The end of Term 1 marks a point in time to reflect on our achievements and look forward to the many opportunities ahead. Here are some highlights from this term:

Settling into Term 1 Routines:

We've seen our students settle into the routines and expectations of Wynyard High School with remarkable ease and determination. Their dedication to their studies and active participation in school life have set a positive tone for the rest of 2024.

Completion of New Oval Development:

We're excited to announce the completion of the new oval development in collaboration with the Wynyard Waratah Council, just in time for the 2024 Football season. It's wonderful to see many of our students utilising this space during breaks, enjoying a kick of the football, and relaxing with friends.

Success of the 2024 Reading Program:

Our 2024 Reading program has had an incredibly successful start for all Year 7-10 students. We recognize the importance of literacy skills for our students future opportunities, and we're delighted with their progress in this area. 

Transition to DECYP and Our New School Values:

During Term 2, we will be finalising our transition from the Department of Education to the Department for Education, Children and Young People (DECYP). As part of this transition, we will be adopting new school values: Connection, Courage, Growth, Respect, and Responsibility. Stay tuned for more information on how you can contribute to this process early in Term 2.

For more details about DECYP's strategic plan, please visit DECYP's Strategic Plan.

Our Strategic Plan - Department for Education, Children and Young People (decyp.tas.gov.au)

School Association - Annual General Meeting:

We invite all members of our community to consider joining the School Association to have a voice in the direction of Wynyard High School. For further information, please don't hesitate to contact me, Paul Harding (Principal). Our Annual General Meeting will be held on the 5 May 2024.

As we approach the Term 1 break, we wish everyone a restful holiday.

Thank you to our dedicated students, families, and staff for your continued support and commitment to Wynyard High School.

Firstly, a huge thank you to my breakfast and lunch time volunteers. You all do an amazing job and work effectively to keep the lines moving along, especially the Thursday and Friday volunteers. If I get a chance to look up and see how long the lines are, I think to myself 'WHERE IS THE END??'. They are the longest lines the canteen has had for a long time so we must be doing something right!

Now, to the latest news from the canteen. GOLD, GOLD, GOLD. Yes, finally I have achieved Gold Accreditation with the School Foods Matters, originally the Tas School Canteen Association.

I have put in hours and hours of work, sourcing new recipes, checking nutrition and then getting the recipes checked by the dietician at School Foods Matter.

Gold Accreditation means the canteen sells no confectionery, no bags of chips, and no fatty foods.

What the canteen does sell are foods full of nutrition, goodness and that are homemade.

Last week, I made 80 tubs of pasta bolodnaise, burrito wraps filled with vegies and spice (delicious), fried rice, as well as savoury toast, scrolls and garlic pides. Soup has also just commenced back on the menu. What's better than a cup of hearty soup with a hot garlic pide.

The Gold Accreditation is extra special to our school, as we are one of only two high schools on the North West coast that has qualified at this level, the other being Rosebery District School. Also not very many high school canteens around the state of Tasmania have reached this level. I am pleased with this exceptional achievement and would like to thank the school community and Alison Holstrum, who is the School Foods Matter coordinator for the coast.

As parents you can guarantee that when your child buys their lunch from the canteen, they are getting the best food that I can bake and produce for the school canteen.

Thank you to all those that use the ordering app Qkr! for their purchases. It truly is the easiest way to go, unless orders are placed for the wrong day or week. This happens quite frequently, but I try to supply a lunch as close to what has been ordered, for those that this happens too.

The canteen has been very fortunate to get produce grown by the students in Year 11/12 Horticulture and Mrs Dixon’s Agriculture classes. Apples, from the school orchard were picked and delivered. An abundance of self sown pumpkin was delivered in wheel barrow loads to the canteen last week, varieties including Jaradale, Kent, Queensland Blue and Butternut.

The pumpkins will be used in my pumpkin soup recipe and for a topping on shephards pie. The apples will go into my apple slice and apple muffins.

