ENGLISH & GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

Year 8 Debating

Students in Year 8 English recently completed a topic on debating and persuasive writing. Students were allocated groups and assigned a topic that they argued for or against. They learnt the formal debating structure and procedure, and delivered their debates in front of their peers.

I am extremely proud of the students who got up in front of the class to argue their position, despite their trepidation toward public speaking.

Selected students are currently participating in inter-class debating with a team chosen to represent each class. Teams will compete against the other two Care Groups in Year 8. From there, a team will be selected from each year level to participate against other Riverland schools later in the year, should restrictions be lifted.

Daniel Clark - English and H&PE Teacher

HEALTH & PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Year 9 PE for Girls

In the last newsletter I shared that our Year 9 PE for Girls had participated in a self defence course. The class has now moved on to learning how to become more in tune with their bodies and their minds, by participating in a yoga and mindfulness session led by Leanne Weigall.

The students have enjoyed this peaceful way of learning saying:

I liked the yoga and mindfulness sessions because it was very different and made me feel relaxed and calm - Tay-Lee S

I enjoyed the yoga because it was relaxing and I liked the different poses we did - Lily P

Mark Thiele - H&PE and Maths Teacher

Year 9 Food Technology

This week in Food Tech the Year 9 students were busy in the kitchen cooking Satay Chicken. Students were required to chop, slice and cook their ingredients following a recipe. The aroma in the room was incredible!

Wendy Matulic - Drama, Hass and Food Technology Teacher

Year 12 Food and Hospitality

Year 12 Food and Hospitality students have spent the past few weeks working on their 'Catering Teams' assessment. Students worked in small groups and were required to produce a good quality dish to sell to students and staff. There were a number of criteria the students needed to meet including quality control, marketing, costing, roles of each team member, packaging and hygiene and safe food handling. Another target for the students to meet was to cover the costs of their expenses when selling their dish and hopefully, make a small profit!

The first group to cook included Te-Ra, Jasmine and Emma who made Burrito Bowls and sold them for $5 each. 

The end result looked and tasted amazing!

The second group included Bridget and Nickeeta who made Butter Chicken, selling each dish for $6.

They had some keen taste testers who gave their dish a thumbs up!

Congratulations to both groups who sold out within minutes of the lunch bell sounding.

In the Kitchen with Kristina

Year 10 Skillful with Food

This group of mainstream and FLO students has been working very hard in the kitchen. They were given the task of making Eggs Benedict without the use of a recipe! They sat together and watched a Jamie Oliver video on how to make the dish and were then given a list of ingredients. Students organised themselves into groups and worked with each other to create the dish.

FLO 

Kristina Kalkstein and some of our FLO students have been busy in the kitchen again, this time making and cooking Chinese biang biang noodles!

Senior Child Studies

Our senior Child Studies students spent the morning learning how to interact and teach younger children certain tasks. Unfortunately, due to the current climate, they did not have any children to work with however they compensated by explaining the tasks to the other senior students and their teacher! They made their teacher proud with their enthusiasm and excitement toward the project.

Stage 1 Outdoor Education

Bushwalk Expedition

After being in limbo (due to COVID 19) and unsure whether school camps could go ahead, we finally received some good news and locked in the Stage 1 Bushwalk to Mt Bryan (Burra) for Week 8.

Students utilised class time to develop and refine their map reading/navigation skills and complete the required planning documents (risk assessment, menu plan, equipment list, route plan).

With the recent cold weather in Renmark, staff and students kept a close eye on forecast temperatures. Around this time of year Mt Bryan is often cold and wet but we were very fortunate with the sun making regular appearances over the two days.

Here is what some of the Year 11 students thought of the trip:

I think the camp was a great, adventurous experience because who can actually say they have gone bushwalking before! - Tia

It was a good experience, definitely would do it again and encourage others to as well - Bree

It was a challenging and enjoyable experience - Morgan and Tom

I was able to develop my navigating skills and identify land features in an area that I was unfamiliar with - Mitchell

I found the trip enjoyable although I was quite tired and sore at the end of it - Mark

It was a fun and great experience in an area with unlimited scenery - Braidyn

Next semester the Stage 1 Outdoor Education classes will take part in both surfing and mountain bike riding.

TECH STUDIES

Year 10 Doorways 2 Construction

The Year 10 Doorways 2 Construction class was recently involved in a short course on safely deconstructing a non-load bearing wall in order to make more space to store senior projects in the Design, Technology and Engineering workshop.

The students also constructed trestle tables with two available for purchase at $15 each. Please contact the school for further information.

Year 11 Photography

SHUTTER UP!

