Every school day matters

Going to school every day gives your child every chance to learn and grow, and connect with their mates and teachers. It’s where bright futures start and where they’ll benefit the most.

When your child goes to school every day, it helps them to:

• learn better
• find interests
• make friends
• connect with teachers
• be happier
• have a brighter future.

We have lots in store for this term, including Pride Day, Cross Country, Inter High Cross Country, MND Day JCP Beast Program and School Football.

If you’re struggling to get your child to school, help is available. Please talk to us at school about your situation. We’ll support you, in whatever way we can.

To find out more, visit the Anything can happen website.

A reminder school laptop and levy payments are now due. 

Laptop Program - If you do not want your child to participate in the laptop program this year, please notify the school office to cancel the invoice.

Levy Invoices - Levy payments are now due. If you wish to make a payment plan, please contact the office. Alternatively, please see information regarding Student Assistance Scheme (STAS) below. 

The Student Assistance Scheme (STAS) provides assistance to low income families towards the cost of levies for students enrolled in a school from kindergarten through to year 12.

STAS is provided through school and college resourcing rather than payment direct to families.

Parents who have a current concession card as listed below can apply for dependent students for assistance under the STAS:

• Services Australia Health Care Card
• Services Australia Low Income Health Care Card
• Services Australia Pensioner Concession Card or
• Department of Veteran Affairs Pensioner Concession Card.

Online applications can be made by using this STAS form. If you need access to a hard copy form, please contact your school, email: stas@decyp.tas.gov.au or phone 1800 827 055. 

You will receive a letter confirming the outcome of your application approximately 14 days after it is submitted. 

Please note: if you are already receiving assistance, you don’t need to apply again. If you wish to add a student to an approved STAS application please email your name and the student’s full details to stas@education.tas.gov.au.

For further information please view the Frequently Asked Questions.

Each year, we develop a School Improvement Plan (SIP) based on identified areas for growth within the school. Throughout the school year, staff and students engage in activities to monitor the progress of the SIP to ensure that we are taking the right steps towards reaching our agreed Targets and Priorities.

Recently, our Student Leadership Group and our Year 7 and 8 Class Captains participated in a School Improvement Plan monitoring activity – where they were able to share their observations of how they believe our school is progressing towards whole school improvement priorities.

During the activity, students reviewed student Actions for each of the Priorities documented on our School Improvement Plan using a rating scale, paired with written evidence of their ratings observations. Our student leaders identified Priority 2 – Wellbeing for Learning, as an area we are progressing most in, and they expressed their excitement to see further gains in our other priorities when they review the plan again in Term 3.

The inciteful information students provide during these monitoring activities, play an integral role in ensuring we are on a continuous cycle of improvement, and we aren’t wavering from our plan. We would like to acknowledge and thank our student leaders for taking the time to provide their voice on behalf of the entire student body.

Priority 1 Engaged and confident learners, who transfer and apply literacy skills across all learning areas.

Priority 2 A culture of wellbeing that supports all students to access, participate, and engage in their learning.

Priority 3 The school Instructional Model is visible and intentional in our teaching practice and classrooms – with clear links between Curriculum, assessment, and pedagogy.

Mrs Bianca Munday

Assistant Principal

Students in years 7-12 can now borrow a device or internet hotspot to take home for short periods of time. Students can request to borrow a device or internet hotspot from the library to work on an assignment, research a topic of interest or complete an application online. If you do not want your child to be able to loan a device or internet hotspot please contact the school office on 6464 0600 or parklands.high@decyp.tas.gov.au 

Winter wellness

The cooler months bring colds, the flu, COVID-19 and other illnesses.

Being prepared is the best way to protect yourself and your family.

Prepare

Children are most likely to catch and spread the flu. Make sure your child has received their annual flu vaccine. This will boost their immunity against most likely circulating flu strains. It will also help stop them getting very sick.

Plan

If your child is at higher risk of becoming very sick from the flu, COVID-19 or other respiratory illnesses, make a plan with your healthcare provider for when your child becomes sick.

Protect

Protect others by keeping your child home if they’re unwell, encouraging regular hand washing, and covering coughs and sneezes.

For more information, read the [enclosed/attached] parent and carer factsheet or visit the Department of Health website.

Thanks for doing your part to keep our school community safe, healthy and learning.

