Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Term 2 come concludes on Friday with the end of semester exams, assessments and competencies being finalised for Year 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12 students. School lessons continue right up until the end of period 4 on Friday afternoon. Over the past few weeks, our sports teams have achieved wonderful results with nearly all teams progressing to the next phase of their competitions. In the first few weeks of next term, most competitions will commence their finals and the athletics program commences. In addition, we celebrate NAIDOC activities in the first week back culminating with a full school assembly on Friday 16 July. Parents and community are invited to join in with this special event.

Over the holidays, the P&C have sponsored the installation of new filtered cold water taps in five locations throughout the school. Parent donations through the P&C Building Fund have been used in addition to direct sponsorship to provide these much anticipated assets. The P&C have also recently donated furniture enhancements to the library.

The new Sports Hall Precinct, which will be located down near the tennis courts, has reached the appointment of project manager and architect stage with shortlisted firms visiting the school last Thursday. We now anticipate that a builder will be appointed by the end of July and not long after building works will commence.

Vaping continues to be the most common form of student breaches of the Student Code of Conduct. I would like to congratulate the Qld Police Service and Department of Health who recently undertook a major operation in our area which put a dent in the supply chain to the students. Having the two government departments coordinate and react to our requests was brilliant. The school will continue to educate the students about the dangers of vaping, especially as new research is released about the longer term health impacts and we will continue to issue school disciplinary absences (suspensions and recommended exclusions) for students who possess / use and / or supply vaping products.

Chris Capra
Executive Principal

Year 9 Economics & Business Studies Market Day

It has been a very busy and interesting term for Year 9 Economics and Business Studies students. As part of the $20 Boss Challenge, each Year 9 Business and Economics student were provided $20 start-up capital from the Bendigo Bank Tugun Community Branch, to create and run their own business within a group setting. Students were extremely industrious creating products (goods or services) that addressed and identified issue/problem/gap in our local school community. It was an amazing opportunity for students to learn key aspects of producing and running a micro business. In particular, students were directly responsible for the formation, marketing, production and financial management of their own businesses. Furthermore, the businesses were required to be, environmentally sustainable and socially responsible.

On Wednesday 9 June, 16 student groups presented their ideas to the school in the Trade Training Centre, between lunch 1 and lunch 2. There was a fabulous array of yummy foods ranging from scrumptious chocolate brownies, delicious caramel slice, mouth-watering churros and amazing ice cream-creations to name a few. Additionally, students also staged a vintage, pre-loved bookstall; PBC 50^th birthday inspired bumper stickers as well as a gift range of succulent plants. The overall level of presentation and customer service was extremely high and this reflected in a healthy overall profit of $1,337.80. In particular, one group produced a massive $330 profit. Students are to be commended on their hard work and organisational skills. Overall, everyone had a great day! Thank you again to the Bendigo Bank Tugun Community Branch for supporting this program.

Gold Coast Changemaker Challenge

Earlier in the term Year 9 students from Civics and Business Studies had the opportunity to attend a one day workshop based on design thinking and innovation run by Young Change Agents. This workshop was the first round of the Gold Coast Changemaker Challenge and was a fantastic opportunity to encourage female students to consider STEM based subjects and career paths. Students worked in teams to identify problems in the world and created solutions to fix these problems. The groups then pitched their ideas to a panel of judges from PBC including Mr Griffin (Humanities HOD) and Mr Griffin-Matthews (Business teacher). The two highest scoring groups then had the opportunity to pitch their ideas alongside winning teams from other schools at the Gold Coast Changemaker Challenge Grand Final at Southern Cross University on 16 June. The two winning teams from PBC were Hydrangea House (Cass, Erin & Lauren) and Switchfit (Indigo, Kayla & Jaide), both teams pitched their business idea confidently to a panel of industry professionals and received great feedback. Switchfit created a prototype of an app that aimed to solve the problem of fast fashion through clothes swapping and Hydrangea House spoke about the problems LGBTQIA+ community faces. Their solution was to create a safe place for people to stay and receive support as they identified this is something that is currently lacking in our local community. Hydrangea House received a highly commended from the judges for their pitch. Congratulations to both teams.

Bethany McQueen

We, the Year 9/10 Drama Excellence class, have been working hard on our Scene Project and to aid us in our goal we worked with highly commended Jackson McGovern from Queensland Theatre Company. A two-hour workshop enhanced and honed our skills and increased our unity as a team. McGovern walked us through some exercises that strengthened our ability to read each other and work as one. He also helped us further develop our characters and step into their shoes. We all thoroughly enjoyed the workshop - the experience was enlightening and allowed us to bond as an ensemble.  

