Pinnacle College eNewsletter

9 April 2021

Newsletter Articles

OUR MISSION, VISION AND VALUES

Our Mission

Our mission is to foster academic and creative excellence in a respectful and nurturing educational environment. We strive to support student wellbeing and provide meaningful learning experiences that develop socially responsible and resilient life-long learners. Through collaboration and leadership, our students will engage in, and contribute to the community, both locally and globally.

Our Vision

At Pinnacle College, we celebrate diversity and uniqueness in an innovative and inclusive learning environment. Our vision is to equip students with the confidence and skills to reach their potential and meet the challenges of the future as global citizens, leaders and innovators.

PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE

Dear Parents, Students and Friends,

Welcome to the last newsletter of the Term 1.

It has been a very long term for everyone and we all deserved a two-week-long break to rest and relax as well as sharpen our skills.

Pinnacle College Gilles Plains and Golden Grove Campuses were again full of joy and knowledge throughout term 1 and you will see a snippet from each class and subject below. In addition to that, I am greatly happy to inform you that the Gilles Plains campus has a dedicated PE teacher, Ms Merridy Nicholls, I would like to welcome her on board. She has been getting along fantastic with our students and I am sure her dedication and commitment will make a difference at the GP campus as well.

Secondary Parent-teacher interviews were held last week Wednesday on 31st of March. Unfortunately, the attendance at the interviews was significantly lower than last years. We believe that successful communication between the parents and school is one of the key pillars of academic progress. We are aware that as the school, we need some improvement in certain areas in terms of communicating, however, we also would like to see more involvement from our parents who are supporting their child(ren) where and when possible. Primary Parent-Teacher interviews have been concluded this week and I would like to thank those families who made their time available and discussed the progress of their kids.

Finally, although we have used several platforms to inform our community regarding the loss of Elizabeth campus student, Ahmad Alfarhan. Once again I would like to take this opportunity to extend my condolences to the whole Pinnacle Community as well as the family of Ahmad. May Allah reward him with His Heavens and May Allah give patience to the family and friends. As Pinnacle College, we tried to be by the side of the family as much as possible and we will be showing our support in the future if any possibility arises.

Looking forward to seeing you all after the break.

Kind Regards,
Atilla Sinik
Campus Principal

Primary Coordinator (Golden Grove)

Term 1 is off to an action-packed start as students have taken part in incursions, excursions, clubs, fundraisers and hands-on activities. We have seen our students take on senior roles where they delegate tasks, support others and run a program for other students to enjoy; they have represented our school values to external businesses and as always (and we never take it for granted) we are always told how kind, generous and engaged each and every student is; our school is looking more colourful with the art creations and gardening inclusions… further to this, some clubs still have some available spots so if your child would like to take part, please see the relevant teacher for more information.

Finally, it was so encouraging to see our senior primary students attend our GP campus for a Meet the Author event with Allayne Webster. Students asked great questions regarding her career and tips for budding authors and I know in English we will be adding some tips to our writing challenges

Regards
Mr Myles McLean

Primary Coordinator (Gilles Plains)

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Carpark

The car park situation has improved since the introduction of staggered dismissal. We are grateful to parents who come in on time to pick up your child after school. In the mornings, please park your car at the carpark near the mosque and walk your child to the gate.

Late comers

We are seeing an increase in the number of students coming to school late. School starts at 8.45am and there is a teacher on duty from 8.30am. All late students will have to report to the office and pick up a late slip before proceeding to class. This is recorded on Mysis.

Recycling

Our campus has gone big this year with recycling. Thank you Mrs Holland and the SRC. Every class has a recycling bin for paper and a compost bin for food scraps. We have also included a bin for recycling cans and juice boxes in the green area. Please encourage your child to do the same at home.

Garden

Every class now has a garden bed which they take care of. We have planted strawberries, silver beet, broccoli and many more. In spring we look forward to harvesting our crops.

Thank you for all your support and feedback.

Kind Regards,
Shalini Moss

Library

What a fantastic term. Many of the students are working hard on completing their Premiers Reading Challenge. The due date is not until September, so please keep going. Reading for pleasure is SO important. I am hoping if students start reading now, they will continue over the rest of their lives. Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 classes would have been read to enough to complete the challenge.

