Issue 11 Term 4 2021

Our Middle Years community continued to grow in Term 4 as we welcomed our 2022 Year 7 and 8 students to the College for their Transition Days and their parents to our Parent Information evening. 

Led by Kathy Hennig, our Transition Coordinator, these events held in November give our newest students a chance to experience the College, meet new friends and have their first taste of high school life. We saw over 150 students spend the day meeting teachers, completing tours and experiencing a range of team building activities.

The Transition Days were supported by our new Peer Support Leaders for 2022. These young leaders worked with the Year 6 and 7 students throughout the four days, leading them in activities, tours and being there as their guides through their first experience of our College.

Our Peer Support Leaders showed their skills to quickly build meaningful relationships and guide our newest students in what it means to be a member of the Kildare community. These leaders were further supported in their work by a number of guides from our Miiddle Years cohort who were quick to answer questions, give direction and support the transitioning students.

Jack Monaghan
Acting Middle Years Coordinator

Did you know that when we regularly act with kindness, our level of happiness is more likely to increase? A recent study by Rowland and Curry (2019) focused on how people felt after observing or performing acts of kindness for seven consecutive days.

Participants’ level of happiness was measured before and after the study. They were instructed to carry-out an extra kindness act than usual each day. The researchers found that being kind to oneself, especially when things are not going well, being kind to others, or even observing acts of kindness boosted happiness!  

Last week, as part of our Positive Education program, students and staff of Kildare College were invited to take on a daily kindness challenge. The challenges were: 

• share a smile with someone, especially if you do not feel like it; 
• practise self-compassion by using affirming self-talk; 
• help someone with their learning; 
• go through the day without judging others, and 
• give someone words of encouragement. 

Every day during lunch time, students were invited to participate in a range of activities in the Resource Centre; these included creating Random Acts of Kindness cards; making kindness themed bookmarks, and creating kindness mood boards. A special ‘thank you’ to Emma Gay for organising the activities. 

The Positive Education Student Group, with assistance from Laura Kretschmer, have created beautiful Kildare Kindness Cards, each one containing a special message. Students and staff are encouraged to sprinkle some Kildare Kindness by giving someone a card to acknowledge their kindness. The recipient of the card is also encouraged to enact their own good deed to brighten someone else’s day and help the Kildare Kindness ripple grow! May we all take time during the busyness of our daily lives, to act with kindness because it really does make a positive difference to our wellbeing. 

In Kindness 

Glenn Clifford
Director of Wellbeing 

The first half of Term 4 is an incredibly busy time for our Senior Years students.

We have some wonderful and joyous celebrations with our Year 12 students, including a Graduation Mass, Farewell Breakfast and Assembly before they prepared for their final exams.

This week we also had our final celebration as a cohort at our 2021 Graduation Dinner held at the National Wine Centre. The dinner was a lovely way to come together as a year level community for a final time, celebrating the hard work put in by students, families and staff both this year and throughout their time at Kildare College.

The final Year 12 SACE results will be released in mid December and we are so proud of all that has been achieved. We wish the Class of 2021 all the best for their future journeys.

The Year 11 students have also been finishing off their final exams, which concludes their first formal year of SACE. During Week 7 they will participate in Stage 2 Orientation to become familiar with the requirements of their chosen Year 12 subjects.

Our Year 10 students have been busy finalising their final assignments and preparing for their exams to take place during Week 7, before heading into a well-deserved summer break.

We wish all of our Senior Years Students a happy and safe holiday!

Emma Ward
Senior Years Coordinator

Year 7 students have been designing and creating pencil cases using a variety of decorative stitches and buttons.

As the students have further developed their sewing machine skills, they have been able to experiment with the range of stitch settings and how they can incorporate them into their own designs.

Designs have included garden, beach and geometric pattern themes. 

