24 September 2019

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

September is always a busy time in the life of a school. It is the month when we reflect upon and share a wealth of information about the growth of our learners. This year we have much to celebrate, and these achievements include:

• Considerable increase in the achievements of our Y3/5/7/9 learners, as demonstrated in the recently published NAPLAN results.
• Outstanding PAT results that highlight growth in both engagement and performance.
• Exceptional achievement in the Phonics Screening Check (Y1)
• An External School Review report that identifies Quorn Area School as a place where ‘…teachers provide stretch and challenge for all students, regardless of their achievement levels.’

In light of these successes, I am pleased to inform the community that Matthew Buckingham was recently appointed as a permanent teacher at Quorn Area School from 2020. I am also pleased to confirm that the following leaders have been appointed to three-year tenures at the school commencing in January 2020:

Monique Carcuro - B1 Coordinator, Primary School/Intervention

Matt Griffiths - B1 Coordinator, Senior School/Reporting & Assessment

Today we have reached the end of the report reflection cycle for this term and grades have now been uploaded onto Daymap. The ‘grade-free’ window is essential if we are to support learners to take ownership of their learning, reflect upon their growth, and act upon the feedback provided by their teachers. During week two of next term teachers will be available to discuss both your child’s school report and answer any questions relating to recent state and national assessments.

Finally, I would like to wish all of our families a safe holiday. We look forward to seeing you all in term four for the next chapter of our learning journey.

Andrew Gilsenan-Reed

Secondary Report

SACE Subject Selections

In the last newsletter there was an article encouraging parents of the Year 10 and 11 students to make a time with me to discuss your child’s subjects for 2020. It is imperative that we work with the parents of our students so we can provide them with the best chance of success at school. I will open up another timeslot in Week 3 of Term 4 on the 28th October, where I strongly recommend that you as a parent book a time to speak about your child’s subjects for 2020 and their future.

Learning Conversations

Our Parent – Student – Teacher Learning conversations are scheduled for Week 2 of Term 4. To book in an interview please log on to Daymap (if you do not know how to, please contact the school). PLEASE NOTE anyone can book an interview with a teacher regardless of whether it was requested on the student reports or not. We encourage all parents to make a time to speak with their child’s teacher.

Matt Griffiths
Senior School/Reporting & Assessment Coordinator

Primary Report

Another term has flown by. So much has happened! We have had students representing our school for many extra curricula events and extraordinary learning taking place in our classrooms. I say extraordinary, because the growth that some of our students are making is phenomenal and we have the data to prove it. From Phonics screening, NAPLAN and Progressive Achievement Testing, our learners, as a cohort blitzed the benchmarks.

As part of our Visible Learning journey the primary teachers, along with other staff, have been focusing on measuring their impact in their classrooms. Visible Learning is at the heart of our teaching and learning at Quorn Area School. It is the centre of our Site Improvement Plan and visible within our classrooms and teaching practice. The Impact Cycles that teachers have been carrying out in their classrooms has been pivotal in changing our practice to translate the research into supporting our learners to accomplish as much growth as possible and raising student achievement. Becoming evaluators of our own teaching practice has been the catalyst that we needed to generate the success mentioned above.

As a primary team we farewell Mrs Ikiua-Brooks who will be taking long service leave for the remainder of the year. We wish her the best of luck for the future and future endeavours. Thank you for your service to the school over the past 15 years. We are actively seeking someone to replace Mrs Ikiua-Brooks for the remainder of the year.

We have an exciting Term 4 lined up, with our Firm Foundation program beginning in Week 4. We have the Ranges Colour Run happening on Sunday 27th October that our Parents and Friends have been working tirelessly to arrange for our school and community. I look forward to seeing everyone out on the track coloured from head to toe.

I’m excited but sad to say this will be my last sign off as ‘Miss C’.

I hope everyone enjoys their holidays and returns refreshed for Term 4.

Aspiring to Inspire,
Miss Carcuro

Whole School News

QAS Interschool Gymkhana

On Monday 23rd, Chloe Hilder held another successful Interschool Gymkhana at the town oval. There were 10 schools represented on the day and all participants should be proud of their efforts. It was nice to see those who were initially hesitant to take part in the day face their fears and be successful. Mackenzie Chapman, Lara Filsell and Maddison Foster should be extremely proud of their achievements throughout the day as their combined efforts won them overall Champions.

