New Town High School

ISSUE: No. 4 Thursday 24 March 2016

2016 CALENDAR TERM 1

25 March to 29 March

Easter Break

30 March to 1 April

7/8 Band Camp

4 April

Progress Reports Distributed

6 April

Inter-High Swimming Carnival

7 April

Last Day of Term 1

8 April

Moderation Day

TERM 2 25 April

Anzac Day

26 April

Term 2 Commences

10 May to 13 May

NAPLAN Testing

5 May

Grade 7 Social

10 - 12 May

Naplan Testing

17 May

In Area Information Evening

18 May

Grade 7 Immunisations

Science & Engineering Challenge

Out of Area Information Evening

19 May

Grade 9 Bell Shakespeare

FROM THE PRINCIPAL My visits to classrooms this week have reinforced to me what a great

school New Town High is. Our boys have been actively involved with their

learning both inside and outside the classroom. Over the coming weeks we

will be moving into a testing phase at the school. A major part of the

school’s improvement plan is to ensure that each of our students make

gains in the key areas of literacy and numeracy. To measure these gains we

are using an on-line testing tool called the Progressive Achievement Tests

(PAT). The tests will provide diagnostic data to help us understanding our

boy’s current level of skills in these areas. The results will be used to en-

sure that our teaching programs target areas of need. We can also use the

results to measure the growth of student’s skills over time. In short, the

results will enable us to ensure that our teaching programs are meeting the

needs of all of our learners.

As we mentioned in our last newsletter our Grade 7 and 9 students will be

sitting the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy

(NAPLAN) from 10 -12 May. As a school we take these tests very serious-

ly. NAPLAN tests the sorts of skills that are essential for every child to

progress through school and life, such as reading, writing, spelling and nu-

meracy. I have included a poster with this newsletter outlining the benefits

of the tests. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions

regarding NAPLAN.

The new facilities at the front of the school are quickly approaching com-

pletion. At this stage the builders have indicated that the bulk of the work

will be completed during the term break and we are hoping to be able to

move in over the break. We are planning for the new facilities to be open

for the start of Term 2. This will mean that the school office will now be

located at the front of the school in the new building.

Over the past week we have been looking at our student’s attendance

rates. The good news is that our attendance rate stands at 90%. This rate

is better than the average for high schools. Our rate of unexplained ab-

sences is only 1%. This is a very low rate and I would like to thank you for

notifying us when your son is absent from school.

As you may be aware on the 14 March 2016 the Tasmanian Government released the draft Education

Bill 2016. The draft Education Bill is the Government’s proposal for how education legislation should

change to best support the education system and all learners. The draft Bill is informed by national and

international research, a review of legislation in other states and territories and stakeholder and com-

munity consultation.

Major reforms under the draft Education Bill include:

lowering the school starting age from 5 years to 4 years and 6 months, with a flow-on to a minimum

Kindergarten eligibility age of 3 years and 6 months (this will apply to children born in 2016)

lifting the education and training leaving requirements to completion of year 12 or equivalent

(Certificate III, Apprenticeship) or until 18, whichever occurs first (this will apply to students who are

in Year 7 in 2016).

Extending the compulsory years of education and training would ensure that more young Tasmanians

would have access to high quality early learning sooner and more would complete year 12 or equivalent

before they turn 18.

The proposed change to the minimum starting age will bring Tasmania into line with other states and

territories, as shown below:

The Government is seeking feedback from the Tasmanian community on the draft Education Bill. Con-

sultation on the draft bill commenced on 14 March 2016 and will close on 13 May 2016.

Further information on the draft Education Bill and how to give feedback is at the Education Act Review

website [http://tased-education-act.blogspot.com.au].

Jason Szczerbanik

GRADE 7 NEWS The Hunter Report

When H1 and H2 arrived at camp we were put

into our cabins. We had to share our cabins with

our Peer Support Groups. Once we all settled in

we went off to our first activity. My first activity

was archery. Our Peer Support Leaders showed

me and my group lots of new things like how to

hold an arrow.

