Issue 6 - September 2020

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

As we near the end of term I encourage all our students to continue their efforts to work hard and make the most of every day at school. We have enjoyed being able to hold our recent whole school Athletics Carnival and are busily preparing many events to end the year on a positive note following the COVID interruptions.

Premier’s visit

On Wednesday 26 August the Honourable Mark McGowan MLA, Premier of Western Australia visited our school. He spoke with the Year 12 students about how difficult the year has been with COVID and talked about his life journey from secondary school to Premier. He shared three key messages with the students about being resilient, finding out what you are passionate about and taking every opportunity.

During his visit he was able to tour the grounds briefly and see what the $18.3 million WA Recovery funds will be used for. This includes addressing the significant amount of temporary accommodation in use by the ESC and English Learning Area. In his tour we also visited the Gwen Russell Gallery to view student work and spoke with Year 12 Sarah Hoey about her artwork, “The night shift”.

Athletics Carnival

I would like to congratulate our Health and Physical Education staff and in particular Jeff Cameron for organising such a successful carnival (28 August). There were plenty of activities and events for all to enjoy and the weather was glorious even with the cooler change later in the afternoon. I would like to thank our amazing P&C for their help and support in running the sausage sizzle and drinks. It really helped with the atmosphere and I believe was financially successful too.

Cause to be proud

Sarah Hoey’s artwork “The night shift” has been selected for the prestigious Lester Prize.

Four works from our Gifted and Talented Visual Art students have been selected for the Young Originals exhibition. The works are by students Travis Otley, Sophie Catchpole, Jamie Green and a group entry by Georgia Keeler, Maya Leano, Maali Sampey-Mackenzie, Libby Guy, Manami Teo and Eva Wildman. You can view the exhibition online.

Year 10 Soccer students recently won their regional soccer carnival (check with Mark Humphrey for exact details).

OLNA

Congratulations to all our students for the amazing way they tackled OLNA in Year 9 this year. Without NAPLAN testing this will provide useful information on our students’ literacy and numeracy capabilities and for some students this will allow them to tick off this requirement early as they prepare for their final years at school. Years 10 to 12 students are currently completing their testing and all results should be available later next term. Thank you to Phil Henderson and all the staff who assisting in organising and supervising these online tests.

Year 12 events

Parents of Year 12 students have recently been sent detailed information about the events leading up to the completion of the year. We will celebrate the final assembly on 25 September at 9am in the school gymnasium and parents are welcome to attend this event. Details about the Year 12 ball, mock exams, final days and Valedictory are also included later in this newsletter. If you have any questions regarding these events, please contact Sharon Andrews (Head of Senior School).

60th Anniversary Celebration – Sunday 25 October

With the announcing of the AFL grand final on Saturday 24 October, the organising committee have decided to change the date to Sunday 25 October.

Welcome

We welcome the following students to our school since our last News Review - Nicole Cooke, Cooper Davey, Azelle Griggs, Mia Herrington-Carpenter and Tina Pourasady. We hope they feel welcomed into our school community.

Farewell and thank you.

I would like to share a big thank you on behalf of our school community to Cynthia Geiles who has been our Associate Principal for Senior School this year while David Brady has been on leave. We thank her for her efforts to support our students, families and staff and wish her all the very best as she returns to her school for Term 4.

Finally, I wish everyone all the best for a wonderful holiday. Stay healthy, safe and go well.

Helen Deacon
Principal

Senior School Report

Term 3 is fast drawing to a conclusion and so it is crucial for all Year 12 students to put in every effort to get all their courses and certificates completed, achieve the highest marks possible and be contented that you did your very best. There are still a couple of weeks left before the finishing post, so hopefully still time to take the necessary steps for a successful Year 12. Year 11 students still have a way to go, so there is still, every chance for them to put in their finest efforts to get those grades moving in the right direction and be able to progress successfully into Year 12. Having completed their course selections for next year, our Year 10 students are busy maintaining or improving their grades, to enable a smooth transition into 2021.

An information letter will soon be coming out, detailing the procedures and events pertinent to the Year 12 students’ final weeks at Kalamunda Senior High School. Mock exam timetables have been drawn up and will be held in the next school holidays. Good luck to all our Year 12s sitting mock exams. A gentle reminder that these exams are a significant part of your Year 12 assessments and are great preparation for the WACE exams starting in November next term. WACE exam timetables will soon be available, so please find a safe place to put them, as they are your entrance ticket on the days.

Preparation and planning has started for the 2021 Leavers Jackets. Our student leaders are diligently considering style, colour and fabric, hopefully arriving at the best outcome for all. With this in mind Year 11 students need to remain focused on this year, maintain their Good Standing and finish off well, to successfully move into Year 12 in 2021.

