Newsletter 2022 – Term 1

Executive Principal’s Message

Dear Parents/Guardians and Members of our Community

Assalamu Alaikum wa Rahmutallah wa Barakatuhu

As we are approaching toward end of term 1 2022, and the weather cools down, it is important to take steps to minimise the impact of COVID-19. Vaccines are a safe and effective way to protect your child, and the community. I would like to encourage and remind you all to book a COVID-19 Vaccination for your child. Over 50 per cent of all children aged 5 to 11 have now received a first dose, with many now due for a second dose (eight weeks after the first dose).

The Department of Health website provides a number of resources with further information about seeking COVID-19 vaccination. Please see below fact sheet which you can use to communicate with your child.

Further resources are also available at: www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/covid-19-vaccines/who-can-get-vaccinated/children

Vaccines are widely available across the country at general practices, pharmacies and state-run clinics. You can find a participating clinic and make an appointment by visiting the Vaccine Clinic Finder at: https://covid-vaccine.healthdirect.gov.au

We find ourselves continuing to live in unprecedented and uncertain times due to the global Coronavirus Pandemic. The Government has announced schools will remain open to best support continuity of student learning. The College has recently opened online learning for students who need to isolate and those who are unfortunately Covid-19 positive. May Allah (swt) grant everyone shifa and restore everyone to full health. By providing online learning students are able to receive support for their learning courses and programs. It is challenging to maintain a hybrid teaching model but with the perseverance of our dedicated staff, it has been another great achievement.

The College is committed to our Mission of “Islamic values and academic excellence for success in this life and the hereafter”. To this end, we have worked hard to ensure students can receive both online learning resources as well as face-to-face for all academic courses including Islamic Studies and Quran.

I want to thank you all for your patience and understanding during these very uncertain and trying times. Please do your very best to keep your children in your home if they feel unwell or develop any Covid-19 symptoms. This will assist in reducing the spread of the virus. Please continue to be extra mindful of the higher risks to the older members of our community.

I would like to wish you all Ramadan Kareem. I pray that Allah (swt), the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, continues to provide, protect and guide us all and that He bestows His blessings upon you all to gain maximum benefits this Ramadan.

With kind regards

Abdullah Khan

Executive Principal

Principal’s Message

Assalaam ‘Alaikum Dear Parents and Ramadan Mubarak!

Working through the Pandemic

This has been a very challenging term for everyone and we appreciate most sincerely your patience with ongoing notifications, having your children PCR tested and having your children at home. InshaAllah the worst of the Pandemic is now behind us. Alhamdulillah, despite having so many of our staff and students who had to isolate or who came down with COVID, the school kept running and students kept learning. Unfortunately the pandemic and the stress on students and staff has also meant that we have had to cancel our Grand Iftar, our Ali Baba Book Fair and our Eid Festival. Raising money for charity is an important part of what we do at AIC, so we will hope to complete some fundraising activities this term.

 

The pandemic has caused considerable difficulty for all students and teachers in schools across the country in maintaining their normal curriculum expectations. At AICA we will be addressing this by spending the first part of Term 2 revising and reviewing Term 1, improving our online preparation for classes and bringing in more support through SSO’s. Parent Teacher Night has now been delayed until Term 2.

New Head of Curriculum

This term we are pleased to welcome Br. Zamri as Head of Curriculum. Having taught in Singapore, Br. Zamri has most recently taught in a number of our local schools in Adelaide, and is also lecturing in the Education department of the University of South Australia. He has spent Term 1 in assessing our curriculum planning and teaching in the Maths area, and will be working with our teachers to ensure that we have the best teaching and most thorough planning to cover all of the required teaching in all subjects across the school.

School Improvements

Around the school you may have seen lots of improvements, and these improvements are continuing. New photocopiers will be installed across the school, and a Primary Staff room with a collegial environment is underway to ensure that teachers in primary are able to meet and discuss in order to improve teaching.

Our new communication system which plays duas and encouraging nasheed has replaced the single blast of sound, and helps primary staff, secondary staff and students recognize what the bell is for. This system also help us send messages to students and teachers in the class. We now also have a system for making announcements across the school.

You may also have noticed that we are gradually greening the school – with plants around the school, more trees and bushes being planted and more on the way.

Events in Term 1

Although we have had few events during this time Harmony Day was wonderful for the students and we have had some wonderful visitors, including the famous footballer Bashar Houli (expected Week 11), and an internationally renowned professor of Astronomy Prof Mohammad Ilyas who discussed with the Senior students setting up an Astronomy Club.

