Kindly,

Janelle Reeves
Principal

janelle.reeves@decyp.tas.gov.au 

Welcome back for Term 3 – we hope you had a great break!

As we move into the second half of the school year, sometimes regular school attendance can be challenging.

There are so many reasons to go to school. It’s a chance to be around friends, learn new things, grow and have fun.

This term is packed with exciting things:

• Wear it Purple day
• HPE Day
• International Youth Day
• Hot chocolate and churros morning tea
• Excursions
• and more!

For tips on creating better attendance habits, visit the Anything can happen website.

Please talk to us if you’re having trouble getting your child to school. We’re here to help.

This term we have continued our focus on improving student reading outcomes. We use Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT) to monitor and assess student reading development and grade-based inquiry cycles to track student progress. Inquiry cycles are a process where teachers identify areas for improvement, develop and implement a plan, collect and analyse data, then adjust our practices based on the findings. This ongoing cycle promotes continuous improvement and enhances both teaching and student learning.

All students have recently participated in their second inquiry cycle. Students engaged in reading lessons focussed on improving their comprehension skills. Pre and post tests showed 102 students made considerable gains in demonstrating their understanding of specific reading skills and improved by one or more levels. This is a 21% improvement on our Term 2 inquiry and is a wonderful schoolwide achievement. We are thrilled to see such incredible gains in our student learning.

As the year progresses, your child will continue to have opportunities to further improve their reading skills.

To support your child from home you may wish to: 

1. Discuss the reading lessons with your young person and ask them to define the reading skill they have been learning (summarising or inferring). 
2. Read a short book or news article with your young person and ask them to point out the key words. Discuss what these words mean? 
3. Ask your young person about the text they are reading in class. How do they feel about the character or setting of their novel? What makes them think this? 

Please contact Christie Gumley or your child’s Grade Coordinator if you would like further information. 

Christie Gumley
AP Yr 7/8

christie.gumley@decyp.tas.gov.au 

The yearly validation process ensures that student details are as accurate as possible. Information about addresses, family relationships, contact details and medical conditions can quickly become out of date. As schools have a duty of care to their students, it's vital that this information is as accurate as possible.

The Validation Form does not contain information for all Emergency Contacts as this data is required to be updated every year, as is the permission information.

We recently sent out another validation form for students who haven’t returned one this year. If you receive one, please complete it and return it to school as soon as possible.

Thank you.

Just a reminder that if you need to contact your child during school hours, please call the office on 6264 0800 and we will get a message to them.  

The "Use of Mobile Phones by Students at School Policy" has been developed because, although mobile phones and technology are a central part of life, mobile phones do cause distraction from learning and impact the development of strong relationships at school.

The Department is committed to ensuring the wellbeing and engagement in learning of all Tasmanian learners. The decision to restrict the use of mobile phones by students during the school day will support schools to minimise distraction from learning and encourage healthy and positive personal interactions.

In emergencies, where students need to get in contact with parents/carers, students are to notify the appropriate school staff member, i.e. their teacher. 

Students in years 7-10 at Huonville High School must have their mobile phones switched off during the school day and stored in their bag or locker, while students with smart watches must have them set to ‘aeroplane mode’.

Students may have their mobile phone confiscated and held in SSC until the end of the day if they are found to be using it after the first bell goes at 8.45am, and before the last bell goes at 2.55pm.

If you wish to read the "Use of Mobile Phones by Students at School Policy", please click on the following link:

hhs_use_of_mobile_phones_by_students_policy_and_process.pdf (schoolzineplus.com)

Thank you to the parents/guardians who have paid school levies already, and those who are paying via regular instalments.  Levies support student learning by contributing towards the cost of essential items and services. 

Unfortunately, we still have a number of unpaid levies and would appreciate payment at your earliest convenience.  If you hold a current concession card you may be eligible for Student Assistance (STAS).  Applications close at the end of August, visit www.decyp.tas.gov.au for information on how to apply.

Levies can be paid in a number of ways:

• at the school office by EFTPOS, cash or cheque;
• at Service Tasmania by EFTPOS, cash or cheque;
• via BPAY (use the biller code and reference on your invoice)
• via Centrepay, a service provided by Centrelink.

If you are experiencing difficulties and wish to discuss payment plans, please contact me on 6264 0800.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Suellen Hill
Business Manager

suellen.hill@decpyp.tas.gov.au 

Help us better understand any barriers that may be in the way, and what supports are needed to help with getting to school.

The Department for Education, Children and Young People is doing statewide consultation on school attendance. 3P Advisory is independently running the consultation. Your answers are confidential, and you won’t be identified.

We want to hear from you. You can take part in an online survey, share or vote for suggestions, or join an online drop-in session via the 3P website. The survey takes approximately 10 minutes to complete.

As a parent or carer, please have your say. Please encourage your child/ren, too.

