26 May 2023

Newsletter Articles

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Welcome to the eagerly anticipated mid Term Two newsletter. As we find ourselves in the midst of another productive term, it is with great pleasure that we bring you an update on the incredible achievements, exciting events, and remarkable progress made by our talented students. With unwavering dedication and support from our passionate teachers and staff, we continue to foster an environment where every student can thrive and reach their full potential.

Staff have been putting their professional learning into action this year as we build the capacity of our teachers to teach literacy through the framework of Structured Teaching using the Read Write Inc (RWI) – Fresh Start program. Thank you, Flynn, for your ongoing support as the Reading Coach of Henbury School, offering in class support as well as individual and small group professional development. Approximately 70% of our students access this program with some students not ready and alternatively having a pre RWI focus and others who have graduated the program and focussing largely on comprehension. Recently staff came together to arrange their resources into a more efficient way to making teaching their students more effective and easier to manage. It may have been a little organised chaos as we can see Flynn jokingly pulling their hair out.

With the guidance and leadership of our Meaningful Math (MM) coach Amanda Thomas, Henbury staff attended a MM confirming session at Henbury. These sessions enable teachers to share their teaching and assessment and ensure we have a consistent approach from classroom to classroom. Staff broke into assessment groups, Number Framework, JAM and GLoSS and presented a video and written assessment from one of their students. Conversations were flowing amongst colleagues with constructive feedback being shared to improve each other’s practice.

I’m looking forward to reading each students Semester One report to see how they are progressing this year. These reports will be ready to go home at the end of this term.

Henbury School held an information stall and ran the Crew’s and Brew coffee trailer at last weeks All Abilities Expo run by Integrated Disability Action group at Marrara netball stadium. It was a great day that was attended by many Henbury classes with a range of interactive stalls, plenty of give aways and loads of information on hand. Henbury School promoted their Transition to Work programs including the new Henbury Precinct at The Village Shopping Centre. We also promoted the Henbury Corporate Luncheon that is set to take place on the 1st December. We are excited about the return of Henbury’s major fundraiser this year after a spell for three years. Coming soon we have a big announcement of our Diamond Sponsor who will have the naming rights to the event.

The annual Transition and Pathways Information Session will be held in the Henbury School hall next Tuesday the 30th May. This is a must for all families who have students in the senior years of schooling, but all families are invited to attend. This event will endeavor to provide parents/families with the valuable information they need to prepare for their child’s transition from school. Attending the event will be NDIS services and coordinators, post school option providers, and employment and recreation services.

Henbury School Council has recently changed bank account details, please amend your records to ensure all future payments are credited to our new account. Our new account details are:

Financial institution: Bendigo Bank Limited
Account name: Henbury School Council
BSB: 633-000
Account number: 199 041 567

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the school on 89977077 or via email at henbury.admin@education.nt.gov.au

Sarah Corry
Principal

TOP END STAR GAZERS

This is an open invite to Henbury students and their families to attend this star gazing event held at CSC oval located on Rothdale Road, MOIL. This event is on Wednesday 31st May from 7pm to 8:30pm.

Many of our students have been learning about space in their science programs and this is a chance for students to view space through three 11-inch Celestron tracking telescopes.

Students who attend must have a guardian or parent with them at all times. The whole family is welcome. Please see attached form and expression of interest.

HELLO FROM BLUE 2

How is everyone enjoying these chilly mornings!?

This year, Blue 2 has a mix of Year 8 and 9 students. Our class has 4 young men, Zeon, Zyethan, Kyan and Dixon and 4 young women, Kiara, Bonita, Aiko and Martika.

So far this year our class has been participating in Farm with Matumba, Woodwork with Vince, Art with Sarah and Drama with Flynn. We have some very enthusiastic drama performers, and love having the opportunity to express ourselves in a different way.

We love going out on community access every Thursday and have enjoyed visits to the Mangroves down East Point, Nightcliff Beach, the Botanic Gardens, and the Waterfront where the students have a love/hate relationship with going up the glass lift. We have some exciting excursions coming up to the Darwin Entertainment Centre for a performance, the V8s and the Road Safety Centre in Parap.

We swim every Wednesday and have been enjoying supporting Dixon in his Hydrotherapy program. As a part of our Health unit, we had a session with Janurse about Vaping awareness where we learnt about the dangers of vaping and smoking. The motto we took away from this session was, “Don’t get sucked in!”.

Enjoy a variety of photos from this year and we look forward to many more adventures, like sports day and middle years camp!

DRIPSTONE MIDDLE SCHOOL 2

The class have been busy completing all set work tasks in the classroom. When not in the classroom learning, students go to the Henbury hall to participate in rotations that include 4 different fitness stations. When participating in these rotations, students worked on technique, resilience and beating their personal best.

