O-News 29 May 2023 - Week 7

From the Principal's Desk

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to Week 7! Early next term, our school is due to undertake a full school review. Every Queensland school is reviewed at least once every four years. Our last school review was conducted in 2019. This process is conducted by the School and Region Reviews Branch to provide schools with independent feedback tailored to our context and needs. The review is also undertaken to ensure schools are actioning improvement recommendations from the school review team.

We have done significant work since our last review in 2019, the school is a very different school since then. From the strategic improvement plan implemented in 2020 which was  developed from our last review feedback and our school community feedback, we have actioned all recommendations communicated from the review team and have developed further actions to ensure even greater school improvement. During the past four years we have undertaken our own independent assessments regarding our school processes and improvement journey.

An evidenced measure of success is our accreditation by the Marzano Institute in the three levels of a High Reliability Schools (HRS) Framework. We are only the second school in QLD to achieve this. We are in a great position to undertake our upcoming review, where the review team will meet with leaders, staff, students, and families to get a full picture of our progress over the 4 years. It is an important part of the review process to ensure everyone is encouraged to have their say. Staff are currently undertaking preparation for the review which will take place between the 17 and 20 of July.

On another note, I would like to congratulate Ms Megan Herbert who has been successful in obtaining the principal position at Shailer Park State High School until the end of the year. Ms Herbert has done an outstanding job here at OWSHS and has led the junior school priorities with exceptional leadership. I wish Ms Herbert all the best in her new role. In Ms Herbert’s absence, Mr Silcock will now be the Head of School across years 7 to 12.

Have a great week,

Dan Murtas

Principal

Ms Herbert's final message

Hello to the Ormeau Woods Community,

This will be my last O-News article for some time as I have accepted a position as Principal of Shailer Park State High School starting today, Monday 29 May. 

I started at Ormeau Woods State High School in 2018 as a Senior Schooling Deputy Principal – the same year as the current Year 12 cohort. In my farewell address to them, I told them how proud I was of our school community and all we had achieved together in the last 6 years.  We truly have a wonderful school! Things like:

• The "We are Ormeau Woods" (W.O.W) Carnival in 2019 to celebrate the 10 Year anniversary of the school
• The Commonwealth Bank Partnership to support our Student Leadership Team
• Accreditation as a High Reliability School  - only the 2^nd school in Queensland to achieve this accolade
• The implementation of our UBAA structures and Responsible Thinking Philosophy to ensure we are a Safe and Supportive School for students
• Case management structures and a Health Hub precinct that supports the wellbeing of our students
• The introduction of ‘Innovate to Improve’ Staff Professional Learning Teams that allow our staff to model life long learning for students.

Most of all, I am proud of our student body and the positive culture they contribute to at this school.  I may be back in 2024, but in case I am not – I wish all our staff, students and parent/carer community all the best.

Kind regards,

Megan Herbert

Senior spotlight

Hello and welcome to the Senior School section

If you remember, in my last O-News edition I presented the table below, highlighting continued growth in senior school outcomes since 2019.

This edition will focus on priorities aimed at supporting continued student progress.

HRS 1 Priority: Senior Student Case Management

Through the Head of Department leadership of Tracy Kenny (Year 11) and Andrew Jenner (Year 12) 1:1 student case management has focused on:

• Student post school destinations: providing pathway guidance to support all students to get to where they want to when they leave school.

A number of students remain unsure about their options. They have been prioritised highly by the senior team for 1:1 career guidance meetings with Ms Linda Whyte (Industry Liaison Officer). Our aim is to have 100% of leaving Year 12 students in either further education, training or employment.

• ATAR eligible students achieving their required ATAR.

Tracking of ATAR predictions and partnership with Griffiths University has provided support to students as they aim their pathway to university.

• High performing ATAR eligible students with entry to medicine. Our aim is to support students achieve an ATAR of 99.00
• Individualised interventions to support 100% of students to achieve their Queensland Certificate of Education (QCE)

HRS 2 Priority: Formal Lesson Observations

I have been attending a variety of senior school lessons, observing students learning and teachers teaching. This has allowed me to understand and appreciate where our students are at, in relation to senior assessment, ways our students learn and how teachers scaffold and adjust their teaching to support learning needs. I continue to be committed to observing and providing feedback to teachers in order to enhance teacher capability in providing a quality education for our students.

HRS 3 Priority: 2024 Year 11 & 12 Curriculum Subject Offerings

Significant research and analysis continue to guide the strategic decision making of the senior school team as we aim to provide, in partnership with others, a wide scope of subject offerings that enhance post school opportunities. Areas for development include:

• Enhanced opportunities for school based vocational education and training (VET) at Certificate 3, 4 and Diploma, enabling all students the opportunity to access university if they so wish.
• Increased General Subject options, supporting more literacy bias students.
• Partnered opportunities through Distance Education and Northern Gold Coast Schools (Northern Collegiate) to increase student choice.