Have a rest Year 10 and 11 students and come back prepared for the last term, refreshed and ready to get the best results you can in preparation for next year.

Sharon Andrews
Head of Senior School

Year 11 Report

This term has seen our Year 11 students getting back into their stride and continuing to make progress with their chosen courses. With only a short time remaining before the cohort finishes up for the year, and with our current Year 12 cohort’s impending departure, our Year 11 students have been prompted to consider their place in the school as next year’s most senior students. Already, with much excitement and enthusiasm from our Year 11 Student Council, we have started the process of looking at options for leaver’s jackets, and of course, nominations for next year’s student leadership group including Head Boy and Head Girl. I wish all the very best to those who have nominated.

I am also pleased to announce that upon the initiative of our current Student Council, Mrs Deacon has agreed to support their proposal to have an end of year celebration. Past groups of Year 11 students have not had such an event so this will also pave the way for future Year 11 students to do so. Most importantly, it will be a welcome way to acknowledge all of the hard work and effort that our students have put into getting through the unique challenges that 2020 has presented.

Along with the above rewards and privileges there is an expectation that students maintain their Good Standing. It is therefore vitally important that students do their best, maintain correct uniform, and ensure that all absences are explained. Should your child be away from school for any reason, please inform the school via our attendance officer, mentor teacher, or myself so that an accurate attendance record is maintained.

I wish you all a safe and relaxing break and look forward to welcoming our students back for a smooth start to Term 4. Please don’t hesitate to contact me, your child’s Mentor Teacher or Class Teacher if you have any questions.

Thank you to all parents and carers for your continued support.

Karen Stuart
Year 11 Coordinator

Career & Enterprise

Throughout Term 3, the Year 11 Career & Enterprise students have been privileged to listen to several guest speakers from a variety of different industries. They have learnt that communication, initiative, and the importance of maintaining good networks is key to success within the workforce. We would like to thank community members and businesses in supporting this initiative; Steve Norregaard from Westgold Resources, Rob Roper from Roper Tutoring, Murray Mckechnie from Kalamunda Kickboxing, Liam Staltari from Rotary, Tyler Caddy from Gooseberry Hill Primary School and Caron Sugars from KPMG. In Week 7 students will participate in mock interviews conducted by the City of Kalamunda and complete their cover letter and resume ready to apply for casual jobs over the school holidays.

Lauren Johnson
Humanities Teacher

Science

Big Science Competition

Each year our Academic Excellence Program students compete against the nation in the ASI challenge. All students receive a certificate recognising their effort and providing feedback on performance.

Certificates of Distinction have in the past been awarded to students whose performance placed them in the top 10% of the competitors, and Certificates of High Distinction to those in the top 5%.

This year’s recipients are:

The following students excelled further:

Well done particularly to these students, and also to all who participated.

The Great Ruler Grab

Our recent work in Year 9 Biology has taken us into the world of world-class reflexes; investigating how quickly students can respond to catch a falling object. Participants were blindfolded the second time around to see what difference that made, given only a verbal cue at the moment of drop. We then argued over who was better: guys or girls, and related this to elite sports and Formula One driver selection.

Lindesay Pound
Science Teacher

English

This term, students in Year 7 English have been studying Myths and Legends. Their studies culminated in presentations to their peers of stories that they had studied or enjoyed reading. Students were delighted by the tales of King Tantalus, Medusa, Zeus, King Arthur and Prometheus. They told myths from China, Alaska, the dreamtime and from the Cherokees in North America. Not only did students learn about different cultures and theories on why our world is the way it is, they were able to learn first-hand the value and wonder of a well-told story.

Kelly Walker
English Teacher

Academic Excellence

Murdoch Breakout Boxes – Year 7 and 9 Academic Excellence Mathematics Classes

During Week 7, the Year 7 and 9 Mathematics classes participated in a breakout box challenge incursion hosted by the staff from Murdoch University’s Outreach team. Breakout boxes are a series of curriculum-linked problem-solving activities that students must solve to complete a project mission. Students ‘unlock’ different types of locks (number, colour, directional, word) using their knowledge and content understanding. The Year 7 students completed a fraction, percentage and decimal based breakout box with a “Save Baby Yodee” narrative. The Year 9 students completed a ‘Secret Agent’ themed challenged that focused on solving equations, scientific notation and binomial expansion. The students were highly engaged throughout the session, which they found challenging right up until the last minute. Some students even chose to stay behind after class to try and complete the challenge. Thank you to the Murdoch Outreach team for such a winning session!

