Friday 28 May 2021 represents Fatality Free Friday, a campaign launched yearly by the Australian Road Safety Foundation. The campaign commenced in 2007 and is now recognised as Australia’s largest national community-based road safety program. Throughout the course of May, students in Years 10 – 12 have received information and statistics about road safety. 

New road risk research reveals 84% of road users falsely believe that drivers make up the majority of the road toll. In reality, of the 1,108 Australians who sadly lost their lives on our roads last year, half were passengers, pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. 

This year’s campaign is centred around the devastating ripple effect of road trauma on families, emergency services and the wider community. The Australian Road Safety Foundation aim to bring awareness to the true impact of road trauma beyond the road toll.

The ASRF states that despite ongoing efforts to educate road users about their role in reducing the devastating impact of road trauma, new research reveals speeding remains the highest broken road rule across the country. Furthermore, additional research shows that jaywalking is the second highest road law broken, behind speeding, with almost one in three Australians admitting to the dangerous behaviour. The ASRF maintains that it’s not just drivers who are behind the wheel of road safety. Individuals have a responsibility to make the right choices when using the roads. By taking the pledge this week, we hope to support this important campaign at A.B. Paterson College, and raise awareness for road safety, not only as the driver of a vehicle, but also as a passenger.

At morning tea on Thursday, the Year 12 cohort gathered in the LPAC to take the pledge together and show their support for Fatality Free Friday. Taking the pledge and ‘choosing road safety’ requires a student to promise to:

• Always be fit to drive
• Stay focused on the road
• Scan the road ahead
• Keep a safe distance
• Drive to suit the conditions

If you and your family are interested in taking the pledge and ‘choosing road safety’ you can do so via the following link:

https://arsf.com.au/take-the-pledge-fff/

Charlotte Brook
Head of Senior School

Feast your eyes on the photos below to get a taste of the action from A.B. Paterson College Biggest Morning Tea, raising funds for the Cancer Council.

There was enough food for an army, with staff rolling from The Winton Centre with full tummies and wide smiles.

This special event was made possible through the efforts of Director of Positive Education & Leadership, Ms Kirton, the Staff Wellbeing Committee, 14 home bakers and Year 11 Hospitality class.

"Staff at A.B. continue to inspire me! Thanks to the efforts of the staff community, we have managed to raise $1605 for the Queensland Cancer Council!

Well done to each and everyone of you for supporting such a worthy cause. To the people behind the scenes – our bakers, decorators, clean up team, the Staff Wellbeing Committee – we couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you!" - Ms Toni Kirton, Director of Positive Education & Leadership

We must also thank a number of local businesses who generously donated raffle prizes, including:

• A $250 photography package by Lana Noir
• An organic gift hamper donated by Saba Organics
• Archie support flip flops (thongs) donated by Cassardi Shoe Studio Sanctuary Cove
• Meat trays donated by Ashmore Super Butcher

The morning tea was, without question, a huge success!

The Year 12 Engineering students have been building robotic devices to learn about design and programming. This is in preparation for their final engineering design portfolio, which will require them to develop a semi-autonomous robotic device that can be used in natural disaster zones. The robotic device must be able to interact with its environment whilst being used for either search and rescue, the removal of debris or the delivery of first aid kits and other necessary items identified by the students.

'Real world' speakers can add so much to a student's understanding of units of study, so on Tuesday 25 May, Year 12 Physical Education classes were fortunate to have Physiotherapist, Mr Dean Phelps, owner of Fighting Fit Physio in for a presentation in the DLPAC.

Mr Phelps is a respected and innovative therapist who has worked with athletes and community members in developing and optimising their best health. The opportunity to have Mr Phelps support students in preparation for their upcoming IA3 and External Exam Assessments for their ATAR qualification was met with huge excitement and optimism.

Mr Phelps conducted a live Q & A session on all things energy, fitness and training. The purpose of this visit was to provide Physical Education students with the opportunity to engage and understand in more depth and detail the concepts and terminologies specific to their IA3 and external exam assessments for Unit 4. These were covered in the presentations and the students were busy taking study notes for later application, evaluation and justification to provide for a more discerning response.

Students were engaged in discussions around specialised movement sequences and how to accurately gather data about their personal application of energy, fitness and training concepts. Mr Phelps also provided real-world examples and how this could be transferred to touch football, the physical activity under study. Students were supported in how to better analyse and synthesise the relationships between the energy and fitness demands of the touch football activity and their personal performance. At the conclusion of the presentation, they were given further information pertaining to competition-phase training in order to optimise their performance.

