Newsletter 3 June 2022

Dear Families and Community Members

Last week saw the first school assembly for the year and it was lovely to get the opportunity to address students of the school in person. The year 10 and year 8 students came together and had the opportunity to hear the Year 8 Concert Band, sing the school song and reflect on and celebrate Reconciliation Week. The year 9 and year 7 cohorts will attend an assembly in week 7.

The assembly celebrated and raised awareness of National Reconciliation Week 2022 with the ’Be Brave. Make Change.’ message. It is an opportunity for all of us to be brave and take actions toward reconciliation, so that we can make change for the benefit of all Australians.

Reconciliation is everybody’s business. We all have a role to play when it comes to reconciliation, and in playing our part, we collectively build relationships and communities that value Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, histories, cultures, and futures.

For those with younger children in our local area, please note that it is enrolment time for 2023. It is certainly helpful to us to have enrolment in as early as possible so we can plan for the coming year. If you have students currently in year 10 it is also time to enrol them in a college. If you need any support with the enrolment process, please get in contact with the school.

I am currently in the process of meeting with all teaching staff to discuss career development and professional goals. It has been an absolute privilege to meet with staff and spend time discussing future wishes and professional growth opportunities. I have learnt what a diverse and talented group of teachers we have here at Lyneham High School. The experience staff bring with them into teaching, and the opportunities they had prior to teaching and/or prior to teaching at Lyneham have been so impressive. The opportunities this brings in terms of enriching curriculum and experiences for students is exciting. It has also reinforced what a strong group of passionate and dedicated educators we have here at Lyneham High. The focus on student learning growth, student learning needs and authentic student learning opportunities is inspiring, as is the collective desire to continue to get better at what we do and improve student learning and experiences into the future.

My thanks goes to the parent and families that took the time to complete the survey we circulated last newsletter on the use of electronic devices at school. At the same time the parent survey was released, we held a number of student focus groups to facilitate the student voice on the use of electronic devices. We have received a wide variety of interesting views and thoughts. Please rest assured we are continuing to incorporate parent, student and staff voice into our review and reflection on current practice as we develop an electronic devices policy for the community. Stay tuned.

As the cold of winter hits in full and the winter ‘lurgies’ start to emerge please remember to stay warm, look after yourselves and keep your children at home if they are unwell.

Take care and stay safe.

Kind regards

Jacqui Ford

Semester 1 Award Ceremony

We would like to advise that the presentation of class awards for semester 1 2022 will be held on Friday 1 July.

The families of all award recipients will be notified closer to the date and more details around the timing of the awards for each year group will be provided at that time.

We look forward to sharing the achievements of your students with you and the school community.

Electronic Device Policy Review

In the last newsletter we asked parents to complete a Google Form providing us with information about electronic devices that students bring to school and possibilities regarding a tighter and consistent policy regarding their use at Lyneham High. Thank you to the 62 parents who responded to this survey.

Results from the survey:

Additional responses:

82% of parents stated their child has a mobile phone so they can make contact if there is a problem at school or travelling to and from school
Almost all parents who wrote a comment were in favour of a consistent approach, limiting use of electronic devices at school.

Staff and students are also being surveyed, with results aligning closely with the parent data. This data will be used to draft a policy for Lyneham High School electronic device use. This will be presented to the school Board and P&C in week 8, ready for distribution to parents in the week 8 newsletter.
Our aim is to communicate with students and families around the policy in the last two weeks of this term, so we are ready to start implementation across the school immediately after the July school break.

Julie Collins
Deputy Principal (Students)

Group photos for LEAP, DARE, SEAL, STAR and Captains

Group photos are now available for purchase from the photographer:

Go to https://portraitgallery.net/order/special.asp
Select Lyneham High School
Enter security code hs75
Make your selection and follow the on-screen prompts.

Changing for HPE

The HPE faculty will be re-opening changerooms as students move into their practical units for the remainder of the term. This means teachers are reimplementing both of our Change of Uniform requirement as well as the Student Responsible Storage of Valuable and Sentimental Items procedures. Teachers will be supporting students to rebuild good habits around these practices leading into full implementation of change of uniform for the start of Semester 2.

The following information is available under ‘Course Outlines’ on the HPE page of Lenni, as well as students’ Google Classroom pages:

‘A change of clothes in the form of a collared white T- Shirt (Lyneham High School PE T-Shirt, SEAL Training shirt or LHS Sport Shirt preferable), navy or black shorts or tracksuit bottoms and lace up shoes.’ This forms part of the report and falls under the student ‘is organised and prepared for learning’.

