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WOW WHAT'S ON AT WHITEBRIDGE

NOVEMBER 2019

  • 11 November - Last day of HSC Exams
  • 11 November - P&C Meeting 6pm
  • 11 November - NSW Hockey
  • 11 - 22 November (inclusive) - Year 7-10 Assessment Period
  • 13, 20, 27 November + 4 December - CreatiV's to KutaHub creative workshop at Redhead
  • 14, 21, 28 November + 5 December - SWAN Program
  • 20 November - Hunter Region U15 Netball Gala Day
  • 20 November - Dolphin Watch Lunch Cruise and Tomaree Headland Walk
  • 25 - 29 November - Year 12 Construction Work Placement
  • 27 November - MADD Matinee + Evening Performances
  • 28 November + 5 December - Whitebridge Badminton
  • 2 - 6 December - Year 10 Service Learning
  • 9 December - P&C Meeting 6pm

PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

This weeks WOW is a bumper edition as we have collated both our October and November issues. With the October edition due out the first week of this Term we decided to hold off and give you double the WOW. As always there is plenty to report on, we have been extraordinarily busy and students and staff have been producing great quality right across the school.

Of course we must celebrate our Year 12 students who over this week will continue signing out of school following the final HSC examination on Monday 11th November. Our students have been studying hard and putting everything they can into their final HSC examinations. Staff have been very proud of the commitment and effort shown by students right through this final challenge. Many students have taken the opportunity to access the library study centre and avail themselves of teacher support to ensure they had maximised their course preparation.

For some the hard work and effort has already started to pay dividends, quite a number of students last week received early entry confirmation for University courses. Some of our very excited students dropped in to share their great news, for those students the course offers include: 2 students Law, 1 student Civil engineering, 1 student psychology, 1 student Primary teaching. I am certain there are many more great news stories to come, we wish all of our graduating students a successful pathway to further study, work, travel and great happiness.

Year 12 Formal

This past week we celebrated our schools leadership with the induction of our new School Captains, Vice Captains, Senior Councillors and Student Representative Council for 2020. We were delighted to be joined by parents and a number of special guests including the Primary Principals from our Whitebridge Community of Schools. It is always a great joy to see our students being inducted into leadership positions having progressed through the K to 12 journey within the Whitebridge community. My sincere thanks to all of our special guests who joined us.

Our student leadership team for 2020 includes:

Captains: Angela Kindleysides & Joshua Levin

Vice Captains: Asha Niddrie & Luke Wilson

Senior Councillors: Kirra Ridgewell & Joseph Lyddiard

Aboriginal Representative: Brayden Jackaman

Specialised Learning Representative: Jodie

Year 11: Jacob Zissis, Ally Smith, Brayden park, Cooper Hunt, Paige Carr, Eryn Brown

Year 10: Maggie Croal, Alyssa Jackaman, Noah Levin, Nathan McMahon

Year 9: Ethan Frost, Molly Holmes, Lucy Niddrie, Isaac Seward

Year 8: Hayden Burrows, Cameron Lee, Matisse Murray, Lola Stevenson

Our students and staff have elected an outstanding group of young leaders who will continue the great work of student leaders before them in ensuring ongoing improvement and implementation of key initiatives that promote the schools values of learning, respect and responsibility.

In response to the States current Bush Fire Emergency, the Rural Fire Service have requested that our school not operate tomorrow to ensure the safety of students and staff. As our school has been identified as a school at increased risk if a bushfire were to break out based on ‘Catastrophic Fire Danger’ ratings for our area.

This means there will be no staff on site tomorrow and we would like you to please make appropriate arrangements for your child.

It is important that you have appropriate supervision in place and that children are not left at home alone in case there is fire activity in your local area.

Regular updates will be posted on the Department’s website https://education.nsw.gov.au/ and our school website to advise the status of our schools’ operation.

We will recommence operations on Wednesday 12th November unless advised otherwise. Should this change, updates will be provided through the schools usual channels of communication.

