Mr Michael Worton

1. What subjects do you currently teach?

Secondary HASS (History, Geography, Economics and Business, Civics and Citizenship). 

2. How long have you been a teacher?

 Five years and one term.

3. What attracted you to teaching in the first place?

I wanted to help young people become the best possible versions of themselves...and make them give me presents at Christmas time! 

4. What is it you love about teaching at TMC?

The students at TMC are beautiful human beings and the size of the College means teachers get to know every student and can build a positive relationship with each of them. The College is located away from the city, and the drive is full of fresh air and trees.

5. If you had to choose one food to eat for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Easy, Cheezels! Can I have a mixture of flavours? Cheese and bacon for mains and plain cheese for desert? Or maybe halloumi. I love halloumi. Can I have halloumi wrapped in giant Cheezels?  

6. What would be your dream holiday destination? Why?

I don't have a specific holiday destination as such, it's more that I have two adventures that need to be ticked off my bucket list when I eventually when my children have grown up and moved out!

The first is to backpack around South America, visiting the Andes, exploring the Amazon Rainforest searching for large mammals, going to Iguassu Falls and slowly moving southwards towards Patagonia and ending my adventure with an Antarctic cruise to see penguin colonies.

The second is to travel back to the UK from Singapore without flying and experience all the different cultures and sights along the way, particularly the different types of food in Asia and the train journey through rural Mongolia.

The Park at Coomera Westfield is hosting an exciting singing contest open to all ages. With three age categories: Under 12s, 12 – 15 years, and 16+ years, TMC students with a love of singing and music can register and compete.

There’s plenty of time to rehearse and prepare as Heats begin on June 6th. The winners from each age category will vie for the top spot at the Finale on July 17th.

Prize opportunities include:

• A mini mentoring workshop with Australian Idol Semi Finalist and ARIA Singles chart topper, Cosima De Vito
• Your very own CD Recording at Queensland’s premiere recording studio and music hub, Big Note productions
• A mentoring session and possible work with the owners of Velvet Rope Entertainment
• $200 to spend at The Park Coomera!

The 16+ Winner will also receive a two-hour songwriting session with Big Note Productions! 

PLUS! If the Finale winner is from TMC, our school receives an event at the Park Coomera, valued at $2000!

This is a wonderful local opportunity for any of our students who wish to step out of their comfort zone and perform within the community.

Entries close midnight Sun 30th May. For more information visit: www.goldcoastickets.com.au - Spotted at the Park - Promotional Video

Ms Hanna Green

This week's featured image was captured during the Year 10 History World War II excursion to Fort Lyntton.

On Tuesday 2nd March, the Year 10 Historians went to Newstead House and Fort Lytton National Park to investigate what life was like on the Home Front during WWII. Newstead House is a beautiful historic building on the Brisbane river that was used to house American soldiers during World War II. Through role play and a use of primary sources (newspaper articles) and secondary sources (retelling of events through the eyes of a blossoming romance between an Aussie and an American) we learnt about the fears and the challenges of everyday life in Brisbane with an impending Japanese invasion threatening, and the nature of relationships between Australian and American soldiers.

At Fort Lytton NP the students learned about the changing nature of warfare required to defend our nation, with the aid of the Americans, against the threat of Japanese warships entering Brisbane.

The students had an incredible engaging day out and asked the organisers lots of historically relevant questions in order to prepare themselves for their forthcoming essay on World War II.

Mr Mike Worton

Want to know all about the fun and excitement of lunchtime clubs here at TMC? Read on and by the end of this article you will know all the coolest places you and your friends can hang out in your lunch breaks.

Puzzle and Board Game Club is held on Tuesdays at second break in MK1 and is run by Ms Sullivan. There will be games such as Pictionary and Uno. Ms Sullivan will happily take suggestions on what games should be played and will take extreme care of any games that are brought in by a student. Puzzle and board game club is a club where you can play in giant groups or amongst a couple of friends.

The lunch Time Reading Club is for grade 7 and 8 to enter the Readers Cup. This club starts in week 6 and is held at second break on Thursdays in Mrs Carlyon’s room, room 3. This club only has a team of 4-5 students so if you want to be a member you will need to tell Mrs Carlyon ASAP. The competition is held on June 1st at Saint Stephen’s College and the winners get to compete in the state final. 

Art Club, run by Mrs Radley, is open in second break on Tuesdays and is designated as days to make art for competitions. These competitions are for students of all ages; the closest of which is the Ekka Photography Competition. A variety of paints are used either on canvas or board and topics, while they vary, are mainly nature and humanity. 

