Principal's Report

Good Luck HSC Students

On behalf of the entire community, we wish our Higher School Certificate (HSC) students all the very best in their HSC examinations, which commenced on Tuesday 9 November.  The full timetable is available at: HSC 2021 Examination Timetable

HSC Examination Protocols, Organisation, Illness/Misadventure Procedures and our COVID Safety Plans including the contingency planning for an alternative venue if COVID-19 impacts our school during the HSC have been thoroughly communicated to students both in person and via email.  A reminder that email is our main form of school communication during this period, in case of any changes in examination venue.

NESA COVID-Safe Exam Rules can be found online and support material for HSC students can be found at Stay Healthy HSC.  Any student who requires additional or personalised support throughout this period is asked to speak to their Year Advisor Mr Lewis, Head Teacher Senior School Mrs Parrott or Deputy Principal Mrs Fraser.  Alternatively, please log an enquiry or request for support at our REQUEST FOR HELP LINK.

Congratulations

MAD Awards

The Muloobinbah Local Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (LAECG) held the annual Make a Difference (MAD) Awards on Thursday 28 October where we had the following nominees: Paul Myers, Bailey C, Jo Doherty and Hudson D.  From our nominees, Paul Myers was the recipient of a MAD Award for his outstanding contributions to Aboriginal Education, as an exceptional Aboriginal Staff Member in the Newcastle Network.  Well done Paul and thank you for all your support of Aboriginal Education in our school, our network and the wider community.

COVID-19

Newcastle High School’s (NHS) Term 4 Roadmap to Return to face-to-face learning has been implemented as we came out of our COVID-lockdown from 25 October, with students and staff returning to the classroom.  It has been wonderful to see our school community reconnecting and managing very well with the school’s COVID Safety guidelines.  I thank parents and families for their collective efforts at re-establishing routines and supporting students return to the classroom and full attendance.

I advised parents via email that the NSW Department of Education has announced we are on Level 3 guidelines from Monday 8 November 2021.  Department of Education information for families about this can be found online at:  Advice for families.  At this link you will find information about Level 3, as summarised in the attached visual.

What happens if we are deemed non-operational?

There is a possibility that any school can be deemed non-operational due to a case of COVID-19. This reality is part of the current environment we are in for the safe management of COVID-19.  Some local schools around us have needed to close due to a positive COVID-19 case.  Parent email will be used for all communications should this occur for NHS and I ask that you monitor your email during this time.

NHS has developed the COVID Safety procedures we would follow should we be made aware of a positive case within our student or staff community, including if this occurred during school hours.  These procedures include the plans to safely evacuate the school, if we are deemed non-operational during the school day.  Please be aware of the different pick up/exit points for students, if this form on an evacuation was required:

The gates that will be used by Year Groups to exit the school if students were required to evacuate are:

·  Year 8 and 10 - Gate 1 on Smith Street

·  Year 7, 9 and 11 - Gate 3 on Parkway Avenue

·  Year 12/HSC students - Gate 10 on National Park Street

·  Cooks Hill Campus - Gate 1 on Union Street

Permission to leave if non-operational

If we were deemed non-operational during the school day and informed we were evacuating the school, parents/carers would be notified via email.  In this circumstance, students are not allowed to leave the school grounds without parent/carer permission.

We have sent home in Week 5 a request for families to consider giving pre-approved permission for your child/ren to travel home, if the school was deemed non-operational during school hours, due to COVID-19.  If this is not given, your child will be supervised at school in their Year Group playground areas until the end of the day.   This request was sent as a School Bytes form, which is automatically linked to our school rolls and would ensure we understand your wishes for your child/ren in such circumstances.

We ask that you take the time to read this information that has been emailed home and discuss as a family the arrangements that would be made if this occurred at NHS.  Please be familiar with the pickup points for your child/ren and note that in these circumstances, you will not be able to enter the school.  The phone lines and streets around the school may also be very congested should the need arise to evacuate over 1,100 students.  If you have any questions about this correspondence, please contact the school.  We thank you for your ongoing support and understanding.

Principal - Janene Rosser