7 December 2021

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

As COVID-19 slides into its third year, I would like to express my genuine thanks to the school community for their continued support in this year of restrictions. However, we did experience a degree of normality at this year's Presentation Evening, which was very well supported by our community. The masks couldn't hide the joy of celebrating growth and appreciating the quality of work on display. There was much to celebrate on the night, and these individual awards complement the collective achievements of our learners in state and national assessments. These achievements include:

• Securing our best performance in NAPLAN and establishing Quorn Area School as a high performing site in our region.
• Recording the sites best performance in SACE (2020).

As this is our last newsletter of the year, I would like to express my appreciation to the teachers who have been part of our improvement journey this year and are now leaving to explore new possibilities. Since their arrivals as graduate teachers, Brad Forkert and Tegan Miller have contributed significantly to our school. Our collective achievements owe much to their professional growth and passion for learning. Tryphone Sambi's genuine warmth and commitment to self-improvement have also contributed to the improvements we have secured. While Shao-Hua Tseng's service has been relatively short, he has challenged our thinking about the arts. We wish all of our leavers the best for their teaching futures, and we look forward to welcoming new staff who will have the opportunity to continue the fine work of those mentioned above who have served our community well. My thanks also go out to all remaining staff who have contributed so much in 2021. Thank you for your immense commitment on behalf of our learners, and I look forward to working collaboratively with you in 2022.

Farewell to Tegan Miller, Tryphone Sambi, Shao-Hua Tseng & Bradley Forkert

Finally, I wish all of our learners and their families a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Andrew Gilsenan-Reed

End of Year Award Winners

End of Year Class Awards

Splash Day

Foundation – Yr 6: 10.00am-11:45am

Yr 7-12: 12.00pm-1:55pm

• Sausage Sizzle provided for all students.
• Canteen will be available
• Please bring along your flotation devices if needed

All students will be dismissed from the school at 2:05pm

Farewell from Staff

Having worked at Quorn Area School for the past 5 years I would like to say farewell. I would like to thank you for welcoming me into your school and community and everything you have taught me. It has been a privilege to work with the staff and students at Quorn Area School since 2017, and I could not have asked for a better place to begin my teaching career. I wish the young people of this community all the best with their future endeavours, and I hope to come back soon and visit.

Mr Brad Forkert

A note goodbye

As most people know, I am sorry to say that I am leaving QAS at the end of the term for a new position in Adelaide. It has been a wonderful four years here at QAS developing my skills as a teacher. I have grown so much as both a person and an educator. I thank all of those who have been involved in my journey here, particularly staff, learners and their families. It has been a great community to be apart of and I will miss it. I hope my path crosses with some of you in future years.

Miss Tegan Miller

Dear Staff, Students and Parents at Quorn Area School.

This is to convey my sincere gratitude and many thanks to you guys for making my three years stay at QAS a memorable and a beautiful experience that will linger in my mind for many years to come.

Three years seem to be a long time but in essence they just went by so quick as though they were weeks or days. To leadership: You are an amazing bunch who work together for the common good of the school with great enthusiasm that has to be emulated. To the front desk, finance and all non-teaching staff: your welcoming smiles, encouragement and support kept me wanting to come back to QAS every day of the week. To the teaching staff: even if I had come to QAS without any experience or teaching materials, your willingness to share, help and support surpassed my expectations. You are simply GREAT Teachers!! Keep this wonderful tradition. To the parents: Though I did not meet all of you, for those I met you gave me the welcoming warmth to Quorn that I will never forget. To the students: You have always been curious and wanting to learn more about what your teachers are teaching you. Almost all of you have been pushing the right buttons!! Keep on doing good things for your bright future. I will dearly miss you.

QAS you made my time and I will always cherish the wonderful days I had been with you.

Thank You.

Goodbye, Kwaheri, Adios and Bless You
Mr Sambi

Secondary Report

The Secondary School transition has been a great success again this year. The past two weeks have prepared our senior school learners for the upcoming 2022 school year. I am grateful to all our students for being so flexible during this time and I am happy that we will hit the ground running next year.

Our Year 12’s of 2021 are eagerly awaiting their results which will become available on Monday 13th December at 8:30am. Regardless of the results, I am incredibly proud of that they have achieved and I eagerly await their next steps. In regards to the publication of their final results, I like to let our learners deliver the news of their results to their family and friends themselves. It is something they have worked long and hard to achieve that it hardly seems fair that we publish the results before they have had the chance to do it. I will inform the school community of their results after I have the approval of each of the 2021 graduates.

