19.02.16

Extending our Reach – Can humans colonise another planet? Project Based Learning – Year 7 High Achievers Class The Year 7 HA class continued with their PBL yesterday with guest lecturer, Dr Ruth Potts from SCU, who spoke to the students about sustainable urban development to help them with their design of an “Outpost” for colonising planet Keplar-452b. Ruth talked about building and city design, water, energy, food, natural disas-ters, land-use, transport, public spaces and more. This gave the students plenty of ideas to consider and it led to a very engaging lesson. Thanks Ruth for staying and answering student questions as they put the infor-mation into their ideas on paper! Mr S Hogden Science Teacher

ISSUE  3     I    TERM  1     I    WEEK  4  

R I C H M O N D R I V E R H I G H C A M P U S N E W S L E T T E R Lake Street North Lismore NSW 2480

T 02 6621 3456 F 02 6622 2928

E richmondri-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au

www.richmondri-h.schools.nsw.edu.au

ISSUE  7       I    TERM  1     I    WEEK  8  

This week we have had two exciting programs commence which I believe will have a positive impact for each and every one of our students. Both programs have been launched as a result of the Gonski funding. Kirra from ‘Safe on Social’ has been on site this week. Her highly engaging presentations have provided students with the knowledge and skills to stay safe online. To support our students further we have commissioned Kirra to write a series of modules that provide guidance for staying safe and responding to challenges with a variety of popular social media sites. These modules will be available on request for all of our families in the coming weeks, so stay tuned. We will be inviting Kirra back for another parent session next term. We have employed a student learning support officer three days per week to provide additional assistance for students in Years 10 -12. Students can approach one of our friendly Deputy Principals to access program and get help with catching up on missed work, organising assessments, as well as getting help to understand coursework. If the program is successful we will aim to keep it running all year. One of our junior students has been diagnosed with whooping cough this week. The student will be away from school until they have fully recovered. I have attached a link to the NSW Health factsheet for Whooping Cough for you to refer to. I encourage you to read it. We wish the student a speedy recovery. http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/factsheets/Factsheets/pertussis.pdf I was lucky enough to represent our staff in a highly competitive staff v student game of musical chairs on Tuesday. It was one of a series of games organised by Year 12 SLR students providing great lunchtime fun. Unfortunately, my skills are not as sharp as they used to be and the students won. Have a happy and safe weekend. Peter Howes Relieving Principal

C A L E N D A R 21 February School Photos Zone Open Touch Football, Hep-burn Park Goonellabah 22 February Open Girls and Boys CHS Football Gala Day, Southern Cross University Year 12 Half Yearly Exams 23 February 24 February Leos Caroona Volunteer excursion Year 12 Half Yearly Exams 25 February Good Friday Public Holiday

C A N T E E N R O S T E R

21 February Jenny Harris 22 February Des Harris 23 February Meryl Condon and Jack 24 February Dorothy Tan 25 February Public Holiday

R I C H M O N D R I V E R H I G H C A M P U S

Lake Street, North Lismore NSW 2480

T 02 6621 3456 F 02 6622 2928

E richmondri-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au

www.richmondri-h.schools.nsw.edu.au

www.facebook.com/richmondriverhigh

Canteen: 6621 4890

We would like to respectfully acknowledge the Elders past and present of the Wijabul Wiyabal people and other peoples of Bundjalung Nation. We acknowledge that they are the first peoples of this land on which our school stands.

If you can help, please phone Kathy Claydon on 6621 4890.

Relieving Principals News

School Photographs School Photographs will take place on Monday 21st March, stu-dents have been given an envelope. This envelope must be handed to the photographer by each stu-dent on photo day (even if not buying photographs). Replacement envelopes and Family envelopes are available at the school of-fice, if required. Please make sure your child is in the correct uniform for the pho-tographs.

