Instagram Icon to Fight Cyberbullying

This year PBC’s Middle School students identified Instagram as one of their most used apps.

Instagram has recently implemented new features to prevent cyberbullying behaviour and empower targets of cyberbullying. These include:

• an automated user notification when their comment may be considered offensive before it’s posted. This intervention gives users the opportunity to reflect and undo their comment, and prevents the recipient from receiving the harmful comment notification
• a new blocking system called Restrict, will enable users to block others without their knowledge.

The Education Queensland Cybersafety team advised students to google their name & delete any inappropriate images on their phones. Future employees may google your child’s name even for part-time job positions.

Parents should know your child’s password, check their content regularly and be a positive role model for your own social media platforms.

Middle School Student Leadership Selection

There is a buzz amongst Year 7 and 8 Middle School students at present as they consider who they will support for a leadership position in 2020.

The positions available are:

Year 9 2019 only:

• Middle School Head Prefect

Year 8 and 9 2019:

• Middle School House Sports Captain
• Middle School House Cultural Captain
• Middle School House International Captain

Speeches and interviews will be held at the start of Term 4.  We wish all of our students well on their leadership journeys.

Year 9 Work Experience Update

Thank you to those parents and caregivers who have supported their Year 9 children to find a work experience placement and return their paperwork to Middle School Admin.

Students have until the end of term to collect a form from Middle School Admin, make phone calls and secure a placement. All parents and caregivers have been emailed about this process.

PBC Year 7 2020

We are well into the process of organising classes for students who will start Year 7 at PBC in 2020. If you are the parent of a Year 6 student, please get your enrolment paperwork in now, so that we will be able to plan for supporting their learning. Only students whose paperwork is finalised by Term 4 Week 8 can attend Transition Day.

Meeting Commitments

The ‘busy end’ of the Term is upon us. It is a good time to check in with your student to see how they are feeling about their achievements so far this term and how they will meet the challenges that remain. While it will include subject assessment, demands might also include sporting finals, musical or drama performances and club activities, not to mention family and social events.

You can support your child by helping them map out their final few weeks – their commitments, deadlines and plans for revision and study. You can access your child’s assessment calendar at the link below. Breaking large tasks – such as preparing to write a History essay under exam conditions – into smaller tasks – maybe half an hour of practising writing out essay plans – can reveal how achievable the job ahead actually is. This in turn can reduce stress for students – and their parents.

Link to the Assessment Calendar: https://pbc-shs.eq.edu.au/Curriculum/Testingandassessment/Pages/Testingandassessment.aspx

Plan To Finish Well

Each day, students at PBC are challenged to ‘give nothing but the best’. To achieve their best, students need to be fully committed to their attendance and learning. In Middle School, teachers will be teaching course work right up to the end of term. When assessment is completed, teachers introduce foundation concepts for the coming term. For these reasons, please plan for your child to attend school through to Friday 20 September.

Please note that to maintain the integrity of tests, the PBC Assessment Policy states that exams are not to be sat early. If a student is forced by their commitments to miss a test, they will sit it as soon as possible afterwards.

After the holidays, school recommences on Tuesday 8 October 2018.