Year 12 final celebrations

As we ended last term, we held a special breakfast followed by a final assembly, where the staff and students were able to farewell our Year 12 students. This is always an emotional day as we reflect on their journey through high school. The Year 12 ball was held later that night at the Convention Centre and was a spectacular evening. I want to thank all our staff who attended to supervise.

We are looking forward to the final farewell at the Year 12 Valedictory evening on 17 November.

Assessments, exams and Workplace Learning

This time of the year is a busy one for final assessments and exams. Our Year 12s are currently completing their ATAR exams which finish in Week 6. In Week 5 and 6 our Year 11s will undertake their ATAR exams and in Week 5 our Year 10s will have their end of year exams.

Year 11 students who do not have exams will be participating in Workplace Learning. There will be a study program at school for those Year 11s who are not attending a placement. We thank all our community members who generously take on our students to help them prepare for the workforce.

Quiz Night

At the end of last term, we held our annual quiz night. It was an amazing community fundraising event and especially to Angie Lukan who coordinated the evening and sourced the prizes. Thank you to all our staff, families and community members for this fundraising event with a fun, friendly atmosphere. This year we raised over $11,000 which was an amazing effort and we will use this money to upgrade areas of the school when the build has been completed. Thank you to all our staff for supporting this event and supporting us on the evening.

In Week 2 we held our annual Twilight Concert under the stars in the main quad. The evening began with a wearable art exhibition and then the music played as the sun went down. As always this is a spectacular evening showcasing the amazing talent we have in our music students. This year featured music from The Beatles, which culminated in a finale involving all music students.

Thank you to Marcus Roberts and Michelle Vivian for coordinating the evening and to all our music and IMSS teachers who prepared the students and supported the performance. Thank you also to the MusiKal parents for their support for the evening and for their fundraising efforts.

To complement the music performances, an exhibition of our visual art students was on display in the Gwen Russell Gallery and ran for the rest of the week.

Wellness Week

Week 2 of this term we held a wellness week where we focus on things we can do to be physically and mentally healthy. Thank you to Chrissy our School Nurse for organising the week and to Bea and Sarah our School Psychologists for their support and activities, and to our Student Services team and Student Councillors for running a range of lunchtime activities during the week. Thank you also to all those who helped behind the scenes – it was really appreciated.

Kalamunda Day

Each year we hold Kalamunda Day to celebrate our school values of Pride, Respect, Resilience, Love of Learning and Community. It is a way for us to reflect on what these values mean to us and to celebrate the diversity of our school community. During our assembly we hold a flag parade of all the countries of birth of our students and staff (this year we had over 40 countries represented). Following our assembly, we have an afternoon of activities organised by our staff in Learning Areas. A highlight for the day is the staff band who perform.

Building Update

Things are moving well on the main building project (Broad Construction) and lots of work is planned for over the Christmas holiday period. Most of the footings are in now, and I am sure you have all seen the enormous crane in situ.

Our STEM building project (Hyde and Sons) is tracking well, with the school already taken occupancy of the Home Economics room, and the Science room will be completed by the end of term.

Parking

As mentioned last term, parking is very tight on the school grounds with the building underway. In particular there will be further disruptions to the main car park, with access being restricted shortly to only the gate by music.

It is timely to remind parents not to use this staff car park to drop off students at school. Safer locations are along Cotherstone Road, behind the KPAC or along Central Rd.

Staffing updates

Welcome to new staff working with us in Term 4 - Kayla Maritz in Science, Catherine Bode in Maths and Lauren Smail – working across the two areas. We also wish Debbie Yeoh, Matt Millan and Richard Guthrie all the best as they take LSL for the latter part of the term.

Wishing everyone all the best for a successful last term.

Helen Deacon
Principal

How to manage exam season: don't forget to take regular breaks and breathe

Around Australia, Year 12 students are heading into the final stretch of study before exams start in early term 4. This is typically seen as a very intense period of preparation. But, as our research shows, it is also important to rest during this time if you want to maximise your performance.

Intuitively, we understand breaks are important. We can take rest breaks across different times in our lives. They include sabbaticals, gap years and holidays, weekends and nightly sleep.

But rest breaks can be beneficial on even shorter time frames, during study sessions and even during exams themselves.

Firstly, try and get some sleep

Students may be tempted to stay up late, trying to cram for an exam the following day. The big risk here is that lack of sleep can do more harm than good.

