Filter Content
Another busy two weeks with students participating in Harmony Day, Relay for Life, year 7 camp, White Card training and College information sessions.
Our Harmony Day celebrations were a success even though we had a power outage mid-assembly! Thank you so much to our guest speakers for the day, Maryam Ali, Lewis Legarto and Denni Proctor. Each shared their own unique version of what harmony means to them. They also shared some of the celebrations and challenges they have faced in a multicultural Australia with their own experiences adding greatly to our student’s understanding of what harmony really means.
The lunch session saw our own student diversity shine through with a series of activities organised and supported by our students.
Relay for Life was held last weekend and our SLB all participated in this worthwhile cause, raising money for the Cancer Council who use the funds for research and support of people who have cancer and their immediate families. Well done to all staff and students who gave freely of their time for this very worthy cause.
I joined in the fun at Year 7 camp on Wednesday and was very impressed with the way our year 7 students rose to the challenge and had a go at some quite scary activities. The giant swing and the high ropes course proving to be a favourite amongst the students. The energy levels were high when I left. It will be interesting to see how tired everyone is when they return at the end of the day on Friday.
Planning for the future is happening with our year 10 students with some students having the opportunity to undergo training to receive their “White Card” last week. This unit of work is to “prepare to work safely in the construction industry” and is a mandatory requirement for anyone who wants to work in the construction industry in Australia. This qualification helps our students complete work placements in this industry during the year.
Both Newstead and Launceston Colleges began their information sharing this week. Whilst it may seem to be very early in the year these sessions are a vital component of our transition program here at Queechy. We have a very high success rate for our students completing year 12 and our transition program helps students make the right choices for them in relation to which college they will attend in 2020. If parents require any information about our transition program then please feel free to contact Allan Warren here at school.
Warm Regards
Rob Fleming
Principal
Fundraising
On Thursday 21st March, our Student Leadership Board held a fundraiser for Relay for Life. This included students wearing purple and yellow colours with their uniform. During lunch the SLB sold cupcakes, cans and scrunchies. The cupcakes were very popular amongst both students and staff, as the cupcakes were sold out by the end of lunch. The scrunchies were designed and handmade by our SLB with the colours of
Relay for Life, Purple and Yellow, and were very popular amongst our students. Along with that, the SLB organised an excellent deck concert performed by our lovely music students. The deck concert was very successful as the students didn’t only watch people perform, but also sang along.
The Big Day
There is no doubt that Relay for Life was a struggle for everyone. Through 20 straight hours of walking circles around the St. Leonards Athletics track, everyone involved could say we were triumphant but exhausted. With the SLB, Peer Support and Junior House Captains involved, relationships grew and new ones were built.
Over 1100 people were in attendance, so we were given a great opportunity to socialise with and meet new people from other high schools in the north and other community teams from the greater Launceston area. This was also a fantastic opportunity for us to showcase Queechy in our community.
Our team split the 20 hours into one hour time slots, and each time slot had a pair or group of three that were in charge of the baton. Each team were to have a baton within their group that was required to be on the track moving at all times. There was definitely a rivalry between individuals during our time there with Chloe and Delia battling it out for the most laps, Chloe coming out with the win of 135. Our school baton did a total of 273 laps of the track, nothing on Riverside’s over 400. At the end of the day, it didn’t matter who walked, ran, or did the most laps. It was about coming together and doing it as one and raising money for a great cause.
This year the Relay For Life foundation aimed to raise $190,000. In the end, they raised 114% of their goal with a total of $217,525. Through our fundraising for this cause selling cupcakes, cans and scrunchies while also having a deck concert, Queechy raised a total of $889.15 that went to Relay For Life and The Cancer Foundation.
It was our pleasure to welcome Daniel Geale, our own home grown World Champion Boxer to Queechy High School to spend some quality time with our students and reiterating why he is a Champion. Daniel shared with us his determination and drive to succeed and how he embraced many facets of self discipline to achieve his goals and aspirations, including maintaining his school regime as an equal priority in achieving his World Champion status.
We were all captivated and inspired by Daniel’s open and candid comments in a relaxing chat session, enjoying the humour and honesty surrounding the motivational messages. Daniel’s coach, Mr. Graeme George was on hand to provide anecdotes from a different perspective and very happy to verify that our own Kiara displays great potential and definitive style in her training sessions.
