Principal’s PenTalk Don’t Text

On Monday, October 28, The West Australian newspaper ran a front page article entitled “Talk

Don’t Text”, about how several prestigious schools in Perth have banned their students from using

mobile phones during school hours.

The basis for their position on this matter, which is in line with ours, is a concern that students are

losing the art of conversation. These schools found that during breaks, students would text one

another instead of having face to face conversations, and as a result, social skill development was

inhibited. Misunderstandings are also more likely to occur from a message, than from hearing it

directly from the mouth of another.

At the College, it has been our stance for some time to prohibit the use of mobiles on school

grounds. We acknowledge the place of such technologies within our lives, but the overuse of

texting and emailing can result in students losing the ability to read body language and perceive

the nuances conveyed by people’s reactions. This skill is very necessary to be able to engage

with people face to face, but it takes practice to learn how to read what others may be feeling.

The school yard provides an excellent canvas for this learning to occur.

As adults, we too can lose the joys of engaging with one another in a real sense from behind the

screen of our phone, and it is a challenge for us as well.

The Bible states that spending time with others is a pathway for growth.

Proverbs 27:17 ‘As Iron sharpens iron, one man sharpens another’.

In other words, spend time with people, bump ideas and encouragement off one another, and

the result is that you will grow. But it takes connection to do that. Iron cannot sharpen iron at a

distance.

So, I want to encourage us all to think about the Headline: ‘Talk, don’t text’.

this issueUni Camp

Market Day

Orientat ion Day

PO Box 775Grace CourtBusselton WA 6280p: (08) 9754 1144f: (08) 9754 1142e: admin@cornerstone.wa.edu.auw: www.cornerstone.wa.edu.au www.cornerstone.wa.edu.au

DATES to REMEMBER

November 4 - Nov 22WACE Exams

November 29Primary Market Day

November 21-26Year 9 & Year 10 exams

Tuesday December 3ELC Concert

Wednesday December 4Secondary Graduation and Awards Night

Thursday December 5Primary Graduation and Awards Night

TERM 4 DATESTues Oct 15 to Thurs Dec 12

Youth Groups:CORE Youth - Years 7 to 9Friday night 7-9pm at Cornerstone0418 833 994 Julian/Karlien

Xtol Youth Group - Year 10 +Friday nights 7-9pm$4 entryBusso Bretho campsite0417 937 238 Margie0418 216 087 Graeme

15I S S U E

1 2 t h N o v e m b e r 2 0 1 3

NEWSLETTER

A M i n i s t r y o f

C o r n e r s t o n e C h u r c h

o f C h r i s t I n c

w w w . c o r n e r s t o n e b u s s e l t o n . c o m

CORNERSTONE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE

Bruce

Market DayThe Primary School Market Day is scheduled for November 29th, 1-3pm. Parents and extended family members are welcome to attend at this annual fund-raising event that has proven to be extremely popular. Thousands of dollars have been raised in the past and used to support some of the world’s most disadvantaged people. Whilst it is a curriculum exercise, it benefits the Compassion charity.Students are busy preparing items to sell, and involved in the full marketing process. A great learning opportunity with a great outcome for the poor. Come and join us on this special day.

Orientation DayOrientation Day is fast approaching when students who will join us in 2014 will meet with the classmates they will be studying with next year.Students in Year 2 to Year 12 in 2014, will have their Orientation Day on Wednesday 20th. This should not impact parents at all, but this is notification of the event occurring.

Transition DayThe Early Learning students will spend part of Wednesday the 27th in their new 2014 classrooms in a period of transition. This will occur from 9:00am to 10:30am.

Uni CampJust over a week ago, many of our Year 11 students spent three days in Perth investigating the opportunities that a number of the Universities offer. The aim of staff taking students on this camp was to give them time to see the various campuses, explore accommodation

options and, in some instances, participate in activities on site.An extremely valuable exercise that has provided additional motivation and a sense of excitement about the opportunities they face after their secondary education concludes.