I encourage all families to download the RFS app Fires near me to stay informed of any future potential threat.

During week 3 I had the privilege of attending a series of presentations by students in Year 7 Inquiry Learning, showcasing their projects on sustainability. It was outstanding to see the innovation and commitment shown by our students in developing sustainable initiatives that can be applied across Whitebridge High School to reduce our impact on the environment. Some of the great ideas included: eliminating plastic cutlery from the schools canteen and replacing it with BYO cutlery and sustainable bamboo options at a cost, BYO lunch containers to collect salads and cooked produce to further reduce plastic waste, encouraging students to ride bikes and installing more bike racks to reduce carbon emission from vehicles, enhancing the schools vegetable gardens, cleaning up the wetlands, installing rainwater tanks, greater use of BYOD technology to reduce waste from paper workbooks, considerations for further support of our countries agriculture and many other great ideas. Our students presented with confidence having completed substantial research, planned budgetary requirements and consulted experts to broaden their knowledge of school and community sustainability. With these young people in charge, our environment is in good hands.

My sincere congratulations and thanks to Ella, Charlotte, Hannah, Matilda, Sienna, Lily, Eleanor, Laura, Olivia, Ella, Sonny, Brooke, Abbey, Roanna, Victoria, Luke, Kobi, Finn, Jayden, Lucy, Amali, Bailey, Mia, Sunday, Sienna, Matisse, Cameron, Charlie and Toby for sharing their work with me. I look forward to seeing the student works progressing and having some of their ideas implemented across our school.

Improvements to our school infrastructure are continuing, those that joined us last week for the induction ceremony would have noticed the difference our 2 big fans are making to air circulation in the school hall. We have also had a team of painters onsite for approximately 8 weeks resulting in many of our classrooms and hallways getting a fresh coat of paint. Our learning spaces are fresh and represent quality environments that match the high expectations we place on learning in our school.

We have also had our new electronic pedestrian gate installed. This gate supports student safety and allows visitors access to the school during school hours through pressing the button on the gate.

New electronic pedestrian gate

We are eagerly awaiting new blinds to D and C block rooms and are hopeful that these will be installed before the additional heat of summer sets in and our new electronic sign to communicate our school information will be installed shortly out the front of our school during the Dec / Jan holidays.

Our gardens are also looking fresh and well loved due to the great work of our gardener Brian and our GA Mr Little who have spent many hours freshening up our grounds, increasing visibility around our school, and removing leaf litter, fallen limbs and weeds. Mr Jubb was also on site to support the team from City Serve who assisted us with a volunteer army a couple of weekends ago to replant and mulch the bank alongside the quad. We are grateful for the support of all of the volunteers and staff who gave up their time to continue to make our school a pleasant environment to come to each day.

City Serve volunteers working on our gardens

The construction of our Aboriginal Yarning circle is scheduled to commence this week. Stay tuned to our facebook page to see the progress on this great program. Our students have been working hard on this initiative with Uncle Nolan and significant planning has gone in to ensuring it is a great space for our whole school community.

Attendance is a key component of our schools requirements. We are working hard with our school community to ensure that attendance at school is a priority for every student. Letters will be sent home across the next 2 weeks to students whose attendance sits below 90%. Attendance of 90% in the workplace would mean that you were at work 9 out of every 10 days and with most employers, this would not be satisfactory. We are working to support our young people thrive in their learning and be work place ready as they leave school. This includes strong patterns of school attendance.

In our school 90% attendance is a minimum standard and of course we expect attendance above 95% and towards 100%. We do recognise that with illness and other personal challenges, some days absence will be required. Our goal is to support quality learning in our school by ensuring that all students are present for every day that the school is open. Classrooms are full of learning activities, deep discussions and problem solving that is hard to catch up on if you are not there. Gaps in learning creep up when you are not attending school. For a child that attends 90%, and misses 1 day a fortnight throughout their education they will be equal to having completed year 11. That means they will have missed 1 whole year of school.

