A Member of the Cudgegong Learning Community PLEASE SEE OUR WEBSITE FOR THE COMPLETE CALENDAR OF EVENTS COMING EVENTS • 11 March Aboriginal Welcome Barbecue - 5pm start • 23 March 2020 P&C meeting THIS ISSUE • Principal’s Message • MHS P&C Meeting • P&C and SRR Awards • Writing Friday • Library News • HSC Standards • eSafety—Safer Internet Day • Advertisements • Sponsorship Principal’s Message Out of the Mouths of Babes Communication was the focus of last week’s editorial, so it seems a fitting segue that I let you know as part of the communication strategy at Mudgee High, this Principal meets with the Captains and Vice Captains on a weekly basis. Those meetings are sharing ones. As the school’s student body leaders, I keep them up to date with what is happening at a whole-picture level within the school and, at times, external to the school where those things may impact on us directly. They keep me up to date with what is happening at the Student Representative Council (SRC) level, as well as raising issues and asking questions as needs be. After a week of the new mobile device procedures being introduced, it seemed timely to discuss their first impressions. Here is some of what I discovered while talking with the captains: • “We’re more productive.” This observation was made after one of the captains, having arrived thirty minutes early for a before-school lesson, reached into her bag to fetch out her phone – a matter of habit – only to realise the phone was locked away. At a loose end, she decided to do some Maths work. Fresh as she was, given the time of day, she smashed out a very productive thirty minutes of solid work. I asked her what those thirty minutes would have looked like had she had access to her phone. The answer: mindless scrolling. • “You have to plan ahead – be prepared.” In past lessons that involved a lot of note taking, it was easy to switch off or engage in idle distraction before whipping out the phone at the lesson’s conclusion so as to snap a picture of the notes on the board… a picture then seldom looked at again. These student leaders have come to realise that under the new regime, you are obliged to engage actively with the work presented and, at the very least, take from the notes provided the bare essentials. That has to be good. • “Conversations and UNO games have replaced silent scrolling.” This observation was made about the senior area but very quickly expanded to the Quad and beyond. It is a fact that is not in dispute; since the roll out of the new procedures, the school is louder during breaks. One Captain noted that the line of students that each break once acted as a kind of buttress for the southern wall of K Block, juniors silently scrolling through tiny screens, has turned into small groups of highly engaged conversationalists. • Mobile device disruptions in classes have all but disappeared, and surreptitious Netflix viewing is no more. That last one was a surprise to me. The story relayed was that in some rural places well beyond the reach of the NBN, tapping into streaming services is impossible. Some enterprising students have in the past brought their devices to school and downloaded Monday 2 March Week 6 Term 1 2020 MHS Newsletter Mudgee High School – Locked Bag 2004, MUDGEE NSW 2850 ABN: 18 246 198 266 Telephone: (02) 6372 1533 Facsimile: 6372 6321 Website: www.mudgee-h.schools.nsw.edu.au Email: [email protected]https://www.facebook.com/mudgeehighschool/
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MHS Newsletter - Mudgee High School · 2020-03-03 · Writing Friday MUDGEE HIGH SCHOOL P&C The next meeting of the Mudgee High School P&C will be held on Monday 23 March 2020 at
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A Member of the
Cudgegong Learning
Community
PLEASE SEE OUR WEBSITE
FOR THE COMPLETE
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
COMING EVENTS
• 11 March Aboriginal Welcome
Barbecue - 5pm start
• 23 March 2020 P&C meeting
THIS ISSUE
• Principal’s Message
• MHS P&C Meeting
• P&C and SRR Awards
• Writing Friday
• Library News
• HSC Standards
• eSafety—Safer Internet Day
• Advertisements
• Sponsorship
Principal’s Message
Out of the Mouths of Babes
Communication was the focus of last week’s editorial, so it seems a fitting segue that I
let you know as part of the communication strategy at Mudgee High, this Principal
meets with the Captains and Vice Captains on a weekly basis.
Those meetings are sharing ones. As the school’s student body leaders, I keep them
up to date with what is happening at a whole-picture level within the school and, at
times, external to the school where those
things may impact on us directly. They
keep me up to date with what is
happening at the Student Representative
Council (SRC) level, as well as raising
issues and asking questions as needs
be.
After a week of the new mobile device
procedures being introduced, it seemed
timely to discuss their first impressions.
Here is some of what I discovered while
talking with the captains:
• “We’re more productive.” This observation was made after one of the
captains, having arrived thirty minutes early for a before-school lesson,
reached into her bag to fetch out her phone – a matter of habit – only to
realise the phone was locked away. At a loose end, she decided to do some
Maths work. Fresh as she was, given the time of day, she smashed out a
very productive thirty minutes of solid work. I asked her what those thirty
minutes would have looked like had she had access to her phone. The
answer: mindless scrolling.
• “You have to plan ahead – be prepared.” In past lessons that involved a lot
of note taking, it was easy to switch off or engage in idle distraction before
whipping out the phone at the lesson’s conclusion so as to snap a picture of
the notes on the board… a picture then seldom looked at again. These
student leaders have come to realise that under the new regime, you are
obliged to engage actively with the work presented and, at the very least,
take from the notes provided the bare essentials. That has to be good.
