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Kardinia eNews – Wednesday 1 September 2021

Home Kardinia eNews – Wednesday 1 September 2021

Kardinia eNews – Wednesday 1 September 2021

From the Principal

Following today’s press conference with Premier Daniel Andrews, unfortunately students will not return to campus this term. There was mention of the possibility of easing of restrictions in regional Victoria sometime next week. We will need to wait until this announcement to understand what those implications might mean for us as a school. Whatever that will look like, we will keep on providing the best quality learning we can for our students, given any constraints placed upon us.

Premier Andrews also noted that information will be going out to schools to be able to communicate to families about priority vaccinations for Year 12 students. As soon as this information is available to us, we will inform our families.

On a brighter note, a piece of great news released yesterday was our NAPLAN results from the tests earlier this year. I hope it will come as a great reassurance to our families that across the board, in all areas, our students are, on average, well above the state and national averages in every year group.  Even more pleasing is that in the majority of areas, reading, spelling, writing, grammar/punctuation and numeracy the results have improved from those in 2019 and are showing an upward trend over the last five years.

I think these results are testimony to the amazing work of our teachers and support staff, our parents and our students, all working together to ensure quality learning outcomes regardless of all that has been thrown at us over the last 18 months. I also know that learning and the education of our children is about so much more than some, one off examinations but, in context, I hope the NAPLAN results give us all some comfort that our kids are doing more than okay academically.

I also have some other very exciting news to announce. After 18 months of planning, we have finally appointed the builder for the Junior School Redevelopment and building will commence early in Term 4, 2021. I will be sending a letter to all our families before the end of the week with further details and drawings of our plans for the Junior School.

From the Head of Senior School

Dear Parents, 

Paul Dillon, founder of DRUG and ALCOHOL Research Australia and regular presenter to students and parents at KIC, will be conducting a webinar for parents and carers titled ‘Young people, alcohol and other drugs 2021: What do parents need to know?’ on Thursday, 16 September at 7.00-8.30pm (AEST). It will examine current drug trends amongst school-based young people, including vaping and the online sale of drugs via social media apps. The session aims to empower parents with a positive message and assist them in having open and honest family discussions in this complex area. 

Further details and registration can be found at the following link: https://events.humanitix.com/young-people-alcohol-and-other-drugs-2021-what-do-parents-need-to-know?_ga=2.254673803.260490359.1627864130-467732293.1627864130 

An important point on the agenda of most year 12 students will a decision about their tertiary course preferences. The process is open on the VTAC site and will close on 30 September at 5pm. Earlier in the term year 12 students and their parents had access to an online presentation on the process. Just in case you missed it or lost the link here it is again: https://kiconline.kardinia.vic.edu.au/d2l/le/content/8669/viewContent/1156121/View 

Later this term we hope to offer an online Q and A session for students and parents. 

As you will be aware, we still have no certainty about the date of our return to on campus learning. Despite this we continue to anticipate that forthcoming events including the one day year nine programme scheduled for the last week of term and the year twelve graduation events will proceed as planned.  

Today is National Physical Education Day and the P.E department at KIC have forwarded some useful information to all students to get them moving. 

On Thursday next week we will observe RU OK? DAY during our regular tutor group meetings online. The physical and mental wellbeing of our students remains our very high priority. The members of the Wellbeing Hub, Heads of House and the Deputy Head of Senior School, Pastoral Care, Ms Kath O’Neill are all available to support students during remote and on campus learning. Please do not hesitate to seek help or advice when it’s needed. 

From the Head of Junior School

Lockdown Update
With the news that lockdown has been extended, teachers have been focusing on how to provide even richer learning experiences for students in Remote Learning next week. You might find that the Learning Menus look a little bit different in some year levels with the possible inclusion of more explicit ‘Live Lessons’ and less Seesaw activities. Teachers are aware that some students are finding the going tough and are looking for opportunities to spice things up a bit.

We understand that not all families can engage in all activities each week due to the challenging circumstances you may find yourself in. I know that some parents worry about the progress of their children at times like this, and I want to assure you that they will be ok. Equally so, teachers worry about every student they teach and are working awfully hard. This week I have asked teachers to be kind to themselves and find ways to support their own wellbeing. Our teachers are doing an excellent job and I can’t thank them enough.

Tournament of the Minds Success
This week we received some fantastic news about our Junior School Tournament of the Minds (TOM) team who recently competed at the Victoria Regional Tournament. The team performed so well they have been invited to compete in the State finals later this month. The team consists of Sophie Branson, Tom Browne, Neel Kulkarni, Kirilee Macfarlane, Hugh Maltby, Tia Sharp and Poppy Treffry. The students were expertly led by teachers Sally Aldridge, Kate Cotton and Natasha Woods who were ably supported by Mark Byrne and Richard Verhagen. Congratulations once again and good luck in the State Final!

