In this issue

Our Year 9 students came together in celebration for the very first Year 9 Semi Formal, which was not only an initiative of our Junior Secondary Student Leaders but organised by them as well. The theme for the evening was ‘A night in Paris’ and our students certainly celebrated the end of their Junior Secondary phase of learning and transition to Senior Secondary, with a fun filled evening of dancing and capturing memories in the themed photo booth. A magical evening for our students.  

May I begin by thanking Aunty Roma for that very interesting and educational Welcome to Country and pay my own respects to the her and the First Nations people especially those with us here today.

I would also like to thanks Mrs Cox, Mr Butterworth and their student leadership teams for their organisation of this event, Mrs Ellis for this assembly and learning materials, Mr Hepper and Mr Ehrenberg for logistical support and all of the staff from across the College who have made today, wet as it is, possible.  Special shout out to hospitality school of excellence, to Mr Bishop and Mrs Cremen and their team for delicious sampler packs they have put together for you.  Thank you to the classroom teachers in Junior School for the magnificent signage that we will see today – I just love a bit of glitter and it abounds.

Our theme this year, chosen by our student leaders is the Power of Difference.  Whenever we separate ourselves out into similar groups with the same views and the same perspectives – a place where we are often comfortable because no-one argues with us – we make ourselves vulnerable and weak, because eventually something will happen to challenge our very narrow, small and similar view and we will find ourselves without evidence or support and without friends and allies.  History has shown this over and over, isolated populations have over the years been decimated when new people arrive with no understanding, bringing disease and catastrophe.  By learning about, understanding and celebrating our differences – we make ourselves stronger, more inclusive, more resilient and robust with many voices being heard.  By listening to many voices and hearing their message, we create better shared understandings and are better able to find solutions, create inventions, be innovative, positive and ultimately more sustainable and successful.

First Nations people, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, are the traditional custodians of this land and have been for thousands of years.  The First Nations people have lived in harmony with the land for longest time.  They are actually the oldest civilisation with a consistent connect to land in the world.  Older the Egyptians and the pyramids, older the Greeks and the Romans, older than the Vikings and the indigenous people of Africa and the Americas.  Everyone else in our community today is part of the multicultural society and our First Nations people are our ever gracious hosts which is why we do the acknowledgement and the welcome to country from Aunty Roma today.  So whilst Aunty and David and some of our staff are sharing their culture today – they do that as traditional custodians, the rest of our festival celebrates the culture of all of us who have joined here in Australia in the last two and a bit centuries.

Today we have many community groups and members of our college proudly and generously sharing what is very special to them, part of what defines and identifies who they are.

Today is about discovering our Difference, it is about finding out more about each other and about the aspects of our culture that define who we are.  Knowledge is power but it also brings harmony.  We are rarely frightened of what we know and understand; we are rarely rude to each other when we know and understand.  Understanding leads to respect and honour.

Today is about celebrating our Difference by engaging with each other – listening and trying to understand what cultural practices we engage with and why those practices are important to each of us.  Thank people for sharing their culture with you today.

Make it your goal today to leave school knowing three more things about someone else’s culture.  Speak to people on the stalls, ask questions be open-minded, curious learners with a desire to understand.

We hope to be an International Baccalaureate World School P-12 in 2023 – knowing and valuing each other, where we come from, who we are and understanding what is important to each of us is the underpinning of being an international school.  We have to live that value of respect.

Our Multicultural Festival would not be the wonderful celebration that it is without the amazing volunteers from our community who reach out to support us and ensure that our students’ cultures are celebrated and recognized.  As always, it was a fabulous day.  Thanks to Mrs Cox, Mr Butterworth, Mrs Ellis and the Junior Secondary Leadership Team for all your hard work. Thanks to the staff including Mrs Sharma, our First Nations staff Mr Swanson, Ms Enoch, Mrs Jackson and wonderful students at CCC who were on board with beautiful stalls and providing assistance.  Many thanks also to:

Mrs Tseng and the Taiwanese community who are so supportive every year.

Queensland Taiwan Centre in Sunnybank

David Yang & May Yang and the Teachers Branch of Buddhas Light Association QLD

CCC Languages Department

Isis Ross

Amy Yang

Rosemary Wilson

Mike Butler

Leanne Duong

Zarah Cavallaro

Yalda Yaqubi

Gurnaaj Pannu

Seema Garg Kaushik

Louise O’Brien

Jackie Wong

Raina Hong

I know I have missed people but thank you all of you for your commitment to our multicultural community.

Have a great day today, try to stay dry and enjoy our celebration of the Power of Difference.

On Monday 28 November we celebrated the achievements of our Apex Academic Program students as they showcased highlights of their learning from the year. We also acknowledged our Year 9 students who graduated from Apex, having spent the last 3 years learning together. This is quite a milestone in your academic journey and we are very proud of them. 

Hospitality Excellence has continued to thrive in Term 4! Even though our students finished school officially in Week 8, many of them have continued with us right up until the end continuing to support the CCC Multicultural Festival and taking advantage of work experience opportunities.

