walchacentralschool A JOURNEY OF LEARNING FROM K TO 12

HAPPY AND SAFE STUDENTS 11 April 2018NEWS AND VIEWS OF YOUR LOCAL CENTRAL SCHOOL

WALCHA CENTRAL SCHOOL 154E North Street Ph: 02 67772777 WALCHA NSW 2354 Fax: 02 67771009 PRINCIPAL: Mr Mark Hall P&C School Pesident: Mr Cameron Hayton Email: walcha-c.school@det.nsw.edu.au Website: http://www.walcha-c.school.nsw.edu.au

CANTEEN ROSTER - Week 1, Term 2, 2018

30/04/18 1/5/18 2/5/18

Kloe Levingston

3/5/18

Chloe Swanton

4/5/18

Larissa Wall

K-12 NEWSLETTER

On 28 March, students from Walcha Central, as well as Woolbrook, Niangala, Nowendoc and Yarrowitch public schools competed in the annual Cross Country running event.

Held in glorious conditions, students competed in laps around the oval through to 2km, 3km and 4km events depending on the age of the competitor. Many

students relished this opportunity and took to the track with enthusiasm, while others simply took the opportunity to enjoy a solid walk in the sunshine offered.

All competitors from all schools are to be congratulated for the excellent behaviour and sportsmanship they displayed. You were a credit to your school.

The sports staff of Walcha Central would like to thank all community members who came to support their children, staff who helped with the running of the event, the PASS students from Years 9 and 10 for their wonderful assistance in the K-6 section of the carnival as well as the Walcha Central School P&C for their scrumptious scones, morning tea and coffee. Special thanks also goes to Mr Baumer for the track preparation, Mrs Baumer for her help in recording and Miss Lawrence and Mrs Brown for their organisation of the event.

Students who have reached zone and regional levels will be informed by their school of these dates. Overall combined house points: Apsley - 183, Derby - 165, Fitzroy -148 , Oxley – 127.

Walcha Central School

Ben Ussher

On Friday 2 March, 7 senior members of the WCS Livestock Team travelled to Armidale to represent our school at the 2018 Armidale Agricultural Show.

It was an early start for our team loading the show steers at 5am in the dark to arrive in Armidale by 6:30am. Our team participated in a number of events including the Sydney Royal paraders qualifier, schools herdsman competition, led steer class and local paraders.

Our team had great success bringing home ribbons in all events. Lilly Chenoweth led our steer Metro to runner up champion heavy weight steer. The Sydney Royal paraders qualifier saw Abbey Mackaway selected as a qualifier against thirty other students in our region. Jessica Wake and Hannah Dunn were selected as reserves.

The team worked tirelessly all day to ensure our steers and stall area were kept impeccably presented all day for the schools herdsman competition. This effort, combined with the points from our success in the ring, resulted in Walcha Central School taking out second place in the schools herdsman competition against some tough competition.

Samantha Reeves Agriculture Teacher

School Plan 2018-2020

With the end of Term 1 only a week away I am pleased to report that our school has had a very productive term of providing enriching learning opportunities for all students. Our new school plan is receiving the final changes and I would like to thank the whole school community for their

reflection, ideas and support in planning for the next three years. Not everything we do as a school appears in our school plan – there is simply too much, however, we believe we have targeted the ‘big rocks’ we would like to shift as part of our school improvement model. It is no surprise that this plan aims to improve student learning and wellbeing as staff further develop teaching and learning strategies to empower student growth, sense of belonging and success in learning.

As a school, we have set ourselves ambitious targets and we believe we have the great team to get the job done. The final version of the 2018-2020 school plan will be published early in Term 2.

‘HIGH GAIN’ Performance 2017 - Walcha Central

School

Included in this newsletter is a copy of a letter of congratulations to our school from Murat Dizdar, Deputy Secretary School Operations and Performance. In this letter, he states:

“Your focus on data analysis, explicit teaching practices and tailored support has positioned your school as one of the most substantially improved schools in the state in 2017”.

The hard work of our dedicated teaching and support staff along with the efforts of our students and the whole school community is to be congratulated and I thank everyone for their support.

