16 November 2018

Newsletter Articles

Year 11 students, Chloe Jones and Leanne Coleman-Will (either side) with Art teacher, Jennifer Ahrens and Principal, Kristen Masters at the Combined School’s Art Exhibition Opening

From Our Principal

“IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO RAISE A CHILD”

We’ve all heard the proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child” and there is no doubt that young people who have the opportunity to connect with the broader community in authentic ways are enriched by those experiences.

This has been very much in evidence at Kapunda High School in recent weeks:

On Sunday, I had the pleasure of attending the local Remembrance Day ceremony along with Year 11 prefects, Andrew Prior and Abbey Trotta. Andrew and Abbey placed a wreath on behalf of the students and staff of Kapunda High School.

Last week our Year 11 Drama students performed the thought-provoking, Juvie, to an audience of family and friends. There were some very strong performances from a range of students who delivered powerful monologues as part of the compelling presentation.

Another highlight of last week was the opening of the Combined Kapunda Schools’ Art Exhibition at the local gallery. The exhibition particularly features the work of Year 12 student, Gemma Brett, a range of pieces by members of the Year 11 Visual Art and Design class and a string installation created by Year 10 Art students. The exhibition is open until Sunday, 2 December. (See article and photos in this newsletter)

The Year 10 mock interviews were once more highly successful with a number of business and community members giving generously of their time to conduct the interviews. This is an important part of the compulsory SACE Stage 1 Personal Learning Plan (PLP) subject and gives students invaluable experience with employers who have vast experience in hiring staff. Most importantly, students received valuable feedback that will assist them prepare for ‘real life’ interviews. (See article and photos in this newsletter)

PUPIL FREE DAY - MONDAY, DECEMBER 3 - ADVANCE NOTICE

Governing Council has approved the date for the final pupil free day of the year. The focus of the day will be on collaborative moderation of year 8-10 assessment tasks and review of the curriculum for 2019.

PRESENTATION EVENING – Monday, December 10

All members of our school community are cordially invited to attend the annual presentation evening on Monday, December 10 in the school gymnasium. Guests are asked to be seated by 7:15pm for a prompt 7:30pm start.

The main purpose of the evening is to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of our Year 8 to 12 students.

A significant number of students will be the recipients of prizes recognizing effort and achievement. There are also a range of prestigious awards and scholarships presented on the evening.

Special guest for the evening is former student, Stefan Ahrens, the Managing Director of Ahrens Engineering.

As one of the most important events on the school calendar, it is expected that all students receiving awards and certificates are dressed in full school uniform, including footwear.

The night promises to be a great one with entertainment from the concert band and several soloists.

MATERIALS AND SERVICES CHARGES 2019

Governing Council has set the Materials and Services Charge at $450 for 2019. This is the equivalent of $2.25 per school day. Currently families are being polled about making this legally enforceable.

While the finding from the Government covers the major items of expenditure, including salaries, building maintenance, cleaning costs, basic administration, etc, contributions from families are very important in balancing the budget.

This year, the families of approximately 150 students were eligible for School Card which supports low income families.

BYOD IN 2019 – LONG TERM LOANS

If you wish to be considered for a long term loan of a school device and have not returned the application form, it is critical that you do by Friday, November 23.

Please note that priority for long term loan devices is those families experiencing financial hardship.

ERINGA AWARD

Nominations are open for the prestigious Eringa Award. This award acknowledges outstanding contribution from a student, staff member, parent/caregiver or community member and will be presented at our Presentation Evening.

Previous winners have been Mr Grantly Bell, Mrs Kristin Hodge, Mr Andrew Mickan, Mrs Anne Hornsey and Mrs Debra Hook. Nominations for this year’s award can be made by completing the form below or emailing Kristen.masters775@schools.sa.edu.au . – maximum of 250 words. Nominations close on Friday, November 16.

STAFFING NEWS

Science teachers, Ms Natalie Knowler and Mr Ben Dibb are taking leave for the final four weeks of the school year. The majority of their classes across that period will be taken by former Science Co-ordinator, Mr Rob Van.

Mrs Hayley Laney will be taking leave for the final three weeks of the school year – preparing for the birth of her second child. A replacement teacher will be employed for the duration.

Art Exhibition Opening

The Kapunda Combined School’s Art Exhibition is now open for viewing until Sunday, 2 December. The opening for the exhibition was held on Thursday evening, 8 November, where members of the community came to celebrate the talent of students from Kapunda Primary and Kapunda High School.

The exhibition contains work across a range of year levels and mediums to a high calibre. The Year 11 students have produced work in painting, collage, digital painting, glass and copper, while Taya Vardon, Lily Watkins and Libby Miller in Year 10 created a string installation inspired by an excursion to the Art Gallery of South Australia where they saw the work of artist Chiharu Shiota.

Taya, Lily and Libby create their string installation for the exhibition.

Ali Devitt-Lansom, a Team Leader at Tutti Arts Inc. – an organisation working with artists with disabilities, opened the exhibition. Gemma Brett will be working with Tutti Arts Inc. in the years to come after her successful completion of Year 12. I would like to mention a special thanks to Carolyn Tolley, who worked with Gemma across the year to help her achieve success.

Jennifer Ahrens
Visual Art teacher

Year 10 Mock Interviews

Last week saw our Year 10 students participate in Mock Interviews as part of their PLP learning and assessment. Fifteen different local employers and community members gave up their time to engage with the students and provide them an opportunity to have as close to ‘real life’ experience as possible. We are so grateful to our following community members:

This year our students expressed that whilst they were ‘nervous’ and ‘stressed’ before their interviews, they certainly developed personally and learned valuable life skills from the experience. We were proud of the way the Year 10 students presented themselves, prepared and worked towards their Mock Interviews. We hope that this experience helps them be well prepared for the interview type situations in their futures beyond school.

Penny Chancellor
Flexible Learning Pathways Leader
Lara McCarthy, Lexi Champion, Jennifer Ahrens and Scott Durand
PLP teachers

Order Your School Magazine Now!

By ordering now, you will secure a full colour, limited edition magazine, which will be available to collect on Presentation Evening.

Brimmed Hats for Sale

From 2019, in accordance with our SunSafe Policy, staff and students will be required to wear brimmed hats. Kapunda High School has a range of reversible bucket style hats available for sale at $9 each. The house colours of yellow, red and green are perfect worn ‘colour up’ at Swimming Carnival and Athletics Day!

Friday Activities

Basketball Goals – Connect 4

At recess time, staff were up against students in a basketball goal throwing - Connect 4 challenge, using a large Connect 4 game provided by Mr Jones. For every goal, the shooter put a disc in the Connect 4 board.

Staff were undefeated with three wins!

Catch for a Coke

At lunchtime on a warm and windy day, students lined up for the ever popular Catch for a Coke.

Drew hit a tennis ball high in the air and if a student could catch it with one hand, they were rewarded with a can of ice cold Coke.

The Melbourne KHup

In the hope of attracting more participants, the 2018 KHS Melbourne Cup piggy back race was reduced to a 32 metre sprint, rather than the previous gruelling 320 metres.

Unfortunately, the inclement weather caused several scratchings and rather than being held on the oval, the race was run on the dry asphalt surface in front of the gym.

Horses charged towards the finish line with Clancy (Liam Opitz/Abi Law) taking a tumble as the other horses ran ahead.

Whimpress 101 (Josh Whimpress/Blake Marsden) crossed the line in first place with Princess Pollie (Poppy Brady/Olivia Wuttke) second, and We'llgetback2ya (Sam Woods/Harry Wuttke) close behind for third place.

Community Notices