Sleep plays an important role in a range of brain functions, including maintaining attention and consolidating memories. So getting a poor night of sleep before an exam may mean the topics you’ve tried to cram aren’t well-formed in your long-term memory. Even if they were, the brain fog from lack of sleep means you may not recall what you’ve learned under the pressure of exam conditions.

In the lead-up to your exams, here are some specific things to consider:

• try and keep all screens out of the bedroom: people often struggle with sleep because they’re tempted to check their phone at bedtime.
• screens also emit blue light: this can interfere with your body’s circadian rhythms. Blue light during the day enhances attention, but too much of it in the evening can interfere with sleep quality.
• so don’t use a smartphone as an alarm: get an old-fashioned alarm clock instead.

For more information about sleep, the Sleep Health Foundation has specific advice for high school students.

How do you build in breaks?

Here are some specific strategies to help you get the rests you need:

• when you plan your study schedule build in short breaks: drawing on the Pomodoro time management technique, we recommend using a timer (but not one on a smartphone). Aim to take a 5 minute break after 25 minutes of study.
• again, don’t use a smartphone: many of the features of a phone are purpose-built to capture and keep your attention, which you need for studying! These short breaks could take many forms: getting a cup of tea, playing with a pet, getting some sun outside, doing some star jumps to wake yourself up, or some breathing exercises (I explain these below).
• longer breaks are important too: following the Pomodoro technique, aim to take a longer break (15-30 minutes) after 4 rounds of 25 minutes study/5 minutes rest. Use at least some of these longer breaks for your physical and mental health away from your desk (and screens) – such as exercise, meditation, or a 20-30 minute nap.

Also take breaks during exams

It’s reasonable to think we should be using every minute of an exam for answering questions. But just as rest breaks during study can help restore attention, breaks during exams themselves may also be helpful.

Breaks are a common part of exams for students with disability provisions, but with some planning, all students might benefit from breaks.

A common strategy you can use to prepare for Year 12 exams is to complete past exam papers. When you do this, use the same 'short break' study strategy described above. When it seems like a good break point (for example, in between finishing one section of the paper and starting another), stop for a few minutes and practise taking a short break.

Under exam conditions, you’re more limited in what type of break you can take. But simple controlled breathing routines such as 'box breathing' or the '4-7-8 method' can help you refocus.

These routines can also activate the 'relaxation response' – the opposite of the 'flight-or-flight' response we experience under stressful conditions (including exams).

An even shorter form of breathwork to reduce stress in the moment is the physiological sigh – 2 inhales, followed by an exhale.

When it comes to the actual exam, you’ll be using the reading time to plan how you’ll complete the various sections. Take this time to also think carefully about when you’ll take some short breaks. When the exam begins, you might even write 'take a 2 minute break now' at suitable points in the exam booklet.

There is so much to think about in the lead-up to and during exams. If you schedule in and practise taking breaks, you will get better at doing it and give yourself and your brain a really important rest. 

Wishing all of our Year 12 students every success in their upcoming exams!!

Aundraea Stevens
Convenor of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Committee

Author: Paul Ginns, Associate Professor in Educational Psychology, University of Sydney Accessed from Generation Next:

https://www.generationnext.com.au/2023/10/how-to-manage-exam-season-dont-forget-to-take-regular-breaks-and-breathe/

Term 4 hit the ground running for music as we had our annual Twilight Music Concert in Week 2 on Tuesday 17 October. The weather was fantastic and despite a bit of wind the event was once again a resounding success. This year we featured music of the band 'The Beatles'. The grand finale saw about 100 music students performing Sergeant Peppers 'A Little Help From My Friends', 'Eleanor Rigby' and 'Yellow Submarine'.

I would like to thanks all the IMSS music teachers for their tireless work and Musikal our parent support group for helping to make the event so successful!

Marcus Roberts
Director of Music

We would like to officially welcome Catherine Bode and Lauren Smail to the Maths teaching team for Term 4! 

Earlier in Term 2, 162 students took part in the Australian Mathematics Competition. Students competed in the Junior (Years 7 and 8), Intermediate (Years 9 and 10) or Senior (Years 11 and 12) division. Each division comprised of 30 questions, where students had to read and interpret a range of questions with varying degrees of difficulty. Certificates are given to students who achieve in the top 3-5% (High Distinction); top 20-25% (Distinction); and top 55-60% (Credit).

