Pinnacle College eNewsletter

28 May 2019

Newsletter Articles

PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE

We are mid-way through our second term, and it has been very busy with programs, excursions, incursions, NAPLAN assessments, the National Simultaneous Storytime’ event, and ‘Premier's Reading Challenge’ ambassador - Rebecca Morse’s visit to GG campus along with the Channel 10 crew.

It is a great opportunity for me to see our students learning and enjoying a variety of activities. Thank you to everyone who organised and put in effort to make these activities and events possible for our students.

Ramadan is a holy festival that Muslims celebrate every year with a month of fasting, prayers and self-sacrifice. Muslims consider this to be the month when they get closer to the God. It is a time that helps acquire patience and strength of mind. They not only pray for themselves, but also request the Almighty to shower His Blessings on their loved ones and all of humanity.

May Ramadan bring you peace and prosperity, good health and wealth, and brighten your life forever. May the spirit of Ramadan also illuminate the world and show us the way to peace and harmony.

As part of Ramadan activities, our Pastoral Care teachers have organised Iftar dinners for our students. I would like to thank all the parents and families for hosting and joining us for these wonderful gatherings.

Our newly established Parents and Friends Committee for Golden Grove Campus and Gilles Plains Campus also organised their first Iftar for the school community at the Golden Grove campus. It was a good opportunity to bring staff, families and students together.

I would like to thank all the parents and families for hosting the dinners and assisting with other Ramadan activities. I also thank our P&F Committee for organising iftar dinners, but also for supporting the school in many of our other events too.

Our P&F Committee is also organising an Eid-ul Fitr festival at GG campus on the 7th of June. I would love to see you all there!

Golden Grove Campus Official Opening Ceremony

It excites me very much to announce that our Pinnacle College Golden Grove Campus will be having it’s official opening ceremony on the 21st of June, Friday at 11:00 am. It is quite pleasing to have the Minister of Education, Mr. John Gardner, attending the ceremony as the Guest-of-Honour. Staff and students have been putting forward great efforts to prepare for one of the most important Pinnacle College events of the year. All parents are welcome to join this historic day for Pinnacle College.

I wish everyone a very happy and peaceful Eid Mubarak.

Kind Regards,
Deniz Yildirim

CURRICULUM COORDINATOR

Dear Parent/Guardian,

A highlight for this term thus far has been the visit via the ‘Premier's Reading Challenge’ ambassador - Rebecca Morse. Rebecca attended the Golden Grove Campus along with the Channel 10 crew to reiterate the importance of daily reading and to instil a love for reading ‘purely for pleasure.’ She shared insightful information about her career as a reporter and even read one of our picture books in her reporter voice - the students were thrilled! Followed by the presentation, three students were selected for an interview to discuss their favourite books - they all confidently spoke in front of cameras.

On another note, our Year 3, 5 & 7 students recently completed their NAPLAN assessments. It was delightful to witness some students treated to positive encouragement notes from their parents and siblings. They read their notes prior to each assessment during the week and they were filled with warmth and smiles. A special thank you to all our parents for supporting their child during this period and we believe all students have attempted to do their very best.

We kindly ask that all parents ensure to download the Seesaw application on their devices to receive updates and important reminders from their child’s teacher. It will give you an opportunity to peek inside the classroom in the comfort of your home or workplace!

Stay tuned for glimpses of the Junior Primary ‘National Simultaneous Storytime’ event :)

Tuba Sultan Cimen

DISCIPLINE COORDINATOR

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

It has come to our attention that there are students being left at the bus stop at Gilles Plains without parental supervision, early in the morning. There have been reported incidents of students rushing at the bus while the driver is attempting to park the vehicle. The driver is unable to see the children when they are so close to the vehicle to be able to avoid them.

Parents have the responsibility of caring for their children until they are on the bus to go to school. Please ensure that you take steps to protect your child by remaining with them until they can safely board the bus or ensuring that you have found another responsible adult who is able to take care of them until such time.

In addition to this, parents need to be able to pick their child up from the Gilles Plains bus when it arrives at Wandana Avenue. There is no facility for Out of School Hours Care at Pinnacle College therefore students are unsupervised once they have disembarked the bus at Wandana Avenue.

