Hills Events

Hills College in 2023 sees everything returning to 'normal', and the third carnival of the year has been completed, after successful swimming and cross-country carnivals. This past fortnight has not only seen the completion of the Athletics Carnival, but also the Foundation Day Race.

Foundation Day Race

The traditional Foundation Day Race occurred on Friday 5 May. The victorious Fuji House saw many students overjoyed by their big win.

Athletics Carnival

Both Primary and Secondary Athletics Carnivals have been completed this week, with a huge involvement of the entire Hills community being on display. Our appreciation goes out to the HPE staff who have made these such successful and enjoyable events.

Japan Study Tour 2023

I have had expressions of interest from more than enough senior Secondary students to commence planning the first Principal’s Japan Study Tour since 2018. These biennial tours have been occurring since 2012, but were cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic. Fortunately, international travel restrictions have eased. This means that it is possible to tour Japan again, and Hills College plans to do so in the September holidays.

This tour is usually offered to Year 9 and Year 10 students, to encourage further study of Japanese in Year 11 and 12, and to consider a 'gap year' in Japan. Due to the 2020 cancellation, the available places have been filled by Year 11 and 12 students, with a small number of Year 10 students invited. Current Year 9 students will have the opportunity to express interest in a Study Tour expected for 2024. After that, we will return to biennial tours.

Mr Kevin Lynch
Principal and CEO, Hills International College Ltd
kevin.lynch@hills.qld.edu.au

Welcome to your next edition of the Hills Times! 

Next week I will have the privilege to attend our inaugural Sydney and Canberra Excursion with Year 6 students and staff. With the pandemic firmly behind us, it is wonderful to again afford our students with such enriching and rewarding educational and social experiences. I am sure our next edition will brim with excitement and jubilation from this trip.

Uniform
A reminder that with the cooler weather students are required to wear the compulsory College uniform. Please note that tracksuit tops must not be worn with formal uniform or non-College jumpers. The uniform shop has new formal jumpers, with improved fabric that is more suitable for students with sensitive skin. The P & F also has some non-compulsory uniform items for sale, including vests, that can be worn to school over the top of a formal jumper on those extra cold days. Please note, that beanies can be worn to school but must be taken off before entering the learning environments of the morning. Hats are still expected to be brought and worn during break times.

Drop and Go
A friendly reminder that families should not be arriving before 3 pm and parking within the Drop and Go. With limited access, families arriving early create unnecessary traffic jams, causing our Prep families and families who wish to park in the area across from Drop and Go an inability to enter these zones. Could I kindly ask that families, who arrive before 3 pm, keep circling around (in a flow) if they wish to access the Drop and Go, until our students are let out? Again, we are working with what we can and are in regular discussions to improve parking and accessibility to the College.

Life Education
We are extremely excited to host Life Education from Friday 19 through to Friday 26 May. Our students will be involved in specific, age-appropriate, Health and Development lessons with their class, aligned to the Australian Curriculum. We look forward to spending time with Healthy Harold in Weeks 5 and 6.

Head of Primary Award
Congratulations to Matita Schroeder, 3I, who was our Head of Primary Awardee. Matita has designed a poster for our therapy dog Rosie, that signifies purpose around our College, and is such a wonderful community-focused approach. Matita is a student who consistently looks for what works well and leans on the power of positivity, even though she may be challenged initially herself. What a role model she is!

Congratulations also to the many students who experienced success in achieving a College L.A.W.S. Award. This is such a fabulous achievement and shows the appreciation displayed by your teacher in your approach to learning.

Welcome new students
A huge welcome to our 2 new students who joined Hills in Years 1 and 2, Charlotte Marcus and Jacqueline Mathew. We hope your first week has been brilliant!

Finally, to all of our wonderful mums and grandmothers, a very special and happy Mother's Day. We hope you get thoroughly spoilt!

Matthew Noel
Head of Primary

matt.noel@hills.qld.edu.au

Captains' Corner- House Captain coverage (Fun Friday)

Our wonderful House Captains will be hosting Friday Fun Day activities at Friday lunchtime this term. These Primary Leaders have prepared a roster to support age-appropriate activities that enhance social and personal well-being that is inclusive to all our students and supports that true sense of belonging.

Written by the Primary House Captains

Rubik’s Cube Club

Year 6 student, Joseph Swatton, spoke at our last assembly about offering a club to teach our students in Years 1-6 the skills of Rubik cubing. In our first week, he was inundated with students keen to learn and teach those around them, and he has had to timetable scheduled year level sessions throughout the week. Joseph epitomises the IB Learner through his social, communication, and thinking skills. Well done Joseph for enhancing our community!

