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 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 our SACE Information Night for year 10 and 11 students this Wednesday!

Support Staff Week (SSO)– Thank you

Support Staff Week is an opportunity to recognise the vitally important roles 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 terrific support staff for all of the fantastic work that they do all year round! They support our school in a multitude of ways, including in the classroom, administration, library, IT, pastoral care, and grounds. Without our support staff we wouldn’t be able to offer the high quality learning environment and opportunities that we do to help our young people achieve their potential. Thank you to Liz Beech, Carli Burnnard, Joanna Catalano, Dani Coombs, Maria Dowzard, Daniel Giles, Keira Fielding, Tom Gregurec, Ashlea James, Karina Lambert, Stacey Lambert, Uncle Barney, Brenton Menzel, Sonja Modlinski, Sarah Parkyn, Kerrie Pyers, Janis Richter, Chloe Rudd, Chloe Shorrock, Tyron Stevens, Tanya ter Bogt, Alicia Thackray, Kyla Wade, Sharen Vasey, Leanne Weigall, Brendan Rowe, Brandon Barnes, Adrian Little and Samuel Taylor. 

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 visit on Monday 28 August in week 6. We also have a Year 6 Transition to High School Information Evening the same night in the Elaine Balfour-Ogilvy Library. If there is anything we can do to support students and families in transitioning to high school please let us know.

SACE Presentation Night

We encourage current year 10 and 11 students and their parents to attend our SACE Presentation Night tomorrow (Wednesday) evening in the Ruston STEM Building from 6.30pm. Come along and talk to the teachers about the options for next year so you can make an informed decision about subjects for 2024.

Subject Selections for 2024
In the next two weeks students are choosing their subjects for 2024. Next week we provide 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. 

Once students have made their choices we use this information to make subject and staffing decisions. 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 receive an invite directly from the department. We encourage parents and caregivers to complete an opinion survey to help us in identifying our school's strengths and where we can focus our improvements. 

NAPLAN results
For year 7 and year 9 students the 2023 NAPLAN results are being mailed home to parents. Please let us know if you would like assistance in interpreting the reports.

Kind regards,

Mat Evans
Principal

Hi all, welcome to term 3! 

Australian Business Week

In the last week of term 2, the year 11 cohort successfully managed to run their hospitality hotel business over the week. With support from both community business mentors and teaching staff, they competed with the other 5 companies to run their hotels 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 view in their Beyond Tomorrow lesson on the last day. 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 School 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 register your interest through front office administration. 

Category Winners

Computer Simulation: Paradise Manor
Website: Paradise Manor
Video Commercial: Coastal Palms Resort
Oral Report: Sky View Hotel
Written Report: Sky View Hotel
Trade Display: Paradise Manor

Congratulations to the overall winners, Paradise Manor. 

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 as Home Study. All year 11 students have received 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.

Year 12 Parent Teacher Interviews

Flinders University Early Offer Assessment Centre

Recently Renmark High School hosted the first early offer program in the Riverland. Last Wednesday 26 July, 40 students from around the region spent the day at the school working through a series of activities. These included online assessments, discussions and talks with a number of different university staff. Student were assessed in the way they worked in teams, and displayed collaborative, communication, critical and creative thinking skills. It was a very interesting process and most students really enjoyed it. We now wait to see if students are offered a position at Flinders University based upon this day. The conditional offer will also rely on the students gaining their SACE.

Inspire Change

Flinders University has also been offering  a mentoring program called Inspire Change. 24 of our year 12 students have taken up this offer and met with their mentors both face to face and via Zoom weekly. The mentors provide support with their studies as well as discuss any questions they have about University entry, pathways, and further study. This is a continuing program that Flinders University has offered to provide stronger links for rural and isolated students. Renmark High School took this on as a part of a pilot last year and because of its success, it was offered again this year.

University Open Days

All three 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.

University SA (East and West Campus) –  Sunday 13August

Flinders University (Bedford Park) - Friday 11 & Saturday 12 August

Flinders University (New city campus) - Sunday 13 August

University of Adelaide (main city campus) - Sunday 13 August

Renmark High will continue to establish and maintain these links to support our students with their future career pathways

Kind regards,

Marina Pater
Assistant Principal
Director of Operations

Renmark High School staff and students were involved in a range of NAIDOC Week activities throughout the Riverland. NAIDOC Week celebrates the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

A huge congratulations to Renmark High School staff and students who received awards at the Riverland NAIDOC Awards Ceremony on Monday:

Chloe Shorrock – Artist of the Year

Alan G – Scholar of the Year

Isacc M – Youth of the Year

Well done to Daniel Giles for his efforts as MC at this event. Thank you Grant Schwartzkopff Photography for capturing these special moments. It is a great recognition to our community.

