6 November 2018

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

I am pleased to inform the community that Monique Carcuro has been appointed as a permanent teacher at Quorn Area School from 2019. Monique’s passion for learning and commitment to the school is well-known in our community and we believe she will make a significant contribution to the development of the school in the years ahead. Over the past year Monique has been working collaboratively with Sarah Bury to improve learner outcomes as part of our Visible Learning Journey. Their work has recently been recognised as exemplary practice and it will form the basis of a case study on improving learner outcomes across Australia. This information will be used to highlight best practice in introducing, delivering and supporting changes that impact significantly oh the growth of learners.

In week five all of our classes will be engaging with the 2018 Week of Inspirational Maths. We regard this program as an essential part of our mission to develop a culture where a love of learning combines with resilience to create endless possibilities. The activities undertaken during this week will invite students into a world of open, creative, visual mathematics. If you would like more information regarding practical ways to support you your child in engaging with mathematics please refer to the Advice for Parents, from Professor Jo Boaler we have uploaded on our website.

We are actively recruiting staff for 2019 to meet the changing needs of our 21st century learners and I will update the community on appointments as details become available. I can confirm that we will be operating two reception classes next year and this approach is being adopted by a growing number of schools across our region. I will provide further details of class structures in our next newsletter, once we have confirmed staffing.

Andrew Gilsenan-Reed

Secondary Report

The time has finally come for our Year 12 students. They have finished formal lessons at Quorn Area School and are in their last two weeks of school. The next two weeks will be time for them to study hard for upcoming exams. The exams will all take place at the Council Chambers and the schedule is as follows. We ask the students to arrive at least 15 minutes prior to the exam.

Monday 5th November at 1:30pm – Biology
Abraham, Jaquarra, Kate, Lacey, Macey and Taitum

Thursday 8th November at 9:00am – General Maths
Aleesha, Blake, Densey, Jaquarra, Kate, Lacey, Macey, Teagan

Thursday 8th November at 1:30pm – Math Methods
Abraham

Monday 12th November at 9:00am – Nutrition
Densey and Kate

Tuesday 13th November at 1:30pm – Chemistry
Abraham, Blake, Kate, Macey, Philip & Taitum

Wednesday 14th November at 1:30pm – Psychology
Densey, Jaquarra, Lacey and Taitum

Thursday 15th November at 9:00am – Physical Education
Abraham, Aleesha, Kate & Philip

**Following this exam on Thursday 15th all students are invited to QAS for an exam debrief at 12:30pm.

Friday 16th November – Leavers assembly at 2:05pm
All students are expected to be at this assembly in school uniform.

As you can see it is a busy period for these students while they try to study for a 2-3 hour exam that is asking questions about things they have learnt in the past 9 months. It can be a stressful time for these students so we do ask that you remain in contact with your child and if there are any issues speak to me or the subject teacher.

Senior Transition

As our Year 12 students leave, our Year 11’s are ready to step up and fill their shoes. In Week 7 our Year 11’s will begin lessons as Year 12’s to give them a head start in 2019.

Further to this transition in Week 8 we aim for all learners from year 6-10 to also move up into their 2019 classes and begin formal lessons for weeks 8 and 9. This will allow the learners to get a start on their work but also learn the processes and procedures needed to be successful in 2019. If you have any questions about this please let me know (matt.griffiths310@schools.sa.edu.au)

Matt Griffiths

9 & 10 Aquatics

See report further down in the newsletter

Trade Training Centre – Accommodation Opening

During the last Year 10 Pichi Richi Trade Training week at Quorn Area School, students from both Hawker Area School and Quorn celebrated the completion of the new Accommodation block built at the railway workshops. This project was completed over 3 years utilising 12 school weeks; starting with the students digging the foundations and finishing with the installation of cabinets and beds. Some of the funding for this project was from the National Australia Bank - Schools First Community Project, awarded to the Trade Training Centre group at Quorn with a focus on students working with older members of the community in a partnership spread over 18 years allowing students to experience future job prospects, external study techniques while allowing for the development of future pathways to employment.

The new building was officially opened by Julian Hipwell, President of Pichi Richi Railway Preservation Society with special guests being our local Mayor - Peter Slattery, Principal of Quorn Area School - Andrew Gilsenan Reed, Principal of Hawker Area School - Darren O'Neill, Career Pathways Manager - Harry Moate and past Principal of Quorn Area School - Roy Winther as well as local society members, and students who participated in the project from 2016 to 2018. On completion of the ceremony a light lunch was served by the society.

Students have again been focused on completing their Certificate I in Construction through TafeSA and are currently completing the course booklets required for assessment. While the year involved skills in cabinet construction, team work, calculations, plumbing, electrical and building skills it also reinforced skills in communication, problem solving, project management, working safely at heights, using EWP's and the White Card.

Travis McDonald

Middle School Report

Digital Technologies

The school’s 3D printers buckled under the pressure of printing models from the Year 7/8 Digital Technologies project. The larger printer is still waiting for a replacement print head whilst the smaller mini needed a replacement nozzle. The new printing and a working model of a crossing will be on display at the school’s Showcase event.

Projects that appear simple are often more involved than you might think…

So how hard is it to computerise a traffic light? We have all used pedestrian crossings to get across busy roads safely, but have you stopped to think about why they are timed the way they are. From an early age, children are shown how to use pedestrian crossings and when it is safe to cross at a road junction. So being able to demonstrate and program the sequence should be a trivial matter, or is it?

