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APRIL | |
Wednesday 6th | Photo Back Up Day |
Thursday 7th | Leadership Induction Assembly |
Thursday 14th | Student Free Day |
End of Term 1 for Students | |
School Office Closes at 12.30pm | |
Friday 15th | Good Friday - Public Holiday |
Monday 18th | Easter Monday - Public Holiday |
MAY | |
Monday 2nd | Term 2 Commences |
School Association AGM
It was great to meet with our School Association again and work through our agenda for the AGM. I would like to personally thank Jackie Benson, Andrew Boskell, Janet Diamond and Leila Prowse for their support over the past 5 years. Their genuine care for students and preparedness to support others has been evident through all their conversations. They were instrumental in supporting student led projects such as our pump track, gaga ball pit and futsal courts. We wish them all the best for the future.
The executive for our School Association for the next 12 months are as follows.
Chair: Kylie Lunson
Vice Chair: Lisa Doherty
Secretary: Naomi Lawes
Treasurer: Courtney McVilly
We thank these people for being willing to take on key roles. We wish them the best.
We also welcome Josh and Nikki as our new prefect representatives and Miriam Beswick as our new parent representative.
COVID
Due to rising case numbers in Tasmania, the DoE has stated that we are no longer able to have any interschool events such as the Science and Engineering Challenge and Interhigh Swimming. We will let parents know as soon as there are changes to this directive. We are still able to continue with excursions rather than overnight camps. Our HPE Team have recently taken our Outdoor Education students on some extended walks. A big thanks to the HPE team and the parents who supported us in picking up their children into the early hours of the evening. The students were disappointed that they couldn’t camp overnight, however, hopefully still gained greatly from the experience.
Leadership Induction Assembly
Our Leadership Induction Assembly will take place next Thursday 11th April at 11am. Students who have been elected to the following positions will be invited to the assembly along with their parents.
- Prefects
- Grade 7, 8 and 9 Leaders
- HWB Committee
Families should receive their invite prior to Monday 4th April.
Progress Report
A Progress Report will arrive home towards the end of term. The purpose of the report is to inform parents about how their child is settling into school and to advise them of any early areas of concern. We are dictated to by the reporting template in how much information we can provide. If you would like to discuss information from the report, please contact the office and organise an appointment with your child’s teacher.
If your child has a Learning Plan, this will also be sent home along with the report. If you would like any changes/additions made to the learning plan, please organise a meeting with your child’s Principal Teacher.
Congratulations
Mikayla and Gabbi have been playing soccer since a young age and have been driven to reach the highest level. They train at least 3 times per week, not including their rostered games. Recently they were rewarded for their efforts in making the Devonport Strikers State League Team. This is the elite soccer competition in Tasmania and they have had an immediate impact in their first roster game, winning against the Kingborough Lions 3-2. There are only 3 students from Grade 10 who have been chosen as part of the team. Mikayla loves the competitive side of soccer and Gabbi thrives on being part of a successful team. We look forward to seeing their progress this year. Both girls are hoping to make the Tasmanian team in their age group. Congratulation girls.
Term One is coming to a rapid end and we are very impressed with the work students have produced so far this year. Students have finished their first unit in English and have written a persuasive paragraph. ‘Scare Me Silly,’ is the title of their current unit, which centres around narrative texts. They will be learning about the text structures and features that help create suspense in both visual and written texts. In addition to this, they will be learning how to write texts that contain powerful descriptions which create effective imagery for their reader.
In Maths, Grade 7 students have been focusing on solving problems involving fractions. This involves using different operations, finding equivalent fractions and simplifying them.
During HASS, students have been working with best effort to construct a scaled timeline of early hominid species and communicate valuable information about the beginning of the human species from the past. We are finishing their unit with an assessment piece that looks at why Lucy (a hominid skeleton) was a significant historical find. They will use primary and secondary sources to help them to answer this question. In Science, students are about to begin a unit involving separation techniques, where different substances will be separated while using various types of lab equipment.
Also, last week we had our much anticipated ‘Prefect Connection Day Auction’, during which teams could use their RAK to place bids on mystery items. There were many lucky prizes, as well as some not so fortunate prizes that teams won and enjoyed. It was fabulous to see students reconnect with the positive relationships and connections which they had formed from the day. A big thankyou to the prefects, Mr Franks and Mrs Rataj for their efforts and organisation in creating these opportunities for Grade 7!
Last week we had a Grade 8 assembly where we celebrated some of the fantastic learning and work that has been happening in Grade 8. Whilst Covid restrictions have resulted in some limitations on extra-curricular events it has been pleasing to see students making the most of the opportunities presented to them. This term Grade 8 students have participated in our Beach/Surf Day, swim trials, a Questacon Workshop and a Maths problem solving competition.
Students have been busy working on culminating tasks and assessment across all subjects and we encourage families to log onto Teams and OneNote to have a look at student work samples and assessment rubrics together.
Grade 8 Food Studies Report
For cooking in Term 1 we have made many different things. These include egg and bacon muffins with a side of wedges, and homemade pasta. We have looked at the importance of breakfast and it being a healthy breakfast. Currently we are designing our own healthy breakfast options and will be cooking these in the next week. Healthy options can be easily substituted to make what you eat healthier.
We have been working with yeast as well, making dough for both pizza and bread; we have learnt that yeast needs warm water and sugar to activate.
Another focus has been the way we present our meals and at the same time learning how to multitask in the kitchen. We are looking forward to cooking more new recipes each week.
Everyone has been enjoying cooking different recipes each week, and it is great seeing everyone putting in their best effort to make the meals we have all have created this term.
