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.

Future Planning Expo

Please mark in your diaries our Futures Planning Expo night for Monday the 9^th of August.  This is an important night for information and planning for 2022 for students in year 6-11.

Parent Information Night for year 6 and 7

Next Monday night we are also holding an information session for parents and students in year 6 and 7.  We do still encourage all students for 2022 to attend our Future Planning Expo in week 4 next term, however next Monday night is an extra opportunity to find out about our planning for year 7 into High School and what year 7 and 8 will look like for next year.  It will be a chance to ask questions and to have a look through our school.  Please see the flier or on our Facebook page for more details.   

Transition

Our next come and try visits for year 6 and 7 students is the 5^th August. If you have a year 6 or 7 student please mark this date in your diaries.  If students missed the first visit and wish to come to the next one that is fine, we will have other students that, for a variety of reasons, will also be on their first visit.  

Primary School Year 7 to High School teacher visits

The teachers involved in our Continuity of Learning Project met again recently.  This is a group of primary school teachers and Renmark High School teachers who each term visit each other’s school, undertake lesson observations, and then meet together to discuss curriculum, teaching and student learning.  The intention of the project is for student to experience a seamless education as possible from year 6 to year 9.  There have already been learnings from both our school and the primary schools that have been used to benefit students in all sites involved.

Building works

We are in the final stages of the current building works project and expect to have our new spaces ready for the start of term 3.  We have now approved some of our own improvement works to begin, including extensive painting throughout the school, continued landscaping across the front of the school, and an updated watering system on our ovals.

New signage

We are very excited to have some of our new signage up around the school.  You may have seen some of this on our Facebook page.  The logo on our front doors, and the signage on our gates, student services and the building names are a huge improvement and help our students and school community take pride in their school.

Mat Evans - Principal

WHAT IS THE NCCD?

The Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability takes place every year. The collection counts the number of students receiving an adjustment or ‘help’ due to disability as well as the level of this adjustment so they can access education on the same basis as other students. The NCCD uses the definition of disability in the Disability Discrimination Act, 1992.

WHY IS DATA BEING COLLECTED?

All schools in Australia must collect information about students with a disability. This allows us to better support students and is a determinant of our funding.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF THE NCCD FOR STUDENTS?

The information collected helps teachers, principals, education authorities and governments to better support students with a disability at school. The NCCD encourages schools to review their learning and support systems and processes to help schools to continually improve education outcomes for all students.

WHO IS INCLUDED IN THE NCCD?

Examples of students who may be included: students with learning difficulties (such as dyslexia), students with chronic health conditions (such as epilepsy or diabetes), students who are on a One Plan.

WHAT INFORMATION IS COLLECTED?

A student is counted if they receive reasonable adjustments at school due to disability. Information collected includes: their year of schooling, the level of adjustment and the broad type of disability.

HOW IS THIS DATA USED?

The data informs funding and ensures that support for students with learning needs becomes routine in the day-to-day practice of schools. It also assists by: helping schools to understand their legislative obligations and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, encouraging schools to reflect on students’ needs and the best ways to deliver support, allowing for a collaborative approach to supporting students with learning needs.

WHEN DOES THE NCCD TAKE PLACE?

It takes place in August every year.

IS THE NCCD COMPULSORY?

Yes. All schools must collect and submit information each year.

HOW IS THE STUDENTS’ PRIVACY PROTECTED?

Protecting the privacy and confidentiality of all students is an essential part of the NCCD. Data is collected within each school. Personal details such as student names or student identifiers are not provided to federal education authorities.

HOW CAN I FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION?

You can contact the school (Danielle Weeks, Student Support Coordinator) for information or a more detailed flyer.

VET Come N Try Day

All year 10 students have been invited to participate in a VET Come N Try on Thursday 1^st July in Week 10. This is the perfect opportunity to have a taste of a potential VET course that may be selected next year as a Year 11 student. The courses provided this year include

• Early Childhood Education-Cert 3
• Individual Support/Aged Care/Disability –Cert 3
• Kitchen Operations - Cert 2
• Hospitality –front of House –Cert 2
• Information Technology-Cert 3
• Screen and Media –Cert 3
• Hairdressing –Cert 2
• Electro-technology –Cert 2
• Automotive –Cert 2
• Engineering-Cert 2
• Doorways to Construction –Cert 2
• Horticulture –Cert 2
• Rural Ops-Animal Focus –Cert 3
• Conservation Land Management –Cert 2

(involves an overnight stay at Calperum )

As you can see there are many varied potential courses offered for next year.

