25 July 2022

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Address

Dear Parents, Students and Staff,

Welcome to the third edition of the newsletter this year. Since the last edition, Pinnacle College Elizabeth East Campus has organized a variety of programs such as, Pinnacle Talk, Biggest Breakfast in Australia, and fundraising activities and a wide range of Pastoral Care and Community Engagement programs. These programs enhance the positive relationship amongst the Pinnacle College community members. I would like to thank our staff and SRC members who are involved in organizing and contributing to those wonderful events and all parents and community members for their active participation and support.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our sports teams for their sportsmanship and achievements throughout this term - particularly in soccer and basketball. This term there are many sports programs, and we are expecting good results from our students. In the art arena two of our students' paintings have been selected for the SA Refugee Art Competition and their work will be exhibited at the Adelaide Festival Center. Well done and good luck in future competitions.

The annual Qurban Festival will be held on 22nd of June this term during week 8. Many fun activities have been planned by the SRC and Pastoral Care Department. All parents and friends are more than welcome!

Year 12 Study Sessions: Since the beginning of the term, Pinnacle College has increased the number of study sessions for Year 12 students to give them an opportunity to further improve and receive extra assistance.

The NAPLAN Tests have been successfully completed by students. We appreciate all teachers and students’ effort. I hope we will have better results every year.

The construction of 2 undercover areas has been completed and our school has more shaded areas and protection from the sun. For the 2023 Foundation class and other grades there will be entrance exams during the school holidays. If you plan to enroll your child in Pinnacle College, please do not miss this important opportunity.

Parent teacher interviews were concluded successfully. It is great to see parents on the school grounds again while meeting with teachers. We will keep in touch with parents of children that are struggling academically. We will do our best to help improve their academic skills.

Finally, Covid restrictions have been eased up for school and masks are no longer required in the classrooms. However, we still need to be cautious about Covid and protect ourselves as much as we can. Overseas trips are permitted for the time being. If you are planning a trip overseas, please check the government website and check any restrictions required by the country you intend to visit. Please make sure you contact the teachers to minimize the effect of a trip on your child’s study program. Please do not forget to fill out the online form to notify the school of your trip details.

Till next issue…

Educationally Yours,
Mr. Gokhan Kot
Campus Principal, Elizabeth East

Junior Primary Curriculum - Maria Vokolos

2023 Foundation Expression of Interest and Assessments

We are now in the process of organising assessment times for children who will begin their first year of school in Reception 2023. If you haven’t already done so, please contact the front office staff and ask to complete an expression of interest form. We will then be able to contact you to organise a time for you to bring your child to Pinnacle College. For your child to be eligible, they are required to be 5 years old before the 1st of July of the enrolment year. For those who have followed the process, please keep in contact with the school to organise the assessment time for your child. This year, teachers conduct Reception 2023 Assessments this term, from 7th - 8th of July. It is strongly encouraged you organise a time in July as our class numbers at all three campuses do fill up very quickly.

If you would like to know more about this process, please feel free to contact me via the front office or email maria.vokolos@pinnacle.sa.edu.au.

We are looking forward to meeting you all in July.

Primary Curriculum - Shalini Moss

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

This term has started off better with less disruptions and more students attending school. The NAPLAN tests were carried out in Week 2 and 3. Having the writing tests online for the Years 5, 7 and 9 brought to light the need to master touch typing so that students are able to type quickly and efficiently. Students from Year 3 have access to the Typing Tournament online program. Please encourage them to practice at home using the correct finger positions.

Reading assessments will start soon and I encourage parents to ask your child questions about what they are reading. Our students can read fluently however comprehending the text is what they need help in. Talking about reading and books at home will encourage your child to see the value in reading. Ensure they also take home readers everyday to boost their reading.

If you have any questions regarding reading or NAPLAN, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Community Engagement

Police Iftar Dinner

Towards the end of Ramadan, on the 26th April, 2022 Police Iftar Dinner was held at the Ghan Kebab House (Restaurant), organised by SAPOL, Australian Federal Police and Pinnacle College. A highlight of the evening was the attendance of our keynote speaker Hon Joe Szakacs, Minister for Police/Emergency Services. Commissioner Grant Stevens’s presence was appreciated as an important guest speaker.