At Whitebridge High School, Every Day Counts …..

School Uniform fitting days are progressing well for our incoming Year 7 cohort for 2020. Any parents wishing to make appointments for uniform fittings are asked to follow the details in the uniform flyer at the end of the newsletter. Our new uniform supplier ALINTA is preparing stock to ensure that all students return to school at the start of the new year in full school uniform. A storyboard to show all families the images of our exciting new uniform after the extensive student and parent consultation period will be available shortly on the school website. We can’t wait to see everyone in it early next year.

The school Enrichment Program 2020 will see some further developments into Year 8. An information session was held in October to support students and families in their understanding of the year 8 program. The Year 8 enrichment program will maintain the focus on quality curriculum with students working in enrichment pods and being challenged across the various curriculum areas. The program will maintain the engagement with the learning portfolio to strengthen students capacity to self-reflect and engage in personal, peer and teacher feedback to enhance their growth and improvement as a learner. Students will be required to continue their involvement in a broad range of extra curricula opportunities. Research indicates that many students become disengaged from their personal passions and interests through extracurricular programs when in year 7, 8 and 9 due to a lacking self-confidence and their own personal conflict when wanting to be involved, particularly if their peers do not share the same interests. A strength of our enrichment model is that it provides a supportive environment for students to participate in extra curricula experiences as a mandatory component of the enrichment program thus reducing the drop out rate for these activities for talented and high potential students.

DEPUTY PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

Week 4 sees us well and truly into Term 4 with many students preparing for final assessments which will hopefully finalise a great year for our students. I would like to congratulate the outgoing Year 12 students on successfully navigating the HSC examinations and the manner which they have shown around admirably dealing with such stress and pressure.

In the coming weeks, Year 10 will be volunteering their services within our great community through Service Learning, where they connect with local businesses and organisations such as child care centres and schools to volunteer their time and have on the job training and experiences in that particular field. Service Learning is a great opportunity for our students to connect with groups and have hands on experiences in a particular area which might support a future direction post HSC.

Another reminder about the Year 8 Enrichment program for 2020 for which the applications close on the 29th November. We are looking for students who wish to extend themselves and raise the bar in their learning expectations by contributing and growing not only academically but culturally across our school. Students who are currently enrolled in the Enrichment Program will need to complete their learning portfolios and write a letter of support, while students who are not currently in the Enrichment Program will need to hand in three pieces of work they are most proud of and a letter of support. For more information, please feel free to contact me at the school.

As we are in the impending summer months, just a reminder about uniform. Sports uniform is to be only worn on designated sport days and when a student has Outdoor Recreation, PDHPE or PASS. If there is an issue with uniform, please contact the Head Teacher Wellbeing, Mrs Smailes or one of the Deputy Principals.

For the last part of my report, I would like to extend my congratulations to one of our Year 10 students, Ally Smith. Ally was recently selected to speak on behalf of the state electorate of Charlestown at the NSW State Parliament during Children’s Week Parliament. The brief was to give a speech to the parliament that was important to the children and young people of the electorate. Ally elected to speak about the importance of local charities, with a particular emphasis on Charlie’s Run for Kids. Her key message was based on lowering the age for blood donations as young people want to be active citizens and support others within their communities. Her speech was captivating and well received, so much so, that she was asked to apply for the NSW Children’s Parliament, and we are happy to announce that she has been accepted, which is an outstanding achievement. Congratulations Ally, you’ve done yourself and your community proud.

All the best for Term 4.

Andrew Higgins, Year 7 and 10 Deputy Principal

Ally Smith in Parliament

BSTREET SMART

Year 10 attended the BStreet Smart program at Qudos Bank Arena in September. Going into its 15th year, the BStreet Smart forum is Australia’s largest educational event on road safety with over 185,000 year 10, 11 and 12 students having participated.

The morning session focused on a motor vehicle crash scenario, which includes the lead up to a car crash involving three young people and a motorcyclist. The scenario showed the interaction of the rescue services at the crash scene and the potential consequences of being involved in a crash. There was also an insight into the patient’s journey through the hospital from the emergency department to rehabilitation.