Kara Steward
Design and Technology Teacher 

It has been a busy term in the Resource Centre celebrating the end of National Book Month with a “Recreate Your Favourite Book Cover” competition. This allowed all students to showcase their artistic skills and love of reading. The creativity and originality that went into each design was amazing to see. A huge congratulations to all participants and a special mention to the winning designs: Emily Helbers, Hridini Bhut and Lola Capitano for their outstanding interpretations of their favourite novels.

The creativity continued into the Pink Day celebrations to raise awareness for such an important cause. The students put together beautiful flower mirrors as gifts for someone special. The Resource Centre was also a hub of excitement during Kindness Week with lots of activities for the students to participate in from Kindness Bookmarks to Random Acts of Kindness Cards. Everyone had a wonderful time celebrating all that it is to be kind.

Each year, all students have the chance to take part in the Premier’s Reading Challenge by reading 12 novels throughout the year. This is a wonderful opportunity for students to grow their literacy skills and foster a love of reading. All students who complete the Challenge are also awarded with a certificate or a medal. This year we had an outstanding 79 students complete the Challenge with over 1300 books read. The Kildare College Premier’s Reading Challenge Shield is awarded to the House with the most number of students who have completed the Challenge. A huge congratulations to Nagle House for taking the Reading Shield this year and well done to all students who participated.

Emma Gay
Resource Centre Officer

The Year 10 Fashion Design students have been busy creating oversized hoodies.

Students showed their creativity by using different fabric patterns, applique and lining the hoods with fluffy material. This task gave students the opportunity to expand on their existing sewing skills and create a product which will get a lot of wear during the cooler months!

Alana Durka
Hospitality and Design Teacher

Year 9 Students participated in a beach clean-up of the coastline, in a bid to find rubbish to repurpose into Kinetic Art pieces for their final Project Based Learning (PBL) unit for 2021.

Although the weather stopped us from scouring Henley Beach, students collected items from Semaphore and Glenelg to use for their project.

Whilst the clean-up did not result in a lot of rubbish collected, students appreciated our clean environment and will tie the theme of sustainability and the beach ecosystem into their pieces.

Stay tuned to see the student's Kinetic Art pieces later this term. 

Julia Groutsch
Learning Leader

Year 7 Students were visited by an Educator from SA Water, to follow the story of a drop of water's journey to their tap through an interactive presentation.

The incursion reiterated the importance of water as a resource, tied in key concepts learnt throughout a previous unit, Chemical Sciences, as well as providing foundational understanding for their next topic, Water in the World. 

Julia Groutsch
Learning Leader

"When women flee – they generally don’t stop to make sure they have the children’s lunchboxes.”

After the recent campaign to raise awareness about the importance of developing healthy relationships and the social impacts created by domestic violence, the Living Justice Group followed the campaign by launching a very deserving cause.

The aim was to gain support from the College community by encouraging families to donate new lunchboxes for children in crisis shelters.

The lunchboxes included, snacks, affirmation cards, sensory toys, friendship bracelets, beeswax wraps made by Kildare students and more.

We had the privilege of welcoming Ortal, a representative from the Vinnies Crisis Centre, who met with the Living Justice Group to receive the many donations. She shared with the students that often, children in shelters look forward to just getting back to a normal routine, and the lunchboxes will certainly help them.

Angie Selga, Mrs Dolling, and Emma Lewis
The Living Justice Group

Having worked with Wendy a representative from KESAB last term, the Environmental Group were keen to put their new-found knowledge and skills around sustainability to good use.

Using our recently purchased beeswax wraps kit, the group got underway creating colourful wraps to be included in the lunchboxes for children who find themselves in crisis shelters.

The willing workers were proud to be able to contribute to a really worthwhile cause. Kildare College is very proud of the commitment the students have shown this year in promoting the need for a more sustainable environment and look forward to their work continuing.

Angie Selga, Hayley McAteer, Linda Dolling, Gabbi Rigney and Lil Mader
Environmental Group

“It was great to meet other Indigenous people and listen to their stories…….”

Nunga Group students joined other students from various Catholic Schools to explore what it means to be thriving people and leaders in our schools and the wider community.

