20 August 2024

From the Executive Principal’s desk

Dear Parents and Caregivers

Our leadership camp is amazing; students make new friends, broaden their knowledge and have a great time in a beautiful setting at the Mapleton Education Centre.  These two days are such a highlight for me; our Year 11 students engage in activities which allow them to identify the qualities of good leadership, as well as leaders within their cohort. Not only do I get to spend some quality time with our beautiful Mansfield State High School students, but I’m also witness to the awakening of their potential as leaders.

I have found first-hand that there are a number of ingredients that go into effective, respected leadership, and this is a topic I always present to the students on the Friday night of camp. There is no specific formula, but I discuss how courage, believing in yourself, leading by example, having a steadfast and precise vision, working on genuine relationships, trust and visibility are necessary elements to being a successful leader. I also share my favourite quote. 

The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems
 is the day you have stopped leading them.
They have either lost confidence that you can help them
or concluded that you do not care.
Either case is a failure of leadership.
General Colin Powell

Leadership is so rewarding, but it involves a lot of hard work and a constant assessment of your own efficacy.  At times, the most difficult part is acknowledging you could do better, and then having the strength to follow through on that and improve.

I am always overwhelmed with the response this presentation receives. This year however, the sheer number of students who approached me afterward with maturity and curiosity, eager to delve further with even more questions about leadership, was incredible.  I was so proud of them; it displayed their seriousness about leadership and their understanding of what it means to be a leader. It was yet more evidence of just how incredible our Mansfield students are. We are so fortunate to have these mature, driven, community-minded young people within our school! It is further evidence of what we have known for a long time; Mansfield is creating our leaders of tomorrow. We should be so proud of them all.

Fathers’ Day 

On behalf of the entire Mansfield State High School community, I would like to wish all our dads and dad-like figures a very Happy Fathers’ Day for a few weeks’ time. As dads, you are a fundamental role model; our first ‘big’ protector, champion and lifter of heavy things. You can be playful and mischievous, a no-nonsense teacher and firm truth-teller. Over all of this and more, you are love and shelter. Thank you for being such an important part of our children’s lives!

To all our Mansfield students, your task this Fathers’ Day is to honour all the dads in your life. Help them with all the dad jobs, feed them their favourite dad foods and most importantly, tell them you love them.

A father is someone you look up to no matter how tall you grow. Anonymous.

Happy Fathers’ Day!

Karen Tanks
Executive Principal

Leadership

Associate Principals

Junior School

Middle School

Senior School

Heads of Department

School notices

New sports uniform

Information was recently emailed to all current families and future Year 7 2025 enrolments on the new sports uniform. School administration have worked with the Mansfield State High School P&C Association to develop a new style sports uniform with the purpose of addressing concerns about the fit, durability of the colour, and to address sun safety with an SPF 50+ fabric and suitable long sleeve/pants options.

This process included the development of designs and concepts by our uniform manufacturer with direction from the Uniform Committee. The Uniform Committee includes parents, students and school staff representatives who are elected each year and who attend meetings to discuss uniforms as required. The new designs were presented at P&C Meetings for general parent input, while school staff were also asked to provide input and feedback on the design.

The rollout of the new design is being staged in consideration of the cost implications to parents who have already purchased a sports uniform for their child/ren and to minimise wastage of current stock in the Uniform Shop.

The new sports uniform is compulsory for all Year 7 students in 2025. Students in other years, including current students, may purchase the new uniform if they wish, or may continue to wear the current style until the end of the 2027 school year.

Please note: the existing uniform cannot be worn mixed and matched with the new sports uniform. It is not compulsory to buy all pieces of the new uniform. Students must have a top and a bottom – they may choose from the short/long options to suit their needs. There is no change to the sports cap, socks or bags.

Guest speaker event

The P&C Association are presenting a guest speaker and the P&C General Meeting online via Microsoft Teams on Tuesday 27 August 2024. Guest speaker, Dr Michael Healy is the National Career Education Manager at myfuture, Australia’s national career information service, and adjunct Research Fellow at the University of Southern Queensland. He will be presenting 'How emotions influence motivation in career development learning'.

