Book Week 2023

That’s a wrap on Book Week, 2023!

Thanks to parents and students for an amazing and very colourful finale to a big week of reading, writing and talking about books last week. Our passionate team of Year 5 Library Leaders worked hard to decorate the library with our reading tree (called Alex), survey students about the books they have been reading and favourite characters, then create giant crossword puzzles for everyone to solve together. Well done Library Leaders! The character hunt was quite a challenge and I’m pleased to announce that Room 27 won a book for their class library because of their enthusiastic participation in the hunt. There were also 11 individual winners, who chose prizes from our prize box for correctly identifying all 26 book characters, which were hidden around the school.

The short listed and winning books from the Children’s Book Council of Australia are available for borrowing in the library. We are already looking forward to next year’s Book Week adventures!

Father’s Day Stall with Donuts & Coffee

A big thank you to everyone who came along to help with our Father’s Day stall, donuts and coffee yesterday.

As the P&F is coming together, the group is keen to understand different parent’s/carer’s perspectives in terms of the community events that Highgate parents run. They have put together a very short multiple choice survey about the Donuts for Dads event. If you could take a moment to please share your thoughts and ideas, that would be great!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KNRSF26

A reminder that a play date at Heywood Park has been organised for Saturday.

Landcare Grant

We’re thrilled to update you on the 2023 Woolworths Junior Landcare Grant for our project, “Living things depend on each other to sustain the environment”.

Thanks to this grant, we have been able to purchase a worm farm and native plants to replant sections of the Reception/Year 1 Nature play space. Our Reception/Year 1 students have been learning about worms and their role as soil improvers in a sustainable garden. They also learnt about a variety of useful native plants. We are looking forward to those plants growing over the course of this year, so students can harvest the edible ones and deepen their understanding of the value of native species.

Our school is one of 1,107 primary schools and early learning centres across Australia to receive a Woolworths Junior Landcare grant to help grow our next generation of environmental champions.

Click on the Woolworths Junior Landcare Grant map Woolworths Junior Landcare Grants to read more about our project and others, or click  here to see the Highgate School project details.

House Keeping

A couple of polite reminders………..

1. If your child is arriving late. or leaving early, please ensure that they are signed in/out through the Front Office.
2. A reminder that parents should not be parking across neighbour driveways (or actually in them); undertaking three point turns near crossings; blocking yellow lines or coming into the staff carpark.  All of these requests support us to keep all of our students safe.
3. Crossing duties – teachers are not allowed to actually stop cars when on crossing duty.  We therefore rely on motorists to stop when children are near the crossing, or when the flags are up on Highgate Street.

Thank you.

New bin system

We are in the process of rolling out new bins, in line with new departmental requirements.  As a result, we have a number of bins to give away to new homes, as they are not in the correct colours. Great for storing excess garden refuse, outdoor toys, pool gear….the possibilities are endless.

Purple bins are first to go – if you would like one, please let us know.

Oval Update

A date at last……project is due to commence on 31/10/23 and scheduled to be finished before the end of the Jan holidays.

R-3 Play Equipment

Should be finished soon, with a couple of areas of rubberised surface needing a few days to ‘cure’.

School Calendar

Check out our school calendar for upcoming events and assemblies.
Highgate Calendar

Pupil Free Day Reminder

School is closed for staff training on Friday 8/9/23.

PYP Information Sessions

Parent Information Sessions on the International Baccalaureate, Primary Years Program at Highgate School.

We will be running this session in the library, twice next week (once on Wednesday from 3:30pm and again on Thursday from 8:30am). If you would like to come along, please sign up via the Eventbrite link sent to your email or ask at the front desk to reserve your spot. We will be providing information on the program, our reporting system and leaving time for you to ask any questions you may have about the program. See you there!

Next Parent Rep Catch Up

Thursday 14/9/23 at 2:30pm in the Glass room

Term 3 Assemblies

15/9 Rooms 22,23,26 (Early Years) Principled

22/9 Rooms 4 & 18 (Primary) Principled

29/9 Whole School

Please click on the link below for parent tips for online safety

back to school online safety

IB Happenings: Assessment and reporting

The IB and Primary Years Program has a strong focus on assessment and reporting. The fundamental philosophy of assessment in PYP schools is that assessment should be designed to inform teaching and further learning and that students can become competent learners with the skills to learn in a self-directed manner throughout their lives. This means that assessment of student understanding focuses mostly on identifying specific strengths and areas for further learning and that students are active participants in the assessment and reporting processes of the school. Our reporting system is designed to reflect this by:

• informing parents in detail about students’ learning,
• including students’ voice through reflections and student chosen work,
• providing work samples for students to share with their parents,
• providing parents with opportunities to contribute to students’ learning,
• avoiding doubling up on information in different formats

The reporting system includes the following formats:

Verbal conferencing: Opportunities for parents and students to meet with classroom teachers exist all year, by appointment, as well as specific interview times in Term 1 and Term 3. These are opportunities for teachers and parents to establish positive relationships and discuss student progress and learning goals. It enables parents, teachers and students to work together to support students to grow and learn.

Student Learning Journeys: Each student has a Student Learning Journey book or folder, which includes assessment tasks completed by students each term. Most items in the Learning Journey are based on the Transdisciplinary Units of Inquiry, which address Australian Curriculum outcomes from more than 1 subject area. Teachers include single point rubrics and brief explanations of the goals of the tasks and an indication of how students have performed on the task and what their next steps in learning are. In addition, students are encouraged to make choices about some tasks they want to include in their Learning Journey. Together, these two types of student work provide a detailed record of students’ performance in the context of set tasks. Student Learning Journeys importantly provide a context for parents to have positive conversations with their child about their learning. We ask parents to provide positive feedback on each Term’s work once they have had a conversation with their child about it. The combination of the conversation and feedback ensures that parents are active participants in their child’s learning journey at Highgate School.

