Pinnacle College eNewsletter

12 April 2019

Head of Elizabeth Campus

Dear Parents/Caregivers,

We have come to the end of a fantastic term at Pinnacle College but let’s not relax. Consider the term break not only for holiday purposes but also for some catch up time as well. Before talking about this I would like to briefly touch on a few important announcements and events below.

This year Harmony Day was celebrated with a greater excitement among our students as well as our parents. Having such a meaningful day after the New Zealand attack was very special to the school community. It demonstrates again how a harmonious society can be established by listening to each other and respecting the opinions. Of course, tasting the delicious food which were prepared by our very own students and parents helped. Working towards a society in harmony by helping the development of individuals who have the deep understanding of mutual respect and a great desire to be a contributing citizen in Australian society is one of the school goals and will remain amongst them since the importance of this matter is gaining more and more importance every day.

The record- breaking SACE results for Pinnacle College have been advertised and presented in many platforms to the community and to our parents. This year on top of receiving the highest ATAR result ever, 100% of our students made it to University. We are extremely proud with our students’ success and the support provided by our SACE team. In order to acknowledge these achievements, as it was presented last year, the awards will be given to the successful students in term 2. Stay tuned to hear more on this issue from the SACE coordinator.

As I mentioned at the beginning, the holidays are an opportunity for all of us and I am sure our students will benefit from this period of time in several ways such as, by meeting their relatives, helping the parents at home, doing some activities with the friends and, last but not least, getting prepared for term 2 subject topics. This can be done by going over the concepts that they were not feeling confident in and doing some extra exercises. But of course, we would like to see our students refreshed after the break.

Looking forward to seeing you all in a couple weeks of time.

Kind Regards,
Atilla Sinik
Elizabeth Campus Principal

Harmony Day Celebrations

In 2019, the Department of Home Affairs led a national celebration for the 20th anniversary of Harmony Day. This year, Harmony day was renamed Harmony Week to recognise the diversity and inclusion activities that took place during the entire week. Harmony Week included the 21st March which coincides with the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

On the 21st of March, the SRC and Harmony Day Committee organised multiple events to celebrate the diversity, multiculturalism and inclusiveness of the school. The events started off with a shared lunch within each home group. Afterwards, a special assembly was hosted by Nazira Yarmuhammad and Hussein Atwani from year 10. Amina Yarmuhammad and Israa Qais from year 12 gave an informative yet inspiring speech about the importance of inclusivity and anti-racism. Miss P’s dance class and the rest of primary finished off the assembly by performing a special dance number while also singing. They did a wonderful job!

The year 12 Pastoral care girls sold snow cones afterwards to raise money for their selected charity. Over the last few weeks they have been raising money towards food packages to the less fortunate overseas and have so far raised $2000. Great job girls!

Overall it was a successful Harmony week and we would like to thank everyone that contributed to the Day.

Student Representative Council and Nicole Neong

Announcements

Counsellor

This term we have formed a drawing club which takes place just outside the counsellor’s office during recess and lunch. Students have enjoyed collaborating and creating varying pieces of artwork and sketches. The club provides a great environment for creating new friendships and promoting individuality and creativity for primary students. If you see us around feel free to join in and critique Mr Kav’s masterpieces.

Mehmet Kavlakoglu

Science Club

It is a pleasure for us to announce that Science Club takes place every Thursday in the Science lab this year. There are a number of students who participate the Science Club from grade 4 to 6. Our aim is to develop the awareness of science and cultivate students` interest on scientific issues. Here are some of the pictures from our fun time in Science Club.

Emsa Eltinsoy

Click here to download the Uniform Flyer 278 KB - PDF

Class News

Primary

Foundations

The Foundation class attended a fabulous excursion to the local Woolworths this term. We first looked at the bakery and got to feel the dough for the bread. Then we toured the deli and butcher sections. We were then lucky enough to go behind the scenes and see what happens at the back of the store. Everyone was very brave and stood inside the very cold freezer. We then had a turn at crushing some cardboard boxes to be recycled. Lastly, we played a little game of guess the fruit or vegetable and tasted some passionfruit. When it was time to leave, we each received a show bag of goodies from Woolworths and enjoyed our fruit treat before the bus ride back to school. When we were back at school we all made delicious fruit salad before home time!

