The Twilight Show

Last week was the inaugural ���ϳԹ��� School Twilight Show, a truly wonderful evening celebrating all aspects of the arts at HCS.

Huge congratulations to our phenomenal performers who poured their hearts and souls into every moment, captivating the audience and leaving us all wanting more! Your dedication, passion, and sheer talent shone brightly and we couldn’t be prouder!

A round of applause to our amazing staff who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make this event a resounding success! Your hard work and dedication truly paid off, creating an unforgettable experience for everyone involved!

To our supportive community and enthusiastic audience, thank you for joining us in celebrating the arts and cheering on our talented students!

As we reflect on this incredible evening, let’s continue to celebrate the power of creativity, expression, and talent within our school community!

Class of 2024 Formal

What a night to remember! Our Year 12 Formal was an absolute triumph, filled with glitz, glamour, and unforgettable memories! From stunning outfits to infectious laughter and heartfelt moments, it was a celebration of friendship, achievement, and the journey we’ve all shared together!

Huge congratulations to our incredible Year 12 students who shone brightly on the dance floor, radiating elegance and charm throughout the evening! Your smiles, laughter, and camaraderie made the night truly magical, and we couldn’t be prouder of each and every one of you!

Massive thanks to our dedicated organisers, teachers, and staff who worked tirelessly to create an enchanting atmosphere and ensure every detail was perfect!

International Program

From surfing to koalas.

Over the past few weeks our International students have traded Chromebooks for surfboards, chefs utensils and snorkelling gear. The excitement continues this week when tents get pitched and the BBQ fires up at Port Elliott where the students again get to hit the waves at Middleton. Next week, it’s Yankalilla Area School’s turn with an opportunity to make new friendships and share cultural stories.

Not to be forgotten, the South Korean study tour has come and gone with language exchanges, city escapades, and koala cuddles! Along with ESL lessons with Aussie mates, Hahndorf village explorations, and that unforgettable kangaroo patting. A big thank-you to our incredible homestay families, teachers and student buddies for supporting these adventures!

Sporting News

Cricket

A group of Year 8, 9 and 10 girls entered the School Sports SA Super 8’s Cricket Day Carnival for the first time in a number of years.��

With some tight bowling, big hitting and outstanding fieldingthe girls came home triumphant as overall winners of the day and bringing home the shield.

The most impressive part was how the girls worked together being respectful and inclusive, making sure everyone felt part of the team. Super Effort! Well done girls!

Volleyball

HCS recently took 7 teams from the Volleyball Program to participate in the Southern Schools Beach Volleyball tournament�� down in Victor Harbour. It was a perfect day with the still conditions making it ideal for good volleyball.��

A huge congratulations to our Year 10 Girls who went undefeated through the day and claimed the gold medal and to our Year 9 and 10 Boys who finished in 4th and 3rd.��

All the students behaviour was exemplary and plenty of fun was had by all!��

NAPLAN

Our students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are busy completing the final NAPLANtests for 2024.

Please remember that these tests are only an indication of progress at a point in time, can are not a reflection of a student’s overall ability or learning.

Results will be distributed to families once they become available, usually around August each year.

2024 Holiday Raffle

It’s time for our Holiday Raffle again!

Tickets are available to purchase via the Qkr! app at $3 each or 4 for $10.

Family members not directly part of our community are still able to purchase through the Qkr! app, by creating a guest account. They must select ���ϳԹ��� School once signed into the app and when adding a profile, select ‘Guest’ for ‘Year’ and ‘Room’.

All money raised will be used to fund education improvement projects at the school.

Parents and Friends

​���ϳԹ��� School values the contribution of our community and we encourage any of our parents and friend to consider joining the Parents and Friends Group (P&F) in 2024.

The P&F support key functions in the school. In 2023, our P&F have held a Sports Day stall, Harmony Day stall, Quiz Night and parents are assisting in managing our Street Libraries (outside the Vegetable Garden and Early Years Centre) and organising our inaugural Quiz Night.

