Dear Parents/Carers

It has been a privilege this year to see students from across our school succeed in so many areas. The recent Presentation Evening was an opportunity to celebrate many of our successes.

I thank our guests, families, friends, and community who were able to join us and celebrate our amazing students.

Many of these successes have been celebrated throughout the year. Examples of these include:

• The success of our performing arts. This year we filled our Student Centre with a performance of Romeo and Juliet in Term 3. Our Evening of the Arts was a huge success with over 50 students performing in Drama, Music and Dance. We had capacity crowds for every performance! Our art gallery on the evening was full of outstanding work from our visual arts program. The dedication of staff and students involved was outstanding. Also thank you to families for supporting your children as part of these performances.
• In 2022 we had over 80 students participate in the annual UTAS Science Awards. Awards were given to Brody & Steven, with the judges also highlighting projects from Jay, Alyssa, Dakota, Bryce, Justin, Orion, Luke, Kade and Matthew.
• In 2022 we had in place a ‘Buddy Reading’ program with Year 9 & 10 students supporting younger students with their reading comprehension. This had a significant impact on the PAT Reading scores with 85% of participating Year 7 students achieving well over one year’s growth in their reading comprehension skills, and 35% have over two years' growth.
• In 2022 WHS embarked on a Year 9-10 Packages of Learning class with a focus on Architecture and Construction; with 16 students part of this program. While attendance in 2022 has been difficult to measure with COVID, this class has an overall attendance rate 4% higher than the school average. Two Year 10 students in the class are transitioning into full time apprenticeships in the building industry in 2023.
• In 2023 at Wynyard High School we will have 48 students studying Packages of Learning programs, with Architecture and Construction being complemented by a separate Tourism and Hospitality program.

Last Thursday night I had the privilege of joining our Year 10 students, and staff, for our celebration dinner at the Wynyard Yacht Club. On the night, I thanked students for their contributions to our school. Some are transitioning to full time employment; some are continuing with Year 11 at Wynyard High School and, most are moving to Hellyer College. Completing Year 12, or the equivalent (including a Trade/Apprenticeship), is very important for their future life opportunities.  I wish all our Year 10 students the best as they transition to the next (and very important) phase of their lives.

During Term 3 we consulted widely with students, staff, and our community, regarding the ‘ideal version of Wynyard High School’. This feedback and consultation led to the alignment of our previous school vision to match those ideas that were shared with us. 

Our Vision now reads:

"We strive to achieve our best, respect ourselves and others and actively connect to our community"

I want to thank the School Association for their support as part of this in-depth process. This vision and the collaborative process we undertook will inform and guide our 2023 priorities. 

• Reading will be a priority in every Tasmanian Public School in 2023. We will build on our success with the Buddy Reading Program and invest in whole school approaches to the teaching of reading as part of our Year level teams.
  
  
• Quality Teaching and Learning will be a whole school priority. In 2022 we have finalised our Instructional Model for teaching and learning.  This will support consistent evidenced based approaches in every classroom.  Our leadership team will drive these approaches to ensure every student in every classroom has access to the same opportunities to support their growth, engagement, and achievement at Wynyard High School.
  
  
• Orderly Learning Environment: As part of the consultation process staff have collaborated with students to construct a set of WHS expectations aligned to our school values to be used throughout the school. In 2023 these will be explicitly taught and modelled throughout the school, supported with our positive behavioural support documents. Year level teams will ensure that all students and families are well known. This will be important as we strive to increase student engagement and wellbeing throughout the whole school.

This year we have several teaching staff leaving our school. Mr Raymond Haberle will be retiring at the end of 2022. Mr Haberle has been on Wynyard High School’s teaching staff for over 30 years. His impact has been significant across the whole school. His influence with educational computing has supported teacher and student growth. We wish him all the best in his retirement and thank him for his many years of service.

We also say farewell and thank you to Mr Oliver Morgan, Mr Emmitt Smith, and Mr Atifur Khan. They have been valuable assets to our school, and we wish them all the best as they continue their careers in other schools in 2023.

Wynyard High School will welcome several new teachers to our school in 2023. It is exciting that they will bring new skills and opportunities to support student learning and growth.

Finally, I want to thank all our sponsors for their generosity and support of our students. I also want to congratulate all the amazing achievements from Wynyard High School students in 2022. 

We would like to wish all our WHS families a Merry Christmas and a safe holiday period. We look forward to seeing you all return in 2023, ready to learn.

Kind regards

Paul Harding
(Principal)

On Thursday, 15 December 2022, Wynyard High School students were out in all their finery to enjoy Wynyard High School's Celebration Dinner.

What an amazing way to celebrate the end of the year!

