Year 12 External Assessment Period

We wish all our Year 12 students the results that they deserve in their external assessments which begin today.  Some students have already completed all their assessment and have commenced working in our local businesses.  Monday sees most remaining students engaged in the English Exam, and then other subjects are spaced over the next 3 weeks.  We look forward to seeing students place their best foot forward and strive for excellence to finish out their final weeks of school.  All the best!

Staffing Update

At the moment we are advertising 3 teaching positions which include 2 middle leader positions.  We are recruiting teachers for Senior Years English and Study of Religion, Mathematics and Art.  These jobs all close soon on Seek, so if you are aware of anyone looking for a future in teaching at OLSCC, please encourage them to apply.

These vacancies come as a result of the departure of some key staff at the College as they move on to new pastures.  Mr Dunbrack is moving to be closer to his home, Mr Grayson is pursuing work in and around Toowoomba, Ms Deepwater is relocating to Townsville, and Mrs Appleton is beginning her transition into retirement. We wish all these loving, caring, and dedicated staff all the best for their new adventures next year!

On Monday, we have Mrs Sarah Hall beginning as our new Business Manager.  Mrs Hall is a long term Dalby local, St Columba’s Primary School past student, and comes to us from senior financial roles in Toowoomba Regional Council.  Please be sure to welcome Sarah should you see her around the College.

Yesterday I announced to staff that Mr Rodney Spain has been appointed as our new Assistant Principal Senior Years from the start of 2022.  Mr Spain was acting in the role earlier in the year and brings with him great experience in senior schooling, specialising in pastoral programs for secondary students.  He is also a passionate digital technologies teacher.  Mr Spain will be visiting the College later this term to introduce himself to the students and complete a handover with Mr Hodge.

Mr Anthony Pope will be commencing in the role of Groundsperson on Monday November 8, replacing Mr Peterson after he took on another role in Murgon. Mr Pope has worked at Simplicity Coatings for the past 12 years and we look forward to having him onboard!

Facilities

Our Middle Years Plaza and Fire Hydrant upgrade has been progressing very well until the rain started disrupting the work schedule.  Much of the hard work has now been completed and over the next 4 weeks we will begin to see areas beginning to restore, and the new buildings and gardens will start coming to life. Keep an eye out as you drive past!

COVID implications

As the premier of Queensland has been emphasising recently, COVID is coming to Queensland over the coming months, and we need to be best prepared to ensure our students and staff are kept as healthy as possible.  At the College we have numerous staff and students who are immunity deficient or have a compromised immune system, and they will not handle COVID well.  I ask all of our community members to seriously read the science behind vaccinations, and consider what they can do to protect the community against this virus.  While there is much debate about COVID vaccines, much of it is not based on scientific evidence. This is simply another vaccine that allows our children to grow into healthy adults, just like all the vaccines they were required to have before enrolling in school.  While we currently live the pleasure of a COVID free environment, this will change over coming months and I would personally like everyone in our community to stay healthy throughout this pandemic.

Peter Cuskelly

Principal 

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. Luke 4: 1-2 

We learn from this verse that immediately after Jesus was baptised in the Holy Spirit, He was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit, to be tempted by the devil for forty days and nights. That was probably a very difficult experience, but Jesus promptly obeyed the Spirit’s leading him. He trusted the Holy Spirit, knowing even the difficulties he would face would work out for his good in the end. 

Obeying God in difficult times helps develop godly character. Jesus set an example for us that we should follow. Following the leadership of the Holy Spirit during seasons of hardship, develop faithfulness, determination, and strength in us - qualities God wants us to have. God has given us the Holy Spirit to help us fulfil His plans for our lives. Sometimes, we must encounter difficulties in order to develop the character we need in order to do what God has planned. We must always remember we never face anything - difficult or great - alone. The Holy Spirit is always with us to help us, and His ways are always the best.  

Dear Lord,

help us not to be afraid of hard times. 

We know you will always be with us, guiding us and caring for us. 

Help us to understand that these hard times will ultimately make us stronger.

We pray for people everywhere, experiencing hardships and that you will be by their side and see them through.

We ask this in your name, Amen 

I am extremely proud of the Year 12 students who began their external exam period today.  They have worked hard over the years of their schooling, learning and balancing all aspects of College life as they've grown and developed.  We look forward to celebrating their graduations with them in Week 7 of this term.  As the end of term fast approaches, please find details in my news today about the events we will celebrate to conclude the 2021 Academic Year.  

