Volume 2 -  21st February 2008
Week 4 .... Term 1

Ph: 8381 7166
Fax: 8381 6041

 

Email:
hvsadmin@happyvalley.sa.edu.au

Website:
www.happyvalley.sa.edu.au

Inside this issue............
National Apology Day, Congrats. Doug & Jenny, Principal's Awards, JP Awards, We Need You, Bullying & Parenting Brochures, Secondary Students, Canteen Update, Staff Spotlight, Student Leadership, Edible Garden, JP Science, Sports Day, House Captains, Fundraising, Pedal Prix, OSHC, Kooka Cafe, Sport, Parent Club, Uniform.

A.G.M./Annual Report
Last Monday we held our Governing Council A.G.M. A number of our students presented work that they had completed on our Values which was received very well by the audience. Our students did a great job!

Paul Hodgson then talked about our new Christian Pastoral Support Worker position and shared many examples of the kind of work that this person would involve themselves in, and how the person would be appointed. Greg Andrews and Georgie Goldfinch have volunteered to be on the selection panel along with myself and Paul.

Paul explained that the CPS Worker acts like a "friend to the school community", someone who is there to listen, support and help students, parents and staff.  They act as a referral agent and a resource, organising services such as lunchtime programs, coaching sports teams, social skills programs, parenting workshops, loss and grief counselling etc.  They are not to push their beliefs onto members of the school community or "evangelise" as this would contravene their Code of Practice and be grounds for their dismissal.

After Paul's talk we presented a number of reports about the school including subcommittee reports, financial reports for the school and canteen, a report from Dianne Gordon as Chairperson and finally my annual report.

Some highlights from this report were

• The impact of Interactive Whiteboards across the school

• Achievements by our students in Literacy and Numeracy

• A summary of our students "Wellbeing" work over the year

• School highlights from the year including Pedal Prix, international visitors, the Canberra Trip, Numeracy Nightclub, the creation of our Japanese garden etc

• Recommendations for planning in 2008 and beyond

A full copy of the report can be obtained from the front office if you would like more detail, or it can be accessed on-line by following the link below.

2007 Annual School Report

We then progressed to elections. We had no difficulty filling the vacant positions and we have some new faces on council and welcomed back many experienced council members.

Our new Governing Council members are:- Cheryl Hamilton, Greg Andrews, Gerri McGregor, Joanne Walden, Jennifer Whitehead, Dianne Gordon, Georgie Goldfinch, Debbie Cerone, Peter Kneebone, Kay Martin, Lee Bache, Karen Erlandsen and Sonia Berry

Dianne Gordon will continue as chairperson, Georgie Goldfinch as Deputy Chairperson, Deb Cerone as secretary and Jennifer Whitehead as treasurer.

After the meeting we had a very social supper. In all it was a very enjoyable meeting with a variety of information shared and achievements showcased.

Both this meeting, and our well attended Acquaintance Night, have helped create a real "positive community feel" to the start of our year.

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Last Wednesday was a very significant and historic day for Australia.

Here at Happy Valley, Learning Communities celebrated and learnt about the day in a variety of ways.

Each Learning Community worked in different ways according to their students' level of understanding.

Some of the activities undertaken across the school included

• Watching the telecast from Canberra
• Talking through the implications of the day
• Making Aboriginal friendship bands and presented them to other members of class
• Making their own Aboriginal flags to display
• Playing indigenous games and involving themselves in other indigenous art and craft activities
• Researching famous indigenous Australians

Several classes are embedding this work in a larger theme on Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people, or in a broader unit of work on Australia or on Civics and Citizenship which helps students gain a wider understanding of the issues confronting reconciliation.

Hearty congratulation to Doug MacLean and his new wife Jenny. Yes, Doug and Jenny "tied the knot" yesterday evening.

At Primary assembly on Tuesday I presented the last of our Happy Valley Principal awards. The recipients were Conner W., Tally C., Olivia C., Luke L., Gemma B., Ashleigh W-M., Tyson D., Mao T., Braden H., Abbie C. Wenqing Z., Emily D., Kiara A., and Lachie S.  All of these students made a wonderful start to the year.

In place of our Principal Awards we are introducing across the school awards for Respect, Responsibility and Integrity. Our first values awards were presented to Jake F. and Laticia B. 

At our Junior Primary assembly in Week 3, the following children received awards for demonstrating one of the Program Achieve "Keys For Success" - Shannon F., Jason H., James O., Tara M., Issy V., Sharni B., Rio T., Jacob K., Annalise S. and Zane M. The "Keys" are Persistence, Getting Along, Organisation and Confidence, with a new addition being Resilience.

After this week our awards will reflect the school values, with children across the school receiving awards for Respect, Responsibility or Integrity.

