Pinnacle College eNewsletter

29 May 2020

Newsletter Articles

PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE

Dear Parents, Teachers and Students,

We thank you for your support during online learning. We know how challenging it can be when you are at home doing your work, as well as dealing with household chores. Especially in these difficult times, we greatly appreciate your efforts. Now we have resumed class and face to face learning is in place, as the majority of the students are back at school. Like every other school, we are gradually recovering from the impact of the COVID-19. However, we are conscious that a second wave of the virus is a possibility and taking the necessary precautions. Assemblies have begun in small groups along with some low risk activities.

Social distancing and good hygiene practices are still encouraged at school. As a part of these preventative measures, we still request that parents avoid visiting the front office where possible. Please ensure you comply with the social distancing rules when you drop off and collect your children from school, unless you have an urgent matter, which requires a face-to-face conversation.

I would like to draw your attention to another serious matter. Unfortunately some of our parents are speeding on Bicentennial Drive in the morning when they bring their children to school. We have received several complaints from the community including parents of neighbouring public schools. Therefore, I kindly request from our parents to observe the traffic rules and not speed. We will be requesting some assistance from the council and police to monitor this issue as well.

Take care and keep healthy.

Kind Regards,
Atilla Shinik
Campus Principal

SECONDARY COORDINATOR

Welcome back to a busy Term 2. When we started the year, we could not have envisioned the direction education would take at the end of Term 1. The resilience of students, parents and teachers is to be commended as we have transitioned seamlessly into remote learning and back to contact learning at school.

During this term, I have reflected on my role as Secondary Coordinator. My focus is to work with students to implement change within our school and wider contexts. This can be enhanced by providing students with opportunities to have a voice and implement processes and plans that are collaboratively determined.

Sports captains were appointed and will begin to work towards fostering a community spirit within their house teams. A School captain and Vice-School captain were also appointed. Moving forward, their role will entail working with students and members of the school community to incite meaningful change. Pinnacle College is excited to share the progress that will be made by all student leaders as we move through the year.

As Term 2 progresses, I encourage all members of our school community to maintain communication. When we work collaboratively as staff, parents and students, we experience greater growth and success. It is important, within this communication, that student use of devices and online applications is monitored. As we are increasingly navigating an online world, children may, at times, need parent guidance and monitoring to ensure safety. Open communication, thus, is imperative.

I wish you all a great second half of term and hope you stay happy and healthy during this time.

Kind Regards,
Emilia Triantafilakis

PRIMARY COORDINATOR

Reflecting on recent weeks, I have been impressed by our students and staff in their ability to be flexible and adapt to the conditions presented. Online learning was not without some challenges but overall, our learning has been successful and bridged the gap between Term 1 and our return to school. I am proud of our teachers to learn a new medium for delivering education as well as constantly supporting students with feedback on how best to achieve the set tasks. Equally, students have engaged with the tasks and completed them to the best of their ability and sought out support where needed.

While a difficult time, collectively we have seen how much we missed, and now cherish even more, our school environment and the ability to be in each other’s presence in an educational setting. As we acclimatise to the rest of the term, it is important that students focus on upcoming assessments and set routines that allow them to revise content and make the most of their face-to-face interactions with teachers.

I know I speak for everyone when I say, we wish you all success this year and welcome you back to our campus!

Kind Regards,
Myles McLean

CAMPUS AND CURRICULUM COORDINATOR

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

It is wonderful to welcome most of our students back at school for the term. Having our students back on campus has reminded me that one of the most important elements of learning is being social. We need each other to discuss our ideas with, to share our wonderings with, to celebrate our discoveries and creations with. Our children are not computers waiting for information to be downloaded onto. Learning is interactive and involves conversation, collaboration and creativity. These are some of the things that we missed when the students were learning at home and what we want to see more of now that they are back with us at school!

Parent-teacher Interviews

Parent-teacher interviews will take place in Week 5 and 6 (26th May to 5th of June 2020) It will be a phone conversation for 10 minutes with your child’s teacher. Our teachers are looking forward to connecting with you to discuss your child’s progress. Please use this conversation to look forward and plan how we can work together to improve your child’s progress.

Car Park Drop off and Pick Up (Gilles Plains)

Thank you for continuing to help us promote physical distancing during drop off and pick up. In the mornings, please drive your car to the carpark in front of the mosque and walk your child to the entrance of the college. The process is followed again during dismissal. Parents are not to leave their cars either in the disabled or staff car park.

Please note staff are ready to welcome students in classrooms from 8:45am. Staff will help children make their way to their classrooms from the green area.

Staggered Pick Up

Students will be dismissed at different times at the end of the school day:

3.20pm: Foundation and Year 1 students
3.25pm: Year 2 and Year 3
3.30pm: Year 4

If you have children in multiple year levels please collect all your children at the time your youngest child is dismissed.