Over this semester the Year 11 Photography Class has spent most of their lessons and home time creating and editing photos of their choice. Their first skills task was to discover camera control techniques. Students took an excursion early in Term 1 down to Murray Avenue and had the opportunity to capture photographs of their beautiful surroundings. Image manipulation was the second skills task, further developing manipulating skills, in skin retouching basics and Auto Mask, whilst having a theme to work with.

Throughout the course of Term 2, the biggest challenge for the Year 11 students was the product photoshoot, which showcased ideas and creativity of a product based on a chosen theme. Students had to take a range of creative photographs following a design and realisation process. They then chose five final photographs incorporating a variety of skills and techniques learned and used throughout the semester.

Thank you, Mrs. Atsaves, for making our photography class such a positive experience for everyone. With your contribution, patience and creativity, you made this class available for Year 11’s to enjoy. We all see what you do. The dedication and encouragement you have for the subject helps us realise that you are a great teacher.

Danielle Leonard, Year 11 Photography

Darija Atsaves - Art and Digital Media Teacher

Year 9 Digital Media

Another group of Year 9 students has been exploring and learning how to create videos using Premiere Pro. The criteria was to create an entertaining video based on the theme 'I'm Travelling to.....' 

Students were given the opportunity to include special effects such as using the green screen. 

Below are just a few of the fantastic videos that were created. 

Year 10 Enterprise

On Thursday 18th of June a group of Year 10 and 11 Enterprise students participated in an online version of the Shark Tank Venture Showcase. This involved students pitching the business concept they have been developing over the last semester to a group of judges. All seven teams delivered extremely professional presentations and the judges and other industry professionals were very impressed by their innovative ideas.

Jodi Long - Digital Media and Enterprise Teacher

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING (VET)

Doorways 2 Construction

Doorways 2 Construction is a vocational pathway introducing our students to a broad range of occupations within the construction industry. Students learn a range of high quality skills to assist them in the transition from school to work. This week students learned how to put up scaffolding.

There will be an opportunity for Year 10 students to sample this course during the VET Come and Try Day on Thursday 2nd July. 

MATHEMATICS and SCIENCE

Year 8 Maths

Mr Owens' Year 8 Maths class has cleverly incorporated the new social distancing rules by doing some real world measuring to work out how many adults can socially distance in the library.

Being an adult is difficult and recently the Year 11 Essential Maths students finished an assignment called “How to Adult”.

The assignment explored what life might look like after leaving school. Students applied for hypothetical casual jobs and after recieving the good news, discovered they had an imaginary income. Although, after tax and superannuation, would it be enough?

Within their budget, they had to find accommodation in the region and soon realised how expensive renting can be. Luckily, many of them had friends who were also moving out and after working out how much their split of the bills and rent would be, decided to start living together in a share house. I hope they still like each other half-way through a 12-month lease!

Once they had flown the nest and gained their freedom, it was time to look at food. You can only live on 2-Minute-Noodles for so long, so meal plans were prepared and analysed for nutritional content. Healthy living was especially important as their casual jobs did not allow for any paid sick leave allowances.

It was at this time that most students in the class started to get a bit low on funds and looked for ways to boost their income. Some sought Rent Assistance or Job Seeker payments through Centrelink. One crafty little so-and-so accused me of not paying them enough! After a check with the Fair Work Ombudsman they indeed found evidence of my wage theft and threatened me with industrial action. After the classes collective admonishment and a quick recalculation of their pay at the proper award rate, they had some money to spare.

Money is for spending and so with their boosted incomes, it was time to shop for some big items. Some wanted TVs, computers, a new phone or even a car. Before getting too carried away, they each had to research personal loans from two banks, two credit unions, credit cards and the No Interest Loan Scheme (nils.com.au, seriously check it out!). They then compared a personal loan to just saving the money up front, then decided which was best for them and articulated reasons for their choice.

After making sure they still had enough money in their budget at each step, they also had to consider their lives as a whole and ensure that they had enough time to actually live! After hopefully achieving a healthy work/life balance, they looked back on their decisions and made some plans for how they might design their real futures.

Everyone enjoyed the assignment and got a lot out of it. The real test will come when they really do leave school and have to pretend to know “How to Adult” like the rest of us!

Year 9 Plate Tectonics

Year 9's have been investigating plate tectonics in Science. They have learnt about how Alfred Wegener’s idea of continental drift was laughed at for 60 years before Harry Hess and others found evidence to support it. They have also learnt how these moving plates can create earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes.

One of the final tasks involved groups of students creating a model of one of these phenomena. They then explained their model and reflected on their product and process.