NEWSLETTER No.4~ August 2016 Principal: Diane Cole

IMPORTANT DATES Wednesday, 31

August School Photos

From The Principal….

If you are one of those people who enjoys very crisp mornings, rain and hail then perhaps you are hearing the collective mental force of those of us who wish spring was moving along at a faster rate. After living in Denmark for over twenty years I think this winter is one of the coldest that I have experienced. Many of our young people still arrive at school in shorts or without jackets and assure me that they don‟t feel cold. I must be getting old!

The production is well underway with only two more evening shows left. I had the pleasure of seeing the show on Thursday at the Primary school matinees. It is a wonderful show and our students are so talented. Tickets are still available for Friday night but are sold out for Saturday. I will have more to say in our next news letter.

The seventy students who attended Country Week had a terrific week and all teams competed in the finals. This is largely due to the dedication and expertise of the coaches and the positive camaraderie that exists between the students.

I would like to thank Dylan Judd for organizing this year‟s events so admirably and coaches Ken Davies, Lindsay Stirling, Kelly Judd, Sarah Carver, Glen Burton and Allan Knight. I also thank Marnie Cassidy for her ongoing voluntary support as team manager.

At the end of last term we had to unfortunately farewell our Chaplain Natalie Fergusson. Natalie decided to move back to Perth for family reasons.

During her year and a half in the role she made a positive impact on the lives of many of our students and we wish her all the best in her new role as chaplain at Perth Modern School. Youth Care are currently searching for her replacement and I hope we have that person in place very soon.

We have also recently said farewell our Literacy Support teacher Sal Ballenger who has taken maternity leave and we wish her all the best for the arrival of her second child. Sal has a wealth of knowledge to support students with literacy issues and she will be missed.

Nicola (Niki) Coxe, has recently been selected through a recruiting process to take Sal‟s position but the amount of time had been extended and will embrace both literacy and numeracy. Niki will be here five days a week full time. Niki has extensive experience in the role and will be a welcome addition to the team.

Congratulations to students who received excellence and merit awards for their work in Semester One, 2016. Diane Cole

Senior School Deputy

Nationally Consistent Collection of Data (NCCD) on Students with Disabilities As advertised in our last newsletter, Denmark Senior High School will be participating in NCCD. This is a national initiative that all schools in Australia will participate in. The data collection aims to take a snapshot of all students who have some disability or condition that may affect their learning. All data is condensed, and names removed, so only the numbers of students who have a diagnosed or imputed disability are forwarded in the survey. Teachers and Student Services Staff have contributed to the collection of and validation of the data. More recently, staff meeting sessions have been set aside for teachers to share strategies for addressing the educational needs of those students who they have identified. If you have any queries with respect to the NCCD, or any general concerns about your child‟s progress, don‟t hesitate to contact our Student Services Team. Year 11 Choices for 2017 Over the next few weeks, Year 10 students will be making preliminary choices about their pathway for 2017. Parents of Year 10 students will be invited to an information evening in the coming weeks. All students in Western Australia must be undertaking an educational program, or undertaking employment with an educational component until the end of the year in which they would normally exit Year 12. This means they have three choices: remain at school, leave school and undertake TAFE studies or gain employment (such as an Apprenticeship or Traineeship) that involves further study. Those students intending to leave school, will need to enter into a formal arrangement with the Department of Education called a Notice of Arrangement and our office can assist with this. Denmark Senior High School will offer students the choice of ATAR study (direct University bound) or general studies with at least one Certificate II. The School Curriculum and Standards Authority has produced a handbook for Year 10 students at http://wace1516.scsa.wa.edu.au/further-resources/year-10-information ATAR courses will be available to students who have demonstrated ability in the course and will need to be approved by Heads of Learning Areas. Course entry requirements for university in 2019 are available at https://www.tisc.edu.au/static-fixed/guide/slar-2019.pdf

On Monday, 8 August we will meet with South Regional TAFE (Albany Campus, previously GSIT), to discover their offerings to schools for 2017. Once we have firm details of these offerings, we will advise students and commence the selection process. Students hoping to gain funded places in Certificate Courses delivered at our school will only have a short while to apply as places are competitive and fill quickly. Any student wishing to attend TAFE full time in 2017 should monitor the South Regional TAFE website for details of full time offerings for 2017. http://www.gsit.wa.edu.au/about-us/campuses-and-contacts/albany Students wishing to investigate apprenticeships and training delivered elsewhere should look up the Department of Training and Workforce Development at: http://www.dtwd.wa.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx In the meantime, if you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact the school. Online Literacy and Numeracy Assessments (OLNA) - (Years 10,11 and 12) As part of the achievement standard for the Western Australian Certificate of Education, all students will need to successfully demonstrate they have achieved a minimum standard on the OLNA tests in literacy and numeracy, if they have not prequalified through NAPLAN. The OLNA test is an online test that occurs twice yearly in Years 10, 11 and 12. The Heads of Learning Area for Mathematics Bronwyn Mather) and English (David Beckwith) have the most up to date details on your child‟s progress toward achieving this standard and manage the students‟ preparation for the testing. If you have queries about the OLNA test more information can be found on the SCSA website at http://wace1516.scsa.wa.edu.au/assessment/olna and a student information sheet is attached to the newsletter for your information. Bob Kirk

Excellence & Merit Award

Recipients

Congratulations to all of the students below who were awarded Excellence or Merit Awards for their hard work during Semester One, well done!

