9 November 2017

Newsletter Articles

Key Dates

Friday 10 November – School Show.
Monday 13 November – Railton Pool hire season begins.
Tuesday 14 November – Thursday 16 November – Year 10 Exams.
Wednesday 15 November – Don College Enrolments.
Thursday 16 November – Saturday 18 November – Cattle Handlers
(Scottsdale Show).
Friday 17 November – Athletics Carnival.
Tuesday 21 November – iParty – Year 10.
Tuesday 21 November – SRC 2018 Interviews.
Wednesday 22 November – Assemblies (Years 7 – 12: 12pm, Prep – Year 6: 1.30pm).
Thursday 23 November – Kinder Athletics Carnival (11.00am Sheffield Campus).
Friday 24 November – Saturday 25 November – Cattle Handlers (Deloraine Show).
Friday 1 December – Devonport Show Day.
Monday 4 December: North West High Schools Sports Association Inter High Athletics.
Tuesday 5 December – Orientation Day.
Thursday 7 December – Arts Concert Evening (7pm).
Friday 8 December – Saturday 9 December – Cattle Handlers (Circular Head Show).
Friday 8 December – Year 10 First Aid Training.
Tuesday 12 December – Presentation Day Awards Assembly (11.30am).
Wednesday 13 December – Cattle Handlers Dinner.
Thursday 14 December – Year 10 Celebration Dinner.
Thursday 14 December – Picnic K-6.
Friday 15 December – Last day Year 11/12.
Tuesday 19 December – Railton End of Year Assembly (2pm).
Wednesday 20 December – Picnic: The Bluff, Devonport Years 7 – 10.
Wednesday 20 December – Christmas Assembly P – 6.
Thursday 21 December – Year 10 Assembly.
Thursday 21 December – Last day of term (students).

Principal’s Report

Dear Parents,

School Health Nurse

Recently I was advised that Barbie Dyer has been appointed as our School Health Nurse, commencing the role in mid-December this year. Barbie will be in the school 5 days a fortnight.

Some of the services the School Health Nurse provides includes:

• Hearing and vision screening
• Developmental checks
• Local, State and National health promotion initiatives
• Health education aligned with the Australian Curriculum
• Drop in clinics for students and families before school, after school and during recess
• Information and assistance in relation to issues including body esteem, resilience, mental wellbeing, healthy relationships, growth and development, nutrition, drugs and alcohol, sexual health and positive parenting for teenagers with babies
• Liaison for external health-related services.

School Show

This afternoon the first events of the 2017 Junior Cattle Handlers Show of Tasmania commenced up at the School Farm. This is a terrific event for our school and is yet another opportunity for our students to shine and achieve a sense of pride in their performance. This year we have students participating from 4 schools across the state, with again a great deal of interest in the cattle handling events, and also the popular Hoof and Hook competition. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the show committee and all of the many volunteers that contribute to the success of this event. Results from the show will be featured in our next newsletter.

Kindness Mural Project

Last term the Sheffield School was fortunate to receive $550 from The Mental Health Council of Tasmania to fund our STRONGER TOGETHER venture, the brainchild of Mrs Maddick and Miss Eastburn. The proposal had two parts: to create a large mural, a kindness tree, where all staff and students could leave a copy of their handprint, in support of the stronger together theme and to gift our school community two little felt hearts.

Miss Eastburn and her talented artists designed and painted the mural tree. Late last term all students were invited to leave their handprints on the mural. Many students, staff and community members also contributed to the little felt hearts. All of the hearts are individually stitched and each is unique, just like people. Together the team of helpers created over 1000 hearts. Two hearts and a little card with important phone numbers were packed up ready to distribute to all of the students in our school. The idea is that you keep one, to remind you that you are loved and unique, and you give the other one away, as an act of kindness.

This has been a terrific project which has impacted positively on our school community. Thank you and well done to the many people who contributed to the success of this project, it is a great reminder that a little kindness goes a long way and we are STRONGER TOGETHER.

Black Dog Ride

Last Thursday morning we welcomed members of the Tasmanian Black Dog Ride to our school. The aim of the Black Dog Ride (BDR) across the country is promoting awareness of mental health, depression and suicide prevention. The feedback from Betty Parssey (Co-ordinator of the Tasmanian BDR) on their visit to the Sheffield School was extremely positive, the participants were particularly impressed with our students and the fabulous catering crew and the breakfast they provided! Betty presented the school with a BDR mascot “Winston” in recognition of our support to the BDR

Staffing

At the end of this week we farewell Mrs Sullivan who will commence maternity leave. We wish Mrs Sullivan and her family well during this exciting period and look forward to hearing of the new arrival. Mrs Hinrichsen will be teaching the Prep class fulltime for the next few weeks, with Miss Tayla Smith teaching the Prep class on a Wednesday from 29 November. Ms Carmody will be conducting Launching into Learning sessions for the remainder of the year.

