Term 4 | Week 8 | 8 December 2017

Principal’s WelcomeAs we approach the end of the 2017 school year, I would like to thank our families for their ongoing support of student learning and of our school. Blackwood High School staff have a strong commitment to building positive relationships with families to enhance student learning, wellbeing and achievement. We recognise and acknowledge the importance of this relationship to support not only individual student learning but to inform school decision making and school improvements. Thank you to the many families who have attended school meetings and events across the year including parent meetings, school performances, co-curricular opportunities, assemblies and celebrations. A special thank you to the following parents who, as members of the Governing Council, have admirably represented the whole school community in school decision making for the betterment of the Blackwood High School community.• Jenny Blenkinsop • Bertram Ostendorf• Michael Clark • Michael Shanahan• Di Edwards • Sarah Tucker• Helen Keen • Jacinta Walton• Conny Meyer

It has been an extremely busy year with many wonderful learning and co-curricular opportunities for students. Across the year we have acknowledged and celebrated a range of achievements including regular attendance at school, endeavour, demonstration of school values, academic and co- curricular awards and recognition of service to the school and community. Thank you to our students for their commitment to learning and the efforts they have made to achieve their personal best.

Also, I would like to acknowledge and thank our wonderful staff who have worked tirelessly across the year to support student learning and wellbeing. We are very fortunate to have a highly professional and dedicated staff who care very much about the students, their learning and their future. On behalf of the school community, thank you.

There are a number of staff we will farewell at the end of the year. Many of these staff have been in contract positions across the year and have been highly valued members of staff. Farewell and thank you to:• Rachelle De Fazio • Toni Mayer• Hala Fabbian • Ben Phillips• Alex Flynn • Bianca Reddy• Adrienne Kajewski • Adeline Reiter• OIiver Garrett • Marie Vovos• Matthew Loan • John Whitehorn

We also farewell the following staff who have won positions in other schools:• Alex Flynn - ongoing art teaching position at

Yorketown Area School.• Cassie Dickeson - Assistant Principal, 8-12 Student

Wellbeing and Middle School Innovation, at Aberfoyle Park High School.

• Jason Gleeson - Leader of Humanities and LOTE at Seaview High School.

David Garrett, Deputy Principal, has won the position of Principal at Loxton High School. David has established many positive relationships with students, families and the Blackwood community over the last 5 years. David is passionate about student wellbeing and has been instrumental in infusing Positive Education into Blackwood High School, a legacy he will leave with us. We wish David the very best in his new role and location.

Finally, thank you to students, staff and families for welcoming me to the Blackwood High School community. I have had a wonderful 3 terms and look forward to working with the school community in 2018.

On behalf of the school staff we wish all students and families a happy Christmas and all the best for the New Year.

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Key Dates for 2018

The 2018 school year commences on Monday 29 January for Years 8 to 12.Support staff return on 15 January 2018

2018 Student Free Days approved by the Governing Council are:• Friday 9 March• Tuesday 12 June• Monday 23 July• Friday 31 August

The School Closure Show Day has been approved for Monday 3 September.

All of our 788 families were posted home information and voting slips regarding the 2018 Material and Services Charge legally recoverable. Thank you to all the 83 families who returned their votes. The results were overwhelming in favour of making our Material and Service 2018 legally recoverable.

Helen Keen, Chair of Governing Council

School UniformAt Blackwood High School it is an expectation that students wear school uniform. The School Uniform policy was developed by the school community and is supported and endorsed by the Governing Council, parents/caregivers, staff and students.

I ask that families ensure that their children are organised with their school uniform items in readiness for the 2018 school year. Details regarding the school uniform requirements can be found on the school’s website. If families have questions or concerns about these requirements or require support, please contact the school.

While many reputable shoe retailers sell products that meet our uniform requirements, one company has provided information that might be useful to parents. Please refer to information on page 15 of this newsletter.

Parental support in ensuring all students meet the uniform requirements will ensure a consistent and successful implementation of this policy.

