The 2021 conference of the Bond University High School Model United Nations (BUHMUN) at Bond University was attended by a delegation of seven A.B. Paterson College students from 11-12 May. Maria Nadezhdina, Bita Mahani, Elizabeth Roberts, Charley Ellwood, Connor O’Neill, Alexander Roberts and Angelina Inthavong were awarded a Best Delegation Award for their diplomacy and negotiation skills during the conference.

BUHMUN is Australia’s first university-run High School Model United Nations conference. The annual conference’s theme for this year was Sustainable Development Goal 5 – Achieving Gender Equality and Empowering Women and Girls. Bond University invited young people to step forward and step up together to change the course for women’s and girls’ rights, and to shape solutions for a gender-equal tomorrow. Diplomacy, negotiation and resolutions addressed inequalities between women and men, and boys and girls that pervade the world today. António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, addressed the conference in a video in the opening session. The resolutions of the four committees will be forwarded on and read by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, highlighting the scope and influence of BUHMUN to actively contribute suggestions to the UN for ways to address the refugee crisis that sees more than 26 million displaced people globally.

Connor O’Neill represented Armenia in Committee 1 to discuss ‘Accessibility to leadership education, recruitment and career-development programs to ensure that all women, especially young women, have equal access to managerial, technical and leadership training’. He was a key contributor and writer of the final resolution.
In Committee 2, Charley Ellwood represented Cote de Ivoire, addressing ‘Valuing unpaid care, including care for the elderly and/or infirm of body’. He was a genuine leader in this group, drafting resolutions that tended to stray off topic, but were redirected by him to achieve meaningful change.

Angelina Inthavong (Australia) and Elizabeth Roberts (India) contributed to Committee 3’s resolutions on ‘The effects of armed or other kinds of conflict on women, including those living under foreign occupation’. This was a lively committee that saw many heated moments of diplomacy and negotiation. Claims were made by Communist nations to reinstate the now defunct Soviet Union - a horrifying thought!

Committee 4 was the largest committee at the event with the biggest foci for the event: ‘Gender-Based Violence’, ‘Access to Health Care’ and ‘Access to Quality Education’. Bita Mahani represented (South Sudan), while Alexander Roberts stood for Cuba. There were several issues negotiating suitable resolutions to address the issue of providing externally-displaced asylum seekers with necessary health care, feminine hygiene products and access to contraception.

For the first time, the College sent a journalist to BUHMUN - Maria Nadezhdina was a well-regarded ‘journo’ who gained exceptional insight into the work of a journalist and the challenging demands of covering an ‘international’ event.

BUHMUN was an inspiring experience, particularly considering the scale of the current refugee crisis that is overshadowed by the COVID-19 crisis that only serves to make the situation worse for refugee camps and the management of the centres that process, support, feed and house a growing number of refugees; the majority of whom are women and children.

This year A.B. Paterson College performed extremely well. We won the following awards:

- Multimedia Journalism Award (Maria Nadezhdina)
- Best Delegate for Committee 4 (Bita Mahani)
- Best Delegation Award (A.B. Paterson College)
- First ever BUHMUN Ambassador (Bita Mahani)
 
Bita Mahani has been recognised by Bond University as a truly outstanding BUHMUN delegate. She has won the Best Delegate Award for each committee that she has participated in the Bond University High School Model United Nations conference for three years running. The conference on Wednesday 12 May was concluded with a special award and presentation that was created specifically for Bita due to her inspiring contributions to BUHMUN. She becomes the first ever BUHMUN Ambassador! Associate Professor Dr. Mark Dinnen has also offered to recommend her to any university for an International Relations university course. 

Congratulations to Bita and all A.B. Paterson College delegates at the 2021 BUHMAN conference.

Anthony Chetter
Head of Faculty - HASS

Over the past fortnight we have had a variety of incursions and excursions take place in the Junior School, together with community events which have encouraged parent engagement. At the beginning of Week 3, following the Labour Day public holiday, we had our first College Open Day for 2021. The great highlight of Open Day was the Year 6 and Year 11 students who were tour guides for the many prospective parents. The overwhelming feedback from these parents was that these student guides were exceptional and from the College's perspective, these students truly lived up to the vision, mission and values of A.B. Paterson College. Our next College Open Day will be held on Tuesday 3 August.