Education Act Update

Attendance

As indicated in previous newsletters, there is a new, limited set of circumstances where a student can be excused from daily attendance. Any circumstance for student absence that is not listed below, will be recorded as an ‘unauthorised absence’.

Previously, a student could be excused from attendance by the Principal for any ‘reasonable cause’, however, principals are no longer legally able to do this.

The circumstances for which a student absence can be authorised include:

• sickness/incapacity
• medical, legal or related appointments
• natural disaster or extreme weather preventing the student from safely attending their enrolled school
• terminal illness of an immediate family member
• bereavement of a person the student had a close, significant or family relationship with
• having witnessed or been subjected to family violence
• being a participant or official at a recognised National or International sporting, academic or cultural event
• an application for home education being received by the Education Registrar and provisional registration being granted.
• Parents/Guardians can object to students participating in school activities, with written notice i.e. religious or cultural events. If the student is away for the whole day, and no other supervision is possible to enable the student still to attend, this absence can also be ‘authorised’.

Following the guidelines provided in the new Education Act, our school has reviewed our processes and procedures for explaining student absences. In the first instance however, we encourage all parents/ guardians to continue to notify the school of student absences through any one of a number of methods:

• email Sheffield@education.tas.gov.au
• telephone - 6491 8222
• the Schoolzine app
• a note to the school/child’s teacher
• or response to school SMS.

Further detail regarding our follow up processes for student absence can be found in the chart below, these processes will be implemented from the commencement of 2018.

Further information regarding the changes to attendance may be found in the attached document.

Please contact us at the school if you have any questions with regard to the new procedures.

Sheffield School Association Constitution

At a committee meeting of the School Association last Tuesday, the new Sheffield School Association Constitution was tabled and subsequently approved. Based on the feedback from Legal Services, the Committee has adopted the model constitution, produced by the Department. In modifying the model document to suit our school context, we were able to change the total number of committee members to the maximum number allowed, of 15 members. This will enable all sectors of our school, fair and adequate representation.

For students, parents/families, the new constitution represents two key changes:

All members of the school community (parents, students, and staff) are automatically taken to be members of the School Association.

What does this mean?

For our school community, being a member of the School Association, simply means that you are able to attend and observe annual general meetings (held each March) and special general meetings if you wish to; members can also request special general meetings of the school community be held. Parents and students who do not wish to be a member of the school association, must advise of this, in writing to the School Association Committee.

Student members of the committee are now termed student representatives.

Why the change?

As students attending committee meetings are not 18 years of age, they are not legally able to vote on issues raised and discussed at committee meetings.

Our school will continue to appoint student representatives to attend committee meetings in the interests of providing student input, insight and suggestions to the Committee.

The Constitution has now been sent back to Legal Services and the Minister for Education for approval before we formally adopt the new constitution in 2018. Our current constitution will continue to apply until the proposed constitution is approved by the Minister.

Kinder/LiL Water Orientation Program

Last Thursday, our Kinder and LiL students commenced a water orientation program at the Railton campus. It is terrific to be able to utilise our Railton Campus Pool to help to develop water awareness and beginner swimmer skills, particularly leading into the summer period. The LiL sessions were well supported by families. Prep to year 2 students will commence their program in week 7, with the year 3s and 4s to commence theirs at the Latrobe Pool in weeks 7 and 8.

RON DALY
PRINCIPAL

2018 Classes

Staff will soon begin the process for creating class groups for 2018. A number of considerations are taken into account to create classes and a number of hours are dedicated to ensuring classes are equitable. Once classes have been created teachers are allocated a class, therefore requests for individual teachers cannot be made.

Parents are invited to discuss any educational concerns or important information they may have for their child with the senior teacher in charge of their child’s current area of the school. Whilst all requests will be considered there is no guarantee that it will be possible to grant them.

Please note this is the final week for discussions re next year classes, after that time staff will be allocating students into their classes.

Arts Concert Evening

Assemblies – Awards

P-6 Class Awards – 1 November 2017

7-10 Class Awards – 1 November 2017

Athletics Carnival

The Sheffield School’s 2017 Athletics carnival will be held on Friday 17 November. The carnival will include both the secondary school and primary school events. Athletics and field events will be held over a number of venues and parents and friends are warmly invited to come along and support students in their endeavours. Secondary events will be held on the northern oval and at the recreation ground, whilst all primary events will be held on the main school oval.