Layne Brown, Year 9 Drama Excellence

House and Care has been extremely eventful and successful throughout Term 2. Care has explored the ‘Why’ behind practising gratitude and its link to neuroplasticity and mental fitness. Students have then practised gratitude through various modes including journaling, Instagram posts and a Care Class term project. The projects have been amazing with classes expressing their gratitude through delivering baked goods, personalised videos, designing gratitude walls and writing letters. They have reached a broad audience including peers, teachers, the tuckshop ladies and our school cleaners.

The House system has had great participation from students in the following Term 2 activities: 

• Cross Country
• PBC’s Got Talent
• Instagram gratitude competition
• Scissors, Paper, Rock competition

Participation is key, not only does it mean that they receive points for their House but it also provides students with an opportunity to engage with their peers and teachers through different mediums highlighting their talent and embracing their imperfections.

Athlete Holistic Well Being

The REDS now have their very own website, www.pbcreds.com.au, dedicated to educating our student athletes on how to improve their whole person Wellbeing. Wellbeing involves feeling good, functioning well and feeling connected to world around us. Our partners, Leaders of Evolution, have developed our new website and digitalised our curriculum to provide students with wellbeing exercises that can assist them with improving their physical, psychological, emotional and social state.

Term 2 will see the launch of our first three modules Sleep Like a Champion, Financial Wellbeing and Think Like a Champion – Growth Mindset. A big shout to Dan Alexander from LJ Hooker Palm Beach and Coolangatta for their support and sponsorship of our Financial Wellbeing module. 

Term 3 will see two more modules (Think Like a Champion – Self Talk and Eat Like a Champion) added to the website.

The modules have been developed using resources developed by Steve Johnson from the Wellbeing Science Institute. For more information visit wellbeingscienceinstitute.com.

Thank you to our alumni in Abi Houston (Netball), Jesse Joyce (AFL), Tom Dearden (Rugby League), Abby King (touch football), Lizzie Forsyth (Surf league), Jye Gillard (Track), David Lonie (NFL) and Karla Gilbert (Surf League) who have shared their experiences as part of the video resources that make up the learning activities within each module. I would also like to publicly thank Bec Schatz and Shiiké Vanderwerff for all their work in the writing of their respective modules. Great job team.

News from the Murri Jarjum Room

It has been another busy couple of weeks in the Murri Jarjum Room! As well as our usual visits from Krurungal, Kalwun Deadly Choices and helping the girls with their assessments and homework we are also working hard to be ready for our NAIDOC Celebrations in Term 3. If any of our Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students would like to have input into our NAIDOC Week activities please see Mrs Apanui or Kylie in G Block Murri Jarjum Room as one of our amazing Year 7 students, Harpa Whittnall, is setting up a committee to discuss possible activities for the whole school.

ATSIAP Academic Challenge

Over the last 6 weeks a small group of Year 9’s have been working on four tasks for the ATSIAP Academic Challenge. This included working for one hour a week to produce a poem around the 2021 NAIDOC theme of Heal Country, a speech regarding Changing the date for Australia Day, an artwork portraying the message, “What does country mean for you?”  and a commercial for a new and/or improved invention. After lots of laughs and hard work all four tasks were uploaded. Well done to Shaylee Borg, Mackenzie Woods, Tayah Chilcott and Will Mann for your hard work and commitment. 

NAIDOC Showcase Display

In preparation for NAIDOC celebrations PBC SHS joined a large number of other South East Qld primary and secondary schools to set up a display at Cleveland District State High School. The display consisted of the bark paintings and dob sticks made by the girls at our Currumbin Valley excursion days as well as artwork created by Mackenzie Woods around the theme of Country. Thank you to Myrisha Bartman, Shaylee Borg, Tayah Chilcott and Mackenzie Woods who travelled to Brisbane to help set up the display.

Clontarf Academy News

Our Year 9’s trekked on a weeklong adventure to take place in our first Clontarf Qld Rugby League Carnival. Leaving early Sunday morning to pick up students from Ambrose Tracy College who we teamed up with for the camp. The students clicked right away and has a fantastic drive watching documentaries and playing bus games. We stopped in at Gympie for lunch and continued our journey to our first destination at Akuna Pikes Crossing Caravan Park. The students cooked up their own beef burgers for dinner, had a crack as public speaking ice breaker games along with starting their camp goal setting booklets.

We were up and out early back on the road to get to Rockhampton to cook up a hot breakfast at a drive and revive. Shortly after heading to Clairview for lunch and explore of the North Queensland beach. Clairview is a coastal town and locality in the Isaac Region, Queensland.

We arrived in Mackay mid Monday afternoon to set up camp with the other 24 competing Clontarf Academies in the carnival at Rowallan Park. Monday evening we joined together for dinner at the Mackay Northern Beaches Bowls Club before returning back to camp to talk around the fire and retiring for the night before the big day.

