Alstonville High School Newsletter: Issue 4, 20 March 2019

Page 1

Alstonville High School Newsletter

Developing future citizens and leaders of the community – life long learning!

Cawley Close Alstonville Phone: (02) 6628 5222 Web: alstonvill-h.schools.nsw.gov.au

Fax: (02) 6628 1223 Email: alstonvill-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Issue 4 20 March 2019

Our strategic guiding question:

How can we ensure that our students achieve at least one year’s worth of learning growth from one year’s worth of teaching?

Year 7 Welcome BBQ and Year 7 (2020) information night Last week we hosted two very important events from our term 1 calendar.

The first of these events was our year 7 BBQ. This year we arranged for displays in the hall as well as music and food in the canteen

quadrangle. We also had computers available to help families with any problems they might have been experiencing accessing

Sentral (our online communication program). Students were all provided with a ‘dance card’ when they arrived and their task was

to go around to each of their teachers to make the necessary introductions for parents and careers. We provided families with a

Values

We value and support:

A positive, healthy and safe

learning environment

Respectful attitudes and

actions

Diversity

Pursuit of personal excellence

Service to community

Team work

Quality learning and teaching

Initiative, leadership and self-

discipline

Learning

We aspire to be:

Life-long learners

Creative and critical thinkers

Effective communicators

Skilled in literacy and numeracy

Independent and organised

Competent and innovative with

technology

Environmentally, socially and

culturally informed

Caring and compassionate

Alstonville High School

Our community values integrity

in all aspects of life

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

22 March Friday Year 7 Wet’n’Wild Excursion

27 March Wednesday P&C AGM – 7pm – Admin Meeting Room

5 April Friday Alstonville High School Cross Country

12 April Friday Last day Term 1

30 April Tuesday First day for students Term 2

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feedback sheet so we could reflect on how well the night met needs and expectations. The feedback was very positive. Participants

reported that they felt very welcomed and they enjoyed talking with teachers. The timing of the event and the displays of work

were also appreciated. We had two suggestions for improvement next time, which we can accommodate. The feedback form also

provided families with a space to ask questions of the school and I will address each of these questions in the newsletter.

The first question was about SENTRAL, what is it? and how can parents access it?

SENTRAL is our online student management system. It is where we can keep a check on students’ attendance, academic progress,

student wellbeing, and meetings with parents and carers. It has various calendars, a place for generating student reports and we

communicate daily messages for students, staff and families. It has information about school policies, assessment and excursions.

If you are having problems with SENTRAL you can call into the school, or give us a call and one of our staff will help resolve any

issues.You can find information about SENTRAL on our school webpage at the following address:

https://alstonvill-h.schools.nsw.gov.au/supporting-our-students/parents--carers-and-the-community.html

Sentral parent portal

Alstonville High School is continuously improving communication with parents. One new initiative has been opening the parent

portal in our Sentral Administration and Reporting System.

This portal provides real time information about student timetables, attendance, and daily variation to routine and class activities.

Parents can use this site to:

explain student absences

access student reports

book parent teacher interviews

All parents received a letter with information on accessing the portal and an activation key. If you do not have these details, please

contact the school.

The address to register onto the portal is http://web1.alstonvill-h.schools.nsw.edu.au/portal/register

The address to access the portal once you have registered is http://web1.alstonvill-h.schools.nsw.edu.au/portal

Our second important event was the Year 7 (2020) information night. We changed the format for this event and the number of

families who attended certainly made the effort worthwhile. We had some good conversations and the feedback was very positive.

If any families could not come along to this event and want to talk about enrolment in year 7 in 2020, please contact the school

and we will organise a visit for you.

Speak Out On Monday at our school assembly we launched a new student notification strategy as part of the National Anti-Bullying/Violence

week. Students now have a link on their SENTRAL portal where they can notify the school of any concerns they have about their

welfare or the welfare of others. Of course, students are encouraged to talk to us directly. Students can also access the SPEAK UP

notification form via the following link: SPEAK UP

At the assembly, we also spoke to the students about the tragic events from Christchurch last Friday. We offered all of our students

and staff support in case this event had affected them in any way, particularly if they felt they needed someone to provide some

additional support or advice. The whole school observed a one minute silence to show our sympathy and support for the

Christchurch community and the families of the victims. As a school, our position is clear - violence is not an acceptable way of

resolving differences of opinion, relationship challenges or instances of conflicting faith.