Following the crash scenario, two presenters from the Brain Injury Unit at Westmead Hospital gave talks about their experiences. This was a powerful reminder of how trauma could affect any one of the participating students.

We also had an opportunity to hear from Vicki Richardson. She spoke from a mother’s point of view about what happened to her family following the death of her daughter who was driving and texting. This was a poignant reminder of all the people who are impacted by road accidents.

Following this there were interactive displays for the students to participate in and current information for them to access. The students in particular loved the wheelchair basketball. At least at the end of the game, students were able to stand up and walk away; unlike someone who has a spinal injury following a car crash.

“It was sad. I could hear about peoples tragic stories; it made me really think.”

“It was very scary and confronting but helpful and educational so that I know the dangers of what could happen when I’m driving.”

Extremely powerful and emotion provoking. I think every teenager needs to witness something like that.”

Hayley Terry

Y10 Advisor

BStreet Smart Program

YEAR 10 SERVICE LEARNING / WORK EXPERIENCE

Week 8 Term 4 2–6 December

For the Year 10 Service Learning Program we have 27 different community organisations on board who are prepared to host our students in week 8 of this term. Yesterday, 71 very organised and excited Year 10 students chose their organisation that they feel will best suit their skills and abilities.

Many other students have already organised their paperwork through Mr Bendall and will participate in Work Experience for Week 8.

With limited spots left for Service Learning, any students who have not yet organised themselves need to make a decision and talk to either:

Mr Bendall regarding suggestions for what organisations that they could contact to organise their own Work Experience, OR

Mrs Kelly, Mrs Taylor or Mrs Arms to see if they are interested in going to the organisations that have spots available in Service learning.

All Year 10 students need to have this sorted no later than the 20 November.

Heather Arms, Janine Taylor and Karen Kelly – Service Learning Organisers

Matt Bendall – Work Experience Coordinator

SPORT

NSW CHS Athletics Championships

In Week 7 of Term 3 , 20 WHS students competed at the NSW CHS athletics championships at Sydney Olympic Park. This event is over three days and involves the best athletes from all public schools in NSW. WHS had some terrific results including:

Imogen Petrie, 3rd U15 Shot Put, 5th Discus

Hugh Sharman, 2nd U15 100m, 4th U15 200m

Jack Barnes, 7th in heat U15 800m, 7th final 1500m

Cassie Corder, 8th U13 Long Jump

Jemma Pollard, 4th U14 800m, 6th U14 400m

James Piggott, 15th U19 3000m, 8th U16’s 1500m

Kihara Stewart Van Est, 5th heat U15 200m

Rhys Dobbins, 4th U16 110m Hurdles

U13 Girls 4x100m relay (Cassie Corder, Matisse Murray, Ella James, Sophie Holt) 4th in final

U14 Girls 4x100m relay (Ella Harris, Ella Hoad, Ella Pedersen, Jemma Pollard) unfortunately did not race due to a breach of completion rules

U15 Girls 4x100m relay (Ella Ross, Charlee Cooper, Kihara Stewart Van Est, Bailee Pappas) 8th in final

U16 Boys 4x100m relay (Rhys Dobbins, Jacob Zissis, Cooper Hunt, Josh Andrew) 9th in final

Congratulations to all the athletes for their results in this competition, your hard work and dedication has paid off.

NSW All Schools Athletics

The NSW All Schools Athletics Championships took place at Sydney Olympic Park over four days from 26-29 September. We had three students from Whitebridge High School represent the school at these championships. Congratulations to Matisse Murray who came 25th out of 43 competitors in the 13 years 100m, Jemma Pollard who came 5th in the final of the 14 years 400m and Imogen Petrie who came 5th in the final for the 15 years discus throw.