Project Empowerment

As you may be aware, our school has secured Digital Literacy and Digital Technology funding as a leading school for developing learning programs to be distributed across NSW and Australia. Recently our school hosted a ‘Girl Tradies’ program and yesterday further great news:

“We are delighted to inform you that Walcha Central School was successful in its bid for Country to Canberra to run a Project Empower workshop. We received hundreds of expressions of interest (EOIs) from across Australia, making this even more special. Congratulations! We are looking forward to coming to visit and running this uplifting, free, and educational workshop for the incredible young women in your region.”

Congratulations to Bonnie Brown who pursued this wonderful opportunity for our girls. Once dates are finalised, I hope to open this up to any interested Walcha women to attend.

Finally, can I wish you all a very safe and happy holiday. I am off on a study tour to Canada where I will visit schools with an eye on how to apply curriculum design to support student learning opportunities.

Mark Hall Principal

K-12 NEWSLETTER 11 April 2018

For photos, notes, information and more, visit our school website http://www.walcha-c.schools.nsw.edu.au

K-12 NEWSLETTER 11 April 2018

For photos, notes, information and more, visit our school website http://www.walcha-c.schools.nsw.edu.au

On Friday 23 March, Ali Kealey, Charlotte Overton, Harriet Crawford and Ali Nivison participated in the Kids Lit Quiz.

The Kids Lit Quiz is a quiz for children aged 10-14 and involves children's literature knowledge. Many schools across the New

England participate and only 1 team makes it to the national finals in Sydney.

When we got to Armidale City Public School we were asked to pick 1 of 10 rounds in which we would score double points. Each round had 10 questions about a certain topic. Some topics were superheros, war, hats, mythology, creatures, book knowledge, animals and birthdays. We selected book knowledge and received double points for that. We were placed 3rd for a while but ended up with 10th place out of 23 teams.

We really enjoyed the day and are glad we went and would definitely take the opportunity to go again.

Charlotte Overton, Ali Kealey, Harriet Crawford & Ali Nivison

The Aboriginal Culture

Centre and Keeping

Place (ACCKP) is once

again running a Holiday

Program for primary

school children from

Monday 16 April to

Friday 20 April. The program will run from

9.00am to 12 noon. This program is open to all

children of primary school age.

The theme for the April Holiday Program is

“Recycled Art”. Children will have the

opportunity to learn and carry out activities

surrounding this theme.

The cost for the morning tea, supervision,

materials and activities will be covered by the

ACCKP. This holiday program is being funded

by the Department of Education. Please

complete a registration form and drop it off

at the ACCKP by 9 April 2018 to ensure your

child/children’s place is confirmed.

OPPORTUNITY CLASS PLACEMENT FOR 2019Opportunity classes cater for highly academically gifted

students who may otherwise be without sufficient classmates

at their own academic and social level.

Applications for opportunity class placement are considered

on the combined results of the Opportunity Class Placement

Test and school assessments.

The opportunity class placement test will be held for

interested students on Wednesday 1 August 2018.

For further information regarding opportunity class entry

please phone Mrs Brenda Watkins at the school on

6777 2777.

Child Absent From School? Please remember to phone the school 6777 2777 before 10 am to let us know if your child will be absent.

K-12 NEWSLETTER 11 April 2018

SALT Bush Tour On Wednesday the 14 March our school was lucky enough to have the 2018 ‘SALT’ Bush Tour come to our school. Twenty two of our girls from Years 7–12 enjoyed a day learning what it is like to be a tradeswoman. SALT (Supporting and Linking Tradeswomen) is a support network for tradeswomen, apprentices and women/girls considering a career in a trade.

The event is run by experienced tradeswomen from a range of industries sharing their real life experiences. The ladies explained how they got into their respective trades and what it is they enjoy about their work.

All the girls got to build and take home a personalised caddy that could be used for a variety of purposes. More importantly they had to use a number of techniques to build the project and were introduced to the types of tools used in various trades including carpentry and painting and decorating.

Although the day is designed to give girls an insight into considering a trade career the ladies also want to broaden what young women think of as a career. Even if the girls are not interested in pursuing a trade hopefully they learn that they should be engineering a career path, that anything is possible and not to give up on their dreams.

