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We acknowledge that Renmark High School students, staff and 
community live, study and work on Erawirung Land. We acknowledge the First Peoples of the River Murray and Mallee as Traditional Custodians of the Riverland region and pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We respect the deep connection Aboriginal people have with land, animals and waters.
We honour the Lores and customs that cross this traditional Country, the Ancestors who taught and still teach the knowledge that is embedded forever with Aboriginal people today.
Welcome
Welcome back everyone. I hope you were able to have some time off with your families doing the things you enjoy and are recharged ready for term 3! Term 3 gets straight back into things, including the Renmark High School Expo which will be held on Wednesday week 3. Please see flier for times and details.Welcome to our new teachers Jo Cole, Michele Moore and Jenny Zhang. We look forward to working with you for semester two!
Congratulations to Amy Evans who is Principal of Loxton High for the rest of the year. Danielle Weeks has won the B3 Director of Inclusion position for semester two and Stuart Watkinson in the Student Learning Support coordinator role.
Congratulations to Martine Turnbull for achieving her re-certification for her Highly Accomplished Teacher (HAT) status – this is a significant effort and well deserved!
School Based Trainee Finalist
Congratulations to Sakina who is one of only four finalists state-wide for the School Based Trainee of the Year category at the SA Training Awards to be held in Adelaide 25th August.
You can vote for Sakina in the voter's choice award (recipient will be awarded $1,000 at the awards) using the link below. We thank the Renmark Club for taking on trainees and we wish Sakina all the best at the upcoming Training Awards.
https://skillscommission.sa.gov.au/sa-training-awards
SSO week – Thank you
Coming up, in week 5, is Support Staff Week. This is an opportunity to recognise the importance of our support staff and thank them for their fantastic efforts. On behalf of the Renmark High School community, we would like to acknowledge our support staff for all of the fantastic work that they do all of the year round. Our valuable staff support our school in a multitude of ways, including in the classroom, administration, library, IT, pastoral care, and grounds. Without your support staff we wouldn’t be able to offer the high quality learning environment and opportunities that we do to help support our young people to achieve their potential. Thank you to Liz Beech, Carli Burnnard, Joanna Catalano, Maria Dowzard, Daniel Giles, Keira Fielding, Tom Gregurec, Ashlea James, Karina Lambert, Stacey Lambert, Uncle Barney, Brenton Menzel, Sonja Modlinski, Samps Okholm, Kerrie Pyers, Chloe Rudd, Chloe Shorrock, Tanya ter Bogt, Sarah Parkyn, Alicia Thackray, Kyla Wade, Sharen Vasey and Leanne Weigall.
Welcome Year 6 students
I would like to extend a warm welcome to year 6 students and their families. We are looking forward to having students here for their next come and try transition visits in week 4. If there is anything we can do to support students and families in transitioning to high school please let us know.
Futures Planning Expo
We encourage current year 6-11 students and their parents to attend our Futures Planning Expo tomorrow (Wednesday) evening. Come along and talk to the teachers about the options for next year so you can make an informed choice. Year 6 students are also welcome to hear about our school and have a look around to start familiarising themselves.
In the days after the expo we provide follow up subject selection interviews for year 9, 10 and 11 students. These interviews are a valuable opportunity and we ask that parents or caregivers please attend with their student to support them and be involved in the process.
The next step is for us to use this information to make subject and staffing decisions, so the more accurate the choices are in this time the better. Students are much more likely to get their choice of subjects next year if they make an informed choice this year. We aim to accommodate student preferences in order, but keep in mind that where necessary we will go to the reserve list if needed.
Parent Survey
The annual parent survey is a great opportunity to get valuable insights into parent engagement of students’ learning. Parents should have been sent an invite directly from the department. We encourage parents and caregivers to complete an opinion survey to help us in identifying our school strengths and where we can focus our improvements.
COVID-19
It is important that the school has the most up-to-date contact details (including phone numbers) for all parents/carers so they can be quickly contacted in the event of emergency or a temporary closure. We also require students to stay home if they are unwell and if they have symptoms of COVID-19, no matter how mild – please get tested.
With the start of the new semester, and in many cases new subjects, please take some time to make sure that students can find their subject information on DAYMAP, that they can upload assessments, and can access Microsoft TEAMS and Learnlink emails. If there are any troubles with this please have the students contact their teachers or please contact us on their behalf. We are really 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
Australian Business Week
In the last week of term 2 the Year 11 cohort successfully managed to run their Electronics Company over the week. With support from both community business mentors and teaching staff they competed with the other 7 companies to run their stores over 2 years of trading. This involved being part of a computer simulation where they had to make business decisions around finance, marketing and operations each quarter to see if they could outsell and outplay their competitors. As well they had to produce a 30 second video commercial and create a website. They also had to mount a trade display for the whole school to look at. Finally they had to produce a written report and present an 8 minute oral report to their “shareholders”.
The final products were very professional and many people commented on how well the teams worked together. It was a week of fun and learning though at times quite stressful. Students were resourceful, creative, organised and committed to their teams. Renmark High would like to thank the community mentors who supported this program. We are always looking for business mentors so if anyone would like to nominate for next year please let the school know.