COVID RULES AND REQUIREMENTS

A reminder of Public Health close contact requirments and rules of people who test positive for COVID-19. Covid positive cases and close contacts of COVID-19 cases are no longer required to isolcate. However, Public Health continue to recommend COVID positive cases and close contacts do the following:

• Stay home if unwell,
• Wear a mask indoors,
• Avoid high risk settings,
• Avoid large gatherings and indoor crowded spaces,
• Avoid people at risk of severe illness,
• Inform Public Health of their positive result

Requirments for children and young people or other visitors who are close contacts or test positive to COVID-19.

• They should stay home and test if they have, or develop, any symptoms.
• In schools, its is reccomended that children and young people (or their parents or carers) inform their school that they are a COVID positive case so the school can monitor the number of cases within the classroom.
• In other sites, its is recommended that visitors consider resheduling and inform their contact prior to their visit/appointment.
• Students who are close contacts or test positive to COVID-19, may attend school (except Support schools) if: they are well and asytomatic, or they have recovered and their acute symptoms or symptoms have been resolved.
• Children and vistors who have tested positive to COVID or are a close contact should wear a face mask in all indoor settings for 7 days.
• It is recommendeed that secondry students wear masks while primary students are encouraged and supported to.
• Students can ask for a mask at school.
• Students or visitors who are also contacts or test positive to COVID-19, must not attend Support Schools for 7 days from their positive test.

If you have further questions please call the school office on 64 64 0600. 

Vapes can contain harmful chemicals that are found in cleaning products, nail polish remover, weed killer or even bug spray.   

To learn more about vaping, visit https://www.decyp.tas.gov.au/about-us/projects/child-student-wellbeing/vaping/ 

On Friday, June 2^nd, almost 40 students represented Parklands High at the annual Inter High Cross Country event in Penguin. The students were selected based on their results in our Cross Country Carnival. Students were greeted with almost perfect conditions to complete the course.

Miss Payne, Mr Costelloe and Logan were impressed by all students and the way they represented the school.

Some notable performances on the day were:

Year 10 Girls – Hannah Frankcombe 2^nd

Year 8 Boys – Harrison Welsh 4^th

Year 7 Boys – Harry Swain 7^th

Year 8 Girls – Shanae Pratt 8^th

Year 9 Boys - Deegan Emmerton 9^th

On the 2^nd of June, Parklands Celebrated the LGBTQIA+ community with our annual Wear Your Pride Day. There was a variety of rainbow snacks to buy at recess and lunch, including jelly, fairy bread, cupcakes, shortbread biscuits and lollypops. Students also enjoyed free face painting, chalk drawing, and music.  

Student highlights were: 

‘The face painting was so fun! It was cool designing and wearing the colours I liked!’    

‘It was great seeing everyone all dressed up and reading all the positive messages written with the chalk.’ 

‘Can every Friday be Wear Your Pride? Everyone was so nice today and happy.’  

Over the last two weeks, a dedicated crew of Year 7 students have participated in the Royal Life Saving Aquatic Survival Program. It is delivered by Sea-Lyons Aquatics Swim School at the Burnie Aquatic centre. The program is funded by Royal  Life Saving Australia and the Commonwealth Government, benefitting Parklands High students since 2019.

Students have worked on their survival skills and refining a variety of swimming techniques. They have successfully built on their primary school knowledge and progressed their understanding of water safety to ensure they can protect themselves and their friends in a variety of different water environments.

I would like to thank the Commonwealth Government and the Burnie Aquatic Centre’s dedicated instructors for the individualised support they provided our students and our students for their enthusiastic participation in this worthwhile program.

Last Tuesday, June 6^th, Zara Bos, Sage Bartlett, Kiera Harm, Teresa Turner, Isabelle Scott and Asha Chappell attended the Youth Climate Leaders Conference at the cradle coast Utas campus. The aim of the conference was to inform students of the impact that climate change is having on both a global scale and on a local scale. A large part of the day was also dedicated to devising a plan, with the help of industry experts, for actions that they can take to mitigate some of the effects of climate change. The plan that the students devised involved re-vegetating parts of the PHS campus through implementing volunteer help from the local community. Whilst it will take some work to get this plan off the ground and running, the enthusiasm from the students suggested that they were up for the challenge. I am hopeful that with help, we can carry out our plan and create a more sustainable future for Parklands High and the Burnie Region.

Mr  Hickman

Science Teacher

On Tuesday the 13^th of June, seven Parklands High students were given the opportunity to participate at the Variety Kids Sports day. The Variety Kids Sports day is a fun and inclusive event which was held at the Devonport Recreation Centre. This day allowed students to have the opportunity to try out different sports in a supportive environment with specialised coaches. The students were lucky enough to participate in AFL, Para quads, Karate and Softball. Overall, it was great day and was enjoyed by all.

