22 May 2020

Newsletter Articles

A Word from the Principal…

We now have some certainty around students returning to school with the Education Minister’s announcement that face-face delivery will resume for Year 11/12 on the 25th of May and Year 7-10 on the 9th of June. He spoke about keeping children at home, unless you are an essential worker or unable to support their learning from home until this time. He also said the staggered approach to having students return to school was based on advice from Public Health around being careful with increased numbers of people moving in our communities. If you’d like more information use this link to watch a short video message from the Minister of Education, Jeremy Rockliff:

Physical Distancing and Hand Hygiene

At school we are continuing to practise our physical distancing and hand hygiene routines. Our cleaning routines continue to be thorough and consistent. Public Health advice is clear – it is safe for schools to be open. This is because we have a low rate of Coronavirus (COVID-19) community spread in Tasmania and there has been increased and expanded testing. To reduce the risk even further, schools have hygiene and physical distancing measures in place. While it is safe to send your child/ren to school, we still need adults to maintain a distance from other adults, whilst on site.

To help us with adult physical distancing, we are asking all parents/carers to:

• Stop, Drop and Go’ for all school drop offs and pickups. This means you don’t get out of your car and you adhere to physical distancing rules.
• Students who become unwell during the course of a school day will have to go home. Parents/carers are asked to keep their children home if they have cold or flu symptoms. Staff will be doing likewise.
• If you need to talk to your child’s teacher, please call the school office on (03) 6452 9222 or email the teacher or school office at smithton.high@education.tas.gov.au .
• Should you need to meet face-face with school staff we ask you call the school first to arrange an appointment. On the day of your appointment please go to the school office where we will follow our visitor protocol. If you have minor cold symptoms please arrange to meet another time. Any face-face meetings will take place in our meeting room with physical distancing and hand hygiene a priority.

We want to make school as safe as possible for everyone. Feel free to ask questions if you require any further information. These things won’t be forever, but we all have a shared responsibility to act in a way that supports everyone being safe.

More information is available on the Department of Education website below:

Offline Packs – Round Two

Our second round of offline learning packs have been posted and you should receive them this week. Keep an eye on the post!

Learning at Home – Feedback from Parents

I’m really proud of the way everybody has adapted to the new way of learning from home. It hasn’t been easy and we know any form of change is challenging but rest assured, we are looking at ways we can do things differently in the near future. I will be able to extend on this thinking later in the term when we’ve had a chance to reflect and gather feedback. We certainly would like to get constructive feedback from you about what has worked well and what hasn’t as your child/ren have learnt from home. Please send us an email or message through the FB page.

Staying Connected

We have been in contact with our families and the conversations have been great – staying connected with you all has been important on a number of levels. Checking in around wellbeing and navigating learning from home as well as trying to keep you informed about important information was important for us. We haven’t always got this right and the feedback we have received will help us look at better ways to communicate with you in the future, as well as revising some of our procedures. We do appreciate the open conversations we have had with many of you. Thanks!

Transition Back to School – How You Can Help

Over the coming weeks many of our students will be transitioning back to school. For most it will feel like the start of a new school year. This can mean excitement with a few nerves, looking forward to seeing friends again or life feeling a little more ‘normal’. For others it’s not as easy to come back to school, you could be feeling anxious about if you’ve done enough work, having to make friends again or it could be having to be at school. To support your child during this time you can talk to them about how they feel about returning to school.

Learning from home has also meant changes in routine. These could be later mornings and nights, eating when you’re hungry, completing school work at any time during the day (even night for some!), working in bed or on the couch and even staying in your pyjamas all day. Over the next three weeks you can support your child by re-establishing your normal school routines – earlier morning and nights, following the Learning at Home timetable as much as you can so it’s like a normal school day, completing work at a table, getting ready of a morning like you would when coming to school.

Preparation is key to dealing with situations like returning to school. The more things feel familiar and controlled, the more your child or young person can relax and feel confident about what’s happening. Please let us know if we can help in anyway. The links below are also a great resource for parents.

The Orb – Tunnerminnerwait resource

In 2016 Smithton High School were involved in ‘The Tunnerminnerwait’ project which was a collaboration between the school, the Circular Head Council, The Circular Head Aboriginal Corporation and BigHart. This project led to signage being displayed at Green Point, Marrawah along with a documentary film about the life of Tunnerminnerwait which was produced by BigHart. Many members of our school community were involved in this project and it was well-received in both the community and in the Department of Education. Following on from the project, Aboriginal Education Services have produced an outstanding educational resource about Tunnerminnerwait and how communities can facilitate community based projects. I highly recommend that members of the school check out this great resource, which can be found at the link below in the ‘Layers of Time’ section. ‘The Orb’ is a wonderful resource for people to learn about the Tasmanian Aboriginal Community and our indigenous history. I would particularly like to acknowledge the work of Nicki Brannigan and the team at Aboriginal Education Services for putting this together and it will be widely used by our staff and students here at school.

