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CALENDAR OF EVENTS

COMING EVENTS

• 11 March Aboriginal Welcome

Barbecue - 5pm start

• 23 March 2020 P&C meeting

THIS ISSUE

• Principal’s Message

• MHS P&C Meeting

• P&C and SRR Awards

• Writing Friday

• Library News

• HSC Standards

• eSafety—Safer Internet Day

• Advertisements

• Sponsorship

Principal’s Message

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Communication was the focus of last week’s editorial, so it seems a fitting segue that I

let you know as part of the communication strategy at Mudgee High, this Principal

meets with the Captains and Vice Captains on a weekly basis.

Those meetings are sharing ones. As the school’s student body leaders, I keep them

up to date with what is happening at a whole-picture level within the school and, at

times, external to the school where those

things may impact on us directly. They

keep me up to date with what is

happening at the Student Representative

Council (SRC) level, as well as raising

issues and asking questions as needs

be.

After a week of the new mobile device

procedures being introduced, it seemed

timely to discuss their first impressions.

Here is some of what I discovered while

talking with the captains:

• “We’re more productive.” This observation was made after one of the

captains, having arrived thirty minutes early for a before-school lesson,

reached into her bag to fetch out her phone – a matter of habit – only to

realise the phone was locked away. At a loose end, she decided to do some

Maths work. Fresh as she was, given the time of day, she smashed out a

very productive thirty minutes of solid work. I asked her what those thirty

minutes would have looked like had she had access to her phone. The

answer: mindless scrolling.

• “You have to plan ahead – be prepared.” In past lessons that involved a lot

of note taking, it was easy to switch off or engage in idle distraction before

whipping out the phone at the lesson’s conclusion so as to snap a picture of

the notes on the board… a picture then seldom looked at again. These

student leaders have come to realise that under the new regime, you are

obliged to engage actively with the work presented and, at the very least,

take from the notes provided the bare essentials. That has to be good.

• “Conversations and UNO games have replaced silent scrolling.” This

observation was made about the senior area but very quickly expanded to

the Quad and beyond. It is a fact that is not in dispute; since the roll out of

the new procedures, the school is louder during breaks. One Captain noted

that the line of students that each break once acted as a kind of buttress for

the southern wall of K Block, juniors silently scrolling through tiny screens,

has turned into small groups of highly engaged conversationalists.

• Mobile device disruptions in classes have all but disappeared, and

surreptitious Netflix viewing is no more. That last one was a surprise to me.

The story relayed was that in some rural places well beyond the reach of the

NBN, tapping into streaming services is impossible. Some enterprising

students have in the past brought their devices to school and downloaded

Monday

2 March

Week 6 Term 1

2020

MHS Newsletter Mudgee High School – Locked Bag 2004, MUDGEE NSW 2850

ABN: 18 246 198 266 Telephone: (02) 6372 1533 Facsimile: 6372 6321 Website: www.mudgee-h.schools.nsw.edu.au

Email: mudgee-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au https://www.facebook.com/mudgeehighschool/

their viewing while on site. So far so good. While many have been able to resist the lure of the content so

collected, saving it for home, others have succumbed to the temptation and chosen instead to view that

content during class time, hands inside their bags or under the desk, headphone(s) in! I see real potential

for improving HSC results in this one area alone.

Collectively these young leaders reported that the initial shock has worn off. They are enjoying the far more social

nature of their breaks. There are still those who are struggling with the change, such is the nature of addiction, but

the verdict after a week: it is “so much better.”

Parking in front of the school; a guide for novices…

Douro Street, immediately in front of the main office of the school, is a trap. It is a trap for unwary motorists intent on

parking. While there are some areas where one can legally park, at the extreme ends of the block bounded by

Horatio Street in the south and Denison Street in the north, the all-day parking is well gone by 08:30.

There is a 15 minute parking zone at the northern end of this seeming no-motorist’s-land, where you can turn off your

car, lock it up and come into the school… but for no more than 15 minutes! You can even drop off your children in the

disabled parking section near the gates, and those areas marked “NO PARKING” 08:00-09:30 and 14:30-16:00... so

long as you don’t park. Parking there in those time slots is frowned upon by the authorities and attracts a $114 fine.

One thing that will certainly bring you to the attention of the authorities is simply stopping your car in the emergency

vehicle lane (just north of the gates) That kind of behaviour will attract a fine of $268. The mother of all parking fines

comes when you park without authority in the disabled parking zone or block the ramp immediately in front of the

school, also located in the disabled parking area. That little act will cost those caught a cool $572.

So please be careful where you park those cars…

A list of parking fines can be found here:

https://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/documents/roads/safety-rules/demerits-parking.pdf

Until next week…

Wayne Eade Principal

Writing Friday

MUDGEE HIGH SCHOOL P&C

The next meeting of the Mudgee High School P&C will be held on Monday 23 March 2020 at 7pm in the school library.

Entry via Horatio Street.

All welcome.

