We acknowledge that we are on the land of the First People of the Murray and Mallee.We pay our respects to the Elders both past and present and honour the laws and customs that cross this traditional country, the ancestors who taught and still teach the knowledge that is embedded forever with the Aboriginal people today.

National Reconciliation Week

Our school community is encouraged to take brave, impactful actions towards reconciliation in line with the theme of National Reconciliation Week 2021, 'More than a word.  Reconciliation takes action’.  National Reconciliation Week, which runs annually from 27th May to 3rd June, is a time for us to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements.  Reconciliation is an ongoing journey, for all Australians, and each day we demonstrate reconciliation in our individual behaviours, in the classroom, office, and everywhere in-between.  

We all have a role to play when it comes to reconciliation and aim to build relationships and communities that value Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, histories, cultures, and futures.  Reconciliation must be reflected in our actions so we can create a nation strengthened by respectful relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the wider Australian community.  

Students have been participating in Reconciliation week activities in their Beyond Tomorrow program, staff were involved in some learning in our Thursday professional development program and it is the topic of our assembly this Friday.  To find out more about National Reconciliation Week please ask students what they have been doing, and visit Reconciliation Australia https://nrw.reconciliation.org.au/.

Social Worker

Last newsletter I welcomed our new Social Worker, Alicia Thackray to Renmark High School.  Alicia has settled into the school very quickly and is already working with students to assist them in reducing barriers to engaging with their learning.  If you have any concerns about your young person and their social or emotional needs please contact the school to make a time to speak with Alicia.

Numeracy and Literacy at Renmark High School

Our site learner improvement goals this year are for numeracy to increase the multiplicative thinking of students, and for literacy to explicitly teach the skills of reading, and to improve the vocabulary understanding and use by students across all learning areas.  Part of this improvement work is where our year 8 and 9 students are engaged in regular activities designed to build their skills targeted to their needs, we are calling this “zone work”.  This learning is captured in a folder of evidence that assists in identfiying where they are up to and where to next in their learning.  Please ask your year 8 or 9 student about their zone work in English and Maths and hear about the learning they are doing.  If you have any questions we encourage you to please make contact with their teachers.

Transition

The year 6 and 7 transition to year 7 and 8 for 2022 is well underway with the student’s first “come and try” recent visit. It was fantastic to see the nervous excitement of students, and the excitement of teachers to meet new students on the day.  Students had a taste of a variety of subjects, including cooking in the kitchens, making in our workshops, letting out their inner artist in our Design Centre, making footy colours with chemicals in the Science labs and more.  Students will get to have a try at other experiences throughout remaining visits this year, and of course this is all just a taste of what is to come in their secondary schooling at Renmark High School!

Our next transition visit is on the 5^th of August so please mark that in your diaries.  If you missed the first visit we welcome you to come to the next. We will have other students, that for a variety of reasons, will also make their first visit next time.   

Have a look at all of the amazing activities the year 6 and 7 students participated in as part of their first transition visit to high school!

Activities included painting and mixing colours in our Design Centre, working together in a Drama workshop, writing about a hero in English, making keyrings and coasters in our Technology workshop, making yummy scones and pizzas in our Home Economics kitchens, mixing their favourite football team colours using chemicals in our Science laboratories, learning about Egypt through a game in HASS, trying some different sports played in Physical Education and having a go at playing percussion in Music. 

Con’s Story- A Year 8 Drama Performance

The year 8 Drama class performed their play ‘Con’s Story’ to a live audience on Tuesday 25/5. Written by the year 8 Drama class, the play centred around Con, a social outcast, his choices in life and consequences these brought to himself and his class mates.

The play was performed with energy and confidence showing the outstanding learning they had achieved over the past eight weeks. Well done to everyone involved.

Wendy Matulic - Year 8 Drama Teacher

Bike Riding  

Over the last 3 weeks, the Year 10 Girls PE class have been bike riding around Renmark, as their elective sport during practical lessons. The girls have ridden to various locations, including along the riverfront from Jane Eliza to the caravan park, over Paringa Bridge, through Paringa Paddock, down to Lock 5, out to Ruston’s Roses, around the Renmark Football oval and some students attempted Murtho Road hill. The girls have learned riding signals, navigation skills, leadership skills with how to keep a group together, how to navigate traffic on a bike, how to battle through wind, as well as building resilience, leg muscles and endurance. The girls have conducted themselves in the community beautifully and are to be commended on their manners and positive greetings of walkers, riders and runners they have met along the way.  

 Lori Sandland, Girls PE Teacher 

Students in year 8 English classes are currently undertaking a topic on debating and persuasive writing. Students have been allocated groups and assigned a topic that they must argue either for or against. They have been taught the formal debating structure and procedure and are now at the stage where they are delivering these debates in front of their peers.

I have been extremely proud of the students who have got up in front of the class to argue their position, despite being terrified of public speaking.

Students will next have the opportunity to participate in interclass debating, where a team will be selected to represent each class against the other four care groups in year 8. From there, a team will be selected from each year level to participate against the other Riverland Schools later in the year.