Please email info@hcs.sa.edu.au if you are interested in joining P&F and the school will put you in contact with our P&F representative and our Volunteer Coordinator.​

Kiss and Drop Areas

When dropping off/picking up your child(ren), please remember that the middle lane (Gledsdale Road Kiss and Drop) and right lane (Sanderson Road Kiss and Drop) should not be used as a waiting/parking lane.

Local councils are often out and about at schools ensuring the community use these spaces safely.

��SchoolTV

���ϳԹ��� School is pleased to provide SchoolTV to our community. SchoolTV is an all-in-one resource for the community aimed to offer parents a fresh approach to the concerns and pressures faced by Australian children.

SchoolTV is a unique online resource delivering powerful and credible information to empower parents with the skills to address these concerns and raise happy, well and resilient children.

You can access the bank of SchoolTV resources via our website

​Feedback and Suggestions

As always, should you have any feedback or suggestions on how we can continue to further the quality of experience we offer our community, I welcome your contact via email, phone or in person.

Yours Sincerely,

Tony Hall
Principal

A little bit more…

In the Community

Only one more week to go until the end of the year and we are busy busy busy getting ready to celebrate in style next week at our Cove Spectacular!

That doesn’t mean to say we’ve had a quiet on this week!

Our Volleyball Program jetted off to the Gold Coast this week to compete in the Australian Volleyball School Cup. There were over 6000 students competing this year from across the country in the six day tournament and our teams played magnificently!

Team update as of Friday:

��Year 9 Girls: Great wins so far and have progressed through to the Championship rounds. Aiming for medal playoffs!

��Year 10 Girls: 4 wins and 2 losses so far but very close losses. Won a nail biter against Kelvin Grove on the siren yesterday and progressed to the medal qualifying this afternoon – hopefully and update soon!

��Year 7 Boys: Had their first team win yesterday against Reynella East and will be aiming to get plenty more in the days ahead. All boys are improving heaps and there’s plenty of team bonding.

��Year 8 Boys: Currently 4th in their pool and got their first win yesterday against Cannon Hill. Heads are up and they’re staying positive

��Year 9 Boys: 3 good wins so far and improving everyday. They just missed out on the Championship pool but played superbly in a massive game against Paralowie with quality net play.

��Year 10 Boys: These boys are in a huge competition, 24 teams all up with plenty of close matches and big hitting. They played a tight match last night but qualified for the Championship round!

��All teams have done their absolute best and represented the school fantastically. We’re still waiting on final updated but we know all the support and cheering from the side lines has powered the teams to win the tight matches and bring home some great wins.

Our international students have been out and about in Adelaide this week to get in some last minute cultural and shopping experiences before departing for their home countries at the end of the year.

��On Wednesday they were in and around the city having a tour of the Haigh’s Factory, enjoying the Himeji Garden on South Terrace and watching glass blowing at the Jam Factory.

��Wednesday and Thursday were spent at the beach for their final surfing lessons and Friday was spent in Hahndorf soaking up the Christmas spirit!

Our Year 8’s headed down to the beach this week to explore a local geological site for their Geology component.

��How lucky to be able to walk to such a fascinating and beautiful location from school!

��The students also got to enjoy recess on the foreshore with cheeky snack from the Boatshed Café.

With the end of the year so close we can practically smell it it’s been another busy week at ���ϳԹ��� School!

On Tuesday we celebrated our students in our whole school Presentation Night. We were treated to musical performances from our vocal ensemble and Year 8 vocalists: Mia Cawte, Heidi Noble, Caitlin Summerfield and Carl Schiller, along with a stunning dance performance from Year 8 student Miller Hesterman

It was a night filled with talent, passion, inspiration and excellence! We are always amazed by the outstanding achievements of our students and Tuesday was the perfect opportunity to honour their hard work throughout 2023.

A Mo at the Cove Final Team Update:
What a Movember it has been!

Our Mo at the Cove Team has done incredibly well this year in raising money for men’s health! A huge shout out to everyone who has donated and supported our team in any way, they could not have done it without you!

