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Melissa Shepherd
Principal
Year 9 and 10 Electives
Year 8 and 9 students have been submitting their preferences for their elective courses for 2024. This is the first opportunity that Year 8 students have had to make these choices. We thank all of the students and families who participated in this online selection process.
Write A Book in a Day
Our school staff have again provided the opportunity for students to participate in Write a Book in a Day. Staff were very impressed wiith the excellent writing, illustrations and teamwork across the day. The group also had a visit from author Holden Sheppard who popped in to give some inspirational words to the students. Thank you to the team of staff who host this incursion at our school.
Staffing Update
Next term we welcome Helen Deacon back as she returns to her role as Principal. I would like to thank Nicole Maurer for all of her work as acting Associate Principal. Mark Pettit will be returning from leave and will resume his role as Student Services Program Coordinator for Years 9 and 10. Thank you to Teagen Smith and Kelly Walker for your work in acting positions at the school this term.
With Term 3 well underway it is a fortuitous time for our Year 12 students to reflect on;
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- What they have achieved so far?
- What still can to be accomplished?
- How do they progress from here, to get where they want to be?
The OLNA testing is nearly completed and although an important component of the WACE, it is only 1 part, and a clear understanding of all other components is most beneficial to for students and their families.
With only a couple of weeks to go for the year 12’s there is little time to delay! A difference can still be made but it needs to be here and now. Putting in your utmost effort and achieving the results you are capable of will provide you with not only great satisfaction, but also further opportunities to pursue your career goals. A word of caution though remember a good life balance is critical, being at your best will serve you best in achieving those good results.
Amongst the busy moments we are planning the Year 12 Breakfast, Final Assembly and of course the Ball. An enormous amount of work is being put in to have a wonderful conclusion for our Class of 2023. One big last effort is required Year 12’s to get those final pieces of work completed and walk away knowing you have achieved the best you absolutely could.
Well done, proud of you all.
Sharon Andrews
Year 11 and 12 Program Coordinator
This term has seen our Year 11 students continuing to make progress with their chosen courses and pathways of study. With only a short time remaining before the cohort finishes up for the year, students need to consider and be excited that next year they will take their place in the school as the most senior students. Already, with much excitement and enthusiasm we have started the process of selecting our design for our leavers jackets and have taken nominations for next year’s student leadership group including our School Captains. I wish all the very best to those who have nominated.
Coming up next term will be our celebratory River Cruise. This will take place on Tuesday the 21st of November and acknowledges all of the hard work and effort that our students have put into the 2023 school year. In order to attend the River Cruise and order a leavers jacket, students need to have and maintain their Good Standing. It is therefore vitally important that students do their best, maintain correct uniform, keep mobile phones off and away, 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.
Amber Bullock
Term 3 has already been a busy term for Year 9. Students have begun conversations around their future pathways and have been encouraged to have discussions at home. Earlier in the term, some students visited Perth Convention Centre to attend the Skills West Expo. These students were impressed by the range of exhibitors and had the opportunity to converse with a range of businesses and educational establishments. A number of students increased their knowledge on work placements, apprenticeships and university pathways. We highly recommend going next year if anyone missed out!
Our student leadership team have also been very busy. Our Year 9 leaders, alongside Youth Action Kalamunda, have been taking part in the City of Kalamunda Student Leadership Day and Mock Council Meeting. This has been an exciting opportunity for some of our student leaders to connect with the local community. Students worked with other local schools to develop presentations for the mock council meeting, raising issues that are important to our local youth.
Finally, we have celebrated the return of the Spring weather with the Athletics Carnival. We were very lucky to have a beautiful day to celebrate the amazing sporting talents of our school community. Well done to all participants!
The end of Term Three is almost upon us, and what a busy term it has been. The beginning saw Year 8’s received their Semester One report, Parent teacher interviews in week 2, Write a book in a day incursion, wear it purple day, the track and field carnival, KPA Frozen production and the OAP expedition. I hope all Year 8’s have been able to set new goals and are working on making improvements for their Semester Two report.
In week 8 we held a year assembly demonstrating the process for students to complete their subject selections for 2024. If you need assistance, please reach out to myself.
A friendly reminder that phones need to be off and away all day. I will be monitoring Academy for mobile phone breaches. If a student has a number of mobile phone breaches they will be expected to complete an improvement plan where we will address their mobile phone breaches. This can be extended to uniform too. As the weather warms up, I hope to see year 8 students in the correct school uniform. Kalamunda stands ready to assist any families to ensure their child is attending school dressed for success.
Being a young person can be a difficult time. As our year 8’s navigate a number of issues, I will be sharing a range of resources on Connect that can assist you and your child. Please keep an eye out on Connect notices for when these resources become available.
It is an absolute pleasure to be working with the wonderful students and families in year 8. If you need to contact me at all, please feel free to mail me at Teagen.Smith@education.wa.edu.au.
Year 9 Civics & Citizenship
Year 9 students in Humanities have had a busy and engaging few months. At the end of Term 2, 50 students had the opportunity to visit Western Australia’s Parliament House. We always choose a non-sitting day as this gives students the experience to sit in the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council chambers, the very seats our law-makers get to sit in. They learnt about the chambers’ histories, the key processes of how our laws are made and how members could be ‘ejected’ from the chamber. Students also found it fascinating to view the hall of WA’s past premiers, see the amazing artifacts of our political history and enjoy the grandeur of the halls of power.
To further support their studies of Civics and Citizenship, they then visited the Electoral Education Centre and got to experience how our preferential voting system works using fast-food as their voting topic. Maccas and KFC would be running our state if students had their say!
Another 50 students visited the Perth law courts. Our open and transparent justice system meant students could witness a variety of cases in the District Court – breaches of restraining orders, repeat offenders and a convicted homeless person needing a judge’s authorisation to complete their sentence in a rural area. They spent time in Perth’s oldest building, the Old Perth Courthouse, where they donned the attire of legal professionals and participated in a scripted mock trial about a brutal one-punch attack.
Our access to these important institutions is just one example of why we should feel proud of our democracy and legal system. Our students come away from these experiences enriched and enlightened.
A massive thanks to Mr Jacob Pettit for organising and supervising both excursions, and to Ms Ganza, Ms Cattell, Mr Young, Mr Hart, Mrs Hampton-Grigg and Ms Hawkes for their supervision.
Year 9 Geography
This term, our Year 9s have been immersing themselves in a biome of their choice. They’ve been applying their data analysis skills and bringing together their research to create a geographical broadsheet of their particular biome. They then created a ‘biome in a bottle’ and creatively designed key features and adaptations of flora and fauna found in their biome. Can you identify which biome is which?
Year 11 Geography
The environment, economy and society combine in Geography, and our Year 11 General and ATAR Geography students appreciated this in their day out in the Swan Valley exploring the Sandalford Winery. They were given a guided tour of how the wine was made, viewing the vats that ferment the grapes, the bottling process and the barrel room used for aging the wine. They learnt about the economic importance of the wine industry to the Swan Valley and understood the environmental factors that influence wine production. No testers were given, but their visit to the Yahava Koffeeworks yielded not only an education on how coffee beans were roasted and marketed to tourists, but an all-important coffee in readiness for their next venture to the Margaret River Chocolate Factory, where students were treated to the undeniably crucial process of how chocolate was made and even more importantly, got to taste the end-product.
A massive thanks goes to Ms Gillett and Mr Pettit for organising and supervising this excursion.
Year 12 History
2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the end of Australia’s military involvement in Vietnam. Our Year 12 ATAR Modern History students have been studying Australian history this semester and have been investigating the Vietnam War. We are so fortunate to have Geof Irvin, a Vietnam Veteran and President of the Kalamunda RSL, regularly avail himself to provide first-hand insight into the war and its significant impact on Australia and our foreign policy. Geof was also our guest speaker for our ANZAC service this year and his stories are entertaining and enlightening for our students. They also really appreciated Geof showing them pictures of his red sports car!
Thanks goes to Ms Hawkes for liaising with Geof.
Farewell and arrivederci to our Italian exchange students!
Giorgia, Gaia, Alessia and Aurora were our four Italian exchange students who arrived in August to experience Australian culture and immerse themselves into the Australian school system for 8 weeks. Our Kalamunda SHS students were so welcoming and instantly embraced these girls. They enjoyed visiting many parts of our city including King’s Park, York, the Pinnacles, Fremantle and Rottnest. There was one negative experience; the girls really disliked the taste of vegemite and could not understand the flavour! It was very entertaining to watch!
Having the Italian exchange students as part of our community created many friendships and an intercultural understanding amongst students. A very big thank you to our host families; Hollier, Inman, Riley and McDonagh. You made these girls feel like part of your family! This opportunity could not have happened without your kindness and hospitality.
Maria Pennington
(Teacher in Charge of Languages)
Earlier this term 130 music students attended music camp at the old Swan Leigh venue now known as Swan Valley Adventure Centre. A big thank you goes to all the IMSS teachers and parent helpers who volunteered their precious time to make the camp happen.
A big thanks goes to Desi for her dedication in ensuring all the mishaps were taken care of seamlessly over the duration! As always the highlight for me was the talent show and this year was no exception. This was the longest one to date with the competition fierce, and who could forget Liam Hulcup’s performance!!
We were lucky to have Mrs Deacon attend this year and be part of the judging panel along with Tashana Tweddle, Michelle Vivian and James Martin who selected our winners and handed out the music prizes. Attached are photos from the camp courtesy of Nichole Dietsch (proud music parent from Musikal and teacher from GHPS) who captured the action.
Thanks to Musikal and all involved leading up to the camp and on camp for helping us have another wonderful music camp.
In other news my KSHS guitar quartet featuring Freya Pivac, Noah Lynam, Ryan Finnerty and Deja Supadi performed at the annual guitar festival and received an accolade of Outstanding! They performed brilliantly and represented our thriving guitar department proudly. Well done team!
Marcus Roberts
Bibbulmun Network Robotics Showcase
On Friday the 11th of August Kalamunda Senior High School hosted the Bibbulmum Network STEM Showcase. Set around the theme of Survivor, students from local Primary and High Schools worked together in small teams to conquer different challenges. Part of the day was spent practicing their coding skills while collaboratively working to solve different tasks using EV3 and Sphero robots. The other part of the day was spent trying to construct a building that could withstand our earthquake simulators while adhering to specific specifications. It was a fantastic opportunity for students to practice and develop their skills of problem solving and team work all while building their STEM skills. The day was a huge success; victories, laughing, and creative thinking abounded. A huge thank you to all Kalamunda SHS staff for their assistance throughout the day with a special shout out to the amazing library staff for their help in the library and to the HOPE department for the use of their gym. Also, a massive thanks to the robotics students who helped or participated on the day!
Amber Bullock
YEAR 9 SCIENCE
Trying to catch a ruler before it hits the floor turned out to be harder than it looked for our Year 9 scientists.
Especially if some distraction was involved and no warning was given before the drop.
This lead to some embarrassing misses and no-catches, but all part of the fun.
The ability to respond quickly to a verbal signal when the eyes are closed adds a level of difficulty.
An obvious application of this investigation is driver reaction times on the road, and the effect of distractions such as talking, using a mobile phone, or listening to music.
A bit of an eye-opener for our future drivers and road users.
Over the weekend of 26th and 27th August, students from our robotics club participated in the Western Australian Robotics Playoffs (WARP) at Curtin University. This competition involved high school teams from across the state, playing in alliances of three robots. During each game, the robots earnt points by placing cubes and cones in designated places on the game field and by balancing on a ramp. As a school, we entered two teams – My Chemical Robots and Panic! At the Drill Press. These robots have been designed, built and programmed by the students during their after-school robotics club time.
It was a very successful weekend that saw our two teams performing well during qualification matches leading to them both becoming become alliance captains. After surviving the rigors of the finals matches, Panic! At the Drill Press WON the event! My Chemical Robots finished third overall and were awarded the Innovation in Control Award for their conversion of a toaster to a controller. These students are amazing, showing passion, enthusiasm, great collaboration skills, and large amounts of resilience. Thank you to all the parents and staff who have supported us throughout this year. Well done Team 9191!
On Friday 18 August the Year 12 Fashion Design and Sewing students combined to visit the Fashion studios at TAFE. It was inspiring to see the next step in a Fashion student’s education, and the delightful staff and students at NorthMetro, in the city, were fantastic hosts.
