Leaders Induction 

I have just returned from the 2023 Leaders Induction Assembly, held on College grounds with the entire College community in attendance. To have all teachers, students, and invited parents in attendance was indeed wonderful. All leaders across the school were recognised; College Captains, Vice Captains, House Captains, and Primary Captains, Vice Captains and House Captains. Furthermore, College Prefects, Stem Ambassadors, English Ambassadors, Arts Captain, Dorm Leaders and the Senior Class of ’23 were all presented with badges and certificates. 

A moving moment was to witness College Captains Jack Parer, Amber Davidson, Caitlin McNee, and Shyla Ramdeo join the Primary Captains Oliver Booker, Erin Waters, Andrew Chen, and Addison Field in reciting the College Oath of Leadership. 

15th Anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generation 

This week, on the 13th of February, marked the 15th anniversary of the Australian National Apology to the Stolen Generations. In 2008, then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered a historic apology to Indigenous Australians for the forced removal of thousands of Indigenous children from their families between the late 19th century and the 1970s. This event marked a significant moment in our nation's history and serves as a reminder of the ongoing impact of the policies that caused so much pain and suffering for Indigenous peoples. As a society, it is our responsibility to acknowledge this dark chapter in our history and work towards a future where all Australians are treated with dignity, respect, and equality.
 
At a College level, in 2022, we finalised our College Yarning Circle which was done in partnership with the local Mununjali Arts Group. This project was a collaborative one that included representatives from both our Primary and Secondary schools as they worked with Waylene Currie to design and paint both the Yarning Circle mural and seats. We as a College are committed to reconciliation, and in 2023 will develop and finalise our Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) and set out our commitment as an educational organisation, to reconciliation with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. 

Mr Kevin Lynch 
Principal and CEO
Hills International College Ltd 

kevin.lynch@hills.qld.edu.au 

Welcome families to your second edition of the Primary news!

Meet the Teacher Evening was so well received, and we thank you for partnering with your child’s teacher as we undertake our learning journey in 2023. We were overjoyed with the high attendance, and we greatly appreciate your effort to be involved in your child’s learning. A survey was recently shared to allow your feedback on enhancing this information evening further. These results will enable us to further strengthen our partnership and we thank you for your input. This is your school after all!

I thought I would also share a few running repairs that are having a short-term impact on our Primary School spaces. Unfortunately, the ever-present weather caused our Assembly Area shade sail to sag. Structural engineers have informed us that it is safe, but the eastern end is cordoned off to ensure further safety. Our first community assembly will still take place in this area, but with a shift to the west! Years 5 and 6 will occupy the concrete steps at the back of this space and they will bring down chairs for our families to sit on. We look forward to celebrating our very successful start to the year and of course, 1LN's learning showcase. You will also notice that the sandpit is roped off. Unfortunately, the kangaroos have enjoyed this more than the students, leaving a nasty mess that will need to be decontaminated. We are hoping to have new sand and a custom cover shortly.

In this edition you will hear from our Primary captains and the initiatives they have mapped out for our Primary community. They are such a great group of students who will work tirelessly to support others and nurture the College L.A.W.S. We hope you enjoy their first article as they detail compassion.

Matt Noel
Head of Primary

matt.noel@hills.qld.edu.au

Captains' Captions

Welcome to our first segment of the Primary newsletter, the Captains' Captions. As the Primary Leadership Team, we meet with Mr. Noel and discuss ways to enhance our efforts to be fine role models, provide opportunities to enhance student wellbeing, and look to create a legacy. After our first Primary Captains meeting we decided to focus on the value of compassion, which is within our College L.A.W.S. - Living with compassion. Compassion is to understand and share the feelings of others. 

By living with compassion, we encourage our community to be respectful, caring and work together. We love how everyone has the superpower of being different. This is to be celebrated as it makes our Primary School rich; we can understand and learn so much from each other. At times we have to be tolerant but understanding each other and having a positive perspective makes our school the best school in the world.  

