Queechy High School
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161 Penquite Road
Norwood TAS 7250
Subscribe: https://queechyhs.schoolzineplus.com/subscribe

Email: queechy.high@decyp.tas.gov.au
Phone: 03 6341 4455

Week 41, Term 4 2019

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Week 41, Term 4 2019

Athletics Carnival
I thoroughly enjoyed two days of athletics carnival action last week. Held in trying conditions the carnival highlighted some significant student performances. I was particularly impressed with the behaviour of students across the two days. Thank you to the team of staff that coordinated and ran the carnival. We are looking forward to the upcoming Inter High Carnival next week.

Attendance
An area of concern across our school is the low attendance rate for a significant number of our students. Events like the athletic carnival are sometimes viewed by students as optional days to attend. This is definitely not the case. All students are expected to be at Queechy every day of the school year unless at an authorised event or off-site learning activity. The only exception is for illness or an authorised family issue. Holidays are not an authorised family based reason for non-attendance.

Every day is precious in the education of your children. We need to work together to ensure every young person attends for every possible day throughout the year.

We work closely with families to provide appropriate supports to ensure attendance issues are identified and strategies put in place to address. If you are having ongoing issues that prevent your child from being at school then please advise us as soon as possible so we are aware and can help.

All students in Tasmania are legally required to be in school until the end of year 12. We need your support to ensure this is a reality.

 

Susan McLean
World-renowned author and expert on being safe online has worked with students, staff and parents this week. Susan has vast experience in law enforcement and education and provided us with both challenging and insightful messages about keeping our children safe in the online world.

Susan shared several key messages at our parent session on Tuesday evening.

  • Remember to be the parent to your children and not just their friend. Parents set boundaries and expectation about the use of devices, friends don’t
  • Be involved in the online activities of your children, know who they are talking to
  • Supervise device use and never let them enter the bedroom or bathroom
  • Talk to your children about stranger danger on-line as you would about stranger danger on the street

Susan will be a critical friend to Queechy as we re-examine our current policies about device use and support our students to be respectful and safe users of technology.

November 11th is the memorial day for the end of the First World War, to remember those who fell in the line of duty for freedom in our country. 2019 marks one hundred and one years and saw 7 Student Leadership Board members along with Mrs Mesman and Mr Fleming attend the Remembrance Day service at the cenotaph in town. It was a beautiful service where our Co-Presidents layed a wreath on behalf of Queechy High School. All grades also did a minute silence at 11.00a.m. to show our respect for those men and women who fell.  

On Wednesday 6th and Thursday 7th the students of Queechy High School braved the weather conditions to compete in their school athletics carnival. Participation was high and lots of fun was had by all.

High Jump

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Tug-of-War

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Relays

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High Jump

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Tug-of-War

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Grade 7 Boys High Jump

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Grade 7 Boys Long Jump

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Grade 7 Boys Javelin 

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Grade 7 Boys 400m 

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Grade 7 Boys 200m 

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Grade 7 Boys Shotput 

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Grade 7 Boys Discus

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Grade 7 Boys 800m

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Grade 7 Boys Triple Jump

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The students in the Our World flexible programme have been working on a unit on bees. We took photos, did a survey, kept records, researched information, prepared a display, created bees’ wax wraps, made garden signs, entered competitions and applied for a grant. We are really pleased that we have won a grant for $200.00 and we are going to use it to buy some plants to attract bees to the veggie garden.

On Thursday 24th October Mr Tepper, Mr Williams and 32 eager year 7/8 students headed to the NTCA ground to participate in the Girls Cricket Gala Day. A fun day was had by all with all girls representing the school with pride and passion. Player of the tournament went to Emily and Chloe.
Well done girls!

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Year 9 Science this year have participated in a range of exciting and engaging activities. Students have explored concepts such as natural disasters (including making their own seismometers), chemical reactions, energy transfer (by making solar cookers and electric circuits), and biological systems and pathology.

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On Monday 28th October students in Year 8 had the privilege of watching a performance by Ryka Ali.

Ryka is an ambassador for Australia’s Indigenous Youth and has performed at various festivals and cultural showcases around the world. His heritage stems from the Wuthathi tribe of Shellburne Bay (Cape York) and from the Torres Strait Islands.

Ryka’s performance revealed the richness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and was both entertaining and educational. There was a high level of audience participation, including a kangaroo dance performed by the teachers – unfortunately no photos were taken of this act!

Students from both 7A and 7D have been working on their T-shirts with acrylic paints. 

Mr Parkin’s Grade 8 Boys Sport Fun and Fitness had the opportunity of practicing golfing skills at Queechy before participating in two clinics run by Launceston Golf Club professional Daniel Smith at the Launceston Golf Club in weeks 1 and 2 of term 3.