Interested students should have received a note today, however if they have missed the chance to put their names down there are spare notes at the SSO.

Marina Pater - Assistant Principal

As a school one of our Site Improvement Goals is a focus on reading. This goal has been ongoing and as such as teachers we are identifying areas of student focus and stretch around reading and vocabulary. The whole school vocabulary focus provides students with the opportunity to-

• Question what words mean, understand, deconstruct, and learn how to spell them with the ultimate purpose being that students use them in their writing.

Year 8 and 9 English students participate in forensic reading once a week. During this time students work busily with their zone teacher, in small groups and individually to unpack a piece of writing. Teachers and students use specific strategies  to really pull the text apart to support understanding with the hope that students will use these skills in all of their subjects. Mastering such skills will place students in a good position during their senior years.

Timed writing is experienced during the school day and as such students are encouraged to write as much as they can in a short amount of time building confidence and fluency in their writing. Students write about a variety of subjects capturing a range of genre types. Independent reading is highly encouraged at home and at school.

As a family it is extremely powerful to share what you are currently reading with one another. Discussions with your child reinforces role modelling around a lifelong skill. We support and encourage reading at Renmark High School by ensuring that time is spent reading independently and to classroom teachers all the while building fluency and confidence.

Biljana Elliott - Senior Leader Literacy & Global Perspectives

Staff and students from the Strong Futures program visited Katarapko National park to learn on Country. This park, situated between Berri, Loxton and Winkie, enables the conservation of more than over 9,500 hectares of black box, red gum and lignum covered floodplains and wetlands alive with aquatic bird species. It is a special place because of its cultural and ecological value and preservation of threatened species. 

Ellee Eleftheriadis, Communications and Community Engagement Officer for the Department for Environment and Water showed us the improvements that have been made to the floodplain to improve fish passage, increase native fish numbers and to manage water to create a more natural cycle of flooding and drying.
Shara Coulthard and Michael Boon spoke with us about the conservation and management of cultural sites and local plants and animals in the park and told of their journeys to become park rangers at Katarapko.

Uncle Barney Lindsay and Daniel Giles led the students in stories of the river, the importance of caring for the land, and the opportunity for deep listening. We also spent time underneath the Berri Bridge sharing knowledge of local stories of Ponde and the Mulyawongk.

Martine Turnbull - Aboriginal Education Teacher

Last week, Wednesday 16^th and Thursday 17^th June, the Senior Learning Hub students had the opportunity to participate in a Driver’s ED – Learners Permit course at Glossop Aboriginal Cultural Centre. The course was run by The Workabout Centre and Tauondi Aboriginal College, and we were extremely lucky for our Renmark High Students to be able to participate in this program.

Over the two days, students were delivered information through a powerpoint around important road rules, tips, responsibilities and participated in activities. Students worked through the questions and various practice tests to help with their final assessment. On the Right Track then conducted the testing for the students on the second day.

The students engaged in the sessions and participated by asking questions. As they worked through the course they became more confident and their courage grew for the final test. On completion, the seven students that participated in their final test, all successfully passed the give way questions and the multiple choice section.

This was a great achievement by all the attending students! Congratulations to you all on successfully passing your Driver’s ED – Learners Permit! You should all be very proud of yourselves!

The following students completed the course:-

Daniel M

Gilbert S-A

Holly W

Jacob D

Jayden D

Kaleb P

Shaylee S

Tara Smythe - Student Engagement

FERMENTATION

Year 8's have been learning about chemical changes. They applied their understanding through a practical investigation on fermentation. Here is what the students had to say:

To make the results more accurate, I would reduce the grams of yeast added because the results showed that the fermentation process was ruined because the extra 2 grams of yeast made much more gas, and this forced the liquid out. Cooper 8.4

The data showed that my hypothesis was correct because; including more sugar in the experiment did create more CO2/ Carbon Dioxide gas. My hypothesis was correct and reliable because it was a simplistic and easy way of describing what occurred during the experiment. Layla 8.4

The experiment was mixed with physical and chemical changes. When the water and sugar were mixed, it didn't create a new substance and could have been reversed. When adding the yeast to the sugar water it created a chemical change. The process created a new substance, and it couldn't be reversed. After the yeast was added to the sugar water, it started bubbling, showing signs of fermentation. Oscar 8.2

