Principal’s Report

WAYNE KENNEDY

Dear Parents,

The end of the 2021 academic year is here. 

While it has been a year of positive change and prosperity for the College, amongst the challenges faced in an era of COVID, the opportunity to facilitate your sons and daughters on their educational journey remains a great privilege for the Teaching Team at Peregian Beach College. We want to thank you for your continued support of our educational and sporting programs and look forward to the new opportunities and possibilities that 2022 will bring.

In the last newsletter I reported on the MIND (Tuesday afternoons) and MOVEMENT (Thursday afternoons) initiatives to commence at the College in Term 1 (Week 3).  The MIND program’s goal is to enhance specific learning needs that cannot be easily met within the classroom. The Teaching Team throughout Term 4 had been meeting to identify the optimal programs that needed to be implemented within the MIND program, based on the identified skills within our student body that would benefit from further enhancement and enrichment.

The skills identified included: time management, organisation, oral language skills, mathematic problem solving, public speaking, editing, study, note taking, spelling strategies, written communication, social cues, targeted maths concepts, reading, targeted grammar skills, writing, and referencing.

Our Senior Teachers noted that our Year 10 – 12 cohort would benefit from further instruction on study skills. The following skills development will be prioritised in 2022:

STUDY

Working consistently:  How to get notes done during term, instead of just before exams.

Note taking:  How to get those ideas the students have extracted from readings into an organised set of notes that will facilitate effective learning.

Conceptual learning skills:  Teaching students how to break the information into its relevant parts as opposed to simply rote-learning materials.

Standing out on assessment:  How to distinguish oneself from the thousands of other students being taught the same materials.

TIME MANAGEMENT

Study routine:  How to develop a study routine that allows for socialising, sport and extra-curricular activities but still ensures productivity.

Working smart:  How to identify the work that is going to get students the most marks across their final years and how to ensure that it gets done.

 Procrastination:  Students are introduced to the most common reasons underlying procrastination and how to manage them, if not eliminate them altogether.

EXAMINATION PREPARATION

Effective work:  Students are introduced to the different types of work they can do in preparation for exams, and which are the most effective.

Fixing mistakes:  The students are shown how to identify exactly what they’re currently doing wrong on mock exams and practice papers, and how to ensure these mistakes are not made in examination.

Exam room techniques:  Including stress management, planning, time allocation and how to tailor a succinct, focused answer.

The College will be seeking the services of the Elevate Program to support our senior students throughout 2022.

In addition, to the Tuesday MIND program, a MOVEMENT program will be implemented on Thursday afternoons. The MOVEMENT program will enable students access to a specialised sporting, movement and fitness opportunity, that will be put forward by the College and then selected (preferences 1-3) by families for participation. It is anticipated that transportation and activity costs will be conveyed prior to the selection process, with alternate activities available at the College that incur no costs. The following MOVEMENT opportunities have been proposed for Year 3 – 12 students (confirmation from external parties is in process): surf life saving, learn to surf, lawn bowls, beach walking, rock climbing, kayaking, beach volleyball, and gymnastics. Prep – Year 2 students will be undertaking the learn to swim program, and proposed dance, soccer and tennis initiatives.

Please note, whilst the MIND and MOVEMENT programs are being undertaken, Sporting Academy students (Dance, Tennis & Football) will be involved in their training programs. The MIND and MOVEMENT programs and all Elite & Development Sporting Academy programs will all be undertaken on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, therefore ensuring that all academic programs remain accessible to every student. Expressions of interest have been undertaken for the proposed inclusion of water polo within our Sporting Academy program in 2022.

All staff have completed their first aid and CPR training on 10th December, to ensure that the appropriate preparations are in good order for sporting, camping, excursion, and playground scenarios. The First Aid in Schools for our Prep to Year 6 students has been scheduled for the 13th June 2022.

Thank you to all the families and teaching team that have contributed to our Christmas present drive to assist foster care families, your gifts were well received.

So from all of us at PBC, we wish you a great festive season and a well-deserved summer holiday.

YEAR 6 TUCK INTO A NEW FEAST FROM OZHARVEST!

This term Year 6 have been taking part in the FEAST program which is run by the organisation OzHarvest. The program teaches students about sustainability, food waste and nutrition using hands-on cooking and inquiry-based learning.

The culmination of the program is the ‘School Cookbook’ (see below) which brings to life everything the students have learnt about food waste and healthy eating. The program encourages students to influence their whole school community by preparing their own ‘food waste saving’ recipe and sharing their knowledge on the topic.

Please click here for recipe book.

Housekeeping

School Administration Housekeeping.

  • The email address to use for all correspondence relating to student absences is admin@pbc.qld.edu.au, this email address is accessed by all administration staff. Please add admin@pbc.qld.edu.au to your address books so that our emails to you don’t go to your junk email folder.
    You can also lodge an absence via the form on the website located here.
  • Don’t forget to order canteen through the My School Connect app – orders are to be placed no later than 8.40 am.
  • When signing students in late or signing them out early please ensure to put a reason in the text box for College records.
  • Please ensure students are in their correct uniform, we are going to be checking to make sure that the uniform policy guidelines are being followed, this includes correct footwear with formal uniforms.

Please click here for recipe book.