Welcome back to a new school year at Newcastle High School! A very special welcome to our new Year 7 students. It has been wonderful to see so many smiling happy faces as we start the year. Our anticipated school enrolment this year is 1,084 including 136 students at Cooks Hill Campus in Years 9-12, 138 Aboriginal students and 44 EALD students. When we add our students together with our 130 teaching and support staff, our school is a diverse and vibrant learning-centred community, coming together to support growth every day. Welcome to everyone!
School Culture
We like to start the new school year by clearly reaffirming our vision for the culture and climate of our school. Having shared, clear and consistent core beliefs and values enables us to walk-the-walk of these beliefs within our actions and behaviours 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. This term, all students will be attending PosEd sessions on being explicit about the critical importance of our behaviours that create our school culture to encourage positivity, care and tolerance to support the inclusive climate of our 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. In the Deputy Principal Report our Deputy Principal’s 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, as we are enjoying watching the new multi-storey building on the corner of Parkway Avenue and National Park Street start to take shape this year. The new Multipurpose Centre on Smith Street is also full steam ahead, which is very uplifting for the school. Covered walkways, power upgrades, the new Student Services wing on A block are all milestones we have been hearing progress reported on. 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
HSC Results & Dux 2024
Congratulations to all our students in the Class of 2024 for their outstanding HSC results, almost DOUBLING the Band 6/E4 results of the school from last year– WOW!! We celebrated the arrival of the HSC results with a morning tea, and it was wonderful to feel the excitement and delight in the air, as students shared their next steps for university, further training, employment and travel, while dancing to live music. We held our HSC High Achievers Assembly to celebrate the massive achievements of the Class of 2024 on Thursday 20 February, to recognise and celebrate these results formally. Each student on the HSC NESA Honor Roll is reported within this article. As a summary, the HSC Class of 2024 have achieved the following results from a cohort of 101 students:
- 29 x Band 6’s
- 2 x E4s
- 105 x Band 5’s
- 207 x Band 4s
- 7 x 90+ ATARs
- Cassidy Hight - 9th in the State for Hospitality
The Dux of Newcastle High School for 2024 is Cassidy H. Congratulations Cassidy, we praise you for this exceptional achievement, with an ATAR of 97.05.
Our highest performing seven students achieved ATARs of:
- 97.05 Cassidy H.
- 95.0 Mia V.
- 94.65 George A.
- 94.25 Alexander W.
- 93.75 Georgina M.
- 92.75 Ela G.
- 91.5 Imala C.
As a school, we continue to trend upwards in our HSC performance, when looking over the past 5 years. Our success rate, as measured by the percentage of students in the top performance bands this year is 6.37% (In 2023 = 3.63%), as shown in the graph below.
We continue to aim high in our vision to improve our HSC outcomes annually, with the HSC Excellence Strategy of the school driving many Stage 6 teaching and learning initiatives in 2025 to support our students achieve their personal best. The visual summary of our HSC Excellence Strategy is within this article.
Well done the Class of 2024! We wish you all the very best in the next steps you take in adult life.
Our 2024 Higher School Certificate (HSC) results are outstanding, with the following students achieving Band 6 and E4 results, indicating the highest level of performance in a course.
Presentation Day 2024
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. Thank you to the P&C, alumni groups and community providers for their support of our annual celebration of excellence.
Canteen
This year we have welcomed a new Canteen provider, who have started with us this term. Thank you to our students for their patience while we establish this now business into the school. Please encourage your child to order their lunch, with the link to the menu and order found on our website.
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.