I look forward to sharing further progress in my future Term 2 Week 9 edition.

Be a part of Arts Excellence

Are you interested in applying to be a part of the Arts Academies at Ormeau Woods State High School in 2024.  Round 1 application's are closing today with round 2 closing on Monday 21 August.

For more information on AoDi (Academy of Dance Industries), DigiX (Arts Academy - Media Industries) and SoFa (Arts Academy – Studio of Fine Art)  please visit our school website: https://ormeauwoodsshs.eq.edu.au/curriculum/excellence-programs  or email: artsacademies@ormeauwoodsshs.eq.edu.au 

Choral Fanfare

On Monday 22 May the Ormeau Woods SHS choir and vocal ensemble travelled to Pimpama to participate in the Choral Fanfare Festival.Creative Generation Choral Fanfare (Choral Fanfare) is a biennial choral festival for Queensland state schools which promotes and celebrates school-based choral music programs. More than 8,000 state school students participate in the program which showcases the outstanding vocal talents in our state schools through performance.Ormeau Woods students were really excited to take part in the festival with both groups being awarded Gold for their awesome performances. They received fantastic feedback as they continue to grow as a group. Congratulations to you all!

SoFa students at Norfolk Village State School

17 SoFa students ranging from Year 7 to 12 travelled to Norfolk Village State School last Tueday to help with face painting at this years under 8's day. The Arts students were amazing with their creations and worked beautifully with the younger primary school students.Thank you NVSS for the invitation to be a part of your day. The Ormeau Woods SHS students had an fantastic time and look forward to coming along again next year.

Humanities and LOTE

Our Japanese department is taking the study of languages to a new level, providing innovative and               exciting learning experiences for our students. These include:

• International Travel – In April a very successful senior tour to Japan was conducted by Mr Morrison. Later this year, at the end of term 4, a group of 34 students from years 9 – 10  will travel to Japan for a 12 day tour under the leadership of Mr Urasaki. These tours give our students a unique first-hand experience of the culture, food and lifestyle.
• Sister School Network – Mr Urasaki is leading an online exchange language communication program between our year 10 Japanese students and our sister school, Koryo Gakuen, in Kobe Japan.  The students utterly enjoy the live chats on the big screen, where they exchange information with their buddies using the Japanese and English language. We see how they learn and how their classroom is set up and they got to view our learning environment. This is a great partnership being established!
• International Schools Program – As an accredited school,  our students and parents host students from around the world through our homestay program. Mrs Capra who coordinates this program, ran a successful visit from a group of Japnese students early in term one and is providing another opportunity for our students this term. If being a host is something that interests you, please contact the school.
• Education Perfect/blooket – The teaching staff (Mr Morrison, Mr Urasaki, Mrs Capra and Mr Bond) are well versed in utilising digital platforms and resources to enhance our students learning. Students are enjoying their learning and improving their Japanese skills in a fun way!

This year, under the leadership of our senior Legal Studies teacher, Mrs Fernandez, students studying Legal Studies have had some unique  and rewarding experiences outside the classroom, these incude:

• Year 12 Supreme Court visit and Legal Research Workshop
• Year 11 Queensland Police Headquarters and Supreme Court visit
• Year 11 & 12 Bond University Mooting Competition

This first-hand experience of contemporary social and legal issues and how the legal system in Queensland responds to them; places students learning in context thereby enhancing their understanding. According to Mrs Fernandez, researching law and analysing case examples is the bread and butter of legal studies students, while along the way developing a wide range of life skills.

Card pyramid - Year 7 v Year 12

Quick mental skills:A multi-player card activity that you can use as reinforcement for addition or multiplication. A fun activity where students are working in groups and collaborate.

Sports News

𝗥𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗲 𝗩𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝘆𝗯𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

Great to be back for Round 2 of Rivermount College Competition hosted by Rivermount last week. OWSHS showed that we had strong sides with both Senior Ormeau A boys and girls sides coming away UNDEFEATED on the night. Our Senior B girls showed that they have learned much during their trainings, looking very competitive, finding their chemistry on court on the night and also learning a few lessons from experience too. The boys intermediate A team are finetuning their game play ahead of the Intermediate schools Cup at the end of May, only losing to the senior boys. Highlight of the night for Ormeau was the head to head clash of both our Ormeau boys and girls teams respectively – nothing like a bit of friendly rivalry! It was a great night of performance, growth and smiles. It was clear that all students had a ball and are chomping at the bit for the next challenge.YEAH WOODS

Ms Ludowici and Ms Augur

𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗠𝗣𝗦 𝗗𝗔𝗬 𝗡𝗘𝗧𝗕𝗔𝗟𝗟

Congratulations to all the netball players who did any amazing job at representing our school at Champs day 5!  Our Year 9’s were our best performing team on the day finishing Runners Up to a very strong Calvary team. Congratulations to all the teams, you should be very proud of yourselves!

