A Uniting Church coeducational independent day and boarding school on Kaurna Country, Adelaide, South Australia
Early Learning to Year 12
I welcome students and families to Term 2 and trust that the break was an enjoyable one. I hope that students took some time to reflect on their assessments from Term 1 and their teachers’ feedback in SEQTA, and to implement strategies to progress their performance.
Looking at the calendar for the Senior School, it looks to be a busy term, particularly with it being nine weeks in length.
As is the case with most holidays, there were a variety of activities involving Westminster students and staff. The holiday activities included an Outdoor Education bushwalk in the Innes National Park and I would like to thank the Outdoor Education staff, in particular Gordon Begg and Julie Engelhardt for their organising of this activity.
Our Sailing Team travelled to Goolwa to compete in the Schools State Regatta and repeated the Westminster 1 team’s performance from the previous four years by winning the State title for a fifth consecutive year! We entered an all-female team for the first time and came first! This means that our Open and Female teams will compete in the National Regatta, which will be held in Hobart later this term. Thank you to Mike Martens for overseeing the team.
As can be seen, the opportunities for students to be engaged in a variety of learning activities does not cease at the end of term and I know the students appreciate the extra effort staff put in to make these opportunities possible. I thank the staff for giving up part of their holidays to provide these opportunities.
On Tuesday 7 May Preparatory students Grady Sayers, Sara Zeitouneh, Zara Papst and Ellery May-Martin were fortunate enough to be involved in working alongside Senior School students Brooke Kleinig, Deena Warren, Dana Wright, Alyssa Wilson, Kimberly Li and Kayla Ingerson at the Generations of Change conference. This was a wonderful opportunity to positively work as a whole school to promote education and understanding. This full day conference, held by Reconciliation SA and ActNow Theatre, was an interactive day exploring how the students can be proactive in combating racism. The day’s activities allowed the students to be involved in learning what they can do on an interpersonal level to recognise and respond to racism. This thought-provoking day is the beginning of working towards Reconciliation Week later in the term, and understanding and acknowledging what reconciliation means and why it is important.
Sara Mori and Nahla Baroudi were the staff members who encouraged and supported the students to become involved.
Each year we invite outside presenters to come in to the school to speak with our students, and at times, staff and parents about a variety of topics.
On Monday this week Paul Dillon presented Drug and Alcohol seminars to our Year 10, 11 and 12 students. He has the ability to connect with each year level and present information effectively so that students are able to make better decisions and keep safe. I am always impressed by the amount of information the students remember from the previous year’s presentation. Paul also presented to the Senior School staff and to just over 50 parents this year. To find out more about Paul, please follow the link to his website www.darta.net.au.
On Tuesday 14 May Year 11 students will hear a presentation by the Metropolitan Fire Service on Road Awareness. Westminster has been involved with this program since its inception. The program involves a presentation by a fire officer and focuses on decision making with respect to improving safety on the roads. The presentation ends with a crash survivor speaking to the students about how their life has changed as a result of the accident in which they were involved.
A reminder that all students must wear winter uniform from the beginning of Week 4 (Monday 20 May).
David Wallage
Head of Senior School