March 18, 2022 | updates

Term 1: Update 2

Adelaide Botanic High School students engage in learning tasks which are about connecting, creating, communicating, co-ordinating and collaborating.

March 18, 2022

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EMBRACING YOUNG PEOPLE’S CURIOSITY

Update from the Principal

Challenges and Joys!

Leading a large secondary school during these COVID times is one of the most challenging experiences I have encountered and a challenge that will continue for quite some time yet.

It’s important that I share some of the current challenges with you, so that you seek to understand before rushing to conclusions. With the lifting of restrictions, it was clear that the number of infections would rise within our community – and even as I write this the number of cases in South Australia have doubled. The implication at our school is that we have seen infected student and staff numbers increase with approximately 100 students currently absent with COVID or in isolation, and I expect these numbers to increase for a while in line with community numbers. At the same time, we have done incredibly well with our staff and currently we have five staff with COVID or in isolation – but again, we can expect this to rise.

The new Omicron BA.2 variant of the virus is already proving to be far more contagious. Our focus on keeping students and staff safe is still guided by health advice and instruction regarding the wearing of masks, distancing, and cleaning. Your help in encouraging your child to wear a mask will certainly assist with the significant anxiety that staff have, working so closely with young people who now pose a health risk to them.

Covering classes each day and meeting student needs both at school and at home is becoming increasingly challenging and stretching resources, initiative, innovation, and problem solving to limits we have not experienced before. I am sure there have been frustrated conversations in our parent community along the lines of “why don’t they just…?” or “why can’t they do online lessons for students at home?” etc.

Our staff are exhausting themselves finding ways to support students in class and whilst absent. Industrially they are unable to teach a class face-to-face and online but are providing instruction, resources, and support through Daymap, Frog and OneNote above and beyond what is expected. Our student experience continues to be one of the best in the state, but despite this, it is easy to find fault or criticise when the bigger picture or finer details are not understood.

To help support you in getting accurate information, clarification or questions answered, the following email contact is provided: dl.1919.info@schools.sa.edu.au

Amid these challenges there are still many joys to be found and our involvement with WOMAD last weekend was certainly one of them. To have the school used as an integral part of the festival gave our students many unique opportunities and experiences. This review also highlights the role the school played in the festival.

Please enjoy this Update and I encourage you to consider nominating for the 2022 School Governing Council via this link: ABHS Governing Council: Self-nomination Form

Alistair on behalf of our whole team

Professional Development Update

The Student Free Day, held last Friday, was very timely in bringing our staff together for the first time face-to-face in six weeks. The feedback was that staff considered the day to be highly valuable, especially for the 35 new ABHS staff.

In the early sessions, teachers and SSOs were grouped in their professional learning teams to reflect on what it means to commit to culture at Adelaide Botanic High School and everyone’s individual responsibility to create the best experience for students.

In their Learning Area teams, teachers considered goals and actions for literacy and numeracy improvement in their specific disciplines. In the afternoon, smaller teaching teams met to review data on individual students within their cohorts and plan effective team teaching pedagogies to personalise learning for students.

Donna Mason
Assistant Principal – Innovation in Teaching and Learning, People Development and Culture

Upcoming Dates - Term 1

Monday 21 March WEEK 8 Sports Day	Thursday 14 April WEEK 11 Last day of Term 1 (normal dismissal time)
Friday 25 March WEEK 8 Year 12 Formal	Friday 15 April WEEK 11 Good Friday Public Holiday
Tuesday 29 March WEEK 9 Open Night

Materials & Services Fees

2022 Materials & Services (M&S) fees are due Thursday 14 April.

The M&S fees are $880 per student and can be paid via Qkr!, Bpoint, or over the phone with a credit card.

If you are unable to pay the M&S fees in full by Thursday 14 April please contact the Finance Office at dl.1919.finance@schools.sa.edu.au to arrange a payment plan.

All payment plans need to be in place before the end of Term 1.

2022 School Card applications are now open. For income limits and online applications visit the website.

Did you know that ABHS provides continuous feedback, assessment and reporting?

Continuous feedback is critical to the learning improvement process. It supports students, parents and teachers to work in partnership to progress a student’s learning.