Throughout Term 1, students in Grade 10 English have studied an extensive unit on the theme of poverty. Building their understanding by undertaking a range of literacy-based tasks, students have created visual representations in the form of mind maps to expand their knowledge and vocabularies. We worked to understand the power of advertising and how companies employ specific language and visual techniques in order to persuade an audience to think, feel or act a certain way. Students analysed an advertisement of their choice, developing their paragraphing skills in the process.
In order to help students expand their knowledge of global poverty, we watched a documentary by British host
Kevin McCloud called Slumming It. This documentary gave incredible insight into how slum-dwellers in Mumbai, India, live from day to day and how they make a living. Whilst highlighting that people really don't need much materially to be satisfied, many students commented on the poor hygiene and sanitation present in the slum and considered some of the things available to them and not available to many others, such as clean running water.
Students are currently working on creating found, or blackout poetry based on a selection of articles and excerpts from novels on homelessness and poverty. Reading comprehension, note-taking and summarising are important life-long skills for everyone, particularly students moving onto further education. This unit will finish up early next term, following a compare and contrast assignment based on the film Lion and excerpts from the novel A Long Way Home.
Catherine Attenborrow
English
Students in Year 8 HASS have been studying The Middle Ages and in particular looking at the Viking era. As a part of the unit, students were required to create picture books showcasing the many weapons used throughout this period of time.
Here are a few examples of the outstanding work students have produced:
Luke Tepper
Grade 8 Advisor
Students in Grade 7 Maths have been investigating numbers this term and have recently explored how they can be shown as the sum of perfect squares. Check out this display from 7C that shows how all numbers from 1 to 120 can be expressed as sums of squares.
Sam Ayre
Mathematics Coordinator
Grade 10 Health
All term Grade 10’s have been focusing on Mental Health and looking at self-help strategies, as well as community support resources. Students have been given the chance to study positive health practices and to form strategies to help destigmatise mental health within the community. Their major assessment task for this unit sees them creating a 3-5 minute script to help educate the community about some of the common mental health illnesses and to debunk some of the common misconceptions society may have.
Grade 8 Sports Leaders
As part of Grade 8 Sports Leaders, the class has been running a Basketball Round Robin competition. The students are required to organise the roster and select teams. The players are then responsible for coaching, umpiring and scoring the games. The results are then collected and a ladder is drawn up. At the end of the Round Robin the ladder determines the grand final games. This type of learning allows the students to develop communication and cooperation skills as well as fine tuning their organisational skills. It also allows the students to develop their sporting skills in a Basketball environment.
From March 11th to March 18th Ambition and Celetas, two Queechy F1 teams, had the opportunity to attend the 2019 Australian F1 in Schools National Finals in Melbourne.
The week started the off on Monday with registration day. We handed in our cars to the judges and settled into our hotel, getting prepared for the competition ahead of us.
Tuesday was our first day of competition, having two hours to set up our trade display. (Photos can be seen on our Facebook and Instagram). During this time, we were introduced to the teams that we were competing against over the next two days of competition.
The two days of competition went by in a blur. They were days filled with making new friends, meeting new people and learning new things. We made many new friends that we have continued to stay in touch with and hope to see them again next year at Nationals, if we get in. As the competition was held at the Bosch centre in Clayton, we met some of the workers who told us about what they did and what Bosch offers.
The last day of the competition was the celebration dinner. The day began with buses full of all the teams who competed, leaving the hotel to go to the Grand Prix practice. We had an amazing time and were lucky enough to go on the VIP Paddock tour. This was a once in a lifetime experience for us. After we got back from the Grand Prix practice, we all got ready for the celebration dinner. The dinner was a lot of fun and we were lucky enough to meet Horizon, the current world champions.
Congratulations to Celetas who received the Sportsmanship award.
On behalf of the F1 teams we would like to give a big thank you to Queechy, Mr Djakic and Mrs Frankcombe for making this possible for us!
Parents and families are invited to attend a forum to provide information about and discuss Educational Adjustments.
From 2020, there will be a new approach in
Department of Education schools to assisting students with disability to access, participate and engage in quality educational programs.
Forums are scheduled for Term 2. Light refreshments will be provided.
Queechy Alliance Middle Years Literacy Project
Instructional Model
In 2018 staff in the Queechy Alliance (QA) developed our Instructional Model (IM). In-School Leaders created Support Materials to assist staff with their understanding of the phases of the Instructional Model and in 2019 we will continue to establish consistent knowledge about each of them in more depth.
