I would like to welcome everyone to the 2024 school year, especially our 134 new Year 7 students. We also have a number of new students in Years 8-10 over the last few weeks, taking our total enrolment to approximately 550 students.

We have had a great start to the year, with students already fully engaged in their learning. Our vision “Inspire Today, to Empower Tomorrow,” gives us a strong direction and focuses on ensuring we give our students the important skills that require them to be successful in today’s workforce. Our Motto, Realising Potential, highlights that active participation in school or community life has a significant positive impact on a person’s wellbeing. We encourage students to keep making the most of their opportunities at school. 

It is important that our whole school community aligns their actions towards our values. The values highlight the behaviours we expect to see from students, staff and our community. We keep each other accountable to these values and understand that our work in this area has helped us build a strong culture, based on high expectations.

The focus value for this term is ‘Best Effort.’ Please talk with your child about the different ways they can display this value in different aspects of their daily life.

Communication and Whole School BBQ

Your child’s teachers and teaching assistants have been working tirelessly to plan a learning program that caters for your child. If you have any questions or need to give teachers information in relation to your child’s education, please organise a meeting with your child’s teacher. Teachers can be contacted via email or by booking an appointment through the front office. 

Communication will also take place via text message, our School App – SZapp, our School Facebook Page and our School Instagram Page.

This year we will have a whole school BBQ which will offer an informal way for you to meet with your child’s teachers and discuss their learning program for the year. This will be held on Tuesday 27^th of February from 5:15pm – 6:15pm. By now, you should have received a copy of the letter invite for this evening. If you have any questions, please call the school office on 6420 8100.

 

Intervention or WINN

This year, we have had a name change of our intervention structure to make it more inclusive of all. Intervention has been the name of the subject that all students receive twice per week for 100 minutes that focus on the essential English and Maths skills to ensure they can reach Year Level standard or above. During this time students are given more time, support and opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding. We have changed the name from ‘Intervention’ to WINN – What I Need Now/Next. This change in language caters for all students in fostering an understanding of the specific skill or concept that they need to focus on ‘Now’ or ‘Next’ in their learning journey to be at Year Level standard or to provide enrichment/extension opportunities.

We are so proud of the way our staff and students have taken ownership of this change in language and the way in which they recognise the benefits for themselves. Please have a chat with your child about the next steps for them in their learning.  

 

External School Review

I would like to take this opportunity to thank students, parents and staff for their support in our External Review Process this week. All Tasmanian Government Schools are externally reviewed every four years. The focus of the review is to evaluate school performance. Our staff were really excited about the review and receiving the commendations and affirmations in relation to our current work. Some of the aspects of our practice we were commended on included:

• the clear sense of optimism from all staff that every student will experience success.
• all staff taking collective responsibility for optimising student outcomes.
• creating a culture where caring and respectful interactions between staff, students, families, and community members are a feature.
• placing a high priority on student wellbeing utilising a range of strategies to support individual needs.

Once we share the external review finding with our School Association, we will then share their findings with the school community. However, I do want to highlight the way in which the review panel talked about our staff and students. They talked about the obvious pride in the school and the strong connection between staff and students. This was especially evident in the way the students talked about our WINN (intervention) blocks and how this enabled students to have access to the time and support they need to ensure they are at year standard or above. We will continue to inquire into how we can support the needs of all our students and ensure they are actively engaged in their learning.

 

2024 Staffing

Below is a list of our leadership team and principal teachers.

2024 Leadership Team

Principal – Mr Tom Murray

Assistant Principal – Mr Daniel Franks (Senior School)

Assistant Principal – Mrs Fiona Heazlewood (Junior School)

Assistant Principal – Mrs Danika Hess (Hillcrest Recovery/PLT Quality Assurance)

Assistant Principal – Mrs Sarah Elliott (PLT Quality Assurance/Year 10 English PLT)

Quality Teaching Coach (Literacy) – Mrs Anne Thomas

Year 7 AST – Miss Casey Frimley

Year 8 AST – Miss Karla Reeves

Year 9 AST – Mrs Josie Lutwyche

Year 10 AST – Mrs Sarah Elliott

11/12 AST – Miss Amber Loone

Year 7 Maths PLT – Mr Claye Symmons

Year 8 English PLT – Mrs Caitlin Baxter

HPE Team Leader – Mrs Kaylah Rataj

RP Team Leader – Miss Meg Lutwyche

Student Support Teacher – Mrs Tara Nathan

School Business Manager – Mr Max Brown (Term 1)

2024 Principal Teachers

7A Miss Frimley/Mrs Chynoweth

7B Mrs Pace

7C Mrs Rabe

7D Mr Symmons

7E Miss Howard

7F Mrs Cooper/Mrs Dalle-Nogare

8A Mrs Baxter/Miss Reeves

8B Miss Garner

8C Mr Yeates

8D Miss O’Halloran

8E Mrs Wiseman/Miss Crawford

9A Mrs Lutwyche/Mr Viney

9B Mrs Bellchambers

9C Mrs Allen

9D Mrs Stubbs

9E Mr Kelly

10A Mrs Elliott/Mr Hizartzidis

10B Mr Crabtree

10C Mr Connors

10D Mr Robinson

10E Mr McClymont

2024 Prefects

During the second half of last year, our current Year 10s worked through a leadership process to nominate for Prefect in 2024. These students stepped out of their comfort zone and put themselves through an application, speech and voting process. I would like to thank all students for embracing this opportunity and giving it their “Best Effort”. Below are the elected prefects for 2024.

Our prefects are:

NAPLAN 2024

Students will be sitting NAPLAN between 15 and 27 March 2023. The National Assessment Program-Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) assesses literacy and numeracy skills that students are already learning at school. On its own, NAPLAN is not a test that can be studied for, and students are not expected to do so.

NAPLAN is just one aspect of a school’s assessment and reporting process – it does not replace ongoing assessments made by teachers about student performance; however, students and parents may use individual results to discuss progress with teachers.

This is the first year NAPLAN will be held in March, having previously taken place in May. This change was made so school systems would have access to results earlier in the school year, so they can be used to inform teaching and learning plans for the remainder of the year.

 

Why NAPLAN is conducted online?

NAPLAN online provides a better assessment and more precise results.

One of the main benefits of NAPLAN online is that it uses tailored (or adaptive) testing. This means that students receive questions better suited to their abilities, so they can show what they know and can do.

Online testing also allows us to provide a wide range of accessibility options to support students with disability to access NAPLAN.

Feedback from students is that they find the online test more engaging.

 

Parent information brochures and other resources

Your questions answered on NAPLAN and what it means for your child: NAPLAN information brochure for parents and carers

The link will take you to the official National Assessment Program (NAP) website.

Resources (nap.edu.au) Please contact the school if you have any further queries.

 

 

School Association Annual General Meeting

The School Association Committee AGM will be held on Wednesday 13^th March at 5.30pm. We have vacancies for parents on this committee. If you would like to get involved, please collect a nomination form from the main office and submit it to the returning officer by Tuesday 12^th March.