Relieving Deputy News Uniform As we start to get into the cooler months I want to remind families about our winter uniform expectations. Jumpers are either plain red or grey preferable with the school logo, no black jumpers please. For seniors, button up shirts, plain t-shirts are not uniform. Plain black slacks or black jeans or black skirt as supplied by Lowes (black stockings underneath are fine), plain mid thigh length black shorts (tights are not accepta-ble). If families are experiencing any financial hardships school assistance is available for the purchase of school uniforms. School Photos These are on Monday and we need all students to be in school uniform. Both individual and year group photos will be taken. Individual photos will be used for student id cards. Year 12 Half Yearly Exams These will be conducted in Weeks 10 and 11 of this term. It was great to see some ex students Zoe Ber-tuzzi and Georgina Morris come into the school to speak about their experience in coping with stress and exam preparation. This was a great initiative organised by Ms T Birney.

North Coast Swimming Last week saw several of our students travel to Kempsey to compete at the North Coast Swimming Carnival. These three students were successful in making the North Coast team to compete at Homebush in Sydney. They were Rattanawadi Bowyer, Hayden Blanksby and Madeline Nilon. This was the sixth consecutive year that Madeline has the made the North Coast Team which is an outstanding effort. Well done.

Learning to Lead Last Friday RRHC held a Learning to Lead Sports Day. This initiative is part of the Premier's Sporting Challenge. Students from the Years 9 and 10 Physi-cal Activity and Sports Studies classes teach Stage 3 students how to be sport leaders in their schools. Bexhill, Lismore Heights and South Lismore were the three primary schools involved in the day. The stu-dents from RRHC did an outstanding job mentoring the younger students to develop their leadership skills in a sporting context. Tim Laverty Relieving Deputy Principal

Jacob Ross – second in Chess Competition Jacob came second in the Gardiner Chess NSW Northern Rivers Inter-School Tournament on Wednesday. One hundred and fifty students from across our region played at Woodlawn to determine the best chess play-ers in schools from the Northern Rivers. Jacob fought hard to achieve his ranking of second overall. Jed McKinlay placed seventh and Kris Bosel placed thirty-fifth, an outstanding result for our RRHS Chess Team members. If you would like to participate in upcoming tournaments as a member of the RRHS Chess Team, email Mr Prince for details. Chess players meet in the Library at lunchtime to practice; you'll see them hunched over the 64 Black and White squares at the tables with fixed ex-pressions of determination. Congratulations to Jacob, Jed and Kris for an exciting day of strategy and skill, well done. Mr Prince Maths Teacher

Mediation and Personal Growth Workshop a hit with students!! On Thursday 17th we had the first School to Work Workshop which addressed many employability skills. Students reported positively about the experience and I would like to thank Mr Wayne Moss for being availa-ble to run the day. Due to popular demand a second workshop is currently being organised and I am now taking names for a third workshop which should run next term. Mr E Weir Careers Adviser

Study Tips There will be times when you: Don’t cope with the amount of schoolwork you have Struggle to keep up and find a balance in your life Feel that your best is not good enough. These can be normal for students but there are many options available to deal with it, here are a few: Don’t ignore them because you will feel more anxious No matter how terrible you think the situation is, there is always a way to improve it Focus positively on what you are doing well Look at the situation through your signature strengths Share your concerns with your parents and teachers; they have the coping strategies to help you Accept and act on their advice Watch and learn from what successful students do. For more information please email Emma Turner or Tracy Kelso on:

emma.dehoon1@det.nsw.edu.au or Tracy.birney3@det.nsw.edu.au  

Leo's Club - Ghoulish Grem-lins greeted at gathering At the recent RRHC Social there was the opportunity for the students to really get into the theme, by having their face painted by two trained make-up artists. Some students took this opportunity to blend in with zombies, fairies and ‘other worldly’ characters using the superior skills provided by Shanias and Suzanne. The Leo’s group sponsored the provision of the make-up artists in a hope to raise money for a Year 12 stu-dent, Cam Thorley, who was participating in the ‘Shave for a Cure’. Unfortunately, the occasion result-ed in a net loss for the Leo’s Club. The Leo’s Club have still donated $100 to Cam Thorley and the “Shave for a Cure” foundation despite the loss and will continue to support community events within and outside the Richmond River High Campus. Mr S Hogden Leo’s Coordinator

