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New Town High School
ISSUE: No.3, Friday 11 March 2016
2016 CALENDAR TERM 1 14 March
Eight Hour Day—Public Holiday
16 March
School Photo Day
World Challenge Presentation
6.30-7.15pm
22 March
School Photo’s 2nd Shoot
23 March
G7 Immunisations
25 March to 29 March
Easter Break
30 March to 1 April
7/8 Band Camp
4 April
Progress Reports Distributed
6 April
Inter-High Swimming Carnival
7 April
Last Day of Term 1
8 April
Moderation Day
TERM 2 25 April
Anzac Day
26 April
Term 2 Commences
10 May to 13 May
NAPLAN Testing
FROM THE PRINCIPAL Yesterday I had the privilege of undertaking a tour of the new facilities that
are nearing completion at New Town High School. The facilities will be
open for the start of Term 2. The new areas will provide a proper en-
trance to the school for parents and visitors and this will see an end to the
great tradition of visitors to the school having to navigate their way through
our buildings to find the administration area. This will mean that the area
currently used for temporary parking will be available again for student use
and we are currently working on plans to convert the current office space
into student centred learning spaces.
Over the past two weeks we have run our Peer Support Camps. Close to
two hundred of our Grade 7 students have participated in the program.
The aim of the camps is to assist our students successfully transition from
primary school to high school. Feedback from our students clearly indi-
cates that the camps have been a great success.
Over the past several years we have been implementing the Australian Cur-
riculum in Tasmanian Government Schools. The Australian Curriculum
website has a new parent information area that teachers and parents can
now access for literacy and numeracy information across all areas of the
curriculum.
The ‘Information for Parents’ resource has colourful examples and visuals
of ‘typical student learning’ from Foundation/Prep to Grade 10. For further
information regarding the curriculum please visit the website below.
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/
An increasing research base in education clearly shows that there is a direct
link between regular attendance at school and educational attainment. Our
current attendance rate is 91%. This rate is an improvement on the same
time last year. It is interesting to note however, that a student with an at-
tendance rate of 91% at the end of the year will miss about 17 days of
school over the course of the year. It is important that students attend
school unless there is a valid reason for an absence. Your child’s Home
Group Teacher monitors attendance each week, if you have concerns re-
garding your child’s attendance please do not hesitate
to contact them.
On 1 April your child will be bringing home the first
of three school reports for this year. The Progress
Report provides a snapshot of the progress that your
child has made so far this year. Some of our students
may need “reminding” to give you the reports once
they are sent home.
In his State of the State address on 9 March 2016, the
Premier announced the Tasmanian Government’s
proposal to extend the compulsory years of educa-
tion and training by:
lowering the compulsory school starting age from
5 years to 4 years and 6 months; and
lifting the minimum education and training leaving
requirement to the completion of Year 12 or
equivalent or 18 years, whichever occurs first.
Extending the compulsory years of education and
training would ensure that more young Tasmanians
would have access to high quality early learning soon-
er and more would complete Year 12 or equivalent
before they turn 18.
The new arrangements would come into effect in
2020. This means that children born on or before 30
June 2016 would be eligible for kindergarten in 2020
and would be required to enrol in Prep in 2021.
The change to the minimum leaving requirements
would apply to students in Grade 7 in 2016, which
means they would be in Year 11 in 2020.
The Government will seek feedback from the Tasma-
nian community on proposed reforms in the coming
weeks. Further information is available at the Educa-
tion Act Review website [http://tased-education-
act.blogspot.com.au].
Jason Szczerbanik
GRADE 7 NEWS Dechaineux Grade 7 Peer Support Camp
On Monday 29 February all Dechaineux Grade 7’s
went on a Peer Support Camp to Orana at Roches
beach along with Peer Support Leaders. The night
before we had to pack lots of changes of clothes and
some snacks. We set off from school at 8.45 with a
thirty minute drive to the camp. We stayed in cabins
in our Peer Support groups of seven to eight people.
We stayed for two nights and three days with activi-
ties on each day.
Some activities were, surfing at Clifton Beach
where we caught a few waves and some people
even managed to stand up, archery where we
learnt the techniques and safety, camp catering was
a great experience where we got to cook for the
rest of camp. The other activities we took part in
were, beach runs, kayaking, raft making, grokking,
beach volcanoes, survivor challenge, group plays
and frisbee golf. The food that we ate was really
good and Mrs Weitnauer did an amazing job cater-
ing. We couldn’t have had our camp without Mr
Howard and all the other teachers and Peer Sup-
port Leaders. Thank you! Hamish Watson & Dylan Cooper, 7D2
Ellis Camp Report
On Wednesday 2 March Grade 7 Ellis went on the
Peer Support Camp. On the first day we were
split into our six groups. Once we split into
groups we started the activities. Throughout the
camp we had a great variety of activities and we all
got to do each one.