My group was first to prepare everyone’s dinner

and make dessert. We made Spaghetti Bolognaise

with garlic bread and salad. Mrs Weitnauer was

giving us jobs for preparing dinner, I was washing

dishes while others were drying them. For dessert

we had apple crumble with ice-cream. It is fair to

say the food was absolutely awesome!

There are too many things to mention about what

we did at Hunter camp, but we all had the best

time and are very thankful to our leaders, Mr

Howard and Mr Tabart, and all the teachers that

came along, for making Hunter camp amazing.

Report by Ethan Unger, 7H1

The Jarvis Report

Day 1

After arriving at Orana, we were sorted into our

Peer Support groups and shown to our cabins.

We were given forty minutes to settle in to our

surroundings, unpack, grab a drink and prepare for

our pending activities of the first rotation –

Kayaking, Archery, Survivor Challenge, Frisbee

Golf, Raft Making, Grokking and, for some, camp

catering. It didn’t take us long to realise that Peer

Support Camp was living up to everything we’d

been told about it. After rotation one, we stopped

for a quick lunch break, and then jumped straight

back into it for rotation two. The weather could-

n’t have been better for the first day, and water-

based activities couldn’t have been going better.

As rotation two concluded, we prepared for

rotation three. The final rotation of day one.

Rotation three was a great end to a full-on day,

and though we were tired, we were ready for

more. We assembled back at the camp and

got the briefing on what was happening next.

We headed down to the beach for a swim,

cricket, sandcastles, and sun baking, whatever

we felt like at the time.

Day 1 was a great start to a great camp.

Day 2

Day two was exciting for all of us because we

got our first selection of breakfast and we got

to go surfing! In the morning, Ms Mulholland

gave us an hour of extra sleep so we got up at

7.00 instead of 6.00 which was a pleasant sur-

prise (not that we were ready to get up of

course). When we got up we had to assemble

at the beach to go on a 3k beach run with Mr

Newbold. (I don’t know about you but I would

prefer to fully wake up and then go on a run,

not when we were all still half asleep). After

we panted our hearts out, we got back to

Camp Orana where we finally had our first

breakfast. We had a selection of either cereal

or toast with a spread of jam, butter or vege-

mite.

After breakfast we got straight back into our

cycle of activities: along with surfing. After two

rotations we came back to the camp where we

had lunch- Ham or cheese salad rolls. After

lunch we had two more rotations until it was

free-time for us while we waited for dinner.

For dinner we had a choice of potato bake,

sausages, hamburgers and coleslaw made by

the one and only Mr Lucas (the best chef in the

world). After dinner we had to perform our

plays in our peer support groups to the judges

along with everyone else. After we had all per-

formed our plays we lied down on the floor to

watch a movie - The School of Rock. We got

about three quarters into the movie until it

was time for bed. I think the main highlight for

today was definitely surfing, it was a blast!

Day 3

We had a very abrupt awakening on the third

day. Pots and pans can be a great way to start

the day, but not this one! Within five minutes

for some and ten for others, we were all gath-

ered on the beach, psyching ourselves out for

the morning run with Mr Newbold. Ten to

twenty minutes later, we were all back where

we started, panting as if we had just done a 3k

beach run. We made our way from the beach

back to camp Orana for the most important meal

of the day; Breakfast. After a healthy serving of

cereal and toast, we were back at it with a com-

mon goal for each group: tidy, tidy, tidy. After

cleaning our cabins, each group was assigned an

area and a task. After an hour or so, the place

looked even better than it did before the

Dechanuex camp, if that was possible.

On behalf of Jarvis we would like to sincerely

thank Mr Howard and Mr Tabart for making this

an experience none of us will soon forget. Thanks

also to the Peer Support Leaders for being won-

derful role models and good mates, and all of our

teachers for making this camp possible.

Report by Evan Stone & Joshua Ford-King, 7J2

Mr Jubb and Ms Mulholland would like to wish our

Grade a very safe Easter.

