Term 1 Week 3
PRINCIPAL'S REPORT
Principal, Kristen Masters and several of our Year 12 Students welcoming some of our Year 7s to our school.
WELCOME BACK
It has been a very different start to the year with our staged return to school.
The first few weeks were characterised by a positive vibe as Year 7 and 8 students settled into classes and established relationships with teachers and students alike. At the other end, our Year 12 students commenced their final year of secondary education – already planning for learning, work and life beyond school.
We were delighted with the high levels of engagement from our Year 9-11 students who learnt remotely for a week and a half before returning face-to-face on Monday.
I would particularly like to welcome new students and their families to our school. Graduates from Salisbury East High School can and do go onto do anything and everything – using their education here as a foundation for life success.
Parental support and encouragement is a huge factor in ensuring that a young person’s potential is reached. I encourage you to take every opportunity to remain connected with our school and your child’s learning via our newsletter, website, Facebook page, Day Map and SZ app as well as face to face opportunities when that becomes possible again.
SALISBURY EAST HIGH SCHOOL AND PROUD
It is our goal as a school community to provide our students with every opportunity to finish their schooling with every advantage to be successful with their future pathways whether it be university, training or direct employment.
Supporting all students to achieve their personal best with their learning is the centre piece of this and in recent years we have seen improvements in the proportion of students achieving A and B grades at Stage 2 (Year 12). More details about the Class of 2021 are included in this newsletter.
School reputation is also important as students look for employment. While uniform is not the most important thing about a school, it is often how the broader community makes judgements about a school – and by association its students. While the overwhelming majority of students present well, we will be working closely over the next few weeks with the small number of students and their families who regularly come to school wearing non-uniform items. Please read the article later in this newsletter which clarifies our policy.
We are also focussing on building a greater sense of connection and belonging to our school by offering a wider range of extra-curricular options and recess and lunchtime activities. Click on the link below to see what is on offer and encourage your young people to get involved.
VERY PLEASING YEAR 12 RESULTS
Congratulations to the ninety-eight students who successfully completed their South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE) at our school in 2021.
100% of students enrolled in a full complement of subjects completed their SACE with in excess of 98.9% of grades being A, B or C.
Congratulations to our Salisbury East High School DUX, Myah Shepherd, who achieved a raw ATAR of 93.10 and 98.95 with adjustment points. Myah has been accepted into a Bachelor of Human Movement/Education. Other students who performed exceedingly well included Jess McPherson, Ayla Sakra, Mahdi Khawari, Aiden Wood, Zoriel Davis, Malvika Parshad, Megan Woodward and Durga Bajgai – all with ATARs in the 90’s or 80’s.
Congratulations also to Eveline Nkombera (Research Project A) who achieved A+ with Merit awards for Health.
There were six other A+ grades: Jess McPherson (Visual Art); Mahdi Khawari (Health); Myah Shepherd (Sports Studies); Tianna Camilleri (Health) and Year 11 students, Dilen Keam (English) and Amber Pratt (Sports Studies) who undertook Stage 2 subjects in 2021. Well done!
I would once again like to acknowledge the tremendous efforts of teaching and support staff who worked with students last year to achieve these results. Beyond the scheduled classes, many teachers offered out of class tuition, holiday seminars and supported out of-class Day Map contact.
TERTIARY OFFERS/EMPLOYMENT – CLASS OF 2021
The majority of our students gained their first preference when the first round of university and TAFE offers were released during the holidays
Excellent Year 12 results meant that students were successful in obtaining offers for courses with high ATAR cut-offs.
Students have been offered places in a range of courses including Engineering, Psychology, Health Sciences, Health and Medical Science, Medical Science, Education, Disability Services, Nursing, Creative Arts, Criminology, Finance, Business and Economics, Journalism, Law, Digital Media, Marine Biology and Construction Management.
It is also great to hear of a number of students gaining apprenticeships and other employment.
CLARIFYING SCHOOL UNIFORM
Thank you so much for your work over the school holidays to source school uniform items in readiness for the school year. Overwhelmingly, our students are looking fantastic.
As I’m sure you appreciate, uniforms are important for:
- promoting a positive image of the school
- creating a sense of identity among students and the community
- supporting student safety through ease of identification
- making sure students are dressed appropriately for all school activities.
As part of the enrolment process, families and students ‘sign off’ on a range of school policies, including school uniform.
As mentioned above, in these early weeks of the year, we are focussing on working with the small number of families whose young people are regularly wearing non-uniform items to school and in that context, a reminder that the following are not acceptable items:
- Non-uniform jackets or jumpers
- Leggings – unless worn under a uniform item – eg uniform dress, skirt, shorts, trackpants, etc.
