The Principal's View

Dear parents and community

It has been a very busy term at Mount View High School. The disruption to continuity of learning has remained one of the more significant concerns that has my attention and will continue to as we head into the second half of the year.

I will release revised COVID procedures at the start of Term 3 that will continue to support our existing strategies including ventilation, sanitisation, and rapid testing. Mount View High School continues to stock supplies of Rapid Antigen tests that are available to our community on request. Please contact our office on 49902566 to organise test collection if you require an additional test kit.

I am pleased, despite the COVID isolation interruptions, that we have been able to return to a sense of normality.

The Year 7, 8, 9 and 10 Principal Assemblies held this week recognised the hard work and subsequent results from our amazing students. I was impressed by the respectful manner in which our students presented themselves at this formal occasion.

Thank you to our wonderful student leaders Lachlan, Samantha and Noone (with Jordan away ill) who ran the assemblies with such grace. Student performances from Briley Hunt and Mackenzie Hall accompanied by Mr Cameron Daniels were amazing.

Tracy Bailey, along with Ms Chanele Devine and Mrs Lily Amos ensured the the assemblies ran smoothly.

Best of all, it was a pleasure to have our community present to help recognise their child’s outstanding achievement in a year where continuity of learning has been most challenging.

All Semester 1 reports have now been published on the Parent Portal. Hard copies including the Principal Awards can be collected from reception.

A parent teacher evening will be held in the second week back next term on Tuesday July 26. Parent teacher bookings have been made available through the Sentral Parent Portal. Please contact reception at Mount View High School if you have any concerns.

The subject selection evening for students picking elective subjects for Year 9, 10 and 11 in 2023 will be held in the first week of Term 3 on Thursday the 21st of July. This evening will deliver critical information on subject selection processes and provide students and parents an opportunity to consult with staff on preferred elective choices. The evening will commence from 5pm with a presentation aimed at Year 8 and Year 9 students choosing their respective Year 9 and Year 10 elective subjects for 2023. Faculty based executive will have displays set up around the hall and be on hand to answer specific course questions. This will conclude at 6pm.

At 6.15pm a short presentation will be given for Year 10 students and their caregivers that will relate to the selection of subjects for Year 11 in 2023. Shortly after, parents will have the opportunity to move through C block and attend specific information sessions according to a timetable, which will be available early next term. Parents and students will be able to choose which specific course-based information sessions to attend based on their interests. The evening will conclude around 7.30pm. For more information please visit our website: https://mountview-h.schools.nsw.gov.au/learning-at-our-school/subject-selection.html

School Infrastructure Upgrades. Across the Term 2 holidays several key projects will commence. These include, but are not limited to, toilet upgrades, Science Lab 2 refurbishment, playground update including a new fully astroturfed playground area, outdoor gymnasium and astroturfing the Support Deck, complete lighting upgrade including every fluorescent tube converted to LED lighting, and the fixed mounting of our interactive MLD display technology in every teaching space.

I know our student body will appreciate a long overdue upgrade to the toilets. This will ensure that both male and female toilet facilities in the art block and TAS area are fully refurbished with a complete overhaul and new tiling, basins and taps, soap dispensers, toilets, and cubicles. During Term 3, whilst this work occurs, we will have temporary toilet facilities dropped into the main quad area in our school. The new toilet facilities are expected to be ready for the start of Term 4.

At Mount View High School, our student leaders transition at the start of Term 3 to allow our Year 12 leaders a chance to focus on their Trial HSC and upcoming HSC exams.

Our outgoing captains had the pleasure of announcing their successors. Congratulations to Sienna Newsome and Caylan Law who were named the 2022/23 Captains and also to Briley Hunt and Abbi Moore as Vice Captains. Voting was extremely close and the other candidates were exemplary in their attitude and performance in all of the selection process.

The leadership induction has been scheduled for Wednesday July 27 and invitations will be sent early Term 3.

A huge shout out to Liz Alder, who received a teaching Award at the Regional North Excellence Awards. Director Educational Leadership Cessnock Network, Martin Rosser and Executive Director Regional North, Tim McCallum presented Liz with her certificate this week in recognition of her outstanding contribution.

An outstanding example of Liz’s work is her annual involvement in the Aboriginal cultural immersion day at Mount View High School. Each year Liz composes a large scale art piece to which every Year 7 student contributes. Student make a clay coolamon and decorate it according to their family story which becomes a part of a larger piece of art to represent their place in the Mount View community. A number of bark circles on the ground depict local mobs Awabakal, Darkinjung and Wonnarua. The students place their coolamon according to the mob with whom they feel a connection. The coolamon is also representative of the stolen generation. As each coolamon is placed, it also represents a child stolen from their culture and community (coolamon’s were used for aboriginal infants). Over the next twelve months, each of the student clay coolamons will decompose into the earth and return back to the land.

Well done Liz, great recognition for an outstanding educator.

On Thursday the 23rd June 2022, Mount View High School captains and their fellow Year 12 students slept out in the school hall on one of the longest nights of the year to help change the lives of Australians experiencing homelessness.

The Vinnies School Sleepout allows students and school communities to get a glimpse of the realities of homelessness on a personal level by ‘sleeping rough’ for one night. The Sleepout encourages students and teachers to gain a deeper understanding of homelessness, raise awareness of the realities faced by people experiencing homelessness and raise funds to support Vinnies homeless services in the local community.

Well done Year 12!!!

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