𝗦𝗧𝗨𝗗𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗦𝗨𝗖𝗖𝗘𝗦𝗦

Congratulations to Year 9 student Max W for his success in motorsport. Max is currently leading the pack for his class in the 2023 Australian Kart Championship, already secured two impressive victories at the Victorian state titles earlier this year.We are excited to share that Max has been chosen as the sole junior karter to represent Australia in the highly prestigious European Championship. He left yesterday for the Czech Republic to compete in the first round of the championship.Let's get behind him and wish him the best of luck for the championship.Stay tuned for more updates on Max's incredible racing journey! Thank you to Max’s mum for sending through this very exciting update and photos.

𝗦𝗧𝗨𝗗𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗦𝗨𝗖𝗖𝗘𝗦𝗦

Congratulations to Sam N for clinching the 1st place in Juniors and Jack E for securing the 3rd place in Junior Standards in the Queensland State Titles, Speedway Karting at Maryborough Speedway last weekend. Let's give a big round of applause to these talented drivers and wish them continued success in the future. Well done boys!

PB4L

Effective Classroom Management

Consistent and fair consequences

At OWSHS we place emphasis on prevention and positive behaviour support strategies as the foundation to effective classroom management. When corrective feedback is required, it is important that teachers respond consistently using fair, logical, and predictable consequences. The purpose of a consequence is to correct and teach/reteach; therefore, the provision of a consequence should always contain an opportunity to reteach the expected behaviour. To differentiate for all students and their unique needs, consequences are selected to fit the individual student, the specific behaviour, the context or setting, and the frequency and the severity of the behaviour.

When delivering consequences for inappropriate behaviours, teachers use the following processes to ensure students have opportunity to reflect on their current actions and choose an appropriate behaviour:

• Keep explanation of inappropriate behaviour brief
• Allow processing time for students to reflect and choose a more approbative behaviour/response
• Move away and monitor
• Use calm body language and facial expression
• Deliver behaviour feedback privately
• Provide behaviour feedback immediately
• Speak quietly and firmly with a neutral tone
• Follow up later if needed

Some core strategies we coach our staff in, include:

Prompting (nonverbal)

• Moving close to a student who is looking out of the window will likely cue that student to pay attention.
• Looking directly and questioningly at two students who are chatting can provide a signal to resume work.
• Putting a finger to your mouth can prompt a student to stop talking.
• Use of proximity and body language minimises teacher attention to problem behaviour and allows learning to continue.

Prompting (verbal)

• Brief direction to the task or restatement of the expectations
• Use a neutral body language and tone of voice

Parallel cueing & Planned ignoring

• Providing clear and behaviour/task specific positive reinforcement to student/s around a student/s who may be of task or exhibiting negative behaviours e.g. - If a student is slow to start work the teacher can say to the student who is seated next to them, ‘Good job getting started straight away.’
• This provides cuing for the students that positive teacher or peer attention will be given to those who are adhering to the instruction/rules.
• As an added bonus this creates a more positive classroom environment where positive behaviour feedback and learning are the focus (not the inappropriate behaviours).

Reteach

• When a student fails to stop problem behaviour after a prompt or redirection, the teacher should quickly reteach the expected behaviour
• Reteaching should be followed up by an immediate opportunity to practise
• When the student complies, specific descriptive feedback is given straight away

Giving choices

• When students continue not to follow class expectations, the teacher can provide a simple choice between a preferred and less preferred option, both of which are acceptable to the teacher.
• It is important that the teacher gives some thought to the choices and does not present the choice as a threat or ultimatum.
• The delivery of the choice is key here – the choices should be stated in a calm, matter of fact way and provide the student with the opportunity to demonstrate the expectation.

Individual conference

• Spend time talking 1:1 with a student about expectations for their behaviour.
• Reserved for when the previous strategies have proved ineffective in reducing the behaviour of concern
• Best done in private and needs more time than the previous strategies, although no more than 5 minutes should be necessary

Finance News

Thank you to all our families who have paid the Student Resource Scheme, Subject Levies and iPad Purchase Program invoices for 2023, or who have been in contact with the Finance office and set up a payment plan.

We strongly encourage families who have not put a payment plan in place, to contact Accounts Receivable on finance@ormeauwoodsshs.eq.edu.au or 07 5540 9222 option 4, to set this up.

