27 August 2019

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

On behalf of our learners, I would like to thank Megan Novillos for her leadership of Book Week 2019. ‘Reading is My Secret Power’ was interpreted in many exciting and diverse ways by our learners, and we will seek to build upon this to foster a love of reading for pleasure. Maintaining a love of reading beyond the early primary years has always proved challenging, but the potential benefits mean we should never lose sight of its value. For many years we have promoted the benefits of reading for twenty minutes each day, and the figures are fascinating. Reading for twenty minutes every day will result in a year six learner encountering 1.8 million words during their first seven years of schooling, and this impacts significantly upon both their growth and achievement throughout their life. However, recent research has also highlighted the importance of reading can increase empathy, improve relationships with others, and improve wellbeing throughout life. We are fortunate to have a well-resourced library facility onsite, which is accessible both after-school and on the weekends. For us to reap the rewards of this resource, we need to ensure that it remains relevant to our learners. Please contact Megan Novillos if you have ideas on how to improve our school library.

Finally, Richard Newsum will be leaving us at the end of this week. He has been covering Joachim Pilz’s timetable during a period of extended leave. We thank Richard for both his professionalism and commitment over the last month, and we wish him well for the future.

Andrew Gilsenan-Reed

Secondary Report

We are now half way through Term 3 which means only 8 more weeks of instructional time for our Year 12 students. This is a time where these learners need to show great commitment to their education to ensure they are handing up assessment tasks, attending lessons and preparing for final exams. Our teachers work hard to ensure they are prepared but we need 100% buy in from our learners.

Subject Counselling

On the 9th of September I have scheduled subject counselling sessions for all parents of our Year 10 and 11 students, this will allow you to come and speak with me regarding your child’s subjects in 2020. The appointments are available on Daymap and begin at 9am and conclude at around 5:30pm.

I am expecting to meet with each caregiver so we are able to discuss your child’s future and how we can work together to maximise their chance of success. If the allocated timeslot does not suit you please call the school to book an alternative time, or send me an email with a different day/time and I will try to accommodate the change; Matt.Griffiths310@schools.sa.edu.au

SAASTA

Last Wednesday, Nuala Harradine-Wilton and Shalaynee Brady continued with their SAASTA program as they spent a whole day of educational fun at Central Oval in Port Augusta. The girls took part in various team building activities which involved a cultural pursuit, relay games, and an amazing race challenge set by former Adelaide Crows player Andrew Mcleod and current Adelaide Crows Women’s former captain, Marijana Rajcic. The girls also continued with their write up on a practical report reflecting and analysing data recorded from their previous sports trainings. Towards the end of the day, the girls showed their willingness and enthusiasm by collaborating with others to plan an amazing race challenge for the next day of SAASTA. Special thanks to Sarah Bury for organising this.

Mathematics

All math learners at QAS have embarked on a journey of doing math by way of investigation and modelling of the real-world problems. As learning through investigation and modelling in mathematics is new to the learners, they need more support not only at school but also at home when they wonder about these tasks. I encourage parents to have a productive discussion about what they are learning to in mathematics in school. These modelling tasks are carefully designed to challenge and engage learners to deepen and extend their understanding of mathematical concepts. These high cognitive demanding tasks require the learner to make a connection to their prior learning, analyse information, create, and manipulate designs. Not only solving a problem but communicating their finding in the form of report is an essential component of assessing their work. As more and more we as a school take this approach of teaching mathematics through modelling and investigation, learners will become more math adventurers to challenge and engage themselves in a ‘productive struggle’ to solve real-world problems. Learners act as mathematicians and/or modellers and take ownership of their work as they collaborate and communicate their ideas and solution with peers for validation and improvement. They self-assess and assess the work of others to receive and give feedback. In our learner’s mathematical endeavours, let’s we as adults become catalysts!!!

Faruk Pathan
Secondary Mathematics

Primary Report

We are 100 days smarter!

Earlier this term the Foundation students celebrated their 100 days of school. We are now officially 100 days smarter! On the day, we enjoyed lots of 100 themed activities which included; making 100 fruit loop necklaces, making 100 day glasses, writing 100 words and making 100 day cookies. We also enjoyed getting in the spirit of 100 by dressing up in 100 themed outfits. As you can see in our parade we had 100 balloon decorated t-shirts to old grannies! Check out the photos and videos of the day to see all the fun we had.