Out of all the activities surfing was definitely the
crowd favourite where two groups at a time went
to Clifton Beach and got suited up and then hit the
waves. The waves weren’t the biggest but we still
caught them all the way through to the shore. An-
other favourite was archery. We went into an
open space out behind the camp and were in-
structed on how to put our arrows on the string
and pull back the bow. We learnt pretty quickly and
took some shots at the target. We managed to hit a few
balloons and a few of us even hit a bullseye.
After each exhausting and thrilling day we went back to
camp and had a delicious meal cooked by Ms Guerzoni
and Ms Logan with the help of the fantastic groups. Af-
ter our dinner on the first day we went out on the beach
and made some very cool and colourful volcanoes.
One of our traditions on
Ellis camp is getting up at six
in the morning and going on
a wakening beach run. The
run was about 4km long de-
pending on how much effort
you put in. After our run
we had breakfast and then
went to our rooms to get
ready for the day. One of
our other activities on the second night was the Red Fac-
es Play. That was great fun especially with the judges,
“Judgen” Dudgeon, Mrs Dineley and the “fair” Mr Shep-
pard. We had some great performances and hilarious
jokes.
Another good activity was raft building where we
planned, built and tested our rafts and then had a race. It
was a great teambuilding activity and it was a great com-
petitive activity as well. All in all we had a great camp
with lots of activities, great food and just a great time to
spend together
as a house.
Brayden Butler & Lewis Rose 7E1
GRADE 8 NEWS Next week the Grade 8’s will be starting their first
Lunch Time Sports Competition; the Student Repre-
sentative Council have decided on Home Group
Basketball with Division A being held on Mondays
and Division B on Wednesdays. The Sports Leaders
are currently discussing the rules for the tourna-
ment.
Last week 8E2 wrote letters to the SRC about prob-
lems in the school grounds such as projectors in
class rooms being offset, a library suggestion box
and a faulty lock on one of the toilets. The SRC
have assigned people for each problem and to work
on resolutions.
So far Toby Burridge, 8E2, has nearly raised $1,000
for the World’s Greatest Shave; he is doing the
shave after school today. The SRC went around
Home Groups on Thursday and Friday morning to
collect any donations. We were really pleased to be
able to help Toby in his fundraising.
Lochie Payne and Joseph Woolcock
Grade 8 Media Officers
GRADE 9 NEWS Aspire Connect Achieve
Steps Towards Leadership
During Period 3, Thursday 3 March, thirty-one aspir-
ing candidates presented their election speeches to
the grade. All of the boys were well-prepared and
spoke confidently about their experience, ability and
overall enthusiasm to join the Grade 9 Leadership
Team.
Mrs Isles has mentioned on several occasions how
impressed she was with the respect and support the
audience showed to their fellow peers who were
presenting their speeches to their grade.
2016 Grade 9 Leadership Team Candidates
Voting opened on Monday 7 March and closed on
Thursday 10 March, 2016. This allows for all Grade
9 boys and their Grade staff to have the opportunity
to vote. Election results will be published in the next
Newsletter. We wish all of the candidates the best
of luck and thank each one for putting themselves
forward for serving and representing our grade.
Healthy Body and Mind
The Grade 9’s are continuing to participate in Mr
Newbold’s Lunchtime Running Club every Monday
and Wednesday. The grade is also beginning to
learn more about developing, having and maintaining
a
Positive Growth Mindset. This links into our grade’s
ethos – Aspire, Connect & Achieve.
We will soon be further launching the extension of the
ethos for the boys’ senior years at New Town High.
Keep a look out for the ‘3 Ls’!
Shaun Newbold & Jillian Alexander
Grade 9 Coordinator & Grade 9 AST
GRADE 10 NEWS At the time of writing this newsletter the Peer Support
Camps will have come to an end. From all accounts,
the Peer Support team have been exemplary in their
conduct and attitude whilst on the Grade 7 camps.
Thanks to Mr Howard and Mr Tabart for organising the
program.
Our Prefects recently attended a Leadership Workshop
which was very successful – see Sachiel Paradzik’s re-
port.
Our grade Soccer Competition has started – 10D2
were successful in the first round. Best players were,
Joshua Cooper, Caleb Burridge and Alexander To-
selli.
A reminder to parents, carers and students that Thurs-
day is formal uniform day – no student has a PE related
subject on Thursday. Mr Harrison will be out and
about each Thursday Home Group checking uniform!
