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- From the Principal
- End of Year Presentation Evening - 18th December
- Inter-high Athletics
- Careers Day at Huon Acquaculture
- Ethics Olympiad
- 2019 DoE Student Award
- Huon FM's School Report
- Savings in energy costs!
- Another award for Nel!
- 2020 Levy Information
- eSafety Gift Guide
- One way to report online abuse
- Healthy Thinking Workshop - 10th December
- Tassal 10 Fun Run
- 2020 School Calendar
- Ballawinne Festival
- Raising Boys Raising Girls - Steve Biddulph
- Free weekend camp - 20-22nd March, 2020
- Szapp for iPhone
As the final full newsletter of 2109, it is appropriate to look back over the major achievements as a school for the past 12 months and project what we will be focussing on for 2020.
2019 started in an extremely disrupted state, with the bush fires that were ravaging the Huon region seeing HHS supporting families and other schools to begin the school year. The support of Learning Services South and various other Departments saw clear communication and support for the school, which minimised any actual disruption to learning programs. The main disruption to HHS was with the 11/12 team who relocated from the Advanced Learning Centre so that Franklin Primary School could have a place to start lessons. The ALC became a kindergarten once again, albeit for a few days.
On the first day, we found that the majority of students were present, keen and ready to start classes.
The major focus as a school for the first half of the year was developing our School Values, with thanks to Lachlan Joyce for his leadership in this area. We also started the year, as a staff, including a number of non-teaching staff who chose to come along, with a day of professional learning on the last Friday of the Christmas break. Louise O’Kelly, a former Tasmanian educator and now interstate consultant in School-Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS) helped us begin our journey of embedding this thinking into our school culture.
Parent/community information sessions ensured that the community was able to be involved in identifying and establishing the values we hold, as a school, for our learners.
A second day of professional learning at the start of the year saw us join up with all of the other Huon schools with over 70 teachers looking at strategies to engage our students, K-10, in becoming more capable writers. This continues on from the work we have been undertaking over the past 18 months with a focus on improving literacy across the region.
The clear spike upwards in our 2019 Year 7 and 9 NAPLAN Writing data provides clear evidence that we are on the right track with improving teacher knowledge and capabilities. At the same time, we know that we can do better in both literacy and SWPBS, and hence the focus goals in our 2020 School Improvement Plan are deliberately aligned to these.
2020 will see teachers explicitly working in Professional Learning Teams with strategic focus on knowing our students and what they need to know. Learning teams will work with senior leaders to look at student data, prioritise learning needs and plan accordingly with the explicit purpose of improved student learning.
We will also be moving into the next phase of improving our school culture, with work already started on establishing a clear and co-constructed school vision and commitment to our community.
Presentation Assembly
We have broken with the normal procedure for 2019 and will be holding our Year 7-10 Presentation Assembly from 6.00pm-7.00pm, Wednesday, 18th December.
This is a response to parent and community feedback where the afternoon event has often clashed with one of our feeder schools. By holding an early evening assembly we are anticipating that many more parents/carers and family members may be able to attend to help celebrate the outstanding achievements of our students.
Following the assembly, a final newsletter will be produced to acknowledge the students who were presented with an award.
Geoff Williamson
On Tuesday, 19th November, a group of students from grade 7-10 travelled to the Domain Athletics Centre to represent Huonville High School in the annual Southern Inter-high Athletics Carnival.
We competed against seven other schools including: Bayview, Cosgrove, Districts, Montrose Bay, New Norfolk, Jordan River and Sorell High School.
All of the students performed extremely well in each of their respective events, each demonstrating the utmost level of sportsmanship and teamwork.
A huge congratulations goes out to all the boys, as they ended up winning their overall group with a total of 1,068 points.
The girls also did an amazing job, placing 3rd overall with 937 points – only 6 points behind second place.
Some honourable mentions go to all the students who filled in for each of the events, especially the grade 8 girls. Also for the grade 10 boys 4x100m relay team for their remarkable job at winning their division.
Overall Champions!
In light of all these outstanding results, we also managed to achieve something that hasn’t been done for several years. As a team we were able to win the Inter-high Athletics Carnival by over 50 points, allowing us to become the overall champions for 2019. This is a massive achievement, and as a school we should all be extremely proud of what we have accomplished.
Overall, it was a fantastic day with all students demonstrating the school’s values at the highest level. Congratulations to everyone involved.
Richard Cowlard
Careers Day at Huon Acquaculture
On Friday, 15th November, 2019, year 9 and 10 students attended a careers day hosted by the Beacon Foundation at Huon Aquaculture.
