With only three weeks remaining in the term, the calendar looks busy with camps, presentations, parent meetings, Student-Led Learning Conferences and the Student Free Day on June 24^th. We were very excited to host the Open Night on Tuesday with an opportunity to meet with families of year 5 and 6 students from our local feeder schools. We had three students volunteer to conduct the tours, and I would like to acknowledge their outstanding work: Chloe Crawford, Eliza Heinrich, and Ryan Mills.

After the recent rains and the now fine week, our olive harvest is well and truly underway. We look forward to delivering the olives for pressing and then the bottling of our oil will occur in a few months. The clear weather has also been perfect timing for the steer handling to occur in earnest. The process is quite long, but I am pleased to report that they started their initial outside solo walks on Tuesday.

We are eagerly awaiting the delivery of the plants for our amphitheatre garden in the next couple of weeks. We plan to do the marking and planting ourselves, so please stay tuned for a working bee announcement.

Thank you again to all of the families for their communication regarding COVID cases in their homes. We appreciate the contact; it helps to keep us all on the lookout for signs and symptoms and keeps the staff testing regularly.

Tyler Hogan - Principal

This week we held our annual open night. This event largely attracts families from local primary schools but all community members are invited to come and see what is happening in our school. Thank you to all families who attended on the night – we hope you enjoyed it!

I would like to say a special thank you to some of our Middle School students who were involved in promoting GHS at this event. Mrs. Hogan has already mentioned the Student Leaders who led the tour – Chloe Crawford, Eliza Heinrich and Ryan Mills.

A large part of the evening is supper in the Home Ec centre where students, parents and teachers can chat and enjoy a coffee, hot chocolate and snacks! Miss Edge was an absolute star on the coffee machine and we are very grateful for her time. All Home Ec classes help prepare the supper:

Year 11 Food and Hospitality, Year 9 Home Ec, 8A Home Ec and 7B had a bonus Home Ec lesson to make cookies and apricot balls.

Thank you to the Year 8 students who helped serve and clean up: Imogen Cunningham, Madison Clogg, Jackson Fudge and Hudson Seidel.

"On Tuesday I went to Open Day. It was a lot to remember. I had a lot of fun. The tech room was very interesting. All the teachers were very kind. I am very excited to go there in 2024. The supper was amazing and I had 4 cupcakes and they were very delicious. The leader of the group explained it very well. The school has some very kind people there." Imogen Pech - Laura Primary School

Kate Seidel – Middle School Coordinator

Monday Week 9 is the start of Semester 2. For our Year 7 and 8 students this will be there first experience with changing their practical subjects.

Year 7s will start Home Ec, Art and Tech, swapping from Digital Media, Music and Drama.

Year 8s will swap between Art/Home Ec and Tech/Digital Media.

Year 9s will swap according to their subject choices made last year.

Time will be spent in Home Group going through the new timetables and ensuring students know where their classes are. Most subjects (English, Maths, Science, HASS) won’t have any changes.

We hope students enjoy the experience of trying out more of the subjects we have to offer!

Kate Seidel - Middle School Coordinator

In Week 4 of Term 2, the Year 10 and 11 SAASTA students headed to Adelaide for a camp. The students visited the Light Centre where BHP visited and talked to the students about jobs in the mining industry. Then the SAASTA students went to the University of Adelaide and Flinders University where they toured the campus and then heard about potential pathways for the future. On Thursday and Friday, the students played a number of short football games, with our team losing only one skirmish. On Sunday the students participated in a traditional dance on the Adelaide Oval before the AFL game where Essendon played Port Power. The students then watched the remainder of the AFL game before returning back to Gladstone. The SAASTA camp was a great experience for all those who attended and represents an important part of the school year as it provides students with important information about jobs. A big thanks goes to Max Rutjens and Judy Crosby for supervising the students for the week.

Tyler Davenport, Will Bullock and Ethan Farrows

Recently, the Year 9 Home Ec class has been undertaking a textiles unit which has seen them produce a pair of boxer shorts. Throughout this process, they refined their machine operation skills, as well as learning to cut fabric, create finished seams, hem and thread elastic. They all used their time well and finished really efficiently and mostly in the same lesson. Here are some photos of the finished products. Great work, Year 9's.

Jacqui Edge - Home Ec Teacher