Bayala - Term 4 Week 10 2023

'Bayala'

Welcome to our Newsletter 'Bayala'. 

'Bayala' is a Darug word meaning yarning or conversation. 

Our Vision

Upcoming Events

TERM 1 2024

• Staff Development Days - Tuesday and Wednesday 30 and 31 January 2024
  
• Years 7, 11 and 12 start  -  Thursday 1 February 2024
• Years 8, 9 and 10 start  -  Friday 2 February 2024
• School Photos - Tuesday 13 February 2024
• School Swimming Carnival - Wednesday 21 February 2024
• Year 7 Great Aussie Bush Camp - Monday to Wednesday 26 to 28 February 2024
• Year 7 Immunisations  -  Friday 1 March 2024
• Open Night  -  Tuesday 12 March 2024

Principal's Update

As we near the end of 2023 and the excitement of the holiday season is in the air, we can reflect on 2023 as finally being a “normal” year – the first since the bushfire season of 2019/20 and the subsequent floods. Although this year was marked by a return to regular routines, and an emphasis on providing students with a safe and caring environment, we continued with our relentless focus on learning and supporting our young women and men to be the best they can be.

This focus, however, will have the greatest impact if students are at school. By taking advantage of all the opportunities offered at school, students can maximise their social, personal and academic growth. In other words, a student can only take full advantage of what the school is offering them if they are here. An example of this is the large number of Year 12 students who have been offered placements at university courses, well before the publication of HSC results and ATAR scores. It is not a coincidence then, that Year 12 students have the highest attendance rate of all year groups. They clearly took advantage of everything the school has to offer.  I am also pleased to report that many of these students have chosen teaching as their career – a credit to the positive relationships between students and teachers and a nod to the big impact teachers make on students’ lives.

This year Hawkesbury High School celebrated its 40 year anniversary. As part of the continued celebrations into next year, and a reflection on the school’s place and role in our community, we have started a consultation process on making changes to our school crest – changes that would more accurately reflect the spirit of the school motto “sharing our heritage” and be inclusive of a wider cultural context of our community, including students and staff. I will reach out to the community early next year with more detail as part of the consultation process. The community will also have an opportunity to have a say during our next Parent Advisory Council (PAC) meeting.

Last week Year 10 students had their annual formal dinner at the Hawkesbury Crown Plaza. This was an exciting night for our students as they got dressed up, had a nice dinner, and enjoyed fun and dancing with their classmates and teachers. Our students were exceptionally well behaved and showcased the behaviour and characteristics that have made them such a wonderful year group. It is on occasions such as these that we know that all the hard work parents, family and teachers have invested into our young people are paying off. As some of our current Year 10 students leave into TAFE, apprenticeships or employment, and many stay to complete Year 12, I know that they will succeed as long as they continue living by the values and community standards that they have learned at home and at school.

As we enter summer and the bushfire season, please note that our school is in a bushfire prone area and is listed as Category 2 on the NSW Department of Education’s bushfire risk register.

To ensure the health, safety and welfare of students and staff, the Department has determined that on days when NSW Rural Fire Service declares a Catastrophic Fire Danger Rating for the Hawkesbury, our school will temporarily cease operations for the following day. In addition, schools may be made non-operational due to changing higher risk conditions and advice from emergency services and the State Emergency Operations Centre.

We recommend that you download the Parent App and select to monitor advice from our school which will push notifications to you advising that the school is non-operational.

The Fire Danger Rating does not mean there will be a bushfire, but rather weather conditions that could pose a high risk for a bushfire event. The measure is proactive to ensure staff, students and the community remain safe. To ensure that we continue to support student learning on these days, schoolwork will be available on Google Classroom for timetabled lessons and on the Department’s remote learning hub.

Our school will inform our school community after 4 pm if there is a change to the operational status of the school for the following day. To assist the school in contacting all families please ensure that you have provided us with up-to-date contact details. Further information on up-to-date communication of school operations, can also be found through:

• Our school website or Facebook page
• NSW Department of Education’s School Safety website
• NSW School Updates app

We recommend that all of our families follow the advice of the NSW Rural Fire Service and ensure that your family knows what to do if there is a fire. It can take as little as five minutes to make your plan. Discuss it with your family so you know what you will do in the event of a fire. For more information, go to https://www.myfireplan.com.au/

Finally, a reminder that the last day for students in Term 4 is Friday, 15 December. Monday and Tuesday, 18 and 19 December are published School Development Days and no students are expected to attend on that day. School will resume for year 7, 11 and 12 students on Thursday, 1 February 2024, and for year 8, 9 and 10 students on Friday, 2 February 2024.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a safe holiday, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We will undoubtedly face new challenges next year, but I am confident that if we work together we can overcome any challenge that comes our way.

