If there are any questions or you need assistance please feel free to contact me on 4390 0555 or james.mackinnon@det.nsw.edu.au

Have a great break over the holidays and I will see you ready to go Term 3!

James MacKinnon - Year 8 Advisor

Year 9

And just like that, Term 2 has concluded. Year 9 have been working very hard this term on maintaining the core PBL values that Northlakes High School actively promotes. Most students have been working to their personal best in their classes as well as being respectful to their peers and teachers. Although this does not mean there is not room for improvement! I encourage all students in Year 9 to actively uphold our PBL values both at school and in our local community.

Last Wednesday I took some Year 9 students to a bonding day at Morisset Active Education Centre. We all had an excellent day of ropes courses (to promote teamwork) and Flying Foxes (to face our fears!) as well as an amazing lunch. It was a wonderful opportunity to go out together as a year group and have a day of fun. I would like to thank all of the students that came on the day as well as Mrs Martin, Mr T. and Mrs Bannister for accompanying us.

Looking forward to next term, I advise that all Year 9 students ensure that they have the correct uniform and increase their attendance. Students must come to school every day on time. There are a fair few students in Year 9 whose attendance is below 85%. It is a legal requirement of parents that their child maintains this benchmark of 85% attendance. If a student is away for legitimate reasons e.g. doctors appointment, please provide a medical certificate which can be handed in to the office or roll call teacher. This will allow the absence to be recorded as explained. If parents are struggling with their child’s attendance, please don’t hesitate to contact me and I can utilise the systems in place to support you and your child.

Lastly, I hope that parents and students have a relaxing and refreshing holiday. See you next term!

If you have any concerns or wish to contact me, please feel free. I can be contacted on 43 900 555 or via email at jarad.freebody@det.nsw.edu.au

Mr Jarad Freebody

Year 10

Term 2 is coming to a close and we’re all looking forward to having a break after a very busy term.

In week 8, Year 10 students were invited to the Ourimbah campus of Newcastle University for a “Try-A-Skill Day” to explore a range of career options. Students were able to have hands-on experiences at activities such as construction, food services, beauty treatments, retail, brick laying, and many more. I was extremely proud of the students’ behaviour in a public setting, as well as their willingness to involve themselves in a range of activities outside their usual comfort zones. Well done, Year 10!

The following week saw students attending Avondale College for the Careers Expo Day. Our Careers Advisor, Ms Hewett, took 40 Year 10 students to speak to a range of experts about post-school options. Students also discovered which subjects they should select for Year 11 and 12 in order to lead them in the right direction for various courses. Students will be able to use this information, as well knowledge gained from the subject selection evening on Tuesday 3rd July to choose their subjects for their Preliminary and HSC years at Northlakes High School.

Subject selection night was on Tuesday, where Head Teachers of all subject areas spoke to the students about Year 11 and 12 options. Students should carefully consider the information they received to select the most appropriate subjects for their own personal goals. Students are encouraged to speak with me if they have any questions or concerns about selecting the right subjects.

I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday break, and we all return to school refreshed for Term 3!

Paige Teulan

Year 11

It is critical that all students attend school every day to engage thoroughly in the school curriculum and meet outcomes of all courses. If your child is absent, please supply a note to justify their absence. It is the responsibility of the student to catch up on any missed work and complete all assessment tasks before the due date. Collectively, as a year group our attendance rate dramatically needs improving. This will be one of our many goals for next term.

Most of Year 11 students have now been provided with Teacher Mentors of their choice. Students should have met with their Teacher Mentors last week at a mentor morning tea and have set a regular meeting time to discuss attendance, N-Award warnings and set short and long term learning goals.

The payment for the senior jackets has been extended until the Friday in the first week of next term, 27th July 2018. A Google form will be emailed to students in the coming weeks for students to order their style of jacket, their nicknames and sizing. We are waiting on a sizing kit to be sent to us.

I hope you all have a very safe and relaxing holiday and I will see you all next term with your equipment and full school uniform.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me on 43900555.