Xander Simpson, Living with Compassion

This week we want to share with our community a student who epitomises one of our College L.A.W.S., Living with Compassion. Prep P student, Xander Simpson, was compelled to clean up his Flagstone community by picking up rubbish over the weekend. Xander was motivated by his Secondary peers who conducted a Clean Up Australia Day initiative and worked with Primary year groups to detail the importance of respecting and looking after our natural and man-made environments. Xander demonstrated great student agency in his action, and we could not be prouder of him. Well done, Xander, on your care and dedication to the world around you.

Prep Excursion

The Prep students ventured off on their very first excursion, all the way to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. It was their job to become 'Sharing the Planet' experts, researching what living things were at the sanctuary and what their needs are. The 'Backyard Discoverers Show' was a crowd favourite as the students needed to put their detective hats on and use all the clues to uncover the real, live animals hiding behind the ranger, before getting to pat them. Feeding the kangaroos was also a very exciting part of the adventure, providing the students with some really great knowledge and experience to bring back to the classroom and use during their inquiry work. 

Prep Teachers

In the spotlight with 6H

The excitement is mounting within our classroom as the first Hills Canberra Tour looms closer. The students are extremely proud of their Year Six shirts, which we will proudly display around the ACT.

Civics and citizenship education promote students’ participation in Australia’s democracy by equipping them with the knowledge, skills, values, and dispositions of active and informed citizenship. In class, we are building students’ knowledge and understanding of how citizens can actively engage in Australia’s diverse and inclusive society, something which is valued at Hills. We have been looking at Australia’s systems of government, how voting works, how laws are created and passed, our Constitution, and the rights of our citizens.

It is hoped that our students will develop a lifelong sense of belonging and engagement with civic life as active and informed citizens in the context of Australia as a secular democratic nation with a dynamic, multicultural, multi-faith heritage. We hope our students will show concern for the welfare and dignity of others, support the right and freedoms of all individuals, and know the main structure and functions of our government. This is being achieved through inquiry and engaging in activities such as our mock House of Representatives Question Time, where heated exchanges of arguments and evidence are being challenged. We have undertaken virtual tours of important Government buildings and how they work, as well as participating in the investigations of how laws are made.

We have also been looking at fractions, decimals, and percentages in Mathematics. Hopefully, they will be able to assist their parents when the winter sales are on! We are investigating how we collect data and how chance and probability work.

In English, we are investigating the writing of explanations as part of the preparation for our upcoming exhibition next term and will move into persuasive techniques when we return from our Canberra Tour.

I look forward to watching our Year 6 students grow in independence and resilience on our Canberra Tour and making many memories, that they will be able to reflect upon in the future.

Ms Angie Henry

6H Teacher

Parent Focus Group

Earlier this term, I wrote to families about our upcoming evaluation in 2024 from the International Baccalaureate, and the formation of a Parent Focus group to assist with this. The aim of the focus group is to ensure that College is meeting the needs of our students and families and that our policies and programs are relevant, meaningful, and effective. Many outstanding expressions of interest were submitted, and I thank parents for their time in completing this process and wanting to be a part of this initiative. From the many applications received, I can announce that the following parents will be working closely with me over the next 12 months as we prepare for our evaluation visit in April 2024: 

• Shanna Watson
• Sam Musgrave
• Alyce Merrin
• Geordie Lavers-McBain
• Jan Freeman
• Crystal McGuinness
• Jennifer Reeves - Education and Pastoral Care Committee Representative 

Congratulations to our parent representatives, we look forward to working closely with you during this time.

Global Citizen Award 

The Global Citizen Award is awarded to students who demonstrate exceptional effort in taking action towards global issues and understand their role as responsible global community members. This award is given to students who embody the qualities of a true global citizen, such as being caring, knowledgeable, reflective, open-minded, and balanced, as outlined in the IB PYP Learner Profile.

This fortnight, the Global Citizen Award goes to 2 students: 

• Audrey Herbert: for demonstrating the attribute of being caring by taking the time to write a welcome card for a new student to the College. 
• Dakota Crane: for demonstrating the attributes of being caring and principled by consistently picking up rubbish withing being asked to do so. 

Congratulations to our award winners for this week! Keep being responsible and caring global citizens! 

Secondary Insights

Secondary continues to be a great 'Place to Belong'. Our students have settled into Term 2 and are focused on the learning outcomes with their subjects.

