Dear Burnie High School Community,

As a school we are at the conclusion of Term 2 and I’m sure that both students and staff are looking forward to a well-deserved break before commencing the second half of the year.

Staffing News

Ms Durkin has extended her Long Service Leave into Term 3 to continue to be with her family in sunny Queensland. I’ll continue in the Acting Principal role along with Mr Salter in undertaking his Acting Assistant Principal role for Term 3. Mr Salter will remain working alongside Ms Crocker as a Grade 9 student support leader. Mr Douglas will also carryover his Acting AST role for Term 3 in his Grade Leader role working in conjunction with Mr Warsing with the Grade 10 cohort.

Ms Beecham will be starting Term 3 at the North-West Support School and Mr Hall will be at Yolla District School at the beginning of Term 3. We’ll be using a combination of current BHS staff members as well as Mr Webster (recently retired BHS MDT teacher) to cover these classes for the duration of 2024. We wish them all the best for their transition to their new schools.

Kinmen Students

We were delighted to confirm that a group of 20 students from Kinmen will be joining us the first two weeks of Term 3. Kinmen students will be hosted by a range of families and be buddied up with Grade 9 or 10 BHS students for them to be fully emersed in the Tasmanian and BHS culture. We can also confirm that a group of 5 BHS students will be selected for an outbound trip to Kinmen at the end of October. A big thank you to Mr Douglas for the work and organisation that he has put into this experience to ensure that everything runs smoothly.

Grade 10/11 Transition

Grade 10 students have undertaken a range of whole grade and class sessions to work on their subject selections for Grade 11. During the last week of Term 3, students (and parents) will be involved in meetings with Hellyer staff members to confirm their enrolment and subjects for 2025. Grade 10 students have listed some preliminary subjects and career pathways. After the Term 2 holidays, senior staff as well as student support leaders will conduct individual meetings with students to ensure that their subject selections are appropriate. We’ll post these plans home to parents prior to the enrolment interviews with Hellyer staff.

Trusting you all enjoy a safe and restful break.

James Thompson

Acting Principal James Thompson james.thompson@decyp.tas.gov.au  

Assistant Principal Sheree Hodgetts sheree.hodgetts@decyp.tas.gov.au

Acting Assistant Principal Joshua Salter joshua.salter@decyp.tas.gov.au

School Business Manager Lois Cameron lois.cameron@decyp.tas.gov.au

School Office (03) 6431 2744 burnie.high@decyp.tas.gov.au

Agricultural Studies 

The creative writing class has been interviewing other students and staff members from around the school about their optional classes, this week the targeted group of people was those from Agricultural Studies, where they learn about the process of farm life to the products that we eat, spending countless hours having fun but also providing care for the farm animals around them. From cows, to pigs, chickens and ducks, and many more, to crops of vegetables, fruits and herbs, the Agricultural Studies students take care of them all.
The creative writing class asked Ag Studies students’ a variety of questions for their interview, documenting their opinions.

What are a few things you’ve enjoyed this year in Ag?

Ms Prendergast, the teacher of Agricultural studies says - “Introducing the grade 8’s to the farm and teaching them, and generally just the Agriculture.”

Murphy, a student from Ag Studies – “The friendships I can form, playing with the ducks, and occasionally fighting the rams and alpacas” (Not literally, no animals were harmed.)

What is your favourite animal from the farm and why?

Ms Prendergast - “Pigs, they are intelligent and affectionate animals, easier to train than dogs, though I’ve never eaten dog. Pigs are very tasty. But, if I had to choose an all time specific favourite, it would be Arthur the rooster, who believes he identifies as a duck.”

Murphy – “The pigs, no reason why.”

What do you look forward to in the future of Ag Studies?

Ms Prendergast - “That light bulb moment when students realise the scientific and mathematical connection between real life, what it does for the way that they live.”

We extend our thanks to Ms Prendergast who allowed us to spend some valuable time on the farm and interacting with her and her class as we witnessed them in action.

Written by Mia Styles

The agriculture studies is an amazing opportunity for students at Burnie High. Whether they want to pursue a career with animals, learn about plants and how to grow them or just like being outside, taking the Ag option course is a great way to start. For these reasons it is one of the most popular options, always filling up quickly. Ava Denny is one of those lucky students who get to participate in Ag studies. Ava was asked to reflect on her time in Ag studies. She talked about how easy the teachers were to get along with, how helpful everyone is and the bonds she’s made with the people in that class. We experienced the kind-hearted nature firsthand when interviewing and talking with the teachers and groundsmen. She then went on to tell us all about the animals and plants they had grown over time and how no one could ever be bored because there was always something to be done. We then found out all the juicy gossip about Ag studies, like how the chickens always smell the best and that the pigs are ultimately the best animals because they get turned into bacon. Ava was a great insight into the world of Ag studies.

Written by Samantha Chilcott, Year 10

Out on the farm Ag students learn how to follow directions and how to overall care and maintain a farm. In the class students learn a variety of farm related issues like, how weather effects crops, farm data, and what it takes in owning a farm.  Ag is a useful class even if you don’t go into farming as it teaches you things you can apply to daily home/work life. Like using excel, entering data, following directions, patterns, money management, and teamwork. Also, you learn a lot about farmwork and animal care. It’s a nice break from a whole day of sitting. When at the farm you get to tend to animals, the garden, and doing general maintenance. Instead of the mundane sitting and really working your brain. When we went to Ag it was a tad bit hard to find someone to interview as they were all doing their own useful part in maintaining the farm. The students we did get to interview all had good things to say about Ag especially about the farm days.