Alstonville Certificate of Excellence This week teachers will commence the second round of reporting against our ACE learning scaffold. This information will be

provided to students and families before the end of term. The information from the first half of term and the second half of term

will be used to generate our new student achievement awards. The ACE criteria will be distributed in the next newsletter for your

reference.

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School Spray Jackets - final reminder Orders are being taken at the front office for spray jackets that can be used are part of our winter school

uniform. The spray jackets will be $50 each and payment will need to accompany your order. The jacket

sizes coincide with the sizes of our existing polo shirts. There is a minimum order of 100 required so we

will only place an order once we have reached this minimum. We have re-introduced this option to the

school uniform because of requests we received last year from families who wanted an alternative to the

sloppy joe. If we do not get enough orders then we will not be able to supply this uniform item. Please

order a spray jacket this week.

Attendance Reminder As we all know, attendance is a vital component of student success. A simple thing like running late for class by five minutes each

day adds up to nearly seventeen lessons missed across the school year (three whole days of school). A student achieving a 95%

attendance rate across the whole year has missed ten whole days of school. By the end of February only one year group was

averaging close to 95% attendance - Year 8. At the end of February, our year 12 students were only averaging 88% attendance. If

this pattern continues this will mean that year 12 will miss an average of 18 days of school over the remaining three terms of

school (prior to HSC exams). This is over three weeks of school missed.

Our school generally has better than state averages for attendance, and higher attendance then statistically similar schools. This

obviously contributes to our students achieving sound results for graduation. Imagine how much better our results could be if our

students were able to increase their attendance. I urge our students to think about this issue in terms of community expectations.

Once they leave school and enter the workforce, I do not know many industries that would accept this kind of attendance pattern.

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Canteen Volunteers Remember:

Please volunteer for our school canteen. We need you – our students need your support!

David Silcock

Principal

Tell Them from Me student feedback survey (Term 1, 2019) I am delighted that this term, our school, like many other public schools in the state, will participate in a Department of Education

initiative: Tell Them From Me student feedback survey. The survey measures factors that are known to affect academic

achievement and other student outcomes. The focus of the NSW-wide survey is on student wellbeing, engagement and effective

teaching practices.

More information about the survey is available at http://surveys.cese.nsw.gov.au

The survey is a great opportunity for our students to provide us with valuable and quick feedback on what they think about school

life, how engaged they are with school and the different ways that teachers interact with them. More than 6,300 schools in

Australia and around the world have used Tell Them From Me to survey 5.4 million students. Capturing the voices of our students

will help improve how we do things at our school.

I want to assure you that the survey is confidential. The survey is conducted online and will typically take less than 30 minutes to

complete. It will be administered during school hours between 11 March and 12 April.

Uniform News We are off to a great start of the year in regards to students complying with the AHS uniform policy. We appreciate the students

and parents efforts in this regard and look forward to seeing this continue throughout 2019.

Donations

If there are any used uniforms that are in good condition, and are no longer needed by your child, the school would appreciate

these being donated to the school.

How we can improve

A few items of clothing are creeping in which are not part of the AHS school uniform.

These include:

Black shorts

Hoodies (School representative hoodies are OK)

Denim jeans

Plain white t-shirts for senior

Why do we worry about uniforms?

There are a number of reasons why we work hard to ensure students wear the AHS uniform. These include:

Student safety - we need to be able to quickly identify visitors in the school.

Public image - our students represent our school in the community. A well presented student in uniform projects a

positive image of our students and school.

Having a uniform is a means of reducing the stress of what to wear to school. It eliminates numerous issues associated

with this.

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11 Biology Field Trip to Woody Head 2019 A busload of intrepid Year 11 Biology students travelled to Woody Head on Friday, 15 March. The purpose of the day was to carry

out the practical component of the first assessment task for the Preliminary Biology course.

