Montrose Bay High School Newsletter - Term 4 Week 6

Dear Families,

Welcome to week six of term four. It has been a busy and productive three weeks since our last newsletter with PAT testing across the school, band camps, basketball tournaments and lots of engaging teaching and learning opportunities both in and out of classrooms around our school.

A big thanks to Johnno Stone, Josie Dwyer and Emma Cooper, our fabulous music staff who took our concert band on a weeklong tour last week of NW Tasmania and performed for several primary schools on the coast who don’t normally get the opportunity to see high school bands in action. The quality of the performances was first class and on Friday afternoon we had some very exhausted musicians come off the bus.

We also had a big weekend of basketball in week four with both our girls’ and boys’ teams representing our school in several games at Swisher Stadium in Hobart and the Kingsborough Sports Stadium. We had lots of families and staff come along to cheer and coach our teams and both teams represented our school with huge amounts of school spirit.

Our priority as a whole school this term is to continue our focus on a calm and orderly learning environment as work together in creating a quality teaching and learning framework based on teachers working together through collaborative inquiry. This will continue to be our way of working as we move into 2022.

We have our grade six transition day coming up on December 1^st where our future grade seven students will spend a day here at Montrose and experience four sessions in the day in their 2022 core class as well as three specialist subjects.

This weekend we have a Science team competing in the Tasmanian Model Solar Car Championships at Clarence High School on Saturday 20^th of November and I’m looking forward to watching them in action.

Don’t forget to stay connected to our school and you can see what’s happening in and around the place via our Facebook feeds our school app product, newsletter and we are about to launch our new website before the end of this year.

Have a great weekend.

Duncan Groves

Principal

Last week the Montrose Bay High School Concert Band travelled up north to perform at three primary schools (Boat Harbour, Table Cape, and Somerset). We’ve been practising and putting in lots of effort into 6 of our songs to eventually perform them to these schools. Keeping with our tradition the band stayed at Camp Clayton for the week, during which they provided meals throughout the days including snacks and accommodation in which we had our own area of cabins, a gym, and a games room. Throughout the week we participated in many fun activities such as bowling, mini-golf, shopping/free time around Devonport, movies, and lastly dinner at Valentino’s pizza and pasta. During our time away we learned a lot and grew even closer as not only a band but a family. We had lots of fun and it is something we will never forget. Band tour will be a highlight in all our high school journeys forever.

On behalf of the Concert Band, we would like to thank Mr Stone, Mr Groves, and the music staff’s hard work for making this happen.

Ashlee Tucker and Grace Dawson

Year 7 students are now well underway and settled into their current rotation of specialist taster subjects. These block sessions are designed to give them an experience of what they could expect to learn more about if they chose to continue with that subject pathway. In MDT they have been honing their woodworking skills to customise their very own moving vehicle, with some students going on to add optional accessory packs. Our aspiring Artists have been developing their concept of shade and colouring in Art, moving on from jellyfish designs to applying their sketching and shading skills to more complex animal shapes. In music, students have learnt basic chord shapes on acoustic guitar, and are progressing onwards in their journey to Rockstar status by applying their new skills to electric guitar as a rock ensemble. In the kitchen, students are practising food preparation and safety skills to produce a variety of masterful dishes in Foods. Working solidly in the computer lab, our future Digital Technology technicians have manipulated images using Photoshop, and are developing their animation and game design skills. In our Health and Wellbeing taster, Team Sports, students have been learning how to develop team play through a variety of different sports such as Tee Ball, and testing their teamwork skills in minor games. In our performing arts space, our Drama students have been refining their performance skills, unleashing their inner comic by creating mime and comedy scenes.

A big congratulations to our two latest Dojo Points Raffle winners Kane and Caileb from 7D, and also to our top Dojo Points scorers who won a chance to visit Bonorong Park – Alex, Hayley, Jethro, Madeleine, Bella, and Lara. A reminder that all students have the chance to collect dojo points through consistently demonstrating the school values in their classes and day to day actions.