The reality that our boys will soon be moving on to
the next stage in their lives ‘hit home’ on Tuesday
when staff from Elizabeth College addressed our
Grade regarding the transition process for next year.
Boys will have a one on one session with a college
teacher in the next few months, as well as other fol-
low up opportunities during the year. All of these
opportunities will assist students in the important
decisions that need to be made around course selec-
tion for next year.
Prefects are selling tickets for our Easter Raffle during
Home Group over the next few weeks. Parents and
carers can also purchase tickets from the main office
in the lead up to Easter. The raffle will be drawn
Wednesday, 23 March.
Leone Lamont & Andrew Harrison
Grade 10 Supervisors
Leadership Workshop
On Monday 1 March, all Prefects went on a trip to
the Hotel Grand Chancellor for the GRIP Leadership
Conference.
Leaders of all sorts from many Tasmanian high
schools attended the event. The New Town High
School Prefects participated in the conference to
learn about new ideas, leadership and skills that our
leaders may use to further better the school.
The day was organised into four parts, with morning
tea and lunch breaks in between sessions. The first
part of the conference was the introduction, where
the organisers explained just what GRIP was and
what the actual goal of the day was. The goal was to
learn and refine everyone’s leadership skills and to
keep everyone interested, the hosts added ‘energiser’
activities in to the sessions.
The third and fourth sessions consisted of two differ-
ent choices of talks to have; the third session one
could choose between learning how to make an
Joshua Cooper, Caleb Burridge & Alexander Toselli
event exciting and interesting (which is the one a majority
of people chose to do) and the other presentation was
how to make speeches dynamic and interesting. People
who have tried either activity have said to have gotten a
lot of useful knowledge from their sessions. The fourth
sessions were about actions that can be taken to counter-
act bullying and how to motivate others. After that was
the ‘end session’ where the hosts held a final energiser
activity and essentially closed out the day.
After asking the New Town High School participants what
the most interesting activity of the day was, I couldn’t get
the same answer from anyone! Everyone seemed to enjoy
different activities and sessions in their own way!
The Prefects who attended the conference learned many
valuable lessons and skills to not only improve themselves
as leaders, but to develop their understanding on how to
really make a change in the school. All of the sessions
were packed with information and experiences that will
stick with the participants for a very long time. The
knowledge gained from the conference made it very
worthwhile experience.
Thanks to Mr Harrison for organising the day and supervis-
ing the prefects at the workshop.
Leadership Report by Sachiel Paradzik
ART NEWS I seems only like last week that school started and we now
find ourselves halfway through Term 1 with all programs in
The Arts subject areas fully underway.
Your boy’s enjoyment of The Arts is appreciated and there
are some good things we can all do to help him continue
his positive engagement in his Arts subject area. Some
good things to ask your son might be:
Ask him what he is doing, making or perform-
ing? Showing interest is the easiest way of validating
what he does. This is the most powerful thing we can
do to show we care about what he does; and if you
care about what he does at school then it will also vali-
date what we do as teachers, too!
Ask him what he has learnt or learning in an
Arts subject? Could it be he has learnt a new
tune in Music, learnt a new stage technique in Dra-
ma or learnt a new drawing technique in Visual
Art?
Remember not to ask too many questions or confuse
him (or interrogate him) but simply ask casual ques-
tions to show an interest.
In Visual Art I encourage students to take photos of
their artworks with their phones. This is a great way
to experience something your son has made that
can’t be brought home or described using words.
Indeed, I want boys to use their smart phones in ways
that are useful in his education.
Phones are amazing! Imagine ten or twenty years ago
thinking that we would be able to record sound, take
photos, make films AND be able to connect to the
internet via a small hand held device that can fit into
your pocket. Boys use their phones on a regular ba-
sis to research information that is relevant to their
Art projects and in the Arts we want to harness that
magic for learning.
Finally, Progress Reports will be sent to you in the
near future. This will give you a general picture on
how your son is performing in his Arts subjects. Re-
member full participation is required for him to gain a
C rating. He must make a genuine effort to complete
his Arts projects and engage in his Arts teacher’s pro-
gram in a genuinely positive way, despite his abilities
in that Arts subject, as real engagement is the first
major step to learning and building a future.
Peter Young
HOD - Art
MUSIC NOTES We have large numbers of students involved in the
extra-curricular school music program, Grade 7/8
Concert Band, Senior Concert Band, Guitar Ensem-
ble, Brass Ensemble, Stage Band and Woodwind/
Saxophone Ensembles. Our ensembles rehearse at
different times and new students are most welcome
to attend rehearsals. As new Grade 7 students im-
prove on their instruments they are encouraged to
attend after school rehearsals.
