12 October 2022

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Address

Dear Parents, Students and Staff,

Welcome to the sixth edition of the newsletter this year. We have almost finished term 3 with many activities and events at the Elizabeth Campus.

I would like to express my deepest condolences to the family of Her Majesty The Queen. Her dedication to her role and service to all were both admirable and unique over 70 years and her passing will be a great loss to her country.

Year 12: I believe the most challenging year in secondary school life is year 12. A year 12 student needs to cope with a heavy workload including assignments, stress, anxiety, etc. Although this Year 12 cohort has not yet officially graduated, they have almost finished their studies and all assessment tasks. Next term, year 12 attendance will not be compulsory, however, all our teachers will be available to support and help our students. “Not compulsory attendance” does not mean that we will not have any classes at all. SACE teachers have already organized trial exams, revision classes and extra materials for the Year 12s. Therefore, I highly recommend our parents to encourage their children to come to school and study at the school ground. I would like to wish great success for the SACE external examinations.

2023 Enrolments: If you want your child to continue Pinnacle College next year, you do not need to do anything at this stage. However, if you are going to leave the school, please fill out the exit form as soon as possible and leave it at the front desk.

Year 7 and Year 11 Enrolments: We still have limited spaces for year 7 and year 11s. If you have friends or family, you are most welcome to recommend Pinnacle College to them. All are welcome to our warm and welcoming environment!

Pastoral Care Camps: The Pastoral Care Department is organizing camp programs for the secondary school students. If you want your child to attend, please do not forget to fill in the online forms.

Pinnacle Talk: Professor Salih Yucel visited our school a few weeks ago. He is from the Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation, Charles Sturt University. He talked about three levels of happiness to the secondary students. It was a great opportunity to hear about the meaning of true happiness from different perspectives.

Year 11 Subject Selection: We have almost come to the end of subject selection. As Pinnacle College, we have tried to offer a range of subjects for students to maximize their potential.

Street Artist Visit: The HEAT department organized an assembly and invited a street Artist to our school. Leah Grant presented her art work during the assembly. After that, she had a workshop with our students to teach some art skills to our students.

We have another holiday time for everyone! I wish everyone a safe and relaxing holiday. Our students and staff definitely deserve this holiday after such a long term.

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

Front Office Notices

Junior Primary Curriculum - Chloe Rees

Dear Parents,

I am very excited to begin my new role at Pinnacle College after 6 years of being full time in the classroom. I have big shoes to fill from Maria, as she did an excellent job of handling all Junior Primary curriculum issues for the last year and a half. I am located at the Golden Grove campus, so please don’t hesitate to contact me by email if there is something I can help with! - chloe.rees@pinnacle.sa.edu.au

Primary Curriculum - Shalini Moss

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend a professional development session on Technology in the Curriculum. I would like to share with you some of the key points that were discussed regarding technologies at home.

Learning Technologies can bring many benefits to the early years of education. Used purposefully, these tools give our young learners new means of self-expression and ways to explore and make sense of the world around them. That’s not to say that by providing technology to students our work as educators or families is done. Teaching and guiding appropriate use is still essential and requires constant work and reflection to ensure that children use the technology appropriately and in ways that enrich their learning and leisure experiences.Here are some points on how you can help your child navigate technology.

Be actively present

By playing or viewing with your child, you can ensure that content is appropriate and models good use of technology. This also allows you to turn solitary play into a social, relationship-building experience which lays the foundations for open dialogue about technology use and digital citizenship.

Be informed about the content that your child is accessing

The website commonsensemedia.org has excellent reviews of a vast range of apps and other digital content which can be helpful when deciding what is appropriate, although viewing first-hand is always recommended. Being aware of elements such as micro-transactions or messaging is important when filtering content for young children (and indeed older ones) who are not yet able to think critically about the content they are accessing.

Support your child in transitioning from a technology activity

For younger children who are still building the skill of self-regulation, being asked to stop abruptly in the middle of a game, episode or activity can be challenging. A five-minute warning and support in transitioning to a different fun or interesting activity will help them to build their ability to cope with change.

Be clear and consistent with rules

A simple family technology plan with clear, consistent rules can help to minimise struggles around technology. When every member of the family has their own set of rules to follow, this helps children to develop healthy and positive habits and to understand that they aren’t being singled out.

Avoid using screen time as a reward

It’s all too easy to use extra screen time as a reward or remove it as a sanction. This can reinforce technology as a high-value commodity, which can lead to less desirable behaviours.