Please do not congregate or remain in the pick-up areas and maintain social distancing from other parents and students. Return to your car as quickly as possible.

Campus Upgrades (Gilles Plains)

During the school holidays, we renovated the front office and added new furniture and a kitchen in the staff room. Looking forward, our plans are to beautify the school surroundings with plants in the coming months.

Please remember that my door is always open and that I always welcome your feedback and questions.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Kind Regards,
Shalini Thilkan
Curriculum Coordinator (Gilles Plains and Golden Grove)
Campus Coordinator (Gilles Plains)

SCHOOL COUNSELLOR

Welcome back to Term 2, it is exciting to see our students back on school grounds.Through these unprecedented times, the students have shown resilience in adjusting and coming back to school. These times have been challenging not only academically for students but also on their mental wellbeing. Counselling support is available to help students navigate challenges and difficulties such as anxiousness, nervousness, friendship struggles and loss of motivation.

Kind Regards,
Zina Almufti

IMPORTANT SAFETY REMINDER

Dear Parent/Caregiver,

It has come to our attention that parents are still not observing the 25km school zone speed limit when entering Pinnacle College - Golden Grove Campus.

Traffic violations are unacceptable and jeopardise the safety of our students and the wider community.

We are very disappointed and concerned to have received calls from residents, who say they have witnessed motorists speeding when entering our school.

We understand that these types of traffic violations are not specific to our school community. Every motorist must ensure they are following the traffic rules. However, we can take this opportunity to remind our school community of the importance of safe driving, particularly around children.

We all have a responsibility to keep our community safe. If there are reports of unsafe driving around our school, we have an obligation to do our part to help protect our students and the wider community.

Please also keep in mind that members of the public have indicated that they will contact the police if they witness further incidents of speeding within the school zone.

The safety and wellbeing of our community is paramount, and we urge you to be vigilant when you are driving at all times, and comply with the speed limit.

Kind Regards,
Front Office

Notices

PASTORAL CARE

Dear Parents

Welcome back to Term 2. I am pleased to share some good news about Pastoral Care. We had to take a break from our weekly Pastoral Care programs, however we will start again in Term 2 with more exciting activities. As of Week 6, Year 6 Pastoral Care programs will commence with Ms Mutia and Ms Sana every Monday. Also Ms Sabira will also contribute to our secondary Pastoral Care programs. The Pastoral Care team are excited to continue our fruitful sessions.

Kind Regards,
Gulsum Altunkopru
Girls Pastoral Care Coordinator

LOTE - TURKISH

Merhaba,

It is great to be back at school after experiencing 5 weeks of online learning. This term Year 1-2 will be focusing on classroom objects and adjectives. Students will be more confident in using new vocabulary in a sentence. Year 3-4 students will be revising numbers and classroom objects. Year 5-6 students will focus on countries and nationalities. Year 7 - 9 students will cover the topic on “entertainment” and social life.

Kind regards,
Gulsum Altunkopru
LOTE Teacher

LOTE - Arabic

السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته

Dear parents,

As we embark on a new learning journey in Term 2, the transition from online learning back to face to face learning has been very smooth and students have been exceptional in this regard. Thank you for all your cooperation and patience during the recent period.

Year 1/2 ASL Arabic

During the early weeks of Term 2 we have started by revising last term’s learning. Going over the alphabet and ensuring students are proficient in recognising and sounding all letters is a priority, and it’s something we expect from all our students. We also started to learn about short vowels (Harakaat) and the difference between each vowel. At this stage we are attempting to combine past knowledge from Term 1 with newly acquired skills learnt in Term 2 to begin reading three letter words and understand the nature of how letters join together.

Later on in Term 2, students will be introduced to double vowels (Tanween) as well as long vowels (Madd). We also aim to teach students ways to greet one another and self-introduction.

Year 3/4 ASL Arabic

In term 2 we commenced learning through revision of vocabulary acquired in term 1. We also focused on completing the ‘Read & Write’ activities provided in the textbook. Over the course of term 2 we will also focus on the following:

Prepositions, their meaning and use.
Nouns and prepositions and the relationship between both.
Vocabulary pertaining to home and school environment.

Year 5/6 ASL Arabic

Towards the end of term 1, students started to learn about Plural nouns and adjectives. In Term 2, we revisited the concept and continued to revise singular and plural nouns. We also worked on reconstructing singular sentences to plural form and we learnt about how other properties of sentences also change when nouns change form. We focused on the completion of the ‘Read and write’ activities collectively in class and students were also expected to complete the activities as homework. Over the next 4 weeks, we will learn about the following:

Sound and broken plural.
1st, 2nd and 3rd person pronouns.
Possessive pronouns.
Arabic / non Arabic Proper nouns.
Masculine & feminine forms of speech.

