16 June 2020

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Winter is certainly here! We have had some fresh mornings on site, so much so that one of our primary learners found stalactites on the water fountains. Please remember to keep warm during this time of year to prevent illness.

The Premier has announced Step 3 of the COVID-19 roadmap. This means we can prepare to ease some of the restrictions currently in place for our site. As of Term 3, we would like to welcome our very patient parents and hardworking volunteers back on site. Although the restrictions have been lifted, we still strongly encourage physical distancing during pick up and drop off, especially given the flu season.

Requirements that remain in place

• Students and staff stay home if they are unwell.
• Non-physical greetings should be encouraged.
• School visits to nursing homes cannot recommence.
• The general public should not access school playgrounds or play equipment.
• Parents must continue to physical distance, including at school pick up and drop off.
• If you are visiting the school as a volunteer or external service provider, you must complete the site access form on entry.

Student Behaviour Management Policy

Thank you to those parents who expressed an interest in working on the Student Behaviour Management policy with us. The subcommittee met on Friday 19th June and after a successful meeting, will meet again to consolidate ideas. Upon completion this document, the policy will be shared with all stakeholders and available on the QAS website.

Governing Council Update

Governing Council agreed to:

• Look into the three areas of development that was presented in relation to Site Funded Works.
• Peruse options regarding safety along Stokes Road. School to look into grant opportunities through the local council and Education Department to develop a safe crossing.
• P& F committee secured ideas early in Term 1 however with COVID19 restrictions plans were delayed. As of Term 3 plans will recommence with a focus on Science Education, fundraising ideas and reviewing the Camps & Excursion policy.

Approved Student Free Days

• Student Free Days   27th August - Visible Learning
• School Closure   11th September
• Student Free Days   6th November - Whole school moderation

Parent Opinion Survey

During the first few weeks of Term 3, we will be asking our school community to complete an opinion survey. The survey will aim to gather feedback on the quality of teaching and learning, support of learning, relationships and communication and leadership and decision making. We appreciate your feedback in order to strengthen our site and focus on areas for improvement.

Book Week

Good news! CBCA Book Week 2020 will now be held in October on the following dates: OCTOBER 17-23 2020. These later dates will apply in 2020 only, recognising the exceptional circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic.

2020 Theme: Curious Creatures, Wild Minds

Aspiring to Inspire
Monique Griffiths

Secondary Report

End of Semester

Semester 1 comes to a conclusion at the end of this week. This means that our Year 12 learners are nearly 60% of their way through the final year at Quorn Area School. I am very proud of how our Year 12s have approached their studies in a challenging start to the year. I encourage them to continue to show the same resilience and perseverance to finish the year off well. Our Year 11 students have also been working hard and are putting themselves in a great position to do really well and achieve some great marks. It is a really exciting time for our SACE students as the majority of them are looking for ways to extend themselves in all areas of learning. I look forward to seeing what their results bring at the end of the year.

The end of the semester also means a few subject changes for our Middle School students. Our Year 7-10’s will go through a few subject changes listed below. These changes are necessary to ensure our learners meet the Australian Curriculum requirements throughout the year.

• 7/8 Tech is now 7/8 Digital Technologies
• 7/8 Visual Art is now 7/8 Media Arts
• 9 Tech is now 9 Digital Technologies
• 9 Media Arts is now 9 Visual Arts
• 10 PLP is now 10 Research Practices
• The Year 10s will have a choice to either continue in Tech or take up Arts
• 11 Research Project is finished and will be replaced by 11 Physics

Our learners are being provided some great learning opportunities and I look forward to watching them continue into the next semester.

Reports

As with our reporting procedure, our end of semester reports will be published by Monday 22nd June. This is a result of the whole semester’s worth of work and should be an accurate representation of your child’s achievements during this time. If you have any questions or would like to discuss the reports please make contact with the teachers or myself to arrange a time to chat. We release the reports before the end of the term to allow our learners to reflect on the reports and ask their teachers questions about ways to improve. If you have any questions about the reports please let me know.

