Term 2 ‐ Week 6, 2020

PRINCIPAL: Mrs Leesa Daly ACTING DEPUTY PRINCIPAL: Mr Christopher Payne

Newsle er

Cootamundra High School Poole Street, Cootamundra Phone: (02) 6942 2711 | Fax: (02) 6942 1516 Email: cootamundr‐h.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Website: www.cootamundr‐h.schools.nsw.edu.au

P ’ R A warm welcome back is extended to all our students and staff. It is lovely to have our students back in our classrooms engaging with their peers and teachers face to face. Students are par cipa ng in and enjoying the rou ne associated with their

metabled lessons with a few minor modifica ons to sport

occurring to address the current guidelines put out by the Department of Educa on. Thank you to all those students and parents who have returned the laptops and dongles that were loaned out to them. If you have not returned your device can you do so as soon as possible please. We have been gathering data from both students and staff about their remote, online teaching and learning experiences during the COVID‐19 pandemic. This informa on will assist us to iden fy strengths and areas for improvement and will inform our next best steps should we have to return to an online mode of delivery again. We will be seeking feedback from parents and caregivers in the coming weeks. Extensive building and refurbishment works are con nuing at the school. Some projects have been delayed due to materials being unavailable however our revamped front office is open and fully opera onal as is our new Enrichment Studio. A‐block classrooms have been spruced up with new paint, carpet, windows, acous c pinboards and blinds being installed. The Library, Hall, Staff

Common Room, Aboriginal Hub, Conference Room, Art and STEM rooms are all close to being finished. I would like to thank the students who have been working under the guidance of Mr Phillips measuring, making and installing new garden beds and the plan ng of new trees, agapanthus and roses around the school. Thank you is also extended to Mr and Mrs Roberts, Ms. Emonson and students Layne and Cooper Emonson who also spent a weekend plan ng new trees. Newly appointed staff members at Cootamundra

High School; Mr Seneka (Mathema cs teacher), Mrs

Zimmerman (School Psychologist), Ms Clarke

(English/drama teacher) and temporary staff

member Miss Dawe (SLSO) have all hit the ground

running connec ng with students and staff at CHS

during term 2. We have appreciated the support of

extra casual staff this term who have assisted with

the smooth running of the school par cularly when

extensive social distancing restric ons were in place

– our thanks are extended to Ms Emonson, Mr

Berkrey, Mrs English, Mr Officer and Mrs Sprang.

I would also like to acknowledge the awesome work

of our cleaning staff who have been going above and

beyond to keep our school super clean and sani sed

– thank you Ian, Deb, Lee and George.

Staff have started the process of wri ng semester 1 reports for students in Years 7‐11. These will be distributed to students at the end of term 2. Please contact teachers if you have any ques ons, queries or concerns about your child’s learning. Ms Willoughby is currently working with students in Years 10 and 11 to help ensure they met the Minimum HSC Standard requirements.

Mr Perry, Year 7 Advisor 2021, is looking forward to mee ng and working with Year 6 students at EA Southee and Cootamundra Public School in the coming terms as they prepare to transi on into high school. As the weather starts to cool down can I ask all parents to encourage their children to wear, with pride, the Cootamundra High School uniform. If you require assistance to purchase school uniform please contact the Principal. I hope you all have a wonderful long weekend and get to enjoy the company of family and friends now that some social and travel restric ons have been li ed. With Kind Regards

L Daly

S F B

Work has begun on the beau fica on of the front of

the school. Kylie and Jus n Roberts, Sheree, Cooper

and Layne Emonson as well as Sam O’Loughlin took

me out of their weekend to plant some

Ornamental Pears.

Mr Doug Phillips, with the assistance of students has

planted some Crepe Myrtles and Agapanthus, as

well as construc ng garden beds for use within the

school.

Thank you to Annie Tozer, Tarnia Drum and The Holt

family for your generous dona ons of Agapanthus.

P ’ R cont.

Smart Start Breakfast Club will recommence on

Tuesday 9th June.

See you there!

WEDNESDAY EARLY LEAVER PASSES

Passes are required for all students in Yrs. 7 ‐ 11

to be allowed to leave school premises at 2:35pm each Wednesday.

If you do not have a pass please see the ladies in

the front office to collect a permission form.

Remember: bring your pass to school ‐ without your pass you will not be allowed to leave early

T E S As part of the renova ons at Cootamundra High School and as a direct result of feedback provided to us from students, parents and staff, we now have an amazing new learning space which is known as The Enrichment Studio. This newly furnished space is a place for all students and teachers to access and provides a bright, open environment for learning. Many students have already had an experience working in

this room as part of a whole class, in small groups or

individually. With an ‘open door’ approach, Ms Bateup

will be based in this room, B4.5 and is looking forward to

evolving innova ve ways for students to u lise this space

so they can Connect Succeed and Thrive. This space will

ensure all students’ learning requirements are known and

valued.

S

Students appear happy to be back in learning in a classroom se ng. Currently in Junior Science students in Year 7 are star ng the unit Our Place in Space, Year 8 are doing the Circle of Life unit, Year 9 are con nuing the Genes for the Future unit and Year 10 are con nuing the Land Before Time Unit. A reminder to all students there is quite a bit of outstanding work for most year groups and students should be looking to work with their teacher to catch up missing work. Students will be assessed based on a combina on of the work they completed before the COVID‐19 isola on period and a er. Not all year groups did formal assessments so it is important that work is completed to inform the teacher of progress. In the senior courses for Year 11 and 12 students are con nuing on a normal pa ern of study and are being assessed with formal assessments. Again it is really important that all outstanding work is caught up in each of their subjects.