On Wednesday 5 May, the Year 3 cohort had an incursion titled ‘Big Bang’. This incursion was facilitated by an external company and thoroughly engaged the students. The scientific understandings developed during this session will continue throughout the Science unit of work this term.

Wednesday 5 and Thursday 6 May had a scheduled excursion for Year 2 to Hinze Dam. Unfortunately due to inclement weather and substantial rainfall the Tuesday excursion needed to be postponed. This will now occur on Thursday 20 May for 2D and 2S. The weather eased on Thursday 6 May and 2R and 2T were able to go. Once again this excursion is linked explicitly to the unit of work in Year 2. Students, teachers and parent helpers thoroughly enjoyed this excursion and returned to the College bubbling with enthusiasm.

On Friday 7 May we hosted the Mother’s Day breakfast in The Winton Centre. What a wonderful turn out we had! The range of performances we had to celebrate this Mother’s Day event was particularly impressive. I would like to thank The Arts department, lead by Mrs Walker-Joyce, for putting together these fantastic performances.

Week 4 saw the commencement of … NAPLAN. This returned after a hiatus in 2020 due to COVID-19. The Year 3 and 5 students coped very well with the pressures that NAPLAN testing presents and we were all thankful when it was completed on Thursday, except for some catch-up tests on Friday.

On Thursday afternoon, our Years 4 - 6 students versed Saint Stephen's College for APS Sport. It was great that these games were able to go ahead, especially after training had to be cancelled on Wednesday afternoon due to weather warnings.

The rescheduled Years 4 – 6 disco was a hit on Thursday evening. We had over 200 students attend who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying this annual highlight in the Junior School calendar. A big thank you to Ms Bakanay for organising the disco and all the teachers and the student volunteers from Years 11 and 12 who assisted with supervision on the night.

Week 5 looks very busy so please consult the College calendar as it commences with Founders' Day on Monday 17 May and the start of the annual Book Fair from 8.00am.    

Simon Edgar
Head of Junior School

Opportunities to dance up a storm have been few and far between over the past 15 months - so when 125 extremely excited Years 4-6 students gathered for the College's first disco since 2019, their combined energy almost lifted the roof off the MPC!

Students enjoyed dancing, mingling and enthusiastically joining our Year 12 volunteers for classics such as the Conga Line, Nutbush City Limits, Chicken Dance, Limbo, Macarena and Musical Statues.

After taking a short break for a quick snack to refresh, students returned to the dance floor and danced until closing time.

The running of such an event was made possible by a number of staff and senior student volunteers. The smiles on the faces of students as they were leaving was a testament to how much they appreciated the team of people who came together to host this event. 

The technology available to us today is far reaching and allows our students to access a range of devices and applications to aid and enhance their learning and understanding of the world around them. With the ever increasing access that students have to data, information and the lives of others, it is imperative that they have an awareness and understanding of how to communicate positively and responsibly online. Cybersafety is the safe practice of using the internet and socially interactive applications within the Web.

At the College, we have a wide range of protective software in place that records each download, internet request and page accessed. This includes network and software filters that assist in limiting access to inappropriate material whilst students are at the College. With the introduction of the RoamSafe agent this year, this protection is extended to when our students are offsite, allowing the same level of filtering to be reflected at home as when the students are at school.

Parents play a vital role in the education of their children and it is imperative that we not only demonstrate responsible use of technology, but also provide opportunities to discuss and have a conversation about what this looks like. To support your child’s responsible use of technology there are a number of strategies that could be implemented:

• Encourage your son or daughter to use their device in family areas of the home to allow parental monitoring of content and social networking.
• Set reasonable rules and guidelines for device use; discuss what is the appropriate amount of screen time. The Queensland Government recommends the following:
  - Children under 2 should have no screen time
  - Children aged 2 – 5 should have no more than one hour of screen time a day
  - Children aged 5 – 17 should have no more than two hours of screen time a day
  These recommendations may not always be achievable, however, it does highlight the significant amount of time young people are spending on their devices each day and how, for many 5 – 17 year old children, it is often more than two hours. 
• Encourage your son or daughter to be vigilant and not to respond to friend requests or messages from people they do not know and not to access any links contained in emails from persons unknown to them. 
• Explain to your son or daughter the importance of protecting private and personal information.