Harmony day we looked at all the different languages spoken in our families. Many people found this quite interesting.

Students are allowed to borrow their library books over the holiday. The public library is also a great place to find further reading material. The PRC books can come from anywhere. Next term we'll be focusing on the Shortlisted books and getting ready for Book Week in August. The Shortlist will come out on March 31st.

Next term we'll have library monitors at both libraries during the breaks and before school. Students need to be in year 4 or above. The students can learn more about how the library is organized and help with displays. Golden Grove could have library monitors on Tuesday or Thursday while Gilles Plains will have library monitors on Wednesday.

Kind Regards,
Ms Lisa Preston
Librarian at Golden Grove and Gilles Plain

PASTORAL CARE

During week 9, Year 7 students were in charge of a fundraiser to help raise funds for the Ramadan food packages. Students gave tremendous effort and worked very hard to bring and sell delicious food at the Year 7 cake stall.

We thank all the Year 7 students who helped and contributed, as well as all the students who bought from the Year 7 stalls to help with this fundraiser.

May Allah (swt) reward all efforts and good intentions.

Hoping for our fundraisers to make a difference in the lives of families this Ramadan.

Ramadan Mubarak to all our parents and students from now...

Kind regards
Girls Pastoral Care Teachers

SCHOOL COUNSELLOR

Dear Parents/Guardians,

It has been a great start to the year so far. This year our secondary students have started Growth and Wellbeing lessons. These lessons are conducted by our amazing teachers Ms Nesibe, MrsTriantafilakis, Mrs Aslan and Ms Soheir. These lessons focus on friendships, tolerance, goal setting, hygiene and many more topics. In primary, a select number of students will be participating in what's the Buzz Program which is a social skills program that helps students develop many skills such as sharing and turn taking, joining in, waiting, empathy and many more.

This term, our primary and secondary students also had the opportunity to attend two separate Brainstorm Productions incursions, Buddies and Cyberia. These incursions were based around bullying, cyber safety, friendships, positive relationships and mental health.

And lastly, a reminder that counselling services are available for our students, providing support around issues such as:

Friendship issues
Anxiety and worries
Time management and organisation
Goal setting
Conflict resolution
General wellbeing
Motivation

Kind Regards,
Zina Almufti

MUSIC

Music with your children has been a blast so far! Each class has a different set of talents and interests in regards to music which makes things very interesting. On Harmony Day, the primary schools of both campuses performed the song they have been learning, Everyone Belongs. They did such a wonderful job, I was so impressed! I’m looking forward to us learning more songs together in the future.

The lunch-time choir at Golden Grove has now been opened up to Years 5-9 and will run every Thursday (except for the first and last weeks of term). If your child is interested in joining, please have them hand me a permission slip or you are welcome to contact me directly.

Mrs Sarah Hateley
Music Teacher

ART CLUB

Art Club has begun with such an overwhelming response it is now running 3 days a week to include a junior, Middle and Senior Club. Junior Art Club started with some painting and drawing and we are now thinking about something special for Mother's Day next term. Middle Art Club have been exploring some digital art using the Apple pencils and they have also helped to create the mural for Harmony Day. The Senior Art Club has been learning some sewing skills and have been making their own pencil cases.

Mrs Mungall

FOUNDATION – GOLDEN GROVE

Foundation students have been working so hard on their Jolly Phonics sounds this term! They are starting to blend, read and write simple CVC words and recognise high frequency words in texts. We also had the opportunity to observe our pet caterpillars turn into cocoons, then hatch into beautiful butterflies! Students thoroughly enjoyed learning about the life cycle of butterflies and what animals need to survive. We also learnt about a variety of Australian animals on their first excursion which was very exciting, the bearded dragon was so spiky! I am very proud of all students' efforts and achievements during term one and I wish all families a restful holiday. I look forward to many more exciting learning experiences in term 2!

Kindest Regards,
Ms Daniella Di Cola

YEAR 1 – GOLDEN GROVE

These last few weeks have been very busy learning about animals and living things. We were lucky to have the baby chicks in our classroom, watching them hatch and taking care of them. One of the birds needed some extra special TLC, luckily Mrs Burton was there to help out! The students made bird feeders to hang up in their gardens, carefully using honey instead of glue to make sure the birds are safe! We have written information reports in English about lots of animals; gorillas, polar bears, saltwater crocodiles, blue whales and tigers! The students have been learning how to use paragraphs in their writing and turning dot points into full sentences. I have been very proud of their efforts.