YEAR 7

Excellence Merit

Flynn Thompson Dexter Anderson

Camryn Morris Sophia Gunning

Cooper Gleeson Phoebe Lacey

Kate Schwarzbach Abby Carter

Owen Emery Lailani Ewing

Nina Hodan Ewan Maisey

Lulu Harris

Bree-Anna Burton

Jasmine Boaden

Sophie Gibson

Elsie Taylor

Lowana Winter

Davis Milne

YEAR 8

Excellence Merit

Megan McDougall Jake Palmer

Rahel Arlandoo Piper Eastland

Hannah Walker Drew Mulder

Olive Collins Brychan Dickinson

Torben Ramrath

Amelia Ross

Emily Burton

Grace Hardiman

Ashleigh Hearn

Tia Paterson

Daniel Rowilng

YEAR 9

Excellence Merit

Neave Garland William Roocke

Ella Neunuebel Toby Boaden

Iyke Martin-Gordon Emil Davey

Luka Underwood Imogen Lacey

Lily-May Winter Megan Sainty

Ebony Thompson Macy Lane

Zara Whooley Jarrah Marshall

Connor Pomery

Zahra Smart

Jana Hughes

Katherine McKenzie

YEAR 10

Excellence Merit

Maya Taylor-Trenow Layla Wright

Emily Hodan Rose Anthony

Kimberley Carter Uzsani Lacey

Rose Castle Liliana Lawson

Sarah Clarke

YEAR 11

Excellence Merit

Matthew Wong Austin Stirling

Caitlin Orchard-Cook Ella Mercer

Ronya Ramrath Julian Anderson

Jemmalina Pozzi Sophie Bacon-Lewis

Alexandra Wilson Kaitlyn Bayne

Sage Savic

YEAR 12

Excellence Merit

Amelia Anthony Sophie Stone

Chloe Harrison Hugo Faulkner

Liah Cassidy-Smith Louis Winer

Fynn Underwood

Nicola Thies

Student Services

To keep the winter blues away we are supporting Jeans for Genes. We will be holding our Jeans for Genes Day a little later than the national event on Friday August 12. Students may wear denim and donate a gold coin on the day.

Book week is coming up in Week 6 and the Student Executives are joining forces with the School Library to organise fun activities. We would like to hold a “dress as your favourite book character day“– so please put on your thinking caps!

Year 12 students are approaching the end of their school career and it is a busy time for all. ATAR students received an excellent TISC presentation and must remember to lodge their application before September 30 2016. Mr Kirk and I have many years of experience in university applications, so please contact us with any queries. Please remember that a TISC application must be made even if a student is intending to defer until 2018.

There are more exciting events coming up for Year 10s who may be invited to join the UWA Albany Open Day Excursion and for Year 9s who will be learning about cybercrime.

Katy Mitchell

Literacy & Numeracy

Support Teacher

My name is Niki Coxe and I have recently been appointed the position of Literacy Support Coordinator. I will be working with students individually or in small groups to help improve reading and writing.

I have recently moved to Denmark from Perth where I was working with students in Years 7-10. I have been teaching for 11 years and have a Degree in English as well as other shorter university courses to support my role.

I have 5 years of experience in coordinating and have been awarded many leadership roles within schools. I „m very excited to join the Denmark team and look forward to working with students, teachers and parents to help students achieve their best results.

Niki Coxe

HaSS – Year 10

Beach Clean Up

Our class has recently been studying environmental change and management, and the importance of maintaining a healthy ocean environment. As a bit of a practical end to our studies, and to coincide with World Ocean‟s Day, our class ventured to Ocean Beach for a beach clean-up.

We were met there by Shaun Ossinger from the Wilson Inlet Catchment Committee (WICC) who talked briefly to the students about the health of inlet and the work of the WICC to that end. After that, students broke up into small groups and got busy cleaning the beach! I was really impressed by their energy and enthusiasm for the activity. A big thanks to Ms. Carver for driving us there and helping out.

HaSS Department

Chemistry Quiz Competition

On Thursday 21st July, the Year 10 students from Mr Stirling's Chemistry class (plus some from Ms Nicholson's Physics group) took part in the annual Australian National Chemistry Quiz. This is a very challenging 30 question multiple-choice test that students have an hour to complete. The Quiz is conducted by the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, and hundreds of schools and thousands of students from around Australia and the world take part in it.

This marks the first time our students have taken part, and we should receive results back in September or October. All students receive recognition of completion of the quiz, with the following categories receiving awards:

Plaques are awarded to students receiving 30 out of 30

HD Excellence - awarded to top 1% of students in the State

High Distinction - awarded to the 10% of students in the State

Distinction - the next 15% of students in the State (10% - 25%)

Credit - the next 15% of students in the State (25% - 40%)

Participation Certificate to all other students

We are looking forward to seeing how we went! Next year, we are looking at expanding our participation in such contests to include other year groups in lower school.

