9 June 2017

Newsletter Articles

From the Principal’s Desk

Marketing our great school

Kent Street held its second annual open day on Thursday 25 May and it was an absolute joy to show prospective parents and students around our lovely school. Our Student Councillors hosted the event, undertaking some of the tours alongside teaching staff. The grounds looked fantastic and there was a hive of activity in every room, most doing business as usual but some showcasing the amazing talents of our young people and the resources available to them. This term my deputies and I have also been visiting the local primary schools, promoting Kent Street and explaining how to enrol or apply for one of our Approved Specialist Programs. We are actively aiming to grow our student numbers to over 1100 so that we have the financial capital to offer every opportunity to your children whilst remaining small enough so that no one falls through the cracks. You can assist by speaking up our school in public settings and reminding your son or daughter to wear full uniform with pride and conduct themselves appropriately in the community. All of this promotes our brand and fosters a positive reputation. Of course, if you have concerns, we invite you to share them with us directly so that we can act on them.

OLNA

The On-line Literacy and Numeracy Assessment results were emailed to families of Year 10, 11 and 12 earlier this term. If your child is yet to meet the OLNA requirements, there is help to be had. In particular, upper school students can attend English specific sessions with Miss Meloncelli during study periods on Thursday period five. Homework classes are held every Monday and Wednesday after school in the library. Also, the School Curriculum and Standards website offers some practice OLNA opportunities for students to work on at home.

Remember that, whilst students are exempt from having to sit the OLNA if they have reached band 8 or higher in Year 9 NAPLAN, the standard is a Year 12 standard and all it usually takes is perseverance for students to pass the test.

Reporting

The Department of Education has provided schools with the capacity to provide student reports electronically. The Kent Street SHS School Board elected to transition to this new way of reporting as of the end of this semester. The advantages include the fact that you receive the report directly and not after it has possibly been crumpled up in a school bag; you get to share the information with your child and read it together; it is more environmentally friendly, time and cost effective. One disadvantage is that if you don’t access SEQTA, don’t have an email address or internet at home, it will not be possible for you to receive your child’s report electronically. We commit to ensuring that a hard copy of the report will be available to those families. In the meantime, please ensure that your email address is up to date so that we can continue to keep you in the loop with regards to your child’s educational journey.

Long term planning for our school’s future

The end of this year marks our first three years as an Independent Public School. We will be working towards our next Business Plan and participating in a Department of Educational Services review early in 2018. The School Board is eager to establish a long term plan, projecting to where we want to be as a school community in both five and ten years’ time. If you would like to contribute to the setting of this vision, we are eager to hear from you. We will host short ‘think tank’ sessions during term three to gain a good picture of the parents’ perspective. Please consider contributing – it would take less than 90 minutes of your time. You can email me directly at Kath.Ward@education.wa.edu.au if you would like to participate.

Regards

Mrs Kath Ward
Principal

From the Manager of Corporate Services

Payment of Contributions and Charges

Thank you to those families who have paid their 2017 Voluntary Contributions and Charges.

Families who paid their Voluntary Contributions and Charges by the end of Term 1 went in the draw to win one of six $100 OfficeMax vouchers and family movie passes. Thank you to Como Cygnet Theatre for their continued support. The winners of the draw were;

• Year 7 - Matthew Lynch
• Year 8 - Matthew Mclaughlin
• Year 9 - Hayley Porter
• Year 10 - Rani Win
• Year 11 - Braydon Pink
• Year 12 - Riaan Wise

Senior School Charges (Year 11 and 12), Specialist Program Charges (Year 7 to 12) and Elective Charges (Year 9 and 10) are compulsory as per Department of Education Policy.

Please be advised that the school uses a debt collection agency for collection of unpaid compulsory charges at the end of each year.

Reminders for outstanding billing items were sent out recently.

The school offers a variety of payment options:

• Cash, cheque, EFTPOS including credit card facilities (credit card payments are also able to be phoned through).
• Direct deposit to our bank account: BSB: 066128 A/C No: 00900195
  (Please ensure that the following format is adhered to, this will ensure the correct account is credited: (EG: If you are paying contributions & charges please enter Joe Smith Yr 8 CC)
• BPay: Code and reference are listed on account statements
• Arrange a payment plan

If you have any queries or would like to set up a payment plan, please contact the Finance Officer – Julianne Vaitekenas on 9262 0500.

Phone App for Payment of Excursions and Camps

A reminder that parents can pay for excursions using the Qkr mobile phone app (payment by credit card) and sign the consent note online.

Simply download the Qkr app from App Store or Play Store. There is a functioning demo school that you can play with, without fear of accidentally making a payment. Search for Kent Street Senior High School. All excursions and camps are loaded into Qkr.

Qkr has now been updated. We can now send notifications when a new item has been added to Qkr. Parents/ Guardians need to have enabled push notifications in the Qkr app settings.

CoRE - Upper School Earth and Environmental Science Field Trips!

In first term 2017, both the Year 11 and 12 EES field trips were undertaken to the Yilgarn Craton and Shark Bay respectively. Both were of a 5 day duration and provided learning experiences which covered 3/4 of the curriculum!

The field trips are a symbolism of what has come to be known as #therealclassroom. In the field, students collaborate to describe, analyse and interpret each site they visit. The students have become very good at using technology in the field, including their smartphones, analytical probes and more recently a drone. Furthermore, they correlate their real world experience with the theory they are expected to understand for their examinations! Most importantly, the field trips provide the students with an awareness of how their science/STEM learning applies to career pathways within the resources industry. Through the field trips, the students visualise how integrated complex theories relating to STEAM express themselves within a real world context such as dry land salinity ‘white death’, the highly acclaimed mining environmental practices executed by our mining companies or the simply understanding physics through the analysis of ripple marks or heavy mineral sand deposits!

At the end of the journey, the students compile a field trip report which helps them develop their literacy and numeracy within scientific context.

CoRE (Centre of Resources Excellence) Update

Achievements over Semester 1 2017 – CoRE is steaming ahead!

CoRE – Steaming ahead into the future.

Value adding educational opportunities for Kent Street students.

These are the highlights of our CoRE program for Semester 1. We aim to ensure that CoRE students education is contemporary, reflect real world industry practices and is embedded in authentic context.

• Two upper school field trips both ~2000 km - Year 11 - Shark Bay and Year 12 – Yilgarn Craton
• Year 8 CoRE field trip to Kalgoorlie June 2017!
• General Earth Science Year 12 field trip to Edna May Operations - Westonia!
  Duke of Edinburgh Adventurous Journey!
• Duke of Edinburgh (Friday’s)!
• Plan for the Planet - twice weekly (Federally funded)!
• Robogals!
• Pedal Prix!
• Women in Resources (CME)!
• Get into Resources - Year 10 males!
• Aboriginal Science and Cultural - Jade Dolman!
• Aboriginal Scholarships - Chevron!
• Year 7 Swan River Analysis - Curtin University!
• Year 8 - Roy Hill - Education Centre!
• Year 9 Curtin Day - The life of a student!
• Antarctica Flight!
• Mining Challenge - in 2017 renamed to CoRE Resources Challenge (June 2017)

AIME (Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience)

On Wednesday 3 May 2017, Year 9 and 10 Indigenous students went down to Curtin University to the first AIME day of the year. When we got down there Simon Forrest talked to us then did a smoking ceremony. After that we saw a dance performed by Moorditj Mob. We then mingled with the other schools that were there. AIME program days will continue throughout the year. All of us students are looking forward to developing skills and knowledge throughout the course of the year.

Kelsee Kickett
Year 10 student

Year 7 & 8 Taster Day at AIME, 2017

On Thursday 20 March Year 7 and 8 Indigenous students attended the AIME Day. During the day the students met with their assigned mentors and had a chance to meet with students from various schools including Clontarf, Bindoon, Darling Range, St Norberts, Southern River and Narrogin. We all had a chance to play educational and engaging games and learnt the importance of being proud of our culture. The AIME mentoring program is so valuable and successful in engaging a number of students from Years 7-11 in this program.

Ayeisha Bydder
Year 8 student

News from Home Economics

In mid-March, Kent Street’s Certificate II in Hospitality students baked almost 200 pink cupcakes to sell to staff and students. All proceeds went to the McGrath Foundation’s Pink Stumps Day, which was being celebrated by the school’s specialist cricket program. The pink cupcakes complemented the all-day cricket activities which included WBBL player appearances and other fundraising.

Art of Empowerment

Last term approximately eight students did a special project for art of empowerment for the Town of Victoria Park. There were only two instructors, one being a professional artist. All the students had a lot of fun. We each got to paint our own story on a puzzle piece to show our individuality.

Each student created a piece of a jigsaw puzzle that was then displayed in the Town of Victoria Park’s “Street Karnival” held in the school holidays. Community engagement was the focus of a series of interactive multi-media art workshops facilitated by an experienced artist and this project formed part of a wider multi-cultural community program.

The project supported the development of connections; with an emphasis on identity, belonging and community. Individual and communal making are creative strategies that encourage the sharing of stories and experiences. Each week, our students participated in a series of workshops in friendly and encouraging spaces enabling them to freely discover the benefits of creative expression. No prior experience in any art form was required and everyone was encouraged to try something new or different.

Portia Claudius
Year 8 student

South Perth Fiesta

Once again the South Perth Council approached the Fashion and Design students to parade their designs at the Marketplace as part of the South Perth Fiesta on Sunday 26 March 2017. Students from year 8 to 12 stunned the crowd with their wide range of amazing styles.

Robogals Workshop 2017

In early May, the Kent Street CoRE team hosted a robotics workshop facilitated by the University of Western Australia’s (UWA) Robogals group for female students enrolled in our select entry CoRE program (Year 7 to 10). This exclusive opportunity not only provided a fun and engaging environment to develop their robotic coding literacy, but provided awareness of the vast roles that exist in engineering as future pathways. Statistically, only 28% of the world wide STEM workforce was comprised of women in 2014 (Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute), and of this, only 14% of all engineers in Australia were female.

Throughout the workshop, the girls not only worked together to command a robot through code, but supported each other in solving digital problems by effectively communicating and working together as cohesive teams. There was also some excellent vertical mentoring across the year groups happening.

Here is just a couple of their experiences from the workshop:

Robogals is a creative way of teaching and inspiring girls to learn more about engineering and coding. The activities that they had us doing were making us problem solve, think outside the box and work as a team to complete the task. I feel so privileged to have gone to robogals as it was a one shot take it or leave it opportunity and I had an awesome time.

• Megan Pirie (Year 8 CoRE)

Robogals was an incredible, well worth it workshop. Who knew engineering could be fun?!

• Haylee Porter (Year 9 CoRE)

The CoRE philosophy believes in preparing our students to acquire the skills that they will need to think at a higher critical and creative level to provide better solutions to the problems that their generation will face. We hope that by offering a female only workshop we can encourage our girls to nurture their interests and invest in themselves.

International Women’s Day

On Thursday 9 March 2017 Clare, Sally, Danika and I attended the International Women’s Day at the Town of Victoria Park.

This year’s theme for International Women’s Day was Be Bold For Change. International Women’s Day is a global annual event celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women as well as promoting gender equality.

International Women's Day has taken place since in the early 1900's - a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies. International Women's Day is a collective day of global celebration for the achievements made by women and a call for gender parity.

During our time spent with the women of Victoria Park we came across many different women from different walks of life, each with their own unique story. We enjoyed sitting while enjoy the company of everyone around us as guest speakers shared their own stories of life. Every speaker had the same message Be Bold For Change - all relating to their own personal experiences and stories told. I am extremely lucky to have experienced such a wonderful opportunity. Many thanks to Clare for letting Sally, Danika and myself experience the International Women’s Day at the Town of Victoria Park.

Tiaia Arnold Adams
Year 12 student

IFLY Excursion

As a reward Tayla, Portia and I went to IFLY indoor skydiving on 6 April 2017. We were the top three students in Follow The Dream as well as AIME, this was determined by the number of hours we attended our tutorial sessions.

Before we entered the skydiving chamber we had to learn a little bit about the dynamics of the chamber and how it works. So we went into the class room and learnt about aerodynamics and equations on how we actually fly, as well as watching a video of people participating and performing in a skydiving chamber.

When that was over, we went back down to the chamber. An instructor went into the chamber and performed lots of cool tricks, sometimes there were balls in there with him. Shortly after the instructor finished his tricks I then entered the chamber, it was quite fun. However, when the instructor let me go I will admit that I was a bit scared. I would definitely recommend going to IFLY indoor skydiving, it was an amazing experience.

Dre George
Year 11 student

Year 10 – 12 Report Night

On Wednesday 28 June 2017 from 1 - 6pm we will be having a report night for years 10 - 12. This will be an opportunity to meet your child’s teachers and find out how they have been going in their classes. A letter with instructions on how to book in times for the report night will be sent out to you via email or given to your child. Students will be finishing at 12:30pm on this day so please ensure you have made the appropriate arrangements for this.

Year 7 Fashion Workshop

Creative design and talent was on show at the year’s first fashion workshop at the beginning of March. Working hard after school until 6pm, Kent Street’s newest Fashion and Design students sprayed and stencilled fabric to make unique, designer circle skirts.

The year 7 students then went on to complete a textile challenge to construct a denim headband in 30 minutes. Afternoon tea, prepared by Kent Street’s Hospitality students sustained them throughout the afternoon.

As part of this specialist program, the talented group will be together for at least the next four years so took advantage of this opportunity to work on their team building skills. It was fascinating and entertaining to watch the group work together to form human letters to spell FASHION.

Parents and guardians who gathered at the end of the workshop to meet other students and teachers also had the chance to take a look at the afternoon’s work.

The workshop was a great way to bring out the creativity of the student’s and to bond as a group. What a journey we all have ahead of us.

Ingrid Hills
Year 7 Fashion teacher

Japanese News

Congratulations to all Japanese language students for achieving wonderful results in the Language Perfect Competition. The following students have received formal recognition:

Gold – Kryzzia Cabrera and Natasha Ong
Silver - Nicole Somera
Bronze - Yukun Huang, Audrey Ha, Karen Somera, Anthony Lin and Abdullah Ali Azgor
Credit – Celest Ong, Bei Yi Tin and Ahad Aurangzaib

Mrs Tateishi
Japanese Teacher

Aviation at Kent Street

The lower school Aviation students have completed some truly impressive projects as part of their Specialist Aviation Program. Projects have included:

• Year 7 Space - build a spacecraft model
• Year 8 Mechanics of Flight - build an aircraft with working control surfaces
• Year 9 Power to Fly - build a model engine
• Year 10 Aircraft at War – build a diorama of aircraft in combat

Year 9 and 10 students have also been working on balsa gliders. The Year 9’s use kits, the Year 10’s have to design and build their own.

The Year 8 Aviation students recently visited Jandakot where they toured the Royal Flying Doctor base and the Air Traffic Control tower. The students got to climb through an RFDS Pilatus PC12 aircraft and sit in the cockpit. They learned about the role of the RFDS, their fleet, pilot qualifications, and also visited their operations control room and engineering facilities.

They then visited the ATC tower at Jandakot where, after a briefing on the role of ATC, they went up to the top of the tower and met an ex-student from Kent Street, Craig Reynolds, who was working as Tower supervisor. It was a great view from the tower and the students enjoyed watching aircraft operations for a while.

The Year 9 students had an excursion to the RAAFA Museum in Bullcreek, where they had a guided tour then had some free time to look at exhibits that they liked most. The Lancaster bomber and Catalina flying boat from WW2, and Iroquois helicopter from the Vietnam War, were particular highlights. The various aero engines were very interesting; several had cut-away sections so their inner workings could be seen as the engines turned over.

Jack Vandeleur (class of 2016) has recently graduated from his training course and is working as a flight attendant with Virgin Airlines. He reports that although he was a bit shocked at the intensity of the training course compared to high school, he really enjoyed the course and scored 100% (top of his class) in one of his subjects.

The Aviation Support Group, made up of parents of students enrolled in Aviation at Kent Street, had a meeting on Tuesday 2 May 2017 in which they approved the purchase of drones to investigate the inclusion of drones and remote piloted aircraft in the Aviation curriculum. The guest speaker at the meeting was Amy Richards, Chief Pilot and Head of Operations at the Royal Aero Club. Amy gave an interesting presentation about her career path and how she has made it to her present position in the aviation industry.

John McKenzie
Aviation teacher

Aviation Excursion

“On the 18 May, 2017, I went on an excursion with my Aviation friends to visit the RFDS (Royal Flying Doctor Service) and Control Tower at Jandakot. It was a fantastic experience. We got to visit the hangar of the RFDS who maintain 12 PC-12’s. We also got to go into their main administration office where they handle all the information and communications for pilots and rescuing patients across WA. After that, we went to Jandakot Tower.

A female Air Traffic Controller spoke to the whole group. We were then divided into groups of six. I was in the first group to enter the ATC. We were surprised to see that there were only three controllers to control the whole Airport. When all the groups were done, we went on the bus back to school.

Sauban Kidwai
Year 8 Aviation student

Pilatus PC-12

Youth Civics Leadership Day

This term two Year 10 students Emily Farr and Anthony Lin were invited to attend the 2017 Youth Civics leadership day.