Devon Uniform shop details:84 Daws Road, Edwardstown Blackwood Primary SchoolMonday - Friday 9am to 5pm Monday 8:15 to 9:15amSaturday 9am to 12pm Wednesday 12:45 to 1:30pm Friday 8:15 to 9:15am and 3:00 to 3:45pm2018 Timetable DevelopmentConstructing a timetable in a large secondary school is a complex process which begins with the course counselling process in Term 3. Based on student subject selection, class sizes are reviewed for viability. In consultation with curriculum leaders, decisions are made as to which subjects can proceed and often a range of options are explored to enable viability. This may include combining classes within and across year levels, working with neighbouring schools to deliver a particular subject/learning pathway - such a precedent already exists through the delivery of VET programs across schools in the Inner South Curriculum Alliance, of which Blackwood High School is a member - and enrolling in Open Access programs.

Every year this process can impact on different subjects, particularly in the Senior School. Parents/caregivers and students, in general, have been supportive and sympathetic to the situation and we have openly negotiated with them to ensure appropriate curriculum pathways for students.

A recent article in the Advertiser indicated that the Year 12 Dance program at Blackwood High School was to be ‘axed’. This was never the case. With a very small cohort of students choosing Stage 2 Dance for 2018, the school explored a number of alternative options to maintain the students’ learning program with consideration given to the impact on student learning and wellbeing. As it was not possible to achieve a seamless approach for all students, a decision has been made to run Stage 2 Dance at Blackwood High School in 2018.

Sharon Goldman, Principal

Material and Service Charge Poll

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The Certificate III Dance students undertook a challenging group project as part of their dance studies, by successfully designing and redecorating a feature wall in the dance studio as well as completing a photo wall highlighting events featuring dance students past and present.

The students also raised funds to purchase new equipment for the studio including dance safety equipment.

Katrina Constantopoulos, Dance teacher

Certificate III Dance

This term Year 8 students were given the opportunity to nominate to become Peer Support Leaders and support Blackwood High School’s Peer Support Program. The program enables students to mentor Year 7 students during Transition Day along with helping the same students to achieve success when they are in Year 8 at Blackwood High School. Thirty students completed three training sessions with Mr Winter and Ms Busenel on leadership, communication and team building skills. By working collaboratively with staff, we as ‘Transition Buddies’, hope to welcome our new Year 8 students and guide them in many aspects of school life, such as helping them find their way around the school, using our learner management system, ‘DayMap’, making new friends and encouraging participation in events such as Sports Day and Pool Day. As Peer Support leaders we look forward to building positive relationships with next year’s Year 8 cohort.

James Hackett, Harry Lemmey and Mitchell Laurie, Year 8 students

Peer Support Program

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This semester the Year 10 Extension Science class has been working on a project with Adelaide University to collect data on the Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat in the Murraylands region. The data was to be used to support farmers in the region and to maintain healthy numbers of South Australia’s faunal emblem.

Students have spent the term developing remote -control cars fitted with camera equipment to drive into wombat burrows so that they could find out how many wombats live in each burrow and the conditions they live in. No one has managed to send a camera down a wombat burrow before so it was a very exciting prospect.

When we left for our overnight stay at Kooloola Station in Swan Reach, the area was about to receive one fifth of their yearly rainfall that day which made for a very wet and muddy trip. This didn’t dampen the spirits of the students though who were keen to get out and explore the area.

Our sleeping quarters were quite primitive with students setting up their beds in the shearing shed. Once we all got used to the smell we found it to be quite comfortable. Unfortunately, due to the water and mud caused by the rain, our remote control cars weren’t able to travel far enough down the burrows to see a wombat. All was not lost though as we did discover that wombats build water traps in their burrows to stop them filling up with water and drowning the wombats. This had never been discovered before and the environmental scientists who were with us were very excited about our findings. One is even going to write a scientific paper about it using our data and will credit our students with the discovery.

We went spotlighting at night and were able to capture two wombats for scientific measuring and tracking. The students got up close and personal before we released them the next day. We also explored more burrows and shot some good drone footage of students working around the warrens.