Every piece of feedback counts. Thanks for helping shape future DECYP initiatives, school-based engagement strategies and public awareness campaigns.

Huonville High’s breakfast club is serving a greater variety of options thanks to a grant of $5000 provided by Variety Children’s Charity Tasmania to the High School.

Menu items include hot milo, cold apple juice, granola with fruit and yoghurt, cheesy hot bread, avocado toast, banana bread, eggs and toast with vegemite or jam. We also provide a selection of fruits each morning! As the weather warms up in the coming months we also plan to have fruit smoothies available. 

Breakfast club makes sure that every student has the opportunity to have a nutritious breakfast which will help them have energy and focus for their classroom education. Recently, the CEO of Variety Children’s Charity Tasmania, Mohammad Aldegham, and Mel Knucky attended our breakfast club to present a plaque to Janelle Reeves and Paul Newton. 

We are so pleased to have the funding to provide a nutritious breakfast to any students that want it Monday through Friday. Thank you Variety Children’s Charity!

Students in our school are taking part in the annual Student Wellbeing and Engagement Survey. The Survey will take place in Term 3, 2024.

The wellbeing of all students at Huonville High School is important to us. When young people feel safe, connected and secure, they are more likely to engage in their learning.

This survey forms part of the Department’s Wellbeing for Learning - Child and Student Wellbeing Strategy.  It helps us get a picture of the current wellbeing of our students, and what we can do to improve future wellbeing. The more students who take part, the clearer our picture will be.

Purpose of the survey

Young people’s sense of wellbeing is an important part of how they learn at school. The purpose of the survey is to seek students’ views about their wellbeing and their engagement with school.  We encourage students in Years 4 to 12 to take part.

The information collected will help in many ways. For example, it will tell us that a certain percentage of students feel like they receive the help they need. Or that a certain percentage feel like they worry a lot. This information will help our school, the Department of Education, and our school community to support young people’s wellbeing.

What is the survey about?

The survey asks students about their:

• social and emotional wellbeing
• school relationships and engagement and learning in school
• physical health and wellbeing
• after school activities.

What is involved?

Students will fill out the survey on a device during class time. We will ask students if they would like to take part, and they can choose to withdraw at any time.

Will students’ information be kept confidential?

Please note: students’ answers are confidential. No one (including school staff) will use the results to identify individual students.   

The Department takes measures to ensure students’ personal information and their identities remain anonymous when participating in the survey. Participating schools with fewer than five (5) students undertaking the survey will not receive a school report in order to protect the confidentiality of students.

What will happen if a student is distressed during or after the survey?

The survey questions are not expected to distress students. However, the survey does include questions that ask about topics such as students’ happiness and experiences of being bullied.

Teachers will inform students that:

• if they find the survey uncomfortable or distressing, they should leave the survey screen immediately
• it is not compulsory to take part in the survey as a whole, and
• students may also skip individual survey questions if they wish.

Students may want to speak to an adult about concerns or issues raised and we will support them with this.

What do I have to do?

If you agree for your child to take part in the wellbeing survey, you do not need to do anything. If you do not want your child to take part in the wellbeing survey, please complete a "Decline to participate in activity" form available from the school office and return it to the school by 22^nd August, 2024.

Where can I get more information?

More information about the survey can be found below in the attached Frequently Asked Questions. This will include examples of the survey questions.

If you would like further information on the Student Wellbeing and Engagement Survey, visit https://www.decyp.tas.gov.au/ and search for “SWES” in the search bar. 

For questions or concerns, or to view the questions, please email wellbeing.unit@decyp.tas.gov.au or contact our school office on 6264 0800.

Students in the Cert II in Engineering at the Huon Valley Trade Training Centre make many projects big and small throughout the year. One such project is the compass. It can have a pen or pencil put into it for marking out circles on paper or a scriber for marking out on metals.

Creating this elegant and practical compass teaches the students how to use multiple tools like drills, grinders and sanders. They also use an Oxy Acetylene set to heat up and bend the legs to form the rings to clamp the scriber.

Pictured below are Kim and Stephanie.

Students also draw on other skills such as reading drawings, measuring and marking out, and working to tight tolerances. It is one of the many things they make during this course which they get to keep as they build up their toolkit for use in their future trade.

Timothy Jones
Metals South/Tas TAFE

The next meeting of the School Association will be on Thursday, 12th September, 5.30-6.30pm in the staff room. All welcome! Enquiries: contact Chair troy.cook@intowork.com.au

Earlier this year, the Department for Education, Children and Young People rolled out Safeguarding Training for staff, volunteers, and service providers.

This training was compulsory for everyone as part of our ongoing commitment to safeguard Tasmanian children and young people and prevent them from harm.

The department has recently released additional advanced Safeguarding training modules.
These are optional and are aimed at anyone who volunteers at a DECYP site, external providers, and anyone in the community who wants to learn more about how to keep children and young people safe.

If you’d like to build your knowledge in this space, the modules are available on the department’s Safeguarding page.