Learning Dispositions

This term in the Foundation classes, we have been focusing really hard on ‘What makes a good learner’ and how to do our best learning. We have been looking at our QAS learning dispositions/characters and thinking about which of these will help us in each lesson and we can improve in our learning. We have also made ‘What makes a good learner’ posters that will be displayed in our foyer area. These show what we think a good learner is and what skills they use in their learning. Here are some of our students talking about their favourite learning dispositions.

Learner Dispositions

Sports Day

On Friday Week 4 we had our annual Sports Day! The Foundation and Year 1 students participated in modified sports day activities and novelty events throughout the day. Our modified events were designed by the middle school students and showcased our fundamental movement skills. Our favourite modified events were high jump and the races. For our novelty events we loved doing under and over, a sack race, dress up relays and a hula hoop obstacle course. Thank you to all our parent helpers who helped out during the day, it helped everything to run smoothly. We look forward to participating in Sports Day again next year! Here are some of our favourite moments from the day!

“I enjoyed doing the sack race” – Delikah
“The dress up race was fabulous. It was fun to dress up.” – Chace
“It was great because we got to do all kinds of sports.” – Tess

Sack Race

Sandpit Jump

Whole School News

Reports

This semester we are trying a new initiative to deliver our reports so they have the most influence on student learning. It has been evidenced that students experience more educational growth when given a comment on their learning in the absence of a grade. To action this we are going to publish individual reports to students on Monday 16th September (week 9) which will contain a written comment and their attitude and application. This will allow our learners and caregivers the opportunity to read and reflect on their learning, growth and areas of improvement. Following this our learners will conduct a self-analysis and assign themselves grades that they feel they deserve in regards to the report comment. We will then publish the grades for the reports on Monday 23rd September (week 10). Learners will then use this information to set themselves goals for the rest of the schooling year.

In Summary:

• Written comments published on Daymap by Monday 16th September
• Learners conduct self-reflection and assign themselves a grade in extended Care Group on Monday 16th September
• Grades will be published on Daymap by Monday 23rd September
• Learners will set themselves learning goals to achieve by the end of the year. This will be done in extended care group on Monday the 23rd September.

We appreciate that this is a change in practice but we believe it will allow our learners to be more reflective and take ownership of their learning. If you have any questions about this please make contact with me at the school.

PAT Testing

Beginning in Week 7, our learners in Years 3 – 10 will be taking part in our annual Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT). It is vitally important that our learners sit this standardised test and answer questions to the best of their ability as we use these results in a number of ways including:

• Identify strengths and gaps in your child’s learning which allows us to plan and prepare lessons which cater for their individual learning needs.
• Inform our practice as teachers and see what areas we need to focus and improve on to ensure our learners get continual access to quality education.
• Ensuring that your child is making progress in their education which allows us to set individual goals that focus on personal growth.

These are just a few example of how we use the results of the PAT results within our school. Please ensure you support us in this and speak to your child about making an honest effort throughout this testing period.

NAIDOC Week

Sports Day

Sports Day was a successful day and I would like to take this opportunity to thank a number of people. The Parents and Friends did an amazing job in the canteen which included a number of homemade items that were also donated by the P&F. A huge thank you also to the parents/grandparents and community members who assisted with the timing and recording of the track events. There were also a number of QAS students who helped on the field events and recorded and measured. Without all of these people’s help, the day would not have been such a success.

Overall Result

Kanyaka 1509 defeated Yarrah 1175

Championship Winners

Team Spirit Awards

New Event Records

Raymond Lander - Under 10 Boys High Jump 1.23m
Meggan Finlay – Open Girls Shotput 9.62m, Open Girls Discus 24.64m

Quorn Area School is off to the State Knockout Volleyball Final

On Wednesday 21st September our Open Girls Volleyball team travelled to Jamestown to play in a round robin competition competing against Nuriootpa High School, Clare High School and Booleroo Centre District School. During this tournament our team had a 30 minute block to play each school with the ultimate aim to win as many sets as possible to give us the best chance to progress through. Thanks to Michelle Baker for scoring all our games, Cameron Finlay (assistant coach) and Codin Maison (team manager/umpire) for their help on the day. Unfortunately we only had 4 boys available so we were unable to fill a boys team.

Our girls played absolutely incredible volleyball in each of our games. Our skill level and team work was of the highest level I have seen and as a teacher it made me so proud to watch. Our passing, serving and defensive play was of such a high standard that our opposing teams never really had any answers. The way our team played at such a high skill level and then held their nerve during tense moments ranks up there as one of my proudest sporting moments in my eight years at QAS.

Quorn Defeated Nuriootpa High: 25-12, 25-15 and 17-14.

