Term 1, 2025

From the Principal

As we come to the end of the first term of the 2025 school year, we reflect on all that we have accomplished, as well as celebrate all the achievements and hard work of our students and staff.

This term we welcomed 8 new permanent teachers in the areas of EALD, Maths, Science & Home Economics (Cooking) to the school, as well as a new Transition/ISP coordinator.

Highlights from Term 1 include:

* New day structure - We implemented our new timetable, with students commencing 5 minutes earlier each day and finishing at 2:30pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This has provided time for teachers to work collaboratively to plan, and engage in meetings and professional development. A new model has also been introduced for homegroup, which allows time for a focus on student wellbeing, class meetings, word study and positive behaviour for learning. Some students have taken the opportunity to get additional help by attending the homework centre on Tuesdays after school.

* Student Achievement - We celebrated Harmony Day and acknowledged a range of student academic, social, musical and sporting achievements as part of our term whole school assembly. We were also very fortunate to have Dr Amanda Ruler and Dr Nick Windham, from the South Australian branch of the Medical Association for Prevention of War. They presented our Peace Prize winners with $200 prizes, and donated awards from the association to students who participated in a Peace Day writing and visual art competition.

Mahsa Akbari (38) and Pim Gaewudom (19) were the first prize winners and Fatema Ali Zada (38) and Sammy Yuen Yau Zeng (39) were awarded the runner up prizes. Participation certificates were also awarded to Mursal Gardezi (5), Rafat Alfarwan (32), Dylan Cordoba Foronda (38), Sataish Ahmadi (38), Sophia Yuqian Chen (39), Linh Pham (39) and Anh Nguyen (39).

* SACE Exploring Identities and Futures (EIF) expo - This was an exciting showcase of the exceptional range of projects students have been working on for the past two terms. The presentations were outstanding!

* Annual General meeting and Governing Council meeting - We were pleased to have so many parents/family members attend our first meeting for the year and engage in providing more feedback on positive behaviour for learning and discussing a proposal around items to be banned from school.

Looking ahead to remainder of 2025, we are beginning to prepare for a change over to the new Education Management System (EMS) for all department schools, which will be rolled out by the end of 2025 for student administration and financial management. This will be a major change for us as a school and will occur on Tuesday the 18^th of November. In the meantime, staff will be involved in training over the next few months.

End of term 1 reports will be coming home soon and we encourage all students to continue challenging themselves and to continue to display the school values of respect, responsibility and resilience. We also thank our families for their continued support, particularly as we navigate the many challenges we are facing with high numbers of student enrolments and lack of classroom space, as well as our ongoing school improvements.

Enjoy the Easter holiday break and we look forward to seeing everyone back for an exciting second term.

Ms Anti Macri

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Peace Prizes 2025

Thank you to everyone who entered the Peace Prize competition.

Art work

• 1^st prize winner: (Pim) Jidapa Gaewudom, class 19
• 2^nd prize winner: (Sammy) Yuen Yau Zeng, class 39

Essay

• 1^st prize winner: Mahsa Akbari, class 38
• 2^nd prize winner: Fatema Ali Zada, class 38

Beach Safety Day

This term we had 2 beach safety days at Glenelg for the students who are graduating mid-year. We were very lucky with the weather. The water was great, with the first group able to enjoy themselves catching waves on the paddle boards. The second group had calmer conditions and were able to experience paddling the boards for longer distances. Students learnt about all the potential dangers at the beach and how to keep each other safe. We will have more beach safety days again in term 4 for the students who are graduating at the end of the year.

Mr Tom Ellenbroek

EIF Expo

Exploring Identities and Futures (EIF) is a SACE subject that supports students to explore their aspirations. Students are given the space and opportunity to extend their thinking beyond what they want to do, to also consider who they want to be in the future. The subject supports students to learn more about themselves, their place in the world, and enables them to explore and deepen their sense of belonging, identity, and connections to the world around them.

