9090

We have much to celebrate already as

term 2 begins:

• We received the news in the holidays that THS

had been selected to host the Prime Minister’s

Community Cabinet meeting. While this meeting

is a forum for the community to meet with and

ask questions of Federal leaders it also provides

opportunities for our students to demonstrate

their skills. Students are involved in catering,

musical performances (including Olivia Brownsey

singing the National Anthem at the Public Forum)

and as Ministerial G

uides. Students are excited about the event and

are proud hosts.

• Two students have been invited to attend the first

national cybersafety forum as a result of the

quality of their involvement in the Youth Advisory

Group.

• Open Night was a resounding success with a

record number of families from a record number

of primary schools enjoying group tours, hands on

activities, demonstrations and displays

throughout the school.

• The new online booking system for

student/teacher/parent interviews has recorded

345 appointments after only 3 days online. We

trust that this system will be more convenient for

parents and result in more conversations about

student learning and achievement between home

and school. Meeting with every parent of every

student is our aim.

• This is the 10th

anniversary of Volunteers’ Week.

Our school will provide a morning tea on 15 June

for the many parents and community members

who generously support our school and students.

For those who are unable to attend at this time

we would like to acknowledge your support.

• I was pleased to present awards to Year 10 and 11

students who achieved ‘A’ results in all their

subjects in term 1. High levels of achievement,

work completion and regular attendance are

elements of success in life and work that we

foster.

• Four of our teachers have been nominated for a

SA Public Teaching Award.

These activities and events create rich, vibrant learning

experiences within and beyond the school, opportunities

for success and high levels of achievement, and a culture

that values contributions and partnerships with the

community – a powerful environment for learning

HHHHeeeelllleeeennnn CCCCaaaallllvvvveeeerrrrtttt,,,, PPPPrrrriiiinnnncccciiiippppaaaallll

Brunel Drive

Modbury Heights

South Australia, 5092

Ph: (08) 8263 6244

Fax: (08) 8263 6072

Email: contact@theheights.sa.edu.au

WWW: http://www.theheights.sa.edu.au

NEWSLETTER No. 5

12 May 2011

OUR SCHOOL VALUES

We work hard to learn

We respect ourselves

and each other

We value acts of

generosity

IN THIS ISSUE Manga Math

Student Awards

Volunteers’ Week

DIARY DATES

9/5 – 20/5/11

Sister School Visitors

from Penang

13/5 – NAPLaN catch-up

16/5 – Parent Club 9am

17/5 – Governing

Council 7pm

18/5 – MS/SS Parent-

Teacher- Student Interv.

19/5 – Australian

Infomatics Comp.

23/5 – Yr 10 Work

Experience

YEAR 8 ED176 –

APPLICATION FOR

ENROLMENT IN

YEAR 8 FORM

needs to be returned to

Michelle Crush as soon

as possible please.

IGNITE TESTING

24 June 2011

9:30am The second and final

round of Ignite testing

will be held at The

Heights School.

Application forms and

further information is

available from

Michelle Crush

8263 6244

IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR PARENTS

Due to security requirements for the

Prime Minister’s Community Cabinet on

Thursday 19th

May, ALL students and

parents will need to be offsite by

3:30pm to enable all gates to be

locked.

Out of School Hours Care will operate

as normal – access to this area for

students and pick up by parents will not

be restricted.

The Uniform Shop will be closed at

3:00pm.

Staff will need to relocate their cars

when the staff car park closes at

12:00pm.

Parking for parents will be impacted. It

is suggested that parents use the ‘Pick

Up and Drop’ Zone to avoid parking

delays and congestion before and after

school.

Student Parent Teacher Interviews

Yr 6-12

To co-ordinate this year’s interviews we

have employed an online booking

system to assist parents in securing their

preferred interview times. The

procedure is as follows:

• If you wish to see any of your

child’s teachers, you need to secure

an appointment time using this

system.

• If you do not have access to the

internet the alternative method is

to call the school directly on

82636244 and we will make the

bookings for you.

• In your web browser type in this address: http://www.sobs.com.au/pt/parent.php?schoolid=438 or use The Heights School website. The link to the online booking system is on the home page.

We are hoping that these changes will make booking an appointment more convenient and that queuing times can be reduced for informal

appointments.

Manga Math

The Heights has been selected to trial an on-line math program developed in the UK. We were keen to try new

programs after examining several online math options. Middle school students began trialing Manga High in term 1.

Almost immediately students were eagerly logging on and increasing

the amount of work output both in school and at home. Having seen

other positive outcomes in student learning, we decided to sign up for

a twelve month period.