Leo Club is affiliated with Tamborine Mountain Lion’s Club and is about leadership, experience and opportunity. There is a $50 membership fee and a membership form that must be signed by a parent or guardian. The projects given to club members are all driven by a desire to help the community. The meetings are normally twice a term during second break in JW2. All you need for this club is to be keen with big ideas. 

Mr Emerson is now holding a Dungeons and Dragons Club in room 5. There will be another ground zero meeting once Mr Emerson has sorted through enrolment sheets, so if you want to join please come to the next meeting. There will be separate groups that are based on how much commitment you assign to the activity. There are short stories that you can play that will only take one break or long stories that could take several. The most important rule of D&D club is to have fun. The goals in the stories should be simple, like becoming rich, and something the whole group agrees on. If each group member has their own the group can play with figurines or even online. There are so many ways to play this fun problem solving game so please go to the ground zero meeting if you are interested.

So there you have it! The in’s and out’s of the lunch time clubs. So if you’re ever bored you now know where to go.

By Emily Clarke Year 11

On Thursday morning some of our Year 12 leaders attended the International Women's Day Breakfast hosted by the Scenic Rim Regional Council.  Our students were privileged to hear from guest speaker, former Olympic Swimmer Libby Trickett about her challenges and how she worked to overcome them and become so successful in her chosen sport.  The advice to all students in attendance was to find "your people" and to let them help you on your journey.

Mrs Peita Parker-Browne

Last week, Year 11 students travelled to Bornhoffen Leadership Development Centre as part of the Year 7 and 11 camp. Throughout the camp students developed leadership skills and completed activities such as high ropes, creeking, hiking and even canoeing.

When students arrived on Monday, they were first split into 3 groups and after lunch headed off to their first activities. Group 1 packed their bags and set off for the overnight camp, while group 2 went 'creeking' and group 3 tried high ropes.

The most challenging aspect of the 3 days was the overnight camp. Each Year 11 group had to spend a night in the bush, set up tents, cook dinner and spend quality time in the Aussie bush. As part of the overnight camp, students had to hike all the way to the campsite and canoe back the next day. When group 1 eventually arrived at the campsite, students set up their tents and cooked dinner on trangias before heading to bed. Meanwhile at the cabins, students in Year 7 and 11 competed in games like capture the flag, tug of war, spotlight and dodgeball, as well as enjoying a hot chocolate before bed.  

The next day, group 1 travelled back to the cabins while group 2 and 3 set off for their overnight camp, with group 2 canoeing and group 3 hiking. It was a race against time for the groups, as a big storm was starting to roll in, but they were able to make it to the campsite just in the nick-of-time. As the rain and storm set in, students started preparing their dinner and once the storm eventually passed, headed to their tents to sleep.

On the third and final day, group 1 completed their last activity while group 2 and 3 headed back to camp. Once everyone was back, students packed up their belongings, ate lunch and headed back onto the bus for the trip back to school.

We would like to thank all of the hard work that went into the camp and the amazing effort made by the teachers in organising the camp and for making sure that everything went according to plan. We would also like to thank Bornhoffen Leadership Development Centre for hosting the students and teachers and for making the trip a great success.

by Zoe Close Year 11

After reading the story ' ABC Mindful Me' we were inspired to make and also engage in some mindfulness experiences of 'Mandala Art' and 'Emotion Rocks' with a focus on helping the students talk about their emotions and express their feelings, and also being present in each moment. 

Mindfulness was our word for the day, with the students creating the most incredible 'Mandalas' using natural resources from both the classroom and the playground. It was so lovely to see our Preps being so creative and enjoying a unique experience in our school day.

The 'Emotion Rocks' were created with paint, googly eyes and will accompany our Preps home in their bags to assist them with any BIG emotions that come their way.

- Ms. Brown

Vacation Care is available for any enrolled student who requires care on the College's Student Free Day at the end of Term 1, as well as the Easter holidays.   All children must be enrolled at OSHC prior to making a booking. Follow this LINK for further information.

This term at TMC, Year 4 has been having an exciting time learning all about science. They have been investigating ‘Force’ and are currently in the process of making pinball machines. Once the pinballs are made the students will hopefully be able to use them to explain how pushing and pulling works. Year 4 teacher, Mr Hall, was very keen on science and added, “We are also investigating friction, so we have decided to look at how it [friction] affects different surfaces. So we are going to make a car out of junk from around our houses. 