Mr Sides

U N E ‐ UNE HSC B D .

Monday and Tuesday students have had the opportunity to par cipate in the UNE HSC Booster. This year it was run online with students being sent video presenta ons rela ng to subjects including English, Agriculture, Physics and Biology. During the two days students were provided with some up to date industry informa on and given the opportunity to ask ques ons of the lecturers and researchers in these fields.

A

LIVESTOCK

This term Yr. 10

Agriculture students will

be taking part of a broiler

experiment. This same

experiment was

conducted last year with

inconclusive results. This

year we have sourced 20

broiler chickens with 8

going home with students and being fed starter and

the rest staying at school and being fed starter and

wheat combined. When the chickens are large

enough they will return to school where they will be

weighed weekly. Interes ngly they were compared

at 2 weeks of age with layer chickens that were 1

month old and they were the same size. At 5 weeks

of age they are currently si ng around 1.3‐1.5kg.

On the sheep front we have planted forage crops

that are star ng to come up nicely and will be

working towards sourcing another ram for our lady

ewes. We have been given a GPS tracker as part of

the GPS Cows program that we will be using with

the sheep. Students will have the opportunity to

look at ways in which tracking data can be used to

improve management for our flock.

GARDEN WORKS

In the gardens we are in the process of se ng up

some trial frost covers. Silver beet that was planted

before isola on has taken off and there are more

seedlings that are ready for students to get back

into the gardens. This year the Primary Industries

class has just planted some mandarin and nectarine

trees. We look forward to future fruit produc on.

Y 8 PDHPE

Year 8 students had lots of fun doing some warm‐up

ball skill games recently.

O P L Oscar Philp put this fitness course (see picture below) together as part of his ’online’ prac cal lesson during week 1 of this term. Well done Oscar!

PDHPE All classes have made a posi ve and produc ve return to face to face learning with Year 12 PDHPE focusing on understanding sports injury management throughout their Sports Medicine Unit. Year 12 Community and Family Studies are looking at the different dynamics in paren ng and caring situa ons. Year 12 Sports, Lifestyles and Recrea on are designing a fitness program focused on improving athle c development. Year 11 PDHPE and SLR are currently taking a close look at The Body in Mo on, and Fitness respec vely. Year 10 are exploring Consumer Health, and inves ga ng the health service providers that can be accessed in our local community. Year 9 are looking at Empowering Healthy Lifestyles. Year 8 are looking at managing Challenges and Changes. Year 7 are looking at “Who am I?” PASS classes are learning about the challenges and intricacies of Event Management, a mely topic given the issues we have all faced regarding restric ons on events both large and small! All classes have enjoyed ge ng back into their prac cal lessons ‐ albeit with some subtle changes to stay current with changes in our social distancing guidelines.

Students are reminded that our Sport and PE uniforms are navy tracksuit pants, navy shorts, white polo, a school jumper and/or jacket and closed in runners. Hoodies and football shorts are not part of our uniform!

Congratula ons to Anisa Rees and Breanna

Logue (Soccer) and Kris an Miller

(Swimming) on receiving their Riverina

Representa ve Badges

M The Maths Faculty would like to give a warm welcome to our new Mathema cs teacher, Seneka Mahagedara (Mr Seneka) who comes to us from Sydney. Mr Seneka will be teaching classes that were previously taught by Mr Officer/Ms Dickinson, Ms Bateup and Ms Willoughby. Please join us in making him feel at home in our school community. Online learning has proven to be a challenging experience for some students, while others have thrived. Students need to ensure that they have completed all the tasks that have been set while in isola on. And need to make sure they have shown their teacher’s the evidence of their learning. It has been great having the students back in the

classroom. Whilst we are not having any formal

assessments in the junior school this term, most

teachers are doing informal assessments in class to

gauge students’ progress. Senior’s will need to

adhere to the Assessment schedule for individual

courses located in their Assessment Booklets. HSC

students are encouraged to check NESA for updated

advice.

S S U

Dear parents, guardians and carers

Re: Na onally Consistent Collec on of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD)

Every year, all schools in Australia par cipate in the Na onally Consistent Collec on of Data on School

Students with Disability (NCCD). The NCCD process requires schools to iden fy informa on already

available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. These relate to legisla ve

requirements under the Disability Discrimina on Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Educa on

2005, in line with the NCCD guidelines (2019).

Informa on provided about students to the Australian Government for the NCCD includes:

year of schooling

category of disability: physical, cogni ve, sensory or social/emo onal

level of adjustment provided: support provided within quality differen ated teaching prac ce,

supplementary, substan al or extensive.

This informa on assists schools to:

formally recognise the supports and adjustments provided to students with disability in schools

consider how they can strengthen the support of students with disability in schools

develop shared prac ces so that they can review their learning programs in order to improve

educa onal outcomes for students with disability.

The NCCD provides state and federal governments with the informa on they need to plan more broadly for the support of students with disability.

The NCCD will have no direct impact on your child and your child will not be involved in any tes ng process. The school will provide data to the Australian Government in such a way that no individual student will be able to be iden fied – the privacy and confiden ality of all students is ensured. All informa on is protected by privacy laws that regulate the collec on, storage and disclosure of personal informa on. To find out more about these ma ers, please refer to the Australian Government’s Privacy Policy (h ps://www.educa on.gov.au/privacy‐policy). Further informa on about the NCCD can be found on the NCCD Portal (h ps://www.nccd.edu.au).

If you have any ques ons about the NCCD, please contact the school.

Kind regards

Leesa Daly

Principal

N C C D S S

D ‐ (NCCD)