It is hard to believe we have already completed three weeks of the 2024 year with students. A very big welcome to our new and returning families to 2024. 

We have started the year with our largest enrolment for a very long time of 190 students, with 41 year 7’s starting their High School journey at Gladstone High School. We have a larger staff contingent than last year, welcoming Christine Taylor – Chemistry, Science and Maths, Brianna Pullan – PE and Outdoor Ed, Chris Mayman – PE, English and HASS, Chris Gowing – Drama, English and Psychology, Sarah Philp – Agriculture and Science, Robyn Ravenna – English and HASS, Emmalee Oxford – SSO student support, Matt Cadzow – Grounds and Farm Hand.   

Congratulations to our class of 2023 on their results. Luke Hansen was our DUX of 2023 with an ATAR of 94.10 before bonus points and has been accepted into a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) Flexible Entry.  Jaxon Brand also achieved an amazing ATAR of 93.45 with acceptance into a Double Degree of Bachelor of Laws and Sport.  The majority of our graduates are already continuing their Apprenticeships, have been employed or undertaking further study. 

Term 1 promises to be very busy with an extensive range of activities and events lined up for our students. Already we have celebrated and acknowledged our Student and House Leaders at the DUX assembly last week. Congratulations to all of the students who were prepared to take on formal leadership roles across our school. I have no doubt that they will serve as inspiring role models for their peers and make invaluable contributions to our school community. 

The final sign-off on our newly installed fitness equipment/playground should occur in the next couple of weeks, with the enthusiasm of the students suggesting they are eagerly awaiting their first chance to try it out.  

I look forward to the many exciting experiences and achievements that await us in the coming year. Thank you for your ongoing support and partnership as we work together to make 2024 a truly memorable year for our Gladstone High School community. 

Tyler Hogan - Principal

CLASS of 2024

The class of 2024 has certainly hit the ground running this year. We have started strong in Homegroup by building positive relationships, and establishing firm but fair expectations and attitudes around Homegroup and both the Seminar Room and Common Rooms. De-scaling kettles, cleaning the fridge and stocking it with softies, and vacuuming floors are all jobs that needed be done, and there wasn’t a student who wasn’t willing to get their hands dirty to set up a comfortable and productive environment that they can take pride in. We started the year by designing magnetic chalkboard sheets for our lockers to add some personality to our newly designed Common Room, many thanks to Barry Martin. They look great and add a touch of colour and modernity to the room. Alison Johnson was kind enough to initiate a welcome lunch for the Year 12s, as an additional way of establishing positive relationships and building feelings of care and support for the class. This was well attended by staff, and the students loved it. Asia Brand has devised an excellent buddy system between the Year 7 and 12 homegroups, which will be implemented in week 3 once some of the beginning-of-term craziness has settled down. The year 12s have also been given the opportunity to accept a teacher as a mentor for the year, supporting them with their studies and general school life. We have plans for many staff VS student events this year and we are all looking forward to these friendly competitions. Overall, the Year 12s have begun their year positively and responsibly, which is fantastic to see. It was a great privilege to be asked to be the Year 12 Homegroup teacher this year and I have thoroughly enjoyed spending time with the seniors so far. We wish our Year 12s all the best for the year ahead and I look forward to further informing you of their activities as the year progress.

Max Rutjens – 12 Homegroup Teacher

ELEVATE SEMINARS

In Week 2, the Year 10s and Year 12s took part in the Student Elevation Program developed by Elevate Education. These engaging sessions provide students with study-hacks to help them succeed in achieving their academic goals. Students learned techniques for self motivation, the importance of having a growth mindset,  goal setting and how to break goals down into manageable tasks and deadlines. The presenter, Kab, did a great job of connecting with the students and delivering the content in a dynamic and entertaining way.

SCHOOL BASED APPRENTICESHIPS

Congratulations to the following students who have been successful in gaining a School Based Apprenticeship.

Layla Willsmore - Fashion Design

Jed Witty - Mechanic

Tobey Dwyer - Mechanic

STUDENT LEADERS

With the endeavour of evolvement and a commitment to fostering passionate student leaders, the senior leadership group for the current academic year undertook a mission to revise our student leader selection process. Diverging from traditional voting methods, this alteration was meticulously crafted to align more closely with our goal of identifying passionate student leaders among our GHS student cohort. 

This year, the application process for our middle school students, was completed via email application. Applicants were posed thoughtfully designed questions, delving into their individual endeavours as leaders and extended into their aspirations for instigating positive change within both our school institution and the broader community. The multitude of applications received made the selection process exceptionally challenging.

