fun in the autumn sun · nannas/poppas, catch ups with friends and play dates with school mates....

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ARDROSSAN AREA SCHOOL | Newsletter | Wednesday 20th May 2020

Principal’s news

We commenced Week 4 with only 3% of our total enrolment learning from home. This along with the lifting of some restrictions is very pleasing as we are gradually able to return to ‘normal’, including being able to access more services in our local community. It was wonderful to see parents/carers back on-site last week for morning drop off and afternoon pick-up. The reopening of the School Community Library was also welcomed by our community. While restrictions are being eased, it is important to make sure we do not become complacent about the behaviours that have resulted in our state restricting the spread of COVID-19. We continue to maintain good hygiene practices including hand washing and sanitising and staying home if unwell. Again thank you to our school community for your patience, understanding and support.

Whilst we have returned to face to face teaching, we are mindful that we do not ‘waste’ all of the new learning that has occurred over the last few months. As a staff we have reflected on the challenges which the COVID-19 situation presented but importantly on what we have learnt and which aspects we can continue to further develop. We identified increased communication regarding children’s learning and how they learn as being key factors and also development of ICT capabilities. As a starting point we will be continuing to develop the use of TEAMs and Class Dojo to support student learning and communication.

As previously advised, the School Community Library has re-opened with restricted hours: Monday-Friday 3.15pm-4pm and Saturday 9am-12noon. These hours provide community access to the library but also ensure we can continue to use the library for school activities. Social distancing, no more than 8 patrons at a time, use of hand sanitiser, wiping down of computers and maximum 15 minute visits all apply. Thank you to our patrons for following these directions.

Since our last newsletter, two students have joined our school community. We extend a warm welcome to the students and their families; Sophie in Year 10 and Jessi in Reception. This week we also welcomed UniSA pre-service teachers; Amelia in the Reception class, Jorja in the Year 1/2 class, Kaitlyn in the Year 4/5 class and Kate in the 5/6 class.

In staffing news, I am pleased to announce the Mr Ian Jones and Mrs Meagan Elsworthy have both accepted contacts for terms 3 and 4. Mr Jones will continue teaching technical studies as well as implementing a new subject at Stage 1: Design and Technology: Outdoor Construction. Mrs Elsworthy will continue taking the R-3 classes for Health and Physical Education.

Governing Council have approved a Pupil Free Day for Tuesday 9th June. This day will enable staff to continue Formative Assessment Professional Development, in line with our Site Improvement Plan. Please note that this year we will not be holding a School Closure Day. Closure days may be held for events of local significance e.g. Royal Adelaide Show or YP Field Days. As these events will not be held this year, AAS will not have a School Closure Day.

With the change of weather, we have noticed an increasing number of students who are not wearing the required uniform, as supported by the AAS Governing Council. Our Dress Code policy states: The school community believes that the School Dress Code is integral to our school’s identify and will

Develop a sense of pride and belonging in students.

Further develop public recognition of our students.

Ensure a good standard of dress and presentation.

Promotes a positive image of our school.

Support Work, Health and Safety in our school.

In particular, I remind students and families that the following are not part of our Dress Code: black or coloured clothing (other than blue or white), denim jeans, hoodies, non-AAS uniform items with stripes or obvious logos, hats (other than blue broad brimmed or bucket hats). Uniforms are available for purchase at the Front Office and we also have a limited supply of second-hand uniforms available.

With a reduced number of events on our term planner, it has been pleasing to see the way in which the students have re-engaged with their learning this term. While extra-curricular activities certainly add value to students’ learning and wellbeing, having focussed time with fewer interruptions to the school day is really being appreciated after the disrupted end to Term 1.

Another of the positive changes implemented over the last few weeks has been the digital delivery of our newsletter and information to families. We will continue to provide printed copies where requested by families but the digital delivery certainly reduces the printing costs and time and is far more efficient.

