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90 Beafield Road

Para Hills, South Australia 5096

tel (+61)8 8258 5466

Fax (+61) 8 8250 9527

dl.0574info@schools.sa.edu.au

www.phhs.sa.edu.au

Vision Issue 2 2017

South Australian Department of Education and Child Development T/A South Australian Government Schools

CRICOS 00018A

Community Corner

SO WHY WEAR SCHOOL UNIFORM?

A sense of belonging– promote unity. Safety—Through uniformity, a child’s safety is reinforced. Save your good clothes for the weekend—having a uniform is just easier in the morning as you know what you will be wearing. Administration time saving—School uniforms are appropriate and easy. School isn’t about fashion statements—more time devoted to learning rather than making a fashion statement. No one gets singled out— uniforms reduce social snobbery. Professionalism—commitment to uniform helps develop organisational skill, responsibility and discipline within students. Skills that required in the workforce. Teamwork—School uniforms instil the spirit of teamwork and students can feel proud to be part of a school. Togetherness –a uniform helps children to form a bond of togetherness that may not exist without a uniform. Cost effective—most importantly, uniforms are cost-efficient, as parents do not have to frequently spend on clothes for their children, thus benefiting them.

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Inside this issue >>

1 From the Principal

2 Luka Lesson Poetry, DECD Alert

3 Japanese eschange program

4 Sports Day

5 Sports Day

6 Harmony Day

7 Harmony Day

8 Why wear a school uniform?

Inclusions:

1. Report cards through DayMap 2. Book School Interviews 3. Parenting Ideas 4. Nomination Form – Demonstrating School Values

From the Principal… Janette Scott

DIARY

Report Collections ........... 12/04/17

ANZAC Day Assembly…..13/04/17

Good Friday……………… 14/04/17

Term 2 Begins…………….01/05/17

Open Night ……………….16 /05/17

Gov Council Meeting …...17/05/17

Queens Birthday ………...12/06/17

Student Free Day………...13/06/17

What a huge month we have had! Here are just some of the major events that our staff and students have been in-volved in over the

last few weeks.

First, thanks to Lauren Semmens, Aaron Struck, Mel Rossi and Mike Tanner , other staff and all parents, who dropped in on Sports Day on Thursday 9 March. Our school ovals were a sea of blue, green and red be-cause the students and staff really got behind their houses. Congratulations to the winners - Wirltu Eagles.

It was great to see the effort put in by all students, who participated in the athletics and novelty events or were assistants on the day. It was also terrific to see how much students from Madison Park and Para Hills West Primary Schools enjoyed being part of our Sports Day. On Tuesday 21 March, we celebrated Harmony Day. Each year, our school takes time to reflect on how we work together as a community, and how we build strong connections and respect for each other.

Students from Masamoto Agatagaoke High School,

Thanks to Mrs Surman who, with help from many staff and community-based people, developed a full day program of cultural workshops for all Year 8-11 students to participate in.

My sincere thanks to Leonie Roberts,

Aaron Struck, other staff and the Year

11 Peer Support students, who made

sure that the Year 8 Camp at Victor

Harbor was so

successful.

Also my thanks to Jodi Hastings for her hard work and to the host families and buddies, who looked after our 12 Japa-nese students from 12-23 March. They came from Masamoto Agatagaoke High School, which is north west of Tokyo.

Our 2016 Annual Report has just been uploaded to the school’s website. Please have a look and see what a successful year it was for our students. We held our AGM and have elected our 2017 Governing Council. There are still vacancies if you would like to join this great group of parents, students and staff. Please contact me if you are interested.

Finally, Term 1 reports will be available

for parents and care-givers to pick up

from the library, from 3.15pm Wednes-

day 12 April. Care Group and subject

teachers will be in the library to talk

about your son or daughter’s report until

6pm.

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Vision Issue 2 2017

LUKA LESSON POETRY PERFORMANCE

Our Year 9 and EAL students were extremely fortunate to attend a performance by Luka Haralampou, aka Luka Lesson on March 8th. Luka is a spoken word poet and Hip Hop artist with two years international touring, 11 Writer’s Festivals, 7 years of workshop experiences and 10 years of writing. He has performed in many places including China, South Africa and New York.

He was the Australian Poetry Slam champion of 2011 and the Melbourne Overload Poetry Festival slam champion of 2011. His performance for our students was truly inspiring. The students thoroughly enjoyed it and clapped, clicked their fingers, asked questions and called out answers to Luka’s questions. Their behaviour during the performance was ex-emplary.

Every student I spoke to afterwards, was enthusiastic and positive about the performance. Jenny Fantinel English/ Humanities Coordinator

HAZARD ALERT HA40 – EPIPEN RECALL WHAT IS THE ISSUE? Four batches of EpiPens have been recalled by the manufacturer, Alphapharm. EpiPen is used in emergency situations to treat people who are having a severe allergic reaction (also known as anaphylaxis). EpiPens from 4 affected batches may contain a defective part that could result in the auto-injector failing to activate or a need to apply more force than normal to activate. This could result in a worsening of the potentially life-threatening symptoms of anaphylaxis or anaphylactic reactions. WHAT DO I DO? inspect all EpiPens, including those supplied by DECD and those supplied by parents/caregivers. check the batch number and expiry on either the label of the EpiPen or on the end of the carton.

