9 April 2022

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 – Gilles Plains

Dear Parents, Friends and Students,

Welcome to the second edition of the Pinnacle College Newsletter.

Ramadan Kareem to everyone. I hope we all enjoy this blessing month and make the most of it.

The Covid19 has taken a different turn and is now slowly becoming part of our daily lives at school and home. As you are also all aware, it affects the attendance of students and as well as teachers. The students who can’t make it to school due to getting covid19 or being isolated have been an ongoing problem for the last several weeks. However, the situation is not as gloomy as it looks hopefully for the upcoming term. With the restrictions being eased, we are hoping that students learning will be back on track again with a better attendance rate from the teachers and students.

Our students' physical well-being is one of our main priorities. In order to achieve this, we have been adding more play areas for our students’ use on the school grounds. The new cubby house area is one of the latest additions. The space will be used mainly by our junior primary students.

The new shade structure posts have been installed, and it’s expected that the shade fabric will also be installed during the break. This will allow our students to have a play area with more protection from the sun and light rain.

The new grass area is almost ready for our students' games and activities. The fence separating the site from the school's car park is being planned to be installed during the holiday break.

All these projects will increase the school's sporting activity capacity significantly and students will enjoy their time on school ground more.

Finally, I wish you all a great month of Ramadan and I look forward to seeing you in term 2.

Kind Regards,
Mr Atilla Sinik
Campus Principal

PRIMARY COORDINATOR

Dear students, Parents and Caregivers,

Ramadan Mubarak to everyone.

As we approach the end of term one, which was a difficult time for all of us, we would like to reflect on its successes, joys, knowledge and happiness. In addition, students participated in school clubs, soccer club, incursions, excursions and hands-on activities.

As always, I encourage parents to contact me whenever they need to. Please do not wait until the Parent Teacher Interviews to ask questions or express concerns about your kid.

Just a reminder, since there has been some tardiness among students, that school begins at 8:45 am and the school gate opens at 8:30 aam. Please have your children come to school on time.

Finally, I'd like to thank everyone for their ongoing support and wish you a joyful, relaxing, and safe holiday.

Kind Regards,
Ola Abdelmonem

JUNIOR PRIMARY CURRICULUM COORDINATOR

In Junior Primary, there are so many activities that are included in our school term. Once again, our students’ learning has been richly enhanced by a special visit from Life Education and Healthy Harold. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 Gilles, Life Education will visit our Gilles plains campus in Term 2. The program focus is on three main areas: physical health, social and emotional wellbeing and safety.

In the last few weeks, students from Foundation to Year 2 had lessons in the library with our special visitor Jade. We moved away from the traditional classroom where children were exposed to songs, characters, videos, activities and role play. The children were also joined by Life education's most loveable mascot Healthy Harold the Giraffe. Healthy Harold helps the educator deliver fun and engaging lessons that empower children to make safer and healthier choices.

Literacy skills in the early years

In order to make a good start in reading and writing, children need opportunities to converse and for others to listen to them, this will help develop their speaking and listening skills. This is an important part of learning as it helps children feel confident when it comes to conversing with friends and teachers. Being part of everyday activities such as preparing meals, tidying up, putting shopping away and getting ready for occasions offer you the chance to talk with your child and allow them to build upon their vocabulary skills too. Whilst you speak to your child, they are able to hear the way language is put together into sentences for a purpose.

Books are such a rich source of new words for your child, whilst reading to them they are exposed to words that you would not use in everyday conversations. Children need to have a wide range of vocabulary to have the ability to understand the meaning of books. Please read aloud to your child and share books as often as you can. Children love listening to stories and always ask questions about the meaning of words and love answering questions about the stories.

Ways you can support your child at home

• Read to your child everyday
• Set up a place where your child can experiment at home. This could be an arts and crafts corner with materials.
• Set up a writing station where your child can have time to sit and write.
• Encourage creative play outside.
• Make words with magnetic letters
• Orally retell stories using figurines and materials.
• Ask questions about the characters and the events of the story.