As a part of their learning in this subject, students have worked on a project of their choice, and to celebrate their success, an expo was organised to showcase projects of class 3 and class 41. School staff and students’ parents/caregivers were invited to the expo. The presentations were impressive!

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SA SRC Summit

Three of our students attended the annual SA SRC (South Australian Student Representative Council) Summit: Mohdisa Haidari (class 7), Varvara Nesterenko (class 39) and Siang Cer Thulai (class 38). The summit was organised by the Commissioner for Children and Young People. It was held at the Festival Centre on Friday 21^st March with 150 high school students (year 10-12) from all over South Australia. The state-wide SA SRC is about having an opportunity to meet other passionate like-minded young people, identify issues, and build skills and knowledge that leads to action in the areas young people care about most. Our students had a wonderful time!

Beacon "Polish" Program

This program taught students about how jobs are changing around the world and why skills like good communication and self-confidence are important. They practised speaking about their strengths, learned how to present themselves well, and even worked with business mentors to improve their networking and interview skills. This term, we had 8 volunteer mentors from different industries, so the students got two opportunities with two different mentors to practise their mock interviews.

Mr Ash Parekh

Futsal (Indoor Soccer)

This term, our mixed futsal team delivered a fantastic performance in the Zone Sport Competition, taking on teams from Underdale Maroon, Underdale White, and Woodville. The team displayed great cohesion and skill, finishing the season with 4 wins, 1 draw, and just 1 loss.

Their impressive run led them to the grand final on April 2^nd, 2025, where they faced Underdale Maroon in a hard-fought match. With determination and teamwork, they secured a thrilling 3-2 victory to take home the championship.

Congratulations to all players for their dedication and outstanding sportsmanship throughout the season. Your efforts and teamwork were truly exceptional!

Mr Teo Zoitakis

The Magic of CircoBats: Chaos of Creation

Students from Classes 34 and 39 had an unforgettable experience at the Chaos of Creation CircoBats show, where they witnessed firsthand the incredible dedication and teamwork that go into producing a youth circus performance. The show was a stunning display of acrobatics, trust-building, and creative exploration, highlighting the passion and perseverance of the performers.

Beyond the dazzling flips and daring stunts, students gained insight into the hard work behind the scenes - countless hours of rehearsal, overcoming challenges, and working together to create something truly spectacular. The experience left them inspired, reinforcing the importance of resilience, collaboration, and pushing boundaries to achieve greatness. The magic of circus isn’t just in the final act, it’s in the journey, and our students were lucky to witness it up close.

Mr Alex Sirenko

My Experience at WOMADELAIDE

I’m Ehra Santome. I want to tell everyone what happened to me at WOMADELAIDE. On Saturday, I woke up early because I was very excited to go to WOMADELAIDE and experience new things. 

I went to the city and met the other students and teachers. After we met, we went to Botanic Park because the WOMADELAIDE was held there. Then, we finally arrived in Botanic Park, before we came inside, Mr Paul took a picture of us. 

Then we all followed in a line and went inside the Botanic Park. Before we started exploring the different stages, we found a shady spot to put our bags and our stuff and to sit together.

Mr Paul decided to put us in groups and then we started walking around with the teacher, we went to stage 4 to watch some African music and to dance. We enjoyed African dance and other different languages, culture and music. 

I was so happy that I experienced new things and the WOMADELAIDE was so exciting, interesting and there were a lot of people where you can make lots of friends. I really enjoyed that day and I will never forget that day. It was so special to me. I learned to respect other people no matter what culture or nationality they are from. We need to learn how to respect others and be kind to everyone. 

Thank you to all the teachers, especially to Mr Paul and Mr Ben. Thank you for guiding us at WOMADELAIDE. I’m so happy to spend time with all the kind, beautiful, and resilient teachers that came to WOMADELAIDE. Thank you and thank you to WOMADELAIDE for the free tickets. I will never forget that day.

