Parent Newsletter

Term 3, Week 4


Principal's Address - Term 3, Week 4

Term 3 is always a busy term with many student activities taking place. We look forward to seeing our students involved in Book Week, Wear it Purple Day, Surfing Competition, Country Week, Year 9 Careers Expo, Multisport Carnival, Follow the Dream Camp, Prefect Camp, RadioActive, Newdegate Field Day – Battle of the Bands, Marine Science Fieldwork, Year 12 Dinner, not forgetting to mention the everyday things happening in classrooms. Even though we have been impacted by COVID-19 restrictions and responses I continue to be overwhelmed by the number of opportunities our students get regularly. I cannot thank and show my appreciation enough for the amount of time and effort our staff put into ensuring that our students get the best educational opportunities possible.

Our Year 12 students only have a short amount of time left in compulsory education. After 12-14 years of schooling the end is nearly upon this cohort of young people. It is quite difficult to fathom how rapidly the school year is progressing and that these wonderful young adults only have weeks left of their formal education. In the last weeks of this term we will celebrate the contributions our year 12 cohort has made to ASHS with a number of activities. Pia Gray the Year 12 Student Coordinator is busily preparing for these wonderful events.

Country Week 2022
Our school values of Pride, Achievement, Responsibility and Respect (PARR) develop part of the foundation to what we do at Albany Senior High School. Over many years this has been captured and lived by the ASHS Country Week team. The past two years have had a significant impact on the school’s sense of attachment to Country Week. This year we are fully prepared to be participating in the event in Week 7 and we are so very excited that our students are going to have the opportunity to be a part of this momentous occasion. The sense of pride resinating from our 2022 Country Week Team is tangible. Led by Mr McWhirter and the sport coaches, our students have committed to developing and demonstrating our school’s value through the way in which they have prepared themselves to represent our school with pride. We have about 123 of our students competing in Country Week this year. Teams include: AFL, Basketball, Hockey, Soccer, Volleyball, Dance, Netball and Speech & Debate. Country Week is a unique opportunity for rural Senior High School students to compete in sport, socialise and form friendships with students from across WA. It is also a time for our school spirit to shine as Team ASHS demonstrates pride in representing our great school. We wish all the coaches and competitors all the best!

Students who are not going to Country Week will remain at school. It is really important that students who are not participants of the Country Week team continue to attend school and engage in learning. COVID-19 has caused many students to have had time away from school and had an impact on the continuous learning programs for our students. Non-attendance at school has an effect on students’ overall attendance percentage and ultimately a significant impact on students’ progress and achievement. All students who are at school will be engaged in authentic learning opportunities.

COVID-19
We have received a large delivery of Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) to distribute to our families. Next week your child will be sent home with an allocation of another 20 RATs for your families use. Please keep up-to-date with the communications through Connect for distribution information.

As we move to a phase where we learn to live with COVID-19 in our community it is important that we continue to implement COVID-19 safe measures to support a safe and healthy school community including:

  • wearing a mask indoors when visiting the school
  • staying up-to-date with COVID-19 and flu vaccinations
  • testing for COVID-19 if you have symptoms or as a household close contact
  • staying home when unwell
  • maintaining good hand hygiene

It is really appreciated that families are keeping their children home if they are unwell. At school, if your child presents unwell or with COVID-19 symptoms, parents and carers will be contacted to collect their child from school. Thank you for your ongoing support in helping ASHS to be a safe and healthy learning environment for everyone.

Year 9 Careers Expo
Nina Goodwin, our Career Practitioner has been working with the North Albany SHS Career Practitioner, Heidi Benson to organise a Year 9 Careers Expo for all Albany students in public schools. This is a really valuable opportunity for our students to investigate career and job opportunities in our local Albany area and beyond. In advance, I would like to thank Nina and Heidi for organising this event as well as the businesses, industries and organisations who are supporting the expo by providing our students with insight into the world of work.