Igor Maric                                                                                                                                                                                              Principal

From The Deputies

End of Year Activities - Gingerbread Houses

Mrs Martirena and I have just spent a lovely morning constructing and decorating gingerbread houses as part of the end of year activities organised by Ms Harbottle and Mr Powell. We are now definitely in a more festive frame of mind.

We would like to wish all students and their families a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

Positive Paws Program

Hawkesbury High students participate in the Positive Paws program at the Guide Dog Centre at Glossodia. The following students received their certificates this week: Annalyse, Ella, Sienna, Kye, Ella, Allira and Emily.

Positive Paws is an 8 week program where high school students come out to the Guide Dog Training Centre at Glossodia and work with Guide Dog puppies with the aim of developing their confidence through positive experiences.

Students use a variety of equipment and encourage the puppies to explore using their fantastic senses of smell, sight, touch and sound.

Taking part in  the program, students play an important role in helping to develop pups into confident dogs that have a sound temperament, are ready to learn and suited to Guide Dog work.

Hawkesbury High School has been participating in the Positive Paws Program since May 2017.

Kerrie Shortland                                                                                                                                                                            Deputy Principal

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The Resilience Project

Hawkesbury High School is looking forward to participating in ‘The Resilience Project’ throughout 2024. This is a whole school wellbeing initiative that teaches and supports positive mental health in the classroom, staffroom, and wider community. 

‘The Resilience Project’ share emotionally engaging stories with hundreds of schools, workplaces and communities to help make the topic of mental health more accessible. There is a clear link between positive emotions experienced and your ability to become resilient. That is why they place a key focus on three pillars proven to foster positive emotion: Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness (GEM). Their programs also have a strong focus on Connection, Purpose, Kindness, Emotional Literacy and Physical Health. 

We will be planning to hold a Parent information session during Term 1, 2024 to inform Parents about the program. This will enable building positive mental health in schools and home. We know the best impact happens when we work together. The Parent information session will help do just that by sharing those same evidence-based strategies being taught in the classroom, so they can be also practised at home and beyond. Attendees will also be reminded of the importance of their own wellbeing - we bring the best versions of ourselves to our family and community, when we make time to look after ourselves. 

Benn McEvoy                                                                                                                                                                                 Deputy Principal

2023 Student Led Conference

Earlier this term we had an encouraging number of parents and carers attending the Stage 4 Integrated Curriculum Student Led Conference (SLC). The evening provided parents and carers with an important opportunity to sit one-on-one with their child to discuss learning achievements throughout 2023, as well as future educational goals for 2024 across Integrated Curriculum subjects; English, Science, Geography and History.

Parents and Carers were able to view their child’s learning environment, review selected work samples, discuss strengths and improvement, as well as collaboratively establish clear learning goals for student growth and development. It was excellent to see students demonstrate their 21st Century future-focused skills of communication, character, critical thinking and collaboration. We sincerely appreciate parents and carers engaging in these meaningful discussions about education with their children. Thank you to all parents and carers who were able to attend and share in their child’s learning.

# Build Program

The past two weeks on #Build we worked on the completion of a few remaining things to get the car ready for engineering compliance. We have designed and made an additional mount for the engine, created a custom number plate holder to have the lights attached and chased wires to find a broken link that was stopping the horn from working. These tasks have been about problem solving and working together to achieve a common goal.We look forward to it achieving compliance status.

This week in #Build the students installed the tow bar and next week we will wire the trailer lights.

Integrated Curriculum 2023

Throughout 2023, Year 7 and Year 8 students have engaged with the Integrated Curriculum program to further develop a range of future-focused skills. Following is a re-cap of some of their achievements!