We are currently running a Cultural Ancestry Competition which came out of a concern during Harmony Day that many students did not know much at all about their cultural background, history or even stories of their parents or grandparents. We have now extended this competition till Term 2 to give plenty of time for students to make wonderful posters.

Student Leadership

For our Student leadership team which includes School Captain (Kamal Shahabudin), Vice Captain (Rida Baig), Prefect of Religion (Ameer Kadeh) and the SRC (17 this year), we are planning some more explicit leadership training in order to assist these capable young men and women into leadership throughout the community.

Parent Committee

Although we have not been able to meet throughout the term due to COVID, we would welcome new faces on our Parent Committee and the opportunity to hear from our parents on how to improve our school and its services. Please do email [email protected] if you would like to nominate yourself to our Parent Committee for 2022.

Welcome to new Teachers

This term we have welcomed into the school a number of new teachers including:

  • Ms. Agnieszka Becek – teaching English, HASS, Health, Art while also supervising Pastoral Care and VET
  • Ms. Ayah Merhi – a former student, who is teaching in the Junior Primary
  • Mr. Ali Cheema – currently working part-time as he is also a University lecturer, teaching Accounting and Business Innovation
  • Ms. Dosina Hasin – teaching Science

Although we know that the pandemic will continue to be something that we need to live with, InshaAllah in Term 2 we will be able to focus again on our studies, on exciting excursions and events, straight after a wonderful Eid together.

Ramadan Mubarak,

Wassalaam ‘alaikum

Mrs Silma Ihram

Principal

Deputy Principal

Assalamualaikum

Parents and Covid

Sadly we are still living with Covid. However although the new strains are weaker, they are unfortunately more aggressive. As parents, we must do all we can to keep our children and teachers as safe as possible. We can do this by following the advice from SA Health and the school. Covid safe measures still include:

 

  • Social distancing (1.5 metres)
  • Wearing masks (compulsory in HS, recommended in the PS)
  • Well ventilated classrooms as well as working outside
  • Vaccinations and boosters if possible
  • Keeping children home if they are unwell for any reason. A “simple cold”, could be Covid.

As a parent if you need to come to school,

  • Only enter the school site if you are feeling well
  • Wear a face mask
  • Use hand sanitiser
  • Maintain a physical distance of 1.5 metres between others.
  • Be respectful of the difficulties the school is facing

Teachers are trying their hardest to do their very best to teach your children under very difficult conditions. Many have their own families they need to support during this time.

At AIC we know it is important to actively engage with families as this is vital for student learning and wellbeing.

We will constantly find ways to safely invite parents back to school. In the meantime, we will continue to engage with families via other means where face-to-face is not possible.

Thank you again for your understanding during these trying times.

Kind regards

Rosalie Haese

Deputy Principal

Head of Curriculum

Assalamualaikum Parents/Guardians

I am honoured to be joining Australian Islamic College (Adelaide) family as Head of Curriculum. My first decade of teaching was in Singapore, where my teaching practice was developed through good guidance, mentorship, and teamwork. After migrating to South Australia about ten years ago, I have further accumulated my experience in the education sector through teaching in public and private education institutions.

Insha’Allah, together with my colleagues, we will strive to continually improve the teaching and learning at AIC. My aim is to utilise the strengths of all the wonderful teachers at AIC into one cohesive and collaborative team. We hope to have your continued support as we embark on this challenging and exciting journey for the benefit of the most important stakeholder, our students.

Wassalam

Zamri Mohd

Head of Curriculum

Kindergarten

Dear Parents and Care givers,

Assalaam-U- Alaikum and a very warm welcome!!

We at AIC kindergarten would like to extend a warm welcome to all the children and families in the grouping.

We look forwards to work with you and your children in partnership to provide best possible opportunities for your child’s development. The environment is surely different to the home setting and can be a bit challenging for some of the children. So please feel free to exchange information with the teachers at AIC kindergarten or any concerns relating to your child’s progress and development.

I would request the families to provide their valuable input/ give feedback, either positive or as an area of development, whenever possible. It will be a strong base for improvement for the operation planning and programming purpose further beneficial for your child.

