13 December 2019

Newsletter Articles

Presentation Evening guest speaker, ADF Flight Lieutenant, Ellen Ruggeri with Head Prefect, Chloe Dabrowski and Prefect, Ailee Craig, winners of the ADF – Teamwork and Leadership award

From Our Principal

Presentation Evening

It was terrific to see a large crowd in attendance on Monday evening to celebrate and acknowledge the many achievements of our students. Thank you to all families and community members who made the effort to come along. We know that your presence and support makes a huge difference to students as it encourages them to continue to strive for excellence.

The award winners were just a fraction of the many Kapunda High School students who have been dedicated and committed to their studies this year and I know that the decisions made at many year levels were exceptionally difficult.

For our departing Year 12 students, we wish them well as they await their SACE results. As a cohort, they have been an excellent group of young people right from the time they commenced at our school in 2015. Head Prefect, Chloe Dabrowski, in her outstanding valedictory speech, encapsulated just how special they have been.

There were many important messages from our special guest, Ellen Rugerri (nee Mace) (2006-10).

Ellen spoke about her journey from Kapunda High School where she was Head Prefect to studying at the Australian Defence Force Academy, graduating with a Bachelor of Science – majoring in Aviation and Mathematics and eventually becoming a pilot participating in international exercises and Operation Okra in the Middle East.

She also spoke about her health issues and the challenges this presents as she faces the prospect of not being able to fly again. Her main message was that of resilience – of facing the challenges life throws at us and developing the ability to see such situations as opportunities.

Currently, Ellen is Programming Officer at No 32 Squadron in Victoria where her aspirations are to continue serving in the Air Force as a mentor to young females beginning careers in the RAAF.

Once again, the entertainment during the evening was really enjoyable and highlighted the talent that exists in our school with performances from Tahlia Wendt prior to the ceremony, Aneisha Whitmore and the concert band.

Thank you to members of the Presentation Evening organising team – Kerry Brown, Ann Richardson, Tab Mackenzie, Carolyn Thorne, Lee-Anne Cummins, Tracy Warner, and Craig D Cope. It was again a pleasure working with such a ‘can-do’ group of people.

I was once again impressed with the students who compered the evening (Kayla Malkin, Jack Meldrum, Georgia Flavel, Isabel Castaneda, Aneisha Whitmore, Connon Shepherd, Kyla Dellar and Bethany-Kate Phillips) and the members of the SRC who acted as ushers.

Thank you also to:

• Craig D Cope, James Soar, Cayse Dew, Cameron Gerhardy and Daniel Weichert for sound
• Tracy Warner, Steve O’Donnell, Mel Coulter and Peter Murphy for logistics
• Jennifer Ahrens for co-ordinating the Art display.

Mr Tony Pasin, Member for Barker, with The Barker Shield Award winners, Aneisha Whitmore, Cameron Gerhardy and Toby Woods

Presentation Evening

Year 10 Celebration Assembly

Once again, we enjoyed a very successful celebration assembly on Tuesday morning and it was great to see so many families in attendance.

This particular group of students have increasingly ‘stepped up’ with commitment to their studies, leadership and co-operation and we look forward to them continuing to go from strength to strength in the years ahead

Thank you to Year Level Manager, Craig D Cope, comperes and the music students for their work in making this a success.

Congratulations

At Presentation Evening, we acknowledged two members of our Kapunda High School community: Carolyn Thorne (Eringa Award) and Ashly Cocks (Minister of Education Volunteer Award)

The Eringa Award is awarded annually to a member of our school community who has given outstanding service to the school. The recipient may be a student, parent, staff member or community member.

Principal, Kristen Masters and Governing Council Chairperson, Andrew Hayward with Carolyn Thorne

Principal, Kristen Masters and Governing Council Chairperson, Andrew Hayward with Ashly Cocks

Staffing Changes

Staffing for 2020 is still being concluded, so things may change over the next few days and weeks.

Many thanks to the following staff who are concluding their time at Kapunda High School:

• Penny Chancellor

• Craig D Cope
• Felyka Leske

• Alex Glen

SSOs, Kerry Brown and Alex Kitchen have gained temporary transfers to schools in Adelaide for much of next year.

Thank you also to members of the leadership team who have completed their tenures and will be returning to full-time leadership positions: Shani Robinson (English/Arts/Literacy Co-ordinator) and Dani Ryan (Year 8 Manager).

