Orange High School Annual Report 2018 8134 Page 1 of 23 Orange High School 8134 (2018) Printed on: 30 April, 2019 Introduction The Annual Report for 2018 is provided to the community of Orange High School as an account of the school's operations and achievements throughout the year. It provides a detailed account of the progress the school has made to provide high quality educational opportunities for all students, as set out in the school plan. It outlines the findings from self–assessment that reflect the impact of key school strategies for improved learning and the benefit to all students from the expenditure of resources, including equity funding. Chad Bliss Principal School contact details Orange High School Woodward St Orange, 2800 www.orange-h.schools.nsw.edu.au [email protected] 6362 3364 Message from the Principal What a year 2018 has been for the students, staff and community of Orange High School. I would like to begin my reflection of 2018 by acknowledging the leadership of Mr David Lloyd who took up a role as Director Educational Leadership at the beginning of term two this year. Mr Lloyd was Principal at Orange High School for the past five years and has continued to build on the high expectations culture that was established way back in 1912. Having had the pleasure of working in Public Education for many years as a Principal, I am continually amazed at the wonderful students, staff and community members we have here at Orange High School. Not a day goes by when I don't see a wonderful young person contributing to our wider society in a positive manner. I have thoroughly enjoyed my first year at Orange High School and I am looking forward to 2019 and beyond. Over the course of 2018, our school has continued to evolve across all aspects of education. I would like to highlight a small number of events, activities, initiatives or programs which have captured my attention and allowed me to see just how truly special our school community really is. We started the year off having the absolute privilege of participating in the Commonwealth Games Queens Baton Relay with a number of our students involved in this initiative. Being part of a once in a lifetime opportunity such as this cannot be underestimated. In March we welcomed our sister school from Japan. Ushiku Eishin High School and our school have had a long history of friendship and we reciprocated the visit in October this year with 16 of our students spending a couple of weeks visiting Ushiku High School and many nationally significant icons. We have worked hard ensuring that we have a sound platform for continued improvement and have identified five key goals across our school in which all members of the school community have agreed to. These include; 1. Every student is known, valued and cared for in our school 2. Every student, teacher and leader improves every year 3. Every student is engaged and challenged to continue to learn 4. All students have a strong foundation in literacy and numeracy 5. All of our students finish school well prepared for higher education, training or work On top of these five key goals, we have redefined our school vision statement, which now reads; "At Orange High School we ignite a lifelong love of learning which allows us to explore, challenge and create our place in the world". This vision and our associated school plan has formed the basis on which we will continue to grow as a school over the Page 2 of 23 Orange High School 8134 (2018) Printed on: 30 April, 2019 coming years. We have had tremendous success in 2018 within our sporting programs. Individually a number of our students were successful in being selected for Western Region sporting teams. We also had students selected for state and national teams. Of particular note is Kaitlyn Hinrichsen in Year 8 who was selected in the junior national triathlon team, Eva Reith Snare who has been selected in the Australian Under 18 Hockey Team and James Parish who was selected to attend the Australian Gymnastics championships in Melbourne in May. These are just a few of the many wonderful individual sporting achievements by our students throughout the year. As a school, we participated in many sporting events ranging from equestrian right through to most team sports on offer within the state. Two teams had tremendous success in 2018. Our girls hockey team placed second in the state behind Taree High School. Our girls netball team placed fourth in the state at the state championships on the south coast earlier in the year. Whilst our push to win back the Malynley Shield and the Astley Cup were unsuccessful this year, I have never seen such positive school pride in any school I have ever been involved with. We are looking forward to the 50th anniversary of the Malynley Shield in 2019 as we have the pleasure of hosting Gosford High School for this iconic sporting exchange. We will be working hard to win back the Astley Cup from Bathurst High School as well in 2019. Our performing arts programs continue to grow from strength to strength with large number of students involved in Dance, Drama, Visual Arts and Music. Lachlan Wheeler in Year 12 was selected as a featured solo artist for the 2018 Schools Spectacular and continues to showcase the musical talents of our school on a national level. Paris Robinson was also selected as a featured ensemble dancer at School Spec this year. Our school show was absolutely brilliant with so many students demonstrating their musical and creative arts abilities to six packed performances. Our students have participated in a range of musicals throughout the year with many of our students headlining performances with the Orange Theatre Company. Our dancers won a range of eisteddfods as did our musicians. On top of these phenomenal performances, our school represented the Orange community with pride and professionalism at many events in 2018. ANZAC day, Remembrance Day, Mrs Mickle's retirement function as well as a visit from our Secretary, Mr Mark Scott to name but a few. As you would be aware, 2018 has been a distressing year for our farming community. Our students always step up and want to help others in need and on top of the many events we supported through fundraising in 2018 including Relay for Life, Ronald McDonald House, Stewart House and the RSPCA, our seniors set to work to raise much needed funds for one local school doing it tough because of the drought. Orange High School raised almost $9000 to support Yeoval Central School students forget about life on the land for a short period of time and hosted their entire school to a fun filled day in Orange with the remaining funds being donated to Yeoval Central School for an end of year activity day back in Yeoval. I am also thankful to Cabramatta High School who raised almost $5000 for our local farmers. Our school is such a busy place. Everyday we have so much going on, which is in addition to our core business of teaching and learning. Band camps, excursions to every part of NSW, driver awareness courses, cattle programs, transition programs for our primary students coming to high school, debating and science and engineering challenges are all examples of the day to day activities we take part in and have tremendous success with our students. As part of Education Week in Term Three, Tom Radnedge was selected as one of only thirty students across the state to participate in the Secretary for a Day program. Tom travelled to Sydney and shadowed a senior executive member of the Department of Education. This was a great accolade for a fabulous leader of our school. Also in Term Three, Peita Mages and Kate Rogan (HT English and HT Wellbeing) were recipients of the Ministers Awards for excellence in teaching and Elijah Smythe was the recipient of the Ministers Award for excellence in student leadership. A well deserved award for three outstanding members of our school community. We said goodbye to Year 12 at the end of term three and I will remember forever, the emotional speech delivered by Elijah Smythe. An absolute true gentleman and a wonderful student leader of our school. Our focus on the re–design of our educational provision has continued with a strong focus on ensuring our goals are achieved as part of our three year planning cycle. A strengthened program of talent development will be rolled out in 2019 and a change in pedagogical focus for our staff will ensure we are better engaging all of our students through a strong approach to inquiry based learning. This is an exciting time for Orange High School with a range of innovative and flexible learning spaces being developed along with a change in how we will teach our students into the future. These changes are based on high level research and have a strong evidence base attached to ensuring we do what works best for students in 2019 and beyond. I cant wait to continue to share our journey of success with you over the coming years. Aboriginal Education remains a focus for our school improvement strategy and we have been fortunate to run a number of very successful initiatives and programs for our Aboriginal students. The Girri Girri program has supported a range of students throughout the year and our publication "The Deadly Times" has highlighted the outstanding achievements of our Aboriginal student community.