K.Bissaker - Year 11 Advisor

Year 12

This year has gone so quickly and now it coming up to the last term of Year 12. The Year 12 interviews indicated that a lot of students did not have a study plan, I hope that everyone has addressed this problem but if any student is still struggling please ask for help. Year 12 mentors should be utilised - it’s not too late, it is time to put in all reserves and give this HSC your personal best. The year’s attendance has been satisfactory as well as N awards and uniform. You guys do me proud as usual!

The finer details for the formal are going to be finalised with the leaders meeting with the venue manager in the holidays. Students can start paying off their formal tickets as an account has been set up. We have a bake sale to run and when we finalise the fundraising total, a budget will be made and ticket prices announced. We also have our Thompson Pie Drive that will be carried over to next term. Now is the time to focus on the lead up to the trials. I wish you all the best and I am here if you need any help or support .

Please remember that your senior school fees need to be paid before you can purchase a formal ticket! If you have issues with this please contact me on 43900555.

Mrs Sue Fulwood - Year 12 Advisor

NAIDOC

Because of her - I can

NHS celebrated NAIDOC on Tuesday July 3rd in the school hall. Guest speakers included:

• Renee Cawthorne - Ex NHS Student/Indigenous Project Officer for Australian Museum
• Marilyn Fraser - Ex NHS Aboriginal Education Officer
• Sarah Bergan - Head Teacher PDHPE
• Jo Spain - NHS Aboriginal Education Officer

On the day staff from the Art House presented Kyle Waters with his award from the Maliga showcase and the Indigenous girls were treated to a "high tea" by Ms Byrnes.

Creating Chances

Our group of Creating Chances students have completed their semester of training and have been in the primary schools all term. I am extremely impressed with the improvement in organisation, confidence and rapport with the Northlakes Primary students. The coaches are now role models for this group of Year 6 students and I look forward to the connections they have in their transition into high school.

On Thursday 28th June Northlakes High school hosted the Creating Chances Gala Day for the Central Coast. We had around 200 students from Toukley and Jilliby plus the coaches from Wadalba, Gorokan, Lake Munmorah and Wyong on site all day. The coaches organised their groups and coached the primary students in various sports throughout the day. The interaction and participation was a pleasure to see and the confidence and maturity shown by all Creating Chances coaches was a positive to our school and the Creating Chances Program.

James MacKinnon - Creating Chances Coordinator

CAPA

Year 11 Visual Arts students along with Mr Brimbecom and Ms Lee went to see the exhibition ‘Class of 2017’ at Lake Macquarie City Council Art Gallery at the beginning of Term 2. This annual exhibition consists of selected HSC Visual Arts students works from the Central Coast, Lake Macquarie and Hunter regions.

Our students experienced a wide variety of artmaking practices exploring a variety of subject matters that reflected issues and themes of which the students could really connect with. We also spent an hour in the grounds of the Gallery drawing and experimenting with different artmaking materials.

I would like to thank all students who performed at StarStruck and their carers for all their time and financial contributions towards their transportation and costuming. I would also like to mention the School, through the Principal Mr Warren Welham for their financial contribution towards StarStruck. Once again, these experiences would not happen without the dedication and support of staff, in particular, Miss Turnbull, Mrs Martin and Mr Wilkinson. The Central Coast Dance Festival runs for two weeks. I would like to thank Miss Turnbull for all the hard work and time in getting these performances ready.

Year 11 and 10 Photography students will have their work on display at The Entrance as Paste-Ups for next few weeks, a council funded initiative to give young people from six local public high schools a voice through the lens of a camera. Thank you to the photographers Hilda and Edwina, and Ellen Bridge at Central Coast Council for this opportunity and as images become available I will post them on this site. I would to express my appreciation to Ellen and Hilda for the inclusion of previous students’ works in the Refugee Week exhibition coming up at the University of Newcastle Ourimbah Campus.

A reminder from Creative and Performing Arts/ Language faculty, about subject selection evenings for Year 8 and 10, students should select subjects they excel at or interested in, to maximise their HSC result, all subjects are of equal value none more or less important, creativity and expertise should be a significant consideration in your choices. Past results from this faculty have included Band 5’s and 6’s and HSC marks above or at state average. Options for Year 8 include, Visual Arts, Music, Drama, Dance, Photography and Digital Media and Japanese. While Year 10 selections include, Visual Arts, Photography, Drama, Dance, Music, Japanese Beginners and VET Entertainment. Choose wisely, work hard and do yourself proud, because it can be done!

