The Heights School | |
---|---|
Location | |
, Australia | |
Information | |
Type | State |
Motto | Success Through Quality Teaching and Learning [1] |
Established | 1977 |
Locale | Brunel Drive, Modbury Heights |
Principal | Meg Fay |
Enrolment | ~1135 [2] |
Campus | Modbury Heights |
Colour(s) | Navy, maroon and white |
Website | theheights |
The Heights School is a combined secondary and primary school serving the Modbury Heights area in Adelaide, South Australia. It is located in Adelaide's District 5 (North West) school district, in close proximity to Golden Grove High School, Gleeson College and Pedare Christian College.
The Heights School consists of three sub-schools, divided by year level. The sub-schools are:
The Heights School is an Ignite school. This program allows gifted students to work at an extended level. The program has three levels: the Ignite Program, the Co-Ignite Program and the Pre-Ignite Program. The Ignite class studies years 8, 9 and 10 in two years. This is done by studying year 8 and 9 in one year and then year 10 in one year but at an extended level. Students then go on to study years 11 and 12 at a normal level. As Ignite students leave school a year earlier, they can, if they wish, complete year 13 to fill in that year. Beginning in 2018 an Ignite accelerated class will be established in Year 9, allowing accelerated students to complete Year 9 at a normal pace. Students in Year 8 may optionally 'skip' to Year 10. The Co-Ignite class studies years 8, 9 and 10 in the full three years but at an extended level. They then complete years 11 and 12 as normal. For technology lessons, the two classes come together to study with each other. The Heights School also offers a Pre-Ignite Program. This is not an official part of the Ignite Program. This was designed by The Height's Brennan Finch to allow students who they thought would be able to complete the Ignite Program, to do years 6 and 7 at an extended level. Glenunga International High School (starting 1998) and Aberfoyle Park High School (1999) are also Ignite schools. [3]
The Heights School has developed a specialised cricketing program in association with the Tea Tree Gully District Cricket Club and the South Australian Cricket Association (SACA). [4] The program is run by state under 14s coach and Northern Jets A Grade player Andrew Costello and is offered a special subject for years 8–11.
The school has a major involvement in the Australian International HPV Super Series, with the program currently being run by Roger Button. With annual involvement from 2004 in all three races per year, with four HPVs as of 2011. The four bikes are "Quasar", which is ridden by students from the junior school; "Pulsar", the middle school bike; "Odyssey", the senior school bike; and an Old Scholars team and bike, which races under the name of "THOR". The school has also hosted students from Hwa Chong Institution who raced with the Heights team in Round 1 of 2008. [5] All bikes now support a green image and promote environmentally friendly activities, hence the program's official name, "The Heights School Green Technology Racing". [6]
The Heights School has long been involved in Wakakirri. [7] The program is currently run by Penny Phillips. Wakakirri involves students acting or dancing to music. [8] Voice is not used at all. Although Heights School mainly focuses on the story-dance category, it does also enter in the story-film category and story writing. In 2010, five students from Heights had their stories published in the Wakakirri Story Book. Its past performances include Dark Deeds in Duckville, Spring Around the World, Tapping into Your Talent and Beat the Crave and Save. In 2011, the Heights School performed Don't Judge a Moth by Its Colour, which went on to win the South Australian finals. [9]
The Heights School (years 6 and 7) participate in the South Australian Public (Primary) Schools Music Society Festival of Music, both through the school choir and individual participation by students.
The Autism Intervention Program is a DECD initiative which uses the Ziggurat model of intervention to provide a holistic education, catering to the needs of individual learners on the autism spectrum. Students receive targeted intervention, designed to assist in eradicating the defined, or potential barriers to their inclusion. Emphasis is placed on addressing the "triad of impairments" for learners with ASD. Skills and strategies will be explicitly taught to address students': – Pragmatic (social) development – Language – Behavioural responses
Learners are taught methods to think flexibly and self regulate their behaviour whilst meeting sensory needs in socially acceptable ways. Individually tailored programs also target students' academic needs.
The school participates in foreign exchanges with Hwa Chong Institution in Singapore, Jit Sin High School in Penang, Malaysia, as well as schools in Japan and Korea. [10]
The Heights School is the home of the Heights Astronomical Observatory, [11] which consists of two observatory buildings. [12]
The Emanuel Papaelia Observatory consists of a 5-metre dome containing a 14-inch (355mm) Meade LX200 ACF Schmidt Cassegrain reflecting telescope acquired in 2011. It can be computer controlled, and is used visually for public viewing nights. The School's student STAR Group uses the telescope both visually and for astrophotography. The ground level of the observatory building includes an official seismic recording station operated by the Department of Primary Industries and Resources.
The Ingham Family Rooms is a roll-off roof building that doubles as a classroom for STAR Group students studying astronomy. It contains a sophisticated, high end, 12.5" Ritchey–Chrétien design reflector from Optical Guidance Systems acquired in 2012, which features a carbon fibre tube, zero expansion ceramic mirror and a motorised secondary mirror for computer-aided focussing. This telescope is mounted on a Losmandy HGM 200 mount, and uses the Losmandy Gemini Control system for automated tracking.
The observatory also holds a number of portable, non-tracking telescopes, in particular a 16-inch Meade Lightbridge Dobsonian.
