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This year we have been working to develop a clear mission and vision for our school to help guide us over the next five years of improvement and growth.
Mission: To inspire and prepare all students for a positive future.
We are preparing our students for their future, not our past. We aim to ensure every one of our students leaves here with the skills necessary to excel at the next stage of their life and beyond. The mission of our school is the answer to the question, What are we here for?
The solution to that challenge is a joint one with all of us being responsible for meeting our mission, teachers, parents, students and the wider community.
Our vision: Queechy High School is a diverse and inclusive learning community. We are resilient, life-long learners.
We are fortunate to have an extremely diverse student population with our young people coming from many different backgrounds, countries, cultures and religions.
This is a strength of our school and a reason to celebrate who we are as a learning community.
Our vision is aspirational. We want to be the school that our vision encourages us to be. We want our students to develop their resilience and cope with anything their future life holds in store. Our ultimate goal is to make sure we set our young people up for a life of learning as completing year 12 is no longer the endpoint of their education.
At the Presentation Evening we saw students who already live up to these ideals every day, in everything they do here at Queechy. We celebrated young people who have been positively influenced by the staff and other students during their time with us here at Queechy. Our students who received awards live the Department of Education values of Aspiration, Respect, Courage and growth in all they do.
We have had a busy, challenging but very rewarding year in 2019.
I am thoroughly enjoying my time as Principal of Queechy, a position I am honoured to hold. This year has been characterised by embedding a number of strategies aimed at supporting whole school improvement and improved student learning.
Our work with our feeder primary schools of Waverly, Ravenswood Heights, St Leonards, Punchbowl, Norwood and East Launceston has been a highlight of the year. Together as the Queechy Alliance we have collaborated on the implementation of our instructional model, a common way of structuring lessons that spreads across all seven of our schools. We are working on the notion that all students in the Alliance schools are “our students” and we are all responsible for ensuring the very best learning outcomes for them.
This work will continue into 2020 and beyond as we strengthen our relationships with all our local school communities to ensure we become the school of choice for all students in the alliance and proof positive that public education is alive and well.
Next year will see a common approach across our alliance in the way we support the development of reading skills with our students. Aligned with this will be an increased focus on in-class coaching for our teachers to ensure the highest levels of student learning are in place, in every classroom.
Our whole school improvement agenda this year has been simple. Let’s focus on what matters most to improve student learning. As a result we now have clear documentation about what will be taught and when. Our learning is planned in collaboration with others and our student work is moderated to ensure consistency and quality of teaching.
Our expectations of student learning is high and our expectations about appropriate learning behaviour is even higher.
We have cleared away distractions to learning, such as phones, and strive to create a positive learning environment for all students. 2019 saw the implementation of a dedicated Tier 3 program aimed at supporting and retaining our students most at risk of not having a positive transition after year 10.
This year we have really set the groundwork necessary to launch into an exceptional 2020 with a focus on developing a Professional Learning Community culture across our school. We will also see the implementation of our Quality Teaching Framework that supports the learning of every student and teacher in our school.
Our satisfaction surveys have seen a positive shift with over 90% of staff and parent responses indicating that Queechy is continually looking for ways to improve. Over 90% of students agreed that their teacher always expects them to do their best. It is these high expectations about our young people that will help them be successful.
Our data has shown continued improvement across the school this year. We test all our students’ ability in the area of Reading each year and then compare us to Australian results. Our student improvement in reading is significant with an impressive gain in our year nine students whose improvement was above expectations for similar schools.
This year has seen a large number of our students’ complete work placements in the community and we have been extremely grateful for the positive relationships we have with so many employers that support our students. This year has seen 8 of our students entering into school based apprenticeships and either continuing their studies at college or moving into full-time apprenticeships in 2020.
A significant development for Queechy will be the implementation of Year 11 and 12 here in 2021. Our continued aim is to have all our students complete year 12 at either at one of the two colleges, and that won’t change. Launceston and Newstead Colleges are ideally suited to delivering high quality, differentiated programs to the majority of students in the north of the state. For some students, however, the transition to college is a step too far. For those students we will have an appropriate program in place to ensure a positive outcome for them in 2021. We are passionate about retaining all of our students through to the end of year 12 and will support each of our 2020 year 10 students to ensure their destination is clear and the choices they make are well informed.
Lisa Mitchell will be leading our transition to year 11 and 12 at Queechy and will be working with parents and students next year to explore programs that suit the needs of our students.
I am always impressed with the energy and enthusiasm of our School Association. This parent group gives me a vital link to the parent and local community, something that I value highly as principal. I would like to thank Jason Orr, Chair of our School Association and all members of the association for being unwavering positive advocates for our school and our students. Jason will be ending his long association with Queechy at the beginning of 2020 and I wish him all the best and thank him for his positive advocacy and support for Queechy in his time on the school association. I would also like to thank Ari Reich who has left the association after serving as treasurer for the last 5 years. And to Sam Rathmell who ends her own association with us as Ava completes her year 10 at the end of this year. To all members of our association: Your support and professionalism add great strength to our learning community, thank you.
