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MARCH | |
Monday 14th | Public Holiday |
Tuesday 29th | Grade 7 & 10 Immunisations |
APRIL | |
Friday 1st | School Photos |
Thursday 14th | Student Free Day |
End of Term 1 for Students | |
Friday 15th | Good Friday - Public Holiday |
Monday 18th | Easter Monday - Public Holiday |
MAY | |
Monday 2nd | Term 2 Commences |
COVID 19
We couldn’t be more thankful for the kind messages and support at the beginning of the school year. At present, we have had very few positive COVID cases in the school, however, we have had several students having to isolate due to being a close contact. We understand that this can often be a stressful time for families, however, the respect and support from families have been amazing. We have had great uptake from students accessing the Virtual Learning Centre. If your child engages in this learning, they will still be marked present at school.
We have also had a number of staff isolating at home; however, our classrooms have still been really settled, with students being focused on their learning. Following our school values of “Best Effort” and “Responsibility” has been evident at all times.
If your child is isolating at home due to being a close contact and then becomes COVID positive, please still contact our school office on 64 208100 as we need to record their absence correctly as this helps to inform public health on whether we may need to notify other class members.
School Values
Our school values support our community to understand the actions and behaviours we would like to see at Reece High School. Not only do they make us accountable to each other, but they also help to develop quality citizens. They have set the tone for an outstanding school culture.
Last year our head prefect, Matilda, engaged with our students to create a mural that depicted our school values. An artist in residence, The Glimmerman, supported is in creating an image that has now been brought to life in our canteen. I have placed our logos underneath the mural to give our families a visual representation of the work. I would like to thank all the students who took part in the process and especially Matilda for her strength and leadership.
Phone Policy
As you would be aware, all schools implemented a phone policy that supports the departments policy of “Off and Away, All Day”. The Tasmanian Government announced that all schools in Tasmania will operate under this policy. The policy states that students shouldn’t bring their phone to school. If they require their phone for after school, it should be handed into the front office at the beginning of each day. If students choose to keep their phone in their bag, staff take no responsibility if the phone goes missing or if it is damaged. If students are seen with their phone during the school day, the following consequences are put in place.
First offence – Phone collected from student and parent notified
Second offence – Phone collected from student and parent collects phone
Third offence – Phone collected from student and parent collects phone - Internal Suspension
Fourth offence - Phone collected from student and parent collects phone - External Suspension
HPE Team
I would like to take this opportunity to thank our HPE team for all their work in making sure our Beach Week was a great success. They have put in so much time and effort into guaranteeing our students receive the best possible learning experiences. I would also like to thank the students for making the most of the occasion and putting in their “Best Effort”. If your child was absent for any of these days, can you please encourage them to have a growth mindset and make the most of every opportunity available to them?
Congratulations to those students who took part in our swim trials. At present, Interhigh Swimming has been postponed, however, we will use times from this event to announce swim champions for each grade. We have an award system that helps to recognise those students who make the most of their opportunities and participate in the extra-curricular activities that we offer at RHS. We know that there is a strong correlation between participation and wellbeing, so please encourage your child to always give their best and see opportunities as a way to learn, not a way to fail.
School Uniform
It is a privilege to walk around the school and see 100% of our students wearing their uniform with pride. I would like to thank parents for the effort they have made to make sure students are in full school uniform. The uniform builds a sense of connectedness among students and to the school. When worn well, it enhances the way in which individuals and the school are viewed in the community. Uniform also means that students can easily be identified as a member of RHS, increasing safety and supervision for all students. I would like to highlight that black shoes (with black shoelaces) are the required item for footwear in our uniform policy. We thank parents and students for supporting us in making sure everyone is wearing their uniform.
Adult Mentors
Andrew Fuller is a renowned child psychologist who states that there are 3 major factors which have the greatest impact on students at school.
- The value their parents place on education
- Support from friends
- Having an adult outside the family take a positive interest in them.
Point three highlights the need to put in place processes where students can connect with adults. If you are interested in being a mentor once a week for approximately 1hr, to help support a student at school, can you please contact the office on 64 208 100 and request an appointment with our chaplain, Darra Boerma. The once per week session will most likely be focusing on an area of interest for the child. Establishing these relationships can have a significant impact on a person’s life.
