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Teacher Professional Learning =

Student Achievement How do we transfer teachers’ learning of their craft into

what happens in the classroom to engage and challenge

students? How does what happens in the classroom

determine student knowledge, skills and high levels of

achievement? By continuing to focus relentlessly on

extending teacher professional knowledge and

harnessing teachers’ passion to make a difference we

believe The Heights School is adding value to our

students’ educational experiences and improving their

learning. We trust that the regular summaries of the

weekly teacher professional learning program give

parents an insight into what they can expect their

children will be experiencing and what is reflected in

their progress reports. In this newsletter we feature

stories of teachers’ learning in Design & Technology,

Health and Physical Education and the Arts, and the

benefits to their students.

The program for the Student Free day requires both

teachers and SSOs to extend their repertoire of

comprehension and reading practices, to take time to

evaluate our efforts to improve literacy, student

achievement levels and attendance and examine

consistency of assessment within Learning Areas and

year levels.

Next term we hope you will join your children in events

that demonstrate the connection between teacher

professional learning, teaching and student

achievement.

Term 3 begins on Tuesday 26th

July

(Monday is a Student Free day).

Exciting events next term will be Arts Week (join us for

the cabaret), Book Week, Wakakirri, Festival of Music

and the final Pedal Prix races.

We take this opportunity to wish everyone a safe and

enjoyable holiday with their family and friends.

Helen CalvertHelen CalvertHelen CalvertHelen Calvert PrincipalPrincipalPrincipalPrincipal

Brunel Drive

Modbury Heights

South Australia, 5092

Ph: (08) 8263 6244

Fax: (08) 8263 6072

Email: contact@theheights.sa.edu.au

WWW: http://www.theheights.sa.edu.au

NEWSLETTER No. 8

7 July 2011

OUR SCHOOL VALUES

We work hard to learn

We respect ourselves and

each other

We value acts of

generosity

IN THIS ISSUE Student Achievement

Inventor Training

Health & Phys Ed

New Green Screen!

Arts News

Jump Rope for Heart

DIARY DATES

7/7 Book Cup

8/7 Last day of

Term 2 Dismissal

2:00pm

25/7 (First day of

Term 3)

STUDENT FREE DAY

PARENT CLUB MEETING Our next meeting is on Monday

1st August in the Parent Room at

9:00am. We will be finalising

arrangements for the Fathers

Day Staff to be held on Friday

2nd September and Helen

Calvert will talk to us about the

Autism Program that will be

starting at the school in 2012.

New members are always made

to feel very welcome, and

meetings are always fun and full

of interesting information. We

hope to see you there!

Lyn Albury

URGENT NOTICE FOR ALL

CREDIT CARD PAYMENTS THAT

WILL BE SENT TO THE FINANCE

OFFICE.

As of Monday 4th July, all credit

card payment forms must have

a CVV number included (last

three digits on the back

of a credit card).

The number adds an additional

security precaution to your

payment and our bank has now

enforced it with the grace

period coming to an end!

Thank you

The Finance Office

Aboriginal Parent Forum

Tuesday 2nd

of August

Crèche available on the day

Please leave details at the

Front Office if you would like

to attend.

Leonne Hewson

JUMP ROPE FOR HEART DAY

Wednesday of week 9, the Junior School were involved in a Jump Rope for Heart day.

On the day there were children skipping, running, jumping, throwing balls, hula hooping

and lots of other fun activities. There were even some parents and teachers joining in

and being active.

Jump Rope for Heart day gave students the opportunity to show parents their

wonderful skipping skills and how fit and healthy our school is.

I would like to say a big well done to all the students involved and thank you to the

parents who came along to support them.

Thank you to all the students who have raised money for the Heart Foundation. We are

still collecting money so at this stage I cannot report how much the school raised, but

will announce this soon.

Mrs Rothery, Junior School PE teacher

Congratulations to Amanda-Jade Wellington and

Courtney Roberts

who have been selected to represent Secondary School

Sport SA and the South Australian National Football

League at the forthcoming School Sport Australia

Football Championships. These Championships will be

held in Canberra, ACT from July 23rd – 30th 2011.

