Photo above: Students working in the Research and Study Centre. 

Message from the Principal

Dear Parents and Families, 

Our planning for Term 2 is now being completed and one focus will be preparing Year 10 families for the selection of Year 11 courses and units for 2023. Throughout Term 2 a comprehensive program involving a variety of presentations and counselling will be offered to help families make the best informed decisions. The format of these events will depend on the relevant restrictions at the time. This program is particularly important as the structure for Year 11 and the WACE is very different to the lower school curriculum. Further information can be found in the Deputies’ reports below. I encourage all Year 10 families to prioritise this and be proactive during this important phase of schooling for students.
 

Swimming Success

Congratulations to our Interschool Swimming team who are representing the College at the ACC Age Swim Championships being held at HBF Stadium. Students were required to prequalify and compete against swimmers from all ACC schools. Our swimmers have performed admirably in this modified format. 
 

Year 11/7 Mentor Program

Our mentor program concluded for 2022 with a celebratory sausage sizzle and fun games earlier this month.  We will be honouring our Year 11 students who participated in the 11/7 mentor program with certificates to acknowledge their great work supporting our Year 7 students. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all our Year 11 mentors who worked wonderfully to support our Year 7 students with their transition program. Thank you to all these students for their great service to our community.

Mr Mark Ashby
Principal

Chaplain Devotion

Hi Kennedy community. I have been pondering how I should use my 300ish words of this week’s newsletter. I have been using this space to encourage us to consider the benefit of praying.

Praying is that great place of comfort where we can roll the heavy things of life onto a God that can carry it and care for us.

This week, the one thing that has been coming to me has been the need for us to care for each other in challenging times. May I encourage you that God is always there, and praying helps relieve us from some of the burdens that we find ourselves in. I have often found that our amazing God will sometime answer our prayer for relief and comfort by using another person. 

The thought that I want to promote this week for our community, at this time, is the need to care for each other. Many students and staff needed to isolate or quarantine, and this has created a background stress that many are feeling. I know from several scriptures that God is very focused on not laying heavy burdens on people. God often directs a person to find ways to lift the burdens of another. When we are all in a state of stress like we find ourselves at this time, the load is heavy and the number of people to share things with can seem less. In our Kennedy community, here at the College, and in homes, I pray that this would be a time where the sharing of burdens and the carrying of care is more visible than ever before! It often takes pressure and crisis to find the spirit of a community. May you all find the grace to care for others, even when the stress is heavy.

Deputy Principal Curriculum Report

As we come to the end of a productive first term, I would encourage parents to read the feedback of student progress placed on SEQTA. Feedback is found in the assessment section of SEQTA Engage. If a student is in Year 7-10, feedback should be available for at least English, Mathematics, Humanities, and Science. If a student is in Years 11 and 12 feedback should be visible in all courses. If you have any concerns about the feedback or it is not visible to you, please contact the teacher concerned.
 

Course Changes

All students from Year 8-12 have now had opportunities to change either their electives (Year 8-10) or their courses (Year 11 & 12). Student courses are fixed for the remainder of the year except for Year 11 students who can review their courses immediately after the Semester One examinations. Please contact Mr Jiow if your child sustains an injury which may impact your child’s participation in an elective.
 

Transition from Year 10 to Year 11

Year 10 students take the next step on their journey towards selecting courses for Year 11 and 12 during Term 2. The College will be providing the following for Year 10 students and families:

1. Year 11 Information Book – information about the requirements for Year 11 and 12 schooling and information about courses that the College offers
2. Year 10 to 11 Information Event – either a series of short video presentations about TAFE, University, and Course Selection or, if COVID restrictions are lifted, an in-person event on Tuesday 10 May.
3. One-to-One counselling appointment between a member of the College Executive, a Year 10 student, and their parent/guardians. Traditionally these meetings are held after the mid-year examinations and prior to the end of Term 2.
    

Parent-Teacher Interviews

Due to COVID restrictions the Parent-Teacher Interviews planned for early Term 2 are postponed. Teachers have indicated that an in-person event provides a better outcome for students and parents, therefore we will hold the interviews when restrictions permit. A tentative time is early Term 3.

Deputy Principal Pastoral Care Report

Coming together and building community is a critical part of the Kennedy student experience.  Many of our plans were restricted due to COVID but we were able to host two great presenters for our Harmony Day last week. 

Harmony Day is a time that people come together to celebrate unity and diversity. Harmony Day was created in 1999 as an Australian celebration but is now marked worldwide by conscientious citizens. We welcomed back Andrew Beck, the Indigenous Program Coordinator from St Catherine’s College, UWA, who spoke to Year 9 students about Aboriginal culture, the lore of the people and how it is applied to Aboriginal community life. He talked about his family and where he was from, shared stories, brought along traditional tools for hunting and survival and explained the significance behind each of them, and finally played the didgeridoo which was a real hit. 

During the day our senior students attended a talk by Amit Khaira who experimented by living for a year with a full beard, shaven head, and loose tunic. He recorded how this impacted his life and how differently people treated him. His experiences emphasised how cultural appearance can impact how we are treated and how people who are seen as different experience daily life. His talk also covered building resilience and character through experiencing and overcoming difficulties and not “tapping out” or giving up when things do not go our way. His experience and lessons about how fear can restrict our ability to fully embrace connecting with another were refreshing and relatable. Students were able to take important messages from this session with the aim of reflecting on and challenging their own thinking.

As we approach the end of Term 1 and are still experiencing challenging restrictions that mean missing out on some of our regular and significant activities, I would like to remind our students to talk to their Form teachers, Head of Year, year group counsellors, or our Chaplain if they need extra support. The Pastoral Care team is here to help!

Kennedy News
 

College Notices

Fees - Secondary Assistance Scheme

The State Government, through the Department of Education, provides financial support to eligible parents via the Secondary Assistance Scheme (SAS). The aim of the scheme is to assist low-income families with secondary school costs. For all enquiries regarding the application process/forms please visit our Parent Reception. Applications close on Friday 8 April 2022.

The next newsletter will be published on:
Thursday 7 April 2022.