Taree High School

Taree High School
Location
Taree, New South Wales Australia
Coordinates	31°54′35″S 152°27′49″E / 31.90972°S 152.46361°E / -31.90972; 152.46361Coordinates: 31°54′35″S 152°27′49″E / 31.90972°S 152.46361°E / -31.90972; 152.46361
Information
Type	Public, Secondary, Co-educational, Day school
Motto	Latin: Flumen Coronent Filii (May your Sons and Daughters Crown the River)
Established	1908
Principal	Allison Alliston
Enrolment	~900 (7–12)[1]
Campus	Rural
Colour(s)	Black and Gold
Website	www.taree-h.schools.nsw.edu.au

Taree High School, also known as THS, is a secondary, public, co-educational, comprehensive day school, located in Taree, a city on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia.

Established in 1908, the Taree High School is the oldest of the high schools located in the Taree area, and currently caters for approximately 900 students from Years 7 to 12, servicing Taree and the Manning Valley. The school is equipped with specialist facilities, and works closely with local primary schools, the business community and Taree TAFE.^[1] A semesterised curriculum is used at the school, providing a variety of subjects and units.^[2]

Taree High School is a school of the New South Wales Department of Education and Communities (DEC). In 2013 Taree High School, along with Taree Public School, became part of the Connected Communities Strategy.^[3] This strategy aims to provide tailored programs to improve educational outcomes for Aboriginal students and their families across NewSouth Wales.

The motto adopted by Taree High is Flumen Coronent Filii, which may be translated from Latin as "May your sons and daughters crown the river", referring to the Manning River, a feature of the town of Taree.^[4]

Current facilities of the school include a library, full-size gymnasium, drama room with lighting, sound equipment and stage curtains, canteen, Year 12 outdoor area and common room, school hall, Aboriginal resource room, agricultural farm, and a special education unit.

The current Executive Principal of Taree High School is Allison Alliston, with the two current Deputy Principals being Nigel Reece and Raylene Starke.

Curriculum

Taree High School is a New South Wales Department of Education and Communities school, and therefore follows the New South Wales Board of Studies curriculum for all years.

The school has implemented a unitised curriculum involving Years 8 to 10, in order to provide students with a wide range of subject choices. As students progress through Years 8 to 10, they are offered a wider number of subject choices. In addition to the mandated, more traditional areas of study, the school offers unique study units such as Outdoor Education, Ceramics and Robotics.

In the senior years, students are prepared for the Higher School Certificate (HSC) and may study the Board Developed Courses in order to satisfy requirements. Alternatively, Taree High School offers a Work Studies program involving TAFE study and work placement for those students wishing to enter the workforce upon completion of their high school education. All students have access to Vocational Education (VET) courses through both the school and TAFE.^[4]

Taree High School also participates in the Senior Curriculum Advantage project, which uses the course offerings at all three Manning Valley High Schools, Chatham, Wingham and Taree, to ensure Year 11 and 12 students can access a broad and relevant curriculum. Senior students may choose to remain at one school only or to access courses at other "host" school on a Wednesday afternoon in lieu of sport.

Students who leave school before receiving their Higher School Certificate (HSC) receive the NSW Record of School Achievement (RoSA). The RoSA records all completed Year 9, 10 and 11 courses and grades, and participation in any uncompleted Year 11 courses.

Co-curriculum

Community

Taree High School students participate in a number of community events throughout the school year. Highlights of the community program include:

• The Vampire Shield initiative, that is run annually by the local blood bank.
• Students march at the local ANZAC Day parade that is held every year.
• SRC representatives join other local schools in discussing issues that affect all students of the local area, at Youth Advisory Committee (YAC) meetings, which are run by Greater Taree City Council.^[5]
• The school participates in NAIDOC (National Aboriginal Islander Day Observance Committee) week events.^[6]

The school also caters for exchange students from around the world.

Debating

Taree High School has three debating teams: a Years 7/8, 9/10, and a senior debating team, which made it to the regional level of the Premier's Debating Challenge NSW.

Leadership

In order to encourage leadership skills, Taree High School has a Student Representative Council, made up of the school's captains and representatives from every year group within the school. The representatives are elected by their year group annually. School captains are also elected each year by peers and teachers.

The school holds an annual ANZAC Day assembly at the school and the captains prepare speeches for this. The SRC representatives organise school socials, write year reports for newsletters, run school assemblies, co-ordinate out of uniform days to raise money for charities, and help in the canteen to reduce waiting lines. SRC meetings are held weekly where important topical issues within the school's agenda are discussed and debated on, with SRC representatives voicing their peers' opinions and ideas.^[7]

Performing arts

A Music, Arts, Drama and Dance concert, known as MADD, is held every year at the local Manning Entertainment Centre in order to allow students to showcase their talents and perform.^[8] The MADD concert is hosted by the Year 11 Drama students and is filmed every year by students and the videos and DVDs are sold to the school community.

Publications

The school produces a magazine each year, named The Torch,^[9] containing student work in the form of poems, stories, artworks, and reports, etc. Students may purchase the magazine at the end of the year.

