NEWSLETTER TERM 3 IMPORTANT DATES 2018 Term 3 EVENT Principal Report Tuesday 4 September School P & C Meeting Thursday 6 September Year 8 Immunisations There is a growing excitement across the Wednesday 12 September Year 11 & 12 Dance Showcase school with the roll out of new technologies Thursday 13 September R U OK Day into every classroom. Over the past two years the school has built a stable IT network to Wednesday 19 September Colours Awards Presentation support the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program and increased HOLIDAY PERIOD 22 September – 7 October teacher use of ICT in the classroom as a highly effective tool to TERM 4 EVENT enhance learning opportunities for all students. Monday 8 October Term 4 Commences At the recent secondary conference, it was evident that Ocean Reef Tuesday 16 October School P & C Meeting has fast become an innovative leader in technology. I acknowledge Year 7 (2019) BYOD Parent school leaders and teachers’ commitment to improved outcomes for Wednesday 17 October evening students and the relentless focus on ensuring our students leave well Wednesday 24 October Year 12 Presentation Evening prepared to be future leaders. Tuesday 13 November School P & C Meeting Change to the configuration of the School Day Friday 23 November Year 11 Final Day Tuesday 27 November Year 6 Orientation Day For 2019, we are considering a change to the school timetable. Wednesday 28 November Jnr Music Awards Night Every Monday the school day will finish at 2.30pm and Tuesday through to Friday each day will continue to finish at 3.05pm. We are Thursday 13 December Last day of Term 4 presently discussing these changed schedules with Transperth. We School Development Day (pupil Friday 14 December are also seeking school community feedback about the proposed free) changes. If you would like to do this, please contact Warren Smith HOLIDAY PERIOD 13 December 2018—5 February 2019 (Vice Principal) on (08) 9307 0222. Karon Brookes Vice Principal Report On Monday, 20th August all staff at Ocean Reef SHS were involved in a Conference with three other schools in our region. These other schools were Butler College, Belridge SC and Yanchep SC. This Northern Beaches Secondary Schools Network Conference was an opportunity for our teachers to share teaching practice and develop their knowledge, skills and attitudes to do with their teaching of students. Over 400 teachers were involved in the Conference. Feedback indicated that the Conference has been very successful and we look forward to doing similar in the future. Our school considers it important that our teachers are constantly reflecting on their practice and invested in looking at opportunities to improve their practice. We have a teaching staff that is very highly regarded by other schools, however, we live in a time of change and it is necessary that all teachers keep abreast of possible improvements that can be made. Over that past year we have developed a Teaching and Learning Framework (Lesson Design) that all teachers are expected to use in classrooms. This ensures that students have consistency in teacher instruction across the school. Recently, our school has also implemented an Assessment and Feedback Framework to guide teacher actions in classrooms when implementing assessment tasks. This Framework ensures that our assessment tasks are of the highest quality and that students are provided with quality feedback so that they can improve their learning. Teachers now have clear directions about where to focus their self-improvement. These strategies are just a few that are proving successful verified by a significant positive improvement in whole school student achievement at Ocean Reef SHS in recent years. Warren Smith Senior School Events Reward Excursions Our end of term reward excursions have been wildly popular and a terrific way to acknowledge and celebrate students with high attendance and good standing. In Term 2 our year 11 & 12’s end of term reward excursion was to indoor beach volleyball which was fun filled and enjoyable way to end the semester. The year 10’s participated in the reward excursion to bowling and a movie. A chilled and relaxing way to end the semester. Lunchtime Activities Lunchtime activities have been a highlight and a wonderful opportunity to promote some festive wellbeing activities aimed to reduce school stress and provide a fun outlet during break times. Ocean Reef is an official Act- Belong-Commit school. School based events are a great way for students to be active in the school community. Some of the activities on offer included, staff vs students’ games (grudge matches) of netball and soccer. Sparking plenty of interest and spectators. Dance and Art club have been a new addition this year and of course, the introduction to