My Big Day with Geoff
On Tuesday 29th March, Grade 9 students were treated to a performance by Australian poet and author Geoff Goodfellow. Although his surname suggests otherwise, Geoff hasn't always been a good-fellow, and he uses
his past experiences as inspiration for his writing. By his own admission, Geoff wasn't a great student, and he left school at a young age. Despite m
any of his family members succumbing to addiction to hard-drugs, Goodfellow managed to stay (relatively) clean, and discovered poetry as an outlet for highlighting and discussing social inequality in Australia.
In block 1, the entire grade had the opportunity to listen to Geoff recite some of his poetry (colourful language included) and discuss his inspiration. Many of us were shocked to learn that quite a few of his poems are based on the lives and experiences of Tasmanians that he has met in Ashley Detention Centre and Risdon Prison. In block 2, 20 students participated in a writing workshop with Geoff wherein he discussed his writing process and helped us to create our own poetry. Geoff stressed the importance of writing from personal ex
perience as a way of being authentic in our prose, which was both challenging and cathartic in its own right. I thought poetry was super lame before this workshop, but now I can't get enough of the stuff!
Unlike Geoff when he was in high school, we (the Grade 9 students) have no intention of bashing our teachers, especially after organising such an enriching opportunity for us to participate in. We learned a lot from Geoff about drugs, violence and crime, and the horrendous impact these might have on people's lives. His seminar and workshop didn't just teach how to write better prose, they also taught us how to be better and more empathetic people.
By Ari
In the past two weeks the prefect board have been given our blazers, which are the maroon jackets we are wearing. This helps us to be easily seen for guidance, help, or to just have a chat for everyone at Reece.
We have also recently started selling toasties every Thursday in the canteen. This is because we have seen that the canteen doesn’t open on Thursdays. This tends to be something students seem to forget, and they end up not having lunch on Thursdays. So, the prefect board has come up with this to prevent the irritation that follows Thursday Block 3. The toasties are 2 dollars each, and we don’t plan to change the price any time soon.
We also have also been making posters to stop people from littering. Remember not to annoy Elliot! This is because we have realised that there are a lot of pieces of rubbish scattered around Reece, with us prefects picking up over 1500 pieces of rubbish. Fortunately, this has significantly decreased, for we recently picked up 1078 pieces of rubbish. We have also had a wide range of students and staff participating in our weekly Wednesday activities. It’s so great to see our school community getting involved, look out for us in hi-vis!
By Blaze and Toby
This year we also squeezed in a number of rotations to award our SURF CARNIVAL CHAMPIONS.
Champions have now received $20 gift vouchers in lieu of medallions in Grade Assemblies. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all students for their participation in the 2022 Beach Week and modified Surf Carnival.
Congratulations to our following champions:
GIRLS | Grade 7 | Grade 8 | Grade 9 | Grade 10 |
WINER | Erin | Asha | Leah | Abbey |
RUNNER UP | Ashlyn | Charlotte | Sophia | Aneeka |
BOYS | Grade 7 | Grade 8 | Grade 9 | Grade 10 |
WINNER | James | Tyree | Toby | Josh |
RUNNER UP | Bailey | Bryce | Sonny | Jai & Charlie |
Song Contest - Almost Eurovision Experience
Our student cast for the production this year have been working hard on all their roles for our upcoming show. Song contest is essentially a glitzy, comedic concert, full of “bad taste and cringe worthy moments” choreographed as a satire of Eurovision.
Students have been placed in countries: Germany, Iceland, Norway, Italy, Poland, Sweden, Russia and Ireland. Each country has a theme and song, and we are so impressed by our students throwing themselves into their roles and acting larger than life – majorly stepping outside their comfort zones!
Thursday afternoons have found us learning accents, waltzing, speaking (and singing!) in other languages, sorting costumes, learning choreography, learning to sing songs, filming, listening, and workshopping different ideas. We look forward to April 14 which will be the first time we throw ACT 1 together with the whole cast.
Every Wednesday morning the Breakfast Bar is open in the canteen courtyard for students and staff to come and have a free breakfast. There are a range of options to ensure students start the day off well with something to eat. We now even have a sign to remind students that the Breakfast Bar is on thanks to a talented Grade 10 Art student!
Special thanks to our School Chaplain Darra, Mr Franks and Mrs Rataj for their organisation each week of this awesome initiative.
School Nurse News – Vaping
E-cigarettes, also known as ‘vapes’, are electronic devices that heat a liquid to create an aerosol that users inhale. Using an e-cigarette is commonly called ‘vaping’. E-cigarettes come in all shapes and sizes and can look like a highlighter, a pen or USB. Some people mistakenly believe the ‘cloud’ from vaping is a vapour, like steam. It is really an aerosol, a fine spray of chemicals that enter the body via the lungs and small particles that can lodge in the lungs.
Vaping can cause significant harm to your body in the short and long term - even if you use non-nicotine e-cigarettes.
Short Term: | Long-term: |
Vomiting | Lung damage |
Nausea | Heart disease |
Coughing | |
Shortness of breath | |
Mouth irritation |
For more information or support go to: https://www.quit.org.au/articles/teenvaping/
And as always please feel free to drop in or contact me at the school if you need assistance.
Lisa Evans
School Nurse
“Like problem solving? Interested in creating but not sure where to start? Have an idea, but not sure how to help people understand it? Questacon is here to help!
These April school holidays between 27 – 29 April, Questacon will be flying into Hive Ulverstone to host an Invention Convention. Over three days you will come up with ideas and innovative solutions to a problem you care about. On the way there will be the opportunity to meet local experts, learn lots of new skills, and make connections with like-minded people from Northern Tasmania. The best part? It’s completely FREE!
Registrations are now open and places are limited so get in quick >>
What does an Invention Convention look like?