Underdale High School

Experience success!

It is with great pleasure that I write to you as Principal of Underdale High School.

This Year is about preparing to welcome Year 7 and our new Year 8 cohort of students into our family at Underdale High School.

This year we have currently appointed leaders and teachers who have knowledge and experience in a Year 7 setting (either in a Primary School or R-12 School setting). Ms Melitta Kay is our Year 7 Leader and will be working with our feeder Primary Schools to help prepare our school for the Year 7’s, and their Year 7’s for our school. This includes exploring suitable playspaces for the Year 7’s and putting these plans in place. She will also be working with our Curriculum Team to plan our Middle School Curriculum package. Mr John Katavatis, our Year 8 Leader, has been recruited from Flinders Park Primary school. Tahnee Manual, our Personalised Learning Leader came from Clapham Primary School, Mr Cornel Trifu from a Primary School setting on Kangaroo Island and several of our other new appointments in 2021 have had opportunities to teach in a Year 7 setting.

We have also appointed 4 Primary teachers through the Year 7 to High School program who will start in 2022 and get some specialised training this year in preparation (see article in Advertiser Friday 26th March – p1). I believe we are very well prepared for the arrival of the Year 7’s and that this combined experience will have a very positive impact on the other year levels in our Middle School cohort. All of this preparation will also have very positive flow on to our already excellent transition program for next year’s new Year 8 students.

Our focus has continued to remain on high impact teaching and learning strategies despite much of our school being a building site at the start of the year. Last week we were able to re-access the Knowledge corridor, giving us nine modern, high quality teaching spaces back and four offices back. Students and staff have revelled in learning spaces that are full of natural light, spacious and equipped with modern technology. It certainly has increased our appetite for the release of the Courage corridor (Science wing) which will also house our new Student Services centre.

By the start of next term, we will have access to the new Creative Arts centre and Canteen, redeveloped Gymnasium and new Human Physical Performance centre, refurbished Automotive centre and new Metalwork shop, and the refurbished Furniture Construction building. It is a very exciting time! Please visit our Facebook page ( https://www.facebook.com/963554310354716/ ) to keep up to date on current developments and photos. Completion date is mid to late term 3, and definitely before our new students have their Transition Days in Term 4.

In 2021, our Site Improvement Plan continues to target increasing student progress and achievement in Reading and Mathematics, and compliments these goals with increasing student progress and achievement in grades, particularly in the A and B grade bands.

Our Reading goal will target students being successful in increasing their vocabulary and comprehension, honing their skills and abilities in not only learning to read texts of increasing complexity, but to continue developing their ability in reading to learn.

Our Mathematics goal will target students’ ability to understand the flexible concept of number, and their use of Mathematics language to explain to others the maths processes they use to solve problems.

Our Grades improvement goal is targeting students’ ability to understand what they are learning (and why), how they are doing (and how do they know), how they can improve, and where they can go to for help. We would envisage that these goals will be ongoing, and build on our PAT-R and PAT-M results which have been consistently above state averages, our SACE Completion which has been in the high 90% range for years, and our A and B Grades in Year 12 which are growing every year for the past 3 years.

Please join us for our Open Evening on Monday 22nd March and book a personalised Principal’s Tour late this term or early next term.

(from left to right: Lee Knight, David Harriss, Melitta Kay)

David Harriss

Principal Underdale High School

Experience success.