The focus at ABHS for providing feedback is to be kind, specific and helpful, thus creating opportunities for student reflection and growth.

At Adelaide Botanic High School assessment and reporting is:

Personalised to be able to meet the needs of every child
Focused on feedback for growth and is kind, specific and helpful
Continuous so a student knows their progress against the standard and capabilities at any moment in time.

Where can parents find this feedback?

Teachers regularly record evidence of student achievement and provide information regarding what students have learnt, what they need to learn next, and how the teacher, student and parent can support these next steps to happen. This feedback is published in Daymap as soon as marking is complete.

Students are supported to action this feedback to improve their learning and become self-directed learners.

Parents are encouraged to regularly view achievement grades and continuous feedback on learning and be active participants in their child’s learning journey.

Formal semester reports

At ABHS end of semester reports are published on the Daymap Reports tab at the end of Terms 2 and 4 as per the Department for Education’s reporting expectations.

Note: Stage 1 students will have their Semester 1 reports published at the start of Term 3 to provide additional time for teachers to finalise SACE grades after the exam and final assessment period.

Additional check in points for teachers and families

In additional to the two formal reporting periods per year, there are two opportunities for Learning Pathway Conversations where students lead a conversation between the Connect Teacher and their parent(s).

This occurs early in Term 2 with a focus on their progress to date, their goals for the rest of the year, and their career action plan.

In Term 3, the focus is on reflecting on their goals, their career action plan, their goals and subject selection for the following year. Read on in the next section which provides more information about the upcoming Learning Pathway Conferences for this year.

Accessing your child’s continuous assessment and progress in Daymap

To access your child’s grades and feedback, click on your child’s photo in the parent portal, then navigate to the Assessment Tab. Here you are able to view a graph that indicates your child’s growth in GPA (Grade Point Average) over their time at ABHS.

You will also find a summary of all published Summative Assessment tasks with grades. The task itself is a hyperlink through to the teacher’s written feedback and assessment rubric indicating which sections of the task your child showed evidence at which grade band.

Note: This graph is not visible for Year 7 and 8 students until the end of Term 1.

To watch a video about the ABHS approach to assessment please click here.

If you require support to log onto Daymap, please contact dl.1919.ictadmin@schools.sa.edu.au

Kirsty Gebert
Assistant Principal – Innovation in Teaching and Learning, Education Systems and Inclusive Education

Learning Pathway Conferences

Learning Pathway Conferences are set to occur early in Term 2 giving students the opportunity to take the lead in both reflecting on and looking forward on their ABHS journey.

The Learning Pathway Conference (LPC) forms part of the Assessment and Reporting process at ABHS, including students and families in the ongoing assessment and feedback undertaken at the school and published in the Daymap platform.

As part of the LPC, students across Years 7-12 will be creating Career Action Plans to be discussed as part of their conference. Career Action Plans are a living document that assist students to connect their learning (in and out of the classroom) with their own selves and opportunities beyond. Career Action Plans and LPCs are individual to each year level, evolving to guide appropriate reflection and action as they progress. The opportunity to tie in these Career Development Competencies and Learning Pathway Conferences across all year levels will support students in connecting the ABHS DNA of excellence with their own identity.

Please keep an eye out for further communications regarding Learning Pathway Conferences, Career Action Plans and booking your timeslot.

Ben Dening
Senior Leader, Futures Ready Student Pathways

Spoken Word Performance

Two courageous Year 12 English Literary Studies students, Isabella and Alyssa, conducted powerful, yet emotive spoken-word performances to their fellow Year 11 Pre-Literary Studies students. A spoken-word performance uses the human voice to act as a tool for emotional communication.

As part of the Stage 2 subject, students were required to create an informative piece about the complexities of human nature regarding a particular societal issue. Isabella and Alyssa built upon the knowledge acquired from their prescribed text, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, including themes such as nature versus nurture, and the power of emotion to create an emotive presentation to convey their ideas and persuade their audiences towards a particular viewpoint.

Isabella delivered a highly persuasive TED Talk, ‘Nurturing Nature’, centred around the controversial ‘nature versus nature’ debate, which challenged her audience to reflect on themselves and whether nature or nurture has influenced the people they have become.

Alyssa creatively embedded her own inspirational poem, ‘It’s okay not to be okay’, to encourage others to accept the ubiquitous human experience: emotional pain. Her impressive and touching poem left the audience in appreciative silence as they contemplated her words.

The Stage 1 English Pre-Literary class were not only impressed by the inspirational performances, they were also given a taste for the future should they wish to pursue the Stage 2 subject next year.

Tania Zebian
Global Perspectives Teacher

Online Safety and Public Transport

Online Safety

The Studio One program provides an opportunity for students to engage with the ABHS Wellbeing Framework. In the Week 2 Studio One session, in line with eSafety Week, all year levels participated in a session regarding online safety. Throughout these sessions, students were reminded of their Social Responsibility to act safely and responsibly in the world.

Each year level had a different focus:

Year 7: Respect Online
Year 8: Building your Brand and looking after your Digital Reputation
Year 9: Online identity and Cyberbullying behaviours
Years 10-12: Internet and the Law

Although students engaged actively in these sessions, some students have since taken part in some concerning online activity. This activity has involved students from a range of year levels and schools in large group chats who have been sharing individual account names, harassing other students and displaying inappropriate behaviour.

Unfortunately, Adelaide Botanic cannot control what students are choosing to do online, however, the school continues to support parents in helping students develop the skills to act safely online.

Please continue to have conversations with your child at home regarding their part in safe online behaviour.

Helpful tips can be found online for Young People and Parents.

Public Transport

Part of the onboarding process for new students at ABHS includes discussing how to move around the CBD precinct in a respectful way, including waiting for public transport. The school recently received feedback from members of the public who observed ABHS students on more than one occasion at a bus stop.

On one occasion, observers saw students standing in front of other passengers in the bus queue, preventing a mother with a pram from boarding the bus despite her attempts to get the attention of the students who did not hear her either because they were on their devices or wearing headphones.

The same observers also noticed that while this mother was prevented from boarding the bus due to students blocking the way, the bus itself remained half empty at the back as students crowded the front.

While ABHS supervises and reinforces proper bus etiquette at the bus stops out the front of the building, teaching staff are unable to monitor all students’ engagement with transport services.

Families can support students by reinforcing what responsible public transport use looks like and how others in the community can be supported at the same time.

While waiting at the bus stop and on the bus:

Stand back from the edge of the road and the bus stop itself. This is both a safety measure to stop a student from falling on the road and a way to be considerate of people walking nearby and using the service. It’s often good bus practice to line up in order of people getting on the bus.
Be aware of your surroundings. If you have headphones in, turn them down or off when the bus arrives. Put your phone in your pocket or bag while getting on or off the bus so that you’re aware of the people around you.
Priority seating is for those who need it. Please get up if someone asks you for those seats or offer your seat to someone who needs it.
Use appropriate language. While moving to and from school, you are representing the ABHS community in how you speak and act. Exercise the same kindness and respect that you use on a daily basis towards peers and teachers.

Students play a big role in building a positive brand and perception of ABHS – these actions will go a long way towards achieving this.

Thank you for your support.

Student Achievement and Success Teams, Middle School and Senior School

Inclusion at ABHS

Inclusion the action or state of including or being included within a group or structure: a person that is included within a whole

At ABHS inclusion is not just about being physically in the same place as others. Inclusion also incorporates belonging, and the feeling of belonging to the ABHS community. Ability is enhanced by quality education and inclusion.

Research has shown social connection improves physical health, psychological well-being and decreases rates of anxiety and depression. People who feel included and connected have higher self-esteem and self-worth, which then creates a positive feedback loop of social, emotional, and physical wellbeing.

In Connect Groups over the coming weeks there will be a focus on inclusive language to promote belonging for all.

Language can influence how we see other people

Always using a child’s name before the disability. This shows the child is defined by their name rather than their disability and encourages people to think of the individual first.

Words such as “handicapped”, “retarded” or phrases such as “suffers from” or “afflicted by” have negative connotations and create barriers between individuals.

