YAS-News Term 3 Week 2 2023

A Note from The Principal

Hi everyone and welcome back to term one. I hope you all had some great family time and I know our staff really enjoyed the break.

Great news, Alex Anne Dawe had a lovely little boy on the 1^st of this month. His name is Luka Henry and he weighed 6lbs 1oz and all are doing well. Alex Anne is on maternity leave but will be back ready to go at the beginning of term 2 2024.

Over the holidays we had our Middle School shelter erected. The money for this was granted to us from Leon Bignell after the last State election. The Middle School students were involved in the design and placement of the structure and are currently working on a plan to purchase outdoor furniture. If you are picking your children up, come a minute or two earlier and go and have a look.

Our Aquaponics set up is also finished and the farm looks amazing. Graham and Anna are working with SA water to develop a plan for us to produce fingerlings in the tanks and to be able to release in the Myponga Dam when they mature. We are hoping to offer our seniors school students opportunities for learning through SACE and VET programs in 2024.

Last term our school had a team of external Principals spend 2 days looking at our teaching and learning. The report has been released and once staff have had a look it will appear on our website. We have been involved in this process for the last nine years and hand on heart, this is the best External Review to date. I could not have been prouder of all our staff and students and the parents spoken to by the team had many positive things to say. The Review directions will guide our teaching and learning for the next three years.

On next Wednesday evening from 6.00pm to 7.00pm, we have an opportunity for all young people from the ages of 10 -18 to attend a workshop held by Taylor Walker and myself. While it goes under the banner of Escape the Vape, it is not just for young people that may be using vapes, its for all young people to listen to Taylor talk about the effects peer pressure can have and to share some strategies to deal with this. He will also talk about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.

 I will be running a 10-minute fishbowl activity to collect the voice our future adults about their concerns and ideas to help our community tackle the issue of vaping. Taylor and I are strategically not having any other adults in the room as we both know our young people will be less reluctant to talk if we do.

I have a personal connection with Taylor and he has agreed to do this for me, during the footy season and at no cost, as he wants to support my passion for helping our young people. The Adelaide Crows or his manager are not involved. We have 3 quality signed footballs to give away and a Crows guernsey as door prizes. Due to some feedback from the community, Taylor has agreed to open up the clubroom doors at 7.00pm for an extra half hour or so after the workshop and everyone is welcome where he will sign items and provide photo opportunities.

This is more than just the Crows and Taylor, it’s about our community working together to support our young people to be the best they can be.

Please encourage your children to attend as I want to pack the footy club out!

Kind Regards

Christine Bell

A note from the Pastoral Care Worker

Dear YAS family,

Welcome to term 3. 

Trust you and your family had an enjoyable holiday break. 

My husband and I travelled up to Leigh Creek and Farina. What an fascinating part of our state. 

At one time, these areas were thriving communities, now Leigh Creek is a fraction of what it use to be, and Farina is in ruins. But still, to be out there and visualise how it must have been, was very interesting.

On the last Wednesday of last term, we had our annual Comfy clothes - winter food drive for our local community service, 5CY. 

5CY (the 5 Churches of Yankalilla) has been operating for around 30 years. The tireless work of 5CY was acknowledged with joint Citizens of the Year award on Australia Day.  With Gayle and Keren at the helm and now with several volunteers on board, 5CY assists 40+ families from Myponga to Cape Jervis. 

Your super, generous donations have helped to restock the pantry. 

Big thanks to Mrs Barry and Mrs Williams and the enthusiastic SRC crew, who promoted the day. Thanks also to Preston, James and Tyson who helped carry over 10 tubs of goodies to the cars for 5CY crew.  

Have a successful term!

Love, Wendy Lindsay 

YAS Libray

Reception student Oben looks right at home in his Kombi van.  The Kombi is garaged in the Primary Library, ready for our Book Week celebrations in Term 3.  Students will read all about the van's travels around Australia in the graphic novel 'Dirt By Sea' by Michael Wagner which is one of six shortlisted Book Week books.  

Live Play Performance: My War

On the last day of term 2, Stage 1 & Stage 2 English students were treated to a day out in town to attend the theatre production of My War. Presented by No Strings Attached Theatre of Disability and Military and Emergency Services Health Australia (MESHA), the play provided our students with the opportunity to experience live theatre.  

The Drill Hall at the Torrens Parade ground was transformed into a pop-up theatre for the occasion. The bare wooden boards had a moving set, a scrim, a state-of-the-art light and sound system and some really talented differently abled actors to bring the play to life.

The students didn’t love the performance, but did appreciate the efforts of director, Paulo Castro, in bringing an important story to life. We were particularly impressed by the way people with disability were provided with the opportunity to work in a safe environment whilst sharing with the audience some of the secrets they hide as they struggle with living an ordinary life in an extraordinary world.

We made the most of the day by visiting the MOD museum and heading to Rundle Mall for lunch. Special thanks to Miss Nicholls for organising this excursion for us and to our wonderful volunteer, Graham Williams for coming along to help out on the day.

Now it is time for the students to get busy writing their reviews!

Jane Joshua

Year 3/4A Miss Ray

Year 3/4A are learning all about civics and citizenship this term so this week we invited Mayor Houston into our class to tell us all about his job. We learnt many things about what it takes to be a Mayor and took up the opportunity to have a mock council meeting later in the term. We learnt how Mayor Houston became the Mayor, what jobs he has to do, why he wanted to be the Mayor, that is favourite colour is blue and he is allowed to eat whenever he wants!

Year 10 Art

We have started this semester exploring ceramics. Currently we are investigating some of the amazing ceramics created by Melbourned based Thai born artist Vipoo Surivilasa. This week we experimented with trying to create our own versions of his "Little People". It took lots of perservance, but we all ended up creating something! Now we just have to see how the firing goes.

Rotation Drama

This week we are using costumes to help up create our Fixed Fairytale characters.  We had to choose costumes that would add to our performance, giving the audience more clues about who we were in the plays.  

In addition to using costumes to create characters, some of us are experimenting with different voices and movement.

Next week we are presenting our completed plays.