Welcome to our second eNewsletter and we hope you are enjoying the new format.  The statistics show that for our first edition more than 2 out of 3 newsletters were opened in the week it was sent out – this is a much better rate of Newsletters reaching home than the crumpled up copies in the bottom of school bags!  Other comments have included that families have appreciated the easily readability format on electronic devices.  If you have any further feedback on the newsletter (or anything else for that matter) please drop us a line to dl.0794.info@schools.sa.edu.au

Governing Council

On Wednesday 13th February, we held our Annual General Meeting and would like to thank the following parents who are on our Governing Council for 2019:

• John Gardner (Charirperson)
• Scerina Rasheed
• Tania Shaw
• Phil Strachan
• Veronica Rothe
• Tanya Shugg
• Deanne Flaherty
• Katrina Papageorgios
• David Sims (Community Member)

We also thank our departing members of last year’s Governing Council and would like to acknowledge their valuable contribution to our school community in recent years.

Our Governing Council members have an important role in the development and maintaining of our school and I look forward to working with our new team in furthering our exciting school improvement journey.

Staffing

This week we farewell and thank Alex Woodman who has been covering Heidi Stanojevic, who has been on leave. Welcome back to Heidi, who returns for sports day announcing and then classes from Monday. 

Student Free Day

Student Free Days are a valuable time for learning as a staff collective and Tuesday's SFD was a day well spent. Staff were here early to prepare for their group sessions and the Taco lunch prepared by the RHS Staff Social Club was a huge hit!

"Bullying! No Way! Day.

This is always an important day on the school calendar and the public awareness campaign which supports it, it is a valuable resource for families to learn about how we can work together towards ensuring our young people feel confident to speak up. Keep a look out on the RHS Facebook page, and in this Newsletter for some great resources.

Another important day on our school calendar is the RHS Sports Day on Friday and I am looking forward to catching up with students and parents throughout the day.

Kind Regards

Mat Evans

Since 2008, the annual National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) has taken place for students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9.

NAPLAN helps parents, carers and educators to see if students are meeting important numeracy and literacy standards.

This year our Year 9 students will complete their NAPLAN tests online via a computer, rather than using the traditional paper and pencil.

Moving online brings many benefits and opportunities including providing better assessment, more precise results and faster turnaround of information.

A critical step in preparing for NAPLAN online is our Year 9 students’ participation in a Practice Test on March 28th.

The purpose of the Practice Test is to ensure students are familiar with their device and the online test environment, as well as to test school and national infrastructure systems and processes.

The Practice Test is not another NAPLAN and will not formally assess students who participate.

More information is provided in the brochure below.

Kirralee Baldock

Director of Learning

Army Cadet Presentation @ RHS

L-R

2Lt (AAC) Ben Payne, CUO Jack Muskett, COTSGT Cadeyrn Mullins, 2LT (AAC) Trudie Biddle

3D Printers

The 3D printers have now arrived in the new art space. Come over and check them out! We will be using them as a part of the STEM curriculum and we have already started using them with the Year 8 Technology projects and within Science. There may be opportunities for students to design and print projects of their own – please come see me or Mr Tubb for further information.

Dobot robotic arms have also joined Renmark High School will also be incorporated into the STEM curriculum, particularly in Advanced Technology next semester and other subject areas across the school. We are excited to see how this new technology will help us shape our learning in the evolving STEM world!

- Mr Soltes

On Monday 4^th March, a group of 26 Renmark High School students travelled to the SA Aquatic Centre to compete in the Adelaide Swimming Carnival.

It was a very successful day with the team finishing 2nd overall in C grade (girls 1st and boys 4th). All students performed extremely well and many personal bests were achieved throughout the day.

Our team was very small in comparison to some of the city teams and several students were asked to compete in a number of events with very little rest time. Renmark will now move up to B grade next year as a result of this success.

Records Broken

We also had a few Renmark High School records broken and equalised on the day.

Dylan White: U16 freestyle 25.93 breaking his own previous record of 26.26; U16 backstroke equalled a record of 32.50 set in 1994; open butterfly 27.80 broke a record set in 1996 by G Coulter.

Maddy Long: equalled the U14 backstroke record of 35.48 set in 1995 by C Wilkinson.

Congratulations to all swimmers on this amazing achievement.

Special thanks to Julie Goody, Nicki Gaylard and Sharon Letton who helped time-keep throughout the day.

Jodi Long

For well over a decade now Renmark High School has been an active supporter of Harmony Day.

This week each Care Group, during their regular Beyond Tomorrow sessions participated in an activity that promoted harmony, acceptance and celebrated diversity. These activities ranged from creating identity based Henna, cooking and sharing cultural dishes, creating harmony logos and investigating stories about various different cultural groups in our society. 

Next week's assembly on Wednesday 20th March, will be the school's Harmony Day assembly and each year level will present a summary of their activities. A number of speeches will be delivered, music will be played and our traditional flag activity to highlight and identify the different cultures within the school undertaken. 

RHS drama students recently travelled to the Adelaide Fringe for a Stage 1 and 2 Drama excursion.

They were treated to Eleanor’s Story (Home is a Stranger part 2), Blackrock and Build a Rocket at Tandanya and the Holden Street Theatres.

Eleanor’s Story gave the students an insight into personal stories and struggles during World War 2. Ingrid Garner performed stories of her grandmother, Eleanor, as a child. Some of these students were fortunate to have seen Part 1 of this performance last year.

Students met with Ingrid after the performance and were able to have rare conversations with the artist on her experiences and knowledge.

