Dear Students, Parents and Carers,

Congratulations on making it through to the final days of what has been a long and challenging Term 3.  As the term has progressed it has been wonderful to see many success stories and evidence of some students thriving during Flexible and Remote Learning.  As a school we have seen both ends of the scale, with those students thriving and those who have struggled, often through no fault of their own, to maintain their learning.  As we head into Term 4 our focus now shifts to four key areas for the final eleven school weeks of 2020.  These four focus areas are:

• Beginning the process of catch-up learning and continuing to extend those who progressed well during flexible and remote learning
• Supporting students to re-establish friendships and class groups when back on site, and provide additional support where needed
• Helping every student prepare for 2021 with a sense of purpose and optimism
• Ensuring students continue to develop their literacy and numeracy knowledge and skills, build their personal and social capability and are physically active.

As we commence Term 4 we will be calling on each and every member of our school community to support us with this work and ensuring that all students have the opportunity to shine and show us their best.  Stay tuned over the weeks ahead as we will continue to update you with our work and focus on students for Term 4.

Whilst we are resuming onsite learning in Term 4 it will by no means be a normal start to the term.  Our arrangements for the start of Term 4 are guided by Department of Education & Training Operational Guidelines and include:

Please keep your eye on COMPASS and our Facebook page for further updates about Term 4.

Year 12 students

At this business end of their final year of schooling we would like to encourage all of our Year 12 students to continue the hard work, effort and endeavour that they have invested over the last 8 months. The finish line is in sight and with the support of your parents, carers and teachers we have every confidence that with continued effort and endeavour that you will successfully complete your final year of schooling and what a final year it has been! Over the holiday break, find time to pursue those things that you enjoy, particularly with the easing of restrictions. However, all play and no work does not bode well for great results. So, you are also encouraged to fine tune those notes, complete any outstanding work tasks and to invest some time in the supports that we are offering you. This might include access the NEVR Revision Lectures or the revision lectures organised through the school to support your work in a range of subjects. No matter what the future brings, you all have lots to be proud of as we approach the end of 2020 and we want you to head into 2021 following your desired pathways and with a sense of optimism.

Thank you

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our students across all Year levels for their efforts to continue learning during these unusual times.  We have seen through this experience that you are capable, resilient and most of all prepared to adapt, be agile and try new things. Be proud of what you have achieved and remember that Term 4 is your chance to shine as we return onsite.

Thank you to the many parents and carers who have actively supported student learning, sometimes whilst also trying to juggle your own workload.  Your support has been invaluable and we look forward to that continuing in Term 4 as we navigate the challenges of returning onsite.

Finally, to our staff team. A team that has had to learn and adapt throughout flexible and remote learning. Thank you for your commitment to our students, including the endless hours of communicating with our students and parents and the huge amount of screen time to ensure students are learning and connecting. Your work often happens quietly in the background but over FRL 2.0 you have achieved amazing things, thank you.

Students, parents, carers and staff, may you all find some down time over the break. Stay safe, stay healthy and we look forward to seeing all of our students back on site by Wednesday 14^th October.

Kind regards,

Brad Moyle

Executive Principal

This is the cycle that our lessons move through, with each stage of the learning experience accompanied by key actions and questions to develop thinking and independence. Over the next few weeks, we’ll post some tips on how families can use the LEARN Model during FRL. 

Tip #1
When chatting with your children while they’re working you might like to use the questions for each stage to support their learning.

• What are you learning?
• Are you engaging?
• How are you using this?
• How did you go?
• What is next for your learning?

Instead of turning in a Word or Google Doc she submitted a website with her information. I was completely blown away! So I would to acknowledge her work as she went ‘above and beyond’ the expectations.

Check it out https://9cenglish2.weebly.com/

Sarah Adams 
English Teacher/VCAL Literacy Teacher


Year 8 Science

Throughout remote learning 2.0, Science students in Year 8 have been studying reproduction. The students have been investigating the difference between sexual and asexual reproduction, studying the wonders of how flowering plants get funky and developing an appreciation of how hard parenting is. The students were asked to roam the neighbourhood collecting flowers to dissect and then photograph and identify the female and male parts.

The students also had fun looking after an egg baby for a week and completing a diary about the pros & cons of becoming a responsible egg parent. There were several deaths as it was against the rules to secretly hard boil your egg, but many students took on the responsibility with enthusiasm, naming, making egg carrying capsules and even arranging babysitters for their newborns.

Cory Stewart 
Science Teacher

The Rural City of Wangaratta would like to give you the latest update on bike jumps in Wangaratta.

As you can see from this photo Wangaratta High School students have been mucking around on bikes by rivers forever!

School holidays are a great time to get out and about on your bike, just make sure you follow the rules of the local bike jump sites while you have fun.

Council staff have recently inspected current jump sites and found four sites they believe would be suited to being supported bike jump sites:

• West End – in an open area around 200m north of the existing St Bernard’s site along One Mile Creek
• Arlington Park – south of the existing site dubbed “the Zoo”. This is a more open piece of land fronting Three Mile Creek, which Council would lease from the owners of St John’s Village
• Yarrunga – along One Mile Creek near the Homestead Life building
• Sydney Beach – where jumps are currently in place near the rail bridge

You can see maps showing these sites here

Before these jump sites are in place, we’d ask bike jumps users to continue to keep to the agreed rules.

In the coming weeks Council will also be removing any wooden pallets, logs, carpet or other rubbish that has been brought onto sites as these materials are unsafe for bike jump users and the environment.

Here is a quick reminder of the rules for bike jump sites that will be featured on the signage to go up at each site (note: rule number 5 will come into play when we have provided the stockpiles of dirt).

1. No fires
2. No damage to trees and the surrounds (don’t place soil/jumps within 1m of a tree trunk)
3. No rubbish to be left
4. No bringing in dangerous material for jump/path construction
5. No holes to be dug on walk ways (use soil from stockpiles provided, rather than digging existing soil)
6. No graffiti or vandalism
7. No ‘ownership’ over sites – they are for everyone to use
8. No expansion of tracks outside designated areas

If you have any further questions, please email our Manager Community and Recreation Ben Thomas at b.thomas@wangaratta.vic.gov.au.

Mitchell Avenue Pump Track
A brand new bike pump track is being installed near Mitchell Avenue, for more information see here 

Happy riding!

Northeast Health Wangaratta has some great opportunities for school leavers.
Summer Cadetships
▪️Radiography administration – must be studying radiography University degree
▪️Education & research administration – must be studying a health related University degree

Aadventure Camping, Fishing and Firearms

Origin Energy is again running the Little Big Idea Competition.

Little Big Idea is a competition to find the big, innovative ideas that shape the future – from the little, creative kids who’ll be living through it. The competition calls for kids from grades 3 to 8 to come up with a great idea, big or small.  

The top 12 finalists will receive one-on-one mentoring developed by Engineers Without Borders Australia, and they’ll each receive $1,000 to help get their idea off the ground. Three national winners will each receive $10,000 towards their education or further developing their idea. Entry is simple. Students just need to head to the littleBIGidea website and describe their idea in 200 or words or less – they can even submit a short video, drawing or diagram to help bring their idea to life.

Entries close Friday, 18 September 2020.