YAS-News Term 3 Week 8 2023
A Note from the Principal
Another busy, busy week which has been lovely and I am off tonight to share the evening with our year 12 students at their formal. Its always a great night and at times I don’t recognise our students as they look so grown up not dressed in the school uniform!
I have had the pleasure of working in the Middle School space this week as Ms Symonds is on Long Service Leave and it has been exciting to see all the teaching and learning and being able to connect with so many of our students.
We had our last Governing Council for the term this week and have agreed to maintain our position on keeping our school fees for 2024 to the minimum. We understand times are difficult for lots of us and we feel as a school this is one way we can help. Over the next few months and especially early next year we will be encouraging families to apply for school card which will further ease the burden while at the same time helping our school.
Wendy our lovely Librarian has adopted the LAP garden and this week has transformed the space into something really special. Pop in and have a look if you have a spare moment and you can certainly see spring is in the air.
To conclude I will just mention that our Escape the Vape project is still on track and I will be having a small stall at our local show to share some resources and information we have collated. I have been asked to be part of a panel at the Cancer Foundations Conference with the Health and Education Ministers next Wednesday to share our journey so far. Three students who are currently working through our school program have also been asked to attend and share their stories as well.
Have a happy week everyone
Christine Bell
Open Girls Football
On Wednesday 30 August we took 48 students to Encounter Bay Oval for the 9-a-side interschool football carnival.
We had two Year 7/8 boys teams, a Year 9/10 boys team and an Open girls team.
It was a fantastic day with all students participating exceptional well.
The coaches for the day were:
- 7/8 Boys Div 2 - Candace Turner with the support of Mr Currie
- 7/8 Boys Div 1 - Scott Wenham with the support of Indy Kaye-Kimmins
- 9/10 Boys - Brett Barry with the support of Anna Symonds/Larissa Barry
- Open Girls - Linda Shute
The 9/10 boys team finished second, 7/8 boys division one team finished second and the 7/8 division two team finished fifth.
The girls won all of their games, finishing first! This was with only year 9/10 students against open girls in years 10-12. This was also done with only 8 players!
Thank you to all the parents who helped out to make the day run so smoothly, particularly Brett Barry and Scott Wenham who regularly support our interschool sport competitions.
A special mention also goes to Mr Currie who spent a lot of time planning and coordinating the day.
Without Limits - Yankalilla explores the Banky exhibition
On Wednesday 13 September some of the Year 7 to year 10 students went into Rundle Mall to experience the Banksy exhibition.
Banksy is an artist who has street art examples all over the world. His work is often controversial, with messages about commercialism and current political situations. The artist is currently the most famous artist in the world according to many.
Our excursion allowed students to get up close and personal with many of the famous works. We saw the stencil girl with a red heart balloon that famously "self-destructed" when it was sold for over $1 million, as well as other recognizable stencil art. The rats that Banksy often depicts ( we think we counted 30 hidden around the exhibition) were very popular with our students as well as the infinity room. Others enjoyed the messages of the war inspired satirical pieces, like the soldier checking Dorothy's basket and a rebel soldier throwing a bunch of flowers instead of a molotov cocktail.
We would like to thank the District Council of Yankalilla the Arts and Creativity grant which allowed us to subsidise the excursion. Thanks also to Eric our bus driver, the school front office and Bu Taylor. A huge thank you to the students joining us on the art journey, who were ambassadors for our school and quite good art critics. We would recommend visiting the exhibition if you get the chance!
Spring has Sprung
Spring has sprung! The warm weather paid us a visit this week and the plants in our quadrangle, planted during Book Week are now bursting with colour. The tiny seeds that students planted in seed trays by our Primary students are also beginning to sprout.
Pictured are 3-4A students, Harrison, Gracie, Kaiden and Xavier giving our thirsty seeds and seedlings a drink.
Princess trial of Toy
2/3A had the pleasure of trialing a dog toy design recently which was developed for our classroom dog by Community Studies students McKenzie and Amber. Over two weeks, our students practised their science investigation skills by trialing the dog toy in different ways, with our classroom dog Princess. They used the original toy design and played with Princess, encouraging her to engage and also relax with the toy. Princess displayed an enjoyment of the soft and comfortable material in the toy and as you can see from the photographs, was even sleeping with the toy by the end of two lessons.
Next our students decided to add some 'senior dog' treats under the folds of the material and they noticed that Princess chased the toy and was only interested in the toy, not the pats and other humans at all.
In conclusion, students decided that Princess engaged in the toy on two levels in a very positive way:
- relaxed and slept with the toy, and
- improved her appetite for healthy food by eating hidden treats in the toy.
Sarah Betts
