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From the Executive Principal,
Another busy fortnight has just finished with three important weeks to remaining for term 3. Year 11 and 12 students have exams and mock exams in preparation for their next phase of assessment and learning. It is critical that the students are here each and every day.
I would like to thank the parents and students for fully engaging in SET Planning. We had record numbers of students and parents attend the careers night and the follow up SET Planning night. These important nights help establish a successful senior secondary pathway for the students.
As we approach spring, the local wildlife is making itself at home at PBC. A few bush turkeys and an increase in the number of curlews who call us home are busy building nests. This has led to a number of our gardens being renovated by our temporary guests. If you are visiting the school, please understand that we will reinstate our gardens after the birds have finished multiplying. I would also like to acknowledge our students who each and every day work and play around the curlews and bush turkeys.
Please continue to check out or socials for Eisteddfod results, sports results and other school events such as Restaurant Week.
Chris Capra
Executive Principal
CRICOS Provider Name: The Queensland Department of Education trading as Education Queensland International (EQI) CRICOS Provider Number 00608A
School based traineeships available – New Opportunities!!!!
New exciting traineeship opportunities are available for year 10’s in the Pathways Centre Y Block. Job boards will be updated regularly with new positions. Students can collect a registration form and apply now. Get updates on the student portal – New Traineeship VETis Tab
Get paid while gaining a qualification when doing a school-based traineeship and earn up to 8 QCE points!!
Already working!! Why not convert your job to a traineeship, gain QCE points, and gain a qualification in your current job
A variety of new traineeships are on offer with a focus on business, hospitality, retail, sport and tourism
Learn Coffee ! - Skill Set Course Week 10 11/09 – 13/09 - Senior student opportunity to gain some valuable skills, Espresso Coffee, Responsible Service of Alcohol, Responsible Service of Gambling & Hygiene Practices. All amazing employable skills. 3-day course, gain a possible 2 QCE points at a discounted price for PBC $240. Want to just get your RSA? Come for the day Friday 13th $50
Aspire4Life & Feros Care Traineeships: Located in Coolangatta Aspire4Life & Feros are offering Year 10/11 students’ school-based traineeships in Customer/People Services. Complete a traineeship while at school and be job ready when you graduate. More information in this bulletin below
Village Roadshow- Movieworld traineeships. To find out more, or to apply, follow this link: https://themeparks.com.au/training-programs Flyer attached
Riviera Australia Currently offering school based and fulltime apprenticeships Cert III in Polymer Processing (Composite Tech) Cert III in Marine Craft Construction Cert III in Timber & Composites Machining Cert III in Cabinetmaking Cert III in Engineering – Mechanical Trade – Fixed & Mobile Plant Mechanic Cert III in Engineering – Fabrication Trade – Welding Cert III in Engineering – Fabrication Trade – Surface Finishing Cert III in Upholstery Cert III in Furniture Finishing (French Polishing) Cert III in Electrotechnology
EXCITING NEWS AS OF 2025 RIVIERA WILL NOW BE OFFERING TWO NEW TRAINEESHIPS!! SBA & Full Time Cert III in Supply Chain Operations Cert III in Business – Administration (Finance) Email resume & cover letter to kbadke@riviera.com.au or come to Y Block for more info
Hospitality and Business Traineeships:
- The Oxley Village Grocer – Nobbys Village Grocer, Gelato or Restaurant
- Coolangatta Surf Club
- Paradox Coffee – Gold Coast Airport
- Schnitz – Gold Coast Airport
- Ambarella Fine Foods Burleigh Waters
- Dominos Pizza Coolangatta
- Hungry Jacks - Gold Coast Airport
- Currumbin Alley Surf School
- Colores Custom Cosmetics Coolangatta
- Wendys the Pines
- Buoy Café Nobbys Beach
- Kooco Espresso Bar and Kitchen Robina
- Mad Asian Robina
- Passiontree Velvet Broadbeach
- Coolangatta Pizzeria
- Ground Coolangatta
- Mexicali Nobbys Beach
- Illusions Magic Show
- ESD Easy Street Diner Mermaid Beach
McDonalds Coolangatta: Hiring now ! This is a wonderful opportunity to get into the world of work as a young person, Learn customer service, clear communication, work as a team member, Develop active listening skills and problem solving to complete tasks To apply visit https://jobs.smartrecruiters.com/McDonaldsAustraliaNewZealand/743999726174271-coolangatta-ii-qld-crew-member
Airport Retail Enterprises:
ARE manage many of the cafes, restaurants and fast-food outlets at Coolangatta Airport. They are looking for enthusiastic and energetic applicants for their traineeships. In this traineeship students will rotate through a range of outlets including fast food, cafe and retail. This is traineeship is ideal for students who are hospitality driven as the diverse experiences will equip the students with a vast range of skills and knowledge. Students must have availability to work weekends to apply for these traineeships
Skill Set Course Week 10 11/09 – 13/09 - Senior student opportunity to gain some valuable skills, Espresso Coffee, Responsible Service of Alcohol, Responsible Service of Gambling & Hygiene Practices. All amazing employable skills. 3 day course, gain a possible 2 QCE points at a discounted price for PBC $240. Want to just get your RSA? Come for the day $50
School based vacancies links:
Aurora Training Institute please visit their vacancy page: http://www.aurora.edu.au/schools-program/
First Choice College: Please visit their vacancy page https://fcc.edu.au/?s=traineeships
School Leavers should check the following links for fulltime employment opportunities
https://www.goldcoaststudentjobs.com.au/
https://www.busyatwork.com.au/support-jobseekers/jobs/
https://www.megt.com.au/job-board
https://novaskill.com.au/jobs-available
Fulltime/school leaver opportunities:
McNab Opportunities: One of Queensland’s largest builders, offering apprenticeships and work experience, leading to real opportunities. Visit their job board
https://www.livehire.com/careers/mcnab/jobs
Looking for a Trade?? Tracy from Gold Coast Trades college has many opportunities available for school leavers looking for a trade eg: metal roofer, painting/decorating, carpentry, tiling, Automotive & plastering. Please email your resume and industry of interest to Tracey Egan tracy@peopleperformance.com.au Or
Dean Weatherhog deanw@peopleperformance.com.au
MEGT Vacancies: Visit the Career Hub job board for a variety of apprenticeships, Roof Plumbing, Landscaping Construction, Soil Technician, Engineering… just to name a few
Visit this link: https://www.megt.com.au/job-board
Mas National vacancies: visit this link https://mas.jobreadygateway.com.au/vacancies
OSMAC are seeking keen YEAR 12 students that want to secure an apprenticeship in the following trades only:
Air/Con & Electrical, Engineering Trade, Plumber, Carpentry, Plastering, Painting, Cabinet Making, Shopfitting, Tiling, Light & heavy vehicle & Panel beater/spray painting
Email resume - reception@ogt.com.au
Grill’d Stores: Hiring now. Send email to recruitment@grilld.com.au or pacificfair@grilld.com.au>
McDonald’s casuals: apply via these links
- Tugun: https://smrtr.io/4LXdX
- Palm Beach: https://smrtr.io/4RX8W
- Elanora: https://smrtr.io/4LXbg
- Coolangatta and Burleigh Heads visit: https://careers.mcdonalds.com/australia
There are more opportunities on the job boards. Please come into Y Block to register
Love your current job? Would you like to turn it into a traineeship? Come to the Pathway centre and let’s see if we can create a traineeship for you in your current role.
The Pathway Centre is open before school and first break to apply for any of the above positions
Sonia Shreeve - Industry Liaison Officer
Year 11 Tourism Students Gain Valuable Experience at SeaWorld Hotel School
Thirteen Year 11 Tourism students from Palm Beach Currumbin SHS recently had the incredible opportunity to attend the SeaWorld Hotel School. Accompanied by Ms. Thomas and Ms. Langton, the students participated in a unique program designed to provide hands-on experience in the operations and skills required to succeed in a four-star hotel environment.
Throughout the program, students engaged in interactive learning sessions and performed practical skills, gaining a solid understanding of the inner workings of the hospitality industry. The program allowed students to explore and apply their knowledge in various key departments, including Housekeeping, Front Office, Concierge, Food and Beverage (covering both preparation and service), and Hotel Maintenance.
This immersive experience was not only educational but also highly rewarding. The students left with expanded knowledge and practical skills, better preparing them for future careers in the tourism and hospitality sector.
In a testament to their hard work and the quality of their training, all students were offered job opportunities at the conclusion of the program. This is a fantastic achievement and reflects the dedication and talent of our Year 11 Tourism students.
Congratulations to everyone involved, and a special thank you to Ms. Thomas and Ms. Langton for their support and guidance during this enriching experience. We look forward to seeing our students continue to thrive and succeed in their future endeavours.
Year 11 and 12 Aviation classes at the Pacific Airshow
We had an incredible day taking our Year 11 and 12 aviation students to the Pacific Airshow at Surfers Paradise on Friday, 16th August! They were captivated by the breathtaking aerobatic displays and stunts, gaining valuable insights into possible career pathways and the world of aviation. This experience showcased the amazing opportunities available to PBC SHS students who are currently completing a Certificate III in Aviation. A big step forward for our future aviators! #PacificAirshow #AviationEducation #FuturePilots #STEMinAction
Senior Secondary Guidance Officer – Steve Jones
Read the attached article for the latest information targeted to senior students of careers and pathway information.
https://pbc-shs.eq.edu.au/support-and-resources/guidance-officer
Senior Secondary Guidance Officer Steve Jones (Email : sjone79@eq.edu.au)
Autism is a neurodevelopmental difference associated with specific experiences and characteristics
For decades, autism research has focused on behavioural, cognitive, social and communication difficulties. These studies highlighted how autistic people face issues with everyday tasks that allistic (meaning non-autistic) people do not. Some difficulties may include recognising emotions or social cues. But some research, including our own study, has explored specific advantages in autism. Studies have shown that in some cognitive tasks, autistic people perform better than allistic people. Autistic people may have greater success in identifying a simple shape embedded within a more complex design, arranging blocks of different shapes and colours, or spotting an object within a cluttered visual environment (similar to Where’s Wally?). Such enhanced performance has been recorded in babies as young as nine months who show emerging signs of autism. How and why do autistic individuals do so well on these tasks? The answer may be surprising: more “neural noise”.
What is neural noise?
Generally, when you think of noise, you probably think of auditory noise, the ups and downs in the amplitude of sound frequencies we hear. A similar thing happens in the brain with random fluctuations in neural activity. This is called neural noise. This noise is always present, and comes on top of any brain activity caused by things we see, hear, smell and touch. This means that in the brain, an identical stimulus that is presented multiple times won’t cause exactly the same activity. Sometimes the brain is more active, sometimes less. In fact, even the response to a single stimulus or event will fluctuate continuously.
Neural noise in autism
There are many sources of neural noise in the brain. These include how the neurons become excited and calm again, changes in attention and arousal levels, and biochemical processes at the cellular level, among others. An allistic brain has mechanisms to manage and use this noise. For instance, cells in the hippocampus (the brain’s memory system) can make use of neural noise to enhance memory encoding and recall. Evidence for high neural noise in autism can be seen in electroencephalography (EEG) recordings, where increased levels of neural fluctuations were observed in autistic children. This means their neural activity is less predictable, showing a wider range of activity (higher ups and downs) in response to the same stimulus. In simple terms, if we imagine the EEG responses like a sound wave, we would expect to see small ups and downs (amplitude) in allistic brains each time they encounter a stimulus. But autistic brains seem to show bigger ups and downs, demonstrating greater amplitude of neural noise. Many studies have linked this noisy autistic brain with cognitive, social and behavioural difficulties.
But could noise be a bonus?
The diagnosis of autism has a long clinical history. A shift from the medical to a more social model has also seen advocacy for it to be reframed as a difference, rather than a disorder or deficit. This change has also entered autism research. Neuroaffirming research can examine the uniqueness and strengths of neurodivergence. Psychology and perception researcher David Simmons and colleagues at the University of Glasgow were the first to suggest that while high neural noise is generally a disadvantage in autism, it can sometimes provide benefits due to a phenomenon called stochastic resonance. This is where optimal amounts of noise can enhance performance. In line with this theory, high neural noise in the autistic brain might enhance performance for some cognitive tasks.
Our 2023 research explores this idea. We recruited participants from the general population and investigated their performance on letter-detection tasks. At the same time, we measured their level of autistic traits. We performed two letter-detection experiments (one in a lab and one online) where participants had to identify a letter when displayed among background visual static of various intensities. By using the static, we added additional visual noise to the neural noise already present in our participants’ brains. We hypothesised the visual noise would push participants with low internal brain noise (or low autistic traits) to perform better (as suggested by previous research on stochastic resonance). The more interesting prediction was that noise would not help individuals who already had a lot of brain noise (that is, those with high autistic traits), because their own neural noise already ensured optimal performance. Indeed, one of our experiments showed people with high neural noise (high autistic traits) did not benefit from additional noise. Moreover, they showed superior performance (greater accuracy) relative to people with low neural noise when the added visual static was low. This suggests their own neural noise already caused a natural stochastic resonance effect, resulting in better performance. It is important to note we did not include clinically diagnosed autistic participants, but overall, we showed the theory of enhanced performance due to stochastic resonance in autism has merits.
Why this is important?
Autistic people face ignorance, prejudice and discrimination that can harm wellbeing. Poor mental and physical health, reduced social connections and increased “camouflaging” of autistic traits are some of the negative impacts that autistic people face. So, research underlining and investigating the strengths inherent in autism can help reduce stigma, allow autistic people to be themselves and acknowledge autistic people do not require “fixing”. The autistic brain is different. It comes with limitations, but it also has its strengths.
Pratik Raul, PhD candidiate, University of Canberra; Jeroen van Boxtel, Associate professor, University of Canberra, and Jovana Acevska, Honours Graduate Student, University of Canberra.
Guidance Officer Anna Willis (Email : awill464@eq.edu.au)
Teacher Aide Appreciation Week
From the 2nd September until the 6th September we celebrate Australian Teacher Aide Appreciation Week.
This is a perfect time to celebrate all the wonderful work that our teacher aides do at PBC.
Youth Music Venture - China Trip
Whilst the hype of Olympics played out in Paris, simultaneously, a “Music Olympics” of sorts was also underway with the International Sister Cities Youth Music Festival in Chengdu China. With 28 countries performing, our Charity Youth Music Venture band kicked just about every goal imaginable!
YMV not only had the great honour of officially opening and playing at the Opening Ceremony of the Music Festival, but after two days of amazing performances, were also invited to perform at the Closing Ceremony!
The pinnacle of the event was being awarded a performance First Prize!
With 5 of our 7-piece band under 18, several never having been out of the country before, it's been an absolute eye opener and they've come back different people, for the better!
The band built great relationships with many other performers from countries around the world, even enjoying an impromptu jam session at a local basement studio under a freeway, with the band from Macau!
Many of those involved, as a result of meeting our team, expressed an interest in visiting the Gold Coast! They certainly did the Gold Coast and Australia proud!
Well done to all students involved and huge congratulations to Ian Grace and Youth Music Venture on a wonderful achievement!
We encourage parents/caregivers to email your student’s excellent recent achievements to us. These achievements can be in The Arts, sporting, academic or community service. We would love to hear from you! Please email us at news@pbc-shs.eq.edu.au with details of your student’s achievement and include at least one photo, and/or any links to media articles that we can share.
Tennis
Rugby League
Year 8 Renouf Shield Team
Congratulations to the Yr 8 REDS rugby league team.
The young REDS finished runners up on Tuesday to Marsden, going down 20- 12 in a tight match that could of gone either way.
This was a great achievement for this team who definitely have their sights now set on lifting the Yr9 Trophy in 2025.
PBC Alliance Industry Awards Breakfast
Our final breakfast, which just happens to also be our biggest networking event of the year, the Industry Alliance Awards Breakfast, will be held on Friday October 25 at the PBC Trade Training Centre.
This event will feature Mayor Tom Tate as our special guest speaker, with a few familiar faces appearing, in Neil Mackay and Kim Little from Aurora Training Group.
Not only is it a fantastic opportunity to make some great connections in business and community, but also a chance to acknowledge some of our hard working students who will receive their awards on the day.
We hope to see you there!
https://www.pbc-alliance.com/rsvp-breakfast.html
August 16 Alliance Networking Breakfast
Saver Plus Program
Camps are an amazing opportunity for your students. But they can be stressful for some parents to afford.
Saver Plus encourages parents to save $50 a month (for 10 months). Savings are then matched - a free $500 for education costs, making $1,000 potentially available for the school camp.
Families that start saving in July, will have their savings ready to pay their school camp fees in May 2025.
If there are families that don’t have students attending camp they may also still apply for the program and allocate the funds to other education costs.
Saver Plus will chat with your families about eligibility:
- Health Care or Pensioner Concession Card
- Payment from Centrelink and
- Earning an income (employment, carer’s payment, or child support).
If families would like to check their eligibility and receive a call back please include our enquiry link - https://www.bsl.org.au/services/saving-and-managing-money/saver-plus/ or they’re welcome to call our national number 1300 610 355 and a local coordinator will contact them directly.