Kind Regards,
Kylie Burton

SCHOOL COUNSELLOR

Dear parents and caregivers,

With increasing time spent online, you may be concerned about your child’s possibility of being exposed to cyberbullying. Understanding cyberbullying can aid you to support your children in staying safe online. It is vital to highlight that a healthy amount of conflict between young people is a part of growing up however, cyber bullying or any type of bullying is not. In a nutshell, cyberbullying is virtual bullying that may use electronic platforms such as social media accounts, the internet, text messages or even phone calls to aggressively, intentionally and continuously harm someone. Unfortunately, statistics show that cyberbullying is the most common in late primary and follows all the way up to junior high school. Regrettably, this form of bullying may be more challenging to detect when compared to other forms as it is covert however there are many actions you can take to prevent the bullying from continuing such as:

Notifying the school of the cyberbully
Find out more about the schools anti-bullying policy - all valid policies are on the school website
Keep a record and log evidence of the bullying in case it needs to be reported
Report serious cases of cyberbullying to the police immediately such as cyberstalking
Suggest your child “block” or remove the bully from their friend list to prevent contact from occurring
Assist your child to spend some time away from the computer and mobile phone by increasing their options for doing other fun, social activities such as increased family time
Follow up after your child tried a solution to see the outcome

Additionally, you can visit the e-safety website for additional tools to support you combating cyberbullying with your child.

Pinnacle College takes any form of bullying very seriously, recently Cassandra from SAPOL was invited to attend both the Golden Grove and the Elizabeth East Campus to discuss legal repercussions of such behaviours. We urge for all parents to be more aware and monitor their child’s online activity to be quick to prevent any serious action.

Warm Regards,
Semanur Tanas

CAR PARK SAFETY

Dear Parent/Caregiver,

Please take note of the following important car park and general safety reminders:

Ensure you follow the car park rules
Drive at 5km whilst using the car park
DO NOT park at the kiss and drop zone
Park in the designated visitor parking areas if your child is not waiting by the kiss and drop zone when collecting/dropping off your child/children

Ensure your child is wearing their seatbelt prior to leaving the school premises
It is essential to report to the front office when dropping your child off late or collecting them from school early

Warm regards,
School Safety Department

MOTHER’S DAY STALL

We would like to say a huge “Thank you” to our dedicated parents and staff who volunteered to help, organise, set up and sell gifts for Mother’s Day. Our Mother’s Day stall was very popular and a great success due to the time and efforts of our helpers and staff. Our students were given the opportunity to buy gifts to show appreciation and love towards their mothers, grandmothers and aunties. We hope that many of you received some beautiful gifts and messages on your special day. Thank you for all the support you give to our students.

FOUNDATION – GOLDEN GROVE

Dear Parents,

This term we are taking part in the Premier’s Reading Challenge. The Premier’s Reading Challenge is a program that encourages students to read more books and improves their literacy levels. Our class has been very busy reading many picture books and having some great discussions about each story.

Our first class excursion to the Adelaide Zoo was very exciting and students enjoyed every moment. This visual and interactive excursion enabled the students to have a deeper understanding of what animals require in order to stay alive in their own habitats. Children were able to see many different habitats as well as a variety of animals. I would also like to thank our parent volunteer and our SSO for their time and efforts they provided on our excursion day.

In the English curriculum we have been continuing with our Initialit Program and already can see great progress in students. Students are sounding out, blending and spelling words independently. In Mathematics, children have enjoyed learning about weight and using mathematical language to describe the length.

Our theme in learning areas of History and The Arts is Australia. Children have been learning about the Geography of Australia and the importance of the Aboriginal Culture. Children have been exposed to the variety of instruments and artwork techniques used over thousands of years. Students will also learn about the importance of Dreamtime.

Kind regards,
Mrs Vokolos

YEAR 2 – GOLDEN GROVE

Dear Parents,

We have been practising our Narrative writing so far, learning how to captivate the reader using ‘sizzling starts’, ‘dynamic dialogue’ and some fantastic ‘tightening tension’. Students have been working hard to write some interesting starts to stories and characters, whilst trying to ban the boring writing! We will end the Term with a focus on Poetry! Please remember to sit with your child whilst they are reading 15-20 minutes a night, I can’t stress how important this really is for them!

