Melville High School 44-50 Nicholson Street, South Kempsey 2440 T: 65627511 F: 65627405 E: Melville-h.School@det.nsw.edu.au Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melvillehs Website: www.melville-h.schools.nsw.edu.au

Melville High School

Term 1 2020

Week 1:

Tuesday 28th January 2020 – Staff Development Day

Wednesday 29th January 2020 – Years 7, 11 and 12 return to school

Thursday 30th January 2020 – Years 8, 9, and 10 return to school

Week 2:

Tuesday 4th February 2020 – School Swimming Carnival

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Melville High School students continue to be amongst the best in NSW and Australia in the academic, cultural and sporting arenas. Melville is an amazing place that provides the opportunities for all if they choose to take advantage of them. I also want to acknowledge the students who turn up every day and work their hardest to be the best they can be, the silent achievers. Our small band of dedicated parents who make up Melville’s P&C have continued their financial support of our students, in collaboration with our canteen staff. They have sponsored students to participate in representative excursions, sporting uniforms and academic programs. I will make a special mention and thank Barb Coughran for her dedication and hard work. Barb will be standing down as P&C President next year. The amazing staff at Melville go over and above to provide such amazing courses, experiences and celebrations for our students. The extra time and effort by staff often goes unnoticed, these include organisation of excursions, camps and sporting trips. Thank you to all the staff here.

Melville has a number staff leaving us who will be very difficult to replace. They are going on to other things next year, such as retirement, enjoying a year off or going to another school/work location. These include; Dave McGrath, Craig Singleman, Dylan Kinnimont, Dave Barry, Seamus Kelly, Sara Drinan, Lisa Neilson, Hannah Pike and Dave Jacobs. Each of these staff members have contributed to the learning and wellbeing of our students. I sincerely thank them for the tireless hours they have put in to make our school amazing and wish them good luck with their future plans. On the flip side we have many new staff who we will welcome in at the start of the new year. 2020 will bring some exciting things for Melville including the installation air conditioning of a further 16 rooms, including the installation of more solar to support the energy use. This has come about as part of the Cooler Classroom program. Melville will become a phone free space with the introduction of Yondr pouches. The install of a new bell and PA system, additional security cameras in the playground areas and an updated hospitality room will also be completed for the start of the new year. Roll call will also be reintroduced for 2020 at the beginning of the day. I wish you all have a safe and happy Christmas and look forward to another amazing year in 2020. Victoria Staunton PRINCIPAL

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Guiding students into a positive learning environment Newly elected School Captains and Leaders at Melville High School will be working closely with students and staff, focusing on a wide range of activities to create a positive learning environment. Current issues ranging from the environment, equality, school and community involvement are the focus of these young, creative and innovative leaders. School Captains, Ruby and Ben, are focused on raising awareness of preserving and managing our environment through the “Green Leaders Program” and also improving the attendance of our students at Melville High School. Our Vice Captains, Brooman and Rosie, are targeting the importance of education by encouraging students to be engaged at school and to understand the importance that education can have on their lives. This is to be achieved by students having a safe learning environment. Our School Prefects have empathy for their school by looking at TEAM MELVILLE through student involvement in a wide variety of school based activities and improving school equipment for student use. The Leaders believe that their goals can only be achieved by inspiring students through strong leadership. We wish them well for 2020.

Back Row: Hunter Tyne, Chelsea Connolly,Brooman Page (Vice Captain), Jake Williams, Ben McCudden (Captain), Monique Abrahamse. .Front Row: Rosie Jeffery (Vice Captain), Hannah Bannerman and Ruby Dixon Crisp (Captain).

MELVILLE HIGH STUDENTS CELEBRATE DAIRY CREATIONS

After a fun and flavoursome three months, students from Melville High School have won $250 for their school and been chosen to have their dairy creation featured in Great Ocean Road’s 2020 calendar. The team from Melville High School, along with more than 1,330 students from 72 different schools across Australia, spent the semester whipping up a storm in the kitchen, thanks to the Great Ocean Road – Careers made here - Cheese Your Own Creation programme. In teams of two or three, students designed their own unique dairy creation before submitting the recipe and photo of their creation to be judged. Today, 12 creations were announced as programme winners, each receiving $250 for their school and inclusion in next year’s calendar. Student prizes will be presented to students from: Melville High School, Goulburn High School, Balaklava High School, Urrbrae Agricultural High School, St Michael’s Collegiate School, Clarence High School, Prospect High School, Camperdown College, Cathedral College Wangaratta, Busselton Senior High School, Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School and Tom Price Senior High School. “We have been really impressed by the creativity and imagination of the students,” Tracy Wong, Great Ocean Road Senior Brand Manager, said. “Every school and student should be proud of what they have achieved during the programme. It was a very hard task to choose only 12 recipes from so many unique dairy creations.” The programme was offered as a curricular activity within the school’s Food Technology classes. Students and teachers were provided with supporting resources and curriculum for the duration of the programme. Tracy said, Great Ocean Road is proud to support the Cheese your own Creation programme. It’s a great opportunity for students to have fun while learning important life skills like cooking, and

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Wednesday, 18 December 2019 Melville Matters

getting to know more about the wide range of career opportunities in Australia’s vibrant dairy industry. Michael Davidson, Head Teacher TAS at Melville High School, said his students had a lot of fun learning about all things dairy through the Great Ocean Road programme and was over the moon that one group actually came out winners. “The programme not only showcases dairy products and their nutritional value, it also highlights the importance of the industry to regional economies – so when students see dairy products on their supermarket shelf they can make the connection back to where dairy comes from in their local community.”