Kind regards, Margaret

Margaret Roads

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Leader’s News

R-6 Leader In preparation for learning at home at the end of last term the Junior School purchased extra subscriptions to a variety of online programs that can be used to support learning. The Literacy subscriptions include: PM e-readers (for students reading at Running Records levels), Reading Eggs, Reading Eggspress and Word Flyers; students are using the programs best suited to their individual level. Numeracy programs includes: Maths Seeds (R-2) and Mathletics (3-6). Although the majority of students are now learning onsite, these are still fantastic resources students can be accessing at home if they wish. Please contact your child’s teacher if you require login and password details for your child.

Information about the proposed Year 3-6 camp went home to parents/ caregivers last week. If your child has not yet returned this note please ensure it is returned to school ASAP so that planning and preparation can continue. There will be further information going home next week, once we are able to confirm if we have enough numbers to proceed with the booking.

Kind Regards, Deony Sims

Innovation and Wellbeing Coordinator Week 4 has arrived quickly and I have been extremely proud of how well students have transitioned into learning routines and engaged positively with others. It has been a tough period for many young people and families and it has been lovely to hear over the last few days the many stories from students about their weekend adventures. With recent COVID restrictions lifted over the weekend, it meant lots of families were able to re-engage and connect with loved ones. I’ve heard of visits to Nanna’s/Poppa’s, catch ups with friends and play dates with school mates. For many of us, including myself, these times are treasured now, more than ever. I would like to share a great online resource for families – the Raising Children’s Network. Parents/carers can access a range of free information

and resources for preschoolers, school age, pre-teens and teenagers. Topics presented are diverse and include information on: behaviour, communication and relationships, family life, healthy lifestyle, entertainment and technology, development, mental health and much more. I have particularly enjoyed reading about positive thinking exercises for pre-teens. There are exercises online that support young teens to think more positive about the things that have gone well in their day, but the strategies can be used for any age group. Evidence suggests that people who undertake positive thinking exercises feel happier, are less worried and less sad. From the website, here is a process to help begin on a journey of more positive thinking:

1. Each day for the next week, give yourself 10-15 minutes before you go to sleep to write down three things that went

well and why. This could be something as simple as ‘My son gave me a nice smile this morning’. Or it might be a

major event – for example, ‘I booked our family holiday’.

2. Underneath each thing that went well, write what you did to make it happen. For example, if you put ‘My son gave

me a nice smile today’, you could write, ‘I smiled and he smiled back’.

3. It might feel odd to do this at first, but it gets easier with practice. Try to give it a go for a week. Check your notes at

the end of the week.

4. Share this exercise with family and friends.

For more information-visit the website: https://raisingchildren.net.au/

Also if you are into listening to podcasts or perhaps you are looking for a different audio experience driving, may I suggest

listening to Dr Justin Coulson’s Happy Families podcast episodes. These podcasts are for parents/carers who are looking for

answers but are time restricted. Dr Coulson provides expert advice and simple strategies that claim to lead to positive

results! A few latest episodes include: Helping teens with friendships when they are struggling, unmotivated teens, managing

bedtime as a solo parent, feeling the mum-guilt, time poor families and 8 year olds not into sport. Enjoy.

Kind regards, Cherie Beech

Cherie Beech

Deony Sims

https://raisingchildren.net.au/

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Pastoral Care Worker Introducing the new website: OpenYourWorld.sa.gov.au

Hello parents and caregivers, I want to inform you of this very useful new website called Open Your World. It’s created by our SA Government agency Wellbeing SA to provide many practical suggestions and information on ways to maintain healthy wellbeing under the current coronavirus restrictions by staying active, connected to others and inspired.

There are so many great resources, ideas and links on this website: free work-out videos, virtual visits to museums and art galleries, Fringe and orchestra concerts to stream, gardening and cooking resources, children’s activity ideas, online short-course options, Baby Karaoke (preschooler songs) and loads more… there really is something for everyone. The ambassadors for this website include celebrities like: Andrew ‘Cosi’ Costello, Gavin and Pippa Wanganeen, Maggie Beer, Jane Reilly OAM, and Dr James Mucke (2020 Australian of the year). Key topics covered:

Activities for Children

Arts and culture activities and links (museums, orchestra, Indigenous...)