Kind Regards,
Maria Vokolos

UPPER PRIMARY CURRICULUM COORDINATOR

As we are well and truly over halfway through Term 1, I would like to thank the primary staff who are continuing to give students an educational experience which is as normal as possible in these times. Our teachers are continuing to innovate and be creative with the experiences they provide for their students in our School, even with COVID-19 being present within the community. Excursions have continued to take place: Year 1s attended the Adelaide Zoo, Year 2s doing cooking, Year 5s going to Cleland National Park, the Year 3s saw a show at the Fringe and Foundations going to the Adelaide Zoo. These are examples of how Pinnacle College provides our students with opportunities outside of what is possible within the walls of our School. We have also included STEM in our curriculum this year. Students will learn simple coding and design technology using various software.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions regarding your child’s learning. Have a safe and enjoyable holiday.

Kind Regards,
Shalini Moss
Upper Primary

LIBRARY

This month we have focused on Inspirational Women. We have lots of biographies and stories about a variety of women. For Harmony week we had a puzzle of all the different places students were born.

Many of the classes have been learning about how to take care of books and how to find books in the library. Please take care of all books, the better we take care of them – the longer they will last.

The upcoming holiday is a great time to complete the Premiers Reading Challenge . If students have not borrowed enough books from our library the public libraries are a great place to find a wider variety of books.

There is a Book Cup competition where the year 5 and 6s will read 5 books and compete in an inter-campus quiz competition during book week in August. It is not too late to join the Book Cup club. Just come and ask in the library.

“When I say to a parent, "read to a child", I don't want it to sound like medicine. I want it to sound like chocolate.” Mem Fox

Mrs Lisa Preston

SCHOOL EVENTS & SRC

On Friday 4th March, every class participated in School’s Clean Up Day. It was wonderful to see so many enthusiastic students helping to clean up the school grounds, taking pride in how the school looks and our impact on the environment.

We also began Week 8 by celebrating Harmony Day, although it was a quieter event than anticipated due to the number of staff absences. The Finnis Dinosaurs House Birthday Party was postponed and it will now be held in Term 2.

On the last day of Term we will be holding a Crazy Hair and Hijab Day to raise much needed funds for Cystic Fibrosis. Students have received a flyer to take home regarding this event.

Dates to Remember:

I hope you all have a safe holiday break and please don’t hesitate to contact me at sandra.holland@pinnacle.sa.edu.au if you have any questions about events or the student leadership team.

Mrs Sandra Holland

SCHOOL COUNSELLOR

Ramadan Mubarak to all of our students, parents and staff.

Although it is inevitable that our routines have changed due to Ramadan starting, it is very important to maintain a healthy routine. A healthy routine can include:

• Light exercise (going for a walk/jog, short cycle)
• Going to sleep earlier
• Maintaining a healthy diet - avoiding oily, sugary foods and drinks.
• Balancing study and personal time: this includes figuring out what time is best suitable for you to complete your studies, taking frequent breaks, setting small realistic daily goals etc.

This is also a great month to reflect and connect with Allah (God), strengthen your relationships with family and friends and even create new healthy habits. Wishing you all a blessed month.

PE DEPARTMENT

This term the students have started out the year with team building activities. Year 4&6 practiced basic basketball skills, speed and agility activities along with fun games.

Art Club

In Art Club this term students have created colourful 3D mobiles and shrink charms for Keyrings and jewellery.

MUSIC

Term 1 has come and gone so quickly! I continue to be impressed by students’ creativity and talent in the field of music. The choir began meeting weekly this term, learning some new songs to perform together. I look forward to this continuing throughout the year.

Mrs Sarah Hateley
Music Teacher

FOUNDATION

Dear Families,

Term 1 has been full of amazing learning experiences, and I am so proud of your children for all that they have achieved this term. They have been extremely motivated to develop their reading skills by learning the Jolly Phonics letter sounds, blending simple words and recognising high frequency words.

