On Thursday, the Burnie Youth Council students attended a leadership training workshop at the Burnie City Council Chambers. Jeder Institute provided training on Asset Based Community Development, that helps recognise the strengths, gifts, talents and resources of individuals and communities, to create strong, inclusive, and sustainable communities. They learnt that by building relationships and creating the space for opportunities to emerge, community members become powerful and are more in control of their own decision making.

They spoke about six different types of assets to connect to, including Individuals, Community groups, Government and non-Government agencies, physical assets, economic assets, and stories. The stories included our local heritage, local identities, and local values. They learnt that the main drivers of assets, are hope, care and relationships.

The Youth Council will complete this training in May, and they are looking forward to learning more about leadership styles. Students got to work in groups with other students from other schools and it was wonderful to share ideas and get to know one another better. Those ideas were put on butchers paper and students got to share with other groups.

Fostering Leadership and Community Spirit at Parklands High: Highlights from Our School's Recent Activities

In the realm of leadership, this term has been brimming with enthusiasm and initiatives aimed at uplifting our school community. From electing our student leaders to organizing meaningful events, here's a glimpse into some of the remarkable endeavours that have taken place:

New Leadership Team: Following a democratic voting process, our leadership positions have been filled, with Russi Sturzaker assuming the role of President and Asha Chappell as Vice President. Their dedication and vision promise to steer our school towards greater heights of success and unity.

Yellow and Purple Day BBQ: In a vibrant display of solidarity, we recently hosted a BBQ event on Yellow and Purple Day, encouraging students to accessorize in hues of purple and yellow to show support for the Cancer Council. It was heartening to witness the colourful turnout and collective commitment towards a noble cause.

Cultivating School Culture: Collaborating closely with Mrs. McCall, we've embarked on a journey to deepen our understanding of school culture and explore avenues for celebration, support, and enhancement. Through insightful discussions and interactive sessions, we're learning how small gestures can foster a more inclusive and harmonious environment within our school community.

Successful Assembly Debut: Our inaugural assembly of the term was a resounding success, serving as a platform to recognize student achievements, appoint class captains, and celebrate the diverse talents within our school. The lively atmosphere and enthusiastic participation underscored the sense of pride and camaraderie prevalent among students and staff alike.

Revamping the School Pantry: As part of our ongoing efforts to support families in need, we've undertaken the task of revamping our school pantry. Recognizing the importance of nutritious meals, we've introduced themed food baskets complete with all the ingredients required to prepare a specific meal, along with accompanying recipes. This initiative aims to alleviate food insecurity and promote healthy eating habits within our school community.

These endeavours exemplify our collective commitment to fostering leadership, community spirit, and social responsibility within our school. As we continue to embark on this journey of growth and empowerment, we remain steadfast in our dedication to creating a nurturing and inclusive environment where every individual feels valued and supported.

This term in Grade 7 we have been getting to know our way around the school, making new friends and connecting with our peers. 

In Science, we have been working on chemistry and separation techniques, some highlights of this term in science were, making ricotta cheese in the kitchen and growing salt crystals. 

In Maths, we have been learning about fractions and are ending the term with probability and our CAT (common assessment tasks) tests. We have also completed both PAT and NAPLAN testing. We have enjoyed using our calculators and whiteboards to help us determine the exact answer for each equation. 

In HASS (Humanities and Social Sciences) this semester we have been learning about the deep time of ancient Australia and civics and citizenship. Students have been learning about the deep time of ancient Australia through using case crackers and being detectives. 

In English we have been visiting our marvellous library and are now creating our own picture books for our CAT developing and extending our literacy skills and handwriting. 

All grade 7 students have attended the cultural hub with Mr Guy Grey (Chalky) and Brodie at least once this term, to extend our knowledge about cultural practices in Tasmanian. Students participated in an ochre ceremony in our class groups. Grade 7 students have also participated in a smoking ceremony on Harmony Day and placed a painted handprint onto a banner to show our support for Closing the Gap campaign. 

Students have also enjoyed picking their own option classes, Digi Tech, Art, Extended PE, MDT, Music, and Drama. Students have been enjoying doing each one of them, with three option classes selected each semester. 

In week 8, Grade 7 students participated in a grade wide easter egg hunt down the hill. Students had to find rabbit images printed onto paper that students had to return to their teachers. There were also 5 eggs hidden around that students could find to win a big prize. The winning class was 7D with 62 bunny tags found. Well done to 7D who won the Easter Haul. The competition was tight however with 7A having found 51 rabbits, 7B 52 rabbits and 7C with 53. This event required a lot of team effort and every home group had different strategies to find the most eggs like passing the rabbits up to their fastest runners and the least exhausted of their peers. Students that had perfect attendance (98% or higher) had won a special prize of a big egg purchased Parklands High School. 