AbsenteesWe would like to reinforce to parents and guardians of the need to contact the school administration in the event of your child’s absence.It appears that often, advice is given to the teacher but the information does not get relayed to the school office. Would parents please ensure that the administration is advised, rather than relying on teachers to feed the information through. If the absence is pre-planned, then a note before the event would be very much appreciated. It is a legal requirement for us to be aware of the location of students, and to do that, we need to know if they are in your care. Please call or e-mail the office before 9:30am with any absence. Thanks in anticipation.

Uniform MattersWould parents please remember to have your uniform orders for 2013 in by the end of November. After this date, there is a

chance that items may not be available and ready for the commencement of the 2014 school year.Also, a reminder to enter your second-hand items onto the Sustainable Schools Website http://www.sustainableschoolshop.com.au as parents are waiting to purchase your used clothing via this site. This is also a place to source pre-loved uniform items if you are in the market for them. The uniform shop will discontinue selling second-hand pieces shortly, and this website is the pathway to acquire them.

Visitors to the SchoolWhen visiting the College during school hours, it is really important that you sign in and out at the front office for a number of reasons.Firstly, we have duty of care to our students – your children - to know who is on school grounds and why. Also, in the case of an Emergency Evacuation, we need to be able to account for everyone on the school premises at the time.Even if it is just to drop in lunch, or to deliver a short message, please do not enter the school from any other direction than through the front office.Anyone seen without a visitors badge on campus will be reported by teachers. Lost PropertyThe lost property box is filled to overflowing. Please ensure your children’s clothing is labelled which will ensure items are returned to their rightful owners. Additionally, if you have clothing missing, come and look through the lost property box and see if there are items that may belong to your children.

Cleaver’s Clangers

Student: Teacher, I can’t solve this problem.Teacher: Any five year old should be able to solve this one.Student: No wonder I can’t do it then, I’m nearly ten!

What did the computer do at lunchtime?Had a byte!

‘...In this kind of hard work we must help the weak,

remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It

is more blessed to give than receive’.

Acts 20:35

How do you study for a test or exam?Part 1:

A common form of assessment in secondary school is a test or examination. Unfortunately many students don’t really know how to study properly for a test. They just read their notes over and over and hope that the content will stay in their head. This is the slowest and most ineffective way of studying. Some students manage to get through on natural ability for awhile, but in the end it is necessary to learn how to study effectively so students can achieve their personal best in an as efficient manner as possible.

So here’s how you study for a test.

Make study notes.Learn the notes by testing yourself on them.Do lots of questions as practice.

Part 2:

Here’s the longer version of how to approach your study for a test:1. FIND OUT EVERYTHING YOU CANFind out everything you can about the test. What topics are being tested, what types of questions there will be (multiple choice, short answer), how long the test will be, how marks are allocated.

2. ASK IF UNSUREIf you are not sure what you need to study or how to study make sure you ask your teacher until you are clear. If the opportunity arises, then ask in class, otherwise ask your teacher if you can see them before or after class sometime. If you are still not clear, ask your parents to give your teacher a call to clarify things.

3. MAKE SOME STUDY NOTES/SUMMARIESAs you begin to study for a test or exam one of the first things you need to do is to make some study notes or summaries. Review the section on Summarising on www.studyskillshandbook.com.au to learn more about making study notes.

The reasons we make study notes/summaries are: • When you just read through things they don’t stay in your head very well. Even if you read through them over and over this is a very inefficient way of studying.• By thinking about what is important and how you can write it down in a condensed form the info starts to move into your memory.• This also helps you ensure you understand what you need to learn. When you start trying to reduce information to the key points you will quickly discover when you don’t understand something.• Sometimes the information will be spread out over many many pages in your textbook and also be spread across a number of different places like sheets and exercise books or computers. Making summaries allows us to

Study Tips from M

iss Needham

’s Desk

Exciting IT NewsThe College is currently in the process of installing optic-fibre cable which will deliver excellent internet speeds across the school in 2014.In addition to this, Cornerstone will be implementing a campus wide wireless system that will be ready to go by the start of Term 2. We will also begin to seriously investigate the implementation of a one-to-one computer device initiative that we will aim to have delivered as soon as the appropriate research has been conducted. We expect this to be within a twelve month period. It’s an exciting time of development in the IT arena, and you can expect to hear a whole lot more in the new year.