On Monday afternoon and Wednesday afternoon Kane and Lauren facilitate Girls Group and Boys Group. In these groups, students discuss issues that are concerning them. They also unpack the school values and work on skills to keep themselves safe.

WELLBEING WEDNESDAYS

Inspired by the staff well-being Wednesday in the staffroom and our PD at the start of Term 2, DMS 2, have started a well-being Wednesday middle session. Students chat amongst themselves and unpack a different school value and what it looks like and feels like to be a good and safe learner. They choose fun and safe activities to do and each student does something nice for a peer!!

HELLO FROM YELLOW 2

This Semester has been busy for Yellow Two. We enjoyed celebrating Jekamiah’s 17th birthday. With the return of the wonderful dry season weather we have ventured out and about on Community Access with our Yellow Block Buddies - Yellow 3 and Yellow 5. Our favourite place so far has been the Mangrove Boardwalk. We were lucky enough to experience it while the tide was high.

We have worked hard in the classroom learning about Australia in our Society and Culture lessons and division in maths where we used lollies to create and answer division sums. In English we have been learning about story writing, specifically narratives and have started drafting some of our own stories.

On Friday the 19th of May we attended the All Abilities Expo at Marrara Netball Stadium. Michael and Sierra both enjoyed the petting zoo. Michael held a Bearded Dragon and Sierra held a Guinea Pig named Luna. We all enjoyed our morning there and returned to school with lots of goodies.

We are looking forward to getting through the rest of the term, finishing up some of our NTCETM tasks and winding down as the holidays get closer.

GREETING FROM YELLOW 3

Yellow 3 have been enjoying the glorious dry season weather with some outings about town. We joined other students from Yellow Block to explore East Point Reserve, where we walked through stinky mangroves and searched for marine life in the clear blue water. The class also enjoyed a trip to the All-Abilities Expo at Marrara stadium. We had the opportunity to learn about different support services and had fun in the petting zoo and photo booth. The golf corner and face-painting station also received a visit.

Our year 12 students have been exploring post-school opportunities. They are completing work training at various locations, including Henbury Precinct, Royal Darwin Hospital Laundry, and Darwin Convention Centre. They also attended an excursion to visit several HPA supported settings.

In class, we have completed several team-work challenges, to develop our skills in communication and working together. So far, we have completed a barrier-drawing game, blind-folded obstacle course and a group challenge of building a pyramid of cups without touching them. These challenges have been a lot of fun and the class have shown impressive collaboration skills.

DRAMA AT HENBURY

Term One saw many of our outreach students from participating in drama classes for the first time. Students unpacked the main features of Invisible, Forum and Image Theatre. DMS2 created and rehearsed some invisible theatre to see the responses of an unsuspecting audience. Nightcliff Middle School shared their Image Theatre performance showcasing 3 scenes about challenges that teens might face and what they could do to seek help. Sanderson Middle School embraced the challenge of creating a Forum theatre performance about bullying, devising characters, scenes and creating the script themselves. Sanderson and Nightcliff classes did an amazing job at performing their pieces and improvising scenes based on the suggestions of audience members.

This semester has been a busy one for Media Arts, with students finishing their entries for the Focus on Ability short film festival. Green 3 students are an imaginative bunch, all dedicated to creating their Stop Motion films. With story lines about angry Vikings, escaped lab monsters, superheroes, Harry the Cat, a hungry Morpeko and the story of a ball’s first day at school, their films are shaping up to be a joy to watch. Two teams from DMS2 have chosen to create documentaries about what they like most about Henbury School, while the third is creating a film about their favourite places in the world.

Anyone is welcome to submit a film into the festival, with entries closing July 21st. For more information checkout the link below:

Senior Dance students – Miley, Simaki, Enrique, Flynn, Tanika, Laura and Snaha have been exploring what it means to create dance from different stimulus. It has been amazing to witness the growth in these students’ confidence. Their first class, the room had to be in near darkness for them to move compared to now, where students are enthusiastic about sharing their creations with each other. On the 18th of May the class went and saw “Life” - SLIDE Youth Dance Theatre’s latest creation and had a new appreciation for the skills and dedication of the performers. Fingers crossed we can convince our Senior Dance team to share one of their routines before the end of term.

And finally, last week 22 students participated in a workshop presented by Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre company. Students engaged in a series of exciting and challenging exercises which introduced them to performance skills of Energy, Focus, Physical and Team Awareness. This proved to be a fun workshop with students having a great time throughout. drama

HENBURY SCHOOL FARM NEWS

Welcome Parents/ caregivers and community members of Henbury School.

