2022 Term 2 Week 8
FROM OUR PRINCIPAL
REFUGEE WEEK
My parents still live in the same home in Port Augusta as they did when I was a child growing up there. In fact, my parents bought their first and only home before I was born. When I headed back to my home town last weekend, I slept in my old bedroom with the walls that were painted in my favourite colour of purple when I was ten years old.
While I’ve travelled extensively and even taught overseas, there has never been a sense that I would need to flee my homeland and seek refuge in another country.
This, of course, is not the same experience for everyone and in our school community, a significant number of families have come to Australia as refugees because of the turmoil, internal conflicts, threat of persecution or human rights abuses in their home countries.
As we celebrate Refugee Week, we:
- Acknowledge the challenges of being a refugee – leaving behind family, friends, property and possessions to settle in a new country - often without any English language skills.
- Recognise the trauma associated with having lived in countries in the midst of war or internal conflict.
- Celebrate how refugees continue to contribute to Australia, our local community and our school community.
- Pledge to continue our journey to increase intercultural understanding at Salisbury East High School to build harmony, connection and belonging.
Over the past year, we have developed some strong partnerships with the Australian Refugee Association (ARA) and our Department for Education Community Liaison Officers (CLOs) to provide points of contact and targeted support for particular groups within our school community and look forward to continuing to build on this going forward.
REMINDER: PUPIL FREE DAY – FRIDAY, JULY 8
All staff will be participating Trauma Informed training delivered by Berry Street on Friday, July 8. This is the first of two days of training we will do on this topic this year. The second day will be in September.
The prevalence of childhood trauma is higher than perhaps we think with between two-thirds and three-quarters of children identifying at least one traumatic event by age 16.
What we often see at school is the impact of traumatic stress which can sometimes manifest itself in:
- Anxiety and depression
- Self-harming behaviours
- Risky behaviours
- Dysregulation – blow-ups, abusive language, quick escalations from zero to 100, etc
The Berry Street Education Model (BSEM) is about providing all educators with practical strategies for immediate use in the classroom. On July 8 we will be learning about how to help students regulate their stress responses, de-escalate in school and classroom contexts and provide strategies for increased focus.
CHANGE OF SEMESTER – BUT NOT END OF TERM
Monday sees the beginning of Semester 2. This occurs to accommodate the shorter senior school year which needs to fit with South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE) timelines.
We then will have two weeks before the end of term on Thursday, July 7.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT
This term has been another challenging one with COVID-19 continuing to ‘hang’ around and impact on staff and student absence at various points during the term.
I especially thank you for your patience and support in the context of the ‘circuit breaker’ we had mid-way in the term and also more recently when our Middle School leadership team ‘went down’ at the same time.
Currently, levels seems to be more manageable but we know that circumstances can change rapidly – particularly in the context of a new variant arriving in South Australia.
Kristen Masters, Principal
YEAR 10 HISTORY EXCURSION
On Wednesday 25th May, a group of 85 year 10 students and 6 staff, braved the wet and windy conditions to venture into the CBD. While there, students were fortunate enough to visit the new Adelaide Holocaust Museum, where they learnt stories of local survivors and got immersed in the artefacts and displays on offer. Students also visited the Adelaide War Memorial and Centre of Democracy where they could view artifacts from our state’s past. Other activities included a visit of Adelaide University and a scavenger hunt of Rundle Mall.
Students had a great time exploring what the city has to offer.
Shari Bray, HASS Coordinator
STUDENT VOICE
In Student Voice there are variety of exciting things going on like Pride Month, cultural awareness group, girl power group, challenge group and NAIDOC week. All of these groups have activities planned for this term and next term activities there will be posters around the school so look out for those. If you have any questions about student voice, please see one of the SV students or Miss Mckinna and Mrs Lyons. – Soha Abdalla (Year 7)
In week 3 term 2, Student Voice members went on an excursion into the city. The students competed in an escape room, and then raced around town in a scavenger hunt. To finish the day, we visited MOD, a digital museum on North Terrace. The students had a great day and came home exhausted. A massive shout out to our school captains who led a group of younger students for the day. From a teacher's perspective it was great to see the confidence of our younger students grow and the group become more cohesive.
On Wednesday of Week 8, Student Voice hosted an event to support GSA for Pride. Student Voice created rainbow garlands, quizzes for mentor classes and information to share. Then at lunchtime they painted the faces of students. Student Voice was super happy with the lunchtime session and the conduct of students.
Kate Mckinna & Chloe Lyons, Student Voice Mentors
