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