Balaklava High School eNewsletter

Building Opening

If we cast our minds back to less than 12 months ago and picture the school landscape, we’d see three old transportable buildings that were placed at the school ‘temporarily’ in the 1960s that, by 2020, were serviceable at best. They really were an eyesore. If we look at that space now we see two large and impressive learning spaces with eight general learning areas, two specialist art rooms and landscaping, which provides an extension to the classrooms with outdoor learning and play areas. We welcomed a number of dignitaries to the opening on 1st June, including The Honourable John Gardner, Minister for Education; The Honourable Geoff Brock, Member for Frome; Mayor Rodney Reid of Wakefield Regional Council; many representatives from the Department for Education, Project Managers, Sensum; Building Managers, Ausco; members of Governing Council and other invited guests. As we were the first modular construction in the state to be officially opened, it was a well-attended and very exciting event.

As a site, we are committed to excellence; therefore, we were happy to provide $50,000 of school funds towards the build to ensure the quality of these facilities. The last piece of the facilities puzzle at BHS is currently underway with a site-funded upgrade of the Home Economics buildings occurring. The building has essentially been gutted and is now being reconstructed with two purpose built classrooms including specialised cooking facilities. With such modern buildings, we are finally in a position to combine our existing contemporary teaching practices with these state of the art facilities, to allow students to excel today to challenge their future. The dedication of our passionate teachers and the creativity of our young people will lead this era of learning at BHS and I can’t wait to see what where graduates of Balaklava High School go after they leave us.

Staffing News

There will be some changes to staffing as the semester and term come to an end. We say farewell to Miss Kym Spartley tomorrow as she embarks on the life-changing journey to motherhood. We look forward to her return at some point next year and we are very pleased to be able to welcome back Miss Hannah Hoepner who will be teaching English and Geography for the remainder of the year.

We also farewell Miss Eva D’Alboy tomorrow and thank her very much for stepping in to cover our French position at very short notice. We have been unable to secure a French teacher for the remainder of the year so we will be using the talents of Mrs Alana Sharman who is already on staff and she is able to teach Spanish. The two Year 8 classes and one Year 9 class who have not done French this semester will become our first Spanish speaking students.

Another teacher who stepped up at very short notice is Mr Adam Collins, who we will farewell on the last day of the term. Adam has taught PE and Performing Arts whilst with us and we thank him for this work and look forward to seeing him back as a TRT. Mrs Sally McArdle will stay with us for Term 3 whilst Mr Jenner is still on leave.

Mrs Sue Pratt will be taking Long Service Leave for the first 4 weeks of next term and we are pleased to welcome Mr AJ Wood back to our staff as he will replace her, teaching Ag during this time.

School Uniform

Finally, a reminder about school uniform. As the cooler weather has arrived, it can be difficult to find warm uniform items quickly but we encourage you to follow our uniform policy. Also, a reminder that, in response to a request from Student Council, Governing Council have recently added grey tracksuit pants to our existing uniform policy. Students are not to wear black tops or pants to school, nor are jeans, leggings or jeggings appropriate. Students are expected to wear a navy or white school polo top, navy bomber jacket, navy rugby top or plain navy hoodie, all of which are available for purchase from TADS. Shorts and trousers are to be navy or grey and trackpants are to be navy or grey with no stripes or large logos. Navy and grey tracksuit pants, with straight leg or cuffs, are available from TADS in Balaklava for under $30 each. If meeting these uniform expectations is a concern for families, I ask you to contact a member of the Leadership team to discuss this.

As always, I encourage 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 also be contacted at the school via Daymap, email Sonia.Pringle235@schools.sa.edu.au or phone 8862 0600 where you can speak to me directly or make a time to come and see me. Have an excellent last two weeks of term (which are also the first two weeks of Semester 2 for students) and enjoy a relaxing break before we come back to school on the 19^th July ready for the start of Term 3.

Sonia Pringle

Principal

On Thursday 10^th June, two Year 9 Geography classes (9UFL1 and 9CIP4) spent time at the Adelaide Zoo. As part of the curriculum, students study Biomes and Interconnections/Tourism and the Zoo is a perfect location to complete our semester’s work. After a few wet days, the animals were excited to see us – Wang Wang was scratching his back then chewing the bamboo, Fu Ni was sound asleep on a rock, the Lions were chasing each other, the baby giraffe was wandering around, snakes in the reptile house were active, the otters were swimming and the goats in the children's zoo were hungry – eating the whole bag of feed including the paper! Students observed the animals, tourism facilities and completed a scavenger hunt.

Thanks to Mr Clark, Mr Parsons and Ms Schubert for coming with us.

Karyn Von-Zieden

The Australian Geography Competition is held each year during Term 1 and this year, 727 schools and over 73,000 students participated. At Balaklava High School, most of our Year 8 students and interested students from other year levels resulted in 78 students completing the challenge.

A participation certificate has been presented to each student which has their results and detailed information on their cognitive processes. Students are also given a copy of the questions booklet to look back at the answers and we encourage them to look at the questions they found challenging so they can improve on their results next year. Special mention is made of the following students that received outstanding results –

Year 8

Sebastien Hughes – Credit
Ashlee Gross – Credit
Brandon Amor – Distinction

Year 9

Bligh Wilson – Credit

Year 11

Madison Carter – Credit
Steven Wade – High Distinction

Karyn Von-Zieden

Geography Teacher and HASS Faculty leader

On Tueday 15^th June, 18 Year 8 and 9 students travelled to Findon to partake in the Newcastle University Science and Engineering Challenge. Students participated in challenges involving power networks, power grids, biomechanical hands, earthquake proof towers, hovercrafts, water turbines and developing their own secret code.

Science and Engineering careers allow students to identify and solve the problems of the world. The teams showcased their critical and creative thinking to identify solutions using limited resources in a short timeframe.

Alana Sharman

Co-ordinator – Math/Numeracy/STEM

This year we are entering the Adelaide Show Merino Wether Competition. Ian Michael from "Nyowee" has been supporting us as we learn the requirements for this competition and a group of keen students have been working with the sheep at lunchtimes. We are very fortunate to have won the Merino SA Scholarship to help establish our place in this competition. We have allocated funds from this to purchase equipment and subsidise the members of Sheep Club to attend the Jamestown Sheep Education Day in July.

Sue Pratt

Agriculture Teacher

2021ACExpo_Flyer.pdf

2021ACExpo_Flyer _pdf 815.50 KB

28th of May is 65 Roses Day, a day to spread awareness about Cystic Fibrosis. Balaklava High School spread awareness this year by holding a casual clothes day where students were encouraged to wear a touch of red, the colour of CF. Year 12 Health students organised the pre-order of some red roses to be delivered anonymously to students and staff. This was supported by students from 9UFL1 with paper roses available for a gold coin donation on the day. Overall we were able to raise just over $400, which has been donated to CFSA. This was a great effort, congratulations to everyone involved.