Newsletter 4 Term 3

School Motto

From the Principal

Staffing

In addition to the appointments that were announced late in Term 2, for the start of Term 3 we have welcomed Mr Matt Bell who is teaching Maths, Science and PE as well as Mr Wayne Pollock who is teaching English and Humanities. We have also seen Brianna Piper and James Burge-Paul start in roles in the Dawurr Boarding House as well as the introduction of Jo King and Rhiannon Desinan in administration roles. With the addition of these new staff members, we are close to fully staffed for the remainder of the year. We are still looking for some people who would be interested in taking on roles supporting students in the classroom. There is information about this on our Facebook page or you are welcome to contact the school directly if you know someone who might be interested.

Parent Teacher Interviews and Student led conferences

The school has set aside Thursday August 17 from 5:00pm until 8:00pm to conduct student led conferences for Year 7-9 students and Parent Teacher Interviews for Year 10-12 students which will be held in the school gym. Parents of students in Year 10 – 12 are invited to make appointment times on Compass to meet with teachers to discuss progress throughout the school year. Appointments will be for 10 minutes with each teacher and it is strongly encouraged that students are in attendance for the discussion. Please book two appointments if a teacher has two of your children.
Parents of students in Year 7 – 9 are invited to attend student led conferences during the same times. For these sessions, there will not be set bookings. Students will collect a sample of their work from each class and sit with their parents to discuss what has been learned and what progress has been made. Teachers not involved in Year 10 – 12 interviews will be available to be involved in the discussion.
 In addition to the interviews and student led conferences, there will be food provided by Arnhem Eats, information stalls with experts on health and legal questions, stations to sign on to Compass as well as to complete the 2023 Parent Survey. Bookings can be made through Compass or by contacting the office on 8987 0844. Please try to set aside some time on this day to discuss the progress of your children.

Parent Survey

Each year the NT Department of Education asks parents to complete a short survey to give feedback to schools about the experience of students and parents in each community. Schools recognise that there is always room for improvement in the way they operate so finding out directly from community members is the best way to try to plan for enhanced performance which will ultimately benefit students. Please try to take a few minutes to log in and complete this year’s survey. It is entirely anonymous so the school only receives aggregated results and can’t identify individual respondents.

2024 preparation

Last week we welcomed our 2024 Year 7 students to the school for the first of three visits they will have this term to familiarise themselves with their new learning environment. They had some classes and an activity around the school which highlighted different areas while also testing their mathematical skills at the same time. We are also planning other aspects of next year’s program including subjects for senior students and class structures for middle school students. To help with this task, we would ask that if you know your children will not be at school next year to let us know as soon as you can. Similarly, if you know people who are moving to town next year but have not yet enrolled, please encourage them to get in touch with us as soon as possible.

Online safety

Teachers and our wellbeing team spend a lot of time supporting students to navigate the increasingly complex online world which they inhabit. This is also a challenge that most parents face and doing so while being confident that you are up to date with the ever changing technologies involved can be very difficult. If you are looking for some up to date. information to assist, try visiting https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/online-safety-guide for some practical advice.

Gulkula Festival

Last weekend was the festival known as Garma which drew thousands of visitors to the Nhulunbuy area. In previous years, there has been involvement by students on the Friday in an education forum that has been a highlight for many people. This year there was a different format for the event and the invitation to participate was only sent to our boarding students and the local Yolngu students. This was an unexpected change for some but the event remains significant in the calendar and puts Gove in the national spotlight for a few days. Many students and their families were able to take advantage of the open community day on the Monday and still be a part of the celebration.

