Kapunda High School eNewsletter

2024 SRC & Prefects with special guests Nick Modra and Mayor Bill O'Brien, as well as mentors Kerensa Greenfield and Josh Earle.

Welcome to our School Newsletter for Week 5, Term 1 2024.

The first half of Term 1, 2024 has seen a strong and successful start to the school year for students and staff. We are continuing to make great strides on our focus to be a ‘High Performing’ school.

Congratulations to our Prefect and SRC student leaders who have been elected for 2024. The SRC & Prefect Induction Ceremony, held on Wednesday 28th February was a great occasion to recognise and celebrate students’ commitment and involvement in our school. Now in the 102nd year of schooling at Kapunda High School – we are continue to build on the rich history, traditions, culture and success of our school.

School Improvement Plan 2024

Building on the success of our school, we have sharpened our focus this year into two main streams, to lift learning experiences and success for every child. The areas grow on our focus over recent years and involve:

Learner Agency – including our Entreprenuerial Learning opportunities focus.
Wellbeing and Engagement – including our Wellbeing and Enrichment programs.

Positive School Culture

Our House System promotes student responsibility and engagement in school life. It individually recognises and rewards students for demonstrating our school values, engagement, attendance – and also promotes a sense of belonging to a team and our school. By building on the traditions of our House System, we grow the culture and success of our school. Assistant Principal: Positive School Culture & Wellbeing Mr Milne is building on this culture with students and staff with a high degree of investment and excitement from students.

We continue to work with students to grow the positive culture of our school – one recent initiative has been introducing School Rugby Jumpers as an additional and optional School Uniform item. Students co-designed the garment in Semester 2, 2023 and have reported high levels of school spirit and school pride with the outcome.

Conditions for Learning

Working in partnership with students, staff and parents/caregivers, our Conditions for Learning set the optimal school environment for learning. In 2024 we have re-doubled our efforts on ensuring clarity, consistency and safety for students including:

Sun Smart Protection
School Lockers – for every child
Mobile Phones – in line with Department and Government restrictions.

Introducing ‘infringement points’ for Hat and Mobile Phone incidents also contributes and grows our Positive School Culture and optimal Conditions for Learning. I have been very impressed with students’ efforts and congratulate them on rising to the occasion over the first half of Term 1. Thank you for your ongoing support of our Conditions for Learning, to make our school a safe, engaging and enjoyable place for all students to excel.

Governing Council AGM

Governing Council met for our Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 27th February. Congratulations to all elected members, many returning including our Chairperson Ms Susan Woods, Vice Chairperson Ms Veronica Thomson, Treasurer Mr Steve Ruediger, Secretary Ms Belinda Matz and all of our Governing Councilors. I look forward to working with our Governing Council over 2024 to continue advancing our school.

Grounds and Facilities Updates

Our new Staff Car Park, located at the Hawke Street Campus, was inaugurated at the start of 2024. This work adds to a package of recent upgrades to make our school safer for students and staff including:

Front of School Crossing.
Hawke Street Campus Crossing.
Hawke Street Campus fencing.
Bus student entrance/exit.
Re-surfacing of West Tce / High Street intersection with heavy vehicle road-base.

Governing Council has discussed reviewing and re-developing the Front of School Drop Off / Pick Up area on West Tce. We are working with Light Regional Council to explore options around this.

David Marino

Principal

Sports Day Thursday, 7th March (Week 6)

Student Free Day Friday, 8th March (Week 6)

Adelaide Cup Public Holiday Monday, 11th March (Week 7)

Good Friday Public Holiday Friday, 29th March (Week 9)

Easter Monday Public Holiday Monday, 1st April (Week 10)

Last Day of Term 1 Friday 12th April (Week 11)

NAPLAN testing for Year 7 and Year 9 students will happen during Week 7 and Week 8 of Term 1 (12/3/2024-22/3/2024).

KHS Reception has hats available for students and parent/caregivers to purchase. All hats are $12.

We have navy blue hats with the KHS logo:

We also have reversible house colours hats:

On Wednesday 28th February, we held the annual SRC & Prefect Induction Ceremony. Elected student leaders from years 7-12 were presented with their badges.
They join 102 years of tradition at Kapunda High School.

We were privileged to have past Head Prefect and 2014 KHS graduate Nick Modra join us. Nick gave an excellent speech on his experiences since graduation.

Thank you to all the special guests, family members and community members who joined us for the ceremony. Thank you also to the year 11 Food and Hospitality class who put on a delicious morning tea after the ceremony.

Many staff members and students put in hours of preparation to ensure the ceremony ran smoothly.