STUDENT LEADERSHIP

2022 OLSCC Student Leadership positions are now open for applications.  Full details of our Leadership application process are available on our College Website, Schoolzine and at the College Office.  All students Year 4-11 have received a copy of the application package via email.  We are in the process of reviewing our Student Leadership structure to align with changes to our College structures and Year 12 QCE changes over the past two years.  To apply for any of the following positions: Prefect, House Leader (both Senior and Junior), Student Representative Council, students must write an application letter addressed to Mr Cuskelly. 

END OF YEAR EVENT ATTENDANCE OF COMMUNITY

Awards Ceremony – 17 November 9:15am in the MPC.  This event will be attended by all students in Prep-Year 12.  This will be a ticketed event, as this will then increase the capacity we can have attend from outside our student body. Limited tickets will be available to families of Year 12 students and award recipients.  We will live stream this event due to our limited capacity.  Details on how to book tickets or watch the live stream will become available in the coming weeks.

Yr 12 Graduation Mass – 19 November 9:15am at St Joseph’s Church.  This event will be attended by Year 11 and Year 12 students.  One pew will be designated seating for each of the Year 12 students’ families.  Other limited seating will be available via a ticket system for the extended community.  Details on how to book tickets will be in our next newsletter. 

Christmas Carols – Friday 26 November, 6:00-8:00pm on the OLSCC Main Oval.  This event is open to all students and their extended families and friends.  There are no capacity limits at this event and those in attendance just need to register on arrival using our Qld Government QR Code. 

Early Years Christmas Play – Thursday 2 December at 12:30pm in the MPC.  This will be a ticketed event to increase our audience capacity in the MPC.  Details on how to book tickets will be available in upcoming newsletters.

STUDENT UNIFORM REQUIREMENTS FOR AWARDS CEREMONY

Our College Awards Ceremony held on Wednesday 17 November is a formal event for all students at the College, Prep to Year 12.  All students must wear full formal College uniform on this day, including ties for Year 5-12 students.  Students may swap their sports uniform to Tuesday or Thursday in this week to assist families.

PRAXIS

Year 12 as part of their last Religion and Ethics Assessment and aligning with their Praxis class designed their own projects and worked to make a difference in the world.  Many of the groups gave up their time volunteering at different organisations around town.  One group helped out at St Joseph's Parish clearing overgrown gardens.  St Joseph's sent their thanks stating it "has opened up the garden and this week we had some volunteers notice the free space and came and planted some pots of colour. This will go a long way to making the grounds bright for our Centenary celebrations at the end of November, we appreciate your help greatly." Parish Secretary, Lesley Clapperton.  Other groups volunteered at the Pound, St Vincent de Paul, gathered donations for the Salvos and created video interviews for the 100yr Parish celebrations!  Well done students.

MINI VINNIES CHRISTMAS APPEAL

For most of us, Christmas is a time of celebration with family and friends; the joy of exchanging gifts, making precious memories together and enjoying delicious Christmas treats to eat. However, for many Australians, including families and children living below the poverty line, Christmas can be a time when meeting their most basic needs, like putting food on the table or a place to call home, is a real struggle. 2021 has been a year like no other, with even more people needing support to bring joy back into their Christmas celebrations.

Each year, we as a College make every effort to support St Vincent de Paul in their challenge to help the needy in our community. We are again inviting you to join them in making this Christmas, one filled with joy and happiness for families across Queensland. We invite you to donate goods which can be made into hampers. These could be items that are considered treats at Christmas or staples to fill a pantry. Any donation is appreciated but to streamline your donations, we are asking each class to donate items in the following categories:

Please send your donations into the College with your child by Wednesday 24 November. These donations will then be passed on to our local St Vincent de Paul Society at the College Christmas Carols on Friday 26 November.

Cate Brennan

Deputy Principal Religious Education

We are very excited across the Early Years to be preparing for our upcoming Early Years Christmas Musical, which will see every student in the sector participating. The details include:

Name: “The Inn-Spectors” by Nikki Lewis

Performance Date: Thursday 2 December

Time: 12.30pm

Venue: OLSCC Multi-purpose Centre

Every family will have received an email earlier this week with details of your child’s role and costume requirements so please keep your eye out for that.

