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As the end of term approaches, I hope that everyone is travelling well.
COVID update
Cases continue to ease in the community and this is also reflected in our school. Fewer cases are being reported and smaller numbers of students are attending as household close contacts.
At this point in time – our records show that 68% of students have been positive cases and 54% of staff. As we move through this outbreak we look forward to improved attendance.
It is important that students take the time to catch up on work missed so that they are able to continue their learning program.
Congratulations - Yuval Berman
Yuval was a former student and Head Boy 2017 who is currently studying Applied Mathematics at UWA. You can read about his research on COVID transition in vulnerable rural and remote communities.
End of semester reports
As advised earlier, the reports this semester will contain grades and information on attitude, behaviour and effort only. In many cases this grade is an interim grade only and for year-long courses next semester will be the final grade. This is important for students who have not worked as hard as they can to be able to improve their results in the second half of the year.
Reports will be emailed on Friday of the last week of Term 2 for Years 10 to 12 and on Friday of the first week of Term 3 for Years 7 to 9.
Parent teacher meeting
In Week 2 of next term (27 July) we will be holding our next Parent Teacher evening. This is an opportunity for parents to meet with teachers to discuss progress. We will be holding these meetings face to face this time round and details about bookings will be sent out at the end of term.
Year 10 Course counselling
Preparations are underway to begin the Year 10 course counselling process. This is where students choose their WACE subjects for Years 11 and 12. Once students have selected their courses, a timetable grid is generated based on these selections. This ensures that we are able to offer a wide selection for students and provide courses that suit the majority of students.
A Parent Information was held on 20 June and teachers have been working with students during class to provide information on careers and pathways of study. Following the successful career breakfasts earlier in the term, students will use their Semester 1 reports to identify suitable courses for next year. Selections are due in by 29 July and details about this will be sent out at the end of this term.
CALM students
Thank you to Matthew Hughes who donated plants for our school. These will be carefully nurtured by our Conservation and Land Management students. Our Science teacher Laura Morris took delivery of them for the students.
Year 7 student leaders
As we begin to return to assemblies and other activities, we were able to announce our new Year 7 student leaders at a Year 7 assembly recently. Congratulations to Jace Bigelow, Zoe Besch, Felicity Englishby, Jacob Harris, Sadie Harris, Jade Mainard, Jemma Mc Keon, Cooper Sellin, Kayella Serrano and Grace Tomkinson.
Building update
With earth works continuing and preparation of the underground services seeming to be never ending, it was exciting to see a delivery of bricks recently.
Helen Deacon
Principal
Term 2 will soon be finished, and the year is ticking by very fast. As our Year 12 students move into Semester 2, their final semester of school, there is no better time to evaluate and re-assess how to effectively conclude the year achieving the best results possible. The leavers jackets arrived earlier in the term and have become a predominant feature of the Year 12 school uniform, identifying them in their final year.
Reminder - all Year 12 students are required to complete the online collection of student declaration and permission details for the Authority. The Authority’s purpose is to ensure all Year 12 students are aware of the requirements to achieve the Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE) and for sitting the WACE examinations. Additional information can be found in the Year 12 Information Handbook which is available on the Authority website.
It was very pleasing to see the Senior School exams run efficiently and generally impressed with the overall attitude of the students, who presented punctually and were organised for each of their exams. We are also having some good results for the large number of students who went out on Workplace Learning placements.
Upon receipt of Semester 1 reports students will need to apply themselves to the areas requiring improvement, as they work towards the achievement of their WACE. Please heed the advice that it is absolutely not too late for every student to make the required change for the better.
Our Year 12 students need to be especially attentive in these preceding weeks to get every mark they can, resulting in the best grades achievable. Please be reminded especially at this time that every student needs a good life balance, making sure health, study and extra curricula activities are given reasonable time allowance. Leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of getting a better overall result, make any modifications minor or major, ensure every assessment is completed and handed in, this is a particularly good place to start being the beginning of Semester 2.
Can I also remind Year 12 students along with parents, that Connect is a vital part of the school communication and a lot of information is available on Connect so please make some time to check any updates or reminders? Please contact me if you have any concerns on 92936400.
I wish all Year 12 students a productive completion of Term 2 and a rest full holiday in July to come back relaxed and revitalised ready to give your all in Term 3.
Sharon Andrews
Program Coordinator - Pathways
Firstly, I would like to congratulate our students on their conduct and maturity during examination week. Semester 1 reports will be received soon so this is a good time to be having conversations with your child about their future goals, and what they need to do to achieve them. During the upcoming school holidays Year 10 students will need to select their subjects for Year 11. Please ensure that is done as soon as possible and don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions, concerns or are unable to access the on-line subject selection site.
Whilst many of our Year 10s are showing pride in our school by wearing the appropriate uniform there has been an increase in inappropriate attire being worn which has affected some students Good Standing. If their Good Standing has been impacted, please encourage your child to organise a meeting with me to discuss how we can work together to improve.
I wish you all the best for the holiday break and look forward to seeing our students back next term refreshed and ready for Semester 2. As ever should you have any questions or concerns regarding your student please do not hesitate to contact me.
Amber BullockAs we come to the end of Semester 1, I just wanted to highlight two things about Middle School.
- When I speak to students about their reports, the first thing I look at are what we call the ABE’s. This stands for Attitude, Behaviour and Effort. At KSHS, our staff report the following attributes: works to the best of their ability, shows courtesy and respect for others, is well organised and prepared for learning, actively participates in learning and meets deadlines. Our staff then give students a level in each domain, that is do they demonstrate the domain consistently, often, sometimes or seldom. The reason we place high value on these ABE’s are because they show how the student is participating in school. We want every student to reach their potential, whatever that may be, and if they are demonstrating these ABE’s consistently, then they are giving themselves every opportunity to achieve to their full potential. I really urge you to focus on these when you receive your student’s report and have a discussion with them based around these and not just the grades. It is a great way then to build in some goals for Semester 2 and beyond. I would also urge you to contact any staff if you have concerns about the ABE’s.
- As we approach the end of the semester, I would really encourage all our students in Middle School to take a look back at the last 18 months and think about how the world is changing. They will be making decisions about their future schooling in the next few years and if they can start planning and setting goals now, it will make these decisions a lot clearer and also more attainable. If you ever need any help with these sorts of 'career planning' decisions we are really fortunate to have the services of an amazing Careers Practitioner in Amanda Moreno Diaz Morenodiaz@education.wa.edu.au and our Program Coordinator Student Support (Pathways) in Sharon Andrews Sharon.Andrews@education.wa.edu.au. They are both amazing resources for our school and are more than happy to help start the planning process with you and your child. This doesn’t mean they have to know what career they want, but it does help knowing the opportunities and options that are available to students as they move through and then out of High School.
Parents and other carers have a key role in preventing and responding to bullying. The Bullying No Way! website has a lot of resources to help you learn what bullying is and what it is not.
This is the first step in talking about how to prevent or respond to bullying with your child as 'Bullying' is a word that is used for lots of things that are not actually bullying.
These other behaviours may be just as serious, but may require different responses.
Schools can be much more effective when parents report bullying and support their efforts to deal with it.
If your child reports that bullying is occurring at school, or the bullying involves students from the school outside of school, you should let the school know the situation.
Working together with the school is the best way to help your child resolve bullying issues.
Please find below fact sheets on; Types of bullying, Tips for secondary school students who experience bullying and Cybersafety.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you require any further information or support.
And just like that we are nearing the finishing line for Term 2. Year 8 students have been very busy this term and should be commended for the way that they have dealt with the impact of Covid on their classes.
The winter weather has certainly set in and I’d like to take this opportunity to remind students and families about our uniform policy. Wearing a school uniform fosters a sense of pride and creates a cohesive school identity. It also makes getting dressed in the morning a lot easier! Just like in many workplaces, uniforms are an expected part of your ‘job’ as a student. Please leave all hoodies at home and wear a white or navy blue under shirt if you are cold.
We have a lot of fun activities planned for the end of term to celebrate NAIDOC week and the contribution of our Year 8 student councillors has been invaluable. Those students who have maintained their Good Standing throughout the term can look forward to a special reward during the first week of Term 3.
I’ll leave you with these photos of one of the final groups to hit the trails in the Bibbulmun Challenge. We hope you found the experience to be rewarding!
Vocational Education and Training 2022
WORKPLACE LEARNING SEMESTER 1, 2022
CONGRATULATIONS to a record number of students who successfully completed their first round of workplace learning for this year.
It has been a tremendous success for our students and host employers.
The feedback from our host employers has been incredibly positive and ALL of our attending students should feel proud of their resilience, independence, fortitude and maturity shown over the past two weeks.
Please return your logbooks ASAP to have your hours recorded for this semester.
The dates for the next round of Workplace Learning for Semester 2:
7 – 18 November 2022 for Year 11 Students
Start exploring opportunities, call employers, ask parents and family for suggestions and don’t forget you can ask for help from the VET office before the end of Term 3.
Return your completed paperwork as soon as possible (last date for returning paperwork is 16 September 2022).
Many employers have booked students in for Semester 2 already so act early to ensure you don’t miss out on your first preference!
Meredith Rubery
VET Coordinator
Neutality Challenge
Chemistry provides some great opportunities to experiment and testing reactions in the laboratory produced some interesting colours. Combining an acid with a base should have led to a neutral solution (green with Universal Indicator) but we were surprised to find that equal quantities of each didn’t get the expected result. These students (Joel, John, and Ethan) found that a lot more base was needed to neutralize our acid. Can you guess why?
Lindesay Pound
Science Teacher
Amberly Bylund’s Language Advice!
Ciao! My name is Amberly and I’ve been studying Italian for about 2 years now. As I started learning a new language, I was confused and mildly stressed because I didn’t know what any of it meant and I was afraid to mess up and embarrass myself when I may not have known all of the new vocab I was learning. I quickly realised that all I had to do was find ways of studying that worked for me and helped me remember what I had learnt. So, I am going to share with you, some of the ways that have helped and currently help me remember key information about Italian and improve my speaking, listening, and writing skills.
First of all, I got myself some different coloured post-it notes and put different conjugations and articles on them and stuck these post-its up onto my wall so that whenever I am bored or am waiting for something to load, I can look up and recite what I don’t know. I have found that this was a fun and effective way to memorise things that I just wasn’t quite able to engrave into my memory just yet.
Another way I remember things is by simply using the language. No, really, I could be getting ice cubes for some water, and I will just count how many there are in Italian. I could be playing a game and then just name things that happen in Italian. This helps because it allows you to hear how things sound and it allows for others to hear it and learn from it as well or even help you learn by correcting something if you had made a mistake.
Lastly, I make my notes nice and colourful so that I can have fun when making them and also be able to take in more of what is being said. I find that nice a variety of nice bright colours help me to remember what I have written.
It’s a really good feeling when you say something out loud in the language you are trying to learn (like Italian) and hear how you got it right. It makes you feel like you know what you are doing and makes you want to keep trying!
Amberly Bylund
Year 9 Student
From the Community Health Nurse
Parents can register for the school based immunisation program. The next program will be Year 10 Immunisations (Meningococcal) on 19 and 20 July next term.
This online registration allows parents to select a Vaccination Plan to suit their needs. Covid vaccinations have also been added to this list recently.
Registering for a child or dependant on VaccinateWA
How do I register my dependant for the School Based Immunisation Program?
- Log in to your VaccinateWA (external site) account. If you do not have an account, you will need to create one first. From your landing page, click on the ‘Manage dependants’ button.
- Click ‘Register Dependant’ to create a new account for your dependant.
- The ‘Personal information’ screen will be displayed, and you will be required to answer questions regarding personal demographic details of the dependant.
- You will then be taken to your dependant’s VaccinateWA landing page, where all the vaccination programs the dependant is eligible for will be displayed, which may include School Based Immunisation Programs.
- You will be able to click the “Apply now” link against the vaccination program you wish to apply for. Upon clicking this, your dependant’s dashboard for that vaccination program will be displayed, outlining the 3 steps that need to be completed.
- Complete Step 1: ‘About me’, which requires you to enter the school name and year group. Start typing in the name of your dependant’s school and select it from a drop-down list. Select ‘Save and continue’ once details have been completed. Note: If your dependant is home schooled they will not be eligible for the School Based Immunisation Program.
- Complete Step 2: ‘Health Questionnaire’. Once complete, click ‘Save and continue’.
- Complete Step 3: ‘Consent’. This step will ask you to select a Vaccination Plan, outlining the details of the vaccines you consent to your dependant receiving. Once you have selected a plan, please click ‘Submit’ which concludes the registration process.
Louise Jonker
Community Health Nurse
Kalamunda Dental Therapy Centre
High school children are eligible to attend the School Dental Service up until the day before their 17th birthday or the end of Year 11, whichever comes first.
Please call the clinic to check if your child is registered to be seen.
Kalamunda Dental Therapy Centre
32 Heath Road
KALAMUNDA WA 6076
Tel: 9293 2801
Open: Tue, Wed, Thur 8am -4pm