year 6); Jena Chai, April Chen, Ashwath Gaikwad, Tianyu Shen (Year 7); Timothy Yau (Year 8); Alistair Hughes, Joe Ziukelis (Year 9); and Thirunanthanan Thirumurugan (Year 10).

High Distinctions: Scarlett Fisher (Year 3); Aiden Zhang (Year 5); Mitchell Chen, Miki Qiao (Year 6).

SCIENCE

Distinctions: Lunabelle Li, Lucas Liu, Yufei Wu, Eric Zhang (Year 3); Cassandra Chatham, Calvin Liu, Ethan McIntyre (Year 4); Tori Russell (Year 5); Toby Da Silva, Nicholas Kenworthy, Lauchlan Mason, Ruvindu Siriwardana (Year 6); April Chen, Nevindu Dammannagoda, Ashwath Gaikwad, Jason Zhu (Year 7); Felix Chen, Alexander Readshaw, Timothy Yau (Year 8); Alistair Hughes and Nitara Nirthanan (Year 9).

High Distinctions: Benjamin Clark, Nikita Harish, Sibo Wang (Year 3); Aiden Zhang (Year 5); Mitchell Chen, Byron McNiven (Year 6); and Terry Kim (Year 7).

MATHEMATICS

Distinctions: Rion Abe, Nikita Harish, Lunabelle Li, Lucas Liu, Sahishnu Sriram, Ruiyang Wang, Eric Zhang (Year 3); Constance Huang, Matthew Lee, Ethan McIntyre, Eva Vu, Jinyu Yan (Year 4); Cyra Abedian, Zain Baba, Tori Russell (Year 5); Cindy Chen, Lauchlan Mason, Byron McNiven, Ruvindu Siriwardana, Lucy Wu, Kenta Yamaguchi (Year 6); April Chen, Matilda Grant, Terry Kim, Taocheng Liu, Jason Zhu (Year 7); Alexander Readshaw (Year 8); Ariel Ding, Alistair Hughes, Ally Zhou and Eric Zhou (Year 9).

High Distinctions: Benjamin Clark (Year 3); Aiden Zhang (Year 5); and Mitchell Chen (Year 6).

Congratulations to all students who participated in ICAS this year.

For the latest news from the Careers Desk, please refer to the following article from Jeanette Maxwell, Head of Pathways, Senior School.

November News From The Careers Desk

Bita to Champion Youth

Last week, I received the amazing news that I had been offered a place as a Youth Champion in the Queensland Family and Child Commission (QFCC)’s Youth Advisory Council. It is both an honour and a privilege to have been chosen to promote the interests of Young Queenslanders on a state level and I look forward to collaborating with other like-minded people to help make a real difference in the lives of others by sharing my ideas. 

The QFCC is a government commission that was established to investigate and promote the interests of children and young people living in Queensland. They provide advice for families and children year-round and survey the perspectives of young people through the ‘Growing Up in Queensland’ survey. The Youth Advisory Council is responsible for convening with other young people and reporting back to the QFCC to help the government understand what young people want and need. Youth Champions also contribute to projects and can be called upon to help in other organisations as well.

The QFCC is based in Brisbane, where the Youth Advisory Council meets quarterly to report to the Principal Commissioner. My first meeting with the team will be at the conclusion of this term and I look forward to engaging with young leaders to learn more about the needs of my peers and how to better address these needs in a way that is accessible. 

Bita Mahani
Year 11 student

AMEB Examinations

The Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB) is the most comprehensive, innovative and advanced examinations board across Australia. The mission of the AMEB is to support, inspire and advance a lifelong engagement with music and speech and drama in Australia.

Year 5 student, Mimi Shen, was recently awarded Honours (A) for her Grade 3 Clarinet exam and Year 8 student James Wang was awarded Honours (A) for his Grade 6 AMEB Saxophone exam. 

Congratulations Mimi and James! Mr Fletcher and Mrs Walker-Joyce are very proud of you!

Well done also to the following students of vocal tutor Mrs Sam Fiddes, who have achieved fabulous results in the following AMEB examinations:

Alastair McNamara; Dinuki Indiketiya; Alex Davies; Malia Adams; Dan Teren; Charlie Morris; Chloe Ourari; Hugo Hawke; Eva Ziukelis; Alex Roberts.

2020 Nancy Weir Scholarship

Year 4 students Calvin Liu and Daniel Wang were recently announced as Highly Commended recipients of the 2020 Nancy Weir Scholarship by the Queensland Music Teachers' Association (QMTA).  

The Nancy Weir Scholarship was founded in 1979 by Dr Nancy Weir to assist young children with outstanding musical talent, aged 12 years or under, residing outside the Brisbane Metropolitan area, to pursue their musical studies. This year QMTA received a record number of entries for the Nancy Weir Scholarship. 

Well done, Calvin and Daniel!  

South Coast Regional Aquathlon

Congratulations to the 11 A.B. Paterson College students who competed at the recent South Coast Regional Aquathlon held at Evandale Park in the HOTA precinct. The Aquathlon consists of a 1km run, 200m swim and another 1km run. The event is for 10 and 11 year olds to qualify for the 12 years and under Regional team, competing in the State Championships in February at the same carnival as the 13 – 19 year old Triathlon Championships in Hervey Bay.

Only the Top 10 place getters are selected in the Regional Team, so a massive congratulations to Huxley Bertsos and Liam Grimmer on qualifying and also to Sam Longhurst (11th) and Hayden Ozoux (13th) who are reserves.

This challenging event is held each year in the first week on November for interested and motivated students.

Good luck to Huxley and Liam in their preparations for the State Championships and good luck to Sam and Hayden for selection in the final ten on the South Coast Team.

Mr Ian Taylor
Director of Activities