TRUE BELIEVERS

Please forgive me if I quote former Prime Minister, Paul Keating, “This was a victo-ry for the true be-lievers”.

Mr Keating was talking about the 1993 election win.

I am, of course, speaking about our Secondary Cross Country success for the tenth year in a row.

Our success has been built for so many years on great preparation by our coaches and students. We have worked hard and received the reward for that effort. However, it is fair to say that the other schools have not worked as hard and for some of those 10 years the competition was not as strong as it should have been.

That changed this year, with both Columba and BTC putting in great effort in an effort to stop our domi-nance. The students also felt a lit-tle like they were the ‘hunted’ and the weight of so many victories started to weigh heavily. Nervous “nellies’ like me started to wonder if the run was over, and I mentally started to prepare what I would say to students in dealing with the disappointment of defeat.

I should have known better. When Souls students decide that it is time to put the effort in, then they do. Our Seniors led by example and were great role models. One of the outstanding elements in the 10 year run is that the Open age group has always performed well, even though they may not have done so well as 15s or 16s. It be-comes a leadership issue for them. But our younger ones have also picked up the spirit, and in the 12

Contents Headmaster’s Report Page 1

Deputy Head Page 3

Dean of School Page 3

Dean of Students Page 4

Bush Ballads in the Park Page 5

Cootharinga NQ Notice Page 5

School Chaplain Page 6

School Prayers Page 6

Values Education Page 7

Career Education Date

Claimers 2015 Page 8

Cattle Club Page 8

QCS Test -

Who Should Sit It? Page 9

Sport News Page 10

Cross Country Photos Page 13

Junior School Page 14

Junior School Sport Page 16

Junior School Support Group Page 17

Come and See Us!! Page 17

Head of Boarding Page 18

Feetham House Page 19

Ramsay House Page 19

Page House Page 20

Alban House Page 21

Chad House Page 22

Becket House Page 22

Becket Slumber Party Photos Page 24

Out & About Page 25

Important Notice Page 26

Staff Profile Page 27

The Last Word Page 28

Headmaster

Issue No 7/2015 15 May 2015

Cross Country Captains Mitchell Drenan and Bianca Peace with the Cross Country trophies

years Boys division, our six runners finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th for a total of 129 points, which is the maximum possible score. Considering that we have very few boys in this age, that is a marvel-lous effort.

We may, or may not, make it 11 years next year. At this point 11 doesn’t matter.

But I do know two things. The stu-dents and coach Darryl Fry should be so proud of their efforts when their backs were against the wall. It is a victory to savour. And, when 2016 does come around our Souls students will not give up their hard earned title without a fight.

WELCOME In the last edition of Phoenix Rising I mentioned that we were looking forward to the arrival of Mr Ross Kelly as our Acting head of Man Arts/Design Technology. Ross has arrived after ‘hotfooting’ it from Vic-toria and he is welcome. It is great to see you, Ross.

We are also welcoming back Mr Ovidiu Trusca who is returning from Romania after his mother’s sudden death.

CATTLE CLUB RETURN Our Cattle Club have returned from Beef Week 2015 in Rockhampton very weary, but very proud of their efforts.

Wherever they went they received plaudits for their behaviour and commitment as they assisted studs, attended lectures and participated in numerous competitions. They even found time to chat with the Prime Minister, Mr Abbott when he attended Beef Week and asked them about the Beef Industry. They were also interviewed by the ABC and photographs about the “Day in the Life of a Souls Student at Beef Week” featured on the ABC North Queensland’s website.

They certainly have returned with some wonderful experiences and great knowledge.

My thanks go to Lionel Hartig for

his organisation, Jon Teichmann for keeping an eye on the students whilst he represented the school at Beef Week, and the McDougall fam-ily who put the students up on the overnight stop between Charters Towers and Rockhampton.

SEARCH FOR A NEW HEAD I thought that I should update the school community on the new Head of School search. Whilst I obviously cannot share confidential infor-mation such as names with you, I can provide the following infor-mation:

The Board of Governors has con-tracted Mr Mark Vincent (who has been a regular consultant to our school over 15 years) and Rev Paul Bland, a former principal of three schools, and my former Principal before I first came to the school in 2000, as their consultants to assist in the search process. Advertise-ments appeared in The Weekend Australian on 8 & 15 March and on the Seek Jobs website requesting that interested candidates should contact Patrick McHugh for an ap-plication package. This package consisted of a School Leader Pro-file developed by our Board of Gov-ernors and our Senior Staff in meet-ings that they had with Paul Bland. The package also contained other material on the town and the school.

21 potential applicants asked for a package.

Our consultant, Paul Bland contact-ed all of these 21 by email, provid-ing many with sample interview questions they may have found in-teresting as they prepared their ap-plication, and he had informal dis-cussions and meetings with a good number of these potential appli-cants.

Eleven applications were received by the 24 April deadline.

8 of the 11 applicants were from Qld, 2 applicants were from inter-state, 1 was from overseas. All 10 of the Australian applicants are cur-rently employed in independent schools.

PAGE 2 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015

Paul Bland and the selection panel were generally encouraged by the quality of the responses received.

The eleven applications has been reduced to a short list of four strong candidates and interviews will take place later this month. During this process, I will meet with the candidates informally and take them on a tour of the school. Partners will also be invited to ac-company candidates to Charters Towers .

After the interviews the panel will meet finally to review the inter-view process and make a decision. Final referees' checks will then need to be completed, before the position is offered, accepted (hopefully) and the name of the successful candidate is sent to the Board of Governors for final ap-proval, perhaps as early as the end of Week 6 of term.

Therefore, the Board of Governors is still on track to make an an-nouncement of the new Head, to-wards the end of this term.

Be aware though, that such time-lines are liable to late change. Ne-gotiations over contracts can sometimes take more time than one may imagine over minor mat-ters, and it is unwise to make an-nouncements unless complete agreement has been made and documents signed. There is also a protocol where both schools, the school the new Head is departing and the school that he/she is com-ing to, make simultaneous an-nouncements to their respective communities. This can slow things down.

It is a detailed, careful and deli-cate process as you can see. It is also time consuming. But the pro-cess is on schedule.

Please keep those charged with making the decision, and those on the shortlist, in your prayers and thoughts over the coming weeks.

Gordon Royall Headmaster

Sam Kelly Deputy Head / Academic Dean

New Staff We have had quite a busy start to the term again. In the last two weeks, we have welcomed Mr Pat-rick McCann (Maria Tanase’s re-placement) and Mr Ross Kelly (Terry MacErlean’s replacement). I am very grateful for two things: that they have now both arrived, and for the amazing “extra mile” support staff have given both Karen Storey and I in covering classes whilst we waited for them. I never had a snarl, or “I’m not doing this”, just true ASSG style of helping out when help is needed. Thank you, staff, and thank you students and parents for being patient during our waiting time. I am encouraged that both Mr McCann and Mr Kelly have been straight to the core business of helping students with their studies. Hard Yards It’s the start of the “hard yards” with students as many have started their assignments and larger as-sessment pieces. By now, all par-ents (via email) and students (hardcopy) should have received the assessment planner to help or-ganise their time. A reminder to all that my last copy of Phoenix Rising had handy hints on how to obtain academic help: teacher assistance, ringers club or night time prep. From time to time, teachers run night time prep support for their students that may need extra assis-tance or individual attention e.g. computer assignment time, Maths B support.

Teachers in their term communica-tions can sometimes give extra in-formation about timings for this, or parents can request time to catch up with their child via e-mail. Teach-ers do appreciate the “heads up”, especially with assignment work as some students can be masters at “looking productive,” but in actual reality have baulked or are stumped in one part of a question. Most of the time we as teachers can see

PAGE 3 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015

straight through this but from time to time we can be duped! We do appreciate the “heads up”.

NAPLAN Naplan has been and gone for an-other year. The more I read about Naplan, the more I get discouraged about why we actually have it. On the very first day, Mrs Akers (Head of Junior School) said that more tis-sues were needed for day two. The reason? Some Year 3 students were upset that they didn’t finish in time. What possible positive mes-sage is this test sending to small children? If this is what is happen-ing in our school that doesn’t place huge emphasis on this test, imag-ine the emotional damage this “snapshot” is doing to those other students in other schools who place quite a lot of importance on NAPLAN? The mind boggles. I am sure my Tola score from Year 7 has never been used. A Mars bar is up for any parent who can email me what the maximum Tola score was (you have to be a certain age to know). Year 10 Selection We had a very successful Year 10 student subject selection infor-mation expo during last week. I had quite a few students who were unsure about subjects make their choices after the day. Many thanks to Mrs Salisbury for organising this and the Heads of Department and specialist teachers who assisted students with information on the day. The forms are due by 15th May. Reports Teachers are busy writing Semester One reports. For those new to ASSG, end of Semester reports are sent by post during the holidays. The exam block will be in Week 9 with the alternate program in Week 10. Students are expected to be in attendance week 10. A reminder to parents of students in Years 11 and 12: we follow QCAA (Queensland Curriculum Assessment Authority) with regards to attendance and as-sessment procedures. Students

who do not submit assignments/assessments due to unexplained absences may not satisfy the re-quirements of the course. In other words, students must submit all work and be in attendance for the required hours per course (200 hours) for a grade to be awarded. Permission must be sought and granted by the school for changes to this. Permission can be granted by either phoning me on 0409 783 658 or via e-mail on: skel-ly@allsouls.qld.edu.au . Thank you to the many parents who have contacted me over the years about this. Mrs Salisbury will have the fi-nalized details of the alternative Program in the next edition of Phoenix Rising.