This is just the beginning of the collaboration between Fighting Fit Physio and our College. Mr Phelps is willing to continue to support the Physical Education students through further visits as well as live in-class webinars where students can engage with one another and Mr Phelps whilst working through their responses to get the best grades possible.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr Dean Phelps and Fighting Fit Physio for their support and we are excited about what the future holds for our students.

Mr Steven Mikael
Head of Health and Physical Education

Thank you to the large group of parents who joined in A.B. Paterson College Foundation’s first webinar on Family & Paediatric Nutrition, with presenter Mr Matt Hart from My Nutrition Clinic. The webinar was a great success! Foundation Manager, Mrs Stephanie Bryan has been so delighted by the positive comments and feedback.

The Foundation webinar series is designed to bring relevant and informative professionals to deliver specific sessions to our College community.

During the webinar, Mr Hart talked through ideas on how to fuel active children and spoke about key nutrients that play a fundamental role in promoting safe and healthy growth and development.

You can get a taste of the behind-the-scenes action from the webinar below. A full video of the session will made available to parents, via Parent Lounge, next week.

Thank you to My Nutrition Clinic, Mrs Bryan and our IT department for making the webinar series a reality.

Why worry about water?

Ask a Year 2 student what they have learnt about this important question as part of their Science learning this term. Students are using their inquiry skills to discover how to take care of the earth’s resources. With a specific focus on water as a resource, students are learning about the water cycle, that it is a precious commodity, as well as some ways to conserve water. 

Over the past two weeks, all Year 2 students went on an excursion to Hinze Dam and took part in the SEQwater H20 program. 2T and 2R were the first group to visit Hinze Dam on 6 May, followed by 2S and 2D who visited last Thursday 20 May. Students were able to experience how water is sourced, stored, treated and supplied. The students conducted water quality testing experiments and also learnt about desalination. Walking along the dam wall and down to the spill way were a favourite part of the day. Our students are now able to better understand and gather evidence on how they can make good choices about water that will benefit their future.

It was two huge days for Year 2 at the Dam. If you've never been for a drive to Hinze Dam, it is worth checking out. Make sure you take a picnic, with some lovely spots to relax. Well done to all students on displaying excellent behaviour whilst on the excursion!

Year 2 Teachers
Trent Davis, Daisy Ross, Kylie Schumacher and Donna Symms  

There was great excitement last week in Year 3 as the students made their way into the Elderslie Theatre for our Science Incursion from Big Bang Education. In Terms 1 and 2 the students have been discovering all about the different States of Matter and Heat. Brett Pearce made their learning come alive with a range of amazing and noisy experiments, much to the delight of the students.

They consolidated their understanding by being reminded that heat is thermal energy and this occurs when molecules are heated and they start to move more quickly. The students recapped their understanding from Term 1 when they acted out how molecules in different states of matter move. Solids have particles that are very close together and only vibrate or ‘jiggle’, they retain their shape. Liquids have particles that can easily move or flow past each other, they take the shape of the container they are in. Brett demonstrated how gases have particles that are well separated but expand freely unless they are stopped by a close container. There were some loud pops and squeals from the audience as the gases tried to escape their containers and pop off the lid. 

Brett continued the presentation with a series of exciting experiments using dry ice and chemicals. He carefully handled the dry ice and the students discovered an interesting fact; dry ice has only two states of matter – it moves straight from a solid state to a gas.

Mrs Hanley bravely volunteered to help with an experiment and was given safety goggles and gloves as this involved fire! Brett helpfully explained all the safety advice when carrying out these type of experiments and the equipment necessary, and reminded us NOT to do this at home. It was a great morning.

Year 3 Teachers
Leanne Clark, Taryn Hanley, Ruth Bradley and Samantha Middleton

"My favourite part was at the end when the ‘elephant’s toothpaste’ experiment happened and soft foam oozed out of the container just like gigantic toothpaste." - Aidan
 
"I loved the part where Brett used a blowtorch to make flames and he squirted chemicals into it so the flame changed colour." -Sophia 

As we get closer to the Interhouse Athletics Carnival and APS competition, a comprehensive training schedule is offered each week day and is open to all students in Years 4 - 12 to attend.

