Social Worker

Welcome to Alicia Thackray who begins with us this week.  Alicia will join our wellbeing team and is based on-site at Renmark High School.  Alicia will be working with students to assist them in reducing barriers to engage with their learning.  It is fantastic to have Alicia on board so she can be here to meet students at our first year 6/7 'Come and Try' high school visits next week. We will have more information on Alicia and the new role in our next newsletter.  

Year 6/7 students 'Come and Try' visits

We are excited to welcome the current year 6 and 7 students into our Renmark High School community next week, the 20th of May, for the first of the high school visits and 'Come and Try' lessons.  It is an exciting time, showing new students our amazing school and introducing them to new staff members who will take them forward in the next 5-6 years of their learning journey. Across the 'Come and Try' sessions students will get to see first-hand our range of classrooms and practical work spaces.  Students from Renmark Primary, Renmark North and Renmark West Primary schools will visit as a part of their regular school program. Students from schools outside of the Renmark area, or from non-government schools will need to register their attendance by emailing dl.0794.info@schools.sa.edu.au or calling 8586 6974.  If you have any questions please let us know.

Vacancies

Renmark High School has 2 leadership and 3 permanent teacher vacancies on the Department for Education job website at the moment https://jobs.education.sa.gov.au

In Leadership we have a B2 Leader in Creative Technologies and Entrepreneurship and a B3 Director of Learning.

For teaching positions we have permanent (ongoing) vacancies in Mathematics to year 12, HASS (History and/or Geography), and Middle School (HAT)

Building works

If you have been to our school lately you will have seen the next stage of our developments under construction.  This stage includes new extraction in Technology workshop, air conditioning in Art Studio, renovations in the Music rooms and the Health and Physical Education office, and the construction of our two new student learning hubs.  As of last week we are on track for having this stage finished over this term, including our new learning hubs that will be ready to move in by the end of this term. It is exciting that after 18 months of construction our current $5million renovation project across the school will be completed and fully operational by term 3.

Attendance

Year 8 students as a year level have the poorest attendance across the school this year.  This is unusual as year 8 students usually have the strongest attendance across our school.  We are keen to improve this situation as attendance by students is an important factor in their success at school. If your student is having time off from school please have a discussion with the caregroup teacher about the reasons for this and if not for sickness please build new habits of being at school on time each and every school day.

Flu shots for students

After a successful program last year we are pleased that once again Renmark High School has partnered with the Renmark Medical Clinic to facilitate student flu shots on Wednesday 26th May from 9.00am – 10.30am at Renmark High School (forms should have been returned last week). We thank Renmark Medical Clinic who are the providers of this service, as through their support the flu shots are administered to students by doctors on our school site.

COVID planning

We are extremely fortunate in Australia regarding COVID-19 and our thoughts are with those who have family and friends in less fortunate countries. 

The COVID-19 pandemic can be unpredictable, however, it is important that we remain well prepared.  It is important that the school has the most up-to-date contact details (including phone number) for all parents/carers so they can be quickly contacted in the event of a temporary closure or regional closure. With winter approaching it is also timely to remind everyone that we also require students to stay home if they are unwell and if they have symptoms of COVID-19, no matter how mild to please get tested.  Please take some time this week to make sure that students can find their subject information in Daymap, that they can upload assessments, and can access Microsoft Teams and Learnlink emails.  If there are any troubles with this please have students contact their teachers or contact us on their behalf.  As always, we are appreciative of our students, families and staff who have been extraordinarily supportive throughout this pandemic to ensure continuity of learning for students, so thank you.

Mat Evans - Principal