PRINCIPAL'S REPORT
2008 has been a challenging year for our school. We have worked through the first year of the last triennium of our school on its current site. Ross Smith will close at the end of 2010 and meld with 3 other schools to move onto the site of the new school on Briens Road. It will be the end of an era but brings with it a much overdue reinvigorated and improved provision of public secondary education for our local community. The plans for this new age renewal goes back to recommendations first mooted over 2 decades ago and is in line with the urban renewal that we see going on all around our neighbourhood. The year has been somewhat coloured with uncertainty and media speculation that have made things difficult at times. However with the Project tender to be announced at the commencement of 2009 and the new principal appointed by then, our vision should start to crystallize and emerge into something that our school community can identify with and become more closely involved in.
While a number of teaching staff have right of tenure through to the new school we have also been able to specifically appoint two teaching staff members as the new school has specific needs in the some areas. These staff are Ms Egilda Colaruotolo in Home Economics and Textiles, and Ms Cathryn Pearce as Vocational Education Coordinator.
In 2008 our student numbers remained at a very similar level to last year enabling us to still provide a range of viable curriculum offerings and many enriching activities for students. You will see some of these detailed on later pages of this magazine. We hope that you enjoy reading about the highlights of our year and in seeing the photos and other visual representations produced by Mr Tran and other staff and students.
Our Strategic Priorities for the year included Student Wellbeing, which also involved participating in the DECS Mental Health project. Literacy was a major thrust and many of the staff undertook the ‘Stepping Out Literacy’ program run by Ms Ann Falk here. We also had a focus on learning about the Future SACE. As well as increasing both staff and student skills in Technology and Information Literacy.
We welcomed a number of new faces amongst both teaching and ancillary staff to our school for the year. Over the course of the year we farewelled a number of staff who have chosen to retire; Mr Ron Davis who was acting Deputy Principal retired. Mr Davis was Assistant Principal and Student Counsellor in his early years at the school and he retired at the end of Term 1 after over a decade at Ross Smith. Mrs Marion Gower, School Administrative Officer retired early Term 3 after over 20 years on this site; Mrs Christobel Fleming from our Student Services section has retired after over 20 years with Ross Smith and the former Nailsworth High School. Ms Jan Williams who was on Regency School staff and has worked in our Link program at Ross Smith since its inception over 10 years ago retired; Ms Alison Skewes who has been with us in the Resource Centre for 4 years also retired. I thank all of these wonderful people for their contributions to our school during their time with us. When I totalled it up I estimated that they have collectively contributed almost 200 years of service to Public Education to the young people of our state. We wish them all the best in their respective retirements. Mr Jim Oakey joined as Deputy Principal in Term 2 and Ms Lorraine Omond joined us as School Administrative Officer in Term 3.
We were pleased with our SSABSA results from 2007. They enabled some 30 students to gain entry into various Universities and TAFE Colleges. Other students were able to obtain apprenticeships or fulltime employment and we see this achievement as equally successful. Our job is to provide students to access pathways to their successful futures.
On the first Thursday of term SACE home class teachers and all students in Years 11, 12 and 13, the SACE years, spent a SACE orientation and career planning day at Uni SA at Mawson Lakes. This was a different and successful way for our senior students to begin their year. Thanks to Ms Pearce and other staff for a successful day.
A pleasing number of parents and families joined staff and students for a twilight BBQ for Years 8 and 9 in week 3 of the year. It was an opportunity to meet their student’s case managers and subject teachers. The LINK program also held an evening get-together for families after the BBQ. If parents have any concerns about their son’s/daughter’s progress, the first point of contact is always the case manager, who will be one of the home class teachers.