At the recent Kapunda High School Centenary Foundation Annual Awards Presentations: (l to r) Chairman Barry Vogt, Award recipients: Maddison McMahon, Gabriel Crowhurst, Chloe Isgar, Ella Johnson, Sofie Eguci, Connon Shepherd, Tegan Fenton, Chloe McWaters, Zachary Bell and KHS Principal David Marino.

At this year’s Kapunda High School Centenary Foundation’s 16th Annual Awards Presentations, approximately $30,000 was distributed to 15 former Kapunda High School students, through the Country Education Foundation of Australia grants programme. This brings the total amount of funding facilitated by the Centenary Foundation since 2009, to well over $400,000 distributed to 135 students and trade trainees.

MC for the Presentations, Anne Hornsey, was pleased to introduce Centenary Foundation Chairman, Barry Vogt who welcomed a large crowd of enthusiastic donors, supporters and family members of grant recipients to the Presentations, held in the grounds of “Eringa”. The Member for Frome, Ms Penny Pratt, was also present and maintains a keen interest in the Kapunda High School, including the Centenary Foundation.

Mr Vogt spoke of the achievements and success enjoyed by a number of past grant recipients, all of whom had strived to follow their dreams. Mr Vogt also paid tribute to the initial significant donation from a former Kapunda High School student, the late Jim Bettison, enabling the Centenary Foundation to get off to a flying start. This had encouraged other supporters who regularly continue to support the Foundation with generous donations. Mr Vogt hoped this would always be so, ensuring a financially secure future for the Foundation.

As a member of the Country Education of Australia (CEF), KHS Centenary Foundation supported students are also able to receive additional matching funds through a partnership between CEF and a number of Australian universities. This has proven to be of great benefit to local students and has been a great incentive to continue along their chose pathways when they may have faltered.

Mr Vogt was pleased to announce the recipient of the Foundation Award for 2024, Sofie Eguchi, who was acknowledged 2023 DUX of Kapunda High School. Members of the Hazel Family have been strong supporters of the Centenary Foundation since its inception.

Centenary Foundation Chairman Mr Barry Vogt with Jim Bettison Scholarship recipient Sofie Eguchi.

Mr Vogt then announced the recipient of the 2024-2027, Kapunda High School Centenary Foundation JIM BETTISON SCHOLARSHIP, Sofie Eguci.

Principal of Kapunda High School, Mr David Marino, spoke on Sofie’s achievements and her ambition to be a Medical doctor. She has already undertaken extra studies relating to her desired vocation and is well on the way to fulfilling her dream.

The recipient of the HELEN JAMES AWARD for 2024-2025, Chloe Isgar, was announced. David Marino spoke highly of Chloe’s years at Kapunda High School, where she took full advantage of the school offerings. He praised Chloe’s ambition to focus on the field of Nursing.

Connon Shepherd and Zachary Bell with Deputy Principal Tim Jones.

Mr Marino then announced the following award recipients and presentations were made by Centenary Foundation committee members Treasurer Steve Ruediger and Chairman Barry Vogt, to the following students:

Chloe McWaters and Ella Johnson (Ahrens Award), Tegan Fenton (Kapunda Community Thrift Shop Award), Maddison McMahon (Ian Murray Award), Connon Shepherd (Johnson Family KHS Country Education Award), Gabriel Crowhurst (Ware Family Country Education Grants), Zachary Bell (Light Regional Council Country Education Grant)

All students responded well to receiving their awards and the group present enjoyed hearing about the hopes and dreams of a group of fine young people on the cusp of their entry into the wider world.

Chairman Barry Vogt acknowledged the Centenary Foundation’s continuing support of the Jim Bettison Scholarship awardees: Georgia Flavel (2021-2024) Cameron Gerhardy (2022-2025) and Poppy Brady (2023-2026) the Helen James Award recipient Liana Antonioli (2023-24) along with the Ahrens Regional Award recipients for 2023-24 Jayden Matz and Jesica Both.

Mr David Marino, Principal of Kapunda High School spoke highly of the work of the Kapunda High School Centenary Foundation and its support of Kapunda High School students.

Mr Marino also spoke on the steady progress being made in the reconstruction and restoration of the school’s main building, “Eringa”, which was gutted by fire in March 2022. A silver-lining to the awful event is the opportunity for students to become involved with the restoration through a program enabling them to gain skills in a historic restoration course, leading to recognised certificate qualifications.

Said Mr Marino, “the support from all people connected with Kapunda High School has been magnificent and speaks highly of the place the school holds in Kapunda’s heart”.

In his closing remarks, Chairman Barry Vogt thanked everyone involved in the evening, including the members of the Centenary Foundation Selection Panel, David Marino, Tim Jones, and Anne Hornsey. He also thanked grounds person, Lance, who had assisted with setting up the area for the presentations.

The evening concluded with a light supper enjoyed on the lawns of “Eringa”.

