As the first Semester of 2021 draws to a close I would like to take this opportunity to wish all members of our College community a wonderful break over the holidays.

This term has been packed full of exciting and engaging opportunities for our students - as you will see in the accompanying video - and the final week of the term was no different with both the Senior and Junior carnivals taking place. Students were full of House spirit with the Year 12s leading the way as superheroes of their own House. The Spirit and Community Club were busy dusting students with their house colours whilst the Houses competed against each other for the honour of the House Shield. Congratulations to Wright House for becoming the 2021 Athletics Carnival champions.

We have much to look forward to in Semester 2. Term 3 kicks off with a bang with the College Musical performances of Guys and Dolls taking place in Week 1. Good luck to all students and staff involved in this incredible production!

Earlier this term, our Year 9 students were fortunate to attend the Gold Coast Careers Festival to aid in the planning of their upcoming subject selection meetings taking place in Term 3. Each Year 9 student will work closely with their mentor to complete the Senior Education and Training Plan, choosing subjects for Year 10 that are best suited to their interests and chosen pathway. Year 9 students are not the only cohort looking to their future with QTAC applications opening for our Year 12s as well as the finishing touches being placed on scholarship applications for 2022 Tertiary Entrance.

As we look ahead to Term 3, I would like to remind our students that the high standards set in all areas of College life, form the solid foundation from which we are all able to build upon. This includes ensuring their uniform is clean, neat and tidy, shoes are shined and for girls, a check that their skirts are of the appropriate length to their calf.  Haircuts need to be in line with College expectations, that is, short hair for boys ensuring the length does not touch the collar, eyebrows or ears (with no undercuts), and for girls, hair up and pinned back with College approved accessories where needed. Jewellery should only consist of a watch and/or silver or gold studs (no stones) for girls. The benefits of taking pride in your uniform and presentation are many and include improved confidence, self-esteem and an increased sense of community.

In looking forward to all the opportunities that lay ahead, it is important that we rest and recharge over the upcoming break; reflect on the achievements and challenges of the year so far and spend time with our families and friends. The holidays are an opportunity for us all to refresh and refocus ahead of what promises to be an exciting and inspiring second half of 2021 at A.B. Paterson College.
 
Charlotte Brook
Head of Senior School

As we celebrated the launch of our book, A.B. Paterson College - 30 Years in the Making (a year later, but never too late!), we were so honoured and fortunate to be able to welcome back to campus our Founders and past staff, families and students who wrote an article in the book, which each of your children brought home last week. It was a great afternoon of mingling and reconnecting with old friends.

A very special thank you to the many staff who assisted in putting the afternoon together, and to all of our wonderful student helpers and performers on the day!

Stories enable us to see through the eyes of others, and create communities. Our stories bring us together! It is often said, we will never know the value of a moment, until it becomes a memory.

We hope the A.B. Paterson College - 30 Years in the Making commemorative book gave you back a little piece of the past, and in doing so, we remember that in the end, we always go back to the people who were there in the beginning!

Nikki Ward
Director of Community Relations & Development

We know that a language-rich environment provides students with the best possible foundation to develop their literacy skills. Supporting a child’s language and literacy development assists and supports them to become strong readers, writers and communicators as they move through school and out into the world.

‘Language is the most powerful instrument of human progress.’- Maria Montessori

In a recent article, researchers Signy Wegener and Anne Castles, have explored the important interconnection between oral language vocabulary and learning to read. They have discovered that being exposed to vocabulary, hearing the pronunciation of words and understanding the meaning of spoken words can assist students to develop the complex task of reading. Their findings have suggested that oral vocabulary knowledge (the words we hear) can help children accurately identify a written word.  This is the case from the youngest student at the beginning writing stage, through to older students engaging with new texts or styles of writing in their Senior Curriculum.

The researchers used the example below to explain the interconnectedness between what words we hear and how we then read, write and spell them.