Dr Healy will provide information on how emotions, both positive and negative, are not only a result of educational and work experiences, but also play a vital role in learning and personal development. In education and employment, emotions can either stimulate or constrain thought processes, reflection, and proactive behaviours.

Based on the Insights paper 'How emotions influence motivation and behaviour in career development learning', this presentation by Dr Michael Healy, will help you understand how different emotions might affect your child’s career development in different ways. He will provide advice on how you can recognise and respond to different career-related emotions that your child might be experiencing.

To participate in this online presentation, please book by registering your interest to receive an event link from the P&C Association.

The P&C General Meeting will follow online after the guest speaker is finished. Parents are welcome to stay online and learn more about the P&C Association who are the parent representative body in our school community. An online meeting is a great way to learn more about how meetings are held and what happens, including who is on the P&C Executive - all while staying at home!

Register to receive the event link here:

Achievement

Olympic Spirit

Congratulations to Year 12 student Emmanouela Frroku who recently represented Australia in Paris 2024 as a member of the Rhythmic Gymnastics team. The group produced the nation’s best ever result in the Rhythmic Gymnastics Group All-Around competition at an Olympic Games with an 11th place finish. Lidiia Iakovleva, Saskia Broedelet, Emmanouela Frroku, Phoebe Learmont and Jessica Weintraub dazzled the crowd at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena with two stunning two and a half minute routines to record an All-Around score of 58.450. Congratulations Emmanoulea on this great performance.

Learning

Year 12 Japanese

This term Year 12 Japanese language students have been working extremely hard to complete their IA3 which included their very last speaking test in Japanese.  Before starting preparations for their external exam in Term 4, they took some time to study Japanese proverbs which inspired them to work hard until the very end.  Students decorated a timber plaque with a Japanese proverb that resonated with them, giving the students a little inspiration to keep working hard. Hopefully these Japanese plaques will be a nice reminder of the message each student felt they needed to hear to get them through the last few weeks of Year 12.

One of the favourites amongst the class was 七転び八起き(ななころびやおき)which literally means to fall down seven times, get up eight, meaning to never give up!  Another one was 明日(あした)は明日(あした)の風(かぜ)が吹く(ふく) which means ‘tomorrow’s wind will blow tomorrow’ or in English we might say ‘tomorrow is another day’. 

Year 7 Science

Last term, over four weeks, our Year 7s worked hard on a scientific project of their choice. Students learnt the ins and outs of the scientific method and then had to finalise their work by presenting their scientific results on a poster. All Year 7 classes selected a wining poster to represent the four competing categories at the judging session during National Science Week.

On Friday 16 August, our selected groups for Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Earth had the opportunity to explain their work to their peers, science teachers and professional scientists. This included QUT staff Dr Lalehvash Moghaddam judging the chemistry posters, Sahar Elkaibehjati judging the Earth posters and Lize Coetzee judging Physics. From UQ we had Clair Moad judging the Biology posters. 

The Science Department would like to congratulate all Year 7s for the curiosity and passion they demonstrated in their Science projects. The judges were very impressed by the quality of work performed and the enthusiastic discussions they had with the students.

Year 10 Drama

In Term 2, Year 10 Drama students performed their version of Flowers in Antarctica at the Bille Brown Theatre as part of Queensland Theatre’s ‘The Scene Project’. They were required to create their own interpretation of an original playscript and perform in front of an unknown audience. The day was terrific fun, meeting lots of other drama students from different schools and delivering an absolutely stellar performance. Well done!

Special effects

Year 9 Drama students have been exploring gothic and horror conventions for their Term 3 performance. This week they experimented with SFX makeup, creating realistic and gory scars and burns. 

School events

Visual Arts Showcase

The Visual Arts Showcase was held in our incredible P Block art spaces on Friday 19 July. These classrooms and the gallery area provide enriching learning and display environments for our Visual Art students. This supports them to produce wonderful creative outcomes, some of which would not be out of place in professional galleries. We were proud to exhibit work from every year level, 7 to 12, and from every Semester 1 Visual Art class. The showcase featured a wide variety of pieces, from clay forms and traditional watercolours to a wire-crocheted sculpture and interactive audience paintings.

