26 June 2020

Newsletter Articles

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.

Principal’s Message

Dear Parents/Guardians

It is a great time to see that our students are getting their efforts’ results at the end of this week.

Since the last newsletter issue, we have fully returned to face to face teaching. Also the State government has started to ease some restrictions up. As soon as new changes occur, we will send a broadcast to you.

I would like to thank Pastoral Care Department members to start after school programs again. They will also organise holiday programs for our students. Due to construction, we still are not able to use our gym until next term week 3 or 4.

Every day, we are going back to normal life however, we still have to be cautious all the time. Especially during holiday time, we should be extra careful regarding social distancing when you are out, hand washing and government updates regarding Covid-19. Also, as a parent, we should consider our kid's screen time on electronic devices.

Very importantly, Qurban 2020 is approaching and Pinnacle College will organise a number of events at school. This year, we are working with Australian Relief Organisation and will send all Qurban donations to a few Asia Pacific and African countries. Our donations are really essential to those who are in need.

I would like to welcome our new staff member Christina Surmei as Student Support Officer. She will be helping and supporting our students in both primary and secondary school at Elizabeth Campus.

Lastly I would like to congratulate the following students who have demonstrated great effort both academically and behaviourally at school and their families for their support.

1. 7B Alper Altunkopru
2. 8B Asir Shaikh
3. 9B Josh Polulach
4. 10B Abou Sesay
5. 10G Zeynep Erdal
6. 11G Leen Abulebdeh
7. 11B Mannan Ibrahim

I wish everyone to have a safe and wonderful holiday.

Educationally Yours

Gokhan Kot
Campus Principal, Elizabeth East

Councillor

Hi Parents and Caregivers,

Crazy to think we are halfway through the year and what a year 2020 has been. I wanted to discuss the phenomenon known as stress and how it impacts students’ ability to learn and develop. Despite common belief, stress can exist in a positive (eustress) way which includes increased performance and motivation. This heightened state is not sustainable for long periods of time and can become negative.

It is important to identify early symptoms of stress and support your children in developing effective management tools and techniques so that they feel supported. Some symptoms include but are not limited to:

• Lack of motivation
• Disinterest in activities that previously interested them
• Risk taking behaviours
• Inability to prioritise tasks effectively based on weighting/urgency
• Procrastinating

The best method to manage these symptoms is to firstly discuss with your child and understand their needs and barriers to success. Breaking tasks down into manageable chunks is a great way to take that first step climbing the mountain of study. I encourage all families to create a self-care system to ensure students have a balanced approach to study and do not overindulge in feel good activities when they may be stressed but rather use it as a motivator for achieving small milestones.

Feel free to get in contact with me at the school if you have further questions on managing student stress.

Kind regards,
Mehmet Kavlakoglu
School Counsellor

Library

Book Fairs next term at Pinnacle College

Due to the Covid-19 situation, we cannot have parents on site for the Book Fairs in term 3. We will still have the Book Fairs and I believe it is important for everyone to have their own books.

The Book Fairs are scheduled as follows

Gilles Plains 04/08/2020 – 10/08/2020
Elizabeth East 11/08/2020– 17/08/2020
Golden Grove 18/08/2020 – 22/08/2020

The process this year will be for primary students

• Each primary class will visit the Book Fair as a class
• Each student will be given a wish list
• The student fills out the wish list
• Student takes wish list home
• Parents pay online or sends money back to school WITH wish list
• Wish list gets returned to Book Fair coordinators
• Coordinators will then provide the books to the students

The process this year will be for secondary students

• Students can organise with book fair coordinators a time (lunch/ recess/ after school) when they can visit the book fair. (no more than 10 at a time)
• And
  - Classes could organize a visit if teachers coordinate with book fair coordinators
  - The student fills out the wish list
  - Student takes wish list home
  - Parents pay online or sends money back to school WITH wish list
  - Wish list gets returned to Book fair coordinators
  - We then provide the books to the students
• or they may purchase during the allocated time

We may also provide video clips to families of the books when the books arrive on campus.

Thank you for your understanding

Front Office Notices

Dear Playford schools and early learning centres,

The Playford Library Service has curated a parenting collection at both the Elizabeth and Stretton Libraries called Parenting @ Playford.

