ForewardGreat schools value and promote participation in academic, sporting, cultural and community endeavours.

“Merrimac Moments” highlights our achievements across a diverse range of activities. These achievements

build upon our school aims of Preparing for the future, Respect, Valuing difference, Accepting responsibility,

Participating and Succeeding to deliver on our motto “Pride in Excellence”.

CurriculumABW Regional Winner

“Raindrop Retreat” Merrimac’s winning Australian Business

Week team won the Gold Coast City ABW Regional awards.

Our ABW team, led by CEO Milly Arsic, Harry Keil, Jaydene

Baguley, Chantelle Barsby, Joshua Cleary, Shane Mathews,

Brock Mcgrath, Emma Schafellner and Georgia Zaghoreos won

the best TV Commercial for the region, came second in the

Oral Presentation and Trade Display, and finished off taking

the Grand Champion title. Throughout the experience, their

teacher mentor, Mrs Sue McConnell, watched and facilitated

the group as they negotiated their way through the wide range of challenges presented to them.

ABW provides an opportunity for teamwork, leadership and interpersonal skills to be developed.

.

HighflyersMerrimac State High School provides a myriad of opportunities for students to become involved

in academic competitions, cultural groups and community and sporting organisations. As a school

we are proud of our students personal achievements among which we list Maya Arsic; Junior Mayor

of the Gold Coast, Jaimi Henderson; Australian Backstroke Age Champion, Chiara Sullivan; Gold Coast

Junior Council Executive Member, Steven Ambrose, Shannen Fawdrey, Nicole Barnaba, Rachel Flowers,

Aaron Thompson, Joseph Gibb, Rayce Bukacia accepting the Kokoda Challenge, Jesse Dixon; a National

Formula Ford Racing Driver, Nicole Barnaba; State Soccer, Milly Arsic; member of the United Nations

Youth Association, Youth Member for the Queensland Youth Parliament, Lucy Hopkinson; Queensland

representative at the National Constitution Convention and Tammy Bingham our undefeated National

Age Taekwondo Champion

Duke of EdinburghThe Duke’s Award has continued to be an integral part of the fabric at Merrimac during 2008 and 2009. At

the end of 2008 Danielle Purdy from Year 12 and three Year 11 students, Milly Arsic, Lucy Hopkinson and

Chantelle Barsby received their Silver Awards at the Awards night. At the same time many students from

the Special Education Unit were working towards their Bronze Awards, and two Year 11 students continued

towards their Silver Awards.

During 2009, several Special Education Unit students have been working towards their Bronze Awards

while Erin Thomas in Year 11 joined the Duke’s Award and worked as an assistant leader at the Exploration

undertaken to Underwater World during term 2.

The Award has been run in the school by Mr Steve Strong, supporting Mrs Cassie James with her work

with Duke’s Award participants in the Special Education Unit.

Curriculum (cont.)

Apprenticeships - TallebudgeraThe Principal and Head of Department Home Economics participated in negotiations with Tallebudgera

Beach Outdoor Education School in term 1 2009. This employer provides health and recreation camps for

primary and secondary schools and sporting associations.

The aim of these discussions was to provide a program of work experience for Year 10 hospitality students;

potentially leading to school-based apprenticeship opportunities in their commercial kitchen. Four students

with very good kitchen skills and aspirations of becoming chefs, were selected for trial work experience. All

students were commended on their performance at the trial’s conclusion. In Term 2 2009 Matthew Power

and Lenni Thompson accepted their offer of school-based apprenticeships in Certificate III in Hospitality

(Commercial Cookery).

Accelerated PathwaysAll students have specific learning needs. A range of accelerated

learning options are available through our Gifted and Talented Program.

Additionally, students have access to specific acceleration programs in

English, Mathematics, Arts, Sport and Technology.

Many students with a strong academic focus, add Year 11 subjects

into their course of study in Year 10, and when in Year 12 have the

option of enrolling in the authority subjects of Extension English

and/or Extension Music. Students in Years 10, 11 and 12 also have access to Work Experience, entering

Trade and Certificate courses, or becoming School-based Apprentices and Trainees.

Certificate in Musical Theatre2010 will be the beginning of an exciting venture for Merrimac State High School. We will be the

only school in Queensland to offer a Certificate IV in Musical Theatre. This course aims to provide an

exceptional quality, industry focussed course, specialising in musical theatre performance. Classes

will include training in singing, acting and various styles of dance, and will be delivered by external

professional performers and teachers. Enrolment will be offered to Year 11 and 12 students as well as

graduated students looking for tertiary training. The prestigious Actors College of Theatre and Television

(ACTT) based in Sydney is the Registered Training Organisation. The college will be ‘specially built and

equipped on the grounds of Merrimac SHS. Auditions will take place in November.