Ever thought you would like to contribute to our school community or be involved in its governance. Well we have jobs available. All of our Governing Council sub-committees are looking for members. You do not need to be a Governing Council member and you can choose a group that interests you.

Meetings vary in time and frequency however if you become part of the group you can help determine these times.

Our groups include

• Finance

• Fundraising

• Canteen

• Grounds

• Out of School Hours Care

• Our of Hours Sport

• Education

If you are interested in any of these groups please talk to either Dianne Gordon, Judy, Doug or Kylie.

Late in 2007, Happy Valley developed an information brochure and policy on Bullying, based on the "Friendly Schools, Friendly Families" Program which teachers have used in classrooms. The brochure is now ready to distribute, with our new logo added, and will be sent home in the next few days.

The brochure describes what bullying behaviour is and strategies which the school uses to address bullying. There are also suggestions for how students can deal with bullying behaviour as well as how parents and caregivers can help. We encourage you to discuss the issue of bullying with your child/ren and always remember that staff can only deal with cases of bullying if we know about them, so please contact the school if you believe that your child/ren are being bullied or using bullying behaviour. 

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We have recently ordered a number of Parenting SA brochures. These are made available to schools free of charge and cover a number of topics, including Self Esteem, Bullying, Helping children to develop Optimism, Single Parenting, Grief and Loss, Television and the Internet. You are most welcome to drop in and browse the selection and take any which interest you.

It was very unfortunate that Helen King had to leave us so suddenly however this has created an opportunity to review our Canteen's function and operation.

Andrea and Karen have kindly agreed to stay on as managers until the end of the term, giving the Canteen committee a chance to make some decisions in a timely way.

If you have any ideas for improvement or know of canteens that are operating well, or schools that have a different way of dealing with a food supply service please let Doug know. All ideas are welcome.

Hi, I'm Sandra Mousley and I'm very excited to be teaching at Happy Valley School.  I have recently returned to the city from teaching at Ceduna Area School for six years. 

Being an Area School I had the opportunity to be involved in a broad range of school programs including, classroom teaching, primary school counsellor, Aboriginal Education Teacher, choir teacher, although I wouldn't be a candidate for Australian Idol and SAPSASA coordinator.

My passion is travelling and I have recently returned from Cuba which was fantastic but challenging.  I look forward to my next (less challenging I hope) Year 7 trip to Canberra later this term.

I have enjoyed my start to the year and thank everybody for making me feel so welcome.

Sandra

All Year 7 students have been invited to apply for a position on the new 'Student Leadership Council' which is being established at our school this year.  The new 'SLC' is aimed at giving students more opportunity to participate in the School Decision Making process.

In conjunction with this new initiative, students were invited to attend a Leadership Camp at Woodhouse Activity Centre at Piccadilly last week. The camp was held from Monday 11^th to Wednesday 13^th February.

The group of 26 Year 7 students involved in the three day camp participated in leadership skill building experiences and in teamwork activities. The program included:

• What it means to be a leader

• The purpose of the Student Leadership Council

• The 2008 Kookaburra Council Structure and its relationship to the SLC

• Voting procedures for Kookaburra Council

• Developing a Flow Chart which shows the relationship between all groups

• A Student Leader's role in promoting school activities

The students really enjoyed the opportunity to build relationships with each other and to learn valuable leadership skills.  Here are some of their 'Self Reflections'. 

Page 4

There were many different activities we did such as Challenge Hill which was a great experience.  I loved it.  I felt like I did really well and pushed myself as much as I could and really built up leadership skills.  I really enjoyed the great encourager task.  I loved talking about someone that I really admire and sharing it with the rest of the SLC.

Group activities were great particularly the one where we had to fall into our group members' arms.  We learnt to gain trust in people.
                                                                                By Bec

Later that day we did Challenge Hill.  It was an amazing experience and I felt elated.  Also on that day we did orienteering.  Now, this was my favourite thing after Challenge Hill.  Although I got my entire group lost, I rectified my mistake and got them back safely.  When we gave feedback on the activities, Kate and Jordan said that I was a really good leader and orienteerer.  They mentioned about my mistake, but I took full responsibility for it and Mr MacLean said he admired it.

This camp has been very encouraging for my leadership skills.  I have gotten feedback from others and it was nice.
                                                                             By Alex

We did the Challenge Hill Egg Challenge on day two and I worked with Nicole, Justin and Jess.  We shared the different challenges to suit our different abilities and that worked brilliantly.  I learnt how to encourage people's efforts and to never give up on an obstacle.  After finishing a challenging obstacle I felt so rewarded that I finished it instead of giving up.

I have no got many skills I can cherish forever thanks to this camp.
                                                                           By Jasmine

Challenge Hill was a great and successful event.  At the end of the course I felt great that I had helped my group through something that they had never done.