This week, we held our annual school picnic at Boat Harbour Beach. The students enjoyed the beautiful weather and time together.

Our Presentation Evening is an opportunity to showcase student learning at Wynyard High School and to acknowledge particular students for their commitment to their studies this year.

Canteen

Services as Canteen Monitors

Canteen and Breakfast Club Monitors

Outstanding Contribution to Canteen and Breakfast Club

General Merits

Subject Awards

Year 9 Personal Learning Award

Year 10 Awards

Whole School Awards

Most Improved

Living our School Values Award

Leadership & Contribution to School Life 

Academic Excellence

Year 10 Bursaries

Year 10 Awards

Students of the Year

SEC

Peer Support

House Captains

Wynyard High School students participated in the 2022 UTas Science and Engineering Investigation Awards. Fifty-three students presented scientific investigations they conducted during Term 2. We are looking forward to the presentation of awards.

Thursday, 24 and Friday, 25 November 2022 saw the running of our annual Athletics Carnival. Attendance on both days was high, as was participation, with heats taking longer to get through than ever before.

Students came dressed in their house colours, ready to earn points, with the House Picnic still being up for grabs. This year’s weather was fantastic and students really appreciated running the 1500m races in PE in the leadup to the carnival.

We had a long-standing record broken on Day One, with Willow in Year 7 breaking the shot put record with a throw of 9.75m. The previous record was 9.30m and was set by Jodi Allen in 1987. A huge congratulations goes to Jenner who were the 2022 house champions and attended this year’s House Picnic. Please see the 2022 track and field champions and the overall house points below.

Record Breakers

Year 7 Girls – Willow C– Shot Put – 9.75m

Athletics Carnival Points

Wednesday, 7 December 2022, 59 of our students travelled to Penguin to compete in the NW Inter-High Athletics Carnival (A Division).

All these students should be very proud to have made it to this event and tried their best in the events they were selected for.

We were extremely happy with this year’s results from all our students and especially those who finished in the top 3 of their events.

We had ten students win their event this year, which was amazing! Wynyard High School finished 4^th overall, which is terrific when considering the size of the schools we compete against.

We would like to acknowledge all students and congratulate our students on their efforts. Please see an overview of the results below.

Inter-High First Place Getters

Firstly, thank you to all who have utilised the canteen this year. It has been a great year.

Secondly, a huge thank you to my army of volunteers for breakfast and canteen duties. They have worked extremely hard all year.

I am looking into the gold accreditation process with TAS School Canteen Association (School Food Matters) and am hoping to achieve this status by the end of next year. This will involve implementing changes to our menu as from Term 1, 2023.

Wynyard High School would be one of only a few high schools in the state to achieve this accreditation. Part of accreditation process is working with the students; hence I am calling for students to help out in the canteen next year. Breakfast volunteers need to be able to arrive at school by around 8am to help. Recess and lunch volunteers need to be quite good at maths and be willing to give up one day a week, recess and lunch, to assist me. Free recess and free lunch are on offer to those successful volunteers. Please let me know ASAP if you are interested.

This year I also celebrated my 40th year at Wynyard High. I have come a long way since taking on the position in 1982, and so has my canteen.

Stay safe, enjoy the break and I look forward to again serving the Wynyard High community next year.

Sue Costelloe

School uniforms are no longer available to be purchased at school. Cassovic Tasmania is a local supplier who was awarded the contract to supply Wynyard High school with school uniforms.

To order uniforms, please contact Paul on 0419 247 249 or through the below link

OFFICE HOURS 8:00am - 3:30pm

Just a reminder that our phone number (TXT only) for students that are/will be absent is 0438 540 036. This number is for TXT notifications only and will not be answered by voice.

Our office phone number for enquiries or attendance reporting is 6442 2385.

Emails can be sent to wynyard.high@education.tas.gov.au

Absenteeism can also be reported through the link on the top of this newsletter, or the Schoolzine app.

Thank you to our entire school community for your cooperation this term by practising COVID-safe behaviours.

As you know, an important COVID-safe behaviour is to stay at home if you’re unwell and get tested for COVID-19 using a rapid antigen test.

Public Health tells us that the number of cases of COVID-19 in children is low, and they’re likely to have milder symptoms.

It’s a good reminder to be mindful of the symptoms of COVID-19 in children. The most common symptoms of COVID-19 in children are cough, fever, runny nose and gastrointestinal symptoms like nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea.

For more information, please visit the Tasmanian Government Coronavirus website or contact the Tasmanian Public Health Hotline on 1800 671 738, or Department of Education COVID-19 Support Hotline at COVID19support@education.tas.gov.au or on 1800 816 057.

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