YAS News - Week 10, Term 3
A note from the Principal
Hello everyone,
What a term it’s been! Starting with a state-wide lockdown and finishing in a new spring season, with what feels like daily events over the last few weeks.
Year 10 Rotary Youth Driver Awareness took place at Victor Harbor, educating students in safe driving.
A group of primary students attended Reader’s Rap; please see the article below for all of the successes and photos from the day.
Year 11 tourism students attended a city camp.
Carmel Taylor & Phil Noel attended the ATSI STEM Aboriginal Student Conference with Naturelle and Charlotte and the Mayor’s short story competition took place with 119 entrants from YAS; what a great effort! Please see photos and congratulations in the article below. Many thanks to the district council of Yankalilla and the Yankalilla Library for this opportunity.
The 150th anniversary of the Cape Jervis lighthouse was held on Saturday 18th September. YAS sent Miss Buttercup with Fiona Adams, Terry & Pete Owen and Food and Hospitality students: Georgia, Celeste, Megan and Kyla who all did an admirable job of serving coffees; hot chocolates; milk shakes; ice creams and selling school produce.
Lion’s Speaking Contest Grand Finals were held on Monday Week 10. Each year, this public speaking competition requires so much preparation, practice and courage and the fact that every one of our students from Year 4 to 9 participates is a massive credit to themselves and their teachers. Judging criteria in the finals is rigorous, and each year the Lion’s Club of Yankalilla generously sponsors nine prizes across three age categories. I would like to thank Jane Joshua for the work she puts into the organisation of this event each year. Congratulations to all and we hope the winners enjoy spending their voucher in the holidays. We thank the Lion’s Club for such generous sponsorship over such a long time for helping our students build self-confidence and professional skills.
In other news our school has had some pleasing and positive feedback in our NAPLAN results: students in Years 3, 5, 7, and 9 who took the test will have those results coming home today.
The Year 6 students have been out on camp at woodhouse this week, hopefully having much fun and adventure in their learning. We look forward to hearing their stories upon their return.
Christine Bell our Principal, currently seconded to another role within the Department for Education, has had her time in the role now extended to include Term 4. She is missing everyone and has many ideas she is excited about for her return in 2022. Meanwhile, I will continue as Acting Principal with Fiona Adams remaining Acting Deputy Principal.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of travelling on a jet plane with Karen Putland and the Year 2/3A students. The plane was piloted by Middle Years students…….. Passports, travel brochures and bags in hand we boarded the plane and flew to New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Fiji; students provided interesting information about each of the countries we visited…….we were also treated with tasty onboard snacks. Thanks for an enjoyable adventure!
We’re looking forward to a Term 4 full of events, celebrations and the lead up to Christmas and we will be thinking of our Year 12 students as they approach a busy term, we wish them well with their exam preparations and end of year assessments.
Wishing all of our students, staff and families a safe and happy Spring Holidays.
Warmest Regards, Sonia
Surf Safari CANCELLED
The YAS Arts Committee has just been informed that the performance SURF SAFARI to be held Monday 18th of October for students R- year 6 is now cancelled.
The Melbourne performer / resident is not able to travel to South Australia due to the current lock down and Covid related issues.
This is, of course, very disappointing. Unfortunately, the matter is out of our hands, like so many related circumstances at the moment.
Families who have paid for the performance will have a credit of $6.60 returned to their account. If you have any questions regarding this matter please contact the front office staff.
A bit of Bahasa
This semester the 8/9s have been using a text focussing on the language needed to talk and write about playing sports. Sport is a very useful topic to be able to discuss, because most people have played some sort of sport, watched sport or have an opinion ( whether positive or negative) about sport!
We have learnt how to give instructions to play a game, encourage a team mate and also say when something fails. Sialan!'
During one of our lessons, we had a go at sepak takraw, a popular sport in Indonesia. We watched the professionals at the Asia Games, then tried. We were not that good and definitely needed some words of encouragement. Kamu pasti bisa!
A bit of Bahasa
Lions Speaking Contest - 2021
The Grand Finals of the Lions Speaking Contest were a wonderful start to Week 10 and a fantastic showcase of the public speaking talents of our Year 4-9 students. I had the honour of watching all 3 rounds of the competition and it is truly amazing to see our students stand up in front of a room filled with peers, teachers and judges to present with such passion and confidence. In many cases, 5 minute speeches were memorised off-by-heart so that the speaker could maintain eye contact with the audience. Reflecting on my own schooling years, there is no way I would’ve had the confidence to perform such a task! What talent we have at YAS!
This year our speakers were provided with the added challenge of relating their speech to one of the United Nations Sustainable Development goals. There were 17 to choose from and students raised awareness about a range of complex issues including: poverty, inequality, injustice, climate action, education and health and well-being.
The day commenced with the grand finalists from years 8/9 taking to the stage. After much deliberation, the judges awarded 1st place to Katie J, who spoke eloquently and confidently about the need for climate action, without once referring to her palm cards I might add. Abby Ki was awarded 2nd place for her engaging speech on the need for investments in health and well-being. Mexie M exuded confidence and threw in a touch of humour to earn herself 3rd place in the competition. James O delivered a very brave and personal performance to secure the Special Commendation from the judges.