Congratulations to our 2024 Middle School Student Leaders:

Year 7: Peyton Jefferies and Mason Evans

Year 8: Austin Jefferies and Isabell Redden

Year 9: Iysha Cunningham and Mirra Tunbridge

Your demonstrated commitment to leadership, as showcased in your insightful applications, truly sets you apart. We eagerly anticipate the positive impact you will undoubtedly make within our school community.

To those students who did not secure a leadership position this time, please recognise this as a challenge in your journey of personal and leadership growth. Your dedication and accomplishments have not gone unnoticed, and we encourage you to view this as an opportunity for continued development.

The leadership selection process has been implemented in an attempt to prepare students for Year 12 leader applications that follow this process and also to help prepare the students for real life situations outside of school. As such, the Senior School Students took part in an interview as part of the application process for the position of school leader. All interviews were run by our School Captain team consisting of Chloe Crawford, Asia Brand and Vice-Captain Layla Willsmore. After seeing many applicants go through the process, all giving a great interview, the positions were filled by students that we feel will have a large impact on our school with two Year 10 Leaders, and four Year 11 Leaders. There were so many great applications and it was a really difficult decision process, we encourage those who were not selected to apply again in the future.

Congratulations to our Senior School Leaders:

Year 11: Sataya Spencer, Max Pedler, Eliza Heinrich, and Isaac Smart

Year 10: Imogen Cunningham and Madi Clogg

Sincerely Asia Brand and Chloe Crawford, on behalf of the Senior Leadership Group 

It is wonderful to see students back at school after what we hope was an enjoyable summer holiday break. This year we have six homegroups in the Middle School, and the homegroup teachers are:

7A Miss Pullan            7B Mr Wren

8A Mr Bennett            8B Mr Mayman

9A Mr Kennewell         9B Mr Hussell/Mrs Seidel

Each morning, students spend 20 minutes with their homegroup teacher, beginning the day with a Morning Circle from our Berry Street Training, and then working on Skills for Learning, Skills for Life and Wellbeing throughout the week. Your child’s homegroup teacher is an excellent point of contact, and I would encourage you to take the opportunity to introduce yourself at some stage.

All students have been given a diary to use for recording homework, important reminders and communication between school and home. Other ways you can communicate with your child’s teachers include contacting school by phone or email, or using the Sentral portal.

We are extremely excited to welcome 41 new Year 7 students, who have settled in nicely to high school life, making new friends and trying new and different subjects. One of the highlights for their first term of high school will include the Year 7 Aquatics Camps in Weeks 4 and 5 at Port Augusta Aquatic Centre. We look forward to lots of fun on camp.

Term 1 will also see Year 7 and 9 students undertake NAPLAN testing. It is always an extremely busy term, but please feel free to contact me if you want to talk about your child’s learning or have any questions or concerns.

Helen Gaunt - Middle School Coordinator 

Since returning from holidays, both students and staff have been gearing up for a busy term of Sports Carnivals at GHS. In Term 1 we will have the annual GHS Swimming and Athletics Carnivals, as well as interschool carnivals in Quorn, Jamestown and Adelaide. In Week 1, the 2024 House Captains were elected by their peers and since then, they have been busy preparing their houses for the fast-approaching Swimming Carnival. To prepare themselves, the Year 7 students have enjoyed Friday afternoon swims at the Gladstone Swimming Pool, and the weather has been perfect! Thanks to Mrs Pech and Mr Rutjens, our Year 7 HPE teachers for creating this opportunity for the students.

Before we know it, our Athletics Carnival will also be upon us, and our PE classes have been very busy practicing their track and field events, under the guidance of Mr Rutjens, Mrs Pech, Mr Mayman and Miss Pullan.

HOUSE CAPTAINS

Congratulations to our House Captians that have been elected for 2024.

OWSWALD 

  House Captian - Sataya Spencer & Ryan Mills 

Vice House Captian - Laura Rackham & Cooper Seidel 

Junior House Captian - Chloe Nettle & Jay Coffey

SULLIVAN

  House Captian - Asia Brand & Aaron Hombsch

Vice House Captian - Chloe Crawford & Jonah Amey 

Junior House Captian - Iysha Cunningham & Logan Wurst

RICHARDS GALE

  House Captian - Eliza Heinrich & Tobey Dwyer

Vice House Captian - Isabelle Batchelor, Tess Cleggett & Taylah Palmer

Junior House Captian - Isabella Arnold & Nate McNerney

SWIMMING CARNIVAL RESULTS

TEAM RESULTS 

RECORDS SET IN 2024

Wellbeing at GHS has had an exciting change in 2024. I am still the Wellbeing Coordinator and am excited to work alongside students, staff and families to support engagement and learning, however we have been able to implement a day of wellbeing support with Ali Gulin.

This year South Australian schools received funding as part of the federal government’s student wellbeing boost to spend on activities that support mental health and wellbeing. With the funding, GHS have been able to enlist the support of Ali for one day a week. Ali will be working with students to support their wellbeing while they are at school. She will work one on one and in small groups to also support students to engage in learning and to recognise and implement relevant and inclusive social skills. Ali is focusing on supporting Senior School students as they embark on the challenges of Stage 1 and 2.

In her role in the Front Office and in classroom support as an SSO, Ali is a familiar and friendly face for our students to engage with.

Please contact me at school via phone or email (kate.richardson347@schools.sa.edu.au) if you have any questions or queries about wellbeing support at GHS.

Kate Cameron - Wellbeing Coordinator

CONGRATULATIONS JUDY!

In 2023, Aboriginal Health from Port Pirie Regional Health Service received a grant from Foundation of Rural & Regional as part of strengthening communities. 

It was put to the community to create a design for new Aboriginal Health check shirts to support the promotion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people health and wellbeing. 

I submitted a design showcasing our community working with service providers to ensure better health outcomes for our mob using not only western medicine but looking at holistic healing with bush medicine and healers. The entries were put to a vote by the Aboriginal community and fortunate enough my design was meet with overwhelming approval. It gives me such pride to know that my design on the shirt will encourage our mob to have their health check for early intervention. 

Judy Crosby

Greetings to all the families from each of the schools which the GHS canteen services

It’s a new year, a new menu and some new products and prices.
We will make a hard copy of the complete menu of foods and drinks available for each family to refer to when ordering. Please be sure to include the correct payment and be specific about what flavour drinks you want, the fillings to include on burgers, sauce etc.
Qkr
Orders can still be made through the Qkr app which has been updated to reflect the new menu and any changes. There are some new products available too so keep an eye out for these among the regular items.
Over the coming weeks I will endeavour to highlight these in the newsletters. One product proving popular among the GHS students are cans of juice bombs. These are 250ml cans of carbonated fruit juices. It comes in seven flavours; grape, apple blackcurrant, orange passionfruit, apple raspberry, watermelon, apple cola and lemonade. There is no added sugar or additives. Just fruit juice with bubbles! It is ‘schools approved’ by the dept. We will try out each of the flavours and ultimately try to stick with the most popular two or three. What we have at any time is subject to availability from the supplier, so if you order a flavour which is currently out of stock, we will substitute it with whatever we deem the most suitable alternative.
Payments
You can use a card at the canteen to pay for your products, however if the machine isn’t working for whatever reason no credits will be given this year. Cash works every time. We will also run a tab for those who pay more than their due amount or for prize vouchers.
Volunteers.
We welcome anyone from any of the schools we support to give us a hand with food preparation on any day of the week, especially Fridays. Volunteers are required to complete a working with children check however which can be arranged or verified through the front office. If you can spare a couple of hours between 10am and 1pm it will be much appreciated.
We’d also like to welcome a couple of the senior students who are interested in working in hospitality onto our team this year. Kacey and Ryan will join us for some of their free lessons to lend a helping hand and learn valuable hospitality skills.
Donations.
If you have any surplus garden produce or home-made products like cake or biscuits you would like to donate to the canteen, we will put it to good use.
Recycling.
We will continue with the recycling of refundable containers again this year. It helps keep the yards tidier and rewards people for their efforts. It's an excellent way to earn a little cash for a treat when you’re a bit skint. You can also put drink containers into the yellow lidded bins around the yards for recycling too, but we will give you 10 cents per refundable bottle. Remember that whether returned to us or the bins, the containers need to be empty with no straws or lids
Thanking you for your continued support. Let's make 2024 our best year ever.

Kind regards, from the tuck shop ladies, Heather and Susan.

Free home internet access

Students and families who have inadequate or no access to internet at home are eligible to apply for a free internet connection to support learning.

There are 2 options available to eligible families:

• wireless internet access from the Department for Education through the student home internet program
• NBN broadband internet access until December 2025 from the Australian Government through the School Student Broadband Initiative.

You might be eligible if you:

• have a school aged child
• don’t have reliable home internet access or have no active NBN broadband connection.

Find out more about what options are available and how parents and carers can apply by visiting the department’s website.