Training is offered in every discipline several times each week, including lunch time, before and after school.  

• Sprints

• Middle Distance Training

• Shotput and Discus

• Javelin

• Hurdles

• Running Club

• Long and Triple Jump

• High Jump

The full schedule is available here: 2021 Training Timetable Athletics Years 4 - 12

See you at training!

Matt Stopel
Assistant Head of HPE Faculty

When dropping by Prep M (Mrs Muirhead’s class) this week, I observed students performing an activity that was so impressive for this age group and stage of learning that I felt compelled to write about it and share my experience with our newsletter readers.

Our young students were given a task that was not only fun, but it required simultaneous use of multiple skills.

Students had to first use their active listening skills and understand multiple instructions given to them verbally. They were then asked to read the instructions and questions on a task sheet. Using their numeracy skills, they had to match the right question with the right clue card. To be able to access the question on the clue card, students had to use an iPad to scan a QR code which prompted an image to pop up on the screen accompanied by a cloze exercise (where students are asked to replace a missing word). Students had to read the cloze sentence and interpret an image. They would then handwrite the relevant missing word on the task sheet.

I was very impressed by the speed at which students were able to complete this task and the competency they showed moving from one skill to another. 

I commend the students for their efforts and Mrs Jo Muirhead for preparing such a purposeful multi-competency learning experience.

Sara Bakanay
Deputy Head of Junior School: Pastoral

Winner - Queensland School Library Week 2021

Congratulations to Calliope Kriketos (1L). Calliope was chosen to represent A.B. Paterson College in the 2021 Queensland School Library Week competition, where she won first prize in the Primary Artwork, Year P-2 division, competing with other students across Queensland.

Calliope received a $50 book voucher from QBD, and the College also received a $100 QBD book voucher to grow our College library collection.

All entries can be viewed on the QSLA website by clicking here. Please join our Library team in congratulating Calliope on her outstanding artwork!

Reading Passport Hall of Fame

The Lilly Pilly Learning Centre Hall of Fame has its first two recipients for the 2021 school year. Congratulations to Addison Lepelaar (1K) and Emily Wong (3H) for both completing the first of three reading passports. Their picture will be displayed in the Reading Passport Hall of Fame in the Lilly Pilly Learning Centre.
 
How can your Prep to Year 3 child get involved?

Prep to Year 3 students can choose a Reading Passport paper, either by getting a paper copy in the library or clicking on the link to the passports below:

Non Fiction Passport

Picture Book Passport

Chapter Book Reading Passport

Students then read a book from each box and have a parent, guardian or teacher initial each box the child has completed. Once each passport is completed the student will receive a literacy-based prize and will have her/his photo displayed on the Reading Passport Hall of Fame in the Lilly Pilly Learning Centre. When a student has completed all three reading passports (Picture Book, Chapter Book, Non-fiction Book) she/he will be entitled to a $25 gift voucher to put towards merchandise from our Scholastic Book Club and Fairs. All passports must be completed between the years of Prep and Year 3. For any questions regarding this opportunity please contact Stephanne Siberry in the Lilly Pilly Learning Centre (ssiberry@abpat.qld.edu.au).

Happy Reading!

Stephanne Siberry 
Coordinator Library Services: Prep - Year 3

Brisbane Premier League T20 Cricket Selection

Mitchell Parkes and Riley Tattle (Year 11) have both been selected in the U17 draft for the inaugural season of the Brisbane Premier League T20 cricket competition.

Mitchell Parkes was picked up by the Gold Coast Waveriders and Riley Tattle has been selected for the Moreton Magic team. There were 407 U17 players from all over Queensland who nominated for the draft with only 112 players selected in the eight franchise teams.

Mitchell and Riley have a few months of preparation before the competition takes place in the September school holidays.

Congratulations to Mitchell and Riley! We wish them every success in the upcoming season of this prestigious competition.

Ian Taylor
Director of Activities

Congratulations to our Week 4, Term 2 Bumper Sticker Winners!

Aisling Murphy

Felicity Gay

Your vehicle must be registered in the competition to be eligible for our weekly bumper sticker draw. 

Get your 2021 bumper sticker from College Reception and enter here:

collegebumperstickercompetition@abpat.qld.edu.au

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).

Refer to the flyer attached for more information regarding the 2021 Bumper Sticker competition.