Dean of School Karen Storey

Communication As the weeks continue to fly by at an astonishing rate I am continu-ally reminded that the end of the semester is not far away and along with that, semester reports for all students. As the term rolls on and the increasing demands of assessments and extra-curricular commitments take their toll on some students it is perhaps a good time to remind parents that early contact and clear communi-cation is the key. If your son or daughter is struggling or needs extra assistance please get in touch with the relevant people early to ensure that a strategy can be put in place that will assist all concerned. By now all parents should have had at least one con-tact (either in person at parent-teacher interviews at the begin-ning of term or a phone-call, letter or email) with each of your child’s teachers. Please do not hesitate to get back in touch with these teachers should you have ques-tions or concerns about how your child is travelling. For Year 12 stu-dents this is particularly important

Deputy Head

as we are quickly progressing to-wards their final school report and the last written account of their strengths in a co-operative class (learning) environment. It is, there-fore, vital that what is written in student reports is largely positive and, of course, this can only be the case if that is what teachers are seeing in class. Should there be any reason to have concern for your child’s ability to produce work to the best of their ability it is essential that teachers are made aware of the situation early so that support mechanisms can be put in place.

Year 12 Futures Dinner One of the most enjoyable events for our Year 12’s this term will be the upcoming Futures Dinner. This occasion was established as a spe-cial ‘Year 12 only’ event designed to provide our senior cohort with op-portunities to speak informally over a meal with a number of successful businesspeople, industry personnel and employees and in the past has been an evening that the students have found this to be a very worth-while occasion. This year the Fu-tures Dinner will be held in Halse Hall from 7:00pm on Tuesday May 19th. I hope that the Year 12’s find this to be both an enjoyable and in-formative event.

It’s cold Having been in Kingaroy for the past 5 days at the State Netball Championships, I am now acutely aware of the fact that winter is al-most upon us. I would just like to take this opportunity to remind par-ents and students about the uni-form expectations for keeping warm. Please see a summary below.

PAGE 4 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015

We are aware of some supplier is-sues with the grey pullover jumper in some sizes. Students who do not have the grey pullover jumper need to communicate this with their tu-tor so that arrangements can be made for alternative jumpers until the additional sizes arrive at Ti-tley’s.

Dean of Students Shannon Lee Online bullying report goes live In 2014 the PCT (Pastoral Care Team) conducted a bullying survey and the results are being used to in our efforts to make ASSG a bully free zone. Two areas for develop-ment included; raising the profile for how we manage a report of bul-lying as 52% of students indicated they know there is a process but don’t know what it is and, develop an online reporting process to give students greater opportunity to re-port incidents of bullying to a mem-ber of staff. In recent weeks the PCT have final-ised the development of the online reporting system for students and the form is now live. By the end of Week 7 all students will have been shown how to use the report through their Lifeskills classes. Stu-dents will not only be able to make reports for incidents of bullying re-lated to themselves, but are also able to report incidents of bullying if they are a witness to incidents involving other students.

Reports are received by myself and the rest of the Pastoral Care Team to help with the situation. Report-ing students are given the oppor-tunity to select which member of the PCT they would like to com-plete the follow up interview.

A third area of development from the survey was the need for fur-ther education regarding exactly what constitutes bullying. Some of the results indicate there were a few misconceptions. This will also be covered in class but I have pro-vided definitions below for some clarification.

Bullying is repeated verbal, physi-cal, social or psychological behav-iour that is harmful and involves the misuse of power by an individ-ual or group towards one or more persons.

Behaviours that do not constitute bullying include: mutual arguments and disa-

greements (where there is no power imbalance)

not liking someone or a single act of social rejection

one-off acts of meanness or spite

isolated incidents of aggres-sion, intimidation or violence.

However, these conflicts still need to be addressed and resolved. Physical Bullying Physical bullying happens when there is hitting, kicking, punching, taking peoples' belongings or other acts that hurt people physically and that happen repeatedly (not just one time). Verbal Bullying Verbal bullying happens when peo-ple are repeatedly teased or called hurtful names. Cyber Bullying Cyber bullying occurs when people are repeatedly teased, taunted, or threatened through the use of e-mail, mobile phone, text messag-ing, instant messaging, or other electronic methods.

Girls Boys PE uniform with ASSG track-top and

track pants (old or new) is permitted on designated PE uniform days

Day uniform may be worn with black tights underneath for extra warmth. The jumper for the day uniform should be the grey pullover jumper or blazer, not tracksuit jacket.

The grey pullover or blazer only (not the tracksuit jacket) should be worn with the formal uniform

PE uniform with ASSG track-top and track pants (old or new) is per-mitted on designated PE uniform days.

The jumper for the day uniform should be the grey pullover jump-er or blazer, not tracksuit jacket.

The grey pullover or blazer only (not the tracksuit jacket) should be worn with the formal uniform

Students who have not been able to purchase grey pullovers will be excused the above conditions temporarily.

Indirect Bullying Indirect bullying mostly involves damaging another's social reputa-tion, peer relationships and self-esteem. Indirect bullying can include: repeatedly using hand gestures

and weird or threatening looks repeatedly whispering, exclud-

ing, turning your back on a person

repeated ly b lackmai l ing, spreading rumours, threaten-ing, stealing friends

repeatedly breaking secrets, gossiping, criticising clothes and personalities.

Finally if you feel your child is a vic-tim of bullying please do not hesi-tate to contact me or any member of PCT.

Ainsley Murphy

Rae Evans

Amber Aspinall

PAGE 5 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015

Bush Ballads in the

Park Kylie Kempster Drama Teacher On Tuesday 28th April, the commu-nity gathered to listen to dinky-di, true blue original Aussie bush bal-lads in Centenary Park as part of the Ten Days in the Towers event organised by Gold City Lions. Amber Aspinall, Charlee Keleher, Thea McMahon, Adam Hensley, Ainsley Murphy, Rae Evans and Patrick Washington entertained an appreciative audience, accompa-nied by the smooth vocals and gui-tar of Jack McDougall. The stu-dents were then repaid with the most valued currency among growing teens – great food! We finished the evening with delicious corned beef and damper before washing it all down with billy tea (or Coke as taste dictated). Thanks to the Gold City Lions for allowing us to showcase the stu-pendous talents of our students.

Thea McMahon

Patrick Washington

NOTICE Cootharinga NQ - Allied Health Outreach Service

Cootharinga North Queens-land has been assisting indi-viduals, with the provision of specialised services, across North Queensland since 1951. Our Allied Health Service consists of a team of dedicat-ed professionals delivering both Speech and Occupation-al Therapy. We are currently exploring the option of extending our outreach services to include Charters Towers and dis-tricts. Initially our outreach team will provide Paediatric Occu-pational Therapy to children via group or individual ses-sions. If you are interested in regis-tering your child to receive Occupational Therapy please call Michelle Cakalic, details below, to register your inter-est. Contact Deails: Michelle Cakalic Co-ordinator Allied Health Service Phone: 07 4759 2060 Email: michelle.cakalic@cootharinga.org.au

Charlee Keleher

Adam Hensley

mailto:michelle.cakalic@cootharinga.org.au

School PrayersSchool Prayers

Dean of School

School Chaplain Br Nathan-James SSF

Honour one another above yourselves The Apostle Paul would write letters of encouragement and admonition to churches he was affiliated with in Rome, Corinth, Ephesus and oth-ers. One of the issues he addressed was a concern for the way the Christians in those places treated one another as members of the body of Christ, the church. He en-couraged them to show honour and ‘brotherly love’ towards one anoth-er. ‘Love’ for the other was viewed as the highest ideal in the teach-ings of Jesus. This of course was not new nor was it confined to Christian circles. However, even op-ponents of the Jesus movement re-marked at how well Christians cared for each other, especially in their concern and care for widows, orphans, and those in need. The school is founded on the princi-ple of viewing service to others as an important ideal. Indeed, as I have said before, Bishop Feetham viewed education, in its holistic sense of mind, body and spirit, not for the gain of the individual but for the gain of the community that stu-dents would belong to. That is, he hoped that providing a holistic edu-cation and forming students within the context of spiritual discipline would produce quality graduates who would become valuable con-tributors to society and advance the human endeavour. Feetham be-lieved that by teaching students to think of others first they would be agents of change to a world that had been experiencing great dis-trust, anger and conflict. As a general observation I think our students do very well at showing their concern and care for others. Indeed, there are particular mo-ments when our students especially shine; one only has to look at the way in which the student body pre-