This edition of the Hills Times reflects upon student involvement in many learning opportunities including the Arts, STEM and Mathematics Zone. Upcoming competitions also reflect the interest students have in additional opportunities and we look forward to our chess competition as well as our English competition and Chinese competition outcomes.

Recent excursions further present opportunities for students to understand these learning outcomes and the visit to the Abbey Museum was one of those. 

Our recent Foundation Day Race commenced with fantastic weather and having the Foundation Day Race actually run on our Hills College 32nd anniversary was just wonderful. The excitement we had in anticipation with the event was evident before the race and this did escalate during the course of the race itself. Our Foundation Day Race involved students from Prep to Year 12 with a boy and a girl from each year level and each house racing on the three circuits throughout the College quadrangles and buildings. For those parents who were able to attend, thank you for coming. We look forward to having you attend any event the College presents.

Next Wednesday will be another Secondary assembly for which you are most welcome to attend. Our LAWS Awardees will be presented to the Secondary students.

If there is anything you may wish to discuss with me at the College, please contact me either through Reception or via email.

As always, I want to thank you for your continued support for our College and our College staff. A true partnership I believe is continuing to develop as time moves forward. Thank you for ensuring that Hills College is a Place to Belong.

Mrs Julie-Anne Skelton

Head of Secondary

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

LAWS Awardees

Our Secondary Hills College Awardees for this fortnight are as follows;

Living with Compassion: Volunteering their time on Sunday to help with the Star Weaving Workshop:

India Carroll

Georgia Theron

Tina Butcher

Ms Caroline Barnard

Visual Art Teacher


Working with Diligence: Students have excelled in HPE learning environments:

Brock Gill 

Kyah Jones 

Jared Waters 

Jordain Lanoux

Kelly O'Gorman 

Steven Gurney 

Mrs Leah Stone

Health and Physical Education Teacher 

Head of Faculty HPE

Teaching and Learning - Mathematics

The news from the Mathematics department this term is the fun activities the Year 7s were engaged in at the start of term when they learned about ratios. The 7A class investigated how changing the ratio between vinegar and bicarbonate of soda changed the amount of foam produced, and the 7B class investigated which ratios of lemonade, apple juice, pineapple juice and orange juice made the best fruit cocktail.

Mrs Sharon Rummins

Head of Faculty Mathematics

Teaching and Learning - Health and Physical Education

Students have been preparing for the upcoming Secondary Athletics Carnival during their Health and Physical Education learning outcomes. Having combined lessons with learners from Primary have enabled robust dialogue encouraging the development of skills.

Mrs Leah Stone 

Head of Faculty HPE

Teaching and Learning - English

Year 9 have been undertaking a unit on developing skills with Poetry Writing.

Enjoy the piece by Billie Walter. Thank you Ms Goyne for inspiring Billie.

The Forest Painted Red!

It was a normal Sunday evening walk

But this story is the first to talk

I was going for a walk listing to my favourite tunes

The path led to a fork, it was the forest or the dunes

I choose the forest, but it led to my doom

As I was walking, I felt a presence loom

I look to my left and let out a scream

I look to my right to see more of the scene

Red! Red! Bloody and gore, the pretty forest no more

Flesh and heads paint the floor

As the presence emerges, I start to run

The more I run the more I get dizzy- but I keep going or I know I’m done

The presents soon stops but I keep running

I see the city again, I see the police station coming

as I slow down and enter

to my horror, it was a closed centre
to this day no one knows

about the horror that grows

in that forest the killer awaits

for a new walker, its new bait
 
Billie Walter 

STEM Ambassador Report

Chess Competition

The Stem Ambassadors will be running a Chess Competition starting next week and running the rest of the term. Prizes will be awarded to the champion of each year level and the College champion to be determined in Week 9.

 Recycling Project

The Secondary STEM team are gathering information about recycling and have asked me to forward this short questionnaire to you.

Hills College | Recycling Projects Initiatives (office.com)

Mrs Sharon Rummins

(on behalf of the student STEM team)

English Ambassador Report

The English Ambassadors are proud to announce that Book Week will be coming to the Secondary school for the very first time from August 21 – 25 2023!

We have been hard at work designing a week’s worth of activities for Secondary students, including a highly anticipated book-themed Dress-Up Day! The Year 12 cohort have already started planning their book character/author costumes, some of which align with the Secondary school’s optional 2023 theme: Read, Grow, Inspire. The graduating class are so excited to be leading the way as they support the Ambassadors and the Secondary English Club in their organisation and facilitation of the week-long event. If you’re interested in helping to brainstorm and organise the week’s activities, then head to English Club Wednesdays at 1:20pm in K3!

