Maryanne Walsh - 18 August 2009
Congratulations CHSHS Toowoomba Flexischool – the second year in a row through to the State Education Showcase Awards. Flexi is one of 3 nominations from a field of 81 regional finalists in the Senior Phase of Learning section. Ultimate winners in this and other sections will be announced on October 29. Go Flexi!
How good was our Musical ‘High School Musical’! The preparation and commitment over so many months by so many staff and students was on show 30, 31 July and 1 August for all to see. Great crowds! Enthusiastic audiences! A massive team effort.
Well done to our Cross Cultural Captain year 12 student Derek Shi Cheng – on 17 August in Toowoomba Derek gave the welcome speech to all involved with the Q150 Steam Train epic journey. The train began its journey on 14 April from Roma street and since then has moved throughout the state in celebration of Queensland’s 150th anniversary. It is indeed an honour for Derek and our school to have been selected to deliver this welcome – and what a great job he did!
Facilities enhancement continues to spiral – with the announcement in Term 2 that we are the recipients, under the Federal Government Building Education Revolution, of a brand new Science/Languages building valued at 1.97 million dollars Project Managers have been on site. The building will be in place mid 2010.
Add to that our successful submission under the National School Pride [NSP] initiative which will yield $200000 and we have more Project Managers on site. This NSP funding will translate into a new classroom; full refurbishment of our pool amenities and paving, shade and seating outside our Library to create an outdoor classroom and ideal lunch area for our students. These enhancements will be in place by end 2009. An early thankyou to our year 12 students who have determined that their annual Senior Gift for which they fundraise throughout the year – their parting gesture back to the school – will be $2500 funding towards the landscaping of the abovementioned new Library area. A plaque will forever recognise their generosity. Thankyou also to our Student Council – a very active Student Council indeed – they have raised $7000 which, in term 4, will begin the cementing of the terraces leading down to our oval. This has been a long mentioned goal of staff and students at our school and it is just sensational to see it finally realised.
Congratulations to our tireless P and C President Tony McDonald – recently Tony was the recipient of the Technical Officer of the Year Engineering Excellence Award through the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia. Outstanding!
I commend to you our Teachers – over the past two and a half weeks I have had the pleasure of attending 13 separate student related functions and been aware of five others. They vary from Debating to Queensland School Volleyball Cup to Musical to….then there are Pedal Prix; Vicki Wilson Netball Cup; subject excursions; camps and the list goes on. Apart from the lunchtime; before school; after school rehearsals/trainings over a period of months most of such activities occur on weekends or night time. In so readily doing this our teachers understand and support the full gamut of student learning – both in and out of the classroom. Their goodwill and willingness to take time out of their own family lives to create such rich experiences for our young people is a big part of their own joy in teaching – to experience the satisfaction on a young face is job satisfaction personified. Not for a minute would any one of our teachers think twice about offering these opportunities. My mention here is to acknowledge how very lucky we are at Centenary Heights and our students, who are simply fantastic, are so very lucky.
Maryanne Walsh
Principal
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