Year 7 Visual Arts are currently finishing up their Unit “Me, Myself and I”, while Year 8 are completing their ceramic sculptures. Year 9 are working on a painting and a Body of Work including printmaking, based on the work of Picasso and his technique of Cubism, in rendering a guitar “Still-Life”. Year 10 are completing drypoint etchings based on the natural environment. Stage 5 Photography and Digital media are looking at “The Landscape as Metaphor” and Stage Six Photography and Digital Media are putting the finishing touches to the “Point of View” module. Special mention needs to be made here of the work of Year Ten students Conor Smith, Kimberley Hingston and Monique Shepperd, and Year 11 Photography students, Kaylin Steele, Jenna Burton, Ayden Wright-Whittle, Braydon Jones, Brock Matthews and Zac Swan for their contributions to the “Paste-Up” at The Entrance.

All Year 12 students in CAPA and Languages please attend class and communicate regularly with you teachers as hand-in dates, HSC performances and examinations are coming up, and missing deadlines is not an excuse. Try hard, attend class and complete all work! that may be the difference between you getting a position you want now and working harder and longer later, to achieve the same goal.

Les Brimbecom - Head Teacher CAPA

LANGUAGE

Year 7 Japanese Language students are progressing well with the hiragana script. Most students can recognise the symbols and are now focusing on using them in class notes making sure they follow the correct stroke order.

あ　い　う　え　お　か　き　く　け　こ

All Year 7 classes have learnt the words for their body parts and have had fun singing “head, shoulders, knees and toes” in Japanese. They can all say the date of their birthday as well. We are now working on making sure students will be able to greet and have a basic conversation with the Japanese exchange students who are due to arrive at the beginning of next term.

The two Year 7 French classes have been progressing well in their lessons. Ms Turnbull is teaching them how to talk about nationalities and is developing a “fantasy league’ for the World Cup. Students will be writing a player profile in French.

Stage 5 Japanese students are consolidating their knowledge of Hiragana and will be moving to learning the Katakana script next term. Their last assessment was a listening task and overall the class did very well.

Year 12 Beginners Japanese students have now completed all assessment tasks apart from the Trial Exam next term. The last task was a Reading task on the topic of Travel and Sightseeing, followed by a Question - Answer Speaking task on their future travel plans. We will be focusing on our last topic “Future Plans and Careers” for the remainder of this term.

All students need to make revision of past work part of their study program at home.

Thank you in advance to all the generous families who are taking a Japanese student from Okayama into their home for the 11 night stay. We hope you enjoy your time with our visitors. From past experience we know that the students really benefit from this multicultural exchange.

Mrs Davis

VET

I would like to acknowledge the hard work of all staff and students this term in VET it has been a very busy term so far and the last two weeks do not seem to be slowing down. Year 12 are very busy finishing off Cluster tasks and preparing for their HSC Trial exams that will be held week 3&4 next term. Year 11 have only 1 term left to complete their preliminary course before they start their HSC course in term 4. I would like to acknowledge our students who were involved in Star Struck this term representing our school in a positive light and thank them for their hard work and exceptional behaviour in what was a huge week.

Sport Coaching students are working on completing coaching sessions in class, looking at warm-ups, skill development and modified games. It is great to see their confidence growing with these sessions. As a mandatory requirement of Sport Coaching, all students must complete their First Aid HLTAID003.

The First Aid course will run next term and costs $72 to be paid at the office or online.

Please see Mr MacKinnon regarding any information on this course.

We also have our TTC Hospitality work placements happening during week 9-10 and as you can see from the pictures below they have been cooking up a storm and presented the senior executive with an array of delicious meals last term.

We are also getting ready for the Year 11 2019 - subject selection night on the 3/7/2018 and the VET faculty have a fantastic array of courses on offer in 2019:

• Business Services
• Construction
• Entertainment
• Hospitality
• Information Digital Media & Technology
• Metals and Engineering
• Retail Services
• Sports Coaching

Please feel free to come and have a chat or ask any questions regarding our courses if you are thinking about taking them next year.

