Term 4 Week 6

I can’t believe it is week 6 already. Only four weeks until we break for summer holidays. We always know that this term is a busy and quick one but this year it seems even more so. There are so many things happening each week as students complete final assessments, exams, participate in transition activities, sports events continue to take place and celebration events are being planned.

Teachers continue to work collaboratively in their Professional Learning Teams (PLTs) focused on improving student learning outcomes of all students and the School Wide Positive Behaviour Support Team (SWPBS) is supporting the wellbeing aspects of school life and learning.

Celebrating Student Success

On Thursday we had a number of grade 7/8 teams participate in a Beach Volleyball Tournament at Kingston Beach – and excitingly one of our teams won! The Grade 8 girls team won 3 out of their 4 games, made it through to the Grand Final and won! Huge congratulation to the team, I hear they were very excited when they returned to school. I also heard from Mr Cowlard that he was very impressed that you demonstrated ‘Growth’ in relation to your serving skills during the course of the day. Well done to all participants for getting in and having ago. Looking forward to seeing some pictures next newsletter and also hearing about how the Grade 9/10 teams go on Friday.

Schoolzine App

We are getting lots of really useful feedback from our parents and the community that our communications need to be better. Given this we would like to encourage everyone in our community to add the Schoolzine app to their mobile device and add Huonville High. While we have had this app for a while, as it is connected to the package that provides us with our website and newsletter, it has come to my attention that people don’t know about it. Moving forward we will be enhancing our communications by using the Schoolzine app more. The Schoolzine app is a mobile way to access information about the school, for us to communicate with parents, and for parents to contact us. It also links with our website. Some of the features and applications that are already available on the app or will be added in the coming weeks include:

• Link to call the school directly or to access the school website
• Comprehensive school calendar that will be continually updated
• Forms and Documents – which will provide digital access to all forms sent home in hard copy
• Newsletter subscription link and archive of all previous newsletters
• News Feed – which will allow us to send notifications as a reminder of things that are coming up
• Bus details
• Staff email contacts
• And much more…

We look forward to the use of this app being able to enhance our communication with home. Let us know what you think.

Details of how to download the app are contained within this newsletter.

Safer Student Bathrooms Project

We recently received some great news that we have been allocated some funding to renovate some of our student bathrooms. On Monday Jenny Coulson (School Business Manager) and myself met with a representative from Facility Services and began planning for this project. We will provide you with more details as we know more, but are excited that we can look forward to a major improvement of some spaces as they are in urgent need of renovation.

School Association meeting

The School Association met last Thursday night to discuss ways in which they can support the school and programs. This is currently a very small group and we would love to have more attend. I would personally relish the opportunity to meet more of our parents, so come along. Next meeting will be Week 2 in Term 1 – Thursday, February 17^th.

Make sure you check the Calendar on our website or the app for all the events coming up before the end of the year and look out for reminder messages that come through the Schoolzine app.

Until next time,

Janelle Reeves
Acting Principal

Huge congratulations to the Year 11/12 students, award recipients and staff who on Thursday, 28^th October 2021, celebrated the end of 2021, marking, amongst other things, their wonderful successes at the Huon Valley Trade Training Centre.

It was an exciting, highly professional night, which showcased achievements throughout the academic year. Also welcoming the wider community, it was a real opportunity to introduce the high quality young people graduating from Huonville High School.

Embodying the school vision, Together We Learn, students were given awards based on academic outcomes which also captured the school values. In particular, we want to congratulate the following award recipients:

Special thanks to all the staff who attended, and the Year 11/12 team who put together such a wonderful event.

Alison Asome
Year 11/12 Team

Congratulations to our Years 11 & 12 students who have now successfully finished up their studies for 2021!

In Week 3, we saw them celebrate their achievements at the HVTTC in a cocktail-themed soirée. In Week 4, we wished them all the best in their future endeavours be it further studies, work experience, an apprenticeship or full-time work!

In any event, goodbye and good luck to them all!