Category Winners
Overall Winner: Evolve
Computer Simulation: Zeus and Prime Tech
Website: Electro City
Video Commercial: Luxe
Oral Report: Prime Tech
Written Report: Retro Re-Imagined
Trade Display: Retro Re-Imagined
Senior Supervised Study
Following the generally good results from the Year 11’s last semester, the school has now allowed students to use their supervised study lessons in the morning and afternoon to now become Home Study. All Year 11 students will receive a note in Care Group for parents/guardians to sign to approve this change. We will monitor this to ensure all students are maintaining positive results and using their time efficiently. This privilege can be withdrawn at any time. We seek your support in this change and of course all senior students are welcome at any of the supervised lessons. Year 11 students are expected to be at Care Group by 11.00am every day.
Flinders University Regional Roadshow
Renmark High School was very proud to be the hosts of the first ever University Open day to be held in the Riverland. On Friday 5th August over 150 students from the four regional High Schools attended this event. Students were grouped based on their various choices and they moved through 4 sessions on the day. They also had the chance to talk to University experts about their chosen pathways. It was very well received by both students and staff. There were over 15 Academic staff from the university attending on the day which shows how important the links between rural students and Adelaide Universities are.
The sessions included STEM-Life Sciences, Social Work, Education, Psychology, Medicine, International Relations, English & Creative Writing, Nursing & Physiotherapy, Law and Tourism & Events.
Inspire Change
Flinders University has also offered a mentoring program called Inspire Change. Sixteen of our year 12 students have taken up this offer and will meet with their mentors both face to face and via Zoom weekly. The mentors will provide support with their studies as well as discuss any questions they have about University entry, pathways, and further study. This is a new program that Flinders has offered to provide stronger links with rural and isolated students. Renmark High School took this on as a part of a pilot and we hope that students gain something from this one to one support.
University of Adelaide Student Teachers
Renmark High has recently hosted 8 University of Adelaide 3rd year student teachers for 10 days. This experience allowed these University students to experience working in a rural school and engaging in a rural community. The students stayed at the new Renmark Hotel group accommodation which they said was fabulous. Comments about their experience included that the Renmark township and surrounds was an easy place to move around with plenty of facilities on offer. They described all staff at Renmark High School and especially their mentor teachers as very welcoming, supportive and helpful. They really enjoyed being able to observe many different lessons from a variety of faculty areas and commented that their mentor staff were inspiring, amazing, and passionate about their subjects and students. We would like to thank them for coming to us and hope they may return one day as rural teacher.
University Open Days
All 3 Universities are having their Open Days over the next upcoming weekend. Students have been given information about these days and there are plenty of brochures, flyers, posters and online websites available to look at.
Renmark High will continue to establish and maintain these links to support our students with their future career pathways.
Marina Pater
Director of Operations
Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes
On the 5th July the Year 7 Drama class performed Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes to the Year 7 cohort. Students had been rehearsing their ‘rhyme’ for approx. 4 weeks focusing on analyzing a script, memorising lines as well as set design, props and costumes. All students worked well as an ensemble and performed brilliantly on the day. Well done to everyone involved.
I learnt not to worry about standing up in front of people. - Caleigh
Scene changes, organisation, timing and understanding the plotline are important to make your role successful in a play. - Annika
I learnt that you need to be front stage at all times facing the audience, you need to speak clearly and show emotion. - Anna
I enjoyed the costumes but I found memorising the script challenging. - Eliza
Wendy Matulic
Drama Teacher
Year 7 students are busy planning the proposal that they will present to a panel based on outdoor improvements for Renmark High School. Students have heard Principal Mat Evans and year 12 SRC Leaders Maddy and Judd speak about the importance of student voice and collaboration.
Year 7's are fully aware of the areas around the school that they can develop and are diving into planning, measuring, drawing and creating a written and visual presentation in order to pitch their project.
Finally, students in 7.1 were keen to embody what it means to be active citizens and volunteered to clean up the area in-between the Semler and Burr buildings. They did an excellent job and were fantastic ambassadors for the school.
We look forward to presentation day and the response from the student body and panel.
Mrs. Elliott & Mr. Clark
Senior Leader of Literacy and Global Perspectives & HASS Teacher
Late last term, all year 7’s participated in a debating unit in their English classes. From there, students were selected to represent their class in an interclass debating competition. The first round commenced on Friday of week 2 where 7.1 took on 7.2, debating the topic:
“That parents should limit the amount of time children can use technology outside of school hours”
7.1 finished victorious on the day in a close debate, with special mention to Jacob who acted as the first and third speaker as there was an illness of the day. Congratulations to Noah, Jemma, Grace, Jacob and Ali for stepping out of their comfort zone and delivering an excellent debate.
7.1 will take on 7.3 in the next round.
Mr. Clark
English Teacher
Throughout the semester, students in the year 9 and 10 volleyball classes will be undertaking a plyometric programed, aimed at improving their vertical leap. Students will be pushed to their limit and will hopefully see an improvement in their jump by the end of the semester.
Mr Clark
On Tuesday and Wednesday of Week 2, all our Year 7 students travelled to Camp Kedron for the Year 7 Camp. The experience is a positive way for students to begin secondary school, get to know their teachers and make new friends. During the camp, students participated in aquatics activities at Lake Bonney Yacht Club, where they had the opportunity to participate in sailing and kayaking. Unfortunately, due to the high water, students were unable to knee board or wind surf this year.
When at the campsite, students participated in Care Group activities focused around building relationships with their peers. Students also participated in a number of cultural based activities including listening to the Uncle Barney playing the digeridoo, listening to local dreamtime stories and making and decorating boomerangs.
