From the Principal and Deputy Principal

Newsletter Week 4 Term 2 

Well, we have certainly had an interesting start to the term! We hope everyone is keeping as safe and healthy as possible. Covid has certainly hit us hard. 

Covid update: From Week 5 (Monday May 30th) masks are no longer mandatory in school settings, however they are still highly recommended. This change affects visitors to the site, students from year 7-12 and staff. If a school site has high Covid numbers, they will be directed by the Department for everyone still to wear masks. Students will be notified of this in their home groups and we will send out communication if this is the case. Please also pay attention to any signs around the school or just check with our staff if you come in.  

Two of our classes have been directed by the Department to undergo PCR testing in the last week. Thank you to the parents who have supported this action. With high numbers of Covid cases in every class, this is another strategy to keep our kids safe. 

Thank you also to the parents who are notifying us of their children’s positive Covid testing. This allows us to alert other families to keep an eye out for symptoms within class groups. Those emails are coming out daily at the moment so please keep checking. If you are wanting your child to be completing any work while they are at home isolating, please go to the Our Learning SA (education.sa.gov.au) website for Reception to Year 10 students, or log in to Microsoft Teams for our SACE students.  

Thank you also to the families who have been very flexible around the bus changes due to Covid last week. We really appreciate your assistance! 

Building update: Work is almost complete and a handover date is scheduled for Monday May 30th. Some bitumen work outside still needs to be completed after this but everyone is very excited that the time is almost here. Governing Council have been supporting this by organising some names for working bee lists to move furniture and equipment so that we can use the rooms as soon as possible. Check out the notice and contact them if you can spare some time. 

NAPLAN: Our testing period for NAPLAN was extended by a week due to our multiple absences for Covid. Even with this extension, there are some students who have not been well enough to sit their test this year. When result sheets are sent home later in the year, please make sure to touch base with your child’s teacher if you have any concerns. 

Industry Immersion Day: Our school is hosting an industry immersion day for Agriculture on Tuesday June 7th. Students from our surrounding schools will attend sessions organised by Carol Hille so they can consider the Agriculture Industry as a pathway to work after school.  

Flexible Industry Pathways: Our Year 11 students will participate in FIPs from Monday May 30th until Friday June 3rd. Students from around our region come to Lucindale to participate in vocational training in a multitude of industries.  

We give our thanks to the Lucindale Lions Club, who are supporting this initiative by providing Yakka Park as a base for these students. Kangaroo Inn, Penola, Kingston and Naracoorte students will travel here each day to take part in the FIPs twice per term. They are working towards earning certificates in Agriculture, Rural Operations, Individual Support and Education and Care. 

Bus Route Changes: The Transport Unit recently came to Lucindale and reviewed our bus routes, as well as responding to a request for a route change from Governing Council. Families affected by the proposed changes on the Callendale and Coles Spence bus routes have received a communication about the proposal and have been asked to respond in writing. A response to the West Avenue request has also been provided to families with Governing Council seeking feedback on this as well.  

To help facilitate this, families on these three routes have been sent a communication offering an online meeting hosted by the school to provide further feedback to Governing Council and to ask any questions or clarify information. This meeting will be at 6pm on Tuesday May 31st and will only be online due to our current high Covid numbers. Please respond to the communication sent out if you would like to take part. You may also just send your feedback in writing into school to pass onto Governing Council and the Transport Unit. 

Staffing update: Carol Hille won the acting Special Programs Coordinator position, backfilling behind Lucinda who is Acting Deputy Principal currently. She is focused on implementing the Industry Immersion Day coming up shortly as well as focusing on other Agriculture projects. Jessica Moore has made the difficult decision to leave us. We will update everyone shortly on this backfill. Jessica’s last day will be June 14th. We thank her for her time and efforts with us and wish her all the best for the future.  

Simultaneous Story Time: We made some last minute changes to our participation in this event this year due to our high Covid numbers. Students stayed in their classrooms and watched online readings of the story “Family Tree”. Have a look in the newsletter for some pictures and activities from our R/1 and 1/2 classes. There is also a terrific display in the library.