On Wednesday we had one last push to raise a little extra money for the cause and to celebrate the incredible efforts of the team with a sausage sizzle. All year levels could come and grab a snag, enjoy the musical stylings of Retilex and Mr Sellar and congratulate the team on their valiant efforts.

Some of our team chose to grow the facial fuzz to show their support, while others chose to move for the cause. Whatever they did was an amazing effort in bringing attention to men’s health at ���ϳԹ��� School.

Collectively our team travelled 893km or their 600km goal and raised a whopping $5775, crushing their $3000 target and ranking them in the top 20 schools across Australia in the Movember Schools Challenge. Our very own Daniel Bryant ranked 12^th in the Schools Challenge as a top individual fundraiser!

A huge well done to our Mo at The Cove Team and another massive thank you to everyone who supported them!

Thursday was our Year 8 Choreographic Awards. The evening showcased the outstanding talents of our dance students with various awards given for solo and group performances.

Ms Hayley Simmons, dance teacher at Pivotal Dance, was very kindly our adjudicator and was delighted at the potential of our Year 8 performers with their technical skills. ��

Well Done to Miller, Sienna and Aimee our solo trophy winners and to the many students winning medals for their group work. The evening was supported by our Year 9 Dance students with their group choreography and stage management. Well done dancers!

Also on Thursday we hosted a morning tea for Rev. David Chalmers and a small group of volunteers from the ���ϳԹ��� Baptist Church to say thank you for their contributions to the weekly Breakfast Club at ���ϳԹ��� School and the community through various charitable initiatives.

Stu Kenny from our Wellbeing Team had this to say:
“Personally, I would like to extend my sincerest gratitude and appreciation of David, Jack and Rod for their time and energy and he financial contribution form the Baptist Church to enable the success of ���ϳԹ��� School’s Breakfast Club. I know the staff and the students enjoy the atmosphere each Thursday morning and benefit greatly from your contribution.

Another special thank you to must be given to Mr Lancaster, Mr Molloy and their Year 8 Food and Hospitality classes who did an outstanding job in their catering role – the variety of foods served not only looked impressive but tasted delicious!

May this initiative and relationship continue well into the future!”

We love a morning tea at HCS so this week we also hosted Noarlunga Education Director Heather Makris and her team with a morning tea to celebrate the success of this year’s Photography trip lead by Mr Keane.

A few weeks ago we delivered some of our students past work to Ms Makris’ office to brighten up her space and she was excited to see the results of this year’s trip.

Mr Sellar put together an amazing video of the trip and Ms Makris and her team were able to hear the stories behind the amazing shots of the beautiful Flinders Ranges from the students who took them.

Ms Makris and her team were blown away with the talent of our HCS students and admitted she couldn’t wait to get her hands on a few of this year’s prints!

Thanks you to Ms Makris and her team for supporting our student’s creativity and for Mr Keane for all your support and guidance.

We must also say a huge thank you to C3 O’Halloran Hill this week for their very generous donation of 20 shopping bags full of food for our community!

This will all be added to our Christmas hampers that make such a difference at what can be a difficult time of year for many.

If you know of anyone wanting to support their local community this Christmas we are always looking for donations this time of year for not only food supplies but toiletries and other essential items to make life a little easier for others.

The end of the year is in sight! Only 3 more weeks to go before the end of the 2023 school year and we’re starting to get excited!

On Monday our Year 12’s made it official and graduated from ���ϳԹ��� School! There were tears of sadness and joy but it was mainly just an absolute delight to celebrate these wonderful students and all of their hard work, not only in the last year, but everything that has brought them to this point.

We wish them all the luck in the world in getting their results back in a few months and hope that they have everything they need to take them wherever they wish to go!

Also at the start of the week, Mr Cherrington’s and Ms Woodrow’s Year 2 classes spent a super exciting day and night at Adelaide Zoo.

