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Principal: Phil Fitzsimons 8532 1788 – Chairperson Governing Council: Robert Smissen 0403 284 019
Murray Bridge High School
Excellence, Respect and Working Together
FROM THE PRINCIPAL Phil Fitzsimons Welcome to this week’s newsletter
Miss Fawn – Our new therapy dog Last Friday, the Regional Disability Unit welcomed Miss Fawn to the school. Miss Fawn is a trained therapy Labrador donated to the school by the South Australian Guide Dogs Association. Through the dedicated work of Dr Christine Roberts-‐Yates and Christopher Roberts-‐Yates the idea of Miss Fawn attending the Regional Disability Unit is to provide a calming effect for the students in the classroom, whether that be through the students reading stories to Miss Fawn or by having her calming presence nearby. The school is very fortunate to have such an opportunity as programs of this nature are quite common in the United States but this is the first of its kind in Australasia. Images of Miss Fawn’s arrival to Murray Bridge High School will be available through the Regional Disability Unit’s page on the school website very shortly. Student Free Day The focus for the Student Free Day held last Tuesday was literacy mapping across all learning areas and curriculum development. A select group of Literacy Leaders worked with Ruth Pfeiler, Curriculum Consultant for the Murray and Mallee region. This group focused their attention on broadening their skills towards further implementing the schools’ approach towards literacy improvement across all learning areas. These skills will then be shared with all staff through the relevant learning area meetings. Staffing Update The school has recently appointed Laurice Braithwaite to the acting position of Year 11 Coordinator. Laurice has responsibility for overseeing all matters pertaining to Year 11 and will be a valuable asset to the school. On behalf of the staff and students I welcome Laurice to this leadership position. We also welcome Julie Mariner, who is currently filling in the role of Maths teacher while John Dunbar is on extended sick leave. Julie fills this role until the end of this term.
It is through working together, with respect, that we can reach excellence
Term 2, Week 8 – 20 June 2011
CALENDAR Week 8 Tue, 21 Jun Finance Committee 7pm Dance Showcase 7pm Thu, 23 Jun Cyber-‐Safety parent workshop -‐ 6.30pm Fri/Sat/Sun 24-‐26 Jun SAASTA Power Cup Week 9 Tue, 28 Jun Parents & Friends 6.30pm Governing Council 7pm Week 10 Wed, 6 Jul Youth Opportunities Graduation Fri, 8 Jul Last day of Term 2, 2pm dismissal JULY SCHOOL HOLIDAYS Mon, 11 Jul – Fri, 22 Jul TERM 3 STARTS -‐ MONDAY 25 JULY.
Cultural Diversity Celebration On Sunday, 19 June Murray Bridge High School hosted the Cultural Diversity in the Murraylands day, celebrating Refugee Week 2011. Distinguished guests including Sharon Secker, Councillor of the Rural City of Murray Bridge, George Fomba, representing Hieu Van Le – Lieutenant Governor of SA and Danny McAteer, Deputy Director of Department of Immigration along with families from a diverse range of cultures celebrated a wonderful afternoon of food and entertainment. It is through events such as this that the community can celebrate the cultural diversity that is alive and well within our region.
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Murray Bridge High School Newsletter 20 June 2011
AGRICULTURE UPDATE – ROYAL ADELAIDE SHOW By Jo Jennings, Farm Manager We now have all our show stock on site ready to start the process of training and feeding them ready for September. This year we are competing in a new class with merino whethers to be judged on hoof and hook as well as boer goats and a led steer as we have entered in previous years. Students in Year 11 and 12 Agriculture are involved and will train them under the guidance of Ann Ruckert and myself. They will work with them over the next few months, and groups allocated to each animal will follow them to the Adelaide Show to take care of them, in the case of the led steer and the boer goats, will lead them in the ring to be judged. Fingers crossed all goes well. We have just found out our breeder cow ‘Spider’ is 3 months pregnant which is very good news. We hope all goes smoothly and a healthy calf is born around Christmas time.
2011 NATIONAL LEGACY JUNIOR PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETITION By Patti Williamson, English Teacher
Congratulations to Year 10 student Michaela Zadow on advancing through to the State Final of the Legacy Junior Public Speaking Competition. South Australian heats were held in Adelaide on Friday 3rd June 2011, where Michaela competed against contestants from Adelaide Colleges. This is the first time a Murray Bridge High School student has entered the competition.
The competition is conducted nationally through Australian Secondary Schools and Colleges and seeks to contribute to the student’s personal development. Criteria to enter the competition included Michaela preparing a speech of 5 minutes duration on a topic relating to at least one of the ideals of Legacy: voluntary service, social justice, caring, personal effort, personal sacrifice and/or mateship and the need for remembrance. Michaela spoke about ‘the need for remembrance in today’s society’. Contestants were also asked to deliver a 2-‐minute impromptu speech on the topic “I will never forget” with 5 minutes preparation time allowed. The intent of this speech was to reveal the competitors’ ability to develop a point of view on a general topic and to organize a presentation within limited preparation time. Michaela will compete in the State Final to be held in mid August when two finalists will be selected to represent South Australia in the National Final to be held in November. Michaela said, “It was a great experience competing in the competition and meeting and witnessing other students’ public speaking styles and topics. I would definitely recommend it to other students for future years.”
Jasmin, Danny and Nikky-‐May meet the led steer
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Murray Bridge High School Newsletter 20 June 2011
GLOBAL LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE By Peter Stewart, Coordinator S&E Would you be excessively greedy and gather as many resources for yourself and deprive others to the point of starvation? Your answer is probably “No” just as Michaela, Elizabeth, Darcy and Cody thought as they commenced a role play on World Needs through history. The result was not what they expected though. Despite attempts to develop “World Peace”, many countries were unable to provide the resources their peoples needed and communities starved as other countries “won” the resources ‘game’ and became wealthy.
Our Year 10 students were attending the Global Leadership Convention, run by World Vision, at Seaton, on Monday 6 June 2011. The role play highlighted how countries have become poor, and are unable to provide the basic resources for a sustainable lifestyle for their people.
Timor-‐Leste, or East Timor, the newest country in the world, is also the poorest, with over half its people regularly experiencing starvation. The country has a “hungry season” lasting for 3 to 6 months, where the only food is Akar, the pulped bark of the Sago tree, with very little nutritional value and only some bulk.
Through the 40 Hour Famine Youth Ambassador, William Menzies, students learned of Lily, a Timorese girl who is poor, living with her grandmother in the mountains, unable to afford school and hungry all the time, teased by others for ‘being different’ by not having parents and unable to go to school. Will met Lily and made her happy, “because you hugged me, even though I was dirty.” Lily is typical of over half the children of Timor-‐Leste.“R U for Real?”
World Vision is working in Timor–Leste this year to improve the lives of children and adults, to enable them to live lives that are healthy, happy and sustainable. Organisers empowered the student leaders to go back to their schools and run the 40 Hour Famine for this year to make a difference to the lives of Lily and her peers. Students who earn $200 or more can apply to be Youth Ambassadors for next year
Will YOU be a leader and give up something to share your good fortune with others?
In the foyer with a Timorese child’s photo
(Left) Elizabeth at the role play. (Right) With 40 Hour Famine Youth Ambassador, Will.
Darcy and Cody at the role play
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Murray Bridge High School Newsletter 20 June 2011
CULTURE AND MULTICULTURALISM PROJECT By Jing Liu, IESL teacher During Semester 1, one of the main focuses of the Intensive English as a Second Language (IESL) class has been to deepen their understanding of their own cultures and also further their understanding and appreciation for multiculturalism in Australia. The IESL Middle Year class consists of students from a diverse range of backgrounds including Chinese, Thai and Congolese. They, of course, have lived very different lives compared to most of the Australian students of the same age. Through their studies, students have not only developed their English language skills, but also have had a chance to share their life experiences and cultures with other students, and have themselves gained a sense of what it means to live as a part of Australian society. Last term, three guest speakers, Murray Bridge High School teachers Ms Clark, Ms Daddow and Mr Kalloniatis, all with distinctly different migrant backgrounds, were invited to the class to talk to the students about their experiences in coming to live in Australia. Each of them shared fascinating stories about their family and their journey in coming and living in Australia. Ms Jo Clark shared the life of her grandfather coming to Australia from a small town in England over a hundred years ago while Ms Daddow talked to the students about her experience in coming to Australia from Germany as a student almost thirty years ago and Mr Kalloniatis discussed how he came to Australia when he was seven years old from Greece. The students were able to appreciate the significance of what the guest speakers had to say and found the experience very worthwhile. The students have also undertaken research regarding their own cultures and issues specific to their own country. Through their research, they have also held discussions with each other and myself to explore issues within society such as the inhumanity of genocide. For their final assessment piece, students presented Power Point displays to the class to share their research. Congolese students talked about life in Rwanda during the genocide and their subsequent lives in Congo as refugees before coming to Australia. They expressed their appreciation for living in Australia and being able to study here at Murray Bridge High School. Chinese students talked about Chinese festivals including the Chinese New Year, Mid Autumn Festival and the impact on Chinese culture. Dong, an exchange student from Thailand, made a presentation about the importance of Mother’s Day in Thailand, as it is an opportunity to show respect to mothers and acknowledge their importance.
Dong, exchange student from Thailand
Ms Clark and Ms Daddow speak to the class
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Murray Bridge High School Newsletter 20 June 2011
KNOCKOUT NETBALL By Helen Partridge, PE teacher
On Friday, 10 June, the Year 8/9, 10 and Open Girls knockout netball teams ventured to Imperials Netball Courts to take on Unity College. All three teams have been training in preparation for the games and were all willing to go out and put in their best efforts. The first game was the 8/9 team which was led by their Captain Emily Gommers. The girls went out strong and converted the first few centre passes. Unity was strong in the defence and was able to make many turnovers despite the hard work from the Murray Bridge High School centre court. Both teams worked really hard and created many turnovers. It was a well fort out game with Unity winning with the final score 43 to 27. The second game was the Year 10 game. This was a very tight match and was even throughout. The girls worked extremely hard to ensure they converted every centre pass. They ran out victors with the final result being Murray Bridge High School 33 to Unity 30. The final game was the Open and this game began fast and fierce. Lexi Blight led the team as Captain and did a fantastic job with plenty of voice on the court. The girls worked extremely hard and converted the intercepts. Unfortunately Unity were the stronger team on the day but the Open girls showed great team work. It was a fantastic day by all the students of Murray Bridge High School as they represented the school well displaying the core values of excellence, respect and working together.
Year 10 winning team
Open Girls team Nikki in action
Lexi in action on the court
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Murray Bridge High School Newsletter 20 June 2011
STAR IN THE MAKING AT MURRAY BRIDGE HIGH SCHOOL By Adam Sullivan, Music teacher Students at Murray Bridge High School have been ‘WOWED’ by Year 11 Music student and performer in this year’s musical, Andrew Thomas. Andrew has been busy busking around the school during break times and has had an overwhelming response from students who have been eager to watch his performances. So keep an eye open for Andrew at recess and lunch times, join in the fun by bringing a song request and, of course, your best karaoke voice.
Andrew performing for his audience
COMMUNITY MENTORING PROGRAM
Schools in the Murray and Mallee region are seeking volunteers to assist in the Community Mentoring Program. Develop a relationship with a child (10-‐14 years of age) through a range of activities that you and your mentee would like to do together -‐ playing games, art/craft and chatting etc.
Ø Make a difference in a young child’s life Ø Make new friends Ø Make a real difference to the future of your own community Ø Learn new skills
Life experience is the only qualification you need.
Would you like to know more about the program?
Information Session Monday, 4 July 2011 DECS Murray and Mallee Regional Office
20 Beatty Tce, Murray Bridge.
Contact Luke Wilson on 0457 764 318 Email: [email protected]
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Murray Bridge High School Newsletter 20 June 2011
ATTENTION PARENTS AND CAREGIVERS
COMMUNICABLE DISEASE CONTROL BRANCH (CDCB) HAS A NEW TELEPHONE NUMBER 1300 232 272 (1300 CDCB SA) The CDCB has changed its telephone number from (08) 8226 7177 to 1300 232 272, effective immediately. For the cost of a local call, school personnel, parents and caregivers can now call 1300 232 272 from anywhere in South Australia or across Australia for information, resources and advice about: • Infectious diseases • Immunisation • Infection Control • HIV & Hepatitis C, relating disease; policy and
programs
POSITIVE PARENTING SESSIONS FOR TERM3, 2011
Effective Living Centre, 26 King William Rd. Wayville Wed 3 August – Managing Anger in Children. Discover how we can teach children to recognize, understand, and express their anger in constructive ways.
Wed 17 August – Talk so your kids will listen… Learn new ways of effectively communicating with children so that misunderstanding and conflict are dealt with constructively.
Wed 31 August – Dealing with Competitiveness. While children’s temperament and self-‐confidence contributes to the way they respond to competition, in a positive environment they can also be quick to learn new social skills.
Wed 7 Sept – Developing Independence. Secure relationships contribute to a strong sense of self, enabling children to feel confident in making sound decisions, relating to others and being independent. Cost: $15 / $10 conc. / $20 per couple Bookings: 8271 0329 or [email protected]
PARTNERS IN DEPRESSION Partners in Depression is a FREE six week group program that aims to address the information and support needs of those who live with or love someone experiencing depression. The program covers a range of topics including:
-‐ what is depression -‐ Treatments for depression -‐ Suicidality and self harm -‐ How do you best support someone with depression -‐ Communication strategies
The program is run by health professionals and provides a forum in which to receive information and ask questions about depression and your support role, with others with similar experiences.
Partners in Depression is now available in your local area – register your interest today!
Session Dates: 7, 14, 21, 28 July, 4, 11 August 2011 Venue: Carers SA, South and East Country Commonwealth Respite and Carelink Centre, Murray Bridge Facilitators: Anna Schmidt and Fiona Telford-‐Sharp Cost: Course is Free: however a one-‐off Carer contribution of $10.00 would be appreciated to assist with the provision of afternoon tea throughout the course. Register your interest: Anna Schmidt, Program Manager of Education and Training at Carers SA on 08 8291 5600. Please be aware there is a brief assessment process that is required when registering your attendance.