Transition Day

On Monday 5 December we welcomed over 430 enrolled Year 7 (2023) students to the PBC community. Transition Day supports the Year 7s as they move from their Primary School to Secondary School. On Transition Day, students were assigned to their core classes and experienced lessons with their teachers. They were also introduced to their very first Inter-house Challenge. We thank the numerous parents who also attended Transition Day, as we understand that the key to a successful education is the relationship built between the family and the school.

Term 4 Reports

Term 4 reports will be emailed home on Friday 9 December. Please be sure to share the report with your child, so that they can receive important feedback on their work this year and set goals for 2023.

2023 Core Classes

The 2023 timetable has been constructed to provide maximum opportunities for students across PBC to study courses of choice, in our large and diverse school. Year 9 core classes are driven by electives that have been chosen and there is little flexibility. Parents should be aware that, with the exception of Academic Excellence classes, their child will be with a different group of students next year, and prepare to support them through this change. Coping with changes such as these are important for building resilience – an important quality for success in life.  While there is no opportunity to swap classes due to friendships, the usual range of support will be available to all students and their parents to help them through this change.

Good Luck Year 9

Farewell to our Year 9 cohort who are transitioning to the Senior Secondary Phase of Learning. Our very best wishes for continued success! A special mention to Mr Andrew Jordan for his work with this cohort over the last two years. For senior secondary this group of students will be led by Mr Jarrod Wells. 

Fight 4 Youth

During Term 4 PBC has successfully engaged in an 8 week program with a local youth centre Fight 4 Youth based at Currumbin. The program led by Leisa Logan focussed on self-regulation, life skills, respect and community service. Highlights from the student feedback included the weekly boxing, feeding the homeless and having mentor guest speakers.

Congratulations to our successful program graduates – Sari Bretagne, Oscar Fenwick, Billy Nichols, Kobi Rees, Mikey Robson and Jesse Townsend.

We look forward to continuing the partnership with Fight 4 Youth in 2023 Term 1.

Year 9 Dance News

From a Student Leader: 

3 years of memories, fun, games, and a touch of the '80s was shared by staff and students at the Year 9 Dance Dinner held at Currumbin RSL on Monday 28 November. The Year 9 student leaders worked collaboratively with the organisation and running of the evening where staff and students enjoyed dinner, dancing, trivia, and various games. The '80s theme and music created a fun-filled atmosphere that was enjoyed and shared by all. Congratulations to the Year 9 students for the successful completion of your junior schooling. We wish you all the best and look forward to seeing you next year as you enter the school ground as seniors.  

Year 9 Dance Certificates were handed out to:

• Jayden Locher – 2022 - 98.97% Attendance
• Julia Remington – Most likely to represent Australia in swimming
• Annabelle Harvey – Leadership and mentorship - Iris Auxilium

Year 9 Home Economics 

Seasons Greetings

In this, the last newsletter of the year, we would like to wish all readers a safe and happy holiday.

Our year 9 Advanced HPE groups have done a Leadership Unit this Term. This involved the students planning Physical Activity sessions to lead to younger students. The objective of the unit was to build up their confidence and skills to plan, organise, lead and communicate.  They were lucky enough to be able to lead the Year 4 & 5 students from Currumbin Primary over 4 weeks in Tennis, AFL, Touch Footy, Soccer, Oztag, Basketball, NRL, Netball and Dodgeball.  The Year 9 students have done an amazing job and have received high praise from both the students and staff from Currumbin Primary. This was a great experience for both the Year 9 PBC students and the Year 4 & 5 Currumbin Students.

Recording studio

2 years ago, we started work on refurbishing and updating our recording studio. We worked hard at renovating and sourcing the most updated sound acoustic panels, wall features and resources to maximise learning and performance opportunities for our Music students. We were fortunate to have the support of the PBC P&C in finalising some of the works. The students are ecstatic to be rehearsing and recording in a professional recording studio.

Mark Simpson with a team of his construction students have been instrumental in the completion of a much needed renovation of our recording studio in the Arts faculty. Mark and Chris Brown used their expertise and man hours to sheet the room, and install our acoustic panels, while also guiding us on the renovation process. They gave up their time enthusiastically and were always willing to go the extra mile to have the room completed. The Arts students and staff are extremely grateful for their efforts. We wouldn’t have gotten there without them. Thank you! 

GC5 Cluster Day - 2022

It was great to be able to go ahead with 4 out of the 5 GC5 cluster days this year. Here at PBC, we are lucky enough to be able to offer a wide range of sports and activities to hopefully allow everyone to have a fun, engaging and positive experience. For Inter School Sport, most teams travelled to venues around the Gold Coast and we saw some amazing school performances with engagement of students at an all time high. We came away with 9 out of 14 overall wins in the Inter School Sport Competitions which is an amazing achievement.

