Mr Mike Millard
Resounding Success of Phone Policy
I want to share with parents the significant and very positive impact the exclusion of mobile phones, from the daily lives of our students, has had on social interactions between students and on the well-being of our students in Middle and Senior years.
This change in usage policy commenced this term and it has created a very positive feel for students during their break times. Our Middle and Senior students are engaged in meaningful and positive conversations in their break out zones.
Students are engaged in great play activities … footy, soccer, basketball, netball, skipping and handball games are thriving. We have the biggest game of Year 8 chasey going on at the moment which is just a great lunchtime outlet.
The impact has been profound. As teachers we are so pleased that Pedare students have embraced this opportunity. The students know that in an emergency they can go to their Community Coordinator, Assistant Head of School or Head of School to use their device.
Parents, thank you so much for phoning the College Reception to leave messages for your children. This works and we really appreciate your support.
Leaders to SA Prayer Breakfast
Senior leaders, Chaplain Mr John Morton, Head of Middle School, Mrs Lauren Brooks and I attended the Annual SA Prayer Breakfast at the Adelaide Convention Centre on Thursday 22 August. We joined Members of Parliament, business leaders and fellow school groups to learn about the work of Argentinian business leader, Dr Ed Silvoso, who spoke about ‘Transforming our World Network’. To read more about the SA Prayer Breakfast, please click here.
Mr Andrew Whiteman
“It’s not choosing the right path that matters. It’s knowing what ignites your passion. Once you’ve figured out what brings you joy, you don’t have to worry about finding the right path. Any path will take you there.”
This week, our Year 12 students heard from Adelaide University and the many courses that are offered. Students walked away knowing that Adelaide University has a lot to offer and that any number of courses could appeal to them. Year 12s were also treated to a specialist session on exam preparation. The trial exams are held in Week 8 this term and the students enjoyed the discussion on the perfect exam preparations. The tried and true tactics of setting a timetable and planning out each study session as well as looking for ways to reduce ‘outside’ stress during exam time is very valuable. University entrance is a topic of discussion at the moment for not only our Year 12 students but also our Year 10 and 11 students who have decided on their subject choices for 2020. A big thankyou to all our families who attended the subject selection evenings over the past two weeks. A career choice sometimes seems a long way away but many of our senior students were planning ahead as they chose their subjects. All changes to 2020 subject selections are to be completed by Friday 30 August.
This week, our Year 9 students heard from our staff about the offerings for 2020 as they join the Senior School. The compulsory subjects of Mathematics, Science, English, Physical Education, Religious Education, Personal Learning Plan and History are required as a Year 10 student. There are options for students to take next year in all areas and we encourage students to make choices that interest them and ones that will perhaps guide them in their future pathways. Almost all subjects that the students choose in Year 10 will not impact on their Year 11 or 12 choices and it is important that students are aware of this. If you have any questions please make contact with Mrs Debbie Hollister, Senior Students and Pathways coordinator or myself.
Best of luck to our Year 10 students as they travel to the Science and Engineering Challenge this week. Throughout the day, students experience and compete in aspects of science and engineering which they would not usually see in their school environment. If our teams of 3 or 4 perform well, they will make their way into the National finals to be held in Western Australia. Good luck! Also, a number of students have entered into a Science competition at the Royal Adelaide Show and their work will be displayed over the next week. Look out for their posters if you are travelling to the show and good luck to all involved with some good prize money available for the winners.
We continue to fly past the halfway point of the term with the end approaching very quickly. As the weather warms up, we will require all students to have their Pedare hat on at all break times throughout the school day. Hats provide good sun protection for our students. The hats can be purchased from the uniform shop and the front office.
Have a wonderful week ahead.
Mrs Lauren Brooks
New Mobile Phone Policy
We thank the Pedare community for their positive response to our new mobile phone policy which we introduced at the start of this term. Students are no longer able to use or access their mobile phone during the school day (including recess or lunch time). A reminder that students are not permitted to use their phones before classes in the morning, after they have arrived at school. Since we have introduced this policy, we have been encouraged by the strong focus on learning throughout the day and seen an increase in positive social interactions and physical activity at recess and lunch. Students adapted to this change well and appreciate our community for their overwhelming support.