 The College LYF (Living Your Faith) Program aims to make the Reign of God a reality, where every student comes to know and experience Jesus in their lives and community through action-based faith. One key component of this program is Praxis, a faith-based service learning activity where students engage in the needs of our community. Over the past few weeks, we have seen examples of this through our engagement of Senior Years classes with Early Years classes. These classes are helping with preparation of costume and prop requirements for our Early Years Christmas Musical whilst others have been assisting with reading or maths games. The Year 8’s have been working with the Year 3’s on a “Let’s Be Active” project, which provides structured physical activity and skill building for the younger students, whilst also developing strong cross sector connections.

Katrina Walton

Assistant Principal Early Years

It has been a wonderful month for the Middle Years as our students continue to kick goals in their academic pursuits. A large mix of students from Year 5 through to Year 8 have now been acknowledged as champions in a range of fields from design thinking and innovation to mathematical problem-solving. Let’s recap:

STEM Punks Regional Champions

The College entered two teams in the STEM Punks Innovation Sports competition that was held in Toowoomba at the Cobb+Co Museum on October 10. It was great to see the students giving up their time on a Sunday to compete against 7 other schools from the region. The competition sought to uncover the fastest, most innovative thinkers in the region and I was so proud to have both our Year 7/8 team and the Year 5/6 team progress through to the finals. After the final round, we were awarded first and second place with the Year 5/6 team pipping their older peers for their design of an upgrade to the Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport. 

Yr 5/6 Team: Bella Bonnin, Matthew Brennan, Arabella Stirling, Luke Griffiths, William Barwick

Yr 7/8 Team: Hayden Koehler, Dylan Peach, Joel Hayward, Fiona Brown, Joab Jocson

Optiminds

Once again, Middle Years students represented the College at the State Finals for the Optiminds Competition. This time they travelled to Brisbane to the University of Queensland, St Lucia Campus to compete against other school teams. We are so proud of their efforts, and they were the recipients of an Honour Award following the competition which ranked them 3^rd in the state.

Optiminds Team: William Barwick, Joshua Barwick, Matthew Brennan, Hayden Koehler, Ethan Koehler, Louie Machin, Penny Cartwright

QAMT Maths Competition

On Friday October 15, two teams competed in the regional final for the Queensland Association of Mathematics Teachers Problem Solving Competition. The Year 7/8 Team (Bridie Rush, Chloe Manteit,  Jack Gibson) finished with a first place and the Year 5/6 Team (Lucy Cusack, Zane Stirling, Lochie McNaughton) finished in second. Both teams are now through to the State Finals which will be held on Thursday October 28 (via zoom). We wish them all the best for the next round.

Craig Cullen

Assistant Principal Middle Years

SWQ Touch Football

Results from the SWQ All Schools Carnival are listed below. Our Primary Teams will now move on to the QLD All Schools Carnival in November. The Under 15 Girls will continue to play in the Dalby Ladies competition. Thanks to Mrs Wilkins, Miss Price and Miss McDuff for coaching our teams on Sunday.

Primary Boys

Loss to Dalby South School                    5-0

Win vs St Mary’s C                                5-3

Loss to St Mary’s A (Runners Up)           4-2

Win vs Mater Dei B                               8-1

Draw with Our Lady of Lourdes              2-2

Primary Girls

Loss to Our Lady of Lourdes                   7-0

Loss to Glennie                                     5-0

Loss to St Saviour’s                               2-1

Loss to All Hallows (Runners Up)            7-0

Draw with Mater Dei B                           1-1

Under 15 Girls Pool B  

Loss to St Joseph’s                                3-1

Loss to Glennie (Overall Winners)           5-1

Win vs Highfields                                   5-0

Quarter Final

Third in Pool B vs Second in Pool A

Loss to Fairholme                                  7-0

SWQ Rugby Sevens Competition

Open Girls Week 2

Fairholme defeated OLSCC 27-0

Glennie defeated OLSCC 29-10

Open Girls Week 3

Downlands defeated OLSCC 37-5

St Joseph’s defeated OLSCC 32-10

Under 15 Girls Week 3

OLSCC drew with Harristown SHS 17-17

OLSCC defeated TAS / Concordia 26-15

Under 13 Girls Week 3

Glennie defeated OLSCC 36-15

St Saviours defeated OLSCC 27-10

Under 13 Boys Week 3

Toowoomba Grammar Blue defeated OLSCC 32-0

OLSCC defeated Toowoomba Grammar Black 19-7

Secondary Touch Football

Congratulations to all students who attended the QLD All Schools Carnival at Runaway Bay on the Gold Coast. This will be the venue for the 2022 and 2023 Carnivals. Trials will be held early next year to select teams. Thanks to Miss McDuff, Mrs Wilkins, Mr Grayson and Mrs Sankey for their assistance in coaching our teams.