Building resilience (self-help tools)

Connecting with others

Eating well

Looking after you and your family (mental health)

Nature and the outdoors

Skill development (loads of online short-course options for employment, sporting clubs, community and home skilling)

Staying active (broken into 4 age groups, includes workout videos…)

Volunteering

Check it out at: openyourworld.sa.gov.au - A great way to open up your world and improve your wellbeing. Enjoy! Eric Adams Pastoral Care Worker

Eric Adams

https://openyourworld.sa.gov.au/

https://openyourworld.sa.gov.au/

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Merit Cards – Week 2 Reception Hunter Halford-Webster - for persisting with writing tasks and showing fantastic improvement with letter formation. Eli Linke - For confidently participating in Jolly Phonics tasks and making considerable progress with decoding words. Izaiah Dalakis - For demonstrating confidence and enthusiasm when completing character profiles. Year 1/2 Jye Black - For enthusiastically accepting challenges in Maths. Isaac Pennington - Demonstrating persistence with independent Word Study tasks. Sienna Ryan - Enthusiastically accepting challenges in Maths. Year 3 Peta Bowden - for working well with others in a team. Shaun Harvey-Johnson - for consistently applying himself when working on new tasks. Year 4/5 Daniel Simmie - for an outstanding effort to sustain quality learning at home. Kalirose Simmie - for extending her learning about adaptations with a comprehensive reflection of her recent excursion to the local mangroves. Isabelle Dayman - for an outstanding effort to continue her learning from home to a high standard. Year 5/6 Mikaylah Elsworthy- for contributing to class discussions with increased confidence this term. Lily Colliver- for demonstrating enthusiasm to answer questions and contribute to class discussions during Japanese Open Access lessons.

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Highlights Home Economics In Home Ec, the Year 8 students have been learning about marketing and advertising in the Food and Hospitality industry. They were tasked with designing a Signature Burger for their business and are seen here creating their masterpieces.

The Year 9 students have been completing a unit on Taste the World where they are looking at multicultural cuisines. They are going to use their knowledge to create a pop-up restaurant based on a chosen cuisine in their groups. In these pictures they are practising making Gnocchi which is a traditional Italian dish.

Mother’s Day

The Junior Primary students made special gifts to give to their Mums on Mother’s Day. The Student Leadership Group held a Mother’s Day gift stall, Friday week 2. The proceeds of sales will contribute to the purchase of a new speaker.

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Year 9/10 Woodwork Creations

Dancing Queens and Kings!

The Year 1/2 students have been learning The Nutbush! They are demonstrating their moves with Student Teacher, Jorja Warwick.

Year 1/2 Investigations, Literacy and Numeracy

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From the Sports Desk

The COVID-19 situation has put a bit of a dent in the 2020 school sport programs including the cancellation and postponement of the 2020 YPSSAC and the SYP Interschool carnivals. I am currently awaiting confirmation if the SYP Interschool day will occur later in the year.

With the current restrictions School Sport SA have been running a variety of different initiatives to keep students active and involved in School Sport. Coming up on June 1-8 is the School Sport SA Virtual Cross Country Event. If you would like to know more come and see me, or head to the School Sport SA Facebook page.

In term 1, I was able to secure some further Sporting School Grant Funding. This money has been put to terrific use already with the purchase of 75 basketballs, 2 cricket kits, 20 badminton racquets and a series of new shuttles. This funding has enabled the replacement of some worn out equipment.