Amanda-Jade Wellington

Courtney Roberts

Congratulations to

Lukas Lane-Gelmacher who has been

awarded a Defence Technical Scholarship

for 2011. The scholarship is a financial

incentive to eligible Year 11 and 12

students to remain at school and finish

their education whilst undertaking maths

and a trade or related technical subject

suitable for a trade in the Australian

Defence Force. The scholarship consists of

an award of $2000 for Year 11 and $3000

for Year 12. Lukas was successful in

competing with over 2000 students across

Australia, completing an application form,

demonstrating his knowledge of trades

and a detailed description of what he

would do as an ADF tradesperson in a real

life crisis situation. Lukas is currently

enrolled in Stage 2 Maths Studies,

Specialist Maths and the Automotive VET

program.

Congratulations

To the Heights Guitar

ensemble (Jamie Slatter and

Chris Neich Yr12,

Dianne Banks, Dylan Boller,

Jamie Vause, Dion Turner,

Yr 9 and Seamus McIlduff Yr

6/7) as well as Christine Liu

Yr 6/7, Violinist on their

success in being selected to

perform at Festival Theatre as

supporting artists for this years

Primary School Music

Festival. To be selected for

this prestigious event each

student had to undertake an

audition.

Winter Clothing Drive A group of stage 2 Society

and Culture students are

collecting blankets,

jumpers, pants, scarves and

pillows for the Red Cross

during the last week of

term two and the first week

of term three.

Donation boxes can be

found in the Senior School

study area, the Front Office,

the Junior School office or

can be given to the students

of SS24 in the sewing room

from 4th to 8th and 26th to

29th of July. Please give

generously.

Stephanie Attenborough,

Demi Lardner

Lynette Thomson,

Brett McKenzie

Teacher Professional Learning Program

Monday 2.45-3.30pm

Week 9: Home Communications, EDSAS and Daymap attendance data

Week 10: Junior School – Jolly Phonics

Middle and Senior School – Review of ICT access and use

In response to feedback about the length of sessions enabled by the 2.30pm closure on Mondays, the ½ hour

Professional Learning session was extended to 45 minutes. Teachers continue after 3.30 until 4.15 to extend this

professional learning opportunity and from 3.30-4.30 on Wednesday in faculty and cluster learning teams

HEALTH & PHYSICAL EDUCATION

BARISTA TRAINING

The curriculum area of Health and Physical Education which

incorporates Home Economics and Physical Education at The

Heights School, has been engaging in some practical

workshops during Semester 1. These workshops have been

offered as part of our professional development plan held on

Wednesday afternoons.

Two workshops in particular which staff have found beneficial

are an Expresso Coffee Making

Course and Go Go Golf.

The Expresso Making Course was run by the SA Coffee Academy in Gawler Place, Adelaide,

with World Barista Judge 2004-2008, Mr Bria Raslan, as our trainer. All Stage 2 Food &

Hospitality students and Home Economics staff who attended the course received a

Certificate for Expresso Coffee making. Topics taught included the history of coffee,

selecting and grinding coffee, extracting expresso, texturing milk, work areas, service,

presentation, cleaning and maintaining expresso machines. A unit of work based on this

knowledge will now be offered at Stage 2 level. The delivery of coffee preparation and

presentation has become more popular in our society and this is one way we can keep up

to date with the coffee evolution. Student pathways into employment in the Food &

Hospitality Industry, whether part-time or permanent, will benefit with knowledge in this area and students should

use the certificate in their resume.

GO GO GOLF

On Wednesday 25th of May, teachers from The Heights and Valley View High School Physical Education Faculty

attended a Go Go Golf Workshop at The Heights School. The workshop ran from 2pm to 5pm where an instructor

from SA Golf (Mr Allan Telford) presented a very informative and well prepared session on the teaching of golf in our

schools.

Students at The Heights participate in golf as one of our PE Units at Year 10 and will benefit from the workshop with

the increased knowledge teachers have gained. Benefits teachers have found from participation in the workshop

include:

• Increased confidence with basic golf techniques

• All received level ‘A’ coaches certificates

• We were given resources that will help with teaching our classes

• Increased understanding on the technical aspects associated with “key cues”.

We were very fortunate to be able to attend this workshop free of charge under such a skilled instructor.

Chris Blansjaar

Health & PE Coordinator

The City of Tea Tree Gully is holding Holiday Programs

during July 2011.

Programs include Badminton, Racquetball, Magical

Storytime, Dance/Sing/Play, Clay Menagerie etc.

Lots of fun for all the family.

For further information and a full list of activities

please phone 8397 7429

DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY INVENTOR TRAINING

In November 2010 I had the opportunity to attend a 5

day course entitled Inventor 2011 – Introduction to Solid

Modelling.

What is Inventor?

Autodesk Inventor was developed by a U.S.-based

software company called Autodesk and is a 3D

mechanical solid modelling

design software package for creating 3D digital

prototypes used in the design, visualisation and

simulation of products.

As our school uses Autodesk Inventor, we had the

opportunity (along with other industry engineers and

tradespeople) to attend an extensive workshop to

develop skills in using the new Inventor 2011 software

package. This workshop was a great opportunity to

further develop skills so staff and students can get a

better understanding of the potential of this design

software package and future pathways in Design and

Technology.

We have been teaching the Inventor software as part

of the Design and Technology curriculum for

approximately 8 years. One of our main goals was to

promote and develop a Year 12 Computer Aided

Design and Drafting class. The CADD course is now up

and running.

Because of the Year 12 Computer Aided Design and

Drafting class it was important and necessary to up-

skill my knowledge, particularly with the new 2011

Inventor interface (a major upgrade from their

previous versions). The workshop has given me a great

opportunity to further develop my skills and has

allowed me to pass this knowledge on to staff and has

already benefited the students tremendously

The 5 day workshop was very intense and at time

complex. Many of the participants were surprised we

were teaching CADD and using an industry level

software package.

The skills and knowledge gained have given me the

opportunity to develop and extend courses at all

secondary levels. A number of the students in the

current year 12 class have used the software in years

8, (9), 10 and 11 and been part of the Ignite program;

consequently I felt the need to produce a course with

tasks that would challenge and extend all students.

I have also been able to work closely with my faculty

colleagues in helping them incorporate the use of

Inventor into Materials courses such as Woodwork and

Metalwork.

Since completing the course I have found it easier to

help students to solve problems with their designs. I

believe I am becoming more efficient with my

teaching, giving students clear instruction allowing

them to grasp concepts and systems quickly. The

students seem to gain confidence and become more

experimental with the design process when they see I

am able to help them solve problems and bring their

ideas to reality.

The school recently purchased a Computer controlled

milling machine. The faculty has a small machine in the

Electronics room which is used by students to cut

Electronic Circuit boards they have designed. The new

machine is larger and is housed in the CADD room. Our

aim is to have as many students as possible use the

machine to produce a small product they have deigned

and modelled using the Inventor software. By

completing such a task, students will have the

opportunity to familiarise themselves with the CAD-

CAM process; one of the most common engineering

and design processes used in modern product

manufacturing.

TECHNOLOGY CAREER EVENING

Wednesday 10th

August 2011

A career exploration evening for school students (all levels), their parents, teachers and career/VET

counsellors.

Date: Wednesday August 10th

Time: 6:30 to 8:30pm

Location: Ridley Centre, Wayville Showgrounds

Cost: Free, online bookings are essential at www.tia.asn.au Free Parking

Ian Pfitzner, Technology Teacher

New Green Screen at The Heights School During term 1 and 2, a dedicated team of teachers and students from The Heights School undertook a project to

build a Green Screen room. Thank you to the students who helped with cleaning and painting walls (see attached

pictures), I would like to particularly thank Peter Bates for his great contribution of work to the project.

What is a Green Screen? Green screening is a photography and video technique where you take still images or video in front of a green

(Chroma-key) background and then you are able to replace the green background with another image or video. This

is the same technique used in the movies and with weather reporters. Imagine being on an exotic beach far away of

perhaps climbing Mt Everest –but you are not really there, you are actually in front of a Green Screen and the image

of the beach or Mt Everest is being digitally placed on the Green Screen so it appears that you are actually on

location. Just about every movie you watch now has probably used a Green Screen to trick the audience into

believing something that is not really happening.