This was held in the spirit of building inclusivity, diversity and social cohesion and exploring ways to collaboratively better serve the broader community. Our guest speakers and presenters were warmly received by the audience. Commander Erica Merrin from the AFP also contributed to the night as a speaker. Prof Mohamad Abdalla from Centre for Islamic Thought and Education-UniSA gave a very inspirational speech. This evening was truly uplifting and held in a spirit of cooperation and understanding

Barossa Chateau High Tea-Pinnacle Parents

Community Engagement has organised ‘Barossa Day Experience/High Tea’ on the 20th of May. Over twenty ladies joined the program. Barossa day experience with Devonshire tea, lunch, guided tour and gifts were enjoyed by Pinnacle College parents. It was such a great experience! A huge thank you and appreciation goes to Mrs Serap Sinik for organising this beautiful event.

Inclusive Education / Counselling

At Pinnacle, the counselling and wellbeing team play an important role in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of all students. Our priority is to monitor how students are going and what can be done to make sure that they are feeling comfortable and safe in the learning space. As we want the best for our students and their ability to strive for excellence, sometimes the expectations of success can become a pressure that a lot of students struggle to manage. This in turn can become quite anxiety provoking and create an obstacle in student motivation and the ability to cope.

Some of these factors include:

Perfectionism: Students strive to be the very best but can then become extremely disheartened if they fall short. - E.g. a student who scores an excellent grade of 19/20 will focus on the 1 mark they got wrong rather than the 19 they were able to accomplish.

Time Management and workload: Some students can become quite anxious due to the build-up of work and feel it is more than they can handle. We support our students by helping them organise their time / plan a study schedule that they can easily follow in order to accomplish their tasks. This also connects to the idea below:

School work is like a mountain:

• You don’t climb a mountain in one leap
• Treat assignments the same way
• Set small goals to break them up into achievable parts
• Manage time and avoid focusing on an assignment as one giant mountain.

If you have any concerns, please do not hesitate to contact the school counsellor:

Jesse Agostino - jesse.agostino@pinnacle.sa.edu.au.

Library

The library has been very exciting this term. May is History month in South Australia and we have been reading stories about history or set in history in Australia. There has been lots of interesting objects to discover throughout the month of May. An old typewriter, old iron, record player and even a cassette player.

Reconciliation week was May 27 – June 3rd and we discussed how we can all ‘Be Brave, Make Change’.

National Simultaneous Storytime was a great success listening to ‘Family Tree’ by Josh Pyke and Ronojoy Ghosh. The Primary students and Secondary Art Students developed a tree near the library. Many of the classes then discovered our own family and the family of Pinnacle College.

We encourage all students to complete the Premiers Reading Challenge. It is only reading 12 books between February and September. The Lower Primary classes do in their class, but the upper primary and secondary students should be recording these themselves. When students have completed the PRC, please return to Ms Lisa Preston. (or your class teacher)

Thank you to all the families who supported the Book Fair. This provides students to own their own books and benefits the library with a few new books.

We still have a concern about library books being overdue. If students have overdue books they cannot borrow books from the library or readers. Please return books or pay the FRONT OFFICE if you have lost books.

Please if you have any concerns about the library – come and talk to us.

Mrs Lisa Preston
Librarian - Pinnacle College

Pastoral Care

A BBQ gathering was organised for year 12 boys in week 4 on the weekend. Students had a great break after their busy study schedule at the school. It was a great time with the students and teachers in a friendly environment followed by a competitive soccer game in the gym. Thanks to Mr.Salih and Mr. Erdem for organising this event.

Foundation Year Level

Today we visited Gorge Wildlife Park, to find out about Australian animals. We had a great day and really enjoyed stroking the Koala and feeding the kangaroos. We also enjoyed walking around visiting many other animals including pelicans, otters, camels and wombats.

Year 1

Team Year 1, has had an amazing start to Term 2. During this term the Year 1 students examined the differences and similarities between schools of the ‘Past & Present’ in HASS. To provide students with an interactive and hands-on learning experience, we visited the Uleybury School Museum.

Students were able to reinforce and consolidate their understanding of how school life has changed overtime as well as participate in a range of learning experiences. Students explored vintage toys, old artefacts, and learning tools / resources from the past. The students enjoyed interacting with the very grumpy and stringent ‘Past’ Headmaster of Uleybury School. We laughed and giggled throughout our visit back in time. We look forward to seeing what the remainder of the term brings us, and all the extraordinary experiences to be had, and the wonderful memories to be made.