New Lambs at the Grove
In more good news, we recently welcomed two lambs to our Grove Campus. The lambs were born in lockdown and are yet to be named. Year 5 students have met the lambs online and can’t wait to see them in real life soon.

New look eNews

If you think eNews is looking a bit different? Welcome to the new and improved eNews! Now hosted directly on the College’s website.

Yearbook Naming Competition – vote now!

Voting is now open for our Yearbook Naming Competition. Thank you to everyone in our College community who submitted a suggestion for a new name!

We are excited to open voting to students, staff, College families and alumni to find the new name for our Yearbook. Voting closes at 4pm on Friday 10 September, and please note that the final decision may go to a second round of voting.

Only one vote per person, so make sure to take time to consider all options! We can’t wait to see what our new Yearbook name will be.

Click here to vote.

Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award

Congratulations to Lillian Henderson (Year 11), Isabelle Vincenzino (Year 12) and Tom McKillop (Year 12) on completing their Gold Duke of Edinburgh Awards! All three students have been exceptional participants and have previously completed their Bronze and Silver Awards, and Lillian and Isabelle have also taken on the role of Youth Award Leader.

There will be a special presentation ceremony at Government House when restrictions allow for it. Well done Lillian, Isabelle and Tom on this wonderful achievement!

National Computer Science School Challenge

More than 30,000 students from around the globe participated in the NCSS Challenge 2021 this term. They competed for 5 weeks, learning to code in the programming language Python by solving interesting and engaging problems. Coding is a skill that not only teaches students how to work with computers, but also teaches them how to think about solving problems with systems. Python is an easy to learn scripting language used for many different purposes such as web applications and scientific research.

Well done to the small group of students who persevered with the challenge while going in and out and then back into lockdown. The results of the competition have now been released. Congratulations go to our best performers:

Advanced Challenge: Jed Castle (Merit)

Intermediate Challenge: Cameron De Paoli (Perfect Score) and Lashen Dharmadasa (High Distinction)

Beginners Challenge: Max Drake (High Distinction) and Emma Rodriguez (Merit)

Careers News

Did you miss a Virtual Open Day?

Over the past month most Tertiary Institutions have held Virtual Open Days. While certainly not the same as attending a campus, finding out about courses and getting a feel for the institution, Virtual Open Days have seen very large numbers of students being able to drop in and out of lots of sessions over multiple institutions.

One major advantage of these events is that the sessions are usually recorded. Most institutions now have these recordings available on their websites. I strongly encourage you to check out these recorded sessions.

Some examples of these are: RMIT Next Fest On Demand, Deakin Virtual Open Day On Demand, University of Melbourne On Demand

Holiday events:

A number of institutions were planning to run on-campus events over the coming break. Keep an eye on university websites closer to the holidays to see if restrictions allow them to run or whether they are doing virtual events.

We are here to help:

Please remember that the Careers Team is available to help. This invitation is particularly important as Year 12 students complete their university and SEAS applications.

eSafety Webinar

Online sexual harassment and image-based abuse webinar

The Office of the eSafety Commissioner is running a webinar to to help parents and carers to understand online sexual harassment and image-based abuse (defined as the non-consensual sharing of intimate images). Designed for parents and carers of young people aged 13-18, it will cover the difference between online sexual harassment and image-based abuse, how to make a report to social media companies and the police, and where to get support. The webinar will run several times between 28 July – 9 September. Register online.

Wellbeing Hub News

Body Kind

Body Kind Families is a Butterfly Foundation initiative for parents of teenagers, and it provides FREE resources and important tips on supporting positive body image and being body kind. This initiative compliments the work we are doing in school as part of Body Kind Schools promotion this September.

We’ve added some great resources to our Wellbeing Page on KICOnline. Just look for the ‘Body Image & Body Kind’ page in the contents on the left-hand side.

You’ll find information such as:

  • 6 Ways to be Body Positive
  • Body Image Tips for Young People and For Parents
  • How to Support a Friend
  • How to Approach Someone You Care About

There’s also some webinars coming up:

Click here to book either of them.

Self-Care September Calendar

Self-care isn’t selfish, it’s essential. No-one’s perfect. But so often we compare our insides to other people’s outsides. This month we’re encouraging everyone to be kinder to themselves (as well as others), especially when things go wrong. Self-care increases our resilience and helps us get more out of life. It also helps us accept others as they are too.

Kardinia International College

PO Box 17
Geelong, Victoria 3220

+61 3 5278 9999
kardinia@kardinia.vic.edu.au

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