Ehra Menchie C Santome, Class 10

Peer Mentoring

Our Peer Mentoring program has been huge this term, with 22 mentors supporting over 100 Foundation level new students through an 8 week program. The students meet each week in the Atrium and work mostly in first language groups to explore topics such as personal and community safety, bullying and harassment, self regulation and cultural safety and pride. On Thursday 3^rd April, the students gathered to share their cultures with each other, through a wide range of cultural clothes, food, singing and artefacts on display.

Peer mentors this term have been:

Mr Paul Coats

Croquet

Earlier this term, our Senior Pathway C students from Class 41 took to the school oval for an exciting game of croquet. What started as a simple introduction to the game quickly turned into a fun-filled, competitive, and engaging experience for everyone involved.

Croquet is not just about hitting balls through hoops; it’s about strategy, teamwork, and patience. Students worked together, encouraging each other and sharing plenty of laughter as they navigated the challenges of the game. Some players surprised themselves with hidden talents, while others simply enjoyed the chance to try something new.

The best part? Croquet brought us closer as a class. We cheered, celebrated small victories, and learned that sometimes, even a slow-paced game can be the most enjoyable. Moments like these remind us that school is not just about studying - it’s also about bonding and having fun!

Ms Yelena Timochshenko

History Timeline

A display has been created that attempts to visualise 65,000 years of Australian History. The time chain is 15 metres long, which equates to 5,000 years per metre. Recent history (since the Roman Empire) is displayed separately and shows colonising events leading up to the First Fleet arriving here. The remainder of the display includes examples of Aboriginal artefacts and events that provide evidence for the world's most enduring continuous cultures and sustainable societies.

A new series of teacher reference books 'First Knowledges' together with an accompanying summary have also been provided to the library.

Mr Tim Braund

Maritime Museum

On 4^th of April, we had an excursion with class 17 and class 15 and that excursion was to go to the South Australian Maritime Museum in Port Adelaide and on the boat called Archie Badenoch.

When we arrived at the Museum, we first watched a video that was about the Yuki, an Aboriginal canoe, and the story of Ponde the big fish. We looked at a lot of different things at the Museum and took some pictures, which was great to see and so we can remember those things.

We were all excited because it was our first time to go to that Museum, and then after we had some lunch we continued to go to the boat. We all said good afternoon to the boat driver and he told us the rules of the boat and where we need to sit. Everyone was excited on the boat, taking pictures and enjoying the excursion.

Estella Miriam (class 17)

Barton Williams

On Tuesday 4^th March, classes 9, 10, 14, and 47 listened to a man named Barton Williams who talked about his life in Australia. Barton was an orphan as his parents had died during the Vietnam War. He was only one year old when he came to Australia. An Australian family adopted him and supported him while he was growing up here. During his talk, he mentioned that other children had bullied him when he was at school. Sometimes, his older brother rescued him when he was feeling threatened. He told us that love is very important and that he felt loved from his Australian family. He felt very safe and lucky that his family looked after him. He told us that he is now an actor, and a teacher and that he was performing at the Adelaide Fringe Festival. It was enjoyable listening to Barton talk about his life story. We learnt about the importance of having someone who loves and cares for us in our life.

Class 47 & Mr Peter Wallace

Reading and Speaking Skills

Class 36's efforts in improving their Reading and Speaking Skills remained high even after the ORF (Reading Test). This culminated in a Book Presentation on Friday 28 March 2025. Everyone gathered up their courage to be the 'teacher' to read and teach us about their books! Topics they were interested in, included Mummies, Pyramids, Bicycles, Nutrition, and Sport.

Students practiced reading their chosen books and learnt the pronunciation of difficult words. Additionally, students thought about what the messages of each of their books were - What were the books trying to teach us? What can we learn? We learnt so much from each other that day! It was definitely an exciting and interesting book presentation!

Ms Ariel Chuang

Flinders Uni Excursion

Class 8 and class 37 visited Flinders University campus on Wednesday 2^nd April.