Milo Monday #mugday. Fortnightly we open up the “pop up café” for all senior school students on the great court. The students are awarded the opportunity to trade in their ORCA awards for food and drinks. This event has proved to be very popular and we are pleased to reward the positive values of being Organised, Respectful, Caring and Achieving. The great court has been the venue of great vibes with the many activities on offer and the atmosphere it creates. It has been a brilliant way for students to spend their break time with their peers and interact with the senior cohort as a whole. Keti D’Angelo Lower School Events Act Belong Commit – Year 7 Cross Country This term we are excited to announce that all year 7 students will be running a cross country on Friday 7 September. It will run during period 5 for all year 7s and points will go towards the House total for the year. Individual champion runners will be recognised after the run. Students will be encouraged to wear their House colours for the event. More information will be provided to the students prior to the event. Staff vs Student Netball Every Friday, our staff have had the opportunity to play mixed netball during lunchtime against our wonderfully talented netballers. The results so far are swaying in favour of the staff team; however, after 3 rounds of dodgeball…anything can happen!! Reward Excursions At the end of Term 2 we rewarded some of our students with an excursion to Zone Bowling and Grand Cinemas in Joondalup. It was a fantastic day to celebrate with wonderful young members of our community in a non-curriculum environment. Due to unforeseen circumstances, unfortunately the Year 7 Reward Day ‘Incredibles’ movie was cut short so Grand Cinemas have offered all Year 7 Reward students a free ticket to attend a movie of their choice. These will be distributed to the students as soon as they arrive. Thank you for your patience with this matter. We look forward to our next Reward Excursions at Latitude in Joondalup which will be on the following days; Year 7 – Tuesday 18th September Year 9 & 10 – Wednesday 19th September Year 8 – Thursday 20th September Gemma Novotny Science It’s been an action filled year with plenty of great work going on in science. Staff have been flat out writing new assessments for our Year 7 to 10 students, improving their quality and updating the content. We are focusing on our student’s writing skills. We are also enriching our curriculum with new experiments and practical work and increasing the number of excursions and incursions. You might notice this as you read some of the stories below, please enjoy. Staffing Changes Our resident Chemistry teacher, Mr Bryans, left us at the end of Term 2 to pursue work in the mining industry. His replacement is Ms Lise Fouche who has been lecturing undergraduates in Chemistry at Curtin University for the last six years. She’s doing a great job here with our senior students, providing expert advice, making sure they’re on task and getting ready for their exams. I’d like to welcome her to Ocean Reef and wish her every success. Semester 1 results Our data from Semester One has been pleasing to read. Most of our senior students are succeeding in their studies achieving C grades or higher. I’d like to thank my staff for their efforts in this regard; the amount of work that goes into teaching, assessing and reporting is complex and sometimes challenging but we all met our deadlines and produced plenty of quality feedback for our parents to read and respond to. National Science Week at ORSHS As part of National Science Week, Ocean Reef invited Scitech to our school. They presented their ‘Beyond the Beaker’ show to our years sevens and eights which explored the future world of work in technology industries like robotics, gaming, coding and virtual reality. We also had Mullaloo Beach Primary School come on two separate days. Their year six students did some hands-on science in a real laboratory with our year ten students guiding them. There was plenty of fun to be had, as they made and exploded Hydrogen gas. Northern Beaches Secondary Schools Conference Ocean Reef SHS was lucky enough to host this conference for Science staff this year. We had teachers and laboratory technicians come along and share ideas and resources with our staff. We also had WA’s Chief Scientist, Professor Peter Klinken address the audience, challenging us to re-think how education should be structured to produce the best outcomes for students. Laboratory technicians from all three schools presented some great workshops for staff demonstrating the latest data-logging equipment and engaging experiments. The four major universities also came along and promoted their latest science courses and pathways that students should consider for the future.