We learnt the life cycle of a butterfly and had the exciting experience of watching our caterpillar turn into a chrysalis and hatch into a beautiful butterfly. To compliment our science unit on living things we had the Nature Education Centre visit us with some interesting Australian animals.

I wish all families a restful holiday break and I look forward to many more exciting learning experiences in Term 2!

Kind Regards
Ms Kiya Norris

YEAR 1

The Year 1 students are making their way to becoming true scientists this term! From visiting the Adelaide Zoo, to creating their own animal habitat and bird feeders, our Science and Technology lessons could not get any more hands-on then that. Students have also been very busy putting their observations and comprehension knowledge about animals, onto paper, by making their own Animal Information Books.

Kind regards,
Mrs Victoria Mackowiak

YEAR 2

Year 2 has been working really hard on making interactive posters for HASS that show our connections to the world. It has been really exciting to see all the countries that our students have connections to in one way or another. We also had lots of fun creating cool and warm coloured portraits that include our dream for the future.

Mrs Sandra Holland

YEAR 3

Just like that we are almost at the end of Term 1! We have had many exciting learning opportunities this term, including making our coastal clay sculptures in Art and of course our excursion to the Adelaide Fringe to watch the Roald Dahl and the Imagination Seekers performance. In the holidays, students should utilize their time in preparation for the NAPLAN tests coming up in Term 2. I will be sending home some practice tests for revision.

Thank you for your continued support and wonderful feedback thus far.

I wish you all a happy, restful and safe holiday break.

Kind regards,
Miss Kerry Apergis

YEAR 4

I am happy to announce that despite many student absences this term we have managed to accomplish a lot. We read the book Charlotte’s Web and students did their own research project on a farm animal. I must encourage all students to read during the school holidays as this is one of the ways they are going to improve their English.

In Maths, students did well in their Number and Algebra assessment however they struggled to convert centimeters and meters in Length. I will be sending home holiday homework to help students consolidate their learning.

Thank you for your support this term. Keep safe and happy holidays.

Kind regards,
Shalini Moss

YEAR 5

Dear Parents,

Since our last newsletter, the Year 5s have been busy improving our typing skills in preparation for the upcoming NAPLAN test. We also celebrated several important events, including Harmony Day and a visit from Life Education.

Kind regards,
Ms Mubarak Ashimajy

YEAR 6

Since our last newsletter students in year 6 have worked hard to develop their understanding of renewable energy and how it is used to create electricity. They’ve all created their own models of renewable energy sources such as solar panels, wind turbines, dams, and even volcanos. They have also completed their narratives which they have been working on all term. They put in such great effort and have created pieces of writing which are hard to put down.

Kind regards,
Mr Peter Sowerbutts

LOTE - Arabic

Dear Parents/Caregivers:

Ramadan Mubarak,

Today we're a few steps away from the end of term 1. It's been busy and full of challenges for everyone Parents, our team and our children. We have been doing some activities about Ramadan, which our students have been enjoying. In Year 2/3 we have been learning to combine double vowels / long vowels in their reading and apply some simple grammar, for example Tanween and Shadda.

In Year 4/5, students have been working on their reading and writing skills through different activities. We appreciate the efforts of our parents and their cooperation in helping us build and strengthen our children’s connection with the Arabic language.

Warm regards
Mrs Ola Abdelmonem

LOTE - Turkish

Merhaba everyone!

In term 1, Turkish students enjoyed learning about diverse and interesting topics and skills including spelling, listening, vocabulary and translating words and phrases from English into Turkish.

For example, year 1 Turkish class learned about Turkish alphabets, numbers and colours while year 2 and 3 studied new vocabulary and phrases related to school life and Countries and Nationalities. Moreover, year 4 and 5 Turkish class engaged in learning how to greet people in different times/situations and school-related topics.

Warm regards
Mr Ahmet Sonmez

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