Montrose Bay High School Newsletter - Term 1 Week 3

Dear Families,

Welcome to our first newsletter for the year! Our newsletter comes out every three weeks and is emailed to our families that are on our email list and is also uploaded to Facebook and available in printed copy at our front office. We also celebrate learning and share news everyday on our Facebook account and reminders on the digital signage on the Brooker Highway.

It has been a very settled start to 2022 considering the unknown of what the media thought might happen when students returned to school with our state borders open. As I type this newsletter today, we have six positive student cases who are all self-isolating at home and one teacher. We have a further five students self-isolating at home as close contacts from members of their own family.

I am pleased to say that in 2022 we are fully staffed for the first time in two years which is a huge relief considering 23% of schools across the state are understaffed at the moment. With the complications that 2022 Covid has brought that’s a great result for our school and most importantly our kids.

In 2022 we have grown in our enrolment from 581 students last year to 625 students this year. This has meant we have had the opportunity to welcome some new teachers to our school.

Aoife Nicklason – 9          Jimmy Dodd - 9

Grace O’Brien - 9               Zach Griggs - 10                 

Hamish Bruce - 10             Abby Stacey - HWB    

Liam Rice – 8 AST              Matt Rice – 7 AST

Warren Hancock – Packages of Learning

We have also grown our team because we have significantly increased the number of specialist subjects that we offer our kids.

Grade 7 Specialists: Foods, Materials Design and Technology, Drama, Digital Technologies, Music and Art, 24 Carrot Garden Program.

Grade 8 Specialists: Materials Design and Technology, Music, Drama, Academic Humanities, Adventure Skills, Robotics, Art, Foods, Photography, STEM

Grade 9/10/11/12 Specialists: Concert Band, Creative Wood, Art Studio, Drama – Production, Sport and Recreation, Environmental Science, Health and Fitness for Girls, Animal Studies, LOTE, Media Production, Photography, Maths Extension, Rock Studies, Creative Materials, Catering, Creative Metal, Asian Pop Culture, Dance, Sports Science, Ancient Civilisations, Film Studies, STEM, Audio Design, Advanced Art, Foods, Strength and Conditioning, Digital Technologies, Creative Writing, Athlete Development Basketball, Outdoor Education, Packages of Learning Construction.

With our growth in numbers, being fully staffed and our new four lessons per day structure which has our lessons being 70 minutes long instead of 3 x 100 minutes. It has allowed us to open more specialist lessons for grade 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 students to choose from and over the week students have 20 lessons per week instead of fifteen.

Grade support Structures

We have tried in 2022 to keep our grade support structures the same as 2021 with our Assistant Principals and Advanced Skills Teachers going up with their students. These people along with your child’s Connect Teacher are your first contact point with our school. You can reach simply by calling our school office.

Grade 7: Frances Cole AP and Matt Rice AST

Grade 8: Ella Hansson AP and Liam Rice AST

Grade 9: Sam Cure AP and Eli Luttmer AST

Grade 10: Johnathon Cook AP and Jamie Kieliszek AST

As principal, I am really excited and looking forward to 2022 for us as a whole school community to build on the work of 2021 and have some clearly communicated priorities for all of our learners, students and teachers.

Our 2022 School improvement priorities focus upon:

1. Effective collaborative teams (CPT’s) in Core and specialist learning areas using a Data Wise approach to school improvement.
2. A wellbeing for learning priority that encompasses embedding our Term 3 and 4 priorities around SWPBS, Attendance, Governance structures, and the creation of our quality teaching and learning framework.
3. All learning areas having clear scope and sequences that encompass the achievement standards, big ideas and links to common assessment tasks connected to our inquiry cycles in literacy and numeracy.

2022 School Improvement Priorities

1. Wellbeing for Learning
2. Numeracy – Number inquiry
3. Literacy – Reading inquiry

As always please keep in touch with our school and follow our journey on Facebook and through our school newsletter and school app product. Our website is also in the process of being updated and should go live in the next week or two.

Duncan Groves

Principal

Year 9 have made a fantastic start to the year as students and staff alike have settled back into the routines of school life. The Year 9 team have welcomed Ms. Aoife Nicklason, Mr. Jimmy Dodd and Mrs. Grace O’Brien to Montrose Bay High School and we look forward to continuing to connect and work with other members of the Year 9 teaching staff - Mr. Ryan Pugh, Mr. Isaac Lillico, Mrs. Sarah Logie, Mr. Sam Ross and Mr. Jonathan Stone. We have a continued focus on students working hard by remaining in class, keeping electronic devices off and away all day and demonstrating the Montrose Mindset in everything we do. We have an increased focus on students’ preparation for school and wearing school uniform. 

In each of our newsletters, we will provide you with information regarding what your child is learning about at school. This week, we have a particular focus in Science and Mathematics. In Science, the year has kicked off with a look into the digestive system. Students have explored how temperature affects the efficiency of enzymes in the laboratory by using milk and vinegar. Over the coming weeks, they will use practical and theoretical lessons to explore the form and function of the circulatory system and the immune system. In Mathematics, the focus for the term is number. Students are using the four operations to solve problems with positive and negative integers. They are using multiple ways of expressing whole and part values. Year 9 students are also practising solving worded problems and applying their knowledge and skills to real world scenarios. 

We look forward to Year 9 students continuing to represent themselves to their best of their ability in all aspects of school life, including the upcoming Athletics Carnival next week.