In this collection there are some fantastic books and resources on health and wellbeing, education, food and nutrition, play, growth and development.

We would like to promote this collection to parents in the Playford area, and thought we would send through some promotional information to schools and preschools that could be included in newsletters.

Check out the our promotional flyers with all the information about the collection.

Kind regards,
Playford Library

Primary

Foundations

So we have come to the end of what can only be described as, the most unusual semester of my teaching career. Despite the challenges we have all had to face the Foundation class have taken it all in their stride and produced some amazing work. This term we have learnt about ‘push and pull forces, which ended with us doing an investigation to find out which ball travelled the furthest when pushed. We have also studied Aboriginal forms of art and produced some great nature pictures inspired by their work. As a little light relief each Friday this term we have had a themed day. Two of our favourites were crazy hat day and crazy sock day. Thank you to all the families for their ongoing support during this time. Enjoy your holiday together.

Year 3

Learning with Leaves

The Year 3’s went on a nature hunt to find a variety of leaves and sticks. They explored the seasonal changes and the various colours, sizes and shapes of leaves. It was a beautiful time for students to feel relaxed by the gentle sounds and nice scent of our environment on a crispy cold morning.

Take a look at our Leaf Tree artworks we then made with the leaves we found outside!

Year 4

Dear Parents,

The end of another term already. The Year 4s have worked very hard this term and have shown lots of progress especially in reading, writing and maths.

In Literacy this week, students have been presenting their autobiographies to the class. I personally have loved hearing more details about their life. There will be other opportunities to work on oral presentations.

In Technology, students have been introduced to a new game called Atlantis. They need to use their math skills to answer questions and complete missions. In particular, it involves multiplication, division and angles. They have also learnt how to use Lego Mindstorm to program an electronic robot. It helped us to develop our persistence.

Happy holidays!

Don’t forget to read, read, read!!!

Kind regards,
Miss Sarah Watkins

Year 5 and 6

Dear parents,

During the last few weeks of this Term, both grade 5s and grade 6s presented their HASS projects. Grade 5s prepared a diorama to illustrate a major event that took place in the 1800s, while grade 6s researched an Asian country of their choice. Grade effort to all the students.

Wishing everyone a safe and restful break. Have a great holiday upper primary.

Regards,
Ms Nesibe Sezen

Arabic

I am Yasmin Aly, the RV and Arabic teacher of year 2, also I am Arabic teacher of year levels 3&4, 5&6, 7&8 and year 9 boys. I am so delighted that we had an amazing term of getting to know the students. Our goals at Pinnacle College are to target all four skills: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening. Also we focus on broad vocabulary acquisition and grammar understanding through integrate learning with fun activities and digital technology to extend children’s interest and engagement.

In year 2 class students are building and developing their skills. They learnt Arabic alphabets shapes and sounds to build new words, the numbers, greeting and how to introduce themselves.

In Year 3&4 and 5& 6 students learnt demonstrative articles, prepositions, adjectives and definite and indefinite articles. Also students started reading short Arabic texts and stories.

In year 7&8 students learnt the composition and language features of persuasive writing. They engaged in different online platforms to extend their knowledge and understanding of another cultures.

In year 9 students are developing skills in translation and interpreting short texts from Arabic to English and vice versa.

Music

Primary Music

This term has been a creative and fun time for us all in Music lessons. The students have been challenged to think about different ways to create sounds or sound effects, sometimes using instruments, and sometimes using items around the room or from home.

Year 1 students have been learning how to control and change the sounds they are playing on an instrument. Year 3s have explored many sounds on found objects and how they compare to actual instruments. The Year 4s have really enjoyed the opportunity to create Music together in the style of Stomp. The Year 5s and 6s have been using GarageBand to compose their own song in a Blues style and are almost ready to perform.

Rehearsing, performing together and giving feedback to each other has been a wonderful time of valuing each other’s ideas and uniqueness as we learn to express ourselves through this creative medium.

“Music can cause:

• Smiles
• Optimism
• Self-worth
• Reduced depression
• Improved health

Get a little music in YOUR life!”