It was an excellent opportunity for students to experience what real investigative scientists do and we would like to thank Dr Bertram Ostendorf and his team from Adelaide University for making it all possible.

Ashley Robinson, Year 10 Extension Science teacher

Extension Science Wombat Field Trip

Homestay families wantedPlanning is underway for the arrival of our first Japanese Study Tour visit to Blackwood High School for 2018. The group of 12 boys and 4 girls, aged about 15 years, from Morioka Chuo High School will be with us from 10 – 22 March. The visitors will have a full program of activities at school, including ESL, cooking, football and netball, art, a trip to Victor Harbor and the city and a farewell dinner.

If you are interested in hosting a Japanese student during this short visit or would like more information, please contact Karyn Jones via email karyn.jones@bhs.sa.edu.au or call the school on 8278 0900.

Host families will receive a homestay payment of $480 per student to defray expenses for the 12-night visit. There may be the option to host two boys if you have the facilities.

Karyn Jones, International Student Programs and LOTE Leader

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Mouthwatering International Learning!The Year 10 international students went on a culinary journey this semester with a Food and Hospitality class run by Kate Talbot. Each week, students potted around the kitchen cooking, steaming, frying and baking up a feast fit for any belly. Students showed pride and eagerness throughout the semester which was clearly displayed in their presentation of the food. Students learnt various cooking techniques and English along the way.

The focus was on Asian and multicultural infused cuisine which made the students comfortable and confident in producing their products and most felt these meals were achievable to recreate with their host family. Their knowledge and enthusiasm created a positive learning environment for staff at the same time.

One student, Wenda Zhang stated “For me, this class was the first opportunity to cook. In China, I never had time or the opportunity to cook. I learnt how to follow recipes, cook western dishes and how to use an oven.”

These sentiments were reflected by many of the students. Reqing Li and Esther Ye commented that the class was really enjoyable and they learnt to cook and use technology not used in their homeland. Many of these international students were so inspired they have chosen to do Stage 1 Food and Hospitality in the new school year. We look forward to feasting on their success!

Cherie Earles, International Student Support Officer

International students cooking class

Specialist Netball Program Presentations

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On Thursday 30 November the Specialist Netball Program held their Inaugural Presentation Assembly. The assembly was an opportunity for all the Specialist Netball Program students and their families to come together to reflect and celebrate the students individual achievements and team achievements over the past year.

The assembly gave the Year 8, 9 and 10 students a glimpse into the future as they saw and heard what each year level had been up to over the school year. The assembly also provided an official farewell to our Year 11 students as they graduate the Specialist Netball Program after 4 years.

The major award winners for each year level where:Year 8 Peta Maher Award – Most inclusive Award – Megan HaskinsYear 9 Bianca Reddy Award – Best Team Player – Jazmin HarmstonYear 10 Jan Sutherland Award – Community Award – Emily WoodcockYear 11 Alex Clarke Award – High Performance – Erin Jenner

The following Year 11 students received their Certificate II in Sport Coaching:Amanda Bowne Rhianna ManfieldTaylah Charlton Jessica MeldrumMadison Davies Holly ReynoldsSophie Helbig Ashleigh StainJenna Kervers Morgan WarrenJulia Jenkins Hayley WellsErin Jenner Kadi Will

Zone Netball Best and Fairest and Coaches Awards were presented at the assembly the winners are:Team 1- Div ABest and Fairest: Jazmin HarmstonCoaches Award: Taylah Jayne

Team 2 – Div ABest and Fairest: Lili ChristophersCoaches Award: Ashlyn Davies

Team 3 – Div B1Best and Fairest: Aubaney SmithCoaches Award: Shakaya Hembury

Team 4 – Div B3Best and Fairest: Chelsea HardcastleCoaches Award: Caitlin Harris

Team 5 – Div C1Best and Fairest: Chloe CameronCoaches Award: Emma Marsh

Bianca Reddy, Specialist Netball Program Manager

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Blackwood stands together against domestic violence

On Friday 24 November, Byron Drage, Madeline Locke, Damon Gray and teachers Jenny Arezina and Argie Buesnel attended the 10th annual White Ribbon Anniversary Breakfast at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

Over 1400 people from all walks of life and cultural backgrounds, joined together to hear powerful and inspirational Canadian guest speaker and co-founder of the White Ribbon Campaign, Dr Michael Kaufman, to raise awareness of domestic violence and the need to engage men and boys to speak up and stop the cycle from continuing.

