Ku-ring-gai Creative Arts High School

Infobox Aust school
name = Ku-ring gai Creative Arts High School


motto = Harmony in diversity
established = 20th century
type = Public, Secondary, Day school
principal = Glenda Aulsebrook
Suburb = North turramurra
state = New South Wales
country = Australia flagicon|Australia
enrolment = 900+
homepage = www.kuringgai-h.schools.nsw.edu.au

Ku-ring-gai Creative Arts High School is a specialist secondary school located in North Turramurra, New South Wales, Australia run by the New South Wales Department of Education and Training. The school's motto is "Harmony in Diversity".

Curriculum

The school was an ordinary local high school until 1996 when Mrs B. Peatie became the headmistress and changed the school to become a specialist in creative arts. At that time there were only a few hundred students. Since then there has been an increase in students at Ku-ring-gai, with numbers now near 1000. The school takes students from its local area as well as those who "demonstrate special interest, commitment and ability in creative arts".Fact|date=October 2008

In addition to the usual academic subjects, KCAHS offers drama, dance, music and visual art classes, and vocational education opportunities in the areas of entertainment, photography, performance, ceramics and visual design.

Ku-ring-gai is also the only school in the state to have a NOVA program(NOVA is taken from the word Innovate). This course allows students to think of and apply new ideas and concepts in subjects which are not regularly taught in most other schools - focusing mainly on allowing the students to study practical aspects of an elected course, many of which are based in the Creative Arts. This course is what brought KCAHS to be specialist in Creative Arts.

Musicals

The school regularly puts on major musicals:
2000 - Aladdin
2004 - The Wiz
2006 - Little Shop of Horrors
2008 - Seussical the Musical

Computer System

Ku-ring-gai Creative Arts High School has computer system which utilises a Windows 'domain' system, this allows for a user to log in and access their own files on any of the school computers "_{that are set up properly}". The School library and some of the other computers utilise a collection of Terminal Servers 2 of which are available to students. The disadvantages, however, are that if someone uses a relatively large program, it can drain speed from other computers.

The school's computers run a either Windows XP or Windows Terminal Client, the Terminal Servers used are Windows Server 2003 RC2.

School History

The school's first Principal was Bill Eason, who promoted ideas of internationalism and peace, and later went on to found the Australian Independent School at North Ryde. At this time, the school featured a large aviary in the front of the grounds, and students had to learn a piece of poetry by Rabindranath Tagore. The first year to go through Ku-ring-gai was the graduating year of 1970. The four houses which are still part of the school today were set then - Churchill, Curie, Tagore and Lincoln. The school colours were originally brown and gold.

Recent

The school planned to implement a biometric student attendance system in late March, 2008. The system required students to provide fingerprint data (which was checked against a school controlled biometric database) in order to confirm their attendance each morning. However due to concerns raised by members of the school community in regards to privacy issues, the implementation of the system was postponed indefinitely. The system raised concerns that the sensitive data might intrude on students privacy. As a result, the system was made redundant.(As summarised from [Sydney Morning Herald, April 3, 2008] , and [The Daily Telegraph, News Limited, April 3, 2008] )

On the 8th of April, 2008, there was a bomb threat, on the school around midday. A call had been made to the school claiming that there was a bomb inside one of the classrooms. All students and staff were evacuated to the back oval of the school and remained there until half past one in the afternoon, when it was declared safe to return to class. No explosives were found.

The School recently upgraded the canteen, and had a competition to name it. The winning name was SHACK, which is a reversed acronym of the school name.

The school adopted a new mascot in 2008 - a Polar Bear.

Ku-ring-gai is the only school in Australia left with a dome shaped hall (all the other ones collapsed) - the Margaret Preston Hall, aka "The Bini".

See also

* List of Government schools in New South Wales
* List of creative and performing arts high schools in New South Wales

References

External links

* [http://www.kuringgai-h.schools.nsw.edu.au/ Ku-ring-gai Creative Arts High School website]
* [http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/schoolfind/locator/summaryschool.php?selectOption=8416 NSW Department of Education and Training: Ku-ring-gai Creative Arts High School]