Current Focus

Our current focus for the entire term is to establish positive and strong relationships with the existing children and their families. We have had discussions and learning opportunities available for the children to understand and respect own feelings and emotions and of others. We have also had open discussions at group time familiarising children to increase a sense of responsibility contributing towards school readiness skills. On the other hand we as educators are focused on providing a well -balanced program to cater for varied developmental needs of the children with varied skill levels.

Group Goal

Is to make the children feel safe, secured and supported to further enable them to build trust and relationships in the room with the educators and their peers throughout their day at care and outside the care as well.

In addition, the kindy team works towards making children independent learners and become more confident and resilient which contributes towards their school readiness.

Activities

Due to hot and humid weather conditions, we have been keeping children busy with various opportunities and learning experiences like literacy, numeracy, water play, sensory play, group times, art and crafts and constructions. We try to maintain a balance of indoor-outdoor play to enhance children’s learning. 

  • We extended on children’s interest and hence we explored the topics such as volcanos, colour run experiments – learning primary and secondary colours. The current interest topics are animals and farms, bugs and Dinosaurs.
  • We discussed, implemented and did numerous activities regarding feelings and emotions and red and green choices. It is one of the most important projects we have had and is still in existence.
  • We learnt about ourselves in our ALL ABOUT ME activity which was extended to families, followed by the community, shaping to culture and diversity leading towards the HARMONY celebration. We also had a brief discussion about Native Australians and will be exploring in depth in upcoming year.
  • We incorporated sustainability practices by caring for our environment and not wasting resources.
  • Up coming celebration – RAMADAN.
  • Literacy—Jolly phonics focus letters learnt S, A, T, P—children identifying sounds, naming the letter, capable of recognising if in their names and practiced writing it. Several activities were conducted in the process of learning these letters.
  • Numeracy—Numbers 0-10 (In progress), quantities, days of the week, months of the year (In progress).

Reminders

We would kindly request the parents to support us by:

  • Wearing masks on arrival at kindergarten.
  • Please keep your child home is feeling unwell.
  • Supplying a uniform hat for your child when attending kindergarten at school.
  • Providing healthy food items that are sufficient to last for morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea times for your child. (NO NUTS/ ITEMS CONTAINING NUTS, LOLLIES, JELLIES, CREAM BISCUITS)

Donations

We would be pleased to receive donations of tissue boxes, sheer materials like curtains, recyclable materials to add to our craft collection such as small boxes, big bottles of soft drinks, cylinders, reels, vinyl or leather offcuts, cork, straws, Wrapping paper, greeting cards, ribbon, envelopes, stamps, stickers, labels.

Note: We do not accept egg cartons or carton of items with nuts as we presently have some children with severe allergies and life-threatening conditions.

If you happen to stumble across pine cones, gum nuts, seed pods, shells when walking around your neighborhood or in the park/botanical gardens/ at the beaches, we would also appreciate them to add to our nature / science area. Children use them in a creative manner in their play and learning activities.

Thanks and regards,

Allahafiz

Kindergarten team

(Benazir and Zaynab)

Reception

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Asslaam-U-Alaikum

Amazing effort everyone! In such a short time despite challenge of COVID looming over us all young learners cope very well with the pressures and expectations of transition phase. Majority of our Receptions have attended school regularly and smoothly blended in new routines. Our students have shown amazing level of resilience to respond to change. In this article we are going to share snippets of our settling down phase and learning in areas of curriculum.

English

In this area of curriculum students have been working this term to acquire proficiency in identifying letter/sound knowledge and using this skill to blend and segment sounds in words. Then students have used these skills to have a ago at decodable readers. Students have exposed to various literary texts with the focus on looking at the book cover and blurb. Students were encouraged to predict about the text, identify characters and to describe characters using descriptive vocabulary.

Mathematics

In Mathematics, our focus was on identifying numerals 0 to 10, 2D shapes, days of the week, attributes such as long/short, big/small, few/many. Students were engaged in hands on learning activities as well as book work around these topics.

Science

We have explored topic Growing Well in science. Students have been engaged and involved in observing how plants grow and what do plants need to stay healthy. We did few experiments to observe different phases of plant growth and how some systems in plants work. The most interesting one was when students saw small buds came out of small beans. Here are some photos of our experiments. Our work is still in progress. We are observing effects of sunlight, water, air and soil on our plants. Some of our learners have suggested they want to see the effect of affection on plants as well. (Amazing how students are taking charge of their learning. They are real scientists.)