In Term 1, QA schools have been involved in Professional Learning about the Instructional Model (IM) – an overview, the Engage phase and the Review phase.
The Overview was presented by In-School Leaders in their own schools on February 4th or 5th. This was timely to revise the four phases within the IM: Engage, Explicit Teaching, Targeted Learning and Review and to remind staff about the importance of the Core – the elements that are in the centre of the IM because they fit into each phase: Effective Feedback, Formative Assessment, Quality Questioning.
On the morning of February 27th (Launceston Cup Day), staff in all schools were presented with the same key ideas in the Engage phase with a specific focus on Connect to Learning and Learning Intentions. Connect to Learning is the link or hook to engage learners in the introduction of the content/concept/skill. Learning Intentions describe what students need to learn and are shared with them at the beginning of the lesson. They focus on outcomes rather than activities to be completed.
On Tuesday 12th March, over 200 QA staff attended a late night PL on the Review phase at Ravenswood Heights Primary School. We were fortunate to have Shireen Thomas (our Principal Network Leader) attend and remind us how the IM work fits into the big picture of education. Pamela Macklin (external School Improvement consultant) introduced the Review phase and talked about the importance of Revisiting the Learning Intentions and Success Criteria and Rob Fleming (Principal - Queechy High School) summarised the session with the analogy of “One school, seven campuses”. That is, the Queechy Alliance is our “one school” and each individual school is a campus of the QA. A great image!
Staff had time to practise using their knowledge to devise Learning Intentions for their planning and, having trialled different strategies to gather Evidence of learning, they shared the positives and challenges with staff from other schools.
If you have any questions regarding the MYLP please contact your In School Leader (Ann-Marie McKendrick).
Belinda Simpson
QA MYLP Coordinator
|
Queechy High School is fundraising with Entertainment! Your support really helps, so we’re thrilled to let you know about special bonus Early Bird Entertainment Membership Offers for loyal supporters. Pre-order the NEW 2019 | 2020 Entertainment Membership and receive bonus offers you can use right away! "The Entertainment Membership is great value. With lots of instant savings. It more than outweighs the price. There is something for everyone – casual and fine dining, adventure and family activities. I couldn't live without it. Plus, I get to support a good cause.” – Zana B. Sydney |
There are many successful students who have come through Queechy High School, not only did they provide a great contribution to the school but are also now making an impact within their communities. It is important to highlight success in the school community and celebrate achievements. The ‘Where Are They Now?’ segment has been designed to feature ex students and their current paths and how their experiences at Queechy led to where they are today.
First we present Amy Whitney a Physiotherapist at PhysioTas.
What was your experience like at Queechy High School?
My experience at Queechy has shaped who I am today. In the 4 years at Queechy, I was exposed to situations of diversity, leadership, selflessness and acceptance. I was given experiences and opportunities to assist others, lead others and work alongside my peers to achieve common goals. I began at QHS in 2006 and left in 2009. I was provided opportunities to coach junior sports teams, lead my peers in the SLB and assist in the community at local primary schools and aged care facilities.
What are you doing now?
I am a Physiotherapist at PhysioTas. In 2018 I completed a Masters of Physiotherapy degree in Adelaide, to which I moved back to my hometown of Launceston to pursue a career.
What inspired you to pursue this?
I loved Sport Science in Grade 10. I was also the coach of school Netball and Touch teams which cemented my passion for helping people. I am passionate about helping people and guiding people to their full potential which assisted with my decision to pursue this career.
What educational preparation or life experiences would you recommend for someone who wants to pursue a career in your field?
To volunteer or gain work experience (or even paid work) in an area you think you may want to follow as a career. Experience such as this helps with confirming whether it’s a career you can see yourself working in. Educational preparation is beneficial, particularly if you can pick subjects at high school or college to form a sound knowledge base. This knowledge base can help with attending university and relieve some of the stress of extra study.
Newstead Baptist Scout Group
Are you looking for an after school activity for your child/ren?
Have you thought about trying Scouts?
Newstead Baptist Scout Group currently offers section meetings for Scouts
(11-15 y.o) on Mondays 6:30pm-8:30pm and Cubs (8-11 y.o) on Thursdays 6:45pm-8:15pm during school terms.
Opportunities for your child/ren to make new friends and learn new skills.
Occasional activities, outings, and camps – day; overnight; weekends (not compulsory). Help the group with our fundraising efforts where your family schedule allows.
