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The KHS Open Girls Football TeamWelcome to our school newsletter for Week 4, Term 2.
We have seen strong progress across the first half of the term, for our students, families, staff and school community. Students have taken part in an enriched range of learning opportunities and events over the latter part of Term 1 and also the first part of Term 2.
Students have engaged with a number of guest speakers delivering workshops including:
- Mates on a Mission workshop
- Ride for Sick Kids (Ronald McDonald House) presentation
- Aged Rights Advocacy Service (ARAS) workshop
- William Lakes Lifestyle development by Villawood
- Youth Opportunities
These opportunities provide a range of perspectives, enrich understanding and add value to an authentic student experience. We have further presentations planned for over Term 2.
At a whole school level, a snapshot of our progress to date includes:
- Mobile Phone restrictions have been well adopted by students and contribute to a better learning environment.
- House Points system is contributing to growing our positive school culture.
- Assessment Deadlines procedures have been updated to provide more clarity and consistency for students, families and staff.
School Improvement Plan
This term we are continuing with our focus for improving student’s skills in writing (literacy) and solving number problems (numeracy). We have introduced a formal lesson observation per term and also student work sample check to track and monitor progress. Good progress is being made toward our student achievement targets.
PIVOT: Teacher Survey
Over the past several years, we have been running a teacher feedback survey named the PIVOT survey. This allows students to provide feedback to teachers around how their learning is progressing, what is working well for them and how they can be further supported. The survey is anonymous and provides whole school data on how we are tracking and how we can continue improving the student learning experience. The survey takes place during class and we will be running this toward the end of Semester 1, before final assessment weeks.
Congratulations Ms Bromley
A big congratulations to Agriculture teacher Ms Bromley, who has been recognised as the Outstanding Agriculture teacher for 2023. This is an award from the Agriculture Teacher’s association of South Australia and recognises the amazing work that Ms Bromley does for our students, school and also Agriculture teaching programs. Please congratulate Ms Bromley when you next see her.
School Enterprise: Entrepreneurial Thinking
As we look toward the future of our school, we also look back at where we started and where we have come from. The origin and foundation of our school is unique in Australia, being a public-school founded through the generosity of Australia’s foremost Entrepreneur, Sir Sidney Kidman and Lady Kidman.
From its foundation, an Entrepreneurial spirit has been part of the fabric of Kapunda High School for many generations, with our school producing well-rounded and successful graduates for over 100 years and over 5 continuous generations.
As we undertake the task of re-building our school, we draw inspiration from this Entrepreneurial mindset and seek to find, create and provide every opportunity for our students to learn, grow and excel. Some Entrepreneurial ventures we are building on at our school this year include:
- School Agricultural Programs
- Student Enterprise: Kappy Brew Café
- Heritage Trades Program
- Re-Making Eringa initiative
School Agricultural Programs
There are lots of Agricultural ventures that currently occur at Kapunda High School. We are in the process of reviewing, refining and expanding on our School Agricultural offerings.
Some recent outcomes include:
- Purchase of a new school tractor to expand school farming experience and tractor driver training opportunities.
- Visit to University of Adelaide Roseworthy Campus to build partnership and links.
- Visit to Urrbrae Agricultural High School to build partnership.
Heritage Trades Program
We are providing a truly unique opportunity for students at our school. The program is progressing, with a Memorandum of Understanding developed between our school and the Registered Training Organisation. This is a unique and innovative opportunity for our students, being the only high school in Australia to offer this program.
We are planning a scope of works for students to be involved in and gain first-hand experience, including working on a number of Heritage assets across our school:
- Eringa
- Front of School Gate
- Stables – or ‘Kidman Coach House’
- Tool Shed
There is strong industry and Department support around this initiative. I look forward to sharing further exciting news around this as we progress the program, starting later this year for an immersion course.
William Lakes Lifestyle Development by Villawood
We are continuing to grow our partnership with the William Lakes Lifestyle Development, to provide opportunities for our students. This has recently included a visit and workshop from the William Lakes management team with our Year 9 cohort, to talk about careers, pathways and opportunities involved in setting up a new suburb. Students engaged very well with the workshop and asked a range of thoughtful questions. We are planning opportunities for students to visit the development and learn more on-site in the near future.
