22 March 2019

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Message

Dear Parents and Guardians,

I would like to welcome all our parents, students and teachers to the 2019 academic year. I would like to extend a very warm welcome to our new students and their families who have joined the Pinnacle College family this year. It is great to see our beloved students settling into the schooling routine.

It is a great pleasure to be working as the Principal of Pinnacle College. I would like to take this opportunity, in the first issue of our newsletter, to introduce myself. Having completed my tertiary studies in Turkey and working at schools in various countries, I came to Australia in 2002, and for ten years, worked in all Amity College campuses in Sydney. In 2013 I moved to Melbourne where I had the pleasure of working at Sirius College for six years. Now, I am very honoured to be a part of the dedicated team here at Pinnacle College.

I am always happy to be working with an enthusiastic team of professionals and families. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome everyone to Pinnacle College and trust that your experience will be a positive and enriching one. I would like to give a warm welcome to all of our staff, students and parents. I hope 2019 will be full of joyful and exciting events.

As a reflection of the excellent academic and social environment of Pinnacle College, we are continuing to grow rapidly. This year, 85 new students and several teachers have joined the Pinnacle College family. In order to meet the increase in demand, we are pleased to have opened a new campus at Golden Grove this year. It brings me great excitement to announce that it is already providing high quality education in a friendly, facility-rich environment. At the moment this campus is providing its services for Foundation to Year 6 Primary as well as Year 7 and 8 Secondary Girls. We trust that it will be a greatly beneficial move as it has the capacity to provide numerous facilities and the potential for modernised schooling buildings.

At Pinnacle College we strive to provide quality education through experienced teaching, improved curriculum, specialised educational resources and strong home-school relationships. I wish to emphasise that, in addition to time at school, success also depends on the commitment and determination of each student and the support of their parents. We therefore encourage more of our parents to show an interest, and be involved with their children’s progress by assisting them at home with their school work, making use of MySIS, and regularly communicating with their teachers.

Our focus this year is to deliver high quality teaching programs to improve student performance, both academically and socially. During the school year there will be a variety of activities and celebrations. I encourage you to attend these functions when possible. Your support of school activities makes your child feel important and sends the message that you value their education and happiness.

If you have any ideas or concerns you are very welcome to approach the appropriate people, such as your child’s Teacher, Coordinator, or myself. Please arrange an appointment to ensure you and your child can have the most benefit from the meeting.

I look forward to meeting you all throughout the year. Once again, I hope 2019 is a wonderful and successful year for our school community.

Educationally yours,
Mr. Deniz Yildirim
Principal

Head of Elizabeth Campus

Dear Parents, Teachers and Students,

As the Head of Elizabeth Campus of Pinnacle College, it is with great excitement that I welcome you to the beginning of a new school year and I look forward in keen anticipation to the events and programs of 2019.

Pinnacle College is refreshed and ready to serve the community with enthusiasm after a very productive summer break and we hope that our students also share the same feelings and are full of energy.

Firstly, I would like to warmly welcome our new Executive Principal, Mr Deniz Yildirim, to Pinnacle College. Mr Yildirim has extensive experience in the education sector. His presence at Pinnacle Colleges will contribute to the high quality of education and the friendly atmosphere at the school, which has been the case since day one, to a great extent. I wish him all the best in his new home and I will continue my role as the head of Elizabeth Campus in 2019.

Over the summer break, our school community was absolutely delighted with the SACE and ATAR achievements of our 2018 class of Year 12. Our students attained outstanding results which, collectively, rendered 2018 as the most successful years with the highest ATAR score in our school’s history. I’d like to congratulate each and every one of our graduates and wish them all the very best with their tertiary endeavours and beyond.

Our new school gymnasium building extension (Stage 5) project has been completed and now serves our students not only in their Physical Education classes but also with various events and activities. It’s time to start the new stage (Stage 6) of the master plan which comprises of a new library and student amenities. Estimated construction commencement date is July 2019 and will hopefully be at our students’ service by the beginning of term 1 of 2020. Currently, Pinnacle college employs a new full time librarian who manages a dedicated space where our students borrow books and spend time with their friends during their breaks. They also read and play board games which contributes to their mental development. With the new facilities these improvements will be taken to another level.

