Maitland Area School

Our new school Christian Pastoral Support Worker - Kelly Whittaker - was officially commissioned in a special service held at the Maitland Uniting Church on Wednesday night.

The service was led by Uniting Church minister Phil Webber, with addresses given by Peter Skurray (Chaplaincy in State Schools), Paul Schulz (The YP Inter-church Council) and Andrew Gravestocks (MAS Principal).

Kelly is an MAS old Scholar and is looking forward to the challenges of working in her new role.

Left to Right: Andrew Gravestocks, Kelly Whittaker, Paul Schulz and Peter Skurray

 

Our 2010 Student Leaders’ Induction Ceremony was held in the school Recreation Centre last Thursday, February 11.

Our special guests were Ray Agnew, Mayor of Yorke Peninsula, Julie Elies, Chairperson of the Parents and Friends and Ben Wundersitz, Chairperson of the Governing Council

Congratulations to the House Captains, Prefects, SRC and Bus Monitors who were inducted. Ceremonies such as this are an important part of the school community recognising the young leaders that we have at our school. I was proud of the way that they presented themselves and know many others felt the same. Thankyou to all of the community members who joined us in this celebration.

 

Building Education Revolution

2009 has again been a busy year for our school & Governing Council. The year started with the announcement of the Federal Government Building Education Revolution funds being available to our school. Governing Council and staff started initial planning for our new Performing Arts Centre. With the existing music suite nearing the end of its commercial life it seemed logical to have it removed and rebuild on the existing site. A committee was formed to oversee the project and Ashley Nankivell and Tim Davey organised numerous working bees to assist with the project. The building is expected to be completed by June 2010.

VET Programs

This year has seen the implementation of a new range of VET programs in the secondary program. These programs have been successful in retaining more students with the vision of a positive career path. It is our objective to run this together with the traditional secondary subjects to cater for all student needs.

School Pride

We have also secured a School Pride grant which will fund some smaller projects including artificial grass around the flag pole and student games areas at school which will be cooler, safer and will look fantastic. The funds will also be used to purchase new rain water tanks to supply the students with clean drinking water.

Agricultural Studies

Greg Smart is to be commended for his work with Sarah Townsend to ensure the Ag Studies block is maintained and running smoothly. The wheat crop produced 25tonnes of wheat and we cut 100 bales of oaten hay to feed the livestock. Thanks to Dean Bruce for cutting the oats and Norm Edwards for doing the baling.

Jack White

I would like to thank retiring staff member Jack White for his many years of service to our school. Jack has been a member of staff for 16 years and has run many sports programs at our school. His passion and commitment to Primary teaching and sports will be missed and I wish him well in his retirement.

School Promotion

Members of Governing Council also played a significant role in the promotion of our School with participation in the successful School Open Day, Grandies Day and Early Years Community Forum.

Our annual fund raiser was a Trivia Night held in September at the Golf Club. It was a fantastic night with our quiz master Tim Tuck entertaining the crowd and the evening raised $2300 to fund a new oven for Bron Polgreen in the canteen.

To the school leavers I wish you every success for your future. I would like to thank all members of the 2009 Governing Council for their time and commitment in supporting our school and I look forward to working with you next year.

Ben Wundersitz

Our annual Presentation Night was held on Tuesday, December 8.Farewells were made to teachers Jack White and Dave Mutton and to Principal Trevor Rogers. Mrs Rosemary Morris received an award in recognition of her tireless voluntary work over the past twenty years. The Concert Band and Choirs performed and students received recognition for service, academic achievement and giving of their best throughout the year. Thank you to Emma Atkins for returning to address the audience as School Dux for 2008 and to Samantha Breward for her moving speech. Congratulations to Mrs Hasting for her organisation and to all the staff, students and parents who attended.

Dear Parents and Community Members,

My name is Ben Wundersitz and I am the chairperson of the Maitland Area School Governing Council. I have been on the Council for four Years. We are fortunate to have a very well supported and extremely active Governing Council with parents and staff representing a good cross section of the school. The Governing Council has worked closely with senior management in upgrading the site learning plan for our school which includes all of the major school policies.

Our input has seen changes and developments in the areas of literacy, numeracy and vocational learning programs (including through university) that equip our students to take their place in the community and society in general, and the tools to do this, including state of the art information technology. Structures have been established to ensure a safe and supportive learning environment to maximise  positive outcomes for all students.

The school has one of the best music programs available, offering outstanding opportunities for students. This includes an experienced Senior Concert Band, a Junior School Choir, Senior Festival of Music Choir, Instrumental Music studies for Year 5–12 students as well as classroom music for  R–12 students.  It also boasts a comprehensive sports and agricultural program as well as excellent technical studies, home economics and art facilities.

MAS is a large campus and many of its other facilities, such as the library, gymnasium and swimming pool are open to the community.
It is my belief a strong school underpins a strong community and the recent 130 Year anniversary certainly reinforced this with many local volunteers and service clubs helping us celebrate this important milestone.

Our obligation to the community in return is to continue to provide high quality education and a wide range of opportunities for students including progression into the work force through VET courses and school based apprenticeships.

I greatly encourage you to consider educating your child at Maitland Area School. It is a strong and progressive site with an enormous range of opportunities for students. Maitland Area School belongs to the community, and I am proud to be part of it.

Yours Sincerely

Ben Wundersitz(Chairperson of the Governing Council)