Close to the end of another term and I can see this last week will fly by. We have a number of things happening over the next week including a public holiday on Thursday, 22nd September, in commemoration of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, and the announcement of industrial action from teachers on Wednesday, 28th September. Amid all of this, normal lessons will continue and we strongly encourage families to support students attending to ensure continuity of learning for your students.

Industrial action by Australian Education Union members – Wednesday 28th September

Please see below communication, just in, regarding this:

Dear Families,

The Australian Education Union (AEU) has directed its members to participate in two hour stop work action on Wednesday 28 September 2022 from 8.30am to 10.30am.

As a result it has been determined that all schools will be temporarily closed for educational instruction until after 10.30am on 28 September 2022. With a number of staff participating in the stop work action, the school will be unable to provide adequate duty of care for students and therefore we ask families to arrange to have students arrive at 10.30am. Please be assured that normal school arrangements will resume as the school reopens.

Please also note that bus operators will not be adjusting their timetables in response to the later school starting time.

We understand this will be an inconvenience for some families; it is regrettable that school closure action is necessary, however, we must be able to ensure adequate safety and supervision of students.  If you have concerns that you are unable to reconcile regarding these arrangements, please contact our office as soon as possible.

Reminder about student phone use

Parents are reminded that student phones are to be off and away all day at school.

If your child does contact you during the school day please direct them to seek assistance from the Student Support Centre in G Block. If students are unwell they should notify teaching staff who will support them in getting the office to contact home.

All parent contact to and from students should go through the office so that we as a school can ensure we have duty of care over your child while they are at school. We appreciate your support in advance.

Whole School Assembly

We are excited to share our second whole school assembly of the year with you all on Tuesday, 27th September. Please come along and help us celebrate our student successes in the Huonville Primary School's multipurpose room from 11.50am–12.40pm.

Wishing students, staff, and the community a happy and safe break at the end of week 10 next week and look forward to seeing you back next term.

Until Term 4,

Kindly,

Janelle Reeves
Principal

janelle.reeves@education.tas.gov.au 

The Prime Minister has declared that Thursday, 22nd September, 2022 will be a public holiday for a National Day of Mourning for Her Majesty the Queen.

School will be closed Thursday, but normal classes resume on Friday 23rd September, 2022.

If you scroll down and take a look on the left hand side of our Newsletter you will see a section named "Forms & Documents" with subtitles of "Misc", "Excursions" and "Policies & Procedure. Here you will find a number of relevant documents that you can view and download. Documents currently available are:

Misc: Bus Driver Information Teacher Roles & Email Addresses Excursions: State Champions Netball Tournament - excursion forms Policy & Procedure Acceptable Uniform Poster Administration of Medication Authorisation forms Communicable Diseases List ICT Resources Acceptable Use form Passenger Conduct Code for School Buses

We will continually add documents such to this section, so check here if you're looking for a particular form.

You and your child are invited ...
to come and have a conversation about your child’s learning!

Last time we had 39% of appointments booked – let's beat that this time!

Dear parent/guardian,

This year there have been some changes to the Department of Education Reporting Policy, in response to community feedback. On Tuesday, 27^th September, parents and carers will have the opportunity to meet to discuss student learning progress.

This is the fourth formal reporting opportunity this year following student progress reports in Term 1 and student mid-year reports and conferences in Term 2. Students will receive a final summative report late in Term 4.

Three-way Student Parent Teacher conferences enable:

• teachers to give detailed feedback about students’ demonstration of school values, learning behaviours and their achievement against the curriculum, as well as show examples of work students have produced and discuss methods of assessment.
• parents to share information to support their child’s learning and ask clarifying questions.
• students to participate in conversations about their learning.

Three-way Student Parent Teacher Conferences will take place on Tuesday of Week 10 this term: 27^th September, between 3.10pm and 5pm. Bookings can be made through Schoolzine through the following links:

When accessing the links, you will be prompted to enter an email address and password if you are already signed up to Schoolzine. If you are not, you will be prompted to create a Schoolzine account with an email address and password. Please note that the requirements for the password are that it must be at least 8 characters in length and contain letters, numbers, and a special character.

If you have any difficulties accessing the booking system, please contact the school office on 6264 0800 and we will be able to assist you.

We are looking forward to discussing your child’s progress with you.

Janelle Reeves
Principal

janelle.reeves@education.tas.gov.au 

With the holidays coming up it's good to have a supply of Rapid Antigen Tests at home in case you need them - these are available from the front office.

Hello all of our Year 7 families! We are in the second last week of Term 3. This year is going by so quickly! The students have been growing and learning so much this year, they have adjusted well to the high school routine. There was a lot of excitement when we handed out the options books for students, where they get to choose some options subjects for next year.

A good number of students have returned their forms which is important so that we can start to look at numbers for different options and start to shape our timetable for next year. If you haven’t got your form back in or you are needing another one, could you please contact me or the school office and we can organise one for you.

With it being close to the end of term, our expectations of our students stay the same: school uniform at school, attending school, being respectful to one another and helpful. I know the last week of term can be a struggle for some of our students, but the learning never stops at school. It’s important that your child is at school each day so they aren’t missing out on their learning.

After speaking with many of the Year 7 teachers, can I ask that you make sure your child is bringing something to write with each day. All students were given stationary at the beginning of the year, but we are finding a lot of students are not coming to class with something to write with.