Lindsay Stirling

Year 11s hit the playdoh

Mindmaps are a long established visual learning tool, many students and parents will be familiar with them. But what about 3D mindmapping? At a recent Professional Learning day, the English staff were shown the technique of 3D mindmapping by staff from Perth Modern School. The tools are simple; playdoh, plastic sheeting and whiteboard markers.

The Year 11 Literature students were the guinea pigs, being asked to construct a mindmap based on the key symbols in Frankenstein, the text they were studying.

Some students were a little hesitant and perhaps sceptical of the benefit at the outset, others were happy to muck around with playdoh. What all students discovered was that the process required a lot of thought, especially when they were asked to make connections between symbols and justify those connections.

At the end of the process, students were unanimous that, as a learning experience, it was very worthwhile and benefitted their understanding of the text.

David Beckwith

In 2016 all Year 7 students have spent one session every week undertaking a STEM class. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The implementation of STEM as a cross curricular endeavour has been a major focus of the Education Department as part of its Students First strategy. The aims of STEM education are to meet the needs of all learners as they enter a workplace that is increasingly reliant on technology across a variety of contexts.

All year seven students have taken one period a week of STEM and have participated in a variety of activities. In Term One, students complete Mathematics extension using online programs. Over Term Two students created their own video games using different platforms including GameMaker Studios, GameStar Mechanic and Scratch which will be entered into the 2016 STEM video game challenge. In Term Three some of the students are using stop motion animation to complete a film that demonstrates a STEM concept. These completed films may be entered into one of several competitions. Other students are constructing and programing robots over. At the beginning of Term Four the students will swap the topic they completed in Term Three.

Students have approached these classes with enthusiasm and creativity. They have worked well both in teams and as individuals to come up with some excellent work. I look forward to the continued success of this Program at Denmark SHS.

Susan Fahey

Art Department

Banners in the Terrace Competition 2016

Denmark Senior High School‟s banner is on display in Adelaide Terrace in Perth until Saturday 6th August. The banner was a fantastic opportunity to represent our community and was a collaborative effort by the Art students at DSHS.

Emily Gummer

Class Changes - Year 7 English

In response to the specific literacy needs of a number of Year 7 students, there has been a reorganisation of Year 7 English classes. Using evidence such as in-class testing, teacher observation throughout Semester One and NAPLAN, students have been grouped to allow teachers to focus on the specific literacy needs of each group.

Where appropriate, students will be assisted by the Reading Resource teacher in order to improve literacy outcomes. Class groupings will be reviewed at the end of the year.

David Beckwith

Try A Trade

A number of our Year 9 and 10 students took part in a three day “Try a Trade” workshop at Great Southern Institute of Technology (Albany Campus) laste term.

The aim of the workshops is to give students a taster of a variety of different trades towards assisting them in making an informed decision about their future career paths.

This time around the students go to sample bricklaying, carpentry and plumbing over the three days.

All the feedback from students was positive , so much so that many students are preparing for their next opportunity to attend a similar workship and sample three different trades (floor and wall tiling, roof plumbing and electrical) in mid August.

Grant Vine

Community Health Nurse

‘Happiness is a Dry Bed’ Bedwetting is a common child hood problem that can be usually stopped. Nocturnal Enuresis is the medical term used to describe lack of bladder control at night in a person who has reached an age at which control is to be expected. Bedwetting can cause stress for both children and parents. It is recommended to seek treatment rather than thinking they will grow out of it as some never do. School Community Nurses offer the Enuresis (Bedwetting) Program as recommended by PMH for children and young people from 6 years of age to 14 years. This involves the use of a mat and alarm to help the person to wake when needing to go to the toilet at night. The treatment is most likely to be successful if it is part of a supervised self- management program using reliable machines. The program takes between 6-8 weeks and involves weekly contact with the School Community Nurse. There is no cost. Is your child:

Wetting the bed more than twice per week

Dry during the day

between 6 and 14 years of age

motivated and wants to be dry at night.

For further details please contact your School Community Nurse or Great Southern Population Health on 9842 7500

2017 NEW YORK TOUR

INFORMATION EVENING

FOR STUDENTS AND PARENTS WHO HAVE SUBMITTED THEIR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST: There will be an information evening regarding the proposed tour. Topics to be covered include:

purpose of the tour and how it connects to the curriculum

planned itinerary

costs, deposit payments, additional expenses, inclusions

passports and insurance

safety and security

As well as myself, also present on the night will be additional staff supervisor Sarah Carver and the travel agent we are working with Clare Wood (WorldStrides). If you cannot attend, please let me know with an email at anthony.ritchie@education.wa.edu.au Otherwise, non-attendance will be taken to mean you have withdrawn your expression of interest. The meeting will be on Tuesday August 16th. It will run from 6-6.40pm, in Room 7 (HASS classroom). I look forward to seeing you there. Anthony Ritchie