Ashley Jubb & Sara Mulholland

Grade 7 Supervisors

GRADE 8 NEWS

The Grade 8’s have continued their great start

to the year and are looking forward to the

Easter break. Last week members of the SRC

went around to Home Groups asking for dona-

tions for Toby Burridge who participated in the

World’s Greatest Shave. The SRC managed to

get $133.60 bringing Toby’s total to over

$1,700; congratulations Toby! Thank you to all

the students and staff who donated money to

this cause.

We are currently planning our first lunch time

sport, we have decided on basketball and we

plan to get it up and running as soon as possi-

ble. There will be two divisions based on ex-

perience and ability, played on Mondays and

Wednesdays.

The SRC activities committee are organising

whole grade activities for period 5on the last

day of term, to reward the hard work of stu-

dents throughout Term 1.

On behalf of all of Grade 8 we wish everyone a

safe and happy Easter!

Lachlan Payne & Joseph Woolcock

Grade 8 Media Officers

GRADE 9 NEWS Aspire Connect Achieve

Grade 9 Leadership Council Results

The Grade 9 boys and teaching staff would like to extend their congratulations to all of the boys elected to

the Grade 9 Leadership Council, 2016. We have a number of new Council members as well as some re-

turning members from over the past two years. This year is already looking as though it will be busy with a

number of Lunchtime Sports Rosters already being developed or in progress.

Ms Alexander and Mr Newbold again wish to thank all of the boys who put themselves forward for the

election and hence volunteered their services to the grade. There is, however, still many leadership roles

that the boys can be selected for throughout the year. The Grade Coordinators, teachers and Assistant

Principals will be approaching responsible Grade 9 boys to take on specific tasks.

Mason Attfield Tushar Bisht Matthew Brooks Joel Cartledge Billy Cutler

James Elliott Felix Fischer Max Gmelig Samuel Heathcote Maxwell Hohman

Samuel Jones Samuel Jordan Samuel Major Jacob Nichols Tom Roberts

Ethan Ryan William Searle Kelly Stone Liam Toselli Kenny Xiong

Other Highlights:

Thanks goes to Ms Mallett, Joel Cartlege, 9J1 and Jor-

dan Stacey, 9J1, for hosting the first of our Home

Group student led assemblies for the year.

We are now looking for the next Home Group to vol-

unteer to take up the challenge of hosting next fort-

night assembly Wednesday 30 March, fresh after Easter

break.

State Representation

Congratulations to Braydon

Blackaby, 9J1, for being select-

ed to participate in the Inter-

state Flyweight (Boxing) Titles

held in Coolangatta, Queensland.

He won one fight but lost the

decider. Well done on your

selection to the team, Braydon!

Parent/Guardian Assistance Is Needed:

Please assist us by:

Encouraging your son/student to arrive to Home

Group on time.

We are having too many boys arriving late due to

them choosing not to be awake and up in time to

catch the ‘early’ bus.

The alternative ‘late’ bus is often held up in traffic via

Moonah, Montrose or similar areas causing the boys

to be late for Home Group or missing Home Group

and thus being marked as absent because they have

also not signed in correctly. As a result of this sev-

eral parents have received the automated text mes-

sage saying their son/ student is absent, causing some

concerns.

Requesting that your son/student does not go to the

Kmart Complex prior to school.

Please try to have the boys organise their Breakfast/

Recess/Lunch requirements from home or through

the School Canteen so that they do not need to go

to the Kmart Complex to purchase food or un-

healthy confectionary or ‘fizzy’ drinks from the shops

prior to school. This will assist your son/student to

be at Home Group on time.

Note: New Town High has a very affordable and an

accredited Canteen Breakfast, Recess and Lunch

Menu.

Please sign and ask your son/student to return his

Validation Forms and permission slips to the Office

ASAP. This information assists us to be able to make

contact with home (parent/guardians) including im-

portant information regarding progress etc.

Good news is something we all like to share with our

boys’ families!

