4 May 2021

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Welcome back to a new term of learning and the opportunities it presents to action the feedback from our Term One Learner Reports. Over the coming weeks, we will be encouraging all caregivers to engage with the school to work collaboratively to achieve the goals from last term's report. If you cannot attend a face to face meeting, we encourage you to either phone or email your child's teacher to discuss their achievements from Term One and the critical issue of where to next.

During Term One, our teachers worked hard to support all of our young people to be assessment ready as we believe this is essential in developing assessment capable learners. The upcoming NAPLAN assessments offer our learners the opportunity to celebrate their growth and set future goals. They will also provide the school with a wealth of information relating to the success of our current teaching programs and strategies. If you would like further information regarding any assessments we currently use to assess our effectiveness, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

Finally, I would like to congratulate both Monique Griffiths and Matt Griffiths on the birth of their first child Halle Rae. We wish them the very best both now and during the lifelong journey that is parenthood. We have appointed Shao-Hua Tseng to cover Monique during her leave, and we are confident that his energy and enthusiasm will contribute to our continuous improvement journey.

Andrew Gilsenan-Reed

General School Notices

Parent, Student & Teacher Learning Conversations

Our Parent, Student & Teacher Learning Conversations (formerly called Parent teacher interviews) will take place on Tuesday 11th and Thursday 13th May from 3:30pm-6:00pm of Week 3, Term 2. This is a great time to discuss your child’s learning and progress with their teachers. We believe it is very important for you to bring your children with you to the learning conversation so they are able to hear the feedback and improvements they can make to their learning journey. In the coming days you will see a link appear on your Daymap log in page to make these appointments. If you have any questions please contact Matt Griffiths.

NAPLAN

Our NAPLAN testing block will begin next week on the 11th May. The NAPLAN is a test that is completed by learners across Australia and it is a form of assessment which provides us as a school with great feedback about the development of our learners. We are then able to use this data to make informed decisions about target areas and teacher impact. This year the NAPLAN is almost fully completed online which has a really good feature that will allow the students to answer questions that are aimed at their level of functioning. If you would like to know anything about the NAPLAN or have questions about your child’s participation in it please contact me at the school before Friday 7th May.

Please ensure that your child is at school on time and ready to take part in this testing block as it is vital that every student takes part in the test so we can gather information to improve our practice.

Matt Griffiths
NAPLAN Coordinator

2020 Rowland and Phyllis Nicholas Scholarship Recipient

Congratulations to Aiden Hately-Bell who is the recipient of the 2020 Scholarship after successfully applying for the award. Aiden was a School Prefect in 2020 and led by example in all areas of his schooling, successfully completing his SACE with an outstanding ATAR of 98.75. Aiden is now studying a Bachelor of Behavioural Science (Psychology) majoring in Criminology at Flinders University.

ANZAC Day

Our school Prefects Jayde Finlay, Maya Omonte-Kramer and Ethan Baker represented Quorn Area School at The Flinders Ranges Council ANZAC Ceremony on Sunday 25th April. Dressed in their school blazers each of the students played a part remembering the ANZAC spirit. Maya read a poem – A Tribute to ANZAC Day, Jayde laid a wreath, while Ethan raised the Australian and New Zealand flag following The Last Post.

Thank you to all three students for this representation.

Mother’s Day Stall

Governing Council

The next Governing Council meeting will be held on Thursday 13th May at 5.30pm.

Please join us at 5.00pm prior to the meeting for a “meet & greet cuppa” and tour of proposed school entrance developments at 5pm (meeting at Staff Room)

Everyone welcome

For more enquiries, please contact Governing Council Chair - Andrea Tschirner 0437287130

Secondary News

Careers Trip

This week from Tuesday to Friday our Year 9 & 10 students will embark on their Careers Trip to Adelaide to discover the many career opportunities there are available to them. This trip has been planned and organised by Miss Novillos and supported by Mr Forkert. The teachers hold discussions with the learners and find out their career aspirations and structure the trip in response to this. This is such a fantastic opportunity for our students in Quorn to explore opportunities outside their comfort zone. I look forward to hearing about the success of the camp when the students return.

Primary Report

Mr B’s 5/6 Class

This term in the 5/6 class we’re covering so many different things. In Literacy, we’re examining how Plays use stage direction to assist the actors in giving greater depth to their performances.

We’re growing our use of the math functions in different situations. Preparations are coming along well for NAPLAN next week. We will also be looking at the relationships between fractions decimals and percentages, leading into our examination of order of operations (BODMAS).

In Technology we are examining digital systems, their components and how they work. We’ll be using Minecraft Education Edition as a platform to demonstrate our learning.

In HASS we’re exploring how weather affects the world around us whilst growing our awareness for greater sustainability both here and around the world. Health and Physical Education has brought footy season into our learning as well as we seek to grow our teamwork and kicking skills.

Parents and Friends

The P&F committee would like to thank everyone for their generous donations towards the Easter Raffle held last term. $680 was raised to support activities planned during Science Week. John Daw was the lucky winner of the raffle who thanked us publicly for the prize.

The school Prefects held a Cupcake Day before Easter, money raised was donated to the P&F committee which will also be added to Science Week activities.

The next P&F meeting will be held on Friday 7th May

Miscellaneous Reports

The Smith Family

MNSEC Formal

Earthwatch Australia – Student Challenge