Information, Listening & Educational Sessions

Student Leadership team update

 by Soumya Sharma & Hayden Milne, Year 11 members of the THS Student Leadership team

14 JUN 2023 @ 7.30 PM 

Inclusive, Engaging & Respectful Schools

 by Megan Pollard, THS Deputy Principal

29 MAR 2023 @ 7.30 PM 

David Arblaster will talk through the frameworks & processes that are in place to support the continuing transformation and school community planning - with a particular focus on the next 4 year plan.

And how we can support planning & transformation.

Presentation (Slides)

The information session will focus on observations of student learning/wellbeing during the COVID-19 lockdown and what we can collectively learn from it, and what is happening already as a result of it.  The session includes a run through of the survey designed to capture THS community observations and thoughts - to be sent after the meeting and review.

observations.ths.community

A workshop by David Arblaster (Principal) & Daniel Buttrey (Head of Teaching & Learning) on teaching and learning plans for 2020, covering the 4Cs, the learning dispositions and more. 

Come and be a part of the THS community learning transformation.

Thank you to the six newer members ("Year 7") of the THS community that spoke passionately about their experiences working in the THS Community Canteen and, to use their words, the positive impact it has had on them in terms of:

Social skills development

Being pushed outside of their comfort zone

Applying learned maths skills

Developing empathy through helping others

Feeling connected to the THS community

Wanting responsibility

Getting work experience

Having fun with friends & others!

A sense of purpose, linked to learning

The THS P&C is supporting an all of community musical, initiated and passionately supported by Anne Kenyon & Kate Paull.

Anne & Kate together have a long history with the THS community and are co-creators and facilitators of The Sound Studio.

We believe a musical will add greatly to the THS community and alongside the performance opportunities for the students, it will bring many authentic learning opportunities within the 4Cs (creativity, collaboration, community and critical reflection) framework.

The musical will be professionally supported and funded and will engage as many of the THS community (starting with the students) as it can in all aspects of producing the musical.

The musical is a first use of the P&C Start Up Program.

More about the musical...

Denise spoke about her background (most recently Cherrybrook High School) and the work the THS learning facilitators are doing to change the way they teach (facilitate) Maths learning - with less focus on once-off-exams and more focus on ongoing assessments based on authentic scenarios and making it fun, engaging and reflective!

youcubed...

The student representatives of the uniform review team spoke about the new clothing framework as a response to the community survey.

Details of the framework @

clothingframework.ths.community

The world has changed and in order to stay relevant the THS  learning facilitation community is changing!

In 2019 the THS community took the next step with a new program for introducing  young people (the Year 7 group) to the THS community - with a continuation of the focus on creativity, communication, collaboration & critical reflection (the 4Cs).

The information session was hands on;  we got to experience this new, authentic way of observing, reflecting & educating - with more of a focus on the skills that  have traditionally been referred to as "soft". These so called 'soft skills' are the skills that will help our kids in the real world, throughout their lives.  They are the skills that current employers in all industries are looking for. 

The P&C thanks Daniel, Melissa & Jeff for their time and we recognise the innovation in this work and look forward to supporting  it as we progress!

More information in the presentation and transformation plan below;

Presentation (PDF)

Transformation Plan (PDF)

It's been a year, and the Student Canteen Management Team, supported by the Canteen Manager & Staff, have made some impressive changes to canteen, including the expanding of the student volunteer team and deepening its involvement, improving our food selection along with processes to support producing it, increasing community involvement, and compliance with the NSW Healthy School Canteen Policy. 

 A session for parents on the initiatives around the wellbeing support program and engagement of Lucy Dahill.

Download the presentation (pdf)

A note from Dave Merrick ...

With the recent success of two parent forums in 2018, 'Transition to Yr 7' held in Term1 and 'Elevate Sustainable Studying' held in Term 2, the THS Welfare team would like to expand parent forums to being a more regular event. Initially, this could be once a term but may increase if parent identified need demands it. Please take some time to complete this survey to identify the areas of wellbeing, parenting and mental and emotional health that you believe would be valuable to cover in parent forums.

Complete the quick wellbeing online survey now...

The student-run canteen management squad spoke to us about their vision for our community canteen, and how they want to make the canteen both healthy, fun and how Food is life!!

It was such a great learning experience for all - especially for us as parents.  It reinforced how as parents we need to work with them and support them, but most importantly, in lots of different ways, we need to "get out of their way" as they continue to learn how to change their world -- and  beyond ...

And also, when we talk about changing education practices for the "future", to these students the "future is now" and in many ways it is us who have to react and learn from them.

They have such passion, and it is exciting to see where they plan to take our community canteen -- as a start!!

Check out their presentation (below) for all the details.

Community-owned, student-driven, professionally supported.

As part of their project based learning initiatives students produce items which are sold at the Christmas markets - teaching them about how a thought/idea can, through the use of technology and collaboration, be used to add value to someone else's life - in this case the a sale of the item to them.