Student Enterprise: Kappy Brew Café
The Kappy Brew Café has officially launched. This is a student training café, where students are gaining skills on a number of levels including:
- Barista training and qualifications.
- Knowledge around maintaining professional café equipment.
- Knowledge about types of coffee beans, roasts and grinds.
- Knowledge about types of milks and dietary requirements.
- Ethics, sustainability around the above.
- Business awareness around cost/benefit and profit/loss.
This is a student enterprise, where students are thinking entrepreneurially and looking at opportunities to run the café e.g. school open day, events and conferences hosted at our school. This is valuable experience and will help students to develop skills of Entrepreneurial thinking.
Positive School Culture 2023
Our focus on positive school culture is continuing to grow, with our updated House Points System in place for the first time over Term 1. This is contributing to an increased sense of belonging, team work and school spirit. House Points updates are issued twice per term at whole school assemblies (usually Weeks 5 and 10). Below is our current leader board, from the end of Term 1.
Curriculum: Assessment Deadlines procedure
Thank you to everyone for your input on updating our school approach to Assessment Deadlines. Based on input from students, parents/caregivers and staff we have increased clarity, communication and also flexibility around our approaches to Assessment Deadlines including:
- Proactive communication at the start of each term – in Week 1 deadlines are sent home for each subject.
- Check-points for assessment completion are documented on DayMap throughout the term.
- Communication with students and families at risk of not submitting / not completing / not passing an assessment checkpoint or deadline.
- Clear and consistent expectations for assessment deadlines.
- Clear and consistent approaches to assessment deadline extensions, where applicable.
Grounds and Facilities
Our school is going from strength to strength, as we re-build our school and expand on our facilities.
Eringa
Phase 0, 1 and 2 of the clean-up and ‘make safe’ operation for Eringa are complete.
We are now in the process of working with the Department for Education and other Government Departments through the tendering process for rebuilding and restoration.
There is lots of planning work happening behind the scenes and I’m involved in briefings this week. I look forward to sharing further news in the near future.
Front of School
We are in discussions with the Department for Education around solving our school traffic issue and increasing student safety. We’ve taken the following actions over the past 12 months:
- Installation of a Front of School Emu Crossing and 25 km/h signage (also on Hawke St).
- Council has upgraded the road at the West Tce / High St intersection.
- School management of our Front of School gate, to help direct pedestrian traffic.
- Installation of signage for Reception building, to help direct pedestrian traffic.
The next step we are exploring to make it safer include a dedicated school car park, off-street and on school grounds. This would help further alleviate unnecessary traffic, congestion and provide further space for organised child drop off and collection points. I hope to have further information around this in the near future as we explore the idea.
Student Movement
We are working through a number of management systems for improving the monitoring of student movement during lesson times. We’ve introduced a staff lanyard system, which teachers can easily issue to students when they need to leave class for a valid reason. We are also exploring the use of DayMap to monitor students given permission to leave class. This is to ensure Duty of Care for the whereabouts of students on-site, as well as to address concerns around repeated and ongoing vandalism across our school.
Re-making Eringa: Social Enterprise
We are growing the concept for a school community initiative called ‘Re-making Eringa’.
The initiative will involve developing a series of works, artefacts and items to commemorate the re-building of Eringa. This will eventually form a Community Exhibition in the basement of Eringa, which will be hosted as a student tourism enterprise.
The ongoing opportunities for student learning include:
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The initiative also provides a forum for our community to be involved in the re-building and healing process, with the opportunity of old scholars and families being able to donate memorabilia back to our school. On Monday 29th May, we have a community member donating old doors from Eringa back to our school, purchased from an upgrade years ago. Watch our school social media for further information.
Staffing
I’m pleased to welcome back Mrs Stephanie Bishop, in the role of Executive Assistant.
Mrs Bishop returns to us from a stint in Clerical Administration at Faith Lutheran College and brings a wealth of experience to our school.