Please note that if fees are in arrears and no plan in place, iPads in the Purchase Program may be disabled to prompt further payment from Parents/Carers.  Unfortunately, this can cause loss of data, so to avoid this action please ensure payments are up to date.

Further to this, if fees are in arrears and no plan in place, extra-curricular activities such as sporting events and overseas tours may be withdrawn, and non-curricular items such as sport uniforms and Senior Jersey may not be purchased.

Health Hub

National Reconciliation Week  |  27 May - 3 June 2023

National Reconciliation Week is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving Reconciliation in Australia. These dates commemorate two significant milestones in the Reconciliation Journey ---The successful 1967 referendum, and the High Court Mabo decision respectively.

This year’s theme encourages all Australian’s to be a voice of reconciliation in tangible ways in our everyday lives- where we live, work and socialise.  For the work of generations past, and the benefit of generations future, act today for a more just, equitable and reconciled country for all. 

IT Department

The IT Department have been receiving multiple reports of students being locked out of their Office apps.  Students only have one school account per iPad.   Students will be locked out if logging into multiple accounts on a device. Please do not let others sign in to Office apps on your iPad. If you do let someone sign-in, the worst case scenario is that we may have to wipe your iPad. Please don’t let this happen.

SCHOOL WIFI AND INTERNET NOT WORKING?

1. Restart your iPad

International Homestay

The Department of Education trading as: Education Queensland International (EQI) CRICOS Provider Code: 00608A

Some questions about Homestay:

Q. Can the students speak English? 

A. This may vary but yes, they will speak basic English when they arrive. The goal is to improve by having conversations with you!

Q. Can visiting students use public transport to get to and from school? 

A. Yes, they can, so long as they are accompanied by their homestay brother or sister!

Q. Does a Blue Card cost me money? 

A. A volunteer Blue Card is entirely free and should be held by every member in the household, over the age of 18 years old.

Q. Do I need to have a child at your school? 

A. While it can help with buddying up our international students, members of the community are welcome to apply to become homestay providers.

Winter Uniforms

With the weather starting to get cooler, this is a friendly reminder of our Winter Uniform policy. All school uniform items can be purchased at School Locker either instore or via their website.

Any student in incorrect uniform are to report before school to the Student Advisor’s office in Innovate building.

3878 Pacific Highway, Loganholme Qld
Phone: 07 3440 9710
www.theschoollocker.com.au

Tutorials

Ormeau Links - Community Business Alliance

Key Contacts

QParents

As new features become available within the QParents app, OWSHS are asking families to please signup to the app if you are yet to do so.

To start the process you will require a school generated invitation. This would have been sent to you when you first enrolled at Ormeau Woods SHS. If you no longer have access to the invitation you can send an email to qparents@ormeauwoodsshs.eq.edu.au and request a new invitation. (𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘭, 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘭 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴)

Within the QParents app you have quick access at your fingertips to information like -

- student and attendance details,

- behaviour information,

- report cards and assessment planners,

- student timetables and upcoming events,

- invoices and payment history,

- and online consent forms.

QSchools is also a fantastic app to have at your fingertips.  Here you can access school calendar events, newsletters, staff contact and receive important notifications from the school.   You can download QSchools at anytime, this app does not need an invitation to join.

General School Information

EARLY PICKUP REMINDER

Please ensure that if you know in advance you need to pick your child up early, that you send notice through so we can issue a leave request to your child to minimise interruptions and delays. 

Leave Request’s can be arranged at the office by both students and parents.  Information needed is; the reason for the early pickup and the time the student/s are needed at the office for collection. We can then issue a ‘Leave Request’ pass. Students can then show their teacher the pass, and at the nominated time come and wait at the office for your arrival.  

If the pick up is unplanned we ask if you can please phone ahead so we can have your child ready and waiting for your arrival.

You are still required to sign your child out before they can leave school grounds. 

Please call (07) 5540 9222 or 
Email info@ormeauwoodsshs.eq.edu.au

STUDENT DRIVERS

Any student of legal driving age that holds a current drivers licence who intends to drive to school, either on a regular basis or occasionally must comply with school policy, read and complete the Student Driver Agreement Form including parent/caregiver permission and return to the school Administration Office.

CARPARK REMINDER

Please use the designated drop off and pick up areas and parent car parking zones for the safety of all staff and students.  
Please be reminded to follow road rules at all times.  Do not enter the bus lane at any time, perform illegal    U-turn’s at the bus lane entry, or unsafe U-turn’s in Minka Lane.  We appreciate your support in making our roads and school safe for everyone.

Safety is more important than convenience.

QUEENSLAND SCHOOL CALENDAR

Stay up to date with all the term dates, public holidays and student free days across the year by printing a copy of the 2023 Department of Educations State School Calendar.

Wesley Holiday Programs