Welcome back to all students and families returning to Balaklava High School for another year and an especially warm welcome to our Year 8s and other new students and their families joining BHS for the first time.  2020 has such a great ring to it that I know it’s going to be a good year and I’m very excited to see what it has in store for us as a school community.  Our physical landscape is continuing to change and there are more building works and other upgrades and improvements to our grounds that will occur this year.  We were pleased to come back to school after the holidays to see our new school sign had been installed and we are extremely pleased to have received grant funding of $4 million from the State Government’s $1.3 billion Education Capital Works Program, which will allow us to remove and replace the last three transportable buildings on our site.  The new facilities will be built off site at the old Holden Factory in Elizabeth and brought by trucks to the school.  This means we are only expecting one term of disruption in Term 3 with the old buildings going in the July holidays and the new one to be operational from Day 1 Term 4.  As soon as I am able to, I will share the plans for this new build.

Term 1 is an action packed one with many events starting with the Swimming Carnival (which has returned to a full day competition this year), Year 8 and Student Council camps, the Year 8 Meet and Greet evening and the Student Council and House Captain Induction Ceremony all in the first three weeks!  I look forward to seeing you at some of these events and having the opportunity to chat with you.

Staffing

We have a very small number of new staff joining us at this year, which is excellent for consistency and shows a desire for staff to stay at BHS and continue the work we have started in strengthening relationships and working towards individual success for students.  I welcome the following new, and returning, staff members and wish them well for their time at Balaklava High School.  I look forward to the considerable knowledge, skills and experiences they bring with them:

Michelle Pudney (Middle School Assistant Principal)

Colleen Lowe (Student Engagement Coordinator)

Rosemary Goode (Vocational Education Coordinator)

Josh Jenner (PE/English/AET)

Lucy Sutton (Front Office)

Our Leadership Team looks slightly different this year with some restructuring as we no longer have a Deputy Principal position.  We have decided to have two Assistant Principals instead; one responsible for the Middle School – Years 8 and 9 (Michelle Pudney) and one responsible for the Senior School- Years 10, 11 and 12 (Carena Brookes).  These new roles allow for strong relationships and more individualised case management to occur.

Class of 2019

Congratulations to the Class of 2019 and the success they achieved when results were released in December and again in January for those who applied for university.  Our Dux was Blake Guerin who achieved an ATAR of 82.5 and has been accepted into his first preference university course, a double degree in a Bachelor of Laws (Honours).  100% of our 35 Year 12 students achieved their SACE and 92% of our students who applied for university received offers in the first round of preferences in courses such as Nursing, Aviation, Exercise and Sport Science, Early Childhood Education, Business and Finance.  100% of our students received passing grades for all of their subjects.  A number of our graduates have also accepted apprenticeships and employment and we anticipate hearing success stories from all of our graduates as they continue with the next step of their lives.

Communication

I have many beliefs about education and one of the most fundamental is my belief in the importance of the relationship between teacher, parent and young person for student success.  As a parent I know that no one cares for our children like we do so it is vital we are active participants in our children’s education.  Communication is one of the key pillars of success in schooling and I encourage parents to contact teachers directly if they have a question, need to share information or have a concern.  You can contact them via Daymap or phone the school on 8862 0600 and leave a message for them to call you back.  The first point of call should always be the subject teacher fro class related matters, the Homegroup teacher for broader concerns or a member of the Leadership Team for more significant issues.  Daymap is a place for parents to access crucial information including feedback on student work, absences, homework and other school related tasks and I encourage you to access the Parent Portal regularly.  There are instructions on how to do this later in the newsletter or you can contact the Front Office if you have any issues with access.  Another form of communication is through social media and I invite all students and their families to like us on Facebook to keep up-to-date with school events and information.

Governing Council AGM

The Governing Council is an important component of the school’s decision-making and consultative processes and it provides an opportunity for parents to be more strongly involved in school operations and to gain a deeper understanding of how the school functions.  Our Governing Council’s AGM will take place on Wednesday 4^th March 2020 at 7.00 pm in the Community Library.  The majority of our councillors started their two year tenures last year, therefore we only have once vacancy this year.  Please consider nominating, or renominating, for Council, which has a crucial role in ensuring that the school is meeting the educational needs of the community.  There is a nomination slip for Governing Council in this newsletter or you can access one by contacting the Front Office.  Even if you are not considering nominating for Council, I encourage you to come along to the AGM, where we will present the Annual Report on the 2019 school year.

As always, I invite parents to contact me at the school with any issues or concerns or if you would like to discuss any aspect of your child’s learning.  I can be contacted via Daymap or email Sonia.Pringle235@schools.sa.edu.au or you can phone the School on 8862 0600 to speak to me directly or to make a time to come and see me.  I’m looking forward to a great 2020 and I hope to catch up with as many of you as possible throughout the year.

Sonia Pringle