Did you know this about our Middle School?Were you aware that our Middle School Program is being sought after by schools from across the state? At at recent state teaching conference (CSA), a team from the College were asked to present a workshop on what we are doing at Cornerstone, which had teachers and leaders from schools in our independent network attending. Following that, a school from Perth sent a delegation down to spend time with Jill Wright and Andrew Cleaver to learn how to implement a program like ours.So, spread the word.....Cornerstone is at the cutting edge of this transition program, and it has so many benefits in the nurture and academic arenas. It’s worth celebrating!

www.cornerstone.wa.edu.auwww.cornerstone.wa.edu.au

Preparations for 2014During last week, new classrooms were put on site for preparations for 2014. Three new rooms are now situated on the Western end of the oval. This is t o house students who will join us next year. Growth i s continuing at an amazing rate.

reduce the amount of pages we have to keep reading over by bringing everything we need to learn together in one place in an organised and easier to learn way.

4. ASK FOR HELPIf you came across things you did not understand or were not sure of when making your notes ask your teacher or parents for help. You may also like to show your teacher and parents the notes you have made to get some feedback from them about what you could do to improve.

5. LEARN THE NOTESThe next stage is to start getting the information into your memory. Don’t just read the notes. Don’t just read the notes. Don’t just read the notes. Don’t just read the notes. Don’t just read the notes. Don’t just read the notes. Don’t just read the notes. Don’t just read the notes. Don’t just read the notes. Don’t just read the notes. Don’t just read the notes. Don’t just read the notes. Don’t just read the notes. Do you get what we are saying here???? The biggest mistake students make is they think study is just reading things over and over until hopefully some of it sticks in their head. The right way to study involves extra steps after reading. What you do is read a section of your notes then TEST YOURSELF on what you have just read. You could test yourself in the following ways:• Seeing what you can write down without looking at the notes and then checking to see which bits you got wrong. • Seeing what you can say out loud without looking at the notes and then checking to see which bits you got wrong.• Getting someone to test you.• Making flashcards on things you need to learn in your notes and testing yourself on these. • Writing a list of questions as you read your notes then seeing if you can answer them after you finish reading.• Remember this great technique: look, say, cover, write, check!

6. REPEAT STEP 5 OVER AND OVER AND OVERRepetition is the key to remembering things. So test yourself over and over and over on your notes until you find that you are starting to remember the information easily. This is why it is a good idea to start early and spread your study out over all the time before the test.

7. DO LOTS OF PRACTICEThis means you need to do as many different questions as possible to see if you can apply what you have learnt to different types of questions. Ways you can practise:• Your teacher may give you a revision sheet or a past examination paper to do.• You could go back in your textbook and pick out questions to re-do, particularly ones you found hard.• Your school library may have another textbook in a different brand or a study guide for that subject and you can do the questions in that book.• You can re-do any exercises or activities you did during the topic. • Some schools will put extra revision activities up on the school website for you to download.• Some textbooks come with a CD with extra questions or a supporting website with extra questions.• If you feel you have nothing to practise from (ie no questions to do to see if you understand the work) ask your teacher, or even ask your parent to buy you a book you could use to do questions from - most of the big bookshops will have an educational section.

Review the section on Active Studying on www.studyskillshandbook.com.au to find out other ways of learning and practising.

8. ASK FOR HELPThroughout this whole process, anytime there is something you don’t understand you must ask for help. Don’t ignore any problems, or let them build up, see your teacher and ask about them as quickly as possible.

Our school’s subscription details to www.studyskillshandbook.com.au are - Username: cornerstonePassword: 157results

Study Tips from M

iss Needham

’s Desk (continued)