A huge thankyou to our Senior School community who have recently engaged with a range of key events impacting students across Years 10 - 12. We recently had 1200 parents & students in at school after hours across both our Year 12 Futures Evening and our Year 10 SET Plan Information Evening. These events are huge and offer our students and parents opportunities to learn more about Senior Schooling and tertiary pathways. Thankyou to all of our families for engaging in this process - we wish all students, be they be selecting their post-compulsory courses or starting to prepare for life beyond Year 12 all the best with their endeavours. 

A special mention to our Year 12 cohort who recently celebrated 100 days left until their Graduation & Formal on November 15. Our Year 12's enjoyed a rare phone exemption to take snaps during the morning and it was a joy to provide donuts and hot choccies for such a special occasion and cohort. To all of our Year 12 families don't forget to keep your eye on your emails for further information in relation to timings and ticketing for the upcoming Graduation Ceremony. 

Good luck to all of our students across what is an incredibly busy time at PBC. This week we have many of our instrumental musicians competing in the Gold Coast Eisteddfod. With many students and staff competing across several categories across all days we wish them well. Similarly, many of our sporting teams are approaching knock-out rounds and the culminating finals of the GC6 competition - good luck to all our Reds! 

Key Dates 

Exam Shutdown
Year 12 commences Monday Week 9 (2nd September) - Friday Week 10 (13th September). All regular classes cancelled, with all General subjects holding Mock Exams and several Applied Exams - Exam Timetable 

Week 10 (9th September - 13th September) - Year 10 and 11 Shutdown - Exam Timetable 

Upcoming assessments: 

• Year 12 full shutdown all of week 9 and 10 (September 2 to 113) for Mock exams and Applied assessment.  
• Year 11 full shutdown week 10 (September 9 to 13) 
• Year 10 full shutdown week 10 (September 9 to 13) 

Note that as External exams will commence at 9:00am, PBC will have the same start time for Mock exams.  

Year 12 

Year 12s will be sent a cumulative report of their results for Unit 3 and 4 this week. This will be the last report that year 12 students will receive from PBC as final exit level of achievement and results are determined by the QCAA. 

The QCAA no longer mails out certificates and results to students at the end of the year. On December 18 they will provide a digital copy of results into each students’ QCAA learning account. 

All year 12 students should by now have logged onto their QCAA learning account in the QCAA student portal. This is accessed via the myQCE website https://myqce.qcaa.qld.edu.au/index.html. 

Please check that your student has completed this. They have been reminded on many occasions and sent emails regarding this but we can see that there are still some students that have not yet registered.  

Year 12 students have access to practice exams for all General subjects on the QCAA website. This should be used in preparation for both the upcoming Mock exam and the External assessment. As an example, the practice External exams for General Maths and General English can be located on the following links: 

https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/senior/senior-subjects/english/english/assessment 

https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/senior/senior-subjects/mathematics/general-mathematics/assessment 

It is expected that all students complete these practice exams for their General subjects in preparation for their External Assessment.  

Other Year 12 news: 

A short course in Hospitality will be offered to Year 12 students that do not have General exams scheduled on the last 3 days of this term (September 11 to 13). This course will provide competencies in Food hygiene, Barista coffee making, Provide responsible gambling services (RSG) and Provide responsible service of alcohol (RSA). The course will also attain 2 QCE points. The course costs $240 and students should register with Ms Shreeve in Y block by September 6 as well this link https://aurora.assessapp.com/webforms/162269/new. Students that just wish to complete the RSA on September 13 can do so at a charge of $50 and can register on the following link by September 6 https://aurora.assessapp.com/webforms/162301/new 

A final First Aid and Safety course will be conducted at PBC on Wednesday October 16. A letter will be emailed out regarding this to Year 12 parents and students in the coming days. 

 Year 11 

Year 11 students will finalise Unit 2 in shutdown during week 10 of this term September 9 to 13. 

Moving forward Year 11 students will commence the summative units for ATAR in term 4 of this year and will have their first assessment for Unit 3 in the last week of term 4. This will be a full shutdown in the week of November 18 to 22. 

The school commences Unit 3 in term 4, this is the last opportunity for Year 11 students to change subjects in Senior Schooling. 

A reminder that all students must have passed a Unit of English and Maths by the end of Unit 2. Students that do not meet this requirement will have to complete Unit 1 or 2 again in 2025 to be eligible for the QCE. 

Year 10 

All Year 10 students should or be in the process of finalising their subject selections for 2025 and 2026. This involves an interview with a senior teacher to ensure that students are on the appropriate pathway in Year 11.   

Year 10 students are again reminded that they are much better off commencing a school-based apprenticeship and traineeship (SAT) in Year10 than in Year 11. Please see Ms Shreeve in Y block for more information regarding SATs.