Athletics Success
Athletics Success
Both our Junior TAS and TAS teams had outstanding success at their recent Athletics Championships.
Our Junior TAS Track and Field Team competed in the Junior TAS Track and Field Championships, and were named overall winners of the competition.
Our Secondary School athletes had an equally great day at the TAS Athletics Championships, winning the Senior Boys, Senior Girls and Junior Girls divisions.
Due to the change in format for COVID precautions, no official Champion School was awarded in this competition; however, across all age groups, Canterbury comfortably accumulated the most points of any school.
Congratulations to all students and coaches, and go Canterbury!
Canterbury announces two staff shortlisted for TeachX Awards
Canterbury announces two staff shortlisted for TeachX Awards
Student Connections at Canterbury
Student Connections at Canterbury
This year at Canterbury we have been looking at how students feel connected to both the immediate Canterbury community and the wider community in which they live. The involvement of students in discussions about local and international social justice issues such as mental health, wellbeing, tolerance, and environmental problems, has led to student initiatives that begin to address some of these issues.
During Covid-19 these ideas revolved around specific challenges or activities individuals, families and friends could get involved in, while being isolated at home. The ideas encouraged peer support, embraced inclusivity, and showed, if given the chance, students the ability to connect with each other in ways that strengthen emotional and relational ties.
With the resumption of on campus schooling, many students brought back ideas of how they would like to see the Canterbury community develop. From small student led discussions grew projects designed to highlight diversity, reach out to those less fortunate, create spaces for inclusivity and address local community problems. For example, some students felt that there was a need for more understanding within the school community of racial differences. To begin to address this, a multicultural festival was initiated, to help highlight the diversity of the school community. What began as a small idea ended in a celebration involving a large portion of the Secondary School student body. More importantly, while giving many students a sense of pride in their own culture, it brought the student body together in support of one another’s cultures and gave them a greater sense of belonging within the school community.
“While this, along with other student programs, may seem just small beginnings, their success has greater implications for the ongoing development of our school community and the student’s social connectedness,” Director of Student Development, Mr Chris Nield said.
“Their success has given them a sense of community ownership, where they can be heard, their ideas are valued and their contributions help the shaping of their community.”
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.