15th December, 2017, ISSUE NO. 20

2017 in a Nutshell 2017 has been another successful year at Nambucca Heads High School. Our students have attended camps, gained

success at State level in art, science and the sporting fields. Their achievements have been outstanding. The community

involvement of students has also been inspirational. A number of our students were involved in The Red Shield Appeal and

also participated in Clean Up Australia Day. One of the major highlights of this year was the musical, Disco Inferno. To

present such a polished performance requires substantial commitment by staff and students who spent weekends and

afternoons practising. Disco Inferno was well received with sell out nights for most performances. Congratulations to

everyone involved. So many students attended excursions to various locations in New South Wales. Participation in these

excursions enhances the learning outcomes of students and offers them an insight into what is possible. Again this year we

have two staff retirements. Mr Peter Lennox, who retired earlier this year, and Mr Bill Richardson will finish after 38 years of

service to Public Education. NHHS thanks you for your efforts and commitment to the education of young people. Mrs

Angela Tate and Mrs Pat Nichols will be taking extended leave through 2018. We wish them well with their time off.

NHHS community would like to extend Seasons Greetings to everyone.

Principal’s Report

Dear Parents and Community

As I began writing this report, all NSW public school principals received an email from the NSW Secretary for Education, Mark Scott. 800,000 students in NSW attend over 2200 public schools. By 2031 this number of students is estimated to grow by 21%. NSW public schools educate nearly 70% of NSW students.

This email was sent to inform all principals about the Strategic Plan 2018-2022 for education in NSW public schools and the ambition for the NSW Department of Education to be the best education system in Australia and one of the finest in the world.

Reading this email reminded me of how important NSW Public Education is to the success of NSW and consequently, Australia, due to the numbers of students and their families who are involved and therefore dependant on the NSW Public Education system being as best as possible.

As a principal of a NSW public high school I am very proud knowing that we, as a school community, live up to our school motto –

CREATING TOMORROW. As a school community I know that we are certainly doing our job for NSW and Australia.

As I constantly say to all students at NHHS – you are the creator of your future. If you come to NHHS willing to be involved in activities and participate to the best of your ability, both in and out of the classroom, your high school education will be successful, valuable and enjoyable.

2017 has been another year for NHHS where students have been given the opportunity to create their tomorrow both in and out of the classroom.

In 2017, NHHS has been one of eight Australian schools, to participate in the 2017 Asia Education Foundation BRIDGE School Partnerships Program, which aims to connect Australian teachers, students and school communities with their counterparts across Asia.

Ms Tina Seckold, Head Teacher English, has worked with NHHS students and our exchange partner school Indirapurum Public School in New Delhi, India.

Indirapurum is a school of over 1500 students from Kindergarten to Year 12. Ms Seckold went to India over the 2016 Christmas holidays and was immersed in all aspects of Indian culture and life. Ms Seckold then hosted her Indian colleague for a number of weeks in the middle of the year. Through this program NHHS students have been able to experience another culture.

For me the highlight of this program, apart from getting to eat samosas, was when the two schools swapped cultural dances. We received footage of some students from Indirapurum dancing and then James Donovan, Christopher Duckett, Damien Mitchell, Jerrai Dahlstrom, Jonah Edwards and Jye Herring created and filmed an Aboriginal dance and sent it over to India.

The 2017 Musical – Disco Inferno was a great success. NHHS has a long history of producing exceptional school musicals and Disco Inferno was all of this and more. Through the musical, the Nambucca Heads community was able to see the talent and commitment of our students and your children.

To those students who were in the musical, congratulations on your commitment and as you get older you will look back on your participation in Disco Inferno as, no doubt, one of your most enjoyable and memorable high school experiences.

I would like to publically thank all staff members of NHHS, both teaching and non-teaching, as a principal and a parent, for all of the work you do both in and out of the classroom for our students and our children.

The goodwill you show towards all students by organising activities that allow all of our students and children to extend themselves and make them better young adults is greatly appreciated. Thankyou.

To the students of NHHS I thank you for the way you behave when you are participating in these extra-curricular opportunities. Your appreciation of being offered these opportunities is greatly valued by all staff.

I regularly receive emails or phone calls from members of the public who make the effort to get in touch with me to tell me how impressed they were with the behaviour of NHHS students when out in the community.

As a school, your child’s success is our main objective – we will give your child every opportunity to receive the best possible education they can.

