18 February 2020

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

As I write this article, I can hear the preparations taking place for the 2020 MNSEC Swimming Carnival, held in Quorn for the first time. We are very thankful for this opportunity to host a MNSEC event, as we show our appreciation to those other schools who facilitate other extra curriculum events within their towns. I look forward to hearing about the day and of each individual’s or school’s success. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our community for supporting the event; your work does not go unnoticed and is truly appreciated.

Student Free Day

On the 28th February staff will be participating in a professional development day that supports our sites vision and Visible Learning journey. Some of the outcomes from the day will be for teachers to make connections between the research and their own practice, identify strategies that can support metacognition and most importantly designing next steps to further develop visible learners in our classrooms.

In 2019 our staff undertook a ‘Visible Learning Impact Cycle’, where they gathered, collated and examined evidence from their class and transferred this into action, making a positive difference to the outcomes of the learners in our school. We look forward to continuing this process in 2020 and are working on a way to showcase this work within our community.

Primary Information Sessions
Thursday 20th March (crèche 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

Secondary Information Session
Thursday 27th March (crèche 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

Flag Poles

Awaiting new flags are our newly installed flagpoles, situated in the carpark. We look forward to presenting these flags to our students during an assembly and hope to have them flying high as soon as possible. Thank you to Wiltja Constructions for collecting and installing them for us.

School Grounds

On a more solemn note, unfortunately we have had some damage to school grounds. I am aware that not all damage was a result of QAS students and am thankful to those who reported the incident. We are following Department policies on managing trespass and misbehaviour, however it would be greatly appreciated if all parents could urge their children to refrain from entering school grounds over the weekend and during weeknights. SAPOL have been contacted regarding the recent incidents.

Inappropriate use of Social Media

As a school we are committed to teaching students to be cyber safe and to make safe, responsible choices about their online behaviour. We ask all parents and caregivers to support the cyber safety messages of the school and model positive use of social media with their children.

Please refrain from using social media to comment on school related incidents or to ‘vent’ about staff, students and their families. Offensive posts of a threatening or harassing nature made on social networking sites could be investigated by the police.

If you wish to discuss school incidents or have concerns about any school-related matter, please arrange an appointment with a member of the school leadership team on (08) 86486101. I remind you that respectful communication is essential to building a safe, orderly and productive learning environment for all learners at our school.

To conclude, I would like to thank those QAS families who have either made contact with me recently regarding concerns or queries and to those I have contacted. I truly appreciate your support and feel grateful, not only for this opportunity, but to be working alongside you all.

Aspire to Inspire
Monique Griffiths

Secondary Report

Middle School HASS Report

Learners from Year 7-9 are currently studying places and liveability as part of Geography. Learners have looked at why people live where they do and how that can change depending on someone’s age or lifestyle. Some Learners even interviewed their parent to discover the wide range of reasons that have brought us all to Quorn. Learners have also looked at liveability rankings and how places are surveyed to give them a liveability score, to many people’s surprise Adelaide was actually the 10th most liveable city in the world last year. In the coming weeks Learners will be collecting data related to liveability and comparing Quorn to another town in the area, this will involve a brief fact finding mission around the main streets of the town. I’m excited to see what results they come up with!

Year 7 English Report

Learners in Year 7 English have been looking at different types of texts and how they are created. They have also started preparing for NAPLAN, practicing their reading, writing and reviewing their understanding of grammar and punctuation. Similar to Year 6 learners in Year 7, this year will be expected to complete Big Writes. Unlike the Primary School we will only have 4-5 Big Writes a term, as opposed to the Primary School’s weekly Big Writes. Learners will be notified of their Big Write topic the lesson before and are expected to complete some preparation at home. Parents will also be notified via Schoolzine about upcoming Big Writes, in order to help learners be as successful as possible. Looking forward to a great year, with a great group of learners!

Brad Forkert
English/HASS

Primary Report

We have had a busy start to our term! Last week we participated in the Swimming Carnival followed by some water themed Art and Science experiments back at school. It was a great day and we had lots of fun.

In Numeracy we have begun looking at patterns and place value. One of the tasks we did was looking for patterns on a 100 or 1000 chart. We coloured all the different patterns that we noticed such as each row is ten, the numbers are in order, odd and evens are in rows etc.

We have also been making patterns with the Numicon pegs. We looked at months of the year and noticed that it goes in a pattern throughout the year, year after year. We then had a go at making our own repeating patterns that don’t end.

The Year 2 learners have been looking at finding how many by grouping into tens. They are counting large numbers and need a strategy to help. We then looked at how that works with place value.

In our Swimming Carnival Art and investigation time, we explored how to make patterns that represent water. We placed food colouring and paint on top of shaving cream. We then swirled the colours to make a fluid pattern. We think they turned out pretty well.