The youth civics leadership day excursion was a very fun and informative experience. The day first began in the old court house law museum; we then went to the old Supreme Court and talked about the rule of law and the Magna Carta. We also had Mr Ram Tin Thei talking to us as well; he was a refugee that escaped his country.

We than moved onto the law society building. In that building we had a civics session and we learned the differences between lore and law, it was conducted by Ms Catrina-Luz Aniere from Millennium Kids. Next came a motivational presentation with Ms Priya Cooper a Paralympian world champion swimmer. This was the highlight of the day for me as it helped me get motivated. For the rest of the day we had lunch and a leadership workshop conducted by Rob Weymouth. Overall I had an enjoyable time and gained new experiences.

Anthony Lin
Year 10 student

Fashion and Design

Mrs Celine Turton, Teacher in Charge of Fashion and Design, and Mrs Ward had the opportunity to tour the facilities of Essense of Australia, a home grown fashion design team who specialise in bridal wear. Located in Osborne Park, but with offices across the world, the company is proudly co-owned by Martine Harris – a graduate from Kent Street Senior High School.

Martine was an Esperance girl who attended Kent Street and boarded at the Rotary Residential College from 1992 to 1996 as she was accepted into our Fashion and Design Approved Specialist Program. In her graduating year she was our school President. Most recently, Martine‘s bridal collection has been formally acknowledged at the Distinctive Excellence in the Bridal Industry ‘DEBI’ awards in Chicago, USA. Named the 2016 Bridal Manufacturer of the Year, Martine’s Stella York label took out the collection of the year and her Sorella Vita collection was awarded for the bridesmaid collection.

Today, Martine’s fond memories of her time as a student at Kent Street is resulting in her ‘paying it forward’ to the current generation of Fashion students. Already, Essense of Australia has donated bridal wear and material for our students to deconstruct and reconstruct whilst honouring the quality of the gowns. Many other opportunities are being pursued which will assist our students in gaining a clear understanding of the fashion industry and the many career paths that exist.

We thank Martine and her team for their time. We look forward to formalising an excellent partnership with them.

Principal Kath Ward and Teacher in Charge – Fashion and Design Celine Turton

Formal fashion

HASS Excursion

In week five of this term Mrs Bresloff-Barry's year 10 HASS class, and a number of other lucky students, had the privilege of attending "Conversations With the Dead" at the Subiaco Arts Centre. Mr Marlin kindly arranged the opportunity and it certainly was one not to be missed.

The play focuses on a young Koorie man, Jack, who found himself involved in the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (1987-1991). His role was to look into the lives of the dead and the process, policy and attitudes that killed them.

In his role, Jack listened to the stories of grieving families and re-created the lives of those who have died. Jack was not trained for the role and it was a demanding one. Listening to people's sorrows and supporting others was rewarding, but it took its toll on him.

Student comments:

"The acting was well done and rehearsed. I enjoyed how the play was in relation to a topic that is still occurring at this point in time."

"I thought it was very eye opening."

"I really loved how the play was about a subject that's hardly talked about and is still a really big issue. The acting was so good and the way they portrayed the story line was amazing."

"Speechless"

"It was a very effective and emotional play with had a great impact on me"

"I had goose bumps and shivers it was so amazing."

News from the Library

As usual life in the library is busy with students accessing the space from 7.30am – 3.00pm, even longer on Mondays and Wednesdays when we are open until 4.00pm with Homework Club.

Our fiction and graphic novel collection continues to develop. If a fiction book, or series, is requested by a student we do our best to purchase it for our collection if deemed appropriate by our specialist staff. The most important justification for purchasing is interest or relevance. Students will read what engages them, potentially leading to more reading.

Our displays change continually, through our digital information board or as a physical display. They provide information on authors, special themes and student work. The students particularly enjoy seeing their own work shown off. Presently we are showcasing year 10 Pop Art ceramics from Ms Gracie Kelly’s students and there has been much appreciation from students and staff on the quality of their work, sparking some wonderful conversations.

West Australian Young Reader’s Book Award (WAYRBA) promotion is currently running until August. Our students can nominate their favourite Australian author and choose from this year’s nominated authors, voting to decide the most popular titles for 2017.

Homework Club continues to support students with assignment, research and general help. It’s a great opportunity for students to get that extra help they may need or study with mates and have a light but nutritious afternoon tea.

Harmony Day display

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