Second Hand Uniform Items

Our Second Hand Uniform supply is currently fairly depleted. If you have any uniform items that are no longer required and are still in a clean and presentable order, we would be very grateful if you could donate to the office.

Grade 6 Parent Evening and Transition

We are excited to begin our transition program at Reece High School. We know how important it is for students to have a connection with their school and develop relationships with key adults.  Our Grade 7 team and prefects have already visited our feeder schools to talk through some of the highlights about high school and to answer any questions the Grade 6 students may have. Last night we held our annual Grade 6 Parent Information Evening at RHS. It was great to see so many families in attendance and I’m sure they gained a good understanding of the learning opportunities we provide at RHS.

Families had the opportunity to have a tour of the school and explore the subject areas that will be on offer to them in 2024.

I would like to thank current RHS students and staff for their support in ensuring the night ran smoothly and look forward to seeing the students during their transition programs throughout the remainder of the year.

On Wednesday August 30^th  Grade 6 students from our feeder primary schools (East Devonport, Miandetta, Hillcrest and Spreyton) will be attending our annual challenge day at the Devonport Recreation Centre. This will involve a number of organised games and trust activities. It will give the students a chance to make connections with people from other schools and also form a positive relationship with our staff and Prefects.

We understand that Grade 6 students will have many questions about high school and will be excited at the opportunities they have in the next chapter of their schooling.

We look forward to establishing ongoing relationships with all our new families. If anyone you know has questions about our transition program, please feel free to contact Reece High School by phoning 6420 8100 and talk to our transition team.

NAPLAN 2023

Reports for Years 7 and 9 were sent home with students last week. We are extremely proud of the results we have achieved as a school and there are some fantastic individual performances. We have been particularly impressed with our Grade 9 cohort and their growth data. In the coming weeks we will share this data with our community. Please contact Reece High School if you have any questions or you would like to discuss your child’s results.

State and National Representation

Reece High School often has students who represent the state in academic, sporting or artistic endeavours and cultural events.  We would love to continue to recognise and celebrate our currently enrolled students in our newsletter with photos where appropriate.  Please inform the Administration Office if you and your child are willing to share success in our newsletter.

School Attendance

Every school day matters.

There are lots of things you can do to set your child up for success:

Make sure your child goes to school, every day.

Going to school every day gives your child every chance to learn and grow and connect with their mates and teachers. It’s where bright futures start and where students will benefit the most.

Get them excited for school. If you show a positive attitude and excitement towards school, your child will pick up on that.

The most common thing we hear from students, of all ages, is that school is where they can:

• spend time with their friends and teachers
• create new and fun experiences
• find their interests
• learn new things
• open up their options – for whatever future they want (whether that’s their dream job or to travel around the world).

Share these positives with your child.

Talk to your child about school.

Open up a conversation with your child about what’s happening at school. It will help you to better support their interests and confidence in learning. If you show an interest in school, they’ll know that getting an education is important and valued. Celebrate the milestones big and small! Celebrate milestones such as making it through the first day or week of school. And remember: all milestones look different.

If it’s a big achievement for your child, it’s important to recognise it. Set up a time to talk to your child’s teacher. If you’re struggling to get your child to school, help is available.

Please talk to us at school about your situation. We’ll support you, in whatever way we can. Know when to seek help.

If your child has completely disengaged with school, and not attending at all, there is support to help you. Please make contact with us.

https://anything.tas.gov.au/schools

School Hours

Since the weather has become cooler, we have had more students arriving late to school. Please ensure that your child arrives at school no later than 8.30am, as this ensures that they are organised and ready for first block. If your child arrives after 8.40, they need to go to the office and collect a late pass; late arrival affects their overall attendance and impacts their learning. A reminder that staff are on duty from 8:15am and this is the time our duty of care starts. At the end of the school day there are duty teachers at the bus area until the last bus arrives (approx. 3:30pm).

Music                            8.35am

Block 1                         8.40am to 10.20am

Recess                         10.20am to 10.40am

Music                           10.40am

Block 2                        10.45am to 12.25pm

Lunch                          12.25pm to 1.05pm

Music                           1.05pm

Block 3                        1.10pm to 2.50pm

During Term 3 the Grade 7s have been busy learning and making the most of their opportunities in English, Maths, HASS and Science.

This week in English, students have been learning to recognise and understand the power that verbs have in a narrative. Students are continuing to work on their narratives creating the sense of suspense through their vocabulary and literary devices.

In Maths, Grade 7 students have been learning about 3D measurement and how to calculate the volume of rectangular and triangular prisms.  In Intervention, students have been working on improving their knowledge of decimals, having a deeper understanding of what each number in a decimal represents.  Students will use this knowledge in our next Maths unit when we start converting decimals to percentages. 

In HaSS, the Grade 7s have started their new units – Civics and Citizenship (Monday) and Liveability (Wednesday - Friday). In Civics and Citizenship, the Grade 7s are uncovering what it means to be Australian. In Liveability, the students are learning about what factors make an environment or place liveable. 

