Year 12 Tourism students recently gave an excellent presentation, representing outstanding business locations within the Barossa Valley.

BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE (BYOD) OPTIONS

If you are thinking of purchasing a new device for your child for 2021, now is the time to begin getting organised – especially in the context of COVID-19 and worldwide supply chain issues.  I purchased a new laptop for my mother a few months ago from one of the major retailers and found that the options were somewhat diminished.

Beyond getting organised early, a most important consideration is ensuring that you are purchasing a device capable of running the software required for school.

At Kapunda High School we strongly encourage you to look carefully at the recommended devices that are available with our partner supplier, Learning with Technologies (LWT).  Go to the BYOD portal on our website and check out the options.  The bonus about buying a recommended device is the three-year warranty.  If there are repairs that need to occur then they are organised through our IT Help Desk – a huge convenience for busy families.

If you decide to shop around and look for alternatives through the major retailers, it is very important that your purchase meets minimum specifications.  What may seem like a great deal can turn out to be a major disappointment when the device does not have the processing power to be able to run the software required.

We have our External School Review coming up in the first week of Term 4.  A number of students will be involved in meetings with the review team – providing students’ perspectives on our school’s strengths and areas for improvement.  Please read the attached to learn more about the process.

All students will be issued with written reports following the end of term assembly on Friday, September 25.  Due to our tight timelines, we will not be able to issue these any earlier. 

For students undertaking South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE) studies (usually in Year 11 and 12), 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:

Teachers are required to:

• Report the achievement level on DayMap for each summative assessment task across the term.
• Ensure that there is at least one substantial comment provided throughout the term identifying strengths and areas for improvement
• Ensure that results are published within three weeks of submission
• Provide a checkpoint comment for large assessment tasks that go over a term (eg making a cabinet in Design and Technology).

When I read reports I place a lot of emphasis on the effort grade.  This is a judgement about how hard the student is working on their learning in that particular subject and is given independent of the final achievement grade.

Students inevitably have different abilities, skills and natural aptitudes but there is nothing to stop every one of our students giving of their best and gaining an ‘excellent’ for effort.

At our end of term assembly, we award ‘Personal Best’ Certificates to those students who have gained ‘Excellent’ effort for all or most of their subjects (can have a maximum of two ‘goods’)

UNIFORM REMINDERS

As we move into the warmer weather, please ensure that your children have adequate numbers of school uniform items.  The holidays are a great time to do a check and see that everything still fits!

STAFFING NEWS:

Welcome to Ms Nikki Schutz who has commenced as our Pastoral Care Worker over the last week.  We welcome Nikki to our support team and look forward to her connecting and supporting our students in the years to come.

An enormous thank you to Mr John Hegarty who has been teaching Design and Technology this term while Mr Nathan Brady has been on long service leave.

In Mr Brady’s absence, Mr Shaun Hausler has stepped in as Year 9 Year Level Manager and has done an outstanding job – demonstrating excellent leadership and organisational skills as well as being responsive to issues as they have arisen.

We have two teachers taking leave for the full duration of Term 4. Mr Grigor Fahlbusch will be replaced by Mrs Pam Mace who has worked at Kapunda High School previously while Mr Ben Dibb will be replaced by Mr Michael Raschella.

SCHOOL DISMISSAL ON FINAL DAY

School will dismiss at 2:15pm on Friday, September 25.  Buses, with the exception of the Link SA Gawler one, will leave shortly after.

TERM IV

Term IV resumes on Monday, October 14.

Kristen Masters

Principal