The event was held at Carclew a cultural organisation which provides young people with opportunities to participate in arts, dance, and storytelling activities.

The day was hosted by CESA, and workshops were provided and facilitated by Indigenous cultural artists; the sessions are intended to support students in broadening their understanding of Australia's history and more importantly further develop their sense of pride in culture and identity.

Angie Selga, Gabbi Rigney and Linda Dolling
Nunga Group

The Grand Final for the Year 8/9 Knockout Basketball team took place at the Wayville Sports Centre. Six of the best Year 8/9 School Girls’ Basketball teams in the state battled it out to crown one overall champion. Each team played a total of five round-robin games, and based on their results, would determine which playoff final they would make it through to.

Kildare started the day with a hard-fought win against Charles Campbell, 13 -10. Holly Kosir got Kildare off to the greatest of starts, scoring the first bucket of the day which allowed the momentum to carry on from there. Charles Campbell were relentless with their pressure, and kept hitting back on the scoreboard whenever Kildare looked to break the game apart. Fortunately though for Kildare, Trinity Smith’s trickery and Paige Mofflin’s deadeye shooting, seemed inevitably too much for Charles Campbell to handle.

In the second game, Kildare matched up against the eventual champions of the Tournament, Unity College. Kildare took the game on with vigour and the toughness we have come to expect from them. They managed to create myriad of opportunities-- however, Unity proved to be way too strong defensively, and the majority of Kildare’s attempts at goal were continually thwarted by Unity’s relentless defensive efforts. The game ended in favour of Unity 18 – 5.

Kildare were able to lift their spirits again with a convincing win in the third game against Woodville. Zariah Sideris starred in this encounter as the 6th, coming off the bench to make an amazing impact as she did all tournament, with her trademark catch and shoot plays. The final score for this game was Kildare 20 – 6 Woodville.

The fourth game was another tough challenge for Kildare, matching up in this round with the eventual runner-up of this tournament; Unley High School. Kildare started off lively and looked ready for the tough game that was about to ensue. Unfortunately though, Kildare’s defensive stalwart Charli Hazelhurst was fouled out of the game early. This really seemed to open the game up for Unley as they made the most of Charli’s absence. Lily Sparkhall did her best to rally her troops with her positive leadership, and it motivated the team enough to make an impressive comeback. However, it ultimately was not enough. In what was a very close game, Kildare unfortunately lost their chance of making the 1st place playoff game, losing to Unley 11 – 8.

The fifth game was now very important for Kildare. A win would send them into the 3rd place playoff final, with a loss inevitably pooling them into the 5th place playoff final. Fortunately, Kildare were red hot this game, and came out with the win Paige Mofflin started with a bang, pulling up to hit a three-pointer in the first shot of the game. Trinity Smith was also dominant again, amassing an impressive total of 12 points for the game. Nurioopta were physical but Kildare were ultimately too polished for them, winning the match 17 – 11. This rewarded Kildare with a chance at claiming 3rd place for the entire Knockout competition.

The Final game and the 3rd place playoff final for Kildare was scheduled to be against newly found rivals; Nurioopta High School. Kildare already had one hand on the 3rd place title, having just defeated Nurioopta in the previous game, and entered the game brimming with confidence. But Kildare knew that they wouldn’t get the desired result from confidence alone and they did not allow themselves to get too complacent. They remained focused and determined to execute the game plan that gave them the victory in the previous game; and execute the game plan they did… Marley Mogg gave an inspired performance from the bench in this one, grabbing rebounds both defensively and offensively and dishing the ball to the likes of Mofflin and West who hammered home points, swish after swish. This bout was over at half time, and Kildare cruised to a victory 25 – 15 to claim 3rd place accolades for the 2021 Statewide 8/9 Girls Basketball competition!!!

Special mentions go to Ms Cocks for her exceptional work as coach all tournament. And also, to Matilda Giro and Charli Dissel for their amazing efforts as scorers, equipment managers and supporters!

Carmine Caruso 
Sports Development Officer