Primary Links To assist in strengthening our primary to secondary transition program, Merrimac State High School has

extended our Primary Links program. This program offered students from our local primary schools some

very exciting opportunities to extend and accelerate their learning across a

range of curriculum areas.

The Link programs included the Extension English program in which 18 Year 7 students were able to hone

their writing skills through the creation of a family biography. It also included the Extension Maths program

where 20 very switched on students extended their mathematical skills. The Arts program involved 100

students in the areas of dance, drama, music and visual arts. This program will culminate in the performing

arts participants providing the pre-show entertainment for our school musical “Barnum” .

In addition, there were around 20 budding scientists who investigated serious real life problems in the

school laboratories. The Link Program also involved a Performance Tour in which a number of Merrimac’s

Music and Dance performance students toured the local primary schools.

Finally, we hosted a Lightning Carnival for 200 primary students where students played an all day round

robin competition in Netball and Soccer.

Middle Phase At Merrimac SHS we have introduced a Middle Phase for Year 8s that encourages students to be

empowered and ‘switched-on’ to learning through ‘strong meaningful connections’ with their

peers and teachers. These connections (or relationships) come from two aspects of school life: the

connections involved in the process of students building understanding through higher order thinking

and the connections involved in collaborative and collegial learning.

The introduction of our 4 team leaders (Maree Gibbs, Lori Falchi, Kees Nyssen & Josh Ryan) and dedicated

POD teachers have resulted in a supportive environment that encourages students to develop new

skills, master new tasks and understand new approaches to problem solving. In 2010 the middle school

phase will extend to our Year 9 students to provide an innovative learning environment that gives our

students the skills to achieve in the 21st century.

CohortBarnum

A spectacular Merrimac High production of Barnum will be staged at the

Gold Coast Arts Centre on the 24 July. The success of this production will

be the result of a combined effort from Merrimac’s talented teachers. The

show will be directed by Lynn Dyer, musically directed by Geoff Willis,

choreographed by Kim Reynolds and acrobatics choreographed by Kristie

Barfoot and Nathan Pugliese. A cast of 85 students, will be supported by

40 primary school students providing the pre-show entertainment. Dan

Knight trained students in plate spinning, hoop and fire twirling, tightrope walking, devil sticks, juggling

and ribbons, whilst Angela Collins worked with the acrobatic girls at Aerial Angels on aerial silk routines.

Based on the true story of PT Barnum, the famous circus showman, this production will be filled with

great musical numbers and spectacular circus performances.

Essential IngredientsEssential Ingredients was a program developed in 2008, with the purpose of addressing the skill

shortage in the hospitality industry.

Merrimac was fortunate enough to be adopted by Mariott Resort and Spa. The program included

valuable work experience and an interschool cooking competition. The cook- off was judged by the

Australian Culinary Federation. Awards and prizes were given for categories such as presentation and

cleanliness, best teamwork, presentation of dish, accuracy of written submission and overall winners.

Home Economics teacher Katie Birmingham trained the Merrimac entrants, Beth Holzapfel and Rachelle

Harris who cooked a fantastic dish of sumac spiced lamb cutlets with a handmade rocket aioli and won

four of the six categories including the overall winner. Beth has since secured a traineeship at Conrad

Jupiters Casino at the completion of year 12. Year 10 students, Zac Draper, Heather Shrimpton and Alicia

Williams have been training to defend the title for 2009.

LEO’sThe Merrimac LEO Club, an off-shoot of Lions International has been running in the school since 2007.

During 2009 membership of the club passed the 20 mark, making it one of the largest LEO Clubs in

Queensland. The members have undertaken two main service activities during the year. The first was

collecting soft toys to be sent to the Children’s Ward at Dili Hospital in East Timor. The second is an

ongoing project collecting small change from students and staff, anything under 20 cents, to go towards

assisting students and families in need. Recently, money was donated for petrol use by a family receiving

specialist medical care in Brisbane for their student.

The management committee comprising Ashlee Drew, Kim Slattery, Makayla Thompson, Liz Watson,

Tayla-Jade White, Paula Hopkinson and Erin Thomas, assisted by the Lions Advisor/Teacher, Mr Steve

Strong and other teachers Mrs Jeanette Keenan and Mrs Wendy Harrison not only give voice to the

LEO motto “Leadership, Experience, Opportunity” but also the unofficial motto “Let’s Enjoy Ourselves”.