Sport

Students may represent Taree High School in various sporting events, and the school encourages these students to further their talents in areas such as Aerobics, Cricket, Soccer, Volleyball, Basketball, Tennis, Surfing, Waterpolo and countless more.

House system

As with most Australian schools, Taree High School utilises a house system. The school currently has four houses, Manning (blue), Murray (purple), Hooke (green) and Peel (red).^[10]

Through this house system, students annually participate in a swimming carnival, an athletics carnival, a beach day,^[10] a Spirit day and cross country events. The four school houses are rewarded with points for every participant in each event, and at the completion of each carnival the house with the most points is declared the winner.

Initiatives

Taree High School has implemented the Positive Behaviour for Learning process; an evidence-based whole school process to improve learning outcomes for all students. Taree High School's core values are Cooperation, Participation and Respect (CPR). Students can earn CPR Tickets by modelling these expectations and are rewarded with weekly prize draws and House points.

Taree High School introduced the Millennium Parent Portal in 2015. The Portal allows the main caregiver of each student to access live attendance feeds, student notices, timetables, academic results and reports, parent/teacher bookings and behavior records with their unique logon.

Taree High School posts regularly to social media to keep the Taree community informed of school news and events - visit the Taree High School Facebook Page.

Uniform^[11]

Students can wear any uniform piece with any other uniform piece. Students are required to wear a gold polo during sport and practical PDHPE classes.

Junior Girls (7-10)

Dress

• Black and white checked princess line frock with shirt-maker collar and short, front button opening

Skirt

• Black and grey checked skirts with yellow pinstripe and box pleats.

Shirt

• Black and white unisex polo.
• White cotton button-up with black piping around collar and sleeves.
• Gold polo.

Pants

• Black shorts, jeans, or track pants.

Jackets/Jumpers

• Black with no slogans or brands other than the school insignia.

Shoes

• Full leather upper shoes that cover the whole foot.

Senior Girls (11&12)

Senior girls may wear the same uniform, but the dress had a white collar with gold ribbon, and has a zip in the back.

Boys

Shirts

• Black and white unisex polo.
• White button up or polo with no slogans or brands other than the school insignia.
• Gold polo.

Pants

• Black shorts, jeans, or track pants.
• Clerical grey shorts or long pants.

Jackets/Jumpers

• Black with no slogans or brands other than the school insignia.

Shoes

• Full leather upper shoes that cover the whole foot.

Other Uniform

• SRC - black and white polo featuring the names of all the students in the SRC on the back.
• Sport representatives - some teams have black and white polos featuring the names of the students on the back.
• Year 10 - a black and white polo featuring the names of all the students in the year on the back.
• Year 12 - a jacket with a nickname for the student and the last two digits of the year on the back. (e.g. in 2015, the digits '15' were on the back). The design changes for each year.
• Blazer - a blazer is supplied by the school when the captains and/or vice captains are representing the school or leading a presentation (e.g. end-of-year awards).
• Singas/Fellas - a t-shirt is worn by the Singas or Fellas when performing. This is not worn on a general school day. A black shirt is worn by the Fellas and a white shirt is worn by the Singas.

Notable alumni

Academic

• Grant Stewart Harman - Emeritus Professor of Education Management; Author^[12]
• Timothy John Mehigan - Professor of Languages and Head of the Department of Languages and Cultures at the University of Otago, New Zealand; Former Associate Professor of German at the University of Melbourne (also attended Pennant Hills High School)^[13]
• Phill Schultz - Published Associate Professor of Mathematics (Pure mathematics), University of Western Australia^[14]

Business

• Peter Raymond Dodd - Global Head of Corporate Finance Advisory, ABN AMRO (UK)^[15]

Entertainment, media and the arts

• Nikki Bennett - Australian actress and cabaret performer^[16]
• Les Murray - Australian poet^[9]

Politics, public service and the law

• Lyndal McAlpin Barlin AM - Member of Old Parliament House Governing Council; Former Clerk of the Australian House of Representatives^[17]
• Wayne Bruce Berry - Speaker in the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly; Member of the Legislative Assembly (ALP) for Ginninderra ACT^[18]
• Bruce Wilkie Collins - New South Wales Queen's Counsel^[19]
• Bruce Cowan - Former Member of the NSW Legislative Assembly, Member for Oxley, Minister for Agriculture and Minister for Water Resources (Country Party)^[20]
• Alfred Clement Borthwick Maiden - Public servant; Former Commercial and Agricultural attaché at the Australian Embassy, Washington, D.C., Secretary of the Department of Primary Industry, Commercial counsellor and Australian government trade commissioner (Washington), managing director of the International Wool Secretariat^[21]
• Hon. Robert Edward Tickner - CEO of the Australian Red Cross; Former CEO of Job Futures Ltd; Federal Minister of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Member of the House of Representatives (ALP) for Hughes NSW (also attended Forster High School)^[22]
• Mark Vaile - Former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia x^[23]

Religion

• Allan Macdonald Harman - Research Professor of the Presbyterian Theological College; Former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria.^[24]

See also

• List of Government schools in New South Wales

References

External links

• Taree High School Website
• Department of Education & Training