I just wanted to share a few images from the last fortnight: the Grade 8s have been working on an Asian Foods unit.  You can see a stir fry as well as an Asian fusion meat pie.

The grade 9/10 had the great opportunity of having Luke from Bruny Island Cheese come to speak to my classes about cheese-making. He showed us how to make ricotta and of course gave us some amazing samples of their cheese to try. 

Finally, there were some great designs of Swiss Rolls, and our lab technichian, Romea, gave her seal of approval!

Enjoy!

Jason Lunden
Food Technologies Teachers

Earlier this term, Howard, the school bus driver, was setting out on his usual Monday morning route between Garden Island Creek and Huonville High School. This same November day also marked his 71^st birthday. To his surprise, when he had picked up the last students in Cygnet, he was treated to a birthday cake and a card with sentiments from everyone on board. Howard shared the cake out with everyone who was interested and kept some aside for those who weren’t on the bus that day. In the card he was thanked for his kindness, safe driving and making everyone’s mornings and afternoons better. He was also told “you need a gold medal” and to “have a great time being old”.

When asked about these humorous and heartfelt well wishes, Howard explained, “What I try to do is make a friendly atmosphere”, and explained that he had put effort into remembering everyone’s name on board when he said good morning. The difference he saw was that “They used to get on the bus without any smiles, but now they all smile and say hello ... Everyone always has so much time for each other … What I’ve noticed with the kids is that they will always be prepared to clean up after themselves or others. Students even offer to wipe the windows clear when they are foggy.”

As one of Howard’s regular passengers and a teacher at Huonville High School, I see this mutual respect, safety and responsibility shown on a daily basis. I think Howard put it best when he said, “It’s not just me that’s running the bus, it’s all the kids too.”

Tristan McAfee
HASS/MacqLit/Support Teacher

Prader-Willi Syndrome Information Session

On Monday, 15^th of November, sixteen staff members took part in an information session about the genetic condition known as Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS). PWS is a rare genetic disorder impacting a person’s development and growth. The session was run by Anne Sakaris, who is a local Tasmanian and parent of an adult with PWS. Through her lived familial experience of PWS as well as facilitating family support networks and delivering training sessions, Anne brought a wealth of knowledge to the session, with several staff members staying back into the late afternoon to learn more. In attendance were classroom teachers, teacher assistants, support teachers as well as the parent of a student with the condition who provided valuable insights for staff.

Anne gave advice on the cognitive, social, learning and health supports that people with PWS require and the opportunities that consistent and ongoing support can provide them. HHS staff were grateful for being informed about how to best approach behaviour management rather than behaviour modification to better cater for the needs of students with PWS.

On behalf of HSS the Support Team would like to thank Anne for braving the rain, sleet and snow and volunteering her time to support us to support our students with disabilities.

Tristan McAfee
Support Teacher

Huonville High’s school vision statement begins with the phrase, Together We Learn. This statement encapsulates not only our commitment to be a learning organisation, but also the way we demonstrate this. This applies not only to our students, but also guides the work that our staff undertake.

Throughout this year, HHS teachers have been working together to improve the collective efficacy of our teaching team. This work has involved examining a number of evidence bases about what best-practice looks like in our profession. We found that reducing in-school variability has a huge impact on student learning outcomes. This led to staff working collaboratively to consider what this common approach might look like in our context, based on our staff’s professional knowledge of our students, their needs and how they learn. This work has been key in bringing together the school’s key priorities of teaching and learning and a positive learning culture and has resulted in the drafting of the HHS Common Instructional Model.

