No. 25 Term 3 - Week 2 Newsletter, 2024
From the Principal
Welcome Back for Term 3
Welcome back to Semester 2 to all our parents, students and community members. For those that started with us this term (6 new families), I hope you feel welcome and supported here at BCHS. I hope those who were able to have time off over the break had a restful experience and join us renewed for an exciting Semester 2. During our very first week back we celebrated NAIDOC Week with our First Nations Emerging Leaders leading the way. The ceremony on the Wednesday was a wonderful opportunity for education and celebration.
CATHOLIC EDUCATION WEEK
Next week we celebrate Catholic Education Week from 21 – 27 July. This is an opportunity to shine a spotlight on Catholic Education as communities of faith, hope and love.
The Catholic Education Week 2024 theme is " Communities of Faith, Hope and Love".
There will be a special Catholic Education Week Mass on Tuesday, 23 July, 2024 at the Cathedral in Townsville. Casey Calligaro (Year 12 Deus Caritas Est Awardee) and the Year 10 Student Representative Council members will be accompanying Mrs Dalle Cort and myself to this significant event.
Catholic education strives to make a difference in the lives of those in our schools and in the wider community by challenging young people to live out the message of Jesus and to reach their full potential as compassionate, contributing, life-giving members of society.
Celebrating 50 Years of BCHS - Weekend Celebrations
The planning is in the final stages for our enormous weekend of celebrating 50 years of BCHS. We have three events planned - come to one OR come to all. Friday Night will be a free ticketed event; Saturday Night will be a cost ticketed event and Sunday Morning, our Anniversary Mass.
Tickets for the Anniversary Gala Dinner are available at the Burdekin Theatre.
BCHS Debutante Ball
The annual BCHS Debutante Ball is being held this year on Saturday 20th July at the Burdekin Memorial Hall. I would like to wish our Year 11 Debutantes and their partners all the very best and have a wonderful evening.
Yours in Christ
Lorraine Wolffe
Principal
From the Assistant Principal - Pastoral
RACQ Docudrama Program
Year 11 students completed the RACQ Docudrama road safety program on Wednesday 19 June. The program educated our young drivers and passengers about the ‘Fatal Five’ risk factors (drink and drug driving, fatigue, not wearing a seatbelt, speeding and distraction); which are the leading causes of incidents and crashes on our roads. Several proactive strategies were discussed and explored. Students were encouraged to use these strategies if, and when, they find themselves in a potentially dangerous driving situation. For more information on the RACQ programs, please visit: https://www.racq.com.au/about-us/community/educational-programs/secondary-school-road-safety-program#overview
Semester One Rewards Day
Students were treated to an extended lunch on Tuesday 18 June as part of our Rewards Day initiative within our Pastoral Care and Wellbeing Framework. Congratulations and thank you to our students who met our high expectations consistently during the first semester. We hope our students enjoyed their pizza, coke and extra-long lunch break!
Year 11 Leadership Timeline
The 2025 School Leadership process is currently underway. Students were briefed on the leadership positions on offer, the application process and timeline during their Leadership Days in week 9. Self-nominations for the 2025 Student Leadership positions closed on Friday 12 July and we are currently seeking preferences from students on staff based on the self-nominations. Shortlisting and interviews will occur on Monday 29 July before a decision on our 2025 Student Leaders is made and then announced by the end of the term.
Year 11 Leadership Camp
Deb Ball
The BCHS 2024 Debutante Ball will be held this Saturday 20 July. Our Debutante Ball Committee has generously given up countless hours to make this event a success for our school. Thank you to Melissah Lammon, Christy Pirrone, Jade Bywaters and Sandra Reents. Our choreographers this year have also generously donated many hours to the ball – thank you to past students Lorissa Rennie and Amaya Castrejana. There is a long list of volunteers from our BCHS community who are assisting on the night; a sincere ‘thank you’ in advance to those giving their time so generously for our school and students. It is very special that the BCHS Debutante Ball tradition still lives on. As a bit of history, Leah Burke, Desley Hyne, Ann Stockham and Christine Thomas were the first year 12 cohort from BCHS to make their debut in Home Hill on July 10th 1981.
Marist Charism Awards
At our most recent whole school assembly on Wednesday, Pastoral Leaders acknowledged students who have been embracing their year level Marist Charism. Congratulations students!
