Illalong Newsletter - 11 March 2022 | A.B. Paterson College

Year 12 Formal 2022

Congratulations Year 12s!

The annual A.B. Paterson College Senior Formal was held at The Links, Hope Island in wet and blustery conditions. This venue has recently been renovated and with the finished touches that the Formal Committee decided upon to celebrate the Year 12’s, ‘The Great Gatsby’ theme, the space looked amazing.

After spending the day preparing for what was sure to be an unforgettable evening, students commenced arrivals at The Links, Hope Island. As the students exited their vehicles, there were cheers of excitement from their families (some under umbrellas) as they made their way down the red carpet. The students looked incredible and were a vision of class and elegance as they made their way up the steps into the entry area. As the students entered, they were soon immersed in the ‘Great Gatsby’ theme and matching decor – a perfect opportunity to commence capturing memories of this unforgettable evening.

Once all students had arrived, the Year 12s lined up with their partners and introduced themselves to Board Chair, Mr Tanner and Mrs Tanner and Principal, Ms Sheehy before entering the venue for the evening. There were gasps of awe as the students entered and found their seats taking great delight in the ‘Year 12 Formal’ cookies each student received.

After the evening was opened by College Captain, Charley Ellwood, entrees were served and the students commenced their Formal Dance, expertly choreographed by Chloe Britton. As the evening progressed, the students put in their requests to the DJ. There were multiple epic conclusions to the night that the cohort will remember forever, in particular some of the final song choices.

I would like to extend a special thank you to the parents of our Year 12 students for following the COVID guidelines set out by The Links, Hope Island. This ensured the evening ran smoothly which would not have been possible without your support.

Simon Edgar
Acting Head of Senior School

News from Deputy Head of Junior School: Teaching & Learning

I would like to extend a warm welcome to those families I have not yet met this year. My name is Rebecca Taylor, and I am the Deputy Head of Junior School: Teaching and Learning. In my role, I oversee the academic programs from Prep – Year 6, working with teachers to ensure the best quality teaching and learning takes place, in line with the Australian Curriculum and using the Teaching for Understanding pedagogical framework. I also monitor the progress of students in the Junior School to ensure they are achieving to their personal best. While we have had an unusual start to our year, we have been pleased to be able to return to some normality this week. Our Year 2 students enjoyed getting their hands dirty with their visit from Little Green Thumbs, our Year 5 students gazed with wonder inside the Starlab planetarium and our Year 4 – 6 students left it all on the track at the Inter-house Cross Country Carnival.

Some of you may not be aware that I am also a past student of the College, having graduated in 2004. I was recently asked what it is I love about the College and why I chose to come back as a staff member. Unequivocally, my response was that one of the best things about A.B. Paterson College is the incredible sense of community among our parents, staff and students. From the humble beginnings of the College, I have seen first-hand what the community can achieve when we all work together towards a common goal. Now that a further sense of normality has returned, we look forward to holding more events in which our community can be involved. One way in which some parents, guardians and grandparents choose to be involved in the Junior School is through volunteering in classrooms. We are, once again, holding the Classroom Helper Course for any members of our College community who would like to assist. This will be held on Wednesday, 16 March from 1:30pm – 3pm in the Dawn Lang Performing Arts Centre (DLPAC).

As we look towards the end of the term, your children may begin talking about their upcoming assessments. I would encourage you to have conversations with your child to reflect on the goals they set for themselves at the beginning of the term.

Have they achieved what they set out to?
Are there further steps they need to take to ensure they make progress towards their goal by the end of the term?
Who could your child talk to if they need any extra support?

We are looking forward to the Junior School Parent Teacher Interviews scheduled for Thursday, 24 and Tuesday, 29 March. Our teachers are looking forward to discussing each child’s progress so far this year and setting future goals to ensure further growth.

Rebecca Taylor
Deputy Head of Junior School: Teaching & Learning

Little Green Thumbs

Good to Grow is our Term 1 Science unit. We are learning about plants and their life cycle. As a consolidation activity, we had a visit from Andrew who runs Little Green Thumbs. What a lot of fun we had – it was plantastic!

Firstly, we listened to Andrew discuss how plants grow, the needs of a plant and the life cycle of a plant. Then we actively participated in the information sharing session and all giggled at Andrew’s story telling.

During the session, we learnt that there is a tree called the dinosaur tree (Norfolk pine tree) because scientists believe this tree existed when the dinosaurs roamed the land. We were amazed to hear that some cactus can grow taller than a house and sunflowers can grow taller than humans. Our group discussed that plants need nutrients, water, sunlight and air to grow. We enjoyed looking at the different plants that Andrew brought in for everyone to observe.

After our information session, we participated in planting our own seedlings. It was so exciting, and we couldn’t wait to take our tomato seedlings home and water them, so they will be ‘Good to Grow’.

Student comments:

My little plant we planted is safely on the deck at home. I’m waiting for it to grow and flower. Treia
I liked Little Green Thumbs. It was so cool; we even got to plant and keep our own tomato plant. Yara
The coolest part was when we planted the tomatoes. Kai
I love it when the Green Thumbs man showed us a prehistoric plant. Mia
It was fun using a trowel to dig up the soil and plant my tomato seedling. Nadal
I liked it when we planted our tomato plant. Blake
I learned about soil and how to take care of a plant. I had fun. Rayyaan
I liked that we got to take the plants home. Mr Andrew was very funny too. Owen

Kylie Schumacher, Donna Symms, Daisy Ross and Ashlee Lord
Year 2 Teachers

Years 5/6 Esports Competition

On Thursday 10 March, students competed for the first time in the Gold Coast Fuse Cup Esports Competition. This term, A.B. Paterson College put forward two teams – Years 5 and Year 6. Essentially, Esports is competitive video gaming. Students are involved in gaming using the Nintendo Switch and Just Dance which is suitable for primary aged students.

The Federation of United Schools Esports is an international network of schools connected in providing young students with an opportunity to participate in a safe, supportive and structured Esports competition whilst developing positive gaming behaviours and digital wellbeing, as supported by the eSafety Commissioner and Kids Helpline. There were a number of opportunities throughout the day where students discussed appropriate engagement with gaming and identified support networks for them at home.

Our Year 5 and 6 teams both just missed out on the finals and were extremely proud of their efforts. It was the first time that we have completed in this space and student behaviour and way in which they conducted themselves throughout the day is to be commended.

The Fuse Cup Esports team members:

Year 5
Ollie Hart 5W
Chris Lewis 5W
Ollie Higgins 5S
Bennett Longhurst 5S

Year 6
Aidan McIntyre 6N
Nicholas Patterson 6N
Sigrid Perez 6C
Mathew Morris 6M

The next competition will be in Term 2 and students will be able to compete within Mario Kart. If your child is keen to participate, information about registration will be forthcoming.

We wish the Years 7 and 8 teams all the best for their competition on Thursday 24 March. Warmest congratulations to all on their achievement in the Term 1 Fuse Cup Esports competition. Onward and upward!

Beth Claydon
Head of Digital Literacy & STEAM