HASS, Arts and Digital Technologies

Reception have explored the concept of family and learned vocabulary related to this topic. In arts students have been practicing their fine motor and artistic skills through art activities involving cutting, pasting, gluing, painting, and drawing. Students have been exploring the concepts of hardware, software and peripheral devices in digital technologies.

Extracurricular Activities

This term Reception has been involved in Gymnastics and Auskick Clinic through school sport program. Students have also participated in clean up Australia Day activities and Harmony Day celebrations. We have explored concept of harmony through stories, songs, and art works. Here is gallery of photos from Reception’s learning journey in Term 1.

We wish you very peaceful Ramadan and restful holiday break, Inshaa Allah see you all in Term 2

Kindest regards

Mrs. Qudsia Haider

Mrs. Helen Ouban

Junior Primary & Primary

Salaam alaikum, 

We welcome our families to 2022. We hope all are feeling very much part of the Australian Islamic College Adelaide community.

JP & UP teachers always ensure that all children:

  • Are safe
  • Fulfil their potential
  • Have excellent social and emotional skills
  • Are excellent learners

The quality of teaching and learning is central to this and we have a consistent approach i.e. that all teachers know what to do and why to do it so children have the same excellent provision in all areas and how to behave, how to talk to others or how to be more independent.

Harmony Day

JP & UP celebrated Harmony Day on 23rd March. Our message for Harmony Day is that ‘everyone belongs’. The students wore their Cultural dress or orange, the colour representing Harmony Day. Every year level conducted activities such as creating Harmony Day posters, art activities and performing to “Everyone Belongs”. We ended the day with our Harmony Day parade.

Awards

JP & UP have fortnightly and end of term awards which recognise students for demonstrating Growth Mindset personalities, attitudes and behaviours including academics.

To help our students become a hero we are providing you a list of helpful Do’s:

  • Do get to school on time (8:30 am)
  • Do inform the office (parents) if your child is absent
  • Do keep us informed of any changes (Junior Primary parents) if your child is being picked up by anyone else other than you
  • Do be respectful in class and follow all school rules
  • Do wear the correct and clean uniform
  • Do wear the correct school shoes and haircut (Islamically appropriate)

Class Dojo

As a communication platform, the primary aim of ClassDojo is to build community in and around every classroom. Teachers are able to share skills students are developing in classroom activities through photos, videos and messages. This also lets parents share in the moments of their child’s day which they otherwise wouldn’t see.
Please ensure that not only are you connected to your child’s Class Dojo but that you are checking messages from your child’s teacher.

At AIC, we strongly believe in teachers and parents working together for the benefit of our students. When teachers partner their ability to inspire thought and creativity with the foundational support parents provide, students are better prepared to have a positive school experience.

We thank our parents for their ongoing support and look forward to working with them this year.

Mrs. Fernandez & Mrs. Khelwaty

Heads of Junior Primary & Primary

Junior Primary & Primary SRC

Congratulations to all our amazing student council members who were elected to represent their classes at our college.

We had a busy start to the term with Behind the News (BTN) visiting and filming our efforts for Clean Up Australia Day. Our Year 6 SRC Executives and students articulately explained the importance of reducing waste and recycling. Enjoy the amazing episode again at: https://www.abc.net.au/btn/classroom/clean-up-australia-day/13769256

Our SRC also planned and promoted a poster competition where we saw wonderful works of art displayed – encouraging everyone to ‘Step Up to Clean Up!’ Winners are highlighted below and love sporting their Clean Up caps and novelty rubbish bins.

The SRC Veggie garden case study was also highlighted by Junior Landcare Australia. Read all about our SRC projects here: https://juniorlandcare.org.au/case_studies/food-for-human-beans/

We have dived right into our student-led, fortnightly meetings and are ready for future events, fundraisers and student leadership at AIC! Stay tuned!

Miss Gilbert

Primary Arabic

Assalamualaikum Parents & Guardians,

السَّلامُ عَلَيْكُم وَرَحْمَةُ الله وَبَرَكاتُه

Alhamdulillah, we all made it till the end of this challenging term. All the teachers, students and parents did great work as one big family. Yes, it was a very hard term, but -Subhana Allah- a coin has two sides, and we all were blessed by feeling the good side of being sisters and brothers in Islam.

Al-Qur’an Al-Kareem Studies

AIC introduced this term ‘Complete Qaidah’ book, to help our kids in their Qur’an reading. Besides teaching the correct Makharij (pronunciation), kids use interactive applications to understand the meanings of the allocated Surahs.

