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OUR SCHOOL VALUES We work hard to learn We respect ourselves and each other We value acts of generosity
IN THIS ISSUE Student Achievement Inventor Training Health & Phys Ed New Green Screen! Arts News Jump Rope for Heart
DIARY DATES 7/7 Book Cup
8/7 Last day of Term 2 Dismissal 2:00pm
25/7 (First day of Term 3) STUDENT FREE DAY
Brunel Drive Modbury Heights South Australia, 5092 Ph: (08) 8263 6244 Fax: (08) 8263 6072 Email: contact@theheights.sa.edu.au WWW: http://www.theheights.sa.edu.au
NEWSLETTER No. 8 7 July 2011
Teacher Professional Learning = Student Achievement How do we transfer teachers’ learning of their craft into what happens in the classroom to engage and challenge students? How does what happens in the classroom determine student knowledge, skills and high levels of achievement? By continuing to focus relentlessly on extending teacher professional knowledge and harnessing teachers’ passion to make a difference we believe The Heights School is adding value to our students’ educational experiences and improving their learning. We trust that the regular summaries of the weekly teacher professional learning program give parents an insight into what they can expect their children will be experiencing and what is reflected in their progress reports. In this newsletter we feature stories of teachers’ learning in Design & Technology, Health and Physical Education and the Arts, and the benefits to their students. The program for the Student Free day requires both teachers and SSOs to extend their repertoire of comprehension and reading practices, to take time to evaluate our efforts to improve literacy, student achievement levels and attendance and examine consistency of assessment within Learning Areas and year levels. Next term we hope you will join your children in events that demonstrate the connection between teacher professional learning, teaching and student achievement. Term 3 begins on Tuesday 26th July (Monday is a Student Free day). Exciting events next term will be Arts Week (join us for the cabaret), Book Week, Wakakirri, Festival of Music and the final Pedal Prix races. We take this opportunity to wish everyone a safe and enjoyable holiday with their family and friends. Helen Calvert Principal
PARENT CLUB MEETING Our next meeting is on Monday 1st August in the Parent Room at 9:00am. We will be finalising arrangements for the Fathers Day Staff to be held on Friday 2nd September and Helen Calvert will talk to us about the Autism Program that will be starting at the school in 2012. New members are always made to feel very welcome, and meetings are always fun and full of interesting information. We hope to see you there! Lyn Albury Aboriginal Parent Forum Tuesday 2nd of August Crèche available on the day Please leave details at the Front Office if you would like to attend. Leonne Hewson URGENT NOTICE FOR ALL CREDIT CARD PAYMENTS THAT WILL BE SENT TO THE FINANCE OFFICE. As of Monday 4th July, all credit card payment forms must have a CVV number included (last three digits on the back of a credit card). The number adds an additional security precaution to your payment and our bank has now enforced it with the grace period coming to an end! Thank you The Finance Office
Courtney Roberts
Congratulations to Amanda-Jade Wellington and Courtney Roberts who have been selected to represent Secondary School Sport SA and the South Australian National Football League at the forthcoming School Sport Australia Football Championships. These Championships will be held in Canberra, ACT from July 23rd – 30th 2011.
Amanda-Jade Wellington
Congratulations to Lukas Lane-Gelmacher who has been awarded a Defence Technical Scholarship for 2011. The scholarship is a financial incentive to eligible Year 11 and 12 students to remain at school and finish their education whilst undertaking maths and a trade or related technical subject suitable for a trade in the Australian Defence Force. The scholarship consists of an award of $2000 for Year 11 and $3000 for Year 12. Lukas was successful in competing with over 2000 students across Australia, completing an application form, demonstrating his knowledge of trades and a detailed description of what he would do as an ADF tradesperson in a real life crisis situation. Lukas is currently enrolled in Stage 2 Maths Studies, Specialist Maths and the Automotive VET program.