Brad Madden
Principal
Nhulunbuy High School

School Calendar

The school calendar is available on Compass and parents can see what events the school is holding daily. This Term’s Big Calendar items are:

Term 3

Week 5– Wednesday 16 August – Stars Meet & Greet
Week 5 – Thursday 17 August – Parent Teacher Interviews and Student Led Conferences
Week 7 – Monday 28 August to Friday 1 September - Year10B Work Experience Block
Week 7 – Thursday 31 August – 2024 Year 7 Orientation Visit 3
Week 9 – Thursday 14 September – RU OK Day
Week 10 – Friday 22 September – Last Day of School

Year 9 Core of Life Program

Year 9 students participated in their final Core of Life lesson where they “experienced” a crying baby and considered a range of settling techniques. Some lucky students had the chance to try out some of the techniques including bathing, reading a book, taking the baby for a walk in the stroller or baby sling. The students also discovered the expenses associated with buying essential items for a baby and were surprised at the outlay required. Later this term, our Year 9 girls will participate in the Core of Life “Women’s Talk Cultural Ceremony” special healing day at Town Lagoon.

Jane Utting
Health Teacher

AFL Clinics in PE

Meg from AFL Gove has been spending time with Year 7, 8 and 9 PE classes running clinics to learn and practise the skills of handball, kicking and marking and running some fun games.

Congratulations to the students below who have been selected to play in the Michael Long Cup as part of the AFLNT development program:

Jane Utting
Health Teacher

Term 3 Enrichment Activities

Term 3 has seen a range of fun enrichment activities on offer on Wednesday afternoons, including canteen cooking, badminton, handball competition, jewellery making, bush survival skills, chess club, assisting at Nhulunbuy Primary School and helping around the school grounds.

Jane Utting
Health Teacher

Year 10 Science

This term the year 10A science class has been unravelling the mysteries of DNA! Students have examined what DNA and genes are, and how they make us individual. They have also explored how cells divide so that we can grow, repair and reproduce. The students recently extracted DNA from a strawberry which they were able to then look at under a microscope.

Kate McNeil
Teacher

Year 9 Electrical Atoms

This term, year 9 Science has been centred around atoms and a new scanner that uses neutrons to help us look inside cameras, rocks and car engines like never before.

In this unit students have explored the structure of atoms where they have demonstrated static electricity in three different ways and analysed their observations as evidence that atoms contain positively and negatively charged particles. Students have also just started their assessment which is to design and build a physical model of an atom of one of the first 20 elements, describing it’s particles and properties.

Kate McNeil
Teacher

Year 8 Science

Year 8 Science has been focusing on the periodic table and chemical and physical change this term. Recently the class were asked to observe a chemical change and identify signs that a chemical change occurred. They then had to complete an opened inquiry to investigate what caused one of the observed changes. Some groups experienced different reactions such as fizzing, popping and colour change depending on how much chemical they used. Students will continue to investigate chemical change this term focusing on a prac write up for their assessment.

Kate McNeil
Teacher

LD Boys

A huge shout out to the LD boys for ‘chipping in’ and mulching multiple garden beds around the school.

Stuart Jones
Teacher

LD Girls visit to the Hospital

The LDS and LDM girls had the opportunity to visit the hospital and talk to a number of staff in different areas of the Health field. The girls were able to see how a CT scan and ultrasound function even getting the chance to see Miss Kate’s baby through ultrasound. They then went up to the maternity ward and were able to speak to the warden, a few midwives, a child health nurse, the social worker and the Aboriginal Liaison Officer. The girls were asking some great questions like ‘what do you find most fun about your job?’ ‘what do you least like about your job?’ ‘what do you find the most rewarding in your job?’. The girls were able to play around with some of the equipment in the maternity ward which they found fascinating. A big thank you to Vicki Elborough and the Gove District Hospital for allowing us to visit.

Jane Utting
Health Teacher

Police Station Visit

Students visited Nhulunbuy Police Station to see the day to day running of the station and meet a few local officers. Students got to see the police cars, boat, motorbikes, and watch-house an got an insight as to what it might be like to be a Police Officer.

School Based Office
Kyrra Wilson

School Sport News

NT Touch

Lara Cooper is currently competing with our NT Touch Team in the SSENT Interstate Touch Championships. Congratulations Lara and good luck your doing East Arnhem and Nhulunbuy High School proud!

Cross Country/Athletics

Cross country/Athletics training continues this term Monday and Fridays 3pm to 4pm.