We would like to take the opportunity to thank Ms Goyne – Head of Faculty English - for spearheading the initiative, and Mrs Renee Hansell for all of her support and advice thus far.

We can’t wait to announce more details soon. In the meantime – start planning those costumes!

Amber Davidson, Isabella Carter, Caitlin McNee

English Ambassadors

Arts Captain Report

The Independent Education Union (IEU) Art Competition is currently running. It is open to all age groups of students and staff too. The theme is ‘Colours of Life’ and entries are due on 21 July. Details are on the College App or please ask Ms Barnard.

The College Production is coming along very well with weekly cast rehearsals. The Production band has also started rehearsing. The costumes, props and sets are being created.  Being involved in the Production is a wonderful experience for everyone and we are excited to share our work with you in October this year.

Just a reminder that the Music rooms at the top of the Resource Centre are open every lunchtime except Wednesdays. Come and practice guitar, keyboard or drumkit. Everyone is welcome.

Kynan Clark

Year 12 Arts Captain

Mathematics Zone

Maths Zone has gained momentum this term and I would like to remind everyone that this is available.

Below are some questions levelled at the appropriate grades.  Can your child answer the question aligned to their year level?  Answers will be in the next newsletter.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns about Maths, please do not hesitate to contact either myself or your child’s teacher.

Mrs Sharon Rummins

Head of Faculty- Mathematics

History Excursion- Year 8

On Monday 8 May, Year 8 students travelled to Medieval Europe, via Caboolture. Students attended an excursion to Abbey Museum of Art and Archaeology! They were able to see demonstrations of medieval weaponry, learn about the knight code of chivalry, and even try-on replica armour! 

Students enjoyed visiting the Abbey Museum, which houses exhibitions spanning from prehistoric Europe, Bronze and Iron Ages, the Roman Empire and Medieval Europe up to modern times. The Ancient and Classical World was represented with artefacts from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Israel, Persia, Greece, the Etruscans and ancient Cyprus.  There were also collections from the Islamic world, South-East Asia, China, Japan and India. 

Students were very engaged with these displays, with one even saying, “It's like our textbook but in real life!” After visiting the museum, students visited the Abbey Church which houses Australia’s oldest collection of authentic medieval priceless stained-glass windows, painstakingly shipped from Europe. The students learnt about the fascinating purpose of these stained glass displays in medieval times, as well as the efforts the Museum takes to restore and conserve history.  Students ended the day trying their hand at medieval-style archery, and they channelled their inner Robin Hoods to try to hit the targets with varying degrees of success.

Overall, I am so proud of the Year 8s for displaying the Hills LAWS, and for the passion they showed towards History. I look forward to continuing to see this group develop and grow their critical analysis skills and understandings through their continued studies of History.  

Ms Alexandria Salmon

History Teacher

Competitions- Chinese Speaking

In exciting news for language enthusiasts, the Queensland Chinese Language Teachers Association has announced the upcoming Chinese Speaking Online Competition for 2023. The competition aims to celebrate the language skills of students from across Queensland and provide an opportunity for them to showcase their abilities.

In a particularly impressive feat, three students from our college have been selected to participate in the event. The students, Erin Waters, Mikayla Lees, and Jared Waters, have all demonstrated exceptional proficiency in Chinese and are poised to make a strong showing in the competition.

The news of the selection has been met with enthusiasm and excitement from the students’ peers, teachers and families. Congratulations to the three students on this impressive accomplishment, and best of luck to them as they prepare for the Chinese Speaking Online Competition. 

Dr Yuhua Li

Chinese Teacher

Media Report - Year 11 Presentation

On Wednesday 3 May, the Year 11 cohort attended an engaging and meaningful talk from Major Nigel Booker. He began by sharing with the students his past work experiences in business and the army. Major Booker presented his plan designed to assist the Year 11 students find a pathway towards their future careers. He explained that he had connections across various industries and businesses, and that he may be able to help us make valuable connections within industries we are interested in. 

One major part of the plan is to assist with proof-reading each student’s resume. Major Booker is very trusted within the College community, with a long history of helping Hills graduates step outside the school gates and into the industries they would like to work in. The Year 11 cohort would love to thank him for providing his time and expertise and we look forward to his fortnightly visits with the students.

