With Term 2 well underway, there are a number of events that have already occurred. 

Already, our students have attended a year 9 Outdoor Education Camp to Woodhouse, which was an amazing experience and enjoyed by all of the students, even if most students ended up falling in the creek. 

Year 10’s attended a Careers Camp last week after extensive planning and preparation by Alison Johnson. The daily photos we received back at school courtesy of Ms Johnson, Ms Travers and Mr Watson highlighted a broad range of activities and opportunities that students appreciated. 

The year 7 and 8’s also attended an AFL 9’s carnival in Jamestown as an extension to their curriculum studies in HPE. To see year 9 and 11 students take on the roles of umpires and coaches in such a mature manner was very impressive. 

Our recent Student Free Day was very informative and inspirational as we listened to Kerrie Sellen talk about restorative practices, providing a much deeper insight to working with students for successful engagement. Justin Coulson (known for his work on TV with the parenting program) talked about the Emotionally Intelligent teacher, which was transferable to parenting. The afternoon provided some valuable tips to teachers on working with student emotions. The sessions all linked in very well with the work we have been doing from our Berry Street training and our remodelled behaviour management steps of using a reflection zone to re-engage students and get them back into the classroom “Ready to Learn”. 

As the term progresses, you can expect to see a number of tasks completed for each subject; these will be visible on Continuous Assessment on Sentral and provide you with a progress report on how your child is achieving. At the end of the term, you will then receive a report with a final grade for the entire semester. If you have difficulty accessing the Sentral parent portal, please contact the school for assistance. 

Here’s hoping for a break in the season shortly, both to help with the illness that seems to be consuming many people and to provide some immediate relief to our farming community.  

UniSA

In Week 1 of Term 2, UniSA came to the school to chat with the 10s, 11s and 12s. The Year 10 and 11 session was an interactive presentation designed to test student knowledge about university study and identify the differences between school and tertiary learning. The session also provided important tips about what students should consider when planning their careers. In the Year 12 session, the students were provided with a comprehensive overview of study options at UniSA. Students were walked through the applications and admissions process with important dates highlighted as well as the variety of pathways and back-up plans students should consider.

Jensen Soergel Work Experience

Thank you to the Hanleys family for hosting Jensen for his current work experience.

To support our students in their learning goals, we have been working on consistent, predictable routines, including beginning each day with a Morning Circle from our Berry Street training. These occur in Pastoral Care time, during homegroup, and are a great way to start the day in a positive way. To further support our students, we will be working with every student on their own Ready to Learn Plan. These will help students identify and use strategies to help them work with their teachers to focus on their learning.

This term we have introduced the Reflection Zone, which is a space in the Learning Hub for students to come to when they are having trouble focussing on their learning, and having trouble following teacher instructions. In the Reflection Zone, students work with a someone from the leadership team to get Ready to Learn, regulate their behaviour and set goals for success in their lessons. You will receive an SMS message if your child has visited the Reflection Zone, and you may also receive a phone call from the class teacher for further discussion. You are encouraged to contact the class teacher, or the Middle School Coordinator if you have any questions or concerns at any time.

On Wednesday 15^th May, we hosted our annual Open Night, giving new and current families the chance to hear about the opportunities available to students at Gladstone High School. It was fantastic to see the number of year 6 students and their parents, who will be our 2025 year 7 families, come along for the information session and tours. Transition activities will begin later this term. If you missed the opportunity for a tour and some information, please feel free to contact the school to make a time to visit.

Preparations for the annual Year 9 Ski Trip are underway. Students will make neckwarmers later this term. The Aldi ski sale is on this weekend, a great chance to grab thermals, socks, gloves and goggles at very reasonable prices. Students don’t need ski jackets and ski pants as they will be included in the hire of equipment.

With just five weeks left in Semester 1, all students will be experiencing some subject changes in their practical subjects, such as Art and Digital Tech. For Year 7’s, this change will occur at the start of Week 5, as their electives are divided into ‘trimesters’ to give them the chance to experience a variety of subjects, while still meeting their core subject requirements. If you missed Parent/Teacher interviews at the end of last term, you are encouraged to make contact with your child’s teachers if you have any questions or concerns, or would just like to chat about their progress.

