MURWILLUMBAH HIGH SCHOOL86 Riverview St, Murwillumbah, NSW 2484

Tel: 02 6672 1566 Fax: 02 6672 5510 Email: murwillumb-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au Website: www.murwillumb-h.schools.nsw.edu.au

INSPIRING EVERY STUDENT EVERY DAY

ENDEAVOURISSUE 1: 3 MARCH 2020

UPCOMING EVENTSThis calendar is available on the Murwillumbah High School webpage

www.murwillumb-h.schools.nsw.edu.au

Tuesday 3 March NC Swimming Carnival

Friday 6 March School Photo Catch Up Day

Tuesday 17 March P&C Meeting @ 6pm

Friday 20 March Harmony Day Formal Assembly

Tuesday 24 March Years 7, 11 & 12 Parent Teacher Interviews

Tuesday 31 March Year 7 Vaccinations

Monday 6 April Year 7 STEM - Forensic Science

Thursday 9 April Term 1 Ends

Principal’s MessageI would like to thank you for your patience with the delivery of our first newsletter for this year. I hope that your family’s start to the school year has been positive. As I have walked around the school, chatted to students and staff I am pleased that on the whole it has been a positive and settled start to the year. I have been most impressed by the engagement with learning that I have observed across all years, but I must say that our Year 7 students have been particularly outstanding with their focus and grit.

We are a mobile phone free school and the roll out of our Yondr pouches has been positively received by parents, students and staff. I have even received positive feedback from the wider community including local business owners. We are observing vastly improved positive personal interaction between students and teachers are reporting less disruption in class. I have included some answers to common questions regarding Yondr in this newsletter.

We hold high expectations for our students. We support our students to grow, build their capacity to self-regulate which can be a challenge for teenagers as their brain rewires and builds. The best results for student learning and wellbeing is when there is a partnership between the school, parents and students. I absolutely encourage you to communicate, ask questions and let us know about anything that may be happening in your family that could be affecting your young person’s learning. Teenagers are developing as individuals and often push boundaries at home and at school, it comes with the territory of growing up. It is important that we work together, parents and the school to help them self-regulate their behaviours and be respectful in their interactions. It is essential that parents and the school do not enable poor behaviour. I recommend a book that I recently read called Engaging Adolescents by Michael Hawthorn. It is full of very practical advice for parents, even those who are very experienced in raising teenagers.

Our school values respectful interactions with our community. Our staff are incredibly busy working to teach classes and lead learning, so if you need to meet with us I ask that you contact the office and make an appointment, leave a message or send an email. You can use the Parent Portal to send your child’s teacher a message directly.

The focus of learning at MHS is designed to ‘learn how to learn,’ and to develop agency in every student. Basic skills of literacy and numeracy are still fundamental, but learning requires the capacity to have excellent interpersonal and intrapersonal skills. The goal is to prepare every student to be successful in an uncertain and dynamic world. If you’d like to know more have a look at this short video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttC9Mc-5IhQ

Don’t forget to ‘like’ our Facebook page. We use Facebook, SchoolStream and Sentral Parent Portal to communicate key information between Newsletters. Our Newsletters will be published two times per term in 2020.

Our P&C are exploring their role in supporting the school in 2020. We have a great group of parents on the team and I encourage you to come along to our next meeting.

The book is available through https://www.parentshop.com.au/engaging-adolescents/

From Our ChaplainOur community service program aims to engage students as active and positive members of their local community. Through making connections with organisations such as aged care homes, environmental land care groups, local neighbourhood community centres and pre-school play groups, the students are able to make a positive contributions in their community.

We have visited Greenhills Lodge, Heritage Lodge and Opal Aged Care where students had the opportunity to chat with elderly residents and get involved in running activities for the residents. There are great conversations had, connections made and learning from each other.

During the visits with the Kingscliff Dune care group and Friends of Wollumbin Land care group students learn about the importance of native vegetation and the role it plays in protecting our beaches from erosion etc. Students can literally see the difference they are making by how much of the sand dunes are now covered in vegetation and the amount of sand staying on the beach instead of being

Yondr commonly asked questions1. What if I need to contact my child during the day?

Call the Office and we will get a message to your child at the first available opportunity.

2. What if there is a circumstance that means my child needs to check their phone during the day?

This would be a rare case, but in those circumstances the student can go to the Deputy Principal’s office. In legitimate circumstances the Deputy can unlock the Yondr Pouch or allow the student to make a phone call.

3. What happens if my child is seen with their phone out at school?

We have communicated to all students the expectation that their phone must not be seen during the school day unless they have permission for a learning activity. Students who do not comply are demonstrating that they are choosing not to follow instructions. The student will be sent to the Deputy Principal’s office and in the first instance may be issued with a suspension warning. Continued disobedience will lead to further disciplinary consequence and may result in suspension,

alongside some support for those who need it.

blown away.