• “Conversations and UNO games have replaced silent scrolling.” This
observation was made about the senior area but very quickly expanded to
the Quad and beyond. It is a fact that is not in dispute; since the roll out of
the new procedures, the school is louder during breaks. One Captain noted
that the line of students that each break once acted as a kind of buttress for
the southern wall of K Block, juniors silently scrolling through tiny screens,
has turned into small groups of highly engaged conversationalists.
• Mobile device disruptions in classes have all but disappeared, and
surreptitious Netflix viewing is no more. That last one was a surprise to me.
The story relayed was that in some rural places well beyond the reach of the
NBN, tapping into streaming services is impossible. Some enterprising
students have in the past brought their devices to school and downloaded
Monday
2 March
Week 6 Term 1
2020
MHS Newsletter Mudgee High School – Locked Bag 2004, MUDGEE NSW 2850
The next meeting of the Mudgee High School P&C will be held on Monday 23 March 2020 at 7pm in the school library.
Entry via Horatio Street.
All welcome.
Week 5 Term 1 Awards
P&C Awards: Year 7 - Carly Thurston-Murray; Year 8 - Logan King; Year 9 - Hope-Louise Irwin;
Year 10 - Tully Myers; Year 11 - Claire Anderson; Year 12 - Rohan Wallace
SRR Award: Alexander Wojciechowski
Library News At the mid-point of Term One, all is in full swing, accommodating the needs of both staff and students as we settle
into our core business — meeting the needs of Mudgee High’s school community.
Our computer classrooms are heavily booked for class research, pending first assessment tasks in all subjects and
mandatory skills and safety testing across ‘manual’ subjects, which has produced a lot of class ‘traffic’.
Our central teaching space, which includes a huge projection screen, audio/visual facilities and Chromebooks, is
being utilised for whole class lessons on a regular basis. Its sixty seats+ capacity is also used to host weekly staff
meetings and will be used to host Staff Development Days this year.
Simultaneously, we have been accommodating our Stage 6 Distance Education students who access a broad range
of external subjects ranging from Aboriginal Studies through to Digital Multimedia and EAL/D. This highlights the
scope of subjects available at Mudgee High through our Distance Education partner schools. Additionally, our video
conferencing facilities are in high demand to facilitate these courses. All students have settled into classes with new
‘via remote’ teachers and have proven motivated in their self-learning.
We have also welcomed a new Aurora High School student at MHS this year. Our Library hosts this Department of
Education ‘virtual’ selective high school; which offers Mathematics, English and Science for junior students in an
alternate setting.
Year 12 students have been doing a commendable job utilising the Library to undertake homework, research and
coursework in their study periods. The Library not only offers a place to stay on top of the constant workload
associated with the HSC, it also provides printing facilities for student work submission. These Library printing
services are available to all students at MHS.
We also accommodate students doing school based traineeships (SBATs), who require access to teachers, and a
group of TAFE students who are undertaking a drone pilot course through TAFE NSW this year.
The implementation of the school’s revised mobile device procedures that make use of Yondr pouches has had a
positive impact upon the utilisation of the Library in the last few weeks. More students engaged in reading,
challenging each other in chess, playing board and card games, completing homework, utilising computers for
gaming, research and study, as well as engaging in the ‘brainstorming’ of ideas in conversation during breaks and
‘study periods’. This can only be a good thing in the development of young minds!
All of this bodes well for another busy and productive year within our Library in meeting the teaching, learning and
recreational needs of Mudgee High’s students.
eSafety - Safer Internet Day
On 11 February, Mudgee High School took part in the e-safety commissioner’s “Safer Internet Day 2020”.
Students shared the ways that they stay safe on line.
Explore Australia’s online safety hub
Check out eSafety’s great range of advice and
resources. Get started by visiting our parents and carers
pages and reading the practical tips for kicking off an
online safety conversation. You can also download our
‘Parents guide to online safety’ booklet (available in 5
languages), tell your family about eSafety’s pages for
Young People or get familiar with our step by step
advice to reporting different types of online abuse. Find
out more at esafety.gov.au
This year’s Safer Internet Day theme is ‘Together for a
better internet’ and Australia’s eSafety Commissioner is
encouraging parents to mark the day by starting family
conversations about online safety. See the following
page for conversation starter ideas!
eSafety young people—conversation starters
These question are designed to be used in a family or education setting to start everyday conversations about online safety. The cards cover topics such as identifying online risks, using technology safely and reporting unsafe behaviour. Use them together with the information at eSafety young people, and empower young people to take control of their online experiences.
• What are your top three tips for using social media?
esafety.gov.au/young-people
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Mudgee Relay For Life registrations are now open! Please join us for the Mudgee Relay For Life in April 2020 as we come together to celebrate survivorship, remember
loved ones lost and fight back against cancer.
Event details
Date: 4 – 5 April 2020
Place: Victoria Park, Mudgee
To register, please visit www.cancercouncil.org.au/mudgeerelay
For more information, please like our Facebook page ‘Mudgee & District Relay For Life’ for updates.