Academic Achievement

August has been a month of academic competition, with our High Potential Learners challenging themselves in numerous ICAS Competitions – so far Writing, English and Science have been completed with Maths held next week. That’s 160 tests complete with another 59 across next week. We wish all competitors the very best and look forward to seeing the results shortly.

Our Maths stars also took to Chinchilla State High School on Tuesday to compete in the Queensland Association of Mathematics Teachers annual quiz. We had three teams, comprising a total of 9 Year 5 and Year 6 students, competing against another 21 teams in a five round tournament of Mathematics. From problem solving, to general knowledge and estimation, our students performed wonderfully well. Below is a breakdown of the results:

1^st Place – Team #2 - Isabelle Tia, Heidi Hay, Harrison Ryan

2^nd Place – Team #1 – Matilda Kahler, George Todd, Surali Wickramasinghe

3^rd Place – Team #3 – Jean Timms, Frankie Machin, Daniel Brennan

That is an amazing achievement, especially when competing against all those other schools and their teams. Well done, I knew we could count on you!  

Camps

We work hard to design wonderful camp experiences for our students. Ones where they not only learn wonderful things in a wide variety of new settings, but ones that ensure they will have amazing experiences and make memories with their friends that will last a lifetime. Year 7 camp is no exception – this week our cohort travelled to the Fraser Coast region and had a whale of a time … literally. From 4x4 tours on Fraser Island (K’gari) to an indigenous experience on Round Island, from the Maryborough Military Museum to a spot of Mary Poppins, this camp had plenty of fun and learning rolled up into a lovely week-long experience. Next up, we have our Year 5 students heading away in early Term 4.

Support for parents

In today’s fast-paced digital world, raising children comes with a new challenge not seen by previous generations of parents and carers: helping children become safe and responsible digital citizens. With social media, gaming, and online communities rapidly evolving, it’s easy for parents to feel overwhelmed. Digital habits start early, and like all habits, they are hard to break once entrenched. From the first tablet or gaming console, children begin forming habits around screen time, communication, and content consumption. When parents intentionally guide these habits early on, children can help develop healthy boundaries and self-awareness that will serve them well into the future.

Research highlights (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7722198/) that children who feel confident, valued, and supported, especially online are less likely to seek validation or risky attention in the digital world. Parents play a key role in building that strong foundation of self-worth. However, navigating this space can be extremely tricky. Fortunately, there are some great sites that aim to help parents with just this. Ctrl+Shift (formerly Safe on Social) is one such site. They provide tools, expert advice, and real-world strategies to help parents:

• Understand the platforms their children use
• Talk about tricky topics like screen time, privacy, and online friendships
• Build a culture of mentorship, not monitoring

Organisations like this work to ensure parents feel empowered, not overwhelmed and raise children who are not just safe online, but also ones that continue to demonstrate strong moral values like respect for others. Personally, I like checking their posts and have participated in their webinars and found them very useful. If you are looking for some additional support in this space, it is well worth checking out their site (https://www.ctrlshft.global/) and fortunately more sites like this are emerging and many have great insights for parents and carers.

This will be particularly important as our government moves to restrict access to many platforms for children under 16 years of age. By the end of this year, platforms that many students use frequently, such as TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Reddit, X, and YouTube will all require age verification for under 16s to access them. This is a good thing to protect children, however, without preparing carefully for this transition, some teenagers risk losing access to connections and communities they love.

Check out this article by Kirra Pendergast (August 8, 2025) https://www.ctrlshft.global/news-and-insights/preparing-teens-for-under-16-social-media-ban . Here, there are some good suggestions and strategies that parents can consider in preparing and transitioning children to life without platforms.

Life Changer
Next week, we have the team from Life Changer working with our students once more. Grounded in positive psychology and a strength-based approach, the program and their presenters empower students to reflect and discover the hero within everyone. The organisation has visited our College on numerous occasions, and the students thoroughly enjoy their experience each time. With every visit, the students work through activities that touch of the organisation’s four core values:

• Courage
  It takes courage to make a change, and to never let failure (or fear of failure) stand in the way. Challenge is an opportunity to grow and to strive to move forward, regardless of adversity.
  
  
• Heart
  Kindness and hope are powerful, transformative tools.
  
  
• Tribe
  Trust, respect, and accountability build strong communities. We want that for our students and College community, in good time and challenging times.
  
  
• Infinite Possibilities
  Change is possible, but its rarely easy. Bold thinking is encouraged, and when coupled with hard work, almost anything is possible.

Life Changer have now worked with over 700 schools since their inception in 2017 and we look forward to their team working with our Middle Years students again next week.    

Kind regards,  

Mr Craig Cullen

Assistant Principal Middle Years