Other Programs

PULSE – Grades 7-10

This program is run every Wednesday in Period 5,

under the guidance of Ms Annette Purton (EAL

Teacher, New Town High School) and Mr Willie Jo-

seph (Youth Worker, Glenorchy City Council). The

boys participate in structured Leadership Workshops

that are run on site over six weeks. The program

culminates in a reward to acknowledge the boys’

graduation from the program in an excursion to

Zone 3 in the city.

Chaplaincy Program – Grades 7-10

A number of boys are involved in the Chaplaincy Pro-

gram during timetabled spots throughout the week.

Chaplain Callum works with individual students and

with small groups of boys discussing ‘boys to men

issues’ and generally giving the students another safe

adult mentor to touch-base with throughout each

week.

Shaun Newbold & Jill Alexander

Grade 9 Coordinator & Grade 9 AST

GRADE 10 NEWS Our prefects have been working hard and assisting

with school events during this first part of the term

and will represent the school at the upcoming Anzac

Day Parades and ceremonies at Lenah Valley and Ho-

bart. Congratulations to all Peer Support Leaders

who assisted in making the recent Peer Support

Camps so successful. Congratulations to Dylan

Cooper, 10E1, Joshua Cooper, 10E1 and Felix

Roberts, 10J2, who have been recently added to our

Peer Support Leadership Group.

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Our second round of soccer was a highly contested game,

played with excellent spirit and a high level of skill. 10E1

defeated 10E2 in a penalty play off. Best players were:

James Campbell 10E2, Caleb Burridge 10E2 and Caleb

Tiffett 10E1. Thanks to Bradley Cobern 10J2 and Alex

Toselli 10D2, for umpiring.

Student Achievements

Congratulations to Jack Stanwix 10D2, who has been

selected in the State U/18 Basketball Team. Jack will com-

pete in Adelaide in April – we wish him the best of luck!

Congratulations also to Thomas Palfreyman, 10D2, who

will be competing in the Australian Junior Squash Champi-

onships to be held in Devonport over Easter. Thomas will

be competing in the U17 division against twenty six of Aus-

tralia’s best competitors. Good luck, Thomas!

Liam Rolle 10D1, competed in the State Swimming

Championships recently and won a gold medal in the 400

metre Individual Medley, silver in the 200 metre Butterfly

and a bronze medal in the 800 metre Freestyle and the 200

metre Backstroke. Liam will now compete in the Victorian

Age Championships in the 100 and 200 metre backstroke

events. This is an exceptional achievement – congratula-

tions, Liam!

Grade 10 Points System

A reminder to students and parents of our Grade 10

Points System that started at the end of 2015 and has con-

tinued this year. Letters will be sent before the end

of the term to alert parents of those students who

have already exceeded 10 points. This system is in

place to ensure that all Grade 10 students are follow-

ing all School rules in relation to uniform and behav-

iour and setting a high standard for other grades.

Please contact the school if you have any queries in

relation to this policy.

Finally, we wish all students, parents and staff a safe

and happy Easter. A reminder to parents and stu-

dents that school resumes on Wednesday 30 March.

Term 1 concludes on Thursday 7 April.

Leone Lamont & Andrew Harrison

Grade 10 Supervisors

NAPLAN 2016 NAPLAN 2016 tests will be held at our school from

10 – 13 May for Grades 7 and 9 students.

Rationale:

NAPLAN testing is a Department of Education re-

quirement for all Grades 3, 5, 7 and 9 students Aus-

tralia-wide. It is a valuable assessment tool for stu-

dents, parents and governments in determining the

improvements needed in the literacy and numeracy

outcomes of Australian students. It will provide par-

ents and students with a report on the student’s per-

formance in literacy and numeracy against the national

average. Data will also be used to improve teaching

and learning programs in schools.

Specific information regarding the program, including

details about the tests, participation, special provi-

sions and a wide range of other issues can be found

on NAPLAN website:

http://www.nap.edu.au/naplan/naplan.html

All students in Grades 7 and 9 will participate in this

national assessment program. Students who miss any

of the tests will need to do these on Friday 13th May.

