5 September 2019

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s News

Our agriculture students and their teachers have been very busy over the last 2 weeks at the Royal Adelaide Show with the cattle last week and then the goats and sheep this week. We have been updating the results regularly through our Facebook page. Congratulations so far to Teneal for her 4th place in the cattle handling, Mumford’s Tank for a 4th in his group.

Next week we have a group of students performing at the MNSEC showcase. Congratulations to these students on being prepared to appear on stage. All members of the public are invited to attend the Showcase next Thursday evening at 7.00pm at the Orroroo Town Hall.

We wish our students who are continuing to participate in the local football and netball finals all the best with the Grand Finals fast approaching.

A reminder to get your nominations in for the Rowan Ramsey Award. Nominations are open to a staff, parent or community member who has ‘gone the extra mile’ dedicating and volunteering their time and skills for the school. If you can think of anyone who you feel meets this criteria, please complete the nomination form below.

From Tuesday of week 9 until the end of the term I will be on leave, accompanying my family to Spain for the Trials des nations. I encourage the year 12’s particularly to make excellent use of the coming holidays and revise where necessary and aim to get final assessment pieces near completion. The year 12’s will celebrate their last formal day at school on Friday 25th October with a breakfast at school.

Tyler Hogan
Principal

SAASTA Workshop

During SAASTA Workshop 1, Semester 2, students undertook a physiological study that analysed the relationship between heart rate and intensity. Students tested their heart rates while running 600m around an oval and 600m up a steep incline. The results supported their hypothesis, which stated that the relationship between a person’s heart rate and the intensity level of a physical activity is linear. It proved that as the intensity of the task increased the heart rate also increased.

Students were also given the opportunity to work with Adelaide Crow’s legend Andrew McLeod, who held an indigenous heritage and culture quiz. Andrew also designed a strength testing course that resembled the television show “The Amazing Race”. Once students completed Andrew’s course, they were required to design their own amazing race. When each group’s amazing race was completed, students were required to report the results in the form of a newsletter article.

Overall, the Workshop was a great success and our students enjoyed the experience.

Tyler Norton
SAASATA Teacher

Middle School HASS

On Friday, August 23, students in Mrs Wells' Year 8 and 9 HASS classes had a visit from Peter Beer, Mrs Wells' father. Mr Beer works as an IT specialist and mines opals in Coober Pedy. He spoke to the Year 8 students about landforms and landscapes around Coober Pedy. Mr Beer also discussed the geological reasons as to why the town exists and how opals were formed. He talked about the renewable energy project with the Year 9 students, that allows Coober Pedy to run 100% on renewable energy for 70% of the year including periods of up to 80 consecutive days.

Highlights included Mr Beer explaining the developments in mining technology, including how he currently uses explosives to remove large amounts of rock. Viewing the small pieces of opal, he brought in, and seeing photos of the most expensive piece of opal ever found, worth $1.6 million and currently on display in the South Australian Museum in Adelaide.

Rachel Wells
Middle School HASS Teacher

New Books in the Resource Centre

Before everything changed, Hannah Rosenthal lived a charmed life. But now the streets of Berlin are draped in swastikas and Hannah is no longer welcome in the places she once considered home.

A glimmer of hope appears in the shape of the St Louis, a transatlantic liner that promises Jews safe passage to Cuba. The Rosenthals sell everything to fund visas and tickets. At first the liner feels like luxury, but as they travel the circumstances of war change, and it soon becomes their prison.

Seven decades later in New York, on her twelfth birthday Anna Rosen receives a package from Hannah, the great-aunt she never met but who raised her deceased father. Anna and her mother immediately travel to Cuba to meet this elderly relative, and for the first time Hannah tells them the untold story of her voyage on the St Louis.

Based on a true story, this wonderful novel gives voice to the joys and sorrows of generations of exiles, forever seeking a place called home.

Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching and gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it. For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly twenty years ago.

Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying of ALS - or motor neurone disease - Mitch visited Morrie in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final 'class': lessons in how to live.

Tuesdays With Morrie is a magical chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie's lasting gift with the world. NON-FICTION BOOK

England 1648. A dangerous time for a woman to be different . . . Midsummer's Eve, 1648, and England is in the grip of civil war between renegade King and rebellious Parliament. The struggle reaches every corner of the kingdom, even to the remote Tidelands – the marshy landscape of the south coast. Alinor, a descendant of wise women, crushed by poverty and superstition, waits in the graveyard under the full moon for a ghost who will declare her free from her abusive husband. Instead she meets James, a young man on the run, and shows him the secret ways across the treacherous marsh, not knowing that she is leading disaster into the heart of her life.

A full list of books can be accessed via the online version.

R U OK?

Free online Suicide Prevention Training.

R U OK? Day is an important reminder that a conversation could help to change a life. Parents, families and guardians within the school community can now be even more ready to help when it’s needed most by taking part in free suicide prevention training.

QPR training will teach you three simple steps which might help you to save a life one day:

1. Question
2. Persuade
3. Refer

To undertake training, please visit the link below use the Login Code: CSA

GHS Canteen Roster Weeks 8 & 9

Please arrive on time to help with preparation from 10.30am. If you are able to volunteer in any of the available spaces please contact the Front Office.

MNSEC Showcase

An entertaining evening of The Arts presented by local schools.

Want to know how to help your teenager with career ideas?

Parents As Career Transition Support (PACTS) are running workshops for parents. PACTS is a 2 hour workshop that provides an interactive, informal way to learn about career transition in a setting that has been developed for parents, with parents.

If you wish to be part of a public workshop, registrations can be made via Eventbrite. These will be advertised and can be found by searching for Career and Transition Workshop for Parents on the Eventbrite app.

Public workshops (max 20 participants) will be priced at $50 pp plus booking fee.

Enquiries can be made to chris@careerdesignssa.com.au or 0439 276 383

Community News

Gladstone Stadium Quiz Night

St Joseph’s Parish School 2019 School Production

This year our students will be performing Robin Hood as our school production. The performance will be held at Gladstone Town Hall with a Matinee Performance, Thursday October 24 at 10.30am (free entry) and Main Performance, Friday October 25 at 7.30pm. Tickets can be purchased for St Joseph’s Parish School or on the night.

SA Dental Service

Dental care is FREE for ALL babies, preschool and most children under 18 years at School Dental Service clinics.

Our specially trained staff provide comprehensive dental care to help prevent pain and tooth decay.

Your local clinic is: Port Pirie West School Dental Clinic

Phone: 8632 1926 or use the link on our website to ask us to contact you.

Port Pirie Youth Theatre presents ‘Freaky Friday’

When an overworked mother and her teenage daughter magically swap bodies, they have just one day to put things right again. Freaky Friday, a new musical based on the celebrated novel by Mary Rodgers and the hit Disney films, is a heartfelt, comedic, and unexpectedly emotional update on an American classic. By spending a day in each other's shoes, Katherine and Ellie come to appreciate one another's struggles, learn self-acceptance, and realize the immeasurable love and mutual respect that bond a mother and daughter.

SCHOOL PERFORMANCES
Northern Festival Centre, Port Pirie

THURSDAY 19TH SEPTEMBER 11.00 AM
FRIDAY 20TH SEPTEMBER 11.00AM
Student $6.00
Teachers Free