The mental health and wellbeing of our students, staff and members of our school community remain a priority of Foxwell State Secondary College. Each day we monitor and support the mental health of our students and staff and respond with appropriate support and mentoring. This week, as part of Queensland Mental Health Week, we shone a spotlight through the theme of Take Time.

Foxwell students also had the opportunity to engage with guest speakers from HeadSpace, and our staff were involved in a workshop facilitated by a representative from LIVIN. Our students appreciated the Mental Health – Take Time goodie bag each of them received at our Mental Health and Wellbeing focused school assembly.

We are proud of our Foxwellness - Powered by our iNSPIRE Sport Online partnership that can monitor the health and wellbeing of our students and staff through an engaging App with relevant content links. Our schoolwide focus on Positive Education and the powerful work of Marc Brackett - Permission to Feel supports our ongoing focus on supporting our students and staff to achieve wellbeing and success.

Taking time to look after ourselves and each other has never been more important. Please remember that should you notice any significant changes in your child’s mental health, social engagement or can recognise any other mental health warning signs, we have staff available at the school to support you as you access appropriate support and care.

PARENT AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT FRAMEWORK

The Foxwell State Secondary College Parent and Community Engagement Framework has been collaboratively developed by our staff and community and was endorsed by our P & C at this week’s meeting. It is available on our website in Forms and Documents. This framework describes how the most meaningful partnerships are those where schools, parents, students and the community work together to focus on student learning. Parent and community engagement that is effectively focused on student learning can deliver powerful outcomes. The Framework outlines the many ways that we foster these partnerships and value the significant contributions of all stakeholders as we work towards our goal of SUCCESS FOR EVERY STUDENT.

INFRASTRUCTURE UPDATE

We are very excited that FKG has been awarded the contract for our $35+ million Stage 2 build. The final design work is currently underway with building commencing soon. The facilities included in the Stage 2 build are state-of-the art and will allow our students to achieve extraordinary things. We will keep you updated on the progress and the designs over the coming months.

SCHOOL REVIEW

Our Full School Review will commence on Thursday 29^th October. Across the three day review, three external experts will visit our school to review our progress and help us to plan our next steps for improvement. We will be contacting a number of parents to speak with the reviewers across a broad cross-section of our community. If you specifically wish to speak with a reviewer, please contact me and I will try to arrange a time. The reviewers will also speak with all staff, some students, the P & C Executive Members and a number of P & C members. We will provide the outcomes of this review to our school community later this term.

Until next time

Mrs Kym Amor

Principal

The following mental health week resources are available for parents and carers in their support of our young people. 

This week we trialled a different format for engaging our community in Parent-Teacher Conferences at Foxwell. It has been encouraging to see a positive and enthusiastic response from families who have taken the opportunity to organise to meet with teachers in a more flexible arrangement. Thank you to the many of you who took the time to contact teachers and schedule an appointment. These conversations are crucial to our partnership approach, and they are invaluable in ensuring we are collaborating effectively and communicating openly in working together with your children. Please remember that there are many means by which you can remain current with and initiate conversations about your child’s learning across the term including:

• Seesaw – notices, posts, activities, samples of work completion, feedback on work and general tracking of learning;
• Student Sharepoint where you can access: Notices, the Calendar including assessment dates; Student Drive; and general information and updates about the College;
• Your child's Planning for Personal Accomplishment documentation;
• The College Website;
• The College Facebook page, which is dynamic and often features live streams of events such as Assemblies;
• The College newsletter and bulletin; and
• Emails and phone calls to/from staff.

Staff at Foxwell State Secondary College will always welcome your feedback, are happy to provide support, and are available to answer any questions you may have to ensure that we are truly partnering in your child’s success. Your child has access to a broad range of sources of information and support; we encourage you to ask them to show and discuss with you what they are doing on a day-to-day basis at the College and to engage in the sources of information listed above.

At Foxwell we take great pride in our College and set high expectations for uniform and appearance. These expectations are outlined clearly in our Student Dress Code which all families received upon enrolment.

For the full text of our Student Dress Code, please click here

Students should be in full Foxwell uniform and adhering to the appearance guidelines in the Student Dress Code, at all times. The only exception to this is when students have followed the process and have been issued with a Uniform Variation slip from Student Services.

The process for uniform/appearance infringements:

Students arriving at Foxwell in breach of our Student Dress Code are required to have a note of explanation from a parent/guardian. The student must bring this note to Student Services before school commences, where they will be issued with a short term, usually 1 day only, uniform variation slip.

Students arriving at Foxwell in breach of our Student Dress Code, without a note of explanation from a parent or guardian, must report to Student Services before school commences. Students will be asked to contact a parent/guardian to see if the breach can be rectified E.G. forgotten hat, dropped to school. If this breach cannot be rectified, as per our policy, students will be issued with a 20-minute detention, to be completed at lunch on the same day. The purpose of this process is to encourage our students to take responsibility for their uniform each day.

Some particular reminders:

Hats:

Hats must be worn by students, whenever they are outside a classroom, this includes entering and exiting the College. The correct hat must be worn with each uniform, formal hat (broad brimmed) with the formal uniform and sports hat (bucket hat) with the sports uniform. No mixing and matching is permitted.

