SSO Week

Teachers and leaders treated our wonderful support staff to a morning tea and students made cards. These amazing people have many roles across the school including student support,  bilingual support, running intervention groups, library admin, IT admin front office, finance, sports support, music admin and many other jobs that help us provide programs and opportunities for our students. You may like to send them a thank you through ThankED https://www.education.sa.gov.au/webforms/thanked

PS – staff dress theme was pyjamas on Wednesday!

P & F Update

Bec Parker and Sarah Rice have kindly offered to help lead P & F.  They will be extremely well supported by our fabulous Class Parent Reps and already have plans for the remainder of 2023 and beyond.

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 holidays.

R-3 Play Equipment

The replacement of the remaining play equipment will commence on Monday next week.  There will be some disruption/closure during demolition and installation.

School Calendar

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

Father’s Day Stall with Donuts, Coffee and a playdate

Thanks to Eliza, Justine, Andy (and many more people), we have some exciting things happening for Father’s Day. Please see the attached documents for more information about our gift stall on Thursday 31/8/23 under the COLA at 8:15am; Donuts & Dads and a Playdate at Heywood Park. DONUT ORDERS WILL CLOSE AT 12PM ON TUESDAY (see QkR Events section).

Donuts pdf

Playdate pdf

Term 3 Assemblies

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

22/9 Rooms 4 & 18 (Primary) Principled

29/9 Whole School

Get to know our staff team………..

Fiona is our fabulous grounds person. She grew up in the Adelaide Hills and has a strong passion for sustainability and permaculture.  In her spare time, she runs a gluten-free bakery. We love having Fiona to help look after our school.

Clare is a lover of all sports and enjoys volunteering at the tennis in January. Her favourite subject in school was Legal Studies, but now she wishes she had paid more attention in Chinese lessons! Clare is a whizz at everything 🙂

Reports and Student Learning Journeys at Highgate School

This week, students’ reports and Learning Journeys were sent home for parents. Highgate School written reports include achievement and engagement grades for all subjects. They also include written comments from classroom teachers about English, Mathematics and a general comment based on students’ learning disposition and the attributes of their learner profile. In addition, students in the bilingual French program, receive comments on their French abilities.

At Highgate School, we also compile Student Learning Journeys, which provide a record of students’ progress through our program of inquiry each term. Because our program of inquiry is “transdisciplinary”, these Learning Journeys are a record of learning in several different subjects. This includes Humanities and Social Sciences, Science, Health, Art, Technology, Chinese, Performing Arts, PE, English, Mathematics over the course of the school year.

Teachers provide written feedback on specific items of students’ work in Students’ Learning Journeys, so as to provide the context for these comments. Teachers do not comment on this work again in the written reports. Students include a piece of work from each specialist teacher each semester. Thus, the learning journey and written report constitute a complete package of reporting when combined with Parent/Teacher interviews.

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

SUSHI SPECIAL – WED 30/8/23

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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

Club de Pétanque d’Adélaïde

Alliance Française d’Adélaïde

Annual French Workshop Tickets, Tue 05/12/2023 at 9:30 am | Eventbrite

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.