I thank all parents, staff and students for the ongoing learning partnerships we strive so hard to develop and maintain. It is these partnerships that give us the greatest hope of meeting the needs of all students at all times.
The partnerships that we form with parents are some of the best supports for your children that they can have. It is vital that your child see that you have a keen interest in their education and a strong desire to see them work positively in our school, all the time. These simple things that you can do have a huge impact on their future success.
I would like to thank all staff, both teaching and non-teaching who have played a key role in the growth and education of our year 10 students during their time with us. The biggest impact on student learning comes from our teachers. I wish to sincerely thank each and every one of you for the dedication to your role, every day here at Queechy. Our improvement journey has already been significant with more to come as we refine and embed the highest quality learning programs possible. Thank you for your ongoing commitment to our students and their families.
Our challenge as a school is to be able to support the learning of our young people to prepare them for a world that is changing at an ever increasing rate. Ensuring we have active partnerships with families is one way that can help us achieve this goal. As we head into next year I extend a warm invitation for families to be as engaged as they can in our school and the learning of your children.
Thank you.
Rob Fleming
Principal
Merry Christmas from Queechy High School
Merry Christmas from all our staff and students at Queechy High School,
We wish you a merry Christmas, and a safe and happy New Year!
Dear Parents/Guardians
Please be advised that our school wide mobile phone ban will begin from term 1, 2020. All mobile devices are to be stored in lockers for the duration of the day. If this cannot happen, we strongly advise students to keep devices at home.
Any contact made with students during school hours, will need to be made through our Queechy High School office on: 6341 4455 or via our SchoolZine App.
Rob Fleming
Principal
Recently, students in cooking and textiles have been experimenting with many different fabrics, materials, ingredients and flavours.
History Week (25 to 29 November) was organised by the SLB to raise awareness of the achievements and struggles of Aboriginal people. Songs by Aboriginal artists were played to call students to classes and chosen lessons featured work on Aboriginal issues. For example, 10B and 10E explored Aboriginal incarceration rates around Australia and proposed ways of addressing this serious concern, such as the brochure of advice for teachers of Aboriginal students created by Olivia (Grade 10). Highlights of the week included assembly performance by Nikita and Tamzin (Grade 9) of their song Her Truth has Descended and Zarah's (Grade 10) stunning delivery of Brianna's (Grade 9) soulful poetry.
Forgotten time
It’s a forgotten time, they say
You’ll get over it, they say
We helped you they say
We made things better, they say
Past is in the past, they say
They say so much but they don’t know
If only they knew the tears we cried
The loved ones that depression beat
The fights we had with each other
They took our families from us
So I’m sorry if sorry doesn’t cut what they did to us
That 7 letter word doesn’t mean nothing if you continue to do what you’re sorry for
You said, I’m sorry we hurt you
I’m sorry we broke you
I’m sorry we treated you like dirt
I’m sorry we made you live our ways
I can’t walk the streets like my ancestors did
The oxygen has now turned to carbon
It may be a forgotten time to you but to us it was the time
The dreamtime
The time of equality
A time when no one owned the land
But the land owned us
At least then we had hope
Grade 7 Art students have been busy using clay over the last few weeks. These photos are a selection of the variety of work which is quite fun and colourful. Students will be bringing home all their ceramic work this week, so be on the lookout for these in school bags!
To finish our term in Art, 7D have been drawing simplistic portraits of each other using black texta. It has been quite a fun experience and the character of each student is revealed through their portrait drawing. Hopefully these artworks will be a nice memory for students to take home about their experiences from grade 7.
Year 8 students have been completing a unit of study on Landforms and Landscapes. Today students in Mr Tepper’s 8C and 8F classes were given the challenge of a scavenger hunt to create a landform of their choice using items from around the school yard. Here are some of their works:
School Associations provide the opportunity for parents, staff and community members to be involved in issues that are important to the school. The Queechy High School Association is organised by an elected committee of parents and staff members. The group meets four to five times a year, which includes an Annual General Meeting, to discuss topics of interest to parents, participate in the management of school activities and have some fun. The meetings are open to all parents to attend and last about an hour.
The Queechy High School Association works closely with the Student Leadership Board (SLB). Members of the SLB regularly attend School Association meetings which fosters effective and collaborative working relationships. The School Association look forward to working with the SLB again in 2020.
This year the School Association have been actively involved working with the school on continuing the school redevelopment capital works program, review of the school canteen, school uniform and the Northern Urban Collective – Year 11 and 12 Extension School Program.