We visited the digital design studios, the sewing rooms and the saw the first-year students working on their textiles collection. Two third year (Advance Diploma) students chatted to us about their final collection and detailed all the different stages which go through to be runway ready.
After lunch we took in the collection at Museum Boola Bardip. Thankfully the trip home did not repeat the stop-start bus journey that was our morning commute.
Claire Eden
It has been a very busy few months for our amazing KPA students. With a cast and crew of over 100 students, it was a mammoth task to bring Disney Frozen Jr to life at the Kalamunda Performing Arts Centre, over the weekend of the 1st and 2nd of September.
We descended on the Swan Valley Adventure Centre for our annual camp, where all the year groups worked tirelessly with our staff to bring all the magic together and make it a whole show, as opposed to bits and pieces of a show!
The students worked beautifully and played to capacity crowds who were very appreciative of the quality of the show. We were delighted to have received several very positive reviews from members of the wider community, as well as very happy KPA families.
The students are still buzzing from their performances. I must pass on my heartfelt thanks to the Frozen team – Michelle Vivian, and assistants Rosie Fitoussi and Grace Oorschot. It is amazing to work with a group of determined and likeminded individuals. I must also thank the families of all students who make all of this possible by supporting the arts, and their children’s’ involvement in the arts. THANK YOU!
Anna Head
Join us at WAAPA in January 2024 for a fun filled time, you’ll make new friends, learn new skills and best of all - do lots of performing! This summer WAAPA is offering a range of performing arts courses as part of our school holiday program for secondary school students. Classes for young people from Year 7 to 12 in Acting, Improvisation, Dance, Acting for Camera, Jazz and Music Theatre means there is something for everyone with a passion for the arts. This year we have a course especially designed for students from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse backgrounds. Our wonderful staff cater for all abilities and experience levels. For information about the many courses on offer please visit Summer School 2024 or contact Gabrielle Metcalf at explore.waapa@ecu.edu.au or 9370 6775.
Knowing how anxiety works can help you to better support loved ones without inadvertently making their anxiety worse. It’s difficult to witness anxiety in someone you know, and it’s even harder when their anxiety triggers yours. But what can you do to help anxious people?
First you need to understand that anxiety is a human feature, not a flaw. Most of us get anxious from time to time, because it’s a generally useful emotion that helps us to see potential threats, makes us concerned with social rejection, and keeps us on alert to being deceived.
However, sometimes people get into patterns of coping with anxiety that cause it to snowball. They overthink (ruminating about the past or worrying about the future), avoid whatever triggers their anxiety, and use compensatory strategies—like being extremely perfectionist to avoid feeling like an imposter—that decrease their anxiety temporarily but increase it over the long-term. These coping strategies can also push people away—people like you. While it’s upsetting and frustrating to see these folks suffer, there are things you can do to help.
1. Understand differences in how anxiety manifests
Because of evolution, we’re wired to respond to fear by either fight, flight, or freeze. For different people, one of these responses will typically dominate. When you understand that anxiety is designed to put us into a mode of threat sensitivity, it’s easier to understand someone who is feeling scared (or stressed) and acting out by being irritable or defensive, and to find compassion for them. By paying attention to how anxiety manifests in the person you care about, you can learn their patterns and be in a better position to help.
2. Match your support to their preferences and attachment style
It’s best to ask someone what type of support they prefer rather than guess! However, we know from research that people who have an avoidant attachment style (typically those who’ve experienced rejecting caregiving or relationships in the past) are likely to respond best to strong displays of concrete practical support. That could include helping the anxious person break tasks down into manageable steps or talking through specific options for how to deal with a difficult situation.
Other people are more likely to prefer emotional support, especially those who are securely attached, or who have a “preoccupied” attachment style due to a fear of being abandoned or of their emotions being overwhelming to others. Folks like this respond well to statements emphasizing that they’re part of a tight team—for example, their supporter saying, “This is tough, but we love each other, and we’ll get through it together.”
Of course, these are generalizations, and you need to tailor your support by observing what works in your particular situation. But when you have a very close relationship with someone, you can offer support based on intimately understanding your loved one’s anxiety patterns.