Matt Griffiths
Secondary School Coordinator

July Year 12 Revision Seminars

Primary Report

Foundation Class

Literacy Pros

In Literacy this term, we have had a big focus on learning about procedures. We learnt that procedures give us information and instructions on how to do a certain task such as cooking, making or building something. We started by looking at recipes to cook simple foods such as fairy bread. For our Big Write that week we had to follow a procedure to make fairy bread and then write the procedure. We had so much fun making fairy bread and the best part was afterwards we were able to eat it! YUM! The next week we looked at how to follow instructions to make something or complete a task. We followed a procedure to plant seeds and then wrote the procedure as a reflection. In the final week of procedures, we made a treasure map and had to write the instructions (procedure) to get from the boat to the treasure. We enjoyed getting to add lots of detail and obstacles to our map for our pirates to find their way around.

We have also been exploring punctuation in VCOP lessons. We are beginning to recognise and understand the purposes for simple punctuation such as full stops, capital letters, question marks and exclamation marks. To familiarise ourselves with punctuation we have been participating in a range of activities such as making punctuation out of playdoh, being punctuation detectives to find punctuation in books and Kung Fu punctuation.

Here are some pictures of our fun Literacy lessons involving procedures and punctuation.

Numeracy Geniuses

In Numeracy this term we are becoming Numeracy Geniuses. We have been learning all about number, addition, and subtraction. We have been learning how to count numbers higher than 20, understand and find numbers on a number line and the basics of addition and subtraction. Lots of our activities have involved a hands-on counting approach where we use counting materials and games to investigate number and model addition and subtraction. One of our favourite games that we play is tug of war. In this game, we play with a partner to move along a number line using addition and subtraction. One person is addition and one person is subtraction and when you roll the dice you move that many spaces along the line in your direction. The aim of the game is to get to your end of the number line first.

On Fridays, to round off the week we complete tasks in our progress books and then are able to do activities on mathsgames.com. We have really enjoyed this time on mathsgames. Through this we are able to practice our skills that we have learnt during the week by completing activities and then playing maths related games. Mathsgames.com has all of the focus areas of the curriculum and is sorted by skills and year levels. You can use mathsgames.com at home. Foundation students have logins in their communication folders and other year levels can access for free. Click the link to access the website to check it out -

Do it for Dolly day!

Last Friday, the whole school participated in activities for ‘Do it for Dolly’ Day. These activities had a focus on kindness and anti-bullying. The F-2 students participated in activities that included brainstorming kindness we see around us, making cards for each other and making kindness buckets to be kind to one another. All of the F-2 students really enjoyed these activities and gained a deeper understanding of what it means to be kind to one another and support our friends and classmates. We thank the school prefects who ran the activities for our learners, we really enjoyed having you in our classrooms. Here are some pictures of the day.

Tegan Miller
Foundation Class Teacher

Learner Wellbeing and Engagement

“Do it for Dolly Day!”

On the 5th of June Quorn Area School held a “Do it for Dolly Day.” The purpose of this event was to raise awareness of the impacts of bullying and encouraging students to share positive messages to each other. In the morning, students were donated a gold coin for the ‘Do it for Dolly Foundation.’ The Prefects organised some fun curricular activities surrounding the main topic of the day which is ‘anti-bullying.’

The activities organised for the day included a scavenger hunt, ‘are your words doing damage’ activity, fill a bucket and showing acts of kindness. During the two breaks cupcakes were sold for $2 each.

Thanks to all of the students who participated with enthusiasm and we hope you enjoyed the raising awareness activities. We would also like to thank the senior students who helped facilitate and joined in with the primary students activities.

Tayla, Aiden & Shalaynee
School Prefects

Subject Report

Maths & Science Updates from Mr Pathan

Year 7 Maths

As a part of the mathematical investigation on the topic Ratio and Proportion, Year 7 learners researched recipes of their favourite choice of dish. They use their knowledge and skills to upscale the chosen recipe to serve 30 people. They represented their mathematical work in the form of a poster that includes recipes of their dish, ingredients for a preparation to make 30 portions, pictures and other information.

Year 7 Science

This term, Year 7 science learners are studying Biological Science. They started their term learning about classification of living organisms. Skills and techniques they have learned include identifying living organism and naming them scientifically.

Learners also put their skills to the test to classify leaves in order to be identified using Dichotomous Key. As a part of their investigation, they used Chromatography to separate many different pigments of leaves of a plant.

Year 8 Maths

Year 8 Mathematic learners have just concluded their learning about terminating and recurring decimals by investigation. They are on the path of learning advance algebraic skills such as fluently writing algebraic expressions and equations and substituting and evaluating algebraic expressions, equations, and formulae. They are also investigating formulae used by doctors, nurses, and chemists to determine accurate dose for their patients. They are also incorporating technologies such as Microsoft excel and graphing software to do their mathematical investigation.