I am confident that students and teachers will enjoy using this technology as they create their Green Screen movies

or Photoshop masterpieces. It is so much fun to transport your students to another place or time through the magic

of Green Screening. The students are also highly motivated to complete research and prepare for a video project.

You can see some examples of video Green Screening by typing the links below into your Web browser:

Keith Urban- Kiss a Girl Music Video (green screen)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZYYV6LgXdo&feature=related

Keith Urban- Kiss a Girl music video (preview)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhmLYj4datw&feature=related

Below are some examples of Green-Screening photography:

When the Green Screen room is finished, I will be happy to run a workshop on Green Screening to show teachers

how easy and inexpensive it is to use this technique. The workshop will show teachers how to use Adobe

Photoshop and Vegas Movie Studio.

I would also like to say a big thank you to Peter and Jackie from Carpet Choice 1/929 North East Road , Modbury, for

kindly donating their time and materials to lay carpet in our new Green-Screen Room.

At this time Haggle Co at Dernancourt and Ted’s camera in Adelaide have also made an

offer to donate furniture and equipment for the room.

Before and after pictures of Green-Screen Room

Michael Hillier

Design & Technology Coordinator

THE ARTS

“Art and culture are significant for us as they enable us to feel more human, by opening up opportunities to participate, to negotiate, to develop a dialogue about who we are, what we are thinking and what we are feeling, and helping us generally to define our values.”(Andrew Hill Associate Head of the School of Art, Architecture and Design, UniSA Autumn 2011 UniSA Magazine) With this statement as our focus The Arts Faculty has been involved in on-going discussion on the value of sharing their passion for the arts with the school community. As the faculty is made up of Music, Drama, Visual Arts and Multimedia there is a lot in common and sharing of these common traits and disciplines is of great value. So the opportunity for our Professional Learning Community to participate in an arts based activity to further reinforce the notion that art and culture knits us together has been enthusiastically taken on board. So far the faculty has been involved in painting with Watercolours, Website design, and Arts Week promotion

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UNIFORM INFORMATION

The Uniform Shop is fully stocked with all winter uniform requirements, ie jumpers, windcheaters,

jackets and fleecy track pants.

Shop Hours:

Tuesday 8:30-9:30am & 10:40-11:05am

Thursday 2:45 – 3:30pm

You can also download order forms and pay online from our website.

Please keep all your uniform receipts as you need these for exchange or refunds.

Also, after 1st July you may be eligible to claim on your tax return under the Education Tax Refund.

Further details are available from:

http://www.educationtaxrefund.gov.au

Algis Laurinaitis

Arts Coordinator

AARRTTSS NNEEWWSS The Heights will be presenting an Arts Week next term in week 4 across all sub-

schools to showcase the arts. We invite the school community to join us in celebrating

the Arts.

Due to popular demand and after last year’s

overwhelming success of

“SO YOU THINK YOU MIGHT HAVE TALENT”

The SRC again in conjunction with Arts Week will be

hosting the Heights own upgraded version of

‘THE HEIGHTS’ GOT TALENT’ Entry is open to any student in the school. This year it will

run in 3 sections

• The Junior Heights’ Got Talent

(Reception – Year 5)

• The Heights in the Middle got Talent (Year 6– 9)

• The Heights got Talent (year 10-12+)

There two events that are being organised for our parents and friends to share:

Our Annual Arts Showcase to be held on Wed 17th August at 6.30 pm in the Performance Space which features a range of items from Arts Week put on by our students from across the three sub-schools. The other is a Cabaret on Friday 19th August starting at 7.30pm in the Performance Space. The Show is being set up in the style of Night Club Cabaret featuring an old scholar band and the staff band

Cabaret Return Notice To help with the organisation of bookings, please fill in the information below and return it to your child’s HG teacher or send the information to alaurina@theheights.sa.edu.au Name ______________________________________________ Student’s name________________________________ Home Group______________________ Number of seats.__________ Table request to be seated with_______________________