Volleyball

It’s that time of year when Volleyball starts to build up around the school and in the community. Currently all of our teams are training during lunch, before and after school in preparation for Knockout Cup Competitions and the end of year Volleyball SA Smash Event.

Information and invoices will be sent home during this week regarding the end of year competition. All the best to the senior students who are travelling down on Monday for the School Sport SA Volleyball Competition.

If anyone is interested in nominating a team for the Riverland Volleyball Season, please visit the Riverland Volleyball Association page on Facebook. The competition is scheduled to start on Monday 21 August.

Adelaide Knock Out Cup Volleyball

Renmark High School year 10 boys and girls teams participated in the Knock out Cup Volleyball competition hosted in Adelaide in week 9, term 2. Students played against other South Australian teams for the top spot. 

Results:

- Year 10 boys team - 4th place (Coach: Daniel Clark)

- Year 10 girls team - 6th place (Coach: Ashlea James)

Well done everyone!

U15 SANFL Country Championships

Over the holiday break some of our local junior footballers travelled down to Adelaide for the 2023 SANFL U15 Intrastate Championships. Lachlan K, Angus L, Angus P, Ethan E and Alex S represented the West Adelaide Country team. All eight SANFL clubs had two teams (country and metro) compete across the three days at various SANFL venues and the recently renovated Summit Oval in Mount Barker.

The carnival is an integral part of the SANFL’s Development Plan as it enables SANFL Clubs to observe players against quality opposition to assist with selection across the next few years (U16 and U18’s).

The boys enjoyed the challenge of playing with and against quality footballers across the three days and look forward to other opportunities to assist in their development in the future. Well done boys and all the best in your local football over the next month. 

Basketball - Lachlan K

At the end of last term, year 10 student, Lachlan K headed over to Perth to compete in the 2023 Under 16 Junior National Basketball Championships representing the South Australian Country side. 

The SA Country team were considered to be one of the shorter teams and were not expected to be very successful throughout these championships.  However, this very determined group of boys decided to prove the critics wrong and started the tournament winning their first two games on Sunday which was a double header round.  They defeated QLD South (who were expected to be one of the favourites to take out the gold medal) and NSW Country. This winning streak continued for the rest of the week with SA Country playing against a very strong pool of competition, including the home team WA Metro.  

SA Country have not performed this well ever in these championships, being 8/8 games and undefeated entering in the gold medal match. This group of boys pushed Victoria Metro (Melbourne) who were also undefeated and favourites to win this competition as well as reigning champions. SA Country lost by 6 points and were the only team to come within under 10 points to the Victoria Metro team. SA Country have not won a silver medal in over 35 years and Lachlan was very lucky to be part of this special event. Well done Lachlan!

School Sport Cross Country - Taj S

Congratulations and all the best to Taj S who has been selected to compete for South Australia in the School Sport Australia Cross Country Championships. Taj will be travelling over to Canberra for the event in a few weeks. We look forward to hearing how you went.

Local Sport

All the best to the many students competing in local and state competitions over the next few weeks as you move in to finals.

Kind regards,
Aaron Camplin
HPE & Sports Coordinator

In week 10, Mr Camplin’s year 9 Advanced PE students participated in a range of activities throughout their fun-filled camp to Adelaide. They endured at AFL Max, investigated mysteries at Adventure Rooms, raced one another in Go Karts, played Laser Tag, climbed to extraordinary heights at Mega High Ropes and participated in a few rounds of Ten Pin Bowling.

Mr Lindner’s year 10 Advanced PE students ventured to Adelaide to enjoy two days full of activities. They started with Downhill Mountain Bike Riding, Indoor Rock Climbing, Go Karts and Laser Tag. They finished the trip with cycling at the Velodrome.

This term year 8 students are learning about energy. They have participated in energy stations that included: mystery toys, Pelton wheel, hand-cranked generator, wind turbines, solar panels and commercial batteries. 

Students also experimented with cotton-reel cars. Once they solved how it works, they then had to try to improve how far it could travel by changing the size and thickness of the rubber bands. 

Chris Blanden
Science Teacher

Year 9 Food Tech students have been experimenting with a variety of foods to use as a garnish to make the savoury dish - fried rice, visually appealing and to add colour. Students were very creative with their designs.

Wendy Matulic
Food Technology Teacher

We’re excited to announce that Elevate Education's next free webinar will be taking place on Wednesday 16th August, focusing on Technology & Focus.

Elevate Education works with our 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:   
How You Can Make Technology an Ally (& Not the Enemy!)

Click here to register for free

Here's what Elevate will be covering:

✅Technology addiction and how to reduce technology dependence 

✅Practical strategies and apps to minimise procrastination 

✅How to help your child use technology productively to enhance their learning