Kindest Regards,
Mrs Chloe Rees

YEAR 2 - GOLDEN GROVE

It’s hard to believe we are almost at the end of the first term! Since the last newsletter, we have patted a koala and learned about some curious animals at the Gorge Wildlife Park. We’ve made pancakes for Procedure Writing and we experienced the colour, sounds and tastes of Harmony Day with cultural activities, a shared lunch and whole school assembly.

Kindest Regards,
Ms Bianca Villani

YEAR 3 – GOLDEN GROVE

We have reached the end of Term 1, 2021 with only minor interruptions in comparison with the same time last year! We have been getting to know each other over the last 9/10 weeks and setting our classroom structure and routines in place. We have also been on a fabulous excursion to the Adelaide Botanic Gardens and had a fantastic learning experience thanks to our guide Trent Hill. Ask your child about the sticky seed bird trap, the tree that the long-neck dinosaurs used to eat (that has pine cones that could kill you) and the fabulous cubby tree. We are all looking forward to the wonderful learning experiences that the next term will hold. Have a great break and we look forward to seeing you on the other side.

Kindest Regards,
Mrs Kylie Burton

YEAR 4 – GOLDEN GROVE

On Monday 22nd of March we went to the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. We were led through a trail in the Adelaide Botanic Garden that highlighted the layers and biodiversity of a rainforest. We also had a great experience touring the Bicentennial Conservatory which is made up of diverse plants and rainforest trees that make up the ecosystem of the rainforest. Students loved the plants and trees, but did complain about the humidity in the rainforest experience!

Kind regards,
Miss Jessica Tripodi

YEAR 5 – GOLDEN GROVE

Dear Parents/Caregivers,

The Year 5s have spent the past few weeks becoming young scientists; they have been engaged in obtaining various skills of investigating how the properties of solids, liquids and gasses change. We have thoroughly enjoyed our class experiments. Students will also be visiting the ‘Adelaide Museum’ in Week 11 to finish our unit on Australian History & Colonisation. I will be setting some NAPLAN tasks for homework, however, I strongly encourage students to revise over the holidays. I am proud of you all!

Have a safe & beautiful holiday!

Kindest Regards,
Miss Sawafta Natasha

YEAR 6 – GOLDEN GROVE

Year 6 students have been researching bushfires and the impact it has had on recent Australia in South Australia and Victoria. Taking this information, they have structured a persuasive essay asking people who live in bushfire-prone areas to ‘leave and live’. Students have worked hard to add persuasive elements and select the best vocabulary to entice the reader to act on their advice.

Kind Regards,
Mr Myles McLean

YEAR 7– GOLDEN GROVE

From the start of term one until week 6 in Art we were drawing ourselves as our alter egos in Japanese manga style. We had a lot of fun designing ourselves with different patterns and styles. Currently we are making comic strips using the manga me character we created to make a short story.

Shaharin year 7

YEAR 8 – GOLDEN GROVE

Open Ten Pin Bowling

Numerous year 8-10 girls took part in Open Ten Pin Bowling tournament on Friday week 7. They competed against Salisbury High and Salisbury East. Redeta was our individual winner from Pinnacle with a score of 90 just in round 1. Our year 10 team consisting of Busra, Hani, Sabrin, Asheena and Zaara won bronze for the girls with a score of 613! Congratulations girls! The students participated with positive spirits and plenty of encouragement. A great day was had by all!

HPE Badminton Coaching with Payne

During weeks 6, 8 and 9 the year 8 students (and 7-10 girls) have been lucky enough to participate in badminton coaching sessions with Payne Sowter from Badminton SA. The students have been learning new skills and techniques and their fitness has definitely been tested. The students have been working very hard during these sessions and their enthusiasm progresses through every lesson. Thank you Payne!