The materials and services charges for 2024 are $480.00, less the $100 government rebate = $380. This is used for the purchase of loan text books, equipment and materials used in the delivery of the curriculum. A basic stationery issue is supplied (which is GST Free) which includes an ID card and monthly printing and internet allocation.

PAYMENT OF MATERIALS AND SERVICES

The due date for payment of materials and services is Friday 12th April 2024 (End of Term 1).
Payment may be made by cash, cheque, EFTPOS, Visa, MasterCard or by Direct Bank Deposit (see details below). Students are to make payments prior to the start of the school day (8:50am) to avoid carrying around large sums of money through the day. Parents/caregivers are encouraged to make payments to the Finance Desk in the Front Office Reception Building from 8:30am-3:30pm.

KHS Bank Details:

Bank SA

BSB 105-006

Acc No. 057125140

Family ID : eg SMIT10

(left hand side of invoice)

Please use your family code when making payments via bank transfer. You will find your family code on the top left hand corner of your statement. Please also include what the payment is for.

Prompt payment of school charges ensures that all parents accept their share of the responsibility for the education of their students.

INSTALMENT PAYMENT PLAN

Download and return the following form to apply for paying school fees by instalment this year.

KHS Instalment Payment Plan

SCHOOL CARD SCHEME

School Card is available in government schools to:

families with children aged 4 years and over who attend a school full time
independent full time students studying year 10, 11 or 12
Adult re-entry students undertaking subjects to complete their SACE.

To qualify, your family's gross income in the 2022/23 financial year must be below the threshold, based on the number of dependent children you have in your family.

Information on the eligibility criteria, income limits and the application process is available at the link:

If you think you may be eligible for School Card please complete the online application form at the link below as soon as possible.

Click Here to Apply for School Card

Step into the exciting world of neuroscience with our Year 9 Science crew! Recently, they took on the challenge of racing against time to create detailed models of the human brain. With every stroke of creativity, they aimed for accuracy while demonstrating their knowledge of different brain regions.

Marks were awarded based on both the precision of their models and their understanding of brain functions. This hands-on activity put their scientific skills to the test and highlighted the need for learning about the brain. Witnessing their competitive spirit, enthusiasm and expertise in action was a true testament to the power of immersive learning experiences in our classroom.

Our winners for best model were Olivia, Grace and Stella.
Our winners for best answers were Jasmine and Lily.
Our winners for most applied knowledge were Oliver and Micah.

Well done all!

Kerensa Greenfield

Science Teacher

On Monday, February 19th, a group of 25 students represented KHS at the interschool swimming competition held in Riverton. The day proceeded smoothly under warm weather conditions, with all students demonstrating commendable effort and dedication. Congratulations to all participants for their representation of the school.

The results reflected the consistent performance of our school, with the boys securing 2nd place and the girls achieving 3rd place, resulting in an overall 3rd position for the Championship Shield.

Four students excelled by either winning championship titles or securing runner-up positions in their respective age group. Special recognition goes to Milan Pozsgai and Lachlan Woods for achieving champion titles, and to Iggy Bosnich and Alyssa Valentine for their runner-up positions.

A standout moment was Milan Pozsgai's record-breaking achievements in two events. Milan swam the under-14 50m breaststroke in 35.42 seconds and 50m freestyle in 28.97 seconds, breaking each record by 1-2 seconds. This is an amazing achievement following on from the three records he broke at swimming carnival.

Thank you to all the parents for their assistance on the day. These days would not run as smoothly without their support.

Brianna Falland

Sports Coordinator

Matt McDonald with KHS students

The Year 10 Choice PE classes are currently completing a golf unit with a focus on biomechanics and skill improvement. On Wednesday, 14th of February, one of the classes had a visit from Matt McDonald, a previous Australian Long Drive champion, who currently works in the golf industry. Matt kindly took time out of his busy life and visited us on his day off to offer his expertise to help our students improve their skills and enjoyment of golf. Through his contacts, Matt sourced more than twenty of the latest high quality 7 Irons and generously donated them and a brand new Callaway golf bag. To say the students and staff were excited is understatement, and Mr Banks and Mr Milne - avid golfers - thought Christmas had come 10 months early! We can’t thank Matt enough for his amazing donation to the school and lending his time and expertise to the students.

Shani Robinson

PE Teacher

We are delighted to introduce the new addition to our school curriculum, the Year 7 Food Technologies class! In this subject, students learn to create delicious dishes whilst prioritising kitchen safety and cultivating teamwork in a kitchen environment, at the same time as developing essential kitchen skills. From practicing various techniques to understanding the importance of hygiene practices, our students will engage in hands-on activities that foster creativity and confidence in the kitchen. Throughout the year, they will explore various cuisines, experiment with diverse ingredients, and discover the joy of cooking while emphasising the importance of nutrition and sustainability.