Community Engagement

Community Engagement Sydney Trip- Parents Reflections

Parents Sydney's trip with Pinnacle college was really fascinating, amazing and full of enjoyment! Discovering the world through different eyes and understanding the needs of a different community is an important step to make. We could see how the Sydney sister college (Amity College) community is investing so much effort in keeping up with new ideas and serving their own community. This visit had a big impact on us as parents. Understanding how important we, as parents, are to our community and building enough awareness about this, was one of the top benefits that we gained from this visit.

Thank you Pinnacle college and its sister school (Amity College) for creating very beautiful memories. We had good company, a nice and fully prepared program and well-organised arrangements

Dr Haneen Alalami

The trip to Sydney that was organised by the parents' community engagement at Pinnacle College was a great journey, one with lots of memories. It was an amazing opportunity for us parents to visit the beautiful blue mountains, the city of Sydney, scenic world and of course Amity College. It was really exciting to meet everyone at the school and the school grounds were absolutely stunning. Everyone was super kind and we received many welcoming gifts. We were also lucky enough to visit new mosques in Sydney where we all were able to pray together. The trip was a nice way for the parents from Pinnacle to be able to extend our relationships to the amazing community in Sydney. The trip was well- organised and it will be one to remember.

Mrs Ratna

Inclusive Education

LET’S LEARN MORE ABOUT DYSLEXIA

Dyslexia is a common learning disability that makes it challenging for people to process language. About 1 in 10 people have dyslexia. The main challenge for people with dyslexia is thinking about — and remembering — the sounds in words, and being able to put them in the correct order. This makes learning to read and write difficult.

WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF DYSLEXIA?

Symptoms of dyslexia range from quite mild to severe. Children with dyslexia may have:

• below-grade level reading skills (even if the child is doing very well in other areas)
• difficulty understanding what they are reading
• difficulty pronouncing words
• poor spelling
• difficulty writing in an organised way
• problems with grammar and punctuation
• difficulty remembering a list of instructions
• poor handwriting
• difficulty with maths
• difficulty using the muscles of the face to speak (dyspraxia)

They may also be at increased risk of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

If a child can't grasp the basics of reading by Year 1 or is having a lot of trouble at school with language tasks, the first steps are to talk to your school and have your child's hearing and vision checked.

The Australian Dyslexia Association has a checklist to help you decide whether your child might have dyslexia.

WHAT CAUSES DYSLEXIA?

Dyslexia often runs in families, although we don't know which gene is responsible — a person is more likely to have dyslexia if a close family member has the condition or another learning difficulty.

HOW IS DYSLEXIA DIAGNOSED?

You may speak to the Inclusive Education Coordinator and class teacher if you feel your child may exhibit symptoms of dyslexia. You can have your child's hearing and vision checked to eliminate those as the cause.

The initial screening can be done at your child's school by a specialist teacher or through external services, such as those provided by the Australian Dyslexia Association. This will identify if an in-depth assessment of reading and spelling by an appropriately trained psychologist, speech pathologist or other healthcare professional with relevant qualifications is required. You may also want to speak to your paediatrician or family doctor.

CONDITION NOT A DISEASE

Dyslexia is a lifelong condition, not a disease, so it doesn't require a cure. However, there are many ways to support people with dyslexia so they can reach their full potential in life.

The school can provide support to children with dyslexia. Teachers, parents, counsellors, support staff and health professionals can work together as a team to help the student by tailoring the needs for each child. Children can also improve their reading skills through teaching techniques that employ hearing, sight or touch to learn. Children who receive treatment early in their school life often go on to succeed at school. People with dyslexia may never find reading easy, but with support they will thrive.

You can find more information about Dyslexia via the link below.

Kind Regards
Saad Kalaniya
Inclusive Education Coordinator

Counselling

For term 3, the basis of counselling was primarily relevant to student anxiety and stress over study loads, grades and pressures. Utilising different methods of therapeutic practice allowed the counsellors to support the students to develop resiliency, awareness of mindset, behaviour / routine support and development of SMART goals to better aid them in their school progress.

R U OK Day was also present during term 3 which enabled for a greater awareness of looking after each other and identifying the signs that someone may not be doing quite so well and what steps we can take in order to be able to assist that person by using the right communication, guidance and follow up. This to ensure that the community of Pinnacle College continues to grow in unison and that all students can feel acknowledged and valued.

Jesse Agostino
School Counsellor

Library - Lisa Preston

2022 Book Week was a huge success. Thanks to all individuals and classes that participated in the poster competition, door decorations, reading and promoting the shortlisted books. The two winning posters were both from Elizabeth Campus. Trent Hill visited the primary classes to tell us indigenous dreaming stories. We welcomed Perform Education and Story Quest as a special event.

