UPCOMING EVENTS

15 March, 5 & 26 April Uniform Shop 3.00 - 3.45pm Parents can contact the office to arrange purchase of uniform if these dates are not suitable.

14 March 5.30pm - 6.30pm School Association Meeting D Block Meeting Room

20 March Inter-high Diving Carnival

29 March Inter-high Swimming Carnival

29 May Vaccinations for Grades 7 & 10

27 November Vaccinations for Grade 7

2018 TERM DATES

Term 1 Finish: Thursday 12 April (students). Friday 13 April (teachers).

Easter break Friday 30 March – 3 April.

Term 2 Start: Monday 30 April. Finish: Friday 6 July

Term 3 Start: Monday 23 July. Finish: Friday 28 September

Term 4 Start: Monday 15 October. Finish: Thursday 20 December (students); Friday 21 December (teachers)

PROSPECT HIGH SCHOOL Department of Education

CarnivalAnother proud Prospect day for me yesterday, when I witnessed some of the outstanding work of our staff and students at the swimming carnival. Those students who participated did so with such enthusiasm, all trying their hardest to not only achieve personal success but also to have a lot of fun. Of particular note was the fine work that our Student Leadership Board members were doing by supporting both staff and students to ensure that the day ran smoothly. I noticed them showing initiative and organisational skills, as well as other students looking to them for assistance. This strong culture of care and support is such a strong feature of our school.International Learning OpportunitiesProspect High School has a strong history of providing international learning opportunities for our students. This year, we are preparing for a small group of students to travel to Japan to extend their language learning and cultural understanding.

An element of the future direction of our school is to include digital technology into our international learning opportunities. To this end, we are considering combining our cultural and digital learning foci. At the moment we are seeking information from educational tour companies that will combine these two elements to develop itineraries and costings. I will then survey families with a number of options for them to consider in relation to destination, pricing and possible timelines. It is not expected that these tours will be scheduled until 2020 which gives families plenty of time to plan.

I look forward to hearing parent opinion on this proposal in the near future.

11/12 Extension updateNext week we will be visiting some 11/12 extension school sites in the south of our state to help us with our planning for 2019. We will also be having the 11/12 extension school Principal Education Officer visit Prospect to consider preliminary facility issues to assist with preparing our site for Grades 11 and 12. Over the next few weeks we will be providing more detailed information to families to consider in relation to this exciting new opportunity.

Vicki MackrillPrincipal

PROSPECTOR

9 March 2018

FrOM ThE lIbrary

australia’s Favourite Kids’ books Top 24

1. Possum Magic — Mem Fox and Julie VivasMem Fox’s best-selling first picture book about Grandma Poss, who uses her best bush magic to make baby hush invisible.2. harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone — J.K. rowlingThe first book in rowling’s series sees the young harry journey to hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he hones his magical powers and confronts lord Voldemort.3. The Very hungry Caterpillar — Eric CarleFirst published in 1969, Carle’s collage-style illustrations follow a caterpillar as it eats its way through a variety of foods to emerge, at the end of the book, as a butterfly.4. The Fault in Our Stars — John Greenyoung adult novel that tells the story of a 16-year-old cancer patient, hazel, who attends a support group where she meets and falls in love with a former basketballer and amputee.5. Where is the Green Sheep? — Mem Fox and Judy horacekThere are blue sheep, red sheep, a bath sheep and a bed sheep. but where is the green sheep.?6. The 39-Storey Treehouse — andy GriffithsIn Griffiths’ and illustrator Terry Denton’s tree house there’s a chocolate waterfall, a non-erupting active volcano, a baby dinosaur petting zoo and the believe It Or Else museum.7. The Magic Faraway Tree — Enid blytonIn the Enchanted Wood fairy folk live on every branch of the Magic Faraway Tree, home to the land of Spells, of Topsy-Turvy and Do-as-you-Please.8. Where the Wild Things are — Maurice SendakMax, sent to his room in his wolf suit, rages at the injustice. When his room transforms into a jungle, Max sails to an island where he fights the Wild Things.9. Diary of a Wombat — Jackie French and bruce WhatleyTraces the busy life of Mothball, a “wombat with attitude” who wrestles unknown creatures, runs her own digging business and even trains her humans.10. The Gruffalo — Julia Donaldson and axel Schefflera mouse wards off predators intent on eating him by conjuring a fictional creature, half grizzly bear, half buffalo.11. Matilda — roald DahlThe story of young girl gifted with magical powers but saddled with dimwitted parents.12. The book Thief — Markus ZusakNazi Germany, 1939: liesel learns to read and shares the books she steals with the Jewish man hidden in their basement.13. Tomorrow When The War began — John Marsdena group of teenage friends returns from a week-long camping trip to the bush to discover that all the people are missing and pets and livestock are dead or dying.14. anne Of Green Gables — l.M. MontgomeryPublished in 1908 and set in Canada, tells the story of an orphan girl sent to live in a farming community in King Edward Island.

15. Charlie and The Chocolate Factory — roald DahlCharlie bucket realises his dream of entering the famous chocolate factory of Willy Wonka.16. The hobbit — J.r.r. TolkienFollows the quest of hobbit bilbo baggins to win a share of the treasure guarded by the dragon Smaug.

17. The Secret Garden — Frances hodgson-burnetta spoilt, sickly child, Mary lennox, becomes fascinated by a locked garden.

18. Wonder — r.J. Palacioborn with a terrible facial deformity, 10-year-old auggie longs to be normal. Now, for the first time, he is being sent to a “normal” school.19. harry Potter and The Deathly hallows — J.K. rowlingIn the seventh and final novel in the series, harry has turned 17, Dumbledore is dead and lord Voldemort’s powers are increasing.20. are We There yet? — alison lesterMuch loved picture book by veteran australian author and illustrator traces the around-australia journey of eight year old Grace and her family.21. The bFG — roald Dahla 24-foot giant with superhuman hearing and the gift of speed collects dreams to distribute to children.22. The hunger Games — Suzanne CollinsKatniss Everdeen takes her sister’s place in the “reaping”, an annual fight to death by teenagers chosen from each of the twelve districts of Panem.23. We’re Going On a bear hunt — Michael rosen and helen OxenburyThis story of a family “going to catch a big one” (“we’re not scared”) is still a favourite 25 years after publication.24. animalia — Graeme baseaustralian author and illustrator Graeme base made his name with this lushly illustrated alphabet book. readers are challenged to find objects and a picture of the author as a boy on each of its 26 pages.

FrOM aDMIN

Reminder to return Consent Forms for Immunisations for Grades 7 and 10 students. Forms must be returned to Admin by Friday, 16 March.Immunisations for both Grades will be held at school on Tuesday, 29 May.COlES SPOrTS FOr SChOOlS

Prospect High School have registered for the Coles Sports for Schools program. Please ask family, relatives, neighbours etc to help, by bringing in vouchers supplied from Coles when purchasing groceries. We have a box here at school and you will also find one at Coles at Meadow Mews.

The more vouchers we get, the more sporting equipment we will be eligible for. Thank you.

National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) 2018

NAPLAN (National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy) commenced in Australian schools in 2008. Each year, all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 participate in common national tests which assess:

• Reading • Writing• Language Conventions (spelling, grammar and

punctuation) • Numeracy.

The scheduled dates for the tests in 2018 are Tuesday 15 May, Wednesday 16 May and Thursday 17 May.

The benefits of participating in NAPLAN testing:

• NAPLAN tests the skills that are essential for every child to progress through school and life such as reading, writing, spelling, grammar and numeracy.

• NAPLAN results provide valuable information on how your child is progressing against national minimum standards of literacy and numeracy skills expected for each year level.

• The NAPLAN tests provide you as parents with an individual report that shows your child’s results and a comparison of your child’s performance against all other Australian students in their year level.

• Teachers use the NAPLAN results to determine your child’s areas of strength and where future focus is required and how best to provide support or extension activities.

• School teachers use the online NAPLAN Toolkit to analyse your child’s results. The Toolkit provides detailed information right down to the individual question with links to teaching strategies.

• Principals, senior staff and others use NAPLAN results to inform school planning and to allocate resources and support including informing decisions around targeted programs and initiatives for individuals and groups.

The best way you can assist your child is by helping them to feel comfortable about the nature and purpose of the tests, and assure them that the tests will give them an opportunity to show what they have learned in class.

For more information about the national tests, please visit the national NAPLAN website at: http://www.nap.edu.au/naplan/naplan.html

REMINDER

Monday, 12 March is a Public Holiday.

aGrICUlTUral STUDIES

2018 has seen two senior classes begin a new option called “Agricultural Studies”. It is an exciting time for Prospect High, as this is the first time in the school’s history that we have offered this subject.

The two classes have begun to research and plan for a new use of an old compound – keeping chooks! We also are in the process of setting up some vegetable plots in large plastic containers to hopefully plant some winter vegetables before the cold sets in. Setting up a new course is both exciting and busy, with materials being needed; trips and speakers being booked and a new curriculum being written.

One way you can help is if you have any qualifications in an area of agriculture; or some practical experience in poultry raising, fencing or another area which may be useful, please contact the school and leave your name and phone number. A bank of experts could be useful now, or in the future!

Another way of helping with our set-up of this subject, would be if you have spare chicken wire, fencing materials, shade cloth, netting, conduit or other useful ‘bits ‘n bobs’ laying around, we may be able to take it off your hands!

The teachers taking the subject are keen gardener and head of Home Economics Jo Bracken and scientist extraordinaire plus head of Science, Sonya Matthews!

We are keen to make this subject a great success!

GRADE 7 GORGE EXCURION GRADE 10 GORGE EXCURION

CONTACT DETAILS

Address Ralph Street, Prospect TAS 7250Phone 03 63 44 4744Email prospect.high@education.tas.gov.au Web https://education.tas.edu.au/

prospecthigh/Pages/Home.aspxStudent Intranet

https://education.tas.edu.au/prospecthigh/Intranet/SitePages/Home

Prospect High School

SWIMMING CARNIVAL

On Wednesday we held our annual swimming carnival at the Launceston Aquatic Centre. We had an outstanding number of particiants, all of which showed tremendous enthusiasm for our carnival.

Thank you to everyone who made our swimming carnival a successful and exciting day.

Special mention to Ms Brain, for her amazing singing and dancing skills. Congratulations to Impara for taking our the competition, final scores were:

Impara 884Karalta 582Warialda 466Nyanda 427by Jackson and Hayden

WORKING WONDERSGrade 7Sophie has made a very pleasing start to grade 7. She is a quiet, polite student who has impressed her teachers by her dedication to her studies. She has a positive influence on the people around her and we wish her all the best. James is an enthusiastic learner always willing to give everything a go. He is a pleasure to have in the Grade 7 food technology class and is open to receiving assistance when needed. A great start to Grade 7 James, keep up the good work!

Grade 8Congratulations to all of the Grade 8 students who walked to the Gorge last week. Many members of the public commented on how well-mannered and considerate students were on the walking path. Awesome effort!!

Grade 9Well done to Sophie, fantastic participation in our swimming carnival on Wednesday from our new Grade 9 student!

A special thanks to Natasha, my prompt and punctual ‘score girl’ at the carnival on Wednesday. She was an excellent helper to Mr Paul and the recording system! Thanks, Natasha!