What a delight it was to have our Year 7, 8 and 12 students join us for face to face learning this week and it was also great to see all of the smiling faces on the screens of our Year 9, 10 and 11 students.  We can’t wait to have all students physically back at school on Monday 14^th February.

I would like to welcome back all students and families returning to Balaklava High School for another year and give an especially warm welcome to our Year 7 and Year 8s and other new students and their families joining us at BHS for the first time.  This is definitely not the start we anticipated for the new school year, however, I would like to thank all of the families and students for their support in making the staggered start as smooth as possible.  We are a cohesive and proud school community and I very much look forward to the time we are all able to be back on the school site together.

Traditionally, Term 1 is action packed with events such as Swimming Carnival, the Year 7/8 Meet and Greet evening and a variety of camps, however most of these have already been cancelled or postponed due to COVID restrictions.  As restrictions change or ease, we will keep you informed of the impact on events throughout the term.

Staffing

As has been the case for the past three years, we have a very small number of new staff joining us, 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 all students.  That said, the arrival of the Year 7s to high school has seen us expand our teaching staff and we are pleased to welcome:  Miss Ashleigh Leonello (Local and Global Perspectives (LGP), Digital Technologies and Home Ec), Mrs Laura Hadley (LGP, HPE) and Miss Eva D’Alboy (French and LGP).  Mr James Mussared and Mr Josh Jenner will return to BHS as full time teachers this year after reducing their time last year.  We are also pleased to welcome Mrs Peta Solomon to the role of Business Manager for Term 1 initially, whilst Ruth Stevens is on long service leave and Mary French, Abbie Tiller and Charmaine Dos Santos who will join us as classroom SSOs.  We have a strong teaching and support staff team with dedicated leaders to continue to move our school forward in 2022 and beyond.

Class of 2021

Congratulations to the Class of 2021 and the success they achieved when results were released in December and again in December/January for those who applied for university.  Our Dux was Matt Mojares who achieved an ATAR of 92.95 (without bonus points).  Matt has been accepted into his first preference university course, a Bachelor of Design (Communication Design) at the University of South Australia.  Matt has also designed our Centenary logo and you can see from this example that he clearly has design skills.  Our proxime accessit (second highest score) was Emily Lemon with Paige Lamond and Madeleine Karklins also achieving in the 80s.  A few statistics from the 2021 results:  100% of eligible students achieved their SACE.  63.3% of all grades in Stage 2 were As and Bs (up from 2020 when we had 49.77%) and 99.41% of all grades in Stage 2 were passing grades.

100% of our students who applied for university received offers in the first round of preferences in courses such as Engineering, Education, Physiotherapy, Agriculture, Social Work, Finance, Business, Arts, Nursing and a variety of Science degrees.  A number of our graduates have also accepted apprenticeships and employment and we anticipate hearing success stories from all of our old scholars 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 that 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 you have a question, need to share information or if you have a concern.  You can contact teachers via email (see the attached list of contact details), Daymap or phone the school on 8862 0600 and leave a message for them to call you back.  The first point of contact should always be the subject teacher for class related matters, the Homegroup teacher for broader concerns or a member of the Leadership Team for more significant issues.  We use emails and text messages as forms of communication with families as well as Daymap, which is a place for parents to access 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 and 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.

Student Free Day

Governing Council has approved a student free day on Friday 11th March (Week 6) for staff to undertake training in the Keeping Safe:  Child Protection Curriculum (KS:CPC).  The KS:CPC is a respectful relationships and child safety curriculum for children and young people from age 3 to Year 12, which provides age and developmentally appropriate strategies to help children and young people keep themselves safe.  There was an update in August last year, in particular focussing on consent and online safety, which all staff need.  This day precedes the Adelaide Cup Public Holiday and will give families a 4 day weekend.  As always, we value your support in these days to ensure our staff have continued access to current professional development.

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 is scheduled for Wednesday 2^nd March 2022 at 7.00 pm.  Traditionally it is held in the Community Library, but it may need to move to an online format this year and we will keep you informed of the format.  Due to the large number of parents who joined Council last year, we only have one vacancy.  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 2021 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 know we’ve had a couple of disrupted school years but I am very much looking forward to a great 2022 and look forward to all it offers.

Sonia Pringle

Principal