Speakers from various industries attended, providing opportunities for students to ask questions about their respective jobs. The students did a fantastic job of listening and they were rewarded with a a smoked salmon luncheon. We also had a look at the salmon pens.
Thanks to everyone involved.
Jason Lunden
On Tuesday, 3rd December, five of our students competed in the Ethics Olympiad at the Friends School. The Ethics Olympiad is a debating-style event held in each capital city nation-wide. The students involved trained for nearly three months in preparation and competed against seven private schools and one public high school. Their training involved preparing responses to ethical cases with Mr Dan Bailey (Teacher) and Mrs Alison Asome (Practical Experience teacher and current lawyer).
The students performed admirably on the day involved in arguments ranging from "To what extent should the human race protect itself if it comes at the expense of others?", through to "Can you just stop being friends with someone?"
Congratulations to Macy Killingback, Mika Vermont, Aisha & Brioni Fisher and Chris Garrad! Not only did they account for themselves and the school proudly, but their behaviour and sportsmanship on the day was second-to-none.
A very proud teacher here wishes to thank them for the commitment and performance on behalf of the rest of the school.
Dan Bailey
Congratulations to Seb Casey, pictured receiving his NAPLAN award for Most Improved from the Minister for Education and Training, Jeremy Rockliff,
on the 4th November.
Follow the link to hear Josh and Lara-Jade's Huonville High School report on Huon FM Radio
Guess what we've saved in energy costs from our solar panels at Huonville High School? ... $40,000 in two years!
We produced 158.72 Mwh (saved $36,809) from the 42kw system on the main buildings and 15.83 ($3173) Mwh from the 6.2kw panels on The Hub (and that's without the panels on the Trade Training Centre!).
Thanks to those students and staff that supported the Swap Shop last week. The students hope to make it a regular feature next year.
Some interesting research data from the UK found that percentage contributors to Greenhouse gases in schools were:
- Transport 17%
- Energy 40%
- Goods and Services 42%
- Waste 1%
We are investigating percentages in Tasmanian schools ... what is your guess?
Nel Smit
Nel was awarded the prestigious University of Tasmania Teaching Excellence Award, presented by Dr David Moltow, lecturer, Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania.
Photo and article originally printed in the Huon News, Wednesday, 4th December, 2019.
Be smart and secure when choosing tech gifts for children and young people this year with this eSafety Gift Guide. The Guide helps inform parents and carers about what to look out for with tech gifts and provides practical advice on how to stay safe, including:
- setting strong passwords
- turning off location settings and
- limiting the amount of personal information shared.
Check the safety of popular tech gifts like drones, smart toys, smartphones, tablets and even wearables for pets before making your purchases this holiday season.
One way to report online abuse
The eSafety Commissioner has a new site where anyone 18 years and under can report cyberbullying, image-based abuse, and illegal and harmful content. There is also a quick exit button, so you can avoid others seeing that you are on this site. The link to go to is:
Or just go to the e-safety site and click on the report abuse link:
Angela Cooke
The school's office will re-open after Christmas on Monday, 20th January,
from 9am - 3.30pm, for payment of levies and purchase of school uniforms.
For enquires, phone the office on 6264 0800.
South East Tasmanian Aboriginal Corporation
Introduces
"Young Dark Emu"
A highly acclaimed book for young readers by award-winning author, Bruce Pascoe.
SETAC invite you
to an opportunity to meet the author and learn more at the
Ballawinne Festival
FREE
Cultural Day at Cygnet
11am - 3pm, Monday, 13th January, 2020
This is an ideal school holiday fun activity with film and dance.
Young Dark Emu books may be purchased on the day.
Thanks to Black Swan Books, a percentage of sales will go to assist SETAC.
Author, Bruce Pascoe, will be there for signings from 12 noon.
Don't miss out!
See below for other events and details, including:
An Evening with Bruce Pascoe
at the Port Cygnet Cannery
6pm Monday, 13th January, 2020.
Book tickets by clicking the link below:
To ask about cultural events:
Contact Julie Dunlop at SETAC (03) 6295 0004
Free weekend camp - 20-22nd March, 2020
Each year Rotary Clubs sponsor a FREE fun weekend camp for year 9 and 10 students, aged 15 and over.
The program for the weekend is designed to build personal and group leadership through effective communication skill development and team building activities and challenges.
Details are on the flyer below and applications can be made by following the link at the bottom of the article.