PAGE 6 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015

sented themselves at the recent ANZAC Day commemorations to see this. They pushed through the hours of marching practice and en-dured the long warm service to show a very high level of respect for those whose lives had been lost in service to their country. Even as I marched alongside students on the day I heard so many positive comments coming from the on-lookers about how well the stu-dents looked and the wonder of how the school was able to achieve such a high standard. I wanted to say, that it’s because when it comes to the crunch, our students know when to ‘rise to the occasion’. There are, however, small expres-sions of what could be described as a lack of thought or concern for the other that I think we can work on as school body. I don’t believe that I am talking about malicious intent to harm or cause distress to another, these instances thankfully are rare. I’m referring to those who think in their own mind that they are playing a joke on another person but clearly the other does not see it as a joke. Or when eat-ing and living areas are left in dis-array because ‘someone else will do it’ – leaving the ‘some’ to be al-ways looking after the ‘other’. I’m also talking about when staff put in a great effort to prepare classes, run tutoring sessions or lead extra-curricular activities only to me met with contempt and ‘moody teenag-ers’ who seem to lack a sense of thankfulness or courtesy. In the wide scheme of things we do well as a school community. I have friends who work in schools that can be veritable battle zones. However, I don’t think we can be-come complacent. As it has been said before, the standard we walk past is the standard we accept. Let us continually strive to honour one another above our selves.

In our thoughts and

prayers; We pray for candi-

dates for the posi-

tion of Head of

School for 2016 and

members of the

Board of Governors

charged with the re-

sponsibility of dis-

cerning the ap-

pointment.

We give thanks for

the success of our re-

cent representation

at Beef Week and

positive moves by

the government to

recognise and re-

spond to the needs

of struggling bush

communities.

We give thanks to

each other, may we

always show a spirit

of respect and hon-

our for one another.

We pray for all in

sickness and grief,

may they be com-

forted.

Values Education Barbara Salisbury Head of Values Education Self-Esteem All Year 8 and Year 10 students en-joyed an informative presentation with Katie Dunlop and Kaylee Cum-ming from the Charters Towers Neighbourhood Centre. Katie and Kaylee easily related to the students and shared important messages about body images and how the media can portray unrealistic imag-es of how we would like to look.

IMPORTANT – LAST WEEK OF TERM The last week of Term 2 is very im-portant for our career aspirations program. I can understand boarders keen to get home for holidays, but this is the ideal time for us to run these alternative programs. Time and time again we witness student’s higher commitment to their studies when they are aware of the require-ments for future training or employ-ment. It is through our career aspi-rations program that student’s learn enough to make an informed choice about their future and are inspired to set goals. A timetable of the week will be in the next Phoenix, below is what is planned for Year 11 and 12 students so far. Short Courses We have organised two courses for our Year 11 and Year 12 students. The Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA) 1 day course will be run by TAFE and cost $75. The First Aid Course will be run at School with a cost of about $50, with the finer de-tails still being finalised. Permission

PAGE 7 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015

letters explaining the courses in de-tail will be emailed to parents, plus handed to interested Year 11 and 12 students. This is a great oppor-tunity to gain useful skills and valu-able certificates for their career portfolio. Mock Job Interviews Year 11s spend Term 2 preparing for their Mock Job Interview in Week 10. Being confident and pre-pared for a job interview will serve them well in the current competi-tive job market. Each student re-searches jobs of interest, prepares an application letter and resume, plus practices answering interview questions. On the day, students must wear appropriate clothes for an interview. We have a team of business people who then conduct the interviews and provide feed-back to students. In 2014, all Year 11s appreciated this opportunity to practice some very important skills for their future. QCS Test Practice Year 12 OP eligible students will be doing a complete practice run of the QCS Test. It is critical that all students attend this. Students are given 2014 papers and then these are marked. Ian Dietrich will pro-vide individual guidance to students on how they can improve for the real thing in September. QTAC Application Process Applying to University is part of most students’ career plan, wheth-er it be the first option or the back-up plan. The Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre (QTAC) is the central body who manages all the applications and it is important that students understand the process. Applications are due in Term 3 which is a very busy term, so the end of Term 2 is the best time for us to explain this so students have time to think over their options while at home on holidays. Smart Futures 4 North Queensland On Thursday our Year 10 students found the SF4NQ Careers Expo in

Townsville very informative with its trade focus. Many organisations make an extra effort to have inter-active displays which really helps keep students interest. We took part in the ‘Skills on Show Chal-lenge’ and had the best time of 1 min 46 sec at 10.45am, so I’m not sure if we won this trophy but they took a photo just in case!

Subject Selection On Friday the Year 10s heard from each Head of Department about the subject offerings for Semester 2. Students made the most of the opportunity to then choose 5 ses-sions to learn more detail about senior subjects of interest to them. By the time you read this they should all have their subject selec-tion forms in.

Date Event Year Tue 19 May (evening)

Futures Dinner – variety of business people join our Yr 12s for dinner

Year 12

22-23 June (2 days)

QCS Test Practice - Extremely important complete practice run at PCYC

Year 12 OP

22-23 June

Mock Job Interviews Year 11, Year 12 English Com

Mon 22 June

Year 9 Career Aspira-tions- Went to JCU in Year 8, one day pro-gram at ASSG with ac-tivities run by JCU stu-dent ambassadors.

Year 9

22/23 June

Year 8 Career Aspira-tions Two day program, one day at ASSG, other day at JCU.

Year 8

Wed 24 June (8.30-12.30)

QTAC application pro-cess presentation

Year 12

July Holidays (TBC)

Year 10 Get into Uni Camp

4 places available

13-15 July (3 days)

University Experience at JCU – great oppor-tunity for students to take a closer look at 3 courses of interest to help them decide.

Interested Year 11 or 12

Wed 22 July

DTTC Careers Expo Year 7-10, interested Year 11/12

Late August

JCU Open Day Int Yr10-12s

Career Education Date Claimers 2015

Please look over the calendar for upcoming events these holidays and for Term 3. The Year 10 camp is still being finalised by JCU, but full de-tails are available for the Year 11 and 12 Camp.

Yr 11 and 12 Camp at JCU Year 11 and Year 12 parents will be emailed shortly with detailed infor-mation about the JCU Experience

being held July 13th to 15th at a cost of $150. This is a fantastic oppor-tunity for students to learn details about courses that interest them and really helps in decisions about future study. We have many attend that are in two minds about going to University at all. Most return feeling more confident about what they plan to do and have a sense of relief as they cross things off their possibility list.

PAGE 8 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015

Cattle Club Jessica Lusk Rural Activities Prefect As I write this we all have arrived safe and sound back from Beef Week. Needless to say it was an amazing week in which we all had an unforgettable experience. We went from judging competitions to working with various professional stud cattle breeders and exhibitors. From a handlers competition to the trade fair full of the new, emerging technology beholding our industry. We came away from the entire week with a third in one age group of cattle judging, even though sev-eral made the top ten as well as memories and knowledge that will stick with us forever. After leaving Beef Week we travelled to a place not far from Emerald named Goonoo. We visited and toured the feedlot, looking over the thousands of Wagyu cattle currently being fattened there. Our tour guide, a Filippino man who had been in the business for around 10 years, gave us a great insight into the specifics that go into running such a suc-cessful operation as well as some great life advice that left an impact on all of us and definitely gave us

all a little bit to think about. This is just a brief overview of what we got up to and a full report plus photos will be in the next newslet-ter. Next weekend on the 22nd May, Cattle Club will be taking a small cohort up to the Malanda Judging School to further our knowledge in judging and showing. It will be a new experience for most of our group who have never attended the school or attempted judging and showing. Several older stu-dents will also be attending to fur-ther their own experience. With Winton show also coming up, there are some exciting weeks ahead!

QCS Test – Who should sit?

