Newsletter 9 May 2023

Hello families and friends

Welcome back to term 2. We have experienced a settled and focussed start to the term with staff and students quickly back into the business of teaching and learning. It was great to see the students smiling faces re-entering the building and hearing about how they had spent their break and what they were looking forward to in the term ahead.

We have had a few staffing changes this term. We welcome Mathew Pressley into the Languages Learning Area as Alison Simmons takes on the role as the school’s librarian. Jodie Adams joins the leadership team as the executive teacher of Languages. Jodie brings with her a wealth of experience as a school leader in the literacy space and we are excited to have her as part of the team as we continue to focus and work on “Strategic Priority 1: Improve the growth of all student in writing”. We also welcome Emily Tutin as Deputy Principal (Students) as Julie Collins takes some extended leave before her retirement from an impactful and dynamic career across the ACT in Education. Emily is excited to be leading the student support, wellbeing and inclusions teams and has certainly hit the ground running. Our gorgeous cohort of students are working hard to make them feel welcome and at home within our community.

We have experienced difficulties recruiting a Science and Mathematics teacher for this term. We have systems in place to continue to deliver a consistent and quality program to several classes of students until we are successful in securing additional permanent staff. The families of the classes affected have already been contact by via an email from the executive teacher on the specific details related to their child’s class arrangements. We thank families for understanding the difficulties associated with the Australia-wide shortage of teachers, and for their support as we continue to work to deliver high quality education within the resources that we have available.

As the winter months approach, and seasonal illnesses impact, we have put significant time into developing a tiered system of action should we be impacted by relief staff shortages on a day to day and weekly basis. We are hoping to continue as business as usual, however we are prepared with some creative solutions should impacts go beyond our usual response actions. I will keep you updated if we need to enact the strategies devised.

We held our annual Information Night last week for families seeking enrolment into year 7 for 2024. It was a lovely night where we got to meet a group of very excited students and their families. It provided an opportunity for families to start to discover who we are, and what we do within the Lyneham High School community. I thank staff for their time, and for the pride with which they welcomed prospective families into their learning areas. I sincerely thank families for their questions, observations and welcomed feedback.

We held a highly successful Athletics Carnival at the AIS on the last day of term 1. We were blessed with good weather, and I was so pleased that so many students took the opportunity to attend, participate and test their skills and abilities in this area of their education. These events take a significant amount of planning, time and effort to coordinate and organise. Our amazing Health and Physical Education team did an exemplary job of putting on a fantastic event where the fun, school spirit and a ‘do your best’ attitude was clearly evident. We are now really looking forward to the Running Festival to be held at Stromlo Park on Thursday 11 May. We have our fingers and toes crossed for some gorgeous weather and encourage all students to come and be part of the wide range of activities on offer – in their house colours and full school spirit of course.

In week 1, year 10 students were provided the opportunity to exchange their old department issued chrome books for new ones. If your child was away or did not have their old Chromebook at school on the day, they can still access this offer by simply providing their old Chromebook to our ITO located in the library. I strongly encourage all students to take great care of this resource and appropriately utilise it as an educational tool under the guidance of their teachers in their classes.

Please take care and stay warm as the winter cold definitely seems to have started to find us. A reminder to also take in the beautiful surrounds of this season as we busily work to coordinate our lives on a daily basis.

Kind regards,

Jacqui Ford

Toast Day is Back!

Remember the good old days before Covid-19 when we had toast in the canteen every Wednesday?

Well, those days are back and better than ever!
Toast will now be available in the canteen area every Tuesday and Thursday morning from 8:30am till 8:50am with a choice of Vegemite or jam.

Come along and warm your insides with toast as the mornings get even colder.

Toast days are run by the Lyneham High welfare team and generously sponsored by Woolworths Dickson. A huge thank you to Dickson Woolies for their ongoing support.