We heard that on average each year one women is killed every week as a result of violence from their partner and one in three women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence perpetrated by someone known to them.

Damon Gray and Madeline Locke, Year 11 students

Blackwood stands together

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The School of Languages is a specialist government language school that offers students the opportunity to study almost thirty languages at a number of teaching centres around the city. Students attend lessons once a week in the evening and also have the opportunity to participate in in-country language programs.

Congratulations to the following students who received awards at the annual Celebration of Achievement Awards on Tuesday 28 November. The event took place in Bonython Hall at the University of Adelaide.

Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement in Persian:Atoosa Baghiani

Award of Merit for Chinese:Shihan (Suri) Zhang

Congratulations Atoosa and Shihan and we wish you continued success in your language studies.

Karyn Jones, Leader, International Student Programs and LOTE

School of Languages Awards

AC Arts Creative Arts Degree DanceCongratulations to Year 12 Dance students Amelia Watson, Natalie MacArthur and Isobel Stolinski who successfully auditioned for a place at AC Arts to study a Creative Arts degree in Dance.

This talented triple started their dance experience at Blackwood High School in 2013 in the Year 8 Dance program and continued their dance studies in Years 9, 10, 11 and 12. All three also successfully completed our Certificate II and III Dance that we run in partnership with Gravity Dance Studio. They have also been actively involved in the Dance Star program since Year 8, with Natalie representing Blackwood High School in Theatrical Contemporary and Jazz at all four National trips and Amelia and Isobel with three National appearances in Hip Hop, Contemporary and Theatrical. This year all three won gold medals in Hip Hop and Theatrical.

Natalie and Amelia were also successful in their selection as part of the Australian Dance Theatre Youth Ensemble.

We wish them all the best in their tertiary dance studies and future careers in Dance.

Katrina Constantopoulos, Dance teacher

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Drama Club NewsBlackwood High School’s own Drama Club has been active for over a year and a half now, and is almost entirely student-run. Originally created as an improvisation group, the club turned to acting this semester when there was no longer a drama class available for Year 11 students. Recently, the drama club performed their first show, titled The Show Won’t Go On. Ironically, this was almost the case, with multiple people pulling out last minute, some actors being brought in only a week beforehand and the absence of the technical crew until show day. Despite this myriad of setbacks, the drama crew prevailed, pulling off an excellent performance. The script, written by a fellow Year 11 student, detailed a high school’s drama club as it set out to produce a performance, depicting the dramas that occur in a drama club. However, regardless of the relationship chaos and betrayals that characters face, justice prevails. This show was performed by ten actors, who were supported by another three students backstage. Feedback was generally positive, proving the performance to be a success. As one teacher wrote: Congratulations to Brigitte and the Drama Club. I was lucky enough to see this performance this morning. A great example of passionate and committed students collaborating and coming up with a great production! Well done to all involved! Highly recommended! Shauna

Blackwood’s Drama Club will continue through 2018, with the hope that it will able to pull off another successful show. This club is open to all students who are interested and dedicated to the Performing Arts, but most importantly have a passion for drama. So for all those wanting to join, stay tuned for the notices.

Cassandra Shannon and Jack Chaplin, Year 11 students

Arts news

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CDW WorkshopOn Monday 27 November Nathan Elmer from CDW Studios visited the Blackwood High School Visual Art Centre to run a workshop for a group of Year 9 and 10 students interested in digital illustration. CDW is a Visual Effects and Entertainment Design School, run by industry professionals who have worked for a range of international companies such as Disney, Blizzard Entertainment, Rising Sun Pictures, WETA, Wizards of the Coast, Valve and Lego. CDW studios offer a Bachelor of Creative Arts in Digital Media in conjunction with Flinders University. Some of our students are considering a career path in digital media and are building up portfolios of work. Others just enjoy the medium and the creative experience as part of their interest in art. We look forward to providing more workshops for Art and Design students in 2018.