English

As we come towards the end of term, our unit on the novel Holes comes to an end. The students have had the opportunity to watch the film, which was made in 2003, based on the 1998 book. The Grade 7s have explored the similarities and differences between the two and begun constructing both a book and film review. It’s been interesting to see the different perspectives of both the book and film from the students.

Bike Collective

This week I had the chance to go and see the Bike Collective. The Bike Collective program is run by Anthony from the PCYC and his trusty dog Tess, fixing and restoring bikes. I spoke to Lachlan Job about his experience of the Program and he told me how much he enjoys it. The students begin with a bike and a checklist, then work as a team to go over the bike and see which parts are unable to be repaired and which parts can be saved. The group work as a team to fix the bike and then sell it to the public. Bikes can also be purchased by the students using points they gather by attending the Program. A lot of the current bikes that the team work on are old tour bikes from Maria Island. Any bikes that are beyond repair are recycled and used as scrap metal. The students involved in the Program are enjoying the hands-on learning approach and getting to know the ins and outs of bikes.

Student/Parent/Teacher Interviews

We also have student parent teacher interviews coming up in week 10. It would be fantastic to see students and their families come to talk about their education. I would love to meet with many of you to discuss how your child is doing in Year 7. We had a great turn out last time we held interviews and it would be fantastic to see you all again. Please don’t hesitate to book an appointment through SZapp (instruction to download the Schoolzine App are further down in this newsletter).

Jessica Lowe
Grade 7 Coordinator

jessica.lowe@education.tas.gov.au 

On Monday, Grades 7-10 participated in Think U Know presentations around cyber safety. The presentation was delivered by Constable Anthony Bailey.

Think U Know is an Australian Federal Police initiative and the aim is that it will help equip our students to manage their online behaviour in a positive way.

Our students learned about:

• online safety and how it links to their day-to-day life and how to apply this to their online interactions.
• how to carefully consider the content of messages to determine the legal and ethical implications prior to sending.
• how to apply actionable steps to ensure their online safety and know where to go for help if something goes wrong.

Are you Share A.W.A.R.E?

For more information:

The Coffs Coast’s Screenwave International Film Festival is looking for the next wave of young filmmakers!

Enter a short film into the Nextwave Youth Film Competition for your chance to win awesome awards and prizes, including Best School, and have your film premiere at SWIFF 2023 on the Coffs Coast.

If you like being creative, and want to have a go at filmmaking, SWIFF wants to see what you can do!

The rules are simple:

• Make a film under five minutes
• Include the theme of TRANSFORMATION and a GREEN item in your film!
• Enter before 25th October 2022 to win!

For full terms and conditions, visit www.nextwavefilm.com.au

Giordan Pakes-Sunner
Communications Coordinator | SWIFF

giordan.pakes@screenwave.com.au

Mitch Robson
Youth Development Officer

youth@huonvalley.tas.gov.au 

Payment of 2022 School Levies can be made in a number of ways:

• At the school by EFTPOS, cash or cheque
• At Service Tasmania by EFTPOS, cash or cheque
• Through BPAY – using the Biller code and Reference on your invoice (you can also pay regular instalments)
• Using Centrepay, a service provided by Centrelink

If you feel this is a struggle due to budgeting, we encourage regular payments to reduce the debt - please contact the office to arrange this.

We still have a number of outstanding levies for 2021 and strongly encourage reducing this by making regular payments via Bpay (Bpay code is on your invoice).

Your assistance with this is much appreciated.

If you want tips, tools and ideas to parent your child to be resilient, confident and independent - this FREE summit is for you!

Register for your FREE ticket here: www.spectrumparentsummit.com

Mad Food Science - booking essential: phone the library on 6121 7010 to book; a small cost is involved.

The Department of State Growth (DSG) has released a Passenger Code of Conduct (the Code) for School Bus Services.

The Code sets out the expected standards of behaviour for students when using a bus.

It provides guidance and processes for bus operators and drivers to follow when a student breaches the Code, ensuring that all students, and breaches of the Code, are treated in a fair and consistent manner.

All operators of School Bus Services have adopted the Code as conditions of travel for the purposes of regulation 11 of the Passenger Transport Services Regulations 2013.

The Code has been developed by the Department of State Growth in consultation with the Tasmanian Bus Association (TasBus), the Department of Education, Catholic Education Tasmania and contracted school bus operators.

A shared understanding between all stakeholders of the expectations of students travelling on buses – and the consequences for any inappropriate behaviour – is essential for ensuring compliance with the Code.

• A link to the code is shown below  Link: Passenger Conduct Code for School Bus Services – Transport Services
• Contact: Kate Maynard on 6777 2534 or fleet@education.tas.gov.au

SZapp is a mobile app that’s free for parents to download. SZapp allows the school to send notifications to parents, as well as being a platform where the school's important information is available to parents anywhere, anytime, on their mobile device.

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…

Download Schoolzine for Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pidigi.schoolzine&hl=en_AU&gl=US

Download Schoolzine for Apple https://apps.apple.com/au/app/szapp/id982105479

Once you've downloaded the App, open it and search for Huonville High School by searching the region for Asia Pacific, then click on Huonville High School - your screen should look like this:

* If your child no longer attends HHS and you don't want to receive further newsletters or notifications, please email huonville.high@decyp.tas.gov.au