The class captains of 2024 have also been announced in assembly, Will and Tia from 7A, Xavier and Mia from 7B, Zoish and Mayson from 7C, Brodie and Suresh from 7D. Well done to these students. 

Mayson 

It has been pleasing to see the way Year 8 students have settled in to learning so far this year, with the majority of students making the most of their opportunities in each class. In Mathematics students have been learning about integers and percentages, and how these skills apply to the world around them. 

In English students have been learning how to take evidence from a text using quotations while explaining and justifying their argument. All students have shown a growing understanding on the importance of supporting their argument with credible sources. 

Recently all students went on an excursion to Fossil Bluff near Wynyard as part of their learning in science. We had perfect weather for the day, with students learning about the processes of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. Fossil Bluff, Pine Point, and Doctors Rocks offers a unique experience where students can witness the various types of rocks and understand the geological processes of our local areas. 

• Mr Crawford and the Year 8 Team 

Wow, who can believe that term 1 is almost over. What a busy term it’s been for our year 9 students!  

Grade 9 Core Class Learning update by Kallie and Mataya.  

In the last week in maths, we have been learning about algorithms and flowcharts and how they relate to our daily lives. In English we have been looking at and creating our own narratives. During history we have been studying the Industrial Revolution, Child labour and Slavery. This term in science we have been looking at chemistry, specifically elements, nuclear powerplants/waste and atoms. 

Well done to all year 9 student who completed NAPLAN – Students should be congratulated on the mature approach they have taken to their testing process. As with any aspect of student learning, we expect that students give their best effort, so their results are a true representation of their current capabilities. I am confident that the overwhelming majority of year 9 did this.  

To finish the term, Wednesday afternoon all year 9’s completed a short survey to give staff some feedback on how students thought their learning was tracking so far. Pleasingly, 90% of students said that they complete all work to the best of their ability. Students also had the opportunity to give some feedback on how we can continue to grow our learning environments – we look forward to implementing this feedback next term to support students to achieve their very best.  

We have a n number of opportunities for year 9 students coming up next term – our year 9 Camp probably being one of the most anticipated one on the calendar. Students will have the opportunity to attend a two-night camp at Paton Park located in North Motton. The camp and will be an opportunity for students to build connections through structured and purposeful activities aimed at fostering student's teamwork, resilience, leadership, and life skills. 

-Miss Bound and the Year 9 Team 

We have had a strong start to the Year with our students settling in Year 10. Students have started the Resilience Project and are learning strategies to build up their resilience as they face challenges. We currently have our leavers shirts available to order until the 3rd of May. 

As a grade team we would like to acknowledge the improvement in our Year 10 students particularly as they grow into their new role of being year 10 and the senior students of our school. Our future focus for year 10’s is to focus on being organised and prepared for classes (with all required learning materials including pens, pencils and books) and developing strong time and self-managment strategies.  

We wish our year 10’s a restful and relaxing term break and we look forward to another positive and productive term 2. 

• Mr Frankcombe and the year 10 Team  

This excursion offered students the opportunity to understand the ways in which their actions can contribute towards the global effort to address climate change and sustainability. The program provides mentorship to students as they learn about climate change and implement a climate action project in their organisation or local community during the year. The goal of this program is to ignite the passion of youth and equip them with skills to lead on- ground climate actions into the future. Highlights included trying seaweed biscuits on kelp platters and trying fresh seaweed from our local beaches! Rees Campbell has allowed us to share her seaweed biscuit recipe too. Students will decide how they can do their part to help prevent climate change and report back with their findings later in the year. 

• Isabelle 

In Drama we are doing a unit on Theatre Sports. Theatre Sports are games that we use Improvisation in where we make stuff up on the spot to perform. One of the activities was called ‘Slow Motion Commentary.’ In that activity you had to have a scene and you had to act it out slowly while someone did commentary, talking extremely fast. Some of the scenes we acted out were a pizza dough throwing contest, and a bed making contest. In the ‘Death in A Minute’ Theatre Sport we got to act out scenes where you had to play for one minute, and you had to ‘kill’ someone in that minute. In one scene we were at the supermarket and some characters were murdered by baguettes.  