The highlight of this game was our gun servers Emily Eckert and Katie Roberts. These two girls were so consistent making it hard for the opposition to receive serves in all 3 of our games. Our continual serving streaks ensured that the rest of our game play lifted, allowing the rest of the girls to play with confidence. Meggan ‘The Veteran’ Finlay was playing in her 4th consecutive Open tournament and her experience was on display. She showed great attacking intent as she was able to spike the ball with full force but also use great touch to win us multiple points. During this game Meggan showed great leadership and a really high skill level to guide her team over the line (even though she could not work out how to play rock, paper, scissors). This was a great all round team effort for our first game in freezing cold stadium.

Quorn Defeated Clare High School: 25- 14, 25- 20, 18-15

This game caused us some problems as the girls seemed to have ‘dropped the ball’ as we were very flat footed and missing some quite easy passes which was our strength in game 1. Maya ‘the spark’ Omonte-Kramer lifted the team as she was covering the court like crazy and after a slow start we found the momentum and won the first set. In the second set we were down 18-20 then Katie ‘rocket arm’ Roberts stepped in to serve and set the team up to win the next 7 points and the set with Tiarna ‘gun recruit’ Rigden involved heavily in the play on both the attacking and defence side.

Quorn Defeated Booleroo: 25-23, 25-18 and 17-12

This showdown was our last of the day and each team entered the game undefeated. Traditionally we have a great competitive rivalry with Booleroo and this game did not disappoint. The first set was genuinely one of the best I have seen played in this Knockout format in the last 5 years with incredible attacking and defensive skills from both teams. The lead swapped hands multiple times in the first set and got to a point where we were down 21-23 and Booleroo had the serve. At this point the ‘Finlay Finishers’ combined for an amazing attacking play where ‘The Vet’ dug the ball to Jayde ‘3 C’s’ Finlay who then set the ball to Tayla and she spiked the ball hard to win the point. Full of adrenalin Tayla ‘clutch’ Finlay then stepped up with nerves of steel to serve and set the team up to win the next 3 points and take the first set 25-23. The whole team did such an amazing job to back their skills and stay calm to win this set (My heart rate was at 280 watching as an umpire). In the following set Emily ‘the intimidator’ Eckert stepped up to serve and won 10 points where the ball barely came back over our side of the net. The great part about this was that each of her serves increased in speed as she grew in confidence and her last serve which clocked in at 200km/h hit the back wall and knocked 2 bricks out!

The girls combined so well in all three games which is a credit to the effort they have put in during practice sessions. Our next stage is on to Adelaide where we will compete in the State KO finals on Thursday 12th September.

SSSA Netball & SAPSASA Athletics

As you can see by the content in this newsletter, we have been very busy with extra-curricular activities in the past fortnight. A detailed report of both our SSSA Netball and SAPSASA Netball will be included in our next newsletter.

Quorn School and Community Library

Last week we celebrated our annual CBCA Book Week with our main events held last Thursday. It was great to see the amount of joy, laughter, and collaboration from all our learners and teachers to make the event a success. We commenced the main events straight after caregroup with a Book Week parade to showcase our learners and teacher’s creative costumes – all of which portrayed characters from various texts. After the second break, our learners were split into mixed groups which enabled them to interact and collaborate in the activities. Our book week activities included a dedicated story time where The Dress Up Box by Patrick Guest (one of the top Book Week shortlisted books of the year) was selected for reading; then followed by various hands on ‘activity stations’ giving our learners the opportunity to take home their creations as well. It was great to see how inspired our learners were, how their memorable moments captured with our makeshift photobooth, and how they exercised their imagination to bring books to life!

Parents and Friends

Morning Coffee

Drop in and grab a coffee at our next catch up between 8:30 – 9:00. Alternatively if you would like to share any great ideas we would love to hear from you. It’s not all cake sales.

Ranges Colour Run 2019

If you would like to be involved in this community event that is being run by QAS P&F, please click on the link to register and purchase you ticket and event shirt. It is shaping up to be a great family day out and we look forward to seeing you on the track. The further you run the brighter you become.

Ranges Colour Run Logo Competition

• Black and White Logo Only
• Size = 8cm x 8cm
• Keep it simple as details don’t always print easily
• Submit to Front Office in the marked ‘Design Box’ during school hours
• Ensure your name is written on the back of the design
• See website for more details www.rangescolourrun.com
  - Logos that are submitted will be judged based on creativity and design. Four logos will be shortlisted for a community vote which is accessible online. The final chosen design will be printed on the front of the shirts for this event.

Miscellaneous Reports