Cootamundra High School Newsletter

Apologies that our newsletter is late in being distributed to you all – COVID19 has significantly impacted on my awesome SASS team this term.

An enormous number of extra curricular opportunities have been organised by staff in term 2 for our students to enjoy. Miss Longmore’s sensational dance troupe recently performed at the Riverina Dance Festival in Griffith, to rousing applause; School Captain, Amelia Franklin, along with other School Captains from across the State, enjoyed meeting the Governor General at Government House. Amelia then spent the following day with Ms Freeman touring the facilities at Sydney University; Mission Australia have hosted two RAGE programs for students; another group of students completed their White Card training with Mr Paul Turner; and the Together 4 Youth Year 8 Mentoring program has commenced. Our students have had the opportunity to represent the school, at both local and regional levels in a multitude of sports. Kristian Miller and Grace Derrick represented CHS at the State Swimming carnival in late March with Kristian representing CHS at the National Age championships in Adelaide in early April. Congratulations is extended to both students. Our fabulous library staff have organised numerous student wellbeing activities at lunch times for staff and students this term, including Zumba classes with Jennie Williams. Year 12 students recently travelled to the University of Wollongong and had the opportunity to attend several lectures and learn more about the courses on offer at the University. A big thank you is extended to all the staff for the extra time and effort they put into organising these events.

Senior and Junior Visual Arts students will be curating their first formal exhibition, in the coming weeks, at the Arts Centre - Cootamundra. Official opening is on Monday 20th June from 5 -7pm and the exhibition will be open to the public until Tuesday 28th June. I hope many of you can go down and see the amazing student art works and support our students.

After a false start, we look forward to hosting our first SRC run School Social for number of years with the theme “The Year 3000” on Wednesday 22nd June, from 6-9pm in the school hall. I am looking forward to seeing all the crazy costumes and the best dance moves. At the same time, our school psychologists, Alice McQueen and Fiona Harvey, will be hosting a parent/carer information session ‘Supporting Adolescent Mental Health and Wellbeing’ from 6-7pm in the school library. We hope to see plenty of parents and carers at this event.

Students have participated in several significant events to acknowledge National Sorry Day (26th May) and Reconciliation Week -Be Brave - Make Change (27th May – 3rd June). Thank you is extended to Mr Galea for his organisation of our Sorry Day assembly and to Veletah Cranston for her moving Acknowledgement to Country. Students, staff and community members have had to opportunity to submit their designs for a new junior sport shirt as part of our Reconciliation Week activities. We are in final preparations and planning for NAIDOC celebrations - Get Up Stand Up Show Up – with an array of awesome activities planned for the whole day on Tuesday 28th June. We are looking to host our NAIDOC Astronomy night in August when the stars, planets and moon will be a little more visible and spectacular.

I continue to work closely with our P&C as we design a new unisex, everyday shirt for the junior school. There is a growing bank of research that suggest that several attention, behavioural and mental health issues, amongst adolescents, can be attributed to mobile phones use. As such, we are also considering joining a growing number of schools in NSW to restrict student use of mobile phones while at school, perhaps via Yondr Mobile Phone Pouches. Thank you is extended to all the parents who completed our survey on this matter last week. Our next P&C meeting will be held on Wednesday 15th June at 6:30pm. All welcome.

A reminder to our school community that I have been granted a special variation to our School Development Day’s in terms 3 and 4. Staff will participate in Mental Health First Aid training for two consecutive SDD’s at the start of term 3 – Monday 18th and Tuesday 19th July. All students will return to school on Wednesday 20th July. The extra teaching and learning day will be rescheduled in term 4 with the last day for students being Tuesday 20th December instead of Monday 19th December. I have consulted with our AECG, P&C and staff regarding this variation and have their full support.

If you require additional RAT kits, please do not hesitate to call the school so we can get some home to you. I thank all members of school community for continuing to adhere to the COVID19 safety measures we ask of you all.

With three weeks to go until the end of term, I seek your ongoing support around our school’s motto of Teachers Teach, Students Learn, Be Kind and Every Day Counts.

Regards

Mrs Daly

 Upcoming Events - 

Term 2 continues to fly by at the Ag Plot, as students are kept very busy with a variety of tasks. Stage 5 Agriculture have just completed a unit on Hydroponics and are currently working with our Dubbo Wether Challenge sheep to get them ready for the competition in August. Year 11 Agriculture have started their unit on Plant Production and are currently patiently waiting to complete their field trial on sowing density and its effect on plant growth. Wheat was selected as the crop of choice for their trial and the results form part of their upcoming assessment task. Year 12 Agriculture are well into their unit on Animal Production and are currently completing work on reproductive technologies used in livestock production. Primary Industries have finished their theory work on Farm Water and are currently working through their Livestock cluster booklet.

Earlier in the term, a select group of students were lucky enough to participate in a one day shearing school, run by the Australian Wool Innovation. The training was completely subsidized by the AWI and students learned the basics of shearing, crutching, wigging and fleece handling. Our students were given plenty of practice in crutching, and the presenters were very impressed with their skills, attitudes and behaviour on the day. Thankyou again to Mr James Baldry of “Wallendoon” Cootamundra for offering his property and stock for use so that the AWI could facilitate such a valuable and engaging learning opportunity for our students. 

The under 15’s boys soccer team competed for the Peter Burdett Shield in Cootamundra on Wednesday the 26th of May, 2022. Unfortunately, the boys were knocked out by Junee in the first game but had a fantastic game against Young.

Thank you to Niketa Smart and Anisa Rees who refereed and ran lines on the day.

A group of Year 11 and 12 students attended an information session recently with University of Wollongong student recruitment rep: Josh Crowley.

Pictured here is Darby Bateup, Chris Woodbridge from MEGT (centre) and  Adrian Boxsell, at the official signup of his School Based Traineeship.

Darby will be undertaking a Certificate III in Automotive Mechanical Technology whilst working for CMR one day per week.

Earlier this week Courtney O’Keefe from COMPACT spoke to the students about Work Readiness for Work Experience. 

Students also heard from Stuart Morby, Mark Bickerdike, and Katrina Smith from Cootamundra Gundagai Regional Council. Pictured also is CGRC's most recent apprentice, Grace Neale.