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Neighbours Away is a parody of the soap opera genre of TV shows. It has all the familiar stereotypical characters from shows such as Home and Away, Neighbours, A Country Practice, The Bold and the Beautiful and many others. The play is a hilarious romp through the town of Erinsburgh Bay as we follow the lives of the Richies and the Wozbournes. George Richie is a powerful and greedy man. He wants to knock down all the houses on Hardup Hill to make way for a resort. There’s just one problem though…The Wozbournes. Will George get to build his luxury resort? Will Pauline find true love (or at least lots of money?) Will Mavis Magillycutty (the town gossip) ever stop eavesdropping? And will Sgt Royden (the town cop) finally find out what happened to her kidnapped husband? So if you’d like to support our talented drama students, come along for a fun night with “Neighbours Away”

Below are the details regarding attendance: 

“Neighbours Away” by Marlene F Magee with kind permission of Maverick Musicals – Grade 7/8 Drama Production.

When             Wednesday the 4th of December @6.30p.m.

Where            The Drama Room.

Who               Mr Butchart’s 7/8 Thursday afternoon Drama Class

Admission       Free

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Model Overview

The Educational Adjustments model is guided by underpinning principles and a simple needs-based structure to deliver appropriate resourcing for the educational adjustments provided for students with disability across Tasmanian Government schools.

Underpinning Principles

The new Tasmanian Educational Adjustments Disability Funding Model is underpinned by the following seven key principles:

Educational Adjustments Disability Funding Model. 7 Underpinning Principles flowchart. 1. Equity and Fairness. School funding should be distributed using a needs-based approach. 2. Accountability. Appropriate accountability mechanisms should be introduced to support the new funding model. 3. Promote Inclusive Education Practice. The funding model should support school leaders and teachers to use resources broadly and flexibly to meet the varied teaching and learning needs of students. 4. Transparency and simplicity. The funding model should minimise complexity in funding allocations and administrative burned to improve transparency. 5. Integrity in needs assessment. Decision making and assurance/moderation processes should be included into the model to promote equity and integrity in assessing the needs of students. 6. Transitional fairness. Transition should use a staged process that maintains fairness and minimises disruption to schools. 7. Financial sustainability. The model must balance finite Government resources against the needs and size of its student population.

Structure of the New Model

The new Educational Adjustments funding model is based on a simple, structured approach to funding and resourcing which takes into consideration the additional and variable needs of students with disability.

Under the new model, students requiring more intensive levels of support and adjustment attract greater levels of additional resources compared with those requiring lower levels of support and adjustment.

The new model is aligned to the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data (NCCD) levels of educational adjustment, which include:

  • Extensive
  • Substantial
  • Supplementary
  • Quality Differentiated Teaching Practice.

While based on the NCCD levels of adjustment, the new Tasmanian funding model provides additional levels for the extensive and substantial levels of adjustment to provide targeted resourcing.

Refer to the diagram below for further details about the new Tasmanian disability funding levels.

Educational Adjustments Disability Funding Model. Funding Model Overview. The model is aligned to the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data (NCCD) levels of educational adjustment. There are four levels within the NCCD, these include: Extensive, Substantial, Supplementary, and Quality Differentiated Teaching Practice. For the Educational Adjustments Disability Funding Model, additional support teacher staffing and dollars will be allocated to schools for the levels that equate in the NCCD to Supplementary, Substantial and Extensive adjustments. At the Substantial adjustment level there will be two different levels of resource allocation: Substantial High and Substantial Low. At the Extensive adjustment level there will be three different levels of resource allocation: Extensive High, Extensive Mid and Extensive Low. For students in the Quality Differentiated Teaching Practice level of adjustments, the core school funding derived from the Fairer Funding Model is all that is required to support these students.

Moderation and Educational Adjustment Descriptor Tool

During 2019, a team of Disability Educational Adjustment Moderators has worked collaboratively with each and every Tasmanian Government school to moderate all students with disability identified as requiring educational adjustments through the NCCD.

The Educational Adjustment Descriptor Tool has been used during the moderation process to identify the level of adjustment being provided to each student. This tool has helped school staff to define the levels from between High to Low in both Extensive and Substantial and has helped to guide the types of educational adjustments which could be delivered and inform goals in individual student learning plans.

Resource Allocation

The Educational Adjustments model will be supported with an additional $34 million over the next four years, and will provide assistance for approximately 2,000 more students in 2020. As part of the model, there will be additional support teacher allocation across schools.

How does it work in neighbourhood schools?