2020 Transition & Subject Selection
Over the coming weeks our Middle School students will begin their initial preparations into 2020 transitions. This began this week with our Year 9 students engaging in an opportunity to learn about the possibilities that Year 10 may bring and to start considering their Senior pathways. Our Year 9 students had the chance for subject counselling in an Expo format and furthermore, parents are able to meet with teachers on Wednesday 4 September (Week 7) from 2:00pm to 5:00pm.
Next week, our Year 6, 7 and 8 students will begin their preparations for 2020 transitions with presentations from staff and students. Following this, Year 8 students will be able to complete their subject selections in partnership with their parents. Our Year 6 and 7 students will be completing a class preference survey to aid in our class construction process for 2020. Finally, parents will also be sent some information next week with a survey link to complete your 2020 preferences for your child.
Year 5 students will engage in their 2020 transition preparation process a little later in Term 4.
Leadership
We have been continually proud of our amazing Year 9 Leadership team in 2019. They have led the Middle School well by being excellent role models to all of us and in how they have represented our College. Both Emma and Waseem did a brilliant job welcoming many people to our One College Official Opening. We had overwhelming feedback from many people present at the event about our wonderful Captains and what leadership they demonstrated on the day.
It is about this time of year we start to look to our current Year 8 students to see who could be our future Middle School leaders. Most importantly, we look for excellent role models to their peers who exude kindness, fairness, caring and inclusivity and a willingness to be brave and courageous. More information to come on leadership opportunities a little later in the year.
Father’s Day
A very happy Father’s Day to all of the wonderful Dads and Grandads in our Pedare community. Wishing you a fantastic day over the weekend surrounded by family!
Mr Randall Pearce
Spring is almost here! We are all looking forward to some sunshine and warmer weather. Please be aware that students will need to begin wearing hats during outside play from Monday 2 September.
Kidz Biz Family Life sessions
On Monday 9 September, our Year 4 and 5 students, along with their parents, are invited to a family life information session, hosted by Kidz Biz Education. These highly interactive sessions provide students and families with an introduction to basic personal and social development education; traditionally known as the ‘facts of life’.
Topics covered are:
Father’s Day Breakfast
On the morning of Thursday 29 August, we enjoyed our third Father’s Day Breakfast. It was reported to me that many children were so excited about this event and their Dads coming to school that they could not sleep and woke very early, got themselves ready and were out the door ready for the day. It was wonderful to see so many Dads in the same space enjoying the company of their children and fellow Dads. We had over 90% of our families represented for this event and hope to grow this further in the future.
Many thanks to Rory and his catering team and to the numerous staff volunteers who cheerfully woke early to serve our community.
Learning Journeys
Wednesday 25 September, you are invited to attend Learning Journey’s for Reception Ready to Year 4 students. The 3 session times to choose from are: 8:00 am – 9:00 am, 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm and 5:15 pm – 6:15pm.
Year 5 Exhibition
In their final year of the Primary Years Programme, students celebrate their learning, through an extended project known as the PYP Exhibition. This involves students working collaboratively for 7 weeks to conduct an in-depth inquiry into real life issues or problems and then share it with the whole school community. This will occur on the evening of Wednesday 25 September. There are 2 session times to choose from – 3:00 pm – 4.00 pm and 5:15 pm – 6:15 pm.
For parents who have children in younger year levels, we ask that you try to attend either the morning or straight after school Learning Journey sessions.
Till next time
A reminder the Winter Sports Presentation Night will be held next Wednesday 4 September in the College Chapel from 5:15pm for a 5:30pm start. This year, we have Adelaide Crows Football Club elite player Sam Jacobs as the guest speaker. All players and families are invited to attend. Please click here for more information.