Students were asked to check out the sequence used at a typical pedestrian crossing and turn it into a flowchart showing what actions a user has to perform and the response of the traffic signals. To be able to demonstrate the timing of the lights, students were to design a model using LED’s with a small pushbutton to start the process.

Students could use a 3D design program such as Sketchup or MakersEmpire to create a model of a traffic light. Designs could be completely of their own or from an existing model found on the internet.

The student’s next step is to code their flowchart using Scratch. Scratch is a programming environment using graphics and code, which is available online, as a download for most PC’s and is also used on our Raspberry Pi’s for controlling hardware (such as LED’s and pushbuttons). Using a language which is available on a number of different devices allows students to work on their programs at convenient times and develops a set of skills which can be transported to other systems.

So where are we today? Students have had to think about the problem and its requirements. They have had to construct a flowchart of the light actions and timings and begin to code it. Designing in 3D requires more consideration than a drawing. Students need to consider wall thicknesses and supporting structures to be able to realise their designs.

You will be able to see a model of an intersection and pedestrian crossing lights at our upcoming Showcase.

Jo Pilz

Year 7 English

The unit of focus for Year 7 English this term is Procedural Writing. Procedural texts instruct your audience on how to complete a specific task. Generally, this falls into two categories – how to make something and how to do something. The purpose of a procedural text is to provide detailed, accurate, and sequenced information or directions so that people can successfully perform activities in correct, safe, efficient and appropriate ways. Students have already developed an understanding of its definition and they can identify various types of procedural writing. We have explored the structure and language features in different forms of procedural texts. Students have enjoyed the warm-up activities we do, relevant to the unit topic, to spark engagement every lesson – like playing the stick figure mirror game. This involves two students standing in front of the interactive board facing the class, they are required to mimic the stick figure on the board. Two other students volunteer to draw a stick figure and provide instructions for the students versing. We have been integrating various mediums of ICT to assess for feedback and showcase understanding such as Kahoot Jumble. As their summative assessment, students will be applying their learning through demonstration (either filming a video or presenting in class) of a type of procedure of their choice which is accompanied with writing they used to provide instructions. Over the next several weeks we will explore more of procedural writing when used in academic writing like essays.

Megan Novillos
Middle School English

6, 7 & 8 Aquatics

On Monday the 29th and Wednesday the 31st of October, the Year 6-10 Health and Physical Education students participated in some fun filled aquatics lessons at the Port Augusta Aquatic Centre. Some of the activities included kayaking, sailing, snorkelling, canoeing and paddle boarding. The students conducted themselves maturely throughout all of the activities and the level of concentration and perseverance was fantastic to see. Students also demonstrated amazing team building skills during the group sailing experiences.

Sarah Bury

Primary Report

Foundation Class

Maths

This term in Maths we have been focusing predominantly on measurement. As part of this, we have been using playdough to make snakes and worms of different lengths to compare sizes. For one of the tasks we made a short snake and a long snake and had to find other objects that were shorter than, and longer than, our snakes. We have learnt that everything has a different size and we can compare lengths of objects to determine which is shortest, middle sized and longest. As an extension activity, we made wiggly worm families from playdough and then drew onto a piece of paper. We then had to use a range of word to describe the sizes our worms.

STEM

In Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) this term we have been exploring designing, making and movement. One of our tasks was to build a marble maze from Lego or construction materials such as cardboard. We had to design and build are marble maze and discuss how to move the marble around the maze to reach an end point. You can see below that we had a lot of fun and put a lot of effort into our marble mazes.

We have also been using the OSMO kits on the iPads for literacy, numeracy and STEM activities. There are lots of different activities that we can do such as using word tiles, number games to add numbers in different ways, tangram and newton to manipulate shape and lines which also encourages problem solving and creative thinking.

Tegan Miller

Year 3/4 Design and Technology

Mrs Reed’s class have been enjoying their Design and Technology lessons this term with Mr McDonald. The students are making sundials which they learnt about earlier in the year. We look forward to seeing their final projects during the week.

Gardening Class

Students from the Year 1/2 class rolled up their proverbial sleeves for gardening this week to tackle an overgrown section of flowers and leafy greens. I was delighted to witness the immense satisfaction and resilience from so many students as they cleared, sorted and loaded huge amounts of compostable material (a full ute load in fact).

We welcomed the assistance of 4 students from the 5/6 class as they tackled some of the heavier work and buddied with the younger students, enabling the task to be completed. This included emptying and turning in the matured compost and applying pea straw mulch in readiness for our hot summer.

A big thank you to our groundsman for his persistence in tending and turning all our recyclable green waste; to provide such a valuable resource.

Well done everyone.
Mrs Taylor

Miscellaneous Reports

2019 Material and Service Charges

The proposed Materials and Services Charges for 2019 are available to view on the attached documents. These charges will be discussed for approval at the Governing Council meeting on the 14th November at 7.00pm. If you have any questions or issues regarding the charges, you are welcome to attend this meeting, or alternatively express your views in writing to the Chairperson of the Governing Council prior to this meeting.

Text Book and Library Book Returns

As the year draws to an end for our senior students and later for others could you please be sure to return all text books and other loans. If lost or damaged please let us know to enable cost recovery and replacement.