In this example, a child may recognise a ‘bird’ in a photograph or in nature. By discussing what kind of bird it is, they are exposed to subject-specific vocabulary and hear the word ‘finch’. Through their phonological knowledge and understanding of letters and their corresponding sounds, the child may then be able to sound it out in their mind and make approximations for the spelling of the word. They can call upon what they know about how sounds segment and join together to form words to have-a-go at spelling the word.

The researchers in this article then drew the conclusion from their work and the work of others, that when a child then sees a written word for the first time, they are more likely to read it correctly if they have heard it before. Simply, the more language they are exposed to, the greater opportunities they have to develop their literacy skills.

Maggie Dent, a well-known Australian voice about young people and development, has described the decline in oral language that is being seen in young children. Dent refers to research regarding the importance of the number of words that children hear on a daily basis and the long term benefits this provides to children. These words can come through social interactions in play, one-to-one conversations, or the sharing of books and stories. The conversations on long car rides or the discussions as you go for a walk in your local area all provide opportunities for young people to listen to and play with new words. They get to hear words in context, understand their meaning and add them to their vocabulary.

The English language is tricky and the task of learning to read and write is a complex one. Being able to read and write means being able to communicate and understand the world. It may just be that those conversations over the dinner table or the incessant questions on long car rides are the little things that help a child develop into a young person able to successfully engage in the world and be whatever they choose to be. 

Simon Edgar
Head of Junior School

References:

https://www.teachermagazine.com/au_en/articles/how-does-oral-vocabulary-knowledge-help-children-learn-to-read?utm_source=CM&utm_medium=Trending&utm_content=Literacy

https://www.maggiedent.com/blog/why-we-must-prioritise-play-for-todays-children-now/

STEAM is an educational learning approach which integrates Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics to guide student inquiry, dialogue and critical thinking. I have had the pleasure of observing STEAM in action across 2 year levels; Year 5 Japanese Family Unit and Year 2 Problem Solving. 

In Year 5 Japanese, students have learnt to introduce family members and exchange information such as name, age, grade, birthday and likes and dislikes. Whilst they have practised these topics verbally and in writing, they expanded their STEAM skills by incorporating robotics programming. They were instructed to drive the DASH robots to various checkpoints and record information presented to them at each checkpoint. Year 2 students were instructed to program their dash robots to do various manoeuvres around a chair. Students had to use their knowledge of directions, angles and measurement to complete the task. 

As parents you can help enhance STEAM skills simply by asking questions and encouraging children to be inquisitive. Involving children in projects around the house, such as interior design, home improvement and cooking help build critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity. Reading with children also helps build logic. STEAM projects are also an excellent way to keep the young minds active during the holidays.

I wish all the families a safe and restful holiday. 

Sara Bakanay
Deputy Head of Junior School: Pastoral

Service-learning assists students in developing an understanding of themselves as part of the larger community. Each year, Year 6 students participate in two service-learning initiatives which align with their Winton camp experience. The 2021 cohort decided to raise money to support the Save the Bilby Fund and donate their time by way of a performance for the locals of Winton.

Bake Sale:
Last Wednesday, the Year 6 students ran a bake sale and raised an outstanding $2,891.65!  This week the Year 6 cohort proudly presented Peggy Mucci, Supporter Care and Projects Officer from 'Save the Bilby Fund' with their fundraising donation. Peggy informed us of the current research and work the organisation is doing to secure a future for the bilbies. The 'Save the Bilby Fund' is a not-for profit organisation that aims to build an insurance population of 10,000 bilbies in Australia by 2030. 
 
Service-Learning Performance:
Our classes have been busy preparing our performance for the locals of Winton. We are looking forward to captivating our audience with bush poetry in the main street of Winton, just metres away from the first public performance of Waltzing Matilda in 1895. This year, we are collaborating with Gregory North, a poet who frequents Winton and is known for his renditions of iconic Australian poems. During this showcase, classes and individual students will perform classic poems by Banjo Paterson. We have been rehearsing a heartfelt rendition of Mulga Bill's Bicycle, performed by the entire cohort. We all believe the highlight of the performance is the big finale when the cohort comes together to sing I am Australian and Waltzing Matilda.

