1st May 2009

MIDDLE ROAD, (PO BOX 1261)DEVONPORT Phone: 6420 8100. email: [email protected]

Issue 3

NEWSLETTER

1st May 2009

Professional Learning for all teachers on North West Coast Monday 4th May Student Free Day From the Principal’s Desk As at the beginning of Term 2 we will be reducing the number of newsletters to 2 per month, one bulletin and one newsletter. We have made this change due to the cost of printing newsletters as well as the lack of feedback from parents/family as to whether they value the newsletter. We asked for email addresses from parents but only received a limited response. We would appreciate any comment on this matter, please email [email protected] or send a letter to the office. Please note that we will issue special bulletins outside of this time frame when and as it is necessary. Winter has arrived with a vengeance and of course we have all heard the stories in the media about swine flu. We don’t want a situation where everyone is panicking but as with every winter we need to take some precautions and in a school community a virus can spread quickly. Many staff have taken the option of being immunised and I would like members of the community to consider this option, it does help. See the following page from the Department of Education. At school you can also help yourself by taking off your spray jackets when you are in the classroom and putting them on during break times; don’t walk around the school without your shoes on, and be sensitive to the needs of those around you. Reporting to parents Progress reports were given to your child to take home on Wednesday 29th April. If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact your child’s Principal teacher or a member of the Leadership team as appropriate.

R e e c e H i g h S ch o o l

Supporting Student Pathways—Career Lighthouse Project  

Demonstrating Reece High’s commitment to support students to find their future pathways, we have offered our Grade 10s an Integrated option subject where they are working in partnership with Devonport City Council (DCC) on ‘real’ projects. This provides those students with opportunities to have a ‘taster’ of careers offered in local government with a DCC mentor. There are over 600 Councils across Australia offering an enormous variety and diversity of career opportunities. Examples of career pathways being ‘tasted’ are Asset Officer, Finance and Accounting, Youth Officer, Engineering, Events Coordinator, Media Officer, Policy Officer, Risk Management Coordinator, OH&S Coordinator/Inspector and Community Development Officer. Students chose one of the following projects offered by the DCC. Youth Policy Consultation -Update DCC Youth Policy Occupational Health & Safety - Identify Hazards & Risks of a site, and developing an action plan and recommendations for risk reduction. Infrastructure Development- Identify roads, buildings and parks that have development potential and maintenance requirements. Determine attributes of good infrastructure management and development decisions. Sister City Cultural Promotion - Develop a register and guidelines for significant items that have been gifted to Devonport from our sister city in Japan. Plan (and hopefully implement) a community based cultural exhibition of these items. Employee Health & Wellbeing Program - Develop and implement, collate and interpret results of a survey of Devonport Council employees in regards to their health, lifestyles and well-being. Make recommendations and design initiatives to help improve awareness and health levels amongst Devonport Council employees. Juan Marshall – Grade 10 teacher

What is happening in Grade 8 Integrated? So far this year, grade 8 classes have been working on an integrated unit titled “whose values do you value?’. Integrated units are designed to incorporate learning experiences from various areas of the curriculum and a number of these are studied during the year. The current unit considers cultural comparisons and examines the values that underlie different cultural groups. It promotes the value of understanding and respecting cultural diversity by enabling students to investigate how cultural or ethnic stereotypes are formed, perpetuated and prevented. At the conclusion of this unit there will be two units running side by side. The first unit is titled ‘Tracking Tasmania’, which focuses on looking at the past and present in Tasmania and discussing predictions for the future. The second unit is titled ‘Everyday chemicals’ and the purpose of this unit is to introduce chemicals in a relevant manner that highlights why we should use chemicals responsibly. In Numeracy, the focus has been on the strand ‘Number’, which includes skills working with fractions, decimals and percentages. This will be followed by the ‘Measurement’ strand which includes skills in estimation, conversions, and various calculations. In Principal classes, students are given the opportunity to work at various levels within these strands, catering for all abilities. In Literacy, general studies across the grade include, comprehension and editing skills, working on spelling strategies and activities focusing on grammar. Students are given the opportunity to experiment with different text types and focus on a class novel study. At the conclusion to the values unit, students will use all their learning to develop an essay.

2009 Cross Country This years school cross country will be held on Tuesday May 5th during blocks 1 and 2 at the Devonport Olympic Pool. Students will be expected to come to school in casual clothes and will be able to remain in these clothes for the entire day. Change room facilities will be available for those student who wish to shower or change before and after their events, plenty of warm clothing is recommended. Please advise your child to bring their own food and drink, as there will be no canteen facilities available. It is an expectation that all students take part in the event, unless they have a medical condition that prevents them from participating. Good luck to all – HWB team.

