Canterbury's AFL Superstars
Canterbury's AFL Superstars
Canterbury's own Ryden and Milan feature in the Queensland bid to host the AFL Grand Final at the GABBA.
Congratulations to our superstars, even the Premier calls them "Queensland's secret weapon"!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtftTCG3SVw
Spring Arts Festival
Spring Arts Festival
We are delighted to announce the dates of the Canterbury Spring Arts Festival in Term 4, featuring the talented students in Arts ensembles across the Junior and Secondary Schools.
Canterbury staff welcomed into Microsoft worldwide program
Canterbury staff welcomed into Microsoft worldwide program
Four Canterbury College teachers have been named Microsoft Educator Experts for 2020-2021.
Each year Microsoft selects educators from around the world to be part of their Innovative Educator Expert program (MIEE).
The program brings together teachers that are passionate about empowering students through the effective use of digital technologies.
Canterbury’s Director of Learning and Innovation, James Jenkins, has been part of this group for 3 years and has found it to be a great way to stay at the forefront of learning innovation and developments in the technology that the College uses for teaching and learning.
“The MIEE community is a global network of teachers that share ideas and learn from each other. The Australian branch is particularly dynamic and collegial, with members continually connected via a Microsoft Team. Each day there are conversations in this group about best practice and effective ways to leverage digital tools in the classroom,” Mr Jenkins said.
This year he is delighted to be joined in the 2020-2021 Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert program by 3 more Canterbury teachers: Mitchell Staples, Jess Traurig, and Hayden Turner.
Principal Daniel Walker was very happy with the Microsoft announcement.
“Having several MIEEs on staff is a great result for Canterbury and is indicative of the innovative attitude that our staff have to teaching and learning,” Mr Walker said.
“Being recognised as an MIEE is a testament to the great work they do at Canterbury in the Digital Innovation space.”
World’s Greatest Shave and Ponytail Project event
World’s Greatest Shave and Ponytail Project event
Eighteen Secondary School students and eight staff either got shaved, waxed or chopped, but all in the name of two great causes.
As a feature event during our Interhouse Athletics Carnival, the male students and staff had either their heads shaved or legs waxed for the World’s Greatest Shave, in support of the Leukemia Foundation, while the female students and staff supported the Queensland Cancer Council by chopping off their long hair in the Ponytail Project.
The students, from Years 8-12, all had very personal reasons for participating, many with close family, neighbours or friends being affected by, even dying, from cancer.
Year 12 students and Ponytail project leaders, Kyarna Bousen and Emily Meek had no hesitation to participate.
“It is only hair, it will grow back. As Social Justice Captain this year I felt it was a great initiative to lead and not much of a sacrifice for us to make at all,” Kyarna said, “I have a family history of cancer, I felt I had to do something.”
Emmerson Manning will miss her very long hair, but for her, finding out a close friend’s mum got a final stage cancer diagnosis recently was her drive to cut her hair. “I raised almost $1000 by asking my family and neighbours to donate,” the Year 9 student said.
“We can each of us change the world, one little action at a time,” said Year 11 student Anderson Som.
Director of Student Development, Mr Chris Nield, was the staff coordinator of the event, and he also volunteered to lose his trademark beard for the cause. He said initial discussions with the students saw them decide they would be able to raise $5000-$6000.
“Then we raised the goal to what we thought was a challenging $10,000, and now to have more than $17,000 raised, is just a fantastic outcome for our first major fundraiser event for the school,” Mr Nield said.
The chopped off ponytails are also not destined for the rubbish bin, with the students donating their hair to make wigs for cancer patients.
Canterbury goes Solar
Canterbury goes Solar
In the first substantial sustainability project to commence as part of the Strategic Direction 2020-2023, Canterbury earlier this year installed 366 kilowatt (kW) solar systems on multiple buildings across the campus.
Aiming for optimum clean energy production and bill savings, the College partnered with Planet Ark Power’s expert engineers to design and install solar panels across multiple roofs and electricity meters. Factors such as infrastructure, energy usage and current grid tariffs were considered to tailor an optimum solution for the College’s needs.
We will aim to reduce our reliance on grid supplied energy through the integration of clean renewable energy that is also, as Dan Walker explains, providing obvious environmental, educational and financial benefits.
We spend such a lot of time engendering values of social responsibility in our students, that to leave the thousands of square metres of rooftops unadorned with solar panels, would seem a lost opportunity.” Mr Walker said.
Whilst we know that our solar program has very practical economic and environmental benefits, our students knowing that we ‘walk the talk’ around sustainability is also fundamentally important.
The rooftop solar system is installed on A Block (Junior School), K Block (Secondary School Science), M Block (Arts) and the Trade Training Centre, and is expected to generate 525,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) per year.
This translates annually to:
- offsetting 420 tonnes of carbon dioxide
- taking 4071 cars off the road for a year
- planting 1397 trees.
- The College will export excess solar energy back to the power grid, resulting in savings of around 40% on energy bills. By using the solar energy, we will continue to reduce our carbon footprint over the system’s life of 25 years.
As the campus expands in the future, and buildings such as the new pool and tennis complex significantly increase the overall energy consumption, there is an opportunity to expand on the current systems.
