22 March 2022

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Over the past five years, we have worked tirelessly to improve outcomes for all young people we actively support on the learning journey. We have continually shared our successes with the community, and there has been much to celebrate. While COVID-19 has challenged us over the last two years, it has not proved unsurmountable, as evidenced in our assessment data. Our community has done a fantastic job in terms of adhering to restrictions and minimising the spread of COVID-19 in our region. We are aware that each household encounters unique challenges when faced with a positive test in the family. The support of our community has enabled us to remain fully operational with a limited impact on the learning programs we offer. It has also been encouraging to see our learners accessing Daymap and via the link below whilst quarantining at home, and this has supported them in maintaining a connection with learning.

As we approach the end of this term, our thoughts have already shifted to the challenges that term two may offer. Much has already been written in Australia and overseas about the next COVID-19 chapter. In schools, the shadow looming large on the horizon is that of engagement. Reconnecting with school is unique for every learner. It is about refocusing and looking forward to the next chapter that the school is supporting you to access for some. For others, the challenge is about re-establishing routines and reconnecting with peers and staff. We ask that you discuss any concerns you may have regarding your child connecting with school with your child's class teacher or one of our leadership team. We will be publishing our term one reports in week nine, and this should provide a good opportunity to discuss this matter with your child.

General School News

Wellbeing and Engagement Collection Survey

Dear Parent/Guardian

Re: Wellbeing and Engagement Collection survey

Our students have been invited to take part in the Wellbeing and Engagement Collection survey. The survey will be open in Weeks 8 to 10 of Term 1 (Monday 21 March to Friday 8 April 2022).

Purpose of the survey

Young people’s well-being is an important part of how they learn at school. The survey seeks students’ views about their wellbeing and their engagement with school. Students in years 4 to 12 across the state will be invited to participate and the information collected will help the education system and broader community to support young people’s health and wellbeing.

What is the survey about?

The survey asks students about their social and emotional wellbeing, school relationships and engagement and learning in school, physical health and wellbeing, and after school activities.

How will students complete the survey?

Teachers will arrange for students to do the survey during class time. They will be asked if they would like to participate and are free to withdraw at any time. If you do not want your child to participate, please contact the school as soon as possible after receiving this letter.

Will students’ information be kept confidential?

Students’ personal information and identity will remain anonymous. Survey responses are confidential and no one (including school staff) can use the results to identify individual students. Participating schools with fewer than 5 students undertaking the survey will not receive a report of results, to protect the confidentiality of students.

What will happen if a student is distressed during or after the survey?

The survey includes some questions on topics such as student happiness and bullying.

Teachers will inform students that:

if they find the survey uncomfortable or distressing, they should leave the survey immediately
it is not compulsory to take part in the survey as a whole, and
students can skip individual survey questions if they wish.

Students who would like to speak to an adult about any concerns they may have will be supported to do so.

Where can I get more information? More information on the Wellbeing and Engagement Collection can be found at (search: wec) or can be collected from the school. For questions or concerns, or to view the questions, please email Education.WECSA@sa.gov.au

Sincerely
Sarah Bury

NAPLAN

The NAPLAN 2022 window is fast approaching, beginning on May 10th and concluding on 20th May. If you are a parent or caregiver of a learner in Years 3, 5, 7, or 9, please read through this document with your child. The data we gain from our students sitting the NAPLAN is critical to track your child’s growth as they progress through our school.

Thursday, 24th March, our learners will complete a national practice test for NAPLAN  created to test our system's technology capacity. The results of this are not shared. It is purely a practice to test the system out.

If you have any questions about the NAPLAN, don't hesitate to contact your child's teacher or contact me directly.

Matt Griffiths

Sports News

MNSEC Athletics and Swimming 2022

Unfortunately, due to the risk of Covid, MNSEC Athletics (Jamestown) has been cancelled. The MNSEC Swimming was also unable to be held in Quorn at the start of the term as planned. We look forward to these events return again in 2023, where QAS students can participate under more reliable conditions.

SSSA Athletics and Swimming will still take place in Adelaide. The SSSA Athletics carnival is being held on Tuesday 12/4/22 and the SSSA Swimming carnival is scheduled for Thursday the 26/5/22 – Week 5, Term 2. If your child would like to be considered for the MNSEC teams to compete in Adelaide, please ask them to come and see me or send an email to sarah.bury988@schools.sa.edu.au and I will send through their times from last year’s carnivals. As per school policy, attendance needs to be above 80% to be eligible to be considered. Parent support with transport and supervision may need to be considered depending on number of students nominating.

Our school Sports Day will be held in term 3 and our Swimming Carnival has been postponed until term 4. We are looking forward to continuing with the annual carnivals later this year and will be undertaking athletics practice in PE lessons and hope to secure a swimming instructor for Term Time swimming in term 4 for our F-5 students.