Winter Clothing Drive
Congratulations To the Heights Guitar ensemble (Jamie Slatter and Chris Neich Yr12, Dianne Banks, Dylan Boller, Jamie Vause, Dion Turner, Yr 9 and Seamus McIlduff Yr 6/7) as well as Christine Liu Yr 6/7, Violinist on their success in being selected to perform at Festival Theatre as supporting artists for this years Primary School Music Festival. To be selected for this prestigious event each student had to undertake an audition.
A group of stage 2 Society and Culture students are collecting blankets, jumpers, pants, scarves and pillows for the Red Cross during the last week of term two and the first week of term three. Donation boxes can be found in the Senior School study area, the Front Office, the Junior School office or can be given to the students of SS24 in the sewing room from 4th to 8th and 26th to 29th of July. Please give generously.
Stephanie Attenborough, Demi Lardner Lynette Thomson, Brett McKenzie
JUMP ROPE FOR HEART DAY
Wednesday of week 9, the Junior School were involved in a Jump Rope for Heart day. On the day there were children skipping, running, jumping, throwing balls, hula hooping and lots of other fun activities. There were even some parents and teachers joining in and being active. Jump Rope for Heart day gave students the opportunity to show parents their wonderful skipping skills and how fit and healthy our school is. I would like to say a big well done to all the students involved and thank you to the parents who came along to support them. Thank you to all the students who have raised money for the Heart Foundation. We are still collecting money so at this stage I cannot report how much the school raised, but will announce this soon. Mrs Rothery, Junior School PE teacher
Teacher Professional Learning Program Monday 2.45-3.30pm Week 9: Home Communications, EDSAS and Daymap attendance data Week 10: Junior School – Jolly Phonics Middle and Senior School – Review of ICT access and use In response to feedback about the length of sessions enabled by the 2.30pm closure on Mondays, the ½ hour Professional Learning session was extended to 45 minutes. Teachers continue after 3.30 until 4.15 to extend this professional learning opportunity and from 3.30-4.30 on Wednesday in faculty and cluster learning teams
HEALTH & PHYSICAL EDUCATION BARISTA TRAINING The curriculum area of Health and Physical Education which incorporates Home Economics and Physical Education at The Heights School, has been engaging in some practical workshops during Semester 1. These workshops have been offered as part of our professional development plan held on Wednesday afternoons. Two workshops in particular which staff have found beneficial are an Expresso Coffee Making Course and Go Go Golf. The Expresso Making Course was run by the SA Coffee Academy in Gawler Place, Adelaide, with World Barista Judge 2004-2008, Mr Bria Raslan, as our trainer. All Stage 2 Food & Hospitality students and Home Economics staff who attended the course received a Certificate for Expresso Coffee making. Topics taught included the history of coffee, selecting and grinding coffee, extracting expresso, texturing milk, work areas, service, presentation, cleaning and maintaining expresso machines. A unit of work based on this knowledge will now be offered at Stage 2 level. The delivery of coffee preparation and presentation has become more popular in our society and this is one way we can keep up to date with the coffee evolution. Student pathways into employment in the Food & Hospitality Industry, whether part-time or permanent, will benefit with knowledge in this area and students should use the certificate in their resume.
GO GO GOLF On Wednesday 25th of May, teachers from The Heights and Valley View High School Physical Education Faculty attended a Go Go Golf Workshop at The Heights School. The workshop ran from 2pm to 5pm where an instructor from SA Golf (Mr Allan Telford) presented a very informative and well prepared session on the teaching of golf in our schools. Students at The Heights participate in golf as one of our PE Units at Year 10 and will benefit from the workshop with the increased knowledge teachers have gained. Benefits teachers have found from participation in the workshop include: • Increased confidence with basic golf techniques • All received level ‘A’ coaches certificates • We were given resources that will help with teaching our classes • Increased understanding on the technical aspects associated with “key cues”. We were very fortunate to be able to attend this workshop free of charge under such a skilled instructor. Chris Blansjaar Health & PE Coordinator
The City of Tea Tree Gully is holding Holiday Programs during July 2011. Programs include Badminton, Racquetball, Magical Storytime, Dance/Sing/Play, Clay Menagerie etc. Lots of fun for all the family. For further information and a full list of activities please phone 8397 7429
DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY INVENTOR TRAINING In November 2010 I had the opportunity to attend a 5 day course entitled Inventor 2011 – Introduction to Solid Modelling. design software package for creating 3D digital prototypes used in the design, visualisation and simulation of products. As our school uses Autodesk Inventor, we had the opportunity (along with other industry engineers and tradespeople) to attend an extensive workshop to develop skills in using the new Inventor 2011 software package. This workshop was a great opportunity to further develop skills so staff and students can get a better understanding of the potential of this design software package and future pathways in Design and Technology. We have been teaching the Inventor software as part of the Design and Technology curriculum for approximately 8 years. One of our main goals was to promote and develop a Year 12 Computer Aided Design and Drafting class. The CADD course is now up and running. Because of the Year 12 Computer Aided Design and Drafting class it was important and necessary to upskill my knowledge, particularly with the new 2011 Inventor interface (a major upgrade from their previous versions). The workshop has given me a great opportunity to further develop my skills and has allowed me to pass this knowledge on to staff and has already benefited the students tremendously The 5 day workshop was very intense and at time complex. Many of the participants were surprised we were teaching CADD and using an industry level software package. The skills and knowledge gained have given me the opportunity to develop and extend courses at all secondary levels. A number of the students in the current year 12 class have used the software in years 8, (9), 10 and 11 and been part of the Ignite program; consequently I felt the need to produce a course with tasks that would challenge and extend all students.
What is Inventor? Autodesk Inventor was developed by a U.S.-based software company called Autodesk and is a 3D mechanical solid modelling I have also been able to work closely with my faculty colleagues in helping them incorporate the use of Inventor into Materials courses such as Woodwork and Metalwork. Since completing the course I have found it easier to help students to solve problems with their designs. I believe I am becoming more efficient with my teaching, giving students clear instruction allowing them to grasp concepts and systems quickly. The students seem to gain confidence and become more experimental with the design process when they see I am able to help them solve problems and bring their ideas to reality. Ian Pfitzner, Technology Teacher
The school recently purchased a Computer controlled milling machine. The faculty has a small machine in the Electronics room which is used by students to cut Electronic Circuit boards they have designed. The new machine is larger and is housed in the CADD room. Our aim is to have as many students as possible use the machine to produce a small product they have deigned and modelled using the Inventor software. By completing such a task, students will have the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the CADCAM process; one of the most common engineering and design processes used in modern product manufacturing.
TECHNOLOGY CAREER EVENING th Wednesday 10 August 2011 A career exploration evening for school students (all levels), their parents, teachers and career/VET counsellors. th Date: Wednesday August 10 Time: 6:30 to 8:30pm Location: Ridley Centre, Wayville Showgrounds Cost: Free, online bookings are essential at www.tia.asn.au Free Parking
New Green Screen at The Heights School During term 1 and 2, a dedicated team of teachers and students from The Heights School undertook a project to build a Green Screen room. Thank you to the students who helped with cleaning and painting walls (see attached pictures), I would like to particularly thank Peter Bates for his great contribution of work to the project.