Kind regards,
Mahmoud Hassan
LOTE Teacher

Arabic - Golden Grove

In Term 2, we have learnt about worship, sacred places, Ramadan and Muslim festivals. Here are some points I found very interesting.

We learnt that worship means submission to Allah (swt) and performing His commands and prohibitions. In another sense, it means to fulfill all of our obligations to Allah (swt) and to stay away from things He forbids us to do to please Him. Worship is an indication of our loyalty to Him; it is a sign of our love to Him and how grateful we are for all the blessings he bestows upon us.

Sacred places are places of worship are where you go to praise Allah (swt) but the religion of Islam considers the entire earth as a place of worship. This means that Muslims can perform their prayers on any clean ground, including churches and synagogues. However, mosques are special places for Muslims to worship, meditate and learn. Here are a few famous mosques, Masjid Al Nabawi, masjid Al Haram, The Blue Mosque, Masjid Al Aqsa etc.

Ramadan is a month of fasting. In Ramadan, we get closer to Allah. Ramadan is the most special month for Muslims. It is the month when the Quran was revealed to the prophet. Eid Al Fitr is a very exciting day for Muslims because that is the day when we celebrate our success through Ramadan.

As you can see we learnt a lot in values lessons and we are looking forward to learning more about our religion.

Kind regards,
Year 7

FOUNDATION – GOLDEN GROVE

Dear Parents,

First of all I would like to thank all parents for supporting their child’s learning during our remote learning. It has made a difference and I have seen a big improvement with their learning. Your help and support made their transition back to school a lot easier for the children and myself. The children are so happy to be back at school learning in their classroom alongside their friends.

In Numeracy students have been working extremely hard on gaining a solid foundation on numbers from 0-20. We have enjoyed using concrete materials to show our understanding of place value and have also been introduced to the fun game of ‘Bingo’. We have been looking at missing numbers, numbers and collections that are ‘more’ and ‘less’, counting from any starting point, using the correct number formation, counting groups and matching them to their numerals, ordering numbers and so much more. Having a good understanding of number and place value allows children to be confident learners. We are now moving to learning about time, months of the year, days of the week and connecting events to specific days of the week.

The children are enjoying our Literacy lessons, where we continue to learn more single sounds along with their characters. This is the most exciting term of all, where children are reading and writing words. Children are also excited about our new Tricky Word program and are loving receiving certificates for their achievements. Children are enjoying taking home readers and are loving that they are able to decode texts. We are also focusing on responding to texts in writing and oral forms.

In HASS this term we have learnt the importance of Anzac Day, Japanese Children’s Day and Eid. We have made many class decorations for these celebrations and are displayed in our classroom. We are now learning to locate Australia on the world map and learning the names of the different states and territories. The children have been very interested and engaged when learning about our country.

It is imperative that students read their readers daily and practise their Tricky words on a regular basis. This will ensure that they become fluent and accurate readers in the future. Students will also need to complete reading eggs and Mathseeds on weekends alongside their online Seesaw activities.

I am extremely proud of the achievements of each and every student in my class and look forward to helping them continue with their successes for the remainder of the year.

Kindest Regards,
Mrs Vokolos

Foundation

YEAR 1 – GOLDEN GROVE

Dear Parents/Caregivers,

I can’t believe we are halfway through Term 2 already!

Firstly I would like to express my appreciation to all families during our online learning period. It was an uncertain time but with all your support and cooperation we made it through. Students are working hard to get back into classroom routines and they are really enjoying spending time with their friends and teachers. I missed them all!

In Mathematics, we are becoming more confident with skip counting by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s to 100 and starting at various points on a number line. Students thoroughly enjoyed learning about familiar two dimensional shapes. Students are able to identify the name of different shapes as well as count how many sides and vertices they have. We had so much fun using concrete materials to create our 2D shape posters.

In literacy, students have been studying how to write a character description based on a fairytale character in a story we have read in class. We have been focussing on including adjectives in our sentences by describing the character's appearance, personality and feelings. Students are working hard to write detailed sentences using verbs, adjectives and conjunctions. We have also been remembering to include beautiful handwriting, full stops, capital letters and finger spaces in our writing.

In HASS, students have enjoyed learning about past and present objects including items from school and at home. Students identified what the various objects were made from and how they have changed overtime to help people do different tasks and activities quicker and more easily.

Please ensure students complete their Reading Eggs and Math Seeds activities online to extend their learning as well as practice their spelling and tricky words. I am very happy with students' efforts so far and I’m looking forward to many more engaging learning experiences for the remainder of the term.

Stay healthy and happy :)

Kindest Regards,
Miss Di Cola

Year 1

YEAR 2 - GOLDEN GROVE

Hi parents!

I can’t believe how fast this term is already flying by! It has been so great to get back to normal after the few weeks at home learning online. Thank you for your support during that time, it was stressful for all of us but we managed to get through!

In Numeracy, we have been looking at the days of the week, months and calendars. We have looked at leap years and why we have them, what months occur in different seasons and learnt the words to ‘30 Days has September…’. The last two weeks we have revisited the properties of 2D shapes making rockets to take us to space and the features of 3D shapes using matchsticks and playdough. It has been a very hands-on two weeks. The last half of the term will focus on addition and subtraction using the column method and fractions.

In just a few short weeks, the children have managed to produce some fantastic Information Reports in Literacy. They have already been able to independently write about a Blue Whale and African Elephant. Using some fabulous comparative and descriptive language, the students have been able to further explore ways to describe facts about animals, being careful not to use opinions. They have learnt to take notes from short youtube video clips and use dot points, then turning it into full sentences. I can’t wait to read their final pieces after a few more weeks of learning and practise.

HASS and Art have been integrated this term. We are researching different countries in Asia and learning about how we are connected to places around the world. Our passports have taken us to Indonesia, Japan and China so far, and we are looking forward to visiting India, Thailand and Vietnam soon. The children have been safely researching their own facts using iPads and I have been proud of their mature approach to this. Our classroom is looking very colourful and cultural thanks to our Japanese Cherry Blossoms, Indonesian temples and Chinese Calligraphy scrolls. I can’t wait to see the students' artwork when we travel around the planet some more. At the end of the term, we will have a class party celebrating with foods from these exciting Asian countries.

This term in PE, with Mrs Mungall, the Year 2s are learning Australian Rules Football. We have been busy learning how to mark, kick and handball a football. Students have enjoyed learning new football drills and games to improve their coordination, techniques and skills. We have been enjoying being outside and playing on our beautiful oval.

Kindest Regards,
Mrs Rees & Mrs Mungall

Year 2

YEAR 3 – GOLDEN GROVE

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

The year 3 students have chosen to write about their experiences over the end of Term 1 and the start of Term 2. What things they missed, what they loved and how they felt about the disruption to normal life.

Aaliyah: I just hated seeing myself on video!

Eisha: I hated homeschooling because I found it hard to stick to the schedule and it isn’t as good as school work. My teacher helps me to understand what I am doing.

Aya H: I didn’t like being at home because we didn’t have as much fresh air and not as many friends.

Daniel: I like being homeschooled because I could play games as well as do my work. I really missed my friends though.

Remzi: It wasn’t fun because you couldn’t play with other friends. I missed lessons at school and I missed my desk at school.

Ali J: I liked staying home so I could play games and do homework but I really missed school.

Ahmad E: I didn’t like being home schooled because I couldn’t play with my friends. It’s much harder to work at home with my little brother and sister shouting all the time.

Lanya: My favourite thing about being back at school is playing with my friends.

Fahed: It is hard to feel safe when you can’t see your enemy (corona virus).

Marpugha: The worst thing about homeschooling was being home with my siblings, they make too much noise. I was so happy to see my teacher and my friends again.

Mukesh: I didn’t like doing maths at home because we had to do homework all the time.

Ahmed K: I hated homeschooling, it did not go well. Teachers are better at knowing how much time work is going to take. There are too many distractions at home.

Ali R: I tried to do some school work at home but it was hard. There was too much writing to do.

Habibulloh: I didn’t really do homeschooling because I didn’t have enough internet. I like being back at school because I’m not bored.

Abdullah: I liked homeschooling because I didn’t do very much. We work much harder at school. I am very happy to be back at school.

Gholam: I am happy to be back at school because it is easier to learn at school. It is easier for me to write than type.

Dhulfiqar: Homeschooling is quite boring because I just type and stay at home with no one around me. I am happy to be back to see all my friends and to do fun learning.

Zeina: I hated homeschooling because I missed my friends.I also loved it because I got to play games after I’d finished my work.

Daya: I hated homeschool because I was really bored and there was no one and nothing to play with. I love being back at school because I have my friends back.

Melika: I loved homeschooling because my mum made fun spelling activities, I played sport with my sister and I got to help around the house. I am happy to be back so I can see my friends.

Sakeena: I liked homeschooling because I didn't need to wear a school uniform and I didnt need to do much work. I can also eat whenever I’m hungry and I could sleep in and spend more time with my family. I liked my mum being my teacher and my house is very comfortable.

Aahil: I don't think homeschooling was very good because my breaks were very boring. I didn't really like anything about it. I am happy to finally be back with my friends. At school it’s better because we do lots of experiments and the resources and spaces are better.

Kind regards,
Kylie Burton

Year 3

YEAR 4 – GOLDEN GROVE

Dear Parents,

Welcome back to another term!

I’d like to start by thanking everyone for their patience, care and support during remote learning. It was great to see so many students remain positive and productive despite the unfamiliar obstacles they faced. Because of your efforts, we were able to resume regular classes with minimum disruptions to learning. Thank you!