Sandra Holland

Year 3

We have had an exciting second half to the term. In week 8, ‘The Nature Education Centre’ brought many of their mini-beast friends in to visit us. We met hermit crabs, yabbies, a scorpion from the Finders Ranges, and an Egyptian beetle. We also had chance to stroke the frill necked lizard, how rough. In week 9 we welcomed our eggs and watched with great excitement as they started to hatch. By the end of Wednesday, we had 4 chicks. When we came back the next day we had nine. Later that day we got two more. All our eggs had hatched. We all enjoyed caring for them and stroking them. Today a week later our chicks are leaving us for their new homes. They have already grown so much, starting to get feathers. We look forward to hearing how they go in their new homes.

Sade Secgin

Year 4

Dear Parents,

Thank you for all your support so far this term. I find Seesaw especially useful for communication with you (see me if you would like another copy of the class code). Hopefully you have been able to see some snap shots of what we have been up to.

We have had lots of exciting adventures lately including; the Life Education Bus, Fremont Park as our reward, Harmony Day and Adelaide United clinic. The Life Education Bus taught our class about being safe online. It was interactive and had easy to remember sayings such as stop, block, capture, report. The class were delightful at Fremont with Mr Kav (our male counsellor). We played soccer, footy and enjoyed time together doing gymnastics and playing on the playground. We had a look at the pond environment but couldn’t spot any frogs, just ducks! Emanuel from Adelaide United took the Year 4s for a skill based session. We even had time to improve our juggling and learn some tricks.

Our tadpoles and two frogs appear to be doing well. We have started feeding them blood worm as it is very nutritious. They still like to float but are breathing above the water surface. They like to hide under the plants and rocks.

I have been pleased with the majority of students completing their homework. I commend those who come to me with questions before the end of the week. Please give students time to complete Mathletics and Reading Eggs, perhaps over the weekend.

Miss Sarah Watkins

Year 5

Since the last newsletter, so much has happened in the Year 5 world! Students have been visited by an Adelaide United representative; they have increased their knowledge of the Ancient and Modern Olympics and their Wonder novel is complete. The year 5s also they wrote a narrative based on bullying (a key message in the novel). Having completed descriptive writing tasks and a narrative, students have turned their focus towards recounts and how time connectives and an orientation can take a great story and make it even better for their reader.

During their NaturePlay excursion at Belair National park, the year 5s put their problem solving skills to fantastic use. They constructed small and large structures without any joinery.

Physical Education

In Upper Primary Physical Education this term, students have been involved in Olympic activities, Play is the Way, T-Ball and a series of fitness challenges. Students have learnt the importance of fitness and how regular exercise improves our body and health. Years 5 and 6 students then took this knowledge and, in small groups, led their peers through a series of warm-up routines and mini-games.

In T-ball, students learnt the importance of ‘flow’ and correct movement in supporting the perfect throw, catch or hit. As students learnt through their mistakes, it has been so encouraging to see students support each other. This can be through supportive criticism, modelled movements or simply having a go. To finish off the term, the Year 6s went hiking at Anstey Hill. They did so well with the journey and some even had enough energy to jog along a 1km trail…amazing!

Myles McLean

Music

All classes have continued to learn about their particular topics in Music lessons.

Last week was even more exciting, as we had the chance to enjoy playing a whole range of new musical instruments! Ask your children to tell you about the tambourines, bongos, guiros, djembes, finger cymbals, 2-tone blocks, glockenspiels, and any other instruments they can remember.

At assembly last week the very first Music Award was presented to Year 2 for their wonderful participation in Music lessons. This will be awarded every assembly, so I wonder which class it will go to next time?

Tracy Schache

Science

Year 3 students have worked extremely hard to build bridges during their Technology lessons. Weight was applied to test the strength of the bridges and we had none that snapped! Safe to say we’ve got a fair few engineers coming your way! Year 5 students made a model of a plant or an animal cell in Science. Students also planted some seeds as part of their learning about plants. Some of the seeds grew successfully. Great effort to all the students.