Morialta Hike

We had 11 students turn up for our Morialta hike on Saturday 4^th April. The weather was perfect for hiking and we hiked about 7km in close to 3 hours. It was very dry, so unfortunately the waterfalls weren't flowing, but we saw a couple of koalas and some kangaroos and then enjoyed a barbeque lunch in the park afterwards.

The students did really well, with varying degrees of physical ability, but they all engaged really well in the hike and tried hard.

We returned to the city by 3pm and went our separate ways from there.

Ms Bec Werner (First Hike Project)

Feedback from participated students:

• Abbas (class 3) - "All the students were perfect and always smiling. The volunteers were fantastic and we talked a lot with them."
• Ama (class 3) - "Everyone was caring for each other. The volunteers were so patient and wonderful people."
• Galeva (class 3) - "Being with each other was good. Nature is so beautiful. Also, the food was good. I helped cook the BBQ. We all recommend this hike to all the students. It should be an excursion!"
• Thin (class 3) - "I liked hiking with each other. We were patient with each other. We also respected each other. There were no bad words at all."
• Sahar (class 4) - "It was a really good hike. The weather was good. When we arrived at the top, the view was good. Nature was good. The volunteers were very helpful."
• Haniyeh (class 4) - "It was really good and that was my first experience of hiking. It was a good experience for me. I would like to do something like this again. At the beginning it was very hard. It got easier. It was all good. I am happy I was given the chance to try hiking."
• Fatima (class 4) - "I found it easy because I have lots of experience in hiking from when I was young in Afghanistan. It was a little bit different to Afghanistan but it was still good. Here, nature has many trees but in Afghanistan it is not like that. It has rocks and waterfalls. The volunteers were so kind. When we needed something like a rest, they gave us a rest. They were so kind and helped us."
• Brighton (class 43) - "It was a good hike because we saw animals - koalas and kangaroos. It was wonderful to see them. Some parts of the hike were hard and some parts were easy. When we were climbing up, it was a little hard; when we are going down it was easy. It's your choice to go on the hike or not, but you can see animals and beautiful things on the hike like waterfalls. I remember there was a cave; we saw it from a bridge. I wanted to go and see what's in there."

Botanic Gardens

On the 4^th April, our class went on an excursion to the Botanical Gardens and Chinatown. We met at school to catch a bus to the city.

First, we gathered in the classroom. Some students went to the toilet, as it was a long trip to the Botanical Gardens. Our teacher gave us Metrocards to use during the excursion. We crossed the road to catch the bus into the city and waited about 20 minutes for it to arrive. Once we got off the bus, we walked towards the Botanical Gardens through the University of Adelaide.

At the Botanical Gardens, we took pictures of flowers and glass sculptures. I ate my lunch during recess. After resting for about 15 minutes, we headed down to Chinatown. We caught a tram back to King William Street, then changed to another tram to get to Queen Elizabeth Square.

When we got off the tram, we crossed the street and walked through the Central Market to reach Chinatown. There, we bought some food.

Finally, we caught bus 252 back to school. We were all tired, and a few students even fell asleep on the bus. Since we arrived back at school early, we played UNO with our teacher. We really enjoyed our day.

Class 35

Behaviour Expectations

This term at SRC, it was identified that behaviour in and around the toilets was a problem. Student Engagement leaders went to SRC meetings to hear about the concerns students had. They then worked together to agree upon a series of behaviour expectations for all students to follow. The draft version was taken back to classes, whole school feedback used to make further changes, and a final version published. This will be displayed at all toilets from the start of term 2 to make it clear to all students what behaviour is expected of them while using the toilets. 

Ms Leila Haq

Banned Items

During the Term 1 2025 Governing Council meeting, a discussion was held around “items which should not be brought to school”. The following items are not illegal but students are now banned from bringing them to school based on either health advice, the potential for damage, and/or the need to manage the school’s organisation and environment.

Mr Dave Mutton (Deputy Principal)

Eid Celebration

The school celebrated Eid on Friday 4^th April.

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