ONLINE SAFETY

Students at Gladstone High School, and in fact students all over Australia, are accessing online platforms of all varieties at alarming rates. We often have conversations with our students about how much time they spend online gaming instead of sleeping or interacting with peers, in person. There are a lot of games and online forums that our young people have access to, and it can be confusing as a parent to know what is safe and appropriate. The eSafety Commissioner has thorough information about many online games/sites that include what the game is, age restrictions and safety precautions that parents can take to protect their young person. Check out this link to see what your children are accessing: https://www.esafety.gov.au/key-topics/esafety-guide

What has been going on in Ag in Term 1 

Term 1 2024 has been a big term for Gladstone High Schools Agriculture program. Starting with the cleaning of the Merino shed, conducted by the Gladstone CFS Cadets. Cadets came to school after hours to practice CFS skills. This helped Gladstone High School by efficiently cleaning out the underneath of our Merino sheep shed, which is a large, smelly job to do by hand shovel and wheelbarrow! This partnership is very valuable to the Gladstone High School Agriculture program. We thank the CFS cadets and Captains that came to help and want to see more students involved in this program through the Gladstone CFS. If you want to join the Gladstone Cadets, contact Hayden Prior on 0428457026. 

A new event introduced into the program in 2024 was our very first Sheep Day. This saw most of our new Merino Wethers for the 2024 show season being introduced to their new home. We had some of our local agriculture community help our students learn and experience shearing, rouseabout, wool throwing and skirting the fleece.  

After all the sheep had been shorn students were then shown the process of rounding sheep into the draft to be backlined and drenched to protect against anything nasty. 

The Gladstone High School agriculture team would like to Ben Crawford for allowing us to borrow his shearing trailer, Mick Hollitt for coming in to provide us with some shearing experience, and Nigel Clogg and Andrew Zanker for teaching us the importance of backlining and drenching. 

Following from this, students and staff have been involved in picking grapes from our vineyard. Many hands made light work for a quick morning that was very successful. Gladstone High School grows shiraz grapes to produce our own wine! Something to look out for to purchase over the coming months. Learning these vineyard skills and maintaining them throughout the year provides valuable skill building opportunities for our students that can flow directly into agriculture work in the future. 

Students have also been involved in fence maintenance. We have been lucky enough to have some workshops run to show students how to build fencing boxes, twitch wire, and use a Gripple Wire Joiner. Students have also hung a gate, using different techniques to normal fence building.  

Tune into the next newsletter of the term to find out what else has been going on in Gladstone High School Agriculture Program.  

Mr Wren

Aquatics Camp

Last week, Mr Rutjens’ Year 10 Outdoor Ed class spent Wednesday and Thursday at Port Augusta Aquatics Centre, trying their hand at kayaking and sailing. They did this as part of Outdoor Education, which is a subject built around having practical experiences in the outdoors, as well as developing skills and knowledge within fields such as group dynamics, leadership, critical thinking, risk assessment, ecology, and human impacts on natural environments. Wednesday was spent developing basic to intermediate kayaking skills, before setting off on a 6.7km round kayak up and down the Port Augusta channel. Thursday was spent developing basic sailing skills before doing some figure 8s across the channel, then setting off on a tacking journey up the channel, before finally cruising downwind back to shore. All students and teachers had an amazing time, learnt lots of new skills, and shared awesome experiences. They also learnt lots about themselves as individuals and as part of a group. Some quotes from the students are included below:

“When I was chosen to be captain for the sailing boat in my group I did surprisingly well. As the captain it was a rather easy role to take up since all you had to do was yell commands, balance the boat and turn. […] As a front marker [while kayaking] my job was to make sure that the rest of the group was able to keep up with the rest of us and stop when they either needed to have a rest or catch up.” – Angus Kleinig

“I really enjoyed the activities we did and the area they took place in as it was a nice break from reality kayaking down sandy and hospital creek and sailing down the river. I was impressed by the things I was able to do as I’ve never been sailing before, and I haven’t kayaked in a couple years. […] It made me really appreciate nature as it looked really nice and the water was calm, but I disliked the amount of pollution in the river, there was an office chair and plastic bags in some of the weirdest spots which really shows how bad the human species can be.” – Macen Taylor