New staff:

• Brett Ferris – English/Literacy and Arts Co-ordinator. (currently at the Open Access College)
• Kane Dyer – Assistant Principal, Flexible Learning Pathways (VET/FLO/Career Strategy) (currently working in the Learning Improvement Division of the Department for Education)

Re-development news

The Minister of Education has approved the release of concept plans for our re-development. We have been advised that early works are likely to commence on site from late April, 2020.

BYOD 2020 - Reminder

Once again, all students will require a device for school. Options include:

• Recommended device (either purchase or rent to buy) – see link below

• Own choice of device – see below for minimum specifications

• Long term loan of school device (financial hardship)

Merry Christmas

Thank you to everyone who has supported our school in any way during 2019. I wish you all the compliments of the season and look forward to working with you again in 2020.

To families who are ending their association with our school - thank you for all your contributions over the years.

Kristen Masters
Principal

Year 12 SACE Results

Year 12 SACE Results Release 2019 will be from 8:30am on Tuesday, 17 December. Students can access their results on the link below through the student’s online portal. Ms Masters and Mrs Warner will be at KHS on that day, if you have any questions.

SATAC will be informing students of first round offers for all preferences on Thursday, 19 December 2019. Offers will be sent via email to students who have attained an early offer by 5:00pm. A second round offer will take place in early January.

Preferred Name?

At KHS, we try to accommodate those who wish to be known as a name other than the name that appears on their birth certificate. This may be achieved by adding a ‘preferred’ name to our school data base, which informs DayMap. However, there are some instances where the student’s legal name must be used. Forms of formal identification, such as ID cards and ID letters (used when applying for a driver’s licence) must show the legal name eg name that appears on the birth certificate or change of name change of name certificate.

If your child has had a change of name this year, you should contact the school, and provide a copy of the legal change of name certificate to ensure that school records are correct.

Japan Study Tour 2020 Update

It is with great excitement that we can announce the 2020 Japan Study Trip is (at this stage) progressing. We are now seeking confirmation of interest from students who are intending to travel to Japan in 2020. The tour is currently planned from Wednesday, 23 September, 2020 to Sunday 4 October, 2020. These dates include one week of the term 3 school holidays. We have communicated with Hachioji High School in Tokyo, who are organising host families for our students to stay with during the school visit.

The itinerary will consist of four days staying with host families and attending school in Tokyo. Following the school visit, our students will tour Japan staying in hotels. This time will be filled with activities and require students to participate in a significant amount of walking and sightseeing. Some proposed sites/activities are: Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo Sky Tree, Asakusa, Imperial Palace, Kyoto Kinkakuji, and Nara’s deer park and Todaiji. The weather in the areas visited will be hot and humid.

Please be aware of the different diets Japanese families have. It is important to make sure students are aware and open to trying new foods; however plain white rice is always available.

We anticipate the cost will be approximately $4,000 including travel, accommodation, meals, school fees and host family payments, entry to tourist sites and insurance. Students will need to take extra money for souvenirs and snacks. To reduce costs, each school will work with their travelling students to determine fundraising or grant opportunities from their local area. We will be hosting an information night and providing all required information and forms in term 1, 2020.

If you are interested in the possibility of the Study Tour, please contact Scott Durand, ph 8566 2203 or email scott.durand752@schools.sa.edu.au, as a $500 deposit needs to be paid in late January.

Visual Art 2019

Year 12

The Year 12 Art exhibition has just ended after a successful month on exhibition. The display showcased an extremely high quality of work, ranging from digital paintings, assemblage, pen illustrations and an equestrian costume. Danny Menzel opened the exhibition, comparing his own career with digital design and his career to the students who have built high skills in digital painting, Shauna Haigh and Jasmine Atherton. The exhibition showcased a contrast between old and new, as traditional methods such as working with ink and pen to create botanical illustration (Num Kasing) and post-mortem Victorian photographs (Ruby Crouch) were mixed with digital work and contemporary concepts. All of the Year 12 students should feel proud of their achievements in exhibiting high quality and engaging artworks for a second year.