Jennifer Remete, Art teacher

Step UpThis is our fourth year of the Blackwood High School Year 6 enrichment program for the Arts entitled ‘Step Up’, producing a multimodal arts performance using Technology, Dance and Drama. Students were selected from 5 local primary schools and were involved in the program for 5 half day sessions over 4 weeks in Term 4.

Each year Katrina and I discuss what the central themes and ideas will be. In the past, we have explored themes like student fears, their heroes and the things that matter most to them.

This year we asked ourselves, what is one of the most pressing issues affecting young people today and realized that our focus should be centred around the increasing use of and dependence on mobile phones and social media platforms. Although they offer lots of advantage and convenience there is also a dark side to the use of technology. We are seeing increasing distraction and alienation amongst young people.

We brainstormed our ideas with the Year 6 students and they directly contributed by linking our thoughts around games like chess with the story of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ by Lewis Carroll. Our final piece, entitled Down the Rabbit Hole portrayed the tale of Alice who after social media bullying falls into ‘the matrix’, encountering the Queen of Likes and having to play a game of chess to try to escape.

Prior to this program many of these students didn’t know each other, they didn’t know us as teachers, and were unfamiliar with the environment. In a very short space of time the Year 6 students took on the challenge of connecting with other people and ideas to create this performance. A dedicated group of Year 10 Dance students helped to choreograph five dance pieces in the show. They worked with us to transfer ideas into an artistic expression and we are really proud of their focus and collaboration.

It is clear that arts experiences build student confidence, resilience, problem solving strategies, their creativity and their perseverance.

We would like to congratulate all these students and look forward to working with them again in the future.

Brigitte Esvelt and Katrina Contantopoulos, Dance and Drama teachers

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As the school year starts to draw to the end it continues to be a very busy time for both students and teachers of the Year 8 and 9 cohorts.

The Visual Arts, Dance, Drama and Music students have had opportunities to perform and exhibit in Arts Overboard held in the Blackwood High School courtyard on 8 November and have had further performance assessment tasks to finish up the Semester. The Year 8 and 9 students were involved in Aquatics and Ice Skating during Week 5, with Week 6 being set aside for Supervised Assessment. We continued with academic rigor during our lessons in Week 8.

We look forward to the Year 8 students being involved in Panel Presentations on Monday 11 December and in Activity Week during Week 9 for Year 8 and 9 students, where a variety of supervised activities will be available to finish off the school year with lots of fun and enthusiasm.

On Wednesday 13 December Year 8 and 9 students will attend a Presentation Assembly in the gymnasium at 9.30am with final reports being given out at the end of that school day. Parents/caregivers are most welcome to attend this assembly.

Students will be dismissed at 12 noon on 15 December.

Shauna Thompson, Year 8/9 Leader

Year 8 and 9 news

Visual Arts updateJust a few photos of some Blackwood High School Visual Art students who have shown outstanding ability and a sense of community.

This is a photo of a mural created by 3 Year 9 students to advertise the recent Arts Night held in the newly developed courtyard area. This came about after a conversation during an Art lesson and as a result, Allie, Lucy and Alysha decided they would like to create a mural of their own. As the Arts Nights was on the calendar I suggested the painting of a ‘Visual Arts‘ Mural could be a possibility. The girls worked together to come up with a few possible ideas and with some tweaking they came up with their final design and colour scheme.

Their piece of work is now in the entrance of the Visual Arts Centre. Students involved were Allie Stocco, Lucy Boehm and Alysha Johnson.

Pictured on the top right is the ‘Visual Arts Mural’

Year 11 Visual Arts course, Emma Dotti is an exchange student from Italy, and is to be congratulated for winning the Year 11 Visual Arts Award for this Semester. We wish her well in the future as she returns home.

Emma’s portrait piece is pictured on the bottom right.

Jeanette Beadnall, Visual Art teacher

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Year 10 Graduation

Blackwood High School was fortunate to host the Save a Life Program during Week 7. The program, presented by Darren Davis, consisted of two elements, the first being a parent session hosted in the school Performing Arts Centre which was followed up with student sessions later in the week.

Parents/caregivers in attendance were provided with useful tips on choosing the safest vehicle and how to best provide their children with quality driver education, with emphasis on choosing the right instructor. Sessions were aimed at the Year 10 students based around the use of Australia’s first virtual reality educational driving simulator with a real car. Points covered in the sessions to students included perspective of the police regarding keeping young drivers safe. Specific topics were:• Consequences of not wearing seatbelts• Positive Driving – The art of advanced defensive mindsets for

drivers• View from the driver’s seat – a look at how many dangers are

hard to see• Inattention including driving while using mobile phones etc• Looking after mates• How to be intelligent passengers

Students and staff were highly complementary about the sessions and appreciative of the opportunity. We would like to thank Darren and the Save a Life as well as Bendigo Bank and Toyota for enabling the program to take place.

Ben Dening, Year 10 Leader

Year 10 Save a Life Program

The Year 10 Presentation and Graduation was held at the Blackwood Hills Baptist Church Auditorium on Thursday evening 7 December to mark the conclusion of the IBMYP and the students’ transition into the SACE. Kurt Gowin read the Acknowledgement of Country before student presenters Joel Keen, Maddie McDonald, Jenna Zeman and Emma Potter very capably hosted the evening. Alie Hughes, Emma Potter and Aimee Tulloch entertained those in attendance with musical acts. All agreed Alie’s solo voice looping was a definite highlight. A reflection of the year was presented by Ben Curry, telling stories of what it is like to make the journey through Year 10 at Blackwood High School.

Students were presented with Subject Awards, IBMYP Recognition Certificates, Personal Project Awards and we acknowledged academic improvement and excellence by accelerated students.

A number of Major awards were presented including the Jeff Hunter RISE Award (Rotary Award in STEM and Enterprise) to recognize the life and work of Mr Jeff Hunter. This is a new award and we were honoured to have Zennette and Matthew Hunter attend to present the award to Alina Tairli. Thank you to all who attended and congratulations to the Hosts and Award Recipients.

Ben Dening, Year 10 Leader

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Major Award winners

Olivia Wheeler 2017 Year 10 DuxMaddison McDonald Magarey Shield AwardAlina Tairli Jeff Hunter RISE AwardJoel Keen Rotary AwardAimee Tulloch ADF Long Tan AwardTroy Hocking Sportsperson of the YearTayla Zuvich Sportsperson of the Year

Subject Award winners

Jake Berndt Isabella HomesLizzie Burton Natalie HughesHarriet Cooling Joel KeenLaina Conte Connor McCarlBenjamin Curry Lucas MilsomIsabella Deyoung Cody SmithLeiane Doyle Alina TairliCallum Drage Elijah TlaukaAshlyn Dutton Troy WallaceTyler Emswiler Kirralee WestAdam Green Evan WrightBraydon Green Hanwen YangPaige Hill Jenna Zeman

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Southern Cross Cultural Exchange Scholarship Opportunities

Southern Cross Cultural Exchange offers students the opportunity to “Live like a local, experience a new way of life and discover yourself.” The organisation is offering a number of scholarships including full, half and quarter scholarships for students in Years 9 – 12. Go to their website www.scce.com.au to check out the possibilities.

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Calendar DatesTerm 4 2017Friday 8 DecemberYear 11 Presentation Assembly

Monday 11 DecemberYear 8 Panel Presentations by appointment

Wednesday 13 DecemberReport and Cambium DistributionYear 8 and 9 Presentation Assemblies

Friday 15 DecemberLast day of the yearStudents dismissed at 12pm

Term 1 2018Monday 29 JanuaryFirst day of 2018

School ContactsStudent Absences: student.absence@bhs.sa.edu.auStudent Services: 8278 0900 or see website for staff email contacts