Background The education system in Queensland relies heavily upon reviewed school-based assessment and teacher judgement in the calcula-tion of final subject results. This is in comparison to southern states relying upon a mixture of school-based assessment and sepa-rate subject external examinations. For the Queensland system to keep its integrity, not only does it rely upon external moderation and review of school-based subject results, there is also a common external test of core skills that should have been acquired throughout 10 years of schooling and re-fined in the senior phase of learning. This is known as the Queensland Core Skills Test (QCST). The test is made up of four separate papers conducted under strict examination procedures over two days. All Year 12 students in Queensland are able to sit the test and receive a result (A, B, C, D or E) on their Senior Statement. Students wishing to receive a numerical score used to gain direct entry into most tertiary courses in Australia should have been studying the correct number of Authority Subjects during their senior years and also need to sit the QCST in September. The result on this test and the subject results of students in the cohort are used by the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA) to calculate the ranking number known as the Overall Position (OP). OPs range from the top (1) to the bottom (25). OPs are mainly used by tertiary (Universities, TAFEs and Colleges) to rank students from across the state and then offer placements into courses according to this ranking. Do OP-ineligible students sit the test? Students with subject combinations that would not lead to the possibility of receiving an OP can still sit the QCST. These students are known as OP-ineligible students. If they sit the QCST they will receive a result (A, B, C, D or E) on their Senior Statement. However, their result will not be used in the calculation of OPs for OP-eligible students. OP eligibility would have been a decision made in Year 10 or early Year 11 as students and parents looked at Career Pathways and ultimately subject choices. All Souls St Gabriels School joins with the QCAA and encourages OP-ineligible students to consider sitting the test in September. A good result on the QCST could be an advantage in an employment application. A good result on the QCST can be used to improve a Tertiary Rank (used by OP-ineligible students gain entry to tertiary courses). However, the flip side of these comments is that a poor result on the QCST would not be advantageous for future career options. Sitting the QCST is not compulsory for OP in-eligible students. At this stage of planning at ASSG, all OP-ineligible students in Year 12 will be continuing with normal classes during the time of the testing in September and they will undertake a separate alternative program in the final week of this term. OP-ineligible students deciding to sit the test must sit the practice test arranged by the school in the final week of this term. If you wish your OP-ineligible son or daughter to sit the QCST, please send me an email by the end of May so arrangements can be finalised for the practice and real testing days. Can OP-eligible students decide not to sit? As I stated earlier, OP eligibility would have been a decision made in Year 10 or early Year 11 as students and parents looked at Career Pathways and ultimately subject choices. As your son / daughter moved through their senior years, career paths and deci-sions made at this time may have changed. It is now possible for a student studying the right combinations of subjects to be OP-eligible and yet decide to not sit the QCST. Not sitting the QCST will mean the student will not receive an OP. However, all subject results will be listed on their Senior Statement. If your OP-eligible son or daughter is considering not sitting the QCST (and therefore not receiving an OP score), they need to book a time to meet with Mrs Salisbury by the end of May to review their career planning. Parents will certainly be included in these dis-cussions and written parent permission will be required to finalise this process. QCST Preparation Up-date Our current Year 12 OP-eligible students have been completing a preparation course for the QCST. They have had some very promising practice results. Practices and full day workshops with an experienced, external Literacy Consultant, Mr Matthew Rigby, have been very well received and completed by the Year 12 OP group. We continue this preparation course with a full two day practice in the final week of this term. I will share more on this practice in future editions of The Phoenix Rising. In the meantime, I am happy to answer any questions regarding the QCST. Please feel free to either email me or call the school.

Ian Dietrich QCS Test Chief Supervisor idietrich@allsouls.qld.edu.au

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mailto:idietrich@allsouls.qld.edu.au

Sport News Sport News

Karen Storey Secondary Sports Co-ordinator Inter School Netball and Rugby League The last few weeks have been jam packed with sporting action. On Sunday May 3rd we commenced Rugby League and Netball fixtures with games against BTC held at All Souls St Gabriels School. These games were a great specta-tor event and it was pleasing to see many parents and friends of the School turn out to support our teams. The re-sults of the games played appear below.

INTER SCHOOL SPORT The first round of Secondary sports fixtures were held on Sunday 3 May on O'Keeffe Oval and in the Rebgetz Sports Centre. It was a wonderful day with lots of students and parents supporting the teams. Both Firsts Rugby League and Netball teams enjoyed handsome wins, with the boys scoring after the final siren to reach 50 pts. Results:... Rugby League Netball 1st XIII: ASSG 50 -12 BTC Open A: ASSG 26-9 BTC 2nd XIII: CCC def ASSG (friendly game) Open B: ASSG 13 - 8 BTC U15: ASSG 40-18 BTC U15: ASSG 21-15 BTC U14: BTC 28-10 ASSG U14: BTC 36—6 ASSG U13: ASSG 44-6 BTC U13: ASSG 22—7 BTC U12: BTC had no team U12: BTC had no team This week we take on CTSHS. Good luck to all teams. Inter House Cross Country Friday May 1st saw the annual Inter-House Cross Country held at All Souls St Gabriels School. In warmer than ex-pected conditions students gave their all for their houses and achieved some excellent results. The Age Champions, Runners-Up and the Champion Houses along with their respective points are summarised below:

Age Champions

Champion Boys and Girls Houses Overall Championship

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Age Group Age Champion Runner-Up

Open Boys Mitchell Drenan Mitchel Rankine

Open Girls Bianca Peace Seanne Santo

16yrs Boys Dylan Knuth Clancy Schaefer

16yrs Girls Katie Jones Georgie Clark

15yrs Boys Joe Bode Lance Shephard

15yrs Girls Breanne Peace Sarah Santo

14yrs Boys Darby Godfrey Charlie LeFeuvre

14yrs Girls Chantelle Reynolds Josephine McKellar

13yrs Boys Todd Thorn Cody Bucklar

13yrs Girls Luka Hall Amber Aspinall

12yrs Boys Tom Marshall Corey Stanger

12yrs Girls Piper Davey April Tabo

Place Houses Points

1st Becket and Feetham 312

2nd Chad and Page 249

3rd Alban and Ramsay 218

Place Girls House Points Boys House Points

1st Becket 153 Feetham 159

2nd Alban 114 Page 149

3rd Chad 100 Ramsay 104

Monday 11th May saw the top 6 runners in each age group on their way to the Charters Towers Airport Reserve

in a quest to defend their boys, girls and combined aggregate titles for the 10th year running. I know Mr Royall

will have stolen my thunder and published news of our success so I will merely say a huge congratulations to all

students involved in the team, even those who didn’t get to run at the Inter-School Carnival but attended many

morning training sessions.

I would also like to sincerely thank Mr Darryl Fry who has spent hundreds of mornings over the past few years

training and preparing students for the Cross Country and this year was no exception. Thankyou Darryl for your

commitment and dedication and the pride and dogged determination that you instil in our runners.

The results of the Inter School Cross Country appear below:

Age Champions

Champion Boys and Girls Schools

Thomson - Morris Shield for Overall Champion School

GIRLS Open Girls 1st 104 points 21 starters 1.Bianca Peace, 5. Seanne Santo, 7. Sarah Salisbury, 10. Rose Elliott, 11. Taylor Ievers, 12. Kate Blennerhassett

16 Girls 3rd 77points 24 starters 5. Katie Jones, 6. Georgie Clark, 9. Aby Philipson, 14. Megan Rigato, 17. Jacklenn Dart, 22. Anna Winsper

15 Girls 1st 113points 21 Starters 2. Breanne Peace, 5. Dianne Fulford, 6. Sarah Santo, 7. Danielle Milton, 8. Natalie Teece, 9. Zoe Godfrey

14 Girls 3rd 47points 24 starters 12. Josie McKellar, 13. Faith Whelan, 14. Amy Liddle, 19. Claudette Wilson, 20. Freya Stewart, DNF. Chantelle Reynolds

13 Girls 1st 105 points 24 starters 1.Luka Hall, 5. Amber Aspinall, 6. Chelsea Mosch, 7. Cacey Campbell, 11 Chekoda Bethel, 15 Camryn Guldbran-sen

12 Girls 2nd 69 points 21 starters 5. Brooke Tindall, 7. Piper Davey, 15. Indy Schaefer, 16. Sarah Suhr, 18. Kuage Koglkia, 20 Kate Johnson

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Open Boys Mitchell Drenan Age Champion