Start of Term Reminders
I want to remind our students and families that upon returning to school after the two-week break that each term is a fresh start. On assembly this week, students were encouraged to set goals for the term for all aspects of their life including academic and pastoral. Specifically in the pastoral space, pastoral processes are reset each term including RTP, Personal Mobile Device (PMD) and uniform infringement counts for example. Regarding uniforms, any hairstyles, nails, piercings, etc that did not meet our school expectations since the beginning of the term have incurred uniform infringements since the first day of school. I remind families that for the third and subsequent uniform infringements in a term, respect room detentions are issued. The most up-to-date Uniform Policy can be found within our 2024 Pastoral Care and Wellbeing Framework accessible on our website.
Chiara Guy
Assistant to the Principal - Pastoral Care
From the Assistant Principal - Religion
FOUNDERS DAY
Next Friday 26th July St Francis and St Colman’s will be at BCHS to celebrate Founders’ Day and Catholic Education Week. The theme for Catholic Education week this year is Communities of Faith, Hope and Love. The day will start with a welcome Mass, lunch will be provided and then we will go into our three rotations of activities. Sports Uniform is the dress code for the day. Our year 10 and 11 students will be group leaders and leading activities in the rotations and the year 7 – 9 students will participate in rotations.
50 Year Anniversary and Youth Mass
This term our Youth Mass is a very special one as it is the final event for the BCHS 50th Year Anniversary festivities. Students, Families and Staff are all invited to be part of this celebration. The Mass is at 9 am Sunday 18th August in the Marcellin Centre.
Antonetta Della Cort
Assistant to the Principal - Religious Education
Enrol for 2025
We have commenced our interviews for enrolments for 2025. It has been wonderful to meet our potential new students. If you would like to enrol in 2025, especially Year 7, please enrol now.
Online applications can be completed here:
When you have reviewed the information on this page, you can start an online application. To enquire about vacancies in other year levels, please contact our School Office 47832366.
From the Religion Department
Year 9 Liturgy
At the end of last term, on Wednesday 19th June our Year 9 students held a liturgy during their respective Religion classes in the Chapel. The theme of both liturgies was Simplicity – this is the Marist Characteristic focus for Year 9 students in 2024.
Building on our semester learning of Foundational Beliefs and Biblical Analysis, students were handed the reins in planning and preparing for the liturgies. Both classes did a beautiful job in selecting music, prayers, readings and reflection activities to help focus on what simplicity means to them. It was a beautiful way to end the term and a wonderful opportunity to come together in prayer in our beautiful Chapel.
Thank you to Mrs Dalle Cort for joining us for both class liturgies and Mrs Dobbins for taking photos.
We look forward to providing more opportunities in Semester 2 for students to participate in the prayer life of our school.
Ms Timms and Miss Scott
9.1 and 9.2 Religion Teachers
From the Mathematics Department
Mathematics Camp
At the beginning of Week 2, six of our high-achieving Year 10 students had the remarkable opportunity to attend the Queensland Association of Maths Teachers Maths Camp. This prestigious event, held annually, brings together top mathematics students from across the Townsville region to explore and engage in advanced mathematical tasks not typically available in the regular classroom setting.
Throughout the camp, our students participated in a variety of challenging and enriching mathematical activities. These tasks were designed to stretch their problem-solving abilities and deepen their understanding of complex mathematical concepts. Working alongside peers from other schools, our students were able to collaborate, share ideas, and learn from each other in a dynamic and supportive environment.
Maths Camp is not just about solving problems; it's about fostering a love for mathematics and developing critical thinking skills that will serve students well beyond their school years. Our students returned from the camp inspired and motivated, bringing back new strategies and insights that will undoubtedly enhance their mathematical journey.
Brenda Rountree
Academic Leader - Mathematics
Year 7 News
FAMILY SPIRIT in action
Year 7 students have raised a whopping $953.50 for childhood cancer!
These funds, plus an additional $1000.00 received from Queensland Country Bank in 2023, have been donated to the 2024 Townsville to Cairns Bike Ride.
Thank you to our Year 7 Families, Queensland Country Bank and Burdekin Distributors (for donating bags for the lollies).
