Renmark High School

LEARNING AREAS

 CHAFFEY THEATRE TOUR - All the backstage secrets!

Year 8 and 9 Performing Arts students were fortunate to be able to go backstage at Chaffey Theatre with theatre technician, Luke Meaney. Students were shown how gobos (stencils that go inside lights to project images) work with a variety of lights. They were given a tour of the backstage areas where students were able to see how the curtains are operated, as well as the large white screens. Students learnt how to operate the theatre’s lighting desk and use a variety of effects including colour gels and macros. They were able to program their individual lighting effects and then play them back to music. Students grasped the technology quickly.

It was a great experience and I enjoyed it very much. To see how the theatre workers manage it all is quite fascinating. I was taught how to operate the lighting desk. The light show and how the curtains operate were my favourite parts of this tour - Charlize

I enjoyed learning about the new technology used to operate the lighting and having fun with it all including using the lighting desk. I enjoyed touring around backstage and exploring the area - Caleb

I now know how to use the lighting board to program a light show, I got the hang of it quite quickly and now I want to work on the light board in the theatre - Allan

YEAR 9 PERFORMING ARTS - MELODRAMA

Students have studied Melodrama over the past 3 weeks with a performance held on the 14th of August. The history to a final stage production, demonstrating exactly how much they had learnt was exciting for everyone.

Melodrama was discovered in the 19th century and included six stock characters in all of their plays. Some of these stock characters included the hero, heroine and the villain as the top three. I played the two villains. I enjoyed working with new people to produce our play. I’m not used to performing on stage, so it was fun to give it a try. A challenge I struggled with was knowing all of the scenes - Caleb

I have learnt that Melodrama is a very dramatic and energetic form of performing arts. The theme is always good vs evil. My role was the costume designer. I organised each character’s costumes in different styles according to their stock character - Charlize

My role was the heroine and organising the music. I learnt about what type of music is used in Melodrama and the different tempo used during different parts of the play. I added modern music to our play which worked well in the fighting scene - Michelle

My role was costume designer. It was enjoyable to work out what each actor was wearing according to their stock characters even though finding the right size for everyone was a challenge - Jorja

Melodrama was intense and used exaggerated expressions and emotions. The role I did was the heroine, but one of the biggest challenges of Melodrama was to use more energy in the plays - Blake

 All of the actions are over exaggerated. I played the hero in my play. I enjoyed creating our own plays based on what we had learnt in class as there are specific things that Melodrama plays have to have such as asides, suffering from the villain and hero and a good vs evil plotline - Kelli

It was fun learning about the history of Melodrama.  I enjoyed playing the hero even though it was scary, it was still enjoyable - Amber

Melodrama is all about over acting and exaggerating. I played the villain and enjoyed the over dramatic acting especially the fighting scene. It was challenging to remember what I had to say in each scene - Connor

I played the sidekick to the hero, the shining star. I enjoyed acting and getting into character because I like acting a lot - Alan

PHOTOGRAPHY

Over the last 2 weeks, photography students have been learning about painting with light. They have been exploring camera exposures as well as different props they could use to produce light painted photographs. For a third year in a row, we were fortunate enough to have Chad Vigar, a local photographer, volunteer to conduct a student workshop on light painting last week on our school oval. Chad shared his abundant knowledge of light painting and happily shared a great variety of tools with students to take some amazing photographs. Here is a sample of some photographs students took.

LEARNING HUB

Renmark High School’s Learning Hub provides students with a space to receive assistance and direction with learning differentiated to meet individual needs. Staffed nearly every lesson with teachers and often SSOs, the hub provides support to students across the spectrum of learning. While specific intervention programs are being run out of the space, it is also used to support students to re-engage in schooling by offering a flexible timetable and curriculum for a small number of students. Additionally, it has supported others as another quiet space to complete tasks independently or with teacher support.

The school’s Site Improvement Plan features a strong focus on the continuous improvement of literacy and numeracy outcomes for our students. The Maths Online and Lexia literacy interventions are computer run programs designed to assist students in closing the gap between their current level of achievement and the state Standard of Educational Achievement. Students who are not meeting this achievement level have been identified and offered the opportunity to engage in the intervention(s) for a specified period of time. Students take ownership of their data enabling them to track their improvement and set goals.

Quicksmart Maths is an intervention run by an SSO with pairs of students who work on improving knowledge of their number facts, in particular learning times tables.