At Hills International College we believe fairness is not the same. While my hello to Addison may be different from that of Oliver, I have the same meaning behind it (a different way of showing it). At our first meeting, we brainstormed ideas on how we can get all of our students to live with compassion and we thought we would share what this looks like.

Compassion Treasure Hunts (Prep, 1-2, 3-6)- Our peers can go on a compassion treasure hunt, hunting for clues on how to live with compassion. This will consist of words and actions associated with compassion.

Compassion box- We want to hear how compassion is displayed in Primary. Our peers can drop a comment into the compassion box. We will share some of these at assembly and in future Hills Times.

Compassion Tree- Our compassion shoutouts will form part of our compassion tree. This will be on display outside the Primary Office and will give ideas to everyone on how to live with compassion.

In the coming additions, we will also give you ideas on how to live with compassion at home.

Oliver, Erin, Andrew, and Addison

Primary Captains and Vice-Captains

Ditto’s Keep Safe Adventure Show

On Thursday our Prep-Year 2 students had Ditto the loveable lion cub, alongside a Braveheart presenter, at our College to teach the children about essential personal safety skills and knowledge using age-appropriate language, song, and dance.

We had two 40-minute sessions that were high energy, engaging, and fully aligned with the Australian National Curriculum. To help solidify the messages from the show, the education team also provided an Activity Book for each student to work on in class and to take home to share with parents and carers.
 
The Ditto show is underpinned by the following six principles of personal safety:

Differentiating ‘yes’ and ‘no’ feelings
Recognising the body's ‘warning signs’
Body ownership
Helping children identify language and feelings associated with secrets
Reinforcing that there is no secret that children cannot tell someone
What to do if you feel unsafe or unsure
 
Students also learn ‘Ditto’s 3 Rules’, which are:

We all have the right to feel safe with people.
It’s ok to say NO if you feel unsafe or unsure.
Nothing is so yucky that you can’t tell someone about it.

NAPLAN Practice

 
Our Year 3 and 5 students will participate in a NAPLAN technical practice on Friday 24 February 2023. As per the College App notification, all students are required to bring their device fully charged and headphones that support their surface or iPad device.

Positive behaviours at Hills

Along with our L.A.W.S., Head of Primary and Captains Awards, we are thrilled to announce the introduction of a new fortnightly award in the Primary School, the ‘Global Citizen Award’. This award is designed to recognise and celebrate our students' commitment to making a positive impact in the world and aligns perfectly with our College’s Mission Statement and the IB PYP Learner Profile attributes. The Global Citizen Award is awarded, each fortnight, to a student who demonstrates exceptional effort in taking action toward global issues and shows an understanding of their role as responsible members of the global community. This award will be given to students who embody the qualities of a true global citizen, such as being caring, knowledgeable, reflective, open-minded, and balanced. We are excited to see our students' continued growth and development as responsible global citizens and look forward to celebrating this award at our upcoming assemblies. 

In the spotlight with Primary H/PE

After a rocky couple of years, we are excited that all things sport are back up and running for 2023! Term 1 has already begun with a bang. The 10+ years swimming carnival went off without a hitch, along with all of Term One’s extra-curricular sporting activities off to a strong start.

This term in primary HPE, Years P-2 have been working hard to practice and build on their fundamental movement skills. Students have been focusing on catching, throwing and bouncing a variety of equipment, using the correct form. Years 3-6 are back in the pool at Flagstone Splash. They have been learning about safety in and around water and correct swim strokes, while providing students with confidence, coordination and fitness. Staff are looking forward to executing all the exciting opportunities available this year, in the world of sport!

Miss Stephanie West and Mr Mark Robinson
H/PE Department

How can I help my child with their reading at home?

Over the last few years at Hills, we have been reflecting on and improving our literacy instruction, to be in alignment with best practice research and approaches. Decades of research has outlined that language skills are critical for a child's success in school and in life. As a parent, it is important to understand the building blocks of language development and how they impact your child's future. 

In this edition of Hills Times, I will look give a short overview of the six essential elements of language development: oral language, phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension, as well as ways that you can help strengthen these areas at home. 