Open Girls Bianca Peace Age Champion

16yrs Boys Dylan Knuth Runner Up

15yrs Girls Breanne Peace Runner Up

14yrs Boys Darby Godfrey Runner Up

13yrs Girls Luka Hall Age Champion

12yrs Boys Tom Marshall Age Champion

12yrs Boys Corey Stanger Runner Up

Place Girls Points Boys Points

1st CCC 533 ASSG 621

2nd ASSG 515 CCC 489

3rd BTC 507 BTC 454

4th CTSHS 226 CTSHS 224

Place School Points

1st ASSG 1136

2nd CCC 1022

3rd BTC 961

4th CCC 450

BOYS Open Boys 1st 111 points 23 starters 1.Mitchell Drenan, 5. Jack Fitchett, 6. Mitchell Rankine, 8 Max Allingham, 9 Rowan Fittock, 10 Clayton Gough 16 Boys 1st 97 points 22 starters 2. Dylan Knuth, 5. Clancy Schaefer, 8. Liam Durington, 11. Casey Rankine, 14 Billy Dakin, 18 Will Healing 15 Boys 1st eq 94 points 22 starters 3. Joe Bode, 5. Lance Shepard, 10. Brendan Dawson, 11. Brent Marshall, 13. Clay Pierce, 15. Duncan Elliott 14 Boys 1st 112 points 24 starters 2. Darby Godfrey, 4. Toby Rankine, 5. Time Ievers, 6. Charlie LeFeuvre, 10. Josh Walsh, 11 Griff Gordon 13 Boys 3rd 78 points 24 starters 5. Todd Thorn, 10 Douglas Keough, 11. Connor Lerch, 13. Cody Bucklar, 16. David Walsh, 17 Patrick Washington 12 Boys 1st 129 points 22 starters 1.Tom Marshall, 2. Corey Stanger, 3. Will Sibson, 4. Josh Fraser, 5. Zac Stevenson, 6 Brandon Finger The following students were selected in the Charters Towers team to participate in the North Queensland Cross Country trials in Townsville on Tuesday 26th May: Boys Girls Mitchell Drenan Bianca Peace Mitchell Rankine Breanne Peace Dylan Knuth Luka Hall Joe Bode Clancy Schaefer Darby Godfrey Tom Marshall Corey Stanger Will Sibson Josh Fraser Good luck to you all!

PAGE 12 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015

Cross Country Photos

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Junior School

Tina Akers Head of Junior School JS Staff have a strong moral pur-pose when it comes to valuing and nurturing our students and of course, a strong commitment to delivering a quality education. Loy-alty and teamwork are strong fea-tures of our staff. They are dedi-cated in their approach to the cur-riculum and to working as a mem-ber of a collaborative team, in or-der to meet the needs of every student. They support each stu-dent as they strive to achieve their personal best, not just in the aca-demic areas but on the sports field,

during after school activities and when playing with friends and classmates. We have already had many reasons to celebrate this term and I congratulate all our stu-dents for their application and ef-fort. NAPLAN over for another year! The annual NAPLAN testing is com-pleted for this year and it was pleasing to see our students ap-proach the assessments with a positive attitude. Well done to the Year 3 and 5 students for staying focused during the 3 days of test-ing. We look forward to learning more about their achievements and gain some understanding of how our School performed later in the year. Country Music Festival The JS students celebrated the be-ginning of the Charters Towers Country Music Festival by parading in their best country gear. We would like to thank Joe and Shar-ron, the official judges (from Cen-tral State School), for judging the most creative costume and the overall best dressed country boy and girl. Thanks also to Patrick Gal-vin (School Captain) and Dempsey Currin (Senior School Prefect) for

judging the best dressed boy and girl in each class. Congratulations to:

Overall best dressed country boy Henry Jesberg Overall best dressed country girl Leearna Campbell Runner up best dressed country boy Tex Chapman Runner up best dressed country girl Dale Beatty Most creative country dress Lincoln Coleman Class Prizes Pre-prep class Gabriel Pattison Mikaela Geaney Prep class Bailey McGuire Clayne Musk Year 1: Bridget Boyle Jack Rixon Year 2: Jae Mossman Tex Chapman Year 3: Lauren Atwell Steve Hare

Year 4 : Zali Downes James Mann Year 5 : Kaci Whelan (Year 5 boys were attending the Soccer Trials) Year 6 : Danielle Curley Kellan Knuth

The day continued with a buzz of excitement as everyone was work-ing hard to make sure our float was ready for the evening’s Country Mu-sic street procession. The theme for this year’s country music float pa-rade was ‘Standing by your mate’ and what better way to demonstrate this, than by honouring the cen-tenary of ANZAC. The song “Spirit of Anzac,” from Lee Kernaghan’s album of the same name, was the song we chose to inspire this year’s theme for our float and pay tribute to those who have given their lives, those who have served, and those that

still today step bravely into the un-known to serve our country.

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A project like this does not happen without a vision, and someone who is prepared to take on the responsi-bility of pulling it all together. This year, Mrs Polsen and Mrs Marshall took on this enormous task with the co-ordinated efforts of a great team; students, staff, parents and the wid-er School community. Thank you: Weston Carrying Services for provid-

ing us with a truck; Mr Jim Polsen for driving the truck so smoothly; the Kirkwood family for providing the hay bales and Hugh Polsen who vol-unteered to walk at the back of our procession in the extremely hot Phoenix suit. Thank you to all the parents and friends of ASSG who gave their time to help prepare and dismantle the float. The children looked incredible and once again showcased All Souls St Gabriels as a fantastic school. Con-gratulations and thank you to every-one involved. All Souls St Gabriels School won the Best Decorated float

this year and came second to Colum-ba Catholic College in the School Float section of the parade.

Inter School Cross Country Congratulations to all the students who represented our School at the Charters Towers District Primary In-ter School Cross Country Carnival on Tuesday 5 May. The day began with much anticipation and plenty of butterflies. These feelings soon transformed into a sense of deter-mination and resolve to do the very best for ASSG. Encouraged by the strong and sup-portive cheers from their team ma-tes, each competitor gave it their all. We are very proud of their indi-vidual efforts and collective suc-cess, as they once again All Souls St Gabriels Junior School brought home the Average Shield. Congrat-ulations to the 9 Years Champion girl: Charlotte Jesberg and to Anni-ka Peace, Danielle Curley, Reagan Butler and Orry Ferguson who were selected to join the Charters Tow-ers Cross Country Team. Thank you to our JS Sports Co-ordinator Miss Taylor and staff who helped make this another day of celebration for ASSG. JSSG Mother’s Day Stall On behalf of the Junior School Sup-port Group (JSSG), I would like to thank everyone for the wonderful donations for the ‘Mother’s Day Stall’ and the raffle. Our thanks are also extended to everyone who vol-unteered their time to sell and wrap the gifts.

The students were very excited and had lots of lovely gifts to choose from thanks to our very generous School community. I trust all our Mothers and Grandmothers were treated to a very special day on Mother’s Day. Congratulations to the Mother’s Day Raffle winners: Tio Chong Braxton Friend Torino Brodie Hunter McKellar

PAGE 15 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015

The money raised by the JSSG is filtered back into the Junior School. This year the JSSG have already contributed significantly to the purchase of new sports equipment for our athletics pro-gram and have provided funds towards the purchase of the hardware items for the Country Music Float and prizes for the Country Music Dress up. Thank you I would like to thank the JS Staff for the amazing amount of work they have done to ensure a smooth start to Term 2. The ex-tremely positive approach our JS staff have to getting on with the job and doing their best for your children is terrific. To all our par-ents, families, and members of the wider school community, thank you for your continued support of all our learning and extra-curricular activities. It is a pleasure to work with such a sup-portive school community.

Junior School

Sport

Pia Taylor Junior School Sports Coordinator It has been a busy start to Term 2 when it comes to JS Sport. On Fri-day 1st May a number of ASSG stu-dents participated in the Charters Towers U/12 Soccer trial day. The following students should be con-gratulated on the way they repre-sented the School, as it was a very long day for all. ASSG U/12 Soccer Team William Holt, Matthew McKellar, Matthew Luxton, Corey Guldbran-sen, Jackson Peagham, Bailey Maff, Ryan Fox, Darcy Deans, Orry Fergu-son, Jayden Brazier and Karen Tweedie Congratulations to Corey Guldbran-sen and Karen Tweedie (Year 7) who were selected in the extended boys and girls Charters Towers squads. Karen made the final girls’ squad and will travel to Bowen to participate in the NQ trials. Inter School Cross Country Tuesday 5th May ASSG co-hosted the Charters Towers Primary Inter School Cross Country Carnival with BTC. It was a great morning with all students putting in their best ef-forts. ASSG JS won the Average shield. Congratulation to Columba Catholic College won the Aggregate Shield with ASSG JS placing 3rd. Congratulations to the following stu-dents who gained selection for Charters Towers team who will be travelling to the NQ trials in Towns-ville on the 26th May.

Thank you to Marnie Wilson and Tim O’Rourke from BTC who assist-ed with the organisation of the car-nival and to the staff and students of all competing schools who help to make it a great morning.

Inter School Touch

Inter School touch rounds start this week for students in Year 5 and 6. As ASSG has the bye this week we will be using the time for training to fine tune our skills ready for our first game on 15th May. Games start at 1:20 pm. Please see below for the detailed draw.

On Friday 22nd May the girls and boys touch team will participate in the Charters Towers U12 Touch trial day with the possibility of being se-lected to play at the NQ trials being held here in Charters Towers on the 14th and 15th June.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions regarding the Inter-School Touch program . ptaylor@allsouls.qld.edu.au

Congratulations to all our ASSG stu-dents for continually doing their best and showing great sportsman-ship during all our sporting events.

