Principal: Phil Fitzsimons 8532 1788 – Chairperson Governing Council: Keith Simmons 0407 396 749

It is through working together, with respect, that we can achieve excellence

Murray Bridge High School

Excellence, Respect and Working Together Tel: 8532 1788 Fax: 8532 5335 Email: dl.0785.info@schools.sa.edu.au Website: www.murraybridgehs.sa.edu.au

From the Principal Phil Fitzsimons

iAwards

Congratulations go out to Digital Technologies Coordinator Steven Barclay and his gifted

IT students who recently won the 2015 State iAwards in the Secondary Student Category.

For over 20 years the iAwards has been recognising and celebrating the achievements and

innovation made in ICT across all areas of the economy.

The iAwards honours a broad range of categories at the cutting edge of technology

innovation and through the Student Domain, celebrates the up and coming innovators of

the future. The iAwards provides the platform to discover, recognise and reward ICT

innovations that have the potential to, or are already significantly impacting the community.

The iAwards are judged by the industry and provide recognition that extends across all

sectors of the digital economy.

As a result of this award the students and Mr Barclay will travel to Melbourne in late

August and attempt to win the National iAward.

Mr Barclay will present his full report on the State iAwards ceremony in the next

newsletter.

EduTECH Conference in Brisbane

Keeping with the theme of Digital Technology a group of leadership and IT staff travelled

to Brisbane recently to attend the 2015 EduTECH Conference. This is the largest

educational gathering in the southern hemisphere.

This conference was thought provoking and brought a number of new ideas/approaches

towards the delivery of 21st century learning through a digital classroom.

All staff that attended the event came away from the conference keen to move the

conversation forward on digital technologies and create new opportunities for students

and staff.

A viewpoint that was shared at the conference by futurist David Price from the UK is that

an estimated 47% of jobs currently in existence today will be automated in 2030.

Alarming as this prediction is, education circles are taking this view seriously and are

looking at strategies to best prepare our students for this future through initiatives such as

STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics). Murray Bridge High is currently

working in collaboration with the tertiary institutions such as University of SA to build

improved learning connections for our students to transition into this new world of

learning.

Student Free Day – Australian Curriculum

Moderation of student work was the key focus of the recent student free day held on 5

June. Teachers within the English, Science, Mathematics and HASS faculties moderated

samples of student work against the Australian Curriculum framework. This activity aims

to ensure the assessment of student work is consistent across these learning areas.

Teachers in the other learning areas used this day to design tasks that meet the

achievement standards.

TERM 2, Week 8 – 15 June 2015

CALENDAR

TERM 2

Tuesday, 16 June

Finance Committee – 4.30pm

Monday, 22 June

Semester 2 begins

Tuesday, 23 June

Parents and Friends – 5.30pm

Governing Council – 7pm

Sunday, 28 June

Arrival of Australian Girls’ Choir

Thursday, 2 July

Youth Opportunities Graduation – 3.30pm

Friday, 3 July

Last day of Term 2 – 2pm dismissal

Transition Evening – 3 June

The transition evening held on 3 June was an

outstanding success with over 200 parents/caregivers

and future students in attendance. The evening

provided a wealth of information as well as an

opportunity to tour the school. I would like to thank

Darren O’Connor and Helen Partridge for

coordinating the evening.

If parents have any feedback from the evening please

feel free to call me at the school or send me an

email at phil.fitzsimons652@schools.sa.edu.au

Student Uniform

Parents/caregivers are reminded to please ensure

their student comes to school with the appropriate

full school uniform every day. Hooded jumpers are

slowly becoming more evident at school recently and

this is not acceptable. These students will be told to

remove their hooded jumpers even on cold days.

Please avoid this situation and ensure responsibility is

taken for the correct uniform. An overwhelming

majority of the students are in correct uniform every

day; however it is not an onerous task to ensure

100% of our students are in correct full school uniform on a daily basis.

Murray Bridge High School Newsletter 15 June 2015

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My Healthy Kitchen Rules! by Ruth Mussger

Students in Year 10 Home Economics were able to showcase

their kitchen and front of house skills in the preparation and

presentation of a meal to invited guests last Wednesday evening.

The challenge was to prepare a delicious, healthy meal with

limited time and budget. Students also needed to consider the

venue and ensure the setting reflected a formal dining situation.

I was really impressed with the collaboration of the teams and

the extra special touches they added to make their meal special

for their invited guests.

Climate Change Sustainability Summit by Kirrily Martin

On Thursday, 28th May, the Year 8 accelerated class were

given the opportunity to attend a Climate Change Youth

Sustainability Summit at Cornerstone College, Mt Barker. This

initiative is funded by the South Australian Murray – Darling

Basin Natural Resources Management Board through the

NRM levy.