Numeracy has been fun and very hands-on this term, using balances and scales for Mass and learning to use new programs such as Kahoot and Plickers for quizzes on the iPads. I introduced the column method for addition and subtraction - it was amazing to see the students pick this up so quickly!

We have been learning to use SeeSaw and uploading videos related to what we are learning in class, further helping us to explain and understand the topics and then we watch them in class together! It has been a really fun tool to use, especially in Science with our mixtures.

The students are very excited for their excursion on June 3rd to the Migration Museum for HASS. We will be pretending to be a child in the 19th century for a day and then walk over to the Adelaide Oval to have lunch. We have been studying past and present, this excursion will be a great day for the students!

Kindest Regards,
Miss Ryan

YEAR 3 – GOLDEN GROVE

Dear Parents,

Welcome back to another exciting term at Pinnacle College!

The Year 3s have been busily preparing for the NAPLAN Assessment in English. We practiced using comprehension skills to build understanding when reading, and revised Narrative and Persuasive Texts. We also learnt the importance of double (and, sometimes even, triple) checking; editing can change your work from a ‘good’ to a ‘great’. We highly recommend it!

In Maths, we have been focusing on patterns, problem solving and two-dimensional shapes. We learnt that 2D, or ‘flat’, shapes can be classified as either ‘regular’ or ‘irregular’, the difference being that regular shapes have sides of the same length. We identified different 2D shapes in our classroom then recreated them using matchsticks. It was a fun, hands-on way to cement our understanding.

In PE, we have been striving to improve our basketball skills, such as dribbling, passing and shooting. We’re keen to showcase our hard work through a friendly match towards the end of the term.

Until then, we wish you all a Happy Ramadan!

Kind regards,
Miss Mubarak

YEAR 4 – GOLDEN GROVE

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

I cannot believe how fast the term is flying by! The children continue to impress me with their passion, commitment and dedication to their studies. I hope you all saw us on week 3’s episode of ‘Behind the News!’ The children were so surprised and excited to see themselves on television! Well done Year 4, keep up the awesome work!

Our Literacy focus this term has been procedures. The children had a wonderful time creating ‘fluffy slime’ in the classroom and wrote some descriptive procedures to follow our fun activity! Reading tests will be taken over the next few weeks, so please ensure that your child is reading 15-20 minutes each night and is being questioned to ensure that they are comprehending what was read.

Problem solving and angles have been our Mathematics topics so far. I am so pleased to see the students delve so positively into the concept of problem solving. There has been a significant improvement in their test results and their mathematical vocabulary has dramatically increased. Remember to keep checking SeeSaw to remain up-to-date with our class news and fun photos!

Love,
Emily Rowlands

YEAR 5 – GOLDEN GROVE

Maths - The first week back of term we spent lots of time revising math concepts with all students by going over past NAPLAN tests finding tricky questions and working through them together as a class. We also sat some trial tests, I am happy to say that NAPLAN is over for a few years for this group of students! They put in a lot of effort and tried their best, which is all we can ask. During week two we worked on worded problems which is a challenging area. Worded problems give real life scenarios that require mathematical thinking to organise and solve them. This is an area we will continue to work on over the year as it is challenging for most students. We are continuing towards mastery of the multiplication table and your child should be working on this for homework as well. Please make sure students have access to work on Mathletics tasks at home as this is a required part of their homework.

Science - This term we are learning about chemical science, solids, liquids and gases. Our Science curriculum is mainly taken from the ‘Primary Connections’ science curriculum and includes lots of hands on experiments. You may hear your child speaking about how long it takes honey to drip from a spoon our drain out of a hole in the bottom of a cup. Our new word last week was ‘viscosity’ and our experiments were looking at how different liquids could be classified according to their viscosity. It was lots of fun - and a little bit messy…

English - The Year 5 students are reading ‘Boy Overboard’ by Morris Gleitzman as part of their novel study this term and they have thoroughly enjoyed the read thus far. Students completed a research task on Afghanistan to broadly comprehend the context and setting of the story. Many of the students have made colourful and vivid posters for their task and have outlined key information. As a class we have started to analyse the characters: Jamal & Bibi - there were some excellent perspectives shared by students. The Year 5s have made text to text, text to self and text to the world connections which has made the experience of reading ‘real.’

Warmest regards
Year 5 Teachers

YEAR 6 – GOLDEN GROVE

Maths - In Maths this term we have worked through written strategies for addition and subtraction and spent a week working on worded problems. Worded problems take algorithms and extrapolate them into real life problems, requiring students to extract the information contained and use their mathematical reasoning to solve the problem. It can be quite challenging for students, including those who excel in mathematics, as it requires a deeper understanding of concepts and the ability to transfer their skills to a different context. During week 3 we investigated 2D shapes, which students found more challenging than expected, we have graduated from naming basic shapes to being able to name and classify regular and irregular shapes including types of triangles and parts of circles.

English - The Year 6 bunch are reading ‘Deltora Quest’ by Emily Rodda and are explicitly experimenting with the Seven steps to writing success for their narrative unit this term. The novel outlines all steps; including ‘ban the boring.’ Students have been exceptional with defining core elements within the story. We are also focusing on alternatives to the word ‘said.’ Students now have designated pages that they note alternatives instead of ‘said.’ Some include: ‘gasped,’ ‘reassured,’ ‘bellowed’ and ‘muttered.’ I am looking forward to seeing their narratives unfold with the use of a variety of vocabulary.

Also, a special thank you to the Year 6s for being amazing helpers with the Junior Primary students.

Kind regards,
Year 6 Teachers

YEAR 7 – GOLDEN GROVE

On Monday the 20th May, 7G went on an excursion to the SA Museum. Students participated in a Chinese Mask Painting Session with the Confucius Institute, showing their creativity and learning about the Chinese art culture. They visited the Ancient Egypt Gallery and the Australian Aboriginal Cultures Gallery, linking to their semesters learning. They day was enjoyed by all and students represented the school well with their positive, respectful and enthusiastic behaviour.

Kind regards,
Year 7 Homegroup

FOUNDATION – GILLES PLAINS

Welcome to the start of Term 2. This term the Foundation students will be engaged in many learning experiences and whole school programmes to enrich their learning. The Premier’s Reading Challenge is one such program, that we have just started in class. The challenge requires students to read a variety of books to achieve certificates and medals. The Foundation students are enjoying our shared reading time and are on track to earn their first Premier’s Reading Challenge certificate.

The Foundation class went on an excursion to the zoo to explore and consolidate their understanding of animal needs and their habitats. At the zoo, students attended the zoo classroom and learned how to keep ‘Henrietta the Lizard’ happy, healthy and alive. The hands on experience helped children gain a better understanding of basic survival needs, such as warmth, shelter and water. At the zoo, the students observed animals in their natural surroundings and they made recordings in their Zoo Workbook.

This Term, the Foundation class selected two new student representatives for the SRC. We would like to take this opportunity to welcome Sarah Ali and Syed Ali to the SRC and we look forward to seeing the important contribution you make to the team this term.

Kind Regards
Miss Bianca Villani

YEAR 1 – GILLES PLAINS

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Welcome back to another busy but exciting term. I hope everyone had a great break and that students are excited to continue their learning with our new theme - Fairy Tales and Story writing.

Our term started with students getting a better understanding of what fairy tales are through not only listening to fairy tales but also getting a feel for their favourite character, through some role-playing as part of our Show and Tell. We have been focusing on the different ways we can describe story characters in preparation for our character description writing task as well as writing our own stories later on in the term.

In Maths, we have just finished looking at the topic of length. Students interacted well with one another when they got to measure each others arms lengths and even measured each others pointing finger, for our class investigation to see who has the longest pointing finger. Our topics for the coming weeks include: Partitioning - understanding tens and units and sharing equally, giving and following directions, skip counting with simple addition and subtraction problems followed by our last topic of fractions.

Just to finish off, I would like to kindly remind students to make sure they are having a go with completing their homework and in particular, are thinking about what it is that we have been learning about in class, to help them finish off set tasks. Learning to spell and write 3-4 sentences to form paragraphs does take time but with persistence, wonderful things will happen.

Keep up the good work Year 1’s!

Kind regards,
Ms Mackowiak

YEAR 2 – GILLES PLAINS

Dear Parents,

Welcome back to another fruitful term! I hope you are enjoying this beloved month with your family and friends. I wish you all Ramadan Mubarak and may all your fasting and prayers be accepted.

This term in Literacy, we are learning about narrative and poetry writing. So far, students are enjoying narrative writing and particularly sizzling starts. They understand the concept well and are able to write a sizzling start. The focus now is on backfill which is about the characters, setting and what the event is. Please encourage your child to write narratives at home on different topics/ pictures to support the learning in class.

On the other hand, in Numeracy the children have been learning about Mass and using scales to weigh different objects in the classroom. This has been fun and the kids demonstrated solid understanding of the concept! Well done year 2. Soon we will begin learning about ‘location’.

Science is more fun this term as children are having the opportunity to make different mixtures in the classroom and use adjectives to describe them. Please ensure you follow the given instructions to complete the science project on seesaw.

Finally, a few reminders:

Please ensure your child arrives to school on time and gets picked up on time
Homework booklets are due on Friday, it is important that your child does all the given tasks at home to the best of his/her ability. Incomplete homework will result in negative points on mysis
Please support your child at home as much as possible so they can show better and quicker improvements.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Warm regards,
Mrs Al Bayati

YEAR 3 – GILLES PLAINS

As a part of the unit: Earth and Space in Science, the Year 3’s have been exploring the Solar System and in particular, how the Sun, Earth and Moon work together to create day, night and the seasons. Students physically depicted how the Earth and Moon orbit the Sun by using different balls to represent this phenomenon. They then drew a diagram showcasing their understandings of how the Sun, Earth and Moon work together to create day and night.

The students also explored the cultural views of the sun in the indigenous dreamtime story called “The First Sunrise.” Students then illustrated the story using their interpretations of what life might have been like without the sun for the animals and discussed the importance of the sun for the Earth and its inhabitants.

Here’s what some students have to say about the unit so far:

Maria Ali – “In science, we learned that when the Earth rotates on itself, it is rotating anti-clockwise on its axis. This is how day and night is made.”

Hisham- “The seasons change because the Earth is orbiting around the Sun and rotating on its axis. If the Southern hemisphere is facing the sun that is when we have Winter and the other side of the Earth has Summer!”

Kind regards,
Kerry Apergis

LOTE - ARABIC

السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته

Welcome back to another term, I wish you all Ramadan Mubarak, may Allah accept all our good deeds.

In Term 1, the Year 1 Class focused on pronouncing and writing unjoined letters and short vowels. This term, students are learning how to join these letters into words, how to pronounce and write simple words.

The Year 2 students have learnt to combine double vowels / long vowels in their reading and can apply some simple grammar, for example sun and moon letters.

The Year 3 and Year 4 classes have continued with their topics with a focus on reading and building sentences. The focus is mainly on building vocabulary that will enable students to further their comprehension of the Arabic Language and its use.

This term, the Year 5 and Year 6 classes have an Arabic project about the Muslim manners; the students have to choose one manner and create a poster then present it for the whole class. This is combined with reading of textbook topics, with an emphasis on comprehension.

The Year 7|8 class are continuing with their topics. The main focus is reading and translating texts provided in their textbook. Students are also introduced to grammatical concepts to sentence structures and the influence of grammar on orientation of text.

Kind regards,
Soheir Habib

LOTE - Turkish

Merhaba,

The Year 1 and 2 Turkish students at our Gilles Plains and Golden Grove Campuses, started the term with making Ramadan and Mother’s Day cards. Students enjoyed writing beautiful messages in Turkish. We are also covering the topics of classroom objects as well as numbers. New beginners are also focusing on alphabet, sounds and syllables.

Hope to share more good news with you!

Kind regards,
Gulsum

MUSIC

It has been wonderful for the children to continue to explore the different sounds each instrument can make.

Many classes have started to learn more about pitch, as we have chime bars, glockenspiels and a metallophone now. The children can identify, sing and play high and low sounds and are learning how to play them clearly and accurately on these instruments using good technique.

We continue to develop our singing voices, which is an instrument that we are all blessed with. As well as singing songs in class which helps us to learn about our topic, we have a particular focus on the National Anthem this term.

Tracy Schache
Music Teacher