Her role will involve strategic, policy and enterprise administration as our school continues to grow and advance. We are developing great clarity and capacity across roles in our school with further staffing in: Student Services, School Promotions, Student Medication, First Aid and WHS administration.
We are currently two full-time equivalent teachers short in our school. This is due to teacher supply issues at a state and national level. We have undertaken a wide range of actions to address and resolve this and are nearing a solution.
An acknowledgement and thank you to our staff for their flexibility and picking up extra responsibilities, in support of our students and school.
I look forward to working in partnership with you, for the advancement of our young people and school community.
David Marino
Principal
Public Holiday Monday 12th June (Week 7)
Pupil Free Day Tuesday 13th June (Week 7)
Click on the link below to view our school calendar.
Volunteers play a vital role in our school canteen being able to offer a wide variety of healthy food to our students and staff at recess and lunch times. Volunteers are encouraged to come and help in our canteen - even for an hour. Assistance during the peak preparation times, between 10:00am and 2:00pm would be most valued and appreciated. And of course, a regular commitment would enable Canteen Manager, Sam, to better plan the menu in advance.
Sam, KHS Canteen ManagerWhat hoops do I need to jump through?
Yes, there is some paperwork and some legal requirements such as completing the online Responding to Abuse and Neglect (RAN-EC) course and having a Working With Children Check (WWCC). Kaye Clancy can assist with beginning the process of applying for the WWCC, which is free to our volunteers. There will also be a general induction with the Department for Education and we will share other important information before you begin.Call the school and ask to speak either to Kaye, or Sam in the canteen if you'd like to learn more about the kind of help our canteen requires.
If you're keen to begin, please contact Kaye on (08) 8566 2203 ext. 3.
The Year 12 Sports Studies class participated in their Sailing/Kayaking camp during week 2. The class had the opportunity to try out Kayaking on Wednesday and then Sailing on Thursday. On Friday we dropped them off 7 km down the river and they made their way back to the camp site before we packed up and headed home.
Thank you to Mr Leslie for driving.
The students enjoyed the trip, some more than others. The capsizing was also enjoyable to watch. 44 seconds was the quickest to get back in the boat.
Megan Samain
Sports Studies Teacher
On Wednesday the 17th of May, the Open Girls played their first round of knock-out football against Faith Lutheran. The girls played an excellent game and are going on to the second round against Clare in the coming weeks.
Score:
Kapunda 21.13 (139)
Faith 0.0 (0)
Goal Kickers:
Sophie Eaton 5
Peyton Burgess 3
Madi Muir 3
Mikayla Wagner 2
Charlotte Leslie 2
Britnie Antony 2
Alyssa Valentine 1
Jess Jones 1
Stella Ryan 1
Mikaylah Antony 1
Georgia Madigan
HPE Teacher/Coach
We recently welcomed two new dairy calves to KHS. They've come to us from Jersey Fresh, a business which has been supporting the KHS agriculture program for many years. The calves are a Jersey/ Murray Grey cross.
As part of the 'Cows Create Careers' program, Year 9 Agriculture students have been bottle-feeding and caring for the calves. They will return to Jersey Fresh in a couple of weeks.
Michael Daloisio from Charlie Black, based in El Estanco Cafe Greenock, receiving a thank you plaque made by Paul Johnson in the tech department. Michael trained up the Food and Hos teachers and calibrated the coffee machine at Kapunda High School, passing on his expertise and knowledge of all things coffee.
Sam Fethers
Food and Hospitality Teacher
Last week, the Certificate 2 Construction (Doorways) students undertook their working at heights unit. Students had to demonstrate that they could secure the harness themselves and then safely dangle from a height.
LinkSA Notice
Barossa Council Podcast Workshop
First Aid Training Opportunity
Light Regional Council is pleased to provide a subsidized first aid training opportunity for local youth, aged 14 years or older, during the July school holidays.
The training will take place at the Gawler Civic Centre (89-91 Murray Street, Gawler) from 9:00am until 4:30pm on Wednesday 19 July.
For more information, or to book tickets for this training, please visit the following link: