We are nearly half way through the term and continue as best we can to navigate these COVID times.

COVID update

As restrictions have eased earlier this term, we have seen an increase in cases not only in the community but also at the school.  The number of students who have caught COVID is increasing with over 60% of students now having contracted the disease since the start of the year.  Positive cases are also being experienced by our staff and strategies have been put in place to supplement the relief teaching staff.  Administration staff have been deployed to cover class, in some cases small classes have been combined with other classes and the school has utilised the central office relief staff pools.

While mask mandates have been lifted, we still have restrictions on household close contacts.  Fortunately, students who do not have any symptoms are still able to come to school provided they wear a mask at all times and return a negative RAT test each day.   Thank you to our front office staff who monitor the students returning to school as close contacts.  Students check in at the front office each morning, and are provided with a pass to leave class 5 mins before recess and lunch to be able to remove their mask to eat their food.  Thank you to all our parents for your support in continuing to report positive cases to the school, and for your efforts to keep our community safe.

Free RAT distribution

Recently we received a delivery of 20 RATs per student.  Such a large delivery (24 000 RATs) came on a delivery pallet and it was a logistical exercise to deliver these to classes.  We were very fortunate to utilise the services of students from the Kalamunda Secondary Education Support Centre who enthusiastically counted, packaged, delivered, checked and recorded the distribution of RATs to our students.

 ANZAC Day

With restrictions still in place this year, we modified our ANZAC Day Ceremony scheduled for Week 10 last term.  This was paired back to the special guests, students involved in the ceremony and our choir, band and orchestra students.  A special thanks goes to our new media teacher Craig Roberts and students who were involved in filming and editing a special video presentation.  The whole school watched this on the Friday of Week 1 this term.

KPA Semester 1 Showcase

It was great to be able to hold our KPA Sem 1 showcase without restrictions during the last week of Term 1.  Congratulations to our staff and students for their efforts in bringing this to fruition despite the complexities navigating absences.

Career Breakfast

This year we have a new Career Practioner position as part of a government initiative.  Amanda Moreno Diaz has joined our school in this role and has been very active in building opportunities for students in exploring pathways and careers.  Recently a Career Breakfast was held in the cafeteria.  Representatives from a wide range of careers participated including in industry, employment, services, forces and tertiary and further training.  Due to COVID restrictions, this event was held over two consecutive weeks.  A huge thank you to Amanda and all those who assisted her in making this such a huge success.

Pulse Perspectives

Once again we are delighted that our school has been represented in this prestigious exhibition of Year 12 work from graduating students.  I encourage you to take the time to visit the Year 12 Pulse exhibition in the Art Gallery of WA celebrating WA’s young artists (you can also do this virtually).  On display is 2021 Year 12 – Sophie Catchpole’s piece “Bare Necessities” and is open to the public until 24 July.  2020 leaver Sarah Hoey is also featured in the 30-year overview.  2019 leaver Charlotte Eden (Dux ATAR Visual Art) spoke at the opening in her capacity as a member of the AGWA Youth Advisory Panel and shared her art journey – giving credit to her parents (Claire and John Eden) for her passion in art!  

Year 11 ATAR Outdoor Education – expedition

Despite the challenges that COVID are presenting, we are still managing to continue curriculum activites.  Our Year 11 ATAR Outdoor Education students recently participated in their expedition along the Munda Biddi trail.

Year 8 – Bibbulmun Challenge

Each year our Year 8 students participate in a Bibbulmun Challenge with their mentor groups.  This challenge is designed to build bonds and help students reflect on their journey through high school.  It is often listed as a highlight for our Year 12s as they reflect back on their time at Kalamunda.  We are fortunate to have been able to hold most of these so far, and catch up opportunities will be available later in the year as the weather turns.

School is an important part of a child’s development, so how can families and carers best support their children to do well? The Commissioner for Children and Young People consulted 1,800 WA school students from Years 3-12 on what helps their engagement at school.

Amanda Morton
Program Coordinator - Student Support

With limited performance opportunities, capacity audience limits, and the challenge of managing absences during Term 1, we were delighted to see our Semester 1 KPA Showcase come to life on the evening of Thursday 5 May at the Kalamunda Performing Arts Centre. Over 100 students from both our General and Music streams participated in the presentation and all involved performed to the best of their ability to an appreciative audience. There was a mix of drama, music and dance, including a collaboration involving all Year 8 students, our Year 7 General students’ first KPA performance, and a selection of solos, small group, and whole cohort performances.

All students displayed wonderful professionalism and peer support, and it was particularly delightful to see the Year 10 students mentoring our Year 7 students as they confronted nerves and anxiety about performing in front of such large crowd for the first time.

It was great to collaborate with Michelle Vivian and Marcus Roberts in curating such a diverse show and we look forward to doing so again.

Anna Head
KPA Coordinator

Maths Homework Club is up and running again this year on Wednesday afternoons between 3pm - 4pm in A5. Students from all years are encouraged to come along and study with support from members of our team, especially in the lead up to exams. Students may bring any class work or assessment that needs to be completed. Also, they have the opportunity to complete Mathspace tasks as there is access to computers. 

We have had ongoing absences in all our classes and I would like to remind everyone that class tasks (or textbook links) will be uploaded to Connect, so that students don’t fall behind in their studies. Furthermore, there will always be Mathspace tasks that can be completed at home.

Please feel free to contact your child’s teacher, or Head of Learning Area, if you have any concerns regarding your child’s learning program or progress throughout this year. 

Alanna Webb
Head of Mathematics Learning Area

Premier’s Reading Challenge

Join the adventure!

We encourage you to join us in unlocking the wonderful world of reading for your children. Help them to join the Premier’s Reading Challenge. Will they fly above the clouds, dive into the ocean or jump into a rocket ship? All students from Kindergarten to Year 10 are challenged to read 12 books by 9 September 2022.

Your children can register via the website, choose their own avatar and log all the books they read over the course of the challenge. Weekly prizes will be awarded to students who log a book that week, with major prizes drawn when the challenge ends.

Books don’t have to be in English – families are encouraged to read books in their first language.

There are extraordinary tourism prizes to be won each week.

Children can sign up on the website to begin their magical journey.

ATOMIC MAYHEM

Year 9 and 10 students have been getting to grips with representations of the atom in Chemistry this term. Modelling what they look like seemed to help, using our tic tac toe counters on the desktop shells. Blue for protons, red for electrons, and green for neutrons. Getting them in the right place was the challenge, as these students found.

Lindesay Pound
Science Teacher

Truffle Fun!

It came to my surprise that many of my Year 7 students didn’t know what a truffle was? The Italian word for truffle is “tartufo.” It is considered a delicacy in Italy because of their value and also the beauty of its unique smell and taste. Friday’s Italian lesson involved watching a clip from 'Truffle Hunters' in Italian and then trying a truffle infused olive oil with a slice of pane di casa bread. I am very impressed with my Year 7 students who kept an open mind and were culturally respectful and appreciative towards the whole truffle experience.

It is Eurovision time! Watch SBS! Did you know….

• Eurovision Song Contest is the world's biggest music show.
• There have been five barefoot winners in Eurovision history: Sandie Shaw (1967), Sertab Erener (2003), Dima Bilan (2008), Loreen (2012) and Emmelie De Forest (2013).
• Norway won the contest in 1995 with the song "Nocturne". It contained only 24 words accompanied by long violin solos.
• Serbia participated the first time as an independent country in 2007 and won the contest the same year.
• Finland had to wait 44 years since their debut in 1961 to achieve their first victory. They had only received three 12 points in the history of the contest up to the 2006 contest, and none since 1977.
• When Ukrainian singer Ruslana won Eurovision in 2004, she was rewarded with a seat in Parliament.
• In 2016 Ukraine won the Grand Final with the song "1944", but only came second in their semi-final. Australia won the semi-final, but came 2nd in the Grand Final.
• Eurovision Song Contest always begins with the fanfare "Prélude du Te Deum" composed by Marc-Antoine Charpentier.
• Among the contestants who have had successful careers are ABBA (1974), Céline Dion, Cliff Richard and Julio Iglesias. Dion won for Switzerland in 1988 with the song Ne partez pas sans moi.
• In 1956, every participating country could enter with two songs. The Netherlands was the first country to sing a song in Eurovision with "De vogels van Holland".
• Belarus was expelled from Eurovision 2021. The submitted song had lyrics with political undertones mocking the Belarusian pro-democracy movement.
• The first Eurovision that was broadcast in color, was the 1968 contest at the Royal Albert Hall.
• The scores of the voting from the 1956-contest have never been made public, leaving room for lots of speculation. Attempts to reconstruct the voting by interviewing jury members over the following five decades did not lead to any reliable outcome.
• The youngest ever winner was 13-year-old Sandra Kim from Belgium who won Eurovision in 1986.
• Spain's cleverly titled, La La La from 1968 contained no fewer than 138 la's.
• In 2011 Azerbaijan won the Grand Final with the song 'Running Scared', but only came second in their semi-final. Greece won the semi-final, but came 7th in the Grand Final.
• Austria, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Portugal and Sweden boycotted the 1970 contest as they were not pleased with the result of 1969 and the voting structure.
• The longest running losers are the Cypriots, having never had a victory.
• In 1969 there were four winners! They all had the same points, and back then there were no rules for a tie. If there's a tie today, the country with points from most countries will win.
• Ireland holds the record of most victories in Eurovision Song Contest: Seven victories! The six of these victories was in the 80s and 90s: 1970, 1980, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1996.
• Luxembourg has won five times. But none of the five winners came from Luxembourg. Four were French and one (Vicky Leandros) Greek.
• The longest song in Eurovision Song Contest is Italy's "Corde Della Mia Chitarra" from 1957: 5 minutes and 9 seconds. After the contest, the rules were tightened so songs couldn't be longer than 3.5 minutes initially and later 3 minutes.
• All Eurovision songs must not be longer than three minutes.
• Portugal holds the record of most points in a Grand Final. In 2017 Salvador Sobral won with record breaking 758 points with the song "Amar Pelos Dois"
• Norway has ended last nine times! They came last in 1963, 1969, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1981, 1990, 1997 and 2001.
• Eurovision Song Contest is broadcast across five continents.
• In 2015 Finland's song "Aina Mun Pitää" only runs for 1 minute and 27 seconds. The shortest song in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest.
• In 2009 Georgia decided to send the song "We Don't Wanna Put In" to the contest in Moscow, but because of a controversy about the lyrics in the song, EBU banned the song from participating, if the lyrics was not changed. Georgia refused to change the lyrics, and withdrew from the contest.
• Israel is the only winning country that didn't participate the following year – They won in 1979 but didn't participate in 1980 due to Israeli Memorial Day, Yom Hazikaron.
• Russia was excluded from participating in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 after they invaded Ukraine.
• In the years 1966 - 1972 and 1978 - 1998 the rules stated that each country had to sing in one of their national languages. Single words or phrases in other languages were allowed.
• Eurovision Song Contest is normally held every year in May. The earliest Eurovision date was in 1957, on 3rd March and the latest was in 1999 and 2010 when it was held on 29th May.
• Riverdance was first performed during the interval act of Eurovision Song Contest 1994. One of the most popular interval acts in the history of the contest.
• Romania was expelled from Eurovision 2016 due to unpaid debt to EBU.
• Russia's entry 'A Million Voices' from 2015 became the first non-winning Eurovision song to score over 300 points.
• Morocco has participated in Eurovision Song Contest. But only once. It was in 1980 and they ended second-last. Morocco only received points from Italy.
• It is not allowed to have more than six people on stage (including backup singers and dancers). Until Eurovision 1971 the limit was three.
• The first scandal in Eurovision history occurred in 1957 where the Danish singers Birthe Wilke and Gustav Winckler kissed for 11 seconds in the end of the song. Generating a furious reaction.
• In 2006 Ireland's Brian Kennedy, who has sung duets with Van Morrison, became the 1000th act to sing on the Eurovision stage with 'Every Song Is A Cry For Love'. He came 10th.

Welcome back Ibu Astri!

We would like to welcome back Ibu Astri to Kalamunda SHS. Astri was our fabulous language assistant in Indonesian last year. Astri will be teaching our Indonesian students while Ibu Kaler is on leave. It is wonderful to have you back and provide the Indonesian students will authentic, exciting learning experiences.

Maria Pennington
Teacher in Charge of Languages

New Assistant Italian Teacher

Hi everyone,

My name is Alexandra Del Sorbo and I'm the new assistant Italian teacher at Kalamunda school. I'm also the headcoach of the Supanova artistic swimming club based in Perth and a coach of the Australian National team. All my life, I have always been involved in theatre and I'm still acting here in Australia in a couple of theatre companies. I'm the drama teacher of the Dante Alighieri Italian school. I have studied language at high school and after working as tour guide and translator, I can proudly say that I speak French, Spanish, English and Italian, of course. 

I'm a graduate in the history of cinema, theatre and music from the University of Turin, my hometown. My primary passions are cinema (I love doing critics at film festivals) , music (obsess by anything concerning 70's style), rabbits (I've a lop bunny named Freddy), doing bodybuilding and following a healthy lifestyle. 

I'm very happy to be here and I can't wait to spend an amazing season with you all!

Alexandra Del Sorbo
Assistant Italian teacher

Italy in Perth Lego Store!

All my life, I have loved all things lego! I also love all things Italian! When I visited the Lego Shop in Karrinyup I was really excited to see lego displays of Il Colosseo and an Italian Vespa (did you know vespa means wasp in Italian?). I couldn’t wait to show these cultural lego displays to my Italian class. It is great to see that Lego can represent so many cultures.

Amelia
Cert II Italian student

Career Breakfast – Tuesday 3 and 10 May 2022

Students in Year 10, 11 and 12 have had the great privilege to delve into the world of careers and life journeys with an incredible panel of guest speakers from our school community and beyond.

The event was planned during Term 1, in order to accommodate the COVID restrictions at the time, we decided to split students to allow maximum number of students to have the opportunity to talk to as many professionals and organisations to explore the world of work. Over the two sessions we got nearly 100 students coming through and chatting to our guests.