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Overall the camp taught me a lot of things about leadership and also about the other people.  I felt I had learnt about responsibility and being able to have fun at the same time.

By Kate

We went to Challenge Hill and it was hard.  The hardest thing was the brick wall you had to climb.  I couldn't do it.  My favourite was the Mouse Trap.  It was dark and scary but really fun.  I had lots of fun on Challenge Hill.

This camp has been very encouraging to help me face my fear of heights.  I have proved to myself that I can do anything.

By Mitchell

The leadership camp was a really great experience and success for me.  I proved to myself that I can do a lot of things I couldn't do before and I am more confident towards things.  I feel that I have worked some skills I didn't know I had and have worked on my other skills to become a better leader.

One of the obstacles I felt REALLY good for finishing was the big net you had to climb over.  While I was on it I felt scared because I'm afraid of heights but I was determined to finish it and when I did I felt AWESOME!!

By Renae

I've pushed myself to the limits of comfort.

By Jesse

The first day at camp was fun.  We got to go to Challenge Hill.  I did every obstacle apart from The Wall because I was scared of heights.

By Jake

We did some decision making structure and brainstorming on how we can make changes.  The whole camp was extremely exciting.

By Declan

I helped Zacharia when he fell from the last obstacle.  I have improved my leadership skills.

By James

At Challenge Hill we had to take an egg through every obstacle.  I dropped my group's egg in the Elephant's Graveyard.  I felt really bad by my group told me not to worry.

By Zacharia

The camp was great on the last day I was ready to be a leader.  I had learnt a lot of things in becoming a leader and team work.  I had a fantastic time and would like to do it again some time.

By Braden

On Challenge Hill we did lots of things.  The first time on everything is really hard.  I did everything there and I felt heaps good about myself.

The solving scenarios were a great idea and it was fun.  My team did really well and we helped each other out a lot.

To finish off I did Challenge Hill with Declan in 27 minutes.  The camp I thought was a great successful activity.  I now feel more like a leader.

By Josh

Mrs Saunders' class began science activities with parent helpers this week.

As you are probably aware Sports Day is scheduled for next Friday February 29^th. Students are expected to meet with their teachers by 8-15am and the primary program should conclude at about 2pm. If however, the forecast temperature for Sports Day, as stated on the weather bureau’s web site on Tuesday, is 36 degrees or higher a modified primary school program will be run.

As a result of a forecast of 36 degrees or higher, the relays normally scheduled for after the lunch break will be moved to Thursday morning commencing at 9-30am.

For Sports Day Friday, this will mean that students will have lunch after the completion of the tabloid events, the presentation will be made and students will then be dismissed at about 1pm.

A complete Sports Day program will go home early next week.

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Congratulations to the following Year 7 students who have been appointed House Captains for 2008.

CHANDLER
Bec May, Clare Hampel, Alex Andrews, Josh Cryer

MASON
Tom Chapman, Adrian Veljkovic, Katelyn Sandric, Jordan Veale

NICOLLE
Jasmine Deakin, Nicole Robertson, Cody Cox, Justine Kite

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Thank you to our volunteers -- your support is invaluable!

* Katrina Allen              Tuesday
* Suzie Boyce              Wednesday
* Richard Vinall             Friday
and to our new volunteers
* Michelle Mason          Thursday
*Lisa Molnar                 Thursday
* Nyree Haese             as required 

Help forms are still being returned from volunteers which are greatly appreciated.  We will be in contact with you very soon.

SPORTS DAY LUNCHES
A reminder that orders must be in by tomorrow, Friday 22^nd.  Sorry, but there will be no over the counter orders.

The Canteen will be closed on Sports Day but we will be set up in the Sports Canteen near the oval where we will have bottled water and ice blocks for sale.

Andrea Chapman and Karen Erlandsen

SOCCER
Thanks to everyone who has returned their nomination form for soccer. Please keep the forms coming in so that we can have as many boys and girls involved and active as possible. It doesn't matter if you haven't played before -- soccer is very inclusive and everyone gets fair playing time during games.

If you didn't receive a form but are interested in playing or would like more information, give me a call on one of the numbers below and I can put you on the list.

If anyone can help with coaching and/or training, please let me know as soon as possible.  Assistance can be provided with a coaching course and DVD.

Once we know the numbers who are interested, I can determine what teams we will be able to field in 2008.

Gary Kite Co-ordinator
8381 5820 (H) 0438 838 158 (M)

WE ARE LOOKING FOR SOMEONE TO BE OUR SPORTS CONVENOR.  You will be required to chair the sports committee meetings which are held twice per term usually in weeks 4 and 8. 

If you are interested, give the school a ring or call in and leave your details with Amelia.

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