The world in which we live is complex and ever changing as the pandemic continues to throw challenges at us.  Our recent lockdown has prompted me to look at some self-care strategies for all of us.

Kids Helpline tells us self-care is about meeting our basic needs so we can be physically and mentally healthy.  When we feel stressed, overwhelmed or burnt out, we can start to neglect the basics of looking after ourselves.  Our nutrition, movement and sleep health all affect our brain and mental health.  Sometimes, the term ‘self-care’ is misused to describe things you might buy - like a manicure or a smoothie.  Whilst these things are often pleasant, they don’t necessarily add up to self-care.

Nutrition is very important for brain health and mental health and we can only get nutrients from food.  Our brain needs a lot of energy to function.  In fact, 20% of the nutrients we eat are used by our brain as energy.  Of the many reasons healthy eating is important for your brain, one is that nutrition plays a key role in the production of serotonin in your brain.  Serotonin is an important neurotransmitter (chemical messenger) for regulating your moods and eating the right foods play a key role in preventing and treating mental health issues.

Movement – did you know that 9 out of every 10 young people in Australia don’t move enough?  Young people should do at least 60 minutes of exercise every day for optimal health.  You need to work out what’s right for you but you could try – playing sport, dancing, swimming, walking the dog, doing an at-home workout, riding a bike or walking to your destination.

Sleep and rest – adolescents need about 8-10 hours of sleep each night, which can be harder to get than it sounds, because the body clocks of teenagers and young adults naturally keep them up later at night and make them want to sleep until mid-morning.  Sleep is only one type of rest we need – there are also many others including physical rest (lounging on the couch, deep breathing, stretching, relaxation), mental rest (mindfulness, meditation, escapism such as gaming or reading) and sensory rest (silence, being in nature, turning off all screens).

Support Staff Week

This week is Support Staff Week, which provides an opportunity for us to appreciate the people we have in these important roles and highlight what they do.  In case you are wondering what they do, they answer the phones, look after students who are sick, keep our IT running, support students with their learning, keep the finances in order, organise the Science lab, provide support in the library, maintain our grounds to look amazing and a million other things that would take me all day to write.  The short version is, they help do all of the things we need to keep the school running and we genuinely could not function without them.  We are thankful for the high quality operators we have at our school.

Staffing Update

Miss Kimberly Walker has been appointed to our Wellbeing Senior Leader position for the next (not quite) 12 months to backfill the position behind Lucy Thiel whilst she is on maternity leave.  Kimberly is a BHS graduate and currently works at Avenues College.  Kimberly has some commitments at her current school, including going on Op Flinders this week, so she will start here on Thursday 26th August.  We are very pleased to welcome her and her experience to this wellbeing role.

Mrs Laura Hadley has been appointed to BHS in a permanent teaching position from next year.  Laura has been in a leadership role at Burra Community School for a number of years and she brings a wealth of knowledge with her, specifically relating to Year 7s.  She will play a key role in our new middle school structure and we look forward to benefiting from her expertise.

Miss Anthea Papagiannis has now won a 5 year leadership position at Parafield Gardens HS, which means she will not return to us.  We suspected this might happen when Miss P left us earlier in the year and it has now been confirmed.  We had to put in a short term solution of teaching Spanish this year as we could not get a French teacher and we had a Spanish speaking teacher on staff but we hope to reintroduce French to BHS next year.

Student Free Days and School Closure Day

Governing Council has approved the following student free days and school closure day, as well as cancelling one planned for next week.  Please update your diaries accordingly.

Cancelled Student Free Day

Tuesday Week 6 Term 2, 24th August

New Student Free Days

• Friday Week 7 Term 3, 3rd September
• Monday Week 3 Term 4, 25th October
• Friday Week 6 Term 4, 19th November

School Closure Day

• Monday Week 8 Term 3, 6th September

It’s hard to believe that there are only 5 weeks of this term to go but we look forward to packing those five weeks full of learning opportunities.  As always, I am available to speak to parents about any issues or concerns or to discuss any aspect of their child’s learning.  I can 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.

Sonia Pringle

Principal

Performing Arts is always busy in classes, rehearsing and preparing for performances. Despite COVID restrictions and the recent lockdown, we have been able to continue to work and create Music and Drama following strict COVID protocols. I hope you enjoy reading what the Performing Arts students have been up to.

Year 12 Drama

We are into the final stretch of Year 12 and the Drama students only have one assessment task to complete! After studying the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, they have been tasked in creating their own group interpretation of it. As a result they are working together to create a short film. To do this they have been working to modernise the language and the context of the story Macbeth as well as working on writing the script for this. For the Year 12s this is their external assessment and is the equivalent of their exam for Drama.