Matilda McBain
Hills Reporting Team

Student Achievement

Loki Nardello is competing at the Australian Gymnastics Championships next week on the Gold Coast (18 -21 May). He won Gold at the recent Qld State Championships in both Individual Trampoline and Double Mini Trampoline. Next week is going to be very hectic for him as he has to attend school during the day on Tuesday and Wednesday and then go to the Gold Coast both of those evenings for pre-comp training. Loki finishes competition on Sunday 21 May. 

We wish Loki well with this competition and look forward to knowing the outcomes.

Star Pass

We've recently introduced a class 'star pass' in Secondary, to help students move around campus with confidence during classtime.  Unlike many other schools, which have restricted student movement, and even locked toilets, we are thankful that our students can be trusted to act safely and with integrity, even when not directly supervised by a teacher.

The star pass is another way that we can show trust in our students, who consistently make the right decisions.

Congratulations, Maddy!

We're very proud of Maddy Lansky, who has found herself a position with Splash Leisure as a swim coach!  This is what Splash have to say:

Welcome to Maddy, our new trainee teacher. She has been squad swimmer and is looking to start a career in education. Maddy is already becoming a great part of the team and we are so excited to welcome her!

Offline Gaming Day

Springfield Gamers is again coming to Hills College, running an offline gaming day for our community. If you are interested in war gaming, tabletop games, board games and role-playing games, please come along! Sunday 28 May, 9am - 5pm. Please contact Mrs Newbery for more information, vanessa.newbery@hills.qld.edu.au

Star Weaving Workshop: “Weave a star. Start a conversation.”

As a local community we are participating in the global One Billion Stars to End Violence project initiated by Maryann Talia Pau. We have pledged to weave 10,000 stars by 2025 to contribute towards the one billion stars by 2032. As Project leader for our local area, it was wonderful to run the first Star Weaving Workshop at the College on Sunday 30 April with a team of helpers, including dorm supervisor Isla Perrett. There were 17 enthusiastic participants which included Hills parents and students. 

Everyone embraced the techniques used to create the eight-pointed star and understood the philosophy behind the project. 95 stars were woven during the workshop. There will be more workshops offered throughout the year including two in Term 3.

I am interested in hearing from those of you who have contacts from community groups so that the representatives can be invited to future weaving workshops (caroline.barnard@hills.qld.edu.au). To encourage more people participating in this global project, further information including weaving instructions, materials and links to videos will soon be shared on the College app. We look forward to receiving your woven stars at the drop off point in the admin building. Happy weaving!

Ms Caroline Barnard
Art Teacher

Foundation Day Race

This year, Hills College celebrated our Foundation Day race on Friday 5 May. The day was beautiful, sunny and not too hot; perfect for the event. 

It was a wonderful day to celebrate the foundation of our wonderful school. Even though this is an optional event to run in, students nominated themselves to run for their house across all the year levels. 

Everyone ran their heart out for their houses and the final result was Fuji winning followed by Halla, Jade and Uluru. 

Overall, it was an amazing day for all and congratulations to Fuji for winning the competition. On behalf of the Hills Reporting Team, I would like to thank the school staff for hosting such an amazing event and I am certain it was enjoyed by all the staff, students and parents spectating.

Lukyn Hytongue

Hills Reporting Team

Mother’s Day Stall

Mother’s Day is an important day because we are appreciating someone very special who always cares for us. Appreciating and thanking your mother is one of the many ways to make Mother’s Day even better. 

Every year at Hills we have a Mother’s Day stall run by the fantastic P & F, and students in the Primary school come with their class to buy gifts at set times. The Secondary students visit the stall during break times. The Mother’s Day stall was open for all students. The stall was at the top of the Resource Centre from Thursday to Friday, the week before this important date. 

Sarah Weir was the coordinator for this event. The people of the Hills Community made this event possible, and senior students helped to run the stall. The price of items ranged from $2-$14. 

The Mother’s Day stall sold many amazing things, including T-shirts, water bottles, drink holders, jewellery, coffee mugs, body wash and other amazing items that will make Mother’s Day all the more special.

Aanya Patel
Hills Reporting Team

Pacific District cross-country

On Wednesday 3 May some of the Hills College community travelled to Rivermount College to compete in the Pacific District Cross Country Carnival, with Mr Robinson supervising the students throughout the day. The students will also come back to the same venue on 30 May for the South Coast Trials. 

We had a very successful day with five students competing in the Carnival and finishing in the following order; Ruby Clapham finished 11th, Aya Lear 12th, Cienna Grammatico 4th, Simon Smith 9th and Thalia Haanstra finished 6th. The results reflect how well the students faired on the day and we look forward to 30 May to see how they finish in the South Coast Trials.