In addition to supporting our students as both parents and staff members of the College, it is important that they are regularly reminded of the following:

• Only upload content that you are happy for everyone to see.
• Never share confidential data or information about yourself or others.
• Be mindful that whatever you post will be public for a very long time and could affect future university, scholarship and job applications.
• Don’t assume that posting anonymously will keep your true identity secret if you publish inappropriate comments and content.
• Take personal responsibility for the content that you post on any public forum.

More information about cybersafety and safe internet practices can be found through our College Portal, https://ict.abpat.qld.edu.au/, as well as through the Office of Children’s eSafety Commissioner, Parents | eSafety Commissioner, and the Student Wellbeing Hub for Parents Parenting Help | Strategies for supporting students (studentwellbeinghub.edu.au).

At the beginning of Term 2, the Year 12s participated in a series of lessons designed to make them more financially literate. Financial literacy is the possession of the set of skills and knowledge that allows an individual to make informed and effective decisions with all of their financial resources.

Mr Olivier and Ms Baxter held a series of interactive workshops that touched on the topics of budgeting, debt management, credit, car ownership and, finally, provided strategies to prevent fraud by discussing identity theft. The interactive workshop was facilitated with videos and resources from moneysmart.gov.au whilst being complemented with personal stories from the presenters on how to manage money mistakes after leaving high school.

The Year 12s were able to provide valuable input into the presentation and its focus by completing a survey on their financial literacy by indicating if they were working part-time, were able to maintain a savings account and how financially responsible they were when it comes to managing their needs versus wants in terms of short, medium and long term financial planning. 

Overall, the students enjoyed the presentations and asked valuable questions that showed a desire to continue pursuing the concept of being financially literate which, if done early, can lead to greater financial success in the future.
 
Marc Olivier
Head of House - Wright

Guests at the inaugural Foundation Mother's Day High Tea held at Links Hope Island Resort, were treated to some wonderful student and alumni entertainment, including a sneak peak at our upcoming College musical, Guys & Dolls, dance and instrumental performances and the public debut of a Cappella group, Cornerstone Chorus.

The a Cappella chorus - conducted by HaSS Teacher Jonathan Albertini and featuring a number of Old Collegians - was an absolute hit! The group of male singers aged under 30 rehearse in The Winton Centre and recently invited the A.B. Paterson College Boys a Cappella chorus to join them - their combined number provided a fitting finale to a superb afternoon of food, friendship and entertainment.

Thank you to the 125 members of our College community who attended the event in support of the A.B. Paterson College Foundation.

We would like to sincerely thank all of our amazing supporters who generously assisted us:

The Park Coomera
Iplay Adventure, Westfield Coomera
The Outlet Homewares & Furniture
Links Hope Island
Lana Noir Photography
Saba Organics
Gold Coast Home Meat Deliveries
The Bloomhouse Collective
Tea Blend
Core Climbing
Elements 85
Shakermake Coffee Drive Thru
The Beaute House
Cornerstone Chorus

If you would like to chat about our Foundation, our philosophy of Time, Talent and Treasure or about our upcoming Foundation initiatives and events, please feel free to reach out to our Foundation Manager, Stephanie Bryan 55 947 947 or sbryan@abpat.qld.edu.au. 

Have you ever wanted to flex your creative and science sides at the same time? The 2021 University of Sydney Sleek Geeks Science Eureka Prize will be awarded for a short (2-minute) film that communicates a scientific concept in an accessible and engaging way.

Communicating scientific ideas and discoveries to the world is a tricky task. This film competition encourages school students to communicate a scientific concept in a way that is accessible and entertaining to the public while painlessly increasing their science knowledge.

To enter the competition you need to produce a two minute (or longer) video based on the 2021 theme "big". The video can be about a scientific concept, discovery, invention or even your own scientific hypothesis as long as the science is real. You can participate by yourself or in a team of up to 6 students.

Do not worry about how fancy you can make the video or your age (as long as it is understandable), the videos will not be assessed on production quality and entrants will be considered against their school year and age (oldest student if the video is done in a group). Any language (or no language) is fine, but anything not in English must have English sub-titles.