Rising Star 2020
Mrs Grace Want
Rising Star 2020 
The Educator magazine annually recognises “emerging leaders in education who are making waves in the early stages of their career”. From the many nominations received, only three Queensland teachers were shortlisted for this nation-wide recognition, and Canterbury’s Year 1 teacher Mrs Grace Want was chosen.
Grace has been a teacher for four years, three of those at Canterbury. Mr Bill Garland, Head of Junior School, submitted the Rising Star nomination for Grace as he believes she is an outstanding young teaching professional who has a great educational leadership future ahead of her.
“Grace is always willing to try new things and innovatively uses technology to support student learning.” Mr Garland said.
“What has been most impressive is that Grace has taken an active role in helping our Junior School team move to our online learning model as we adjust our teaching and learning processes to adapt to the current Coronavirus situation. Grace has led staff in the use of some of our online learning tools, expertly showing staff how to use the different resources. She presents enthusiastically, shares creative ways of implementing new things into the classroom and is willing to find out more about topics.”
Grace has also taken on the role of mentoring two new colleagues this year, is a member of the Junior School Science Professional Learning Team (PLT), where she has been developing Science curriculum, running some pop-up parent information sessions and doing an audit of science equipment.
Grace says that just being nominated was such a thrill, let alone winning the award.
“It is a reflection of the hard work and hurdles I have crossed to become the teacher I am today.” Grace said.
Alby the therapy dog
Alby the therapy dog 
Canterbury has a long history of providing high-quality counselling and therapy services to students and the wider community.
We are proud to announce that Animal Assisted Therapy will commence at the College from Term 3. Animal Assisted Therapy has a strong research base, with sound efficacy within child and adolescent populations.
As part of the program, the newest member of the Canterbury community, 12 week old golden retriever and therapy dog Alby, will be introduced to the College this term. Alby is undergoing formal training and will visit a few days a week to acclimatise to bells, the campus and students.
Performing Arts Teacher of the Year 2020
Dr Janet Wyvill
Performing Arts Teacher of the Year 2020 
From more than 200 nominations nationally, Canterbury’s Director of Arts Academy, Dr Janet Wyvill, was recently named Performing Arts Teacher of the Year by The Australian Performing Arts Teachers Association (APATA).
The award “celebrates the outstanding achievements of the country’s top performing teachers and educators”, judged upon such merits as quality, innovation, commitment, leadership and engagement.
Janet is kept busy with her teaching and Arts Academy roles. She teaches drama, music, visual art and musical theatre as well as conducting or managing many co-curricular groups such as Boys Vocal Group, Drama Ensemble, Canterbury Festival Choir, Theatre Company, Percussion Ensemble and the Hip Hop Dance Team.
As Director of the Arts Academy, she oversees 43 performing arts ensembles, staff across Music, Drama and Dance and the burgeoning Studio Tuition program, with 14 specialist teachers and more than 400 lessons each week in orchestral instruments, piano, guitar, voice, drama, acting, dance and public speaking.
Janet and the Arts Academy also had a very fruitful 2019. A very successful Arts Food and Wine Festival that will now feature each year in the College calendar, commencement of chamber music and rock school programs, great results at Wakikirri, the popular Winter Arts Festival and Gala Showcase events and continued outstanding support by Canterbury families of the Music and Dance Parent supporter groups.
Janet says she is honoured to receive this award and very proud to be a performing arts teacher at Canterbury.
2020 Alumni Award Winners
2020 Alumni Award Winners 
We congratulate our 2020 and first ever Annual Alumni Award Winners, who so graciously joined us at our Foundation Day Chapel.
- Young Alumnus of the Year - Tegan Raines, Class of 2014.
- Alumnus Entrepreneur of the Year - Shainiel Deo, Class of 1992.
- Trailblazer Alumnus of the Year - Toni Bache (nee Bingham-Rolls), Class of 1998.
Such fabulous achievers, humble human beings and positive role models for our community.
We also congratulate everyone who was nominated. We received many nominations by our community, many more than we expected to receive in the first year of the awards.
Introducing Sione
Mr Sione Fukofuka – Director of Rugby, Touch Football and Rugby 7s. 
Sione is a passionate educator and coach with a thirst for learning and development, focusing on detail and exploring the why, all with a player-centred approach.
Sione joins Canterbury this year after a working at Brisbane State High School for sixteen years in English and Physical Education.
His wealth of coaching experience includes: 1st XV Rugby Coach for 6 years, including a GPS Premiership; Master in Charge of Touch Football for 10 Years; Opens Touch Football Coach for 10 Years, including 5 QGSSSA Premierships; 2015 Australian Youth Women’s Rugby 7s Commonwealth Games Development Coach; 2019 Australian Men’s Rugby 7s Development Coach; 2014-2017 Queensland Women’s Rugby 7s Head Coach; and the current 2020 Sunnybank Rugby Premier Head Coach.
He is excited to contribute to Canterbury's Rugby and Touch Football programs and building a strong culture of hard work, player development and performance.
"The opportunity to establish a Rugby 7s program, in conjunction with the addition of a Rugby and Touch Academy, is a wonderful opportunity for me and I am looking forward to working with the students and staff." Sione said.