The Astronomical Society of South Australia holds public viewing nights at the Heights Observatory once a month. [13]
Students from the school are actively involved with the observatory, with the STAR (Students Thinking with Astronomical Reasoning) Group meeting weekly at the observatory to observe and learn about astronomy and astrophysics.
The Heights Observatory is located at Lat 34.812488 S, Lon 138.682504 W.
The Gemini Observatory comprises two 8.1-metre (26.6 ft) telescopes, Gemini North and Gemini South, situated in Hawaii and Chile, respectively. These twin telescopes offer extensive coverage of the northern and southern skies and rank among the most advanced optical/infrared telescopes available to astronomers. (See List of largest optical reflecting telescopes).
Boyden Observatory is an astronomical research observatory and science education centre located in Maselspoort, 20 kilometres (12 mi) north-east of the city of Bloemfontein in Free State, South Africa. The observatory is managed by the Physics Department of the University of the Free State (UFS). The Friends of Boyden assist the observatory as a public support group, organising open evenings and protecting its public interest. Boyden also makes use of members of ASSA Bloemfontein Centre, the amateur astronomy club of the city, for presenters and telescope assistants.
The Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO), formerly the Anglo-Australian Observatory, was an optical and near-infrared astronomy observatory with its headquarters in North Ryde in suburban Sydney, Australia. Originally funded jointly by the United Kingdom and Australian governments, it was managed wholly by Australia's Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education. The AAO operated the 3.9-metre Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) and 1.2-metre UK Schmidt Telescope (UKST) at Siding Spring Observatory, located near the town of Coonabarabran, Australia.
The David Dunlap Observatory (DDO) is an astronomical observatory site in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada. Established in 1935, it was owned and operated by the University of Toronto until 2008. It was then acquired by the city of Richmond Hill, which provides a combination of heritage preservation, unique recreation opportunities and a celebration of the astronomical history of the site. Its primary instrument is a 74-inch (1.88 m) reflector telescope, at one time the second-largest telescope in the world, and still the largest in Canada. Several other telescopes are also located at the site, which formerly also included a small radio telescope. The scientific legacy of the David Dunlap Observatory continues in the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, a research institute at the University of Toronto established in 2008.
Bartholomeus Jan "Bart" Bok was a Dutch-American astronomer, teacher, and lecturer. He is best known for his work on the structure and evolution of the Milky Way galaxy, and for the discovery of Bok globules, which are small, densely dark clouds of interstellar gas and dust that can be seen silhouetted against brighter backgrounds. Bok suggested that these globules may be in the process of contracting, before forming into stars.
The Perth Observatory is the name of two astronomical observatories located in Western Australia (WA). In 1896, the original observatory was founded in West Perth on Mount Eliza overlooking the city of Perth. Due to the city's expansion, the observatory moved to Bickley in 1965. The new Perth Observatory is sometimes referred to as Bickley Observatory.
The University of Montevallo is a public university in Montevallo, Alabama. Founded on October 12, 1896, the university is Alabama's only public liberal arts college and a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. The University of Montevallo Historic District was established on campus in 1979. The school is located in a rural location in central Alabama.
The South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) is the national centre for optical and infrared astronomy in South Africa. It was established in 1972. The observatory is run by the National Research Foundation of South Africa. The facility's function is to conduct research in astronomy and astrophysics. The primary telescopes are located in Sutherland, which is 370 kilometres (230 mi) from Observatory, Cape Town, where the headquarters is located.
Marryatville High School (MHS) is a public state secondary school in Adelaide, South Australia. The school is situated on a large area of land in the eastern suburb of Marryatville, part of the City of Norwood Payneham and St Peters. First Creek cuts through the school grounds and large gum trees line the property. The school was founded in 1976 during the Dunstan era, from the amalgamation of the Norwood Boys' Technical High School and the Kensington & Norwood Girls' High School.
Rose Bay Secondary College (RBSC) is a government-funded co-educational dual modality partially academically selective and comprehensive secondary day school, located in Dover Heights, an eastern Sydney suburb of New South Wales, Australia. The New South Wales Department of Education established the college in 2003 as a result of the merger of Dover Heights and Vaucluse high schools.
The Sydney Observatory is a heritage-listed meteorological station, astronomical observatory, function venue, science museum, and education facility located on Observatory Hill at Upper Fort Street, in the inner city Sydney suburb of Millers Point in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by William Weaver (plans) and Alexander Dawson (supervision) and built from 1857 to 1859 by Charles Bingemann & Ebenezer Dewar. It is also known as The Sydney Observatory; Observatory; Fort Phillip; Windmill Hill; and Flagstaff Hill. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 22 December 2000.
The University of Illinois Astronomical Observatory, located at 901 S. Mathews Avenue in Urbana, Illinois, on the campus of the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, was built in 1896, and was designed by Charles A. Gunn. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 6, 1986, and on December 20, 1989, was designated a National Historic Landmark.
The Detroit Observatory is located on the corner of Observatory and Ann streets in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was built in 1854, and was the first scientific research facility at the University of Michigan and one of the oldest observatories of its type in the nation. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1958 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
The Heights Observatory is an Astronomical Observatory at The Heights School in Modbury Heights, Adelaide, South Australia.
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The Astronomical Society of New South Wales (ASNSW) is an amateur astronomy club in the state of New South Wales, Australia, founded in 1954.
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