It’s hard to believe that we are halfway through the term already and well over halfway through the year.  For the vast majority of our Year 12 students, they have less than a term to go before they complete their secondary studies entirely.  I encourage them to not only continue to put in the effort to finish their subjects but really stretch themselves to go above the minimum of what is required to improve their results.

As always, our school is a hive of activity and our students have access to many outstanding learning and extra-curricular activities at Balaklava High School.  Over the past few weeks our students have had the opportunity to be involved in Science Week, Book Week, an Anti-racism seminar for Year 10 and 11 students, a PPEP (Periods, Pain, Endometriosis Program) Presentation for our Year 10 students, a presentation from the P.A.R.T.Y (Prevent Alcohol and Risk-related Trauma in Youth) Program team for our Year 12 Health and Wellbeing class, a very successful day at the Copper Coast Show wethers comp and the list goes on!  These are a sample of the valuable learning opportunities for our students.

Staffing

We are very sad to say that Middle School Assistant Principal, Michelle Pudney, had her last day at BHS today.  Michelle has been a dynamo in leading the learning in the Middle School, redeveloping the MS structure to what we currently have, as well as being responsible for the smooth transitions of the Year 7s to High School this year.  Michelle has won the position as Deputy Principal at Balaklava Primary School for the remainder of this year.  At this stage, we are unsure if the position will be for any longer or not, so we are not formally farewelling her, just saying goodbye for now.  We wish her well in her new role (and hope she comes back to us!).

We have run a process to replace Michelle and I am pleasede to announce that Ash Parsons will take on the role of Middle School Coordinator for the remainder of the year.  We were unable to replace her as an assistant principal, so we have changed some of the duties of the role which means Lucy Thiel will take on transition responsibilities and Sarah Reusch will lead the Reflection of Learning work.  

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 to highlight what they do.  Our SSOs, Grounds staff and Canteen workers are invaluable and their importance cannot be overstated.  In case you are wondering what they might do, they answer the phones, look after students who are sick, keep our IT up and 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 are responsible for many 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.

Student Free and School Closure Days

As published in a newsletter in Term 1 – a reminder that we have a Student Free Day coming up on the Friday of Week 6 (2nd September) which is followed by a School Closure Day on the Monday of Week 7 (5th September) for the Adelaide Show.  We hope all families enjoy the extended weekend.  On the student free day, staff will be involved in various workshops around cultural awareness and how we can incorporate it in our everyday practice as well as our curriculum.  I thank Josh Jenner for all of his work in preparation for this day.

As always, I am available to speak to parents about any issues or concerns or to discuss any aspect of your 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.  Have an excellent week.

Sonia Pringle

Principal

For those of you who may not know me, my name is Ash Parsons. I have been working at Balaklava High since 2019 in Physical Education, Science and Student Wellbeing. As of Week 6, I will be moving into Michelle Pudney’s role as Middle School Coordinator for the rest of 2022. Having already been involved with many of the middle school students through teaching, wellbeing support and coaching various sports, I am very excited to be working with them more closely and guiding them to a successful end to the school year.  

10-12 Girls Football

The 10-12 Girls Football team were successful in progressing to the second round of the Statewide Schools competition after winning their first round. Back in June the girls competed in the first round of the competition coming away with wins over Thomas More College and Roma Mitchell College in some average winter weather. They played excellent team football and displayed great team first attitude. The second round of the competition was played on Tuesday of Week 1 this term against a much tougher Saint Ignatius College. The Saint Ignatius girls were well structured and experienced through their football program and proved to be too good.

9/10 Girls Netball

Thursday Week 1 saw the 9/10 Girls Netball team travel to Kapunda to compete in the Lower North Zone Netball Carnival. The girls had a great day finishing second overall with convincing wins over Riverton, Burra and Horizon in the first half of the day. After the lunch break the girls took on Clare and in a tight game they came away with a 4 goal win. Next, they played Kapunda who were undefeated all day and unfortunately couldn’t get over the couple goal lead that Kapunda built early in the game and lost the game.

The team which included Emily Curnow (Captain), Chelsea Michalanney, Brooke McArdle, Kasey Battle, Maylea Carpenter, Madison Litzow, Janna Mojares, Jorja Schutt, Lily Tiller, Lucy Pym, Georgia Renton (reserve) and Tess Rana (reserve), displayed excellent skill and sportsmanship.