As well as spending the daytime touring the zoo, they were privileged to have a night tour and then an early morning tour. They were lucky enough to hear and see so many things that the general public don’t get to experience.

A highlight was hearing the Siamang Gibbons loudly shouting out their territorial claims to the white cheeked gibbons. If you didn’t know you were at a zoo, you would have thought you were standing in Jurassic Park! Lots of tired but happy students got home having had an amazing experience.

Our International Students headed back to the water yesterday for their Term 4 surfing lessons at Moana Beach.

It was unfortunate that they just happened to cop the worst weather we’ve had in weeks on their first day back, but they didn’t let that stop them! The weather actually provided some good ‘training waves’ for the group and it won’t be long before they’re ready to take on the big boys!

On Thursday Night we welcomed our incoming Year 7 families for an information evening with everything you need to know about joining ���ϳԹ��� School. It was a great opportunity for families to meet our Principal and the leaders who will be important parts of the student’s life at school.

It was lovely to meet everyone and we are excited to welcome them into the HCS community in 2024.

We’re officially over halfway through the term now and we can’t quite believe how fast it’s going!

It’s been a relatively quiet week (in some cases quite literally as our Year 12’s finish their final exams!) as we start to get ready for the end of the year, but we can promise you, big things are coming!

We started the week by hosting an inspiring evening with the Southern Districts Photography Club as they brought their expertise to critique the incredible work of our talented Year 11 and 12 photography students.

From capturing the simplest moments to telling stories through the lens, our budding photographers showcased the skills they have learnt over the last year and the passion they have for the craft.

It was also the perfect opportunity to immerse ourselves and our guests in the beauty of the Flinders Ranges with an exhibition of photos and a captivating video journey from our recent trip to the country. It was a true pleasure to see the ranges captured so beautifully by our students.

Thank you to everyone who made the night a fantastic celebration of creativity and visual story telling. Head on over to our socials to watch a quick video of the evening.

Mr Longstaff and Mr Forkert’s Year 9 History classes tried to replicate trench warfare this week to try to better understand what the soldiers went through in World War One.

They took turns at running the trench of 117m, trying not to get spotted, or ‘shot’, by the spotters hiding in the trenches.

Overall it was an eye opening and engaging learning experience.

Also this week, our Year 10’s and 11’s headed down to Flinders Medical Centre to participate in the P.A.R.T.Y Program. The Prevent Alcohol and Risk-related Trauma in Youth Program is a full day, in-hospital interactive and empowering trauma prevention program for young people.

Our students spent the day at FMC talking to a range of health professionals about the impact of major trauma and travelled through the devastating path of a trauma patient. Our students got a better understanding of the outcomes of risky decisions and were urged to make good choices to keep themselves and their friends safe.

It was a hands on experience that hopefully they will remember for a long time and be able to recall in moments of need in the future.

A Mo’ at the Cove Team Update:

We’re now just over hallway through the month and we have raised just over $1800 of our $3000 goal.

A huge shout out to all of the team who have got their families and friends to get on board to help men’s health!

Did you know that you don’t have to grow a mo’ to support men’s health? A group of students and staff have chosen to move to raise money for Movember, with the team sitting at 238kms so far! How good to see staff and students working together for such a good cause? Here’s the stats so far:

Jacob, Year 9 – Cycled 92kms
Mr Beaglehole – Cycled 86kms
Madec, Year 9 – Cycled 31kms
Luke, Year 10 – Cycled 25kms
Cameron, Year 12 – Ran 11kms
Lucas, Year 12 ran 3kms
Mr Pillay – Ran 2kms

Amazing work team! If you are in a position to donate, check out our team page . Here you can see all the members of our team and even also join in if you want to get involved.

Every donation counts and will go towards supporting men’s health. Not sure what it’s all about check out the website to find out more.

A reminder that we are also selling donuts in our canteen to raise a few extra pennies for the cause on Thursday 23 November (Next week!).

Donuts will be $4.50 with $1 from each donut going towards the ���ϳԹ��� School Mo Team total.