SEAL Trainings and Semester 2 Applications

It has been a great start to the term and wonderful to see so many SEAL training sessions take place. Please familiarise yourself with the calendar below to ensure you know when your child's training sessions are. At the moment we are achieving 80% attendance rate to the year 7 & 8 Strength & Conditioning sessions held onsite in the school gym (7:55-9:00am). We would like to see this increase to 90-95%.

We will open the application process for current Lyneham High students who are NOT already in SEAL and would like to apply for Semester 2, 2023. Please read over the handbook particularly pages 10-13 to see if you meet the criteria for your sport/s. SEAL applications open Friday 19 May (week 4) and close Friday 26 May (week 5).

Handbook here
Application here (for students to complete using their school logons)
Coaches Reference here

The application will also be advertised on the School Sport Google Classroom Page for the students to have access. Any questions you may have about the program can be directed to the SEAL inbox: LHSSeal@ed.act.edu.au

A reminder that while at training we expect students to adhere to the SEAL Code of Conduct and ensure they are in full SEAL training uniform. Non compliance with the code can lead to SEAL Strikes and incorrect uniform will lead to Uniform Breaches. SEAL training is an opportunity for students to put their best foot forward and use the extra training sessions to push themselves to be the best athletes they can be.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions via email or phone.

Kind Regards,
Heather Mutton
02 6142 1184

Calendar

Year 8 HaSS Medieval Creative Responses

Year 8 students wowed the school with their exhibition last term, displaying their learning on Medieval Europe through a Gallery Walk of their major assessment piece. Students chose a topic of importance from the end of the ancient period to the beginning of the modern period, c.650– 1750 AD (CE). This was when major civilisations around the world came into contact with each other. Social, economic, religious and political beliefs were often challenged and significantly changed. It was the period when the modern world began to take shape. Students were responsible for researching, creating and reflecting on a significant person, event, idea or concept from the Medieval period. This year’s cohort showed exemplary creativity and originality in their responses, which ranged from full-length dresses, to board games, to life-size Viking shields - even a working crossbow replica. Well done, Year 8!

Below are some examples of the high quality work created by our Year 8 students.

Lyneham High Clubs and groups

D&D Club: Mondays after school from 3:10-4:45 in the Drama room - permission notes available from Trevor's room.

Chess Club: Mondays at lunchtime in Trevor's room. No permission note needed.

MTG, Magic The Gathering Club: Fridays afterschool 3:05-4:45 in room 59 - permission notes available from the HASS staffroom

LGBTIQA+ group: Tuesdays at lunchtime in Trevor's room - no permission note needed.

French Club: Mondays lunch at 1:30, in room 68 -no permission note needed.

Christians In Schools Group: Fridays at lunchtime in Trevor's room- no permission note needed.

Board Games Group: Wednesdays at lunchtime in Trevor's room - no permission note needed.

Ability First Group: Thursdays at lunchtime in Trevor's room - no permission note needed. Support and awareness for young people with any kind of disability.

Minecraft Club: Tuesdays at lunchtime in room 30 - no permission note needed.

LHS Term 1 School Sport Report

With the whirlwind in school sport of the last few years, it has been wonderful to see that 2023 School Sport has begun without interruptions and that normal programming can occur.

ACT Secondary Tennis Day
Lyneham High School had 5 students participate in the ACT Secondary Tennis Participation Day. Luka Milenkovic, Zali Ilitch, Jeremy Herron, Daniel & Joshua Rowing competed to the very best of their abilities and represented the school well. Unfortunately the day was cut short due to some inclement weather. The competiton was completed the next day. Massive congratulations to Daniel Rowing and Zali Ilitch on their selections from this event.

Mr Blackburn

Touch Football
The senior girls had an excellent gala day and grew in confidence as the day proceeded. They went the day undefeated before narrowly losing the grand final to Belconnen High School. The girls made it through to the ACT Finals Day in week 10 and were unfortunately knocked out in the early rounds.