Year 8 Performing Arts

As the Year 8s have not been able to start their rock band unit this term they have started building skills around instruments. The standard instruments for a rock band are ukulele/guitar, piano and drums. Year 8 students need to demonstrate certain skills on all of these instruments. After they have learnt these skills they get a chance to put them into practice, forming groups and playing as a rock band. With some students flying through these skills they have now started rehearsing with the groups.

Year 10 Music

The Year 10s have started Music this semester and hit the ground running. Part of the assessment for Music is to deliver a solo performance on an instrument. In this group of Year 10s there is a wide variety of instruments played, including flute, piano, guitar, drums and voice. They have also started their first major assessment, to describe Sonata Form, a structure of music without using music. This has led to cross curriculum learning with students using subjects like Agriculture, Technical Studies and Home Economics to name a few. This project is coming along smoothly and we will be able to show you the results in the next newsletter.

Suriya Umapathysivam

Year 9 Assembly

On the 16th of August, Miss U’s homegroup organised the first Year 9 assembly, held in the Performing Arts building. Everyone in 9UFL1 participated with different roles. It offered an experience to improve our public speaking and organisational skills. The assembly was a success, the audience was well behaved and very receptive. A music performance done by Bligh Wilson on the piano was very pleasant. The assembly concluded with a fiery ending of a science practical, conducted by two students, that involved tasting different coloured chillies. The students experienced the true spice of chillies all in the name of science.

Althea Podiotan

Seussical

Rehearsals for Seussical have officially begun! Alex Evans and Leyla Jacobson have already rehearsed the song Alone in the Universe, Ella Taylor has begun learning The One Feather Tail of Miss Gertrude McFuzz and All for You, Taylor White has started learning Amayzing Mayzie, and Leyla has also started learning It’s Possible. The chorus have also begun learning the opening song Oh, The Thinks You Can Think! alongside Miss U. The cast and crew of Seussical are excited to be a part of this show, and cannot wait to be able to perform early next term.

Leyla Jacobson

Year 8 & 9 Girls Football

Year 8 & 9 Netball

Open Boys Football State Final

On Tuesday the 17^th of August the Open Boys Football team played in the Pool C Statewide Grand Final against Hallett Cove School at Woodville Oval. Dressed in Woodville West Torrens guernseys due to a uniform clash with HCS, the boys started well and had a two-goal lead at half time. Hallett Cove fought back strongly in the second half, outscoring us 6 goals to 4 to take the game by 1 point.

Final scores:

BHS 2.3 | 5.3 | 8.4 | 9.5

HCS 1.1 | 3.4 | 7.5 | 9.6

Commiserations to the team and coach, Mr Parsons. Thank you to Tiarhn Carpenter and Amber Pratt for their assistance on the day and all the parents and family members that can to cheer the boys on.

 

8/9 Boys Football Round 2 Match

The 8/9 Boys Football team competed in the Round 2 Match against Clare High School and Port Augusta Secondary School on Wednesday the 18^th of August at Crystal Brook Oval. Up against some tough competition, the boys came away with a win against Port Augusta and a loss against Clare. Well done to Mr Parsons, Coach and Mrs Pudney, Team Manager Extraordinaire. Thanks to Lachlan Groth, Macauley Smith, Lachlan Michalanney and Maylea Carpenter for helping with umpiring and official duties on the day.

Merino Wethers Competition
Despite the cancellation of the Adelaide Show, we are very pleased that the Merino Wether Competition is still going ahead. The Sheep Club students have been working with the wethers regularly and have them ready to go for judging in the first week of September. This week we will select the top three wethers for the final team with guidance from our industry mentor Ian Michael. Pictured are some of the Sheep Club members presenting the six wethers.
Sue Pratt
Ag teacher

Every term, a bus meeting is held with Spencer Gulf Coaches and Link SA, it was pleasing to hear that all high school students are complying with wearing masks to and from school. We would like to thank our students for wearing their masks, to help keep our community safe.

Each school bus now has a QR displayed for all students 12 years and over to check-in. If someone in South Australia tests positive to COVID-19, the COVID SAfe Check-In enables SA Health to quickly contact others who may have been exposed to the virus and stop the spread of COVID-19.

COVID SAfe Check-In is a feature that has been added to the free mySA GOV app. Students 12 years and over are encouraged to use the COVID SAfe Check-In and scan when using the bus.

Michelle Pudney

As part of our transition program, past students return to their primary schools to talk about their experiences of starting high school and share some of their work. Bella Griffiths and Elleanore Bowden visited Port Wakefield Primary School to speak to the current Year 6 and 7s. Bella and Elleanore were well prepared with a speech each and proudly displayed the mobile phone holders made in Tech Studies.

At Balaklava High School sanitary products for students are available free of charge, in an emergency or to reduce the barriers which some students experience to their learning. 

After consultation with our students, these products are available through  

• Front Office
• Sick Room
• Wellbeing Leader's office
• ELH 

For further support and information about this please contact the Senior Leader Health and Wellbeing