Written by Adalynn Wagner, Year 10.

Future Pathways students have been undertaking some studies related to First-Aid for the majority of Term 2. Students have looked at the DRSABCD action plan which is applicable to all first aid incidents and have also worked through some scenarios in group to apply CPR techniques, oxygen and defibrillators in the appropriate ways. Students had to complete some online theory prior to their practical assessment on Monday in order to gain their Level 1 First-Aid certificate. Big thanks to Eric Smith from First In Training who was the trainer and assessor for the lesson. Well done to all students who were involved.

Enterprise and Community Engagement Learning Program

Term 2 has seen the ECLEP groups participate in a vast range of activities.

Monday’s group dabbled in catering. The students created a range of meals using as much school farm produce as possible. Providing a range of low-cost meals and dishes for staff to buy, eat and critique. Students also engaged in the profit and loss analysis using spreadsheets – whilst the eating not “sheeting” was a highlight, they began to see how much money is not spent when you use home (school) grown ingredients. The group have realised there is a difference between “making” money (profit), breaking even and “getting back” (loss) money.

We made – Bangers and Mash, Pizzas, Pumpkin Soup, Pork Belly and Spareribs and Loaded Potatoes as well as experimenting with some sweets.

Next term we anticipate more varieties of pumpkin dishes such as risotto as well as a few other meals based on the meat and vegetables we have growing, such as curried sausages and some cakes, breads, and slices.

Our Tuesday group focused on Leadership and Team Building skills. Taking a break from working at the Emu Valley Rhododendron Garden. We enjoyed many outdoor excursions including some fishing trips.

Our first trip to Stanley saw cockie salmon, a slimy cod and a swell shark being caught, we had a few tiny catch and release days – flathead, cockie salmon and puffer fish. Simple things like tying the right knots, using the best or preferred bait, arranging your sinkers and hooks were skills and knowledge that some of the students’ grandparents had taught them – sharing and helping each other in a peaceful way. Some days we explored rock pools and did some real scientific identification of a variety of marine creatures including platyhelminths, anemones, lichens and even found some old cows’ teeth (checked our animal teeth chart). We were blessed with such beautiful weather each Tuesday bar one day when we did some challenges (health knowledge quizzes) and critical activities (card tricks) at the farm, followed by farm grown pork sausages for lunch.

Thank you, Mary, (our ECLEP and Senior Ag. Studies farm assistant), we love your work ethic, your jokes and amazing knowledge of everything, most of all – your patience and kindness.

Introduction to Agriculture Studies – Term 2

Grade 8 students have continued to study the ranges of foods and produce central to the Australian Agriculture Industry (or Primary Industries). We sifted through traditional (pre-1877) agricultural practices, looked at the imposition of European agricultural adaptions of our landscape, examined import and export markets, mowed through wheat in first term, ready to sink our teeth into the tastier components.

Students investigated – the Australian beef, dairy, lamb, wool, pork and chicken industries in class champing at the bit to get to the big day! The hamburger lesson! What a terrific effort the students made to use ingredients that they have a basic knowledge about in our culinary landscape!

Speaking of landscapes, the Grade 8 students did a power of work to maintain the farm garden beds, spreading mulch in the animal pens, collecting eggs, feeding animals and looking after our school farm.

I am ruing the day I said to them – “Do it once to get it out of your system.” Every time I nominated a new group to use hoses to clean water containers and fill the duck baths, someone would get more than a “splash” on their clothes. The conversation – SP: “ Why would you do that??”…. Student: “You said we can do anything once to get it out of our system.” SP:….eye rolls.

Thank you so much to Bryan and Kitty for all their help at the farm – without you we could not do what we love to do as easily and smoothly as we do it!

Grade 9 / 10 Animal and Agriculture Studies

Term 2 saw the agriculture students finish off their research into grain comparison (native versus introduced) – economic benefits, nutritional benefits, growing conditions, origin and history. From here we launched into spreadsheets and their applications in farming. We started with basic data and charts using our historic and current rainfall data at the school farm and progressed to the cost analysis of growing and processing our pigs and turkeys. Students included the animal weight after processed, the cost to buy the product at retail rates, how much it cost us to raise the animals and associated information of labour costs.

We had several excursions, AGFEST, TIAR Elliott Dairy Research and TasTAFE Freer Farm. AGFEST was a great success as usual!! Students who had never been before enjoyed the opportunity. At TIAR we toured the facility, looked at the dairy and milking facility (thank you Oliver Radford – TIAR, Sam – Fonterra and Allis Harris – BEACON). Students engaged in some pretty cool maths using spreadsheets! They had to calculate how Dry Matter Content 300+ cows required per day and then how many kilograms per hectare would be available and how long you could graze this many cattle for best milk production and not ruining / overgrazing the pasture. It was an excellent eye opener regarding the maths involved in farming. From here we did an extension / contextualisation task using the school oval. Students had to use the semi-minor and semi-major axis as well as the perimeter to determine how much of a hectare or how many acres the oval is. The purpose of this was so students could have a visual idea of what a hectare (10 000 m²) or acre (2.47 acres per hectare) actual looks like.

As always – the farm and animals need to be maintained so, the senior students spent many sunny days completing gardening and growing, harvesting and herding jobs.

Thank you so much to Bryan for all the behind the scenes work you have done, particularly those days when I have been away, including weekends, tending to the animals and garden beds. Bryan’s old school but respectful and patient demeanour and support of our students is second to none.

Our Grade 7's have been working on learning the fundamentals of clay building and glazing. Check out their amazing creations!