In week 2 of the year many of our indigenous families went to Elder Park to witness the Prime Minister’s apology for the nation as part of ‘Sorry to the Stolen Generation’ day. Our Aboriginal Education team organised a bus to take students from the school into the city for this event. A number of non-indigenous students also attended. As a school with a significant indigenous student cohort over many years, we joined with the Prime Minister in his sentiments and hope that we can now move forward in harmony together. Reconciliation Week occurred between 27 May and 3 June. As we have a significant Aboriginal enrolment, this is an important time for us. A group attended the special celebration in Victoria Square on 26 May. Our students involved in the Tauondi Hospitality course prepared and served a special BBQ for staff and students on Friday 30 May. They also catered for the North East District Aboriginal students’ celebration in November.
On Wednesday 14 May we held a Community Values Education Forum at the Education Development Centre at Hindmarsh. We successfully applied for a grant from the Federal Government last year to sponsor this forum. This was well attended by staff, parents and students from the four local schools involved in the Education Works Project. Dr Neil Hawkes, an International Speaker on Values Education in Schools, from the UK provided an inspirational and motivational session for us. In the following week, Ms Rebecca Archer also attended the Australia Values Education Conference in Canberra as a result of a Federal Government funded scholarship that she applied for. We will be working towards various follow-up activities in this area. Ross Smith was the lead school in this event and we undertook it as a co-operative venture with Enfield High, Gepps Cross Girls High and Gepps Cross Senior School as part of our Education Works strategy. Over 100 participants enjoyed a stimulating night.
Parents will have heard about the Future SACE, which is a review of the current curriculum, mainly for Years 10, 11 and 12. Our school was involved in a range of connected projects and in-service over the year, and a number of staff worked very hard in this area. The Personal Learning Plan was a major project trial. The Future SACE is designed to be rigorous, but is also designed to support more students to be successful in their final years of schooling and to make a smoother transition to either future study or employment.
The Future SACE recognises that ‘chalk and talk’, and ‘reciting by rote’ in exams is not the only way of learning for all, but that students also learn from ‘doing’, from presenting orally, and from real life experiences from their involvements in the community. Valued knowledge is not static and increases every day. What and how we learnt when we were at school is now often outdated, and sometimes incorrect. Even 20 years ago most of us had never heard of the internet and emails. We wrote letters. Funnily enough 50 years ago many households did not have landline telephones; now more and more do not have these either, as they consider them obsolete in favour of mobile phones and wireless broadband for all.
There is so much new knowledge in the technological world of the future that the key responsibility for us is to teach students ‘how to learn’ so that they can then access that special knowledge that they need to know in the future. The Future SACE aims to support all students to be meaningful members of society, not just those who want to follow formal academic pathways. The role of teachers similarly is to support all students whom they teach. The FLO (Flexible Learning Options) strategy and Student Mentoring Strategy provide us with resources to successfully support student engagement with school. My thanks to Ms Cathryn Pearce and Ms Delia Krcmarov here.
As from the commencement of 2009 all students under the age of 17 will need to be ‘Learning or Earning’ in accordance with Government Policy and Regulations under the Education Act. This means in general that they need to be at school, TAFE or in an apprenticeship until they are 17 years old. A brochure is available to student and parents clarifying this.
We were pleased with our results in the Year 9 National Australian Literacy and Numeracy tests this year. While some students were identified as in need of extra support to help them reach the benchmark, our results overall reflected that we were doing a good job. Students who were identified in Year 7 last year of needing support were tutored through the Even Start program which harnesses resources from the Federal Government through DECS.
The Community Mentoring program has continued this year, funded by the member schools, and we are pleased that so many volunteer community members are prepared to support our local students in their preparation for and through the transition process to secondary school. As an end of year evening celebration Heidi Undferdorben organised for Jacob Waterman, a chef from the Old Lion, to work with students to prepare and serve a meal for family and mentors. Approximately 100 people were present. The Office of Youth and Woolworths sponsored this event.
We again were very proud of our students’ achievements in Photography, Textiles and Technology in the Royal Adelaide Show where they won many prizes. Congratulations to these students and many thanks to their teachers for providing these opportunities.
