Photo above: Year 7s making dragon puppets in Chinese for the Dragon Boat Festival.

Message from the Principal

Dear Parents and Families,

Kennedy is committed to supporting our families with our academic services but also takes social responsibility in the community very seriously. To help families address these issues, we have developed an ongoing program of public talks for parents and community members to help address some of these social issues impacting all families. Known as Kennedy Insights, the program for the rest of this year includes guest speakers covering the following topics:

• Term 2: Thursday 1 July 2021
  Body Image: How can we foster the development of a positive body image in both ourselves and our young people to lead happier and healthier lives? Parents and their high school children are welcome to attend with an RSVP.
• Term 3: Wednesday 11 August 2021
  Navigating a sexed-up world: How can we help our children resist harmful messages from media + pop culture and aspire to respectful relationships?

We hope that Kennedy Insights will help equip our families with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to support their children's wellbeing. We hope you can join us for these events.

Basketball Champions

We congratulate our Senior Girls Basketball Team on their win against St Norberts College on Tuesday. From an initial pool of 66 schools in the ACC competition, the Kennedy girls showed great endurance and commitment to emerge as victors in the grand final 85-58. Well done!

Future enrolments at Kennedy

Interested families who attended the College Tour held on Tuesday evening were informed that they would be the last group who would have the opportunity to register their interest for students commencing in Year 7 at the College in 2022 and 2023. Both intake years are at capacity with a waitlist. Confirmation of enrolment for pre-enrolled siblings for 2024 will take place in Term 4 this year. Registrations for 2024 onwards are still open and the enrolment process will continue in Term 1 next year.

Mr Mark Ashby
Principal

Chaplain Devotion

In the last newsletter, I used the phrase, “when viewed from the Kingdom of God”. This phrase has come up in my conversations over the last few weeks. I want to develop the image in our minds of how we view the foundation and purpose of every human life. As a Chaplain, I spend my days interacting with people who are facing challenges. Students I spend time with talk about their personal relationships with peers and family members. Spending time with people in crisis causes me to see the world through a lens of brokenness that, in the past, I have struggled to cope with. At times I have asked the question, “is there an answer to all the ruin that seems to fall on every person”! I have become more convinced as I journey with people that there is an answer. The challenge, I have found, is to have eyes to see. This brings me to my opening phrase ‘when viewed from the Kingdom of God.

Jesus stood before a powerful ruler, Pontius Pilate, on the day he was tried and sentenced to death. Pilate was threatening Jesus with the claim that he had the right to let Jesus live or die. Jesus responded to Pilate with the statement, “My kingdom is not of this world”! Jesus was making this statement when faced with his own earthly death, but His view of the Kingdom of God powered a courage that we still talk about 2000 years later. If Jesus’s statement is the truth for us, it dramatically alters our response to the challenges of life. Having a view of life from the Kingdom of God fuels hope in the face of ruin, it brings the personal power to persevere in trials, even death is not able to swallow up Kingdom life.

Deputy Principal: Curriculum

Examinations for students in Year 9 - 12 make Term 2 a busy academic term. The examination period tests students’ study techniques and time management skills. Teacher feedback provides information about the curriculum areas that may need to be addressed but student self-evaluation of time management and study is also crucial. I would encourage parents to ask reflective questions to their child/ren in the coming week. When asking questions, it is important to avoid adding your own observations as teenagers often shut down and respond with “don’t know”. Some questions you could ask are: Do you study each week for …?; How much extra time did you study for…?; How did you study, re-write notes, practice problems?; What did you find effective?; What would you do differently next time?; What can I do to help you?. Many students work consistently to consolidate their learning, review material and prepare for assessments. I strongly encourage parents to praise their child’s effort regardless of the outcome.

Reports and Parent-Teacher Interviews

Reports will be available at the end of the term. As a follow-up to reports, Parent-Teacher Interviews will be held on campus from 2.00pm, Tuesday 27 July and on Wednesday 28 July (early Term 3). The interviews have been scheduled close to the release of reports to provide an opportunity for parents to meet with teachers to discuss achievement and improvement strategies/intervention.

Year 11 Course Changes

Some Year 11 students may be considering a change of course. They should contact Mr Jiow to organise a meeting and parents are welcome to attend. Typically, students who are achieving at less than a C grade change their course choices at this time of the year. Course changes must be completed prior to 22 June.

Course Selections for 2022

All students will need to select courses for 2022 before the end of the term. The decisions about the number of classes per course, staffing and other resource needs are driven by student choice. It is essential that all students and families participate in the selection process.

Information about courses is being distributed and is also available on the College website. Selections are made electronically with students and a parent signing off on each student’s selections. A video showing the electronic process is available for students and families to watch. Please ensure that all selections, including parent signatures, are made by 1 July.

Deputy Principal: Pastoral Care 

Early this month, Mr Ashby and I attended the inaugural WA Fathering Project Principals breakfast at the South Perth Yacht Club. We joined the Fathering Project founder Dr. Bruce Robinson and 150 Principals and school representatives from across Western Australia. We had the opportunity to learn and hear more about the growth of the Fathering Project from the team working in research, schools and the community. Special guest James McMahon DSC, DSM, talked about his involvement with the project and the vital part of building a positive culture for our children’s school years.

The Fathering Project aims to improve child development outcomes by inspiring and equipping fathers and father figures to engage with their kids effectively. Two of their goals, as stated on their website, are:

• To deliver programs and services to improve family relationships and connectedness to change children’s lives for the better.
• To build community awareness about the crucial impact fathers have on their children’s lives through delivering awareness campaigns and providing access to research-based information and resources.

In line with these goals, on Thursday 24 June, in the Kennedy Auditorium, the Fathering Project will be presenting an informative workshop by Kayelene Kerr, which aims to educate, equip and empower you to talk to your child about pornography. If you are interested in attending, please click here for more information.

Finally, the Kennedy Baptist College Dads Group is a fantastic addition to our College Community. It is a group for all College dads or father figures who want to get to know each other better and inspire each other to be the best dad they can be. The group runs social events for dads and group activities for both dads and their children. For example, in Term 1, a group of dads and their children enjoyed a day of indoor rock climbing, and this term, a group of our Dads went ten-pin bowling. We look forward to building this community even more. Please click here to join the Dads Group.

Kennedy News

Thriving Chinese Classes

The Year 7s are learning functional literacy in exchanging greetings and sharing personal information such as name, age and number of family members. The majority are first-time Chinese learners but a handful are continuing their learning journey in the language. Students were challenged to speak to other Mandarin-speaking staff and the feedback is very positive. Our Year 8s are learning topics closely related to them such as school and food. Food seems to cause huge excitement as they are already very familiar with fried rice, noodles, dumplings and buns. As an extension task to the practice tasks in class, they are encouraged to order food when in a Chinese restaurant. In addition, students were introduced to Zongzi (sticky rice dumplings), in conjunction with DuanWu Festival (Dragon Boat Festival). On top of dragon boat racing, Zongzi are traditionally eaten during the DuanWu Festival which falls on the 5th day of the 5th month of the Chinese Lunar Calendar (14 June 2021). Read the full article below.   

College Notices

2021 Kennedy Community Open Day

The next newsletter will be published on:
Thursday 1 July 2021.