11 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
Dear Parents and Carers,
Welcome back to the 2022 Second issue of the Pinnacle newsletter and I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on Ramadan & Eid as you celebrate with your family.
Ramadan is the month of compassion, understanding and consideration. It is not only the month of sharing a plate, but also opening our hearts and our home to others. It is great to see that our families and staff are opening their doors to everyone to make the most of these precious times. I pray for everyone to have a healthy, safe and blessed time of Ramadan. I would like to extend my appreciation to the Community Engagement and Pastoral Care departments for organising Father & Son and Mother & Daughter iftar dinner.
First of all, I would like to update you about the current COVID issues. The COVID pandemic is a part of our everyday reality and has become part of our daily routines. Currently, the number of absent staff and students are variable. In the near future, we are not able to predict what will happen. As a result, this causes an immense interruption to learning. The school management has outlined how we will deal with this situation.
- Teachers will continue to teach the content. Teaching and learning will continue despite student absences. They will support our students through online documentation as much as possible.
- A student who has missed out on content will not be assessed. N/A grade will appear on CoolSIS for the particular assessments.
- A teacher might postpone an assessment to another term or cancel an assessment or still do the assessment with present students and either excuse or get absent students to sit a missed assessment upon their return.
SACE subjects will have a similar option as long as it's done according to the Subject Outline and its amendments.
It can be clearly seen that we are going through very challenging times at school. We are trying to minimise the effect of the pandemic. However, I know that everybody has been affected to some degree. We can overcome these issues with more understanding and empathy.
Despite some negativity, since the beginning of the year, many positive changes have occurred. Assemblies, excursions, and incursions are back to normal. We are expecting an update about parents on the school grounds. We really miss you!
Another good change that will happen next term is that year 12 students will be provided with regular study sessions on a daily basis. With this opportunity, we will be able to support our students more.
Besides academic changes, we do have great news again to share with you regarding an excellent achievement from our basketball team. They won the Western Zone Open Boys 3 x 3 Basketball Tournament. I would like to congratulate our teachers/coaches and students for this incredible success. I hope they continue to make us more proud on more occasions!
We wish everyone a safe, healthy and enjoyable holiday.
Till next issue…
Educationally Yours,
Mr Kot
Campus Principal, Elizabeth East
Community Engagement News
Community Leaders Friendship & Dialogue Iftar Dinner
Last night our Community Leaders Friendship & Dialogue Iftar Dinner was held at the Adelaide Convention Centre. A highlight was the attendance of Her Excellency, the Hon Frances Adamson AC, Governor of South Australia. We were most pleased to see Her Excellency at our intercultural event.
This was a most socially cohesive event and a soothing experience for all in attendance. All our speakers and presenters were warmly received by the guests. Our keynote speaker was Mr. Bruce Djite (Former Socceroo) and his presentation was quite inspirational and moving. Our guest speakers, Dr. Zuleyha and Mr. Lenard’s speeches gave us different perspectives on our lives.
Anatolian Sufi Music Group and Quran Recitation were very spiritual and divine. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed listening to these talented teachers. Kahoot Competition (Pinnacle College Graduates) did a great job! It was so entertaining.
Dr M Aslan
Community Engagement Manager
Junior Primary Curriculum
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
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
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
Ms Lisa Preston
Librarian - Pinnacle College
Primary
Foundation
We had eight special visitors to our classroom last week. They hopped, slithered, climbed and talked. Can you work out which did what? We were very brave and patted them all. Later we wrote about something we learnt about them.
Year 1
Dear parents and caregivers,
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for a wonderful term, for your support and patience. It was a term full of learning, laughter, ups and downs due to Covid-19. However, we enjoyed every moment of Term 1 and made it special.
I wish you and your children a wonderful Term 1 holidays and a fruitful year ahead.
Yours Sincerely,
Nibal Al Bayati
Year 2
The Year 2 students have been busy bees, even though there have been many students absent! So far, it has been amazing to watch the students work on their iMovie for Art with their Year 4 bussy class. They designed and made their very own sock puppets and will be creating their very own sock puppet procedure iMovie for others to learn how to make it too! They have also been learning about warm and cool colours, and created a Mexican inspired Sun and Moon art piece and also some autumn leaves to represent our current season.
Year 3
What a great term we have had!
It has been a challenging one dealing with Covid and all the absences, but we have also had a great term of learning.
We enjoyed creating an art piece out of colourful leaves we drew, researching an influential Aboriginal person and completing a collaborative colouring project to celebrate the holy month of Ramadan.
Thank you all for your continued support and I hope you all have a lovely break!
Ramadan Kareem!
Year 4
This term our students have been working well to complete their assignments and projects. In week 8, the year 4 team experienced an exciting excursion to Cleland Wildlife Park. The students were able to engage in an education session connecting with their Science learning of Life Cycles. Afterwards, the students explored the park, interacting with our cuddly wildlife.
Year 5
What an amazing start to the year. First term has been a rollercoaster with many challenges to say the most. Dealing with covid and all the absences, but we have soldiered on to create and embed our learning here at pinnacle College. The students in Year 5 have worked to the best of their abilities despite the daily challenges they have all faced, excelling and learning by being innovative towards their schoolwork and friendships.
Year 6
In Week 7, the Year 6 class enjoyed a Science Incursion to learn about Electrical Circuits. We were able to investigate electricity and build some electric circuits of our own. We also learned about conductors and insulators. We even created a circuit which tuned into a radio station!
Thanks,
Mr. Schlicker
Primary Religion and Values
AsslamoAlekum, Dear parents and Guardians,
Foundation students have shown a great improvement in Quran memorisation and Islamic studies. They learned about prophet Muhammed and they enjoyed fun activities in RV class. They celebrate the Blessed Month of Ramadan through designing Ramadan crown.
