Dear Parents/Guardians

Welcome to Term 3 and we hope everyone had a restful and happy holiday.

On Monday, 25^th July, all staff were involved in professional learning on our whole school priority of Quality Teaching and Learning.  Teachers had the opportunity to discuss and reflect on their practice specifically in regard to ‘Differentiation’ and catering for the diverse range of students we have within the classroom including students’ academic, social and emotional learning needs.  In the afternoon, teachers had the opportunity to work in collaborative teams focused on curriculum planning and assessment tasks and discuss the variety of ways in which students can demonstrate their skills, knowledge and understandings.

Mid-year reports were sent home in the last week of Term 2.  The reports provided students and parents with assessments for both achievement and effort in each subject.  Information will be sent home in the coming weeks on the booking process for Parent/Teacher/Student Interviews which will be held in Week 6, Monday, 29^th August, 3:30-5:00pm and Tuesday, 30^th August, 3:30-6:30pm in Building 2. These three-way interviews give both parents and teachers an opportunity to discuss how to best support students’ ongoing learning and enable students to understand what they need to do to progress.

Year 10 Exams

Year 10 Mid-year Exams were held this week.  Thank you to the Year 10 students for their positive attitude and application to both the study period and exams.  The exams provide teachers with additional assessments in each of the core subjects which contribute to the end of year ratings for students. The exam week also ensures that our students who are transitioning to Year 11 in 2023 have a clear understanding and experience of the exam process and the structure of exam papers.

NHSSA Year 8 Sports Proposal 2023

We recently collected student feedback from the Year 7 students on the proposal that Riverside High School join the NHSSA Thursday sports roster in 2023.  The sports roster will provide an opportunity for our 2023 Year 8 students to participate in a friendly school-based sports roster and develop their fitness and coordination, friendships and their health and well-being.  Parent/guardian feedback on the proposal will be collected in the near future.

College Productions

All Year 9 and 10 students will have the opportunity to attend the Launceston College Production of ‘Rent’ on Friday, 12^th of August and Year 7 students will be attending the Newstead Production of ‘Freaky Friday’ on Wednesday, 17^th of August.  This is a great opportunity for students to experience live theatre and also see many past Riverside High School students who are in the cast of both productions.  Students must wear full school uniform to attend the excursion with further details being communicated in a letter which will be sent home with students.  Year 8 students also have a number of performances to attend in August and September.

Years 11/12 – 2023

Riverside High School has been exploring Year 11/12 provisions for 2023. It is most important that the courses on offer focus on engagement, retention and achievement and connect to employment and future learning options. In consultation with DoE VLCE unit and Tas TAFE, a skills shortage was identified in ‘Civil Constructions’. In 2023, Riverside High School will partner with Tas TAFE to provide Civil Constructions VET Cert 2.  Please see the attached documentation on Civil Constructions. Tas TAFE have already presented to our Year 10 students and we are taking expressions of interest now.

School Parking for Visitors and Parent/Guardians

At the end of the school day, we have a large amount of traffic in the school.  A reminder to parents and guardians to drive slowly and please ensure that you are parking in the dedicated parking bays only and that you are not obstructing buses.  The school buses must be able to enter and exit the turning circle to ensure they collect and drop off students at the allocated times. Your understanding is greatly appreciated.

Ms Jeanna Bolton

Health and Physical Education is a compulsory subject for all students. Students are assessed against the Australian Curriculum.

In practical classes this year, students have played a number of different invasion and target games where the focus has been on participation, developing co-ordination skills and fitness. The Grade 10 students have been involved in a “Design a Game” unit where they have had to determine rules, equipment and strategies for a new game that they have structured.

The three key messages we are trying to teach students are:

• Small, sided games maximise participation for skill learning.
• Learning will occur through a game question and reflection followed by a return to the game cycle (eg Why did the red team score more easily than the blue team? Blue team – what changes do you need to make then?).
• We learn through basic games and skill acquisition before increasing the complexity of the game.

All students are currently working on our Dance unit and exploring the Achievement Standard focused on performing specialised movement skills along with identifying elements of movement and composing movement sequences. For Grade 7s and 8s this involves learning line dancing sequences with a variety of different movement patterns before incorporating these into a guided dance sequence of their own creation. Grade 9s and 10s expand on this further by exploring different genres of dance and create amazing presentations for their respective classes, with the Grade 10s creating a flash mob performance that will appear sometime soon during a break time!