From the Technologies Department
10 Textile Technologies 
The situation: Globally, we throw away an amazing 25 million kilos of textiles each year. So locally, what can we do to make a difference? The brief: To design and make a quality textile bag from throwaway / thrifted denim 
After understanding the situation, students were tasked with designing, producing and evaluating a bag useful to them. Using the Technology Practice students investigated, ideated, produced and evaluated useful outcomes for their lifestyle. This was a rewarding experience as students put into practise their sewing skills while gaining an understanding of the impact our consumerism has on or environment and ways to creatively reduce our impact on our environment.
Student reflections and recommendations -“Overall, I believe this task is suitable for Year 10 FTT students, as they are designing and creating something made from scrap used items and turning it into something that they are able to use in various ways. This gives them the opportunity to create something they like and is a task that has minimal to no costs. As a beginner sewer, the technology practices in this task were easily picked up, learning new skills and techniques.”
“This design task for Year 10 FTT students is suitable as it makes our minds process and work to create a professional article and get the idea of recycling items instead of throwing them away. The technology practices made this task easy as they were very useful when getting an idea on how to construct the bag and make it more efficient.”
“The suitability of this design task for year 10 FTT students was a very interesting topic; it was interesting reading and discussing sweatshops and the reality behind all the big brand shops. I have found it is useful and easy using the technology practices as using the sewing machines will be beneficial in life and is also good to have the knowledge and understanding of textile production.”
Perfect Pie Bakehouse The design brief was to develop a unique and tasty pie sensation, and that is what our Year 9 Food Technologies students delivered. After investigating possible ideas, students planned, produced and packaged some amazing flavoursome pies. The hardest part was the “marking” of these tasty creations.
From the Music Department
VOCAL GROUPS (Replacing CHOIR in Semester 2)As part of the Instrumental Music program, we will be running multiple vocal groups instead of Choir in Semester 2. If students are interested in joining a vocal group, please contact the office for a permission form.
ROCK BAND schedule for Semester 2Students interested in joining a rock band, please see Mrs Lammas. A schedule will be released for lunch time rehearsals next week.
Career News
YEAR 10 CAREERS WEEK
At BCHS we offer a comprehensive career development and subject selection process in Year 10 to assist them with making decisions for Career Pathways. For the first week of term three Year 10s were with me for the week stepping through the Career Education Short Course. The Short Course in Career Education focuses on the development of knowledge, processes, skills, attributes and attitudes that will assist students to make informed decisions about their options to enable effective participation in their future study, working life and career.
Various engaging activities and excursions were organised to make this week meaningful for students. At the start of the week they heard from Heads of Departments about senior subjects. This was followed by Industry guest speakers who shared with students their career pathways journeys and discussed the 21st Century skills and attributes that are required in their field of work. Thank you to Wayne Di Bartolo -Tassel.
Julie Sexton - Talk HQ. Shane James & CJ Nolan -Wilmar and Anna Power -Queensland Health. What made this even more special is the fact that Wayne, Julie and CJ were all past students of BCHS.
Students ended Career Week with the option to participate in one of two off campus excursions. Those who are considering a Vocational Pathway did Industry Walk-Throughs at Brown & Hurley, Nutrien Ag Solutions, QMN, and Burdekin Productivity Services. Students on an Academic ATAR Pathway attended the JCU Open Day.
Industry Walkthroughs
JCU Expo visit
The next step for Year 10 students is the Senior Subject Selection Evening on Wednesday 31st July starting at 5:30 pm in the Marcellin Centre. The evening will commence with an overview of Senior Schooling. After this Students and Caregivers can talk to Heads of Departments and Senior Teachers about subjects. They will also be able to interact with the following exhibits: Australian Defence Force, James Cook University, ERGON, Wilmar, Busy at Work – Apprenticeship Network Provider, TAFE and Burdekin Shire Council.
Community News
Osborne State School: Outdoor Family Movie Night on July 20th!
Here are the event details:
Date: July 20th
Gates Open: 5:00 PM for dinner (hamburgers and hotdogs)
Movie Start: 6:00 PM for movie start
Location: Osborne State School Field
We will be showing "Trolls Band Together," a fun-filled adventure for all ages. Guests can enjoy a variety of delicious food and snacks, including slushies and popcorn. Early bird tickets are available for only $4, so be sure to grab them while they last! We encourage families to bring their blankets, pillows, and fold-up chairs to get comfortable on the field.