Mr Josh Willis – Director of Sport 6-12
Junior School Vocal & Instrumental Recital
Reminder: Recently all performers of the Junior School Vocal & Instrumental Recital have been emailed a draft copy of the program. If you haven’t received one, please check to ensure that your child has registered by emailing Carolyn Taylor on ctaylor@pedarecc.sa.edu.au
What a wonderful way to celebrate Book Week and reading!
VIP Day
VIP Day was held as part of our Book Week celebrations on Friday 23 August with our students and Junior School teachers looking beautiful, creative and colourful. They bravely walked across the stage so all could see the wonderful costumes. Many parents, grandparents and carers came along to enjoy the fun and support their children and the College in the assembly, craft activity and the Scholastic Book Fair. It was lovely to see the assistance in the classroom activities and then all enjoying a picnic on the lawn in perfect weather.
A highlight was the award-winning performance of Mr Randall Pearce and Mrs Paula Hanna in ‘Don’t let the Pigeon drive the Bus’ by Mo Willems. This presentation was so engaging and so very funny, it gave the students and audience a wonderful time participating in the shout outs!
Mrs Liz Denton-Brown – Teacher/Librarian
Tania Ingram Book Week Guest Author
On Monday 19 and Tuesday 20 August, author Tania Ingram visited our Junior School students to share her stories and she was absolutely superb! As a child psychologist she really understands children and was warm and friendly to our students.
She created such interesting presentations for our Reception – Year 5s. The Reception students enjoyed participating in action songs and rhymes. The other talks were graded to the student year level, and were slightly different each time, but all had an interactive component ensuring student participation. The visit with our Year 5s resulted in really deep questioning showing the extent of student engagement.
Our teachers and students were thrilled with Tania’s presentations, with many students commenting they would like to become writers. It is also wonderful to see Tania’s books that we have in our library flying off the shelves!
Mrs Liz Denton-Brown – Teacher/Librarian
On Friday 16 August, Year 4s ventured into the city to visit The Art Gallery of South Australia and complete an Indigenous Trail at The Botanical Gardens.
Through our current Unit of Inquiry ‘Where We Are in Place and Time’ we have been learning about Indigenous Australian’s history and culture pre-colonization, with a specific focus on connections between the past and present.
The children explored the many different rooms of The Art Gallery and evaluated traditional and modern Indigenous Art before walking to The Botanical Gardens. Once in the gardens, we were led along a trail and taught all the different uses of the trees and plants, as well as how the plants provided food and shelter for the Indigenous People of Adelaide.
Some student comments:
“I enjoyed walking around the gardens and using the symbols we learnt in class to create a message about the excursion.” – Ashton
“The Art Gallery had lots of different carvings and artefacts, it was amazing to see them all.” – Ella
Miss Simara Conroy & Mr Jay Callaghan – Teachers, Year 4
On Thursday 15 August, 35 Pedare students made the annual pilgrimage to Westminster College for the ABODA Band and Orchestra Festival. This year Pedare took a combined Concert Band involving our Intermediate and Advanced Concert Band students. This involves students from Years 6-12 who play woodwind, brass and percussion and it is the largest band we have taken to ABODA to date. The students performed their two pieces very well in a section against mostly Senior School students. They received a Bronze Award for their performance and some excellent feedback on the way they played, and most importantly, ways to improve their playing and grow as musicians. Many thanks to Mr Gerald Pederick who directed the combined band, and Mr Angelo Valdivia who works so well with our Intermediate band.
The students had a lovely lunch together at the Glenelg foreshore along with their performance and enjoyed spending time with other students who share their love of music.
Mrs Nadine Stroud – Director of Music, R-12
Forensics and Crime Fiction in Year 10 – A Science and English co-curricular unit
At the beginning of this semester, Year 10 science students have worked as forensic scientists to solve a crime scene. Small groups of students have collected photographic evidence, extracted DNA samples, lifted finger prints, tested fibres and used chromatography to write a forensic report for the crime scene as a science report.