The Grand Qur’an Competition is announced, and the race is started, good luck everyone!

Islamic Studies

Imam Malik told one of the youths of Quraysh

تعلم الأدب قبل أن تتعلم العلم

“Learn Adab before learning knowledge.”

The Islamic studies theme this term is MANNERS. We chose to start with this theme as respecting knowledge, time, and people are the essential key to learning. Students learnt about the importance of having rules, what’s bullying and how to deal with it, cleanliness, truthfulness, respect, kindness, and gratitude. Week 10 and 11, kids learnt about Ramadan and fasting, they also spent a lot of interesting time decorating their classes with beautiful Islamic designs.

We have now another beautiful grassed outside area. Year one went there to enjoy the grass and the good weather. We had our Qur’an memorization Halaqa, that followed with a short Tafakur  تَفَكُّر session about the blessing around us that we sometimes take as granted.

Arabic Language

Handwriting Competition:

In week 8, the Arabic department started the first phase of the handwriting competition, which is going to be resumed in the coming term Insha’ Allah.

Kindergarten

Our little ones also followed the same theme of Al Adab and Al-Akhlaq in their Islamic studies session, they learnt about some important manners through short stories and discussion. Some Arabic language letters have been introduced for them, and Masha’Allah they are very excited to learn the Arabic letters and their stories.

Reception

Reception students did amazing work with their Qur’an, Islamic, and Arabic studies. They were busy every lesson to revise their allocated Surahs, reflect on the previous manner, learn a new letter, spot it and then write it correctly.

We have some brilliant police officers in Reception.

We celebrate Good Manners

Reception learnt some colours in Arabic outside, we sorted the tree leaves by colours, and then had a lot of fun playing chairs coloured game, where kids should sit on the chair that the teacher said its colour in the Arabic language:

Primary Stage

In the Arabic language classes, we integrated the main theme of Al-Adab and Al-Akhlaq in our lessons. The students learnt stories about manners while learning the language itself.

    كُلُّ عامٍ وَأنْتُم بِخَيْر   

     Heba Adel 

Primary PE

In Term One we have had some free clinics, continuing programs and have begun planning for the coming years events. This term we have achieved the following.

  1. Successfully secured $3000 in Sporting Schools Grants.
  2. Run free AFL Coaching sessions for years R-4
  3. Begun promotion for our first gender segregated Auskick in Term Two.
  4. Begun planning for multicultural opportunities through the SANFL.
  5. Set Sports Day for Term Three.
  6. Begun planning Term 4 Swimming.
  7. Set Years 4-6 Camp for Term 4.
  8. Maintained open communication with key stakeholders for upcoming inter school competitive opportunities.
  9. Secured a visit from AFL Great Bachar Houli.

Sporting School Funding

Since Term Four 2019 AIC has had consistent funding through the Sporting Schools initiative to run sporting programs in school. Due to changes in costing, the program now runs over alternate terms in the junior primary and upper primary with each sub school receiving two terms of coaching. This term junior primary tried gymnastics. We had a large amount of equipment already in stock allowing us to put our money into coaching sessions. Students and teachers alike had fun experiencing something new and different and learnt considerably from our excellent coach Kylie.

Auskick

Next term we will be running our second Auskick program at AIC and our first ever gender segregated program with Islamic coaches. Auskick (AFL) will be run on Thursdays for 8 weeks by external coaches. All participants will receive a welcome pack. Students who have not yet used their sports voucher can register for free using the QR code attached to the posters around the school. If you are needing assistance registering please contact me for support. To prepare for Auskick we ran a recent assembly promotion assisted by the SANFL Multicultural Team who stayed to run clinics for Reception to Year Four students for the day. It is exciting to see the depth of talent we have in our school beginning to develop from such early ages.

Calendar Dates

May 5th Auskick Begins

May 27 5/6 Interschool Competitions Begin (TBC)

June 23rd Auskick Ends

August 10th Girls Bachar Houli Cup

August 17th Boys Bachar Houli Cup

September 15th Sports Day – Bridgestone Athletics Centre

November 14-18 PE Week

December 7-9 Year 4-6 School Camp – Mylor Adventure Camp

School Camp

This year we took options to students after years of returning to Mylor we offered three alternatives. Students chose to return once again to Mylor with a few changes. This year there will be increased premium activities and we have asked to have input into the menu options. We will be attending once again in term four however next year we are planning to move camp to a new exciting location and have it in term three to assist with prayer timing.