Regards

Marshall Wilkinson - Head Teacher VET & School Operations

ENGLISH

Hello from the English faculty to our parents, carers and students. We have definitely had a busy term here in English and recently the assessment tasks have been flying thick and fast. It is with a great deal of pride that we say to all the students who worked hard on their assignments for English – Well done!

Year 12 Advanced recently attended Sydney University for a modules day. Students attended lectures with other schools to listen to key note speakers on Hamlet, Judith Wright and the comparative study of 1984 and Metropolis. It is hoped that this day out helped to support all of those in attendance with resources and ideas that can be accessed for the upcoming HSC exams.

Year 11 Standard English students have been working this term on their ICT composition and presentation. Students were asked to explore the concept of multimodality and were then required to create an interactive site, either fictional or non-fictional on a real or imagined social or global issue. Many students put in an extraordinary amount of work to publish polished and well-presented sites. It was the first time many students accessed the Google Suite through the DET student portal and we would encourage students to continue to use this software as you can access your work and documents on any internet connection. Work saved to your Google drive is secure and it means that you do not need to hand in a USB that could get lost or corrupted. Working in the Google suite also means that work is saved, live as you develop it. Unfortunately many students were not keen to deliver the aural component of the task and did not do the presentation and site analysis. We in English would really love to encourage you all to support each other and to work through your anxiety and stress at public speaking. We are a team here at Northlakes and no student should feel that they can’t speak in front of their peers. We understand that it may feel overwhelming, but feelings can be worked through and resilience in stressful situations is a life lesson to be learned and worked through now when you have support for both peers and staff.

Year 10 students have spent this term studying the films and style of Tim Burton. Students were required to compose and deliver a key note speech about the director and his films. The English staff would like to commend all of the students who stood before their classmates and delivered excellent, detailed and well developed speeches that were of a high quality. Well done!

This term the Stage 5 debater’s went to Lisarow High School to face off against their debating team. Once again, Northlakes High School reigned supreme. We were the clear winners despite the adjudicator’s dislike of the topic “Video Gaming should be an Olympic Sport”. We argued in the affirmative and our students delivered well developed ideas and arguments that saw us come out on top, winning this round of the debates. Mr Vandercroft has worked very hard to develop the team and their speaking skills so congratulations to him and his outstanding debate team.

This week finishes off term two and we would like to remind Year’s 7 and 8 that we still have assessments due this week and that you will need to attend school until the end of the term in order to ensure you complete all tasks to the best of your ability.

We here in the English faculty hope that you all have a wonderful holiday and that you put the devices down and pick up a book. Reading can take you places you could only dream of.

Ms Norris

Semester 1 School Reports

Reports were handed out to students on Thursday 5th July. If your child was absent the report can be collected from the student window in the main office.

On behalf of everyone at Northlakes High School, we wish you a safe and relaxing school holidays and look forward to seeing students return on Tuesday 24th July. Over the holidays, please ensure students have books, stationary and uniform items to return and be successful with their studies in Term 3.

Youth Connections

Youth Connections has opened a new disability site in Wyong. With a range of NDIS approved programs including before and after school care and school vacation programs, our staff are trained to support mild to moderate disabilities to live life on their own terms and create purposeful futures.

We are located at 63 Howarth Street, Wyong. More information can be found on our website: www.youthconnections.com.au or contact us at abilities@youthconnections.com.au or 02 4346 1111

Safety on Wheels

Please see the button below for information about kids riding bikes, scooters and skateboards to and from school.

Do you have any big cost excursions coming up in Term 3 or 4 2019?

The Saver Plus program may be a great way for you to ensure you are able to meet these excursion costs.

If your family is eligible, they could gain the extra $500 toward the excursion costs, plus have their own $500 they have saved.

A reminder that people may be eligible to join Saver Plus if they or their partner:

• have a Centrelink Health Care Card or Pensioner Concession Card;
• are at least 18 years or over;
• have some regular income from work;
• are a parent or guardian of a child at school this year OR are attending or returning to vocational education themselves.

The free workshops that are included give participants some great resources and add to their knowledge in a variety of ways to manage money.

Please visit the link below for more information.