We hosted the:

Australian Defence Force	Observational astronomer	Physiotherapist
Police Department	Commercial pilot	Instructional consultant
Brain cancer researcher	Mining engineers	Business and law accountant
Astrophysicist	South metro TAFE	Construction Futures
MPA skills	KidsHQ	City of Kalamunda Youth Services

Students got the opportunity to ask questions about what is like to be in the army, a police officer and alternative pathways to university and TAFE.

The guest speakers were engaging and generous with their time (most of them came to both sessions) and were very impressed. Not only with the good behaviour that was displayed by our students but also the kind of deep and thoughtful questions that they asked them.

To organise such a successful series of event, you need support at school (amazing teachers and admin crew) and outside school. We take this opportunity to thank Kalamunda Chamber of Commerce and Kalamunda IGA for their donations to create goodie bags for our registered students and a thank you present to our AWESOME speakers.

The Year 9 Career Taster Program

The Year 9 Career Taster Program (CTP) is an exciting and innovative program designed for Year 9 students to become ‘career curious’ and get a taste of different career options, education and training pathways. Students can explore career pathways, try hands on industry-based activities and see occupations in action.

The program is also designed to challenge the way students think about their post-school options and help them to make more informed decisions on their subject selections for Years 10, 11 and12.

The new Career Taster portal includes a database of industry experiences and information and resources for students, schools, parents and carers, and industry.

To find out more about the program, visit jobsandskills.wa.gov.au/careertaster.

Career Conversations from Department of Education 2022

Career Conversations are a fabulous new initiative from the Department of Education. Sessions will be run across the Metropolitan area, some in the morning and some in the evening. They will then be rolled out across the State

Parents and carers are the greatest influence on their child’s career decision making. Students and carers are invited to attend a Career Conversation to hear:

• what industry wants from young people;
• what opportunities are on offer;
• young people sharing their experiences; and
• where to find accurate, up-to-date career information.

Australian surveys show vaping by young people has increased.

Young people who vape nicotine are exposed to a toxic chemical that can harm adolescent brain development and lead to dependence.

There is also some evidence that vaping nicotine is associated with later tobacco use among teenagers.

"In recent years we have also seen the proliferation of shops selling enticing non-nicotine e-cigarettes and liquids with thousands of attractive flavours like green apple ice, cinnamon roll and alpha mint. These are purely recreational products that have no place in our market for either kids or adults.” -  Cancer Council Australia

For information on how to talk with your young person about vaping visit the Alcohol and Drug Foundation website below.

Raisingchildren.net.au provides free, reliable, up-to-date and independent information to help families grow and thrive together. They are funded by the Australian Government, reviewed by experts and non-commercial.

Designed for busy families and full of tips and tricks for you to try, the content is easy to find and easy to digest. The articles, videos and interactive resources are tailored to different ages and stages. Click on the link below to find resources to help you raise a confident, resilient teen – and help you to look after yourself as a parent too.

Lousie Jonker
Community Nurse

Whole School Wellbeing Program

Our whole school program was launched last term; a credit to our dedicated staff in the face of some challenging circumstances. This term we are shifting the focus a little for each year group, with the majority developing their skills in Resilience – one of our 5 School Values.

“Resilience is picking yourself up, turning over a new leaf and never giving up.”

It has been wonderful to hear from mentor teachers about the engagement of students in the activities; below are a few snapshots sent in:

Year 7s developing social skills through teamwork.

A brainstorm of ideas to support mental health by Year 9s

The table below outlines the activities to be undertaken in Term 2 of this year.

	Term 2 FOCUS	Skills to Develop
Year 7	Self-Management	Organisation and time management, goal setting and coping with stress.
Year 8	Resilience	Focusing on positive emotions, goal setting and how to support a friend with mental health concerns.
Year 9	Resilience	Using a growth mindset for goal setting, music as a coping strategy and exploring random acts of kindness.
Year 10	Resilience	Rephrasing for a growth mindset, goal setting and mindfulness for stress management.
Year 11	Resilience	Developing self-awareness through mindfulness activities and developing habits of good self-care.
Year 12	Purpose	Identifying strengths and talents, exploring personal values and how they can contribute to their sense of an ideal world.

On 26 April I attended the opening of the AGWA West Australian Pulse exhibition for Year 12s (previously known as Pulse Perspectives). Sophie Catchpole was in attendance with her painting “Bare Necessities”, a beautiful oil painting of a modern day shearer working at his job on her family farm. In addition to our Dux representing Kalamunda SHS, my own daughter was there in her capacity as a member of the AGWA Youth Advisory Panel. Charlotte spoke to the crowd of students, parents and teachers. She spoke expertly from the heart about her art journey, and she did not forget to credit her parents. It was a good night. The exhibition is open to the public until 24 July.

John Eden
Art and Design Teacher