In Term 3, students will be working on the Respectful Relationships unit that is age appropriate to their grade. Our HPE junior school team will be covering topics around puberty and changes that occur to our bodies whilst our senior school students explore more delicate topics of power and consent in relationships. If you have any questions in relation to the Respectful Relationships, please contact the school.

Sport at RHS

As we commence Term 3, we have a number of our sports teams well placed in the Wednesday sport roster organised by the Northern High School Sports Association. The following teams are on top of their respective ladders:

• Firsts Football Boys – Mr Elliott
• Seconds Football Boys – Mr Hughes
• Firsts Football Girls – Miss Hinds
• Firsts Soccer – Mr Beardwood
• Seconds Soccer – Mr Fyfe
• Firsts Hockey – Mrs Greatbatch
• Fourths Netball – Miss Brazendale

The following teams are on track to make the top four in their division and qualify for the finals:

• Firsts Football Girls – Miss Groves
• Firsts Hockey – Mr Gregory
• Firsts Netball – Miss Rolls
• Seconds Netball – Miss Brazendale

Most importantly, the students across all sports have been successfully competing to the best of their ability whilst upholding our school’s values and sportsmanship.

Thank you to Miss Hall who has been helping coordinate Sport at RHS whilst Mr Musovic was on leave during Term 2. We welcome back Mr Musovic and congratulate him and his wife Anna (a former RHS teacher) on the safe arrival of their twin daughters, Emerson and Josie.

Tim Elliott
HPE Coodinator and Grade 8 AST

Another season of fantastic netball is well under way in our weekly Wednesday Afternoon Senior Netball Roster. The increased student numbers this year have allowed Riverside High School to enter six teams into this highly contested competition. Each week the students go to Hoblers Bridge Netball Courts to compete against the inner city and country schools.  All teams have had quite significant journeys so far, coming away with some strong wins and tough losses. The first two weeks saw Riverside take home four wins out of five. With some back and forth in placings throughout the roster, Riverside have since found their rhythm and are now settled in new competitive divisions.

Since the beginning of the season, the level of skill, teamwork and sportsmanship across all teams has progressed significantly. Supporting one another has been a focus across all teams and will continue to be for the rest of the roster. Both RHS Brazendale teams are to be commended on their continuous support and encouragement of one another while taking on new coaches throughout the season. The girls have continued to develop their understanding of the game whilst showing great leadership qualities in the organisation of playing positions and the delegation of roles and responsibilities when on and off the court.

There have been many admirable performances throughout this season with Cassidy and Shay courageously stepping up and filling in for our first and second teams in a RHS A versus RHS B clash. Mia and Lilly consistently came out strong off the line and worked hard in attack to bring the ball down the court, finishing off with some impeccable feeds into the circle. Erin and Lucy showed cohesiveness in the circle and the finesse to finish off with some impressive stats.

The RHS netball girls are to be congratulated on their initiative and leadership, whether it be putting their hand up to umpire, score keep or cheer on their fellow teams, their dogged determination to come out on top and the positive attitude they bring each week are to be commended.  We are looking forward to a strong finish for our teams.

Georgia Rolls

Earlier in the year, 30 students from Grades 7 to 10 participated in the Australian Geography Competition.

They were supplied with a range of maps, tables and diagrams that they had to answer questions about.  Students found this competition quite challenging, with questions requiring them to draw on general knowledge, apply what they know and use reasoning skills.

Even though it was challenging, Riverside High School had some excellent results. Congratulations to the following students:

Grade 7:

Shaun K: Distinction

Ethan B-D: Credit

Oscar M: Credit

Lali N: Credit

Isaac N: Credit

Grade 8:

Angus D: Credit

Grade 9:

Max M: High Distinction – Top 3% for Grade 9 nationally

Rhys D: Credit

Devansh P: Credit

Grade 10:

Keila B: High Distinction

Chloe D: High Distinction

April L: High Distinction

Shay M: High Distinction

Morgan H: Distinction

Emma S: Credit

Shaun Osborne

Starting in Week 6 of last term, a group of students from across all grades participated in the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Shadow Judging Program. This required students to read six shortlisted young adult novels over six weeks and then vote on a winning book. The CBCA Book of the Year Awards connects young people to great literature with the Shadow Judging Program providing an opportunity to voice our opinions.