Students completed an investigation of an aquatic ecosystem to measure abiotic factors and biotic species distribution and

abundance. This involved collecting, analysing and presenting data in order to relate distribution of biotic species to abiotic

variables.

Students worked very hard throughout the day and the aim of tasks included:

describe adaptations of organisms for life on a rock platform.

describe the abundance of organisms at different zones on the r o c k platform through quadrat measurement.

describe the distribution of plants in the sand dune area by mapping out a transect.

Assisting the field study, were Tamlin Heathwood and Emily Jett from the Dorroughby

Environmental Education Centre. They helped provide valuable insight into the human impacts on

the area as well as identification of species.

The weather was ideal and all activities planned for the day were completed.

A yummy BBQ cooked by Mr Pelley and Mr Price helped keep the troops happy and energetic.

Many thanks must be extended to Tamlin and Emily from the Dorroughby Environmental

Education Centre and teachers who assisted on the day.

Finally, a big THANK YOU to our Year 11 Biology class of 2019 - you were great and it was an

absolute pleasure working with you all!

From left Patrick Cashman,

Jesse Gallagher, Kyan Sansom

and Arjah Newman

A beautiful Bubble Shell

Matt Allen, Josh Smith, Toby Bridges,

Cody Dibari and Jonathon King

Mikayla Nelson and Amy Davis

Natasha Hadlow, Charlotte Unsworth, Jessica Chate,

Dove O’Halloran-Wilson and Samina Rowhani

Luka Newman, Tess Gilmour,

Emily Gage and Will Kohlmetz

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Free Non-Fiction books continues We’re making room in the lower library for a more flexible learning space, that means culling outdated or rarely used books. Please come and take as many as you like from the table at the entrance of the library.

Box sets Ms Kenway has been crafting; collecting books by the same author into single boxes and making them easy to find.

Borrowers of the Month

Good friends Lucus Creighton-Kemp and Jayden Williams.

Mufti Day What a spectular effort for mufti day, the Environmental group raised $350.

We plan to donate the money to WIRES. Thank you to all those students who donated a gold coin and participated on the day.

Rachel Varela/Vanessa Christmas

The Environmental Team

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Careers Communication Corner Parents/Carers and Community members

Our Alstonville High School website now has specific Careers Information including a link to a FREE Careers Tools developed website for Alstonville High School. It is attached to “Learning at Our School” drop down Menu on our home page > “Careers News”. Great resource for up to date information including USI and Tax File numbers, University, TAFE, Apprenticeships/Traineeships, HSC Past Papers and so on. The Careers Adviser will also add newsletter information to the Careers website throughout the year.

Attention Years 11/12 - University Open Days 2019. Please check specific websites for dates of open days this year. Many are held on weekends but some info days and seminars can occur on school days or school holidays. Please see the Careers Adviser if you are attending any University related programs on school days and we may be able to put an approved absence into Sentral, provided it is not during exam or assessment periods.eg UNE - Armidale Open Day is Friday, 10 May and early entry online applications for UNE have already opened.

Careers Noticeboards - Parents/Carers Please encourage your child to regularly look at the two main noticeboards in the school that contain paper copies of Careers Notices. Students can take a photo or write down any dates or other info from these notices. One board is to the right of the Careers/Welfare Office across from Maths and the other is across from L14 classroom. Information can be for students from Years 9-12 in particular.

Year 9 Careers Term 1 All Year 9 Religion classes will be postponed for weeks 8 to 11 and they will be used (in L9) to provide all Year 9 with two one hour lessons on Careers information and Work Experience preparation etc. All students, including the small number of non- religion students, need to attend when they would usually have Religion on their timetable. Commencing in term two, and for the rest of the year small groups of students from Religion classes will be withdrawn for one period to the Careers Office to discuss resumes and job interview handy hints.

Karen Horne Careers Adviser

(email: karen.horne@det.nsw.edu.au)

Agriculture News Year 8 students have built their vegetable beds and are actively planting their vegetable crops.