Bachar Houli Visit

Last year 80 of our upper primary students attended the inaugural Bachar Houli Cup along with students from two other schools. This event was put together by the SANFL and representatives of each school and was a tremendous success, sparking a huge boost in AFL interest across all three schools. It also led to the employment of two Islamic staff who now support the Bachar Houli Foundation and the SANFL to deliver multicultural footy to South Australian schools. This has meant a great deal for our school and was evident when Layan Saadeh from the SANFL visited last Friday for the Auskick promotion and opened with an Arabic greeting to the surprise and delight of our community. On the last day of this term Bachar Houli (recently retired Richmond Premiership Player)plans to visit our school. He hopes to meet with as many students as possible and share his experiences as a professional Muslim athlete and will join us for dhuhr prayer inshallah. This is a wonderful chance for our students to learn from someone who has played sport at the highest level whilst practicing, raising awareness and celebrating his faith.

It is exciting to see our sports programs leading to external opportunities through competition and club based sport. Students are showing increased interest in sport and are developing their confidence to try new things through the varied opportunities on offer. Looking forward to Term 2!

Year 1

Assalamu Alaikum Families,

Thankfully the start to the 2022 school year was not affected too much by Covid and we are well and truly into the swing of things in Year 1! In the Early Years Curriculum, students will continue to partake in a range of learning activities to consolidate their learning in a variety of ways.  Of course these activities are always interactive and fun, as you can see in the photos attached.

In English, Jolly Phonics has progressed to Jolly Grammar, where students are introduced to basic grammar rules, punctuation and terminologies such as nouns and verbs just to name a few!

This term in HASS we are learning about personal and family histories and in Science it is Living Things which is part of the Biological Science strand.  We have incorporated aspects of this learning into STEM projects which have been amazing.

The students have thoroughly enjoyed building gross motor skills via the Gymnastics program.  In The Arts, the students have been learning the theory behind famous artists and their artworks, as well as creating versions of their own using these techniques.  This will become part of their art folio that will be taken home at the end of the year insha’allah.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all of the support this term in regards to your child’s learning.

Wassalam

Mrs Fernandez & Mrs Panos

Year 2

Assalam alaikum,

It was an exciting time to welcome our students back on site this term, after a fantastic effort with online learning. As always, we jumped right into our hands on, integrated and engaging learning opportunities.

Some fun events ensued including, voting for our amazing SRC class representatives, maintaining our wicking gardens, Clean Up Australia Day, a 4-week gymnastics clinic, Merit Award assemblies (Covid safe) and sporting our best traditional or orange clothes on Harmony Day.

Students have worked tirelessly across all learning areas and in demonstrating the core values of our college. Each day Year 2C students are ‘Ready for Learning’ and demonstrate a growth mindset in setting goals and achieving their own success.

I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year has in store for us! Have a safe and happy holiday. Eid Mubarak!

As always, enjoy the sunshine.

Mrs Bremner-Macdonald

(oh yes, I better add I got married – YAY).

Year 3

Assalamu Alaikum Dear Parents/Caregivers,

Alhamdulillah, we have successfully made it to the end of Term 1. It was great to welcome students back to the new school year and see them settle in wonderfully after their efforts during distant learning. Week 3 of the term saw students getting familiar with their new daily routines and schedules as well as participating in getting to know each other activities, especially as we welcomed a few new faces to our AIC-A family.

Over the duration of the term, year 3 students have been learning a variety of curriculum content. In Mathematics, students focused on the topic of Place Value. They participated in a number of lessons learning to recognise, model, represent and order numbers to at least 10 000 through explicit teaching and hands on activities.

The focus of our Science lessons has been on living and non-living things. Students engaged in a number of activities that required them to explore the differences between living, once living and products of living things and they enjoyed sorting living and non-living things based on their characteristics.

During English lessons we have been focusing on Narrative writing using the 7 Steps to Writing Program. Students have made positive improvements in their writing skills by using more descriptive language of ‘showing’ rather than ‘telling’. They have become more familiar in using the 5 senses to describe the setting of their stories, character traits as well as banning boring words and using more interesting vocabulary.

Students have also been busy creating Ramadan decorations to be displayed in preparation for the holy month. Clean-up Australia Day, Harmony Day, and AFL Auskick clinics are some other exciting events that students participated in throughout the term.