Parent Opinion Survey This year, Reece High school will again be conducting parent opinion surveys to get information about a variety of aspects for the Education Department. Results from these provide valuable information that enables us to understand more fully how our parent community feels about our school and to help us guide school improvement to meet the ongoing needs of our students, parents and the community. The information collected from parent opinion surveys will also help us to make informed decisions about what we can provide for your child/children. As well, the results from the surveys enable us to report school performance information to the Australian government, as is required each year. Because it is not possible to survey every family attending our school, a random sample is selected each year and a survey is sent directly to them. The survey will go home on the 1st May. If you receive a survey, I urge you to complete it by Friday 22 May and return it, in the envelope provided, to the school for bulk posting to the independent contractor, Print Applied Technology, who is managing the survey process on behalf of schools. The use of an independent contractor enables your responses to remain anonymous. Information collected by this survey will be included in the school performance report prepared next year and will be made available to all parents.

Health and Wellbeing Committee This years HWB committee members consists of: Sophie Nichols, Kiara Daly, Eloise Bound, Caitlin Goss, Tiffany Mansfield, Tayla Chilcott, Bethany Burk, Stuart Carter, Lisa McPhee, Ben Ollington, Hilary Rees, Mieke Lizotte, Mitchell Jones, Haylee Barwick, Jordan Banks and Courtney Dowling Our role is to promote HWB within the school and the community. We play an important role in Reece High School’s student voice. So far this year we have been involved in Hillcrest Primary School’s athletics carnival, the Primary School’s sports expo, lunchtime activities including sumo wrestling and staff vs. student football match and the surf carnival. During the remainder of the year we will continue to support school, community and government based HWB initiatives as well as numerous committee devised ideas and activities. Sophie Nichols & Kiara Daly on behalf of the HWB committee.

Gym Re-development 2009 Reece High has successfully applied for and won a $200 000 grant to expand the gym facilities. The Federal Government made grants available though the Building Education Revolution package as part of the stimulus programme and we applied in the Pride in Our Schools section, allowing for building works up to the value of $200 000. The grant will be used on gym redevelopment as this highly used area had very little money spent on it during the school rebuild in 2001-2. This area of the school had been identified as a priority and the school had been working with the School Association to save funds to complete the project. It is phase two in a three phase project with phase one being the redevelopment of the football oval and soccer field and phase three will be the redevelopment of the court area. The money the school has saved will be used to cover any additional costs or to commence phase three. The project The expansion involves a new foyer/multi-purpose area at the front of the gym to allow students to assemble on wet days before entering onto the parquetry floor in the gym. A large classroom opening off the court area in the gym will allow for sports testing and related sports theory work to be administered close to the sporting facilities. On the northern end of the complex will be a large storage area to hold outdoor education equipment which is a rapidly expanding area of study at Reece High. We are currently at the tender stage and expect the building work to commence around June school holidays and be finished by the end of term 2. There should be very little disruption to the HWB department during the building programme. We look forward with excitement with this expansion to our school.

Winter is here, it is time to make sure you have all the right uniform to keep warm and participate in all school activities. Shirt—pale blue

$15.00

skirt—winter

$50.00

Long pants—grey

$30.00

Sports top

$28.00

Rugby jumper –L/S

$55.00

Jumper—woollen

$70.00

Spray jacket

$65.00

PRE LOVED UNIFORM Size 10 skirt $45.00 only worn once 6427 3148 Size 10 Skirt as new $20.00 0408 421 151 1 x spray jacket - small 1 x winter skirt - sixe 12 3 X summer dresses - size 12 1 x school jumper -size 14 hardly worn $120.00 the lot 0417 152 519

AFTER SCHOOL ACTIVITIES

Wednesdays 3 - 4pm Sausage Sizzle & Games with

PCYC

At Devonport Community Garden 2 Morris Avenue Behind Roundabout hedge opposite Reece. FREE activity supported by PCYC & Devonport Community House

4th May

Student Free day/Moderation

5th May

Cross Country

16th May

Trivia Night for Vietnam Trip

18th May

9A & B Camp

20th May

Grade 7 camp

21st May

School Social

25th—29th May

Work experience for 10A & B

29th May

End of Term 1

15th June

Start of Term 2

CONTACT DETAILS Reece High School, Middle Road, Devonport Tas 7310 Ph (03) 6420 8100 Fax (03) 6420 8199

Email: [email protected]