Dear parents and students,

Welcome back to Term 4. The end of last term and this term have provided the school with a great of success to celebrate and many exciting things to look forward to.  

In summary:

• Our Performing Arts students placed first in multiple categories and were recognised as excellent in nearly all performances.  Under the Lights – our Instrumental Music showcase, Arts Awards Night and Dance Night will be brilliant culminating events for the students in the coming weeks.
• Our Year 12s will be looking forward to their end of regular classes "walk out", their External Exams and of course, our Graduation Ceremony & Formal Dinner on November 15th.
• Academic Awards Nights for Junior, Senior and Academic Excellence are not far away, with Senior Awards Night in Week 3.
• Whole-School Champion House assembly is next Wednesday, one of only three times a year that we get the whole school together.
• The Open Rugby League Team won the National Title on the last week of school. A historical moment, and our school’s 4th National Title and first since 2018. It was great to see their level of sportsmanship and skill on the day.   It is also testament to the culture of the program that less than two days after the win, the students were in Fiji working with local Fijian students and communities in a volunteer capacity.
• All four male and female AFL teams compete in the state semi-finals and finals next weekend.
• The Touch girls competed in the All Schools State Titles last week with the U15 and 18s reaching the semi finals and the U13s achieving All School Champions! 

I spent a day hiking with some of our Duke of Edinburgh (silver) students last week. This long established program offers students a unique opportunity to achieve a subject's worth of QCE credit points for achieving a range of community service, physical and personal interest competencies.  PBC students have been using their Duke of Edinburgh awards (bronze, silver, gold) in their cv's, to achieve QCE credit and to improve themselves.

Please take the time to read the article about e-bikes and e-scooters and some of the changes to the onsite parking of these devices.

A reminder that we have sent out information on behalf of TMR regarding upcoming works and closure to the Sarawak Drive Pedestrian Bridge over Currumbin Creek.

GCCC have also informed us that the Boardwalk is also about to be closed for a lengthy period for refurbishment.  We will send those details on once we have them confirmed.

Bikes (including e-Bikes) and Scooter (including E-scooters) update

We have made some recent inclusions to our bike rake and school gate area to allow for better traffic flow in relation to student bikes, e-bikes and e-scooters. Below are some images of an additional two gates which will be opened before and after school.

With these additional gates, students will not be allowed to park or chain their bikes/e-bikes/e-scooters to the gates within our internal carpark. Students who do chain their bikes here will receive a warning in the first instance. Multiple parking infringements may result in further action including removal of the vehicle and chain.

Please be aware we continue to have safety concerns regarding the operation of e-scooters and e-bikes. These are causing considerable risks to both the safety of students and the broader community around our roads. Please ensure students operating these do so legally, without having a passenger and with safety helmets. Further information around the legalities of operating these vehicles can be found here - https://streetsmarts.initiatives.qld.gov.au/pmd/

All of this information has been communicated clearly to students on year level assemblies. We appreciate this messaging being provided at home also.

Chris Capra
Executive Principal