Overall, even though the new school year started with some challenges due to Covid, it has been a productive term that has allowed students to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses, be able to set and achieve their goals as well as develop their confidence and meet some new friends.

We are looking forward to a productive and eventful year ahead Insha’Allah!

We wish all the parents and students a restful break and a blessed Ramadan Insha’Allah!

Alma Zulfic & Ayah Merhi

Year 4

Assalamu Alaikum Parents/Guardians

Year 4A students had a very exciting and busy term of adjusting to routines and learning about expectations set by both school and teachers. They are settling in quite well and most students have undertaken a lot of responsibilities to demonstrate the four core values consistently. Students are continuing to learn a lot this term about organising and managing their time at home to complete homework, revise their daily work and are looking ahead to many more challenges to continually develop a growth mindset approach to all learning tasks.

In English, we are using the Seven Steps program to understand how to write narratives and students have learned how to plan for success by generating ideas that allows them to think about the story graph in depth which is structured into introduction to characters and settings, events leading to a major problem and then an exciting end. Spelling words are taught weekly using Jolly Phonics which is integrated in Homework Hound as well as other activities provided as part of their classwork and homework to revise rules and meanings. In Comprehension, students learned to use the reading strategies of Activating Prior Knowledge, Making Connections and Questioning using various texts in class. Grammar has been integrated into daily use of writing and spelling with basics such as identifying use of correct punctuation, capital letters, nouns, adjectives and verbs.

 Our focus in Maths was based on properties of odd and even numbers as well as place values. Students learned to apply basic place value concepts to develop skills in comparing, ordering and rounding numbers, writing and reading numerals up to 5-digits, writing numbers in expanded notations and adding 5-digit numbers using various strategies. They are also revising and practicing their daily times tables to maintain accuracy and speed on a weekly basis.

They have applied their experiences and knowledge of four core values this term to design their Harmony Day projects related to the concept of designing a mural using cubes in Arts and designed boomerangs using basic Aboriginal art patterns. Harmony Day consisted of activities related to writing ten facts about this day and its importance in Australia. Students also thought from Islamic perspective to discuss and make a pledge on how to attain harmony throughout the year by listing goals that are measurable and attainable.

In Science, students learnt about Daintree Rainforests, concepts related to ecosystem and how conservation of living organisms in an ecosystem sustained the various biological cycles related to food chains. They learned about the differences between habitats and ecosystems as well and how that maintains the food chain when the right factors are met.

In HASS we have been learning about Australia’s First People. Students had a great foundation for this learning over the course of last year and finished the term with a major project on a Famous First Australian. There were some interesting choices including Pemulwuy who we decided was akin to an Indigenous Superhero. Our class is becoming very socially aware of nation’s history and is developing an understanding of the injustices of the past.

We have been looking at how to be responsible digital citizens. Students have learnt about their digital footprint and how to be safe when using the internet socially and educationally. We finished the term by navigating our way through Canva which was a new program for many students. Everyone designed a comic strip around the topics of online safety, cyber bullying and or digital citizenship.

In health this term we have looked at how we can better form respectful relationships. This has included a focus on bullying which tied nicely to our digital technologies. Students were tasked to write a story for Junior Primary about friendships and bullying situations. Keeping stories simplistic for younger students was a challenge for some but the task was achieved, and we enjoyed reading our books to the Receptions in our last lesson.

Our Physical Education was split into two parts this term. Half the term we focused on preparing for sports day. We had several new events and wanted to build team spirit by practicing the team-based events. The other half we spent on volleyball, which our class got a double dose of. With me as their PE teacher and the Sporting Schools Coach attending on a separate day, they developed some impressive skills. It was certainly a very popular sport and I would recommend looking into Volleyball SA’s School Holiday Clinics. Swimming was a success as students participated in developing more skills to enhance their learning experiences in this area of P.E.

The joy of Ramadan approaching has lifted everyone’s spirits in the classroom as students are eagerly working away on Ramadan art projects to end the last week of this term by setting goals both academically as well as from a religious perspective to attain the many blessings this holy month brings. We look forward to a productive start in Term 2 Inn Shaa Allah and wish all parents and students a very blessed beginning this Ramadan and a safe term break.

Rumana Mazhar

Emina Kosovac

Year 5

This term it has been all go and our very busy class have worked hard to learn many new skills and strategies.