I have the Farm/Horticulture/ SAKG non-contact position, it is a dynamic role to have and I am delighted to have such an opportunity to continue and improve on what has been done so far.

This year I have six classes that learn how to grow, harvest, and cook produce that is directly from the farm. In doing this, sustainability and healthy living is the focus. Students learn and experience firsthand how to grow food and use it to produce healthy meals.

Since the beginning of Term 1, we started with seeds and cuttings and I am proud to announce the students can clearly see the fruit of their labour, and as we progress through the year, we hope to see the farm increasing the supply of fresh produce for cooking classes.

The farm is looking fabulous, and it continues to be work in progress to produce a more diverse range of produce. Our Herb and Sensory Garden also continues to be special focus where students can come to the farm for a visual and aromatic experience in addition to what is presently available.

Currently growing for future harvest on the farm are: bananas, basil, corn, pumpkin, eggplant, pawpaw, sweet potatoes, mint, kang kong, aloe vera, snake beans, watermelon, ginger, loofahs, zucchini, lemongrass, custard apples, rosellas, ochra, pomegranates.

Some of these are already fruiting and soon ready to be harvested. Just a taste of what is here!

Matumba Isis

NMS OUTREACH-WINNERS OF THE ART SPACE

Congratulations NMS class for their 1st place win in the 2023 Jetty Art Space Competition as part of the Nightcliff Seabreeze Festival held last weekend.

They won $500 for their efforts sponsored by Nightcliff Community Bank.

Check out their amazing entry below.

NT LEARNING COMMISSION NEWS

YOUTH VOICE PEAK GROUP (YVPG) CONFERENCE

Shawn and Roanin spent two days at their Youth Voice Peak Group (YVPG) conference. The boys shared important and valuable ideas that no other participants had thought of. They consistently demonstrated manners, were helpful, shared how proud they were to be leaders and were actively involved learners. Shawn and Roanin are working alongside the Education Department and 14 other YVPG members to make change within Education NT. The group commended them on their participation. We are very proud to have them as youth ambassadors and School captains and are continually amazed by the strength of their voices.

Roanin was lucky enough to celebrate his birthday during the conference.

Amanda Thomas
NTLC teacher

THE PUSH-UP CHALLENGE

Henbury is taking part in The Push-Up Challenge this June. Participants complete 3 144 push-ups over 23 days to raise awareness and funds for mental health. Any funds raised will go to Lifeline. In 2022, 3,144 people were lost to suicide. Our challenge as a school is to do, 3,144 push-ups over 23 days to raise awareness and raise funds for mental health.

Keen to get involved, make a donation or just to check out our team? Click on the link Find out more.

HENBURY SPORTS NEWS

Just letting you know (as keen supporters) about some amazing past and present students from Henbury School and what they have been up to.

George, Ethan, Issy and Keanu came back from representing touch footy at nationals and joined a division 2 development team and made the semi-finals in their first season.

They also played in an A-grade team at NT Titles (regional comp) here in Darwin last weekend and did very well gaining respect from that division group.

• Keanu received the Most Outstanding Player Award for the NT Titles tournament for the Open Mens Division.

At the Ochre Award night their NT team was nominated and won –

• Representative Team of the Year 2023. (Including Azaria, Kate, Ashley, Tracy, and Agnes)
• George M winning Best Representative player for earning a place on the Highest Try scorer leader board (placing 3rd at the Nationals for his division)
• Issy was nominated and won NT Volunteer of the Year (working between Touch and NRL most days) and has been put forward for the National Award coming up later in the year.

All boys have done volunteer work at Touch Football. With Ethan and Issy participating in the Level 1 referee Course.

Issy has started to referee games in the local competition. He is now doing some paid work at NT Touch Football and gets paid to referee.

MOTHER’S DAY STALL

The annual school Mother’s Day Stall was held at Henbury on Friday 6th May. Students purchased gifts for their mum or someone special. Items were all handmade in the school’s many skillset, enterprise and classroom programs.

Thank you to all the teachers and students for all their preparations and amazing creations. These items are also sold at our Henbury Precinct Op Shop / Café, at Casuarina Village.

Transition and Pathways Information Session

We are holding an information session for students and families/guardians outlining how to prepare for your student’s transition from school.

All Henbury families/guardians are invited to attend, however we strongly encourage those of children in Years 9, 10, 11, 12 to take the opportunity to attend and learn more about the transition steps ahead including services and post school options available

We have invited a small cross section of service providers that are integral to the post school transition process for our wide range of students - including NDIS services and coordinators, post school employment and day program providers, and employment and recreation services.