In Digital Technology this term, we are learning how to code using the Bee Bots. We have had to complete a number of challenges such as making them move in a circle, a square and move from A to B on the World map.

In Art we have begun looking at the art from of Quilling. Quilling is taking strips of paper and curling/bending them to create shapes and picture. It also is great for developing learners’ fine motor skills.

In Spanish we are starting to learn 11-20. Miss Neu also read Mem Fox’s ‘Where is the Green Sheep’ in Spanish and we had fun trying to pick up and translate key words. We have also learned how to use our manners in Spanish.

Kate Neu
Year 1/2 Class Teacher

Learner Well Being

One Child One Plans

Teachers have been busy developing OCOP’s for a number of our learners at QAS. Once they are complete, we will be making contact with families to come in and share the OCOP to ensure all stakeholders are involved in the students learning goals and curriculum differentiation. These meeting will be held over the next 2-4 weeks.

Attendance

A friendly reminder to families, if your child is absent please ensure that you are contacting the school so that we can update our records on DAYMAP. A simple phone call to the office will allow staff to alter the attendance records. As per our Attendance Policy, Care Group teachers will be contacting home after two consecutive absences and a letter will be sent for three consecutive absences. Morning Care Group is an integral part of the day, where daily notices are shared and students prepare themselves with the correct resources for their daily lessons. Please ensure children arrive on time for morning Care Group.

Aboriginal Families

I would like to invite families of our ATSI learners in for a coffee and chat on Monday the 24th of February. It would be great to form a group where we can begin to discuss NAIDOC activities for 2020 amongst other important issues. Please meet in the Meeting Room next to the Front Office at 9am 24/2/2020.

Sarah Bury
Learner Well Being and Engagement Coordinator

Subject Report

Choir 2020

Choir is on again in 2020! There are some exciting changes from last year’s format. Choir will now be open to all students from Year 2 through to Year 12. We’ll be reaching out to our local community much more than in previous years.

Choir rehearsals will be on Thursdays immediately after school for an hour in the Music room. Opportunity will also be given to utilise your instrumental skills in practice and performances. So if you would like to be a part of our choir this year, look for the letter coming home this week to inform your parents.

Regards,
Mr B.

Sports Report

Swimming Carnival

On Friday the 7th of February, QAS held its 2020 annual Swimming Carnival. The weather was perfect and the day was a success overall.

I would like to thank all of the parents and friends who were over at the pool early in the morning setting up the shades, lane ropes and marshalling area etc. Thanks to all the volunteers who timed the events throughout the day and a special thanks to Mark Tuckwell for his role as the official ‘starter’.

Another thanks to Sue, Kyley and other helpers in the canteen last Friday, which is always a big job. I would also like to thank the Parents and Friends for cooking the BBQ and serving the sausages. Hawker Area School joined us for the day and appeared to enjoy participating in the various swimming events. A huge thanks to Dani Chapman and Angie Finlay for once again taking on tricky role of marshalling.

A huge effort from our House Captains and Vice Captains was on display during the day. Their contribution towards the JP carnival was excellent and they managed to ensure that the students were in order to swim in their various races, whilst competing themselves. They also need to be acknowledged for their commitment in the week leading up to the carnival, as they hosted decorating sessions as well as raft building sessions. Well done to Tayla, Tiarna, Jayde and Emily from Yarrah and Kaitlyn, Aiden, Maya and Ethan from Kanyaka.

Awards

Carnival

JP Carnival

Raft Race

MNSEC Swimming

Congratulations to the students listed below who have been selected to represent QAS at the MNSEC Swimming Carnival today.

Aiden Hately-Bell, Tayla Finlay, Codin Mason, Tiarna Rigden, Declan Finlay, Jayde Finlay, Maya Omonte Kramer, Kaitlyn Roberts, Dayne Hancock, Lachie Finlay, Isaac Finlay, Mackenzie Cshapman, Geri Tschirner, Joel Finlay, William Bennett, Lachie Holtham, Tyra Lander, Ray Lander, Maia Tschirner, Maddie Hately, Jaiy Hately, Cheyanne Maher, Cooper McMillan and Javier Grivell.

Jack Allen and Stella Stanwix from Hawker were also selected. Best of luck to the team.

The MNSEC carnival is being held in Quorn today and we are so pleased to finally be able to host it. The carnival commences at 11am and will conclude around 3pm. Some of our students will have the opportunity to head to Adelaide in early March and represent the MNSEC at the SSSA Swimming Carnival. They may be selected according to their individual results from today’s carnival.

Miscellaneous Reports

Working for the Department for Education

Are you interested in registering for work as a School Support Officer? Below is a link for you to access the 2020 Employable Ancillary Register. Once your application is complete you will receive notification of your suitability to work with the Department for Education. Bring this letter into the school so we can keep a record, if vacancies were to arise.

Student Exchange