- Denim
- Stripes or large logos on shorts or pants
- Ripped/holes in pants
Exemption from uniform can be granted for the following reasons:
- religious (clothing or adornments, unless the item poses an unacceptable risk to safety)
- cultural or ethnic
- new students (time to purchase, wear previous uniform)
- itinerant and mobile students
- financial hardship
- genuine medical or family sickness reasons
For families experiencing financial hardship, we are usually able to assist in some way. Please contact our Learning and Well Being leaders – Amelia Molnar (Middle School) and Sarah Afshin-Pour (Senior School) if you need help in sourcing suitable items.
We also have also recently purchased an array of spare uniform items for students to change into if they arrive non-compliant. This is part of our existing policy and we have already had students change in recent days. This process will ‘crank up’ over the next weeks after we’ve given everyone the chance to get organised.
MANAGING CONFLICT
Most conflict that arises between students at school originates out of school. Sometimes this is as a result of activity on social media while on other occasions, it is a result of mis-communication, rumour-mongering or different forms of harassment.
Unfortunately, from time to time, students bring such issues into the school grounds and try to resolve it by confronting the other. This rarely ends well.
A variety of staff are available to support students to manage conflict without resorting to violence. We can support students to plan a course of action and convene conversations and make agreements between both parties. Experience shows that this pro-active approach is far more successful.
However, we can’t respond to issues that we don’t know about.
If you become aware of an issue that your young person is having with another student and you are concerned it could erupt at school, please:
- Encourage them to speak with a trusted adult at school, especially:
- Mr Benn Joiner (Middle School Co-ordinator) or Mr Paul Dorian (Head of Middle School)
- Mr James Marshall (Senior School Co-ordinator) or Mr Jules Peck (Head of Senior School)
- Make a call yourself if they are reluctant to do so.
Trying to resolve an issue by resorting to violence is never acceptable. Students who engage in fighting (regardless of the circumstances) will be suspended from school for up to five days. A behaviour support plan will be developed at a Reconnections meeting ahead of a return to school.
Multiple suspensions will generally result in an exclusion from school for between four and ten weeks.
Attached is our department’s information re suspension and exclusion for parents.
STAFFING NEWS
We welcome the following new members of staff this year:
Leadership:
Head of Middle School - Paul Dorian
Alternative Learning - Adrienne Gorringe
Senior School Learning & Wellbeing Coordinator - Sarah Afshin Pour
HASS & Research Project Coordinator - Shari Bray
Technologies Coordinator - Chevonne Craker
Aboriginal Education & EALD Coordinator - Emily Faulkner
Teachers:
Josh Armstrong Samantha Ebbs
Amy Goalder Tunya Greenhalgh
Geetika Gupta Jo Hall
Christian Hodgson Luke McCabe
Emily Miles Aidan Mounkley
Shannon Murphy Kim Nguyen
Sunil Sobhrajani Matt Veprek
Alicia Warnock Mikaela Wells-Sidler
Jaime Werner Tim Zavrl
Non-Teaching Staff:
Reception & Student Services - Dani Bailey
Classroom Support - Casey Black
Classroom Support - Belinda Guerin
Sub School Support - Lauren Pangaro
Classroom Support - Leah Sheffield
2022 SCHOOL CAPTAINS
Meet our new School Captains! A rigorous application and interview process was recently run for several outstanding candidates - all possessing the skills, knowledge, experience and passion required to represent SEHS with distinction. Given this strength in depth, the panel’s final decision was far from a simple one to make, but it was eventually agreed that five Year 12s would make up the senior leadership team in 2022.Our school is therefore delighted to announce that (pictured from left to right) the two Captains are Brooke Duncan and Sharif Sharifullah, ably assisted by Deputy Captains Patrick Macie, Charlie Hurrell and Nicole Wilkinson. They will all have a significant input into various decision-making processes at Salisbury East, develop their own programs and initiatives, lead Student Voice, attend and present at meetings and official events, and acquire valuable leadership qualities along the way. Congratulations Brooke, Sharif, Patrick, Charlie and Nicole - we look forward to working with you throughout the year!
2022 NAPLAN INFORMATION
The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) takes place each year for students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 and has been an everyday part of the school calendar since 2008. NAPLAN helps parents, carers and educators to see if children are meeting important numeracy and literacy standards. Please see the links below to find out more information.
The NAPLAN Online test window starts on 10 May and finishes on 20 May 2022.