Newsletter

Important Dates - Reedy Creek

Always refer to the Compass Calendar for more events and the most up to date event information.

Easter Fest's Spectacular Success

Our second Easter Fest event was another spectacular success thanks to the collective support of King's staff, students and families. Our 2023 theme of RANSOM AND RESCUE was woven throughout Easter Fest as we reflected on the incredible rescue mission of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. The fun, festival vibe brought our campus to life under perfect warm autumn weather. It was incredible to come together as a school community and have our King's Table Forecourt, Prep Centre and new Primary Building filled with families, the melodies of live music, the scent of tasty treats and the beautiful backdrop of artwork. Inside the auditorium, our audience enjoyed a stunning showcase of performing arts thanks to King's student musicians, choralists, and their tutors, whose dedication and talents culminated in an entertaining program of polished performances. It was exciting to have our brand new Primary Art room open and displaying our primary art, as well as having special guests from HOTA lead an interactive art activity. Thank you to our King's families for helping us enjoy this wonderful community event together.

2023 College Easter Services

As a Christian community, Easter holds a special place in our hearts and we reflected on this important time of year with Easter services for all students and staff. This year we held separate services for our Primary and High School communities to ensure all students could sit comfortably in the Church auditorium. Once again, our dedicated Chaplaincy team put together an incredible and engaging Easter celebration for our different age groups aligned to our 2023 theme Ransom and Rescue. Our Lead Chaplains, Mr Malcolm and Mr Muir shared the meaning of 'ransom' and 'rescue' with real-life stories and examples. This reminded us all that Jesus paid a price that none of us can pay, so that we can be rescued from sin to have a relationship with God and the promise of eternal life (John 3:16). "Because he died for us, we chose to live for him."

As we move beyond this Easter season, our community continues to carry the message of hope, knowing that the perfect gift offered by Jesus is available to all. We wish everyone a blessed Easter and encourage everyone to reflect on the message of God’s grace and love that the season brings.

Prep - Year 2's Fun Run 2023

After a false start to our Prep - Year 2 Fun Run due to bad weather, our youngest King's kids were even more excited when their first 2023 College Sports Carnival day arrived. Dressed in their vibrant House colours, our eager athletes warmed up for their races before running around the mini cross country track and fun obstacle course. They crossed the finish line with sweaty and determined faces and it was great to hear an enthusiastic display of supportive spirit from parents and peers. Our brave Noah's Ark Pre Prep students also joined the festivities toward the end of the morning for their first taste of a King's Sports Carnival. They smiled all the way down the short course as they were led along by our Year 6 Captains. Congratulations to our Pre Prep - Year 2 community for making this such a memorable Carnival!

Tenacious Tyndale Strikes Again

The collective efforts of our speedy Tyndale students saw the great green House collect 213 points to be named the House Champions for this event, followed closely by Finney with 210 points, Newton with 165 and Rayleigh with 138. Well done Tyndale House!

Congratulations to our 2023 Fun Run Winners

Years 3 - 12 Cross Country Carnival 2023

King's held our annual Cross Country Carnival this week, and it was a great success for all involved. The picturesque running track at Pizzey Park and clear skies overhead provided the perfect conditions for our athletes as they competed in their races. The day began with our Years 3 - 6 primary students taking on the course in the morning, displaying great enthusiasm and determination. Our High School students then had their turn in the afternoon, and it was clear that many had been training for this event. Throughout the day, students from all Houses showed their school spirit and cheered on their peers, collecting House points for participation. Parents also showed their support, attending the event in large numbers and providing passionate encouragement to their children as they approached the finish line. Congratulations to our Carnival Age Champions, record breakers and athletes who qualified for the King's APS Cross Country team.

Congratulations to our Cross Country House Champions

Queensland State Athletics Championships

The Queensland State Athletics Championships were held at QSAC in Brisbane recently. Athletes from all over the State competed to be crowned State Champions. King's had several athletes competing with some brilliant results. 

Congratulations to our talented athletes:

• Alyssa McDonald - U15 90m Hurdles GOLD | 200m Hurdles GOLD | 200m 7th | 100m SILVER
• Charles Vincent - 100m GOLD | 200m SILVER 
• Charlie Miller - U18 800m 4th
• Chelsea Capps - U15 400m BRONZE
• Izzy Wall - U16 400m 4th 
• Jo Lethlean - 3000m SILVER | 2000m Steeple GOLD
• Keilana Standford-Modini - 400m 8th | 1500m 4th
• Will Mehta - U17 400m Hurdles 4th 

Queensland State Swimming Success 2023

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The annual South Coast Regional Swimming Championships was held on Tuesday, 7 March, at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre. King's had 23 swimmers competing in their selected events and 17 qualify to compete in the QLD School Swimming Championships, which were held in Brisbane this week. Well done to our primary-aged swimmers who have been achieving incredible success at the State Swimming Championships this week, with special mention to our students who have now qualified to attend nationals. The 13-19 years age group event results will be published in the next edition.

Primary State Swimming Placings 

• Knox Anderson
  4th RELAY
• Meggie De Chhimba
  BRONZE - 100 BR - Qualified to Nationals
• Tanyka Goode
  SILVER - 100 FR - Qualified to Nationals
  SILVER - RELAY, 5th - 100 FR Final
• Makyra Melo
  GOLD - 50 BR - Qualified to Nationals
  SILVER - 100 FR - Qualified to Nationals
  SILVER - 50 FR - Qualified to Nationals
  SILVER - 200 50 FR - Relay
  BRONZE - 50 FLY - Qualified to Nationals
  5th - 100 FLY Final

Year 6's Daring Shark Tank Experience

King's students have been putting their entrepreneurial skills to the test with a Business Plan project as part of their Project Based Learning topic on Sustainability. The Year 6 students spent Term 1 exploring the purpose of businesses and the different ways they provide goods and services. They then focused on an economics or business issue, challenge or event and were tasked with creating a new product or service that would promote sustainability.

The students worked on a business case with a proposal to commercialise their product and then honed their presentation skills to pitch their ideas to a team of 'venture capitalists.' The top proposal from each class was chosen to present at the Shark Tank event held on Wednesday, 29 March. The Year 6 students watched as their peers presented their ideas to three 'sharks,' who asked challenging questions to test the students' proposals. Despite the pressure, every student presented their ideas confidently and clearly to the judges. During the culminating event, other teams set up presentation stations around the outside of the auditorium to showcase their ideas to the guests who attended.

Congratulations to Amy and Summer for their winning and highly innovative proposal for The Wonder Washline. Special thanks to our 2023 'sharks' Mr Wilson, Ms Batt, and Mr McDonald, whose business expertise was invaluable in giving helpful feedback and deciding this year's winners. At King's, we provide experiences like these to inspire and equip our next generation of innovators and business leaders with a more savvy and sustainable mindset.

Year 11s Reality TV Experience

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As a fun and informative finish to the term, our Year 11 Film & TV students visited Bond University’s film production studios to spark some career inspiration. Bond offers a two-year Bachelor of Film and Television degree and is Southeast Queensland’s premier undergraduate media course. The skills and outcomes utilised in both the senior school FTVNM course at King's match those offered at Bond. The valuable tour was led by Bond's senior course leaders who guided our group through an illuminating overview of the course, including glimpses into their sound and editing booths, voice-over (ADR) rooms, as well as hands-on experience in their television studio. The discussion and demonstrations helped to show the necessary skills required to work independently and in production-based teams, undertake film and television practical skills and enable media evaluations from a range of sources. We look forward to repeating this incredible experience with next year's FTV cohort!

STEM Punks Minecraft Competition

On Wednesday, 22 March, seven Year 8 students from King's participated in the STEM Punk Competition held at the Brisbane Museum. The competition used Minecraft and was a display of innovation, design, and sustainability in the categories of creating an E-bike station and a new precinct in Southbank. The students worked together as a team, exhibiting their skills to the fullest. The students successfully made it through to the semi-finals after going up against three other Brisbane schools, including BBC, Grace Lutheran and Kimberley College. Unfortunately, they were not able to clinch a win but the experience proved to be a valuable learning opportunity for the team.

During the competition, the team had to consider various aspects of the design, such as functionality, aesthetics, and potential technical issues. They had to work together to come up with a unique and sustainable design that would stand out from the other entries. Overall, the experience at the STEM Punk Competition was a great learning opportunity for our students. They were able to showcase their skills and learn from their competitors. King's encourages our students to participate in events like these to help inspire the next generation of designers, engineers, and innovators.

Mr Trevor Elliott
Digital Technologies Teacher

Swift Student Challenge Workshop

Apple has just announced that entries are open for the Swift Student Challenge, a coding competition that showcases winners at their Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June this year. Learn more about the challenge here. As an Apple Distinguished School, we were able to have Dr Daniel Woo come on two occasions to support our students in their coding journey and provide them with direction on where they can go with app development. A few of our Year 10 students learned some new skills and understandings that should help them to submit an app into the Swift Student Challenge this year.

Mal Galer
Director of Digital Learning

High School Teachers Explore ChatGPT

On Tuesday, 21 March, our High school teachers participated in a professional development session to learn more about ChatGPT. Teachers explored the possibilities and pitfalls of using artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT within the school context. Mr Mal Galer explained that whilst the new technology can provide challenges for educators as far as authentication and plagiarism, there will be few sectors that will not use some form of text generation in the (very) near future. He stressed that educators need to learn how to use technology to support and enhance student learning, and teachers shared examples of how they might use it in their settings, such as to find and test case studies, find interesting material to support lesson planning, and to refine prompts in order to generate content such as explanations and emails. 

The teachers enjoyed exploring some of the advantages of tools such as ChatGPT and also looked at some of the pitfalls, including some instances where the bot may have provided incorrect data and research links, the absence of localised information, the likelihood of bias and very predictable vocabulary and writing styles. 

We all know we have a long way to go with this fascinating technology, and our teachers are keen to embrace what we can learn from the new challenges and how we can continue to be catalysts for critical thinking in the classroom. 

(article written entirely by humans, in collaboration with other humans)

High School's Term 1 Highlights

Our High School community enjoyed a wonderfully action-packed term at school, including many outstanding events, seminars, excursions and guest speakers. As we move into the Easter holidays, it is gratifying to take a moment to stop and reflect on all of the exciting opportunities our students have had the privilege to participate in, both on and off campus, in the past few months.

NAPLAN 

Year 7 & 9 students completed NAPLAN. Running this earlier in the year will allow teachers and parents to receive the data much more quickly, enabling us to tailor our teaching and learning programs to cater for the needs of individual students and entire cohorts. Please note that from 2023, NAPLAN results will be reported differently than in previous years. The report received by parents will continue to show the national average, the range of achievement for the middle 60% of students in each year level, and a dot placement for the student comparing their achievement against these measures.

Assistance Opportunities for Students

It was great to see increased attendance at:

• Homework Lunch
• After School Homework and Assignment Assistance sessions
• Senior Science Study Evening - 75 students attended 
• Before and after school Humanities tutoring sessions for Seniors

From the Teaching and Learning Team in High School, we wish all families a safe and enjoyable holiday. We look forward to school returning on Tuesday, 18 April and meeting with parents at Parent Teacher Conferences on Tuesday, 2 May (online) and Wednesday, 3 May (in person, on campus).

Ms Bates MP Presents Large Cheque to King's

King's received a substantial boost to infrastructure funding from the Queensland government for the construction of our new Primary building. On Thursday, 23 March, Ms Ros Bates MP Member for Mudgeeraba officially presented our Campus Principal, Mr Meyers, with the State Capital Assistance Grant cheque for $2.67m. This amazing new facility opened at the beginning of Term 1 and is being widely enjoyed by our Primary school community. The modern, purpose-built building promises to remain an inspirational learning environment for many decades to come. King’s Construction Master Plan will see an ongoing renewal of our facilities as we continually invest in providing a state-of-the-art campus for our students.

"We are extremely grateful to the Queensland Government for their contribution to the construction of our new building and we appreciate all the support we have received from Ms Bates, our local Member of Parliament." Mr Meyers said.

Term 1's Final Day Fundraiser

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On the last day of Term 1, our Primary and High School LIFE teams and girls' rugby teams ran a lunchtime fundraiser for the Open Girls Rugby Team's upcoming trip to attend the upcoming Sanix World Rugby Youth Tournament in Japan. The younger Girls' 7s teams also ran activities throughout the morning to help entertain the Prep students on their break. It was wonderful to see our students serving one another and helping raise money for this important trip.

King's Armed Services Honour Roll 2023

Our college has an Honour Roll of King's alumni who have joined the Australian armed forces since their graduation. The Honour Roll is read out each year during our school ANZAC Day service in April. Please email Mrs Aya Baker  the names of any King's alumni who are not on the current Roll below, but are serving or have served in the armed forces, so they can be added and acknowledged during our ANZAC Day assembly in Week 2 of Term 2:

King's Honour Roll

Careers Department Highlights

Traineeships Available

There are a number of traineeships available and these vacancies are listed on King's Careers site. These change on a weekly basis as new positions become available. Students are encouraged to source their own traineeship employer if there is nothing on the list that appeals to them.

Registered Training Organisation Courses

Students in Years 10 and 11 can apply for external study options to enhance their career options. Students need to ensure they have good time management skills to cope with the workload. 

• GeSS Education courses and pathway options
• TAFE Brisbane - To register an expression of interest, apply HERE and enter the code TQB2301
• TAFE Gold Coast - To register an expression of interest, apply HERE and enter the code TQGC2301
• Gold Coast Trade College - pre-apprentice courses for 2023.  Enrolment form and transport permission

Online Careers Hub

The 'Where to Next' Hub is available on CareersEvent.com, and provides an informative Careers Hub for senior students and their parents. Visit the hub for access to tertiary webinars, upcoming events and the latest news on careers and courses.

Read More From King's Careers

For a full list of events or to register for the King's Careers Newsletter, visit King’s College Careers.

Follow King's on Instagram

Did you know that King's have a range of vibrant Instagram accounts showcasing many exciting aspects of our school life? We have pages for our art and sports departments and our central College page: @kings_christian_college. We'd love you to follow us to support our students and see what's happening behind the scenes at King's...