DECD supplied EpiPens: If the EpiPen is from an affected batch return it to a pharmacy as soon as possible. The pharmacist will replace the EpiPen free of charge.

Parent/caregiver supplied EpiPens: If the EpiPen is from an affected batch, return it to a pharmacy as soon as possible for replacement free of charge.

The affected batch numbers are:

Do not dispose of the current EpiPen until you get the replacement, and use it if required (being mindful that it may need to apply more force than normal to activate it). FURTHER RECOMMENDATIONS In a medical emergency, do not hesitate to call 000 if necessary.

Batch number Expiry

5FA665 April 2017

5FA6651 April 2017

5FA6652 April 2017

5FA6653 April 2017

DECD ALERT

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March the 21st was Harmony Day. This day aims to engage people to participate in their community, respect cultural and religious diversity and foster a sense of belonging for everyone. This year at Para Hills High School we began with our annual Harmony Day Assembly followed by participation in our Cultural Diversity Day. Students had the opportunity to participate in 4 workshops where they explored a range of different cultures through a variety of activities including: Aboriginal basket weaving, Lantern Making, Japanese Calligraphy and Origami, Taekwondo, learning a Haka, Bollywood Dance, Capoeira, French / Spanish / Italian/ Farsi Language classes, Aboriginal games and art, Canadian Aboriginal and Indian culture as well as making cold rolls. Students were also treated to a free Aussie sausage sizzle! Reflection sheets were completed throughout the day with many positive comments received about what students had learnt. There was also the chance for students to gain points for their houses for participation and the ability to demon-strate the school values of Respect, Responsibility and Rigour. It was pleasing to get reports back from our guest presenters about how enthusiastic our students were on the day. A big thank you to every-one who made this day a success: guest presenters, staff presenters, staff and students. HAPPY HARMONY DAY - EVERYONE BELONGS OUR DIVERSITY IS OUR STRENGTH Trudy Surman Coordinator Arts and Culture / AET / Dance Teacher

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JAPANESE EXCHANGE PROGRAM

Vision Issue 2 2017

On March 12th Para Hills High School welcomed 12 students from Matsumoto Agatagaoka School in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Thank you to all of the families who kindly shared their homes and looked after an exchange student. We appreciate your time and efforts to provide your student with such enriching and valuable experience.

During their stay here, the students were hosted by families from our school community, and were taken on many exciting sightseeing adventures, enjoyed time at the beach, ate Aussie food and shared the experiences of living with an Australian family. At school, the group participated in English lessons and took part in various learning opportunities such as Technology, Dance, Science and PE. The students also supported our Harmony Day program by teaching calligraphy and origami in the Japanese Culture workshops. We had an official farewell assembly for the group, and the students were de-lighted to be presented with AFL footballs – a big thank you to Mr Struck and the HPE learning area for this very generous gift. It was fitting, being Harmony Day, that the Japanese students presented the school with a gift that symbolised peace and harmony, and with several works of calligraphy that reflected our school values. Hosting a Japanese student is a rewarding experience, and we look forward to working with families in our school community on future exchange programs. If you would like your family to be on our school’s host family register, please contact me at the school.

There were many staff who also contributed to the exchange program, and we thank you for everything you did to ensure the smooth running of such a complex task. A big thank you to Trudy Surman, Derek Fuller, Sandy Alexander, Rhett Swan-son, Sally Stewart, Kay Brindal and Aaron Struck. Thank you too, to the front office and SSO staff, Annemarie Webber, Stamatia Levendis, Carrie-Ann Springett, Andrea Nemeth, Barb Ashmore and Heather Long, who helped the students and host families, and did a lot of the behind the scenes work. We would also like to thank Para Hills West Primary School for supporting us in our efforts to find host families.

Jodi Hastings

Japanese Teacher

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The 2017 Sports Day was held on Thursday of Week 6. We had a very high attendance rate and students looked fantas-tic in their House based colours. We were also lucky to have the Madison Park Primary School and Para Hills West Pri-mary School students come along and join in our program for the day. We had approximately 100 students from these schools participating, which was fantastic to see. Some highlights for Sports Day include Carlos Sanchez breaking the Year 9 boy’s High Jump record and Nikki Thompson breaking both the Senior Girl’s Discus and Javelin records. Andrea Oluic and Llewellyn Milera were crowned as the fastest students in the school. Our final results for the day saw the Wirltu Eagles winning both the Athletics Shield and the Overall House Sports Day Shield. Tarnta Kangaroos finished second in both and the Nakudla sharks finished third. Congratulations to all students who competed at Sports Day and thankyou to all of the families who came along to sup-port our students. We are looking forward to the Vista Athletics Carnival in Week 9.

Laruen Semmens PE Teacher

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