For your child to experience educational success every staff member needs to be able to deliver the most up to date and best practise – NHHS staff are constantly encouraged to experience and participate in training and development opportunities that will build their capacity to be better educators of your children.

Nambucca Heads High School consistently punches above it’s weight gaining outstanding results in HSC and many State wide academic competitions – when you are at a BBQ or sporting event and the old conversation of what school does your child go to

comes up please talk up NHHS. Be proud that your child attends a public school – I know that I am.

I wish you all a restful and safe Christmas holiday and look forward to working with you all again in 2018.

Simon McKinney

Principal

Calendar

P&C Report

The P&C have held their final meeting for 2017 and while we are only a small group we feel we have had a very successful year raising funds for the school through our Rugby League World Cup raffle and selling food during the Musical season. Money raised will be used for educational purposes - an award was presented to Year 12 student Daniel Lulham, Mia Kelsey received a school jacket at our Presentation Day and a donation of $1200 was presented to the school Library for the purchase of two laptops for student use. We would like to thank all those parents/carers and community members who supported our efforts during the year. The uniform shop will be open the first day of 2018, which is a staff development day (29th January, 2018). Skirts will be available and some stock of shirts and shorts. Please speak to Annette Welsh at the school. We have decided to hit the ground running in 2018. We will be holding a Car Boot Sale on Saturday 23rd March from 9am in the carpark of the school. Sites will be $20 each. Please email kadaley2@bigpond.com for site bookings. More details will be advertised on the school Facebook page and newsletters.

Year 7 Debaters Update While their relative youth did not hinder Nambucca’s Year 7 Debaters in winning the North Coast Region of the Premiers Debating Competition for Years 7 & 8 it proved a decisive factor in their recent trip to Sydney to compete in the State Championships.

412 teams had been whittled down to ten Regional winners for the final three days of debating with two blocks of five teams to compete in a round robin format over two days.

The strength of the block Nambucca was placed in was eventually shown by the fact that not only were the eventual winners, Smiths Hill High in their block but their opponents, Karingal High, were also in the same block.

The Nambucca team of Sonja Stone, Abbie Hazelwood, Laura Hughes and Hayley Jacob-Harju performed outstandingly over the two days of competition but they were unable to counter the experience of their opponents, being narrow losers in all four debates.

Highlights of the trip included both Hayley and Abbie running over the allotted time of seven minutes to complete excellent speeches, a couple of outstanding performances from Sonja at third speaker and Laura’s decision making.

While the girls were defeated they were anything but disgraced and as one of the two most successful Year 7 teams in the Competition, the other being Sydney Girls High, they have the potential to do outstandingly well in next year’s Competition. Bill Richardson

OUTSTANDING HSC Results

On Thursday 14th December the school received the Higher School

Certificate Results for 2017. There were some outstanding results by

students proving that hard work can definitely pay off. Congratulations to

Olivia Langley who received three Band 6s, Pyper-Rae Wagstaff and

Brooke Hallett who also received a Band 6. There were also 27 Band 5s

received by our students. Year 12 staff were exceptionally pleased with

the results and acknowledge the effort by the students. We would like to

wish all our Year 12 cohort well with their future endeavours.

DATE ACTIVITY

29th January 2018 Staff return to school

30th January 2018 Students return school

6th February 2018 Annual Swimming Carnival Macksville

9th February 2018 Basketball, Boys and Girls Softball

Jemima McKinney, Hannah Bartlett, Olivia Langley, Max Galo, Marni Girle,

Kirra Cohen, Thomas Barbour, Brooke Hallett, Anne Gilbert

Education Support Dog for Nambucca Heads High School There are approximately 19 public schools in NSW with Education support dogs as alternative and highly effective strategies to

improve behaviour, attendance and support the learning of students. Lake Illawarra High has enjoyed the tangible benefits of

an Education support dog since 2013. The quantity of negative incidences dropped from 27 to three during a corresponding six

week period from Term 1 in 2012, to the same time in 2013, with the same group of students. The biggest change reported in

schools who have ‘dogs on staff’ is the empathy that students begin displaying toward one another. Schools also report that

Education support dogs improve morale, improve playground tidiness, and increase socialisation and teamwork within the

classroom.

