14 December 2018

Newsletter Articles

Head Prefects and award recipients, Jack Mace and Abigail Lemar with Presentation Evening guest speaker, Mr Stefan Ahrens

From Our Principal

PRESENTATION EVENING

It was gratifying to see our gymnasium filled to capacity 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. Your support was greatly appreciated.

Congratulations to all award winners – you can feel very proud of your achievements this year.

For our departing Year 12 students we wish them well as they await their SACE results. As a cohort they have certainly shown tremendous growth and development across the years.

There were many important messages from our special guest, Stefan Ahrens (1981-85).

Stef spoke about his journey from Kapunda High School to discovering a passion for business and buying his father out at the age of 25. He is the Managing Director of the Ahrens Group which now employs 900 people across all states of Australia and in the US and Vietnam.

He spoke about people being at the core of his business and while high grades are admirable, it is the work ethic that he values even more as an employer. He encouraged students to find their passion, but also to get involved in a range of extra-curricular opportunities, such as the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme where he has a personal connection.

Once again, the entertainment during the evening was high quality and highlighted the talent that exists in our school with performances from the vocal ensemble and the concert band. I’d like to especially acknowledge Carolyn Thorne and Victoria Newbold for their work in preparing students for this.

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

I was especially impressed with the students who compered the evening (Kayla Malkin, Georgia Flavel, Andrew Prior, Kasey Hancock, Elijah Smith, Chloe Dabrowski and Shakira Pollard) and the members of the SRC who acted as ushers.

Thank you also to:

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

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 established an excellent record of achievement, leadership and co-operation and we look forward to them ‘stepping up’ further as they move into their final years of school.

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

CONGRATULATIONS

At Presentation Evening we acknowledged two members of our Kapunda High School community: Peter Murphy (Eringa Award) and Steve Ruediger (Minister of Education and Child Development 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.

Recipients of the Dept. for Education Volunteers Award, Steve Ruediger and Principal, Kristen Masters with recipient of the prestigious Eringa Award, Peter Murphy.

STAFFING CHANGES

The following teachers are taking leave for 2019:

Jeanette Venhoek

The following staff members are concluding their contracts at KHS:

• Josh Dolling
• Ashleigh Callins
• Narelle Franklin

Transfers:

Jo Jaensch will be returning to Aberfoyle Park High School after this year at KHS

Victoria Newbold will be taking up a position at Faith Lutheran after 15 years at KHS.

Resignations:

Stuart Hoerisch will be a full-time practising artist and a part-time relief teacher – after 26 years teaching with our department.

Retirements:

Neville Sloper will be retiring after dedicating 42 years of his working life to teaching – 36 of them at KHS. He has been a stalwart of the Design and Technology faculty.

UNIFORM

A reminder that we no longer sell uniforms directly through the school and that they need to be purchased online through Devon Clothing.

I encourage you to organise new uniforms as soon as possible to avoid any delays at the start of term.

Alternatively, pre-loved uniforms can be obtained at a number of the thrift shops here in Kapunda, but you are advised not to rely on this.

BYOD 2019 - 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 2018. I wish you all the compliments of the season and look forward to working with you again in 2019.

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

Kristen Masters
Principal

Transitioning to the World Beyond School

As our Year 12s transition into the world beyond school, some will have very clear and defined pathways (which may evolve as their journey unfolds) and others will be open-minded and opportunity ready for whatever comes their way, until they find what they are passionate about pursuing.

The most informed decisions can be made when armed with information and a preparedness to explore options. Please find below some links from the My Future website about making decisions for future. These links include deciding whether or not to have a gap year, determining how to manage university, work and life, considering Vocational Education and Training pathways, and considering alternative, non-study pathways.

If any career or job seeking guidance, advice or assistance is needed I will be available via DayMap Messaging or email across most of the Christmas holidays; Penny.Chancellor315@schools.sa.edu.au. I look forward to hearing about the many and varied pathways our class of 2018 will take and hope your stories can be shared with our future students.

Penny Chancellor
Flexible Learning Pathways Coordinator

Assisting students with post-school study options

Students who are interested in, and eligible for, direct entry to university still need to choose whether to accept their offer or defer and take a gap year.

Students who are interested in university, but who do not qualify for direct entry, can consider a range of options, including VET and TAFE courses. These can be pathways to study at a university.

A Day at the Races

Year 10 Art Exhibition

Year 10 Visual Art students hosted an exhibition of their work last week during a lunch time.

Kaileigh Hoerisch with April Ford and her artwork

Year 12 Formal Photos

Year 12 Formal photos may be accessed through Advanced Life Photography

ONLINE ORDER CODE: XMH RXX 45H

School Magazine - Buy Now!

Limited edition - only a few remain.

2019 - Grab your hat!

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 13 (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 in 2019.

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.

Duke of Edinburgh – Adventurous Journey

Recently, the Duke of Edinburgh students undertook an Adventurous Journey which was enjoyed by all. The camp was planned and led by Jake Smedley, a FLO Case Manager and Youth Worker, and he was supported by other Mission Australia staff, Robyn Johnson, Wendy Marston and Kelly Johnson. The group travelled to Monarto Zoo where they had a guided tour and explanation about all the animals, how they live in the wild and what the Zoo’s aims and challenges are with conversation. The highlight of the tour was the Giraffes licking the windows of the bus and being so close.

Once the tour was completed, another zoo educator led the students to jobs that Zoo keepers do each day. The students shovelled and spread mulch in the chimpanzee’s enclosure. Afterwards, the students were required to walk to their camp which found all the students coming back in laughter, especially Bella and Bonnie.

They were then joined by another educator where the students did team building exercises that highlighted leadership, team work, trust, negotiation and frustration. The evening ended with a night walk and time to reflect and appreciate the experience. This ended earlier than planned due to a convoy of vehicles where three male lions were delivered to the Zoo.

In the morning, more team building and reflection exercises were done and after breakfast the students ended up in an open enclosure shovelling Rhino manure! All Duke of Edinburgh students were involved in both shovelling in, and out, of the trailer.

After this, the team travelled to Glenelg and started an Amazing Race from Glenelg through to Adelaide and back. The students were required to listen to riddles and guess the next location. They found key landmarks and learnt about the history and connections including China Town, Adelaide Markets, Adelaide Oval, Haigh’s Chocolates, the four pigs and the War Memorial.

The students enjoyed a relaxing evening and all had a good night’s sleep before returning to school on the Friday.

Friday Activities

Last Friday's lunchtime activity was Caber Tossing to tie in with Saint Andrew's Day.

Caber tossing is a popular activity in the Scottish highlands and St. Andrew's Day is Scotland's National Day.

On the very last toss of the lunch break, Hunter Hemsworth finally got his timing right to record 9.8 metres.

Previous to this, Will Glen and teacher, Mr Nathan Brady had been battling it out for the longest toss.

They were runners up with Will coming second with 9.7 metres and the Mr Brady 9.6 metres.

Drew Mickan
Friday Activities Coordinator

Community Notices

KAPUNDA NETBALL CLUB - ADVANCED NOTICE

2019 REGISTRATION NIGHT AND MEET AND GREET

Thursday, 31 January

5:30pm - 6:30pm at Netball Clubrooms
Merchandise will be available for order and purchase.
Registrations will open on January 1 2019 and close on Midnight January 31, 2019
Download the My Netball app search for Kapunda Netball Club to register.
For further information contact Mandy Verco – at kapundarecords@gmail.com