Wynyard High School eNewsletter

We are already at the end of Week 5! Term 2 has been extremely busy.

Student achievement throughout the school has been outstanding, and teaching staff are currently working on Term 2 reports and samples of student work (Evidence of Learning) to go home to families.

Over the past 2 weeks, all homegroups have been engaging in activities around our new values of:

Growth
Courage
Respect
Responsibility
Connection

Students have shared with us the behaviours and actions that we aspire to at Wynyard High School, demonstrating these values and allowing us to achieve our best.

I look forward to working more in this space with the SEC and student leaders in the coming weeks.

Finally, I will be on leave from 17 June until 28 June. In my absence, Mrs Helena Moore will be Acting Principal.

School Association

We recently had our Annual General Meeting (AGM) for the School Association. It was exciting to welcome new parents to the association for 2024.

Sarah Robertson has taken on the role of Chairperson. We also thanked our outgoing Chairperson, Brent Smedley for his dedication and support over the past 3 years.

Additionally, we expressed our gratitude to Heather Russell, who stepped down from the Secretary position after 20 years of dedicated service. We thank Heather for her commitment and support of Wynyard High School in this role.

Please contact me if you would like to know more about the school association or you are interested in joining.

Regards
Paul Harding

Get ready for an enchanting experience as our Year 9/10 Senior Drama class presents Grimm and Twisted Tales. Tickets for the performance are now available for purchase. Click the link below to secure yours today! https://www.trybooking.com/CRKX

ABOUT

Wynyard High School proudly presents Grimm and Twisted Tales by Carol and Max Dickinson. Join us for a journey into the dark and enchanting world of the Brothers Grimm. Renowned for their timeless folklore, the Grimms present their favourite tales with unexpected twists and turns. Ever heard of the girl living with seven dwarfs or the house made of candy? These are just a taste of the stories that caution against venturing into the woods at night or trusting strangers with sinister secrets. Prepare to be captivated as we reimagine four of Grimms' most twisted tales, revealing a side you never knew existed.

DATES

Thursday 20 June 2024

Friday 21 June 2024

LOCATION

Wynyard High School
30 Church St, Wynyard TAS 7325

Wynyard High School extends a warm invitation to prospective 2025 Year 7 students and their families to join us for our Parent Information Evening on Wednesday, July 24. The evening provides an excellent opportunity to learn about the many opportunities available at Wynyard High School. Follow the link below to register your attendance.

Parent Information Evening - Bookings

Exciting news for our Year 9 and 10 students! The Kinmen Island Exchange Program is making a return to Wynyard High School in 2024.

Here are the three fantastic opportunities it offers:

Hosting Opportunity:

1 - We are excited to announce that Wynyard High School will be participating in the Kinmen Island Exchange Program again this year. We are inviting families to open up their homes to host a student from Kinmen Island. The students will be in Wynyard from Friday, 19 July to Friday, 2 August. Students will attend school and participate in regular classes, as well as attending two excursions. The aim of the program is for the students to improve their English by interacting with young people and families.

Please visit the following link to enquire about this oppurtunity: Homestay Host Information and Enquiries

An allowance is paid to families to cover costs.

2 - Buddy System: Students can become buddies to visiting Kinmen Island students, providing them support during their time at Wynyard High School.

3 - Kinmen Island Visit: Four students from our school will get the chance to visit Kinmen Island in late October to early November (TBC). Most expenses will be covered. Applications, involving a written application and interview, will take place early in Term 3.

These opportunities promise unique, once-in-a-lifetime experiences. For more information, contact Mrs Moore on 6442 2385.

May be an image of 3 people and text that says 'BECOME a homestay HOST to an international student Give it ago a Kinmen Study Tour,July July 2024 Tour, •Experience a new culture •24/7 support Get paid for it Register now'

On 22 May, all the Year 8 students gathered in Flex to explore illustration techniques from the author/illustrator Aura Parker in celebration of National Simultaneous Storytime day for 2024. Aura wrote and illustrated the book ‘Bowerbird Blues’ using beautiful watercolours and quirky birds. We explored how we could use charcoal to sketch, shade and pattern our fabulous bowerbirds with expert instruction from Aura herself. We also discussed the visual literacy techniques used in this book include using emotive colours, symbols, and vectors.