“When being captain of the sailboat you must display leadership as you have complete responsibility to the other crew members. You must balance the boat, call commands to the other crew members, and turn. You also must beware of other boats. Being the captain is easier than it sounds, but you must watch the wind in case it changes direction. You must make sure that the sails are always catching wind.” – Blake Phillips

“This camp was amazing as I got to experience the beautiful parts of Port Augusta gulf. As a class we formed teamwork and bonded together. We learnt lots of new skills that I will take on for when I go kayaking and sailing again.” – Bella Sargent

“After attending the camp, my emotion towards the natural environment is that there is way too much litter in the ocean at Port Augusta. It was disappointing to see a computer chair in the water. It is not a healthy environment for marine animals. My emotions towards myself were good and I was decently confident while kayaking and I was less confident while sailing. I got quite worried when we leaned a bit too far over in the sailboat, but we figured it out and it was nice. My emotions towards other people were good and we got a lot closer to each other as the camp went on. […] We shared a few good memories, like my run with George. I changed my perception of natural areas because I hit a piece of plastic with my paddle, and I realized how bad the litter situation is in Port Augusta.” – Hudson Seidel

Max Rutjens

Year 9 Outdoor Ed Camp

This year, we introduced Year 9 outdoor education as an elective to familiarise students with the expectations for Year 10 and beyond. For our introductory camp, Max Rutjens and I took the Year 9s to Woodhouse Adventure Park in the Adelaide Hills. We spent the night camping in tents to provide the full camping experience (minus all the necessary facilities ?). Here's what some of the students had to say:

“At Woodhouse camp we did many group actives, including Challenge Hill, The Labrynth, Orienteering and Cameron’s Climb. Each one of these actives include teamwork or support from your peers. Throughout Challenge Hill there were many moments where we could help our classmate, such as lifting them up to the next step or giving them instructions on where or what to do next”. Iysha Cunningham

“My favourite moment would have to be spotlight everybody was having a good time I was hiding with Ish and everyone was getting along and just playing the game it was really fun the most fun I’ve had in ages”. Phillip Walker

“Spotlight was my favourite activity because it was the most fun. We were trying to avoid getting caught by people in the dark using torches and then try to find people using the torches. We ran through a maze, which had a slide and lots of dead ends. This took around two hours”. “It has convinced me to do outdoor ed next year”. Huddy Soergel

“We got there, took our tent out the back of the ute and went to start setting it up. Silly Miss Pullan forgot the hammer and we had to put the pegs in with rocks”. Chloe Nettle

“Camping with school friends is fun, I learn many new things and collected new skills along the way, it was all very fun”. Keira Willsmore

Brianna Pullan

Semester One the learning area of Design, Technology & Engineering was for Year levels 7, 10, 11 and 12's. Year 8 and 9 will have classes are scheduled in Semester Two. The new cohort of Year 7's have had their first extended taste of the workshop and will rotate throughout the year on a trimester basis, guaranteeing every student an opportunity to potentially channel their inner carpenter as they complete some small timber projects. 

The Year 10's have experienced a blended Design & Tech program that encompasses working with timber and metal. Small skills tasks have been completed for each material type, allowing students to select their preferred one to produce a larger project. For timber, their challenge was to produce a small sliding dovetail joint. Developing knowledge and skills in marking and measuring with gauge tools; use of hand tools such as chisels and tenon saws; analysing surface faces to determine what to remove next and how, and of course the mighty skill of patience. For metal, the small product of a phone stand made using metal offcuts and scrap fixings has subtly preached the notion of sustainability and responsible consumption of non-renewable resources. This has enabled them to develop skills covering, the oxywelders; some use of the arc welder; angle grinders and using different discs; preparation of metal prior to welding and bending metal. Each student now has the choice to produce a major project in one of the two material types to extend upon their skills.  

The SACE classes of 11's and 12's are enrolled in the subject titles of Material Solutions (MS) and Industry and Entrepreneurial Solutions (IES). In our context the MS classes apply a working with timber approach and the IES classes incorporate metal fabrication. However, this can vary, or interchange and other context applications are available.  