This year, we are pleased to announce that one student received a High Distinction, 10 students received Distinctions and 66 students received Credits. This year, the Best in School Award went to Marc Rouillard in Year 11. Well done to all students who took part in the competition. A special thank you to Debbie Yeoh who coordinated the competition.

Once again, the Mathematics team provided a range of activities for our Kalamunda Day celebrations. In amongst the strategic and fun games, origami and mindfulness activities, students had the opportunity to demonstrate perseverance and spatial awareness by constructing various models using Mini-Builds. This was a popular addition to our activities this year! I have attached some photos from the day.

Alanna Webb
Head of Mathematics Learning Area

Year 7s HASS

Towards the end of Term 3, 50 Year 7 students made their way to the WA Museum Boola Bardip for a fascinating journey to Ancient Egypt. The students were treated to life as an archaeologist by participating in an archaeological dig and they also engaged with the ethical issues of archaeology.

Students were then given the opportunity to explore the Ancient Egypt exhibit and learn about everyday life, the spiritual beliefs and the afterlife of the Ancient Egyptians. The afterlife exhibit was a highlight as they got to view real mummies.

A massive thanks to Ms Jess Ganza for organising such a huge excursion and to all participating staff.

Year 12 Economics

In September, our Year 12 Economics students were treated to a revision seminar by none other than Steven Kemp, the author of their textbook 'Investigating Macroeconomics'.

They were highly engaged as they consolidated their knowledge on Balance of Payments, Foreign Investment and the use of Macroeconomic Models.

At the end of the seminar, many students got their textbook signed and were highly appreciative of the extra insights gained from our West Australian expert.

Thanks goes to Mr Reece Young for his arrangement of this visit.

Debate Club

In Term 1, Ms Oorschot and Ms Davies established the Kalamunda Senior High School Debate Club. We now have a core group of dedicated debaters who have met in the library every lunchtime on Mondays to learn key skills of debating and engage in a myriad of topics.

The students are very keen to see the Debate Club become a core element of Kalamunda Senior High School and are devising ways to attract more students.

This semester, the affirmative side won the debate as to whether Australians should eat less meat and for Kalamunda Day, they debated the topical issue of whether Australia should lower the voting age to 16.

This was the first time they debated in front of their peers and once again, the affirmative side pipped the negative with not only their use of evidence, but their demonstration of engaging public speaking and their capacity to rebut effectively. Well done to Jasmine Barton (Year 10); Sommer Pearce and Zeeva Ashton (Year 7) ably assisted by Tilda Hughes (Year 7). The negative team, consisting of Liam Wilson (Year 10) and Talay Hollier (Year 10) were incredibly competitive with Talay winning the overall best speaker.

We would love to encourage more students to join Debate Club where they could learn valuable presentation skills, engage with controversial and topical issues and be able to support other students on their journey.

Melinda Davies
HASS Teacher

Greening the planet

The Cert II Conservation and Ecosystem Management students have been out and about beautifying the school gardens. We have focused on the Student Services quad and the pond area weeding and planting native plants that we propagated last year. All up we have planted about 60 shrubs and ground covers some of which are threatened or priority native species. This will help to bring some colour throughout the year and additional food sources for our native animals who live in or visit our school.

Life is a rollercoaster

Year 10s made paper rollercoasters as a practical application for conservation of energy. What looked to be an easy build turned out to be a bit of a challenge as the chosen construction material had a mind of its own, needing patience and careful engineering to get the desired result.

Lindesay Pound
Science Teacher

This year I was fortunate enough to enlist the amazing skills of Fremantle based performance artist Paul Rowe in Term 3 with my Year 11s and 9s, to run improvisation workshops. 

We worked together to run some after school workshops with Year 11s to devise their play 'The Widow’s Case'. What resulted was a sophisticated script based on the theme of Respect starring fully formed characters straight from the students’ imaginations. 

Year 11s also rose to the challenge of staging the highly energetic '15 Minute Hamlet' by Tom Stoppard. They mastered the Shakespearean language, frantic scene transitions and larger than life characterisation with great skill. Congratulations to all involved and a big thank you to Year 10 students who undertook backstage roles to support the show.

To celebrate we went to see Disney’s 'Mary Poppins' at Crown Theatre and the large-scale production did not disappoint. It was truly one of the most eye-popping, awe-inspiring productions I’ve seen to date!

For those who are interested our local theatre company KADS (based in the new Mall in central Kalamunda) is running a youth theatre company and classes start on 9 January, see below for details.