Nambucca Heads High School will be using the services of ‘Bear’, a two-year old Samoyed who has achieved his equivalent to the ‘Good Canine Citizenship’ level through Apex Dog Training. Bear is vaccinated and has vet health checks undertaken regularly. The breed is known for being well-tolerated by those allergic to dog fur and the Samoyed temperament standard states ‘above all displaying affection towards all mankind’ (Australian National Kennel Club, 2013). The teacher-librarian, Mrs Taylor, will be Bear’s handler and he will have a timetable with scheduled breaks taken in her library office.

Education support dogs are frequently utilised for reading support in programs such as ‘Sit, stay, read’. Here at Nambucca High, Bear will be available to enhance students’ individual reading programs. When requested by our Learning and Support team, Bear will provide a non-judgmental companion to reduce anxiety and enhance the positive experience for students undertaking our reading program. The Nambucca Heads High School Education support dog program will also focus on improving whole school literacy with a reading out loud activity entitled ‘Dog Tales’. Once a week, Bear will be timetabled to engage with students during their lunch breaks in the library. Various novels and short stories will be read aloud to interested students by volunteer staff and the teacher-librarian. Each student will have a copy of the text so they may follow along with the reading. This is a highly effective teaching method, supported by academic research:

Reading aloud to an interested audience can provide opportunities for children to improve their oral fluency and pronunciation, and to allow for opportunities to check comprehension (Merga, 2017).

The first stage of our program begins with informing our school community. The second phase asks that parents and carers provide us with information on your children regarding any known allergies to dogs or fear of dogs. A full school assembly will include an informative session on interpreting dog behaviour in preparation for Bear’s arrival in Term 1, 2018. For further information please call the school.

Further links: https://www.teachermagazine.com.au/articles/reading-aloud-not-just-for-the-early-years

http://www.dec.nsw.gov.au/about-us/news-at-det/news/assistance-dog-goes-to-school

http://www.thebidgee-s.schools.nsw.edu.au/humphrey-education-support-dog https://www.sitstayread.org/

http://storydogs.org.au/

Bear

Mr Rumsey would like to thank all students who attended basketball at lunchtime and particularly after school. He was extremely pleased with the sportsmanship and attitude that

was displayed at these sessions. Basketball will return in 2018 so keep practising and come back ready to take on all comers.

At this stage after school basketball will again be on Tuesday afternoons.

Have a great holiday.

Presentation 2017

A very successful Presentation was held on Monday 11th December. A large number of parents and carers were there to

acknowledge the achievements of our students. Also joining us was the Member for Oxley Ms Melinda Pavey, Nambucca

Shire Mayor Mrs Rhonda Hoban, Principal of Frank Partridge VC Public School Mr Todd Potter and Principal of Nambucca

Heads Public School Mr Phillip Maunder. Local business people who support our school were also in attendance. To

entertain the large crowd our school band played as guests were being seated as well as during the presentation. After the

Presentation students attended Year meetings where they were handed their yearly report. Congratulations to everyone who

received awards and to everyone who applied themselves during the year. We hope you have a fantastic holiday and come

back ready and rested in 2018.

Activities Days

The Dreamworld excursion this year was once again a great success with students and staff enjoying a fantastic day at the

theme park. Tuesday 12th and Wednesday 13th December was Activities Days. Students were given the opportunity to sign

up for a range of activities over the two days. It was a fantastic couple of days with trips to the beach, the rainforest, activities

at school and water parks. This was a lovely relaxing way for students to finish off what has been a very busy year.

Movember

Six staff members, Mr McKinney, Mr Allison, Mr Rumsey, Mr Hyland, Mr Elsley

and Mr Barnes, participated in Movember this year raising funds for men’s

health. During November the teachers grew their moustaches (some better

than others) then on 30th November they hit the cat walk to present their mos

to the school. We did have some “ring ins” on the catwalk, The TAS twins (AKA

Mr Hazelwood and Mr Cattanach). After the catwalk it was down to the gym for

a game of Staff V Students Dodgeball. It was a bit hard to tell but it looked like

the staff may have come out on top. A big thank you to Mr Rumsey for his

organisation and to the staff who participated. Also, thank you to everyone who

donated to the Movember cause. They will be back bigger and better next

year.

Dreamworld

School &

Community Notices Textiles If you have any fabric or haberdashery items that you no longer need the Textiles department would

love to receive them. They can be dropped into the administration office.

Library

Library staff have recently completed a stocktake which showed a number of books are either

missing or extremely overdue. Please check around you house/bedroom to see if you have any

books to return. It would be great to have them returned as they are expensive to replace. Thank you

From staff and students at Nambucca Heads High