Ramadan Mubarak!
Yasmin Aly,
RV teacher
Primary Arabic
AsslamoAlekum, Dear parents and Guardians,
Students in year 4 & 5 have shown a great effort in learning this term. They have learned Arabic sounds, face parts through interactive games, flash cards and other activities that motivate students with keen participation and create a good learning attitude. Students also, enjoyed designing Ramadan Lantern to celebrate the blessed month.
Ramadan Mubarak!
Yasmin Aly
Arabic teacher
Primary Religion and Values
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
Students in Year 1 are enjoying their Religion and Values lessons. Students learnt why Allah is the only creator through Prophet Ibrahim's story of the discovery of Allah. We thanked Allah for giving us life and faculties of hearing and sight, our hearts and limbs, our strengths and abilities. We also learnt that He created all fruits with unimaginable beauty, taste, and colours, and then wrapped them in the most perfect manner and offered them to us. Students are still in the process of memorising Surah Al Fatiha.
Year 2 students spent the beginning of the term learning about the creation of the Prophet Adam and his sons, Habil and Qabil.
Finally, the students in Year 3 are learning about faith and the pillars of faith. The children were amazed to find out how air particles do many jobs like helping the travel of sound, heat, light, internet, tv signals at the same time without mixing them up.
Kind regards,
Mr Adem Adak
Primary Art
Despite all the setbacks and interruptions, it has been a very productive term with class learning as well as Harmony Day School art activities. Year 5 students learned about Media Arts and put together very engaging stop-motion animation videos. Year 6s concluded learning about Indigenous Art with Torres-Strait Islander negative paintings. They explored new possibilities of mark-making which is at the core of Australian Indigenous Art.
Secondary
HEAT
High School scholarships
Well done to the following students who were selected for our inaugural Sport Scholarships. In order to be eligible for these scholarships, students needed to be not only representing our school in competitions but playing at a high state level outside of school. They also went through a lengthy process which included applications and interviews.
Mohammed Al Ani (Basketball – North Adelaide Rockets,
State U18)
Mohammed Turay (Soccer, Croydon, Reserve Skillaroos)
Ayman Ismail (Australian Rules Football-Tea Tree Gully, North Adelaide, Bachar Houli academy Prospect)
Art
Islamic Art - Muhammad Gursel Ahmed
During Art in Term 1, we were learning about Islamic art. We started by learning about traditional Islamic art and the shapes they had. The Islamic art we did in class was symmetrical, geometrical and floral. Some examples of symmetrical/geometrical shapes we did were hexagons, 6 pointed stars, 8 pointed stars and 10 pointed stars. I really enjoyed creating Islamic art as it was easy to create and looked very nice when it was finished. It was also related with my culture and faith.
English
All of our students have been exploring a range of fascinating perspectives in English this term. From understanding the purpose of dystopian worlds in Stage 2 English, to learning about what makes persuasive texts effective, students have been able to showcase their fantastic knowledge and understanding.
PE
Basketball News
We would like to congratulate the following students for winning the Western Zone Open 3 x 3 Basketball tournament. Mohammad Al Ani, Mousa Aswad, Mohammed Adam, Melih Aslan, Ayman Ismail, Alper Altunkopru, Nasir Ibrahim, Abbas Mohammed, Abdulmohamin Almsater , Mohammed Turay and Naly Blayi.
We would also like to congratulate Mohammed Al Ani (Year 10) on his selection to represent South Australia at the upcoming National Tournament held in Ballarat.
Science
Earlier this term during Stage 1 Nutrition, students undertook an investigation into the water content of fruits. They were required to design an experiment in groups to determine the density of different fruits and water retention after the dehydration process
Stage 1 General Mathematics
We have been studying the Investment and Borrowing unit which includes topics such as interest. While interest has been taught in a very similar way throughout the western world, we have also discussed cultural perspectives on interest/usury and the growth of alternative Islamic financing.
Middle School Science
This Term Year 7 and Year 8 students worked in science investigation tasks. Year 7s investigated effect of temperature in dissolving a fizzy tablet where the Year 8s investigated effect of Mass and Length on the period of a pendulum.
Religion and Values
Evidence that Allah (S.W.T) exists
Davud Mirzayev Year 8 A
The proof of Allah (S.W.T)’s existence is a vast topic. However, it is not too hard to understand. Muslims know of Allah (S.W.T) as the creator of all living things and believe that he is the owner of everything. Abu Hanifa, one of the great Imams of Islam had many incidents where he had proved Allah (S.W.T)’s existence. One of these great examples was:
Since Abu Hanifa was known for his intelligence, a group of Atheists came up to him and asked him to prove the existence of Allah (S.W.T)
Imam Abu Hanifa said, "Let me think," then he remarked, "I am thinking about a loaded ship that was tied to a port. The cargo unloaded itself without porters and the ship sailed away without a captain.”
(Upon hearing this,) the atheists declared, "How can you say something like this! This is impossible. We cannot believe in it.”
Imam Abu Hanifa replied, "If you do not believe in this then how do you believe in the sun, the moon, the stars, the sky and the earth – how can you believe that all these came into existence without an Originator?"
As we can see in this example, Abu Hanifa says that he is thinking about a loaded ship and that the cargo on the ship unloaded itself. This doesn’t sound logical to the atheists so they mock him and tell him that this is impossible. When they say this, Abu Hanifa responds and asks them how they can believe everything in the universe could come into existence without a creator but a cargo ship cannot unload itself.
This evidence in this incident is clear and this is some proof that Allah (S.W.T) exists.