Maitland Area School

The Year 6 and Year 7 classes participated in an inspirational workshop today led by former STAR group officer Derrick McManus.

Derrick was shot fourteen times when he and his team went to arrest a man in Nurioopta back in 1994.

He lay injured and bleeding for more than three hours before being recovered by a medical team. The workshop covered his training in the STAR force, the events that led to the fateful day, a moving description of the shooting and a discussion of Derrick's fight to fully recover.

Throughout the workshop students were encouraged to develop their resilience, establish goals, become part of a team and overcome challenges.

Derrick proved an inspirational presenter and he in turn was impressed with our students' thoughtful questions, involvement and maturity.

The 2010 R-12 Twilight Sports Carnival was held today, with brilliant weather, enthsuaistic participation, outstanding sportsmanship and inspired performances.

Staff were on deck early at 8am to put up tents, build the obstacle course, erect the PA and mark the oval and tennis courts for the days' events.

Students began to arrive at 12.30 and Principal Andrew Gravestocks opened the day with a reminder that particpation - and attempting our best- were just as important as winning.

Results were soon pouring into the scorers tent with track, field and tabloid events all in full swing.

The athletes - of all ages - were vocally supported by their peers with a larger than usual crowd of families and friends adding to the carnival atmosphere.

If Junior School results were a forecast of the final score than Yorke would have rocketed home but Spencer pulled out all the stops in the Senior events to be eventually named the winners of the day.

Congratulations to Miss McPharlin for the successful running of her first Sports Day, a big thank you to all the staff and parents who organised, officiated, photographed, scored, sold food and drinks (very important), donated their time and sponsored cups and medallions. A fantastic day was had by all!

On Monday and Tuesday of week 3, a group of Year 10 students attended an Aquatics Camp at Port Vincent. The weather was perfect for the two days although this did mean that we couldn’t do the activities that needed wind. This left the group to have several goes at snorkelling along the reef, the marina rock wall and along the spit. The boys were particularly good at catching crabs while others preferred to look at the variety of sea life. Other events attempted were kayaking around the bay and knee boarding. We stayed at the Tuckerway Hostel on Monday night where we had a barbecue for tea and the boys cooked the scallops and crabs they had caught.
We arrived back at Maitland around 5:30pm Tuesday, very tired, but having enjoyed the two days on camp.

 

Congratulations to Spencer on their win last week.  The competition was close all afternoon.  There were plenty of smiling faces to be seen enjoying the fun events organised by Val McLean and her Committee.

Last week Ian Burman and myself attended the Yorke and Mid North Regional Leaders meeting at Wallaroo. This gave us the opportunity to catch up with many leaders and regional office staff. It is certainly evident that there are a number of changes and opportunities that will face schools this year.
The introduction of a National Curriculum, Mentoring projects, flexible options for students and the continuing roll out of the New SACE will occur in 2010. By far the clearest message to come out of the conference was the importance of Literacy in terms of students being able to achieve success in life. Without the skills to be able to communicate clearly, understand written and oral language, a child is greatly disadvantaged. As a school we will need to ensure that we continue to make literacy a priority.

Our new Certificate 1 in Rural Operations course has started and six Year 10 and two Year 11 Agriculture Students are enrolled this year.

This is a nationally accredited course and a great stepping stone to employment in the Agriculture sector.

Guest instructor Max Smart visited last Friday to start tractor driving lessons and he was impressed with the skills and enthusiasm of our students.

By now all families should have received a letter regarding Maitland Area School’s Bushfire Action Plan. As this is a new policy for the school I am sure that as part of the reviews that we conduct throughout the year we will make improvements to different components. The major points of the plan at this stage are that;

1. Maitland Area School is in the Yorke Peninsula Fire Ban District
2. On Code Red Days in the Yorke Peninsula Fire Ban District Maitland Area School will remain open.
3. On Code Red Days in the Yorke Peninsula Fire Ban District DECS buses will not run.

If you have any further questions regarding this, please do not hesitate to contact the school.