4 February 2020

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Welcome back to all of our learners and their families as we begin a new and exciting year of learning and greater improvement. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome the 19 new learners to QAS in 2020, eight of them Foundation students who are eagerly learning new skills and routines as they settle into their first year of schooling.

We also welcome Amber Tomney to the Primary team. Amber is working with the 2/3/4 learners and we are confident that she will make a significant contribution to improved learning outcomes for our young people.

Communicating regularly with you about your child/ren in regards to their progress and performance at Quorn Area School is something we strive to improve in 2020. I encourage you to stay actively involved in your children’s education throughout the year and to take advantage of the various opportunities to learn about and support the many wonderful things that happen here every day.

To that end, please take a moment to pencil the following details in your diary as we would like to welcome you into the school over the coming weeks for various information sessions. Also, if you haven’t already done so, please download the Schoolzine App to keep up to date with news and calendar events.

The first of many events is happening in Week 3. We would like to extend a warm welcome to our QAS learners and their families to an informal ‘Meet & Greet’ on Monday 10th February from 5:00-6:00pm. Come along and browse the various classrooms, become familiar with new routines and explore learning spaces your child visits on a regular basis. We encourage you to engage with new and existing staff and ask about your child’s learning goals for Term 1.

Also, following the successful sessions last year, we will again be holding Primary and Secondary Information Evenings.

Thursday 20th February 6.00pm-7.00pm, Creche Provided

Primary School (Foundation -Year 6)
Daymap connect – a guide to accessing reports, attendance and achievement data
The Literacy Journey – Understanding Phonics, Running Records, Lexile Levels
Online Learning – Oxford Owl, Scholastic Pro & Education Perfect

Thursday 27th February, 6.00pm-7.00pm, Creche Provided

Senior School (Year 7-12)
Daymap Connect – A guide to accessing reports, attendance, achievement data and assessments
Online Learning – Khan Academy, Scholastic Pro & Education Perfect

Building on what was a successful Transition in Term 4 2019 for our secondary cohort, it was great to see our learners settling straight back into routine last week and continuing on with the assessments they dabbled in at the end of last year.

We wish the Year 12’s of 2020 the best of luck as they take on the responsibility of being the leaders within our school as well as preparing for a very busy 35 final weeks of schooling.

Please don’t hesitate to email us if you have any queries or if you would like to make an appointment to come in for a chat, we will always make time for you.

On behalf of all the staff at QAS, thank you for entrusting us with your child’s education this year and for the many years to come.

Aspiring to Inspire,

Monique Griffiths

2020 Swimming Carnival

FRIDAY 7th FEBRUARY, 2020

We are looking forward to the annual QAS Swimming Carnival and will continue to use the same event and recording system this year.

All students are encouraged to swim in events in order to maximise student participation.

HOUSE KEEPING

This year the carnival will commence at 9:30 am and continue through until approximately 3pm. We look forward to seeing as many families and community members there this Friday.

ALL students are required to be at school at 8:45am (as usual) and will meet together in their corresponding teams (F-12). The House Captains will record the attendance and they have some final touches to complete with their teams. All students will leave the school and walk over to the pool at 9:15am in their teams to begin the JP carnival at 9:30am SHARP.

(see timetable below)

The House Captains and Vice Captains have been busy working with their teams to prepare decorations, team war cry, mascots and designing and creating their raft for the challenge throughout break times both last week and this week. I would like to congratulate the House Captains and Vice Captains for their initiative in organising these events for their teams, it wouldn’t happen without them.

Students in Years 7-10 have spent two of their PE lessons, practising their strokes, diving and relays in preparation for the carnival. Well done to these students for using this time for self-improvement.

A warm welcome to Hawker Area School who will be joining us for the Swimming Carnival.

WE ARE LOOKING FOR PARENT HELPERS TO ASSIST WITH THE SETTING UP OF SHADES, TABLES, CHAIRS, LANE ROPES, and STARTING BLOCKS ETC. FROM 8:15AM

AT THE POOL ON FRIDAY WE WILL ALSO REQUIRE VOLUNTEERS TO ASSIST WITH TIMING OF EVENTS.

PLEASE SEE SARAH BURY IF YOU CAN VOLUNTEER.

SCHEDULE FOR THE DAY

A note to families of students in the F-2 Carnival will be sent home separately, which will include more detail of the day.

CANTEEN AND LUNCH ORDERS

The canteen will be operating on Friday and I have included the menu below. We ask that students bring along their lunch order (filled out, with correct change) to the House meeting at 8:45am so that orders can be prepared in advance. Please clearly label in an envelope or paper bag with:

• your child’s name
• year level
• items to be ordered

QAS MNSEC REPRESENTATIVE TEAM

I will be picking a team to represent QAS at the MNSEC swimming carnival; this will be based on results and times of swimmers in Years 6-12 from our school carnival.

ADVANCE NOTICE – MNSEC SWIMMING CARNIVAL
TUESDAY 18th of FEBRUARY, 2020

After a number of years, we have finally been successful in gaining the opportunity to host the MNSEC Swimming Carnival at our amazing Swimming Pool facility. This will occur biennially, with our first Carnival scheduled for Week 4 of this term. The Carnival will held during the day commencing at 11am. We are currently working together to ensure that this event is a success. We will be looking for volunteers to assist with some of the food stalls on the day. If you could spare a few hours on Tuesday the 18th, we would be most appreciative.

PLEASE SEE SARAH BURY IF YOU CAN VOLUNTEER.

Sarah Bury
Learner Engagement and Wellbeing Coordinator

Secondary Report

Welcome back to school and I hope that everyone had a relaxing break. We had many successes in 2019 and I am looking forward to continuing on our improvement journey as a school community.

Our 2019 cohort of Year 12’s are out and about making the most of their ‘freedom’ from school. In the coming weeks we will provide you with an update on their plans for 2020 and beyond. One thing to celebrate from our 2019 Year 12’s was that we achieved a 100% completion rate which means every Year 12 that was enrolled at QAS completed their SACE which is a great achievement for our school.

2020 is already looking to be another bright year for the Secondary School at QAS. Our students have hit the ground running and are progressing ahead of schedule which shows that our transition program was very successful at the end of 2019. Our Year 11 and 12 students are positioned to be very high achievers providing they put the time and effort in to their studies (and listen to their teachers). As a school community we are really excited to see what this group of people are able to achieve over the coming 9 months.

Our progression with Daymap has come a long way since its commencement in 2017 and our teachers are now putting all learning opportunities online. We also publish assessment results and student reports on Daymap, so it is vital that parents have access to this resource. In the coming weeks I will run an information session for parents and caregivers on how to effectively use Daymap from home so you are able to use it for learning conversations with your child. If you have any questions or have not yet accessed Daymap please send me an email and we will get you online.

As with all things regarding the Secondary School, we have a very open forum so if you have any questions please make contact with me and I will do my best to answer them.

Thank you to everyone that continues to support our school and I look forward to another successful year in 2020.

Matt Griffiths
Senior School Coordinator

Primary Report

Each week the Primary students participate in Big Write lessons on Thursdays. On Fridays, most classes spend time editing and providing each other with feedback. The students then use this information to help them decide what writing goals they would like to set themselves. This is all part of becoming more like Ownership Ora and being effective learners.

Below is an example of a student’s writing plan and a writing piece. The green pencil shows the editing a student has made and now the work is ready to share with a partner for feedback.

All classes are using these headings in our lessons to give students an understanding of why we teach what we teach. This is part of our Visual learning expectations in our school.

This term in Mappen lessons across the Foundation to Year 4 classes, students are learning about Identity. Younger students will learn how important it is to keep healthy and set goals for themselves. Older students will learn about how to manage their emotions, keep safe, how to analyse media messages and work out how to say no when people are pressuring them.

But first we are all learning about social skills that are good for learning and positive habits of the mind. These skills will enable us to develop positive working relationships with the people in our classes.

Below are some photos of the Year 1 / 2 class discovering why it is important to look at the person talking to us.