If the girls’ enthusiasm and excitement is any indication then the day was a huge success and I believe this was one of the best workshops for female students that I have been a part of. It was a wonderful experience and everybody took something away from the day.

Tony Bozza

For photos, notes, information and more, visit our school website http://www.walcha-c.schools.nsw.edu.au

On Thursday 29 April K-6 students

participated in the Easter Hat Parade.

Students paraded their amazing hats

and participated in some fun dances.

They loved the involvement from

parents, grandparents and Riverview

residents. Kristy Lawrence

CALENDAR See website for more details

13/04/2018 PBL celebration and BBQ

13/04/2018 Last day of Term 1

1/05/2018 First day of Term 2

2/05/2018 School banking @ 8:30am

7/05/2018 School photos

8/05/2018 K-8 Author visit

9/05/2018 ICAS Digital Technology test

9/05/2018 U16s Touch Football @ Inverell

11/05/2018 PSSA Touch Football trials

14/05/2018 - 18/05/2018

Wingham Beef Week

15/05/2018 - 17/05/2018

NAPLAN

16/05/2018 Regional Careers Expo

25/05/2018 PSSA Cross Country @ UNE Armidale

For photos, notes, information and more, visit our school website http://www.walcha-c.schools.nsw.edu.au

Science and Engineering Challenge On Tuesday 6 March, a large group of Stage 3 students from Walcha Central School attended the UNE Science and Engineering Challenge.

Over 250 students from surrounding schools attended this exciting hands-on competition. Students were challenged to use design thinking and critical - creative thinking skills to solve real life problems such as designing a movable hand, planning networks to provide electricity to a city, designing a catapult, creating a structure that withstands an earthquake, designing a bridge that supports heavy weights, cracking codes using light waves and planning efficient communication networks between communities.

The WCS students represented their school well throughout the day and were successful in achieving high scores in several challenges.

Brenda Watkins

K-12 NEWSLETTER 11 April 2018

If you have allowed your primary school student or young teen a Snapchat account, here’s something you need to be aware of.

One of the search functions of Snapchat is providing too much information about their users. If the location services for the app are turned on a very concerning security problem is revealed.

Snapchat has a very clever user retention strategy behind it. They lured in a whole generation based on the fact that their snaps would disappear after a short amount of time, so it became a second language for teenagers. A large percentage of kids say they use Snapchat because their parents don’t. Also, if you turn off location services for snapchat you start to disable some of the photo filters so kids won’t turn off location services for Snapchat.

And there lies a BIG personal privacy and security issue that you and your children are not aware of and should be.

Enter a school name or a suburb into the search feature on Snapchat and the app will deliver to you all of posts being made in proximity to the location. It will also suggest other schools (with other Snapchat account holders). Often this list will include the names of account holder, and provides the individual searching locations with the option to add the account holder to their contacts.

This raises two issues.

1. It provides evidence that numbers of students are using snapchat in and around school – often in defianceof the schools’ mobile devices usage policy.

2. Complete strangers are able to target your child’s Snapchat profile, using the school they attend as a wayto find them. This issue is particularly disturbing.

Consider this possible scenario if you are not concerned by this information.

A predator doesn’t know the names or other regular locations of children attending any of the schools in the area that they may be, but simply by searching the school name in the Snapchat search feature, they are able to find regular users of Snapchat at these schools that are close to them.

Courtesy of Snapchat they are now able to add the accounts of any child they find, and may now happily follow their snaps, record or screen shot them……and watch for other locations that appear regularly in a child’s Snapchat feed, such as their home or regular place for sporting activity. They can also interact with the child through their account, and become “friends” with them on any other social media account.

What can you do to minimize risk?

• Respect the age restrictions of 13+

• Build trust with your child by explaining why you insist the account be set to private.

• Ensure that Ghost Mode is enabled on the Snap Map, so account holder information is hidden.

• Turn the location services for the app off on the device.

• Regularly review with your child who interacts with their account.

• Ask your child to respect the schools mobile phone policy.

If you have any questions please get in touch: wecanhelp@safeonsocial.com

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