All Grade 7 students who were part of the primary
schools instrumental program are encouraged to at-
tend Monday after school rehearsals 3 to 4pm. Re-
cently new Grade 7 students who were part of the
primary schools instrumental program have received
an invitation to participate in the Grade 7/8 Concert
Band. It is important that these students continue to
play their instrument in our Grade 7/8 Concert Band
and parent support for your son to attend is appreciat-
ed. We are pleased many students are attending re-
hearsals. If your son is unable to attend a rehearsal
please send an apology to the teacher who runs the
program so that we know that they are unable to at-
tend.
Monday After School - The Grade 7/8 Concert Band 3
to 4pm
Tuesday After School - The Senior Concert Band 3 to
4.30pm (at Ogilvie High School)
Tuesday After School – The Guitar Ensemble 3 to 4pm
Tuesday Lunch Time – Woodwind Ensemble
Wednesday After School – Stage Band
Friday Before School– The Brass Ensemble 8am to
8.45am
Friday Lunch Time – Saxophone Ensemble
At the end of March the Grade 7/8 Concert Band will
have their three day Music Camp at Orana, Lauderdale.
The camp information has just been handed out to stu-
dents.
The Senior Concert Band is continuing to rehearsal
with Ogilvie. Last year the combined program proved
to be very successful. Mr Brown from New Town High
School and Mr Reade (from Ogilvie) will share the con-
ducting. They will be rehearsing to perform in the Mel-
bourne Band Competition as well as local concerts.
All Grade 7 students have chosen their instrument and
are beginning to learn how to play them. Our music
program includes literacy. Students are taught how to
read written music notes on their instrument. All of
our instruments use written music including woodwind,
brass and acoustic guitar. Reading printed music is es-
sential to playing an instrument and it is an important
part of literacy in music education. Grade 7 students
have started to borrow instruments for homework
practice. All music students are required to do home
practice as part of their weekly homework schedule.
Instrument borrowing is for overnight loan only and
borrowed instruments must be returned the very next
morning.
Andrew Sweeney
Music
CYBER SAFETY In view of media discussion about inappropriate online
content that targets children, we remind parents and
carers to become familiar and review your son’s safe
technology use. Some resources to support families
include The Australian Communications and Media Au-
thority provides advice at esafety.gov.au and Cyber
Smart www.cybersmart.gov.au.
Sally Isles
Assistant Principal
MY EDUCATION NEWS Below are responses from some ex-New Town
High School students now attending Elizabeth Col-
lege.
Choosing my Subjects:
David: I think that the Transition activities such as the
classes run at NTHS by Elizabeth College staff and 1:1
course counselling really helped me make a decision on
which courses I chose. I also found just selecting things
that I was interested in was really helpful as well.
Louis: During Grade 10, before coming to College, I
found the Transition sessions very useful, and they
helped me choose suitable courses. The Orientation
Day was also very helpful in being able to try out sub-
jects that I was interested in, but not completely sure
about whether I was going to do them or not.
Isaac: I was helped greatly by Grade 10 teachers and
visiting staff from Elizabeth College. I am planning to go
on to University so I made sure I chose courses that
would give me an ATAR score as well as help me get
into Journalism.
Peter: Talking to past students about their courses and
decisions helped in narrowing my interests. Also, re-
searching on the TASC web-site regarding what was
involved in each course, i.e. essay writing, public perfor-
mances, group work etc.
I have deliberately chosen courses that allow me to enrol
for most undergraduate degrees and though I am still
undecided in what career pathway I am to take, the
broad nature of my subjects gives me a number of op-
tions.
Useful Advice about College:
Josh: The Study load at College really depends on what
subject, you do. While pre-tertiary subjects generally
have a higher work-load than non pre-tertiaries, this is
not always the case.
Jack: One of my favourite parts about EC would be the
Enrichment. Enrichment is a 2 hour timeslot usually on a
Wednesday that allows students to go and do something
of their choice such as rock-climbing or abseiling at a
subsidised cost.
Sean: At EC, there is a wide range of counsellors and
support staff to talk to if you ever need some help. As
well as there being dedicated timeslots for students to
ask teachers for subject assistance, there are also coun-
sellors and a chaplain, all of which are more than happy
to help you deal with the ups and downs of College life.
New Town High School
6 Midwood Street, New Town, TAS 7008
Phone: 6278 0400
Absence Line: 6278 0499
Fax: 6278 1717
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: http://newtownhighschooltas.org
https://www.facebook.com/NTHSTasmania
Sally Isles
Assistant Principal
PEER SUPPORT CAMP 1 & 2