It is really pleasing that we have again been able to participate in various Art Projects inspired by Ms Chic Stirling-Phillips and resourced by the Port Adelaide Enfield Council. These have included the Farm mural, the Kilburn Community Sudanese Art Project and the Grain Silo mural at the show. The final highlight of these was the participation of a group of Year 8 students and five staff in the Port Adelaide Enfield Council twilight parade at Port Adelaide. This was the end product of a two-day Art workshop organised by Ms Stirling-Phillips held earlier in the term. The theme was ‘Alice in Wonderland’. It is the third year we have participated in the parade. Thanks to staff and students involved in all projects.
Our Farm program, led by Jane Lamprey and supported by Dale Lambert and Mark Gorrie has continued and provides a worthwhile alternative program for a range of students in real life situations. It has an educational and social purpose and it is now recognised and held in high esteem by educators across the district. It also provides a haven for a range of ‘pre-loved’ or unloved animals.
Our Link program with Regency school has now been in operation successfully for over 10 years and continues to offer mainstream integrated opportunities for our link students. A recent highlight in early Term 4 was when our Link Program students organised and hosted a Wheelchair Sports day in our Gymnasium and students from other sites attended. The students played balloon soccer and other sports. Our other students also had the opportunity to watch the skill in these sports and also to try their hand at them. We believe that the Link program will continue on to the new site.
We farewelled our final year students on Wednesday 29th October. As usual, in our tradition, our students showed respect for their school by not engaging in any inappropriate or vandalistic behaviour and we thank and respect them for this. Their final event, the school formal was held on Friday 28th November. We wish them all the best in the future.
Our commitment to provide many and a variety of sporting opportunities to interest students is still a high priority and you will see ‘students in action‘ later in this magazine. My thanks to Mr Brad Westley and the various other staff who put that extra effort in to make these opportunities continue.
Equally our commitment continued to provide enriching subject based excursions as economically as we can and to arrange for performances and activities to be held at school, subsidised by the school budget. There is more to school life than just the formal subject lessons. Here again my thanks to staff who initiate these activities and make that extra effort to enable things to happen.
My thanks to Governing Council members, led by Jan Watkins as chair for their support this year. Interest in being on council has been inspired by the opportunity to be involved in planning for the new school. Meetings have been well attended and interactive, particularly around the Education Works initiative.
At the recent Governing Council Dinner, Mrs Margaret Markham, a former member of Council who is still volunteering in the canteen was awarded the School Volunteer award from Mrs Robyn Geraghty, our local politician in the MHA, for her services to the school over the last 7 years.
I need to reassure parents that the Government plan to build a new school in our area under a Public Private Partnership is definitely going ahead and is on track. The sign designating the site is now visible on Briens Road and is framed in the background by the Velodrome. The successful building tender will be announced early next year, and the school is due to open in 2011. An Advisory Council of parents, principals and staff from the four partner schools has been meeting regularly to discuss matters related to planning the school. The current project underway is the choosing of a name for the new school.
Education in the future is undergoing rapid change and the educational opportunities provided to students even by 2015 will be far different to what many parents experienced and even what students are experiencing now. The opportunities for digitally enriched modes of learning will multiply. It will be exciting for both staff and students to work in technologically advanced environments developed in line with the world’s best practices. Current school facilities and infrastructure across many schools show our systems are now out of date. Advances in technology need to be underpinned by programs to closely connect educators and learners and we think we do that well through our case management system.
I would like to thank staff in particular for all of the extra efforts that they have made this year – it has been a tough year and I know that the coming 2 years will also stretch our resources and resilience as we endeavour to pave the way for the future while still continuing to provide the best learning opportunities for students. I also thank the canteen staff for their support. It becomes increasingly challenging to run a profitable canteen in schools and Mrs Irene Adams and her staff are always coming up with new and interesting ways of providing food that is both tempting and meets the Healthy Eating Guidelines.
I thank the supportive parents who are prepared to work with us and hope to provide increasing opportunities for you to be involved in future decision making.
Judith R. O’Brien
Principal
