30 November 2018

Newsletter Articles

Year 12 Formal: Jacob Barron and Marisha Hughes at Gomersal Wines

From Our Principal

YEAR 12 FORMAL

The Year 12 Formal last Wednesday evening was a fantastic way to celebrate with the graduating class of 2018. Gomersal Wines in the Barossa Valley was a great venue for the occasion with hosts providing excellent hospitality with fine food and a friendly and welcoming atmosphere.

Students looked wonderful in their fine dresses and suits and it was fantastic to see so many parents and friends present to see them walk down the red carpet. Thankfully the inclement weather wasn’t too much of a dampener!

Everyone got into the spirit of the evening – sharing some ‘shout outs’ and recalling memories from over the past five years – aided by a DVD of photos. The dance floor was filled in the latter part of the evening with both students and staff getting into the groove!

I’d like to acknowledge the work of Senior School Assistant Principal, Tracy Warner, and her team of Year 12 home class teachers for working with students to organise the evening.

Professional photos by Advanced Life Photographers will be available to view and purchase next week.

ONLINE ORDER CODE: XMH RXX 45H

PRESENTATION EVENING

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 certificates and prizes recognizing effort and achievement. There are also a range of prestigious awards and scholarships presented on the evening.

Former student, Stefan Ahrens, will be our special guest for the evening.

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

Year Level Prize Criteria

Each year, the number of prizes available at each year level represents 10% of the term 4 enrolment. For example, if there are between 91-100 students in a year level, there will be 10 prizes; if there are 101-110, there will be 11 prizes.

Academic Excellence prizes are awarded to the student(s) with the best grades for the year – across all subjects. This is calculated using end of term data.

Teachers nominate students for the following awards which are then finalised by the Year Level Manager and teachers:

All-Rounder: balancing sport, academic and service contribution over the year; responsible behaviour

Consistency: outstanding consistent effort over the year; responsible behaviour

Improvement: improvement in attitude, grades and involvement from previous year or start of the year; responsible behaviour

School Citizenship: co-operation, attitude, study habits, compliance with school rules and policies including uniform. Involvement in school activities, support of home group, service to the school, responsible behaviour

Generally speaking, there are a large number of students who are nominated for awards and those who ultimately receive awards are just a small proportion of the many great students who attend our school.

BYOD REMINDERS

Please remember that once again in 2019, all families are required to have made arrangements for their children to have a device for school.

If you are intending on purchasing one of the recommended devices, please make it a priority to order as soon as possible. Go to the BYOD section on the Kapunda High School website and follow the prompts to order through the LWT (Learning with Technology) portal. Remember that you can also ‘rent to buy’ a recommended device through LWT.

If you want to be considered for a long-term loan of a school device but have not completed the application form as yet, you are urged to return this as soon as possible. There are only a limited number of devices available and priority is given to families experiencing financial hardship. Please note that approval in 2018 does not automatically mean approval in 2019.

If you have indicated that you will be purchasing a device of your own choice, please consider taking advantage of the post-Christmas sales. Make sure that your purchase meets the minimum requirements as outlined below.

END OF YEAR REPORTS

Year 8 and 9 students will be issued with written reports on Friday, December 14. Due to our timelines, these will not be available any earlier.

Due to their earlier finish to the school year:

• Year 10 students will receive their reports at the Celebration Assembly on Tuesday, December 11
• Year 11 students will have their reports available via DayMap on Friday, December 14 – complete with Principal’s comment. If they require a hard-copy of the report, they can arrange this in the week following school or at the beginning of 2019.

For students undertaking South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE) studies, grades are assigned according to the performance standards that are stipulated for each individual subject. Copies of these performance standards can be found on the SACE Board website.

For Year 8-10 students, the Australia wide common definitions apply:

• Excellent achievement of what is expected at this year level
• Good achievement of what is expected at this year level
• Satisfactory achievement of what is expected at this year level
• Partial achievement of what is expected at this year level
• Minimal achievement of what is expected at this year level

I believe that the ‘effort’ grade is equally important and as such award Personal Best awards at the end of each term. These recognise students who have achieved excellent effort in all or most subjects.

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.

Brimming with excitement! Are you ready?

From 2019, in accordance with our SunSafe Policy, staff and students will be required to wear brimmed hats when spending time in the sun during terms 1, 3 and 4. Our policy is in line with Department policy and Work Health and Safety legislation and aims to reduce the risk of skin cancer for staff and students of KHS.

The recommended sun protection times and UV rate is stated each day at the top of the DayMap Daily Bulletin Notices. This term, the UV rate has ranged from 9 (Very high) to 11 (Extreme) and the recommended sun protection times, from around 9:00am to 5:00pm. It’s clear from this that we need to be vigilant about being sun safe and get into the habit of grabbing our hats when heading outdoors. As baseball style caps offer minimal protection, leaving the neck and ears exposed, our policy requires the wearing of 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!