11 MS have developed skills of carcase joinery and for skill development constructed a small multi-joint box featuring the joints- rebate, half-lap, finger, and through mortise and tenon. Various hand tools and machinery were used, including – chisels, mallets, tenon saws, compound mitre saw, finger joiner, mortise machine. Each student also got their first taste of using the largest piece of machinery in the workshop – the panel saw. This was used to perform an overpass cut and cut in a groove along the bottom for a base. They are now applying those skills to a major product of a small cabinet or bedside unit.  

11 IES have spent time developing their skills using the MIG welders, plasma cutter, and angle grinders. Overall enabling general welding, shaping, grinding and cutting processes. They've learnt about the operation of the MIG welder, purpose of argon gas and significance of the voltage and amp settings. Students have developed skills by investigating the variable of the welder gun torch angle to use when applying a weld seam for different joint types such as butt, fillet and lap. They’ve also fabricated a MIG gun torch holder for welding benches. They are beginning to apply those skills to a major product of a hand sack truck trolley. 

12 MS have been set the skills tasks of a small dartboard cabinet and shaker style doors.  Processes include, cutting a strip of veneered particle board from sheet material using the panel saw; use of table router for corner rebates and hand router for shelf housing, and rear lip for backing. 

12 IES have been set the skills tasks of a folding camp shovel and re-purposing metal to create either a small bench/stool/table. Processes include cutting, bending and welding a range of metal types and sizes.  

Year 12 Students have also been working on the theory component for their major project which involves thoroughly documenting the stages of the Design & Realisation Process. The first two stages have been addressed so far being, Investigation & Analysis, and Design Development & Planning.  

Emma Kerr - Tech Studies Teacher 

Lawn Bowls

On May 13th, fifteen students from year 9 and 10 proudly represented Gladstone High School at the MNSEC Lawn Bowls Competition in Booleroo. The weather was perfect, making it a delightful day out. We formed five teams of three players, with only one 'affiliated bowler' among them. Here's what our students had to say about the experience: 

“Jakobe, Charlie and I came third overall. We worked well as a team. Jakobe was especially helpful when he was skippering, telling us where to aim. The best part was when we beat Daisy, Riley and Bella by 9 points”. Chloe Nettle

 “Charlie, Chloe and I did best, beating all other Gladstone teams. We worked well together as everyone has had experience”. Jakobe Evans

 “It was really good, I feel I improved a lot”. George Rackham

Brianna Pullan - PE Teacher

We continue to have lots happening in the sports arena, including Adelaide Athletics towards the end of last term, and so far this term we have had an AFL 9’s Carnival for Year 7 and 8 students at Jamestown and a Lawn Bowls competition for Year 9 and 10 students at Booleroo. A number of students have been selected to represent GHS in MNSEC football teams, with the Year 9/10 Boys team playing last Wednesday in Port Pirie. We also had 3 students compete in the recent Cross Country qualifying event at Wilmington, and all were successful in being selected to attend the State Cross Country Championships in Week 6 at Oakbank. Coming up in the next few weeks there will be the Statewide Netball carnival in Port Pirie, as well as Open Mixed Hockey in Kadina. None of these events can go ahead without the efforts of our students, teaching staff, SSO’s, bus drivers, parents and other volunteers who assist with umpiring, timing, coaching, transport and supervision, and we are extremely grateful.

Helen Gaunt 

We were really thrilled that so many of our students were keen to represent Gladstone High School at the ANZAC Day dawn services this year, with student representatives attending services at a number of local towns in our area. Chloe Crawford worked closely with Mrs Hogan to organise students and logistics for the day as well as representing the school at the Georgetown service. Eliza Heinrich and Imogen Cunningham did a wonderful job in Gladstone, laying a wreath and raising the flags as the dawn broke. Asia Brand and Madi Clogg attended the Laura service, Ryan Mills layed a wreath at the Wirrabarra service and Austin Jeffries and Sataya Spencer represented the school at the Crystal Brook service. The huge Gladstone High School support during the school holidays provided a valuable opportunity for us to honour those who have served and died in all wars in defence of our way of life. A big thank you goes out to those students who took part in the services, the many other students who expressed an interest in representing the school and to Mrs Hogan for coordinating the event and organising the wreaths.

Alison Johnson - Senior Coordinator