On Saturday the 18th of November the Murray Bridge Community came out to the streets to celebrate and take in the sights of the Murray Bridge Christmas Pageant, and the Murray Bridge High School Marching Band performed for the first time since COVID. 31 Students and 5 teachers, along with 4 flag bearers, and 2 students handing out lollies to the kids marched along the road to Sturt Reserve with hundreds of cheering onlookers. The band was made up of students from year 7 to 12 and featured our Murray Bridge High School Drumline as well. A big thank you to Alex McFarlane, Sean Helps, Tim Frears, Matt Ahrens, Dee Spurling and Ros Schulz. This was a great opportunity for our school to contribute to the wider community of Murray Bridge and demonstrate the social benefits of music performance.

The Year 9 Special Interest and Choice Music classes traveled to Tailem Bend Primary School and Jervois Primary School on Tuesday the 21st of November, to perform a program of pop/rock, contemporary and film music. The students were engaged in all elements of the tour, with specially design tour t-shirts, PA operators, guitar and keyboard techs, to make the setup, performance and pack down run smoothly. It was great to see how the students responded to the performance through clapping and dancing and engaging with the music.

On the weekend of November 11th and 12th, 2023, the MBHS Student Robotics Club spent two full days preparing, presenting, and driving three separate robots for the South Australian CENTERSTAGE FTC Qualifier, hosted by the RoboRoos. This year, we were fortunate to register a third FIRST Tech Challenge team, the Murray Bridge Lizards (24736), to compete in the qualifiers. Our three teams this year, the Murray Bridge Bunyips, the Murray Bridge Mulyawonks, and the Murray Bridge Lizards, presented their robots and Engineering Portfolios on Saturday, showing up to the Tonsley Innovation District bright and early for the qualifying matches on Sunday! Teams had their robots inspected and made last-minute modifications to improve their robot capabilities on the field, with both the Bunyips and Mulyawonks achieving the endgame goals of robot suspension and launching a “paper drone” to score additional points! Our teams were well-prepared through our hard work over the past few weeks, especially leading up to the competition, and our efforts have pushed us forward as one of five SA teams invited to compete at Sydney nationals!

FTC 22407, the Murray Bridge Mulyawonks, became a Finalist Alliance captain due to their versatile robot and driving ability, pushing us to the Nationals for the second time in the club’s history! At the end of the event, we received five separate awards for our exceptional performance: the Bunyips winning the Connect Award and runner-up for the Control Award, the Mulyawonks winning a Finalist Alliance award and runner-up for the Motivate Award, and the Lizards being a runner-up for the Design Award. Now, the robotics club is working extra hard to seek sponsors from local businesses for our travels and to refine and perfect a robot to take to Sydney Nationals. This event will be held at Macquarie University on December 9th and 10th, where we will have the opportunity to show our Gracious Professionalism in robot construction, programming, and community outreach. We are excited to move forward to Nationals this December, giving us ample opportunities to demonstrate our core values as representatives of STEM in the Murraylands!

On Tuesday 14th November, over 120 students from the region gathered at Murray Bridge North Primary School for a Beginner Band Workshop. Under the direction of Instrumental Music (IM) teachers, Tim Frears and Sean Helps students rehearsed together for 1 ½ hours before putting on a performance to the younger students from North School. The band was made up of flutes, clarinets, saxophones, trumpets and trombones, backed by a rhythm section of piano, guitar, bass guitar, drums and percussion. Many teachers from multiple schools need to be thanked for ensuring these students had the opportunity to perform in a big band like this. It was one of the biggest bands we've had in this region for several years. The schools participating in the workshop and performance with Murray Bridge High School were, Lameroo Regional Community School, Meningie Area School, Coomandook Area School, Murray Bridge North Primary School, Murray Bridge South Primary School, Mypolonga Primary School and Tailem Bend Primary School. As the Music Focus School for the region, MBHS staff and students supported this event, with many of our year 7s and 8s involved, acting as mentors for the younger, less experienced students.

On Friday the 3rd of November, Mr Tabe’s Year 11 Outdoor Education class along with Holly Temby (SSO) participated in a Mountain Biking Experience at Kinchina Conservation Park. Tyson and Steve from Head For the Hills Mountain Biking coached and supported the students throughout the day.

Students developed their knowledge about environmental issues in the area and applied a sustainable approach with the leave no trace principles. Throughout the experience, the students applied their planning, developed their technical skills and demonstrated a range of personal and social growth. I was super pleased with the group's resilience and perseverance in a fun, yet challenging experience.

During Week 2 of this term, Year 10 Media Arts students attended the Adelaide Film Festival Youth day. On the day students were able to attend screenings of short films created by students from all over South Australia, as well as an Australian premiere screening of the French film "The Magnificent Three". 

In addition to this one of our Year 12 students, Alicia Hutchings, was selected to be a part of the Adelaide Film Festival Youth Jury. Alicia's hard work and enthusiasm for film also earned her the role of the chairperson of the youth jury. The youth jury's role was to vote on and present awards to students who submitted films to the AFF Student Film Competition. Alicia was lucky enough to attend the AFF Youth Gala red carpet and speak on the awards night.

If this sounds like something that you would be interested in participating in next year, please see Mr. Thoday to get some more information on how you can apply for the Youth Jury!

In Week 5, Year 8 students from each neighbourhood attended aquatics at the Murraylands Aquatics centre. The students were split up into groups of their choice and were then taken by their instructors to do the activities that the group decides to do. There was a range of activities for students including knee boarding, skiing, canoeing, stand up paddle boarding, windsurfing and sailing on the catamarans. Everybody had a great time enjoying the sun and water sports.

Our Student Voice Representatives went on an excursion to Adelaide. We had a tour of the Governor of South Australia’s house and a tour of the Adelaide Parliament House with the host Mr Adrian Pederick.

During the day we did the following;
Governor of South Australia’s house.
•    Student voice got the opportunity to see the Governor's house
•    Wall of past Governors with a photo and when they stopped and became Governor
•    Plaques of royalty (meaning what royalty has visited her house) These were placed when a person from the royal family had visited. 
•    Photos of the Governor meeting presidents from other countries.
•    Library, included books that the Governor and her husband had received from different towns they had visited.
•    Sat where the late Queen Elizabeth II sat 

Adelaide Parliament House
•    Seeing the different meeting rooms. Green and a red room. Green is lower class whilst red is the higher class
•    Holding the ceremonial mace
•    Met with Adrian Pederick and the leader of the opposition 
•    Seeing where everyone sat within Parliament House
•    Paintings of all the premiers from the past
•    Sat in the constitution room in the old part of Parliament 

On Wednesday the ELO students attended the Variety Xmas Party hosted by the Variety Organisation. Students engaged with a range of activities, including face painting, photo booths and balloon making. Students also had the opportunity to engage with various members from the community, including police officers, local supermarkets and fire fighters. Lunch was provided from Villi's Cafe and ice cream from Golden North. We thank Variety once again for this amazing opportunity and for bringing a smile to our faces! 

Creative Courage Exhibition and The Butterfly Wall  Opening this Saturday 25th November 
Open to the public from this Saturday, November 25th to January 26th "Creative Courage" is being held at Murray Bridge Regional Gallery, showcasing the artwork created by Year 9 & 10 Visual Art & Design students. The exhibition is focused on the theme of domestic and family violence; students expressed their thoughts and emotions on this serious issue and the question "What Does a Loving Community Look Like?"

Sixth Street Maker's Market! This Sunday 26th November (10-3)
Join us on Sunday to support students from classes across Agriculture, Tech, Art/Design, Entrepreneurial learning areas and performing arts, this year will feature a performance by Glee Club at 10am. The MBHS marquee will be one of many amongst local artisans and creative small businesses. Get your festive shopping underway, enjoy the sunshine and show support for our talented students! Here are some photos of what the students have been working on. 

The Stage 1 Physical Education class visited Murray Bridge Golf Club on Tuesday as part of a Stage 2 preparation session. Students were able to play golf, show off and learn new skills in the process. This experience out in the community allowed our students to experience learning outside of the classroom and in a new environment that both challenged and excited them. It was fantastic to see how our students conducted themselves out in the community displaying the core values of the school, excellence, respect and working together. 

Ethan from ELO was one of a few in the state to be selected to attend a Junior Press Conference at the VAILO Adelaide 500. He had the opportunity to ask some Supercar drivers questions. The professional drivers in the conference included; Anton De Pasquale, Nick Percat, Will Brown and Thomas Randle. What a proud moment for you, Ethan! 

It’s the end of the year and our lost property is overflowing! If you’ve lost something throughout this year please come to student services and to your best knowledge describe what you lost and when you might have lost it.

We have:
Airpods
Mobile phones
Glasses
Jewellery
Keys
Watches
Basketballs, footballs,
Loom bands
Make up

And so much more…