Year 9 students have started the farm safety topic and are learning about tractors and hazards on farm. They have also planted a

snacking tomato and corn crop.

Year 10 students are managing their Chrysanthemum crop and have planted a

dried cut flower crop to expand this year’s project.

Year 11 Primary Industries students have started the livestock units and have

been involved with treating and managing rations and health of our school

cattle. Students have been involved with the A.I. program and halter training our

red angus calves.

Year 12 students are studying the application of pesticides.

The show team are actively preparing our cattle for the show circuit and have put a lot of effort into one of our heifers “Jess” who

is calming at a very slow rate with some troublesome characteristics. Here is a photo of Poiter at 415kg and gaining the expected

1.5kg/day on the ration we are providing. It is expected that he will enter the heavyweight class of the Beef Week led steer

competition in the mid 500kg range.

Ben Holmes / Agriculture

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Sport News

Alstonville High Schools 2019 Cross Country Carnival

A reminder to all students that Alstonville High Schools’ Cross Country Carnival will be held at the Lennox Head Surf Club on Friday,

5 April (Week 10, Term 1).

An information note with a program for the day will be handed out in the coming days.

All students should have received and returned the once only sports permission note. This one permission note will cover years 7

to 10 students for weekly sport and years 7 to 12 for all three of our Carnivals (Swimming, Cross Country and Athletics). The

permission note needs to be returned to the AHS front office.

On the day of the carnival, a roll call will be held on the outdoor basketball courts and students pay $8.00 as they board the bus.

Only students who live in Lennox Head Village can walk to the Surf Club (and they must pay $8.00) for a 9:00am roll call.

Year 11 and 12 students are not allowed to drive and must catch the bus.

Students are not allowed to travel as a passenger in another student’s car.

Students are encouraged to wear house colours a hat and sunscreen (no singlet tops, because they do not provide you with enough

sun protection).

Clothing - Students are encouraged to wear house colours:

HOUSE / COLOUR Years 7, 8, 9, 10

(Surname starting with letters) Years 11 and 12

(2015 Roll call group)

Crawford / Red A to D (rolls 1-8)

Lumley / Green E to J (rolls 11-18)

Maguire / Yellow K to R (rolls 21-28)

Marshall / Blue S to Z (rolls 31-38)

Suitable running shoes must be worn (thongs or sandals are not to be worn at all). Students are not permitted to board the bus

wearing thongs or sandals. It is a fun day but everybody will complete the cross-country course.

All students should pack suitable wet weather gear e.g. umbrella or raincoat.

Year 12 students have organised the BBQ and will be selling food and drinks at their canteen.

The first six runners in each age division will represent the school at the Northern Rivers Zone Cross Country Carnival at Lismore

Race Course on Friday, 17 May (Week 3, Term 2).

In the case of an extraordinary weather event, a cancellation will be announced on ZZZ & 2LM from 6:45am. If it is cancelled, bring

your books for normal lessons. This is a compulsory day for all students.

Swimming

On Tuesday, 5 March, a team of 12 very keen and competitive swimmers travelled to the Tweed River Aquatic Centre in

Murwillumbah for the North Coast Secondary Swimming Carnival. This team was quite successful with seven of our students

qualifying to compete at state. Alstonville High has two students Tom Bowker, 12 Years Boys and Cody Thomson, 15 years Boys

who will compete at the NSWCHS Swimming Championships held at the Sydney Aquatic Centre, Homebush Bay from Monday, 8

to Wednesday, 10 April. Tom will compete in the 50m, 100m and 200m Freestyle and Cody will compete in the 200m Freestyle

and 100m Breaststroke.

Thank you to all the parents who transported and supported their children on the day. Congratulations to the following students

who competed at the North Coast regional carnival held in Murwillumbah for their success and excellent behaviour.