‘Students are requested to be compliant with SunSmart regulations by bringing a hat, sunglasses and sunscreen. A water bottle is also requested’.

Students should place their valuable and sentimental items in a teachers' valuable box/bag or secure them in a locker, as they should not be left in the changerooms. Teachers will store their valuables boxes in the HPE Staffroom. We advise that it is best to reduce the number of valuable items you bring to school as a precautionary measure.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact your child’s HPE teacher.

Volleyball is back!

Wednesday 25 May saw Lyneham’s girls’ volleyball teams take to the court in their first competition of the year. Accompanied by Ms Mutton, Ms Hoang, our friendly neighbourhood volleyball expert Roger, and myself, we fought bravely against teams from across the ACT. Our senior teams particularly did well, making it all the way through to the playoffs. We had a great day out with our friends and teachers and can’t wait to participate in future competitions!

Many thanks to our dedicated PE staff for organising and training us for the day!

- Miss Hallam-Walsh

On Wednesday 25 May the northside girls volleyball took place at the Lyneham hockey centre. Every year group had a team mixed with year eights (7/8, 8, 9/8, 10/8). It was a very fun experience to have and a good bonding experience. It meant that a bunch of people who had never met or had barely talked got to know each other better. It also meant that some people had a new interest or even just tried something or they would continue something that they loved. It was a great way for schools to interact with each other and get to know either their opponents or even new friends. Playing for the school is also a good way to become a bigger part of it's community and getting to know more teachers and helpers.

- Grace New (Year 8)

The DARE boys fundraiser to support Tonga

Tropical shirts remind us of vacations and days by the beach, but the boys put on their tropical shirts for a more serious occasion. Last term the boys organised a fundraiser to wear tropical shirts and serve a homemade punch to raise money for the island of Tonga, which was affected by a volcanic eruption and tsunami in January of this year. The students and staff purchased punch or donated funds, raising over $800 in a single day’s effort.

The money was used to buy a range of sporting equipment and stationery supplies that could be passed down to the students and children of Tonga. The local community, teachers and students also donated some second-hand sporting equipment.

President of the Tongan Association Canberra and Chair of the Committee for the Tongan Disaster Relief project, Sikahema Aholelei, and a member of the Tongan High Commission visited Lyneham High School to accept the supplies, thankful for the support.

It was a great effort by the boys and they all should be congratulated.

DARE Teachers: Rachel McGann, Nathan Blackburn, Susie Boer and Andre Borgeaud

9/10 DARE Camp - Week 4

We arrived at school early and took a 3 hour bus ride to Batemans Bay. We went stand up paddle boarding on the Tomaga river and finished with some beach fitness activities at Tomakin. We then went straight to the cabins and got settled in. Afterwards we went to Woollies to get some groceries for that night's dinner. After cooking dinner we went straight to sleep. The next day we planned on climbing a mountain, but the rough weather conditions stopped us from doing that. Once we returned to our cabins we played ultimate frisbee and touch football and did lots of beach sprint races. Afterwards we got ready for our dinner at Mollymook Golf Club. We dressed up nicely and went to the club. After the dinner, we went to the nearby maccas and bought some dessert. We returned home from a big day and went straight to sleep. On the last day, we woke up early around six o’clock for the ironman. The ironman consists of lots of exercises on the beach that are spread around with little jogs in between each exercise. Everyone tried their very best in the ironman and everyone completed it, despite the struggle some of us went through. We got ready for the drive home and set off to drive back home. We stopped for some lunch in Batemans Bay where we split off into groups and bought some lunch from the shops nearby. We then drove back home on a Friday for a good weekend rest.

Dare camp gave everyone an opportunity to expand their friend group and go outside their comfort zone, something the teachers emphasised throughout the camp. Everyone got to learn something new about someone else and met people that they normally didn’t talk to. It was a great experience and I'm sure all the boys learnt valuable lessons from this.

By Owen Doherty and Ananth Ravi (year 9)

The Music faculty has been enjoying the feeling of normality, with public performances and musical finally able to go ahead. These performances are great for being able to show the public what we have been working on during class time but also helps students develop strong performance skills that can only be developed through performing.

I would like to congratulate every member of the Concert Bands for their performance at the Faculty Concert on Wednesday. Each band played well, it was an excellent opportunity to get back into performing again and experience performing to a live audience with all the elements that it entails. The Eisteddfod pieces for each band were recorded for each band as a practice for when most bands will officially record in a few weeks’ time. This is a crucial tool that we use in our classes to help students evaluate and improve on their own playing.