The videos will be judged on the following criteria:

Science Communication

- Did the film follow a clear and logical sequence, that was not rushed?
- Did the film use relevant examples, demonstrations and/or visuals?
- Did the film present accurate science and use appropriate language?

Entertainment 

- Did the film show that the entrant/s is passionate about their chosen topic?
- Did the film include creative approaches?

Entrants must also provide a brief statement on:

- The nature and extent of any assistance they receive from teachers, parents/guardians etc (200 words maximum)
- What their film is about and how it links to the 2021 theme of 'big' (200 words maximum)
- Where they found the scientific information included in the short film. This does not need to be a formal bibliography but should be a list of what sources the entrants used e.g. books, documentaries, conversations with science teacher/s, scientific publications, YouTube videos etc (200 words maximum). 

Films should be submitted in .mp4 format. A display resolution of 1280 x 720 will be accepted but 1920 x 1080 is preferred (aspect ratio of 16:9).

If you are interested you can register and submit your video here: https://eurekaprizes.awardsplatform.com/. 

Entries close 7pm Friday the 28 May

Cadmann Small
Acting Head of Faculty - Science

We are very pleased to share with you that this month, the A.B. Paterson College Foundation is launching a Webinar Series. These webinars are designed to bring relevant and informative professionals to deliver specific sessions to our College community. We are bringing these sessions to you via a webinar as a convenience to you and the busy family lives that you lead.

We are pleased to announce that the Foundation’s first webinar to launch the series is on the very important topic of Paediatric Nutrition. My Nutrition Clinic have kindly agreed to come on board as a complimentary service to our Foundation. Their team are all tertiary qualified and each have specialisations in this profession.

About the webinar:

Nutrition often seems so simple, yet knowing what to feed our active children can be a constant battle with an abundance of conflicting nutrition information at the end of our finger tips. Dietitian and Sports Dietitian Matt Hart will step you through some of the essential nutrition considerations regarding fuelling active children, and key nutrients that play a fundamental role to promote safe and healthy growth and development.

About Matt Hart, the presenter:

Matt has a Master of Dietetics from Bond University and recently moved back to the Gold Coast after spending time working in the tropics of far North Queensland. He is an easy going, friendly, Tasmanian-bred Queenslander. Matt strives to empower individuals to take control of their own health through collectively developing tailored nutrition support. Outside of work, Matt is constantly on the go, living an active lifestyle - surfing, playing sport and exploring the wilderness via foot or mountain bike.

“I enjoy helping people to develop a more balanced and healthy relationship with food. I take a non-judgemental and gentle approach so that people can progress at their own pace. I avoid using a ‘one size fits all approach’ and like to tailor my plans completely to the individual.” - Matt Hart

Webinar Details:
Date: Wednesday 26 May 2021
Time: 11:30am
Presentation Duration: 11:30am – 12noon Q & A session: 12noon – 12:15pm

In order to receive the link to the live event, please register here - https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/foundation-webinar-series-paediatric-nutrition-tickets-154339033203. On Tuesday 25 May - one day before the event - I will send the link for the live event to all registrants.

Should you have any queries about the Webinar Series or this particular session, please feel free to contact me at the College on 55 947 947 or via email sbryan@abpat.qld.edu.au.

Stephanie Bryan
Foundation Manager

Keen for a hot tip? Legendary New York gambler, Nathan Detroit and the fellas are backing a winner with the 2021 Musical Guys & Dolls - there's no time to hold your horses, book your tickets today! 

Head over to DLPAC Event Bookings now to secure your seats for Guys & Dolls, to be performed at Dawn Lang Performing Arts Centre from 15-17 July, 2021.

It's a sure bet for a fabulous night of musical theatre!

Congratulations to our Week 4, Term 2 Bumper Sticker Winners!

Naoupu Lote-Felo

Damien Klopp

Get your 2021 bumper sticker from College Reception and enter here:

collegebumperstickercompetition@abpat.qld.edu.au

Your vehicle MUST be registered in the competition to be eligible for our weekly bumper sticker draw. 

Our lucky winners each receive $100 off their school fee invoice for the following term! At the end of Term 3, all of our weekly winners will be invited to an afternoon tea where one family will be drawn to receive FREE* tuition for their eldest child for Term 4 2021 (*tuition fee only).

Refer to the flyer attached for more information regarding the 2021 Bumper Sticker competition.