Kardinia enews – Wednesday 27 April 2022

Home Kardinia enews – Wednesday 27 April 2022

From the Principal

After a much welcome break, our staff returned to school yesterday, to work with the world-renowned educationalist Ian Gilbert.

Since establishing Independent Thinking 25 years ago, Ian Gilbert has made a name for himself across the world as a highly original writer, editor, speaker, practitioner and thinker, and is someone who the IB World magazine has referred to as one of the world’s leading educational visionaries.

Ian challenged, inspired and energised our staff and affirmed our move towards a greater focus on the development and enhancement of SPICE (Social, Personal, Intercultural, Critical and Creative and Ethical) skills and attributes.

It was wonderful to welcome our students back today. I saw lots of smiling faces and students who were genuinely happy to be back at school again this term. Even for those who enjoyed their holidays and would have liked to see them go for longer, regardless, I think there was a strong sense that our school is still a pretty good place to be.

Tomorrow we celebrate Founders’ Day with an Assembly, where we take the time to remember and show our gratitude for the leap of faith that the Katsumata Family undertook in establishing Kardinia International College all those years ago. I, for one, am very grateful that they did.

From the Head of Junior School

It was great to see the students bounding into school with a smile on their faces today. The term has started smoothly with students settling in well.

Over the break a significant amount of work was completed in the new Lower Primary redevelopment, including the installation of playground equipment and the pouring of concrete for the two basketball courts. Plan Group are on track to complete this project at the end of Term 2, ready for our students to move into this space at the start of Term 3.

Other events to look forward to this term include:

Founders’ Day Assembly
International Families Week
Upper Primary Athletics Carnival
National Reconciliation Week

Have a great Term 2 everyone.

Term 2 COVID Update

Dear Parents and Guardians

The information outlined below highlights important changes to COVIDSafe measures for schools that will apply from the start of Term 2.

Face masks

Face masks, while recommended, are not required in any school setting.

This means students in grades 3 to 6, staff and visitors in primary schools are no longer required to wear face masks.

Any student or staff member who wishes to wear a mask can do so, including those who are medically at-risk.

Everyone including students aged 8 years and above must wear a face mask when travelling on public transport, taxis or ride share vehicles.

Screening requirements

Students and staff who have tested positive for COVID-19, and have completed their 7-day isolation period, now do not need to undertake rapid antigen test (RAT) screening for 12 weeks after their release from isolation. This was previously 8 weeks.

Household contacts

Students and staff who are household contacts of a COVID-19 case are no longer required to quarantine. They can return to school as long as they undertake rapid antigen tests 5 times within their 7-day period and wear face masks indoors if they are aged 8 and above, unless they have a valid exemption.

If any household contact returns a positive RAT result during this period, they must isolate for 7 days and not attend school.

Vaccination requirements for visitors to schools

Parents, carers and other adult visitors (not performing work) are no longer required to show evidence of two doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

Community use of school facilities

Schools will no longer need to request evidence of vaccination of staff or workers from external community groups who use premises outside the school’s normal operating hours.

RAT screening program extension reminder

The supply of RATs will continue for the first 4 weeks of this term. The screening recommendations remain the same: – recommended to test at home twice a week.

Take Care

Paul Dowie
Deputy Principal

Congratulations Rising Star Award Winner, Clare Ballard

Congratulations to our very own Clare Ballard, Morongo Nishi Head of House, who has been recognised as a Rising Star in Education as determined by a committee through “The Educator” magazine. While Clare as an individual has been nominated and recognised for this prestigious award, she is very humbled and strongly acknowledges that this award is recognition of the exceptional work of the team at Kardinia and in particular all of those working in the RRRR programme, physical education, health and wellbeing space. As Clare states in the article about her award:

“At KIC, we are passionate about embedding Respectful Relationships into our teaching and learning. Using the Victorian Government’s Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships topics of emotional literacy, personal strengths, positive coping, problem solving, stress management, help seeking, gender and identity and positive gender relations, there is a strong focus on developing resilience and self-management in our students,” she says. “The Respectful Relationships team is hopeful to embed these practices and vocabulary across K-12 and move towards resilience education being incorporated into all teaching and learning practices in a more authentic way.” Her team at KIC is also redeveloping the process of considering assessment in health and physical education, moving away from a focus solely on the student’s grades, but capturing their growth in social and emotional skills. To achieve this goal, KIC is moving towards building capacity in its students through a SPICE lens, which includes building social, personal, intercultural, critical thinking and ethical skills. A team of passionate health and physical education teachers has reviewed the sequence of topics from Years 7 to 9 and are looking at ways to build in SPICE opportunities within the College’s teaching and learning practices.

This is fantastic and very well deserved recognition for Clare, but also for the whole team at Kardinia International College.

Kardinia Success at Interschool State Equestrian Titles

Over the school holidays from the 9-13 April, 14 Kardinia students represented the College at the Interschool Victorian State Championships held at Werribee Park Equestrian Centre.