Year 7

As Year 7 students settled into high school, they spent Term 1 developing critical Stage 4 scientific, geographic, literacy and numeracy skills. This term laid the foundation upon which the rest of the year would be delivered. In our second topic, Water, students explored concepts of sustainability, citizenship and empathetic understanding across both modern and ancient societies, through local and international contexts. Students developed their creative and critical thinking skills by undertaking scientific investigations, creating nature poems and reflective diary entries, producing stone carving designs and writing accompanying WALU paragraphs to evaluate the significance and value of water to past and contemporary communities.

Semester Two shifted Year 7 student learning to the future-focused skills of collaboration and communication within the units, Hero’s Journey and Human (Un)Kind. Students studied multiple texts to develop their understanding of narrative structure, character, visual literacy techniques and how texts can communicate layered meaning through historical allegories. Our units explored human experiences, Aboriginal histories and the importance of reconciliation. This was coupled with a scientific and geographic lens in which students undertook numerous tactile experiences. They were hands-on with investigative tasks to collect and analyse data captured through scientific experiments and school-based geographic fieldwork, navigating concepts of energy, liveability, formation of places and value of spaces, as well as cells and adaptations. Positively, the growth and development of students’ future-focussed skills and confidence has been observed across the grade with students delivering group research presentations with their peers and engaging in meaningful class discussions about the sustainable use, conservation and protection of diverse ecosystems within Australia. It has a been a very successful year of learning across the Year 7 cohort and we look forward to their continued educational growth and future-focused skill development in 2024.

Year 8

This year started with a Zombie Apocalypse and ended with something a bit sweeter, Chocolate! Year 8 students have worked hard to improve a range of literacy and numeracy capabilities through a vast array of learning activities and assessment tasks. In Term 1, students focused on the future-focused skills of communication, character and citizenship through a Zombie Apocalypse Inquiry-Based Learning Task which required the connection of knowledge and analysis of information about plagues, body systems, informative text types, sustainability and agricultural production.

Creative and Critical thinking skills were activated in the Term 2 and Term 3 units; Myths and Legends and Out of this World. Students worked collaboratively to develop their understanding of chemistry, biomes, coding, essay writing, The Dreaming, Vikings and Norse Mythology. Learning culminated in a diorama build, staging and production of a wonderful array of Viking Norse Mythology Stop Motion films which required students to apply historical analysis, technology, narrative structure, scripting and creative writing skills.

Approaching the end of their Stage 4 journey, Year 8 students have been busy working towards enhancing historical source analysis skills, using persuasive language in product advertisements, reflecting on ethics, undertaking product studies, and applying research and analytical skills throughout the Term 4 Chocolate unit in preparation for their transition into Year 9.

Goanna Academy Excursion

A select group of students attended Kimberwalli as part of the Goanna Academy (Greg Inglis' Organisation). Students had the opportunity to meet NRL Players Cody Walker, Tyrone Peachy and NRLW Player Jakiya Whitfeld. Students listened to Greg Inglis' story and his journey navigating depression. They also participated in NRL sporting activities and had a yarn with a range of career services.

Uniform Donations Needed

We are asking families of students that have attended Hawkesbury High or have siblings that have left the school, to please donate any unwanted uniforms back to the school. This would give us a supply of uniforms for families in need. It would be appreciated if the donated goods be in a fair to good condition. Thank you.

Young Indigenous Writers' Competition

Congratulations to Abbi, Tane and Tahi who were recognised for their entries in the 2023 Patrick White Young Indigenous Writer's Competition. It is wonderful to see our students recognised for their engagement and talents.

Also, congratulations to Zinniah Milson on her winning entry in the 2023 Patrick White Young Indigenous Writer's Competition. Zinniah is a talented writer and we hope to read many more of her wonderful stories.

Guide Dogs Home Boarding Program

The Guide Dogs home boarding program is a great program for working families. The dogs attend training all day and will just stays with the family at night and on the weekends. Families will provide a safe and loving environment for the dog. For further information on the home boarding program please contact the Guide Dogs Association on 1800 436 364.

Australian Red Cross Lifeblood Visit

Time to give blood and change lives? 1 in 3 people in the Hawkesbury will need blood, and they need people like you to give it. We’re rolling into town from 18 to 21 December. Don’t forget to pre-book your spot at Lifeblood.com.au, on our app or on 13 14 95.