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Message from the

Principal

Hello mid term. Yes, this week we are half

way through the term which means many

sporting competitions and many

assignments and assessments are

occurring. Teachers are currently

assessing classes for our usual mid term

evaluation of students’ placements.

Congratulations to our swimming team

who travelled to Tumut for the Zone

Carnival on Friday. I am impressed with

your exceptional behaviour and

performance. It is the largest team to

participate in a few years and their results

were fantastic. Special congratulations to

those that swam personal bests and to

those that have qualified for the Regional

Carnival in Albury.

We are very excited by the number of

expressions of interest for our interstate

excursions. Please watch this space. We

will be having a parent information night

very soon.

As the mornings are chilly, please ensure

students’ names are on their jumpers as

they tend to leave them behind when

they take them off in the warmer

afternoons.

Students are reminded that mobile phones are

to be in bags and only to be taken out when

teachers ask.

Students arriving late to school are to bring a

note to explain their absence. Those students

continually late will be required to make up that

time in after school detentions. One very

important attribute any employer requires is their

staff to be on time and ready for work. We are

dedicated to ensuring our students are ready for

post school options.

Plans are beginning for our school’s 50th year

anniversary. I encourage anyone that is or was a

student or staff to follow our Facebook page with

some exciting news about this wonderful event.

Have a fabulous fortnight and remember to take

every opportunity presented.

Kind regards

Mrs Fiona Jackson

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Communication

The school uses the free school app Skoolbag as its major source of communication with families. It works on all mobile phones and contains useful information about the school, the school calendar and the newsletter as well as provision for notifying the school about a student absence. Don’t forget to keep the school notified of any change of address or telephone numbers. Tumbarumba High School also has a website and Facebook page. Our Facebook page is a celebration of success. Our school newsletter is distributed fortnightly. If you wish to receive the newsletter by email, please ensure that the school has an active email address for your family and that you check it regularly.

Congratulations to Leah Edwards in Year 10 who won the first Healthy Food Canteen Voucher in the lucky draw on Friday!

Maths tutoring is on again this term, each

Wednesday afternoon in the school library from 3:30 –

4:30pm. Everyone is welcome – please bring some work

to do. We have also started a special Year 12 study

session on Monday afternoons in the school library from

3:30 – 4:30pm.

Pi Day is coming up in a few weeks on 14 March. To

celebrate this amazing number, we will be running some

special activities, including a Pi memory competition. The

current Guinness World Record is held by Rajveer Meena

from India who took nearly 10 hours to recite 70 000

decimal places of pi from memory. We don’t expect

anyone to achieve that incredible record, but if you want

to train your brain you may like to practise with the

pi memory trainer.

http://www.eveandersson.com/pi/pitrainer/

Good Luck!

A reminder that your child should have a scientific

calculator for Maths. Please help ensure that they

bring a NESA approved scientific calculator to every

Maths lesson. If your child does not have a calculator,

they are available for purchase from the front office for

$21.

Wondering what you can do at home to support your

child’s Maths education? MATHLETICS is a great

resource that gives students full access to activities

aligned to the Australian Maths curriculum. Accessible

either online or offline through a PC, laptop or tablet, it

includes interactive, video and print-based activities,

games and tutorials. Students are engaged with

instant feedback, rewards and encouragement. To

activate your free access to the Parent Console visit

www.3plearning.com/parents to enter your details,

along with those of your child’s Mathletics account,

which can be obtained from their Maths teacher.

Ms J Donovan

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Science Experience from

Mitchell Deluca

On 11 to 13 January I attended the Conoco Philips Science

Experience at Macquarie University in Sydney. The purpose

of the Science Experience was to demonstrate the different

aspects of science in real life applications. There was a

variety of different lectures and “Do Black Holes Shine”

which was my favourite.

The first day at the Experience had a large variety of

experiments and demonstrations, one of my favourite

experiments was extracting DNA from a banana which was

very interesting.

A science expo was held in the courtyard to demonstrate

intriguing reactions, demonstrations of cool technology.

Virtual Reality was a highlight of my trip! It’s when you wear

a pair of goggles that let you see a video game with real life

motions.

The second day was more focused on Chemistry including

hands on chemistry which was spectacular. We made Nylon

which was very entertaining because it had the weirdest

feeling.

The last day was by far my favourite mainly because it had a

very cool demonstration of a Solar Telescope. The Aboriginal

Tool Making was the most fun by far because the

demonstration was very interactive and fascinating.

This Science Experience was worth going to and opened my

eyes to the applications of science and I highly recommend

anyone to go next year.

Science Faculty News

A great start to the new school year. There has been plenty

of learning happening in our Science faculty classes.

On 8 March Year 11 Biology, Senior Science and Geography

will be attending a mandatory excursion to complete a field

trip to Berry Jerry State Forest near Wagga. This is to cover

the Local Ecosystem component of our topics, where

students will study the ecosystem and record data from the

site and then bring this back to the classroom to assist their

learning. Notes and money are due to be returned on 1

March.