What is a Green Screen? Green screening is a photography and video technique where you take still images or video in front of a green (Chroma-key) background and then you are able to replace the green background with another image or video. This is the same technique used in the movies and with weather reporters. Imagine being on an exotic beach far away of perhaps climbing Mt Everest –but you are not really there, you are actually in front of a Green Screen and the image of the beach or Mt Everest is being digitally placed on the Green Screen so it appears that you are actually on location. Just about every movie you watch now has probably used a Green Screen to trick the audience into believing something that is not really happening. I am confident that students and teachers will enjoy using this technology as they create their Green Screen movies or Photoshop masterpieces. It is so much fun to transport your students to another place or time through the magic of Green Screening. The students are also highly motivated to complete research and prepare for a video project. You can see some examples of video Green Screening by typing the links below into your Web browser: Keith Urban- Kiss a Girl Music Video (green screen) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZYYV6LgXdo&feature=related Keith Urban- Kiss a Girl music video (preview) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhmLYj4datw&feature=related
Below are some examples of Green-Screening photography:
When the Green Screen room is finished, I will be happy to run a workshop on Green Screening to show teachers how easy and inexpensive it is to use this technique. The workshop will show teachers how to use Adobe Photoshop and Vegas Movie Studio. I would also like to say a big thank you to Peter and Jackie from Carpet Choice 1/929 North East Road , Modbury, for kindly donating their time and materials to lay carpet in our new Green-Screen Room. At this time Haggle Co at Dernancourt and Ted’s camera in Adelaide have also made an offer to donate furniture and equipment for the room.
Before and after pictures of Green-Screen Room
Michael Hillier Design & Technology Coordinator
THE ARTS “Art and culture are significant for us as they enable us to feel more human, by opening up opportunities to participate, to negotiate, to develop a dialogue about who we are, what we are thinking and what we are feeling, and helping us generally to define our values.”(Andrew Hill Associate Head of the School of Art, Architecture and Design, UniSA Autumn 2011 UniSA Magazine) With this statement as our focus The Arts Faculty has been involved in ongoing discussion on the value of sharing their passion for the arts with the school community. As the faculty is made up of Music, Drama, Visual Arts and Multimedia there is a lot in common and sharing of these common traits and disciplines is of great value. So the opportunity for our Professional Learning Community to participate in an arts based activity to further reinforce the notion that art and culture knits us together has been enthusiastically taken on board. So far the faculty has been involved in painting with Watercolours, Website design, and Arts Week promotion Algis Laurinaitis Arts Coordinator
The Arts Faculty Hands on ….. Watercolour workshop facilitated by Catherine Bourn
UNIFORM INFORMATION The Uniform Shop is fully stocked with all winter uniform requirements, ie jumpers, windcheaters, jackets and fleecy track pants. Shop Hours: Tuesday 8:30-9:30am & 10:40-11:05am Thursday 2:45 – 3:30pm You can also download order forms and pay online from our website. Please keep all your uniform receipts as you need these for exchange or refunds. Also, after 1st July you may be eligible to claim on your tax return under the Education Tax Refund. Further details are available from: http://www.educationtaxrefund.gov.au
ARTS NEWS The Heights will be presenting an Arts Week next term in week 4 across all subschools to showcase the arts. We invite the school community to join us in celebrating the Arts. Due to popular demand and after last year’s overwhelming success of “SO YOU THINK YOU MIGHT HAVE TALENT” The SRC again in conjunction with Arts Week will be hosting the Heights own upgraded version of
‘THE HEIGHTS’ GOT TALENT’ Entry is open to any student in the school. This year it will run in 3 sections • The Junior Heights’ Got Talent (Reception – Year 5) • The Heights in the Middle got Talent (Year 6– 9) • The Heights got Talent (year 10-12+)
There two events that are being organised for our parents and friends to share: Our Annual Arts Showcase to be held on Wed 17th August at 6.30 pm in the Performance Space which features a range of items from Arts Week put on by our students from across the three sub-schools. The other is a Cabaret on Friday 19th August starting at 7.30pm in the Performance Space. The Show is being set up in the style of Night Club Cabaret featuring an old scholar band and the staff band
Cabaret Return Notice To help with the organisation of bookings, please fill in the information below and return it to your child’s HG teacher or send the information to alaurina@theheights.sa.edu.au Name ______________________________________________ Student’s name________________________________ Group______________________
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Number of seats.__________ Table request to be seated with_______________________