On each Thursday of term 3, 6 students have been attending an equine assisted learning program in Deloraine with Donovan Park Equine Assisted Learning. These students have been expanding their interpersonal, communication and teamwork skills through working with horses. Activities that these students take part in consist of learning to communicate with an animal through verbal and non-verbal communication; the key learnings being the students learn how to read body language of animals and people to assist in developing communication skills and understanding certain body language cues. These activities have been shown to be highly beneficial in developing these skills for these students.

SPEAK UP! Stay ChatTY delivers a free Schools Program for students Grades 9 – 12 that raises mental health awareness and builds student confidence to seek help for themselves and their peers. Last week, the Stay ChatTY team came to our school and delivered the program to the year 9 cohort in our Performing Arts Centre.

The program sessions are designed to strengthen student awareness of mental health and resilience and build up their confidence, to achieve positive mental health for students and their peers.

Our year 9 students completed the ‘GritFit’ program, which is an interactive workshop, and it was delivered by Stay ChatTY team members, Kylea and Calun. The program helped build social supports, inner strengths, coping strategies, informal supports and made students aware of professional supports available to them. The program helped to emphasis the importance of everyday connections and the significance of our interactions of those around us. 

It also helped in reducing the stigma associated with mental illness and gave students a holistic approach to identify and express emotions. A big thank you to Kylea and Calum for coming to our school and providing their interactive activities, which enables students to practise kindness to each other.

On Wednesday 14 June, all Year 10’s attended a presentation by Jonathon who is a former police officer who now works for Youth, Family and Community Connections (YFCC) called iParty. iParty is a program that informs students about risk taking behaviour, how students can minimise risks and dangers from alcohol and drugs, along with strategies for what happens if things do go wrong.

Students got to experience the quantity of alcohol contained in a standard drink, and how easily it is to pour more than a standard drink when mixing drinks. Strategies for presenting drink spiking as well as conversations around how common spiking is were eye-opening to the students. Discussions about the amount of time alcohol remains in young adults’ systems, and the longer-term consequences, such as unintended drink driving charges surprised some students.

Jonathon also covered the risks associated with smoking and vaping, some of the more common drugs that year 10 students are exposed to.

The last section of the session was around the risks that illicit drugs present to young people, as well as strategies for students to stay safe if they or a friend end up in a situation where they may be in an environment where drugs are present.

The Burnie West Rotary Club are proud to partner with Parklands High School, reaching out to donate supermarket gift vouchers for the school Pop Up Pantry and Breakfast Program.  

As a Rotary Club, our mission is to serve our community in any way possible. By organising events and fundraisers, we have been able to help members of the Burnie community with financial assistance and through acts of kindness.  

To assist Parklands with the wonderful programs that have been made available to our school community, the Burnie West Rotary will donate funds from our upcoming Medieval Banquet dinner event on July 1^st. Tickets can be booked by calling Leigh at the Menai Hotel! 

Miss Codi Lincoln 

Music Teacher

Some exciting news! The Department for Education, Children and Young People has recently launched a new online information hub for families with school-aged children in Tasmania. Our new website has information to help you navigate your child's education, from birth all the way up to 18 years of age.

Visit our new webpage at Welcome to your child's Tasmanian education - The Department for Education, Children and Young People Tasmania (decyp.tas.gov.au) (https://www.decyp.tas.gov.au/information-for-families-and-students)

Some of the things you’ll find include

• tips on how to support your child’s learning at home
• information to help you keep your child safe and well
• a guide to explore courses for the career they want
• school holiday and term dates.

We hope this website will be a valuable tool for you as you help your child navigate their education journey. We would love to know what you think of our new information hub for families. You can tell us by completing a quick survey on the webpage.

All students now have a constant supply of popular recreational reading at their fingertips! 

Libraries Tasmania is providing a subscription for schools to Sora, the award-winning digital reading app. Tasmanian Government school students have access to a collection of eBooks, eAudiobooks, digital magazines, comics, graphic novels and easy reads. 

Once Sora is downloaded from an app store or accessed via a web browser, students can borrow immediately from the Education Tasmania Sora collection. Students can also use Sora to explore and borrow from Libraries Tasmania’s extensive digital collection. Sora’s collection includes a range of format types to cater for students from Prep to Year 12.

SORA Sora - Explore (soraapp.com)