27 November 2017

Newsletter Articles

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

To the Class of 2017

Welcome to this special edition of the Maleny State High School newsletter. This edition celebrates the departure of our Year 12 students and their contribution to our school.

Over the past few weeks our students have been involved in their Senior Formal and Graduation celebrations and they have excelled themselves, yet again, at both of these events. Throughout this newsletter we have included a number of highlights of these celebrations, along with their achievements at our Presentation Evening, so both parents and students can reflect back on their last days at Maleny State High School.

At graduation I highlighted a number of predicted outcomes for our students and we will all wait in anticipation for the release of our students’ results in December. I am confident we will have further successes to celebrate once these results are released.

On behalf of the entire school community, I would like to congratulate our latest group of graduates and wish them every success for whatever they decide to pursue in their future.

Well done to the Year 12 Class of 2017!

Regards
Deborah Stewart

Presentation Evening

At the 2017 Presentation night, Year 12 students were presented with a variety of awards. Please see the successful recipients below:

Academic Certificates

Year Twelve Dux 2017: Owen Stewart

Senior Formal

On Wednesday, 15 November, the Senior Formal was held at the Caloundra Events Centre.

If you would like to see the photos taken by the photographer on the night, please go to the following website:

Password: MSHS14fm

Once viewed, any images you may want can be ordered and paid for directly through MSP.

Valedictory Speech

Jackson Murray gave the Valedictory Speech on behalf of the Year 12 students. This is what he had to say.

You see, growing up I was taught three crucial things that have shaped me as a person and that is to be yourself, wear deodorant and always say thank you. Now growing up at Maleny High I set a checklist for myself and the first was to be myself, and maybe I’m myself a bit too much, but hey goal achieved. The deodorant thing came later down the track, after I figured out girls enjoy personal hygiene and people who smell good, weird. But I’ve reached that point in my life where I give the biggest thank you of all, a thank you to my teachers, my role models, students’ parents and most importantly this incredible cohort.

Before I begin, ladies you all look absolutely fantastic tonight, can we please get a round of applause. Five years ago now, we walked through that little entrance, quiet, anxious. Bodie was doing that weird thing on his face where you can’t tell if he’s laughing or crying. It was a big day for all of us. I mean our grade had it all from the musicians, to the sporty, the academic, the not so academic, but most importantly the most amazing grade I could have asked for. But we couldn’t have been so great without our mentors, our friends, our teachers. From day dot, your constant encouragement, dedication and persistence in making us the best we can be never went a day unnoticed. I’d like personally thank Ms Edwards, our role model, our leader, our WD-40. You are such a lovable person that emits the most care and respect wherever you go, and that is a truly admirable skill I wish to take on forever. To Ms Stewart and Mr McIntosh, you both have been very kind, hardworking and passionate about making our grade the best you can, and we are very thankful for that. To all our teachers this year, thank you, thank you for absolutely everything.

To the parents, you made it. You bloody made it. For ones with more than one child, God help you, but at least you can tick one moody, stressed, hormonal teenager off the list. All our achievements, through academic, visual arts, sporting events, all our success drives from you. It doesn’t feel like you are all just parents either. From us all growing up together it feels as if we are a community because you have all had a massive impact on our lives, and for that we are forever grateful. I love you mum.

But to the most important people of the evening, my cohort, the seniors of 2017. Over the past years we have grown as an unstoppable collective of intelligent, driven and glowing individuals that are ready to take the world by storm. For myself I remember in Grade 8 I saw you all as strangers and then as the years progressed I saw you all as great friends. But tonight, at this precise moment, I see you as my idols. I don’t want to brag, but I dare to say that this is the most talented room of people that Maleny State High School has ever seen, period. And I’m not just talking academics. I’m talking about real genuine people, people that have dreams, people that will do anything for each other, people that can look you in the eyes and you know they have your back. I have been privileged to spend this chapter of my life with all of you, as we have created memories that no one could forget. So to every single one of you in whatever line of work, ambition or dream you are chasing, there is no doubt that you will achieve it because every single one of you have the power to change the world. So here it is, the thank you. Thank you for being the best cohort I could have asked for. I wish you all the very best for the future. Show the world everything you’ve got.

Here are some photos taken on the night in the photo booths.

If anyone would like copies of all the pics taken in the photo booth, please bring a blank USB to Di Ballantyne in D Block.

YEAR 12 FINAL DAY

CLAP OUT

This is a tradition where the Year 12 students come to school for their final parade which involves the rest of the school, parents and teachers forming a guard and clapping the students on their final exit from Maleny State High School. Students are presented with a Certificate of Completion from the school and the ceremony concludes with a morning tea for Year 12 students and their parents.

Welcome

Chantelle Bozicevic and Kai Markham welcomed the parents, guests, student and teachers:

Farewell speech given by the Principal, Ms Deborah Stewart.

The students were all given a Graduation Certificate in House Groups, presented by their House Leaders.

BUNYA

Cutting of the Cake

As part of their last official duties the School Captains were asked to cut the cake for the Graduating Class of 2017.

Thank You

The most important lesson I’ve learnt in school is that, under no circumstances should football ever be called soccer… I have learnt that some of our best times and memories will involve our teachers. I could not be more thankful for every single one of them. They are so dedicated and bring 100% to the table each lesson, even though their job is teaching us hormonal monsters. They are the best role models we could have ever asked for. Most of us will have those one or two teachers who will become our lifelong friends and mentors. So, in the excitement of today, please, please, don’t forget to thank these wonderful people who have had such a crucial role in our lives so far. Teachers, when the going gets tough and you have one of those days when you wish you weren’t a teacher, just remember how awesome our year level was. In all seriousness, please don’t forget how incredible all of you are. You have helped us become the people we are today and, speaking on behalf of my cohort, we are so very, very, grateful.

Rosie Martin and Tristan Lashmar

YEAR LEVEL COORDINATOR

Mrs Amanda Edwards gave her final speech to the Year 12 students she had looked after, as Year Level Coordinator, during their five years of high school.

Good Morning to our Maleny SHS community. I would firstly like to acknowledge WikiHow to do anything for its succinct and easy to follow instructions on ‘How to use a paperclip in many ways’.

Paper clips are traditionally used to clip together paper. But, as we all know there are many more creative and practical ways to make use of this every day common stationery supply. When you take advantage of its size, strength and convenient flexibility, a simple paper clip can become anything from a handy tool to a work of art. And this is how I have come to view you, my Year 12s.

Since your Year 7 Transition days in 2012, when you came to me as a variety of sealed packages and different sized bags from your respective primary schools, I saw it as my job to be your paper clip. I tried to ensure you stayed fresh in your comfortable packages and sealed bags until you entered our school as a Year 8 student in 2013.

It’s then that I tried to be the paper clip Year 8 Coordinator that encouraged you to unlock your individual crafts by picking Somerset Dam (with the help of Chappy - Chris Davis) as your Year 8 camp destination. We found, by weighting the camp activities correctly, your individual works of art in the form of paper clips, keyrings, bookmarks, necklaces and bracelets, charms and pendants, rings, wind chimes and mobiles, sculptures and ornaments, all shone through as your then, Deputy Principal, Mr Ian Fitton and Principal, Mr Brian King and I all hung them proudly at school as your paper clip hangers.

It was halfway through 2013 that Mrs. Wendy Dawson became your paper clip bookmark in the form of your Year Coordinator so I wouldn’t lose my spot. She helped you finish Year 8 and start Year 9. This was so I could take maternity leave to come back at the start of Term 2, 2014. Mrs. Dawson’s paper clip held things together so well that, upon my return and especially at Year 9 Emu Gully Camp, I noticed more adventurous paper clip craft students re-shaping themselves. Some into caring heart-shaped holders, some into strong hem holders who’d notice when others were reaching their bottom edges and coming undone; so they’d be the ones to provide temporary fixes with their supportive paper clips. I think it was about this time too that Mr Fitton caringly referred to me as your “School Mum”. I have tried to live up to this until this day.

2015’s Year 10 Building Bridges program, with the help and guidance of our infamous previously aforementioned Chappy, took you out of your comfort zone and made you confront your fears. This, along with your week long Work Experience and Rewards Day, where you could become useful paper clips to your peers by:

• Being a replacement zipper pull - when students felt there was nothing for them to hang onto
• Unclogging things – when the job called for precision
• Creating a micro-cleaner – to dust those hard-to-reach crevices and find out what’s what and who’s who

Year 11 last year was a time for all of us to use our paper clips to reboot – with Mr Mark Camman on leave and Miss Henderson taking on the role as your Year Level HOD; Mr Brian Wilkinson (your then Deputy Principal) retiring and Mr Glenn McIntosh replacing him; Mr Brian King on sick leave and Miss Stewart as your acting Principal. For some of us, we needed to reset. This included higher expectations, as well as short and long-term goals. All as part of your first official Senior Year. Leadership Camp offered the perfect opportunity for some of us to use our paper clip tools for pressing that tricky-to-reach internal reset button.

By now, I’m hoping you’ve figured out that there are a multitude of uses for a paper clip. However, I think the most important use of your paper clip tool is to mark the end of your secondary schooling tape as a Year 12 student in your final senior year who has: sat their QCS Test; completed their School-based Apprenticeships and Traineeships; their Hospitality and Tourism and/or Construction and/or GenR8 courses; attended the best Formal ever; gone to their chillaxed Beach Day (with BBQ lunch organised by our school Chaplains, Lish and Hayden) and you are now sitting here as the graduating class of 2017. By marking it, it’s easier to find when you need to look back on this time with the fondest of memories, maybe your 10th, 20th or 30th + reunions.

So remember, we are simply paper clips who can become anything from a handy tool to a work of art.

Thank you to your parents and carers for making my job as your Year Level Coordinator such an easy one by raising such mature, well-rounded young adults.

All that I ask of you, as your school mum and “WD-40” (thanks Jackson), is to be the best that you can be. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Farewell

SASCHA REXA AND JOHN MARTIN - DREAM TEAM

What do you want to be when you grow up? What do you want to do with your life? Who do you want to be? These are all fairly simple questions that we’ve either been asked, or asked ourselves, over the years. You’d think we’d have answers for them, since we’ve attained the ripe old age of 17 and we’re about to leave formal schooling. The answers have changed over the years and I think we’ve all found ourselves constantly at war with the responses we think we should have, and the ones that we really want to find. Sometimes we’ve probably even made up answers to hide the fact that we have no clue, because for some reason people think we should know what is in the future for us as young adults. It would be wonderful to have everything mapped out and an answer for every question, but sometimes it just doesn’t always happen that way. So again, who do you want to be? All of our fellow graduates here today have the power to be whomever and whatever you choose, whenever you want. You have the strength to pursue every dream… and the courage to achieve every goal. So, I ask you: who do you want to be?

After today we’ll be offered a million new choices. As we step out into the world we can make choices that have the capacity to affect our lives – for better or worse. We’re going to have to make decisions between right and wrong. We’ll need to consider the known and the unknown. And we’ll need to choose between who we are, and who others may want us to be. Being yourself can sometimes be the hardest challenge in high school. Discovering your emerging identity amongst all of the assignments, tests, stress and social pressures can be almost impossible. Yet, at Maleny High most of us worked out early that who we are goes beyond the marks on a page and our society’s expectations of what it means to be cool and popular. At Maleny, we fight for our beliefs. We care about the world and we care about each other. We’ve been comforted by the knowledge that others care about us too. This is why Maleny students are special. I look to you, my fellow graduates, and I see young adults who embody this ideology in the way we live and the choices we make. Please, I urge you, continue this into the next part of your life’s journey. Love, accept and care for others as you make your future and create your life.

Four years, 320 days and 11 hours. That’s how long we have all been waiting to finish high school and now the time has finally come. I thought I’d be happy, excited, joyful…and that all of the pain, anger and frustration of just getting through this year would drift away. Instead, I find myself feeling grateful for the friendships, teachers and memories. I’m still excited, but not about leaving. Instead, I’m excited, happy and joyful about all the possibilities that are out there waiting for us, just beyond this place, which has always been more than just a school.

Each and every one of us has spent hours preparing for, and dreaming of, what we’re going to do with our lives. Some of us will head out into the workforce straight away, others may travel the world, others might need a bit more time to think things through, but whatever we all do, this is our time now. Whatever we choose to do, let it be amazing. Let it fulfil you and let it make you happy. We started high school as little Year 8s in this hall, not knowing quite what was ahead of us, so it’s very fitting that we should end it here too, with a very similar feeling in our hearts.

The fear and nervousness that we felt on that first day has been nurtured and cultivated and is now confidence, joy and strength. Whatever you’re feeling right now, we are ready. Ready to face the world and our future because we’re Maleny High kids. We have come so far and grown into the responsible, or mostly responsible, young adults that we are today. We’re ready …. to tackle the world and any challenges that are thrown our way. So, my fellow graduates, thank you for allowing us the privilege of being a part of your journey, and we truly believe you will all achieve greatness wherever you choose to seek it. You are all beautiful and kind humans that have the power to affect immense change. Please, use this as it’s our greatest asset.

Thank you parents, teachers, Ms Stewart, distinguished quests, students and, for the last time, the graduating class of 2017. We started this speech with three questions: what do you want to be when you grow up? What do you want to do with your life? Who do you want to be?

So my fellow graduates…here are the answers… What do you want to be when you grow up? Whatever we choose to be. What do you want to do with your life? Whatever makes us happy and allows us to grow. Who do you want to be? Ourselves.

Thank you and we will miss you all!!

Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, remember: have fun, look after each other, be safe and make great choices.

Have You Considered a Career in Teaching

Queensland state schools need teachers now and into the future.

Teaching is a four-year undergraduate degree (or two years postgraduate) that can take you anywhere across Queensland and the world.

If you already live in a regional, rural or remote community and want a professional career that doesn’t take you away from your family and friends, there are graduate teaching opportunities in your local area and nearby communities.

Year 12 school leavers have until Friday 8 December 2017 to apply or update their university preferences via the Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre (QTAC).

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