When asked how they felt about these activities, Year 4 replied that they were “Fun and exciting. We are excited to do more outside learning and would like to do more sports activities”. Cooper Ashley and Flynn Parker-Brown both commented that their favourite things in Year 4 were “Learning Maths, going on camp, design technology and excursions”. But they were really looking forward to Touch Rugby and the Athletics Carnival.

So it’s been a busy start for Year 4, but the best is yet to come with a tour of Metricon Stadium, investigating erosion and rocks at Curtis Falls, an excursion to David Fleays Wildlife Center and a visit to the local Council Chambers to learn about how government works. 

2021 has started with a bang for Year 5. They have had swimming carnivals, excursions and of course lots of learning in the classroom.

This term, in English, Year 5’s fabulous Mrs Noel and amazing Mr Golden are reading the novel Harry Potter aloud to the class. After this both 5 Vic and 5 Val complete discussion activities about the book, its characters and settings. Year 5 are currently up to chapter fourteen and are loving it! At the end of the term the students will have to come up with their own chapter and characters!

In sport, the students have been staying active and playing a lot of fun team building activities with Mr Horn and Mr Golden. Team building is important as it helps us work together and stay positive. We have also been playing listening games as well as the always popular bullrush and red-light green-light.

But, Term 1 is not all magic and games. In Art, Year 5, with the help of our wonderful Art teacher Ms Criss, have created and decorated plaster, Aborignal boomerangs, with mixtures of warm and cold colours. Lots of different patterns have been put on these boomerangs including lots of Aboriginal symbols. The students of Year 5 have worked very hard on their boomerangs and their hard work has paid off.

So it's not hard to see why Year 5 Vic and Val have been having a lot of fun during Art,English and Sport. And it's all due to our incredible teachers Ms Criss, Mr Horn, Mr Golden and Mrs Noel. 

by Annalise Nulty and Isobel Stevens Year 5

Each year, the Primary enters two teams of students from Years 5 and 6 into the debating competition at Coomera Anglican College. TMC was fortunate enough to win this competition in 2018 and 2019. 2020 was cancelled due to the pandemic. This year's teams are:

The Affirmative Team: Jessica Davis, Madi Cacciola, Archie Antunovic, Abby Anderson & Ariana Stevenson

The Negative Team: Lucas Regec, James Haskins, Dylan Holmes, Isobel Stevens, Lilli Heddle

Congratulations to our new Junior Band Captain, Ewen Thompson, and our Choir Captain, Jessica Davis.

This week has been busy over at the ELC. The children in the Vic group have been participating in making a promotional video for the ELC. The children put their best foot forward as their show stopping acting skills came out to shine, from running races to group pattern painting of the Rainbow Serpent. The group have been looking into snakes by exploring through different mediums and also exploring mathematical ideas such as length. 

We have also started to talk about the land we share with our indigenous community by introducing an Acknowledgement to Country with the children. Our aim is to embed an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspective within our program. The ELC have recently worked with Narragunnawali to publish our own Reconciliation Action Plan.  This plan revolves around 14 actions that lead the way to embedding practices into our service. One of our actions involves making a commitment to build relationships with our local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community that are built on mutual respect, trust and inclusiveness. We would love for input into our program so if you or anyone you know would like to work with us on this project we can’t wait to hear from you! 

Harmony Day is almost upon us, in Week 8 we will be celebrating with our families Harmony Week and looking forward to sharing any family cultural or backgrounds with our families. You may like to share a favourite recipe and some food for us to taste test, favourite traditions which can be anything from cultural beliefs to family routines and celebrations. You may even have a unique talent like singing, playing an instrument or storytelling. Please see your child’s educator to book in a time to come in and share!

The Val group have continued with setting up the worm farm. After learning more about worm farm composting we have decided that the location for the worm farm is not shaded enough for the worms. We will move it over to the Pre-Prep side of the building where we get more shade. The children have had a great interest in worms and all things insects as we dive into more about life cycles and what our living things need to survive. 

Playgroup has taken off and we have had many families in the community attending. You do not have to have any siblings attending the College to be involved, all families are welcome. We will also be celebrating Harmony Week during playgroup and families are invited to share any special foods (with individual portions provided) or talents/interests they may have! Playgroup runs on Thursday mornings during term time 9:30am-11:30am. All you have to do is come along on the day!

The Kindy group have had a jam packed week, Henry brough in Hattie And The Fox to share! We explored colour through coloured blocks and watercolour. We also played with loose parts making different patterns. The farm animal interest emerged and we had fun role playing this through puppets and playdough! 