To ensure you don’t miss out, you can pre-order donuts through the Qkr! App before 9am, Tuesday 21 November. Only a limited number of donuts will be available to purchase on the day!

Next week we have plenty on again with our Year 12 Graduation on Monday, a few trips to the Zoo for our Junior School Students and the 2024 Year 7 Information evening.

We also would like to take this opportunity to let you know that this year we will be producing a Year Book to celebrate another great year at HCS! More information will be coming out soon and pre-orders will be available on the Qkr! App before the end of term.

Welcome to the end of Week 4!

This week, ironically, we start with something from last week when our Year 4 classes headed down to Narnu Farm on Hindmarsh Island for a 3 day camp full of animals, mud and mess!

Feeding the animals was a crowd favourite and Mr Martin’s karaoke never disappoints. The students also got to have a go at making their own go carts, damper and mud bricks.

A huge thank you to Ms Brand and Ms Lee for organising the trip and the fabulous SSO’s and parent helpers for making it possible.

Earlier this year Ms Bau’s Year 6 class joined the Australia Post School Pen Pal Club. Throughout the year they have been writing with a Year 6 class from Birmingham Primary School in Victoria and this week they received more letters.

They have been sharing about their hobbies and life at ���ϳԹ��� School and the letters back are always highly anticipated and always a very exciting event. It’s lovely to see the students connecting with fellow students on the other side of the country but it’s also a great (sneaky) way to get some more writing out of the students!

Staff and students were treated to everyone’s favourite pastime this week…free food!

Our Year 11 students presented an amazing display of plant based finger food at recess on Wednesday and Friday as part of their final group task. Everything looked beautiful and the flavours were so creative. There was sushi and dumplings, bruschetta, mini Mexican bowls and the all-around crowd pleaser, mini spinach cob loaves (I will be stealing this recipe for our Christmas table this year!). Sweet treats also included a mini Chilean lemon pie and fresh raspberry tarts – Yum!

In preparation for Remembrance Day on Saturday 11 November, some of our High School students led some of our Junior School classes in activities to honour the brave people in their lives.

They were given poppies to write on the name of someone they know who has served in the military or someone they think is extremely brave. The poppies were then used to create a sign on our front gates to show the support of ���ϳԹ��� School on Remembrance Day.

The students then had the chance to create their very own medal of bravery for their chosen person, adding their name and why they think they are brave enough to receive a medal.

Remembrance Day is an opportunity to remember the men, women and animals who have fought for their country over the years and honour them for delivering the future we are able to enjoy today.

Lest we forget.

We’d also like to say a big well done to our Year 12 students for surviving their first week of exams! Only one more week to go before freedom! You can do it!

In final news this week ���ϳԹ��� School is saying goodbye to a person who is not always thought of when you think ‘school staff’ but who is maybe solely responsible for keeping the place running. This week we say good bye to our Business Leader of 8 years, Wendy Harrison. She has been the driving force behind all of the upgrades, renovations and building projects across the school grounds over the last 8 years and has built us a school we can be proud of. Thank you for all your early mornings and late nights Wendy, we will miss you.

We welcome Lorren Atwell as our new Business Leader and look forward to what she brings to the table.

Another week full of excitement at HCS this week as we welcomed a new group of students from Japan for a two week study tour.

The 12 students and 2 staff are from Ushiku High School and it’s the second time we have hosted visitors from this school. They are here for 2 weeks and will experience Australian culture, animals, sports and cooking as well as English as a Second Language lessons.

Already in their first few days, the group, along with some of our long stay international students, have visited Yankalilla Area School to go to classrooms and share their culture and home country history.

The students then had the opportunity to hold Ms Braithwaite’s Joeys and they learnt all about how to raise them and the continued care required even when they are fully grown as re-release is not an option in South Australia.

Students toured the Yankalilla Area School farm including the edible kitchen garden and saw the yabbies. This was all topped off with a classic Aussie BBQ and desserts from the local bakery.��

On Wednesday a group of our younger High School students graduated from the Raise Foundation Mentoring Program.