Cross Country: Thank you to everyone for your flexibility around Cross Country this year with us being unable to provide a bus at short notice due to Covid. Only a small cohort participated this year but by all accounts had a great day. Thanks to Naracoorte Primary School for hosting this event each year and thank you to Alisha Hagel for taking students over. See the article in the newsletter for some results. 

Uni SA visit: Uni SA came to visit our Year 10 and 12 students last week and gave presentations on Careers and Admissions to university. Students were able to ask questions of the presenters and gain a better understanding of the purposes and processes around university. 

Outdoor Ed camp: Unfortunately, our Outdoor Ed camp was cancelled this week due to Covid outbreaks. Students will work with their teacher to realign their course requirements and Jason Backler will be in touch with families regarding any changes to the course outline. After watching the rainy weather this week, I think some students were very happy about the cancellation! 

Thank you to everyone for your understanding and assistance as we try to manage our school with very depleted numbers of both students and staff. This last week we have had up to 9 staff members missing daily. If we have missed a message or a communication regarding something, please get in contact and let us know as our front office has been very affected. Teachers and SSOs have been backfilling other lessons frequently so please continue your kindness and understanding at this time. Hopefully we are over the worst of it and will be back to normal soon. 

Jane and Lucinda 

Celebrations and Commemorations

The Year 3/4 class have been studying ‘Celebrations and Commemorations’ in HASS lessons. Students learnt about ANZAC Day. They researched Memorials and features that you might find at a Memorial. After they designed their own Memorial for their own place to go and remember. Some chose to honour the nurses that fought in war or Aboriginal Soldiers or even the animals that supported the soldiers during the war. Students then constructed miniature 3D models of their Memorial for display. If you visit the school library you will be able to have a closer look at their efforts. 

Mrs Rivett 

Year 10 English

Some samples: 

Romeo Montague is tragedy    

Offing himself for a cringy first love    

His ways of life were very raggedy    

Now he sits with God in the clouds above 

Is Romeo the good guy or the bad?   

Or the reason young Juliet is dead?   

Drinking poison just because he was mad    

A night of love with a shot in the head    

You could say his timing skills are quite off    

Couldn’t even feel the touch of his wife    

I could have loved him much better *cough cough*   

Wouldn’t have gotten into so much strife    

Oh Romeo you could have picked much better    

If only you received that one letter    

By Sophie 

My sonnet  

Bmx  

On the dirt and the track so very dry  

You hit the ground like a brick hurt it will  

As you fall life flashes before your eyes  

Dead you are not but all you see are wheels  

The damage is small so to the next race  

It was but a scratch so on with the paint   

We finally made it into the place  

Did it I did it I won and might faint  

It all came and went so extremely fast   

I want to share my winnings with all mates  

But wait a recall have iI lost this so fast  

This is bollocks it is now in the past  

The loss makes me feel very, very ill   

After this outrage the judge I must kill  

By Dom 

I see the green leaves on the mighty trees  

Branches reaching up to the endless sky  

The sky is as blue as the crashing seas  

Looking up to the clouds so very high  

Sitting atop of the beautiful hill  

Colours painting the sky with such passion  

Thinking I could never be so chill  

Colours fading like a changing fashion  

A storm coming in like a blinding light  

My ears filled with the crackling sound  

Thunder and lightning lighting up the night  

I leave before the rain floods the dark ground  

Natures beauty is something to behold  

One day it will be more precious than gold  

By Abi 

I like to drive my Ute around the farm  

My Ute gives me freedom to go places  

I like my Ute so much because of charm  

My favorite thing to do is make chases  

I like to do a lot of work to it  

I have done a lot of upgrades to it  

 I have managed to make it very lit  

The texture when i paint it will be grit  

My spotlight and lightbar light up the night  

I painted the rims black and they look good  

My Ute has a lot of grunt and also might  

In the back when I’m camping I cook food  

When I drive it I can go very fast  

The color was much better in the past  

By Logan