Students are also encouraged to ‘slop’ on sunscreen, which is available at various locations around the school and at events such as Athletics Day, or they may bring their own supply.

CELEBRATION CAKES

The Stage 2 Food and Hospitality class finished on a high note making some fabulous celebration cakes. Everyone could feel proud of the skills they demonstrated and the challenges they overcame putting the cakes together. Each student tried and tested new skills as they put their cakes together for the assessment deadline then could take their cakes home to celebrate finishing a big year. Well done!

Adele Butler
Food and Hospitality teacher

Year 10 Camps

Two camps occurred recently for year 10 students.

The City Camp, which was based at the Youth Hostel Adelaide (YHA), began with a tour of Adelaide Oval and dinner at Grill’d, followed by a movie for the first day. The second day involved shopping in Rundle Mall, a visit to Bounce, Bowling and Laser Skirmish, followed by dinner at Glenelg. On the Friday, students enjoyed riding the Torrens river paddle boats.

Catching the train was interesting, because it was a new experience for me. It was fun to navigate around the city. I enjoyed most of it. Luke Barnes

I really enjoyed watching the movie ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Crimes of Grindlewald.’ It was absolutely amazing. I also enjoyed going bowling and laser skirmish. I came first in bowling and fourth in laser skirmish, which was really cool. Overall, the camp was really fun and I would do it again. Taya Vardon

The aquatics camp, based at Port Vincent on the Yorke Peninsula involved kayaking, wind surfing, sailing with a spot of fishing in the evenings. Friday, the group travelled to Berry Bay for some surfing.

Year 12 SACE Results Release

SACE results will be available online from 8:30am on December 18. They should also arrive by email and in the mail. Students should make sure their password works and that their email and mailing address details are correct in Schools Online.

Mrs Warner and Ms Masters will be at school that Tuesday, so if there is a problem with student results or if students want to tell us about their good news – you may give us a call.

Students who have applied for a KHS Centenary Foundation Award will need to send through a copy of their results to Ms Masters.

The results in students online will look similar to this:

Stage 1 and Stage 2 subjects

Recognised learning

VET

SATAC Information

• Aggregate
• ATAR
• Selection Rank

Your SACE certificate will look similar to this.

This year, an early round of University Offers will be emailed on Thursday, December 20 during the day by 5:00pm. These offers are based on first preferences only and do not include all courses.

Whilst the following video is produced by UniSA, both Flinders and Adelaide Universities have a similar process available to students.

Click here to view 2018 Year 12 Results and Offers Release – what’s next?

Once the results are released, students can contact the Future Student’s office of the university they want to attend and find out their selection rank, which includes adjustment factors (bonus points). Students will need to quote their 9 digit SATAC number. Once they have found out their selection rank, they can check out the university preferred entry score/guaranteed entry score (available each university website) and change their preferences in SATAC so that you can receive a first preference offer on Thursday, December 20.

If you have any questions, please contact me.

Tracy Warner
Assistant Principal Senior School

Friday Activities

Several students tried to outplay and outwit their opponents in the game of Heave Ho during recess time. To win you had to stay on your block and keep hold of the rope.

Sock Brandy had students using up plenty of energy during their lunchtime. Starting with six contestants, it was a process of elimination until there was one winner.

Gone Fishing

Last Friday, students had a go at fishing from the shade of the Moreton Bay Fig trees on the oval.

Well, not really fishing - the idea was to cast a sinker into Drew's 200 litre drum. There was a rod and several hand lines available, and for some students, it was the first time they had ever cast a line.

Outdoor Concert

At lunchtime, staff and students enjoyed a concert on the top lawn in front of Eringa.

The drizzly weather cleared and the audience were appreciative of the guest appearance by the Barossa Pipe Band with KHS handyman, Mr Peter Murphy on the base drum. Staff and students commented on how stirring the bagpipes were.

Then Cameron Gerhardy played electric guitar, Kasey Hancock sang Feelin' Good, Tamsin Jones played keyboard with singers, Monica and friends and the concert finished with Mrs Victoria Newbold playing keyboard with the audience joining in for her rousing rendition of Hallaleujah.

Drew Mickan
Friday Activities Coordinator

Community Notices

Applications open for scholarships to support rural and regional students to study STEM

The second round of the Australian Government’s Rural and Regional Enterprise Scholarship (RRES) program is now open for applications.

Scholarships of up to $18,000 are available to support students from regional and remote Australia to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses, including in health and agriculture. Eligible study can be at Certificate IV to PhD level at an Australian vocational education and training provider or university, and can be undertaken on campus or online/by distance. Assistance is also available through the program to support recipients to undertake an internship.

The current round of RRES, for students commencing by 1 July 2019, closes on Friday, 14 December 2018. Further information, including on how to apply, is available on the Department of Education and Training’s website.

Upcoming music event