The Raise Program helps our young people better cope with life’s challenges through one-to-one mentoring and the skills that they develop can be useful throughout the rest of high school and beyond.

For the last two terms ���ϳԹ��� School students have been working with their mentor once a week to build trusted relationships and work on a range of topics that re important to them.

At the graduation ceremony, the mentor and mentees shared wonderful words about their time together and each aid they had learnt invaluable lessons from each other. It was wonderful to see our students engaging with the program and lovely to see that all of the mentors thoroughly enjoyed their time with their HCS student.

This week some of our Year 10/11 students ventured over to the Yorke Peninsula for 3 days of camping and aquatics for their Outdoor Education and Environmental Studies.

Students got a chance to try their hands at kayaking, knee-boarding, surfing, sailing and hiking! Phew!

Despite the massive surf on Day 2, early morning starts and relentless windy conditions, Ms Fletcher and Mr Heywood were extremely impressed with��the resilience, teamwork, leadership and camaraderie exhibited throughout the week.��

Our Junior School has been busy this week helping out the Myer centre prepare for Christmas.

This year the Myer Centre has teamed up with local schools and The Men’s Shed Parafield to produce this year’s Christmas Tree Trail.

Two wooden Christmas trees were delivered to HCS and for the last week our Junior School classes have been taking it in turns to decorate them with Christmas doodles.

The trees will go on display in the Myer Centre from Saturday 4 November for shoppers to take an enchanting journey through the forest of magnificent colourful Christmas trees.

If you happen to be out shopping during the Christmas season, make sure you check out the wonderful work of our students. You can even vote for your favourite tree and go into the draw to win a toy pack valued at over $200. The school with the most votes will also win a game and book pack valued at over $300!

We’ve all heard about Movember, it’s a great time for all of us to get around men’s health and try to promote some healthy conversations.
Some cold hard truths about why we focus on men’s health specifically through Movember;����

• On average men die about four and a half years earlier than women, for largely preventable reasons.��������
• Approximately 10.8M men globally are facing life with a prostate cancer diagnosis.������
• Testicular cancer is the most common form of cancer in men aged 15-39.������
• Across the world, one man dies by suicide every minute of every day, with men accounting for 69% of all suicides.����

There is good news though, we can all do something about this, and you don’t even have to cultivate a ‘stache to help! Mo Bro’s, Mo Sister’s and Mo Everyone can get around this great cause, check out����and click on the ‘support us’ section for ideas. You can ‘move for mental health’, host a ‘mo-ment’ or ‘mo your own way’.

Last year the ‘���ϳԹ���r Mo’s’ raised and amazing $5840. This was a collective effort from both staff, students and families, and the comradery is something that the students love to experience.����

If this has struck a chord with you, and you would like to help us raise funds for Movember please create an����and join our��.����

If you are too attached to your facial fuzz to shave and start again, or if you’re mo-growingly challenged, you can simply donate to the team via the QR code. Any donations for this worthy cause are welcome!��

With the end of the year in sight, our elves are busy putting together this year’s Cove Spectacular. Make sure you put it in your diary because it’s going to be even bigger than last year!

Well it’s certainly been an eventful and emotional week at HCS! What’s new I suppose?!

After 13 years, our Year 12’s have spent their last week at school. For many it probably seemed like this day would never come and for others, it seemed like it came around all too quickly. They wanted to go out with a bang so they spent their final days, blowing off some steam, trying to relax and create as many memories as possible.

It started on Monday with a ‘friendly’ game of dodgeball. After a boys vs girls match, a Howchin and Cooper vs Sandison and Tate and a ‘goodies’ vs ‘baddies’ (those whoever got a detention from Mr Wall in Year 8), everyone looked sufficiently de-stressed.

On Tuesday they shared nibbles at lunch time. It was an opportunity to sit down and have a quiet moment with friends to reminisce on the memories they have made at HCS.