The purpose of the summit was to increase student

understanding of climate change and in particular, its impact

in our local area. Students were lucky enough to hear from

inspiring speaker, Ian Tooley, who trained as an Al Gore

climate change presenter. They also heard from a number of

local experts on the impacts of climate change for the

Coorong and Lower Lakes.

Throughout the day, students participated in hands-on

activities lead by experts that helped them to develop new

skills to combat climate change and live more sustainably.

Our students worked collaboratively with presenters and

students from a number of surrounding secondary schools,

upholding our school values to a very high standard. At the

conclusion of the day, all students had an increased

understanding of not only the causes of climate change, but

how they as individuals, can make a difference and reduce carbon emissions.

Student Principal for a Day by Phea-Jae Gage and Shaun Tyas

On the 11th of June, Shaun Tyas and I became Student Principals

for the day. This meant stepping into the role of the Principal,

and following him around for the day, attending all his meetings

and dressing up formally. The day’s events were met with

excitement as Shaun and I attended various meetings with Mr

Fitzsimons and also had time between meetings to visit

classrooms. One of the meetings was three hours long! After

lunch we attended a 2 hour Partnership Executive meeting at

the Murraylands Education Office before the day ended. Once

the day ended we hung up our student principal badges and

went home. Overall the day was fun and it gave us some insight

into what Mr. Fitzsimons’ day is like. Phea-Jae Gage

On Thursday 11 June, Phea-Jae and I did the Principal for a day

program. The day consisted of a phone call to a Principal in the

United States, a meeting with a teacher, a meeting with the

Principal’s Secretary, Ms Watkins, we also went around to

classrooms and had a look at how other teachers teach their

classes. During lunch time we had a yard duty and yard clean up

Phea-Jae and I picked up a little bit and helped shuffle some

students to class. After lunch we went to the Education Office

for one last meeting for the day with us both. We finished at

the end of normal school time because we both had after school

commitments.

My highlight of the day would definitely have to be the meeting

with the architects for future school developments. I thoroughly

enjoyed the day and would do it again if I had the chance.

Shaun Tyas

Shaun and Phea-Jae enjoyed sitting in the Principal’s seat for a day.

Murray Bridge High School Newsletter 15 June 2015

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Aboriginal Power Cup 2015 by Miranda Mulder

On Wednesday, 3rd of June, the Murray Bridge High School

SAASTA team departed for the Aboriginal Power Cup.

Both the girls’ and boys’ team played 9 games of football

over the two day carnival which was held at Alberton Oval.

The students participated in a Career Workshop on the

Thursday, creating a team painting and Cultural Dance

rehearsal on Friday. This dance was performed by all

students before the AFL game on Saturday night. The

Murray Bridge High School team won second prize for their

painting.

The grand final was played as a curtain raiser for the Port

Power vs Western Bulldogs game on Saturday night.

Unfortunately our teams didn’t make it this year, though 8

Murray Bridge High School girls were able to fill in for the

teams who were selected to play. The boys’ team won the

‘Solid’ award for showing excellent team spirit and

sportsmanship at the carnival and the Murray Bridge High

School SAASTA staff were awarded with the ‘Staff

Leadership’ award. Overall it was a fun and successful carnival.

Students perform at Reconciliation

Breakfast By Hannah Smith and Sophie Meers

On Tuesday, 2 June people travelled from far and wide to

celebrate Reconciliation Week in Murray Bridge at a

community breakfast.

Held at Edwards Square, visitors arrived from Raukkan, Berri

and Meningie to spend time having a free breakfast and

activities with family. Sophie Meers and I (Hannah Smith)

had the great opportunity to perform at the educational

event. We performed 4 songs. Even though it was the

coldest morning Murray Bridge had in a very long time and

our hands were about to get frost bite, we still really

enjoyed performing and representing Murray Bridge High

School for such an important event.

Murray Bridge High School Newsletter 15 June 2015

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Open Girls Knockout Netball by Lucinda Howell

On Tuesday, 2 June we played

Open Girls netball at Unity

College. As a team, we

played three 12 minute halved

games over the course of the

day. Our first game was

against the Unity College girls.

It was a fight for the finish all throughout the course of the game

with the High School winning by 6 goals. In the second game

we were up against Keith. This game was a little bit easier than

the first but their team still put up a great competition. Murray

Bridge High coming out on top once again winning by 14 goals.

For the last game we played the Upper South East group of girls.

In the first quarter, the high school took a great lead but in the

second Upper South East came back fighting. Sadly for them it

wasn’t strong enough to beat our Murray Bridge High School

team with the high school girls coming out on top by over 20

goals. Over the course of the day, our MBHS netball team came

home undefeated. We would like to thank Kate Flood for

umpiring us throughout the day and the parents who came to

support us and scored.

