Last week during presentation night it was evident that our students have had another successful year, taking advantage of the fantastic opportunities available in a wide range academic and extra-curricular activities.  As we heard on the night from the SRC and Governing Council, our school improvement journey has also continued this year.  It is an exciting time for Renmark High School as we celebrate the completion of some significant building works, and continue to develop the learning environment provided for students.  We are enjoying the use of our $2.5 million STEM works program, completed in 2019, and now have completed the most recent $5 million of funding, which includes upgrades to our library, front office, student services, HPE, and a  new Learning Hub. We have also included air conditioning, lighting and new ceilings throughout almost the entire school. Our school funded upgrades include painting throughout the school, building an agility course in preparation for year 7s in 2022, the mural in the centre of the school, IT upgrades and continuing some of the landscaping. The total cost of all the improvements has been $8million over the last 5 years. Through our building renaming process, we continue to build a sense of belonging and connection in the school and recognise some of the many great achievers who have been graduates of Renmark High School.  

Education facilities should inspire innovation and creativity; stimulate a young person's imagination; engage, challenge and arouse curiosity; reflect emerging technologies; and enable teachers to deliver programs in flexible ways.  We provide the spaces for students to become self-directed learners, to develop a love of learning, to collaborate in their learning and become a team player, to problem solve and to feel a sense of ownership of their environment. However the space itself doesn’t change the learning - it is the staff and students that do that. I would like to acknowledge staff that have embraced the new spaces, taking the opportunity to change our pedagogy, our teaching styles, to the advantage of our students.  I would also like to acknowledge our students, who have worked around a moving construction site and have adapted quickly in using these new spaces to their learning advantage.

This year our whole school curriculum development has maintained a focus on the skills of reading and numeracy, particularly in our middle school to build strong foundations for student’s senior schooling.  We have been working on reading improvement through developing the teaching and learning of vocabulary skills in students across all learning areas.  In numeracy we have been focusing on teaching students the skills they need at the stage students require them.

We have also prepared well for year 7 students to be in high School in 2022.  We have collaborated with primary school staff, students and parents in the last couple of years to ensure we have a smooth transition. We are excited to have already met around 170 new year 7 and 8 students joining us for next year.

To our year 12s, the Renmark High School class of 2021, I wish you good luck on behalf of our Renmark High School Community.  You haven’t let the complexities of COVID throughout your senior schooling to get in the way and pursuits of your dreams, and we look forward to hearing about your future endeavours.  

Thank you to the parents and caregivers, the family members, and the volunteers who all contributed significantly to the successes of all of our students.  Thank you to the many others who have significantly supported the school this year, including the SRC: staff, students and families have appreciated their efforts throughout the year.  Thank you to our head prefect leaders Charlee W, Trystan H, and deputy prefect leader Amelia C and Thomas O for your leadership and school representation.

Thank you to Governing Council Chair John Gardner and our Governing Council members who continue to volunteer their time and support the school in our journey of improvement.  From John’s speech last week you could hear that our Governing Council members are involved in and know what is happening in our school.  I encourage you to think about becoming a member next year if you aren’t already.

And of course a huge thank you to all of our staff who do an extraordinary amount of extra effort across the school, without which we would not enjoy the student successes we have today. Our staff have been extraordinary this year in their continued pursuit of supporting students to be successful.  We have amazing staff here at Renmark High School.  This was recognised recently when one of our teachers, Jodi Long, won Secondary Teacher of the Year at the South Australian Public teaching awards.  Congratulations Jodi on a well-deserved honour.

As for 2022, we are still finalising some staffing, however, there are a few farewells I would like to include here:

• Assistant Principal for Operations, Hillary Trotter who has worked with us this year in SACE, senior schooling, and keeping our school operations on track has now won a Deputy Principal position at Penola High School, starting next year.
• Nic Tubb, who has been an enthusiastic and innovative teacher here for 4 years, supporting students in class and in a number of lunchtime and after school activities, has won a position at Mt Gambier High School for next year.
• We also have some ancillary staff who at this stage are not with us for next year:
  • Connie Schrapel (currently in daily operations), Amanda Hartley (from admin), Brooke Durdin (classroom support) and Tara Camilleri our student engagement officer who is off to a position in Adelaide

We also have three longer term staff members leaving us this year, after more than 10 years of service to Renmark High School that I would like to thank for their service to our school community: Keryn French, Veronica Crouch and our PCW Pammy Main.

This year I have finished my 5 year appointment to Principal, however I am very pleased to have won the advertised position for another 5 year term.  I am proud to be your site leader, and have enjoyed seeing staff, students, families and the wider community continue to build our school from strength to strength. I am honoured to continue to lead our school in this journey for the next 5 years.

I wish everyone happy and safe school holidays and look forward to working with you in 2022 with our continued school focus on Literacy, Numeracy and the Wellbeing of our students.

Reports will be handed out to those who attend  school on Friday. All other reports will be mailed home.

Mat Evans - Principal