Congratulations Tyson
5 years ago, Tyson took part in the 3/4 expo when he attended Devonport Primary School. He chose Judo as he had never competed in Judo before. After this session he was immediately hooked. He then talked to his family about attending sessions after school. His coach is Len Boultbee and Tyson said he is a big reason why he is able to compete at such a high level. Last week Tyson travelled to Canberra to compete in a the “Canberra International” which saw elite judo athletes from around Australia attend. He stated that it was a great experience and he ended up finishing 4th in the under 55 kg senior boys’ category. This is obviously an amazing result, which has ignited his passion to keep competing on the mainland. In June he will travel to the Gold Coast to compete in the Australian National Championships. We look forward to seeing his progress in the sport. If he continues to give his best effort, we know he will achieve great results.
Term 1 is really flying! We can’t believe that we are nearly halfway through the term. The Grade 7s enjoyed a great day at the Bluff, completing the St John Ambulance 'First Aid’ High School Awareness course, using the kayaks and surf boards in water activities, and participating in beach flags and volleyball.
Students are working towards completing their first units of work for English, Maths, Science and HASS.
English – Students are learning to become persuasive writers, with a focus on using high modality words and the use of persuasive devices in their arguments. We look forward to reading the structured PEE paragraphs they will develop in this writing unit titled, ‘Convince Me.’
Maths – Students have been refreshing their skills on number; including BIDMAS and indices. Quicksmart and multiplicative thinking are the current focus in Intervention lessons. Next week, we will be completing our first assessment task on number. A measurement unit of work will be our next focus.
Science –Students have been studying the different ecosystems, food webs and food chains within a given biome. Students are now learning how humans impact on these ecosystems.
HASS – In History, students have been learning about primary and secondary sources and how to read and construct a timeline.
Grade 8 students have been working hard on their first units of work in each subject. Over the next couple of newsletters, we will outline what they have been learning about in each subject. This week students took home a Welcome to Grade 8 letter, outlining all of the staff working with our Grade 8s. This letter provides contact details and an outline of the staff who teach each principal class.
English
In English, Grade 8 students are focusing on improving their capacity to write well structured paragraphs and accurate sentence structure. They have taken notes from viewing and reading about Malala and then worked through scaffolds to answer the question – “Why is Malala an inspirational person?”. The feedback from this pre-assessment will guide students in structuring a longer piece of writing on a chosen recipient of the Australian of the Year Award. Students will be required to substantiate why their chosen identity is an outstanding example of someone who has won this award.
HASS
Our focus in HASS has been the changes in our world during the Middle Ages – a period of history that spans from the end of the Roman Empire to the mid-1500s. Students learn about the decline of the Roman Empire, the Feudal System, and the role of the Church as well as the influence of people such as Galileo and Sir Isaac Newton, on modern structures and advances in scientific thinking. Students learn the importance of ‘causes’ and the resulting ‘effect’ and therefore the way change occurs in our world. The invention of the printing press ‘caused’ a lot of significant changes and this had a great ‘effect’ on people's knowledge and thinking.
Over the last three weeks, our Year 9 students have adapted well to the senior school, including the use of laptops, new options, new teachers and the new normal of wearing masks inside. Students recently participated in our beach day; they enjoyed being outdoors without their masks and were active whether swimming, boarding, or just going for a walk along the foreshore.
Our Maths and English targeted intervention classes have started back up twice a week. In Maths, the focus has been on dealing with negative numbers in different contexts to help students use them in all of our upcoming units. In English, we have focused on reading comprehension and the skills needed for students to interpret and make inferences from reading.
One of the Year 9 teaching team’s goals is to foster independence in students. This, over time, will mean they take more responsibility for their learning and behaviour. For the first half of the term, we focus on students being responsible for knowing where they should be for intervention classes and their ability to transition from class to class calmly and orderly.
Loaves and Fishes
Over the past few weeks, Grade 10 students: Skye, Bryce, Jordan, Piper, Harry, Lukas, Corey, Ow-Anne and Seth have had the opportunity to visit and work with the lovely employees at Loaves and Fishes.
Loaves and Fishes are a fabulous organisation whose vision is for all Tasmanians to have access to enough affordable, safe, nutritious and tasty food. They rescue surplus food from landfill, repackage and enhance what they are given, including making ready-to-eat meals and school meals. They then deliver free state-wide through almost more than 350 partner agencies.
Students experienced working in a state-of-the-art kitchen and catering for very large numbers of people. A highlight for some was chopping up onions, and for others it was the delicious rice and chicken lunch pack they were given for their hard work.
Natasha Armitstead
Transition Officer
Grade 11 for 2022 has hit the ground running!