Industry Connect

We visited Darling & Co for a site tour and lunch. It was interesting to see just how many different facilities they offer, and how adaptable they can be for game days across the road at Suncorp Stadium. We took the opportunity to enjoy a meal together where some students tried new dishes for the first time, the Spicy Cauliflower Bites with chilli Caramel and Wakame quickly became the crowd favourite!

On the way back to school, we popped into The Brewing Catchment. We spent time with their Head Brewery who explained the brewing process to us. Our trip was perfectly timed as we were given the opportunity to taste the start of the brew process before there is any alcohol involved – where barley and water are brought together at a specific temperature to draw the sugar out of the barley.

We are very excited to announce that Darling & Co will be coming on board as our program sponsor in 2023. We are looking forward to working with them on our journey to become industry professionals.

Work Experience

Year 10 Cookery and all Year 11 & 12 students in the program, were given the opportunity to complete work experience in their chosen pathway, Cookery or Food & Beverage, with The W Hotel Brisbane, The Star Gold Coast or The Star: Brisbane Treasury. It was a great success and we are looking forward to developing our training relationship with Industry further next year, particularly for our Food & Beverage students.

Industry Employment

We are very pleased to announce that all of our Cookery Excellence students have attained employment in industry this year through our program:

• Year 12: Montana Pearce has accepted a full time Chef’s Apprenticeship with The Star Gold Coast now that she has graduated.
• Year 11: Connor Johnson has gained employment with First Nation’s Catering Company, Three Little Birds.

Lachlan Peebles is about to become the very first School Based Chef’s Apprentice at The W Hotel Brisbane.

• Year 10: Matthew Meadows has gained employment with Algester Sports Club & Noah Schepis-Wells is about to commence a School Based Chef’s Apprenticeships with The Star: Brisbane Treasury.

Hospitality Excellence – Term 4 Showcase

We invited the student’s families back to 3 Trees so they could share in the student’s journey this year and experience their growth at a function the students prepared and served themselves. We were fortunate to have Vanessa Campbell from the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre and CCC teacher Natasha Cameron take over the kitchen for the night to support the students as well. It was a fabulous night of celebration for all of our students with their families, over a two course meal, having also enjoyed canapes and mocktails on arrival.

We would like to acknowledge the efforts of all of the Hospitality Excellence students this year. It was the first time we have offered this program as an extension of the Hospitality VET Course, and we have watched them develop their skills and knowledge across the year. We can’t wait to see what our Year 10s & 11s do next!

Congratulations to our 2022 Year 12 Graduates as they embark on their new journeys. We have watched them grow, and develop into true industry professionals over the last three years: Kiara Bear, Oriana Elder, Zara Hashash, Natasha Hinkley, Montana Pearce & Angel Scott.

2023 Applications are now open!

We invite all Year 10 -12 CCC Hospitality student to apply if they are genuinely interested in exploring the industry further. Please contact the Hospitality Excellence Program Coordinator, Mrs Leah Cremen (lwell55@eq.edu.au), if you would like to find out more a bout the program.

Term 4 House points- CONGRATULATION COBAR!

Over the term, students have been earning ‘That’s Gold’ tokens for demonstrating the College Values of Respect, Responsibility, Resilience and Initiative. What a great achievement in Junior School as nearly 20,000 tokens were collected across the four houses in one term alone. In week 9, Cobar celebrated their success with a silent disco and a Just Dance experience.  With individual headsets, students had choice over the music they could hear and danced their hearts out in a disco lit room. This was followed by a session with Just Dance on the big screen. CCC students have certainly got the moves!

Our Year 12 Graduation Ceremony on Friday 17 November saw 170 Year 12 students finish their time at Calamvale Community College. A large number of students have been enrolled at the College for 13 years! It is always a wonderful moment seeing the photos of the Year 12s next to their corresponding Prep photos thirteen years earlier. 

Graduation marks a major transition in a young person’s life as they move to the next chapter, whether that is further study or work. Our ceremony this year celebrated the great achievements of our students, as well reminiscing on some of the key parts of the cohort’s educational journey together. A full house of families, staff and students were able to participate in this wonderful event. 

We wish our Year 12s all the best in their future endeavours. We will miss them, but equally we celebrate their success as they navigate the next chapter of their lives. 

Our annual Year 8 camp took place on Monday 21 – Wednesday 23 November in the Mapleton rainforest, located in the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast. Students thoroughly enjoyed the experience of being away with their friends and participating in a fantastic program of activities including raft-building, canoeing, rope courses, giant swing, abseiling, archery and group challenges. Students and staff retuned back to the College weary from the fun and having made lots of new memories to be treasured for years to come. 