26 days to go!

Year 6 Cohort

Literacy is the key to success. It forms the basis of all communication allowing people to both express their thoughts and opinions, whilst synthesising the ideas and beliefs of others. By consequence this enables them to become ethically and socially responsible active global citizens. 

This year I am undertaking a Special Teacher Project - Assessment and Analysis of Writing, utilising Brightpath (Year 4 – 6). Brightpath is software which records the results of assessments and reports a range of formative and summative information to teachers. The data collected provides teachers with an informed basis for developing teaching programs specifically targeting the needs of individual students. It is based on over a decade of pioneering research at the University of Western Australia.

The Year 5 team have enthusiastically jumped on board to help explore how we can best utilise this program to drive our targeted and comprehensive literacy programs and teaching practises. At the beginning of each term, students complete an initial, or pre-writing piece which we analysed to identify areas of strengths and weaknesses which, in turn, informed our teaching. Utilising the Brightpath program to compare each piece of writing to a series of exemplars enabled us to identify specific skills that students are using consistently and therefore which skills they each needed to develop in order to drive improvement. 

The Brightpath program provides teachers and students with a series of 'Teaching Points' specific to each exemplar level. The specific nature of these 'Teaching Points' supports students to work towards detailed and precise writing goals that are individualised to them throughout the term. Their final piece of writing for the term is then assessed using Brightpath again, improvements acknowledged and further 'Teaching Points' identified. Year 5 staff are really looking forward to seeing how much students have improved in their craft of writing narratives during Term 2 and Year 4 staff are keen to start utilising the Brightpath program in Term 3 to support the teaching and learning of persuasive texts!

Caitlin Sterry
Year 5 Teacher

If it flies, jumps, spins or rolls the Makerspacers explored it this term. They sent Ooshies flying down ziplines, created tumbling toys, sculpted marble runs and raced rubber band cars! 

As part of the Makerspace program, students were encouraged to follow instructions to create a simple design and then adapt it and see what happens. For example, when making spinning helicopters they experimented with paper rotor blades. What would happen if they were longer? Shorter? Heavier? What if there were 4 or 5 or 6 rotor blades? It was wonderful to see them think about how they could make their designs better. My favourite moment of the term has to be when one of my Year 4 students looked at what he had created and whispered under his breath ‘Wow, Science!’

Why not join us next term? 

If you would like to register your child to attend the Term 3 program, please go to the following link: https://makerspace.abpat.qld.edu.au/

Any questions, please email Mrs Whittington (Year 5 teacher), GWhittington@abpat.qld.edu.au

Mrs Genevieve Whittington
Year 5 Teacher

Last Friday morning, 14 selected students over the age of 12 travelled up to Brisbane on a minibus. They then split into groups with eight students from Years 9 and 10 going to Herston, and six students from Years 7 and 8 heading to South Brisbane. Students worked together with the Ronald McDonald House volunteers to create hundreds of delicious chocolate chip and ANZAC cookies. After baking, the biscuits were packaged into bags so that they were ready to be distributed to the families of many children who have serious health concerns. This Service-learning activity was a heart-warming experience, as it gave us the opportunity to provide our support to people staying at Ronald McDonald House who may not be as fortunate as us. Whilst having a lot fun, our leadership and teamwork skills were greatly enhanced as we were required to work together to ensure we did the best that we could to help the residents. Even though baking cookies may not seem like much, I hope that it put a smile on the faces of sick children and their families, and reminded them that there are people in the community who care for them.