Year 11

The Year 11 Art and Design class have worked steadily across the semester with generally good results. Xavier Wilson-Hall and Kaileigh Hoerisch undertook Visual Design; Xavier creating an Illustration as part of branding for a streetwear company and Kaileigh focusing on branding for a cafe and clothing in two separate tasks.

Xavier Wilson-Hall’s streetwear designs

Kaileigh Hoerisch’s café branding design

Visual Art students kept to two-dimensional work in a range of mediums; Dayna Kostrz experimented with highlighters under a black light to make artworks that glow when exposed to UV light.

Dayna Kostrz’ artwork

Community Studies is a new addition to Art and Design at Stage 1 this year, with eight students undertaking this option. Darby Thompson achieved success through this creating her own dress with silver elements to express her personality, while Hannah Mao worked on her literacy and understanding of English words by creating her own word art. This was in the form of a book with the potential to be used by future ESL (English as a second language) students.

Darby Thompson

Year 10

The Year 10 class has been working on a ‘Making Art History’ task where they had to choose a famous painting and ‘pull out’ a section, such as a wine bottle from a still life and create it as a three dimensional form with the original painting style applied. The sculptures created were of flowers, a helicopter, boat, musical instruments, etc.

Callum Blaike & Connor Hemsworth

Anna Lillie, Max Demaine and Mieka Cowling

Year 9

The Year 9 Art class were challenged with working on a jewellery folio following a visit to the JamFactory in Seppeltsfield, where they viewed a range of jewellery and artworks. They have completed a range of activities based on their own choices, such as laser cut earrings and necklaces, pewter cast rings and a couple of wallets made from leather and fabric. Some of the jewellery was presented at the Kapunda Gallery along with the Year 12 works, this year.

Parkes Eaton, Kaitlyn Dowden & Sapphire Crouch showing their jewellery

The class has recently started painting landscape artworks after analysing Tom Roberts, A Break Away; a famous Australian pastoral artwork. This project will conclude their learning for 2019.

Cara Press-Damiani

ConocoPhillips Science Experience

Year 9 student, Jed Carpenter attended a three day ConocoPhillips Science Experience at UniSA in week 7 of this term. The program, aimed at Year 9 and 10 students, is designed to provide students who have an interest in science with an opportunity to engage in a wide range of fascinating science activities under the guidance of scientists.

Over the three days, Jed participated in activities such as:

• visiting the university planetarium to view a video about the effects of a major road being laid through a slum area in Kibera, Kenya, Africa, followed by a discussion;
• soldering an input/output powerboard and developing coding;
• and assessing a water filtration system for an assigned country (Ethiopia), manage sample pH water levels and then present their findings.

‘The program was well worth going to and I recommend it to others. The Coding and VR (virtual reality) were the most interesting to me.’

Jed was fortunate enough to receive a sponsorship from Kapunda Rotary Club to attend this valuable program, and we are thankful to the Club for their generosity and support.

OzHarvest Donation

The Year 9 Geography class undertook a social action recently, with one group focussing on food wastage and food ‘rescue’. The students ran a home group competition in order to collect food to donate to the food rescue organisation, OzHarvest. A representative from the Barossa OzHarvest received the donations at an assembly and shared information about the organisation, including a video about food rescue.

MacqLit Literacy Intervention Program 2019

This year, we have implemented a Community Literacy Support Group to help improve the reading skills of some of our Year 8 and 9 students. We have been fortunate to have volunteers from the local community come on board and join some of our senior students in Years 11 and 12 in providing support by listening to students read for approximately one hour a week. These weekly reading sessions have helped to further develop skills in decoding, fluency and comprehension and will assist in setting these students up for success throughout their high school years and life beyond school.

It’s really good to watch the students’ confidence in their reading grow throughout the year. Sue Woods, Community Volunteer)

She was very helpful with breaking down words to figure them out and she listened to me read as well. (Tegan, student)

Sue Woods with student, Zach Martin

If you are interested in volunteering in 2020 please Tracy Wilson on 85662203. Full training is provided and we can work in with what day and time suits you best.

KHS has been gradually building a collection of books specifically for use in both group literacy intervention lessons and one to one reading sessions. We have also been fortunate to receive donations of books from people in the community. Monetary donations to the school are greatly appreciated to purchase more books. For further information, please contact Elizabeth Gary-Smith on 85662203.

Tracy Wilson with the many donated books

Design & Technology Projects

Design and Technology projects