Oral language is the foundation for all other language skills. Children who have strong oral language skills are more likely to be successful in reading, writing, and other academic areas. Encouraging your child to talk and engage in conversation from an early age is key to developing strong oral language skills.

• Engage in conversation with your child about topics that interest them
• Play word games such as 20 Questions, I Spy, and Charades
• Encourage your child to tell stories, share experiences, and describe objects or events

Phonological awareness is the understanding of the sounds in language. Children who have good phonological awareness are better able to recognise, manipulate, and blend sounds in words, which is an important step in learning to read. Encourage your child to play with sounds, such as rhyming games, and to segment words into sounds.

• Play rhyming games, such as finding words that rhyme with a given word
• Clap out syllables in words and have your child repeat the pattern
• Ask your child to identify the first sound in words, and the last sound

Phonics is the understanding of how letters and sounds are related. Children who have strong phonics skills are better able to decode words, which is essential for reading comprehension. Encourage your child to practice sounding out words and to learn the names and sounds of letters.

• Teach your child the names and sounds of letters
• Encourage your child to sound out words and to blend sounds together to form words
• Play word-matching games, such as pairing pictures with words that begin with the same sound

Vocabulary is the knowledge of words and their meanings. Children who have a rich vocabulary are better able to understand what they read and express themselves effectively. Encourage your child to learn new words and their meanings, and to use them in conversation and writing.

• Read books and discuss new words with your child
• Play word games, such as Word of the Day or Word Jumble
• Encourage your child to use new words in conversation and writing

Fluency is the ability to read text accurately, smoothly, and with expression. Children who are fluent readers are better able to comprehend what they read and to focus on the meaning of the text. Encourage your child to practice reading, and to use expression and prosody when reading out loud.

• Read aloud to your child, and encourage your child to read aloud to you
• Encourage your child to use expression and prosody when reading out loud
• Have your child reread familiar texts to improve fluency

Comprehension is the ability to understand what is read. Children who have strong comprehension skills are better able to make connections between what they read and their own experiences and to think critically about what they read. Encourage your child to ask questions, make predictions, and summarise what they read.

• Ask your child questions about what they have read, such as who, what, when, where, why, and how questions
• Encourage your child to make connections between what they read and their own experiences
• Have your child summarise what they have read, either in their own words or with a picture

These are just a few handy hints for you to help develop your child's reading ability at home. If you would like further support in this area, please don't hesitate to reach out to your child's classroom teacher. They are a wealth of knowledge and are only too happy to work in partnership with you. Alternatively, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Mr Stuart Ablitt

Deputy Head of Primary - Head of IB Programs

stuart.ablitt@hills.qld.edu.au

Secondary Insights

The start of 2023 College year continues to be wonderful, seeing and hearing the voices of our students in the learning environments as well as in the playground and on our multi-purpose court, for which we are most grateful to have. I know that for many children, particularly our new students, there was some anxiety, but I hope that now we have reached the end of our fourth week back and any concerns have been resolved. 

Our College takes very seriously the importance of the partnership we form with you in order for every child to reach their potential. Part of this is providing information to both parents and how teachers can continue to support not only the teaching and learning, but the social and emotional needs of young people as they grow.

Thank you to the all the parents and carers who joined us in our recent Year 7, Year 11 and Year 12 meetings. This is a valuable opportunity for particular teachers to connect with each of you and to provide some basic information regarding these year levels. The relationship between home and school is vital towards ensuring each child can access learning each day. Please do not hesitate to contact the College should you have any further queries regarding the information provided as part of the information sessions present during the evening.

I would like to publicly thank all the parents who were involved with their cheering in last week's Secondary Swimming Carnival. It takes a team of many individuals who all play a part in providing what I hope was a great day for every student attending; it really cannot happen without the support of all, and it is not an easy feat to manage it so well; it was a credit to all involved.

Students also demonstrated the power of the team spirit, supporting one another and sharing the challenges and joys of the day. It was a fantastic display of Hills College house spirit.

One of the great things at the College is the way in which students have responded so quickly and respectfully around meeting school expectations with uniforms. The College rules haven't changed a lot but for some students, the beginning of this year required readjusting their expectations to what they had previously observed or practiced. It is a credit to the parents and the students that there is respectful compliance and support with all uniform expectations as this really does help teachers get away from the distraction of reminders about such things and focus on the important work of teaching.

I share the staff's pride in belonging to a College with such respectful students. The change in this seemingly small matter was achieved on a rather large scale; it has been very noticeable and appreciated. We will continue to acknowledge the Hills College LAWS and students will be presented with a certificate on Assembly noting the particular LAWS acknowledged. This is a very important part of who we are at the College.

Be sure to remind your child to take advantage of our Math Zone support staffed by our expert teachers. This is available to all students. Our STEM Ambassadors support our students during these sessions. Students are able to bring their lunch to the sessions.

If there is any matter you would like to raise with me, please do. I am available for a face to face discussions (just check with reception as to my available) and definitely an email or a phone call.

Thank you again for your support for our students and our teaching staff. Hills College is certainly ‘Place to Belong’.

Mrs Julie-Anne Skelton

Head of Secondary

julie-anne.skelton@hills.qld.edu.au

College LAWS

Summer McInnes Year 10 - Striving for Success 
She is working on her skills in HPE to improve to the Bronze Medallion Standard (goal).

Mrs Leah Stone

Head of Faculty - Health and Physical Education

Nicola Martin Year 7 - Working Diligently 

In Science working towards her goals

Danny Lin Year 10 - Working Diligently and Striving for Success 

In Chemistry and in the Dormitories
 
Mr Trent Newcomb

Science Teacher

Yuvraj Randhawa Year 8 - Acting with Integrity and Striving for Success  

Dedication to mathematics and ensuring that he completes all learning outcomes to the best of his ability and with integrity in dealing with a year level matter

Tiarna Mollard Year 9 - Working with Diligence

Ensuring she understands her mathematics learning experiences and completes all set questions, seeking clarification when needed
 
Miril Passi Year 8 - Act with Integrity  

Due to his excellent behaviour in class and dedication to his studies in Mathematics
 

Mrs Rachael Wilson

Mathematics Teacher / Year Level Coordinator 7/8

Thalia Haanstra Year 12 - Living with Compassion

Savannah Swami Year 9 - Acting with Integrity

Shreya Ramdeo Year 12- Working with Diligence

Tiarna Mollard Year 10- Striving for Success

Mr Paul Clarke

Digital Technologies

Simran Sandhar Year 11 - Striving for Success 

She is a consistent worker who contributes to learning with insight and genuine interest

Ms Bianca Tyne 

English Teacher

Teaching and Learning - Mathematics

In the Mathematics Faculty, we have been busy getting to know the students in our new classes.  We work hard to establish what students know to see how we can best help them grow.

Students in Years 7-10 begin the year building number skills, from factors, multiples and indices to irrational numbers and surds. This year, we will be using SmartLab to track our students progress using diagnostic modules and tutorials. If you would like more information about SmartLab and how it works, please use the link Home - SmartLab (mysmartlab.com.au).

Term 1 will be a busy term for our Year 7 and 9 classes, who will complete NAPLAN on-line later in the term. We will be running a practice test before then, so they know what to expect.

Our Year 11 students will have started Unit 1 of their senior studies and the Year 12s will be working through Unit 3 of their chosen syllabus; Essential Mathematics, General Mathematics or Mathematic Methods. Comprehensive information about these courses can be found on the QCAA website Mathematics senior subjects | Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (qcaa.qld.edu.au).

You should by now have received an email from your child’s teacher and I would encourage you to contact them if you have any questions or concerns, and you are always free to email me at any time.

Can I please take this opportunity to remind you that Hills offers ‘MATHS ZONE’ on Tuesday mornings and lunchtimes for students to practice maths.  They can get help from their peers, our STEM ambassadors and teachers, or just come along and practice by themselves.  Everyone is welcome.

Mrs Sharon Rummins

Head of Faculty - Mathematics

STEM Ambassadors Report

On Wednesday 15 February, the primary school began their maker space program involving Years 1 to 6 students on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday who wish to experiment with STEAM. A weekly timetable has been released for students to anticipate the coming weeks. This weeks focus is circuits. Snap circuits and wire circuits will be constructed by students with the help of Ms Smith, Ms Hansel and our STEM Ambassadors. 

The program's schedule is influenced by the students' interests and requests as well as including a free choice week to encourage critical thinking and following their interests to experiment. We look forward to programming bots through a student created landscape next week!

Caitlin Rideout

Year 12 STEM Ambassador 

Arts Captain Report

Year 11 and 12 Music, Drama, Design and Modern History students are going on an excursion to see Hamilton the Musical at QPAC on 21 February. Hamilton uses hiphop, pop and soul music to tell the story of the life of Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of America. We are excited about seeing such a famous and popular show.

Rehearsals for the College Production are continuing. Being involved in the production is a great experience whether as an actor, a technician, or a backstage helper. We wish the production team a great year as they prepare for the performances in October.

The Music learning spaces at the top of the Resource Centre are open every lunchtime except Wednesdays. Come and practice guitar, keyboard or drumkit.
 

Kynan Clark 

Year 12 Arts Captain

English Ambassadors Report

The Hills College English Ambassadors met for their second club meeting this week. The team is in the process of designing an advertising campaign for the Hills English Club, which runs in K3 on Wednesdays at 1:20pm (all welcome!). The leaders are also in the process of organising possible excursions for avid readers and writers to upcoming writers' festivals. Most excitingly, they are spearheading Hills’ involvement in various literary competitions, including the annual Shakefest, which offers entrants the opportunity to showcase an adaptation of a Shakespeare work into various mediums: design, film, theatre, photography, dance, and music. Details to be forthcoming – watch this space!

Year 12 English Ambassadors

Hills College Secondary Media Report - Leader Investiture

This Wednesday 15 February, the new school captains were introduced to the entire school, receiving their badges and a certificate to acknowledge their leadership. With Kynan Clark representing Art, Caitlin McNee, Isabella Carter, and Amber Davidson representing English, and a mix of Year 12 and Year 11 students representing STEM, we welcomed our new school leaders. We then welcomed Caitlin McNee and Shyla Ramdeo, as the school Vice Captains, as well as Jack Parer and Amber Davidson, our School Captains. 

The House Captains were introduced by colour to finish the secondary investiture. Congratulations to our Junior School Captains, Erin Waters and Oliver Booker, and also well done to our Junior Vice and House Captains. At the end of the investiture the Junior and Senior Captains took the pledge to uphold the College LAWS, and we are sure they will prove to be great role models for our school.
 
Caitlyn Underdown

Hills College Reporting Team

Under the Direction of Dr Valerie Spall  
 

Swimming Carnival

Our school hosted the 10 years+ swimming carnival on Thursday 9 February. Many of our students participated in this yearly sports event to gain some points for their houses. 

Some notable performances included Maddie Lansky winning all her senior races, with Chloe Lanoux finishing a creditable second. Tiger Xie from the Dorms swam extremely well to win the senior freestyle race after not swimming for a long while, and according to Mr. Robinson “Jake Davidson is a fish!”. Jack Parer swam every event and apparently came in both first and last in the same backstroke race, since he participated at two different year levels! Sophia Davidson won both her freestyle and backstroke races in another notable effort. 

Fuji won the junior relay race and Jade won the senior relay race, with Halla second and Uluru third. On behalf of the Hills' reporting team, we would like to thank all the participants in the races and particularly Mr Robinson and other teachers for managing and hosting such an amazing event.

 
Lukyn Hytongue  

Hills Reporting Team

Jourdain Lanoux

Recently Year 9 student Jourdain Lanoux participated in the Pacific Districts swimming, an extremely challenging swimming carnival in the Queensland region. He managed to place fifth in the fifty-meter freestyle as well as fifth in breaststroke. 

As well as these incredible swimming achievements, he participated in the All-Schools State Championship for triathlon and placed 14th overall, which is an incredible achievement. 