PAGE 16 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015

CT Cross Country Representatives in action

Reagan Butler

Annika Peace

Danielle Curley

Orry Ferguson

10 Year

Girls

11 Years

Girls

12 Years

Boys

Reagan

Butler

Annika

Peace

Orry

Ferguson

Danielle

Curley

Date Teams Venue

Friday 15th

May

ASSG vs

CSS

ASSG

Friday 29th

May

ASSG vs

MSS

MSS

Friday 5th

June

ASSG vs

RHSS

ASSG

PAGE 17 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY

part was hearing the lovely feed-back from visiting families about our catering and hospitality. Our last little adventure was our mother’s day stall. It was very cute watching the little ones pur-chase gifts for their mothers. We had lots of helpers in to set up the stall as well as run it on the day. Thank you for your help as well as the donations of gifts to sell. It hasn’t all been fund raising. JSSG has donated $2,000 towards the purchase of sporting equip-ment. With the addition of $3,000 provided by the school, the junior school has purchased some athlet-ics equipment including high jump mats. We also donated $650 to-wards the cost of the students at-tending ‘Squaring the Wheel’ at the World Theatre, and $200 to-wards the float for the country music festival. Thank you for all of your help and donations as all monies raised go back to our school.

On the 31st March we had our Big Breakfast. We had our biggest at-tendance and estimate that we ca-tered for over 300 people for breakfast. The morning was en-joyed by all and a big thank you to our families for helping us with the cooking and catering. A big thank you also to everyone who pur-chased tickets in our Easter egg raffle. We raised just over $1,500 which is a fabulous result!! We have just recently co-hosted the primary school Inter School Cross Country. A Big thank you to all the parents, teachers and friends for making the delicious baked goodies. Without your sup-port and fabulous baking we would have nothing to sell. THANK YOU. To the ASSG P & F THANK YOU!! It was a pleasure to work with you and we cannot thank you enough for your help and support. Our day was very successful and the best

Junior School Support

Group (JSSG) Report Sally Kirkwood JSSG President The JSSG has had a busy but suc-cessful start to 2015. On behalf of the JSSG I would like to give a little update but more importantly show our gratitude and say thank you to all of our wonderful parents, friends, teachers and the P&F who have helped us along the way. We kicked off the year with our JS Disco, I was unable to attended however by all reports the night went off with a bang. We would like to thank the ASSG dining hall staff for the delicious mini pizzas that they whipped up for us. Also a big thank you to Sarlina Teti for her fa-mous noodles and to the parents for their baked goodies.

Come and See Us!!

Jon Teichmann our Marketing and

Enrolments Officer will be at:

Longreach Show Saturday 16 May

Clermont Show Tuesday 26 &

Wednesday 27 May

Hughenden Show Friday 29 to

Sunday 31 May

Emerald Show Tuesday 2 and

Wednesday 3 June

Winton Show Saturday 6 and

Sunday 7 June

Cloncurry Show Friday 12 and

Saturday 13 June

PAGE 18 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015

Head of Boarding Darren Guldbransen Head of Boarding Mobile: 0415 903 479 Email: dguldbransen@allsouls.qld.edu.au

Boys’ Boarding Feetham House Chris Lerch Senior Resident Mobile: 0419 471 433 Email: clerch@allsouls.qld.edu.au Page House Davin Marshall Senior Resident Mobile: 0409 071 433 Email: dmarshall@allsouls.qld.edu.au Ramsay House Brendan Travers Senior Resident Mobile: 0400 751 433 Email: btravers@allsouls.qld.edu.au

Girls’ Boarding Alban House Narelle Kelly Senior Resident Mobile: 0419 771 433 Email: nkelly@allsouls.qld.edu.au Becket House Senior Resident Mobile: 0407 142 493 Chad House Yvonne Schaefer Senior Resident Mobile: 0439 764 638 Email: yschaefer@allsouls.qld.edu.au

Dormitory News Dormitory News Head of Boarding Darren Guldbransen Cross Country This years Inter School Cross Coun-try has been the most talked about sporting event for years, as much by us as the other schools. We were chasing 10 victories in a row, and all the other schools have been training and preparing like never before to try and knock us off. I have no doubt Mr Fry has had some sleepless nights wondering if his troops had done enough, but in the end they had. It ended up being the closest result in the ten years, but after some really courageous runs from many members of our team they held them off for another year. The girls went down to CCC by 18 points, but boys got home by nearly a hundred so we have re-tained the aggregate trophy for yet another year. Congratulations to Mr Fry and all the runners, it is a feat I don’t think will ever be bettered so you should all be extremely proud.

Cross Country Captains Bianca Peace and Mitchell Drenan receive the trophy

Will Sibson, Corey Stanger and Tom Marshall

Open Boys: Mitchell Drenan, Mitchell Rankine, Clayton Gough, Jack Fitchett, Max Allingham

and Rowan Fittock

Bullying Report In the coming week Mr Lee will give all our students access to a new electronic bullying report that can be lodged using their mobile phone or computer. We will be en-couraging our students to use this report to notify staff if they feel they are being bullied. One of the real pitfalls of mobile phones and technology is that par-ents often know before boarding staff when their child is doing it tough or is being picked on. They don’t go anywhere without their phone, so when someone has said or done something to them their first reaction is to either ring or text home when they are at their lowest point. Sometimes the first boarding staff know of an incident is when they get a phone call from home. We ask our students to come and talk to staff when something bad has happened, but too often they don’t. Because they will be able to access this report on their phones

or computers students will be able to tell all the relevant people all at once because the report will be sent to a number of different peo-ple at the same time. This means we will be able to not only act on reported incidents quicker, but to also track repeat offenders. Hanging out It’s been a busy couple of weeks, so it’s great to see some of our girls just hanging out enjoying some down time. That’s it for now.

April Tabo

Sarkeitha Burns, Tara Yung and Dianne Fulford

Zoe Godfrey and Casey Campbell

Feetham House Chris Lerch Senior Resident I would like to congratulate all Feetham boys who contributed to-wards All Souls success at the Inter School Cross Country. Led by cap-tain Mitch Drenan, all the early morning wake up calls and training sessions evidently paid off. Feetham had many place getters on the day which all played its part in the suc-cess while Mitch took out the much coveted open boys champion title. Rugby League fever has been prev-alent in our dorm since start of term and a large number of boys have been heavily involved in the footy program at school with train-ing and fixtures, it was a great day last Sunday when the boys took on BTC , with mixed results in different age groups. Good luck to all teams again this week when they take on Charters Towers State High School. Feetham Year 7 students Gareth Mercy and John Durack and Year 9 students Riley Candy, Tom Durkin, Tim Ievers, Toby Rankine, Dylan Rodger, Ben Wilkinson and Jack Winsper are sitting for their Naplan tests this week and we wish them all the best, while seniors, Clayton Gough and Brandon Shephard have been away at Beef Week in Rock-hampton and it was interesting to catch up with these two and hear what they had learnt in their week away. Both had a great time and had gained valuable experience at the expo. I think the “all you can eat” buffet proved quite popular! The boys seemed to have settled into Term 2 quite well with a little less home sickness experienced by the younger boys than in Term 1 now they have developed new friendships and are keeping them-selves busy with extra-curricular ac-tivities which is pleasing to see. Any queries or concerns please call.

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Ramsay House Brendan Travers Senior Resident

Winter is Coming! The stark reali-sation that warm mornings are be-hind us has set in as we prepare for the chilly months to come. Ex-tra blankets have surfaced, jackets and jumpers have been dusted off and boxer shorts and singlets have made way for tracksuit pants and flanno’s. Being indoors at night is no longer a pesky hassle and more an essential requirement. Despite the colder weather, the mighty Ramsay boys have found them-selves busier than ever.

On the second Friday of term we all took part in the Inter House cross country with Ramsay finish-ing an admirable third. Once again, Feetham house showed its athletic superiority with a dominant display, trouncing all other houses. Ramsay house saw some promising signs for the future though, with our Year 7 contingent putting in a strong performance. Corey Stan-ger, Zac Stevenson, Will Sibson and Brandon Finger came in 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th respectively. With an-other Ramsay day student finishing third in the age group it gave Ram-say five of the top six positions. It was a super effort by our younger boys and we congratulate them all for their performances.

On the Sunday following the cross country, we took part in a mam-moth day of sport, taking on BTC in Rugby League and Netball. The vast majority of Ramsay dorm competed for their respective age groups in what turned out to be a very successful day for All Souls. I was fortunate enough to be in the grandstand and witness command-ing victories in the 13’s, 15’s and 1st’s with a narrow loss in the 14’s. From Ramsay dorm we had some stand out performances, with Cody Sibson bagging three tries, Kacy Kelly kicking a difficult conversion to bring up the half century for the 1st’s and Patty Galvin doing what

all good props do and winning the battle up front. A massive thank you must go to all the people involved in organising, refereeing and catering for what was a great day of enter-taining sport.