Before I conclude this address, I would like to warmly welcome our new staff members to Pinnacle College, Elizabeth East campus. Mr Emre Secgin (Maths and Robotics), Mrs Sade Secgin (Year 3 class teacher), Ms Emma Hughes (English), Mrs Grace Jaensch (English), Esma Altunsoy (RV/LOTE), Ms Andrea Davey-Summers (Inclusive Education), Ms Tracy Schache (Music), Ms Natasha Parisi (Front Office). Mr Mehmet Kavlakoglu (School Counsellor), Mrs Lisa Preston (Librarian) and Ms Barbara Bradbury (Support Staff) have joined us this year and I’m sure their participation will serve as a reinforcement to our strong team of staff. I wish them a very productive and successful year.

Once again, welcome back to you all and I look forward to embarking together upon an exciting year ahead.

Atilla Sinik
Head of Elizabeth Campus

OUR MISSION, VISION AND VALUES

Our Mission

Pinnacle College strives to establish and maintain a safe and nurturing environment so that every student may reach their full potential and achieve a high level of academic excellence determined by state and federal standards.

Our Vision and Values

When you enter Pinnacle College you will be met with a friendly smile. Our level of pride is displayed by our teachers and staff. Apart from a high standard of education at our well-maintained campuses, we aim to develop responsibility in our students, alongside appreciating and valuing different cultures, possessing positive behaviour and a high ethical conscience. We also guide students to accept actions, widen their view of the world which in turn enables them to learn from the consequences of their choices. Studying in a diverse multicultural community, students have the opportunity to widen their view of the world, enabling them to help each other and be productive both now and in the future.

Coordinators

Girl Coordinator

Dear Parents/ Caregivers

Learning is a life-long journey in an ever changing world. At Pinnacle College, we value the learning process of your children and base them on the fundamental principles of life: teaching children to be courageous, confident and curious life-long learners.

Our teachers at Pinnacle College are here to support the learning of your children. We aim to create an inclusive and safe environment for all students to feel a part of our school community. As the Secondary Girls Coordinator, I’d like to take this opportunity to express my excitement in working with you for the new school year and beyond.

I am looking forward to a great and productive school year. Let’s work together to give our students the best education possible. Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns regarding your child’s behaviour and learning.

Kind Regards
Afra Temizkan
Secondary Girls Coordinator

Boys Coordinator

As the new Secondary Boys Coordinator in 2019, I am excited to work with the Pinnacle College community in what is a time of great growth for our School. As well as the new Golden Grove Campus, there are many exciting new developments for our students at Elizabeth.

The new gymnasium has opened up excellent sporting opportunities, but also provided a venue for our new weekly assemblies. Each home group hosts an assembly once per term, dedicating their week to a relevant topic such as International Women’s Day or ANZAC Day. Preparing for such events give students excellent opportunities to develop their leadership, organization and public speaking skills.

Home group is also a new initiative for Secondary students at the Elizabeth Campus in 2019. For 20 minutes each day home group classes gather to discuss or undertake activities relating to relevant topics facing our students. Term 1 has a focus on resolving conflict and confronting bullying issues. We also hope to have house sporting competitions running throughout home group from term 2 onwards.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns about your son as partnerships between teachers and school are vital in providing the best possible support for our students.

Regards,
David Hannan
Secondary Boys Coordinator

School Counsellor

Greetings parents, caregivers, families and friends,

What a start to the year it has been and with it many new faces. My name is Mehmet Kavlakoglu or Mr. K and I am the new school counsellor at the Elizabeth East Campus. I have been met with welcome arms in my first few weeks at the school by both students and families. I would like to take a brief moment to explain my role at the school and how I am best able to support the student body.

I have a keen passion in supporting young people with the challenges they face. My role includes, but is not limited to, providing students with strategies and skills to manage issues that may be related to schooling, relationships, life at home or stress. Beyond this I am also interested in helping students develop academically and socially through building positive strategies and coping mechanisms.

I look forward to my time here at Pinnacle College

Mehmet Kavlakoglu
School Counsellor

Inclusive Education Coordinator

Andrea Davey-Summers

Welcome to the 2019 school year. My name is Andrea Davey-Summers and starting this year I am the Inclusive Education Coordinator across all three Pinnacle College campus sites, and teach various Year 5 and 6 subjects at the Golden Grove campus. Part of my role is to review and assess students who may need additional support in the classroom or have learning difficulties. I also support teaching staff and teacher aides (SSO) when planning and teaching students who have already verified learning, physical and medical needs. If you have concerns about your child and their learning needs, please do not hesitate to contact myself or their class teacher. I look forward to meeting more parents as the year progresses.

Library

It has been an exciting start of the year. The library has now moved to PO1 which is the portable with gears. The new library now has areas for easy fiction (picture books), Junior fiction books, series books and lots of novels for older primary and secondary students. We have also an area for nonfiction (real/ facts) books. We welcome classes or individuals and will develop further during the year, so have patience with me. Come help make it YOUR library.

The library can be the centre of our community, a place everyone is welcome and never judged. A place where the culture of reading for pleasure begins.

‘Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.’ Margaret Fuller

Lisa Preston
Librarian

Student Representative Council

Say hello to the 2019 student representative council

This year has brought many new faces to the student representative council. This is always a great sight but we have also welcomed seasoned representatives as well. This year the SRC will be focusing on events such as Harmony day, organising activities for Pinnacle festival and many more to come. Each representative was voted in by their year level which shows the trust the students have in them. Hopefully, together we can build an even better and brighter school that can be enjoyed by future years to come.

Nicole Neong

School Captains

Congratulations to the school captains for 2019, Rami Ibrahim and Amina Yarmuhammad.

Assalamu alaykum students, parents, and caregivers,

Our names are Amina Yarmuhammed and Rami Ibrahim and we are your Pinnacle school captains for 2019. As school captains, we promise to be the gateway for all student ideas and opinions related to the school. We are open to all suggestions, and your advice as parents in the community is invaluable to us.

Our peers and classmates describe us as open and talkative people who are always ready to help others and we wish to be beneficial to the school throughout the year. We will act as avid listeners who will always be a pillar of support. Our promise is not only to help provide the community with events for everyone to enjoy, but to create and uphold a place of safety for everyone. We have prior experience with positions which require skills of leadership such as SRC and helping our communities run events. This school and the people involved with it have given us so much throughout our school lives and we want to extend our gratitude to the school and to give back to the people who helped make Pinnacle the learning environment it is today.

Your school captains,
Rami and Amina

Canteen

Piquant Pinnacle College

In 2019, Pinnacle College has improved the canteen remarkably by featuring a new and delicious menu with a bigger variety of hot foods and savouries.

The canteen features a range of healthy foods which will help the school build a healthy environment for all children in and outside the classroom. Also, the costs of foods have decreased even though the quality has not.

The canteen has also developed into a cafeteria where students can eat their lunch in there as well. The canteen staff have been allowing students the opportunity to give suggestions to provide a variety to choose from. On top of that, the canteen menu also changes every week!

The school is proud to have a canteen on the premises of the school and hope that it will improve and develop over the years. The updated menu can be seen below.

Ali Trabolsi
Year 8

Class News

Art

Secondary

Year 7 students are learning the Anime & Manga genre this term. They will study the emergence of the genre after WWII in Japan and the major artist, Tezuka’s role in its formation. Students will learn what “stylizing” means in art and start to draw their own characters using the conventions of the genre.

Year 8 students explore Asian decorative arts mainly focusing on Islamic patterns. In the Islamic traditional art, patterns have been used to adorn plain walls of monumental buildings. Students design motifs and produce tessellations using single motifs using grids, followed up by a printing process.

Year 9 elective art students are drawing and painting on different spaces and buildings. They are focusing on the works of star architects including Ando and Gendry who mark the global architectural practice today. The year 9s study the drawing and/or painting style of their chosen architect in order to design an artwork inspired from it.

Selen Morkoc

Primary

The Foundation, Year 1 and 2 classes have started the term by looking at portraiture and creating art work relating to themselves. The Foundation and Year 1 classes have learnt how to use the iPad camera but flipping the camera, setting the timer, reviewing and deleting photographs. The students then used these photographs to draw a portrait of themselves.

The Foundation class has also used paper shapes and paint to create ‘Funky Faces’ that express emotion. While the Year 1 and 2 classes have made monochromatic self-portraits. The student work has been displayed together to create a collaborative monochromatic rainbow in our school hall. The year 2 class, has also explored their dreams for the future and created a stained glass self-portrait using warm and cool colours. These are also on display in our school hall.

Drama

The Year 9 Drama students have been studying Comedia dell Arte (the art of comedy) and masked theatre by looking at how to express emotion when wearing a mask. By making their own masks using plaster, they can fully immerse themselves within the art of comedy.

We enjoyed an excursion to the Adelaide Fringe Festival where we attended a contemporary aboriginal performance. ‘Chasing Smoke’ is an evocative and triumphant performance by Australia’s only Indigenous contemporary circus ensemble. Both playful and brave, ‘Chasing Smoke’ is the spark that ignites the question, “Who am I?”, when you have 60,000 years of history to sift through in search of the answer. An excellent performance.

Jocelyn Mungall

Health and PE

Secondary

The Year 7-10 girls have been developing their understanding of several cultural dances and dance techniques. Dance allows you to develop physical fundamental and specialised movement skills including; balance, coordination, muscular endurance, cardio-vascular endurance and power, whilst also developing confidence. Students have gained and understanding of rhythm and tempo and have been learning and developing their own choreography. It is clear that the girls have been enjoying this unit. Keep an eye out for some of our top dances on our social media pages - they are worth a look!

Molly Affolter

Primary

In Physical Education, Foundation to Year 4 students are participating in the ‘PLAY IS THE WAY’ program. This program teaches social and emotional skills using guided play, classroom activities and empowering language. It is designed to improve and entrench students personal and social capabilities. So far this term we have been focusing on, ‘Treating others the way you want to be treated’.

The Primary classes have been creating some Golden Rules to use in their class rooms to incorporate the “Play is the way” program. The Years 2 and 4 classes have also been learning soccer skills, while the Foundation & Year 3 have been looking at group and team games.

Science

Secondary Science at Pinnacle for 2019 is off with a spectacular start! This year we welcome Mr Zeki Bey to the Secondary Science Team at Elizabeth Campus, as well as Mr Serkan Sezen who has the important role of Laboratory Technician.

Middle school students and both our Elizabeth East and Golden Grove campuses have been busy engaging with the fundamental principles needed to be successful Science students, through exploring the Scientific Method and Laboratory Skills.

Our science electives are up and running, with the STEM elective this year taking on a “space” focus for 2019, commemorating the 50th year of the Apollo moon landing. Furthermore, the Australian Space Agency is due to open later this year in Adelaide, bringing promising future job prospects to the state and potentially even some of our talented and motivated students!

Erica Maik

Arabic

Assalam Alaikum,

As this year starts we have some changes and improvements in our LOTE departments. As usual we have the advance and the standard levels. Students were grouped according to their capabilities as others were grouped according to their mother tongue. Arabic speaking students are in one class and non-Arab speakers are in another. Students are all given Arabic textbooks and homework books will be given as well. We encourage parents and guardians to support students by making sure they read at least twice in a week. The textbooks are subsidised by the school so we expect students to respect their belongings. If they lose the textbooks, they will have to buy them from interstate and it will cost $40 with postage. We will keep you informed about the topics and assignments on Mysis so please log on at any time to see your child’s grades and upcoming assessments.

English

With a new campus, new faces among students and teachers, and a range of fantastic topics and texts, this has been an exciting start to 2019 for English! In particular, we would like to welcome to the team Emma Hughes and Grace Jaensch, who are bringing their English expertise across all of our year levels.

This term, students have been exploring a range of perspectives and issues ranging from the impacts of prejudice in society, to the different aspects of the migrant experience. They have also been learning to express these perspectives and issues in a range of ways including: impressive and persuasive advocacy speeches, and descriptive and emotive narratives.

The past and the present have also been brought together in the classroom through texts such as the thrilling adventure story that is Percy Jackson and Lightning Thief which reinvents Greek mythology; and the enduring classic To Kill a Mockingbird, which, despite being nearly sixty years old, still resonates with readers to this day.

Lucy Moschos
Head of English

Music

It is very exciting to introduce Music to the Secondary school at the Elizabeth campus! Six Year 7/8 boys have accepted the challenge to learn more about Music, and there are ten students in each of the Year 9 classes. We have started the year by learning about basic Music theory such as notes on the stave and rhythmic notation. They are beginning to read music and play simple tunes on keyboards as well. Developing individual knowledge and skills is important but working together as an ensemble is also an important component of this subject. I am encouraged by the students’ level of enthusiasm and willingness to put in the work hard. I look forward to seeing the students develop their knowledge, skills and appreciation of music as the year progresses!

Tracy Schache
Music Teacher

Foundations

What a fantastic start to schooling we have had in Foundation! Everyone was ready to ‘dive into learning’ and in just five short weeks we have learnt so much. One of our favourite activities so far was creating ‘cup and ball’ toys for both Science and Technology. Students came up with a list of materials they thought would be useful for creating it and then took great pride in creating and playing with their toy.

Some other fun activities that we enjoy participating in during the mornings are puzzles, drawing, making patterns and building. Our day also couldn’t go by without some movement breaks, especially dancing!

Sandra Holland

Year 1

Welcome back to what promises to be another busy year. We have already had a full program in the first five weeks of the term. The Year 1’s have enjoyed having some mini-beast visitors in the form of earthworms and more recently stick and leaf insects.

In week 5 we took part in a session on the Life Education Bus. We enjoyed meeting Healthy Harold and learning about keeping our bodies healthy. We are continuing to follow up on this session using our fantastic Ready, Set, Go workbooks that Harold gave us. We are looking forward to the rest of the term and particularly watching the chicks hatching.

Year 2

Welcome to Year 2 2019 with Miss Parletta.

The students have had a fabulous start to the beginning of a new academic year. It’s so lovely to see new faces and welcome in the new year in such a positive way.

The students were fortunate to experience an incursion on the Life Education Bus which was so informative! The students took a trip with Harold, the friendly giraffe, and had to make some crucial decisions about healthy eating and how to be a good friend to others.

In Maths, the students are particularly enjoying learning using our Maths Stations, in which students get to work in groups on some hands-on practical activities. It is fantastic to see students use their critical thinking when putting their maths into practice.

In Literacy, we are learning how to write procedures. The students have learnt the importance of using Bossy Verbs in order to make our instructions clear and strong. The students will be welcome the Nature Education Centre to our class in two weeks, where they will be able to see, touch, feel and learn about various mini-beasts, amphibians and reptiles. They are so excited for this!

I’m looking forward to the remainder of the year!

Miss Parletta

Year 4

What a brilliant start to term 1! All students have been trying their best and asking for help when required. I see a very strong work ethic in this bunch. Please ensure students are completing their homework and bringing it on Fridays to mark.

In Science this term, we are learning about plants. Last week the students began an investigation about the growth of a bean. We have had several crack open and shoots are starting to appear. We are hoping to see some more growth over the next week or so. Students are recording their observations as a part of their Science assessment.

We have tadpoles in our class as of this week. Lifecycles is also a component of Science this term. Students will be able to observe the tadpoles becoming frogs with their own eyes! Please see me if your family would be interested in homing one of the frogs once grown.

There is a lot to look forward to before the end of the term. I think the class are most excited about the Life Education bus visit and Adelaide United workshop.

Kind regards,
Miss Sarah Watkins

Year 5

The Year 5 class is excited to be back and although the work is slowly building up to a regular level they are supporting their peers and exercising their brains!

The dust has fallen off and students are already challenging themselves in a variety of engaging activities. In English, students are reading the text Wonder, immersing themselves in writing challenges, tackling group NAPLAN challenges that simulate pressure and solutions to overcome it, and finding that some of the spelling ‘brain-crushers’ are not as hard as once thought. In PE the students have nearly completed their fitness challenge where they have come to understand the importance of overall fitness to allow us to proficiently participate in the sports we love. Students have grasped words and concepts like DOMS, VO2 Max and mitochondria… flashy words for things they already knew. But this is just the start. Stay tuned as we begin our narratives, improve our persuasive techniques and develop our poetic knowledge.

Thank you

Mr McLean and the Year 5 students

Upper Primary Science and HASS

In HASS, grade 6s are learning about Federation and the Australian Government. Students worked in groups to make Australian & Aboriginal flags. Grade 5s on the other hand, started to look into Aboriginals and life back in the 1700-1800s.

In Science, grade 5s began to learn about the structure and adaptations of plants. Whereas, grade 6 students, conducted their first experiment in the Science lab. Students worked scientifically to test and identify the best condition for yeast to work in. Well done team…

Science and HASS

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