Wednesday, as we all know was a little stressful for everyone but we hope it was a good opportunity to get some extra cramming in for our Year 12’s…or extra time to prepare their costumes ready for the rescheduled dress up day!

The theme this year was ‘Aussie Icons’ and what icons we had! We had everyone from The Wiggles and Dorothy the Dinosaur to Steve Irwin and Bluey, even Vegemite made an appearance!

Friday came and it was time to say goodbye to school forever. For some, they now face 3 weeks of exams before true freedom and for others it’s a time to think about what the future holds.��

It was an emotional morning for many with a BBQ breakfast, followed by one final group photo and a moving speech from our Year 12 Leaders Marley and Makenzie packed with words of praise for their teachers, words of wisdom for next years seniors and plenty of memories they have shared together over the last 13 years.����

We wish them all the luck and success in the world as they take their first steps into adulthood and the rest of their lives.��

On Thursday in the rest of the High School we had the Arts Fundraiser raising money for our art department. Students could pay a gold coin donation to watch a Broadway performance on the big screen in our PAC during pastoral care and then join us outside at lunch time to have a go on our potter’s wheel and contribute to a legacy art piece. Resident Year 10 band Ritillix wowed the crowds once again with their amazing covers and the Year 12’s donated plenty of baked goods to sell for the event. The winner of our art themed raffle received a $100 Big W gift card, a copy of a HCS student artwork, art supplies and some sneaky lollies.

A huge thank you to our art leader Julie d’Lima, Tom Wall, John Sellar and Raf Godoy for helping put the event together and all the students who volunteered and donated!

In the junior school this week we were visited by Camp Quality for a puppet show! The puppets provided interactive cancer education that helps dispel common misunderstandings about cancer and deliver a shared language to facilitate cancer conversations.

The students and puppets discussed treatments and the side-effects of cancer, how to be supportive of someone facing cancer and the importance of recognising their own strengths and the power of positivity in an age appropriate way.

Our Year 5’s and 6’s were down at the beach today and managed to score the best weather of the week! They spent the day soaking up the spring rays in and around the water and I dare say it will be an early night for all!

In sporting news this week a current student and ex-student have been doing very week on the national volleyball stage.

Congratulations to Year 12 student Alex Boers who has progressed through the South Australian Sports Institute squads and has been asked to trial for the Australian Men’s Under 20 volleyball team who will be playing in the Asian Cup next year. Alex was one of only six South Australians selected and has spent the last few days at the Australian Institute of�� Sport in Canberra and will be spending next week at a camp in Toowoomba preparing for the trail. Good luck Alex!

Another congratulations to past student Joshua Burrows who refereed at the recent Australian Youth Championships. Josh was voted as the best overall referee for the tournament, resulting in him officiating the gold medal match in a wonderfully controlled manner. What an achievement!

Finally this week we celebrate World Teachers Day! This year we’re saying “Hat’s off to teachers” to say thank you for all the incredible work they do throughout the year. Every day they inspire and support our students learning journey and today we got to celebrate them!

Check out our socials for a heart-warming video from our students for World Teachers Day 2023.

Speaking of teachers, let’s get to know one from our Junior School:

Welcome back to Term 4 and welcome back to the ‘This Week’ rundown, well it’s technically ‘Last Week’ this week but by Friday we’ll be back on track!

We hope everyone is well rested after their break and ready to tackle the home stretch of 2023. We’ve got a jam-packed term ahead of us though before we can start to think about the end of the year, we’ve got:

• The arts fundraiser
• Our Year 12’s dress up day and final day of school
• Junior School Swimming
• Two international study tours
• Our annual remembrance day service
• Plenty of sport
• Plenty of excursions
• Plenty of music and dance and
• The 2023 Cove Spectacular!

We started off slowly last week with a pupil free day. No rest for the wicked though as the teaching staff and curriculum SSO’s spent the day in the final session of their Berry Street Education Model training.

Broken into four parts, the Berry Street Education Model training equips schools with practical, classroom based strategies to increase the engagement and academic achievement of all students by supporting their self-regulation, relationships and wellbeing.

