Welcome back to all students and families returning to Balaklava High School for another year and an especially warm welcome to our Year 7s and other new students and their families joining us at BHS for the first time.  We started our school year on Monday morning with a brief whole school assembly; with nearly 450 students enrolled this year the gym was quite full and it was great to see many happy faces and a sea of navy and white school uniforms.

As always, Term 1 is action packed with many events starting with the Year 7 Meet and Greet this evening from 5.30-6.30pm, closely followed by the Swimming Carnival next Tuesday, Year 7 Camp, the Student Council Camp, the Athletics Carnival and the list goes on!  Information for all of these events will be sent out throughout the term.

Staffing

As always at this time of year, we have some new staff members to welcome:  Louise O’Halloran (Home Ec, Food and Hospitality), Sally McArdle (English, HASS, LGP), Holly Crighton (Ag), Pahul Modi (Science), Leona He (Maths, Science), Jerry Elder (English, LGP) and Clayton Tilbrook (SSO).  At the end of last year I farewelled Joshua La Grutta and Hudson Noack, however, I am very pleased to announce that they have both decided to stay at Balaklava High School so they are still here this year.  We wish all new and returning staff the best for their time here and we look forward to benefitting from the knowledge, skills and experiences they bring with them.

Communication

Communication is one of the key pillars of success in schooling and I encourage parents to contact teachers directly if you have a question, need to share information or if you have a concern.  You can contact teachers via DayMap or phone the school on 8862 0600 and leave a message for them to call you back.  The first point of contact should always be the subject teacher for class related matters, the Homegroup teacher for broader concerns or a member of the Leadership Team for more significant issues.  DayMap is a place for parents to access crucial information including feedback on student work, absences, homework and other school related tasks and I encourage you to access the Parent Portal regularly.  There are instructions on how to do this later in the newsletter and you can always contact the Front Office if you have any issues with access.  Another form of communication is through social media and I invite all students and their families to like us on Facebook to keep up-to-date with school events and information.

There have also been some changes to the Leadership team this year and I encourage you to contact the relevant person when a need arises:

Sonia Pringle - Principal

Carena Brookes - Assistant Principal, Head of Senior School

Lucy Thiel - Assistant Principal, Head of Middle School

Kimberly Walker - Senior Leader, Wellbeing and Inclusion

Amber Buick - Coordinator, Mathematics/Numeracy

Hannah Hoepner - Coordinator, English/Literacy

Rosemary Goode - Coordinator, VET

Ash Parsons - Coordinator, Wellbeing and Engagement

Peta Solomon - Business Manager

Class of 2022

Congratulations to the Class of 2022 and the successes they achieved when results were released in December and again in January for those who applied for university.  Our Dux was Riley Hayes-Revitt who achieved an ATAR of 93.6 (without bonus points), she also had 4 grades in the A band and has been accepted into her first preference university course, a Bachelor of Science (Animal Behaviour) at Adelaide University.  Our proxime accessit (second highest score) was Steven Wade and I would also like to acknowledge students who achieved A+ grades in various subjects:  Abigail Futterleib (Creative Arts), Olivia Allen (Research Project) and Cody Jamieson (Research Project).  A few statistics from the 2022 results:  100% of eligible students achieved their SACE, 58% of all grades in Stage 2 were in the A and B bands and 99.55% of all grades in Stage 2 were passing grades.

100% of our students who received an ATAR and applied for university received offers in the first round of preferences in courses such as Aviation, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, International Relations and Political Science, Criminology, Engineering, Exercise and Sport Science and Secondary Teaching degrees.  A number of our graduates have also accepted apprenticeships and gained employment and we anticipate hearing success stories from all of our old scholars as they continue with the next step of their lives.

The positive impact of the school's vocational pathways program was again evident last year with 51.16% of all students who completed their SACE using a VET component to do so. This figure is more than double the state average of 22.54%, which shows that Vocational Education and Training remains an important feature at Balaklava High School, strongly supporting both student retention and senior secondary achievement.

Governing Council AGM

The Governing Council is an important component of the school’s decision-making and consultative processes and it provides an opportunity for parents to be more strongly involved in school operations and to gain a deeper understanding of how the school functions.  Our Governing Council’s AGM will take place on Tuesday 21^st February 2023 at 7.00 pm in the Balaklava Community Library.  Please consider nominating, or renominating, for the Governing Council, which has a crucial role in ensuring that the school is meeting the educational needs of the community.  There is a nomination slip for Governing Council in this newsletter or you can access one by contacting the Front Office.  We have a number of current Council members who are finishing their time on Governing Council and I thank Sam Tiller, Gavin Branson and Tom Robinson for their work and a special thank you to Andrew Parker for his work as Chairperson for the past four years, finishing his time at BHS now that all four of his daughters have completed their education here.  If you are not considering nominating for Governing Council, you are very welcome to come along to the AGM, where we will present the Annual Report on the 2022 school year.

As always, I invite parents to contact me at the school if you would like to discuss any aspect of your child’s learning.  I can be contacted via DayMap or email Sonia.Pringle235@schools.sa.edu.au or you can phone the school on 8862 0600 to speak to me directly or to make a time to come and see me.  I’m looking forward to a great 2023 and I hope to speak with many of you throughout the year.

Sonia Pringle

Principal