Our Year 10 students recently had an eye-opening experience at the RYDA Road Safety Program, hosted at Camp Clayton. This program did not just teach about road rules; it emphasised the collective responsibility of all road users in keeping us safe.

Willow and Olivia attended the "We are More X" (WAM X) Hobart conference on Wednesday, 15 May 2024, in the Ricky Ponting room at the Bellerive Oval. We joined 70 other students from every Australian state and territory. Also at the conference were principals, teachers, employers, government representatives from industry and education, as well as representatives from TAFEs and universities. Mr Harding and Wendy White also attended.

This was a follow-up from a similar event in Adelaide in 2023. The discussion question for the day was, "What do you think success should look like for a young person at the end of secondary education, so they feel prepared for a life of learning and meaningful work?"

We were allocated tables with people we had never met, from all across Australia, and given the opportunity to contribute to the conversations. During the morning, we heard from various young people, senior public educators, and industry representatives about their thoughts on success and, to quote a presenter, "what should the promise of school be?". A lot was shared about the importance of community and culture and how that aligns with the identity of young people in their own context. There were many conversations around student learning, wellbeing, and what success looks like in 2024.

Willow and Olivia will also share more about the conference at our assembly next week.

We have come second in the statewide vegetable growing competition run by the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture/UTAS. Caitlin accepted our prize on behalf of Wynyard High School. Shane was the owner of our largest beetroot that weighed in at 428g after 10 weeks of growing from seed. We experimented with many techniques. Shane’s beetroot was grown in the greenhouse, potted up with compost rich soil under drip irrigation, and given love and liquid fertiliser.

PoL Hospitality went to the Watershed to prepare for the 4th Big hART Supper Series, this time with a pumpkin theme. Students learned how to design menus with digital technology, painted pumpkins for table decoration, and prepped a pumpkin themed menu with chef Isobel Sykes.

A wonderful evening was enjoyed by the Wynyard community. Students prepped and served a three-course menu with Chef Isobel Sykes. Caitlin spoke to the audience about the student's roles in the supper series. There confidence is improving with every experience.

Year 9 & 10 Students designed drinks for their stalls at the drink festival held on Friday, 10 May. Students worked hard, costed drinks, and marketed the event. Drinks and nachos were sold to theier peers. It was a geat success and the students learned how to work in a fast paced hospitality environment. They are now working toward their Tex Mex Café to be held later this term.

Year 7 students were treated to a cultural immersion experience in the Student Centre with Aboriginal Education Officer Guy 'Chalkie' Grey. There they learnt about some First Nations cultural history, tools and language from North-West Tasmania and also about Chalkie himself. Students Ava and Sianna offered some ochre to the audience for their foreheads or hands - a special job reserved for women only.

Year 9 students have been studying Chemistry for the start of Term 2. Students have conducted a number of practical investigations and been asked explain observable chemical process in terms of changes in atomic structure, atomic rearrangement and mass. As part of the Law of Conservation of mass practical investigation, students had to determine whether mass changes when two substances react. Students created an open and closed system where they reacted acetic acid with sodium bicarbonate on a electronic balance and recorded the change in mass. Students were able to use their experimental data to support to draw conclusions that supported the theory behind the Law of Conservation.

Students have also been exploring the properties of substances using the pH scale. Students tested 30 household chemicals with blue litmus paper, universal indicator and pH paper. From their results they were able to classify the different substances as either neutral, acidic or alkaline.

Students ready to take their chopping boards home:

Indy, Rory, Samantha, William and Heugh.

Everyone in our school has a role to play in educating students about vaping and the Department for Education, Children and Young People’s (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 on 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.

Please contact me if you have any questions about this.

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.

Term 2 Start	29 April
Inter-High Cross Country	5 June
Student Free Day	7 June
Public Holiday	10 June
Senior Production	20 - 21 June
Mid-Year Reports	21 June
Parent Teacher Meetings	1 July - 2 July
Term 2 End	5 July

Term 3 Start	22 July
Year 11/12 Moderation Day	6 September
Term 3 End	27 September

Term 4 Start	14 October
Student Free Day	1 November
Hellyer Orientation	5 December
Celebration Dinner	12 December
Term 4 End	19 December

SCHOOL OFFICE HOURS 8:15am - 3:30pm

Just a reminder that our phone number (TXT only) for students that are/will be absent is 0448 098 383. 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.