Swimming Carnival
What a fabulous demonstration of school community spirit đ The swimming carnival was not only held on a beautiful day weather wise but the vibe, participation, engagement and turnout was truly spectacular. My thanks to all staff and students for their contribution to enhance a great school experience for our community.
Meet the Teacher afternoon
On Wednesday afternoon we invited our Year 7 and 8 families in to experience a mini timetable version of their studentâs day. It was a great way for families to see the spaces where their students learn and put names to the faces of staff. The vibe was great! It was a great turn out and a really worthwhile connection to build with our parent community. I was especially grateful for the feedback received from parents as they left the school â thank you for taking the time to share your experiences with me.
School Improvement Strategy 1 â Improve student growth in writing across all year levels.
In the week before students returned at the start of the school year, we had Associate Professor Misty Adoniou work with our staff on the skills and culture necessary to assist students become more effective writers. We have been carrying on this work in our staff meetings this term initially looking at discipline specific vocabulary in our term 1 units of study. The more awareness, and the deeper the understanding a student has in the terminology of a learning area, the deeper their tool kit of words they have to craft discipline-specific writing pieces. Staff have been trialling new strategies to increase and improve each studentâs knowledge and understanding of vocabulary, including the etymology of words and the unpacking of morphemes. Most importantly staff have been keenly looking at the impact the strategies are having on each studentâs understanding and the increasing depth of their own subject specific vocabularies. I am most excited that these literacy âlearning bitesâ are being embedded within each learning area. We will continue to collaboratively look at the student data in our staff meetings to reflect and move forward with this important and impactful improvement strategy.
School Board
The School Board for 2022 will conduct their final meeting later this term. I wish to thank the retiring members of the Board for their work. Nominations have now closed for the vacant positions for the 2023 Board. The School Board for 2023 will be appointed at the end of the term and I will introduce the Board members in a future newsletter.
Kind regards,
Jacqui Ford
Bicycle and Scooter Security
Bicycle and scooter theft is a reality in society, and Lyneham High is unfortunately not exempt from being targeted.
Our school mitigates this by keeping the bike compound locked through the day (generally from about 9:30am to about 2:30pm) and having a teacher on duty at the bike compound at the end of the day (from about 3:05-3:20pm). Our Building Service Officer team also promptly repair the occasional damage to the external fencing wire. The compound is left unlocked overnight. Students should not leave bicycles and scooters overnight or during weekends.
Additionally, we urge students to keep their bikes locked with a good quality lock and encourage parents to regularly check with their children that they are using their locks. Periodic reminders about bike security are also given to students through daily notices.
Our staff carry out ad-hoc visual checks of the compound and are always dismayed to see up to 30% of bikes not being locked at all. Some of these bikes even have a chain/lock still wrapped around the handlebars or seat-post (therefore totally unsecure!). Many other bikes are seen to be secured with very cheap/flimsy locks that are easier to pry open. Of course, addressing these measures will not guarantee that a bike wonât be stolen, but theyâll make it considerably more difficult.
Canteen Online Ordering
Did you know that you can place orders for our canteen online through the âMy School Connectâ app? For more details, refer to the flyer below.
Science Mentors
The Science Faculty would like to congratulate the 13 students who have been selected to join the Science Mentors program for 2023.
Science Mentors is an external program that allows a student to be paired with a science or engineering professional. Over the course of eight months, students work with their mentor to design and conduct an experiment, collect, and analyse data, and write a report on their findings.
This will be an amazing opportunity for these students and we anticipate that this will be immensely rewarding for all involved.
Photo (from left to right): Angel T, Emma Z, Naomi K, Aliana H, Hansini G, Sacha A, Abigail K.
Not pictured: Kevin F, Shasta B, Angus R, Narayan D-H, David K, Jade E-R.
Arts Faculty News
Art Kits
New stock of the art kits have arrived and are available for purchase at the Front Office. Unfortunately, we have had to increase the prices to $35 for year 7 and $40 for years 8.9 and 10.
YEAR 7 MEDIA
A busy start for our year 7 students in Media with their stop motion animation projects. Students used various media, including their Chromebooks to create a stop motion animation movie. There were examples using illustration, Lego, dice, play doh which were incredibly creative and imaginative and showed emerging skills in using multimedia tools to tell a story. We learnt about frame rates to make the movie smooth and how to use software to capture the images.
YEAR 8 ART
The Year 8 Visual Art students have been exploring mark making with pen on paper. They were tasked with the challenge to produce a creative drawing of a diamond or triangle that has something interesting or bizarre inside it. It might have something trapped inside or perhaps the shape is broken to allow interaction with the outside space. The results were fantastic, and the students explored ways to present their works online for an audience.
School Calendar
Did you know the schoolâs calendar of events (excursions and the like) are maintained as a Google Calendar which is accessible from the front page of the schoolâs website (see below)? Events are maintained weekly.
ACT Children and Young People Commissioner Rights in ACTion! February 2023 newsletter
The Rights in ACTion newsletter February 2023 edition is full of advice and tips for children and young people to help them grow their confidence and advocate for themselves. There is also an overview of some key human rights issues to watch out for this year, which will be covered in more depth throughout the year.
Children and young people can send contributions in any format they like about anything they want. They can also send messages to the ACT Children and Young People Commissioner on Instagram @actkids_CYPC, call on 02 6205 2222, send an email toactkids@act.gov.auor go to Young Thinker Forum to upload files.
Lyneham High School
61 Goodwin Street
LYNEHAM ACT 2602
Ph: 6142 1176
Email: lynehamhs@ed.act.edu.au