Niesha Garbharran
Year 10

Ronald McDonald House Charities have hosted around 2.9 million nightly guests since the first Ronald McDonald House opened in Australia in 1981. There are a total of 16 Ronald Macdonald Houses located around Australia. These Houses are a home-away-from-home for families of seriously ill children being treated at nearby hospitals, women struggling with pregnancy who need to live in a location close to a hospital, or even family members who would prefer to stay in a nearby House rather than a hospital waiting room. These Houses are all situated just metres away from major women’s or children’s hospitals. Some of the facilities that these Houses include are private family rooms with ensuites and common kitchens, lounges, quiet rooms and play areas. By volunteering on Friday 11 June, all the students were able to fully appreciate the volunteers who spend their time helping to run these services. Many people take their good health for granted, and being given the opportunity to volunteer at the Houses allowed us to fully appreciate our situations, whilst also helping to brighten the days of the residents living in the Ronald McDonald Houses.

Mia Maratos
Year 10

The legendary Mr Barry Voevodin - former long-serving A.B. Paterson College Visual Art teacher - is still inspiring students even in 'retirement'.

Take a look at his stunning commissioned artwork that now hangs in BSKT Cafe at Nobby Beach! 

BSKT Facebook page describes the piece as follows:

"A metal embossed skateboard created by the artist pays tribute to the old maps of explorers where X marks the spot... Beneath the skateboard is a ruler from the 1970s found many years ago by the artist that has pictures of Magic Mountain and accompanying Nobby’s tourism images.

The sepia oil paintings on ply capture the beauty and majesty of the breaking wave, seen from the perspective of being out in the water, a participant not a spectator. Several compartments feature aloha shirts owned by the artist, that capture the floral beauty of surf culture and paying homage to the leafy gardens of Nobby’s. From traditional eucalypts and gumnuts to the exotic palms and flowers that speak to the diversity of the area and its community.

Of course no homage to Nobby Beach would be complete without a reference to the bullock that legend has it created the name when he was found there having wandered away from his team in the late 1800s. This biro drawing on premium ply is inspired by the bullock, Nobby, his strength and resilience which are symbolic of the locale.'

Well done Mr Voevodin!

Congratulations to the 13 students who were selected to compete at the South Coast Regional Cross Country Trials at Luke Harrop Cycle Track on Tuesday 1 June.

The students were selected to represent the Hinterland District following their Top 7 performance at the APS Cross Country Carnival earlier in the term.

Well done to all students involved - achieving a Top 25 placing at the regional carnival is an exceptional effort.

Congratulations to Ashton, Liam, Hayden, Huxley and Jonas who have been selected to represent the South Coast Region at the State Championships in Ipswich in the first week of Term 3. All the best for your preparation over the coming weeks. 

It has been a busy end to the term with the athletics carnivals taking place over 4 days in the final Week of Term 2. Congratulations to all students involved, we had outstanding performances across 3 days and many records fell to our exceptional student athletes.

A big thank you to all our coaches for their dedication over Term 2, training will resume on the first day back of Term 3.

Please see below a summary of the results from the carnivals. A detailed report including Age Champions and record-breaking performances will be included in the first Illalong newsletter for Term 3.

Please find attached the latest careers update from Head of Pathways, Jeanette Maxwell, including:

• Apprenticeships and Traineeships
• Australian Defence Force
• Scholarships
• Interstate Study
• Universities Update

From The Careers Desk 16 June 2021

Congratulations to our Week 9, Term 2 Bumper Sticker Winners!

Brett Whitely

Lara Proverbs

In order to be in the running to be a weekly winner, your vehicle must be registered in the competition. Enter here:

collegebumperstickercompetition@abpat.qld.edu.au

Include you car registration number, name, email and phone number.

Collect your 2021 bumper sticker from College Reception.

Our lucky winners each receive $100 off their school fee invoice for the following term! At the end of Term 3, all of our weekly winners will be invited to an afternoon tea where one family will be drawn to receive FREE* tuition for their eldest child for Term 4 2021 (*tuition fee only).