The tests will be conducted at school and adminis-

tered by our teachers. Test questions cover aspects

of literacy (reading, writing, spelling, punctuation and

grammar) and numeracy. Questions are multiple-

choice or require a short written response, except

the writing task, which requires students to write

persuasively. Sample questions and sample writing

tasks are provided on the NAPLAN website. A snap-

shot of the type of questions students will do will also

be published in the next Newsletter.

Teachers will prepare students for the tests and will

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provide support and encouragement before and during

the test period. Parents should be reassuring and posi-

tive on the NAPLAN test days. The best way you can

assist your son is by helping them to feel comfortable

about the nature and purpose of the tests, and assure

them that the tests will give them an opportunity to

show their literacy and numeracy skills. A NAPLAN

report will be issued later in the year.

All families of Grade 7 and 9 students should receive a

special “Information for Parents” pamphlet providing

further details about the tests closer to the

Testing Timetable:

Tuesday 10 May

Grades 7 and 9 Language Conventions and Writing

Wednesday 11 May

Grades 7 and 9 Reading

Thursday 12 May

Grades 7 and 9 Numeracy

Friday 13 May

Catch-up Tests (for students who may have missed any

of the tests above).

Timetable Changes

Some changes in whole school class times and timetable

for Tuesday 10 May to Thursday 12 May will be re-

quired. Details will be given out later.

Home Group Arrangement for 7s and 9s

As classes have to be relocated from testing rooms, the

home group arrangements will be as follows:

All Grade 7s to the hall.

Grade 9s to use rooms as allocated.

Equipment

Students should have pencils, erasers, rulers and a pen-

cil sharpener. Spares will be available in the testing

rooms and calculators will be provided for a Numeracy

test on Thursday.

If you have any specific query, please feel free to contact

us at school. Any query about testing should be re-

ferred to Mr Pratap. For Numeracy specific questions,

HOD Mathematics, Mr Tabart can be contacted and for

any Literacy question Ms Frew and Ms Kingshott or

HOD English, Mrs Guerzoni and Mrs Jones can be con-

tacted.

Carol Kingshott & Umesh Pratap

Literacy Specialist Teacher & AST – Reporting and Testing

MY EDUCATION My Education lessons in Year 7 -10 provides experi-

ences and information to support our students to

begin to formulate ideas and decisions about their

future education and career aspirations.

Students during Term 1 and term 2 will visit Me

online and complete a range of surveys that are de-

signed to help them understand themselves and

identify career options they may never have consid-

ered.

Additional websites students and families may find

useful are:

my.education.tas.gov.au key

component of My Education is an online career plan-

ning system

StudyAssist: provides an overview of government

financial assistance for tertiary study.

Myfuture: this Australian Government site provides

information on career areas, training and education

pathways, scholarships and financial support. It in-

cludes a virtual careers expo as well as many infor-

mation videos.

Job Guide: includes information on over 500 occu-

pations as well as job search information and advice.

Australian Apprenticeships: provides information on

the steps needed to register as an apprentice, plus

training opportunities, employers and more.

alife: http://www.alife.net.au/index.php provides ca-

reers inspiration, including real life examples, inter-

active quizzes and videos on many different types of

professions.

Skillsroad: this Career Quiz provides a very com-

prehensive profile on likes and dislikes, with career

possibilities. The site is constantly updated and con-

tains useful information about different industries

and education pathways.

QILT: choose a university or higher education insti-

tution that is best for you, compare undergraduate

student experiences and graduate employment.

Sally Isles

Assistant Principal

MUSIC NOTES Our Music Camp will take place on Wednesday 30

April which is straight after the Easter break. Stu-

dents attending the camp will need to arrive at

school with their luggage for two nights at camp.

The requirements are similar to that of Peer Support

Camp. Members of the Grade 7/8 Concert Band will

spend two nights at ‘Orana’ Lauderdale to rehearse,

practice and work hard at preparing a range of music.