Ms. Christina Surmei
Year 1 Teacher

Year 2

Term 2 with the Year 2’s!

Term 2 has started with a BANG! We have been very blessed to have begun the term with more ease as our covid cases have decreased… we have been very happy with this. In English, the students are learning how to write information reports, and have been learning the skill of note-taking and how to summarise information from the internet about their favourite animals. Our favourite topic has been ‘Toys’! Here, they have been learning all about toys from the past and present - they even brought in their favourite toys to show the class, and have made a class museum. We celebrated National Simultaneous Storytime on the 25th of May and we read the story Family Tree together with the Junior primary classes. Check out our amazing work!

Year 4

The year 4’s have had a wonderful start to the term. We have been focussing on Biography writing and had the opportunity to interview our family members for our final assessment piece. During Maths we have learnt about odd and even numbers, written addition and subtraction and have had fun solving word problems in teams. During HASS we have focussed on a new famous explorer each week, learning about their journeys across the world and their individual legacies. We look forward to what the rest of the term will bring!

Miss Marcoionni and the Year 4 Super Stars!

Year 5

In Year 5 students Investigate the likelihood of chance events and problem solve the likelihood of winning simple chance events by analysing the possible outcomes. Then they used iPads to investigate Slushy sludger game:

They are also introduced to words that are often used to describe the chance or likelihood of events happening.

Year 6

The Year 6’s have had a great start to the term! We have been learning about persuasive writing in English as well as 3D shapes and Decimals in Maths. In STEM we learned about Day Zero in CapeTown and have been completing a unit of work involving Water Sustainability. In Science we are completing an investigation on mould growth on bread, with the aim to be able to explain what factors increase the chances of mould growing.

Throughout all of our learning, we have kept a smile on our face and had many laughs along the way!

Mr. Schlicker

Primary School Arabic

Assalamu aleykoum wa Rahmatuh Allah wa Barakatuh,

Dear esteemed parent,

In term 2, year 2 &3 standards’ levels are focusing on the Arabic alphabets sounds to build new words and read short sentences. They are also learning about colours, fruits, numbers, and how to introduce themselves with simple conversation with peers in class. Arabic main focus In Pinnacle College to acquaint the students with strong Arabic letters intonation, broad vocabulary acquisition and Arabic understanding

In ShaAllah, I have set high expectations for my students this year. With the help and collaboration of the parents we can reach high standards.

Yasmin Aly
Arabic teacher

Primary School Art

Year 5 students explored self and identity through Indigenous Art. They worked on designing symbols that had special meaning in their lives.

Creative Year 6 students worked on so many different paintings that explore abstract art this Term. They made houses and portraits inspired from famous artist Paul Klee’s works. Working with oil pastels, they studied overlapping colours, blending and options of making texture on papers of different colours.

It is also worth mentioning that Year 6 student Faria Shikder’s poster on refugees will be exhibited at Adelaide Arts and Entertainment Centre.

Foundation Year - Religion and Values

Assalamu Alaikum,

Dear parents and Guardians,

Foundation students have shown a great improvement in Quran memorisation and Islamic studies. They learned the importance of Duaa and they enjoyed creating and decorating their own Duaa book that they can read every night before sleeping. InshaAllah with continued support from our parents, students will continue to improve.

Yasmin Aly,
RV teacher

Secondary Humanities

After 4 weeks of content, the year 8 boys will be putting their creative minds to work, creating the basis/plan for a video game on The black plague. The boys will have to create a game cover as well as planning 5 levels, each level consisting of a factually accurate backstory. Based on the backstory they have characters who must reach objectives. For example, The Mongol army catapulted decaying bodies over the city walls of Kaffa; the game objective is to use stealth to disarm the catapults. This method of assessment entails research and large written components, however it is integrated with the student’s creativity and enthusiasm. We look forward to seeing the outcomes!

- Mr. T

Secondary HEAT

Term 2 started with successful recognitions and projects in Art and Technologies. Two of our students Joudi Omar from Year 12 and Faria Shikder in Year 6 got their artworks to be featured at Adelaide Entertainment Centre during the National Refugee Week. We congratulate them on their achievements! Our art scholarship students Haroon Sami and Abdulloh Rejapov along with Zain Ul Abideen installed a giant Family Tree at the entrance of our library for the Primary classes. Our SACE Arts students produced great products in the beginning of Term 2 towards completion of their projects. Well done to all our talented and hard-working students!

