Article for Murrumba State Secondary College Newsletter

By Annabelle Giles
June 6, 2017

This term I have been lucky enough to work with the Business and Legal Faculty for my placement,
and this has provided me with a front row seat to all the incredible events that have been occurring
both in and out of the classroom.

Since starting over six weeks ago, I have worked with the senior Legal Studies students on engaging
topics like Family Law (everything from domestic violence, emancipation to same-sex marriage) and
Criminal Law (crimes, sentencing and punishment). There has been a flurry of events since then
one such example was Tuesday the 23rd of May, where I travelled with the Year 11 students to the
Law Faculty at QUT Gardens Point. During this excursion, students attended a research workshop
where they learnt how to research effectively and access university databases for assignments.
Seeing the university through the eyes of students was incredible, as it evidently provided students
with an increased awareness of what university has to offer them in the future.

Prior to this, the Year 12s were also fortunate to have guest speakers from the UQ Pro Bono Centre
discuss domestic violence and current legislation surrounding the issue. The speakers were able to
extend the students by fielding a variety of questions about amendments to legislation, as well as
provide insight into what their lives as university law students is like.

Another opportunity for the Legal Studies students to further develop skills was the Moreton Bay
Law Association Moot competition at the Redcliffe Magistrates Courts. This involved a select number
of students going up against other schools by preparing and presenting a case to a panel of long-
serving judges. These students got to witness the proceedings of a court and experience what it feels
like to be in a courtroom. Both a Year 11 and 12 team entered the competition, with members of the
Year 12 debating team mentoring the year 11 students using their knowledge from recent debates
and class discussion.

Within the business classrooms, I have seen the progression from Marketing in Year 11 to the
contextualised Events Management unit in Year 12. The Year 12s have spent majority of the term
organising the inaugural MSSC P&C Trivia Night, with students developing and running all aspects
(Marketing, Operations, Finance and Human Resources) of the event. Helping the students on the
night showed me how far they had come, and was a great indicator of things to come from this
fantastic group of students. Based on how smoothly the event went, I would say it was a resounding
success.

For the Year 11s, the guest speaker from the RELOAD Group showcased a variety of digital marketing
techniques, which allowed the Year 11 students to start imagining what a future in digital marketing
and the industry as a whole might look like. Students also became more aware of the impacts of
their digital footprint and the way businesses could make use of it.

Within the middle school, I have been able to visit and assist with Year 9 Business Studies, where
students investigated relevant topics such as youth rights and cyberbullying. With their new topic of
Entrepreneurship, the students have been looking into aspirational entrepreneurs and their story of
success. It was eye-opening see how students engaged with the success and correlated risks in
business markets.

With my time at MSSC coming to an end next week, I will be sad to say goodbye to the school which
has offered all the student teachers incredible personal development opportunities. We have had
sessions on classroom management, engaging students, forms of assessment in addition to
specialised programs such as Reading and Writing for Life. The support provided to us students
through the Master Teacher, Quality Learning Coaches and staff around the school has been
exceptional. Through both the Business and Maths faculty meetings and staff members, I have learnt
so much about implementation of CCEs within the classroom and how to best deliver and assess
students to gain the best results for all.

On behalf of all the UQ pre-service teachers, thank you Murrumba for welcoming us into your
community, teaching us along the way, and I wish all students I have met along the way the best in
all their future endeavours.

Annabelle Giles
Business Pre-Service Teacher