Chloe has done an amazing job and her challenge now will be to represent all the time and effort that it takes to run an event like this on paper for her assessment. These are a few photos of the day. Keep an eye out for Chloe’s article early next term for a more comprehensive report on the day.

SSSA Volleyball

On Wednesday 11th September our Open Girls Volleyball team made the trek down to Adelaide to stay overnight in preparation for the SSSA Knockout Volleyball State Finals On Thursday. This was an amazing opportunity for our girls as we were playing against schools with hundreds of players in Year 12 to choose from and who play in regular volleyball competitions in Adelaide. We were the only country team to make the finals which is another amazing achievement.

On Thursday morning we arrived at The ARC in Campbelltown where the round robin tournament would take place, as usual we travelled the greatest distance and we were the first school at the venue. Our games all took place on Court 1 which had the grandstand seating where our supporter base took their seats.

All of our games followed a very similar pattern through the whole tournament, which ended up being quite a frustrating time for the players and the supporters. It was clearly evident that our skill level was good enough to match and beat the best teams but our movement and communication was quite low which lead to us losing very close matches frequently. I was once again very proud of all the girls and the way that they played because they did almost everything that I have been teaching them to a high level. In every set we played we pushed our opponent right to the end showing great sportsmanship and resilience.

It was a real eye opening experience for the girls to see how volleyball is actually played in a competitive setting in comparison to playing it for fun in PE lessons. All the team have now used this experience as motivation to improve and progress further next year with our goal to make the State Finals again and win some more sets.

Thank you to Michelle Baker for coming on the trip and helping with the umpiring duties. Also thank you to all the parents that took time out of their day to travel down and support our team. We are very lucky to have parents travel to Adelaide to support their children in their sporting endeavours and it is something that we are very thankful for.

Matt Griffiths

Cricket Pitches

We are so close to finishing. Between wet weather and volunteer availability we have laid non directional turf on one pitch and installed the posts at the correct height. We still need to fill in between the two pitches and around the outside with crusher dust before the remainder of the artificial turf can be laid.

We look forward to seeing the kids use the nets for practice. Thank you to all those involved in getting the pitch to this stage, it was a lot more work than first anticipated.

Parents and Friends

Please register your interest using the Ranges Colour Run Facebook Page

CUT OFF FOR SHIRT ORDER IS 7th OCTOBER

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.

Happy Haven OSHC

Vacation Care

Miscellaneous Reports

Circus Workshops in October School Holidays

Table Tennis

Permanent Silo Projection in Quorn > Have your say!

Did you see the recent silo projection show in Quorn on the 17th of August? Over 300 people attended and there it was announced that Silo projection in Quorn is planned to be permanent, making a nightly event here as a new tourism attraction for the town. It will be managed and installed by Illuminart, a leading Australian projection art company that was established in Quorn back in 2007 and now works around Australia on large scale and permanent light themed projects.

Illuminart’s director Cindi Drennan(a part time resident of Quorn) and producer Verity Brookes are coming to Quorn to take advice from residents and local businesses about this concept, to make sure it provides best possible options for bringing business into town. While in Quorn they will also be inviting local residents and artists to suggest concepts for the animation and stories to be featured on the Silos.

The Silo artwork will be unlike murals on the silo art trail, because it can change many times during the year, and can offer ways for local artists, community groups, school projects to have a chance to be seen. It also will be able to present beautiful animated stories about the region highlighting First Nation heritage, the Pichi Richi Railway, pioneering heritage and the natural and geological marvel of the Flinders Ranges.

Illuminart would like to hear from you to be able to include your ideas in the options considered for the ‘launch show’ and future developments.

For those who are hearing about this for the first time - you can visit this web site to get a lot more information about this exciting development:

Also on that page are photos, maps, and a link to a survey where you can add your thoughts and suggestions.

If you are interested in being part of this process there are multiple ways you could get involved:

1. Book in for a meeting with one of our team (Must be between Tuesday 1 October and Thursday 10 October 2019).
2. Book in for a phone consultation before 25 October 2019 (it will take about 20 minutes).
3. Complete the online survey before 25 October 2019via the link below:

or look on our info page at the link below

For any of the above please contact Verity Brookes, 0405629225, verity@illuminart.com.au