Starting time is 9:30 am for both carnivals.

Cooking with Kids

Harry Potter Movie Night

Launching into Learning (LiL)

Learning in Families Together (Lift)

Polish

Sheffield School Grade 9 and 10 students were so very fortunate to take part in the Beacon Foundation’s Polish Program on 25, 26 and 27 October. This program was made available with generous sponsorship by the Sheffield Community Bank. Each group of students attended a full day workshop which helped students in their preparation for the world of work. They were taught about personal branding and were given time to think about what they would like to define ‘their brand’. They learnt important interview techniques, about recruitment processes and a range of 21st century skills. All of their new skills were put to the test over the lunch break when they were joined by guests from the local business community for a catered lunch.

Sheffield School would like to impart their sincere thanks to The Community Bank for funding such a high impact program. Also, thank you to The Beacon Foundation for making the course so practical and inspiring. We are also very grateful for the wonderful business mentors who volunteered their time to impart their knowledge to the students. Every participant gained something from the day and expressed that they felt more motivated and inspired to achieve positive outcomes when they transition from Sheffield School to the next chapter in their lives.

Railton Kindergarten 2018

We will be conducting two orientation session at the Railton Campus, for those students who will be attending Kindergarten at Railton in 2018. These will be held in the Kindergarten/Prep room between 12.00-12.30pm on Thursday, 30 November and Thursday, 7 December. New students will have the opportunity to meet the current Kindergarten students and familiarise themselves with the environment. On Thursday, 7 December parents will be invited to attend an Information Session about the start of Kindergarten. This will be held during LiL (between 11.30-12.00) and followed by the orientation session in the Kindergarten room. We look forward to seeing people at these sessions!

Railton Swimming Pool

(Monday 13 November 2017 – Sunday 1 April 2018)

Resilience Roadshow Excursion – Don College

On Thursday 26 October Year 8 students accompanied by Mrs Wilden, Miss Eastburn and Mrs Maddick attended the Resilience Roadshow at Don College with 600 plus students from surrounding schools. The day began with a welcome by students, staff and dignitaries who shared their own experiences with mental health issues. We were also encouraged to join in with a wonderful Welcome to Country by Dave Gough.

The Don College Resilience Roadshow was designed to promote the well-being and a peaceful state of mind for students. Local health care providers were in attendance providing stalls promoting mental health awareness, drug and alcohol education and general positive lifestyle choices. Students were able to participate in many different activities, all designed to promote healthy lifestyles.

When we returned to school students were asked to provide feedback about the day, including something positive, something that could be improved and something new they had learned. These feedback slips will be passed on to the organisers to assist them with their reflection. Our student’s behaviour during the day was wonderful and very respectful and the insights they provided at the end of the day were great. Well done, Year 8.

Positives from the day included: the zorb balls and sumo wrestling; meeting kids from other schools; seeing old friends and making new; fun and lots of helpful advice and information from the stalls.

Areas to improve included: congestion in the corridors with so many people moving around; needed more time; was hard to hear some of the speakers and would have liked chairs to sit on in the gym.

Learnings from the day included: when you feel down, talk to someone; where to go to for help; that we all have a voice and should ‘speak up; how mental health issues affect people; 1 in 10 people are bullied; what Don College looks like and 1 in 4 people have mental illness.

Community Notices

Bus Route 95 – Merseylink

(Sheffield/Railton to Latrobe and Devonport)

Carols By Candelight – Kentish

Christmas Art Competion

Defence Force Recruiting

It has been a busy couple of months for Defence Force Recruiting – Hobart with hundreds of applicants interviewing for their dream jobs in the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

In September we ran the Australian Defence Force Careers Expo that had well over 3500 attendees and featured many different pieces of equipment and ADF staff members. It was truly a pleasure to host so many different schools and all the students that attended were excellent.

YOU SESSIONS

YOU Sessions are filling up for the rest of the year, if your child is keen to get their application started before the end of the year we highly encourage them to call 13 19 01 and book in.

INFORMATION SESSIONS

ACCELERATED TRAINING OPTION – ARMY RESERVE

The Accelerated Training Option (ATO) is a program within the Army Reserve that commences in January 2018. The ATO offers three months of continuous employment and is aimed to get an Army Reserve recruit fully trained within the timeframe. Perfect for year 12 graduates!

Available to Army Reserve Infantry Soldiers this is a great opportunity. To learn more please contact their Defence Force Recruiting Careers Counsellors.

Learn to Manage Difficult Behaviour in children 2-12 years old

Mersey Community Care

RSPCA Trivia Night

Sheffield Cricket

Splash

TS Mersey Navy Cadets Fundraiser