This term, we are focusing on two text types in English: Biographies and Autobiographies. Students were asked to write autobiographies detailing important milestones in their lives. They then presented this information to their peers through an oral presentation. While the Year4s tried their best to rehearse and deliver professional presentations, they are encouraged to continue developing their public speaking skills by reading aloud at home.

Students are also urged to read a wider variety of books that push them to learn new vocabulary. Our weekly library visits are a fantastic opportunity to expand one’s reading horizons. The ReadingEggsPress online library also has a range of books for students to enjoy in their spare time.

In Maths, we have covered several topics, including perimeter, area and angles. Students particularly enjoyed these ‘easy’ topics and were challenged to complete questions for older year levels, such as finding the area of compound shapes. Now that we’ve fallen back into routine, I hope to extend my students further in the weeks after Ramadan.

Until then, I wish you all a Happy Eid!

Stay safe (and warm)!
Warm regards,
Miss Mubarak

Gallery Title: Year 4

Year 4

YEAR 5 – GOLDEN GROVE

Dear Parents/Caregivers,

- W e l c o m e B a c k -

It has been excellent seeing our students grow with so much confidence and new strengths which will be an integral part of their academic achievements this year. Thank you to all parents and students for their efforts during the last couple of months! Together, we have worked incredibly well to achieve many goals and we look forward to the new chapters ahead.

In Literacy, our class novel is ‘Boy Overboard’ by Morris Gleitzman. We have been enjoying the novel so far and can’t wait to see what Jamal (main character) experiences in the next following chapters. We are also learning about comics and have started creating our own comics based on the class novel (our drawing may not be the best, but we are getting there!!).

In Art, the Year 5 students have enjoyed learning how to express themselves with Visual Art this Term. We have been looking at the genre Expressionism and have been studying artists and analysing famous artworks from this genre. The students have enjoyed exploring mark making with a variety of mediums including paint, oil pastels and printmaking.

In Science we are learning about matter (solids, liquids and gases). We have had fun learning about how matter is made out of particles called atoms and molecules. Solids, such as: a pencil or whiteboard have particles that are closely packed together. Liquids, such as: water or juice have particles that are spaced out. And, lastly gases such as: oxygen or carbon dioxide have particles that are far apart. Next week we will be having experiments to investigate the properties and how it changes.

In Numeracy, we have been focusing on number and place value (mental and written strategies) of subtraction. This was a challenging topic; however, we have learnt the compensation strategy, counting up strategy and split strategy to strengthen our skills. We have also focused on the topic area which was exciting as our assessment task had a floor plan of a historical mansion and we had to calculate the area by finding various lengths and widths for compound shapes.

In HASS, we have been learning about Australian History and how people had an influence towards the Australian society. The Muslim Cameleers and Indentured Laborers brought many changes to the communication and development of the economy, society and work ethics.

In Religion and Values, we have been learning about Surah’s, the Shahada, five Pillars of Islam and the five Pillars of faith. It has been wonderful to spend time learning about these components that play an integral part of our lifestyle and growth in Ramadan.

Eid Mubarak from our Pinnacle family to yours! Stay safe!

Kind Regards,
Year 5 Teachers.

Year 5

YEAR 6 – GOLDEN GROVE

Dear Parents/Caregivers,

- W e l c o m e B a c k -

We are filled with excitement having all of our wonderful students back in the classroom. The last few months have been challenging, but we have achieved so much. I would like to thank all parents and students for their efforts! This Term so far has been exhilarating and full of joy and we cannot wait to see what is ahead.

In Literacy our main focus has been on comics. We have been reading many graphic novels to gain inspiration and create our own comic strips. And, we have also been focusing on grammar and punctuation to strengthen our sentences and become wonderful writers! Stay tuned as we will be sharing our completed comics with you.

In HASS we are focusing on Geography this term and will be doing a study on the regions of Asia. We have been using our technological devices to learn more about environmental characteristics, population density, economic factors and the agricultural developments of many countries. Currently we are learning about Mumbai & Vietnam and it is fascinating to find the differences in comparison to Adelaide, Australia!

In Numeracy we have mastered topics including area and angle, number and place value, fractions and decimals as well as units of measurement. Currently, our class is focusing on 2D and 3D shapes; we are working on an Investigation Project where we will be creating Robots using specified 2D and 3D objects – we cannot wait to complete our projects.

In Art, we have been exploring abstraction. We have begun the term looking at partially abstract artworks and discovering how to express emotion and feelings through colours, symbols and shapes. Students have enjoyed analysing and creating artworks with a variety of mediums including acrylic paint, collage and pastel. We have explored how to create a painting without brushes, which was lots of fun.

In Science we are learning about matter (solids, liquids and gases). We have been looking at properties of solids, liquids and gases and will be exploring how the changes to the states of these matter are reversible or irreversible.