This was the teaser for English, where students were asked to develop their theories about the crime into a collection of short stories. Year 10s had their writing skills challenged when they were asked to tell their stories in just ten words, before expanding out into 100 and 500-word versions. Theories varied widely but made for an entertaining and sometimes chilling read. (Photos taken by Shannon Taylor, Year 10)
Mrs Jess Smith & Mrs Leonie Brown
On Friday 23 August, Year 11 students enjoyed an opportunity to learn about what makes cities liveable and sustainable by visiting Christie’s Walk or the Sturt Street Ecovillage in the heart of the CBD. Unique sustainability features included Adelaide’s first roof top garden (with great views across the city to the coast), straw bale houses, stormwater recycling, utilising aspect and solar panels and thermal flues. The students were impressed with the unique design and how quiet it was inside the straw bale houses.
Recess at the Central Market was fun trying unique foods from other nations and donuts. Students efficiently completed fieldwork to measure the liveability of Davoren Park (Peachy Belt) which will then be compared with data from their own street. The food courts at Elizabeth provided a number of choices for lunch. Finally, students analysed liveable and sustainable features of The Bridges in Mawson Lakes. Our students can be proud of their behaviour and the way they engaged in the fieldwork.
Mr Andrew Penny – Learning Area Coordinator, Humanities
Making a return to the College Calendar this year was the Senior School Quiz Night. Our Year 12 Academic Captains, Jack Hynds, Holly Randell and Ashley Sarich spent many hours working together to prepare this evening designed for fun, to test our knowledge and raise funds for Mpugwe Primary School, Uganda. We welcomed Year 12s Jack Rowley and Alex Booth, back to the stage as our quiz comperes having ‘wowed’ us with their skills at Pedare’s Got Talent earlier in the year.
Teams arrived in the Chapel dressed in themes including safety officers, bogans, fairies, priests and a nun, sequins and sparkles, Hawaiian and the popular winner of the best dressed prize, Dad’s Bods. It was great to see students from Years 10, 11 and 12 come to join the fun, as well a team of staff who were keen to be a part of this event. There was food to feed thousands and everyone enjoyed the fun and competition in the spirit of the night.
The fund-raiser games of heads and tails and the coin toss proved to be some fun, and a highlight was definitely the ‘Sing the next line’ activity with each table having to perform a song on the spot. Chloe Nguyen and her table set a high standard and we were entertained by people who were not shy of being on stage or using a microphone – so it was probably a good thing that Lachlan Wilson could control the volume and the length of the song!!
All teams started confidently on the question rounds about colours and animals but were soon sorted out when rounds including themes of Australia, memes, and quotes provided more of a challenge. Movies and music were ever-popular rounds, as was the inclusion of the teacher portraits capably drawn by Jack, Holly and Ashley. Having led the competition all night, the Year 12 team, Jemys, were announced winners at the end of the night, with the Year 10 and 11 girls, Pedare’s Finest, knocking of the staff in the last round to take second place.
Everyone agreed this was a great night and went home with smiling faces. It was wonderful to hear some of the Year 11s who attended say that they would definitely be carrying on this tradition next year!
Thanks to everyone for being a part of this night and to local companies, Café Primo and SportsPower, for contributing to our prizes on the night.
Ms Jan Robertson – Assistant Head of Senior School
On Thursday 22 August, a group of Middle & Senior School captains and students from the Worship Leadership Team were out of bed extremely early to attend the annual SA Prayer Breakfast at the Adelaide Convention Centre. Accompanied by Mr Mike Millard, Mrs Lauren Brooks and Mr John Morton, the students enjoyed the delicious food and the thought-provoking message from guest speaker Dr Ed Silvoso. His message focused on the relevance and potential for positive impact of the Christian faith in the wider community. In summary, his key idea was that the Christian Church will only fulfil its true purpose when it exists beyond the walls of the church (i.e. building) and makes a positive difference in the world of business, education, community governance and other important areas of society. This message connects strongly with our College motto – ‘Let your light shine’ – as we seek to inspire all students to grow in faith, and make a positive difference in the world around them.