In 2018 the School Association received a grant from the Community Empowered Schools funding arrangements with a number of goals being achieved during 2019, as a result of that. This included a welcome BBQ for all parents and students, compilation of induction packages for new School Association committee members and a contribution to funding the Cybersafety Solutions, Parent and students sessions. Effective communication is a priority for our school in order to build and sustain strong working relationships between all stakeholders.
I would strongly encourage our new parents and friends at Queechy High School in 2020 to attend the 2020 Annual General Meeting, which will held during first term next year.
Jason Orr
Chairperson
On Wednesday 4th December, Beauty Therapy students had the opportunity to visit the beauty salon at Launceston College. We got to experience a variety of different beauty treatments including eyebrow tinting, facials, eye make-up and false lashes. It was an enjoyable way to spend our afternoon and through this experience these students may now consider studying a beauty course in the future at Launceston College.
Students have been studying Physics this term. So far they have explored the components of forces, friction, measuring mass and weight, how magnets work and Earth’s magnetic field. Here they are working to create an electromagnet using a power supply, leads, switchboard, copper wire and a nail.
Grade 7 Physics
Year 7 have been investigating physics. Here they are designing and creating their own ‘helmet’ to protect an egg from being shattered from a two metre release drop. They were given a short list of materials to choose from but were only allowed to select two.
Grade 8 English and Advertising
Many Grade 8 English classes have ended the year with a unit on Advertising and the art of persuasion. Students have been busy scripting and filming adverts or designing posters for their products. 8A and 8D have been bringing campaigns for Bottled Air or new improved oval-shaped donuts to life.
Participants were asked what they have liked about the unit and what they learnt. Here’s what a few have had to say:
- “It’s a way to express ourselves creatively and in different ways.” – Crystal 8A
- “We’ve used all different types of team work and encouragement. There’s been lots of enthusiasm.” – Curtis 8A
- “We’re doing new things.” – Tayah 8D
- “We’ve learnt how to use detailed words to persuade.” – Josie and Zahlia 8A
- “Pathos, logos, ethos and the other persuasive devices that are used.” – Estelle 8D
- “We’ve learnt about why advertisers use red to catch people’s attention.” – Hayley 8D
- “Never say no to Panda.” - Kaine 8A. (Look up Panda Dairy Company adverts on You Tube and you’ll understand that last comment.)
Congratulations to everyone involved. Students have saved some of their best work for last and the results have been exceptional.
The ICAS (International Competitions and Assessments for Schools) Writing competition is a skills-based assessment that identifies the strengths and weaknesses of writing ability. A selection of students from Year 7 – 10 took part in the assessment early last term.
We would like to acknowledge the following students for their outstanding results:
Year 7
Kenneth, Lainey and Ginger - Credit
Jessica - Distinction
Year 8
Ruby - Credit
Year 9
Joshua - Credit
Queechy Alliance Middle Years Literacy Project 2018-2020
Reading: Anne Bayetto
Anne Bayetto, Researcher & Lecturer in Inclusive & Specialised Education from Flinders University in Adelaide, worked with our QA staff in the final week of Term 3.
Her topics included:
- Intervention
- Teaching Reading in Grades 5-8 (2 day workshop) – non-fiction and fiction, dialogic reading and planning
- Overview of the The Big 6 (Oral Language, Vocabulary, Phonological awareness, Letter-sound knowledge, Comprehension and Fluency)
Feedback from staff about the content and process was extremely positive.
A special thanks to Dianne Freeman (Principal) and Chris Cabalzar (Literacy Coach/Teacher) from Newstead College for supporting the logistics for such a huge event. It was also great that staff from Newstead could attend Anne’s session/s.
Instructional Model 2020
The Intructional Model (IM) is integral in ensuring we have consistency of teaching and learning across all seven schools within the Queechy Alliance. We have unpacked each phase over the course of this year and will continue to practice using the IM until it is embedded in our culture
On Monday the 18th November, Principals and In-School Leaders (ISLs) met at Newstead College for a full day to reflect on the progress of the project to date which included the implementation of the Instructional Model. We also developed some draft plans for 2020 and beyond.
Following a process led by Pamela Macklin, our School Improvement Consultant, it was agreed that we would focus on Quality Questioning to begin the school year. The skills we want our staff to develop include:
- Asking students questions that support/challenge/extend their thinking
- Aligning questions to the Learning Intention through purposeful planning
Professional Learning is currently being developed by the ISL team and it will be delivered in the beginning weeks of Term 1, 2020.
We wish all our families and community a safe and restful holiday season.
Belinda Simpson
QA MYLP Coordinator
Student Absence SMSThe 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 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 GROUNDSWhen 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.
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Parents/carers collecting student/s during class time – Please allow extra timeThere 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.
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Class Times
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 |
Term 2: |
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Term 3: |
Monday 19 July |
Term 4: |
Friday 29 October |