Jourdain said the two events were fun experiences to be a part of. We would like to take the time to congratulate him on these excellent achievements and we look forward to hearing about his sporting prowess in the future.
 
Joshua Feeney,
Hills Reporting Team Captain

Leah Henley

Leah Henley has been selected to represent South Coast 10 - 12 Girls Cricket Team at the State Championships in Bundaberg April 19th - 22nd.

We congratulate Leah and wish her well with this upcoming opportunity.

Year 11 YOUCHOOSE Presentation

On Wednesday, our Year 11 students attended an important presentation by Melissa McGuinness from ‘YOU CHOOSE – Youth Road Safety’, Australia’s youth-led mission to change driving culture.

YOU CHOOSE – Youth Road Safety is a highly acclaimed, and winner of the Australian Road Safety Award for school programs. The program involves a presentation phase, supported by ongoing in-class lesson plans in our well-being schedule which are aligned to the Australian Curriculum.

YOU CHOOSE’s messages are challenging, though extremely important for young people and their decision making as drivers and passengers. Many students were moved to profound personal introspection about their own families and connections to their intentions, their choices and their actions. This is a key intent behind the mission's motto - Own the Choice Own the Outcome.

Melissa challenged the students to consider how they will personally seek leadership in road safety, live life to its fullest, protect their loved ones; and be truly accountable in situations where they need to place their safety and wellbeing at the forefront of decision making. To exchange expectations, commitments and permissions to speak up and to act in moments-that-matter. 

We have asked students to share the YOU CHOOSE mission with their families; and to discuss what they have taken from the program. We strongly urge families to engage in this conversation with their teen; and to encourage them to complete the (anonymous) survey link they received after the presentation.

As a fully registered non-for-profit charity, YOU CHOOSE relies on donations to take messages about Love, Family, Leadership and the Empowerment of Choice to school communities around Australia. Parents are encouraged to contribute at  https://www.youchooseyrs.org.au/support-you-choose/donate/

 For more information, please visit www.youchooseyrs.org.au

Mountain biking during Activities

We have had a great start to the year with our Hills Mountain Bike Activity fully subscribed by enthusiastic new and experienced riders. This is the 5th year of running the activity and we continue to build up a great culture of riding. We offer a range of fun riding experiences, ranging from riding the pump track, trail maintenance, to mastering small jumps and playing a game of bike soccer.

This year we have great opportunity to make our activity even better. We have already built a technical pump track on the grounds and this year we are hoping to begin creating an endurance course on part of the old golf course. We would love for parents to become involved in this activity too and I am putting out the call for anyone who is interested in helping with course building or perhaps donating tools and bikes (in good working order) to contact us, so we can continue to enhance our strong foundations. We run the activity on Wednesday afternoons from 1:40- 3:20pm. If you have a Blue Card and some free time, why not come and ride with us.

I am also looking for students to join a local cycling club so that they can enjoy the benefits of insurance, bike hire, training and organised rides. My preference is Beaudesert Cycling Club, which is the club I belong to. Beaudesert Cycling Club Inc. | Cycling in the Scenic Rim

Any further questions, please contact,

Jarrah.newton@hills.qld.edu.au

Mark.robinson@hills.qld.edu.au

AFL Opportunities

Boarding Student Profile

Meet Ze-Hong Lin!

Ze-Hong (Danny), a Year 10 student, has been resident with us here in the dormitory for one year.

A citizen of Taiwan and a long-time resident of Indonesia, Ze-Hong grew up in Jakarta with his parents and sister. His early school years were spent at the renowned Jakarta Nanyang School. That, and his Taiwanese heritage, have provided Ze-Hong with a knowledge of Bahasa Indonesia, Mandarin, and English, the latter two languages of which he is fluent.

As a student of the Hills Golf Academy, Ze-Hong is pursuing his dream of becoming a professional golfer, aspiring to emulate the successes of his golfing hero, Tiger Woods. You can see he is mentioned in this week's golf section of the Hills Times.