Online Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (OLNA)
To successfully obtain a Western Australian Certificate of Education, minimum standards of literacy and numeracy must be achieved. If students in Year 10, 11 and 12 have not achieved Band 8 in their Year 9 NAPLAN or previously passed OLNA they will be required to sit the next scheduled OLNA tests in September. Emma Pedretti will contact families and students who require to participate in this round of assessments.

APAC Update
You may have notices that there has been some steel works take place on the Albany Senior High School Performing Arts Centre (APAC). We are starting to see some significant progress in the refurbishment of the Youth Centre as it transforms into the APAC. We are very hopeful that we will be able to utilise the building for the beginning of the 2023 school year. Fingers crossed!

Uniform Update
Unfortunately our School Uniform provider – Permapleat has been unable to provide our preferred hooded jumper. We are now waiting for a new option and are hopeful they will be available within the next few weeks.



Principal's Address - 2023 Planning

2023 Subject Selections
All of our current students have received information to choose their 2023 subjects. This is an important process for the school to be able to make sure that our teaching and learning plans for the future meet the needs of our students. If your child has not already completely subject selections, please contact the administration office or Emma Pedretti for further information.

Year 7 Enrolments 2023
If you are a parent or carer of a year 6 student or know of families with year 6 students, who have not yet completed an enrolment into secondary schooling, please make your way to the administration office to be provided with the enrolment documentation which needs to be completed ASAP. We are planning for the 2023 school year and want to make sure that we have enough classes to accommodate all 2023 student enrolments. NB: Albany SHS has a local intake area. Further information can be obtained from our website, or please make contact with the administration office.


Parent Tours
If you would like to meet some of our staff and wonderful students while taking a tour around Albany SHS please contact the administration office on 6821 1700. Alternatively, tours can be booked through our website by clicking here.

Tours start at 9.30 am from our Front Office and will be held on the following days:
  Term 3
     Week 8 Thursday 08 September
  Term 4
     Week 2 Friday 21 October



Principal's Address - NAIDOC Celebrations

Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up! Albany SHS NAIDOC Celebrations – 2022

It was with such pride to experience over the 2022 ASHS NAIDOC events and see our young Menang Noongar student leaders emanating the 2022 theme alongside their elders, family and mentors.

The ‘Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up!’ 2022 NAIDOC theme has a genuine focus on seeking the leadership of our Menang people and elders to continue to build a culturally responsive Australia. It is evident that ASHS boodja (country) has many special histories as an educational facility for the past 100 plus years and way before that for our first peoples, the Menang Noongar peoples. Every day it is our responsibility to recognise, honour and appreciate the significance of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s culture and identity – spiritually, physically and socially. And it is our responsibility now and into the future to ensure that we capitalise on the leadership of Aboriginal elders and future elders to be our champions of equity within today’s diverse Australia.

The ASHS NAIDOC celebrations were a wonderful opportunity for our local Menang Noongar peoples to share their culture and history. The young Aboriginal leaders who led the events alongside their elders and mentors, demonstrated the NAIDOC theme – Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up! and was an example of our school community living the school’s vision - Empowering students to make a positive difference to our global community.  The ASHS school community thank everyone who contributed to the 2022 NAIDOC celebrations.










Principal's Address - With respect

The ASHS and greater Albany community has suffered a great loss recently. Our heartfelt sympathies are expressed to the family. Our thoughts are with everyone impacted by this community tragedy. ASHS has many support structures in place for our young people and their families as grief and loss is faced. Our School Psychologist, Renae Tomic, has included some mental health resources and links to support services in this newsletter for families to refer to. Should you or your children feel the need for professional help or counselling please contact your GP or link in with mental health resources such as Headspace. Our Student Services team, including our School Psychologist and Chaplain, are available at our school to support our students.