In the OSHC space the carnival games keep coming! The group have been intently involved in these games and have really enjoyed persisting with more challenging tasks. The Elephant March -sock/ball coordination game was a hit and this involved children swinging a weighted sock from their head to knock down cups! So much fun and so much relationship building! Ping Pong Glow was another favourite where the children have to blow the ping pong balls from one cup of water to another. Lots of fun and lots of mess!! But that is where the magic happens at the ELC! 

Our tadpoles in the Kindy/OSHC room have not yet grown legs and we are wondering why. From our research we believe that they should be growing legs by now. We are wondering if it’s the temperature of the tank or mayne because we have a pump filtering the water. PLEASE HELP if you can shed some light on this for us. Come on in and check out our tank anytime!

Just a general reminder to all families that the grassy strip by the side of the ELC is not parking for the ELC. The parking for ELC students is located in the main College car park. Please be mindful that this road is very busy during main pick up times and there are also many buses negotiate their way through the traffic at this time making this space unsafe to park in.

Thank you for your continued support.  

Mrs Fernandez and ELC team

Over the past weekend, the TMC Equestrian Team went to Emmaus College to compete in one of their first Equestrian Events of the year. Following the competition, we are delighted with how the TMC equestrian team performed and how they shone through in the results. Overall, the team is grateful that they had the opportunity to be a part of this wonderful event. 

In the competition, Amelia Waller received 1st overall in the Intermediate Open Hacking class, after getting 1st in the Rider Class, 1st in the Show Horse Class, and 2nd in the Led in Hand Class. Ava Burnes received 7th overall in the Intermediate Hacking class, after getting 7th in the Rider Class and 3rd in the Led in Hand Class. Our Combined Training team in the 60cm, Grace Fullerton came 5th, 80cm, Sienna White 3rd, 95cm, Summer Jacobs 7th, Ashlee Lowe 4th & Talia Criss 2nd. 

The equestrian team is comprised of many talented riders and our fabulous coordinator, Mrs Criss. We interviewed various members of the team including Caitlin Ward, year 12, Emily Seagrave, year 8, Summer Jacobs, year 9 and Ashlee Lowe, year 8. Each team member has been riding and pursuing their love of horses for many years. Caitlin and Summer have been riding since they were 5 years old and Emily since she was 10. Summer stated that her favourite part of riding is the chance to “ Just get away from everything for a little bit when you are on a horse, you don’t have to think much.” Caitlin shared with us why she started horse riding and elaborated on her love for the beautiful creatures, she specified that the reason she began riding was “Because I was addicted to horses, every time I drove past a paddock I would shout HORSE and my parents finally caved in and let me ride.”

We asked the riders what they are most excited about for the future as part of the TMC Equestrian Team. Ashlee responded in saying “[She is excited for] just competing with Tamborine Mountain College and training with teammates''. Caitlin expressed that she is anticipating how far the TMC Equestrian Team will go when she has finished her last year of school, and is excited to watch the way they continue to grow together. Lastly, Emily added that she is very excited to be part of the team, she is so grateful for the amazing opportunity presented. 

Ms Criss, the patient and supportive teacher that has been in charge of the Equestrian Team for three years, spoke to us about the thrill that comes with watching her team grow and compete together. When asked what makes her proud, she responded that it is “When they help each other out especially or the more experienced riders when they support someone having a difficulty with a horse and they offer their experiences.”  When asked what TMC Equestrian has planned for the future, Ms Criss expressed that coaching lessons, full inter school teams for all disciplines, show jumping, eventing dressage, show horses and building up the Primary Team are just a few of the goals that our team hopes to achieve. In addition to the events and opportunities presented to the Equestrian Team, Ms Criss believes some of the best things students get out of being a part of the team are “Training a horse and actually riding, as well as social aspects”. 

There are many events and competitions to look forward to this year. One of which happens to take place this weekend on the 5th to the 7th of March at Warwick. At this competition, the eventing team will be partaking in show horse, combined training and showjumping. This is a very popular, well-respected and prestigious event. We are positive our TMC team will do us proud this weekend. Events such as these are not only a perfect opportunity to ride a horse and to compete with the chance to win cash prizes, but also to see how each and every individual involved has improved their skills over countless hours of dedication and practice. 

We have no doubt that they will continue to work and thrive through the year, in preparation for every upcoming event. We wish them luck for this weekend at Warwick and anticipate the fantastic results that will come from our students’ hard work. None of this could have been possible without the guidance, dedication and support that Ms Criss has consistently provided to each equestrian student. In closing, we are eager for what is to come and can’t wait to see how this year plays out for the TMC Equestrian Team. 

By Lily Parker and Hannah Clements Year 9

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