For those students presenting with gaps in their learning, hampering their ability to effectively access high school maths curriculum, we are providing small group teacher-led explicit instruction. The focus of these groups is Big Idea in Number, teaching students skills in multiplicative thinking and place value which are an essential foundation of numeracy.

The Learning Hub is often a busy and exciting space which appears to be effectively meeting the needs of a range of students. Feedback from students includes the comments below:

Being able to go to the Learning Hub has helped me to catch up and finish assignments – Brodie

My literacy skills are improving – Taj

Lexia has given me confidence with words and meanings – Blake

My spelling has improved - Harry

If you would like your student to receive some extra support in the Learning Hub, please contact their class teacher or Danielle Weeks (Student Support Coordinator).

YEAR 9 ENGLISH
Year 9 English students have been studying the unit of work called "Seven Billion Stories". Students have learnt that every person has a story to tell including themselves.
YEAR 8 MUSIC
Year 8 Music students have spent the term learning how to play a variety of instruments including the flute, alto saxaphone, trumpet and trombone, as well as a range of percussion instruments. For some students, this was the first time they have had the opportunity to pick up an instrument, which is an incredible achievement. What's even more impressive is their ability to play not on their own, but in a group, or ensemble, with 20 other students! Students quickly learn the art of patience and concentration.
DRONE CHALLENGE
The PIRSA Drone Challenge is an interschool competition in which we fly a drone over a block of citrus trees and identify diseased trees. We then put together a report outlining what the disease is, what trees are infected and how to treat it, and present to the owner of the block and answer questions. The challenge is helping us learn to trust each other and work as a team - Kelli
The students are being supported by Mrs Farrelly.
Farrelly_Jessica.jpg Jess Farrelly - Science Teacher                                        
    YEAR 8 PE

    Year 8 students from Mr Thiele’s PE class have been learning the sport of Tennis over the past 3 weeks. The lessons have been held at the Renmark grass tennis courts and the students have received coaching during this time by John Pick. The students have participated in a variety of activities which have developed their skills and the understanding of the sport. The students had a lot of fun and have improved on their ability. Many students are now going to continue to play socially or competitively over the next few months.

    Thank you to John Pick for organising and running the lessons. The courts are well-maintained and the students were lucky to receive coaching from one of the best coaches in the state.

    John is also offering tennis sessions for high school students each Thursday from 2:40-3:20pm. If you would like your child to be involved please talk to Mr Thiele. 

    DIVERGENT THINKING WITH 8.1

    Problem solving involves critical and creative thinking skills, one of these is divergent thinking. This is the ability to come up with many ideas from a single starting point. It is something that five-year-olds do very well, teenagers struggle with, and adults typically do very poorly in.

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    8.1 were gathered in a circle and challenged to come up with ideas for what an object could be used for. They managed to go around the circle seven times with everybody contributing one idea at a time without repetition. They came up with over 175 different possibilities. In our debrief afterwards, a student said that it was really difficult at first and I just wanted to know what it actually was. But then it got easier once we stopped caring about the right answer and just thought about what it could be.

    LEARNING IN THE LANDSCAPE

    This term, Caregroups 9.2 and 9.3 have been working on a joint project between Science and HASS learning about biomes, ecosystems, and food security. On Thursday last week, students travelled down Twenty-Fifth Street to Bookmark Creek to participate in several activities in the field. These included a habitat audit, using quadrats to measure plant biodiversity, cooking damper, water quality testing and a macroinvertebrate survey.

    Due to the weather, we brought some water samples back to the classroom and finished some of the testing there. We are currently analysing the results and intend to report on the physical, chemical, and biological health of the river. In the next few weeks Caregroups 9.1 and 9.4 will participate in this topic and I’m sure they will also enjoy it.

    TRIBUTE TO SIR KEN ROBINSON (1950-21st AUGUST 2020)

    Sir_Ken_Robinson.jpg
    Sir Ken Robinson was a British author and international advisor on education in the arts and was knighted in 2003 for his service to the arts.

    He is possibly most famous for his TED Talk “Do Schools Kill Creativity” in 2006. It is the most watched TED Talk of all time and has impacted countless lives including mine. He talked about how people can discover their true talents and passions and the enormous difference it makes in their lives if they do. He also proclaimed that creativity is not something that you grow into, but something you grow out of (unless you nurture it). He advised schools to: promote diversity by offering a broad curriculum, curiosity through creative teaching, and finally awakening creativity in students through less emphasis on standardise testing and a more personalised learning experience.

    His passion and wisdom will not be forgotten.

    Do Schools Kill Creativity - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY