4 April 2017

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

It has been a pleasure to lead Quorn Area School during this first term of 2017. Leading the learning in a community that clearly values the professionals charged with the delivery of a vibrant and challenging curriculum has been richly rewarding. The willingness of the community to not only support but actively engage with the school means we are well placed to work collaboratively to achieve success for our young people.

I am confident that the changes we have made and the changes we plan to make will lead to improved engagement with the curriculum for students of all abilities. Our greatest challenge, like many schools, is to support both students and caregivers to improve attendance rates. The current attendance target set by the South Australian government is 93%. Whilst I am pleased to report that we are close to achieving this target in a number of classes we still have much work to do in this area. Australian students spend less than 15% of the year in school and the research shows that the more they attend the more likely they are to experience success. Please consider the following as we approach the winter months.

• Patterns of attendance and absence that are set up in the early years usually persist through education and life.
• Regular attendance at school is important to a child's learning and social development.
• Irregular attendance significantly impacts on a student’s ability to develop and retain friendships
• Poor attendance may lead to learning difficulties because children who are frequently absent are likely to miss learning the basic skills needed for their future education.

Finally, I would like to wish all of students and caregivers a safe and rewarding Easter vacation.

Andrew Gilsenan-Reed

Uniform

The Quorn Area School uniform is a practical but smart uniform, endorsed by our Governing Council, and is compulsory for all students.

We believe our uniform is an important part of developing school pride, helps maintain our positive school image, and contributes to student safety by helping staff to ensure that only Quorn Area School students are present on the school grounds.

Parents or carers who may be experiencing financial difficulties preventing purchase of the uniform are encouraged to discuss their situation with the Deputy Principal so appropriate confidential support may be arranged.

Secondary Report

The Secondary School has continued to gain momentum leading up to the end of the term. We still have a number of events coming up including Year 11/12 Aquatics and Pichi Richi Trade Training both being conducted this week and SSSSA Athletics in Week 11.

We have scheduled Parent-Teacher-Student interviews on Tuesday 2nd May and Thursday 4th May, where teachers will be available from 3:30pm-6:00pm. This year we are asking parents to bring their children into the interviews with them. This will provide students and parents an opportunity to receive formal feedback about how they can improve their grades prior to end of semester report and also hear the positive things that they have achieved. To book an interview with a teacher go to the link below once there enter the code ‘hehfd’ and follow the prompts to book in. The booking process will be open on Monday 10th April and will close Monday 1st May.

As this is our last newsletter for the Term I, would like thank and congratulate everyone within our school and community for a positive start to the year, there have been many challenges but the hard work and effort hasn’t gone unnoticed. I wish everyone happy and safe holidays and we will see you all back at school on Monday 1st May.

Counsellor Report

Young Environmental Leaders (YEL)

The first YEL forum for 2017 was a fantastic day of learning through interaction with 5 other schools and experienced staff from the Natural Resources Management. Topics included: endangered species, breakdown rates of rubbish in landfill and a scavenger hunt to identify what lives and grows in the local area. A small grant will be available to our school to assist with an environmental project.

All of our 8 students demonstrated an enthusiastic approach to the day and displayed great leadership skills in the making. Well done YEL group!

Next forum will be held during Term 2 at Melrose.

Sharon Taylor

1ST FORUM – WILMINGTON

VIEW GALLERY

1ST FORUM – WILMINGTON

Click images to enlarge

Subject Report

Library

Author visit – Kristin Weidenbach – Thursday 18th May, 7pm at the library – no cost, light supper supplied. Proudly brought to you by Meg’s Bookshop and the Quorn School/Community Library. Kristin’s work focuses on Australian history and includes ‘Mailman of the Birdsville Track: The Story of Tom Kruse’; ‘Rock Star: The Story of Reg Sprigg’ and ‘Blue Flames, Black Gold: The Story of Santos’. She has also written several children’s books, including ‘Meet Banjo Paterson’, ‘Tom the Outback Mailman’ and ‘King of the Outback: The Story of Sidney Kidman’

Sports

On Tuesday 21st March, 30 of our students participated In the MNSEC Athletics Carnival at Jamestown Community School. All students put their hands up to be in extra events and performed exceptionally well on the day, with Quorn finishing in second place in the Handicap Shield after winning it last year. This is a great achievement by our students because it takes in to account the points we won divided by the number of students we have at our school. From this carnival Codin Mason, Tayla Finlay, Julian McCarthy, Luke Finlay and Meggan Finlay were selected to participate in the SSSSA Athletics Carnival in Adelaide on Wednesday 12th April at Santos Stadium, an amazing effort by all of these students.

It cannot be said enough how lucky we are to have such supportive school and community members who support the sport in Quorn Area School. I would really like to acknowledge and thank all parents and caregivers who have offered to transport students to numerous sporting events throughout the year. The students and school community are very grateful for the time and effort you put into helping our students consistently attend these events.

Miscellaneous Reports