Joshua Feeney
Hills Reporting Team captain

Woodhill Billy Cart Derby

We're pleased to announce that one of the local areas' most popular events, the Woodhill Billy Cart Derby, is back in 2023.

Hills International College is happy to support the Derby by providing this information to our community.

Student Highlight

Kira Masuda joined the Hills International College student body earlier this year.

Kira’s family live in Shizuoka City, situated in the Suruga prefecture of Japan. The city and the region are renowned for tea plantations and known for the World O-CHA (Tea) Festival.

A passionate and talented tennis player, Kira has played tennis from the age of 8 and by the age of 13 was competing in inter-school tennis competitions, achieving a singles result of third in his school district championship.

Kira tells us that he had visited Australia on holiday some years ago and once he decided he wanted to improve his English language skills, Australia was an obvious choice for him.

So why Hills International College, Kira?

“I wanted to attend a school that offered English language education, close to a tennis club, so Hills and the Jimboomba Tennis Club offered just that”, he commented. Kira now competes for the Jimboomba Tennis Club and recently scored two singles match wins 6-1 and 6-3, and a doubles win with his partner Max, 6-4.

Despite his love of tennis, Kira’s goal is to improve his English language, to attain an Australian education, and maybe one day secure a role as a Company President – dream big, Kira!

National Boarding Week

Next week we will celebrate a special group of young people in our community. National Boarding Week runs from 14-20 May, and we will be running a series of events for our 20 boarders and their 4 dedicated carers:

• Saturday 13/5 - BBQ breakfast
• Sunday 14/5 - Mother's Day messages
• Monday 15/5 - BBQ breakfast
• Tuesday 16/5 - BBQ breakfast
• Wednesday 17/5 - Dinner out - Yummy Yummy Chinese
• Thursday 18/5 - Wellbeing Team hosts morning tea - Resource Centre
• Thursday 18/5 - Boarding Leaders dinner at Nudgee College
• Friday 19/5 - Supper provided by Mrs Newbery

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our boarders for their contribution to our College community. They are led by our passionate and dedicated dorm masters and supervisors. 

For more information about boarding at Hills, please contact me.

Mrs Vanessa Newbery

Head of International Programs

vanessa.newbery@hills.qld.edu.au

The first "Honour Board" event for 2023 was completed last week when Daniel Gould and Danny Lin won the 4BBB Match Play Championship. They comfortably disposed of Saxxon Ford and Samuel Tan 4&3 in a very dominant performance. 

This week will see the start of the Academy Championships. Played over 4 rounds, the tournament is running back to its older format where the students play round 1 on Wednesday, Rounds 2 and 3 on the weekend and the final round the following Wednesday. With Daniel Gould's recent form, and the addition of Samuel Tan to the Academy, the championship will have some interest in the boys' event. 2022 Champion Saxxon Ford, will have some work to do to defend his title with Tiger Xie and Hayato Abe legitimate contenders. The girls' championship will see defending champ, Fiona Feng, go head to head with her friend, Jennifer Cho. If Jennifer brings her "A" game to the tournament, it could be a very close contest. 

At the last Intercollegiate tournament, which was held at Virginia Golf Club, our boys' team won the event with a total of 299. Daniel Gould was our best player after returning a score of 72. Saxxon Ford had 73, Tiger Xie 75 and Hayato Abe 79 contributed to the total and they beat 2022 champions Kelvin Grove by 5 shots. Our girls' team of Fiona Feng, Jennifer Cho and Ella Gould came in second behind Robina High School. The next leg of the tournament will be played at Wynnum on 29 May.

Bryan Heng joined the program in Term 2. Bryan has come from Singapore and is already making some nice improvements to his game. We look forward to seeing his progress as a player over the coming Terms and the Academy wishes to welcome him as our newest student member.

It was nice to see some of our Alumni graduate from US College recently. Ashley Lau (Michigan State) and Ultra Namkang (Memphis State) have completed their four years of US College. Wow, how time flies. As well, Mirabel Ting is playing very well for Augusta State University and has been selected to play in the Arnold Palmer Cup for the International team. Mirabel is currently ranked #7 in the US College system in her freshman year. Fantastic start for her and it lays the platform for her to become one of the world's leading amateurs by 2024.

Until next time, good golfing

Tom Berndt

Director of Golf

tom.berndt@hills.qld.edu.au