October, 2018

From Alistair Brown - PrincipalIt is hard to believe we are already in the ninth week since our students started and that information nights and school tours for families in preparation for the 2020-year 8 student intake are underway. Five information nights and school tours with over 2000 people attending has certainly kept us busy during the past two weeks. It has been a real demonstration of the team approach at Adelaide Botanic High School to achieve this at the same time as running a highly successful sports day, an official opening ceremony and the development of Studios for students to select. Next week we are also hosting a team from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris to provide an insight for them into contemporary education in Australia.

The Adelaide Botanic High School Official Opening ceremony was held on 19 March in the Atrium. All students and teachers attended, along with special guests including the Minister for Education, Chief Executive of the Department for Education and invitees from the many different companies and individuals who were involved in bringing the vision for ABHS into fruition. A very moving Smoking Ceremony and Welcome to Country by Mickey O’Brien commenced the proceedings. After several speeches, the event culminated in the Honourable John Gardner, MP, working with our resident robot Sawyer, to unveil the Official Opening plaque. Datsun Hong and Lara Dawson were the student MC’s for the event and carried out this important role with professionalism and confidence.

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UPDATE 15 Community | Curiosity | Excellence

29 March, 2019

Community | Curiosity | Excellence

October, 2018

 

Adelaide Botanic High School formed an Inaugural School

Council last year to assist with the preparations of the school

prior to opening and to work with the school during the early

operational phase. The constitution requires this Council to

be dissolved and nominations sought from the school

community to form the ongoing School Council. By now you

should have received information regarding the nomination

process and the number of positions vacant.

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank

the members of the Inaugural School Council:

Parent Members: Wade Howland (Chairperson)

Sarah Piro (Secretary)

Paul Berryman (Treasurer)

Inara Beecher

Sandra Fazzalari

Thien Hong

Scott Parslow

Student Members: Filiip Bucalo

Charlotte Crosby

House of Assembly: Rachel Sanderson MP

Staff Member: Donna Mason

EdSmart forms, slips and broadcasts have been an effective

way to gain consent, information or inform you of events. I

know there may be times it would appear that your emails are

dominated by EdSmart but your quick responses and the

convenience of a non-paper based approach has already

been a popular alternative to the traditional consent form. As

a paper-light school, there is also an added benefit in terms

of the environment with: 11,378 sheets of paper and 0.68

trees saved along with 61.44 Kg of Carbon Dioxide reduced.

All this in just 9 weeks with 350 students certainly supports

our choice of EdSmart and estimating the same 9 weeks with

a full school of 1250 we would save 40,635 sheets of paper.

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Ephemeral City at WOMADelaide

ABHS Year 9 students

enthusiastically assisted in

constructing the key

components for the

Ephemeral City tower.

These videos capture some of

the experiences they shared:

WOMADelaide

BTN - WOMADelaide

Community | Curiosity | Excellence

Alistair

October, 2018

3Community | Curiosity | Excellence

Parent Portal

ABHS are excited to be able to open the Parent Portal for our Learner Management System Frog after the Term 1 holidays.

As Frog is a customisable learning and communication platform and ABHS is the first Government school in South Australia to be adopting this platform, we have taken our time to ensure that the content and presentation of Frog meets the needs of students and families.

Early in Term 2, you will receive (via email) a Unique Parent Identifier and a simple password (which you will be required to change when you first log in).

A “guide for navigating Frog” to support your user experience will also be distributed.

Frog will enable parents to access the teaching and learning platform, assignments, tasks, and feedback from teachers about evidence of learning. There will be access to information about upcoming school activities, events, newsletters and an additional secured portal containing details about your child’s attendance and their school report.

Thank you for your patience in sharing our learner management system with you.

Reporting on Student Learning- Kirsty Gebert Assistant Principal - Innovation in Teaching and Learning, Education Systems and Learner Support

Reporting on student learning is part of a partnership between school staff, parents, students. In the early phase at Adelaide Botanic High School we have developed an initial reporting process with information for families regarding their child’s progress.

This will enable families to: • know what your child has achieved in relation to the achievement standards; • understand areas of strength and specific areas in which your child may need to improve;

• support your child’s learning.

An important part of the way ABHS works is to ensure that all parents have the opportunity to be involved in the review of reporting practices at ABHS.

After this first reporting cycle it is intended that ABHS will seek feedback from families, staff and students to develop a reporting protocol that meets the ongoing needs of our families.

Many schools are providing a continuous reporting cycle, whereby feedback on each assessment item is provided, as it is assessed, and this feedback is shared via an online portal for both students and families. This is a model that Adelaide Botanic High School are working towards with the opening of the Frog Parent Portal.

October, 2018

4Community | Curiosity | Excellence

As the cooler weather approaches, please ensure your child has appropriate uniform items. Jackets and puffer vests are now in stock at the uniform shop (Campus School & College Wear, Welland) and can be ordered by contacting Katrina on 8346 0830 or  sales@campusschoolwear.com.au

It is expected that students will be travelling to and from school in full school uniform items only.  At these times the uniform must be worn as per the policy and no ‘non-uniform’ items added, such as hoodies.