Supporting the mental health and wellbeing of our teens

As a community, we recognise that having good mental health and wellbeing helps teens learn at school. We have included a few resources that you may wish to access

If you are concerned about your teens mental health, access to mental health supports can be found through making an appointment with your GP or contacting local agencies (Headspace, Anglicare, Relationships Australia, Amity Health, Private Psychologists, etc.) directly. If you are concerned that your teens mental health and wellbeing is impacting their ability to engage in learning, please contact the Student Services team here at ASHS.


Mrs Renae Tomic
School Psychologist




Student Services Update, Term 3 Week 4

Student Leaders
I would like to congratulate the successful student leaders for 2022/2023. The new student leaders where recognised at recent year group assemblies where they were presented with their badges. Congratulations to the following students.

Year 7Year 8Year 9Year 10

Chanidu Wanihasekara
Amelia Burgess
Ellie Macaulay
Indie Davies
Lucy Newton
Pippa Williams
Oliver Harrington
Ollie Beeck
Emma Doak
Benjamin McLeish

Isaac Whan
Hana Kimpton
Abbey Turner
Monette Davies
Winter Proudfoot
Mischa Stanley
Xanthe Hams
James Pugh
Latisha Sewell
Elvie Lawrence-Brown

Keely Berry
Fergus Wright
William Staude
Caitlyn Rystenberg
Gigi Fogg
Saska Ellis
Shelley Thompson
Ethan Wood
Hamish Clark
Isabell O’Donnell

Charlie Hudson
Shanaya Weeden
Mabel Markey
Ryan Hanbury
Lily Briscoe
Mia Benson
Kleo Proudfoot
Kegan Naude
Nicky Wright
Jack Lewis


Student Leaders Day
Our new student leaders were announced to their peers in assembly and they have hit the ground running.

On Wednesday 03 August, student leaders gathered at the Surf Life Saving Club in the beautiful Middleton Beach for a leadership and team work day. We had some incredible guest speakers; Phil from Impulse Cycles, Katie from Three Anchors & Rebecca Stephens member for Albany. The students listened and shared ideas on what they can do in their new role as a student leader within the school and formed vertical committees to align with their interests; Wellbeing, Positive Behaviour & Culture – this will enable the students to reach their potential within the school environment.

Welcome Student Leaders!



Student Leader Community Engagement
On Thursday we were privileged to be invited to participate in the Youth Symposium which was being held by the City of Albany.
The attendees were asked to brainstorm some ideas to develop into a plan for Albany for the Bicentenary celebrations which are speeding toward us for 2026.
The ASHS students did an incredible job and represented the school community admirably – well done team!



Prefect Elects
Our 14 Prefect Elects have been announced and welcomed to the Student Leadership Team. At the start of Term 3 students and teachers voted for the following students as our prefects for 2022/2023:
Taj Callope, Lacie Clark, Brenda Cox, Fergus Collins, Laura Featherstone-Davies,  Keita Francis, Harry Knowlson, Kevan Poole, Renae Sheridan, Foxy Solomon, Imogen Taylor, Lily Turbill, Tiffany Wanden, Osandi Wanigasekara.
We are all looking forward to working with this awesome team of 2022/2023 Prefects.

Year 12 Notices
Year 12 awards preparation planning is currently in full swing – details to be released shortly.

Attendance
Regular student attendance is vital for learning, as is keeping accurate attendance records. If your student is absent from school, the preferred  method of informing the school is through Compass. If you have any issues with updating your childs attendance on Compass, please call 6821 1700 for assistance.

Attendance Codes
When your child is absent, a reason must be recorded against their name.
To assist you with information that you may receive from time to time in regards to attendance, the codes used by the Department of Education are as follows.