The Year 10 Concert Band are playing at the Raiders game this Sunday 5 June 2-4:30pm. Notes for this excursion went out last week with details regarding meetings places and the like. The note and information has also been emailed to parents. Please complete the link within the email to give permission for your child to attend. Students have got an exciting repertoire they have been working towards for this event.

We are so glad to see the students performing and conducting themselves at such a high quality, regardless of how sporadic in person class time has been over the recent semesters. We look forward to sharing more of the student’s work with you at performances scheduled over the coming months.

The annual Lyneham High School Musical is just around the corner. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory will take place on Wednesday June 22 - Friday June 25. Tickets can be purchase here. If you are seeking to watch a particular student, be sure to look at what cast is performing for each night. Opening night will include a scrumptious encounter filled of canopies and mocktails for all ticket holders.

Year 9/10 Outdoor Ed Oceansports Camp

We left early Wednesday week 5 at 6:30am from school to catch a bus to Broulee. When we got there we had a two hour surf session with ‘Surf the Bay’ a mobile surf school ran by local school teachers. Surfing was lots of fun, everyone stood up at least once, we all had a blast even Mr Borgeaud stood up a couple of times! Good job Borgy. After surfing we all got back on the bus and headed to Tomaga River for a session of stand up paddle boarding. We paddled all the way up the river to the river mouth at Mossy Point boat ramp and then back down. Stand up paddle boarding was fun but also very tiring! Most of us fell in at least once. We saw some cool big stingrays.

After the stand up paddle boarding we got back on the bus and headed to Barlings Beach campground. We got bogged in the mud on the way in to our camp spot so we all got out of the bus and carried our stuff from the trailer. After we all set up our tents and organised all of our stuff, some of us went back over to unbog the bus, we had to push while TJ drove. We had it out pretty fast.

Then It was time to cook our dinner, we all got our stuff out and sat in the cooking circle and cooked our food. The cooking circle was fun because we all just talked to each other it was a good way for everyone to be involved.

Later that night we all went into the community camp kitchen/loungeroom and had a rundown of our day and played some games. We also got put into teams (the blue team, Kenya. The pink team, Shakkas. The green team, Creamy Crusaders and the yellow team, the Opparoonie Clan.) We each got bandanas in our team colours and we had to wear them at all times or we would lose points for our team. You earned points for doing good things and winning games or challenges and lost points for things like forgetting to wear shoes on the campsite. After we finished talking in the loungeroom, it was bedtime.

The next morning we were all up at 7:00am to cook breakfast and make lunch. When everyone had eaten brekkie and made a packed lunch we headed off to Mossy Point boat ramp for a day of kayaking with ‘Region X’. We had a whole day of Kayak activities both on the water and on some sand banks. In the morning session we did some relay activities which were very funny and had a lot of capsizing. In the afternoon we learnt a bit about the marine life found in the estuary and also learned how to rescue someone who had capsized.

Our last day started with a second surf where everyone got to practice their skills even more, with lots of people successfully standing up. We finished up our surf session and headed back to pack up camp before getting lunch in Batemans Bay. After our lunch stop we started our journey home, enjoying the trip with music courtesy of DJ Borgeaud. Thanks heaps to Mrs Slegers & Mr Borgeaud for giving up their time to run such an awesome camp for us!

By Sophie Sebbens (Y9)

Do you know someone that would be a suitable addition to our school board or another school board in the ACT?

The Education Directorate is seeking expressions of interest from people to fill the position of “Appointed Member” on ACT public school boards. Expressions of interest will be used to fill vacant positions in schools across the ACT.

All ACT public schools have a school board. The school board is responsible for the school’s strategic direction, its budget, policy implementation and related issues. Generally, school boards consist of:

• the school’s principal;

• three parents and citizens members;

• two staff members;

• two student members (at high schools and colleges);

• one Appointed Member; and

• up to two Board Appointed Members (if any).

The appointed member is usually someone from outside the immediate school community, who is interested in and committed to public education. They bring an independent voice to board decisions. Appointments extend for periods up to two years and an appointed member may also be re-appointed after the conclusion of their term.

People interested in becoming an appointed member on a school board, should complete the expression of interest form and return it to the school boards team in the Education Directorate Email: EDUSchoolBoards@act.gov.au

Expressions of interest for this recruitment round will be open until COB Monday 20 June 2022 (week 9, term 2).

School Calendar

Did you know the school’s calendar of events (excursions and the like) are maintained as a Google Calendar which is accessible from the front page of the school’s website (see below)? Events are maintained weekly.

Google Calendar

School website

Lyneham High School
61 Goodwin Street
LYNEHAM ACT 2602
Ph: 6142 1176
Email: lynehamhs@ed.act.edu.au