The Holden Street Theatres held Blackrock and Build a Rocket. Students thoroughly enjoyed Build a Rocket and some left in tears, emotionally drawn to the play and the character of single mother, Yasmin and her financial struggles of raising a son on her own.

Some of our students comments include:

     "It was my second time attending the Adelaide Fringe with the school so it was no surprise that it was an incredibly enjoyable experience, but what did surprise me was the quality of the shows that we saw. Everything from WWII to the struggles of teenage pregnancy made an appearance on the stage. It was a day full of fun, new experiences and I left thoroughly moved with a new respect for the magic of theatre" Jai

      "I really enjoyed watching the quality of the performances and the skill of the actors, especially in the one-woman plays. I thought that both Eleanor's Story and Build a Rocket were compelling and inspiring" Penn

     "The Adelaide Fringe was an overall eye-opening experience into different types of theatre and it helped me realise how hard an actor will work for their show" Jade

     "The Adelaide Fringe was a fun opportunity as I got to watch multiple plays and experience the different journeys they took me on. I would definitely do it again if I got the chance" Dilay

     "The play that I enjoyed the most was Eleanor’s Story. While watching it I felt like I was in the play and in the situation Eleanor had in America after living in Germany for seven years during WW2. It was very good to see the performances and be a part of their stories" Suzie

     "I really enjoyed Eleanor’s Story. The acting was superb, watching it made me feel as though I was actually a part of the performance" Bianca

Overall, it was a fantastic opportunity to spend time with our drama students and enjoying what the Adelaide Fringe and our talented artists have to offer.

Wendy Matulic

Drama Teacher

Lions Youth of the Year 2019

On Monday 26^th February, five Year 12 students participated in the Lions Youth of the Year Competition at the Renmark Hotel. The competition was divided into two sections: firstly, an interview with three judges around local, national and global topics, and a public speaking component consisting of a prepared five-minute speech on a chosen topic or issue, plus two impromptu questions.

The competition was fierce, with diverse and important issues raised by our students. Nikita Petricevic captured the audience’s attention with her speech on the fears of public speaking, claiming Best Speaker of the night. Nikita remarked that “I chose to speak about something passionate that I am doing.” And why public speaking: “sometimes my nerves get the better of me, and I wanted to prove there was a reason.”

However, as the night came to a close, Serhat Kavlakoglu was announced as Renmark High School’s Lions Youth of the Year, wowing the judges with his interview responses, and his impassioned speech on water allocations affecting the Riverland. As Serhat explained:

"Every state has its own legislations for the management of water licensing. Meaning that we are still acting like 7 states rather than one nation. Each state has different amounts of water allocations and who suffers the most? The people of South Australia, the growers, the people putting food on your plate, the people putting the tomatoes, the cucumbers, the stone fruit and the vegetables on your plate. South Australia is left with the other state’s left overs and frankly it’s just not enough"

When asked why he decided to participate, Serhat noted “I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and get involved in a community organisation…Mrs Elliott also recommended me for the competition and I made sure to read the morning notices”.

The regional final will be held on the 17^th of March at the Renmark Council Chambers. A time has yet to be advised. “Hopefully I’ll win”, grinned Serhat. We hope so too!

Alistair Ward

Learner Engagement Leader

Perfect weather conditions provided a superb backdrop to our Renmark High School Sports Day held on Friday March 15th.

Keep your eye out for the wrap up on Facebook and full details in the next edition of the eNewsletter

Medication at School

Should your child require any prescribed medication during the school day, please ensure the medication is brought directly to the Student Services office in its original packaging by the parent/carer.

Please also allow time to complete the required Medication Dispensing Form.

Student Messages

Please try to communicate any important information to your children prior to commencement of the school day.

We understand at times you may require an urgent message passed onto a student and we are happy to accommodate urgent messages when required.

Absences

We appreciate that children become unwell or require appointments during the school day however if your child is absent from school, at any point of the day, for any reason, the school must be notified.

When phoning the school to advise of an absence or to inform of a student signing in or out early, please select Option 1 to be put directly through to Student Services.

An SMS will be sent home if your child is absent from school without explanation.

Visit from former RHS Exchange Student

Former exchange student, Sayako returned to Renmark from Japan recently to visit her host families, the Mallinson’s and the Orr’s. she also caught up with her friends Christie Webb ,Georgie Pater, Darcy Orr and Ashleigh Mallinson.

Hi everyone, I do hope you are having a wonderful week.   I came across this story again and want to revisit it as I believe it is still relevant to each one of us.

The Golden Box : Some time ago a man got cross with his 5 year old daughter for wasting a roll of expensive gold wrapping paper.  Money was scarce and he was even more upset when she covered a box with the paper and put it under the Christmas tree.  Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift box to her Daddy the next morning and said, “This is for you, Daddy”.   The father was embarrassed by his previous over reaction, but his anger flared when he found the box was empty.  He spoke to her harshly, “Don’t you know, when you give someone a present there’s supposed to be something inside the package?   The little girl looked up at him in tears and said, “Oh Daddy, it’s not empty.  I blew kisses into it until it was full”.  The Father was crushed.  He fell on his knees and put his arms around his little girl, and he begged her to forgive him for his unnecessary anger.

An accident took the life of the child only a short time later and it is told that the Father kept that gold box by his bed for years.  Whenever he was discouraged or faced difficult problems he would open the box and take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.  May we all continue to value our families and friends as we journey through our busy lives.   As I said, have a wonderful week and keep smiling.  Cheers, Pammy