Miss Molly Affolter

Kind regards,
Year 8 Teachers

YEAR 9 – GOLDEN GROVE

The year 9 students have been practicing their debating and persuasion skills during our class debates this past week. We had spent the week prior going over logical fallacies which the students are now able to spot in political messages and marketing advertisements. After organising themselves into groups, the girls chose compelling and controversial topics to argue their team’s position. With only five minutes of speaking time, each presenter had to argue their team’s position whilst rebutting the opposition. It was wonderful to see the students become fully engaged with their topic and overall some great arguments were presented by the year 9 students.

Kind regards,
Miss Bronte Dahms

YEAR 10 – GOLDEN GROVE

Open Ultimate Frisbee

On Thursday the 11th March, some year 8-10 students participated in senior ultimate Frisbee against several other schools including Modbury, Prescott, Craigmore and Parafield Gardens. We had perfect weather and the students participated enthusiastically all day. Unfortunately we finished 5th but I am sure the girls enjoyed the day at the Heights School.

Miss Molly Affolter

Kind regards,
Miss Beltrame
Year 10 Teacher

FOUNDATION – GILLES PLAINS

Since our very first newsletter, we have been busy with not only learning more new sounds and words but also exploring patterns in Maths. Our very first excursion was to the Elizabeth Campus, to learn about some interesting animals from the Nature Education Centre. This inspired students to make some amazing habitats, as part of their learning of what animals need to survive.

Kind Regards
Ms Victoria Makowiak

YEAR 1 – GILLES PLAINS

During the end of Term 1, our class was very fortunate to enjoy the hatching of 12 baby chicks and we loved taking care of them for two weeks. Everyone was so gentle and often the chicks would fall asleep in our hands. At the end of our two weeks they were lovingly adopted by our families. Students also thought very hard about a place that was special to them, drew wonderful pictures of the special place and explained why it was so special.

Warm regards
Mrs Sandra Holland

YEAR 2 – GILLES PLAINS

We have nearly reached the end of term 1. We have had so much fun creating procedures during English and making fairy bread. Our class was very lucky to visit the wildlife park to learn about wildlife and pat a koala, snake and tortoise. We also have had some exciting things happen in our classroom including having our tadpoles and watching them go through metamorphosis and enjoying our cultural activities for Harmony Day.

Warm regards
Mrs Eleni Rocca

YEAR 3 – GILLES PLAINS

Dear Parents,

Students in Year 3 have been working exceptionally hard in the past few weeks on their Persuasive Writing in English. We also have been busy planting seeds in our school garden and creating our coastal clay sculptures in Art. As we approach NAPLAN in Term 2, I have been encouraging students to remain positive. Keep practising throughout the school holidays with them, using the mock tests I will be assigning as holiday homework.

Enjoy the break!
Kind Regards,
Miss Kerry Apergis

YEAR 4 – GILLES PLAINS

Dear Parents,

Since our last newsletter, the Year 4s have been busy trying to improve their reading and listening comprehension skills. We have challenged ourselves to borrow a wider range of books at the library and experimented with informative texts by reading non-fiction books, watching documentaries and analysing news reports. Students are encouraged to continue reading over the holidays.

Have a safe, enjoyable break!

Kind Regards,
Ms Mubarak Ashimajy

YEAR 5 – GILLES PLAINS

We are nearing the end of Term 1. Most assessments are complete and we are getting ready for our NAPLAN tests which will be in May. They will be getting holiday homework which will include past papers. In Week 11, they will be visiting the Adelaide Museum to complete the HASS unit from this term. Thank you for your support and I look forward to seeing you at the parent-teacher interviews in week 11.

Kind Regards,
Mrs Shalini Moss

LOTE - Arabic

السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته

As we conclude term 1, students have been busy in Arabic as they furthered their grasp of the language. At primary level, students have been covering material from their textbook in accordance to their year level. Students in upper primary were also introduced to Arabic calligraphy and enjoyed partaking in calligraphy activities in class. Secondary students have been making progress with grammatical concepts and text analysis which we will build on in the remainder of the year.

Warm Regards,
Mahmoud Hassan
LOTE Teacher

RV - Religious Values

Dear parents,

In the second part of Term-1, we worked on the six pillars of faith in most primary classes. Students had the chance to improve/refresh their knowledge on what we need to believe in Islam. Our focus was also on evidence and clear examples about why it is required to believe in all six pillars of faith.