Well done to everybody for the resilience and patience you’ve shown during this time! Keep up the great work, remain vigilant and follow the rules as restrictions are lifted. We look forward to having the Year 11/12s back at the start of next week and the rest of the students back on site on Tuesday the 9th of June.

Please take some time to read the documents attached with the letter below, as they provide more details around all things Covid-19. Many of these have been posted on our Facebook page and School Zine APP.

Kind regards,

Nikki Clark
Principal

Dept of Education Returning to Learning at School Info

Department of Education
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY

GPO Box 169, HOBART TAS 7001 Australia
OfficeoftheSecretary@education.tas.gov.au
Ph (03) 6165 5757

12 May 2020

Dear Parents and Carers

Supporting your school community – stay COVID-Safe

I want to thank parents and carers for your incredible partnership with teachers to support your children to Learn at Home. I know we have all had to learn some new things to make this work, and this has only been possible because of your effort to embrace the situation that you have been presented with.

Public Health advice is that physical distancing between adults in the school environment is a key way to keep schools safe. What this means is that your school will need to continue to engage with you in different ways while COVID- 19 restrictions are in place. Schools will look a bit different to what you are used to and we will need your help to manage this.

In response to COVID-19, schools are working hard to implement physical distancing and hygiene measures within schools. Here are the key things we are asking for your help and support with as parents and carers:

• Don’t send your child to school if they are sick.
• Follow the school’s advice about where and when to safely drop off and collect your child.
• Respect any other requests that the school might ask for your help with – they want to make your school as safe as possible for everyone.
• Keep talking with your child about washing their hands and following any extra rules teachers might put in place to help with hygiene and physical distancing.
• Stay connected with your school by email, phone and any other platforms your school recommends. If you need to arrange a face-to-face meeting, contact your school to make a time.

Feel free to contact your school if you have any questions. These things won’t be forever but we all have a shared responsibility to act in a way that supports everyone being safe.

We are looking forward to working with you for the rest of Term 2. Yours sincerely

Tim Bullard
SECRETARY

Anxiety and COVID-19

We Miss You!

We are missing all our students who are learning from home and would love to see how everyone is going. If you are able to, please send in some photos of students completing work for us to share with their classmates. This can be done via the school email (smithton.high@education.tas.gov.au or through Facebook messenger.

Wednesday 20th May was World Bee Day!

Did you know that bees pollinate much of the food that makes our diet tasty and healthy and they also pollinate food for birds and small mammals?

Bees around the world are in serious trouble due to loss of habitat and use of toxic pesticides.

You can help by planting a bee friendly garden and using alternatives to pesticides. We are currently in the process of building a bee garden at Smithton High – Keep an eye out on our progress.

The Bee Aware Team would like to give you a list of plants that bees love:

HERBS: Basil, Coriander, Dill, Lavender, Parsley, Rosemary and Thyme
FLOWERS: Sunflowers, Dandelions and Marigolds
NATIVE PLANTS: Grevillia, Eucalyptus, Banksia, Tea Tree
FRUIT TREES: Apples, Pears, Citrus and Stone Fruit

SHS Bee Aware will be offering tips every month to help Circular Head become more BEE FRIENDLY!

SHS Walk/Run Challenge

eSafety Tips for Parents

School Nurse News

Community News

During the Covid-19 lockdown, School Health Nurses in the state were working very hard to ensure that students and parents could have access to all things health related. The School Health Nurses designed a ‘padlet’ which is available freely for your convenience and we encourage you to access it. The links provided are updated constantly with the latest information, and covers information about mental health, covid-19, nutrition, exercise, mindfulness, parent resources and more. If you look closely, you may even find Nurse Lyndsay’s video about mental health care plans.

High School:

Primary School:

Dates to Remember…

Term Dates & Student Free Days for 2020

Terms

Student Free Days

Year 7-10

Tuesday 4th February
Thursday 9th April
Monday 20th July
Friday 30th October

Year 11/12

Tuesday 10th March
Friday 4th September

Office Hours

8.30am – 3.30pm daily
School Starts: 8.50am
School Finishes: 3.00pm

School Office Ph: 6452 9222
Trade Training Centre Ph: 6452 9288

SMS: 0427 016 460
Email: smithton.high@education.tas.gov.au
Web: http://education.tas.edu.au/smithtonhigh/Pages/Home.aspx
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Smithton-High-School/219062138251149