In Technology we are learning about algorithms, sequences, loops and conditionals. We have been using a website called ‘code.org’ to do our work and submit our completed work. This has been interesting to learn about as there are so many components in technology that have a significant effect on how something functions.

Have a blessed long weekend with your loved ones & Eid Mubarak!!

Kind Regards,
Year 6 Teachers.

Year 6

YEAR 7– GOLDEN GROVE

In Week 4, students have been studying for their Humanities Ancient Egypt test. They have been learning about The Nile, key groups in ancient Egyptian society, warfare, religious beliefs and practices, Hatsheput, the mummification process, trade and conflict. Students have engaged well with content and it looks like we will have some high test scores in the near future!

In Art, the Year 7 students have been exploring traditional and contemporary Aboriginal art. To properly appreciate Aboriginal art past and present students have been researching why and how Aboriginal people create art. In Aboriginal culture art has been used as a visual language. It is a form of communication and is also a visual documentation of their history. Students have explored Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists to gain understanding of their connection to the country and how it inspires their art and identity. The girls have explored making marks using different mediums and have turned their exploration into an artwork that narrates the story of their quarantine over the past month. Currently we are taking inspiration from aboriginal art and have begun exploring how we can use modern symbols to share stories through art.

Miss Molly Affolter & Mrs Mungall
Kind regards,
Year 7 Teachers

Year 7

YEAR 8 – GOLDEN GROVE

Sports Elective

Last term the year 8 and 9 students ran their own basketball tournament. They organised rosters for each double lesson and a rotation with umpired, timers and scorers. Everyone had a role to play and it ran very smoothly which was a testament to their organisation and commitment to their individual role and responsibility. Unfortunately we were unable to fully finish our tournament, but nevertheless, the students were able to make certificates for particular roles and these awards were handed out this week (See image below). Congratulations everyone on a terrific ‘season’!

In 8/9 Sports Elective this term, the girls are participating in a Game Making unit. This required them to create their very own original game. They could combine a range of sports together or create new skills. Students are writing a scaffold to explain their game to the class and we have just begun playing these fun and original games. Well done girls!

In Art, this term the Year 8 students have been studying Cubism. Cubism is an early-20th-century art movement that rejected the single viewpoint of a subject in favor of showing the fragmented subject from several different points of view. It also explores the simplification of forms. It was the beginning of abstraction in Art. The students have been exploring pioneer artist Picasso and Braque and have taken inspiration from their works to influence their own art. Students have been exploring still-life, portrait and collage.

Miss Molly Affolter & Mrss Mungall

Kind regards,
Year 8 Teachers

Year 8

YEAR 9 – GOLDEN GROVE

This term the Year 9 girls have been reading and working through the novel Deadly, Unna? by Phillip Gwynne. This text is about two young teenage boys who don’t have a lot in common. They are from two opposing towns, and one is a star at football and the other is pretty clumsy. The two boys become good friends despite the racial bias from one of the towns. As a class we have analysed narrative conventions, symbols and the main themes in the novel. Students have completed two minor assessments including a journal entry and a paragraph response.

The Year 9’s are also getting ready for the Premier’s Reading Challenge. We have made it to the library and now know how to borrow and return books. We have started reading our books in our English lessons and are completing a major assessment that will involve the students submitting an ongoing journal of the books they read as well as a video response to their top 3 novels. I am very much looking forward to hearing all about what has been read and the students favourite novels!

In Drama, Year 8 &9 students have been exploring Melodrama. The main purpose in melodrama was not credibility, but the capacity to ignite the audience’s reactions. The basic moral behind melodramas was the struggle between good and evil, and the re-establishment of a morally correct and just society. Each play relied on extreme situations and extreme states of being; for example, justice vs revenge, honesty vs dishonesty, or innocence vs corruption. The melodrama acting style requires the use of strong facial expressions, large movements and gestures and a clear and well projected delivery of lines.

Melodrama actors concentrated on ‘showing’ emotion more than feeling them. They were skilled in the use of facial expression and heightened body language to show particular emotions. The students have enjoyed studying all the stock characters of melodrama and have created still photographs and small scenes to explore these roles. Students have also been working with video editing and have been exploring green-screen and adding sound effects and music to their videos to create dramatic tension. We will be creating a small melodramatic soap opera over the rest of the term.

In science, our focus for this term is on Biological Sciences. We began with the Circulatory and respiratory system and explored digestive and excretory systems. In the following weeks, we will outline the overall function of the nervous and endocrine system. At the end of the term we will cover “The Body at War” which focuses on how our bodies fight disease. As we did in term 1, year 9 science students will conduct experiments, work on models, have a lot of hands on activities and group work/presentations in term 2, too.