In Year 8 we are working hard on finishing the year off in a really positive way. We are really proud of everyone’s efforts at recent school events such as the swimming carnival, Inter-High swimming and the week long Band Tour of North West Tasmania. Some of our students also participated in the High School Basketball Tournament playing 4 games each over the course of a single weekend representing the school in a really positive manner. In class, we are still learning about new things and working to finish the year off with the best results possible. In History, we have continued our study of the Viking Age, including learning about weapons and armour used by Vikings and the nine real realms in Norse mythology. In English, we have used our skills to analyse characters in the text, ‘A Monster Calls’ by Patrick Ness, and summarised the plot from specific chapters in our Story Boards. In Mathematics, we have been continuing with our study of geometry. We’ve studied volume and how it related to the capacity of objects such as containers, bottles and water tanks. In Science, we have dissected a cane toad to study the similarities between its own and human’s digestive system. Despite the smell, the students did a great job and were very respectful to the once living creatures. Art students have been improving their observation drawing and learning watercolour techniques, with their Jellyfish projects (some of these are shown below). We have also said farewell to Josh, our pre-service teacher working alongside Ryan in 8C, 8D and 8E since the start of the term, we hope you have enjoyed your time in Year 8 and wish you all the best for the future. As we work towards the end of the school year, it is really important we maintain our focus on Working Hard and Being Kind to set ourselves up for the best chance of success in Year 9 in 2022. 

This term in 9A, we have looked at a range of different topics in English, Maths, Science and History. In English, we are currently in the middle of our dystopian and utopian literature topic. In the Common Assessment Task (CAT),  we are continuing to write stories using utopian and dystopian devices. In Maths, we have looked at using Excel in our statistics unit. We used Excel for making graphs using data collected in class. In Science, we have looked at energy and in particular sound and heat energy. My favourite lesson was when we used a ticking machine and a measuring tape and pulled it until we couldn't hear the ticking anymore. The purpose of this experiment was to measure how far the sound would travel. In History, we got to work on our own personal research projects. My favourite part of this was being able to choose my own topic Chernobyl disaster. We are also learning about 1750-1918 Japan. I particularly liked learning about how the Samurai period ended. We have worked hard on all of these topics and look forward to relaxing end of the year ready for Grade 10.

Josh Lane - 9A Student 

In 9D this term, we have been embracing different opportunities to learn new skills and content in all our subject areas. In health and wellbeing, we have commenced an Invasion games unit of playing Tuokball. It has been great to be able to apply skills learnt from other sports to adapt to different variations of rules involved in the game. Our competitive games on a Friday Morning with 9C have been a highlight. In Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), we have been learning about Gratitude. This week we did a Country case study identifying the positives and negatives of living in Australia. We then compared our own lives to those of a country of our choice. Students found it interesting to compare and contrast.

Let’s hope for a great end of the year in 9D.

For our Grade 10 students, we have reached the halfway point of our final term. Although the end is in sight for our precious cohort, our students are working harder than ever to achieve success, both in an academic and personal sense. With our Celebration Dinner drawing near, the Grade 10s are starting to see the fruits of their hard work in earning their Dojos through our school’s Positive Behaviour Support program. During our weekly Connect assemblies, students have started receiving their Celebration dinner invitations and have been more than eagerly preparing their RSVPs for the event.

Week 4 of this term saw our students attend their final swimming carnival of their high school lives. The day itself was well anticipated by all within the grade, with students displaying exceptional behaviour and participation. Praise has been given to the leaders of our school in role-modelling exemplary behaviours and attitudes to our younger students. Congratulations to the following as our swimming carnival champions for 2021:

Boys Champion: Lachlan Blackwell

 Runner Up: Riley Jones

 Girls Champion: Jasmine Neil

 Runner Up: Makayla Dolliver

During week 5 of this term, a group of dedicated Grade 10 students were selected to prepare and deliver our Dragonfly yearbook for 2021. The team has worked tirelessly crafting articles, preparing photographs, and designing the yearbook to deliver our school’s story to you at the end of the year. Well done to those involved in a tremendous collaborative effort to have the yearbook prepared in under a week.

In preparation for transition into college, our students will be visiting their respective colleges for their orientations on the 1st of December. We wish our students luck as they begin their formal preparation for life outside MBHS. We know that our students are just as excited as we are for this day and will wear their Montrose names with pride.

As a grade, we are seeing tremendous growth in terms of work ethic and respectful behaviour. We anticipate that this is in preparation for their transitions into the next chapters of their lives as they continue down their chosen paths as young adults. We are proud of the work and commitment our students are placing on their learning and look forward to watching our students reap the rewards of their labour in the final weeks of term.

Montrose Bay High is one of eight schools within The Derwent Collective. These schools are working together to provide students in our region with more opportunities and support for Years 11 and 12. As part of this, we would love to hear from current MBH parents and include your voice in the decisions we make around our students futures. Please complete the survey attached. This survey can be anonymous but if you would like to go in the running for a $50 Kmart voucher, please include your contact details.