Daniel Clark - Year 8 English Teacher

While the Music Suite has been closed for renovations, our students have not let that get in the way of making some amazing music. Our year 8 students have been part of our Generation Band project, and have learnt a new instrument over the past eight weeks. They put on a short presentation of three songs last week, and showed their skills in not only playing as an ensemble, but memorising their own musical section. And it wasn’t only our year 8's who were performing; our RHS Band put on a concert at lunchtime in week 4. Consisting of students from years 8-10 (and a few of our teachers), the band performed to an enthusiastic crowd of students and staff. The band is back rehearsing for another lunchtime performance this term.

Year 8 Music

School Band

If your student is interested in playing an instrument, and receiving free instrumental lessons and instrument hire through the school, please contact Alistair Ward, our Music teacher, for more information.

Perspective Drawing

Our emerging artists have been learning about the one point perspective drawing technique where they were required to draw a street in one-point perspective. We have also been exploring various art elements and how to apply these to our perspective drawings to make them more visually appealing. The final drawings were fantastic!

Darija Atsaves - Visual Arts teacher

Portraiture Photography

Photography students explored various aspects of portraiture photography ranging from formal and informal portraits, use of natural and artificial lighting as well as use of various photographic equipment. The underlying task was to capture the true essence of their chosen person based on investigating their personality and traits.  Have a look at the following portraits and attempt to uncover each person’s essence through their portrait.

Darija Atsaves - Photography teacher

Year 9 Science

This term the year 9 Science students have been learning about atoms. They have learnt about atomic structure and are currently learning about natural radioactivity. Students have also been practising using models to represent scientific processes. As part of their assessment for this topic, students used M&M’s to model radioactive decay. The M&M’s represented a radioactive isotope, and students participated in a simulation to model half-life. Each student had a bowl of 64 M&M’s. Students emptied the bowl and counted how many of their M&M’s landed M side up – this represented an atom that had decayed and was now stable. Students continued the simulation until all of their ‘atoms’ were stable. Students will now analyse and evaluate their data to form their practical report.

Michael Branford - Science teacher

Bailey W

After a busy term 1, which involved breaking school and interschool records, Bailey maintained his training in preparation for the nationals which were held in Sydney last month. It was a great experience for Bailey as he competed against the strongest runners across Australia at the Sydney Olympic Park Stadium. He is very proud of yet another strong performance (personal best) and finished 3^rd in the 1500m event with a time of 4:08.36. He then backed it up on the following day in the 3km run, where he finished 9^th.

Well done and congratulations on your efforts Bailey!

Cody L

Some of you may or may not be aware but Cody has been quite busy and successful in the sport of lawn bowls. He recently represented Renmark High School at the South Australian High School Championships where he celebrated many wins. He was the only player to win a game against the overall winner for the day. 

Some of Cody’s other achievements include:

• Being a member of the U18 Lawn Bowls SA team
• Being awarded $1000 SASI Scholarship for country athletes
• Member of the winning team at the Renmark Club Championships making him the youngest ever player to have his name up on the winners board
• Received a full scholarship for next season at the Marion Bowling Club

Congratulations Cody, keep up the good work!

Jordan W

Congratulations to Jordan White who was recently selected in the West Adelaide U18 team to play alongside his brother Dylan. His performances and dedication to training at both Renmark Rovers and West Adelaide have contributed to his selection. Keep it up and good luck for the rest of the season!

From Pammy – Your PCW

Wow this weather is a bit of a rollercoaster, I wake up and its cold and then when I come to school it gets warm! The really cold days are certainly coming and hopefully the warm sun continues to shine. The beautiful flowers are slowly starting to fade and a lot of things in the garden are becoming dormant, gathering strength for their next burst of life. Life is a bit like that sometimes, up and down like a roller coaster.

Oh well, roller coasters can be fun so I will just go with it, which is often the way of life.  Life will often throw us curve balls and the way we take it can either make us or break us.  Just remember to stay strong! Tomorrow is a brand new day and the sun is on the horizon ready to shine upon us. Enjoy this wonderful Riverland weather and remember to be kind to each other and keep smiling!

Pammy J

Our Capital Building Works are coming to an end with the last of our renovated areas being available for staff and students within a few weeks.

We began the 5.17 million dollar renovations to our school in November 2019 with an upgrade to the Rick Burr Building air conditioners and ceiling. Since then we have upgraded the air conditioning and ceilings in C Block, renovated and relocated Administration, staff offices and meeting rooms to the old TAFE building, refurbished the Library and relocated Student Services. We also spent over $180,000 on an IT upgrade which saw large interactive screens installed in almost all of our classrooms.

Now we are only weeks away from completing our new Senior and Junior Learning Hubs in B block, as well as the PE office areas, new ceilings and air-conditioning in the Music Suite and the Design Centre as well as a new exhaust system in Tech.

The school is now looking vibrant and fresh! Please look out in the newsletter for an update on our next project due to commence soon!

Thank you to staff and students for their patience and flexibility over the past 19 months, it was well worth the wait!

Learning Hubs

New PE Office

New Music Room Ceilings