SOCIAL & RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES AT HENBURY

The June/July semester holidays are fast approaching and SRA & Henbury will once again be running a holiday program. There are limited spaces available to fit our staffing numbers and bookings are confirmed based on first come and first serve basis. See attached holiday program and expression of interest which is due by 16th June.

If you have any enquiries, please contact Noor Arbon on 89977077 / 0408147876 or via email henbury.sra@education.nt.gov.au

WHY DID THE ROOSTER CROSS THE ROAD???

…. To come looking for his humans!!!

We adopted the SMS rooster and feed him fruit/ bread scraps and seed. When we are late to say hello, he comes looking to see why we are taking so long .

He’s a bit cute!

BUILDING DRAGSTERS WITH NAKARA STUDENTS

On Thursday the 11th May our Senior Science skill set group headed to Nakara Primary school to teach students how to make dragsters. Roanin and Ryan did a wonderful presentation. They inspired the students with how it all works and gave them design ideas.

The rest of the skill set team worked in small groups to help the students with their designs and helped them build their cars. Our students will be returning to Nakara in Week 7 to race the dragsters and see who made the best one.

A special thanks to Darwin Lions Club for donating the dragster kits.

Here is some feedback from Nakara students:

• It was one of the best experiences that I have ever had – Alby
• I liked how we made dragsters and how we got to sand them and make them – Lachlan
• I loved getting to carve out my dragster – Xander
• I loved the introduction from the Henbury students. They were very kind to let us shape the cars – Joanne
• It was a really good experience and we learnt a lot, especially from the friction song that tells us how friction works – Muhammed

MELANOMA MONDAY

Melanoma Monday happens once a year in May. It raises awareness as well as funds for research to help those affected by the common form of cancer. One Australian is diagnosed with melanoma every 30 minutes, and one Australian dies from the disease every 6 hours. It is the most common cancer in those aged 20-39. Purple 2 and Blue 2 classroom created short videos on how to be sun smart and prevent Melanoma. Check out their advice and amazing acting.

MENINGOCOCCAL B VACCINE

Our school will be involved in B Part of It NT, a study of the meningococcal B vaccine. The licenced vaccine is safe and proven to protect against meningococcal B disease, a rare but severe disease.

If you child joined the study in previous years, you don’t need to sign another consent for them this year.

Please read the information contained in the online information sheet and consent form. If you want your child to join the study, please fill in the student’s details and sign the online consent form.

To access the vaccine your child will need to book and attend a clinic at Darwin, or Palmerston. A study nurse will contact you with a link to book an appointment.

If you want to find out more information about the study please contact the study co-ordinator at: MeningococcalB.Study@nt.gov.au ;

ph: 08 8922 8025 You can also ask for a hard copy of the information and consent form if you prefer to fill it out on paper.

For more information see:

Forms went out a few weeks ago. Please return forms if you would like your child to be a part of the study. Vaccination date will be on the 1st June at 9am at Henbury School

EOI – NT DISABILITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE

The NT Government is looking for people to join the Northern Territory Disability Advisory Committee.

Northern Territory Disability Advisory Committee members have the opportunity to talk with the Minister for Disabilities about issues that impact themselves, their families and their community.

It is important for the minister to hear from people with lived experience of disability about barriers to access and inclusion in your communities, and to work together to come up with solutions. Applicants must:

• live, work, study or receive services in the Northern Territory
• have a disability or be an unpaid carer or a family member of a person with a disability
• have experience, knowledge and understanding of disability issues
• be willing to work effectively as a member of the committee.

We want to hear from people who represent the diversity of the disability community in the Northern Territory, including Aboriginal people, people in remote communities, people of all ages, people with lived experience of cognitive, sensory, physical or psychosocial disability, carers and/or families of people with disability.

Members are paid for their time attending meetings.

Application process:

Application form PDF

Application form DOCX

Send your application or nomination to:

Email: officeofdisability.tfhc@nt.gov.au
Mail: PO Box 37037, Winnellie NT 0821 or
Phone: 08 8999 2809

Application close on the 31st May 2023.

More information is available at the link below:

NT COGSO

Click on the link below to see the latest issue from NT COGSO

e-Newsletter - Term 2 - Issue 1 - 2023

UPCOMING EVENTS – Term 2 2023

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Happy Birthday to the following students that celebrate their birthday’s in May:

Kobey – 3rd
Adwin – 3rd
Charlie – 12th
Hayden – 13th
Keira – 18th
Briseis – 19th
Trinidey – 19th
Roanin – 19th
Marilyn – 20th
Joshua S – 20th
Cloe R – 24th
Max – 25th
Kaetura – 26th
Agnes – 29th
Jade – 31st

COMMUNITY NOTICES