On a sad note, the school said goodbye to choc chip cookies - they are not allowed on the menu due to choc chips being classed as confectionery. In their place I am baking apple and oat, blueberry and delicious apple muffins.

Slushies, which have been very popular in the warmer months, will go off the menu for Terms 2 and 3.

I also completed a course over the Christmas holidays for the new Australian Food Safety Standards. So the canteen is up to date with safety and food services, and nutritional food.

Sue Costello

Some of the PoL Hospitality class and Hospitality class students volunteered their time and gained valuable skills and experience being involved in BigHart’s Watershed Youth Program. The successful evening focused around sustainable seafood. Chef Isabel Sykes mentored the students and prepared a three course meal featuring Stanely Seafood’s produce. The evening was a success. Congratulations to the students who took this opportunity, the service and food were excellent. This evening was popular with the locals and was booked out within days of the tickets being available. Go to the The Watershed Wynyard Facebook page to book for the third event in this series.

Fertilising, weeding, mulching, new tunnel protection, conversations, gentle music, irrigation and monitoring for pests and disease. We have been working hard to get our produce ready for this year's Agfest.

Thursday, 2 May is D-Day, and our visit to Agfest. Come and see our beetroot entry during Agfest at the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture Exhibit.

PoL Hospitality students continued to utilise the produce from our garden, producing a cherry tomato passata, making pizza and gnocchi with our potatoes and pumpkin. Students had to plan and prepare a sauce to accompany their gnocchi.  

In 7B, we have been learning about a vast number of topics in agriculture, such as biosecurity, agricultural safety, pests, mushrooms, diseases, and many other topics.

We have had many opportunities to go outside to work with the animals. Helping collect the eggs, feed the chickens and sheep, move the sheep from paddock to paddock, learning about how to use their behaviour and blind spots to move them safely

We have disassembled mushrooms and learnt about how they are produced.

More recently, we have been learning about biosecurity, pests, and diseases. We have learnt what biosecurity is, put simply, keeping living things safe. We watched a video about the recent outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD) in Indonesia, and we learnt about how serious it could be to Australia’s agricultural industry if an outbreak occurred here.

For the second year, Wynyard High entered lambs in the trade lambs section at the show. This year there were a second pen of lambs, however these lambs were heavier and in a different class. The school lambs presented well, coming away with first place. No vegetables were entered this year unfortunately. Due to the oval redevelopment our garden space had to be pulled down. Mrs Moore’s cooking class produced some amazing cooking for the Industrial Hall, coming away with many placings. Well done students.

Students in PoL have been working on design theory and accuracy using paper to create a template for their toolbox.

Once the paper template could be folded into an acceptable model, students were able to move to the metals workshop to use Colorbond sheetmetal to begin making their toolbox.

Students learnt the importance of accuracy once again, using the folder, making sure that their folds were spot on.

They then learnt how to rivet the job together, add hinges, and then make a handle for their box so it could be carried.

This term in 9-10 PoL Construction we have been learning about force in Science to make our catapults in Woodwork. We needed to figure out how much timber we needed and how much weight we needed to make the catapult work.

We used a squash ball as our test object to see how far it could go. In some catapults we made boxes to hold our weights. We used Colourbond sheet metal in the metalwork room to make them.

Chace, Zhanik, Logan, Jhett and Tanner made a Trebuchet catapult and Byron made a simpler catapult with a metal rod holding down the arm ready for launch.

We have had help from our homegroup teacher Mr Chappell and the Woodwork teacher Mr. Taylor as well as Mr Grossmith.

We would like to remind our students of the importance of drinking water. Please bring a water bottle (preferably full) to school with you every day.

SCHOOL HOLIDAY OFFICE HOURS 8:30am - 3:30pm

(Closed 25 April for ANZAC DAY)

Just a reminder that our phone number (TXT only) for students that are/will be absent is 0417 956 280. 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@decyp.tas.gov.au

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

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