Over the course of the last year, our staff have worked through how to help students regulate their stress response, how to build positive relational classroom management strategies, how to create a culture of academic persistence, how to motivate students in their willingness to learn and in last week’s final session, how educators can harness their values and character strengths to promote effective learning and future pathways.

On Wednesday our students and staff got together to Lift the Load Challenge to raise awareness for men’s metal health.

A huge thank you to Year 10 Jayden for bringing this worthy cause to our attention and a massive well done to everyone who shared the load to help Jayden on his mission to run 50km with 10kg. Together students and staff ran 5.5km and raised just shy of $100 for the cause.

We must also say a huge thank you to our Reception’s and Year 1’s for decorating our runway with words of encouragement and happy thoughts to spur on our runners. It looked amazing!

75% of mental health issues before the age of 24 so the Lift the Load Challenge aims to not only raise money to help the Top Blokes Foundation mentor young men to improve their mental health, but to show young people that they don’t have to carry the weight of their struggles alone.

You can check out a video of the day’s efforts on our socials.

Check out the website or the for more information.

This week is a classic hectic HCS week with our Year 12’s stepping out into the big wide world on Friday. There is plenty going on this week so make sure to check out what we’ve been up to on Friday (I promise it will be on time!)

For now, we continue with our staff profile and this week I leave you getting to know someone who usually wears many hats at HCS:

Well the holidays are finally here!

What a term it’s been! We’ve had plenty of sporting achievements to celebrate, and had camps we wished we all going on, we’ve celebrated our volunteers, we supported our friends on IDAHOBIT Day, we observed Reconciliation Week, we had a Crazy Hair Day, we introduced our own bakery and we planted trees.

Let’s recap the final week of Term 2:

In Sports news this week our Year 11/12 Girls Statewide Soccer team continued their journey in the School Sport SA competition and despite toiling hard and exhibiting great teamwork against a more experienced Seaford College, they were unable to get the win.

This was also the last game some of these girls had the opportunity to play in for ���ϳԹ��� School. We say a fond farewell to international students, Mara, Lou and Lina and a huge goodbye and thank you to Year 12 students Cadence, Mackenzie and Jasmine for their dedicated service to the ���ϳԹ��� School Soccer Program throughout their High School years.

Our Year 10’s this week had the opportunity to do something a little different in our ‘Try-a-Trade Day’.

The day was led by Peer, a non-profit industry-based organisation that partners with industry to build trade careers through quality apprenticeships, employment and training.

The students got to try their hand at carpentry, plumbing and electrics and they all agreed it was a great opportunity for them to see what directions they could go in after school.

On Wednesday our Junior School packed out the PAC for Round 2 of Staff vs Students HCS Family Feud.

��This week’s show was hosted by our effervescent Student Presidents Marley and Makenzie and they did a fabulous job of calming the rowdy crowds when the staff were winning!

Despite an early lead from the staff, the students were able to pull it back on the very last question to win the day by a nail biting 249 – 248! The crowds went wild!

The teachers have a few weeks to pick their game up by next terms Staff vs Student challenge as it looks like the students are starting to fight back!

Ms Finch’s Year 12 class have been working on their ‘Passion Projects’ and developing a SACE Capability this term, so she decided to get involved nad make the last day of Term 2 a little extra fun.

She created a reverse escape room of sorts where the students had to follow the clues around the room to unlock the treasure chest within, to reveal the pirate treasure!

All the students thankfully made it through alive and managed to crack the code to get to the treasure! It was a great morning of problem solving and critical thinking for all!

Finally in our Junior School this week, our early years classrooms opened their doors for parents to attend a guided walk through exhibition of our Reception to Year 2 students artwork form the year so far.

There was plenty of colour and creativity on show and the little ones were so proud to show off what they’ve been working on. It was lovely to see the learning spaces so bright and full of imagination!

We will be taking a break next term from these weekly run downs as I will be on leave until week 6 but for now, I leave you getting to know one of our Junior School teachers: