BATHURST HIGH CAMPUS NEWSLETTER APRIL 2017 http://www.facebook.com/bathursthighcampus/ Term 1 has disappeared very quickly and I have thoroughly enjoyed my first school term at Bathurst High Campus – Denison College of Secondary Educaon. Term 1 concludes on Friday 7th April 2017, however teaching and learning at Bathurst High connues to power on with students across all year groups subming formal assessment tasks and Year 12 sing formal half‐yearly examinaons. Teachers will now grade the examinaons and provide construcve feedback for all students as they move forward in their courses. Students at Bathurst High Campus are very fortunate to have many support structures which offer all students the opportunity to improve across their courses looking towards their long term goals. Senior mentoring, assessment recovery and mathemacs tutoring programs are all offered to various students to ensure that students receive the appropriate support to achieve a higher standard. Students in our senior school need to access support from our learning hub located in the library during study periods where educaonal support and guidance is offered to students. Mrs Simeonidis – Year 12 Advisor is available for parents of students in Year 12 to work closely with families as we support our students through the HSC in 2017. If parents would like to discuss our support available within our school, please contact the Year Advisor, Mrs Dunshea – Deputy Principal Senior School or Mr Barwick on 02 6331 3755. I would like to acknowledge the efforts of our Bathurst High Campus staff throughout Term 1 and our college colleagues at Kelso High Campus who have all worked hard to provide outstanding learning opportunies for the students at Denison College. Student learning and improved results connues to remain a central focus at Bathurst High as we strive to achieve set improvement measures in the final year of our current school plan. Set Improvement Measures 2015—2018 Value added scores for wring in NAPLAN increases to state average. Increased percentage of students in top two HSC bands in ALARM subjects STRATEGIC and decrease in boom bands over 3‐year average. DIRECTION 1 Improve Aboriginal performance in school assessments as measured by Learning and the average mark for years 7 – 10 in common subjects. Assessment Numeracy value adding is above school average for 2012 – 2014. Denison College students experience excellence in The staff and students have also managed to aend mulple excursions learning and assessment. such as the Year 7 Camp to supplement learning, compete in many sporng compeons and undertake a great deal of professional learning. All of these school acvies have added to the rich educaonal experience which is offered to all students at Bathurst High Campus. I would like to acknowledge the great work done by Mr Nathan Kenny as our Learning and Support Teacher (LaST) over the past year and wish him all the very best in his new English posion at Bathurst High Campus. School staffing have appointed Mr Trent Grantham as our new LaST at Bathurst High Campus – commencing on the first day of Term 2. I would like to welcome Mr Grantham and wish him all the best at our wonderful school. Page 1 Denison College of Secondary Education—Bathurst High Campus—www.bathurst-h.schools.nsw.edu.au Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathemacs (STEM) Opportunity On Thursday 23rd March 2017, Bathurst High aended the University of Newcastle Science and Engineering Challenge held at Charles Sturt University for Year 10 students from a range of schools across the Central West region. Around 256 students aended on the day, with a maximum of 32 from any one school. The students experienced a range of problem solving acvies (eight in total) for which they were provided with some basic materials and then encouraged to solve the problem as a group. The day turned out to be a very excing day with our school team leading all other schools at the lunch break. The Challenge has been run in other centres in NSW with the support of local Rotary clubs. Rotary provided many volunteers on the day to assist students to complete the various exercises. The last few hours of the compeon provided many nervous moments for our students as their final challenge was to construct a bridge from some basic materials which needed to hold various vehicle weights when aempng to cross the bridge. It was a great day and an outstanding result for our students who finished third overall when the final points were tallied. Congratulaons to all students who aended and to the staff from Bathurst High Campus. Well done to Mrs Rosie Weithaler – Head Teacher Science for organising this exceponal learning experience which allowed our students to work as a producve team. Page 2 Denison College of Secondary Education—Bathurst High Campus—www.bathurst-h.schools.nsw.edu.au Emergency Evacuaon Procedures Revisited All schools are required to pracse all Workplace, Health and Safety procedures each year and last week all students were required to evacuate the building during one of our mandatory emergency evacuaon drills. The purpose of the drill was to remind all students, staff, visitors and contractors of our school evacuaon procedures. This event is even more important for our new students in Year 7 and new staff. The following provides a snapshot of some of the important procedures during an evacuaon. When it is necessary to Evacuate the school an alarm will sound as follows ‐ Connuous ringing of the bell. In the event of a power failure, a portable siren kept in the administraon area will be used as above as well as a broadcast message via the telephone system stang evacuaon. All personnel to implement procedures. When there is a connuous ringing bell ‐ The General Assistant immediately unlocks the gates on Keppel Street. General Assistant then unlocks Piper Street gate. The Deputy Chief Warden (DP Senior School) delegates the opening of the gates on Peel St for emergency vehicle access if required. Designated SASS staff prints off rolls for that period. The SAM checks the admin area including the Common Room, offices, toilets and sick bay. Then evacuates to the Assembly Area. The SAM and two other designated SAOs go to the front gate and the Hall gate to prevent anyone entering the school. One designated SAO will take the sign on book, the guest book and the Roll Call rolls and absentee list to the oval. These are shown to the DP Senior School to ensure all are accounted for. Floor Wardens (Head Teachers) check their areas and ensure calm evacuaon. As soon as the area is checked, Floor Wardens immediately evacuate to the assembly area. Evacuaon During a Teaching Period ‐ Teachers and students ‐ Teachers instruct students to pick up their bags, line up at the door and then calmly walk their class to the nearest safe exit closest to the street. Tell students they will line up in class groups in faculty areas at the Assembly point. Teachers take their roll with them. Teachers close doors behind them – DO NOT LOCK. Teachers instruct students to make sure their mobile phones are off. Teachers walk their class out the nearest gate and along the outside footpath to the side gate on Keppel St. then walk down to the back of the oval. PE classes outside go directly to the oval via the path. Teachers line students up in their class group. Signs are on the back fence to show faculty areas. Evacuaon During a Break ‐ All students and teachers who are outside are to proceed to the assembly area at the back of the oval via the internal path and terrace steps, unless otherwise directed. All personnel inside the buildings are to follow the procedures listed above. TAS staffroom Boom Floor teachers and PE teachers should assist on the oval and direct students as they arrive. Students are to line up in their Roll Call Groups. If the evacuaon occurs during Year Assembly, teachers at the assembly will walk students to the Evacuaon Assembly Area. Page 3 Denison College of Secondary Education—Bathurst High Campus—www.bathurst-h.schools.nsw.edu.au Outstanding Student Success – Congratulaons Felicity! A few weeks ago Felicity Hickey in Year 11 was honoured by the Internaonal Sports Karate Associaon (ISKA) for her outstanding success in maral arts throughout the past twelve months. Felicity won two Naonal Titles in 2016 and was ranked 1st in five divisions she had competed in over the year. Recently Felicity competed in the Australian Karate Federaon (AKF) Sydney Cup where she placed 2nd in sparring. AKF is the recognised organisaon for the Olympics and both Felicity and Taylor (older sister and former vice captain at BHS in 2015) returned to Sydney last weekend to again excel in their sparring divisions. Their success was recognised by their selecon in the official Australian Karate Federaon state team to compete at the naonal tles. This will translate to compulsory training with the squad a least once per month along with their normal compeons. Outstanding success for two talented sisters. Well done to the Hickey family and all the very best in future compeons. Our school community will keep an eye out in future Olympics! Students Represent at the Centenary of Anzac Soil Collecon Ceremony On Monday 27th March 2017 many students from across the Bathurst Network aended a very important Centenary of Anzac Celebraon at the Bathurst War Memorial Carillon. This is a state‐wide project to collect 1,699 soil samples from the towns, suburbs and localies where the men and women of NSW enlisted for service in the First World War. Bathurst was the first of these locaons to feature in the project.