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

Term 1 is our busiest time of the year for School Sport carnivals and tournaments with the first event being our annual School Swimming Carnival held on Tuesday the 4th of February (Week 2). A program of events can be found in the newsletter. An information letter was sent home to families earlier this week detailing some of the changes that will be in place for our carnival this year, a copy of this letter can also be found in this edition of the newsletter. The tear-off slip at the bottom of the letter is for parents/caregivers to indicate their availability for timekeeping. If students have not nominated for an event, a novelty or to volunteer on the day, a modified education program will run at school for them. Students from Year 11 and 12 who come to school that day will have a supervised study day and students from Years 8-10 will have Literacy, Numeracy and Wellbeing focused lessons.

Student Council will be running a BBQ and selling cans of drink and the school canteen will have a range of food and drinks available for students to purchase at the pool. Students are also able to order their lunch from the school canteen on QKR and have it delivered to the pool or they can choose to bring their lunch from home.

Students selected in the Interschool Swimming Team will also be offered the opportunity to compete in the School Sport SA Secondary Swimming Championship at the SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre as an individual entry. The Individual Day will be held on Monday the 24th of February, please contact Miss Schahinger for further information if you are interested in competing.

Students are encouraged to wear their house colours to the Swimming Carnival. House coloured polo tops can be purchased and personalized from Tads Embroidery, please contact Alison Schahinger for further information. Families are also invited and encouraged to attend our School Swimming Carnival.

Important Sports Dates

• Tuesday Week 2, 4^th of February – BHS Swimming Carnival, 8:45 am – 3:15 pm @ Balaklava Swimming Pool
• Monday Week 4, 17^th of February – Lower North Interschool Swimming Carnival, 5:30 pm – 9 pm @ Riverton Swimming Pool
• Monday Week 5, 24^th of February - School Sport SA Secondary Swimming Championship, 9 am – 2:30 pm @ SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre
• Friday Week 6, 6^th of March – BHS Athletics Carnival, 8:45 am – 3:15 pm @ Balaklava High School
• Thursday Week 8, 19^th of March – Lower North Interschool Athletics Carnival, 9 am – 2:30 pm @ Burra Community School
• Friday Week 10, 3^rd of April – School Sport SA Secondary Athletics Championship, 9 am – 2:30 pm @ SA Athletics Stadium
• Date TBA (before Wednesday Week 5) - Open Boys Knockout Cricket

I would like to thank the staff and students at Balaklava High School for such a warm welcome into your community. A little about myself, I am married with two primary school aged children and I am based in Auburn. As a family we love to travel and enjoy the outdoors and we are looking forward to joining our local football and netball club.

I am incredibly proud to be the new Middle School Assistant Principal of Balaklava High School and we are all looking forward to a successful, productive and fun 2020.  It is with great pleasure that we welcome our new Year 8s and returning Year 9s and their families to the 2020 school year. Our Year 8 students have settled in well and have managed to negotiate their way around their new exciting timetable. During this first week I have had many students come up and talk with me in the yard, sharing stories about primary school and telling me a little bit about themselves. It is great to see our students display great manners and are keen to build positive relationships with their teachers and peers. I look forward to getting know more about my students, their families, staff and the Balaklava community within my role.

Michelle Pudney

Assistant Principal

Specialist Music Application forms have been distributed to all interested students and classes will be assigned ready to start on Monday of Week 2.  If your child missed out on a form for any reason they can collect one from the Front Office or the Performing Arts Building.  Please contact me if you have any questions.  All new students are very welcome.

Vocal Ensemble Auditions will be on Monday lunchtime with a meeting on Friday lunchtime to help students prepare.

Miss Umapathysivam and I have some great plans for the year ahead in Music.  We look forward to sharing it with you!

Mrs Melanie Evans (Specialist Music Teacher)

UPDATED ADVICE!

We would like to underline the importance of following this advice and alert you to the new national information hotline 1800 020 080.

The updated advice from SA Health is effective from Saturday 1 February 2020:

• Children or staff who travelled to mainland China must isolate themselves in their home for 14 days after leaving mainland China if they left mainland China on or after 1 February 2020.
• Children or staff who have been in close contact with a confirmed case must isolate themselves in their homes for 14 days after last contact.
• Children or staff who have returned from Hubei Province, China must isolate themselves in their home for 14 days after leaving Hubei Province.
• Staff and students in these circumstances must not attend schools, preschools or early childhood centres and should not engage with other students.

Symptoms may include fever, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue and sore throat. People with these symptoms who have travelled to China or have had close contact with a confirmed case should see a doctor or attend a hospital and call ahead so they can prepare.

 We will keep you updated if new information becomes available