Orietta Stokes
Academic Excellence Program Coordinator

Language Week Winners

Congratulations to our winners Charlotte Hulcup, Abigail Letts and Lucy Brown for their amazing creations for Languages Week. Students were asked to create posters that linked language learning to the school values, and it was fantastic to see so many original ideas and insights. We are so proud of the way the students at Kalamunda Senior High School value their language learning. The posters were of such a high standard this year, and have been framed and displayed in L Block.

Maria Pennington
Teacher in Charge of Languages

Message from the Nurse

It is estimated that up to 400,000 (2%) Australians, including 1 in 20 children suffer from food allergies and some of them will experience a life-threatening (anaphylactic) reaction.

A food allergy is an immune system response to a normally harmless food protein that the body believes is harmful. When the individual eats food containing that protein, the immune system releases massive amounts of chemicals, triggering symptoms that can affect a person’s breathing, gastrointestinal tract, skin, and/or heart. Anaphylaxis is the most severe form of allergic reaction and is potentially life-threatening. It must be treated as a medical emergency, requiring immediate treatment and urgent medical attention.

Kalamunda Senior High School is concerned about the safety and well-being of our school community. Our school does its best to be an allergy aware school. Staff have had training in severe allergy management and we have implemented rules and strategies to help keep our staff and students at risk of anaphylaxis as safe as we can.

We ask that you help us educate your child on the importance of not sharing food with others, disposing of uneaten food in bins, washing hands after eating and alerting a teacher or staff member if they think their friend with allergies is sick.

With increased awareness and understanding of anaphylaxis, we will be able to help protect those around us.

Symptoms of food allergy can include:

For more information on allergies and anaphylaxis go to the Australian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ascia).

Click here to visit the ascia website below.

Louise Jonker
Community Health Nurse

Mental Health

Zero2Hero Excursion

On Thursday 3 September 15 students, along with myself, Lea Richards and Ashley Meaden attended the Zero2Hero ‘In You Head’ forum. The forum was designed to provide young people and teachers with a greater understanding of adolescent mental health and practical skills to support their wellbeing. We listened to a number of keynote speakers including Clinical Psychologist Andrew Fuller, Georgia Wilson - Hockeyroo, Lockie Cooke – founder of Indigenous Communities Education and Awareness Foundation (ICEA) and IYARN and Kendall Whyte – founder and CEO of the Blue Tree Project. Along with these guest speakers we had the opportunity to choose a range of different speakers talk on different subjects all relating to mental health. Overall the day was a huge success and the students reported they had learned some new skills on dealing with mental health. My hope is we can now work as a team to implement some of what we have learned into the school community to help build all our students capacity to manage and maintain positive mental health.

R U OK?

Although the official R U OK Day is on Thursday 10 September, Kalamunda SHS is going to recognise and celebrate the day on Tuesday 2 September.

The message this year is that there’s more to say after R U OK?

A conversation could change a life. If you feel like something’s not quite the same with someone you know – there’s something going on in their life or you notice a change in what they’re saying or doing - trust that gut instinct and take the time to ask them “Are you OK?”. If someone says they’re not OK, make time to listen, encourage action and check in. There’s more to say after R U OK? Learn what to say:

Jenny Edmonds
School Psychologist

SIDE Updates

In 2020, we have seven Year 12 students completing their ATAR SIDE courses in ATAR Italian, Japanese and EAL/D. The students, over the next three weeks will be sitting their mock exams both orals and written.

I’d like to congratulate them on their diligence, determination and resilience to a new learning platform. I’m especially proud of the way they consistently attended earlybird and native speaker sessions in their own time.

Here are some thoughts from the graduating SIDE students, 2020:

‘I enjoy learning at SIDE as it’s given me the opportunity to further my studies in Italian and build independence.’ Jemma Chapman (Year 12)

‘Studying with SIDE has been an incredible experience for me. I have learned how to study independently, which will improve my further studies. I am very fortunate to study Italian ATAR and I have enjoyed it for the past two years. Overall, I'm very grateful for the experience and I thank the school for providing the opportunity for me to study with SIDE.’ Nikola Takac (Year 12)

‘I have learnt not only Italian but also numerous study skills and how to be a successful independent student. I’ve enjoyed my SIDE ATAR Italian course over the past two years.’ Louisa Sieczka (Year 12)

SIDE (School of Isolated and District Education) offers K-12 distance education and online learning within the West Australian Department of Education.

SIDE staff are dedicated in developing independent learners and forging strong links with parents, students and partnership-schools. The education programs are delivered via digital technologies e.g. Moodle (learning management system) and Cisco Webex (video conferencing).

I’d just like to say how much I’ve enjoyed working with these lovely students and wish them all the very best for the future.

Jorje Raphael
Teacher Librarian

Online Open Day at The University of Notre Dame Australia

Rotary Club of Kalamunda