Kinchela Boys Home visit

On Thursday 21/11 Melville High School was privileged enough to have a visit from the new Kinchela Boys Home travelling museum. All Year 10 Students visited this bus and were able to appreciate learning more about this significant aspect of our history and gain further understanding of the impact of this tragedy on our country.

We are very thankful to those uncles involved for being willing to share their experiences and insights with this new generation."

Clontarf Award Winners 2019

Principals Award: Blair Simpson-Wise

Senior Clontarf Spirit: Anthony Dunn

Junior Clontarf Spirit: Zailen Campbell-Cook

Senior Leadership Award: Brooman Page

Junior Leadership Award: Anslem Campbell-Cook

Senior Attendance Award: Josh Hughes

Junior Attendance Award: Sunny Quinn

Senior Academic Award: Josh Hughes

Junior Academic Award: Josh Munro

Senior Sports Award: Tirell Dungay

Junior Sports Award: Robert Ingliss

Employment Award: Jayden Devlin

Senior Great Bloke: Ethan Thompson

Junior Great Bloke: Charles Tormanen

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Wednesday, 18 December 2019 Melville Matters

Project Planet PIP – Koala Smart Project

This term a Port Macquarie artist, Pauline Roods, came to visit Project Planet PIP class to assist us in developing ideas for the painting of a ‘blank canvas’ koala sculpture. This was part of the Koala Smart project run by the Lions Club which our class has been working on this semester. Pauline, one of the artists responsible for the painting of the large koala

sculptures in Port Macquarie, spoke to us about

her recent projects and the message she aims to convey with her artworks. The design I chose to put on my sculpture was a koala half engulfed in flames. I was wanting to bring awareness to the crisis our country is currently facing. The artwork was displayed at an exhibition in Port Macquarie and at the Kempsey Library.

The artwork became extremely relevant to our community over the past few weeks, with so many injuries and tragic deaths of koalas in our local area. Next Monday, some students who worked closely on this project will be visiting the Koala Hospital in Port Macquarie to consolidate what we have learned.

Indigo Kassel Year 9 Student

SCIENCE MATTERS A huge congratulations to all our award recipients in Science, Agriculture, Pet Care and Marine Studies at our recent Presentation Night. The quality of work in Term 4 and Yearly Exam results from so many students have been both impressive and encouraging indeed. The Science Faculty would like to acknowledge the outstanding work of Mr Craig Singleman who will be on leave next year. He is not only an excellent Science / Marine Studies teacher but has contributed to countless whole school activities over his years at Melville, particularly as a Year Adviser, coordinating Sound and Light for our assemblies, performing with his guitar for musical items, organising overnight excursions and camps and his work in helping Marine Studies flourish at Melville. His magician skills have also certainly entertained and educated many staff and students alike. He will certainly be greatly missed. Young Scientist Award This year, Extension Science was offered as a subject to Year 12. As part of this course, students completed a Scientific Research Project that could be either a firsthand investigation or one using secondary source data.

Year 12 student, Kate Ferguson

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Wednesday, 18 December 2019 Melville Matters

Kate Ferguson’s project on “The Effect of Acid Sulphate Soils on Sunflower Seed Yield” was entered in the NSW Young Scientist Award Competition. Many of you may recall seeing her rows of sunflowers growing at the front our school Agriculture Farm at the start of this year. In the “Depth Study - Working Scientifically” section Kate achieved an very impressive Bronze Award (third place) providing her with not only a certificate but a money prize. Congratulations, Kate for not only an outstanding scientific project but for being a role model for this new and exciting course not only at our school but across our state. Year 12 Biology Posters

Year 12 Biology have this term been learning about genetics and have just completed an assessment task on DNA Replication. The many 3D posters created have been outstanding and are a credit to the students and Ms Neilson. Several examples are shown below.

Year 12 Holiday Revision After enjoying a well-earned rest over the Summer Vacation, I would like to encourage all Year 12 Science students to take the time and make some summaries of the work they have covered in their first Year 12 topic – Module 5. If you would like your teacher to check / read these please do not hesitate to show your teachers your summaries when you return next year. Ian Mavin Head Teacher Science

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Wednesday, 18 December 2019 Melville Matters

SUPPORT UNIT NEWS Support unit students have been very busy this term with our end of year camp, National Day of Disability, science lessons with Mr Mavin and our usual Life Skills lessons.