 

Shoes:

Formal shoes must be black leather shoes. This is a Health and Safety requirement for some activities within the school. Students without leather shoes may not be permitted access to some areas of the school.

Sports shoes must be black also but do not need to be leather.

Jewellery:

• One flat ring
• Two (2) pairs of plain studs or sleepers worn in the lower lobe of the ears (studs no more than 5mm in diameter, sleepers no more than 10mm in diameter)
• One watch
• One item of necklace jewellery may be worn if it is of cultural or religious significance following negotiation with the school Principal and parents/ caregivers. It must be long enough to be concealed out of sight under the shirt. Any item of approved jewellery may still be required to be removed in subjects or activities for safety reasons under Workplace Health and Safety legislation.
• A zero-tolerance policy is applied to facial pierced jewellery and adornments (other than the lower lobe of the ears) and other visible body piercings. Facial piercings include but are not limited to nose, lip, chin, eyebrow and tongue piercings. Piercings in the ear, other than in the lower lobe are not permitted.
• Clear plastic facial piercings are not permitted.

Please support us and ensure that your child is not wearing inappropriate jewellery to school as they will be asked to take it off and if a repeat offender, the items will be confiscated for a period of time. For items such as piercings artificial nails, parent/guardians will be contacted to make appropriate arrangements.

 

 

 

 

 

Today, 21 Foxwell State Secondary College students participated in the University of Queensland's Wonder of Science Conference. All students represented the College with enthusiasm and pride, demonstrating perseverance, respect and effective teamwork across the day. While our teams didn’t place this year, we did receive Special Commendations for two teams.

The first Special Commendation is for Isabella Dagg. Isabella had opted to present alone and was recognised for not only working solo but also for being the only student from either of the competing schools to present without a script. The judges were really impressed by her confidence, manner and her knowledge of the work she was presenting.

The other Special Commendation went to the team comprised of Renee Tiller, Twylah Van Beek and Claire Cho. The judges were particularly impressed with their depth of knowledge and understanding of the biological issues impacting Oakey Creek, their recommended solutions, and suggestions as to how businesses and the community can take action to conserve the creek.

All teams' presentations were very impressive with some even presenting while missing team members who were absent from the Conference; a great demonstration of our College Spirit Values.

Congratulations to all students on a wonderful showcase of what can be achieved in learning at Foxwell State Secondary College. 

Foxwell State Secondary College was fortunate to participate in the Girls NRL Titans Nines Rugby League competition on Thursday 15th October. The girls had a great day and really demonstrated their capacity, resilience and perseverance. We are proud that within the development division, the girls held their own in all matches. We look forward to future opportunities for the girls to develop their skill in this sport.

In Term 3, students were invited to participate in the inaugural Japanese Art Competition. They were asked to create an original artwork inspired by Hokusai's 'Great Wave of Kanagawa' (1829 - 1833). Any medium could be used. 

On Tuesday we announced the three winners of the competition. Congratulations, Joshua Bruce, Renee Tiller and Matthew Nelson. 

It is with great excitement that the Year 7 students will engage in an education performance by Shock Therapy Productions in their timetabled Period 4 Enrich class on Wednesday 28^th October. The play “The Stones” is about risk-taking behaviour and the pain of guilt when things go too far. It places the audience in the position of a jury where they must consider whether the boys are responsible for their actions, or too young to know what they were doing.

For this event there will be a co-contribution by parents of $5 per student, which will be invoiced as part of our Positive Education and Enrich program in Term 4.

We look forward to this experience and the opportunity for our students to engage with this educational piece.

Greetings from the Foxwell State Secondary College P&C Committee,

With Christmas fast approaching and, with that, the end of the very first year for our foundation year students, the Foxwell SSC P&C Association has planned three fundraisers with which we would value your assistance and support.

Coins 4 Kids

In November we will be asking students to collect and bring in spare small change - 5c, 10c or whatever you feel comfortable donating - to donate to the Coins 4 Kids drive.

The proceeds will go towards supporting our students in the purchase of a legacy piece to commemorate their first year at our brand new school.

Start saving your spare change now and look out for more details to come.

Christmas Raffle

We are also in the initial stages of planning a Christmas Raffle and would love some feedback from families or businesses that may be able to donate something towards the raffle for our students.

If you have a local business and would be able to support us with donations of prizes, please let us know.

 

Containers 4 Change

The Foxwell SSC P&C Association is registered with Containers for Change for donations of 10c containers. For those families who would like to donate their containers privately, our scheme ID is:

C10256140

A collection morning is also planned for Monday 9 November 2020 within the gated section of the school car park from 8:30 to 10.00am.

Please consider saving your 10-cent recyclable bottles, cans and drinkpaks and drop them off at the collection point during the morning school run. Your support with this event will be very much appreciated.

If you have any queries or feedback regarding any of these events, please contact me at foxwellpandc@gmail.com

 

Regards,

Michelle Digby

President

Foxwell SSC P&C Committee