When the sugar was added to the water in the glass beaker and stirred, the sugar dissolved and did not form a new substance, it just changed it's appearance. A physical change is when it changes it's shape or appearance and the change can often be reversed. Isaac and Lucas 8.4

One part of this experiment involving a physical change was when we dissolved the sugar into the warm water. Dissolving is a form of physical change, which doesn't create another substance. Another part of this experiment involving a physical change was when we boiled the water. This process didn't create a new substance, only increased the water's temperature, and changed it's state, as the heat evaporated some of the water into gas. Arielle 8.2

Martine Turnbull - Science Teacher

Students were recently presented with certificates recognising their achievement in the OzCLO competition held earlier in the year. A total of 24 students from Years 8-10, represented Renmark High School, competing for the fourth year in a row in the Australian Computational and Linguistics Olympiad (OzCLO). This year we entered six junior and senior teams in the first round competition across South Australia.

The OzCLO contest is held in two rounds, with the first round; a three-hour competition held at exactly the same time online nation-wide. Participants work in teams of four on a range of language analysis problems.

This year our students had to decode five languages unfamiliar to all of them.

Beja - spoken in Northern Sudan by nomadic tribes, distantly related to ancient Egyptian and Arabic.

Waanyi – An Australian Indigenous language spoken across the borders of the Northern Territory and Queensland

Waama - A Gur language of Benin in East Africa;

Ogham - Ancestral language of modern Irish, Scottish, Gaelic, Manx, dated at around 400 AD (Primitive Irish)

Sauk - An Algonquian language (currently located in central Oklahoma).

Teams collaborated effectively, sharing their deep thinking and reflections with each other to find solutions to each question.

Congratulations to our Renmark High School representatives who undertook the challenge over the course of three hours; Cooper B, Jorja K, Cameron D, Shikabah I, Emily T, Hadlee H, Charlize F, Georgia K, Maddison M, Emma S, Myles Johnson, Shamsher Connor C, Janis R, Justin S.

Special Congratulations to the Silver Medalist Team; Lachlan G, Tyrone A, Alex T, Sakina Q and Armandeep K and to the Year 8 Team competing for the first time; Anja T, Fletcher H, Stephen F and Myah Guy.

Jasmine Sotiroulis- OzCLO Coordinator

Certificate Winners

Silver Medialist Winning Team

Year 8 OzCLO Team

Our World Champion Language Students were recently acknowledged for their incredible efforts in the Education Perfect, Language World Championships, resulting in the crowning of Renmark High School as world champions for the third time! Competing in the category of 51-100 students, 94 passionate, enthusiastic and dedicated language students in years 8 to 11 spent 403 hours online answering 319,751 questions in 30 languages over seven days.

For the first time in the school’s history, it was an epic battle of sibling rivalry for Renmark High School’s top language student for 2021. Eventually taken out in the last few hours of the competition by Year 10 student, Lachlan Goody, just ahead of his sister, Meegan in Year 8.

Renmark High School has an outstanding reputation on a global level as leaders in language learning as a result of the hard work of our students.

Top language student by year level;

Top Year 8 student: Meegan G

Top Year 9 student: Rachel F

Top Year 10 student: Lachlan G

Top Year 11 student: Emma S

Top student in each language;

Afrikanns, Stephen F Year 8

Arabic- Anja T, Year 8

Chinese – Khali J, Year 8

French- Meegan G, Year 8

German- Jorja K, Year 10

Greek- Mason A, Year 8

Hindi- Armandeep K, Year 10

Hebrew- Mikalya M, Year 8

Italian ,Latin, Portugese Fletcher H, Year 8

Japanese- Dallas W, Year 8

Russian – Shaun W, Year 9

Samoan – Saraya G, Year 8

Spanish – Zahlee S, Year 8

Turkish – Alana Y, Year 9

Vietnamese – Roni P, Year 8

Lachlan G, Meegan G and Fletcher H were also acknowledged by Education Perfect as world-class language students with the presentation of ‘Elite Status’ badges for their academic achievement and dedication to languages, earning over 10 000 points each.

A wonderful recognition for our talented language students, we congratulate all three who look forward to competing once again, in 2022.

Jasmine Sotiroulis - French & Spanish Teacher

The Year 11 Outdoor Education class had their Bushwalk to Mount Bryan in week 8. It was meant to be held the week before, but it had to be cancelled due to the forecast of extreme weather. This ended up being a good decision, as there was hail and snow in the Burra region on the original days of the camp.