SAPSASA Swimming 2022

Trials are this evening at the Ryan Mitchell Pool for the SAPSASA Swimming event and we have two students who have nominated and will be attending the trails. We wish Ebonie Werth and Noah Kruger the best of luck with selections. The SAPSASA Swimming carnival is scheduled for Friday 6th May (week 1 of term 2) at the Marion Swim Centre.

National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence

Hotdog & Fruit Box Day

Our fabulous volunteers are serving Hotdogs and Fruit Boxes instead of toasties next week. Order forms will be sent home with all students tomorrow. Please return them to school by Monday 28th to help up prepare. Thanks for your ongoing support.

Secondary Report

It has been great to return to work after my unplanned break to see our learners engaging with content and showing increased maturity in the classroom. I have seen some fantastic learning in classrooms, which is fantastic, although I believe I have slipped back to the second-best Griffiths sibling at QAS! It has been great to see our teachers stepping out of their comfort zones and creating new and engaging assessment tasks for your children to take part in.

Attendance

I have noticed that our secondary school attendance has been disappointing to start the year and something we will focus on to improve for the remainder of the year. Please speak with your child about the importance of being punctual to school and arriving on time each day, so they learn these lessons when they enter the workforce. There is nothing we can do about sickness and other matters out of our control, but please make sure you contact the school and advise us of the reason your child arrived late or not at all.

Reports

Term 1 reports will be distributed on Daymap on Monday 4th April without grades, as we have in the past. This process allows our students to read the comments and reflect on their progress and future directions. On Monday 11th April, the reports will be distributed with grades, enabling the students to speak with their teachers about their earned grades and seek further clarification on improvements. If your child is at risk of receiving a 'D' grade, our teachers will be making contact in the coming weeks.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact me at school or send me an email at matt.griffiths310@schools.sa.edu.au.

Thanks,

Matt Griffiths
Secondary School Coordinator

Primary Report

Primary Moderation Sessions

Learning, Design, Assessment and Moderation Strategy

Developing consistency of teacher professional judgement

When teachers get together in professional discussions about student progress and learning, they enrich their knowledge and understanding of the curriculum as they learn from each other about designing learning, about what student progress and achievement looks like and about assessing learning. Their development of shared understandings about the curriculum, including the achievement standards, leads to greater consistency in their professional judgements about progress and achievement and about the quality of that achievement. As teachers develop deeper understandings of the curriculum, the intent of the achievement standards and what quality learning looks like, they more consistently and confidently assign valid, fair and robust A – E grades against the achievement standards.

At QAS, we schedule in professional moderation each term. Teachers prepare moderation folders which include learner work samples which have all been marked according to evidence and given a grade marked against the Australian Curriculum. In the moderation sessions, teachers analyse the learner’s work and provide feedback to the teacher in response to their unit plan, task sheets and whether the evidence reflects the grade distributed.

Matthew Buckingham and Amber Tomney shared their moderation folders in our session last night.

The fundamental purpose of collaborative moderation is to enhance consistency of teacher judgements across a school and within local partnerships to ensure that the data that is analysed for school improvement is valid and reliable.

Sarah Bury
Primary Engagement Coordinator

Miss Tomney’s Year 3/4 Class

Wow, this term is flying. We are already in Week 8. Only a few more weeks until the holidays.

Students in Miss Tomney’s class have been learning various topics; some will be discussed below. Please remember to ask your child what they have been learning, and they will be able to provide the answers.

Literacy: In Literacy, we split into groups for one lesson a day. Thus, one group previously looked at how to describe two different settings to a story, and now they are creating an A-Z guide on a holiday. The other group has been looking at a range of texts to strengthen their ability to identify information in a text.

Numeracy: Learners have been learning various topics, including addition, subtraction, number patterns, ordering numbers, saying numbers fluently, and multiplication. They have all been doing a fantastic job of showing their understanding of topics. We do hands-on and written activities to ensure the topic is understood in our class.

Art: We have been busy creating new scripts to perform! Learners are all divided into groups and have created their scripts based on ideas and are practicing to read them with expression. Once they can effectively complete this, they will start producing posters and videos as advertisements.

Health and PE: In Health, we have been looking at maintaining safety in different situations. In PE, we are still working towards playing fairly within a team environment.

In our class, we are learning how to support each other to help us understand concepts, which everyone must maintain their concentration, so they know exactly what to do and how they can help one another.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me at the school. I am more than happy to speak to you.

Have a lovely week.
Amber Tomney

Parents & Friends

Families would have received a book of 5 tickets to sell for the annual Easter Raffle organised by the Parents and Friends group. Can all raffle tickets sold/unsold be returned to school by the 8th of April, please?

Donations for the raffle can be dropped into the front office by the 8th of April. The raffle theme is ’Camping.’ Items including non-perishable food, torches, BBQ equipment are all welcome donations.

Thank you to Quorn Newsagency for donating the raffle books and Quorn Rural Traders for donating the basket for all the Easter camping goodies.

Happy Haven OSHC

Staff Vacancies

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