Bowker, Tom Gilmour, Lucas Hadlow, Grace Hosking Bodhi Jobson, Amalia Jones, Eva McKnight, Connor Offley, Lachlan Smyth, Angus Stenner, Sonny Thomson, Cody Trease, Lucy

Rugby League

On Friday, 15 March, four AHS students travelled to Kadina High Campus to compete at the Northern Rivers Zone 15 Years Boys

Rugby League Trials. As a result of their fine performances at these trials, Jaxon Minchin year 9, Kade Garrett year 9, Jack Thornton

year 9 and Daniel Witt year 10 were all selected into the Northern Rivers Zone 15 Years Boys Rugby League Team. All four boys

will now represent the zone at the Northern Rivers and Far North Coast Inter-Zone Rugby League Trials on Friday, 22 March to be

held at Kingsford Smith Oval at Ballina.

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Touch Football

On Friday, 8 March, three Alstonville High School Students travelled to Coffs Harbour to compete in the North Coast 15 Years

Touch Football Trials. Representing Alstonville High School in the Northern Rivers Zone Girls Team was Hannah Gilmour year 9

and in the boys team Toby Duesbury year 9 and Connor McKnight year 8. As a result of his fine performances at these trials Toby

was selected into the North Coast 15yrs Boys Touch Football Team. Toby will now travel to the NSWCHSSA 15yrs Secondary Touch

Football Trials to be held in Wollongong on 4-5 May. Congratulations Toby.

Basketball

On Thursday, 14 March, Jordan Butts of year 9 and Dakin Mahony of year 11 competed as members of the Northern Rivers Zone

Team at the North Coast Regional Open Girls and Boys Basketball Trials held in Coffs Harbour. Although both students played very

well and enjoyed the experience, neither were selected into the team this year.

Football (Soccer)

Congratulations to our students who were selected into the Northern Rivers Zone Football (Soccer) Teams. Both the girls and boys

trials were held at Southern Cross University’s synthetic field on Monday, 11 March.

Selected in the Girls Team:

Amalia Jobson Ashleigh Larrescy Ella Kampf Emma Eichorn Freya Kirbach Jade Bailey Jade Parkin Kaitlyn Jordan Luka Newman

Selected into the Boys Team:

Harry Hampson Jake Balfour James Fleming Kye Smith Nathan Leslie

Congratulations to all our students selected into these teams. All selected students will now travel to Murwillumbah Football

Centre, 35 Mooball St, Murwillumbah for the North Coast Regional Football Trials to be held on Monday, 25 March.

Hockey

On Monday, 7 March, nine AHS Students attended the Northern Rivers Zone Open Girls and Boys Hockey Trials held at Goonellabah

Club. Representing AHS were Lily Christmas, Rose Christmas, Eloise Hagate, Charlotte Unsworth, Kaitlin Unsworth, Chloe Davis,

Aeryn Peiti, Giaan Peiti and Matt Jarvie. Alstonville PDHPE Teacher Allison Larrescy also travelled to Goonellabah Turf to select the

Boys Team as the Northern Rivers Zone Open Boys Hockey Coach. Congratulations to Aeryn Peiti year10, Giaan Peiti year12 and

Rose Christmas year8 for their selection into the Northern Rivers Zone Open Girls Hockey Team and Mathew Jarvie year12 for his

selection into the Northern Rivers Zone Open Boys Hockey Team. All selected students will now travel to Murwillumbah on

Thursday, 21 March to contest the North Coast Regional Hockey Trials.

Volleyball

The NSWCHS Open Girls Volleyball Championships was held last week at Broadmeadow in the Hunter Region. Year 12 student

Marsha Feldman represented Alstonville as a member of the North Coast Open Girls Volleyball Team. Marsha enjoyed the

experience of competing at the State Carnival and put in a strong effort as part of the North Coast team. The North Coast team

played very well to finish 8th out of the 10 teams competing at the carnival. As a result of her fine performances at this carnival

Marsha was selected into the NSWCHS Country Team. Congratulations Marsha.