These interactions help students to identify and develop their personal strengths such as empathy, compassion, a desire to protect the environment. They have also refined their own teaching skills by showing seniors how to use their mobile phones. Participation in community service programs help students to grow in confidence and gives them a sense of competency and connects students with fellow students they might not have known so new friendships can blossom.

Rachel ThompsonSchool Chaplain

(Photographs below and page 3)

Year 7 CampOn Wednesday 19 February 81 nervous and excited Year 7 students, with their gear, boarded buses and headed to Camp Drewe for the next three days. The Camp is located near Lake Ainsworth and consists of a large dining hall and kitchen, a meeting hall and several sleeping quarters, which have bunks to accommodate 6 students. There are extensive grounds at the camp that are utilised for sports, games and just relaxing.

The three days consists of a huge variety of games and activities such as the more known games eg cricket, volleyball, tug o war, a talent quest and hand ball to the more bizarre such as waiter sponge toss (my personal favourite), fruit delivery and the jockey races on the beach – just ask the kids! As with most games students had a great time participating but it is only one important aspect of the camp. The team of teachers that organise the camp have designed the activities to help students from a wide variety of feeder schools get to know their peers and begin to establish positive relationships that will last for their school career. Through LEAP in the classroom, along with activities such as camp we want to develop student’s ability to collaborate, listen, work together and have empathy for their peers.

As a previous Year Advisor I have had the camp experience before. One of the things that I noticed was the large number of students that were nervous at the beginning of camp, who by the end of camp, were vocal and confident. This is a great testament to the manner in which the camp is run and the character of this year group. I was so impressed with the number of students who, when seeing a job being done; cleaning or sweeping etc, voluntarily offered assistance. Even Carl (the sergeant at arms) had relatively few people hugging trees for their misdemeanours, which is a great effort from Year 7.

Over the last week I have received a great deal of very positive feedback from parents about the camp and how much their kids enjoyed the experience. I would like to thank the following staff; Casey Paron, Carl Marshall, Stuart Elder, Simon Cameron, Kylie Lenhardt, Lea-Ann Brockhurst, Rainier Tiffen, Daniel Moses, Sharni Forrester, Rachel Thompson and Wendy White for all their organisation and giving up three days from their own classes, families and working around the clock to make this camp the wonderful success that it has been, thank you all so much! To the Year 11 mentors I congratulate you all in the way you have conducted yourself over the three days. You were exemplary role models and have begun to foster a significant positive relationship with the Year 7 students.

As we meld back into school the teachers notice the change in their Year 7 students. They are a little noisier, a little more confident and a little more of a consolidated year group rather than a year of individuals. (Photographs pages 4-7)

Sports ReportFor the first time in many years we were forced to cancel the Swimming Carnival due to the recent flooding.

Students were still able to nominate through to the Far North Coast Carnival held on Tuesday the 18 February in Murwillumbah. A total of 14 students attended with 4 qualifying for the North Coast Carnival on Tuesday 3 March in Coffs Harbour. Tyrone Woods stared on the day winning the 13 years 200m Free, 50m Free, 100m Backstroke and 100m Butterfly. He was crowned the FNC 13 years age champion. Meghan Butler qualified in the Jnr MC 100m Free, 50m Free and 50m Breaststroke to be also crowned FNC Jnr MC age champion. Tom O’Brien-Freeman qualified for the Snr MC 50m Free and Breaststroke. Andras Andrew qualified for the 50m Free and 100m Butterfly. Charlie Munro qualified for the 100m Breaststroke.

On Friday 28 February the FNC U15 Touch trials were held at Banora Point School. Murwillumbah fielded both a boys and girls team both of who played strongly on the day against some very tough competition. Imogen Scott was selected in the FNC team and Kodi Alcorn-Hampson as a shadow reserve.

A special thank you to Tom, Anthony and Peter O’Brien–Freeman who were referees throughout the day.

Class of 1969 Reunion

November 2019 marked the 50th Anniversary of the graduation from Murwillumbah High School of the Class of 1969. A Class Reunion was held on Wednesday 19 February 2020, for those that commenced at Murwillumbah High School in January 1964, or joined this cohort along the way, and culminated in the graduation of the class in 1969.

A number of class members and their partners participated in a tour of Murwillumbah High School on Thursday 20 February 2020, where they visited buildings and areas of significance from the period when they were students at the school. During the visit the ex-students observed a science class working on an electrical project, they also visited the old “A” Block, the Home Economics areas and the Library.

While some aspects of the school have changed little, we all noted the impact of technology on the teaching environment, and it was wonderful to see a modern and well equipped library facility. We were also shown examples of the Parnassian Magazine from recent years and the large glossy colour magazine of recent times is a stark contrast to the A5 size black and white magazine from 1969, however, both magazine styles still captured the key highlights of each school year.