Big thanks to Ruth Stevens for umpiring and driving the bus.

11/12 Boys and Girls Basketball

On Friday of Week 2, the 11/12 Boys and Girls Basketball teams competed in the Lower North Zone Basketball Carnival at Balaklava Ralli Park. The girls had some competitive matches while the boys had a very successful day where they won all of their matches.

The boys team, which consisted of Jaden Brownlie, Jacob Battle, Spencer Gaze, Beau Warner, Lachlan Michalanney, Kobe Podioton, Nate Veitch, Hunter Lamond, Oska Rana and Ryder Mead, started the day by playing against Riverton and District High School, who they beat by over 10 points. This then set the tone for the rest of the games as the boys went on to beat both Horizon, Clare  and Kapunda, who we knew would be tough, by over 10 points as well.

The boys now go onto play in the State Finals tournament at the Lights Community and Sports Centre today. We wish them luck!

The girls team, which included Jenaya White, Nicola Tiller, Charli Griffiths, Amber Day, Miranda McLean, Alice McArdle and Georgia Renton, had a slow start against Kapunda losing their first game. The girls regrouped for the second game and had a good win against Horizon before coming up against a strong Clare team in the final match and going down by a few points.

A big thank you to Steven Renton, Josh Michael, Dylan Williams and Georgia Renton who umpired the games and to coaches Josh Jenner, Ash Parsons and Jamie Banwell.

Continuing the work we have been doing to support Aboriginal and other minority group students at BHS, last week we hosted Reconciliation SA and Act Now Theatre who delivered the Generation of Change program to our Year 10 and 11 students. Unfortunately, quite a number of the students in these year levels away and missed out on the workshop which looks at how to tackle Racism.

Shaun Childs, Project Officer for Anti-Racism, introducing the day by discussing what racism is and providing the students some examples of it. Following this introduction, Act Now Theatre took over to work with students in small groups to find out what students like and don’t like at school before the theatre acted out scenes of racism where students were given the opportunity to sit in the shoes of those who were being racially vilified and call out the racism. This was really engaging and enjoyable for students, who will be able to take this away and use in their everyday lives.

At the end of the day, students were given the opportunity to talk about racism and where we as a school and society can do better and be more accommodating through group brainstorming sessions. Students were able to give the school quite a lot of ideas of how we can make the school a culturally safe place for everyone to enjoy.

Students and staff who attended enjoyed the day and learnt a lot about racism.

Thank you to Reconciliation SA, Act Now Theatre and the teachers who supported the students for the day.

Josh Jenner

This week we were given the opportunity to attend the Aboriginal Learners Congress with Ms Schubert.

The congress was combined with STEM to look at why Aborginal culture and STEM are so connected, and how we as Aborginal People can have an effect with STEM. At the Congress we were given heaps of different classes that connect wth STEM. We got to learn how to make bush medicine in "the science of healing" class. We also got to look at the physics behind the boomerang and make one of our own. On Friday we visited the Adelaide Zoo and learnt how Abroginal People trapped rock wallabies and kangaroos.

This was an amazing experience and will help open futures for Aboriginal students with their careers and we hope next year more students will be interested in attending this congress.

Georgia Renton & Lily Curry

What a day it was! Book Week celebrated in style at BHS on Wednesday. Both students and staff got in the spirit to celebrate. Thanks to Mrs Nibblett for organising a great week for us. All proceeds from the casual clothes day today are going towards the Make a Wish Foundation.

Students in Car Care have been working hard over the past few weeks. Students have learnt to identify the correct tools to use and to share as we have only been using one toolbox. Students have been working as a team and supporting each other when challenges have been too hard to face on their own.

Our Friday team had finally got to work on the car after getting rained out two weeks in a row and have removed the tappet cover, engine cover and rear wheels and started the process of repainting them.

Our Monday team have been working on refitting the refurbished steering column and ignition barrel, removing the air filter assemblies in both cars and have started removing the tappet cover of the Falcon.

Mr Noack and myself have been so proud of both teams as they have shown great progress and eagerness to learn new skills.

Jamie Banwell

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