The Under 15 Boys had a very strong pool and were up against some well renowned Touch Football Schools which was always going to be a challenge. The boys competed hard in all games and put in their best efforts for the College.

Loss to Kingston College                                    6-1

Loss to Clairvaux MacKillop                                3-2

Loss to Coombabah SHS                                   11-1

Loss to Brisbane Adventist                                 8-4

Loss to Morayfield SHS                                      10-0

Loss to Wavell SHS                                           9-1

The Under 15 Girls had a sound carnival finishing sixth in their pool with a few narrow losses. This was a noticeably young team that will improve at future carnivals.

Win vs Elanora SHS                                          5-2

Loss to Kingston SHS                                        4-1

Loss to Cavendish Road SHS (Semi Finalists)     8-0

Loss to Sunshine Beach SHS                             1-0

Loss to Trinity College Beenleigh                        2-1

Loss to Mercy College MacKay                           8-0

The Under 18 Mixed Team had an outstanding carnival making the semifinals of the competition. This is the best result any College Team has had at this carnival. The team did extremely well to go through their pool games undefeated. The team’s best performance was in the Quarter Final vs Morayfield where they were down by one or even the majority of the game, however, they never gave up and ended up winning the game 8-6.

Win vs Lockyer District SHS                               5-2

Win vs Spinifex Mt Isa                                        10-1

Win vs St Thomas Mores                                    7-1

Win vs Assissi                                                   6-1

Win vs Good Shepherd Noosa                            7-2

Win vs Groves Christian                                     8-1

Win vs Wellington Point SHS                              6-4

Finals

Round of 16

Win vs Canterbury College                                 6-5

Quarter Final

Win vs Morayfield SHS                                       8-6

Semi Final

Loss to Southport SHS                                       7-3

QISSN Netball / QISSRL Rugby League 2022

The 2022 QISSRL and QISSN Carnivals will be held in Mackay in the first week of the June/ July holidays. The Rugby League Carnival is open to any boys turning 16 or older in 2022. The Netball Carnival is open to any girls in Years 9-12 in 2022. The Netball Squad will begin training next Tuesday morning for five weeks at the PCYC from 7.00 am – 8.10 am. The Rugby League Squad will begin training next Thursday morning for five weeks on Brothers Oval from 7.00 am – 8.10 am. All players interested in being part of these teams in 2022 need to attend training.

Volleyball

Last week the Year 8 Division 1 Girls Volleyball Team travelled to Toowoomba to play Harriston SHS. The team had a successful afternoon winning 25-11,25-11,26-24. This team along with another Year 8 Girls and a Year 7 Girls Team will attend the QLD Junior Schools Cup Competition on the Gold Coast. All teams have been preparing very well for this event with before school and weekend training sessions. A big thanks to Mrs Lincoln, Mrs Biggar, Mrs Wilkins and Mr Milford for their efforts in making this opportunity possible for our students.

Basketball

On Thursday afternoon a friendly game of basketball was played at the College between DSHS and OLSCC. Congratulations to the Dalby State High team on their win, it was a great afternoon.  

Tim Lincoln

Middle Leader Sport

Instrumental and Vocal Showcase

Congratulations to selected students who performed last Wednesday night at the Vocal and Instrumental Showcase. The audience was treated to a very high level of entertainment representing singing, guitar, violin and ensembles, including both the percussion ensemble and concert band. These students have all been working under the tutelage of Ms Jessica Berwick (voice), Miss Harriet Nicholson (strings) and Mr Stew Sloan (brass, wind, percussion and ensembles) and it was a treat to witness the fruits of their labours!

Katrina Walton

Culture

Hi parents, grandparents and carers, 

Everyone has responded very well to Flexischools with almost all orders now being placed online via the Flexischools app or website.

We are encouraging 100% usage of Flexischools so that we will be a cashless tuckshop. This then makes life easier for the tuckshop workers as all orders come in by 8.30am each morning and there should be no late or forgotten orders from class rooms.

Also we are still in NEED of tuckshop volunteers. If you are able to help for an hour or two a week, I would be most appreciative. Come in and see me and we can organise a day and time that suits you.

Kathy Crump

Tuckshop Convenor