Tumut High School Newsletter

We hope you have found some normality at home under the current circumstances.

The commencement of twice weekly "Principal's Post" has been a good way to provide updated information with our families during COVID-19.

We acknowledge not only has the last few weeks been a huge change for our students and their families, but for our teachers too and all the staff are missing the students that make our school such a great place to learn.

The THS Staff video has been a huge hit and the staff had loads of fun making it.

If you need to put a smile on your face click the link provided below to see THS Staff perform "Don't worry be happy"

Happy and safe holidays to all of you.

By Don Dixon, Principal

Introducing the NSW Department of Education School Updates app. ??

Opt-in to receive notifications when public schools have temporarily ceased operations due to adverse weather, bushfires or other emergencies.

Find out more and download the app now: https://bit.ly/2PD2jd3

*Posted by the NSW Department of Education*

It is quite a common concern when we speak with parents about the safety of our students using the internet and accessing online content. Please click on link below for an open letter to parents and carers in this regard; 

The Office of the ESafety Commissioner has now put together a number of Webinars to support parents and carers in safe technology use for kids and adolescents - some of which are running over the holiday break. 

Here is the direct link to the webpage for the parent webinars; 

All students enrolled in a NSW public school are eligible to download Microsoft Office Professional Plus (including Word, PowerPoint, Excel) and Adobe Creative Cloud (including Photoshop and Acrobat for reading and creating PDFs) software from this website.

This is FREE so take advantage of the offer. Click on link provided below;

Each student in the family can download the programs for their own individual devices.

All our students received an email via the English faculty to complete a brief survey on learning from home at Tumut High School. 

Thank you to those students who have already completed this survey - we have over 140 responses so far. Please encourage your son or daughter to complete this survey as soon as possible, if they have not already done so. 

The information collated from the survey will help with the organisation for continuity of learning in Term 2.

Now is a great time to be participating in the 2020 Premiers Reading Challenge. 

Year 7 students had an explanation of the challenge earlier in the year during ALP along with an explanation of the importance of reading.

Year 8 and 9 students are encouraged to participate in the challenge.

The emphasis is on reading for pleasure or reading more than previously.​

For more details visit https://online.det.nsw.edu.au/prc/home.html

Our student Mentors Drew Beavan, Tatiania Douglas, Lauren Hawken and Jordan Neill have brainstormed a great way to keep interacting with our students whilst at home.

Our Mentors have created a Tiktok account which is a social networking service used to create short dance, comedy and talent videos. Our Mentors will be in charge of the account and it will be supervised by staff on our Learning and Wellbeing Team.

Our Mentors will set healthy, quick and fun challenges for the students to participate in. This is a great way for our Mentors to stay engaged with our students.

This account will be a private account for Tumut High School students only. 

The rules are:- View the challenge and accept the challenge- Make sure your attire and setting is appropriate and you receive consent from any people in your challenge videos and note inappropriate videos WILL NOT be accepted.

Find them @thementors. We cant wait for your responses!

To ensure your app is up to date please visit 

https://skoolbaghelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360015536632-How-to-update-to-the-new-SkoolBag-App 

To ensure you are receiving notices specific to your child's school year please update your year group. To do this open up Skoolbag App and click on our school logo icon at top of the page. Then click on GROUPS. Click on Add/remove groups to update your year groups. 

Year 12 Chemistry students visited CSU earlier in the term for the HSC Chemistry Study Day.

Students spent the day undertaking practical experiments using equipment they normally wouldn't have access to at school (such as a spectrophotometer).

Students also got to perform 'chemistry magic' with experiments including giant elephant tooth paste and screaming jelly-babies.

Was a great day and the students really enjoyed the experience.

By Mrs Friend

Our Careers Adviser, Mrs Stroud would like to share the following information for parents;

myfuture is Australia’s National Career Information Service. It’s underpinned by career theory and research and uses Australian Government data sources. It’s managed by Education Services Australia, a national not for-profit company owned by state, territory and Australian Government education ministers.

Please read document below for more details on how to develop a personalised career profile and learn about different occupations.

This is a great resource for our parents and students in Years 11 and 12.

For loads more information on careers visit Tumut High School Careers Facebook page;

Our students Jacob, Zac and Angel are very proud of their beautiful artwork.

The students worked collaboratively during art class during the term with Ms Munro.

Looks amazing.

Term 1 Year 7 MTVA - Visual Arts class was taught by Mrs Saunders and Ms Munro.

The photos below are of student's free form colourful clay animals and the textured ceramic houses and clay spheres were inspired by Australian artists Thancoupie. 

Year 7 had a ball creating all of these wonderful pieces.

Term 1 Year 8 MTVA - Visual Arts class was taught by Mrs Saunders and Mrs Hayes.

The photos below are of student's art where they created a still life arrangement of their choice and then created a charcoal study and an acrylic painting. They practised skills in creating form through value and also blending and gradients.

Year 8 also enjoyed making their lino prints with a great variety of imagery and line displayed. 

Dear Editor, 

There is a ‘before the virus’ and ‘after the virus’, and a sense of waiting in the meantime. I like to think of it as the Big Wait that’s filled with ‘in the meantimes’. During the Big Wait we realise that technology simply doesn’t cut it. We no longer attend school, we no longer see our friends, our teachers, and we don’t stop for chats, hugs and pats on the back. Instead, in the meantime, we school at home, communicate online and socialise online.

In the meantime, I also realise that walking down corridors and hanging out with other bods at school is part of the ‘before the virus’, and here, in the meantime, I miss it badly. 

Yours sincerely

 Harley-Rose (Year 12)

Dear Editor, 

Lately, because of the COVID-19 crisis, places have been closing down. This includes the school I attend, Tumut High. 

Recently, all our learning has been switched to Google Classroom, and this is a mind boggling adjustment for everyone! Instead of going to school and learning from our teachers, we are tuning in at home and talking to them via the internet. Doing lessons at home is a new experience, but I miss school a lot. When we are at home, we still learn the same subjects but it is all very different in that it is harder learning from home where we don’t have a teacher nearby to help us.

We just don’t have access to the usual resources and help we normally would at school. Even though we can all work at our own pace, without peers to distract us, I know I speak for all students when I say I miss my friends! I hope this ends soon.

 Yours sincerely, 

Allie (Year 8)

Dear Editor, 

My name is Lucy and right now I’m in isolation. I’m doing schoolwork from home. I am liking working from home because I get to work in my own room and I get more free time. I do miss my friends and teachers though. At home my brother, my mum and I have been doing a workout every day and some days we do an Easter egg hunt with mini Easter eggs. Over the time that I have been isolated I have done some cooking such as brownies, banana bread, biscuits and cakes. I have also been reading every night. The hardest part about having to stay at home is not being able to go into town and hang out with my friends. 

Yours sincerely, 

Lucy (Year 7)