While there were many highs and lows throughout the week, each rider should be proud and congratulated for their efforts, which ended up contributing to Kardinia being the third highest scoring school in the State! The riders who participated included:

Charlotte Baker Year 7
Piper Bondarenko Year 3
Georgia Edwards Year 10
Alannah Heagney Year 4
Mietta Heagney Year 6
Rosemary Heagney Year 8
Tiffany Peters Year 10
Alexa Robinson Year 10
Scarlett Robinson Year 4
Charlize Scott Year 8
Casey Shields Year 12
Ruby Smith Year 3
Emma Stephens Year 10
La’Moza Velisha Year 10
Phaestian Velisha Year 5

We would also like to send a huge congratulations to the riders who will be representing the state of Victoria at the Equestrian National Championships held in Sydney later in the year. Well done everyone.

Host families wanted: Homestay GOKIC

Homestay GoKIC is a Zoom-based online program where you and your family can meet a Japanese student from Gotemba Nishi High School (our sister school in Japan). You will have the opportunity to communicate with the student once a week for five weeks. No Japanese language is required, but some Japanese may be helpful. The program starts in May. If you are interested, please contact Mr. Ota: y.ota@kardinia.vic.edu.au.

Mother’s Day Classic

Every day, 55 Australians are diagnosed with breast cancer and 8 Australians will lose their life to it. The Mother’s Day Classic is being held on Sunday the 8^th of May, 2022. Kardinia International College has been a long term participant in the event. Although it is not a school event, we would love for you to walk or run by joining the team.

Go to https://www.mothersdayclassic.com.au/fundraisers/kardiniainternationalcollege, press ‘join us’ and put in your details, we will see you on the day!

If you have any problems or have any questions feel free to email Elias Walton waltoe@kardinia.vic.edu.au or Jett Kennedy kennej@kardinia.vic.edu.au

Co-Curricular News

The Japanese and Culture Club is an active, enthusiastic group of students who enjoy all things Japan! The Japanese and Culture Club meets every Tuesday at lunchtime for all interested SS and JS students from years 3-12 to experience the culture and civilisation of Japan outside the classroom, and to provide an opportunity for socialisation with students with similar interests.

Above all, students enjoy each other’s company whilst having a whole lot of fun partaking in activities such as language-coaching, making badges, poster and dance competitions, practising for hiragana battles, trying Japanese candy, making origami and much more!

But let’s hear from our students to understand what the Club is all about!

“Japanese Club has allowed me so many opportunities to meet new people, practice my Japanese and to have fun with my friends.”

“The Japanese Club has allowed me to collaborate with many other year levels. I have been able to learn about their passions and connections with Japan. I originally joined for CAS hours, however it has become a place where I can learn and enjoy my time with others.”

“The Japanese Club is very inclusive for anyone no matter what year level or if you are learning Japanese or not. It is great to immerse yourself in the culture with fun weekly activities, games … making origami … and even be rewarded with Japanese candy.”

“It’s a great community of people that can help you if you are stuck with something” and “if you go there with a frown you will surely leave with a big smile.”

“Japanese Club has introduced me to the beauty of other colourful aspects of Japanese culture and the importance of learning and being aware of them. Japanese Club made me feel that I am not merely a student any more, I am also a traveller.”

To get involved, head to the Camp Australia room (next to the Inquiry Centre) at lunchtime on Tuesdays.

School TV – Managing Overwhelm

Willingly or not, we have all been exposed to a piece of bad news that has lingered in our thoughts for days afterwards. This seems to be more common in the current environment than ever before. Due to the pandemic, the world we now live in is a very different place, so it is easy to see why we might feel impacted. It can often seem like there are many stressful events occurring simultaneously, and the hyperconnected nature of our environment means we are constantly being reminded of the challenges we face via numerous media and social media channels. Our connectivity to the digital world exposes us to a barrage of messages that can often leave us feeling overwhelmed.

It is therefore important for children and parents alike, to consciously and intentionally learn good wellbeing strategies. Unfortunately, our brains have not evolved fast enough to adapt to the digital landscape we find ourselves in and this often leaves us feeling overwhelmed and can result in increased levels of stress and anxiety. If left untreated or unmanaged, constant stress and anxiety can lead to a number of behavioural issues or health consequences.

The blueprint for parenting, based on our own experiences, is no longer fit for purpose in raising kids as citizens of tomorrow. The combination of constant access to information and having little control over the situations presented, can be stressful and overwhelming. Although we can’t provide our kids with certainty, we can provide them with the skills and strategies to cope to enable them to flourish and thrive, socially, emotionally and academically. It may not necessarily be the information itself that is harmful, but more their inability to process and make sense of it.

Click here to watch this episode:
https://kardinia.vic.schooltv.me/wellbeing_news/special-report-managing-overwhelm