Other activities that we offered offsite included Ten Pin Bowling, Fitness and Lifestyle classes at a local gym, Mountain Biking, Indoor Climbing and skateboarding. Thankyou to our amazing staff for allowing us to offer these great activities to our students. Onsite we had many PBC students either taking part in school based recreational activities, enjoying arts and crafts or e-sports

It is a great opportunity for our sports excellence and creative arts excellence staff to be able to provide extra opportunities to our excellence students including drama workshops, yoga classes, musicals, travelling to other states to compete, training at High Performance Centres and learning about recovery and nutrition.

Next year Merrimac High School join our Cluster Days meaning we now become GC6 – more schools, more competition, more fun.

Student choices for sports/activities have already been selected via the online survey. There will only be one chance to change your sport in Week 2 next year. A slight change next year, is that all invoices for cluster days will need to be paid up to date prior to the first cluster day. If payments haven’t been made, then students will be asked to remain in school and join school based rec.

** incoming Year 7 students will be receiving an email with a link to a survey to complete their sport/activity choices **

Cluster Days Dates for 2023

Term 1 – Week 2 (2023)

** this will be the ONLY time to change **

If you haven’t selected, you have been placed in School Based Rec (Juniors) or Home Study (Seniors)

GC6 Round 1 – Wednesday 1 March (Term 1, Week 6)

GC6 Round 2 - Wednesday 26 April  (Term 2, Week 2)

GC6 Round 3 - Wednesday 31 May  (Term 2, Week 7)

GC6 Round 4 - Wednesday 19 July  (Term 3, Week 2)

GC6 Round 5 - Wednesday 2 August  (Term 3, Week 4)

GC6 wet weather back up - Wednesday 16 August  (Term 3, Week 6)

Please email your student’s excellent achievements to us. We love celebrating students achieving in the Arts, sports, academics or community service. We would love to hear from you! Please email us at news@pbc-shs.eq.edu.au or you can message us through Instagram or Facebook with details of your student’s achievement and include at least one photo, and/or any links to media articles that we can share.

Netball

Congratulations to PBC’s Isabella Brown,Taharnee Byrnes, Mila Rogers, Millah Stanley who competed in the Challenge of the Nations netball carnival for the Indigenous Aboriginal side.

Soccer

Congratulations to PBC’s James Durrington, Ashleigh Adamson and Oscar Myers who have been selected in the 2022 Queensland Schools Premier League All-Star Teams.

Cheerleading

Congratulations to Emilia Pountney, Nikki Bourke and Brittany McKinley Year 8, who competed in the Australian Cheer and Dance National Championship and Pinnacle (best of the best, bid only event). 

Emilia and her team from Mega Cheer placed 2nd in Australia in Nationals, and then 1st place at Pinnicle earning her the converted title of Pinnacle champion and a beautiful bling ring (NBA style). 

Brittany competed with a number of teams and these are her results: The Pink Angels team placed 1st place National Champions and Grand Champions. Code Black Open 2NT placed 2nd. Braves Junior 3 placed 3rd. Assisted Partner Stunt, 3rd place. Storm Hip Hop 2nd place. Brittany was also fortunately enough to be invited to participate in Pinnacle which is invite only. Brittany won two 1sts and a 2nd and also received a Pinnacle ring.

Taekwondo

Recently the 2022 National Taekwondo Championships were held in regional Victoria. Tait Cushing Year 9, a third Dan blackbelt and long term member of the Currumbin based Taekwondo Club, 'Hartmann's Taekwondo', competed in the 15-17yrs junior sparring division. Winning two highly anticipated fights in a row he headed into the final, up against the current Australian World Championship representative for his division.Tait clinched the win 10-7 in the last 30 seconds. Hi team couldn't be prouder. Congratulations Tait!

ABSTUDY

ABSTUDY can help support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students through study and training after high school.

Youth Information

The below link is an amazing tool for our youth that allows instant access to many youth contacts. Pass this website link onto your students, they can open it on their smart device then save to their homescreen for instant access, anytime.

https://taplink.cc/help.contacts 

Optima 2022 Yearbook - On SALE!

The 2022 Optima Yearbook is available to purchase! Purchase yours today for just $30 from the Uniform Shop. This year there is 150 pages of fun and colourful content! Messages from key staff, student leaders and house leaders. Photos, photos, photos and more photos of as many students as we could fit in. Enjoy stories from all departments and major events. Excellence Program reports, major events highlights, Champion House news and a Farewell to Year 12 gallery, memories and messages. There is also a PBC 50th Birthday celebration section highlighting all the fun had this year celebrating PBC's 50th Anniversary. The magazine covers all faculties, all year levels and all programs. DON'T MISS OUT!! Stock is available until sold out.

International Homestay Families Needed