Principal's Report
Celebrating the life of Sharon Owen
It was with great sadness that we recently farewelled a former staff member Sharon Owen, who was deeply loved by staff and students. Sharon had a long connection to the school with her family living next to the Agricultural Hall growing up. She attended both Kalamunda PS and SHS as a student and later returned as an Education Assistant supporting our students for nearly 20 years, receiving the staff Benchmark Award in 2007 in recognition of her selfless contribution to nurturing the students at our school.
Sharon had such a positive outlook on life and much love in her heart, and she faced her battle with MND with such courage. She will be forever remembered in our school community.
Congratulations
To our Year 12 Youth Innovation team who won their SMHS Super Preliminary Round for their pitch to the challenge statement “How might we involve young people in their healthcare planning and decisions?” We wish them all the best for the finals.
Congratulations to Year 12 Blake Siecska who participated in the 2025 Australian U/17 squad defeating NA in the Pacific Horizon Cup series.
Congratulations to Olivia Martignoli, Zuri Matthews and Geneva Blake for finishing their Bibbulumun Track end to end journey over the school holidays. They spent 12 days enduring torrential rain, hail, flooing, extreme cold and a bit of sunshine to complete the 1030ish km (inc diversions) in 49 days over the last 21 months.
One of our teachers Anita Phillips has recently won best overall artwork in the 2025 Cossack Art Awards sponsored by the City of Karratha. We are very proud of her achievement as an artist.
NAIDOC Celebrations
Thank you to Elder Brett Collard who joined us for this year’s NAIDOC celebrations. Former student Coen Fowler also participated in many of the activities. We thank our P&C who through the EAT program organised kangaroo sausages with native ingredients to try. We hosted a parent morning tea for parents and thank teacher Shania Cuthbert (Balladong Noongar woman) for starting conversations about how we can better support our Aboriginal students.
Staff also organised a bush walk and plant identification at Jorgensen Park to end the week.
Languages Week
Thank you to our language teachers and our students who helped us celebrate Languages Week during Week 4 by hosting special visitors to the school, holding fun activities throughout the week and visiting local primary schools. It was a fun week acknowledging the benefits of learning a language and celebrating culture and language.
Amongst the activities we had the mystery of the missing Mona Lisa painting on loan from the Louvre Museum.
There were also special visits from Marco Polo and a Venetian lady who shared their history with students and staff with gifts of spices, stamps and jewels. Italian teacher Davide Gottardi created a game where students had to “travel” the Silk Road and exchange goods. Soap sculptures gave an appreciation of the difficulty Michelangelo had carving the statue of David from marble and there was also mask making.
Year 11 and 12 students also enjoyed a special visit from Toni Galati who spoke about hard work, resilience and respect for people of all cultures.
Year 10 Media excursion to Murdoch University
Chef Ally visiting Hospitality classes to talk about apprenticeships
Year 11 and 12 General Outdoor Education Expedition to Margaret River
Shrek Jr
Our KPA staff and students look forward to their production of Shrek Jr on 5 and 6 Sept. Last minutes tickets can be found here until sold out. https://www.trybooking.com/DCAMC
Year 11 and 12 Drama students visit Beauty and the Beast
Art awards
Congratulations to Peyton Kovacevich who was awarded 2nd place in the Shaun Tan Award.
Congratulations also to Aoife O’Toole for being selected for the St Georges Cathedral art exhibition.
Skills West Expo at the Perth Convention Centre.
Many of our Year 9 students had the opportunity to explore career pathways and begin engaging with the world of work.
1-1 tutoring with TAFE and University representatives (Year 11 and 12)
Building update
Our students and English and Education Support teachers are really enjoying their new classrooms this year. It was great to be able to utilise them for our parent teacher meeting earlier this term.
2026 – Year 7 enrolments
We encourage all families to finalise their enrolments for Year 7 next year as soon as possible to assist us in planning our classes.
Year 10 Course selection
Our course selections for Year 11 2026 have been completed now and ww are finalising our timetable and staffing in preparation for next year.
Contributions and Charges
We encourage all parents to finalise their payments for the 2025 school year particularly those in Specialist Programs. If you have not yet completed these please contact us to arrange a payment plan.
Gifted and Talented applications for 2027
Gifted and Talented Secondary Selective Entrance programs provide the opportunity for exceptionally able students to study in learning environments that challenge, inspire and empower them to excel every day. Students in Gifted and Talented programs learn with like-minded peers, following an enriched curriculum designed for their needs, delivered by teachers with expert skills and knowledge. Access is provided to universities, industry bodies and mentoring programs with opportunities to take part in national and international competitions.
The selection process starts when students are in Year 5, testing in Year 6, with placement starting from Year 7. Limited vacancies may also be available for entry into Years 9, 10 and 11 only.
Applications open in October 2025.
Best wishes for the rest of term.