The senior boys with only 7 boys had a long day with only one substitution for the day. Despite this, the boys worked extremely well together and managed to make their way to the semi final where they narrowly lost in a drop off. I was extremely proud of their efforts and determination throughout the day, representing the school and themselves well.

Mr Blackburn

Rugby League 9s Boys
The 9/10 boys had a great day out at the Rugby League gala day! They played 4 games across the day, narrowly losing 2, drawing 1 and winning 1. The boys worked hard as a team and were commended by many officials and schools on their behaviour. Congratulations to all the boys who participated. I look forward to our next competition.

Ms Atallah

Futsal
The year 7/8 boys and girls teams had an excellent days play of futsal in Tuggeranong. The boys made it to the semi-finals, losing in controversial circumstances in penalties. The year 7/8 girls however, won the competition! A number of students from both teams were selected to the ACT team to compete at the Australian Futsal Nationals Competition. Well done to all our year 7/8 futsal players on a wonderful showing.

The year 9/10 boys had a really fun and successful day out at the ACT Futsal Championships. They went undefeated through pool play matches, getting them through to the finals. Unfortunately, the boys narrowly fell short in the semi-final, losing to the eventual winners of the competition. The boys demonstrated strong LHS values throughout the course of the day and showed plenty of sportsmanship! Well done boys.

Mr. Kelly

Congratulations to all participants in the first Term of School Sport for 2023. Term 2 is looking extremely busy with a number of sports being conducted over the first few weeks of Term.

Nathan Blackburn
LHS Sports Coordinator

Student Injury - Insurance and Ambulance Transport

The ACT Education Directorate does not provide any insurance cover for injury, disease or illness to students resulting from school activities or school-organised excursions. Claims for compensation are met where there is a legal liability to do so. Liability is not automatic and depends on the circumstances in which any injury, disease or illness was sustained.

As there is no automatic insurance cover for personal injury if your child is injured at school or during a school organised activity/excursion you should therefore consider whether taking out personal insurance cover for your child is warranted.

This insurance might cover contingencies including medical/hospital expenses, ambulance transport outside the ACT, and cancellation of transport/accommodation or loss of/damage to luggage.

The ACT Ambulance Service provides free ambulance transport for students who are injured or suddenly become ill at school or during an approved school organised activity within the ACT.

Liability for the Loss, Damage or Theft of Students’ Personal Property at School

Parents and students are advised that Lyneham High School staff will take all reasonable steps to keep personal property safe. However, Lyneham High School does not provide insurance cover to automatically compensate for the loss, damage or theft of bicycles or any other personal property, nor will they be legally liable for their loss.

Parents and students are advised:

to avoid bringing valuable property to school,
to take steps to insure all valuable items for loss, theft or damage,
to use a good quality chain or bar lock to secure bicycles when left at school, that valuable items are brought to school at the personal risk of the owner and that schools decline any responsibility for the damage, loss or theft of students’ personal property, and
to report any suspicious activity to school staff.t

Translating and Interpreting Service

If you are a parent or carer who needs the use of an interpreter to assist you to communicate with the school, please let us know by phone (6142 1176) or email (lynehamhs@ed.act.edu.au), and we will arrange for the Translating and Interpreting Service to be used.

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

Community Notices

In the Lyneham High School newsletter of 28 March, a list of students was published that had been selected for the 2023 Instrumental Music Program Extension Ensembles. Unfortunately, Hibiki Asai (Junior Concert Band) was left off that list. The IMP apologises for this oversight.

The Smith Family Saver Plus Program
Free Financial Education for Families

The Smith Family (ACT) offers a range of programs to help families and individuals to stay engaged with education. Saver Plus is a program with a specific focus on supporting families and individuals with low incomes to meet their education expenses.

Saver Plus is a matched savings and financial education program that aims to help people on lower incomes to strengthen their financial skills and to develop a savings habit. The program provides financial skills education and motivates participants to save by matching their savings dollar for dollar, up to $500. These savings can be used to pay for education costs such as computers, books, uniforms, extracurricular activities and school excursions.

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