We love to see the enthusiasm that our new Year 7 students

are bringing to the science classroom.

This term Year 7 Science are learning the topic: Safety

Matters and Scientific Method. Students learn and develop

safe habits in the Science classroom. Students are learning

to identify equipment and correctly associate its use for

investigations and will learn the basic skills relating to science

method and report writing.

As part of our new subject STEM, both Year 8 classes have

been combining so that we can explicitly teach students the

skills required to be a successful STEM student.

We have been learning skills such as: teamwork, presentation

skills, engineering design, puzzle solving strategies and

listening skills. Once we have taught the students these skills

we can then start to tackle our STEM projects. We look

forward to applying content knowledge from multiple subjects

in an inquiry-based way.

Any questions regarding subjects from the Science faculty,

please contact me at the school.

Megan Finnimore

Head Teacher Science

Egg Drop

Fish are smarter than you think!

Discovering Invertebrates

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Archaeological Experience from Gus Taylor

During summer break I went to work in Sydney with my mum, Mitch Deluca, and my Uncle Jared to work on an archaeological dig. My mum is an archaeologist and it was her job we went to help out on for work experience. We worked in North Parramatta at a very historical area that included many institutional care facilities including the Parramatta Female Factory, old Parramatta Gaol, Insane Asylum, Parramatta Girls and Boys Home and all with a pretty sad history. In order to pay for these historical buildings to be conserved the State Government is selling off the land (which is currently used as a Mental Health institute) to develop four apartment tower complexes. The company my mum worked for, Comber Consultants was running the Aboriginal archaeological investigation part of the project. They had to excavate the areas the towers are going to go to see if there is any Aboriginal heritage that would get destroyed by the building of the 60 storey apartments. Jillian Comber, our boss was a very nice lady who allowed us to work for her even though we were amateurs. Mitchell and I learnt how to dig a hole like a pro. First you get a grid reference so everyone knew where our hole was in the big area we were working in and how to refer to it in the report. Then you stake out a 1m by 1m perfectly square area by using string and two measuring tapes. You then have to photograph it before you start digging and also the area around it for referencing. Then you start to dig very carefully with a pick axe and square shovel so the edges stay straight and go down 5cm at a time, this is what we called a spit. We would put the dirt from the spit into single coloured buckets one colour per spit so that we couldn't confuse one spit from another and it was easier to tell what layer the artefacts came out of when they were found. After each spit you have to take observations of the hole. First there is the PH level, which tells you how acidic the soil is. The first day it was so hot (42 degrees) that the PH reader didn’t work very well, then note the soil type (such as sandy loam or silty sand or sandy silt...trust me this is a big deal) then you note the colour of the soil using a Munsell chart (greyish brown or brownish grey it matters, it really does). Jared was a geologist which came in handy. Finally, you needed to note any noteworthy things and describe the hole and layers in detail. Such things included the presence of insect burrows (which could move artefacts between layers),

charcoal (indicating fire), and presence of historic artefacts which could show that Aboriginal people and European settlers coexisted in the same area. While we were excavating by hand Mitchell found an artefact, it was a flaked bit of stone (the bit they throw out as they are making a tool). It was still really cool to find. The dirt we dug up and put in buckets was taken to the wet sieve. We hosed the dirt down and that’s where most of the artefacts were found as it’s easier to see when the dirt is washed away by water. While we were on the sieve one of our fellow archaeologists, Rivers, found a really cool bit of worked glass. This shows that Aboriginal people were living in the same place as the British and using new materials. Mum says that it is quite rare to find “contact pieces” and it is very exciting. Also after we left, right near the hole we were digging, the archaeologists found a “flaking floor”, which is where an Aboriginal person was sitting as he was making a tool and all the bits of flaked rocks were flying off the rock around him. Overall me and Mitch had a great time, and learnt a lot. We can't wait to go back and do it again.

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We have been very busy this past 4 weeks. Staff have

been assisting me with becoming familiar with the

school and our Faculty.

To begin the year all English staff are delivering

intensive language courses to students in years 7-10. All

students are reading novels in class and completing

novel based activities to improve their comprehension

and language skills.

Preliminary Year 11 have made an excellent start to the

year and are well into their core unit, Area of Study. The

central concept of this unit is Journeys. If you have any

interesting Journeys that you can discuss with your child

this will help them in developing their understanding of

how Journeys affect our lives.

Study periods for all students 7-10 are now running.

Each class has 1 study period per fortnight with Vanessa

McGrath. This is a chance for students to catch up on

missed class work, work on extension activities or

receive assistance in learning areas where they are

experiencing difficulties.

All Stage six students in English have now been issued

with assessment tasks and should be allocating time at

home to work on completing them on time.

Ms Rhynehart’s music classes are buzzing with students

enthusiastically learning how play instruments and

compose basic music/songs. I have noticed many

students wandering around with guitars and requesting

recess and lunch admission to the music room to

practise their skills.