Winter uniform items include the long sleeve shirt, jumper and cardigan, puffer vest and jacket. Long pants can be worn by all students and black opaque tights can be worn under the school dress or skirt.

A reminder that black schools shoes do not include all-black sneakers, and must have a defined low heel (not boots). The school cap is the only hat to be worn with school uniform when travelling to and from school and does not include beanies.

Please be advised that hair scrunchie’s are now available from the uniform shop at $6.50 each.

Thank you for your support to maintain a consistent and precise approach to the Adelaide Botanic High School uniform.

Earth Hour 2019

Sasha Saulwick Year 9 Student

This Saturday, 30 March is the Global Earth Hour for 2019. From 8:30–9:30pm on Saturday nearly 21,000 individuals and organisations in over 180 countries across the globe have already signed up to switch off all lights for these 60 minutes.

Our school is going to take part in this annual event, by turning off all the lights during this time. This is a massive undertaking and we encourage you to participate too. All you need to do is turn off your lights at 8:30pm and leave them off until 9:30pm.

The more people who participate – the more power we can save and the more steps we then take to a greener future.

For more information click here

Winter Uniform- Donna Mason Assistant Principal - Innovation in Teaching and Learning, People Development and Culture

October, 2018

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International Women’s Day

- Bronte Nicholls Assistant Principal - Curriculum Innovation and Community Partnerships

In recognition of International Women’s Day on 8 March, the

SA Museum held a forum in the Armoury Gallery for a primary

school student audience led by a team of three Year 9

students from Adelaide Botanic High School. Cherie Htun,

Sasha Saulwick and Kriti Kalyanasundaram with the four of

Australia’s top women scientists featured in Her Story:

Inspiring Women in Science – Dr Catherine Kemper, Dr

Hannah Brown, Dr Rebecca Richards and Professor Tanya

Monro.

The students prepared for the forum by participating in

workshops supported by a facilitator, Emma, organised by

the SA Museum to help them follow their curiosity to come

up with questions and lead an interesting discussion forum

with the researchers. Their audience comprised sixty year

6/7 students from local primary schools and their teachers.

Before the event, ABHS students were treated to a private

lunch with the scientists so they could get to know each

other a little and break the ice.

REMINDER

The second instalment is

due on your laptop at the

beginning of Term 2. The

following table will show how

much you can expect to be

invoiced, depending on the

plan you have selected.

3 years: $255.00

4 years: $293.33

5 years: $360.00

If regular fortnightly

payments would assist you

with your household

budgeting, please don’t

hesitate to contact us on

8214 7700 or email for a

Direct Debit by Instalment

plan. This enables you to pay

by instalments from either

you bank account or credit

card, and we can work with

you to negotiate a payment

plan that suits you.

4 March, 2019

Community | Curiosity | ExcellenceCommunity | Curiosity | ExcellenceCommunity | Curiosity | Excellence

October, 2018

6Community | Curiosity | Excellence

Sports Day

- Kylie Trenordan Lifestyle Choices and Innovative Pedagogies Coordinator

The Adelaide Botanic High School inaugural Sports Day was held on 18 March at SA Athletic Stadium.

Although it was a warm day, students dressed with house spirit and participated with enthusiasm

and gusto, producing some impressive team and individual results.

As with all good sports days, there can only be one overall winner and congratulations must go the

PURPLE team, who again had full participation and thoroughly embraced the spirit of the day. They

are really leading the way in participation, support and encouragement.

Special congratulations must also go to our inaugural age group champions who participated in a

wide range of events to a very high standard:

• Year 8 Girls        Grace Wilson (Purple) • Year 8 Boys        Aidan Spillane (Orange) • Year 9 Girls        Jasmine Tran (Purple) • Year 9 Boys        Alex Le (Green)

Students who won an individual event on Sports Day have now been invited to represent the school at

our District Athletics Day to be held on Friday, 5 April and have begun training for this day.

October, 2018

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Knock-Out Sport in Terms 2-3

Over the past few weeks, students have been given the opportunity to nominate for Knockout

Sport teams that will be competing in terms 2 and 3. Knockout sport is run by SASSSA and

these competitions are designed to find the best school team in the state, with schools

continuing in the competition until they are ‘knocked out’ by losing a match.

Adelaide Botanic High School has had large numbers of student interest in several sports, and

can advise that teams have been entered in the following sports for the next two terms:

• Year 8/9 Girls AFL

• Year 8/9 Boys Soccer

• Year 8/9 Boys 5-a-side football (soccer)

• Year 8/9 Girls 5-a-side football (soccer)

• Year 8/9 Boys Netball

• Year 8/9 Girls Netball

• Year 8/9 Boys Touch Football

Students who have nominated for the above sports will need to keep an eye on Frog notices for

trials and training times.

As the year progresses, more student nominations will be called for other sports such as

basketball, tennis, badminton etc so please remind your children to keep reading their Frog

notices.

Community | Curiosity | Excellence

School Photos

The ABHS school photos have been sent home with students. Vanessa

Size Photography has done an exceptional job at capturing the

individual personalities of students, with the final images being of

extremely high quality.