U – Unexplained absenceX – Unacceptable reason
T – Truant R – Reasonable explanation
E – Educational ActivityM – Medical/Sick bay
L – Late C – Cultural/Religious
N – Notified as SickV – Vacation
K – Unauthorised VacationZ - Suspended


Uniform
With the cooler weather upon us, students are reminded that hoodies and jumpers/jackets that are not ASHS school uniform are not permitted. Jeans and leggings are also not considered school uniform. Students are permitted to wear black long sleeved undershirts under their school shirt.
Students out of uniform will be requested to remove the non-uniform item if possible. Parents may be called to deliver appropriate uniform to school for students out of uniform.
In Student Services we endeavour to assist by providing students in need some uniform items. Parents are encouraged to contact Student Services if they are suffering financial difficulty and require loan uniform.



Year 12 Awards Evening


If you have an ASHS School Blazer, tie or both, and are willing to part with it, ASHS will kindly take it off your hands.  All donations are stored and loaned to students for special events. If you would like to donate a blazer or tie, please drop them into the Front Office with your contact details.


We would like to invite families of Albany Senior High School, our Alumni, and the wider community of Albany to donate funds towards the purchase of one of the Year 12 Awards for 2022.
The donation required for each Award is $50.00, and the option to donate closes on Friday 9 September 2022 4.00 pm.
This can be paid to the Accounts Office at the school, either by cheque, EFTPOS or bank transfer (6821 1700).
Donors will be recognised on the recipient’s award certificate, on the book nameplate and printed in the Awards Evening program.
The Year 12 Awards Night is scheduled to take place Thursday 27th October 2022, with further details being forwarded to Year 12 families closer to the date.

2023 Curriculum Handbooks

Albany Senior High School Curriculum handbooks for 2023 are available to view online.

Senior School Curriculum Handbook

   Senior School Pathways Decision Booklet 2023 - Year 11

      Support Session for Parents of Students entering Year 11 in 2023

Below is a recording of the Information Session that was held on the 31 May 2022 for students entering Year 11 in 2023.
      https://clickv.ie/w/Rn_s

Year 10 Curriculum Handbook 2023

    Year 10 Subject Selection Sheet 2023

Year 9 Curriculum Handbook 2023  

    Year 9 Subject Selection Sheet 2023

Year 8 Curriculum Handbook - Coming soon



GSSSA Senior School Volleyball Competition

On the 15th of June the GSSSA Senior School Volleyball Competition was held. The day turned out to be a fantastic success with over 80 players and teams of all ability competing for the final shield. Sportsmanship was on point and the participation in both gameplay and umpiring duties was second to none.
The boys competition was hotly contested in an epic final showdown between GSG and St. Joseph’s ultimately being taken out by GSG. The final standings were GSG 1st , St Josephs 2nd , NASHS 3rd , ASHS 4th and Mt Barker 5th. The ASHS boys played hard and performed well for a very young group.
In the Female field, GSG again showed their dominance winning all their games with relative ease, apart from an underdog draw by the Bethel Girls. There was a lot of new talent in the girls league and all the teams showed so much improvement over the day which was pleasing to see. Final girls standings were GSG 1st, ASHS 2nd, Bethel 3rd, St Joseph’s 4th, NASHS 5th and Mt Barker in 6th place. ASHS girls worked hard all day and showed themselves to be the grittiest team by far!


Mr Mitch Bruce
Health and Phys Ed Teacher

 



Community Notices

Albany Athletics Club
We'll run and walk on Sunday mornings from 16 April until 23 September at 8 beautiful outdoor locations in and around the city of Albany including National Parks, Reserves and private farmland. We offer running and walking options of approx. 2km, 4km or 6km distances for adults and juniors aged 6 years and above. Courses are well marked and events are timed by the Club.

Registration fees are low. Senior and Junior Memberships are only $65 for approx. 20 Cross Country events, with current Albany Little Athletics members receiving a $50 discount rate.

For more information about our Winter Cross Country season people can head to our webiste www.albanyathletics.com.au



Payments

For options on how to make payments for school fees, charges and contributions, all details are on our Payments page.


Subscribe

As members of our school community, you are welcome to subscribe to our School Newsletter. This will come to your email account each term. To subscribe, click here and scroll to the bottom of the ASHS home page, click the subscribe button and complete the form.