FacilitiesLaptops

Merrimac’s success in the Federal Governments ‘Digital Education

Revolution’ grants will see the implementation of a ‘One to One’

Laptop program for our Year 9 – 12 students in the near future. Stage

One commences with a ratio of 1:2, an improvement on the present

ratio of 1:4 computers per student.

We are presently trialling 50 Laptop computers to collect data on their

performance. The Merrimac vision is to have all students participate in

a ‘Take Home Program’. This plan will involve students, (for a nominal

fee), taking ownership of the Laptop that will eventually be their own.

This is a huge educational advantage for our students.

Committee members are well into planning and researching ‘best practice’ from existing schools from

around the world.

The educational landscape is changing at an incredible speed. Web 2.0 tools are now common place in

our classrooms with Web 3.0 expected shortly.

This Revolution is truly shaping up to be a ‘once in a century’ event.

Library UpgradeThe Resource Centre/Library, shall be receiving a $652,000 facelift shortly. It is anticipated that this

redevelopment shall take into account the shift in educational trends and become more interactive and

technology reliant. While books will always have a place, there is a need to marry existing resources to the

future needs of our students.

The existing facility was based on a 1975 design and built in 1979. The new design is planned to have

quiet reading spaces with independent study areas and Laptop lounges.

Multimedia and class research areas will be available to groups.

It is an exciting time for the centre and many suggestions are forthcoming from both students and staff.

National School Pride Merrimac State High School has been successful in obtaining $200,000

from the Commonwealth Government’s National School Pride Program.

The program provides for minor refurbishment throughout the school.

Our program will renew and replace the student desks and chairs

throughout the school, replace up to 237 fans in classrooms and repair

much of the outdoor seating and shade structures.

Such an injection of funds has allowed us to fast track these improvements and further enhances the

quality of our learning environments.

StaffCuddlebug Award

Cuddlebugs Playtime Playgroup, a community playgroup which is affiliated with Playgroup

Australia, first commenced in 1997. Since then senior students have run the playgroup as part of

their studies relating to early childhood. In 2009 both the playgroup and the founding teacher,

Annette Tanks, were recognised by Playgroup Australia, by receiving Gold Awards for dedicated

service and commitment to the community.

ICT Pedagogical LicenceInformation and Communications Technologies (ICTs) are now integrated into teaching and learning

at Merrimac State High School. Teachers and students learn together through technologies such as

laptops, data projectors, digital cameras, video cameras, emailing and in ‘Virtual Classrooms.’ The days

of ‘chalk and talk’ and the concept of the teacher being a font of all knowledge, are well and truly gone.

To best utilise these new technologies Education Queensland encourages all teachers to achieve a

Pedagogical Certificate. This Certificate indicates that the holder has a comprehensive understanding

of how technology can enhance educational outcomes for students. Currently, 50% of Merrimac’s

staff hold this certificate with many others awaiting accreditation. The next level of accreditation

is the ICT Pedagogical Licence, which acknowledges the teacher’s ability to integrate technology

and new pedagogical practices. Daniel Ricardo and Karen Farrow are holders of the Pedagogical

Licence, and Sonya Palmer is awaiting moderation of her portfolio. Daniel Ricardo, an EQ Smart

Classrooms facilitator and previous State Moderator, has been instrumental in mentoring staff.

Technology ensures that our students’ learning can now occur anywhere, anytime.

CommunityU3AThe school is proud of its long standing partnership with the University of the Third Age (U3A). U3A are

welcomed into our school community weekly to pursue learning across languages, music, philosophy

and technology using our IT and other facilities. In addition to their learning at Merrimac SHS, U3A

participants draw upon their wealth of life experience to support some of our students in a mentoring

capacity aimed at improving individual student outcomes. Students of our school have presented short

courses to U3A members to improve their mobile phone usage. In some small way, our partnership with

U3A reflects the value and wealth of knowledge to be passed between generations. We are proud to

support our local community in the pursuit of excellence in learning.

AlumniThe mission of the association is to promote and further the interests of Merrimac State High and to foster

beneficial relations amongst its Alumni. Membership is open to all graduates as well as current and past

Merrimac staff. This is our inaugural year and we hope to attract many past students to the association.

Our goals are to keep all alumni connected to Merrimac through events, reunions, communications,

fundraising and assisting current students with job opportunities.

An Alumni committee will be formed to organise activities in conjunction with a school representative.

If you are interested in being a part of this committee, please let us know by emailing

alumni@merrimacshs.eq.edu.au or contacting Arlene Wood at awood76@eq.edu.au

MerrimacGold Coast, Australia

State High School

Dunlop Court, Mermaid Waters, Q 421807 5595 8666 tel07 5595 8600 faxwww.merrimacshs.eq.edu.auoffice@merrimacshs.eq.edu.au