This term in HPE: Year 7 and 8 students are completing a Sport Education program using Basketball as their sport. A sport Education program offers students the ability to participate in a series of roles including various coaching roles, team management, refereeing as well as participation in games. The students have been split into three teams and created team names and colours. The teams are; The Eliminators, The Red Devils and Blackside Bombers. The teams participate in a series of ‘minor round’ matches before progressing to a finals series. In Health students have been developing knowledge and understanding about current and prevalent health issues within the local community and redesigning or designing their own health promotion campaign. Later this term, students will commence the SHINE sexual health and relationships program. Look out for more information coming home with your child.

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Year 9 and 10: Year 9 and 10 students have been developing skills in modified half-court basketball. I have seen terrific engagement from all students whilst completing this unit with increased ball control a clear positive! We are about to begin our next practical unit of Badminton – the world’s fastest racquet sport. To accompany this students will begin to develop knowledge and understanding of the biomechanical principals. Currently students are working on developing their knowledge of traditional sports participation and how modifying games for PE programs can increase individual participation. Later this term students will also be commencing the SHINE sexual health and relationship program. Year 11 and 12: Stage 1 and 2 students have been completing a badminton unit. Stage 2 students have been focusing on diagnosing game strategies using skill related data collected from videos. Stage 1 students have been participating in modified versions of badminton to develop their knowledge about modified activities of traditional sports. Stage 2 students will shortly commence a personal improvement task whilst stage 1 students will share their modified activities and we will participate in these during practicals.

Bradley Channon, PE Teacher

Community News

2020 Calendar Dates June 2nd Year 10 immunisations

June 8th Queen’s Birthday Public Holiday

June 9th Student Free Day

June 10th Newsletter publication

June 17th Governing Council meeting via WebEx

June 21st World Music Day

June 22nd – 26th World Wellbeing Week

June 30th Flinders University visit

TBC

July 1st Newsletter publication

July 2nd Reports go home

July 3rd Last day of Term 2. Early dismissal 2pm

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Where are they now?

'Where are they now?' Abbie Hicks - Class of 2013 What year did you finish at AAS? I finished at AAS in 2013 What and where did you study? I’ve recently finished a Bachelor Degree in Exercise and Sports Science at the University of South Australia. I am now currently finishing off a Masters Degree in Clinical Exercise Physiology, at Charles Sturt University, where I will graduate as a Clinical Exercise Physiologist.

Did you always plan this pathway? No, throughout my secondary school years at AAS I always wanted to become a sports scientist for an elite sporting team, with particular interest in American football and AFL. I had always been attracted to the strategic plays within both games and had always had a strong interest in the human body and how we as humans can move and train our bodies to adapt to particular movements. It wasn't until my 2nd year at UniSA where I was lucky enough to become a cadet performance analyst with the Adelaide Crows for a year where I experienced a magnitude of performance analytical tasks at trainings and games. This opportunity exposed me to a variety of challenges which I thoroughly enjoyed and learnt a lot of valuable skills from. During this period I found that I had an interest in clinical practice and medicine and found a greater internal pride in helping a variety of patients with differing acute and chronic injuries and diseases to help manage these. This is what led me to pursue a pathway in the field of exercise and sports science, however down a different avenue than I had envisaged. In roughly 6 months’ time I will graduate as an accredited Clinical Exercise Physiologist. What are your career plans after completing university? After obtaining my Masters Degree I aim to work with people to help them manage their conditions and improve their quality of life through exercise prescription in a clinical setting, either in a private practice or hospital environment. A comment reflecting on your time at AAS? I had attended Ardrossan Area School for my entire schooling (Reception - year 12). AAS enabled me to experience a magnitude of opportunities ranging from leadership roles to inter-school sporting competitions to enabling a wide subject selection in my final years of schooling. AAS was quite a small school when I attended, which allowed for smaller class sizes and more one to one teaching opportunities to deepen core subject understanding. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed my schooling years and am grateful for the experiences and learning opportunities that AAS provided to allow for adaptation to life and tertiary study after school.

fun in the autumn sun · nannas/poppas, catch ups with friends and play dates with school mates....

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