Year 12 - Sport, Lifestyle and Recreation classes The Year 12 SLR students have continued their lunch time sporting competitions, yesterday run-ning Futsal, novelty musical chairs and Touch Football. All events were well attended and great fun was had by all. Miss E Dessman PDHPE/Dance Teacher

Safe on Social - Talk about social media security All students of RRHC have participated in a presen-tation by Kirra Pendergast founder of ‘Safe on So-cial’ on how we can safe-guard our information se-curity, online privacy and identity when using Social Media. This was a very informative and important session. Mr A Piper HT Welfare

Table Tennis Gala Day Last week nineteen students from RRHC attended the Table Tennis gala day at the Goonellabah Table Tennis Centre, the students are to be commended for their sportsmanship and their behaviour. Thank you to Debbie Baker for her organisation and we are very much looking forward to the next year's competition. Ms P Macleod Science Teacher

SCU Young Engineers

SCU Young Engineers is a one-day school holiday program developed to provide great insight into engineer-ing as a career and where you will be offered the opportunity to experience life as an SCU engineering stu-dent as well. For more details about this free one-day event, please visit our website as follows: http://scu.edu.au/environment-science-engineering/index.php/148 To secure your place, please complete and return the Registration Form available on the website. Please note the day is open to all students from Years 9 to 12 and is offered in the Term 1 school holiday period only. Girls are encouraged to attend. Maree Savins Project Support Officer, Engineering

Attention all Parents and Carers

Our newsletter is published every Friday and is uploaded onto our website: www.richmondri-h.schools.nsw.edu.au and emailed to parents whom we have re-ceived their email addresses. We do not pro-vide paper copies unless specifically request-ed by parents and the students need to come up to the front office to collect a paper copy at 3.15 p.m. on Friday afternoons. If you would like a copy emailed to you then please contact the front office on 66 213 456.

The official Richmond River High School Face-book page is here: RRHS Facebook Page The web address is: www.facebook.com/richmondriverhigh

ATTENTION All Parents/Carers You can now purchase school uniforms online from Lowes. It is free delivery for orders over $100 and you can exchange sizes at the shop if needed. The website is - www.lowesschoolwear.com.au

Need someone to talk to? CALL: Kids HELPLINE 1800 551 800 Lismore HEADSPACE 6625 0200 Mental Health Line 1800 011 511 Beyond Blue 1300 789 978

WIRES Northern Rivers local 24 hour hotline is 66 281898 and the WIRES Northern Rivers website is www.wiresnr.org.au

P & C News for 2016 Welcome to all new and continuing parents to RRHC. It’s a great school and community. High school is a huge part of our children’s lives. A great way to stay in touch with what’s going on for them, meet the teachers and be part of the decision making process is to join the P&C.

Our next meeting will be held on: Monday 9th May at 5.30 p.m.

Upstairs Common Room. If you can’t make it in person, then join from 5.15 p.m. via Skype. Send a contact request to: Richmondriverhighpandc If you have any queries or anything you would like to raise with the P&C: Email: rrhspandc@gmail.com Looking forward to seeing you there.

P & C Meeting 5.30 - 7.00 p.m.

Monday 9th May 2016

Dear Parents/Carers The Australian Mathematics Competition for 2016 is being held early on Thursday 28th July. The Australian Mathematics Competition is a challenging competition that will benefit those participants in future tests, exams and competitions. Each participant will receive a Certificate and a detailed result letter from the Australian Mathemat-ics Trust. The entry fee is $6 per student. Return payment and permission note to the front office by Friday 1st April. Yours sincerely, J. Scarrabelotti (AMC Coordinator) =========================================================================== Return Slip

PERMISSION NOTE

I give permission for ______________________________________of class________ Year______ to participate in the Australian Mathematics Competition on July 28, 2016 at RRHS. Payment of $6 is included. Signed : __________________________________ Date : _______________ Parent/Carer