Paul Francis/Sports Organiser

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Waterpolo

On Tuesday, 12 March, a collection of our students competed in an open water polo competition at the Alstonville Pool. The boys

and girls competed against Byron High School and Rivers Combined High Schools with both teams coming out victorious against

their rivals. The boy’s game against Byron High School boys resulted in an 8 to 4 win and the girl’s game against Byron High School’s

girls 8 to 3. Evie Lopes captained the opens girls’ team whilst Will Moosberger led the boys’ team with fantastic saves. The girl’s

game against Byron High featured Byron having many attempts on goal but they were always faced by Hannah Gilmour’s incredible

saves throughout the match, even if the ball only just skimmed her fingers.

The boys and girl’s teams are now off to play in the CHS open water polo carnival in Newcastle next month. We would like to thank

Mr North for his organisation of this event, Mr Hair and Mr Hill for their rigorous training, Alstonville Pool for their use of the

facilities and Mrs Allan-Cameron for attending training and the events with us.

TAS Information

Year 12 Timber Industry Visit

Students of Mr Fox’s Year 12 Industrial Technology Timber class were fortunate enough to have Scott Hadlow of Martin’s Joinery

give them a tour of his workshop. Scott took over the well known Alstonville business in 2018 but he took time out of his busy

schedule to talk with the students about the timber industry, the work his company does, the pros and cons of different machines

and what employers look for when employing young people.

Scott also took the time to ask each student about their major timber project and gave a few tips about construction methods. I

would like to take the opportunity to thank Scott for sharing his knowledge and advice.

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Visit to Maranoa

The Year 10 Textiles Technology class had another visit to Maranoa nursing last week. The girls are finding it rewarding to work

with the elderly in their local community. They enjoyed showing their textile projects, the masks, while telling them a bit about

themselves and learning from them as well.

Technology Mandatory – Food

Have been designing their own unique dishes. They have recently created their own original stir-fry and stuffed potatoes. The

results can be seen below and show the amazing foods these classes are designing.

Year 11 Textiles and Design

Have commenced Project 1 and are developing an array of samples on all the textile techniques, one of these being felting.

Pictured below.

TAS Open Night

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Year 7 News

Year Advisor’s Note

Hello! Jingi wala.

It has been so lovely settling into the role of Year Advisor and strengthening our connections to both communities and families

over the term. I enjoyed meeting, re-meeting and talking with the families of students on the Year 7 BBQ very much; and I know

the teachers and executive members would have valued the chance to connect with you as well.

Coming up we have many varied events for our students to experience, grow, and demonstrate movement into their best selves.

The annual Wet and Wild excursion, which aims to promote values such as consideration towards others, teamwork, joy and

friendship while strengthening our cohesion as a year group.

This week also holds an excursion to experience live theatre in the form of the ‘Boy Overboard’ production on Wednesday. On

April 9 is the Brainstorm production in the school Hall, which ‘addresses cyber safety and cyber bullying’ in schools and helps

improve student wellbeing and mental health. The Flipside will change student's perspectives on what is humorous, toxic, private,

humiliating, informative, safe or appropriate. The performance provides strategies for positive, ethical communication online-

Brainstorm Productions 2019. Please ensure notes and money are into the Front Office as soon as possible.

The Flipside Cyber Safety Program Covers:

Cyber Bullying

Digital Citizenship

Social Media

Internet Safety

Ethical Online Behaviour

Communication

Empathy

Responsible Use of Technology

Online Gaming

Impulse Control

Digital Footprint

Cyber Safety

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Participation, Respect and Responsibility – Sentral Entries The following students have demonstrated all or some of the key three values of the school. Each student has received a positive

entry on Sentral and in some cases, Achievement Awards and certificates.

Participation and Academic Achievements:

Sienna Mackie and Gwendoline Haydon- Enthusiastic involvement with the Environment Club, including Clean Up Australia Day.

Shilo Cluff, Nick Reeves, Chloe Davis, Kobe Keir, Jordan Hamilton, Chloe Gee, Caitlin Dwyer, Eli Van Nimwegen, Oliver Coombs, Jack Slater, Zak Bedwell, Evie Tall, Jesse Farrell, Matilda Neal, Keane Adams - Completing science homework tasks on time.

Brooke Cockrem- produced an outstanding Visual Representation in a book form that was highly detailed and beautifully illustrated. She has demonstrated outstanding quality and care.