Manga is a highly stylized comic/cartoon art form popular with many

students. Manga High is a series of online teaching resources based

upon the comic animation style. Students are introduced to exercises

and tasks that range from simple addition right up to complex

mathematical theory with thousands of tasks in between.

Once the theory is learnt,

the teacher can set students various challenges in either quiz style or as a

computer game trying to achieve higher scores and better times.

Students must successfully complete these challenges before moving to

a harder task. They receive immediate feedback, hints and worked

solutions as they progress through their given tasks.

Teachers can examine the effort of individual students while tracking

their overall progress. Manga math enables students to compete both against their own score, and with other

students and schools online, which can increase interest and make math tasks more enjoyable. The online

competitions are called Fai-To (pronounced Fight-o) which lets two schools enter maths combat against one

another. The students take an active part in Fai-To, voting for their next opponent as well as contributing scores

during the rounds.

In the first couple of weeks of term 2 we have logged nearly 1000 hours and have scored 279 Medal achievements.

The Heights are sitting 4th on the National rankings (and moving up) and last term Mr Roubanis’ Yr 8 Maths Class

undertook our first ever Fai-To Challenge and won! Steve Sakovits, Math Coordinator

YOUTH ADVISORY GROUP ON CYBERSAFETY

The Heights School is one of only six South Australian

Schools involved in the Youth Advisory Group (YAG). The

YAG provides students with a direct line of communication

to the Federal Government on issues such as cyber bullying,

mobile phone safety and social networking sites. Fifteen

students from The Heights have been involved in providing

advice on cyber issues faced by their peers and I am pleased

to announce that Kaitlin Withers (807) and Nikita Mickan

(906) have been selected to represent The Heights at the

YAG Summit in Canberra on May 30th. I have also been

invited to attend and will be involved in providing advice to

the teacher and parent advisory groups.

Rob Perkins, Middle School Senior Leader

Kaitlin Withers

Nikita Mickan

VISITS FROM AN APPRENTICESHIP BROKER

Over the last month The Heights School has had

three visits from an apprenticeship broker, Mr

Scarman. Employed by DECS, Mr Scarman is one

of a number of brokers who visit schools in their

area, giving students collective and individual

advice.

Mr Scarman has addressed all year 10s, 11s and

12s explaining their post secondary options,

especially related to a future working in a

traditional trade or other areas where traineeships

are supported by formal training at TAFE.

Mr Scarman talked about apprenticeships; both

full time and school based, and traineeships and

how participation enhanced students’ chances of

achieving the SACE. He also talked about

responsibilities of participants and expectations of

bosses.

Mr Scarman has also scheduled one morning per

month scheduled to work one-to-one with our

students. If you would like your son/daughter to

have such a session, please encourage them to

make an appointment through Mr Surikov.

Congratulations to 807 debaters (Nikil Kathiravan, Buvanesh

Ravichandran and Kaitlin Withers) who in their first debate, drew

with Christian Brothers College.

Thank you to Ms Cichinski for her help with the Team.

Teacher Professional Learning Program

Pupil Free Day 2nd

May

The program focused on professional learning teams as the most effective structure to achieve significant and

sustained improvement. Faculty and cluster teams analysed data – Running Records, reading diagnosis tests,

NAPLaN results and term 1 report results - to determine action for improvement. Teachers deepened their

knowledge of literacy practices in sessions focused on explicit teaching of persuasive genre (the form of writing

being tested in the NAPLaN writing component), questioning and subject specific reading comprehension skills

The purpose of working together in professional learning teams is when teachers return to their classrooms they

will possess and utilise an expanded repertoire of skills, strategies, materials, assessments, and ideas in order to

impact student achievement in a positive way. Pupil free days and early closure on Monday enable teams of

teachers to work together regularly to have this impact.

Monday 2.45-3.30pm

Week 2: Teachers met in Sub School teams for training in the new online Student/Parent/Teacher interview booking

system, attendance improvement, Relationships and Sexual Health pastoral care programs, behaviour management

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT (In our next newsletter we will publish a Perfect Attendance List for the Middle School for Term 1)

Congratulations to these Senior School students who

received Academic Excellence Awards, presented to

those students who gained only A’s or B’s on their term

report.

Year 12

Athena Dawe, Jess Alfredsson, Ben Geytenbeek,

William Bennett, Victoria Paterson, Marc Farmer,

Alexander Sturm, Demi Lardner, Adam Vause,

Sasha Pushkarov.

Year 11

Tu Luu & Tuc Nguyen

(Principal’s Award - A’s in all subjects)

Bradley Kinne, Marie Angeles, Maddie Neville

Year 10

Nathan Bell & Jason Oria

(Principal’s Award – A’s in all subjects)

Taylor Jachman-Evans, Nhi Hin, Ishtar Dawe, Erren

Klarich, Jessica Middleton, Grace Lee, Kirsty van der

Veer, Toogmin Park, Annie Chan, Nicole Loveridge,

Shannen Koteck, Caitlin Sakovits, Rhys Katsoulis, Zac

Curl, Henry Stradling, Stephanie Field, Aimee O’Range,

Matthew Fraser, Matthew Gerlach, Alex Higgins,

Salah Sobhi, Rhiann Baxter-Domanski, Dylan Boller,

Aidan Hall, Patrick James-Barker, Abuzar Zainudin

Congratulations to these Middle School students who

received Academic Achievement Awards

Year 9

Riley Mullen, Jeremy Nieass, Adelena Sanders,

Margarette Navaja, Bianca Watkins, Corey Wells,

Haley Ruf, Beverly Kabaya, Mikaela O’Connor,

Emily Hill, Jessica Baldock, Jack Stephens, Adam Sims

Year 8

Chelsea Shirlock, Antonella Italiano, Con Mavrokefalos,

Jasmin Tanton, Ashleigh Baannister, Genny Bond

Bhuvanesh Ravichandran, Amy Shirlock,

Bianca Schmitz, Chandler Saing, Nikil Kathiravan,

Olivia Chong, Irenius Ling, Julia Riches, Hannah Best,

Alex Tran, Jessica Curl, Hao Lam, Liam Stephens,

Kynan Herbert, Chelse Bentley, Taryn Weise,

Jason Nikkomvan, Tim Geytenbeek, Ryan Barraclough,

Kirralee Bates, Ashleigh Jones, Zoe Hodgetts,

Malik Sabateen

Year 7

Nikki Curl, Alex Daniel, Alison Kobzeff,

Ashleigh Williams, David Hin, Amber Bates,

Courtney Spence, Lauren Chong, Sarah Alfredsson,

Caleb Bond, Tiffany Stevens, Joshua Lake,

Matt Rothery, Alyshia Squires, Shantell hall, Zoe Nash,

Matilda Comley, Seamus McIlduff, Steven Dowding,

Benjamin Parry, David Sakovits, Paul Blyth

Middle School Home Group Awards

Year 9 - Matthew Shinkfield, Cullen Garrick, Henry Beggs, Brandon Wingard, Braden Cranwell,

Tylor Johnston-Austin, Joel Orn, Dale Latham, Leah Ryan, William Hassell.

Year 8 - Meedo El Hamra, Krystal Hart, Zac Franceschilli, Caleb Papp, Hao Lam, Andy Park, Smitri Singh

Year 7 - Matt Maunder, Daryl Pullen

Middle School Outstanding Academic Achievement

Year 9 - Dylan Storti, Gemma Street

Year 8 - Emily Green, Caitlin Kramer, Anne Hatchard, Hayley Willey, Smitri Singh, Andy Park,

Olivia McNamara, Kaitlin Withers, Shannon Chamberlain

Year 7 - Tayla Quinn

Parenting Children with Eczema

ARE YOU CHALLENGED BY YOUR CHILD’S ECZEMA?

The University of Queensland is conducting research into

parenting children with eczema. Parenting a child with

eczema presents many challenges (everything from the

daily application of creams and avoiding eczema

triggers, to more general parenting tasks). The aim of

this study is to understand the factors that make the

management of childhood eczema particularly difficult,

and to use this information to develop strategies that

might assist parents in managing their child’s eczema.

If you are a parent of a 3 to 10-year-old child with

eczema, we would love to hear from you.

To complete the online survey, please log on to:

http://exp.psy.uq.edu.au/eczema

For further information about the project please email:

Katie.sillar@uqconnect.edu.au or phone

Amy Mitchell (07 3365 7305).

THANK YOU to all families who have fully paid or started making payments toward the 2011

Materials & Services Charges.

Unpaid 2011 Materials & Services Charges are now overdue. If you believe you are eligible for

School Card, please pick up an application form from our Finance Office or if more convenient phone

our Finance Office for a form to be posted or given to your child to bring home.

If you were ineligible for School Card or require assistance with these fees, please see our helpful

Finance Staff as soon as possible to set up a payment plan.

Payment on any outstanding school fees can be made by dropping by our Finance Office which is

open between 8:30am and 3:30pm Monday to Friday. Payments can be made by cash, credit card,

EFTPOS or cheque. Alternatively, you can visit our school website and pay online via our Bizgate

system.

The prompt payment of Materials & Services Charges ensures your child receives the best possible

resources to increase their educational outcomes. We strive to provide quality resources to be

readily available for students to achieve high levels of achievement.

Congratulations to Jordan O’Doherty (806) who after

three months of trials, has been selected as part of the

Under 14 State Squad for Soccer.