Finally, on a personal note I thank each and every person in our school community for their support throughout 2021. For the first time in 3 years we are farewelling some teachers out of the Secondary School who we will miss. Mr Forkert has activated his right of return to the metro area and will begin teaching at Hallett Cove in 2022. Mr Forkert has been of great service to our school and will be missed by everyone in the school community. We also farewell Mr Sambi who has been at Quorn for 3 years. He has been such a positive and lively staff member and we will genuinely miss his positivity and happiness. And finally we farewell Mr T who was with us for the past 3 terms as cover for Monique who has been on maternity leave – we thank you for the time and effort you have put into QAS. Also I would like to farewell Tegan Miller from our Primary School who has also activated her right of return to metro. You will all be sorely missed by the Quorn Area School.

I look forward to what 2022 brings. Have a safe and happy holidays.

Matt Griffiths
Senior School Coordinator

Student Reports from Illawonga Camp

The camp to Illawonga was an interesting time as I was able to experience a lot of activities I had not done before. My favourite thing we did would have to be the expedition into the Punnyelroo caves, I enjoyed the caves because I like exploring and doing the hard spots where we had to crawl through tight spaces was fun.

Reece Freer, Year 10

This camp was definitely one of the most memorable ones that I have been on during my time at QAS. It was super fun going out and spending time both around and in the water. The best part of the trip was a toss-up between getting to drive the boat and seeing the sheep show, which both were entertaining in their own ways.

Kathleen Medlam, Year 11

At school camp I loved the caving, it was such a cool experience and when you’re caving you get all hot and sweaty. Luckily, after caving we had Kayaking so we got to cool off for a couple of hours, so the things I loved most about the camp was caving and kayaking.

Tyra Lander, Year 8

When we arrived, we unpacked our bags, made our beds, and then we had tacos for lunch. After lunch, we changed and then we went swimming, paddle boating and knee boarding. My favourite part was Knee boarding, I didn't even fall off once.

On day two of school camp, we woke up and had breakfast. First, we had toast or cereal and afterwards we had the option of having a pancake. Once breakfast was all cleaned up, we went into two different groups. The first group went on a boat tour and the second group went caving. I was in the second group so I went into the small, dark caves. Some of the holes were tiny to fit through. It was very hot and muggy in there. We did learn about lots of old fossils. It was quite interesting.

Jacobie Snelgrove, Year 7

Primary Report

From the Primary Coordinator

I have thoroughly enjoyed working with all staff and learners throughout 2021 in the  Primary School. The growth that we have secured has been outstanding and this is evidenced in both the NAPLAN and the Australian Curriculum results. Congratulations to all learners in the Primary School for their efforts both academically and with extra curricula activities throughout the year. Well done to all end of year award winners, and to those learners who are constantly striving to improve their grades. Our Learner Dispositions are alive and well and many students demonstrate these within classes and in the yard. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the Primary teachers for their hard work and dedication throughout the 2021 school year. Their enthusiasm, high expectations and organisation does not go unnoticed. The high standard of the moderation folders has been a true highlight this year, as is their teaching and learning plans which incorporate a variety of tasks as well as differentiation. I would like to wish Tegan Miller all the very best in her new site for 2022. We have thoroughly enjoyed working with Tegan over the past 4 years and will certainly miss her kind and caring nature and her strong organisation skills at Quorn Area School. Farewell from all the QAS Community.

We are looking forward to Splash Day this Friday to celebrate another positive year in the Primary School and hope to see as many students as possible attending to have some end of year fun with their classmates. A sausage sizzle will be provided, and the canteen is open for purchases.

Last week, the prefects of 2021 held a ‘Team Colours’ Day where students had the opportunity to wear their teams’ colours and participated in some games held under the cave. The prefects then prepared and cooked pizzas for the students. This was very much appreciated by all, and we thank the prefects for their amazing work throughout 2021 at Quorn Area School. We will certainly miss you and we wish you all the very best with your future career pathways.

I hope that everyone has a safe and happy break and look forward to seeing you all again for another busy and successfully year ahead.

Sarah Bury

Transition Program

Over the course of the term, QAS has welcomed our newest learners who have been participating in our Firm Foundations program.

The Firm Foundations program allows learners to become familiar with the school and staff to help them settle into QAS. Over the 9 visits, learners have visited the garden, STEM room, library, settled into their classroom and experienced a number of curriculum areas.

Merry Christmas from the Year 1/2 Class

2022 School Term Dates

Miscellaneous Items

Northern Festival Centre – Holiday Schedule