Ze-Hong noted that as a fifteen-year-old, his first few weeks at Hills was a time of challenge; he was remote from his parents for the first time, had to contend with the restrictions of international travel due to COVID, and the teaching style at Hills was different to what he was used to. He realised that there was an emphasis at Hills on applying what one had learned rather than just acquiring knowledge through learning.

Ze-Hong contends with an action-packed week as one of our golfing students. He attends golf practice each morning at 6:30 a.m., has competition or practice on Saturdays, Wednesday afternoon golf lessons, in addition to schoolwork and after school study. This is not to mention other College activities like camps and swimming carnivals!

International News

Last week Hills welcomed Toki Yoshimura to our team. Toki is here for a year as part of the School Language Assistant Program, volunteering his time in our Japanese classes to share his language and culture. Toki will be mainly sharing his expertise with our senior Japanese classes as they work towards proficiency in Years 11 and 12. Welcome Toki, we hope you enjoy your new life in Australia!

Our final international student for Term 1 has received his student visa, and arrives this Saturday. Samuel Tan joins us from Singapore, and will join the Year 11 cohort next week. Samuel will join the golf program as well, having played for many years in Singapore. Welcome to Hills, Samuel!

International Mother Language Day

21 February is recognised as International Mother Language Day. This year, the focus is on multilingual education. According to the UN;

     Multilingualism contributes to the development of inclusive societies that           allow multiple cultures, worldviews and knowledge systems to coexist and         cross-fertilize.

     The theme of the 2023 International Mother Language Day, “Multilingual           education – a necessity to transform education” aligns with                               recommendations made during the Transforming Education Summit, where         an emphasis was also placed on Indigenous people’s education and                     languages.

     Multilingual education based on mother-tongue facilitates access to and             inclusion in learning for population groups that speak non-dominant                   languages, languages of minority groups and indigenous languages. 

(https://www.un.org/en/observan...)

At Hills College, we have at least 20 languages spoken at home by our students, families and staff. In a small school, this is incredible! Multilingualism is a benefit for travel, work, and socialising, not to mention the amazing things that happen in the brain when switching between languages. On 21 February, please greet your friends and family in your native language, and share the multilingual kindness!

Culture Club

Hills College's Culture Club had its first meeting on Friday 17 February. The Club aims to celebrate our school's cultural diversity through celebrations and information sharing. On the agenda was Harmony Day, which is coming up in March. Watch this space for information about BENTO BOXES, which will be able to be ordered as part of our Harmony Day celebrations.

Mrs Vanessa Newbery

Head of International Programs

vanessa.newbery@hills.qld.edu.au

Wednesday Competition 1 February 

Charles Gould broke 100 again with a 97 and won the day with 42 Stableford points. Charles is starting to break that 100 mark more consistently now. Judah August-Povey played well, firing a 77 for 40 points to run second. He is starting to show us his real potential this year. Our new student from China, Huayi (Tiger) Xie, had the best gross with a one under par 71. This got the attention of College champion, Saxxon Ford, who returned a solid 73.

Wednesday Competition 8 February 

Danny Lin won the event coming in with a strong nett 67 to finish just one shot in front of Ella Gould who had her personal best round (112) with a nett 68. Danny is starting to grow and this has given him some more clubhead speed, which is now allowing him to hit the ball much further. Ella continues to make gains and is now in line to make the Intercollegiate team as her handicap has fallen within the range for the tournament. Saxxon Ford made a statement to Tiger as who might be the best player in the Academy when he posted a gross score of 67 (5 under par) to have the best gross score of the day. Tiger Xie was unperturbed and also played nicely for a score of 69. There is nothing like some good healthy competition to bring out the best in players.

Physical Screening 

Our Sports Physiotherapist, Andrew Grigg, screened all our students last week to test their flexibility, strength and core controls. Each student receives a report of this screening and with the help of our Strength and Conditioning trainer, Ben Holley, will work on their individual areas that needs improvement. Ultimately, this helps improve their technical capabilities as a player.

Until next time,

Good Golfing

Tom Berndt 

Director of Golf

tom.berndt@hills.qld.edu.au