In Science, students have been learning about Earth’s different types of resources and classifying them based on their renewability. Students will now be focusing on the natural resource of water and its impact on life.

What might our future look like if it isn’t as bright and happy as we hope it is? Grade 8 English students are exploring this idea, by studying the ways in which this concept is expressed through dystopian texts. These worlds depict a grim, dark, future of humanity, that often contain criticisms or messages about our own society. They have delved into the dour, oppressive, and unfair world of 'The Hunger Games' as their primary focus for understanding how a dystopian world is constructed. Accompanying this main text, students are also looking at short snippets of similar texts, fondly dubbed “Language Bites", for them to practise their comprehension and analytical skills. 

Grade 8 HASS has seen students look into their first Geography unit for the year: Changing Nations. In this unit, students explore the growing world-wide trend of rapidly increasing population levels in urban areas. Students discover the reasons for more and more people wanting to live in cities as well as the reasons for and impact of “Megacities” – massive population centres of over 10 million people. This unit will culminate in students studying their choice of a megacity and using this knowledge to create a design for a new, sustainable megacity for the North-West coast: “The Mega-Don”. 

Don College Parent Information Evening to be held on Wednesday 13 September 2023

• 4.30pm to 7.00pm
• Parents to book into a 30 minute timeslot
• SOBS link - https://sobs.com.au/pt3/parent.php?schoolid=1297or use QR code
• Bookings Open Mon 13 August
• Bookings Close Tues 12 Sep @5pm
• Max number of seats per booking = 5

The future is fearless! On Thursday last week our Grade 10 female students attended the Fearless Festival Expo at the Devonport Recreation Centre. Here they were exposed to a literal smorgasbord of trade and professions. Ranging from traditional trades like building & construction, plumbing and joinery to more specialised roles in the defence sector, police, fire and ambulance. A highlight for the girls was Tas Networks' experience over 20 metres in the air!

Also, in attendance were representatives from CAT, Parks and Wildlife, Horticulture, Nursing, Law, Real estates, Tas Water and local Hospitality industries. This opportunity exposed our students to the endless opportunities available for them in any industry, breaking down barriers and disintegrating the so-called glass ceiling!

This experience ended on Friday night where 5 of our students attended the Fearless Gala Dinner held at the Paranaple Centre. These students heard from:

• Her Excellency the Honourable Barbara Baker AC, Governor of Tasmania
• Commander Debbie Williams APM (who read a speech on behalf of Dame Jacinda Adern GNZM)
• LTGEN Natasha Fox, Chief of Personnel, CSC AM
• Caitlin Radford, Young Farmer of the Year
• Hope Woodbridge
• Simone Haigh
• Captain Madeline Habib

The six guest speakers shared inspiring stories about breaking down walls and stereotypes through their inspiring careers. A throughline communicated to our girls throughout this 2-day event, across industries and the dinner, was with courage there are endless opportunities; you only need to take the first step in being fearless.

The Design and Technology department has continued to be a productive working area moving into the second half of this year. We finished off last term with some fantastic pieces of work in the single block classes and students should be very proud of their efforts. Moving into Term 3 we now have 3 new Grade 7 classes (7A, 7D, 7E), both Grade 8 and 9 Engineering Challenges classes and a Grade 10 Fine Furniture class.

Grade 7 students have begun work on their puzzle/maze project with some high-quality designs being completed. Most students have begun working on cutting up the material for their frame and are making sure if all goes together with care and accuracy.

The Grade 8 2 block class are currently working on manufacturing a tile top occasional table which is one of the major projects for this year. They have now all completed their metalwork unit and are working on measuring and marking with accuracy to get their dowel joints to align correctly.

The Grade 8 Engineering Challenges class are working on constructing popsicle stick bridges of which some have been tested to hold the required 9kg base weight. We will then look to test the bridges to the point that they fail and see how successful students have been with their designing and constructing. Some students have worked methodically on the design and constructing process and I look forward to seeing how successful their work will be in the coming lessons.

The Grade 9 Engineering Challenges class are designing and constructing 1m high towers from bamboo skewers which we will eventually test to see which will hold the greatest weight. The students in this class are thinking about structural design and how different shapes, bracing and laminating materials can help with structural strength.

The 2-block Grade 9 class are currently working on designing and manufacturing sheet metal toolboxes with some creative ideas. This unit of work is to focus students with their measuring and folding skills to have the pieces of their toolboxes go together to produce a quality product.

The 2-block Grade 10 class are working on a few projects at present along with completing some work using Sketchup which is a 3-dimensional computer animated drawing package. Students will by the end of the unit have the skills to be able to draw up projects will accuracy and realism to be able to determine whether their ideas will work before starting with hard materials. Students’ practical projects for this class are a metal dice, finger joint box and a small wooden stool.

The 10 Fine Furniture class are manufacturing a hall table which including some complex joinery. The drawers will be constructed with finger joints and most of the frame will be dowelled together, therefore students are having to be very accurate with their measuring and making skills. Students so far have done an excellent job with their components, and I look forward to seeing their completed projects.