Tracy Schache
Music Teacher

Secondary

Humanities

The following is a student reflection on the Year 10 History unit, ‘The Environment Movement’:

Our world has been changing. It is being replaced with buildings, people, smoke and cars. At such a rate that there are places where no traces of earth are even left. It is a sad reality that there are cities in which air pollution has gotten so bad, life without masks is unthinkable. Our forests are being cut down in hopes to provide for society, but who will provide for our animals and plants? The wars we begin, the accidents we make, the power we crave, all leave our earth to slowly wither away and die. However, environmental awareness continues to spread as well. People can see the impacts that have been made on this planet, and many make an effort to change it. There was the National Park movement that overtook our world, and made preserving natural life, recreational. Arbor Day came into existence, in which planting trees is its main purpose. People have written books, magazines, songs, news reports and ideas, all in the hopes to start an environmental revolution. To this day, people protest for the rights of nature, and changes have been made. Undoubtedly, the environmental movement has had an impact, but it has not been around for long enough. Contribution is necessary for change to continue, and to allow this movement to last through time.

Nimra Siddique, Year 10G

Art

We neared the end of another term. Year 7s completed their indigenous art inspired abstract paintings and wrote statements on their symbolism and composition. Year 8 students enjoyed the topic of Cubism through assorted drawing and collage exercises last of which were portraits they drew in late Picasso style. Year 10 students learned about upcycling old garments and how this can help reduce our carbon footprint in today’s world marked with consumerism.

Science

Secondary Science Competition

On Tuesday the 2nd of June, 28 of Pinnacle College’s most aspiring secondary science students participated in the Australian Science Innovations “Big Science Competition”.

The annual competition challenges students from years 7 to 10, tracking their performance against state and national averages, with competition questions aligned to the Australian Science Curriculum.

Whilst we are still eagerly awaiting the results, students will receive a certificate indicating their performance and those who perform well may be identified by the Australian Science Innovations for participation in enrichment programs such as the Australian Science Olympiads and Curious Minds – girls in STEM.

Well done and good luck to our competition entrants!

Erica Maik
Head of Science

Nutrition

The stage 1 Nutrition class are exploring food substitutions this semester and decided to try milk alternatives. Reasons for choosing alternative dairy products range from allergies to intolerance. There are claims that symptoms of bloating, loose bowels and poor skin are linked to consuming dairy. Most of the nutrition students were sceptical about the taste and texture of the milk alternatives so an experiment was formed. Each student tasted 6 samples of milk. These samples included full cream dairy milk, skim milk, oat milk, soy milk, almond milk and rice milk. After blind tasting all the samples the students had different opinions about each sample. Most guessed the samples correctly but found they didn’t mind the milk alternatives as much as they thought they would. One student in particular loved the rice milk and another exclaimed they would drink oat milk from now on.

PE

This semester in electives we focused on SEPEP with Mr.T. SEPEP is a student centered approach to Physical Education which is used to enhance student learning. Students took on all positions and responsibilities such as coach, referee, trainer and statistics manager. Each team kept track of the goal scorers, assists and other statistics to put into an overall leader board. Based on their grades, each student got a transfer value, whereby they can make transfers between teams next semester, while maintaining a club value. The Grand Final was played over two days due to the first day ending up as a 1-1 draw. Overtime was played during recess the next day, where KFC won 4-2 in front of jam – packed Pinnacle crowd. We look forward to continuing this next semester.

Pastoral Care Boys

EEC Year 6 Boys’ Reflections on Pastoral Care Programs

It is great to be part of the Pastoral Care programs. Pastoral Care teaches us how to be more mature and to have some fun together. We start with a few Mathletics tasks as well Reading Eggspress in the IT lab and then have some time to play games like soccer, volleyball and play other games. The valuable part of the Pastoral Care program is reading and having group discussion about different topics such as the life of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW), Trust and Honesty, which shapes us into a better person. We also learnt about obedience to parents, value of good friendship. Topics like this this makes you respect everybody much more weather you know them or not. To be physically active, Pastoral Pare organises different games like games like soccer, volleyball or basketball, which we enjoy a lot. Finishing the day with a delicious pizza together with our friends is another good part of the programs. Thanks to our teachers for providing opportunity with such a precious activities.

By Hamza Memon & Davoud Mizrayev

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