16 November 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 and Carers,
As we rapidly approach the end of the school year, it is important to acknowledge how blessed we have been here in SA to be able to complete another school year. It has been an interesting year, full of challenges, demanding resilience and hope. As we now progress to a post-covid stage, we still have the opportunity to organise a number of activities for this term.
Due to Phase 4 restrictions, we are not able to celebrate the end of year as a community as we have in past years. Therefore, unfortunately, there will be no special End of Year Ceremony. On the other hand graduation ceremonies for both primary and secondary graduates have been organised on the school ground to share and celebrate their achievements and success stories together.
Year 12 Graduation and Award Ceremony: It will be held on the 20th November at Elizabeth East Campus Gym from 3pm to 5pm.
Year 12 Graduates Dinner on the 20th of November at Ayer’s House from 6 to 9PM.
Year 6 Graduation and award ceremony: It will be held on the 3rd of December at Elizabeth East Campus at 5.30 to 8PM.
Also we have had a number of great events so far.
On the 30th of October we celebrated World Teachers’ Day. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all teachers for their continued hard work and dedication to provide the best education for our students.
Our primary students had a sports carnival on the 5th of November. It was full of fun and laughter. It was great to see all primary students enjoying the day. I would like to congratulate all participants and winners of the day as well as our dedicated teachers.
Apart from our sports carnival, on the 6th November, our secondary school students participated in the AFL competition and both girls and boys teams came third. Although they could not make grand finals, our jersey design was chosen the best amongst all other teams. Congratulations!
The 11th day of the 11th month of each year is celebrated as Remembrance Day. This is a memorial day to commemorate the deceased soldiers of World War I and following wars. We had an assembly to remember the people who served and gave their lives for this country. I would like to recognise the sacrifice of all those who died defending their country on behalf of the Pinnacle College family.
I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible in the school between now and the end of the school year
Till next issue
Educationally yours,
Gokhan Kot
Campus Principal, Elizabeth East
Community Engagement
'Clothing and Book Drive'
This event took place at the Australian Migrant Resource Center, and was organised by Migrant Resource Center, Pinnacle College, and Australian Relief organisation during Term 3’s school holidays. Refugee communities from Burma, Bhutan, Nepal, South Sudan and Syria attended, with around 50 families present. We donated gift bags which contained clothing, books, chocolates, and small rubber balls. Staff from Pinnacle and AMRC mingled and chatted with the guests, and we all enjoyed a light lunch together.
Cambodia Girls Dormitory Social Justice Project
We have got a new social justice project which we believe will be completed very quickly by means of your support. Could you give us a hand for Cambodia Girls’ Dormitory Project?
OUR GOAL
The funds go towards the successful and long-term operation of the Cambodia Girls’ Dormitory Project, a boarding facility for orphans and disadvantaged young girls. It covers and supports all girls’ everyday needs; in addition, it provides for their support and helps them attain a quality education, from junior to senior high school.
SHORT TERM GOAL – Raising
$20,000 for the set-up costs – Target end of 2020, beginning 2021.
LONG TERM GOAL – Continued sponsorship of the
girls with monthly payments of $50-$100.
Thank you for your generous donations!
Please see the flyer for details.
Counselling and Inclusive Ed
Dear Parents and Guardians,
Primary:
In term 4 to assist with the transition of our junior primary students into next year, we have introduced Homework Club. In this time, students are given the opportunity to work with staff members after school to assist them with their learning. Students are able to enjoy some fruit and study music to ensure that their brains are primed to soak up as much information as possible. We are hopeful that in the future we will have more capacity to take on more students and provide this opportunity to our upper primary as well.
Secondary:
Exams and testing are a common experience for students as they progress through their education. Preparation is the key to managing stress and most times leads to better outcomes. Here are some tips:
- Having a study schedule is crucial to ensuring that you are able to manage your time effectively.
- There should be a balance of reviewing/re-learning content and then applying the content to problem questions or replicating the exam.
- The more you can replicate testing conditions, the less pressured you will feel in the exam.
- Just remember an exam is simply the student becoming the teacher and ‘showing off’ how much they have learned.
For support with planners, contact myself or Ms Zina.
Yours faithfully,
Mehmet Kavlakoglu
Inclusive Education Coordinator | School Counsellor
Library
The library has been focusing on Sports and games this term. Week 5 has been International Games week in the library with lots of library related games for all students. The last day to borrow books from the school library is week 6. All school library books need to be returned by Week 8.
Please continue to read over the summer break. 20 minutes a day of reading increases your knowledge of words by 1.8million over a year. Playford Library is a great place to borrow books and other programs over the summer break.
We are looking forward to moving into our new bigger, brighter library early next year. Feel free to email the library at library@pinnacle.sa.edu.au with any suggestions of books for the library.
Have a great summer
Front Office Notices
Primary
Foundations
This term, the foundation class are learning about capacity! We are having lots of fun exploring capacity with water, and other materials such as rice and lentils. We are learning that capacity is used all around us every day, like when we are cooking! We have been able to use the new outdoor learning area outside our classroom. The new learning area is just like our classroom, only it is outside. There are lots of new activities to explore, and fun opportunities to learn.
I have had a wonderful time teaching the foundation children for the past seven weeks. I will miss seeing all of your faces when I finish on Tuesday week 6! Thank you for welcoming me into your class, and teaching me how to be a better teacher.
Mrs Dodds
Year 1
Dear year 1 parents,
I have absolutely adored spending time with your children throughout the past few weeks. In English, we have been studying persuasive writing. We have been learning about how to use high modality words, adjectives and strong arguments to persuade someone. This week in class, we looked at what is the best pet. Zac came up with the fantastic argument that dogs are good protectors as they bark if someone is entering the house. In maths, we have just finished our fractions topic and are moving onto financial maths. The year 1’s are learning about the value, shape and design of coins and notes, as well as how to order them. We played a Kahoot in class and they loved it! Sports day last week was fantastic and it was wonderful to see all of the children get involved and give all the activities a go. The sponge race to see who could fill up their bucket the fastest was a clear favourite! Congratulations to Abdulaye for being the kindest and spirited sportsman on the day. I have loved being a part of the Year 1 class and will miss all the children.
Kind regards,
Ms Heard.
Year 2
The Year 2 class have had a lot of fun this term, with many fun-filled events!
Week 3 was Swimming week for the students. All the students that went had lots of fun were engaged in their lessons. Students learnt many skills on how to swim and cooperated with each other as well as helping each other in their mixed groups. They all enjoyed themselves and had a great time throughout the week.
Last Thursday was our Primary Sports Day - Spongebob Theme! All teams showed their sports skills as well as good teamwork together with their colours. Congratulations to the Blue team that won!
Looking forward to finishing the year off strong!
Miss P & Sunny
Year 3
Some snapshots from our SpongeBob SquarePants themed Sports Day event! The Year 3’s had a fun-filled day and their favourite activities were jumping on the pogo sticks and the running races!
Well done to Hisham for receiving the Sportsmanship award ☺
Year 4
Dear Parents and Families,
We have had a fantastic start to term 4. We have spent the first week getting to know each other in order to form positive relationships. During English we have been learning about persuasive writing. The students have been learning new techniques and strategies to plan for successful writing. Throughout Maths we have focused on division strategies, 3D shapes and chance experiments.
During HASS we began learning about Australian identity and culture. We are now introducing government and democracy. To link in with our HASS, during Technology students have been researching and creating board games based on Australian identity and facts. The students are working in partners to create interactive board games that they will then play with the year 1’s. For Science, we have been learning about natural and processed materials. Students have had the opportunity to conduct experiments that are investigating the properties of materials and whether or not they can decompose in the environment.
The weeks are flying by for our final term and it has been a fantastic welcoming to the school for Miss Marcoionni.
Miss Marcoionni & the year 4 team ☺
Year 5
Dear parents,
It has been a busy start to Term 4 so far in the year 5 room.
During Science classes, students started to investigate light, how light travels, different characteristics of light and how light reflects, refracts or gets absorbed depending on the transparent, translucent or opaque objects it comes across with. Students will soon examine how we see different colours and shadows.
During HASS classes, students are learning about different levels of Government, as well as the election process and how the voting system works. In class we did a practice election, where students were in groups, pretending to be a party. Students prepared posters and a speech, before we held a class vote. The winning party was ‘Justice’ with Erfan selected as the prime minister ☺
Hoping for a great end to the year 2020, for all our grade 5s and all our classes.
Mrs Nesibe
Year 6
Dear Parents and Caregivers
Welcome to our final term for 2020! Time has gone by way too quick this year. Ziya and Shaharin from Grade 6 would like to share their thoughts about year 6 in 2020.
This year would be written down in history as the year of the election, COVID-19 and many more. First, I’d like to start by discussing how COVID-19 was for the year 6s, we all remember staying home solving math equations, writing pervasive texts or just playing games. The main thing this year is stress, many of us are stressing over tests but the real thing is the scholarship test which will determine how much of a scholarship we will get! So please make Dua for us.
Stay safe (:
From Ziya
This year was very unexpected but fascinating! There were many rough times like COVID. Nevertheless, I think we managed to get through the tough times and make it the best year 6 possible. I learned new interesting things that I didn’t know about in my lessons, met new wonderful teachers and made some new awesome friends. I also had so much fun in Pastoral Care with Mrs Esma, an amazing time with my homegroup and English teacher Mrs Nibal, Science, Hass, ICT, and Health with Mrs Nesibe, Maths with Mr. Raza, LOTE with Mr. Nurudeen, Music, PE and Art with Mr. T, Miss Schache and Ms Selen.
From Shaharin
Arabic
This term, Year 2 are enjoying more hands-on interactive learning. They have learned about the days of the week and family members. They have also developed their skills on how to build up simple sentences through learning sight words such as “I like”. We are using various strategies and techniques to make students actively participate.
Home Ec
This semester the Inclusive Education team have been running a pilot home economic cooking program for students in Year 6. The program is designed to teach students how to use their numeracy (measuring, doubling, money maths) and literacy skills (evaluating, research, procedural writing). This equips students with life skills that they can use in high school and throughout their lives. Students also get to learn about foods from other cultures and about Australian cultural diversity.
The students involved gather each Tuesday to cook, learn and have enormous fun. Not all of our cooking recipes have been a success, but we have learnt as much from our failures as our successes. As we all know failure can be a ladder to our eventual success.
In term 3 we made cupcakes, fruit kebabs, pizzas and sausage rolls. In term 4 we have made chicken wraps, spaghetti and meatballs and tacos. We look forward to making pancakes, greek salad, banana cake, burgers and omelettes this term.
Yours from a tasty smelling kitchen,
Inclusive Education.
Music
Primary Music
“Music is a piece of art that goes in the ears straight to the heart.”
This term is all about consolidating the music skills that have been learnt during the year to play as class ensembles – different parts on different instruments at the same time.
The Year 1s have been learning about improvising and played accompaniment parts to Living With The Rhythm on a variety of instruments.
Year 3s and 4s combined their music skills by playing Mumma Warruno on the ukulele and adding percussion parts on djembe, tambours and tambourines to create an arrangement of the song. The challenge was to keep the music gentle and relatively quiet, as it is an Aboriginal lullaby.
The Year 5s worked in groups to rehearse and perform The Basketball Rap with hip hop dance moves.
In Year 6, the students worked in groups to perform their version of Hip Hop Bop, including rapping the lyrics and hip hop dance moves.
Tracy Schache
Music Teacher
Secondary
English
For Stage 1 Essential English, Year 10 students recently visited St. Louis dessert restaurant in Norwood for the ultimate dessert experience. During class, students have been learning how to produce creative texts such as podcasts and food blogs through the manipulation of writing and speaking conventions. Students utilised the excursion to St. Louis as an opportunity to critique a dining experience and become a real life food critic!
Students are now in the process of writing a persuasive review about their experiences at St Louis, focusing on the food, the service which they and the atmosphere of the dining establishment.
PE
Term 4 week 5 marks the annual PE week in South Australia. At Pinnacle College, we aim to celebrate this in several ways. Most popular are the sporting competitions at lunch time. The middle school boys (7-10) participate in a round robin Soccer tournament against each other, whilst the senior school boys always enjoy their annual loss to the teachers in the staff vs students Soccer game. For our girls, the gym is also opened up during lunch in week 5 to allow them access to a range of different sports such as Volleyball, Badminton and Basketball. The annual PE week quiz is also hotly contested, with a series of sports related trivia questions completed during home group. Don’t forget to encourage your children to get at least 45 minutes of moderate intensity exercise each day – these habits need to be developed early to establish routines for a physically and mentally healthy lifestyle.
Mr. David Hannan
HPE Faculty Leader
Integrated Learning
Port Adelaide Intercultural Gala Day
Integrated Learning is a SACE accredited program created by the Port Adelaide Football Club. The program involves year 10 students who are part of schools with a high multicultural population. The aim of the program is to not only develop skills and educational outcomes around multiculturalism, but to provide the students with a sense of belonging, connecting their own culture to Australian society.
On the 6th of November, Port Adelaide Football club hosted their annual Gala Day, an opportunity for students involved in the Integrated Learning program, to participate in 9-a-side football, careers exhibitions and skills sessions. The Gala day allows schools to bring teams of students in years 10 to twelve, who have participated in the program. This year we were granted permission to bring younger students as a way to get a feel for the program they would be undertaking next year. We also, quietly, had faith in a team we could bring to the day, competing against schools who focus on Football as a sport.
The Football side of the day has brought Pinnacle College much success in the past, making two Grand Finals in two years. This year, we had three teams entered; Open A boys and Open A girls in the hardest divisions and an Open B Pinnacle boys in the 2nd division.
Our open A boys team this year was captained by Aydin Herkiloglu, who was dominant on the day scoring over 20 goals. He was accompanied by year 11’s Omar Ahmed and Hamdo Omerbegovic, year 10’s Abdulmalik Almsater and Kareem Zadeh, year 9s Omar Litip, Lamine Dolley, Nas Ibrahim, Josh Poulach and one year 7, Ayman Ismail, making the Pinnacle team, the youngest team at the tournament.
The Open Girls team was well represented by the year 10/11 girls with standouts on the day Marzi Ergasheva, Nargiza Dengiz, Asraa Al-Sarraf, Zakia Adam, Zehra Yigiter, Firdevs Sinik and Nazira Yarmuhammad.
Both divisions were made up of 14 schools.
The Open A boys finished equal 1st, but missed out on a Grand Final spot based on fewer goals scored. The only loss coming by less than a goal to the eventual winners.
The Open A girls finished 3rd, losing only 2 games throughout the day.
The Open B boys tried hard all day, but seemed to be more focused on the free goodies Port was giving out.
We were also fortunate enough to win the prestigious ‘Best Guernsey Design’, which brings us to two wins in three years. Asraa Al-Sarraf designed the Guernsey which was voted by Port Adelaide staff, as the Guernsey which was not only based on the visual appeal but best embodied the message and values of the program. You can see the Guernsey proudly framed in the office.
We look forward to next year!
Michael Triantafilakis
Science
This week was recycling week. The year 11 nutrition class have been investigating issues with water around the world. As Australians we are very lucky to have easy access to fresh drinking water. The water from your tap is clean, safe to drink and in reliable supply.
SA water is filtered and treated in a range of ways, from the moment it starts its journey from one of many sources all the way to your property, but other countries are not so lucky. In Uganda for example, the dirty water is dangerous to everyone. This bacteria and parasite ridden water is potentially deadly for children. Many women in Uganda walk 6 hours to water holes and back, carrying litres of water in jerry cans for everyday use.
The year 11 nutrition and psychology class combined to show year 3 and 4 students how poverty can limit access to clean water and restrict the ability to filter unsafe water. The class was split into teams, each team was given a country with varying amounts of money to buy materials to filter water. The students learnt a harsh lesson about how expensive access to fresh water can be in developing countries.
Pastoral Care
Pastoral Care Hiking Excursion
Last Saturday, the secondary boys went to a hiking excursion at Morialta Conservation Park organised by the Pastoral Care department. There were around 15 students and 5 teachers participated. The hike was around 2.5km long, and through the hike Mr Dolling provided us with lots of information about natural habitat of the park such as some plants Yacca, native cherries, Osborn's Eyebrightand and a lot of others. Morialta Conservation Park was filled with native and wild plants but now most of them have become endangered. In the hike we visited a cave that was about as old as when aboriginal used to live in Australia freely. It had signs of smoke on top of the cave and as you know, aboriginals are spiritually and emotionally connected with the land and caves such as this one. There were two waterfalls we saw while we were hiking on the mountain. The whole program lasted about 2 hours and 45 minutes including the lunch at the end. It was just a wonderful experience.
Muhammed Saad Multani
Year 9B
Dear Parents/Guardians,
We are thrilled to announce the Pastoral Care summer camp opportunity where our students will get to have a great time with their friends and teachers as well as achieving personal development through seminars, skill-building activities and reflective reading sessions.
This year's camp will be a collective event with students from years 7 to 12 for boys and years 6 to 10 for girls across all campuses invited and will be held at Mylor Adventure Camp for 2 nights and 3 days. This will give our students the opportunity to also bond with their peers of different grades and allow us to enjoy the offerings of a big campsite.
The camp will mainly comprise daily prayers, book reading discussions, values education and some activities chosen amongst swimming in the pool, giant swing, canoeing, high ropes course, archery and more.
Pastoral Care Department
