Dunhelen

                                                     Mrs Francis Scuderi

My Aitken

Students have been working hard right up until the end of term. Work and results are on My Aitken, so please have a look at what your child is doing. Reports with overall grades and approaches to learning for each subject will be available for you to also see how your child is progressing.

Merits and Demerits System

The merits and demerits system used in Dunhelen will continue to be used next semester. This semester’s demerits are erased and each student has the opportunity to start fresh. A reminder to parents that 5 demerits is a lunchtime detention, 8 demerits is an after school detention and 12 or over is a non-school day detention or a consequence decided on by the Head of School or Assistant Head of School. Students who have received merits are awarded a little gift after 5 merits. Merits are not erased next semester but continue to accumulate.

Year 9 Students

The Year 9 students settled quickly back into school life, and the comforts of home, after their trip to Central Australia. The Dunhelen School Captains have written a report that I would like to share with you. It is a snippet of our time away.

Year 9 Central Australia Camp Report

This term all of the Year 9 students and some of our teachers went on an amazing trip to Central Australia. We visited and camped at many places such as Adelaide, Coober Pedy, Kings Canyon and Uluru. We had a great time and will always remember the amazing experiences we shared together.

Firstly, we travelled for three days on a bus. This was actually a good experience to make new friends and have fun all together, as we all had many long trips ahead of us. When we arrived in Adelaide it was just a stop over and we also got used to how our routine would be for the next week.

Early on the next morning, we travelled just under nine hours to Coober Pedy. We stayed underground in bunkhouses, where it was nice and warm, unlike the other night in the tents. We learnt about the opal mines and also got to go into an underground museum and opal shop. Here, we learnt about how opals are turned into jewellery and are polished up for sale or even keeping.  Early again the next morning, we got onto the bus and drove to Kings Canyon.

We spent two nights camping in Kings Canyon. On the first day, we set up our tents and then had dinner, and got a good rest for the next day. On the second day we went on the Kings Canyon Rim Walk, which was a 4-5 hour long walk and the views were astonishing. We had to also climb one thousand stairs to get to the next stage of the walk. We all visited an Aboriginal community named Lilla. We learnt all about their culture, sand drawings, Aboriginal art and also walked around to sites where we learnt about Indigenous history and stories. Some of us ate kangaroo tail. We were also traditionally welcomed into the country which was very special.

Visiting Uluru was really special. Being able to see it and even go into little areas that indigenous people used and lived in was very interesting and a once in a life time experience. The stories that were told by our guides, Leroy and Jan, about Uluru were very touching. It was a great experience and learning about how Indigenous Australians lived and taught was very moving, especially because nature created all of this.

Kata Tjuta was also a very amazing sight to see. The walks that we did were beautiful, seeing all of the red coloured rock and we all really enjoyed seeing the sunset at both Uluru and Kata Tjuta as they changed colours from red to a brown and then a slight shade of grey. You could even see purples in them.

We would just like to thank all the staff members who made this whole trip possible and for organising it all.

Sabrina C & Jude P

2019 Dunhelen School Captains

Semester 1

It has been a busy semester and students, teachers and, perhaps even parents, are looking forward to a break in routine. A time to just enjoy being. I do hope the students manage to spend some valuable time with loved ones and are refreshed and eager to head into Term 3. A reminder that Term 3 begins on Monday 15 July. 

Have a look through a glimpse of Semester 1.

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday time.