Two of our Year 12 students presented pieces that invited the audience to contribute, by painting or drawing on their work as part of their final body of work. It was great to see both children and adults overcome their initial reluctance to paint on someone else’s work, whether they were listening to music and watching an animation for inspiration or adding to a landscape painting, to reflect on environmental impact. Senior artworks are often quite conceptual and seek to challenge the audience to think, rather than just view.

The event was well attended, but if you didn’t make it this year, we’d love to see you next time.

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World’s Greatest Shave

The World’s Greatest Shave event held at school on Thursday 8 August was a big success! Mr Dique and Mr Frazer had their heads shaved, Mrs Johnson chopped her ponytail and Mr Tuton coloured his hair. The World’s Greatest Shave, in conjunction with Friendship Week activities meant that the support of the Mansfield community smashed our goal and raised over $5,160 for the Leukemia Foundation.

We thank all who donated and participated in the event in support of this cause.

Meet a Scientist

On Wednesday 7 August, our Meet a Scientist presenter, Dr Gurion Ang, Director of UQ’s Bachelor of Science program and specialist in teaching ecology, zoology, and science communication tried to answer the following question “Are Pokémon™: biologically possible?”

The whimsical world of Pokémon™ is filled with colourful animated characters, many of which draw inspiration from animals and plants of the natural world. Through a comparison of anatomy and physiology, students were challenged to identify the living representatives of certain Pokémon™, to determine if they would be biologically possible. The butterfly wing scale nanostructures and stem cell regeneration were used as examples to understand the magic of biology.

Our next speaker, Dr Gabriel Foley (UQ), is a protein specialist and studies evolution, protein engineering and biofuels.

Dr Foley is our 51st presenter and will be presenting on Thursday 5 September from 3.00pm in SC05. All students are welcome.

Extra-curricular

Year 11 Leadership Camp

Our Year 11 aspiring student leaders headed to the Sunshine Coast on Friday 2 August for our annual Year 11 Leadership Camp. Leadership Camp is an opportunity for students to challenge themselves, learn more about their own leadership style and forge closer relationships with their peers.

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Literary tour

On Thursday 25 July, forty of Mansfield’s book-loving best embarked on the thrilling and enriching four-day Literary tour in Sydney. On the gothic-inspired tour, meticulously planned by fearless leaders Mrs Todd and Mr Connell, and chaperoned by Mr Guinane and Miss Robinson, young writers found inspiration and strangers became friends.

Day one of the tour kicked off with coco-pops galore as students breakfasted with a view of the city skyline in their rooms before taking a walk to Pilgrim House for an author-led gothic writing workshop. Held in the historic Pitt Street Uniting Church, the workshop had many Year 10 students reprising their Term 1 roles as gothic authors, engaging in creative writing exercises in an atmosphere that was both eerie and oddly comforting.

Following the workshop, the group explored the charming suburb of Glebe where they delved into the world of independent bookshops Glee Books and Sappho, some students also opting for a sunny picnic in the park. The literary adventure continued with a visit to Better Read than Dead, in which a tricky scavenger hunt had students darting to and fro in a mad search for what on earth ‘POZ’ could possibly stand for (!?), then to the magical Kinokuniya, a bookshop that takes up the top floor of Sydney’s The Galeries.

After a short but expensive stop at Haigh’s Chocolates, students headed back to get changed for a night on the town. Dinner at the Australian Heritage Hotel comprised several incarnations of fried potato and a host of exotic pizzas featuring such players as the ‘coat of arms’ (emu and kangaroo) as well as an inordinately spicy ham and pineapple number that was quite the hot topic.

It was then over to the Roslyn Packer Theatre to watch the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Dracula, a legendary one-woman show described by the company as a “riveting study of the monster within.” Students were captivated by the endlessly talented Zahra Newman and her bewitching performance as all the characters in Bram Stoker’s chilling tale of the bloodsucking Count.

On day two, after a leisurely breakfast for most and a quick gym-and-swim for an admirable few, the group took a brisk walk to the Palace Central Cinema for a private screening of the National Theatre’s award-winning production of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Johnny Lee Miller. The afternoon was spent exploring the Sydney CBD, reading and relaxing, before everyone got dressed up for another evening of fabulous photo opportunities.

As sunset approached, students boarded a luxurious harbour dinner cruise. Between the three-course meal and the spectacular views of Sydney Opera House illuminated against the night sky, the evening was nothing short of enchanting. The adventure continued with a ghost walk tour of The Rocks, where students were regaled with haunting stories of Sydney’s oldest and spookiest neighbourhood.

The tour was punctuated with a visit to the Art Gallery of New South Wales on the final morning, where students wandered the grounds, reading and writing amidst some truly awe-inspiring art.

All in all, the 2024 Mansfield State High School Sydney Literary Tour (say that five times fast) was an unforgettable experience for our students, blending literary exploration with cultural enrichment. Creativity was ignited, appreciation for all things written and read was deepened, and countless memories were made.

Thank you once again to Mrs Todd, Mr Connell, Mr Guinane, and Miss Robinson, and of course, to the brilliant students who conducted themselves with great maturity and spirit, without whom the tour would not have been quite so fabulous.

Service at Mansfield

Friendship Week this year was an enormous success – success being rated in many ways. Firstly, the week included the World’s Greatest Shave; all funds raised going to The Leukaemia Foundation. This event ran on the Thursday, and many students and staff watched on as those who donated their hair to be shaved or drastically reduced were shorn and cut.

Secondly, the week raised $5,160 which is amazing!

One of the greatest successes of the week was observing a team of dedicated students who came together in the unified goal to bring a school together and further embed the culture of belonging and inclusion. Over 1,000 donuts arrived at the school to fulfil pre-orders and were enormously popular with students.

But of equal and perhaps greater popularity, was the gathering of students to make friendship bracelets, paper chains, paper stars and writing of appreciation notes to each other.  Hundreds of notes of appreciation were written by students and teachers to each other, which will be personally delivered over the coming week.

There was a vibrant vibe of joy across the school. Congratulations to all those who participated and certainly contributed in making a difference to expanding the importance of our friendships.

Well done all! True success all round!

Student services

Student Services team

MyPath Careers Expo

A huge thank you to all students and families who visited the MyPath Day Careers Expo on August 1. The event was a huge success, with students of all ages engaging in discussion around their future pathways, with a host of external organisations and tertiary institutions in attendance and presenting on the day. A big thank you also, to our Senior Academic Prefects who helped the event run smoothly.

Tips for parents supporting careers conversations at home

QTAC

• Applications are now open.
• Year 12 students are reminded to register for BOTH the QTAC Application AND the ATAR Registration Portal and are encouraged to share their ATAR with the school.
• Check for fixed closing dates too! Some courses have additional requirements and earlier closing dates.
• The suggested preferencing structure is below. Students are encouraged to draft their preferences and visit a Guidance Officer for review, before submitting to QTAC.
  

The QTAC Guides for students in Year 10 and 12  are now available for students to download from the Guidance Team section of the Student SharePoint. Students can access SharePoint when logged in on their school enabled device.

Careers Options

The latest Options Career bulletin (Edition 13) is now available for download via the Options Careers app (Apple or Android) to parents and students, using the access code: Mansfield. This fantastic, user-friendly app allows you to find the topics of interest to you, instantaneously, and is highly recommended. Students can also download the latest edition of the bulletin from the Student SharePoint page on the Guidance Team tab, and access a range of handouts on various, career-related topics! Students can access SharePoint when logged in on their school enabled device.

My QCE competition still open

Recommended resources for parents

Raising Children Network

The Raising Children Network provides a wealth of information and resources around parenting and practical strategies for parents of teens, including those with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and a range of other disabilities.

eSafety Commissioner

Teenagers can spend a lot of time online and find themselves in some tricky situations, leading to difficult conversations at home. Check out this eSafety Commissioner article on those ‘Hard to Have Conversations’.

Happy Families

Our school is subscribed to the Happy Families School Membership. Owned and run by Dr Justin Coulson, one of Australia’s leading parenting experts, the membership offers a wealth of parenting education and resources, including weekly Insight Articles and four live Webinars a year.

You can access the Happy Families resources at any time using the following link and membership details:

1. Visit: https://schools.happyfamilies.com.au/login/mshs
2. Enter the school password: happymshs

Community notices