While we were all enjoying our-selves watching the sport here at school, a small group of All Souls 12 year olds made the journey out to Ayr to compete in the North Queensland Rugby League trials. This included Ramsay boys Corey “The Raging Bull” Stanger and Zac “The Axe” Stevenson. Both boys competed wholeheartedly, with Zac gaining selection in the possible probable’s team. Zac was the only boy in the Charters Towers team to make it that one step closer and we congratulate him for doing so. Both the boys put in a monumental effort with training for the CT team twice a week, the Souls team twice a week and Miners twice week. Well done boys!

During week three, Ramsay dorm missed the company of Bryce Franettovich, Mathew Finger and Harrison Finger as they represented All Souls at Beef Week down in Rockhampton. The boys have re-turned to us safely and with plenty of stories to tell, the least of which is the tale of Harrison Finger meet-ing the Prime Minister. From all ac-counts it was an extremely fun and rewarding trip with the boys gaining invaluable knowledge under the tu-telage of Lionel Hartig.

That’s all from Ramsay Dorm for now. If there are any parents wish-ing to contact me, please don’t hes-itate to do so via email or phone.

Bryce Franettovich at Beef Week

PageHouse Davin Marshall Senior Resident We are well into second term now and the dormitory is running smoothly. Generally everyone knows what is expected of them and they are treating each other with respect and tolerance. I would like to see an improvement in the tidiness of the dormitory in general and I will be working with the boys on this throughout the term. I also commend the Year 10’s on the re-sponsible approach they are show-ing towards the cleaning of the common room in the mornings. Well done, boys. The Rugby League season is under way and last weekend we had a Sunday carnival against BTC. It was a great day and we had wins with the U13’s, U15’s and Firsts. All three teams won by good margins and the only team to lose against BTC were the U14’s. The Seconds played against CCC and lost despite putting up a good team effort. Ernie Wilkie surprised himself and had a great game for the Seconds and earned himself a spot on the bench for the Firsts. Well done, Ernie. The U12’s didn’t get a game due to lack of opposition, but they will play this week hopefully. The Inter House Cross Country has been and gone with a very good level of participation by the Page Dorm boys. We had three Age Champions from Page. They were Dylan Knuth for the U16’s, Joe Bode for the U15’s and Darby Godfrey for the U14’s. Thomas Elliott also com-pleted a full circuit on crutches to earn a point for his house. That is leadership and commitment and a great example for others to follow. Feetham won the Boys Cross Coun-try and Page was runner up by 10 points, so next year will be interest-ing.

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I am happy with the behaviour in the dorm overall, though I know it is not always perfect. If you have any concerns about the dormitory please don’t hesitate to contact me. I always appreciate feedback from parents as the boys will often tell their parents things before they will tell me.

Kade Banset representing NQ in Rugby League

Billy Dakin being interviewed at Beef Week

Page Inter House Cross Country champions: Dylan Knuth, Joe Bode,

Darby Godfrey and Todd Thorn

Alban House Narelle Kelly Senior Resident Alban Girls were treated to a night out with Miss Meyer and Mrs Chap-man. First they consumed A LOT of pizza, then off to the movies, for which they were all excited about. The Longest Ride, proved to bring tears to some of the girls and when they returned back into the dormi-tory the ones that didn’t cry were happy to mock the girls that showed their compassionate side. Thank you to the teachers for tak-ing them. They look like they are having fun at the Inter House Cross Country Katie Green and Emelia Bode (Becket) were given the chance to show off their art ability, the Thurs-day before the Country Music Festi-val. Sherree White from How Bi-zarre Hair was on the lookout for someone to wave their magic on her window front. The girls were gone a few hours, when they came back to the dorm they were very happy with their art work and pleased to be given the opportunity to get out of the dorm and do something they like to do.

Sarah Frohloff and Tara Yung Sunday 3rd was a great day out with their being heaps of action on the netball court and football field. All boarders had to attend and they all had a great day, if they were not playing they were socialising. I ac-tually enjoyed watching my Alban girls play netball; this is not a chance that I normally get.

Nikita and Taylor against BTC girls

Running hard are the 14 year old Alban girls The dormitory was very quiet over Week 3. With the cattle club girls Ceelena and Gayleen Lawrence trekking off to Rockhampton for Beef week. Isabel and Kate Blen-nerhassett also had the opportunity to escape the dorm for a week.

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Cross Country is not complete without a water pistol. Isabel and Annabel cooling off Congratulations’ to Becket House for winning the Inter House Cross Country. Amber Aspinall, Chelsea Mosch, Andie Stanger, Annabel Hatch, Kate Blennerhassett and Taylor Ievers made it into the In-ter School Cross Country, so the seniors have the job of convincing a small number who are not keen to get out of bed to train. I would like to thank Taylor and Kate for always lending a hand to get the girls up for running training in Term 1, and now Term 2. Thanks, girls. Alban Seniors: Kate Blenner-hassett, Seanne Santo and Taylor Ievers Wow and Wow! We have just come back from the 2015 Inter School Cross Country. From a spectator’s point of view what a nail biter, waiting for the final Tally total to be announced. We are all very proud at this moment to be walking away with 10 years in a row. See girls, the early morning training sessions really do pay off. Thanks to all Alban girls for get-ting up to training.

Open Girls - Alban and Becket sen-iors: Rose Elliott, Sarah Salisbury, Seanne Santo, Kate Blennerhassett, Bianca Peace and Taylor Ievers That’s about all for me this issue. Please feel free to ring should you need anything.

Back: Sarah Suhr, Anastacia Chap-pell, Sarah Clark Front: Zoe Godfrey, Casey Camp-bell, and Brooke Tindall are all ready to go to the movies.

Chad House Yvonne Schaefer Senior Resident NAPLAN As you read this, NAPLAN Testing will be over for another year. Sadly, we already have some girls stress-ing about their results. I read a great article that told of the things that NAPLAN doesn’t test. I see these things everyday. I have seen girls comforting a friend if they are homesick, waiting for the last per-son in the classroom, even if they are not particularly close to them, sharing their pillow as they watch a movie, senior students inviting the younger girls to share with their food and conversations and girls sticking up for girls who are doing it a bit tough. These are the sorts of things that matter in the world of boarding school, the things that show the moral character of our girls, and as far as I'm concerned, they pass with flying colours.

Netball We are looking down the barrel of another big weekend of netball. The Powerade Cup is on this week-end in Townsville and a large num-ber of girls will be attending. Georgie Clark and Hollie Grant will compete for Gabes Inferno, Ngarita Chappell, Hughina Tindall, and Kim Andison in the Gabes Heat, Ellie Rohan and Dianne Fulford in the Gabes Fire, Kayla Barrett in the Gabes Scorchers, Vivienne Elliott, Vasenai Dabea, Casey Campbell, play for the Gabes Blaze and Anastacia Chappell, Sarah Clark, Jemma Mafrici, Ainsley Murphy and Lydia Lindsay play for the Gabes Sparks. I am sure they will all go well and come back with lots of sto-ries. Weekend Adventures It has been all about the movies this term, with lots of good movies coming on at the drive-in and at the cinemas. The girls thoroughly enjoy the opportunity to dress up and go out.

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Cross Country

Aby Philipson, Georgie Clark, Katie Jones and Anna Winsper waiting for their race

Brooke Tindall, Indy Schaefer and Piper Davey waiting for their race

Becket House The Becket girls have started the term with enthusiasm. There has been lots on to keep them busy. Emelia Bode, with the assistance of Katie Green, did a wonderful job for How Bizarre Hair creating a great window display for the Country Music Festival. Emelia did-n’t hesitate when asked and once again showed her creative flair. Emelia and Meg Burge are active members of the debating team which has started with a win each. Thursday night Touch is well un-derway with many of the girls playing. Megan Rigato proudly ac-cepted the role of team captain

for the Second girls team. Bianca Peace is a strong First girls player, and was also part of the NQ Club Rep team that went to Coffs Har-bour. Bianca has just returned from Kingaroy, but this time she was part of the NQ Netball Representative Team.

Karen Tweedie was very pleased to be selected for the NQ Soccer Rep-resentative Team. Although the tri-als were held the same day as Inter House Cross Country which Karen was sad to miss.

Courtney Teece and Teana Rafter are enjoying the Diploma of Busi-ness they are studying at the DTTC. Both have put in some long hours to complete recent assignments.

Lisabelle Smith, Katie Jarmey, Na-talie Teece and Emma Golding are all active Horse Club members. At a recent Gymkhana, Natalie received overall 3rd.