In Workplace Maths we have been learning about money, area and converting units of measurement, while Career and Life Planning has us looking at self-care and how we can develop a good work/life balance.
Our Maritime and Seafood Industry course has so far focused on communication and safety in the maritime and seafood industry. We’ve had a guest speaker come to talk to us and we are looking forward to the practical components starting.
In English Applied we have been learning about documentaries and how they can be used to manipulate the people watching them. One of the documentaries we watched was Blackfish, which is about an orca who was kept in captivity. As we watched it, we discussed the size of the tanks Tilikum was kept in most of the time, and worked out a scale model so we could understand it properly.
Here’s a photo of Charlie in the scale model of his ‘tank’.
Beach Week & 2022 Surf Carnival
Thank you to all staff and students for your enthusiasm and excitement during Beach Week in 2022.
Students were guided through water rotations aimed at developing, improving and refining their practical skills and reminded of how to keep themselves safe in aquatic environments.
The key learning focus for each Grade are detailed below:
Grade 7: Safe entries, PFDs, survival swimming, introduction to First Aid with St Johns
Grade 8: Hazard identifying walk, draw a line in the sand planning, basic first aid
Grade 9: DRSABDCE and wet/dry rescue technique practice
Grade 10: Small group First Aid scenario responses while walking to Coles Beach
There are some spot prizes selected randomly for those who attended Beach Days.
This year we also squeezed in a number of rotations to award our SURF CARNIVAL CHAMPIONS.
Champions will receive $20 gift vouchers in lieu of medallions from Canoe and Surf and will be recognised in Grade Assemblies throughout the term.
Please keep an eye on the Reece High School Instagram page for updates and to celebrate our winners.
Prefects have had 2 meetings so far this year and have spent time collaborating and discussing ideas for 2022. Some highlights so far have been, hosting 2 separate lunchtime activity days in which over 120 different students participated and going to the beach with Grade 8s on their Beach Week afternoon and making connections with these students. Prefects are now busy planning ways to connect with Grade 7 students.
Last week was a significant week for our Prefect Board as they undertook the process of electing their Head Prefects for 2022. Mr Armitstead, Mrs Rataj and Mr Franks were blown away by the quality speeches and interviews of all nominees for this position.
We are excited to announce that our Head Prefects for 2022 are Josh and Nikki.
Josh is very focused on building a strong team where everyone is able to contribute and perform their roles to the best of their ability. Nikki has held a range of leadership positions outside school and is very excited to bring her experience in organisation, and setting and achieving goals to the board.
Congratulations Josh and Nikki. We can’t wait to see the amazing work you, and the entire Prefect Board, do this year.
Welcome to 2022.
Hi, my name is Gill Brazendale and I work at Reece High School as an Aboriginal Education Officer.
At Reece High School I am your first contact for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.
I am available by appointment Monday to Friday from 8:45am (just contact me via email or through the school office 64208100)
A bit about my role:
- I assist teachers and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students (from year 7 -12) in and out of the classroom including attendance, participation, excursions, cultural activities and community-based access.
- Providing information for both parents and students in regards to Centrelink, Abstudy and organisations that cater for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders eg Number 34; Tiagara; Six Rivers Aboriginal Corporation; Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre and Tas TAFE training programs. (just to name a few)
Aboriginal Education Services
Aboriginal Educators play an important role in education for staff, learners and the Aboriginal community. An understanding of local culture and strong community ties contribute to the improvement of educational outcomes for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal learners. AEYEWs are based in Child and Family Centres (CFCs) and work closely with families of Aboriginal children from birth to five years of age to engage them in early years initiatives that enhance their children’s learning.
AEOs and AEWs support teachers and Aboriginal learners in the areas of wellbeing, access, participation, engagement, transition points including pathways to post-school options and in contributing to a rich curriculum inclusive of Aboriginal content and perspectives across the curriculum.
Important Dates to remember
Kind regards,
Gill Brazendale | Aboriginal Education Officer | Aboriginal Education Services
Department of Education | Reece High School, 41-43 Middle Road, Devonport
64 20 8100 | Gillian.Brazendale@education.tas.gov.au
Check out Aboriginal Education Services new collection of online multimedia resources designed to assist the teaching of Tasmanian Aboriginal histories and cultures here >>> www.theorb.tas.gov.au
We acknowledge the Tasmanian Aboriginal people as the traditional custodians of this land, on which we learn and work together.