  • The model delivers a base allocation to every school (Support Teacher Staffing and Cash) for every student under eligible NCCD categories (from Supplementary to Extensive).
  • There are two components:
  • Formula Based Allocation (FTE and Cash)
  • The allocation is based on all moderated students at Supplementary, Substantial and Extensive levels of adjustment.
  • It provides base funding for more teacher-led adjustments for students moderated at the supplementary level
  • This allocation remains with the school if the student moves.
  • This allocation is not tagged for individual students and is provided to schools flexibly to assist them in supporting their students with disability.
  • Targeted allocation (Cash)
  • This funding is provided to schools to support students moderated at the Substantial and Extensive levels and is to be used for those students to support educational adjustments.
  • This cash allocation moves with the student if they change schools within the Tasmanian Government school system.

How does it work in Special/Support Schools?

  • The new Educational Adjustments model will be applied consistently and equitably across the Department of Education’s Special/Support Schools.
  • Within Special/Support schools, the new model will take into consideration the school context in relation to economies of scale, programmatic funding, and general school running costs.
  • The new funding model will deliver an increased base funding allocation and will allow greater flexibility of resources to enable schools to deliver quality educational adjustments to meet the needs of their student population.

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One on One Football Coaching 

Attention Footballers
 are you just starting out in Football or looking to get the extra edge over your competition during the off season? One on One is the place for you. One on One Football offers both One on One and small group sessions to improve and develop in all areas of the game. One on One is delivered by highly accredited and credentialed coaches for both Male and Female athletes of all ages, juniors to adults. For all pricing and coaching information please visit https://www.oneononefootball.com.au/coaches/423

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Student Absence SMS

The main contact of the student will receive an SMS message if they are an unexplained absence during Tutor Group.

If the student arrives after 9:00am and signs in you will still receive the message as they were absent from Tutor Group.

Please reply to the message with the child’s name, date, and details of your child’s absence.  Parents are required to explain every absence.

Parents have the option of messaging the school to advise of explained absences.

Can parents please double check that our school SMS number has not been blocked in your phone settings.

To avoid receiving an SMS please phone the school on
6341 4455 to advise of your child’s absence before 8:45am or leave a message on the

Absent Student Message Bank 6341 4444.

Road Safety: A reminder to students crossing roads on their way to and from school, to be alert and aware of the dangers when in and around traffic.

PARKING IN SCHOOL GROUNDS

When parking in the school grounds, please use the visitor carpark, the parking bays near the visitor carpark or the area next to the tennis courts. Please do not park in the bus parking areas as this space is reserved for buses only and this creates further congestion.  Also, a reminder that the disabled park spots are only to be used by permit holders and that permits must be displayed. Due to safety concerns please avoid using the staff car park when dropping off or picking up students.

Main Staff Carpark
The main Staff Carpark adjacent the School Office will be closed off every day at 2:30p.m. to reduce congestion and ensure the safety of our students.

Parents/carers collecting student/s during class time – Please allow extra time

There are occasions when a parent/carer needs to collect their child from class during the course of the day, i.e. appointments, leaving early etc.  When this happens, the student has to be called or collected from the classroom. This causes disruption to your child, the teacher, the class and regularly to the whole school if the student has to be paged.  If your child has to be taken out of class time, where possible, we will avoid using the PA system and instead someone will collect your child from the classroom and this may take some time depending on where your child’s class is.  We value the learning of our students and therefore ask that where possible, you collect your child during the break times (times shown below) and in particular if you wish to take your child early in the afternoon, the best time is over the lunch break (1:10pm – 1:50pm) before the start of Block 4, i.e. 1:50pm.

Recess 1

10:10am – 10:30am

Recess 2

11:40am – 12:00pm

Lunch

1:10pm – 1:50pm

Class Times

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Who to Contact:

Principal:

Rob Fleming

Assistant Principals:

Caleb Turale

Grade 7/8: Fran Smyth

Grade 9/10: Heather Jackson

ASTs:

Grade 7:

Nigel Bent

Grade 8:

Linda House

Grade 9:

Katrina Davenport

Grade 10:

Dan Ritchie

Tier 3 Program:

Donna Frankcombe

11/12:

Kerri Kleinig

Grade Advisors:

Grade 7:

Emmalie Baylis/ Ryan Innes

Grade 8:

Ben Van Est/ Catherine Attenborrow 

Grade 9:

Kim Anderson/ Scott Bent 

Grade 10:

Luke Tepper

School Business Manager:

Tanya Smart

School Psychologist: Holly Bromfield 

School Social Worker:

Alicia Hodge

School Nurse:

Mia Blair/ Penni Ives

School Chaplain:

Paul Burton 

Aboriginal Education Worker:

Jack Spotswood-McDonald 

2021 Term Dates

Term 1:

Wednesday 3 February - Wednesday 31 March

Term 2:

Wednesday 21 April - Friday 2 July 

Term 3:

Tuesday 20 July - Friday 24 September 

Term 4:

Monday 11 October - Thursday 16 December

2021 Student Free Days: 

Term 1:

Tuesday 2 February
& Thursday 1 April 

Term 2:

Term 3:

Monday 19 July 

Term 4:

Friday 29 October