Jemma Pollard

Northern NSW Futsal

Mia Wallace and Cassie Corder played in the National Schools Futsal Championships 2019 in Brisbane representing Northern NSW U13 Girls. Their team made it all the way through the week to reach the Grand Final only to go down 5-3. Both girls were awarded a National Championship Runner-up Medal. Mia Wallace was also awarded the National Futsal’s All Star Five Player award for the position of goal keeper for U13 Girls.

Both Mia and Cassie were chosen to represent the U14 Girls Australian team to tour the UK in 2020. Congratulations girls!

Mia Wallace and Cassie Corder - Northern NSW U13 Girls Team

School Sport – Term 4

This term students are being reminded to bring their weekly sport money for venues that require payment. Teachers will be asking students prior to leaving on the bus whether they have the correct money to pay for their sport. Students who do not have their money will be asked to stay at school and will participate in alternate activities.

If students are unable to pay due to extenuating circumstances they will be required to bring a note to the sports organiser on sports days prior to roll call. Students who do not bring their money for sport on repeated occasions and have not provided a note, will be moved from that sport and will be placed on a sport at school.

Daniel Stamp

Sports Organiser

Lifestyle Empowerment Faculty

WHITE CLASS

During the start of this term the White Class has been studying the history of World War 1. They have used materials gathered around the school to create a model of the ANZAC’s landing on the beach at Gallipoli in 1915.

Gallipoli landing model

UNIFORMS

UNIFORM SHOP UPDATE

Recently Whitebridge High School has undergone a review of the existing school uniform supply and range. As a result of this review, and after meeting with a number of suppliers, we can confirm that Whitebridge High School has selected Alinta Apparel to manufacture and supply the uniforms from the commencement of 2020.

Based on the Central Coast, Alinta Apparel is one of Australia’s largest uniform manufacturers and retailers. Alinta brings a proven history of quality, consistency and overall service with a number of local schools such as Cardiff High and Newcastle High.

We have worked with Alinta on a new and improved quality range of uniforms that expand on the current offering. This consultation has involved members of staff, the P&C and selected students.

New Shop Location and Shop Hours

We have selected a uniform fitting room and online uniform shop model for Whitebridge High School. This is partly due to the limited space at the school for a fully functional shop and changing consumer retail habits.

The advantage of this model is that it allows flexibility and access of a uniform range for sizing every school day and has ordering flexibility of online, email or phone ordering. Uniform orders will be delivered to the school at least twice a school week and more in peak periods.

Alinta will also conduct fittings for new Year 7 groups at the school as well as in January, plus there will be collection opportunities in January 2020 for all orders placed. The school will not house any stock or directly sell any uniform as in a traditional uniform shop.

We will communicate the location of the fitting room and ordering and delivery processes very soon.

Back to School Fittings

The new uniforms will commence arriving from November 2019 and will be available for purchase for back to school 2020. Please note that items will only be available for purchase online once they are in stock at the Alinta warehouse facility. We appreciate your patience while the new operation is set up. Further updates will be available in the coming months via emails and in the newsletter.

Click on the button below to access the Alinta website

We are very excited about this new school initiative and improved quality and range. We are confident that families will be delighted with the new products and services.

For any questions please email Kylie at kylie@alinta.com

WELLBEING

HELP FOR PARENTS TO KEEP THEIR CHILDREN SAFE ONLINE FROM THE OFFICE OF THE CHILDREN’S eSAFETY COMMISSIONER

We know that parents and carers worry about their children online — just as we worry about them in everyday life. In fact, the eSafety Commissioners national survey of over 3,500 parents shows that 94% identified their child’s online safety was important.

While being online provides many educational benefits for our children, it’s important to be aware of the risks. Any site, app or game with a chat or live video function can serve as a potential gateway for predators to contact young people.

The eSafety commissioner has recently partnered with Crime Stoppers NSW to help parents deal with risks such as unwanted contact online. By remaining engaged in your children’s online lives and knowing what they’re doing, who they’re talking to and where to report if things go wrong, you can help to minimise any potential harm.