The group of 14 students set-off on their walk on Tuesday, June 15^th. For the duration of the trip the students conducted themselves to a high standard. Many students demonstrated excellent navigational and teamwork skills, which saw the group get to the campsite (Heysen Hut) much earlier than planned. The students worked well together to set up their tents and cook a variety of nutritious meals using a trangia.

The night was cut short as heavy rains and strong winds hit the area, which forced the students into their tents for an early night. The tents must have been assembled well, as they were all standing in the morning despite gusts of wind reaching 50-60km/hr.

Despite a muddy campsite in the morning, students were awake and packed up quickly. The group got back to the bus at Lunchtime on Wednesday and were happy to remove their heavy rucksacks from their back. They enjoyed the team aspect of the trip and the views, which are very different from the Riverland.

Mark Thiele - Physical Education Teacher

On Thursday of last week, 58 students travelled to Waikerie for the Year 8/9 9-a-side Football Carnival, run by the SANFL. This year we took two year 8 boys teams, two year 8/9 girls teams, and a year 9 boys team. With smaller fields and adjusted rules, students played in good spirits of the fun lightening carnival. 

With the weather holding off for us, students played teams from Waikerie, Glossop, Loxton and our 2 year 8 boys teams even played each other. While the girls didn't have lots of success on the field, they definitely learned (the hard way by being tackled), to be fierce at the ball and developed some football skills along the way. Our two year 8 Boys teams took out 1st and 2nd in their year 8 competition in an impressive effort, Glossop won the year 9 boys competition and Waikerie took out the year 8/9 girls competition. 

Thanks go to our 4 umpires for the day, Bailey, Evan, Taj and Summer, who all did a great job controlling their fields. Thanks also to Brett and Alicia for coming along and coaching/ supporting the students. 

Lori Sandland - Health & Physical Education Teacher

School Sport SA Cross Country Championships

During week 7 approximately 20 Renmark High School students travelled down for the School Sport SA Cross Country Championships. Like previous years we expected the conditions to be cold and wet, making the 3km – 6km run (depending on your age group) to be quite a challenge, especially on the heavy track.

Congratulations to all of the students who participated and challenged themselves against some of the best runners in South Australia. At the completion of the race many students were relieved that they were done and highlighted how tough the uphill climb was at the back of the track (especially on their second lap).

Some of the stand out performances include:

• 3^rd Taj Saatze (Multiclass)
• 3^rd Stephen Files, Ethan Evans and Lachlan Keynes (U13 team event)
• 10^th Haylee Poulish (U20 girls)
• 12^th Olivia Dawe (U20 girls)
• 15^th Lucas White (U14 boys)

A special mention goes to Bailey White who finished 1^st in the U15 race after having a good battle with some of his mates that he’s trained/competed with over the past few years.

All the best to those who are looking to represent the state at the event being held in Adelaide later this year.

Year 10 Girls School Sport SA Volleyball Finals

After moving through to the School Sport SA finals by the smallest margin (1 point), the girls travelled down on Friday (week 8) to challenge 5 other schools for the state title. The schools include Brighton, Concordia, Seaview, Heathfield and Reynella East.

It was always going to be a tough ask, coming up against some of well-known volleyball schools in South Australia but the girls should be super proud of their efforts and use the opportunity in preparation for the Volleyball SA event later in the year.

Ms Ward said the girls improved across the day and challenged most teams reaching around 20 points in each set, but unfortunately fell short each game. Well done girls on making the finals.

Volleyball trainings have commenced for all age groups across the week during lunch. Everyone is invited to come out for some fun while preparing for knockout cup and other events.

Aaron Camplin - Physical Education Coordinator

Hi everybody, how cold are the mornings? but then the cold goes and the sun comes out and the promise of a lovely day is here. I try and take the best out of each season as it comes have to admit that I don’t like summer though.

Pammy Main - Pastoral Care

Renmark Patisserie is looking for some staff to fill some positions he has.

School holiday work and weekend work (this could be staggered weekends not every weekend – flexible)

Contact Greg – 0439 849 186

Email resumes to  greg@renmarkbakehouse.com.au

_________________________________________________

My name is Lauren Robertson and I am the Area Manager for OTR within the Riverland, and I would like to share with you some exciting junior employment opportunities.

I have some opportunities for some 10/15 hours per person with one weekend and one/two afternoon shifts per week.

I am very passionate about recruiting juniors, especially being their first employer and OTR is a forever growing business that can build retail careers.