Here is an entry from year 9 students on what we did last week in science lesson: “In science this week the year 9 students conducted a heart and kidney dissection. We learned about the 4 chambers of the heart and their attributes. We also learned about the purpose of the kidney and its role in the digestive system. We were very excited to cut the heart open and investigate what a real heart looks like on the inside.” “We have a new friend in year 9 named as ‘Gary’, please see Monera’s photo:)) Asheena, Hani and Inas

Miss Molly Affolter, Mrs Aslan & Mrs Mungall

Kind regards,
Year 9 Teachers

Year 9

Primary – ART CLUB

This semester in Art Club, the students from Years 3-6 have been enjoying exploring a variety of mediums including; watercolour, pastel, papercraft, slime and tie-dye. We have created beautiful artworks over the semester including crafts for Mother’s Day and Ramadan. I believe art is important in times of uncertainty as creating art does not just help us share thoughts and ideas it can also be healing. Creating and experiencing art can relax and soothe us. It engages the body and the mind and gives us time to look inward and reflect. Art Club has been very popular and is full of creative and kind students who have enjoyed working together Thursdays during lunch.

Kind regards,
Mrs Mungall

Art Club

FOUNDATION – GILLES PLAINS

Dear Parents,Caregivers and students,

I would like to begin by saying a big thank you to parents for all your support during this unforeseen time and for helping to make the start of Term 2 as smooth of a transition as possible. The online Seesaw learning journals have been an indication of your wonderful efforts and for us to see how capable our Foundation students are. Our most precious students have settled now and from their faces, I can see that they are happy to be back at school and to be with their friends.

In Literacy we have been continuing with learning new letter sounds and have now started to explore tricky words. Students are very excited to have received their first reader, where they can slowly use their knowledge of letter sounds and tricky words, to read their very first book. This will take time and much repetition, but I assure you that it will be a rewarding experience.

In Science, Technology and Art, we are learning about the concept of Push and Pull. Students have had the opportunity to now not only play with toy cars, but to use the idea of ‘Push’, to see how far their toy car will travel on different surfaces. This is still very much a learning experience for us in Foundation, but I know students will get there with a little more practise.

In Math, students have been working hard on getting a solid understanding of Number. Our focus this term has been on counting to 20 and exploring one more and one less. Students have enjoyed book work, number songs, as well as hands-on activities and games to support them with their learning.

Please continue to use Reading Eggs and Mathseeds as a different way for your child to keep revising their letter sounds, cvc words and numbers and I look forward to supporting your child in Term 2.

Kind Regards
Miss Victoria Makowiak

Foundation - Gilles Plains

YEAR 1 – GILLES PLAINS

How can we already be halfway through Term 2? I thought we were just on holidays and trying our best to work with online learning! My sincere thanks to the wonderful efforts of parents during our remote learning time. Some amazing work was completed through Seesaw with your love and support and best of all, students have returned to face-to-face learning wonderfully.

In Literacy this term, we have been thinking a lot about adjectives and ways to describe a character. We have learnt some new digraphs and a trigraph and know all about nouns and verbs as well. Students especially like singing the songs in InitiaLit to remember what these types of words are.

Students have been skip-counting and learning times tables in Numeracy. We are very good at counting in 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s now. Now we are very keenly measuring lots of different objects in the classroom using paper clips and finger lengths and outside using footsteps. Another highlight so far has been creating 2D shape artworks. We had so much fun making the artwork and then photographing and labelling it in Seesaw.

We are currently in the process of finishing off our models of the planets of our solar system. Stay tuned for our next newsletter for pictures of these amazing works of art!

Kind regards,
Mrs Sandra Holland

Year 1- Gilles Plains

YEAR 2 – GILLES PLAINS

It is wonderful to have the Year 2 students back in the classroom and ready for an exciting term. In a few short weeks, we have travelled to parts of Asia for HASS. In Indonesia, we visited the loud and busy city of Jakarta. We ate delicious fried rice and visited many temples. Then we travelled from Jakarta to Tokyo. Here we attended the Cherry Blossom Festival, drank amazake, ate cubed watermelon and we participated in a Japanese handicraft class. We are sad to leave Japan but cannot wait to visit China next week.

In Maths, we have been learning about 2D and 3D shapes. We have been looking at the properties of familiar and unfamiliar two dimensional shapes and we have been learning to describe the properties of three dimensional shapes by talking about the number of faces, edges and corners.

In Literacy, we are working on our researching skills so we can write an information report about an animal of our choice. We have started to write about the appearance of our animal and its diet. The students are enjoying this process and learning about facts and opinions along the way.

In Science we have been making mixtures of cocoa-powder, rice bubbles and icing sugar. Water, cornflour and food colouring. We have enjoyed observing what happens when these things are mixed together and recording the outcome in our science journals.

In PE, we have been learning the skills of AFL. We have worked on our kicking skills, handball and marking. The students are improving with each lesson and we look forward to having a mini-match later in the term.

Thank you for your continued support.

