It is hard to believe we are at the end of Term 1!  This term has focused on students developing relationships with their peers and teachers, establishing learning routines and developing an understanding of what teaching and learning looks like at Reece High School.  Well done to all students for their positive and productive start to the school year!

Staff Farewell

Mrs Anne Thomas is retiring at the end of this term after 38 years of teaching service. Anne started teaching at Reece High in 1986 in her first year as a teacher. Since then she has worked at Miandetta Primary for 8 years before returning to Reece in 2006. Anne has been a key leader at Reece High over her journey and has been a driving force on the Leadership Team for much of that time. Anne’s love of all things literacy has made an ever-lasting impact on so many of the students and staff she has worked with over her years of service. We wish Anne all the best in the next chapter of her life but also hope she will be in to see us regularly.

Progress Report

Progress Reports were sent out on Wednesday this week. 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.

NAPLAN

Well done to all students in Yr 7 and 9 who have recently completed NAPLAN testing. Seeing students put in their best effort and having a growth mindset about what they can do has been inspiring. We look forward to celebrating their results and growth later in the year.

Uniform Expectations

I would like to again thank parents and students for the effort they have made to make sure they are in full school uniform. The school uniform builds a sense of connectedness among students and to the school.  When worn well, it enhances how individuals and the school are viewed in the community.  Uniform also means that students can easily be identified as members of RHS, increasing safety and supervision for all students.  I would like to again highlight that black shoes with black laces are the required item for footwear from our uniform policy.  Thank you to the vast majority of students and families who have supported this in 2024.

As we head into the cooler months, we want to ensure all students have warm uniform options to wear. Along with the school hoodie, jacket and jumper, students can wear a black puffer jacket at break times and before/after school. Puffer jackets cannot be worn in any classes. I would also like to highlight that long sleeves of colour undershirts are not part of our uniform policy.  

Prefect Induction Assembly

We held our Prefect Induction Assembly today, with a number of families present to support their child in this important phase of their leadership. Their journey has been simply amazing since beginning high school in 2021. I have worked closely with many of these students over their high school journey and know the wonderful leadership qualities they possess. I am looking forward to working with this team throughout 2024.

Ryan Carroll was our guest speaker at our Prefect Induction Assembly and he delivered an inspiring speech to this group of young leaders. Ryan is a former NW Coast resident and worked here as a Physiotherapist. He moved to Hobart to work as Head of High Performance with the Tasmania Jack Jumpers. It was great to hear the work, effort, and determination it has taken to get the Jack Jumpers to win the championship this year. We would like to thank Ryan for his inspiring and thought-provoking words. I’m sure many students and staff resonated with Ryan’s message.

Seeking Kinman Homestay Hosts

From the 19^th July until the 2^nd of August, Reece High will be hosting 10 international students from Kinmen County (Tiawan). This is a fantastic opportunity for students from Kinmen County to live with a local family and enjoy a genuine cultural immersion. The Kinmen students will attend school each day with their host family  

Homestay Program

Government Education Training International (GETI) arranges homestay accommodation for international students in Tasmanian Government schools (grades 9-12).

Hosts can be single, a family or empty nesters – and you can choose to host for a period of time that suits your lifestyle.

Enrich your family life by sharing it with a young person from another culture.

Hosts provide:

• a safe, supportive & welcoming home environment
• a private, furnished bedroom inside the family home (not a separate dwelling)
• all meals and snacks
• use of utilities (i.e. water, electricity, internet and heating)
• use of facilities (e.g. TV, iron, vacuum cleaner, laundry)

GETI provide:

• Homestay resources and ongoing support
• 24-hour emergency telephone service
• An allowance of $310 per week (single room)

Give it a go, and embrace this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Register your interest here:

More Information to Become a Homestay Host - GETI (study.tas.gov.au)

Student Achievement

Year 8 student, Sianna, will be representing Tasmania at the Australian track and field Nationals in Adelaide competing on Sunday the 14th of April until the 19th of April. Sianna is competing in the:

Heptathlon U15s which is 7 events, 90m Hurdles, High Jump, Shot

 Put, 200m, Long Jump, Javelin and 800m. Wow! I feel worn out just reading the list of events.

Year 9 student, Isaac, was recently awarded the prestigious Australian Scout Medallion. This decoration demonstrates a Scout’s commitment to developing their independence and leadership skills and is the pinnacle award for the Scout Section.

To achieve this, Isaac had to show leadership, organisation, drive, determination, resilience, and a high-level practical scouting knowledge. Well done Isaac!

REMINDER - School Levies

School levies were expected to be finalised by the end of Term 1

Parents/Guardians are reminded of their obligations in relation to the payment of school levies. These payments are an essential portion of the school's income. 

Tax Invoices issued earlier in the Term give the option to complete payment online. Alternativley payments can be made at the school office via EFTPOS or cash.

We ask that any 2024 levies are tended to as a matter of urgency.

Thank you

Art students have been working hard over the past term with students completing their first artworks for the year. Here is a small snapshot of some of the artworks that have been created.

A massive thank you to all the staff, students and families who supported our Year 7 Camp at Payton Park. Great weather provided a wonderful backdrop for all students who participated in our Year 7 Camp.