A big thank you to parents donating instruments to the

music room. They are very much appreciated.

Tanya Hempstead

Head Teacher English/SLS/CAPA.

English Homework and

Assessment Tasks Due:

English Year 8 Green: Newspaper report due Monday

27/7/2017.

English Year 9/10: Should be completing various writing

tasks for homework or during study periods.

English Year 9/10: Reading, comprehension and writing

tasks on the concept of Resilience. In class 3 days.

Term 1. Weeks 10-11

English Year 11 Standard and Advanced: Reading

novels and completing reading journals.

English Year 11 Standard and Advanced Area of Study:

Responding and composing. Assessment Task 1. Week

10, Term 1.

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The term is disappearing quickly and we have a lot of

extra-curricular events of which I need to inform the

school community. Permission slips (if required) for

these events will be sent home next week, if not sent

already.

There are a number of events coming up between now and the end of term. I will list them in chronological order: 2 March: Danielle Elvy coming to talk to Year 7

students about the Indonesian Language Program.

3 March: Backyard League training for PASS students with NRL Officer, Dean Whymark.

8 March: Year 11 Geography/Senior Science/Biology Field trip to Berry Jerry State Forest, Collingullie.

10 March: Probable date for Davidson Shield cricket versus Tumut

17 March: Backyard League day with Year 9/10 PASS students coaching Primary School students at Tumbarumba Sports Ground. NRL to coordinate the day.

21 March: Year 7/8 Biodiversity/Cultural Heritage/High Country droving/Boggy Creek Show workshops at Webbers Travelling Stock Reserve, Rosewood and Boggy Creek Show site. Bus supplied – day free of charge for students.

24 March: Tumbarumba High School Athletics Carnival, Tumbarumba Sportsground.

28 March: Wodonga 9's Rugby League Carnival We are also about to confirm numbers for the interstate excursions that information was presented about in last fortnight’s edition. Numbers look very good, though there may be a need to open up just one of these excursions this year and the other in 2018. Doing this will help the school to get the numbers required for at least one of these excursions to run. More information to follow on each of these events in next fortnight’s edition. Derek Smith

Head Teacher: Teaching & Learning

Leather Tutorial

On Sunday 19 February, Rylee

Bramich and Ms McCallum

Participated in a leather skills

tutorial conducted by

Dave Mitchell of Tooma.

Dave kindly donated

his time and skills to impart

his highly specialised skills of

leather manipulation.

Dave currently lives in Tooma

working the family farm

but has a very successful side business making customized

saddlery. Topics addressed included the use of various

tools and techniques to suit end use. It was very

generous of Dave to share his time and knowledge. We

look forward to seeing some future work from Rylee and

Ms McCallum.

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Please contact our Career Adviser

Rebekah Pholi

for more information on 02 69482500

Tumbarumba Annual Show 18 March 2017

Please see Ms Pholi for assistance to enter.

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ROALD DAHL COLLECTION

With a recent short term subscription to the Daily

Telegraph the school has class sets of the newspaper

for two weeks. The newspapers are being used in

classrooms to help students understand and analyse

current events, learn how to write a newspaper

article and understand the graphs and tables printed

in newspaper articles. Some teachers are using quiz

questions to give students practice in finding

information within the newspaper.

The library now also has the twelve books in the Roald

Dahl collection including quiz and joke books as well as

the novels including The Twits, Danny the Champion of

the world, James and the Giant Peach. Favourites

include Esio Trot, a romantic tale about Mr Hoppy who

with the help of some cabbage leaves and one hundred

and forty tortoises tries to be a hero and win Mrs Silver’s

heart. The humorous stories and great illustrations by

Quentin Blake appeal to readers of all ages.

NEW BOOKS

For readers of fantasy there are two new novels

from popular authors Cassandra Clare and Veronica

Roth now on the library shelves. For Harry Potter

fans “Quidditch through the ages” and “The tales of

Beedle the bard” are also new in the library.

Harriet Shaw, Maddison Fisher and Triniti Hussell can’t wait to read the new Roald Dahl books!

Katrina Saunders is very excited about the new books!

2017 SRC Elected

Last week the 2017 SRC were elected by their peers.

Congratulations to the 2017 SRC!

Year 7 Alyssa Fisher, Paige Harvey, Emma

Thomsen & Brinley Wilesmith

Year 8 Maddison Fisher, Triniti Hussell, Piper

McKinnon & Brooke Wooden

Year 9 Courtney Jones & Mackenzie Mills

Year 10 Charlie Bergin, Kate De Abel, Mikayla

Jackson & Jaymeii Metcalf-Salter

Year 11 Jemma Lorimer, Jock Rixon, Nichole

Bowdler & Chloe Macdonald

Year 12 Kelsey McLachlan (Captain) Callum

Wilson (Captain) Monica Bowdler (Vice-Captain) &

Hannah Radford (Vice-Captain)

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Class 7B's first cooking prac

(breakfast omelette), which

they all enjoyed!

Class 8R with their

digestive system

models in Science!