Year 9 Science

Year 9 Science learners are studying body systems this term. They are incorporating the online platform Education Perfect to assist learning abouth the digestive, respiratory, circulatory, nervous, endocrine and immune systems. As a part of their summative assessment, they also need to research a disease of nervous system and prepare a poster or a brochure that make general public aware of causes, symptoms and possible diagnosis of the disease.

Mr Faruk Pathan
Secondary Maths/Science

Year 9 Media Arts with Mr Mansueto

This term students have transitioned from analysing film to creating film and images. They have produced some great stop-motion animations. Most recently, we have done a photography unit. Students have learnt how to use manual settings to take more creative photos. They studied how aperture, shutter speed and ISO work together to properly expose an image. We explored how, by adjusting these settings, specific effects can be achieved. For example, by increasing the aperture, the depth of field is affected – a shallow depth of field is perfect for sharp portraits, where the background detail is blurred. Students used iPads to experiment with these techniques, and developed a photography portfolio. The brief required a range of settings to be used. There have been some excellent results.

Mr Tim Mansueto
Secondary HASS/Media

Middle School English with Mr Forkert

This Term in middle school English the Year 7/8’s have been doing novel studies. The Year 7’s have been reading the novel Holes by Louis Sachar.

It follows the story of a young boy, Stanley Yelnats, who is sent to a prison camp for a crime he did not commit. Over the last few weeks learners have been developing their comprehension skills, their ability to read between the lines and build on their vocabulary. We will be finishing off this unit soon by watching the Disney adaptation starring Shia LaBeouf, complete with popcorn, if they’re lucky.

Meanwhile, the Year 8’s have been reading Trash by Andy Mulligan; a tale of three young boys living on a dumpsite who uncover something amazing.

This has been a great opportunity for the Year 8’s to look at life in less fortunate countries and the effects corruption and poverty can have on people’s lives. Both groups are currently working on essays, responding to some of the ideas in their novels, many of which already look like they could give the Year 11/12’s a run for their money.

Mr Brad Forkert
Secondary HASS/English

Science Week 15-23 August

Week 5 Term 3 is National Science Week. The theme for 2020 is Deep Blue: innovations for the future of our oceans. With this in mind, the theme embraces the innovative technologies, capabilities and skills needed to achieve economic, environmental and social sustainability of our oceans. It features insights and inquiries into workable solutions that generate healthy oceans, healthy economies and healthy communities.

Parents and Friends are working hard to engage with outside agencies to allow our learners access to an interactive presentation during this week.

Parents and Friends

Sustainability in our School

We have now received our stock of 4myearth wraps and sandwich pockets which you can purchase through the front office. Using them in your lunchbox is a great way to keep our school waste free. Come in and have a look at the different designs we have for the following products:

Curry Club

We are continuing with our sales of curry blends during Term 2. Come in and purchase yours today – it’s the perfect time of the year to be enjoying the warmth of a curry.

Happy Haven OSHC

July Vacation Care – Make your booking today!

The Happy Haven OSHC Vacation Care program provides a warm, caring, fun, stimulating and interesting environment, full of exciting activities and excursions for your children to enjoy during their school holidays. Check out what’s planned for the upcoming holidays.

Employment Opportunity

Happy Haven OSHC are looking for enthusiastic and professional Educators!

Interested applicants will require as a minimum:

- Working with children check

- DECD approved 7hr RAN-EC (Responding to Abuse and Neglect in an Education and Care environment) training

- For qualified staff they will also require first aid training (course code HLTAID004) and a diploma in children’s services/OSHC or equivalent (2 years full time teaching degree).

We are interested in both Qualified and entry level educators to join our relief and Vacation Care pool of staff.

If interested, please send your resume and any relevant certificates to recruitment@happyhaven.sa.edu.au, and mention you are interested in work at Quorn Area School.

Miscellaneous Reports

Lost Property

We have a huge amount of lost property, particularly unnamed school jumpers at the front office. Lost property will be on display near the Stokes Road entrance during Week 10 for parents to view. All clothing left unclaimed will be donated to the Quorn Pre-Loved Boutique at the end of the term.

2021 National Indigenous Autumn School

Parent Fourm – Transition in 2020 and Beyond

Clip Joint – Intro to Hair and Makeup