Senga Reed
Primary Literacy

Parents and Friends

Quorn School and Community Library

We have commenced our annual Premier’s Reading Challenge from 28th January, 2020.

Premier's Reading Challenge (PRC) is a literacy engagement program that was introduced by the Premier in 2004 to:

• Encourage students to read more books and enjoy reading
• Improve literacy levels.

The Challenge requires students to read 12 books between the beginning of the school year and early September.

How can you find out about the Challenge?

All information about the Premier’s Reading Challenge can be found at the link below: Accessing the Challenge guidelines is very useful.

Who can participate?

All students from Reception to Year 12 are encouraged to participate, including South Australian government and non- government school students and students undertaking home education.

Students can read a combination of books from the Challenge booklists and books of their own choosing. Students can choose to read books in languages other than English. The booklists are available on the Premier’s Reading Challenge website.

• Foundation to Year 6 students select at least 8 books from the booklists on the Premier’s Reading Challenge website and 4 books of their own choice.
• Year 7, 8 and 9 students select at least 4 books from the Premier’s Reading Challenge booklists and 8 books of their own choice.
• Year 10, Year 11 and Year 12 students select 12 books of their own choice at an appropriate literacy level.
• Students are encouraged to keep reading once they have completed 12 books.

Awards - the ‘Olympics of reading’ and beyond...

Students who complete the Challenge receive awards from the Premier for their achievements in a similar fashion to sporting stars!

Awards for completing the Challenge are:

• Certificate – first year
• Bronze medal – second year
• Silver medal – third year
• Gold medal – fourth year
• Champion medal – fifth year
• Legend medal – sixth year
• Hall of Fame medal – seventh year
• Reader for Life – eighth year
• Reader for Life bronze – ninth year
• Reader for Life silver – tenth year
• Reader for Life gold – eleventh year
• Reader for Life champion – twelfth year
• Reader for Life legend – thirteenth year
• Reader for Life hall of fame – fourteenth year

Premier’s Reading Challenge Ambassadors

Ambassadors are high profile South Australian identities, who are keen to promote the Challenge and spread the message that reading is ‘cool’. Adelaide United Football Club, Link Lightning, Adelaide Football Club, Port Adelaide Football Club and the Thunderbirds are joint ambassador teams with the Premier’s be active Challenge.

Benefits of taking part in the Challenge

• Raises the profile of reading, libraries and literacy in schools
• Gives students a focus for their reading
• Encourages students to read more books and enjoy reading more - the more you read the better you get at it!
• Encourages boys to participate by being ‘challenged’
• Offers incentives for reluctant readers
• Builds self-esteem and pride, school unity, and a sense of achievement
• Increases the involvement of parents in their child’s reading
• Increases library borrowing
• Contributes to increased literacy levels.

SA PUBLIC LIBRARIES AUDIOBOOKS AND EBOOKS (PRC) LAUNCH

The SA Public Libraries now has website so that everyone has access to thousands of audiobooks and ebooks, you may be interested in using this for your child(ren), link at below: They have recently created a dedicated section for the Premier’s Reading Challenge!

This way, learners can access a collection of PRC audiobooks and e-books (see images below) and easily borrow digital content from their own devices as long as they have signed up for a FREE Libraries SA membership and have access to internet.

here is a snapshot of what the site looks like...

Other School News

Sports Shirts

QAS Sports Shirts are available to purchase from the Finance Office. Shirts are $30 each and are available in a range of sizes.

Walking Wednesday

Walking Wednesday will begin again next week, 12th February. Students will have the opportunity to meet at the Railway Station at 8:20am and walk to school together. Points will be awarded to students for Kanyaka and Yarrah for walking to school. House Captains as well as teachers will be getting on board as well!

We look forward to seeing as many students walk to school each Wednesday.

Toastie Tuesday

Toastie Tuesday returns today. Our canteen offers students the opportunity to purchase a toasted sandwich or a cup of hot noodles each Tuesday. Order forms are in classrooms for students to use. Ice blocks and hot chocolates are also available to purchase. Funds raised are used to improve student facilities within the school. We look forward to your continued support.