Warm regards
Miss Bianca Villani

Year 2 - Gilles Plains

YEAR 3 – GILLES PLAINS

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to Term 2. So much has changed since our last newsletter in Term 1. It has been a pretty incredible, yet unpredictable journey so far! I am absolutely delighted to have all students in Year 3 back at school and back to face to face learning; it is comforting to feel some sense of familiarity. Although we have only been back at school for a short amount of time, the Year 3s have been working extremely hard and settling back into daily school routines.

I would like to express my immense gratitude to parents and carers who supported their children at home, during our time of remote learning. I look forward to discussing your childs’ progress so far with you in our phone interviews in Week 5 and 6. Please ensure you book in for your interview via the SOBS system. I have sent you an announcement via Seesaw with the information. If you are having trouble doing so, please feel free to get in touch with me; I am always happy to help you.

In Literacy, we have been focusing on poetry. We explored a range of poetic devices such as; onomatopoeia, alliteration, rhyme, rhythm and imagery to write a narrative poem. We planned our work around a picture prompt of a naughty goat in a kitchen. We then drafted and published our work and created these beautiful poems! I have posted your childs’ work on their Seesaw learning journal for you to admire!

In Mathematics, so far we have covered number patterns and 2D shapes. The children enjoyed manipulating tactile objects such as string and matchsticks to create 2D shapes. I also allowed them to use their desks as a whiteboard to label the properties of their shapes, which they absolutely loved. We are currently focusing on measurement and will begin our new topic on Area in Week 5.

In Science, we have been learning about the states of matter. The students have had a lot of fun conducting experiments and observing what happens when heat is applied to solid objects. In the following lesson, we predicted what may happen when objects are placed back into the fridge. What will happen next week when we place these objects in the freezer for 7 days? We will have to wait and see.

Finally, please ensure your child is engaging with their homework at home, including the Reading Eggspress and Mathletics tasks. Reading is also very important and your child should be reading on a daily basis for at least 20-30 minutes. Take time to listen to your child read and ask them open ended questions; you can refer to the reading comprehension strategies guide I sent home last term. I have received positive feedback from students in regards to using Seesaw for learning tasks, therefore there will be a Seesaw task assigned each week for homework, based on the content we cover in class.

Wishing you all a safe and Happy Eid!

Kind regards,
Miss Kerry

Gallery Title: Year 3 - Gilles Plains

Year 3 - Gilles Plains

YEAR 4 – GILLES PLAINS

Dear Parents,

I am looking forward to speaking with you during the parent-teacher interviews. I know you will find it useful as we will discuss how you can help your child in his/her learning. Please make your bookings through SOBS. This term is a busy one and we are going through our first set of assessments now.

In Literacy, we have covered the information text type. Students will write a biography about a world explorer and use the correct connectives and punctuation. I have done a revision lesson on this so that they are better equipped to write better sentences. The next piece of writing will be an Autobiography of themselves.

In Mathematics, we have completed Odd and Even numbers, Area, Perimeter and Angles. They are doing well in odd and even numbers however Area seems to be a little difficult to grasp as they get confused with Perimeter. We are practicing this in class and hopefully the test will show pleasing results.

Finally, I would like to see students reading at home. They should be on reading level 26-30 for their age group. Can you please ensure, they read aloud their readers and that you are asking them questions after reading? This will help them improve both in fluency and comprehension.

Thank you for your continued support.

Kind regards,
Shalini Thilkan

Year 4 - Gilles Plains

MUSIC

Well, it is certainly wonderful to be back in the classroom with students! And I think the students are enjoying being back using our lovely room and the instruments, too!

This term the focus is on making music using a variety of different means.

The Foundation students are exploring the range of instruments that we have, and how we can create different sounds on them. In Year 1, students are choosing and playing high and low sounds, loud and soft sounds and fast and slow sounds to match songs or stories. The Year 2 students are recognising and playing changes in dynamics and tempo using appropriate language, and are naming and playing a range of percussion instruments for specific purposes. In Year 3, the students are writing and playing their own musical scores demonstrating the ability to play many different sounds on one instrument. They will sort, categorise and use instruments according to the sounds that they make. The Year 4s are exploring making a variety of different sounds with their voice and on instruments. They will create rhythms on objects other than instruments, and combine their rhythms to create Stomp-style compositions. And the Year 5 and 6 students are learning about the Blues and how to play 12 Bar Blues chords using keyboard and guitar instruments in GarageBand. They will compose their own Blues song and create their own backing track using an app on the iPads.

Look out for photos of the Year 1s using scarves to show high and low through movement, the Year 5s learning to play chords on the iPads, xylophones, metallophones, glockenspiels and keyboards, our Keyboard Club members who come in at lunchtime to learn to play different songs on the keyboards, and the smiles of children having fun in Music!

“Music is the universal language of mankind.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Tracy Schache
Music Teacher