The Short-Listed books were:

• Sugar Town Queens by Malla Nunn
• Tiger Daughter by Rebecca Lim
• Boy from the Mish by Gary Lonesborough
• Terciel and Elinor by Garth Nix
• How to Repaint a Life by Steven Herrick
• Girls in Boys’ Cars by Felicity Castagna

The program is available to schools and book clubs such as our own at Riverside High and we had a number of people read all books and then discuss each based on the judging criteria in order to determine the best novel. The Book Club came to the easy conclusion that Sugar Town Queens by Malla Nunn was our favourite and cast our vote on Friday, 29^th July.

Sugar Town Queens is a youthful tale narrated by 15-year-old, Amandla. Amandla lives in Sugar Town - a township bordering the sugar cane fields just outside of Durban, South Africa. Raised in a one-room tin shack by her mentally ill single mother, Annalisa, Amandla is often ostracised as being “too black” for the white kids and “too white” for the black kids. The book is her journey to acceptance with a twist of mystery and family drama!

The shadow judging opportunity invites young voices from groups across Australia to join the conversation about the annual Shortlist and choose their own winners. The winner will be announced at the end of CBCA Book Week at the first ever Shadowers’ Choice Awards on Friday, 26^th August.

If you are interested in participating in such programs or are enthusiastic about reading, the Riverside High Book Club is always welcoming more members.

Morgan H

Ella H

My name is Sienna and I am a Community Prefect. I was born in Phoenix, Arizona in the United States and I moved here at the beginning of 2020. I have an interest in dancing and music.  I have participated in ballet for 11 years and played the piano for the last five years.  I am performing in Dance Fever which will be taking place at Launceston College in November.  I really enjoy cooking and baking.  I like cooking with my Nana. We often come together and cook different things, whatever she decides.

In my role as a Prefect, I enjoy the challenge of stepping outside of my comfort zone and trying new experiences. The challenge of working in a team situation has been a great experience. I have learned many new skills from this.

My name is Chloe and I am a member of the Learning Portfolio. I like to play different sports, with soccer being my main passion.  I play netball and participate in mountain bike riding with my family on the weekends and during the holidays.  Soccer training and playing on the weekends keep me very busy. 

I believe my leadership position has given me an opportunity to work with like-minded people and share ideas with other members of the team.

My name is Taj and I am part of the Executive Portfolio as Head Prefect. From a young age, I have been musically driven playing both guitar and piano and I continue to play today. I have a passion for outdoor sports such as snowboarding.  I have been lucky enough to go to Japan and snowboard there; otherwise, I am tearing it up at Ben Lomond. I also enjoy travelling with my family around Australia which I have done twice; first up the east coast, then taking a trip up the middle and now we are going to the west coast very soon.

This year has seen many challenges with COVID and being limited in what we can do. The greatest challenges resulting from these circumstances have been difficult to work around but have really prompted me and the rest of the Board to work with what we have and to make the most of it. This year has been a great learning experience for me and the leadership skills I am developing are setting me up for the rest of my life.

My name is Millie and I am a member of the Wellbeing Portfolio. I have travelled to many countries, even living in Ireland for the first two years of my life. The birth of my younger sister is what brought my family back to Tasmania. I have always had a great love of the beach, spending most of my childhood at Bicheno. I love to play basketball with my friends and began doing this at the start of Grade Seven. Spending time with my family is my favourite thing to do. We go camping and it is great fun.

The Prefect Board has faced many challenging situations this year. With such high numbers of COVID there were multiple restrictions that we had to work around. Although this has been frustrating at times it has only developed my problem-solving skills further. Being a leader has made me appreciate all the people who have played a leadership role in my life. This year has been such a great opportunity to develop myself and witness the growth of those around me.

Reminder – Safety when Crossing the Road and using the School Crossings.

Choose the safest place to cross.

Think about when it is safe to cross – look and listen.

Pedestrians should use and obey pedestrian signals and crossings.

Pedestrians must follow the directions of a traffic attendant or crossing monitor while crossing.

We urge all parents to use the designated parking for student pickups. Unfortunately, we do not have a large capacity for parent parking at the end of the day. The yellow NO STANDING line marking must be honoured because buses cannot drive safely with cars parked there.

All parents need to park in the designated areas past the bus parking zone please (see the image below).