Congratulations to our students who have distinguished themselves through their performance in the Arts program across Visual, Arts and New Media, Drama, Music and Dance or through their service to the programs.  Our Arts culture is rich and vibrant within Calamvale with students’ work being acknowledged beyond the boundaries of our College.  We are very grateful for the hours and hours our teachers have willingly dedicated to our students.  Our young people arrive brimming with talent but it is the teachers who craft and mould that with the students into the outstanding performances and achievements that you enjoy.  I know that our teachers see this work as not only their passion but an honour and they delight in our students’ success beyond the school years.   Thank you to our families who are so supportive of our students and our program.

On Thursday 24 November, CCC held its official Year 10 and 11 Academic Awards Ceremony for 2022. This was a wonderful night of celebration, and acknowledgement of the high academic benchmarks achieved by our students across the year. The ceremony awarded Merit, Academic and Subject Prize Awards, as well as a group of special awards. Recipients of these Special Awards were Kearen Huang (IB Diploma Year 11 Student of the Year Award); Astrid Messerschmidt (Griffith University 2022 Spark Award); Jordan Anthony (Australian Defence Force Long Tan Leadership Award); and Thyambika Maniraj (Australian Defence Force Long Tan Future Innovators in STEM Award). A big thank you to our hosts for the night, Year 11 Leaders Tony Li and Sophiea Loquias (2023 College Captains). And big thank you also goes to Mr Simmons and the Taiko Drummers, Ksenya Khapova, Wyatt Kim  and Phileas Huang who all contributed to the running of the ceremony with beautiful musical performances.

Theory of Knowledge (TOK)

We like to celebrate our student learning and take as many opportunities as we can to invite our community into our learning spaces.

Our Year 11s had their end of year TOK Exhibition, showcasing artefacts that had special meaning to them and how this relates to a knowledge question or how we can make meaning from these objects.  The students were articulate in both their written and verbal explanations.

Creativity | Activity | Service (CAS)

As part of the IBDP Core, students are required to complete ongoing CAS experiences and projects.  This links into the strengths and interests of students, encouraging them to focus on balance, but also emphasises a high level of inquiry, risk-taking and reflection to do goal setting, project planning, communicating in groups and altruistic work to serve others.

This exhibition had all of the Year 10, 11 and 12 projects on display and was so good to see the breadth of activities both within and outside of the College.

What a superb end to the year for our APEX students!

Year 9s have had the opportunity to visit QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute and engage in some laboratory experiments based on biological disease transmission.  They were able to conduct experiments, collect and analyse data and gain an insight into the career of a medical scientist.  For the second half of the day, they visited the neighbouring University of Queensland Integrated Pathology Centre.  Here they had the opportunity to observe and question the changes that occur to human organs through disease, infection and lifestyle choices.  A very eye-opening experience and had so many links to curriculum and greater wellbeing.

In Week 9, the annual APEX Showcase for students and families made student learning and assessment visible for all.  There was a nice demonstration of inquiry learning and the inter-disciplinary nature of the curriculum.

This was followed by the graduation ceremony for the Year 9s as they celebrated the end of their APEX journey and leap into their senior schooling pathways.

We thank and commend them for their energy, role modelling and balanced approach to their studies and school life.

CCC farewelled our Year 6 2022 cohort at SunPAC last week. It was a wonderful evening celebrating the achievements of all our students throughout the year. Students performed their graduation dance to the song, ‘Roar’ by Katy Perry for the parents and families in attendance. It was wonderful to see over 300 people come and support the students as they received their graduation certificate.  We are so proud of our students and we wish them all the best as they move to Secondary School in 2023.

“Sport mirrors how an individual can play the game of school and life.”

Welcome to the Wolves Sports Awards Night for 2022. With Mr Brenton Male (Director of Sport) at the helm, 2022 was always going to see some tremendous sporting success on the court and on the field! We only felt it appropriate to acknowledge these teams, players and coaches with an equally wonderful Sports Awards Ceremony. The audience was dazzled with a video highlight presentation of the year that was. Congratulations to all of our championship teams across the sports of Netball, Futsal, Volleyball and Basketball; All-School gold medal winners; District reps; Regional Reps and State Reps. We were fortunate enough to have Australian Indoor and Beach Volleyballer Phoebe Bell in attendance to hand out our Special Awards. Special congratulations to JS MVP Jeremiah Tafa; JS Sport Coordinator’s Award Ava Watkins Rameka; SS Squad MVPs and Cross-Country Awards Sione Veamatahau, Isannah Loquias, Alysha Kelly, Keeran Kinahan, Krystal Anthony, Jordan Anthony, Bodhana Harrision, and Nate Argent

JS Coach of the Year – Shian-I Chang

SS Coach of the Year – Mr Bunn and Mr Schwarzbauer

What successful year our students have had in the Summit program – there has been great progress made, a few challenges absorbed and lots of learning.  Many thanks to Mrs Sander, Mr Watson, Mrs Hebert and Mr Ueta-Siteine (Mr Whitney) whose dedication to our students has made all the difference.  Thank you to our parents for your engagement and your support, we are already looking forward to 2023.