Stereotyping creates a “them and us” mentality, while emphasis on the uniqueness and individuality of everybody promotes an inclusive environment.

Learning Design Card

At ABHS a “Learning Design Card” has been created to encourage teachers to consider the individual in their teaching and to promote student agency.

The flipside of the card has several questions designed to promote conversation and negotiation between teacher and student. The conversation can be initiated by either the student or the teacher.

Adjustments and strategies can be recorded on the inside of the card. These cards are designed to support all students and are available at Student Services.

Andrea West
Inclusive Education Leader

ABHS at WOMADelaide 2022

WOMADelaide 2022 was a weekend to remember! And Adelaide Botanic High School was well and truly in the centre of this world class event.

Twenty of the school’s senior students volunteered for a range of roles over the weekend including front of house for ‘Silence’ and ‘Taste the World’, technical assistants for Dancenorth, ‘Taste the World’ and ‘Planet Talks’ and food preparation assistants for ‘Taste the World’.

It was a team effort to make this all happen and the support of ABHS staff was truly appreciated. It was also wonderful to see music teacher, Justin Daughtry, performing and conducting in Dancenorth’s production, ‘Noise’.

After several years of COVID-19 restrictions and event cancellations or postponements, it was amazing for WOMADelaide to be given the green light to go ahead, with reduced capacity. Fortunately, dancing restrictions were lifted just in time for the event!

Sherry, who was part of the afternoon food preparation and serving team had this to say about the event:

“I most enjoyed being able to learn new recipes through watching the shows behind the stage. My favourite recipe was the sambal ikan of West Papua by Sorong Samarai because it is similar to Malaysian cuisine and reminds me of home.”

Explore the ‘Taste the World‘ recipes here.

Bronte Nicholls
Assistant Principal – Curriculum Innovation and Community Partnerships

Photo #3: Technical assistants, Jet and Zaid, together with ‘Taste the World’ food preparation and serving assistants, Nadia and Mikayla, and Olivia on the front of house team.

Futures Ready

Work Experience

Work experience, like the recent WOMADelaide opportunity, is a chance for young people to network with industry while applying and developing skills. Work experience for school students is undertaken under a Workplace Learning Agreement with all stakeholders (students, workplace supervisor, families) playing a role in the arrangements with a particular eye on a safe experience. All students undertake the WorkPro WHS preparation course prior to placements and in some cases further induction courses or higher certification, such as a White Card (often required for construction trades), may be needed.

Work experience is available to students aged 15 years or older and is commonly accessed from Year 10 onwards. There is no dedicated work experience week at ABHS with students able to arrange workplace learning opportunities at any stage that will benefit them and align around their classroom commitments. This could see students undertake a 2-3 placement only, or a holiday program. These can all be accommodated under Workplace Learning Agreements.

Students interested in taking up work experience opportunities can find information at ABHScareers.com with a preferred lead-in window of at least two weeks to support risk assessment processes. Work experience opportunities for students can be viewed at studentpathways.sa.edu.au and formal work experience programs such as those with the ADF are regularly promoted via the school.

Introduction to the Personal Learning Plan (PLP)

The Personal Learning Plan (PLP) is undertaken at the beginning of the SACE with all Year 10 students undertaking the program across the year during blocks in the Studio One schedule. It is a compulsory part of the South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE), with a passing grade required to achieve overall SACE completion.

The goal of the PLP is to build skills in career development through understanding goal setting, skill identification, pathway planning and self-reflective thinking.

To build a foundation for the year, Year 10 Students are currently undertaking the Career Compass Program in partnership with UniSA. To begin the program, students are undertaking a profiling assessment called MyCareerMatch. Based on their responses, MyCareerMatch aligns students with personality styles (Driver, Promoter, Supporter, Analyser) and via the connected workbook, provides guidance to understand how these can be used to understand strengths, areas for growth and suggested pathway options. From there students will apply their increased awareness of their own learning style and potential to undertake their first PLP task relating to SMART goals.

Wishing all Year 10 students a great start to the year and in their PLP activities.

Career Development and Pathways Vineline

This is an exciting year for career development at ABHS with all students engaging in level and age appropriate career development activities and experiences across Years 7-12. Career development competencies are mapped and developed in each of the school’s curriculum areas as well as forming an important “vine line” in the expanded Connect programs this year.