Mr John Morton – College Chaplain
On Tuesday, 20 August, a small group of Pedare students had the privilege of taking part in the Bible Society Masterclass held at Edwardstown Baptist Church. They joined students from Christian schools all around South Australia to listen to three dynamic speakers who shared on topics such as “Why trust the Gospels”, “Why is following Jesus revolutionary” and “What makes you you”.
The rest of the day comprised of being led in praise and worship by talented Christian musicians and a Q & A session wherein students had the opportunity to ask some tricky questions. The feedback from the students was very positive with many of them looking forward to attending again next year.
Mrs Barb Gerber & Mr John Morton – College Chaplain
Last Thursday 22 August, I had the pleasure of taking a group of aspiring leaders from Years 8 and 11 to St Peter’s College for this annual student leadership event.
The day began with a Chapel service where we considered the need for rules and looked at how Jesus used rules to demonstrate servant leadership and teach us how to show love to one another.
Next was keynote speaker, John Hendry, a retired educator from Geelong Grammar School. He began with a breathing meditation and then talked about the five elements of giving in our relationships – hope, forgiveness, integrity, trust and compassion. The students worked in groups with students from other schools, having discussion and completing activities to develop their understanding and skills in leadership.
After lunch, everyone re-grouped into their own schools, and were set the challenge to present what they would take back to their school if they were ‘Principal for One Day’. Our students agreed to go first and performed a simple but meaningful skit that demonstrated how small acts of kindness can be powerful ways of communicating the right ways to treat one another. The other schools followed with a variety of presentations that suggested all students had gained something from their experiences on this day.
A most worthwhile event for our students!
Ms Jan Robertson – Assistant Head of Senior School
Pedare’s winter sports season is almost complete. The final SAAS Basketball matches were played over the weekend, with all teams putting in strong performances to finish off the season. The Middle B team, coached by Mrs Rebecca Williams, finished the season undefeated, after another strong 36-17 win over Nazareth. Middle A, coached by old scholar Jack Shephard, also finished strongly, with a 34-28 win over Woodcroft. The boys finished the season second on the table, a great achievement.
Pedare’s Primary Netball team suffered a heart breaking one goal loss in their Preliminary Final on Saturday. The girls should be very proud of their achievements as they have all improved their skills and gameplay this season. The Intermediates team will play-off in their Grand Final on Monday night against Modbury Hawks at the SADNA courts (Court 6). Good luck to the girls as they look to go one better than the summer season.
The winter season will be celebrated at the annual Winter Presentations on Wednesday 4 September in the Chapel. Sam Jacobs from the Adelaide Crows Football Club will be the guest speaker on the night and we look forward to hearing about his experiences playing football at the elite level.
Mr Josh Willis – Director of Sport 6-12
Despite a wet start to the day Pedare’s Primary Tennis team demonstrated terrific resilience in cold conditions to complete an outstanding SAPSASA Tennis competition.
I was proud of the excellent sportsmanship demonstrated by our players to their opponents and support for each other as teammates. Each student enjoyed the opportunity to learn their craft against a variety of players. My thanks to all the players for a fantastic day!
Mr Andrew Penny – Tennis Coach
TERM 3
WEEK 4
Basketball
Football
Netball
Soccer
WEEK 5
Basketball
Debating
Football
Netball
Soccer
SWAT Youth (Years 7-12)
Meets Friday each week during school term at 7:30pm. Come for a great time of games, friendship and Bible discussion. We meet at 19 Perseverance Rd TTG. Click here for more details or phone Dave on 0403 723 953.
Weekly Services – Check out our web site for more details.
Sunday@8:30: Prayer book service – weekly communion.
Sunday@10: Family service and specific children’s ministries.
Sunday@6pm: Youth, young adult and those young at heart. There is no children’s program but drawing supplies and a withdrawal room are available for your young ones.