3. Find ways to make use of any insight they have into their anxiety
If your loved one has insight into their anxiety, you can help them spot when their anxiety-driven patterns are occurring. If you’re going to do this, it’s a good idea to have their permission first. Keep in mind that people who have insight into their anxiety often still feel compelled to “give in” to their anxious thoughts. For instance, a person with health anxiety might logically know that going to the doctor every week for multiple tests is unnecessary, but they can’t help themselves.
If your loved one lacks insight into their anxiety or has trouble managing compulsions, it’s probably best to encourage them to see a clinical psychologist who specializes in the treatment of anxiety.
4. Help someone who is anxious to temper their thinking
You’ll be a more useful support person if you educate yourself about cognitive-behavioural models of anxiety, which you can do by reading or attending a therapy session with your loved one. But in lieu of that, you might try using some techniques that can be helpful to people suffering from anxiety.
Typically, anxious people have a natural bias towards thinking about worst-case scenarios. To help them get some perspective on this, you can use a cognitive therapy technique where you ask them to consider three questions:
- What’s the worst that could happen?
- What’s the best that could happen?
- What’s most realistic or likely?
So, if your loved one is anxious that they were supposed to hear from their parents hours ago but haven’t, you can suggest they consider the worst, best, and most likely explanations for the lack of contact.
Take care not to overly reassure your loved one that their fears won’t come to pass. It’s more useful to emphasize their coping ability. For example, if they’re worried about having a panic attack on a plane, you could say, “That would be extremely unpleasant and scary, but you’d deal with it.” And, if your loved one is feeling anxious that someone else is angry with them or disappointed in them, it’s often useful to remind them that you can only ever choose your own actions and not completely control other people’s responses.
5. Offer support, but don’t take over
Avoidance is a core feature of anxiety, so sometimes we may feel pulled to “help out” by doing things for our avoidant loved ones and inadvertently feed their avoidance. For instance, if your anxious roommate finds making phone calls incredibly stressful and you end up doing this for them, they never push through their avoidance.
A good general principle to keep in mind is that support means helping someone to help themselves, not doing things for them, which includes virtually anything that stops short of actually doing it yourself.
An exception might be when someone’s anxiety is accompanied by severe depression. If they can’t get themselves out of bed, they may be so shut down that they temporarily need people to do whatever is needed to help them stay alive. Also, sometimes loved ones are so gripped by an anxiety disorder that they’re in pure survival mode and need more hands-on help to get things done. In less extreme circumstances, however, it’s best to offer support without taking over or overdoing the reassurance.
6. If someone has a more serious anxiety problem, avoid stigmatizing them
What can we do for folks with more serious issues? People experiencing things like panic disorder, depression mixed with anxiety, post-traumatic stress, or obsessional thinking (including thoughts related to eating disorders) may fear that they’re literally going crazy. Helping them may feel beyond your ability.
You can still be supportive in many ways. When someone is experiencing significant anxiety, it’s helpful to reassure them that your overall perception of them hasn’t changed. They’re still the same person; they’re just suffering a temporary problem situation that has become out of control. They’re not broken and who they are hasn’t changed. To the extent possible, you can help the person stay connected to positive aspects of their identity by participating in or encouraging their interests and hobbies.
7. Take care of yourself, too
Recognize that your goal is to help, not to cure the person or relieve them from their anxiety. Taking too much responsibility is actually a symptom of anxiety, so make sure you’re not falling into that trap yourself.
Keep in mind that your support doesn’t need to be directly focused on anxiety. For example, exercise is extremely helpful for anxiety; so perhaps you could simply offer to go for a walk or attend a yoga class together. It’s also fine to put some limits on your support. A 20-minute de-stressing conversation while taking a walk is far more likely to be useful (and less exhausting) than a two-hour marathon discussion.
Helping someone with anxiety isn’t always easy and you may feel like you’re getting it wrong. But, if you remind yourself that you and your loved one are both doing your best, it can help you keep things in perspective. It’s important to remain compassionate and, as the saying goes, to put on your own oxygen mask first. That way, you’ll have a clearer head for figuring out what’s going on with your anxious loved one and how you can truly be of help.
By Alice Boyes Author of bestselling book “The Anxiety Toolkit”
Published in Greater Good in Education August 2023 edition
Aundraea Stevens
Convenor of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Committee