Written reports compliment the Learning Journey, by including detailed teachers’ comments about English/French and Mathematics, effort and achievement indicators in all subjects as determined by students’ performance on the outcomes in the Australian Curriculum.

Further information

We have lots of information about learning at Highgate on our website. Select the main menu button and then Learning.

Tips to support your child’s use of French at home

French Homework Club

Every Mondays from 1.05pm until 1.35pm in the Glassroom.  Support is provided in French for all learning areas.

Volunteers needed

If you have completed your volunteer requirements and you have some time to come read with students in FRENCH, please contact Genevieve.  This could mean listening to students read in French or even sharing one of your favourites with a class.

A bit time poor, but would like to share a book?  Organise to video yourself reading and share with Genevieve. Alternatively, come in at school for support with filming.

genevieve.papineau947@schools.sa.edu.au

New research findings 

Why bilinguals may have a memory advantage – new research – Philippine Canadian Inquirer Nationwide Filipino Newspaper

Did you know that our Mission and Vision for the French Bilingual/Binational program is on our website, along with answers to FAQs. Visit our website, Main Menu, Learning and then French.

Highgate Snack Shack (Canteen) News

Can you help?  The Snack Shack is looking for volunteers, especially for our special days.  If you can help, please contact the front office.

Do you have ideas for our menu or special days?  We would love to hear from you.  Currently we have a special Sushi Day and Ice Cream day each term, but we are looking for other creative ideas for both our specials and our everyday menu.  If you have ideas you would like to share, please complete this form.

Did you know we are now making our own pizza in the Snack Shack?  We use “light” cheese and ham to make sure they fit with the Right Bite strategy.

Message from Violet in Room 7

I have read this article about tree planting and the decrease in trees in the Unley council area. This is sad for our local environment.

The school community that fills out the most surveys can win and I’d love Highgate to win one of the tree vouchers or native plant packs. It would be nice to plant even more trees at our school.

Here is the survey:

https://yoursay.unley.sa.gov.au/trees?fbclid=IwAR3QAvDi3qB5zns7_CL3Reeovu927wGSwP4l-mLLw4C7VIUKpp44s27gdPI

2024 Enrolments

We are open for 2024 enrolments at all year levels, with some remaining spaces for this year. The department has relaxed restrictions around zoning and we are able to accept out-of-zone enrolments where capacity exists. If you have children at Kindy/Pre-school and intend to enrol them with us, please make sure that you have completed an EOI.

Spare Clothes

We have had an increase in students requiring a change of clothes recently. Although we do have an emergency supply in the Front Office we are running low on certain items. If your child has borrowed clothes to change into we ask that you please wash and return these items to the Front Office. Additionally, please check that your child has extra clothes packed in their school bag for any accidents that may occur during the school day, especially during the wet weather.

Knockout Boys AFL Round 3

On Friday 18/8, the boys knockout team travelled to Willunga to play Willunga with the winner to progress to the School Sport SA AFL finals day.

In a very competitive match on a large ground, Highgate challenged but in the end couldn’t quite get in front.

A terrific effort to all the boys involved.

Highgate 4-5 (29) vs Willunga 8-5 (53)

External providers are external businesses who run programs/clinics/lessons for students at Highgate School. Other providers are included for your information, but parents should give due consideration to the programs as they are not endorsed by the school.

If you wish your child(ren) to be a part of any of the below programs, please contact them directly.

Fullarton Scouts

If you are a boy or girl aged 6 to 18, come and try Scouts at the Fullarton Scout Group. We are currently recruiting in all age sections, and you and your family are invited to come to our hall at 1A Culross Ave, Myrtle Bank to have a look.

Our Joeys meet Wed at 6.15 to 7.15, Cubs Thurs 7.00 to 8.30, and Scouts Fri 7.00 to 9.00 during school terms.

It costs nothing to come and try, so give it a go!

For more details contact James Gardiner 0488507686 or gl.fullarton@sa.scouts.com.au

Softball

Please direct any questions to Sara Pettet at sara@missfitmovement.com.au or 0410 836 368.

Children’s Art Classes

Fullarton PCC

Sturt Academy Flyer

https://highgates.sa.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Sturt-Academy-Flyer-pdf.pdf

Christmas Pageant Mini Float Competition

Les olympiadelaides de la francophone – Alliance Française d’Adélaïde

For more information visit https://www.af.org.au/community/event-rsvp/?event_id=463

University of Adelaide – Fun and interactive workshop

No prior knowledge of French required

For more information, please visit https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/annual-french-workshop-tickets-518272395687?aff=oddtdtcreator

Adelaide Accueil – Attend their general assembly

For more information, visit Assemblée Générale 2023 Tickets, Sat 30/09/2023 at 6:00 pm | Eventbrite

Please visit our website at Highgate School for calendar dates and further information about our school.

Our Front Office team are always happy to help with questions and can be contacted on 08 82719622.

Website Sign Up Option

We are now offering parents/caregivers and community members the opportunity to sign up to our newsletter through our school website
https://highgates.sa.edu.au/ – at the bottom of the landing page there is a subscription link.

The subscription mechanism is powered through Mail Chimp. Visit their website https://mailchimp.com/ to view their privacy policies.

When a new Highgate Happenings post is created on the school website, a subscriber will receive an email with a link to the new post.

If you do not wish to subscribe, you can view the new posts by visiting the school website https://highgates.sa.edu.au/ and scrolling down to the bottom of that page, or view the newsletter page directly here https://highgates.sa.edu.au/connect/news/

Please be aware that when you first subscribe, you will receive all HH so far.  After this, you will only receive the new ones.

We will continue to send out Edsmart messages each week with the link to HH.