Students and their families mingling with members of staff and executive on the Year 7 BBQ night.

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Oliver Falzon and Oliver Gill- excellent work at coding

Sophie Gallagher, Annie Tolman, Charlie North, Orlando Stephens, Islah Manson, Shawn Rogers, Finlay Tibbs, Lucus Creighton-Kemp, Oren Mukherjee, Archie Watson, Karl Muncaster, Shakaya Waller, Imogen Fox, Ethan Sudarshanam- excellent homework in Science

Orlando Stephens, Finlay Tibbs, Lucus Creighton-Kemp, Henry Lucas, Ethan Sudarshanam- highest marks in Science Assessment term 1. Well done!

Andrew Irvine, Oliver Gill and Samuel Smith- Excellent work in ICT

Harvey Standen- independent thinking and self-awareness in HSIE

Respectful and Responsible Behaviour:

Skate Bennett- Sincere friendship and kindness shown to a student in need

Emerson Butts- environmental awareness and commendable overall attitude

Sam Smith, Rory Hollingsworth, and Ethan Sudarshanam - Students demonstrated a simple yet powerful act of thoughtful inclusion and kindness towards another student in the playground.

Sonny Stenner- thoughtful assistance rendered in Science

Be the first Year 7 student to come to me in the English staffroom with the answer to

this question to win a prize!

I have cities, but no houses. I have mountains, but no trees. I have water, but no fish. What am I?

Thank you! Miss Strawbridge

Archaeological dig – Ancient History Class 11 On March 5, 2019 a group of Alstonville High Schools’ best archaeologists travelled with Mrs Gordon to a coastal region in Southern

Italy. They were tipped off by local residents about a recent discovery that indicated past civilization in the area. Once the site was

marked out with a grid, allocated roles were given to the archaeologists and they began their excavation.

Shortly after breaking the surface the first artefact was up-turned, followed by a continuous queue of others. Each artefact found

that day went through a lengthy process involving every hand of our large, skilled team of archaeologists.

Our diggers, Keisha and Elijah, commenced the investigation as they ploughed their way through the soil uncovering various relics;

the artefacts were then transferred into a bucket where Isabella transported it to the sifters, Katie and Amelia. Our brusher, Lisa,

cleared off the remaining soil and our sketchers, Charly-ann and Charlotte, got straight to work in illustrating the find, as well as,

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Shona and Catalina, our scribes, who recorded all the information of the artefacts found on the site. Many other discoveries were

made that day within the two strata layers that were carefully excavated and analysed; each layer contained these following items:

Strata 1

Metal spoon with Koloa motif

Ceramic Jug (white)

Pottery sherd - blue floral ceramic, wheel made

Wire

Gold dish

Animal Jaw

Skull, horned, cracked in nose area

Tusk/horn

Strata 2

Spine fragment, seven segments

Black rock

Mortar and pestle - terracotta, simple, hand made

Slightly degraded skull

Pumice stone

Fragments of plants x 2

Blow dart case and darts

Shell with golden hinge to open

Petrified wood

Bone

Animal head - horse

Once all items were uncovered and studied our team was able to come to hypothesis on who was the past society

The first society who settled in the area was a hunter society who moved to the area most likely for food, access to water and

shelter. They were most likely a warrior society who rode horses, used wood in construction and ate meat. They had the ability to

make pottery by hand out of terracotta. The shell with gold clasp is an anachronistic item, that most likely came from a society in

the 1600-1800s. The first society was mostly wiped out by a volcanic eruption which we can tell by the pumice removed from the

site. The second society in the area was mostly likely one who settled in the area in 1800s. They were an advanced society that

used metals and made wheel pottery with intricate floral designs. They were a meat eating society and used jugs to store goods.

Macey Balderson and Maggie McGrath - Dig Directors

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Wollongbar Alstonville

Skate Park Update

On March 28, Ballina Council will vote to

prepare a development application for the

skate park

If you want to have your say send an email to

councillors@ballina.nsw.gov.au

Information can be found on the

WASP Facebook page

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