The bus will depart New Town High School after

loading all of our music equipment which will be ap-

proximately 10am. Students will return to New

Town on Friday afternoon 1 April at approximately

2.45pm.

The Music Camps have been very successful and pro-

vides this band with dedicated time to prepare their

music to a high standard. Students will spend most

of the time playing instruments with short breaks

throughout the day. The music camp will be super-

vised by Ms Morris, Mr Howe, Mr Brown and Ms

Mason. Mr Cox will also be assist with camp staff.

Andrew Sweeney

Music Teacher

ENGLISH NEWS There is a great deal of fine work happening in our

English classrooms. The finest achievements can be

seen in the area of writing and creating and we in-

tend to use our newsletter to showcase some pieces

to our wider community audiences.

We encourage students to enter a number of com-

petitions open to them and which we advertise

through our classes. Key among these are the ICAS

(International Competitions and Assessments for

Schools) in Spelling and English. ‘Learn. Reach.

Grow.’ – ICAS competitions aim to recognise and

reward individual achievement in a range of areas and

our students have found it beneficial to learn just

how adept they are in a range of language skills. En-

tries for the ICAS Spelling and Writing Competitions

will be taken up to the 15 May and for the English

Competition until the 20 June with the sitting

dates in June and August.

The Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards Competi-

tion, a unique national project, is also now open

and offers an opportunity for our poets to show-

case their work. There are great prizes on offer

to Junior Secondary Students (Grades 7 – 9) and

Senior Secondary students (Grades 10 – 12) and

this year’s optional theme is ‘Waiting’.

In the area of public speaking we will be entering

students in the Rostrum Voice of Youth competi-

tion. It is a great source of pride that our own

Kelly Stone, 9J2, was the 2015 runner-up in the

State Junior Section and that Mitchell Woolley

achieved recognition as a Grade 10 student in the

Senior Section. We know our students will again

represent us with distinction and look forward to

supporting them in their preparations.

A major focus in our Grade 7 and Grade 9 English

classes in the coming weeks is preparation for

NAPLAN in May. In the following newsletter we

will publish a number of questions from past Lan-

guage Conventions (Spelling, Grammar, Punctua-

tion) for your study. Today we give a taste of how

we prepare students for the Writing paper with

Seven Steps to Writing Success:-

STEP 1 – Plan for Success

STEP 2 – Sizzling Starts

STEP 3 – Tightening Tension

STEP 4 – Dynamic Dialogue

STEP 5 – Show, Don’t Tell

STEP 6 – Ban the Boring

STEP 7 – Exciting Endings

This strategy works for all text types but gives our

students a help in sitting down to write either a

narrative or persuasive piece.

Grace Guerzoni

English Teacher

MUSIC CAMP REHEARSAL SCHEDULE

Wednesday 30

March

Thursday 31

March Friday 1

April 11.00 – 12.30pm 2.00 - 5.00pm 7.00– 9.00pm

9.00 - 11.00 11.30 - 12.30 2.00 - 3.30 4.00 - 6.00 7.00 – 8.00pm

9.00 - 1.00

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New Town High School

6 Midwood Street, New Town, TAS 7008

Phone: 6278 0400

Absence Line: 6278 0499

Fax: 6278 1717

E-mail: new.town.high@education.tas.gov.au

Web: http://newtownhighschooltas.org

https://www.facebook.com/NTHSTasmania

WORLD CHALLENGE FUNDRAISER

ENTERTAINMENT BOOKS

We will again be selling the Entertainment Books to

raise money for the community project phase for the

2017 World Challenge Trip to Nepal. Please encour-

age your friends to also purchase from New Town

High to help the fundraising. To be entitled to the

early bird bonuses please contact Mr Heidenreich or

Mr Dudgeon or drop into the office and purchase the

book before 27 April. We will also be providing

links on our Facebook page shortly to order online.

Thanks for your support!

Nathan Heidenreich

World Challenge

PEER SUPPORT CAMP 3 & 4