Kayla Gough has had a busy time at Beef Week.

At our Year 11 and 12 Becket din-ner, towards the end of Term 1, the girls came up with the following five main goals: Work together well as a team

with all seniors participating Achieve to the best of our ability

in all events Win House Cup Have more House activities HAVE FUN with lottttttttts of

HOUSE SPIRIT

We have certainly started Term 2 on target. The lead up to cross-country saw the girls encouraging each other to train and to partici-pate on the day. We started the day with a crazy warm up drill to

Eye of the Tiger, with Ms Marley do-ing her best impression of a cheer leader. The girls laughed and laughed, but it seemed to do the trick because we ended up winning. Many girls dug really deep to come in the top ten which was our ulti-mate aim. Our age champions were Piper Davey, Luka Hall, Breanne Peace, Katie Jones and Bianca Peace. Special mention must also go to April Tabo, Josie McKellar who came second and the 14s girls who had 6 of the 7 runners in the top 10 which earned them the biggest score of 35 points towards our win! The most exciting finish was when Katie Jones entered the last lap just 10m behind Georgie Clark. As Katie passed the grand stand Bianca and Sarah screamed “SPRINT KATIE” and she did, just beating Georgie across the line before she collapsed exhausted!

The Becket Slumber Party was en-joyed by all. In the weeks before we brainstormed ideas which ended up being a kids party theme. Each sen-ior had a team distinguished by their strip of material. We started with a donut eating competition which was hilarious. We decided that the Peace girls obviously trained for this as well as sport. We had movies as backup if the girls were too tired after cross country, but at 9.30 the dancing and games were still going and they finished with ‘Murder in the Dark’. This is just a handful of the 100s of photos taken by Teana Rafter, who I re-cently discovered is a very good photographer.

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Claudette and Rae with their ba-nana phones

Having a photo break from shoot-ing hoops

Rainbow team well ahead in the smarty challenge (Sarah, April and Natalie)

Katie Jones taught the girls how to make 'smalls' with the left over marshmallows, chocolate and jatz biscuits from the party.

Becket Slumber Party Photos

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Out & About Sarah Valentine The Catering students of the four high schools put on a special Moth-er’s Day afternoon tea on Friday at The Dalrymple Trade Centre. Some of our cooks for the after-noon tea; Marshell Smallwood, An-nabell Hatch, Liam Durrington and Emma Andison. Kim Andison and Aby Philipson pre-pare to receive the visitors for the Mother’s Day afternoon tea. Trey Perrier having personal in-struction at the Dalrymple Trade Centre.

Natalie Teece and Charlee Keleher chilling out in the dorm.

Claudette Wilson and Rae Evans joined the Air Force Cadets in Feb-ruary. They took part in the Anzac Day Parade with their squadron.

Karen Tweedie doing her assign-ment in the dorm.

Kiara Henry-Nash and Chelsea Hislop supporting the school in a competition against BTC.

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As any school team can tell us, there is nothing quite like support from the ranks during an exciting competition. Courtney Teece, Teana Rafter and Katie Jones are always available for the school cheer squad. The Inter School Cross Country race at the Airport each year is a big item on the school calendar.

The Open Girls Team; Seanne Santo, Taylor Ievers, Kate Blenner-hassett, Team Captain and Open Girls Champion Bianca Peace, Rose Elliott and Sarah Salisbury.

Open Boys Team; Team Captain and Open Boys Champion Mitchell Drenan, Clayton Gough, Jack Fitchett, Rowan Fittock, Max Al-lingham and Mitchell Rankine.

Sister Kate Letford and the Senior Cheer Squad with mascot ‘Ash’ The Phoenix.

Students presented a large Mothers Day card to Flo (Flo is seen by many of the students as their 'school mum' - so it's nice to recog-nise this.)

Past School Captain Megan Stafford graduated from James Cook Uni-versity with a Bachelor Of Arts-Media & Writing and received the Medal for Academic Excellence on March 18th 2015. She also won a Zonta Bursary and The Junior Wakeley Award earlier on.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Parents, please note the following:

Term II is 10 weeks long and stu-

dents have 3 weeks holiday at its conclusion.

Week 10 is as important as any

other week.

Much time and effort goes into

preparing this important week

Events in Week 10 include

QCS Preparation

Year 11 Practice Job Interviews with Charters Towers Business

People

Year 10 Bronze D of E

Expedition

Year 8 and 9 Career Aspirations

No student should be absent unless ill during this week.

Any requests for early departure, must be made to Mrs Kelly (Deputy Head).

PAGE 26 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015

PAGE 27 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015

Staff Profile

Staff Name: Patrick McCann

Duties at ASSG: Teacher of Chemistry, Science and

Mathematics

How long you have been at ASSG? 3 weeks

Where you are from? Originally from NSW, however I

Have spent the last 9 years in

Victoria

Something people may not know about you? I breed Australian Stock Horses

and Thoroughbreds

What encouraged you to do this job? The chance for a new challenge

What work did you do before coming to ASSG? I have been a teacher since

1988; I have worked mainly in Catholic and Independent

boarding schools

What is the favourite aspect of your job? Seeing students who struggle

academically who work hard and realise their full potential

and get into the profession they want.

And your least favourite? Marking

What was your favourite subject at school? Geology

What was the most important part of your education (may not be school)?

Teachers who made me realise what I was capable of

achieving and thus having the confidence to complete a

number of post graduate degrees

Which person (or thinker) has had the greatest influence on your life?

My Grandfather

What would you never do, no matter the price? Go in the water with sharks;

I am terrified of being eaten by a shark.

If you had a motto, what would it be? Never, ever give up.

If you could choose, what would you have for your last meal?

Seafood platter and a glass of nice white wine.

PAGE 28 ISSUE NO 7/2015 15 MAY 2015

Public v Private: A Media Beat Up There has been much discussion in the popular media over the last month, with another outbreak of the Private v Public education debate. This happens every now and again, when editors or tv programmers want to generate headlines or ratings. They manipulate the general public with a very shallow debate based upon little fact and lots of emotion. As one commentator says, “It really does lend itself to very simple sensationalism which does not reflect the complexity of schooling across the country.” I have included in this week’s edition a letter from Geoff Ryan as the Chief Executive of the Association of Heads of Independent Schools Australia. This is followed by an article from one of the online educational news sheets with quotes from the WA Director of the Association of Independent Schools WA and Professor Luke Connelly from UQ who was one of the co-authors of the study which generated this debate – Gordon Royall 14 April 2015

Letter to the Editor, The Australian - letters@theaustralian.com.au

Making claims about student outcomes and school type (14/4) based on results to Year 5 is like comparing the building quality of houses

based only on their floor plans.

Looking at the research evidence right through to Year 12, independent schools demonstrate a very significant “value add” for their stu-dents. After allowing for both prior achievement (or student ability) and socio-economic advantage, the average value add for students in

independent schools is six points on their tertiary entrance score.

Analysis of data from the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) also shows that, after controlling for students’ socioeconomic background and academic ability, the odds of university participation for independent school students are still twice that of government school students. Recent analysis of data collected for the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey shows that, having entered university, students educated at independent schools are almost three times more likely to graduate. The quality of education in our nation’s schools is of vital importance to Australia’s future and public debate about schooling must therefore be encouraged. Misleading headlines, however, do not assist debate; they undermine it. Geoff Ryan Chief Executive, Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia Public vs private report overlooks ‘complexity’ of schooling - The Educator, 23 April 2015 A leading voice in independent education says a recent report which suggested there is no academic benefit to private schooling “doesn’t reflect the complexity of schooling across the country”. Ron Gorman, director at Association of Independent Schools WA (AISWA), said that it was not fair to make such a claim based on a “narrow measure”, referring to the NAPLAN tests. Gorman’s response follows the recent study by the Australian Journal of Labour Economics, which suggested there was no academic value in sending children to private schools. The findings prompted headlines such as ‘No benefit in private schooling’ and ‘Public vs Private: the inconvenient truth’. “The very, very simplistic view that a small data set based on NAPLAN is a very, very narrow measure of some elements of literacy and nu-meracy progress, is that which creates a ‘you're no better off or you're no worse off’ between a public school and an independent school,” Gorman told Imageseven's Brad Entwistle. “It really does lend itself to very simple sensationalism which does not reflect the complexity of schooling across the country.” Co-author of the study, Professor Luke Connelly from the University of Queensland, said that some of the headlines “over-simplified” what the study was trying to convey. “We’re looking at measures of what we call cognitive development, but we recognise that those are just indicators. They’re good indicators but to measure learning is a complex thing to do,” Connelly said. “We're not making a broadcast and broad-brush claim about private schooling, per se”.

http://www.imageseven.com.au/smc026