On the Year 7 camp students completed activities organised by the prefects. These activities included challenges like obstacle courses and games like colour monsters. These activities spanned over the two days and every student got the chance to participate in all activities. The obstacle course ran by Aleira and I, encouraged students to be active, enthusiastic and use teamwork to complete each obstacle in the allocated time frame. The students also got to enjoy and participate in a lip sync battle where every camp tribe had to perform a song. This challenge needed teamwork and every tribe did a great job. Throughout the camp, tribes could earn themselves RAK (random acts of kindness). At the end of the camp the RAK was spent in an auction and tribes won some great prizes. The entire camp was a great opportunity to get students out of their comfort zone and to have a good time. – Jackson Doherty, Prefect

Science & Maths

In Maths, we have started our next unit, 2D Measurement, where we currently have a focus on finding the area of rectangles, parallelograms and triangles.  

In Science, we are coming to the end of our "Who Eats Who" unit.  The students have enjoyed their first opportunity to experience the laboratory and are looking forward to having more opportunities in there during next term. 

English & HASS

In English, we have started a unit on poetry, focusing on improving our choice of vocabulary when writing a Haiku.

In HASS, we are looking at the Deep Time History of Australia. The students have enjoyed looking into the Mungo Cold Case and piecing together all the evidence.

In week six, the Year 8 cohort ventured to Camp Banksia in Port Sorell for two days. This time away from school provided students with a fantastic opportunity to participate in a range of activities, requiring teamwork, strategising and lots of fun!

The Year 8 team wish to take this opportunity to thank the families for their ongoing support in encouraging students to participate in experiences such as this with their peers and staff.

We had a very eventful camp this year… Mrs. Baxter and Miss Garner set off the fire alarms in the kitchen cooking dinner, so we all had to ‘evacuate’ and wait for the fire brigade to arrive and give us the all clear.

We also had a number of students beg us to let them watch the footy (Carlton vs. Richmond) on the Thursday night of camp. The students had to go to bed before the game was over, but Franksy saved the day and gave them lots of score updates over the course of the night.

The staff wish to publicly acknowledge the outstanding efforts of students who went above and beyond in demonstrating our school values of respect, responsibility, inclusiveness and best effort.

Wow, how the time has flown! It is hard to believe we are in our final week of term 1 and what a term it has been. Our year 9 cohort have had a whale of time creating their persuasive essays, arguing whether or not orcas should be kept in captivity. One of the key focus areas for this unit has been on persuasive devices. Students have been learning about a range of different devices, from inclusive language, emotive language, rhetorical questions, to appealing to people’s sense of justice or fear. Below are some extracts demonstrating our year 9’s skills in persuasive writing. Here’s hoping they are not using these techniques at home to get themselves out of trouble or completing chores!

“Imagine being deprived of your freedom and brutally taken from your family, just to be imprisoned for life. This is the harsh reality for killer whales in captivity. It is no secret that killer whales are one of the world's most notorious and intelligent creatures. They are known for their free spirit and the love of the ocean. However, the harsh truth is that orcas in captivity experience many negative issues or impacts; common ones including the dark toll that it has on their physical and mental health and how they are also robbed of their rights to live. It is for these reasons that these beautiful, charismatic, and carefree creatures should most definitely not be kept in captivity. It is time we stop and think about our selfish actions.” Cooper J. 9B

“To fully understand the cruelty of killer whales in captivity, we need the go back to how it starts. Live captures. This is a process where a bunch of people with boats search for a pod of orcas in aim to take some babies. Once the pod is found, the boats chase the orcas until they can corner them. A net is placed around them, and the calves are picked out (Cowperthwaite, 2013). The trauma for this pod would be immense. A mother's own kid is suddenly taken with basically nothing she can do about it. Imagine someone forcefully took your own child and you'll never see them again! The calf cries out back and forth with the pod to the point where the crew gets emotional and some even breaking down realising how cruel this is (Crowe cited in Cowperthwaite, 2013).” Bailey C. 9B

“In closing, it is obvious that locking killer whales out of their natural habitat is a heartless practice and must be stopped. Captivity is so merciless that it destroys some of the strongest family bonds in the animal kingdom. Furthermore, killer whales suffer, as they develop exhausting mental health conditions that drive them to insanity. They not only harm themselves and each other while imprisoned, but they murder their trainers as well! As said by Jacques Yves Cousteau, “No aquarium, no tank in a marine land, however spacious it may be, can begin to duplicate the conditions of the sea.”” Erin B. 9A

Grade 10 students at Reece High School are stepping out of their comfort zones and engaging in a new and unconventional form of education - resilience training. The course, described as muddy, rocky, and challenging, is designed to help students develop mental strength and perseverance in the face of adversity. Through outdoor activities, physical challenges, and team-building exercises, students are learning to push past their limits and embrace discomfort as a key part of growth. Despite the tough terrain, participants are reporting increased confidence, improved problem-solving skills, and a greater resilience to stress. The course is proving to be a transformative experience for many, preparing them for the challenges they will undoubtedly face in the future.

By Tyson K and Sam Z

Notes from Nurse Mel…

With Term 1 at a close, most students would have settled
into their schoolwork and social groups by now.
If your student is finding it challenging to manage feelings of anxiety and overwhelm, and you are looking for resources and ways to help your student…
visit www.triplep-parenting.net.au for a free online course to give your family a toolbox of strategies, skills, and knowledge to manage anxious feelings and help ease the worrying.