Week 5 Term 1 Awards

P&C Awards: Year 7 - Carly Thurston-Murray; Year 8 - Logan King; Year 9 - Hope-Louise Irwin;

Year 10 - Tully Myers; Year 11 - Claire Anderson; Year 12 - Rohan Wallace

SRR Award: Alexander Wojciechowski

Library News At the mid-point of Term One, all is in full swing, accommodating the needs of both staff and students as we settle

into our core business — meeting the needs of Mudgee High’s school community.

Our computer classrooms are heavily booked for class research, pending first assessment tasks in all subjects and

mandatory skills and safety testing across ‘manual’ subjects, which has produced a lot of class ‘traffic’.

Our central teaching space, which includes a huge projection screen, audio/visual facilities and Chromebooks, is

being utilised for whole class lessons on a regular basis. Its sixty seats+ capacity is also used to host weekly staff

meetings and will be used to host Staff Development Days this year.

Simultaneously, we have been accommodating our Stage 6 Distance Education students who access a broad range

of external subjects ranging from Aboriginal Studies through to Digital Multimedia and EAL/D. This highlights the

scope of subjects available at Mudgee High through our Distance Education partner schools. Additionally, our video

conferencing facilities are in high demand to facilitate these courses. All students have settled into classes with new

‘via remote’ teachers and have proven motivated in their self-learning.

We have also welcomed a new Aurora High School student at MHS this year. Our Library hosts this Department of

Education ‘virtual’ selective high school; which offers Mathematics, English and Science for junior students in an

alternate setting.

Year 12 students have been doing a commendable job utilising the Library to undertake homework, research and

coursework in their study periods. The Library not only offers a place to stay on top of the constant workload

associated with the HSC, it also provides printing facilities for student work submission. These Library printing

services are available to all students at MHS.

We also accommodate students doing school based traineeships (SBATs), who require access to teachers, and a

group of TAFE students who are undertaking a drone pilot course through TAFE NSW this year.

The implementation of the school’s revised mobile device procedures that make use of Yondr pouches has had a

positive impact upon the utilisation of the Library in the last few weeks. More students engaged in reading,

challenging each other in chess, playing board and card games, completing homework, utilising computers for

gaming, research and study, as well as engaging in the ‘brainstorming’ of ideas in conversation during breaks and

‘study periods’. This can only be a good thing in the development of young minds!

All of this bodes well for another busy and productive year within our Library in meeting the teaching, learning and

recreational needs of Mudgee High’s students.

eSafety - Safer Internet Day

On 11 February, Mudgee High School took part in the e-safety commissioner’s “Safer Internet Day 2020”.

Students shared the ways that they stay safe on line.

Explore Australia’s online safety hub

Check out eSafety’s great range of advice and

resources. Get started by visiting our parents and carers

pages and reading the practical tips for kicking off an

online safety conversation. You can also download our

‘Parents guide to online safety’ booklet (available in 5

languages), tell your family about eSafety’s pages for

Young People or get familiar with our step by step

advice to reporting different types of online abuse. Find

out more at esafety.gov.au

This year’s Safer Internet Day theme is ‘Together for a

better internet’ and Australia’s eSafety Commissioner is

encouraging parents to mark the day by starting family

conversations about online safety. See the following

page for conversation starter ideas!

eSafety young people—conversation starters

These question are designed to be used in a family or education setting to start everyday conversations about online safety. The cards cover topics such as identifying online risks, using technology safely and reporting unsafe behaviour. Use them together with the information at eSafety young people, and empower young people to take control of their online experiences.

• What three words describe who you are online?

esafety.gov.au/young-people/your-digital-reputation

• What would you do if a friend was being harassed online?

esafety.gov.au/young-people/be-an-upstander-not-a-bystander

• What worries you most about me being online?

esafety.gov.au/young-people/helping-adults-get-online

• Do you feel pressure to keep up on social media?

esafety.gov.au/young-people/pressures-from-social-media

• What would you do if someone sent you a nude image without your

permission?

esafety.gov.au/young-people/receiving-unwanted-nudes

• Can other people see pictures you post of me online?

esafety.gov.au/young-people/consent-sharing-photos

• Have you ever created online drama?

esafety.gov.au/young-people/violent-inappropriate-content

• How do you feel after spending time on social media?

esafety.gov.au/young-people/spending-too-much-time-online

• What would you do if a nude photo of you was shared without your

consent?

esafety.gov.au/young-people/my-nudes-have-been-shared

• How do you balance time online with other priorities?

esafety.gov.au/young-people/spending-too-much-time-online

• Do you know how any of your friends manage their time online?

esafety.gov.au/young-people/spending-too-much-time-online

• If there is one thing you would like me to stop doing online, what would it be?

esafety.gov.au/young-people/spending-too-much-time-online

• What are your top three tips for using social media?

esafety.gov.au/young-people

Advertisements

Mudgee Relay For Life registrations are now open! Please join us for the Mudgee Relay For Life in April 2020 as we come together to celebrate survivorship, remember

loved ones lost and fight back against cancer.

Event details

Date: 4 – 5 April 2020

Place: Victoria Park, Mudgee

To register, please visit www.cancercouncil.org.au/mudgeerelay

For more information, please like our Facebook page ‘Mudgee & District Relay For Life’ for updates.

Sponsorship

Mudgee High School - LINK Program

Proudly supported by

Ulan Coal Mine