We thank the school for the facilitation of our visit.

Lyn Cramp

NSW SCHOOL VACCINATION PROGRAM Each year NSW Health works in partnership with schools to offer the vaccines recommended by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) for adolescents as part of the school vaccination program. In 2020 the following vaccines will be offered:

YEARS VACCINE NUMBER OF DOSES

Year 7

Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine 2-doses at least 6 months apart

Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine

Single dose

Years 10 Meningococcal ACWY vaccine Single dose Parent Information Kits that include an information sheet, consent form and privacy statement will be sent home to parents/guardians. To consent to the vaccination of their child, parents/guardians are advised to:

• read all the information provided • complete the consent form, including signing their name next to the vaccine/s they would

like their child to receive • return the completed consent form to their child’s school • ensure that their child eats breakfast on the day of the school vaccination clinic. Please note that, to improve vaccination completion, students will be opportunistically offered any missed doses during Year 7 or 8 (for HPV and dTpa vaccination) and during Year 10 or 11 (for Menignococcal ACWY vaccination). Parents/guardians who wish to withdraw their consent for any reason may do so by writing to the school Principal or phoning the school. The Procedure for Withdrawal of Consent is available on the NSW Health website at www.health.nsw.gov.au/immunisation/ Pages/withdraw_consent.aspx. A Record of Vaccination will be provided to each student vaccinated at each clinic either as a physical card or a text message sent to the mobile number recorded on the consent form. Details about vaccinations given at school will also be uploaded to the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) to support complete vaccination histories.

Do you have a few hours to spare??Although the canteen employs casual staff, it is volunteers who are crucial to the success of the canteen. They are our most precious resource and they allow us to provide a quality service at very reasonable prices.We are striving to serve more fresh goods, which has resulted in more students coming to the canteen so more volunteers are required. The canteen operates 5 days a week and volunteers are usually only needed until 11.30am. Please call Sam on 0429 324 977

murwillumbahhighschoolpc@gmail.com Murwillumbah High School P&C Association

The Murwillumbah High School Parents and Citizens Association would like to welcome all new and returning families to the school year 2019. The P& C provides a very important function within the school – it promotes the interests of all involved in the school community, bringing together parents, citizens, students and staff in close co-operation.There are a range of opportunities to be involved in:1. MeetingsThe P&C meets the third Tuesday of each month during term time at 6pm. Meetings are kept to a maximum time limit of 1½ hours. Annual membership is $1 and membership forms are available by email, from the front office or at meetings. All are welcome. These meetings offer an opportunity to become well informed of the functioning of the school and also to take part in decision making processes. The Annual General Meeting is held in November each year.The Executive for 2019 are: President Phil HenleyVice Presidents Nicole Morris and TBASecretary TBATreasurer Michael Gregg 2. FundraisingThe P&C hosts a number of activities each year to provide funds to the school to purchase additional resources. Activities include raffles, comedy nights and Bunnings Sausage Sizzles. Fresh ideas are always welcome. We had a very successful year in 2019 and were able to provide financial support for students to attend representative commitments, as well as purchase many items requested by the school: two water coolers, cattle yards, generator for Agricultural Show eam, PE equipment, fittings for Inquiry Based Learning room, basketball singlets, a freezer for the support unit, a range of outdoor seating and school shirts for incoming year 7 students.3.CanteenThe P&C operates the canteen. Sam Campbell is employed as Canteen Manager and we also have an additional casual staff member, Deb Hall. Volunteers are a very welcome resource to assist in the canteen. The canteen operates 5 days a week and volunteers are usually only needed until 11.30am. All funds raised are added to fundraising for school resources. Please call Sam if you are available to help on 0429 324 977. We provide a healthy, fairly priced menu. We are currently being assessed for compliance with the NSW Healthy School Canteen Strategy- Food and Drink Criteria. We open for breakfast and lunch orders may be made before school or at recess. We accept payment by cash or eftpos. Stationery supplies are also sold in the canteen.

Record of School AchievementHow to get your Record of School Achievement (RoSA) if you leave school prior to completing an HSC. 1. Enrol in www.studentsonline.edu.au using your NESA student number. You can get your number from the school by contacting Ms Lawson. She will request your RoSA to be completed by NESA, and then you will be able to download it from the student online site. Ms Lawson cannot request a ROSA until 9 March 2020. Ms Lawson never receives a copy of your RoSA. It is a confidential document only you have access to. The school does not have a copy of your RoSA. 2. Download your RoSA and print as required.

HSC Minimum StandardIf you are sitting your HSC exams in or after 2020 you will need to meet a minimum standard of literacy and numeracy to receive your Higher School Certificate.

Please copy and paste the following link into your internet browser to find out more details.

http://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/11-12/hsc/hsc-minimum-standard?utm_source=TractionNext&utm_medium=Email&utm_