Welcome back to the 2024 school year. A very special welcome to our new families, who are joining the Newcastle High School (NHS) learning community this year. We have welcomed 152 new Year 7 students into our school to start this year, taking our anticipated school enrolment to 1,029 including 136 students at Cooks Hill Campus in Years 9-12. When we add our students together with our 130 teaching and support staff, our school is a diverse and vibrant community, coming together to learn and grow at NHS each day. Welcome to everyone!
We like to start the new school year within our Parkway newsletter by being explicit with our learning community about our vision for the culture and climate of our school. Being clear and consistent about our school’s core beliefs and values enables us to walk-the-walk of these beliefs within our actions each day. The culture of our school is critical to every person in our learning community, as our beliefs and values are the foundations for how we treat each other, and they form the basis of the vision at Newcastle High School.
Newcastle High School Vision
Newcastle High School strives to be an inclusive, diverse community that demonstrates a passion for learning underpinned by determination, hard work and a shared responsibility for growth in all areas of endeavours. Through respectful and meaningful connections, we are committed to building resilience and perseverance in order to develop goals that help us expand our creativity, knowledge and understanding.
Put simply - Every adult at our school aims to work in a positive partnership with you and your child to achieve our vision. We strive to achieve excellent outcomes in learning and wellbeing for every child; with a strategic focus on personal growth. We value leadership to develop our connections and belonging within the school community, enhancing our ability to positively impact society. Within this Parkway our Deputy Principals will introduce the year with some of the expectations and procedures we have within the daily life of the school, to support consistency in achieving learning-centred student behaviour. Our School Plan is available on the school website, and is summarised visually below.
Rebuild Update
The school was a hive of activity in the holidays, preparing our new demountable buildings. We have started the school year with these new spaces replacing B block, which is earmarked for demolition first in the construction stages of our re-build works starting soon. Our new temporary buildings include general learning spaces, our food technology kitchens, textiles rooms, a hospitality commercial kitchen and toilets. All of our temporary buildings are new, air conditioned, connected to Wi-Fi and fitted out to ensure we can settle into these for the next period of the re-build. We are looking forward to being introduced to the builder who has been successful through the tender process and watching the new building on the corner of Parkway Avenue and National Park Street start to take shape this year. To keep up to date with the Newcastle High School re-build, please join us at the P&C Meetings every term, Monday Week 5, or follow the communication releases being sent by School Infrastructure NSW and details found on this website:
https://www.schoolinfrastructure.nsw.gov.au/projects/n/newcastle-education-campus.html
Presentation Day 2023
We recognised the wonderful achievements of our students in Y7-11 at the end of last year, at our annual Presentation Awards. Congratulations to all award recipients for your achievements and endeavours, demonstrating academic, sporting, leadership, arts and cultural excellence.
View Awards Recipients 7-11 Presentation 2023 Shared PDF File
Positive Education (Pos Ed)
Our core business at Newcastle High School is LEARNING and we believe that positive relationships support strong learning progress and growth. Our core values of RESPECT, RESPONSIBILITY and PARTICIPATION are integrated in explicit lessons at NHS, teaching the Positive Education Enhanced Curriculum (PEEC) to all of our student’s strong wellbeing and behavioural support, which we call Pos. Ed. This program reaffirms our belief in the critical importance of character development and wellbeing for learning, growth, and development – and that knowledge, understanding, skills and practices in this area is everyone’s business, to be addressed explicitly.
This year, we are in our second year of delivering the Pos. Ed. curriculum, with all students engaging in 25 minutes of Pos. Ed. lessons fortnightly. Students will alternate between these lessons and year/stage assemblies on Thursdays.
If you would like more details on this Pos Ed program which has elements of PB4L, the Positive Education Model and the 5 Ways to Wellbeing. Information on each of these approaches can be found here:
PEEC
Positive Behaviour for Learning
Positive Education Model
5 Ways to Wellbeing
Parents as Partners
At our school, we seek a positive partnership with parents and carers in modelling and encouraging our core values. I encourage using our values in conversations you have with your children throughout the year to reinforce positive behaviour for learning, tolerance, empathy and a growth mindset to take on challenges when they arise. We believe everyone has the right to learn at our school and we do not accept poor behaviour that compromises the learning culture of the school. All students are encouraged and guided to create respectful and meaningful relationships with their peers, staff and the community. Positive behaviour for learning and wellbeing is reinforced and explicitly taught in our Pos. Ed. lessons every week. Thank you for your partnership in this endeavour – RESPECT, RESPONSIBILITY and PARTICIPATION. For information on our partnership with parents and carers please see the following links:
https://education.nsw.gov.au/parents-and-carers
https://education.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/main-education/public-schools/going-to-a-public-school/media/documents/school-community-charter.pdf
Communication with Our School
Our mediums of communication at Newcastle High School are explained on our websites. Parents and carers are encouraged to ensure that their email address is correctly recorded with our school office and that your contact details are current, as this is the main medium of communication. For information on our communications platforms, please refer to the following links:
During the school year, we encourage all parents and carers to communicate directly with classroom teachers regarding the learning needs, progress and development of your child/ren.
Our teachers are the most important people in the education of our students while they are at school. If you have a concern, query or comment about subject specific matters, please contact the Office and request to speak to the relevant Teacher or Head Teacher.
We also have a variety of Parent Teacher Interviews and Parent Information Sessions planned throughout the year. Our approach is to ensure that all assessment, curriculum transition and support is explained thoroughly to students and parents/carers by the Executive and key staff, supporting all students through key milestones of their schooling.
From the commencement of the year, Parent Information Sessions will be offered regarding assessment and curriculum, with our Head Teacher Teaching & Learning Kiarna White and Deputy Principals leading these events, which will be promoted via your email and through Facebook.
View further information and news updates about our school below. We are very proud of the Y12 class of 2023 for their outstanding HSC achievements. The Wellbeing and Aboriginal Education Team are a proactive and caring group of staff. Our Facebook page is regularly updated with student achievements and notices and our website major events has save the date information for events such as School Photos, Swimming Carnival and Parent Teacher Interviews.
● HSC Results & Dux 2023
● Wellbeing Team
● Aboriginal Support & Education
● NHS Facebook
● NHS Website Major Events