The Commonwealth Government’s Office of the Children’s eSafety Commissioner has developed a resource for parents – iPARENT – which is designed to help parents learn how to be safe and secure with the connected devices in their children’s lives.

'iParent' provides facts and stats about Australian children online, managing technology in the home and strategies used by parents to keep children safe online.

A Parent’s guide to online safety can be downloaded from the site and a range of useful information is available. For example parents can access information about cyberbullying including:

• how to talk to your child

• a parent’s guide to responding to cyberbullying

• what to do if your child is being cyberbullied or is cyberbullying others

• sources of professional support and help

Information is also available for parents about unwanted contact, inappropriate, offensive or illegal content and sexting.

Check out the resources when you get the chance.

Health Care Procedures

School health care procedures are implemented within a framework provided by the Work Health and Safety Act, 2011 and the Common Law.

The department has a duty to ensure the safety of staff and students.

Where a student has been diagnosed with a condition that may require an emergency response, the school will co-ordinate the development of an emergency response plan as part of the Individual Health Care Plan for the student.

We need to develop a health care plan for any student:

o diagnosed with severe asthma, type 1 diabetes, epilepsy or anaphylaxis and/or

o diagnosed with a condition that may require an emergency response

o who requires the administration of health care procedures

We also need to review health care plans at least annually. This information is then provided to our staff who are able to quickly access the information to best meet the needs of your child. If you feel the details of your child’s health condition need to be updated please contact Louise Smailes, Head Teacher Wellbeing.

Wellbeing Learning Conference for Year 12 students

To recognise the beginning of their HSC journey, all of Year 12 spent a day together at some local community venues to outline and discuss many issues regarding their Higher School Certificate journey. Students were actively involved in the learning process through group work, discussion forums, guest speakers and personal reflection in a supportive environment. The following important sessions were covered:

• Understanding and unpacking the nuts and bolts of the HSC - tips for success

• Continuation of study skills, organisation, and information

• Open discussion forums with Industry and Health professionals, staff and ex students, sharing their insights to assist with job and career paths for University, TAFE and job options.

• Team building movement sessions - smaller and whole group activities

• RUOK Mental Health session

Evaluations from both the students and staff involved highlighted the value of this day.

Many thanks must go to Charlestown East Primary School, Charlestown Netball Association and Central Charlestown Leagues Club for kindly supporting us with this initiative.

Heather Arms

Organiser

THE CREATIVES

Bandfest 2019

Whitebridge High School’s Concert Band has been meeting together each week throughout this year, practicing repertoire and improving their skills. Students have recently been working on three pieces for their entry in Bandfest 2019: Funkytown by Lipps; Harry’s Wondrous World by John Williams; and the Theme from Jurassic Park, also by John Williams. Bandfest is a Newcastle/Lake Macquarie Combined Schools event which provides an immersive opportunity for school concert bands to display their progress over the year, observe other bands, and receive constructive and positive feedback from recognised musical experts.

All our members are in Year 7 as follows: Fred Acton, Lola Best, Taylor Callow, Jessica Hempsall, Mackenzie Martin-Bromley, Hope Smith, Isabell Todd and Charles White.

We wish them the best of luck in their performance!

Mrs Osland

Bandfest rehearsals!

Woodwind Lessons - Whitebridge High

Caitlin Pengilly (BMus, AMusA) is now offering woodwind lessons at Whitebridge High.

I’ve been playing since 2003, and have 12 years experience teaching flute, saxophone, and clarinet, including being a memberof staff at New England Conservatorium of Music. I have experience playing in orchestras, musicals, and jazz and contemporary ensembles, and enjoy playing and teaching a wide range of styles (anything is possible!). Learning an instrument is great fun and gives huge academic and health advantages. Some of the skills can be used for:

• HSC prep

• Playing in the school band

• Playing in extra-curricular bands

• Playing with your friends

• Resume-building

• Scholarship applications

• Just because it’s fun!

Please call or email for any enquiries! 0422312356 OR caitlinpengilly@hotmail.com