About 25 boys have been selected;

they train and play together until

September and then 16 boys will

be selected as the final team to

represent the State in a tournament

to be held in Coffs Harbour in October.

TRAINING HAS STARTED AT SALISBURY AMATEUR

ATHLETICS CLUB

Training is available through the winter every week night

6:00 – 8:30pm beginning 19th

April 2011.

Rundle Park, Rundle Road, Salisbury South, just north of

Parafield Airport

Ring Warren on 0422 893 784

AFTER SCHOOL SPORTS RESULTS

Baseball

9th April: Heights BYE

Teeball

2nd April – Heights 21 lost to Ardtornish Red 28

9th April – Heights 16 lost to Ardtornish Blue 20

POLICE VISIT

(A story from Ms Meatheringham/Mrs Rothery’s class)

Today we had a policeman and a detective visit our

class.

They talked about police work and they showed their

hats, guns and sprays and clothes. They had a bullet-

proof vest, handcuffs and their car and we sat in it. We

put on the clothes and they left three surprises for us. It

was a hat, a bookmark and a drink bottle.

I had the best time of my life. Dylan

Stephanie Attenborough is holding a School Quiz Night on

Friday 27th

of May in the Drama Space at 7pm. Proceeds of

the night will go to The Smith Family and a donation to the

school. Cost of admission is $5 each person (tables of 10).

There will be raffles, door prizes and games throughout the

evening. BYO food and drink. Contact Stephanie in the

Year 12 Common Room at recess and lunch or leave your

details at the Front Office. Tables need to be booked ahead

of time. This event is part of Stephanie’s Yr 12 Research

Project.

A Heights School and Home Wall Planner

2011-2012 will be sent home this week

with students.

Rob Perkins

SCHOOL DENTAL SERVICE

The South Australian Dental Service provides a range of dental services for children at clinics throughout Adelaide

and all major country regional centres.

Dental care is provided by dental teams comprising of Dentists, Dental Therapists and Dental Assistants.

All preschool, primary and secondary students aged under 18 years, are eligible for care with the School Dental

Service. Fees and conditions apply.

From 1 July 2009 there were some changes to School Dental Service fees.

• All School Dental Service care is free for preschool children (general and emergency)

• Children who are dependents of/holders of Centrelink Concession Cards, Veterans Affairs Pension

Concession Cards or School Cards are eligible to receive free dental care (general and emergency)

• For primary and secondary school children who are not dependents of/holders of the above concession, a

fee will apply for each course of general dental care provided

• Students with a Commonwealth Government Teen Dental Voucher are welcome to use it at the School

Dental Service. If presented at a School Dental Clinic, it will entitle them to a full course of dental treatment

including preventive care and any treatment if required

• Dental emergencies treated at a School Dental Clinic between check ups will be covered by the fee paid at

your child’s most recent check up.

For information about appointments and fees, contact your local School Dental Clinic at Modbury. Open Monday,

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday on 8263 4526 – 8:30am to 4:15pm.

Parents of children with special physical or intellectual needs should contact their local School Dental Clinic to

discuss their child’s needs.

In case of a dental emergency contact your local clinic to arrange an appointment. For after hours emergency

advice phone 8232 2651 (children only).

ATTENTION VOLUNTEERS!

Volunteering SA&NT are running a free entry ‘THANKS TO VOLUNTEERS’ Competition for volunteers up to and during

National Volunteer Week 9-15 May 2011.

Over $3,500 worth of prizes to be won – some of the FANTASTIC prizes include:

• Fujifilm Real 3D Digital Camera

• Short accommodation getaways

• Drinks and nibbles for 10 people beside a pool

• Wine & spirits

• Movie tickets

• Breakfast & lunch vouchers

• Gift packs

• Entry tickets to the zoo and The Royal Adelaide Show

• Personalised stationery

• Magazine subscription

• AND MORE…..

If you are a volunteer and you volunteer at least once a month you are eligible to enter. You will be able to enter

online at www.volunteeringsa.org.au or can download the entry form to complete and return it to Volunteering

SA&NT. Hard copy entry forms will also be available from VSA&NT office.

CAREER EXPO

The Automotive industry in Adelaide, through the MTA, is very pro-active at the moment in wanting to

encourage students into the industry.

To this end, they are holding an AUTO CAREER EXPO at 3 Frederick Road, Royal Park. Bookings are essential

as there will be hourly tours of the training facility starting at 10am, Friday May 20th.

For more information or to make a booking for you and your child, please phone 8241 0522 or email

expo@mtagts.asn.au

For any further information contact Tim Buckley on 8241 0522.

We feel that year 10 or year 11 students considering automotive would, in the first instance benefit most.

However serious year 9 students could also attend. Nick Surikov