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 to the start of the 2023 school year!

It was terrific to see families take the opportunity on Monday last week to meet new staff and to catch up with familiar faces.  Meeting the teachers is a great way to make those initial contacts (or reaffirm existing ones) which make it easier to follow up on during the year.  As I said on the night, please let us know if there are any questions about your young person's learning as we go during the year. It is much easier to get any concerns addressed early on.  Our next formal opportunity to talk to teachers are the three way discussions on student progress (parent interviews) in week 9 and 10 but please don’t wait until then to make contact if you have anything to discuss.

Term 1 Activities

Regards,

Mat Evans
Principal

The Senior classes have made an excellent start to the year. This year we have 90 year 12 and 75 year 11 students. I have changed and corrected a number of subject choices based upon student career aspirations and to support their academic success. This should now have settled for the year.

There are a number of programs and events that will run throughout the year. Students should always attend Beyond Tomorrow to find out what is available to them. These are just a few of the ways we will be supporting students this year.

Academic Coaching

Teachers at the school volunteer to be an Academic Coach for the year 12 students. They meet with them throughout the year to support with time management, subject issues, well being, SACE completion and career advice. This is then noted for other teachers to act upon.

Academic Recovery

The school supports an Academic Recovery system. If a student has missed a draft or appears to be falling behind in their assignment work the subject teacher will issue an academic recovery on daymap. This means the student has lost their rights to go home for study and must report to the Senior Learning Hub, sit on their own and with some support finish their draft or assignment. Alicia our Social Worker often drops in there and catches up with these students to provide further support.

Studiosity

This year the school has engaged with the Studiosity company. They provide one to one online help for the following subjects Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and English. They also provide a drafting/editing role where a student will be able to upload any written assignment and seek feedback from an expert. They will receive this within 24 hours, often less. This will then allow for the student to receive 2 drafts, one initially from Studiosity and then one from their subject teacher. Students have been shown how this works and we hope they will make good use of this. 

University Camp

This year we will provide two camps to Adelaide to visit the Universities as well as boarding colleges and getting acquainted with the city of Adelaide. The first camp will be for year 12’s and the second for year 11’s. The expression of interest forms were handed out in BT this Friday. Only students who are on a University pathway and have shown a strong academic start to the year will be considered. Year 12 camp will be in week 11 this term, from Wednesday 12 to Friday 14 April.

There will be many more chances for students to plan for their post school pathway and parent support with that is always appreciated. Please contact me at the school, via Daymap or email if you would like to discuss any future options for your child.

Riverland & Mallee Vocational Awards

Well done to Mikayla W on being nominated as a finalist for the Riverland and Mallee Vocational Awards. Mikayla completed her Cert III in Early Childhood Education and Care while completing year 11 in the VET Schools program in 2022. 

Sakina Q was also invited as a guest speaker to the event as she won the Australian School Based Trainee of the Year in 2022. 

Regards,

Marina Pater
Assistant Principal
Director of Operations

Swimming Carnival

Even though we postponed the event for a few due to the expected extreme heat, the school, students and community were happy to have an interrupted start to the year, which will be filled with plenty of sporting and other opportunities. Once again the captains had a challenging task of selecting a team with some of the age groups having minimal numbers of nominations. The goal for our sporting events throughout 2023 is to fill every lane and event.

The conditions were perfect and as per usual, the Renmark Swimming Centre was looking great along with plenty of red, green, blue and yellow around. The big question for the day was "Can Chaffey take it out again?", "Who will be the 2023 Swimming Champions?”

Even though there were a few events missing swimmers (due to various reasons), the captains stayed as positive as they could and continued to work hard throughout the day. There were many highlights and great contests between the houses and students and overall the spirit of everyone involved. Whether it was your first as a year 7 student or last as a year 12 the students who attended had a great day competing, cheering, catching up with friends and ultimately supporting their captains in the swimming and splash events.

Many students (Bailey W, Holly T, Heath F, Alex K, Emme L, Noah M, Courtney W and Sarah W) all scored maximum points or close to it for their age group. Congratulations to all the students who achieved a place on the day along with the age cup winners, but the most pleasing thing is the efforts from everyone who got involved as every point contributed to your team.

The team is excited to represent the school at the Interschool Event (Renmark Swimming Pool – Monday 20 February) and the School Sport SA Championships (B grade) at the SA Aquatic and Leisure Centre – Marion (Monday 27 February).

Thank you to Mark Riedel, Matt Jarvis, Sue Lyons, Renmark Vitor Swimming Club and sponsors: BusBiz, Emmetts, Hotel Renmark, Renmark Club, Arrosto Coffee, Hoops Auto & 4WD Centre, Sportspower & Nutrien Water for your continued support.

Student Success

Huge congratulations to Angelo O who won the 120m under 18s race at Reynella Gift Carnival. His time was 13.045 seconds. He is now preparing for the Stawell Gift Carnival in April (a goal of his) and focusing on football.

Congratulations to all students who competed in the recent Country Championships in the Riverland over the weekend. 

Upcoming Sport Events

• Interschool Swimming Carnival hosted at Renmark Swimming Pool - 20 February (week 4) 
• Sports Day event nominations Friday 24 February (week 4)
• Adelaide Swimming Competition - 27 February (week 5)
• 1500m run - Wednesday 1 March (week 5)
• 800m run - Tuesday 7 March (week 6)
• Sports Day - Friday 10 March (week 6)
• Interschool Athletics - Tuesday 28 March (week 9)
• Adelaide Athletics - Wednesday 5 April (week 10)

All students are encouraged to come along and support their house! 

Regards,

Aaron Camplin 
Leader of HPE and Sports

Thank you to everyone who came along to our Meet the Teachers evening. It was a great to see some new and familiar faces join us on the night.

Elevate Education will be hosting a free webinar series on Wednesday 15th February from 6.30pm for parents to keep their child motivated at school. Elevate Education works with students, delivering high impact workshops on study skills, motivation, wellbeing, and exam preparation. By tuning into their webinar series you will learn how you can help better support your children at home through reinforcing the skills they learn at school.

They will cover:

• What impact does praise and reassurance have on your child’s motivation?
• What are the best types of goals to be setting with your child?
• How can you help your child create meaningful and lasting motivation?

Register your interest here: https://get.elevatecoaching.info/au/schoolwebinar

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For more information about Elevate Education, visit: https://au.elevateeducation.com/home

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.

Daniel Clark
Year 7 Coordinator 

The Renmark High School library website (https://renmarkhs.sa.libguides.com/library)

Students can access a variety of library services and information from our website. These include our latest new books, PRC information, digital reading magazines SpineOut and Good Reading, links to book review sites and databases. The library catalogue (available from the Quick Links box) can also be searched from home using the student’s unique barcode beginning with B0794 (no password required). This barcode is on both the student’s school diary and/or ID card.

Premier’s Reading Challenge (PRC)

The PRC started on the first day back at school, and all students can participate. Student Reading Records can be picked up from the library or downloaded from the RHS library website at http://renmarkhs.sa.libguides.com/books/prc.

The Book Club

In the first week of the new year, our new student lockers were installed throughout the school. Students have now each been allocated a locker to access throughout their school day.