Book Cup was a great success. This was a competition between the campuses for years 4,5,and 6. They had to read 5 books and were quizzed about them. The winner was a tie between one team from Golden Grove and one team from Gilles Plains. I hope the year 4-5s from this year look forward to doing it next year.

The holidays are coming up and it may be cold and wet and would be a great time to read. Yes, students can borrow books from the library for the holidays. We would love to have reviews of books already in the library and/or recommendations for new books.

It has been a hard term on books this term – the library has had MANY books returned damaged and no longer usable. We do charge families for damaged books. Please take care of all the books. We also have had LOTS of overdue books this term. Students can NOT borrow any books or readers if they have overdues books.

The library welcomes all students to visit the library before school and during breaks. Secondary students are welcome to use the library to study. The library should be a quiet, calm place to visit. There are a few board games to share. Computer games are now banned due to inappropriate behaviour.

Lots of fun things happening over the break at the Playford Library - visit their website:

Lisa Preston
Librarian

Foundation Year Level

Last week we had the chance to visit Elizabeth Fire Station as part of our work about people who help us.We learnt what to do if there is smoke in our house - GET DOWN LOW AND GO, GO, GO. We also enjoyed spraying the hose and looking around the fire truck.

Year 1

And just like that…. It is time to say farewell to Term 3!

Team Year 1 are continuing to grow in confidence and are working hard on their daily organisational skills along with independence, persistence, resilience, and goal setting. We will continue to promote our school values through regular classroom activities and discussions as well as celebrating students’ many personal achievements.

This term we unpacked Haiku poetry, persuasive writing, as well as continuing to expand on already learnt genres of descriptions, procedures, and narrative texts. Explicit teaching of adjectives, verbs, adverbs, nouns, homophones, synonyms, and rhyming words were featured this term. When reading we developed sound comprehension strategies, including predicting, questioning, paraphrasing and vocabulary building. Our weekly spelling words were based on ‘sound families’ and activities were undertaken in class to assist students in learning new words. Handwriting practise continues to be a feature in our classroom and is not confined to literacy sessions but is always emphasised. In HASS and English, we explored our favourite mode of transport through researching, building, constructing, and presenting our new acquired knowledge.

In Mathematics Team Year 1 investigated place value and counting patterns through games and activities to consolidate addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. These number activities are usually a component of every numeracy session and often are seen as a whole class introduction. We also explored time (half past / O’clock), data, and 3D Shapes. It was a busy and magnificent term.

Have a happy, safe, and restful holiday period.

I look forward to the amazing new adventures, and memories Term 4 will bring us.

Year 1 - Teacher
Ms. Christina Surmèi

Year 2

My class has been so busy this term in Year 2!

Here is a small recount from one of my students:

“I learnt so many fun things. In English, I researched information about endangered animals and the best part was when I painted my animal. I also worked on writing stories and made sure I used many adjectives and lots of speech marks. For Maths, I learnt about Money and Times tables. It was fun because I used fake money and I left rich. For Technology, I was creative and made a diorama of a National Park. I used recycled materials and it was really fun. Now, I am looking forward to a great school holiday.”

Mahdi Nasiri
Year 2

Year 3

This term has blown by! It is hard to believe we are almost at the end of the year!

For Science this term we have been studying space and in particular the Earth’s rotation and orbit around the sun.

To consolidate our learning, we visited The Planetarium at the University of SA - Mawson Lakes. The students got to see stars, constellations and we watched a movie about why we have seasons.

Seeing how the Earth rotates and orbits in this context was a really great way to solidify our learning.

‘I liked it when we watched the movie and the robot talked about the moon, earth and sun.’ - Marva

‘My favourite part was looking at the zodiac signs and constellations.’ - Abdulaye

‘I liked seeing the stars in the dark night’ - Zeynep S

‘I liked the part about seasons in the movie’ - Qudratullah

Year 4

This term has flown by. All of the students have worked so well throughout the term and deserve the relaxing break that is coming up soon!

For Science this term we focused on Rocks and Minerals. The students were able to investigate gold/ rocks and gold mines on our excursion to the Barossa Goldfields. The students enjoyed sifting through the soil to find many interesting rocks and stones that they could keep!

The students wrote sensory poems about Spring and were able to share some of their Similes with the Primary cohort at our assembly.

We look forward to our final term as a year 4 cohort!

All our best,
The Year 4 team :)

Year 5

Solar System Project

Year 5 had a task to research and present information about our solar system. Their information must include facts about the sun, each of the planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) and any other important components (e.g. satellites, dwarf planets, the asteroid belt, the oort cloud). Possible research questions include:

• What order is this planet from the sun?
• What is the distance between this planet and the sun?
• Who discovered this planet? When?
• Who/what is the planet named after?
• What is the temperature on this planet?
• What is the colour of this planet?
• What is the planet made of?
• How many moons does the planet have?
• How many days are in one year on this planet?
• Any other interesting facts.

They could present their information however they wished (e.g. a diorama, poster, PowerPoint, brochure). And this is the result.

Year 6

What a busy term we have had in Term 3!

From building Earthquake Resistant Buildings using popsticks, skewers, toothpicks and blu-tack to learning about Debates and conducting our own in the classroom with one another. We attempted all learning tasks with a positive attitude and made sure that we had a lot of fun along the way.

I have no doubt that we are fully prepared to tackle our last term of Primary School head on! We were lucky enough to finish our term with a Year 6 Intercampus Quiz Day. As well as practising for NAPLAN together, we engaged in some novelty activities as well as some sport based ones. All students did a great job and even developed some new friendships which will be very helpful next year!

The students particularly enjoyed an activity where each team needed to create a ‘Queen’s Costume’ using newspaper.

Primary School Art

Term 3 ran too quickly with productive results. Year 5s learned about contemporary indigenous artists Brian Robertson and Judy Watson. The flower collages and models students came up with were very impressive. We even fit in an R U O.K. activity through which students explored things and people that are close to their heart and they are grateful for. Year 6 students started the term with a photo collage exercise. They juxtaposed contrasting images to show the difference between parallel worlds. They continued the term with a stop motion animation group project which extended over 4 weeks.They deserve a good break and come back refreshed and ready for new artworks!

Secondary Humanities

On Monday, Week 9 our Year 7 classes visited Mawson Lakes for their Place & Liveability unit. Students conducted a neighbourhood walk where they assessed different factors which contribute to the liveability to local suburbs.

Secondary HEAT

Term 3 has been very productive for Art learning. Graffiti artist Leah Grant visited our school and taught SACE and Art Elective students how to paint with aerosol. She was amazed at the creative results our students came up with! Year 9 Elective students will be exhibiting in a local art exhibition entitled “Future You” consisting of different schools around Tea Tree Gully. We congratulate Dani Mazwardi, Hamdan Ayaz and Daniel Jarmyn for their great achievement! Year 8 students worked on Word Art this term whereas Year 7 students made their own masks inspired from cultural masks. Imdad from Year 7A narrates his learning experience as below:

“This term for art we made our favorite types of cultural masks. We finished our masks in small steps in order to make our masks look breathtaking. For the first two weeks, we made a descriptive poster of the cultural background of our masks, then the next three weeks we drew and made our own masks. After that we used paper mache technique to make our mask solid so we can easily paint the masks without them being folded, and this week we finally got to paint it and they all look amazing!” Imdadullah Habibi, Year 7A

Secondary Maths

Similar to other subjects students undertake, Mathematics also has a way that students may study effectively and with little effort, do well. In simpler words, there is a short-cut to achieving well in Mathematics. This method mostly benefit those students who are currently achieving a B grade and below. So, what is this short-cut? It is not learning the different ways of solving complex arithmetics manually, you have a calculator for that.

It is effective note-taking!

Think of it as a savings account, you have a goal to reach $2,000 for the new iPhone 14. It’s difficult to save up that much straight away. But, if you put aside $20 (one hour of physical work) each day, you would be holding an iPhone 14 in a couple of weeks.

Similarly, copying down key formulae and definitions (your teacher writes on the board) onto a piece of neatly organised and structured paper each lesson (with little effort), you will be holding a cheat sheet (simplified set of notes) that contains all you need to know for that topic. Then, in a couple of weeks, you will be holding a completed test paper that you will be proud of. This method was proven by the current year 11 and 12 Methods cohort.

How do I do this? you ask. Easy!

From now on, use the below sample note-taking template when writing your Mathematics notes. Remember, the aim is to write as little notes as possible but at the same time covering all that is important for the topic. And, the key is to use this and only this piece of paper to answer questions during class and at home.

Kind regards,
Mr Sami Hussein
Head of Mathematics

Secondary Science

One of the most exciting aspects of learning Chemistry is the practical experiments undertaken in year 11 and 12. Though these experiences, students are able to experience techniques still used by industries today.

This term, year 11s learnt how to conduct a direct titration and use volumetric analysis techniques to find the percentage of acetic acid in vinegar.

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