After recess it was time for the 6/7s to shine on stage. Again the competition was very close, with dazzling performances making it very difficult for the judges. Lilly W took out 1st place in this round, closely followed by runner up, Lauren V and Charlee B in 3rd place. Judges gave the Special Commendation to Samiah K.
In the afternoon it was quite remarkable to watch young Elyse Jeffrey, this year’s winner in the year 4-5 section, as she entertained the audience with a compelling speech. With convincing performances, Holly Wheaton and Amber Durling placed second and third respectively. Matilda Weaver was awarded a Special Commendation by the judges. The efforts of all the grand finalists throughout the day were most impressive; they were all winners in my eyes.
I must acknowledge the work of our judges: Sonia Parker, Fiona Adams, Rosie Simpson, Alex-Anne Hemphill, Regan Birrell, Hailey Nicholls, Emma Zimmermann, Karen Putland and Linda Shute, all of whom had a very difficult job on their hands. I thought I’d share a couple of their comments:
It was MOST lovely to have the chance to be a judge. The kids were just brilliant. I’ll bet you are all so proud of them. I was gobsmacked with the skill of the participants- it was really hard to believe they are all 6-7 students!
I loved helping and it was a great honour to assist. Thank you for including me. How proud you and the individual students must feel participating in such an event. I really loved the formality. It demonstrated the high esteem of the event.
I really enjoy watching the speeches. I could never have done that when I was at school, it is such a valuable activity. I can’t believe that there are students that can remember their whole speech…. that’s dedication!
Once again, I would like to thank our dedicated sponsors, the Lions Club of Yankalilla for their continued support of this event. Their generous donation every year allows us to provide prize money/vouchers as an added incentive for the winners. The Perpetual Shield, originally purchased by them, will be updated over the holidays and restored to its rightful place in the front foyer. Thank you.
Lastly, I would like to acknowledge the teachers and staff at the school for all their hard work behind the scenes to prepare the students for this event. Outstanding speeches don’t just happen overnight, they require weeks of hard work and teaching including: lots of research, analysis of exemplars, drafting, editing, refining and practice. But, as you can see, the hard work paid off – so thank you. In spite of all the stress, anxiety and nerves in the lead up to the competition, the Grand Final is a wonderful way to culminate the term’s work and an amazing show-case of the outstanding talent we have at Yankalilla Area School. Thank you to everyone who has supported our students this term. And yes, we will be back next year!
Jane Joshua, Middle Years Leader
Speaking Contest
Floriculture
In Agriculture lessons students have been learning about Floriculture and recently planted Blue Gum Trees. We have been supporting local business by supplying some of our Blue Gum to the local florist - Arranging Matters. Pictured is some arrangements made by Arranging Matters using the school's Blue Gum.
Floriculture Photos
Rotary Youth Driver Awareness
“Getting behind the wheel of a motor vehicle
remains the single most dangerous thing a young person can do.”
On Friday 17th September 2021, all of our Year 10 students attended the Rotary Youth Driver Awareness (RYDA) program at Victor Harbor. The RYDA program is a community road safety education program that targets “attitude and awareness” of high school students to help stop the tragic loss of young people in road accidents.
RYDA is facilitated by the local Rotary clubs of Encounter Bay, Victor Harbor and Yankalilla. Sessions are presented by road safety professionals including motoring organisations such as the RAA, police and driving instructors. The RYDA Program has been developed in consultation with the relevant education and road safety authorities and is designed to complement and supplement the school curriculum. It targets 15 - 17 year olds who are at the stage of their lives where they start to drive or ride in a vehicle driven by their friends.
RYDA Program
SAPSASA
A group of Year 4-7 students went across to Victor Harbor Primary school early in the term to participate in the Sapsasa athletics carnival.
Students had a great day and represented the school well. Thank you to those families who came across and supported on the day.
Alannah Howes and Heath Davis were selected in the Sapsasa State Athletics Championship. They participated today. Congratulations!
SAPSASA
"Science is Everywhere"
Students in the Years 7 and 10 Agriculture Science classes have recently entered into the Flinders University Cochlear Aurora Photo Contest. The theme for the contest this year is ‘Science is Everywhere’. Students had to include 200 words with their photo discussing how their photo is related to the theme. This is some of the photos entered.
Science is Everywhere
The final DEAL - creativity in action
This week Mrs Putland's 2/3 class and Bu Ellin's 7/8 rotation group will be completing the art projects undertaken with support from our artist, Ruby Chew. Mrs Putland's class have worked very hard to draw and design some fantastic ceramic pumpkins, which will be installed around the school in coming weeks. The Rotation group have been exploring print making, in particular lino printing. Last week the print makers experimented with different tools to make lines, curves and other shapes. We also have been learning about positive and negative space. Negative space is the space around an object, and is something that is very important when making lino prints.
We also learnt that it is important not to push too hard with the tools, or you end up going right through the lino! Our designs will also be featured around the school in coming weeks.
On Thursday, Mrs Putland and Bu Ellin will be sharing the "Developing Effective Arts Learning' done at YAS with other schools involved in the DEAL project.
The Final Deal