Ms. Selen Morkoc

This term, the Open boys and Open girls Futsal teams competed in the Northern Zone carnival. The high standard of competition was evident from the first game. After being equal top for the majority of the day, The Open boys finished just 3 points off the top 2 who advanced to the state finals, while the girls ended the day finishing fifth. The most pleasing aspect of both these days was the evident progress both teams have made structurally and defensively, the boys only conceding 2 goals in their first few games against schools with FFSA Soccer programs. Co-Captains Kareem Zadeh and Nas Ibrahim led the boys, with Yr. 9 Mohammed Turay playing majority of game time. Lamine Dolley provided much needed run (and talk) during the game while Amjad Hamada, Nazier Nasiri, Ali Trabolsi, Abdulmalik and Abdulmohaimn Almsater provided solid options off the bench. Yusuf Ahmed was also a stalwart in goals.

Basia Charo was the girls MVP with an absolutely outstanding performance in goals. Sarah Essa a close second. Captain Marzi Ergasheva battled all day with super twins Sarah and Mariam Al-Zobeidy continually causing havoc on the wings. The team was supported by impact subs Inas Hamada,Nargiza Dengiz, Samina Charo, Farnaz Ahamed and Joudi Omar. Super sub Azra Bagsoken has also made sure we are all aware of her immediate impact with a goal straight off the bench. Assistant coach Farah Alhajomar provided the entertainment. Well done to students involved and credit to them all for the progress they have made over the past 2 years!

- Mr. T

Secondary Religion and Values

Allah existence

Hakan Kot 7A

When you look at a tree or a flower or sky or any item in the universe, what do you think of them? You could think about how it came to this stage or who the creator of this was. You have to understand that after you have planted this tree it grows but what makes it grow is that when you could find your answer it is Allah. Although many people object to or do not accept the existence of Allah, there are many ways to prove his existence! In this essay, I will be using some examples to prove my points.

I would like to start with a story. I choose this story because it tells me that behind any creation there is a creator. There is a story about a disbeliever who refused the existence of Allah. He challenged all the people in the village to prove to him that there is a God, then a little boy came to him and said meet me here at this time and the man agreed with him. Then the man showed up and was on time but the little boy was not there yet so he waited a bit longer and eventually the boy came; the man said why did you come so late and the boy replied with sorry; I live across the river so when I arrived at the river there was no bridge for me to get to the other side. Then the trees started to uproot and turned ınto proper woods and slippers. After the metals turned into little nails.

All the pieces came together in harmony and a bridge started building when the boy finished his story. The disbeliever started laughing at the little boy's story. Everyone that was listening to the story was very disappointed. Then the disbeliever said, “are you going to make me believe this funny story”. The boy replied with “so you don't believe that a bridge cannot build itself; however you believe that the stars, universe, and the sun are created by themselves without a creator?” The response of the boy made the man really mad and the audiences started applauding him. After reading this story, I learned that nothing can be created without a creator. For example, some people claim that the Earth came from nothing and by chance. 2 chemicals collided and the earth was made. But who made those 2 chemicals? Something cannot come out of anything and that indicates the existence of Allah.

If I showed you an iPhone and you asked who made it. You would say the manufacturer. If you read a book and asked again you would say who wrote then published it. Let me ask you. If I left paper, pen, and staples by themselves for 1000 years, would they ever make a book? No.

So why then do people believe that millions of years went by and the earth came by chance but instead there is a creator, a higher being that created us?

Secondary Maths

One of the Most Effective Tips to Study Maths

Start by solving examples

Don’t start by solving complex problems. If you have just understood the chapter, solving hard sums will give you the wrong answer and discourage you. It might even make you hate Maths some more. Instead, start simple. Solve the examples in your textbook. Make sure you don’t look at the answer beforehand. Once you have solved it, compare it to the textbook solution, or the reference book you are using. See if all your steps are correct, not just the main answer. Once you get all the steps right, you are ready to tackle the simpler problems. Once you have mastered those, you can move on to the difficult ones.

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