The goal of career development is to build ‘informed decision making’ skills for when transition decisions need to be made. They assist in the process of reflection so that students can understand themselves better, their future opportunities and how to maintain a lifelong (and likely changing) career. Developing these skills starts at a young age by building self-awareness.

Career development isn’t just about picking what we want to do in the future and locking it in as soon as possible. It is important to view any programs and profiling as a conversation starter, “we don’t know what we don’t know”. Profiling tools like MyCareerMatch, undertaken in Year 10, or reflection and planning tools like the Career Action Plans, to be completed by all students in 2022, can assist in different ways. They can help to make things visible either within or beyond what we are aware of and they can draw attention to results that are very close to others.

Across your child’s journey at ABHS they will have opportunities to continue engaging in career development skill-building through the curriculum, Studios, and Connect programs, as well as professional counselling support where needed.

A useful resource that all ABHS students will be using throughout 2022 is abhscareers.com which families often find to be a great independent resource.

Ben Dening
Senior Leader, Futures Ready Student Pathways

Reminder: Year 12 Study and Revision Guides

A reminder that SASTA Stage 2 Study and Revision Guides need to be pre-ordered from ABHS and will be due for delivery in June 2022. These guides are a complete resource for students preparing for Stage 2 SACE exams. Guide content information can be accessed here.

Mathematics Association of South Australia (MASA) e-Books are pre-ordered from ABHS and comprise a 12 month subscription which will be added to the student’s ABHS Digital Platform when available early in Term 2. Guide content information can be accessed here.

Price: $27.25 each for book or e-Book (GST exempt)

Pre-orders are now available on the Qkr! app. Order closing date Friday, 25 March 2022.

If you have any questions regarding the Study Guides please contact Theo Papazoglov via theo.papazoglov941@schools.sa.edu.au

From the Stacks

Library Lovers’ Day Competition

Congratulations to the winners of the Library Lovers’ Day colouring-in competition! Seven talented students have been notified via email to order a book from the library as their prize.

Students were asked to explain why they love reading or libraries. Here is small collection of their responses:

“Reading allows me to step into the author’s shoes and walk in them my way, in my personal interpretation and experience.”
“Reading calms me down and takes me into a whole different world. I love the smell of books and walking into the library and seeing all the different genres.”
“I love reading because you can be free to imagine anything and everything!”
“Librarians help me find books and I love reading books with others.”

New Database Subscription: Gale Virtual Reference Library

Another exciting addition to the school’s library research resources is the Gale Virtual Reference Library, which gives students access to a selection of databases from Gale. These databases include a huge repository of academic journals, peer-reviewed articles, magazines, newspapers (Australian and international), biographies and more!

The reference library is available to access via the ABHS Library Frog page.

Books by Numbers: Term 1 so far

Lana DiStefano
Library Coordinator

Triathlon Championships 2022

On Wednesday 2 March, seven ABHS students attended the Triathlon State Championships at West Lakes, the first interschool event for 2022. The students competed in three different events: State, Come and Try, or Teams.

Each of the students represented the school with great gusto and showed the rest of the competition that AHBS never gives up. Hudson competed in the State 15-16 and came 4th.

Evie, Eugene and Felix competed in the Come and Try event, all doing well for their first triathlon, finishing 5th, 7th and 21st respectively. The day was rounded off with Ruby, Maddie and Gisele competing in the Teams event and finishing on the podium in 3rd position.

Special mentions to Hudson, who had the second fastest run in his category, and Maddie, who had the fastest time in the cycle leg for the 15-16 girls.

Well done to everybody who attended!

Sam Ball
Lifestyle Choices Manager

Bombay Bicycle Club is hiring!

The Bombay Bicycle Club will be recruiting 2022 junior staff at 29 Torrens Road, Ovingham.

They have several positions to fill, none of which require any previous experience. No service of alcohol will be required and the potential exists for advancement in the future once recruits turn 18 years of age.

If you are aged 16 – 17, interested in hospitality and you have a strong work ethic, this may be a job for you!

Download Position Description