We look forward to a successful second round at Willunga.

Year8/9 Knock Out Netball by Helen Partridge and Emily Adams

Murray Bridge High

School entered a team

into the Year 8/9 Girls

Knockout Netball

competition held at

Cornerstone College

playing against Heathfield

High and Cornerstone.

Leading up to the competition, various trials were held to select

the team as over 30 Year 8/9 girls tried out. The team of 9

girls was selected and were eager to begin the competition.

The first game against Heathfield High was played with high

intensity from both sides. MBHS took some time to settle and

by half time they were 10 goals down. In the third quarter,

MBHS worked well together and bought the margin back to 7.

Heading into the last quarter, the girls moved the ball well

down the court and accurately shot where they got within 3

goals. Unfortunately they lost the game but proved to be a

great team once they were settled with accurate passing and

shooting. The second game against Cornerstone allowed the

girls to all have time on the court. Unfortunately they were

unsuccessful in this game losing by 14 goals but all enjoyed

playing the game in high spirit.

Special thank you to Year 11 student Lucinda Howell for

umpiring both games and for the parents who came to support

the team as well as score.

Roper Road Farm Update by Serena Werner

It takes skill to teach rams and steers how to behave in a show

setting and a group of Year 12 students is hoping its efforts will

shine at this year’s Royal Adelaide Show.

Murray Bridge High School’s Agriculture course is offered as an

elective for all students in Years 8-12 who are interested in

learning more about working on a farm.

The school has a farm setting that allows students to take part

in experiences such as planting potatoes and other vegetables,

looking after baby chicks, assessing rams for breeding purposes,

learning about pasture and cell grazing or running scientific

investigations. Each year level is involved in something different

but what all the activities have in common is not just the hands-

on experience but the links to Maths and Science.

Year 12 students can study Agriculture for the full year and

students in Years 10-12 can enter the Show, which this year

runs from September 4-13.

The steers are entering the ‘led

steer’ competition so they need

to meet markets specifications for

the carcass. The students are

feeding the steers twice a day and

are breaking them in so they can

be led in the Show.

The Year 12s are taking the steers, the Year 11s take merino

wether lambs and one steer and the Year 10s are taking white

Suffolk stud ewes and rams.

Agriculture is a hands-on subject that students enjoy because it

is relevant and teaches them where our food comes from, while

also teaching the Maths and Science behind the Agriculture.

The students are quite engaged in what they are doing because

our farm is a real farm. We have a tunnel house for vegetable production. We are always busy producing food.

Murray Bridge High School Newsletter 15 June 2015

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Murraylands Music Workshop by Ben Wohfeil

and Darcy Kleinig, Year 8 Advanced Music students

On Thursday, 4th of June, the Year 8 Advanced Music class

attended a music workshop with Alan Geddie at Murray Bridge

North Primary School. Other schools that attended were

Coomandook Area School, Meningie Area School, Mypolonga

Primary School, Murray Bridge South Primary School and

Murray Bridge North School.

The students formed two separate bands, the Junior Band and

the Murraylands Concert Band. Both bands had the challenge

of learning music they had only seen on that day. The

Murraylands Band learnt 3 songs, ‘the Spook’, ‘Freaky Fantasy’

and ‘Drummania’. The Junior Band learnt ‘Lets Rock’ and the

‘Mickey Mouse March’.

After each band had learnt their pieces, they came together to

play ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ by Pink Floyd, by memory.

After lunch the Murray Bridge North School students arrived

for the performance. The performance went really well and

once it was all done, we packed up and went back to school.

The day was incredibly enjoyable.

Trade Training Centre Update by Greg Fulwood

Doorways to Construction

The finishing touches are progressing to the major project in the

Murray Building foyer area. The trainees can be seen painting

with rollers on one side of the room whilst another “cuts in” on

the other side. The plaster board covering the old doorway

needs to have edging applied to stop damage to the soft edges of

the board prior to being painted.

Electro-Technology

A project coming up in a week or so will see the trainees building

trailer wiring simulators. The one shown will send all car like

signals to the 7 pin socket which will have a 7 pin plug inserted

and then connect with another board which will have tail lights,

brake lights and all other components seen on the rear of a trailer

or caravan.

The photo below indicates a trainee trying to figure out how to

get all the components for a stereo speaker system he has built

into the white tube shown in front of the components. He has

followed the wiring diagram and finally tested the finished article

proving it works prior to fixing it into the tube with a speaker at each end.

Murray Bridge High School Newsletter 15 June 2015

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Murray Bridge High School Newsletter 15 June 2015

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