We have been learning about the Elements of Drama in our units this Term: Character & role, Voice, and Movement. In warmups for Voice, we do tongue twisters – Tia lasted the longest repeating “red lorry, yellow lorry” while the rest of us got tongue tied. We learned the Conventions of Movement: Body language, gestures, and facial expressions. We used these in Freeze Frames we performed. We started Character & Role with ‘Bus stop.’ In ‘Bus stop’ actors walk onto a stage with a fake bus stop on it and we act out characters who are waiting for a bus, to learn to use all our different Voice and Movement for Character and Role properly. At the end of the scene the audience must guess who the actors are playing, based on their Voice and Movement.  

By Tiabella, AJ, Mia, Bailey, Izzy.

This term in year 7 junior art students have been delving into the elements and principles of design having a particular focus line, tone, value and form in the drawing studio area. Students this term have shown great persistence, patience and enthusiasm for developing their drawing skills with projects that at times have been quite challenging. 

Our recent projects have included drawing realistic drops of water utilising shade techniques and highlighting, exploring ‘21 iterations’ challenging the idea of ‘what is a drawing’ and exploring a range of drawing materials and tools, as well as 1 and 2-point perspective drawings. Well done to our year 7 students, we look forward to seeing you develop these skills in term 2 as we launch into our painting units. 

This term in year 8 junior art, we have been learning to extend our drawing skills utilising the elements and principles of design and reviewing new techniques to support our own personal drawing style. Some of our projects have included challenging the ‘left and right side of our brain’, completing contour drawings, learning layers of shade and tone and how to draw realistically. We have been able to compare our growth from the beginning to end of term by revisiting projects and employing all our new skills through practice. Check out some of our artwork below! 

Mrs Harney and Miss Devlin 

In our group we have been learning some of the Palawa Kani language, which is the language spoken by the Tasmanian Aboriginal people. This term we have been planning what we are going to do next term and for the rest of the year. At the start of the year, we learnt some body parts and animals in the Palawa Kani language with our knowledge of the language we made games to help us remember. For the rest of the year, we will be doing a Bush tukka garden and using the food we grow to cook with. We will also be doing basket weaving in term 2 and a little bit in term 3. In term 4 we will be having a go at some art. 

-Tiesha, Zara, Charna Carona 

Hoops for life is a program for boys from year 7-10 to play their favourite sport while learning about real world stuff. 12- 15 students participate each week for 2 blocks of a Wednesday.  We work with Coach Moore. Some of the things we do are train, talk, and play. We learn to communicate on the court and off the court, watch our language and show respect. Coach Moore helps teach us about real world stuff.  Some of the skills we have learnt are the ‘Triangle’ team skills and communication. We have been learning to do horns over the last few weeks also.  Something I really enjoy about this program is playing basketball, training and being with my mates  

Thank you to Coach Moore for showing us what it is to be a good teammate, a talented player, and a good person in general, I am keen to be playing for him, and hopefully we get the ‘chip. 

-Kody

This term, Mrs Amatullah has been running a Japanese Alternative Learning Program with students from years 7-10. During this time, we have been learning about the Japanese colours and language; learning basic greetings and names of colours. My favourite part so far has been meeting new people and learning new Japanese words. Something I am looking forward to in this class is learning more about the language. 

• Mayson 

This term has been busy with numerous foundational skills being developed across all grade levels.  

Year 7 music have been learning about the elements of music and how they can assist them with performances, creating and analysing music. On top of that Year 7 have also been learning how to read and play multiple instruments.  

Year 8 has been refreshing their knowledge of reading and writing music, they have also been gaining new knowledge of music vocabulary and how to use instruments of their choice. 

Year 9/10 have been revisiting basic music theory knowledge to prepare students for more advanced work in term 2. They are also learning how to read and write music by using various instruments, while also learning how to play an instrument of their choice. 

Finally, in music this year we are excited to be involved in this year's school production You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown. Be sure to watch this space for updates throughout the year! 

• Reign   

During this term in our Photography and Media Art course we have been learning the ins and outs of photography. This has included understanding the different parts of the camera body and lens, understanding the different functions and learning about aperture and shutter speed. It was exciting to learn the different effects aperture control and shutter speed have on our photos and we had some great results. We were then able to test our skills on an excursion to Burnie Park which was a great afternoon. This term we have also been responsible for organising the School Newsletter which has been a great responsibility and challenge for us all. Next term we look forward to more photography skills and learning, as well as starting the school magazine, the NAMBI. Watch this space for updates on our upcoming NAMBI competitions. In the meantime enjoy some of our experimental and awesome photos! 

• Miss Devlin and the Photography and Media Art Class 

We are pleased to update you on the progress of our pre-College Art class this term. The pre- college art class helps students to develop their skills and techniques in a variety of art studio areas, and their hard work is starting to pay off. 

This term students have been learning and exploring the elements and principles of design and how these can be challenged and utilized in their artwork. In particular, projects this term have required students to plan, design and create exciting projects using line and texture.  

Art by it’s very nature is a subject that allows for individual expression and creativity, and the students are taking full advantage of this by exploring their creativity and coming up with unique ideas for their projects.  

Although the final projects are still in the works, they are expected to be impressive based on the passion and dedication that the students have shown. We look forward to seeing completed projects soon and launching into our street art and graffiti unit in term 2. Keep an eye out for updates on our school Facebook page. 

• Taj and Miss Devlin 

STEM Throughout this term, the year 9/10 STEM option class has been focusing on a diverse range of topics. So far, we have been focusing on titration, the process of using a known substance to find an unknown one. We have also been focusing on team building exercises such as communicating how to diffuse a virtual bomb. A group project we completed recently, the Egg Drop challenge, was a version of a common primary school project you may very well have done yourself. The aim is to protect a dropping egg using a design to withstand not only the egg but additional weights. This is where the project becomes more sophisticated. 50g weights are added once at a time to the design which is dropped each time to test the strength and durability of the design. All the groups used various designs, the one withstanding the most weights, 200g, belonged to Reign Puracan’s group who will be going home with the major prize of a block of chocolate. We plan to pursue many more topics soon including some of our very own projects and will keep you updated 

• Isabelle

Once a week a group of 10 girls head down to the Strength Den with Miss Williams and Mr Hay where we complete strength workouts and build up a hobby for out of school. There is also a boy’s group who attend on a different day with Mr Hampton.  My favourite part is getting in there, trying my best and building friendships within our team. The hardest part was when I completed 30 squats at 10kgs which is a personal best. Something I am looking forwards to is to be able to go in with a positive attitude, and setting more goals to achieve in the future 

-Maddison 

There is lots of exciting things going on in String Along at Parklands. There is a variety of instruments you can play such as, the cello, viola, and violin. Our great String Along teacher, Helen is extremely helpful and patient for beginner strings players. For Helen’s more advanced players, she lets them take their time while learning modern music and she provides them with tips on several types of songs. She offers great songs for all instrument groups; they are suitable for various levels of players. There is also another group called BSO (Burnie String-Along Orchestra). BSO is a special orchestra group that only some players are invited to join. BSO is combined with different players from different schools, primary and high schools. We have talked to two players to share their experience. 

1. Tommy 

“Helen is a very lovely person and I really enjoy having her as my teacher. My experience with string along is very fun I really love how she pushes us to try our hardest and to not give up. My favourite part of string along is hearing all of us play well and hearing the music come together. Helen has helped me with some tips that really help me improve my playing. I have three top favourite tips 1. fussy fingers help me make sure that I play the notes properly and make sure that I place my fingers on the right spot. 2. how to hold the bow properly so I can play without having to worry about it being uncomfortable. 3. how to hold the cello properly so I can't make much of a mistake when I play.” 

2. Ava

“Helen is very lovely, and she is very calm and patient with us. She encourages us to continue even when we feel like giving up. My experience with string along was very pleasant as it was hard at the start but with some practise and help from Helen, I found myself getting better at Volin. Helen has helped me by giving me tips like how to hold the bow correctly, were to place the bow on the Volin and fussy fingers.” 

 by Ava, Tommy, Mia.

In the Hub, this year there are currently 26 students from year 7- 10 with many others joining the Hub for classes, learning activities and life skills throughout the week. In this space we complete classes such as maths, science, art, PE, life skills, English and Geography. We have also been lucky this year to be involved in the Resilience Project during our Pastoral Care sessions. Some of the highlights from this term have been: 

• The lunch time feasts, where students work with Jodi to make things such as wedges, soup, ANZAC cookies, pasta, and all things delicious. 
• The Art and Craft sessions, sometimes we draw or if there is paint, we might paint, use water colour pencils and pens. My favourite so far, is a project of a K-Pop Idol where I learnt a lot about I.N, did you know he can sound like a dolphin, he is the youngest of his group also (Leo). 
• My favourite subject is Maths with Mrs J, and the Resilience Project with Mrs McCall – Martin is quite funny, and I like his energy (Kody).  

We look forward to Term 2 with lots of activities and fun projects planned.  

• Kody, Leo, Dean