Note: If you require additional assistance to access the modules, please take a look at the FAQs about technical support and additional assistance, which are also on the department’s Safeguarding page.

Everyone in our school has a role to play in educating students about vaping and the Department for Education, Children and Young People (DECYP) is committed to prioritising the health and safety of all children and young people.

DECYP recently worked with the Department of Health to develop an online vaping teaching package.

Teachers, support staff and school health nurses can now access additional online training, classroom resources and lesson plans about the risks of vaping, what the law and regulations are, and how to support someone in quitting.

At our school, we will continue to support your children by giving them factual information about the impacts of vaping.  With these new resources, we will be able to build on this message so students can make informed decisions about their health.

This may lead to more discussions about vaping at home. You might like to have a conversation with your child to help reinforce what they’ve been learning at school. 

There are some useful vaping resources and fact sheets available on DECYP’s website aimed at supporting families.  The Department of Health’s website is also a good source of health-related information.

Friday Night Games is moving from August: From 3pm on Tuesdays (now weekly instead of fortnightly!) at the Salvation Army building, 31 Wilmot Road, Huonville

There will be a pizza party on Tuesday, 6^th August - games from 3pm, pizza from 6pm - https://www.facebook.com/share/Ygv5ocoknfuGx6Jp/

For anyone interested in magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, or Warhammer (40k or AOS). There's also an amazing selection of board games thanks to Lance from Oxy Moron Games.

This free space allows gamers to come together, hang out, play games in person and have a fun night. There are plenty of things to try for new players, and enough competitive play for experienced gamers. Everyone is welcome, but please remember this is a youth focussed space. People under the age of 14 must be accompanied by adult supervision.

Mission Australia Youth Survey

The Mission Australia Annual Youth Survey is still open for another month (it closes 16^th August). The survey is for people aged 15 to 19. Please encourage young people to participate in this one: Youth Survey 2024 (alchemer.com)

Butterfly Foundation Body Kind Schools 

Body Kind Schools - Butterfly Foundation - the Butterfly Foundation has free resources/activities for their annual Body Kind initiative running in September.

Mental Health Services

Cocoon in Huonville has two mental health practitioners who are Medicare registered and can see young people aged 16+ - COCOON - COCOON Psychology & Allied Health (huonvalleypsychology.com.au)

Esther Shilling
Youth Development Adviser
Huon ValleyCouncil

The British Railway Modellers Association (BRMA) Southern Tasmania, in conjunction with the Glenorchy Lions Club, is extremely proud to present this year’s annual Model Train Show in the City of Clarence, in what is shaping to be our largest ever show.   

The Show will be held over two days at the Howrah Community Centre, 11 Howrah Road, Howrah, on Saturday, 10th, and Sunday, 11th August, 2024 - open from 10am to 4pm on both days.  Entry fee: $25 for a family / Adults $10 / children under 16: $5.  The nett proceeds after expenses will assist the Lions Club further their dedicated works to help the less fortunate in our society.

This year’s event promises to be quite exciting, providing an opportunity to view 17 individual layouts from all over the State and beyond, featuring a mixture of gauges, including: ‘O’, OO, HO, and N gauge.  

In addition, there will be an operating miniature live steam locomotive display, a Lego train exhibit and an interactive operating “Thomas” layout for the children to play with. Quite a number of this year’s layouts, which  includes a visiting layout from South Australia, are ‘new’ and have never been exhibited before in Tasmania.  

There will be a children’s competition, a raffle and refreshments, including the Lions Club Food Van and BBQ.  A second-hand sales table will offer the opportunity for patrons to add quality railway accessories to their collections, whilst staff at the sales table will be available to offer advice on how to care for model railway equipment.

The Show is mainly aimed at the whole family, but there will plenty for the model train enthusiasts to look at as well.

Alex van der Hek
Coordinator, BRMA Southern Tasmania 

AMvdHek1@gmail.com

As part of the Tasmanian government's 2030 Strong Plan for Tasmania’s Future, this year junior freshwater angling fees will again be waived, to encourage continued participation from young Tasmanians.

To fish Tasmania’s inland lakes and rivers, junior anglers from 14 to 17 years old are required to hold an inland angling licence, but can apply for a free licence through the Inland Fisheries Service (IFS) website, or via an agent. Those under 14 years of age are not required to hold a licence.

The free licence for junior anglers will continue for at least the next three years, and this coming season they are also offering discounted licences for 18 to 21-year-olds.

The junior fee waiver and discounted young adult licence aims to encourage the next generation of anglers to enjoy our world class trout fishery, help transition junior anglers through to the purchase of an adult licence as well as encourage valuable time in our beautiful outdoors.

Angling licence renewals, and new licence purchases for the 2024-25 season are now available on the IFS website: Buy or renew your licence - Inland Fisheries Service Tasmania - Inland Fisheries Service (ifs.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