From the Principal

Term 2 | Week 3 | 14 May 2021 From the Principal Our Curriculum School Improvement In 2005, Blackwood High School aligned itself with six On Monday 3 May, I attended the Entrepreneurial feeder Primary Schools to create the Mitcham Hills Specialist Schools Conference where the Chief Cluster, making the decision to offer the International Executive of the SACE Board, Martin Westwell, Baccalaureate Middle Years Program to our Year explored the notion of Entrepreneurial capabilities 8, 9 and 10 students. The implementation of this as a key ingredient to future success within the SACE program strengthened the connections between our and the workforce. One key message from his speech schools to improve students’ continuity of learning, resonated strongly with me – mental agility and the supported greater alignment and documentation of capacity to change our minds in the face of new our curriculum and provided formal structures on evidence. Prompting a simple question ‘Do we help the development and implementation of effective students know when to change their minds?’ pedagogies. Since then, our public education system This speaks strongly to the development of learner has undergone significant reform; including the agency and self-regulation, coupled with the requisite development and implementation of the Australian literacy and numeracy skills, to not only engage with Curriculum, the South Australian Teaching for new evidence but to interrogate the validity of that Effective Learning framework, localised partnership evidence, reformulating our own understanding of models to increase inter-school collaboration and a concepts and forge new pathways to our desired Department strategic plan to achieve a world class futures. As a staff, we will continue to design our education system by 2028. learning programs to develop and make explicit the Our engagement with the IB gave Blackwood High necessary personal qualities in our students to enable School an opportunity to leap-frog into the 21st them to thrive. Century education paradigm and build our capacity, Facilities update as a school, to embrace the future that is before Construction continues to be a major part of life at us. The decision to transition away from the IB was, Blackwood High School this year. Our renovations to therefore, difficult but necessary. As the investment in the former MSLC have been completed with classes our public education system grows, the Department already timetabled into the new space. Staff and continues to provide high-quality, evidence-based, students have adapted well to these new flexible resourcing and support. Aligning these resources and learning environments. It has been exciting to see support to an IB context would continually require a this space in action and I look forward to the evolving significant investment of administrative time from all integration of flexible learning environments in the staff at Blackwood High School, diminishing the time design of learning experiences for our students. focused on their core business of student learning. The renovations to the SLC outdoor space are almost The transition process will take place across the complete. Custom-built furnishings are still to be remainder of 2021, ensuring that we are prepared installed, which we expect will create a wonderful for the excitement and challenge that 2022 will ambience in this outdoor learning area. The heating bring. The exceptional teaching and support staff at units are already getting a workout with many Blackwood High School are already well underway students enjoying their warmth during recess and with this process; taking the best of our current lunch times over the past week. We also expect knowledge, skills, practices and learning programs as the newly renovated toilet facilities to be officially the foundation for the next 60 years of learning at opened to students within the next couple of weeks. Blackwood High School. I am sure that this will be a great relief to many. The construction of our new general learning areas, dance studio, photography and digital tech space, is making steady progress and we anticipate hand-over ahead of the official project completion date. We are in a privileged position to be able to strategically open this space over the remainder of the year, rather than rush to take occupancy. As a school, we are excited by the increased flexibility that these new learning spaces will provide as well as the purpose-built facilities that they will house. Teachers are already considering the opportunities that these learning spaces provide, to innovate in their pedagogical practices. Our timetabling for 2022 will include these requirements as part of what drives its development. Finally, the Canteen/Conference room building has been demolished and work has begun on the foundations for a new facility to ensure we have adequate capacity to cater for our Year 7 students and all our students’ nutritional needs. Staffing Update I would like to officially welcome the following new staff to Blackwood High School for Term 2: David Billett Tommy Hicks Ashleigh Pearce Camden Rowberry Jarred Hughes Darby Knight Ina Richter The following internal staff changes have also occurred due to a range of opportunities and leave arrangements: Jason Loke - Principal Sue Richards - Deputy Principal Charlotte Twizell - Assistant Principal Middle School Sophie Hamlyn - Year 7 - 9 Learning Community Leader Renee Daish - Leader, LOTE and International Programs Ben Phillips - Leader, English and Humanities Elisa England - Leader, Mathematics and Numeracy Peta Maher - Leader, Health and Physical Education Tracy Robinson - Aboriginal Education Teacher Term 1 Achievement Finally, a warm congratulations to all students who have been recognised for their academic growth or academic excellence across Term 1 this year. A new year of school, especially after 2020, is challenging and it is fantastic to see so many of our students achieve. Goal 1 of our School Improvement Plan explicitly targets increased achievement for all students and I personally applaud the effort that you have all put in to continually improve. Early Dismissal Earlier this year, the Department for Education updated their policy on the organisation of the school year. This included changes to procedures for schools considering early dismissal on certain days. Traditionally, we have worked normal days at the end of each term, with an early dismissal on the final day of Term 4. After discussions with staff, a proposal was put forward to Governing Council and accepted. For the remainder of this year, Blackwood High School will have a 1-hour early dismissal on the last day of each term instead. All students will be dismissed at 2:10pm. We are in the process of speaking with the bus company to re-schedule their timetables to accommodate this. As part of the updated process, a letter will be distributed to all families to sign in acknowledgement of the dismissal time and give permission for your child(ren) to leave. If, for any reason, your child(ren) need to remain at school until the normal finish time then we will provide supervision in a suitable location within the school until 3:10pm. Jason Loke, Principal 2 Inspiring Achievement and Respect Blackwood High School High Achievers • Congratulations to Corben Powell, in Year 9, who participated in the Australian National Age Swimming Championships held on the Gold Coast from 4 to 13 April. • Congratulations to Galen Marks-De Andres, in Year 8, who participated in the School Sport Diving Competition on 26 March. He placed first in the boys 13 years category. • Congratulations to Breanna Trehearne, in Year 9, who was selected by Gymnastics SA to represent South Australia in the Level 8 Womens Artistic Gymnastics Team at the 2021 Australian Gymnastics Championships being held on the Gold Coast from 24 to 26 May. • Congratulations to Paige Padroth, in Year 10, who played in the Under 18 Women’s Basketball Team that won the National Championships held in Melbourne during April. • Congratulations to Jacob Koop, in Year 12, who recently represented South Australia in the National Cycling Track Championships in Queensland. As part of a three person team he won the ‘Team sprint’, which consisted of three laps from a standstill and is timed from the start of the first lap to the end of the last lap. Jacob’s team was the fastest in the finals, making them the National Champions and they were rewarded with the gold medal and a green and gold jersey. Well done Jacob and team. School TV School TV can be easily found on the Blackwood High School website and it provides a range of information from professionals such as Dr Michael Carr-Gregg. The range of articles are divided into series including Cyber Safety, Mental Health, School Survival, Healthy Body, Positive Parenting and Special Reports. Recent additions to Special Reports include Celebrating Mother’s Day (this can be challenging for some of our young people), vaping and e-cigarettes, as well as conversations on consent (in which no milkshakes were hurt); whilst topics under Positive Parenting includes information around building Resilience of children. School TV is an excellent source of information which frequently has new information added. Sue Richards, Deputy Principal Students leaving school grounds I remind all students and families that it is not acceptable for students to leave school grounds at any time, during the school day, to make a purchase from the Service Station. Any student found attempting to leave the school grounds will be asked to return to school. I expect all students will follow this reasonable request from the staff member that is addressing them. We understand the challenge that our restricted Canteen service has presented this term and are looking at ways to increase the flexibility of its offerings at recess and lunch. All students should prepare and bring an adequate supply of food for their daily dietary needs.

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