In Science, Year 6 students have completed their studies on the adaptation, migration and hibernation of animals. As part of their learning, students made a diorama to display the habitat and biome of their chosen, researched animal. Well done to all the year 6 students.

Secondary

Art

Term 1 of 2019 has gone so fast. Year 7 students developed a character in manga style and designed a poster representing the character with his/her name with a catchy phrase. Students continue working on creating a comic story featuring the same character. Inspired from Islamic tiles, Year 8 students learned about what involves creating abstract, vegetative and semi-figurative patterns based on a motif. This is both as a tessellations and as centrifugal compositions. Print making, as practised in class, allowed students to create multiple compositional variations of the same motif. Year 9 students have been to the SACE Art Show to observe artworks of Year 12 students from all over South Australia. They will be completing their art work based on contemporary architecture end of Week 10.

Selen Morkoc

Drama

In Drama we have been busy constructing our character masks for our end of term Comedia Dell Arte Performance. Students have plaster cast their own faces, applied paper mache to build features and have now painted their masks. The students have been researching Lazzi (jokes) that their characters can use for the performance. Comedia is partially improvised, so knowing the character and embracing the movement is part of the fun. Comedia is Italian masked comedy and was the inspiration for clowning. It is very physical and humorous and the characters are all exaggerated versions of status relationships within society. The students will be performing for Junior primary in Week 11.

Jocelyn Mungall

Electronics

This term there were many things to learn and experience for year 7/8 electronics class. Students learned about the basics of electronics and familiarised themselves with different tools used in electronics. They were able to recognise different components such as the resister, transistor, capacitor, diode and also focused on the functions of these components.

Students worked on different projects. With the help of their schematic diagrams, digital clocks and tesla coils were made by putting different components together. They can confidently solder and assemble different electronic parts on the board now as well. Well done boys.

Raza Mongol

English

This term the Year 7 students studied narrative and persuasive writing for English. We have covered the elements in story writing and how we can make our stories more engaging for readers. Students then chose a topic of their interest and wrote a persuasive essay to demonstrate their convincing skills. Throughout the term, the students have also focused on grammar and used Kahoot to test their understanding before their term test. The year 7s have also been preparing themselves for their upcoming NAPLAN assessments in Term 2. As the current Year 7 boys English teacher, I’d like to congratulate all my Year 7 boys for their wonderful efforts in transitioning from primary to secondary.

Afra Temizkan

Health and Physical Education

In week 7, the year 8-11 girls, from both Golden Grove Campus and Elizabeth East campus, participated in an open Ten Pin Bowling carnival. Our year 10 team came second in the girl’s competition with 700 points, and Pinnacle finished 4th overall. Zakia Adam was our top scoring student finishing on 170 points. The girls participated enthusiastically and in great spirit, showing sheer joy over the afternoon. Thank you to Miss Hughes for coming along and helping out. Well done girls, you represented the school extremely well.

Molly Affolter

Music

All Secondary Music classes have been working hard on their theory and keyboard skills. It has been wonderful to see the students helping each other with understanding the theory or remembering how to play their songs on the keyboard. They are also learning how important it is for musicians to work together when creating class arrangements. The students have been encouraged to share their ideas and make collaborative decisions so that they can perform together.

The Year 9G elective demonstrated this at assembly last week when they performed their own version of the Cup Song, which you might recognise from the movie Pitch Perfect. This was their first performance, and I am very proud of them!

Tracy Schache

Science

Over the past few weeks the year 11 Biology, Chemistry and Physics classes have been discussing science as a human endeavour, a critical component of any scientific SACE subject. It is important for students to understand that science is not only a school subject but it also has real-life implications within the world. As such, Pinnacle college and The University of Adelaide organised an event where current PhD students presented their projects. Each presenter was selected due to their relevance to the SACE curriculum. Students also had the opportunity to ask questions not covered in the course which broadened their mind to the world of 21st century science. This also gave the students an opportunity to look at different ways in which scientists synthesise information and apply their research to the greater world around them and make a difference. Thank you to the University of Adelaide for organising such a stimulating event!