Tuesday morning and hot breakfast was cooking as fog covered the camp grounds for our pregame meal. We started the morning completing our goal setting booklets, presenting our jerseys and wishing each other good luck before we left for a big day of footy. Clontarf style footy is played hard but fair. We played valiantly against Woree SHS (Cairns), Kirwan SHS (Townsville), Trinity Bay SHS (Cairns) and Dalby SHS. It was great for our young men to see that they are part of something much larger than one Academy on the South Coast. They have brothers as high up as Far North Queensland and as low as Goondiwindi.

The trip home starting Wednesday afternoon through up some hurdles with our Academy vehicle having problems. We ended up staying in Rockhampton for two nights until we were back on the road. The boys enjoyed an action packed day off doing Tenpin bowling, laser skirmish, Mini Golf and dodgem cars. We played basketball for hours and got time to reflect on what an amazing time we had. We practiced gratitude by rehashing some great stories and made it home safely Friday afternoon.

Click the links below to hear the latest from PBC’s Wellbeing Team.

Senior Secondary Guidance Officer

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

Junior Secondary Guidance Officer

Attached is the latest article from our Junior Secondary Guidance Officer Anna Willis.

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.

QLD All School Cross Country Championships

PBC won GOLD at the QLD All Schools Cross Country Championships - well done to Will Fitzimmons, Bobby Kennealy-Flegler and Hunter Anderson(13yrs)

Also congratulations to our 15yrs Girls team (Sienna Bush, Emily Cahill and Charlotte Hart) for finishing 5th. Beautiful day out on the course at Nudgee College with amazing students and supportive parents. 

Massive Congratulations to our PBC Tennis girls, Ava Edmonds, Karissa Muir, Ebonie Russell, Lilley Treanor, Amali Zillman and Miya Ormes who made it through to the Qld State Final after 2 tough days of competition against the best players in Qld. PBC played Kelvin Grove in the final and after the singles matches were tied at 2-2. It came down to both doubles matches which Kelvin Grove went on to win narrowly and will now go to the National Finals. Going to the State Finals which is an U19 competition with such a young (but very talented) team and coming away as runners up is phenomenal achievement and one the the girls should be very proud of. They pushed the National Champions all the way and almost beat them! Bring on next year and let’s go 1 step further. GO REDS

  

AFL QLD State Merit Team

Congratulations to PBC's Taj Murray, who after playing for the South Coast in the U12s AFL team, who finished up 4th. Taj was named in the QLD State Merit Team. Fantastic result Taj.

Reds get Grateful

This edition's flood comes straight from the madness of Lunch 2 duty on the Junior Secondary Playground:

Mr Ashenden - Really good inside and out of footy

Mr Alidines - He’s always nice and calm

Mr Brown - Always helpful

Mr Jesser - He’s just an awesome teacher

Ms Apanui - Balances teaching and having fun in class. She genuinely cares.

Mr Lane - Really funny

Mr Robb - He Cares

Mr Morley - Underneath that beard he is a really good coach, nice and he’s funny

Mr Nicholson - Nice and fair

Zimmo - Really Helpful

Mr Jefferies - He really motivates me

Mr Clarke - Really Good Guy

Ms Condon - Always nice to me.

Ms Joubert - She’s a lad

Ms Murray - “She’s really LIT”

Mr Hurst - Definitely my favourite teacher.

Mr Nicholson - Makes learning fun

Mr Holland - Really good at what he does and caring

Ms Kimber - Helpful and nice and always stops to say hello

Mr Jordan - Always nice, friendly and fair

Ms Logan - Really helps me

Ms Cairney x3 - Excellent feedback, Nice, makes learning fun, such a good CARE teacher.

Ms Farrell - Always willing to help. She is such an amazing teacher.

Ms Gonzales - She is just like my other mum at school. So helpful.

Growing Good Humans

As part of our Growing Good Humans project we recorded 4 amazing young people’s story as video podcasts. These are raw and honest discussions about the challenges these phenomenal young people have faced very early in their lives.

The second of our PODCASTS features Harmony Conrades a recently graducated Year 12 student. https://youtu.be/CuGwO-mY8qU

Follow PBC on Social Media

Our social media accounts are the best way to stay connected with the daily happenings of our school. We will upload any important messages, reminders, student achievements and general action. With posts every day this a great way to celebrate our awesome school. If you have any news about your student that you would like to share please message us via Direct Message on Instagram, Messenger on Facebook or email to news@pbc-shs.eq.edu.au.

Instagram @PBCSHS

Facebook @PalmBeachCurrumbinStateHigh and @PBCAlliance

PBC Fundraising

The P&C have been very busy putting together a number of options to help parents and caregivers support PBC and raise funds for school projects to benefit our students. There is an option to suit everyone. Thank you for supporting our school.

Water Fountains

Our P&C would like to thank each and every person who donated to the Hydrate the Reds campaign. These filtered, refrigerated, twin water bottle filling stations are set to be installed around the school over these coming holidays. As promised, a name of one lucky supporter was drawn last night, and Jan C. won the free 12 month subscription to the Entertainment Book. Congratulations Jan! 

Reds Sports Towel

The PBC P&C Association have produced a fantastic 'PBC Reds' Sports Towel for our latest fundraiser. The towel features the PBC Reds logo and are a perfect size for all our students to use during their training activities. The towel has ultimate absorbency, is lightweight and quick drying and looks great! At just $25, these towels are available now at the PBC Uniform Shop.

The money raised through the sales of our Reds Towel will go towards more chilled water bubblers for our students.

Towel size 50cm x 110cm

Entertainment Books

Thousands of 25% off savings and '2 for 1' offers for health and beauty, shopping, activities and yes even florists. Purchase a Membership for yourself, give it as a gift OR share a Membership with your mother across multiple mobile devices.

Click here to purchase: https://www.entertainmentbook.com.au/orderbooks/14425k9

Dates to Remember

Partner Shout Out

Thank you to Peter Comerford and Liat Raibi from Tweed Sea Sports for being such wonderful long standing partners of the PBC Alliance. Tweed Sea Sports is a friendly professional dive shop that brings wealth of experience and knowledge to the budding diver and also the most advanced diver. It is a small but big family shop with safety, friendliness and fun at the core of the shops existence. Tweed Sea Sports have been sponsoring our Marine Studies program, helping students achieve their boat licences for many years. Peter and Liat are also parents of two PBC students. If you are ever looking to go scuba diving be sure to give Tweed Sea Sports a call and book in an amazing experience! Visit Tweed Sea Sports here: https://www.tweedseasports.com/

Business Directory - Online

If you are looking to support our local businesses and local community when looking for a product or service look no further than the PBC Alliance Business Directory. All the listings are supporters of our students and local so please support those that support PBC. https://www.pbc-alliance.com/business-directory.html

Partnership/Membership

Bond University

Gold Coast TAFE

Griffith University

Southern Cross University

Burleigh Bears Rugby League Club

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary

Dental Haus

Esportif Management (Nash Dawson)

Fraser Financial Services

Wilson Haynes Law

City Venue Management

Greater Southern Gold Coast Chamber of Commerce

SurfStitch

MRAEL

Platinum Realty

Visit our website for more information!www.pbc-alliance.com

Thrower House Youth Holiday Program

Creekfest 2021

Creekfest is coming up! Be sure to get along to this wonderful FREE community family music event that is happening Creekside of Currumbin RSL this month. There are a number of PBC students and ex-students performing at Creekfest on the Friday plus so many amazing acts to entertain the crowds the whole weekend!

Let’s get involved in NAIDOC 2021

NAIDOC Week, from 4 to 11 July, provides an opportunity for all Australians to come together to celebrate the rich history, diverse cultures and achievements of Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the oldest continuing cultures on the planet.

This year’s NAIDOC theme, Heal Country, calls on all of us to continue to seek greater protection for our lands, waters, sacred sites and our cultural heritage from exploitation, desecration and destruction.

Find out how you can get involved.

Kalwun NAIDOC Week Events 2021

Take 5, get out alive

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) firefighters put out almost 2000 house fires last year. To make sure everyone gets out safely, Queensland families are being urged to take five minutes to check their smoke alarms and make a home fire escape plan.

The QFES Home Fire Safety website provides resources – including a page just for families – to help mums, dads and carers create an escape plan with their children, including tips of how to make practising it fun. Taking a few minutes to talk about home fire safety may just save lives.

New laws to increase protection for children

New laws are being enacted to better protect children from the risk of sexual abuse. The laws, starting on 5 July 2021, will mean all adults must report sexual offending against children to the police unless they have a reasonable excuse. And adults in an institutional setting (for example, a school, church or sporting club) must protect children from the risk of a sexual offence being committed against them.

We the Differents – tips to survive exam block

Exams can be a stressful time. The good news is there are ways your teen can tackle them head on and avoid those last-minute cram sessions. It could be finding the right study space, taking short breaks or getting their body moving.

The We the Differents website has some great tips on how to survive exam block. Your teen will find a collection of articles to support them to find their different, know what’s on offer, get the right support and make the most of their education

Be aware of allergens

We encourage all students and families to be aware of allergens and anaphylaxis in certain foods, bites and stings. By working together, we can help reduce the risk of allergic reactions and anaphylaxis in our school.

Students should be aware of things that may cause a reaction for some people, avoid sharing food with their friends, wash their hands with soap and water before and after eating and help to clean surfaces where food is eaten or prepared.

Talk to the school about your child’s needs so we can all help to reduce allergens in schools.