A 6 week free trial to see if your child/ren likes it. Uniform is not required until after the trial. One-off insurance is payable prior to investiture, then ongoing term fees payable. We are not a baby-sitting service, our Leaders and Committee are all volunteers. Fees paid by families are to help the group with activities, badges etc for your child/ren.
Alternatively have you ever had an interest in volunteering? Would you like to support the youth of today?
Newtead Baptist Scout Group are looking for adults interested in helping young people in our community to achieve their full potential. Leaders work together to plan activities around their personal schedule and the scouting program materials.
There is no requirement for you to have a youth member with our group to join as a Leader, only the willingness to participate and a desire to have fun. Ongoing training provided.
Volunteers must be comfortable outdoors and around young people. You must have the ability to obtain a Working with Vulnerable People registration (Volunteer). New Leaders are also subject to a Criminal History Check.
If this sounds like something you or your child/ren are interested in, please contact our Group Leader, Stephen Hepburn on 0459 097 363 or email gl.newstead@scoutstas.org.au
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 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. |
School UniformsA reminder to all parents and students, to name and label all articles of clothing to help identify lost or missing uniforms. |
Validation FormsThank you to all parents/guardians who completed student Validation Forms during book sales. |
Road SafetyA 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. |
CLOTHING POOLOpening Times Tuesday – 1:00pm to 3:30pm Parents who are unable to visit the clothing pool within the above times are requested to contact the school office on 6341 4455 to arrange an alternative time. |
MAILING OF INVOICES/STATEMENTSAll statements/invoices are emailed out from our central office. This also applies to families who have set up an instalment plan with the school earlier in the year Receipts will be posted to those families who have opted to have payments made by credit card. Credit card payments are deducted from your account on the 20th of each month or the first business day after the 20th. |
Up Coming Dates
|
Monday 8 April |
Parent Teacher Interviews Touch Football Gala Day |
|
Tuesday 9 April |
House Challenge Afternoon |
|
Wednesday 10 April |
AGM followed by a School Association Meeting |
|
Tuesday 14 May – Friday 24 May |
NAPLAN |
|
Monday 20 May |
Grade 7 Immunisations (1st Visit) |
|
Wednesday 29 May |
School Association Committee Meeting (7.00 pm – 8.30 pm) |
2019 Term Dates
|
Term 1: |
Wednesday 6 February – Friday 11 April |
|
Term 2: |
Monday 29 April – Friday 5 July |
|
Term 3: |
Tuesday 23 July – Friday 27 September |
|
Term 4: |
Monday 14 October – Thursday 19 December |
2019 Student Free Days
|
Friday 12 April |
|
Monday 22 July |
|
Friday 1 November |
Class Times
|
Tutor Group: |
8:45am – 9:00am |
|
Block 1: |
9:00am – 10:10am |
|
Recess 1: |
10:10am – 10:30am |
|
Block 2: |
10:30am – 11:40am |
|
Recess 2: |
11:40am – 12:00pm |
|
Block 3: |
12:00pm – 1:10pm |
|
Lunch: |
1:10pm – 1:50pm |
|
Block 4: |
1:50pm – 2:57pm |
Queechy’s New Website
We have recently transformed our website with Schoolzine. To view our latest design click the link below!
Who to Contact
|
Principal: |
Rob Fleming |
|
Assistant Principals: |
Grade 7/8: Caleb Turale Grade 9/10: Heather Jackson |
|
ASTs: |
Grade 7: Katrina Davenport Grade 8: Linda House Grade 9: Nigel Bent Grade 10: Kate Green Tier 3: Donna Frankcombe |
|
Grade Advisors: |
Grade 7: Ben Van Est / Zoe Mesman Grade 8: Luke Tepper Grade 9: Emmalie Baylis / Ryan Innes Grade 10: Kim Anderson / Lochy Wilkinson- Reed |
|
School Business Manager: |
Tanya Smart |
|
School Psychologist: |
Lisa Docking |
|
School Social Worker: |
Alicia Hodge |
|
School Nurse: |
Peter Jacobson |
|
School Chaplain: |
Tracey Cassin |
Introducing Our New App
We have recently moved over to a new App with Schoolzine. This App will improve the way we communicate with parents and the community through the use of appropriate technology. Due to this change over, Queechy’s Skoolbag App is no longer in use and does not provide up to date information. Below are the details on how to download the App.