Bentley Park College eNewsletter

ACADEMIA

Under Eights Day

The weather was perfect on Tuesday morning when our community celebrated the importance of the early years through our Under Eights Day, our biggest and highest attended to date.

The event is held is very high regard in our community, also playing a significant role as part of our Kindergarten to Prep transition program.

Prep to Year 2 students and children from eight local kindergartens had a ball, supported by over thirty Year 6 mentors and seven external organisations. Early years staff from Regional Office and parents/carers also attended.

Activities were student centred, highly engaging and well-organised, with students making many positive memories. We thank all the teachers and staff involved in planning and running activities, as well as our special guests PCYC Outside School Hours Care, the Benevolent Society, Deadly Choices, the Australian Army, the Queensland Police and Queensland Fire and Rescue.

Thank you also to the P&C Association for the sausage sizzle, and our own Yaburu Bulmba staff and students for their engaging activities, and our terrific Year 6 student mentors.

Year 1 English

Year 1 are learning about information reports in English this term. To provide information for their reports, Ms Coleen from the Cairns Turtle Rehabilitation Centre come into their classrooms to share facts about turtles and rehabilitation stories from around Cairns.

Students learnt about the threats that baby turtles face and the danger of plastic to adult turtles. They also learnt an amazing fact about the turtle life cycle and how the temperature of the sand where the eggs were laid determines the gender of the baby turtles. The sand in Cairns is very hot which means there are only girl turtles hatching.

Ms Coleen bought a preserved turtle along for the students to touch and interact with. The students loved asking questions about the turtle and feeling what the shell felt like. The students also engaged in an activity where they cleaned up rubbish to help keep plastic from going into the ocean.

Now the Year 1s will organise all the facts they have learned and create their own information reports. Thank you, Ms Coleen, for coming and sharing all your knowledge about turtles and giving the Year 1s an interesting life experience to write their reports on.

Book Fair

There were nearly $3000 of sales for our first Scholastic Book Fair of the year! Thank you for your support!! The sales earned the College $780 worth of books for our Primary Library. Thanks to Mrs Hayley Donnelly and Ms Judy Flynn for running Book Fairs each year.

Year 7 Maths Challenge Day

Alex, Mylie and Charlotte from Year 7 represented BPC at the QAMT Year 7 Maths Challenge day hosted by St Mary’s Catholic College this week, working with students from across the Cairns region.

The event’s activities were led by guest presenters Alex Blunt from Mathspace, Nick Brooking from Peace Lutheran College, Marianne Shliahov from St Mary’s Catholic College, and Peter Fox from T3 Australia.

Aquatic Practices

Year 11 and 12 Aquatic Practices students had a fascinating experience watching a sawfish dissection run by the team from Sharks and Rays Australia. It was a rare chance to see one of the ocean’s most unique and endangered creatures up close.

The session gave students a better understanding of sawfish anatomy and the important role these animals play in marine ecosystems, while also highlighting the need for conservation and protecting our oceans.

Cairns #GOHealth Careers Expo

Year 12 Assistant in Nursing student, Imogen, won the lucky door prize of a Samsung Galaxy Active4 Pro5G Tablet at the #GoHealth Careers Expo recently.

The event was a collaboration between the Cairns Regional Jobs Committee, CheckUP, Health Gateway to Industry Schools Program and health organisations across Far North Queensland.

Designed as an industry immersive event, it connected students with industry leaders and helped them to learn more about careers in acute healthcare, wellness health, allied health and social services across both private and government agencies.

We thank the organisers for this engaging event, and sponsors for donating the fantastic prize!

Imogen and her prize

Health students complete P.A.R.T.Y Program

Our Assistant in Nursing and Certificate III Health Services Assistance (HLT33115) students completed the P.A.R.T.Y Program in Week 3 at the Cairns Hospital.

The Prevent Alcohol and Risk-related Trauma in Youth (P.A.R.T.Y) Program is an injury prevention initiative that uses reality-based education to educate young people about the risks, choices and consequences of risk-taking behaviour.

Students were walked through the path of a trauma patient as they are rushed through the trauma room doors, into surgery, rehab and, if lucky enough, recovery. They heard from paramedics, nurses, rehabilitation professionals, and injury ambassadors, and were able to experience a simulated trauma.

The P.A.R.T.Y Program allowed students to put all the theory they have learned in our Gateways to Health Program at our Medical Training Precinct into practice.