The CIM (Common Instructional Model) represents a huge commitment to learning and collaborative work by our staff and we are so grateful to the whole team for how they have embraced such a challenging and exciting process. The CIM means that teachers at HHS have agreed on what elements of every lesson are essential to support student learning and are undertaking ongoing professional learning about each aspect of the model. Essential components of our teaching and learning program include:

• Preconditions for learning, including: a calm, orderly environment which reflects our school values, strong relationships, professional knowledge of both students and content, a culture of high expectations and embedded metacognitive strategies
• A common approach to beginning a lesson, including: Welcoming and positive greeting, warm up activities, purposeful, relevant learning goals
• Gradual release of responsibility, including: explicit instruction and expert modelling of the skill being taught, collaborative learning opportunities for students to learn from each other, independent practice for students to demonstrate their learning
• Opportunities to review and reflect on learning and clarify next steps
• A learning cycle which uses student data to inform next steps in teaching and learning

HHS has a diverse staff in terms of curriculum background and experience and the development of the CIM has been an opportunity for all of these voices to engage in rigorous and respectful professional debate. We are so excited to have arrived at the point where we are beginning to implement some aspects of our model. Staff are working at their own pace, on their own goals but the collective commitment to improving teaching and learning all the time is evident right across the school. Ask your child what warm-ups different teachers have been trying out!

One way that staff are supporting each other to try new things and improve their classroom practice is through peer visits. Through a buddy system, teachers are taking the opportunity to learn from one another to see what strategies are working in other people’s classrooms. Students have likely been noticing teachers popping up in one another’s classrooms. We can’t wait to see where the work takes us as Together We Learn.

Jen Grubb
AST

The HHS School Association has been meeting regularly throughout the year and have supported some exciting projects in 2021:

• stage improvements and costumes/props for “Get Wicked” production
• uniforms for the uniform library
• Term 4 rewards day

Next year we will be supporting school playground improvements, including new shaded seating areas and major art project.

We meet in the staff room from 5:30-6:30pm in week 2 and week 7 of each term. Look out in the newsletter and schoolzine app for upcoming meetings.

We welcome all new parent and community members. We have a healthy budget so we are not looking for help with fundraising. We are looking for members with ideas for how the School Association can make Huonville High School an engaging, exciting and rewarding place for the students and staff.

Please contact the chair for more information or to give feedback Eloise.foo@utas.edu.au

MONDAYS @ CAFÉ KARMA

Time: from school drop off until 10am

Where: Cafe Karma - entry is between the Primary School and High School
at the back of the High School - if you're unsure where to go, ask at the front office at the High School.

Sign in: at Café Karma.

* Get to know other families       * Coffee/tea/biscuits provided

* Chat about parenting topics      * Come along and have some fun

* Find information on local services and resources                

If you have any questions, please email narelle.chester@education.tas.gov.au

Narelle Chester
Chaplain, Huonville High School

Parents/carers, if you need to collect your student/s for appointments through the school day, or to leave school early, please write a note explaining this, stating the time you wish to collect them, and give it to your student to give to their teacher who will allow them to leave class and meet you at the front office for signing out.

This will save you time when you come to collect your student as we don't generally use the PA system to call individual students to the office.

Thank you.

The Tasmanian Government is working hard to provide the COVID-19 vaccination to all Tasmanian’s aged 12 and above.

As you may be aware there have been a number of clinics run in colleges to vaccinate students in years 11 and 12. There will also be a small number of regional high schools that will host a vaccine clinic but this is not something that will be occurring at high schools in larger population centres at this point in time.

However, there are a number of different options available for parents to arrange for students aged 12 and above to be vaccinated, these include:

1. At one of the community clinics across the state. Appointments can be made by visiting coronavirus.tas.gov.au/booking or calling the Public Health Hotline on 1800 671 738.
2. At participating GPs - contact your local GP directly to make a booking.
3. At selected pharmacies  - find one near you at findapharmacy.au

Vaccination is the best way to protect yourself, your family and the wider community from COVID-19. Don’t wait. Vaccinate.

Young people under the age of 16 are encouraged to attend their vaccination appointment with a parent or guardian.

There are a number of places where you are able to find more information in relation to the COVID-19 vaccine. You may like to look at this information with your child to support them in understanding more about the vaccination:

• Information from the Tasmanian Government about COVID-19 vaccines
• Information from the Australian Government about COVID-19 vaccines