In PE we have been learning all the rules and skills for volleyball. I have been very impressed by the effort the students have put in and how well they support their teammates. We are very much looking forward to AFL next term.

Maths

This class really love math’s and we have covered many topics in number but to further increase students speed and accuracy, each Friday we have a times tables challenge. Students have 5 minutes to complete 12 timetables wheels. So far not only are many now under the 5-minute mark, we also have a student who can complete then all in 3minutes and 20 seconds!!

Harmony Day

This is always a favorite at our school and despite restrictions our students celebrated this with as much excitement and enthusiasm as any other year. Students wore traditional clothing to school and shared stories of their own background and including different foods, traditions, and celebrations. As a class we made our of piece of art showing who we all are and where many have come from. We learnt a lot about each other and the diversity of our class and school was certainly celebrated.

English

Through the Seven Steps Writing Program, we are writing stories for the Mayoral Make A Book competition. We should finish these very soon and we definitely have some talented authors in our class.

Ramadan Decorations

This year we wanted to do something with the many windows around our classroom so the students came up with some wonderful designs by using stencils. We were also after a stained-glass effect so through trial and error the students came up with their own glass paint. The time and effort that was put in was impressive and we still have more to go over the last few days. I can’t wait to see the finished product.

This is just and snapshot of some of the things we have done this term. I wish you all a Happy and Safe holiday and look forward to working with you all next term.

Have a Safe and Happy holidays.

Ms Sutton

Year 6

Assalamu Alaikum,

In English, the students have been developing imaginative Narrative pieces using Seven Steps.  Students have been learning how tighten tension, create sizzling starts and how to show don’t tell.  

In Mathematics, our attention has been on problem solving, fractions, divisibility, multiplication, prime numbers, composite numbers, square and triangular numbers. The students really enjoyed the hands on engaging activities and group work which has elicited interesting and critical thinking relating to Mathematics.

In PE this term students have been learning about Volleyball. In Health they have learnt about how to identify what bullying is, what bullying is not, and how to become more resilient.

In Science this term students have been learning to understand the effect of environmental stimuli on living things, both in the short term through behaviour and growth. Students have conducted experiments on the growth of plants, and on growing mould on bread.

In Technologies the students have been learning about Coding on code.org. Students have been creating sprites, virtual pets, using problem solving skills and learning how to use texts and prompts in Sprite Lab.

For HASS, students have been learning all about Australia’s government.

We wish you a blessed Ramadan and hope you enjoy your school holidays with your loved ones inshallah.

Tanya Khelwaty

Azeem Ali

Middle School

Assalaamu alaikum Parents/Caregivers

We are almost at the close of Term 1. It is obvious to me, that the year 7 students have settled in and are taking learning seriously despite the uncertain times of the pandemic.

In year seven English, they used specialized appropriate language combined with a strong personal connection to the topic when writing genres like Persuasive Texts, Narratives and Recounts, in order to engage the reader. They utilised opportunities to share their point of view, using typical relevant phrases in sessions of discussion.

The students set off to a good start by writing an explanatory text of how they spent their vacation. Thus, they developed the skills of writing a recount. In addition to the NAPLAN spellings practice they revised language conventions twice a week. Through the learning process the students were encouraged to read narrative texts, analyse them and create their own conclusions after group discussions. They also completed a Narrative Text ensuring the application of the skills they acquired in the learning process. The transitioning for them from Primary to Middle School was not a smooth process, none the less, with much encouragement and support they have blossomed well.

In year seven History, a timeline of ancient Roman history created by the students gave a good start to their learning process. They researched, shared, discussed and presented their summative on a still standing ancient Roman mystery. They finished their learning by creating either a picture or a model of special artefacts of the Roman era. The whole learning process was informative and exciting.

In year seven Mathematics, students battled number patterns, number properties, place value of numbers and prime factorisation methods. Students bent over their books to capture the concepts and practice them earnestly. Class tests taken were to gather acquired knowledge after every chapter was completed. Students completed an Investigation on specific concepts individually.

In year eight Mathematics, every student revised Number Properties and all about real numbers. Algebraic operations and percentages followed next. Students completed exercises from the text and from online education Perfect website. They completed practice sheets before every test and prepared themselves well to tackle every Math activity. Students completed an Investigation on specific concepts individually.

In year eight History, students dwelled into medieval period, amazing knowledge on the specifications of that era. The social life at that time, crime and punishments, architecture, art and government systems. They analysed ‘Black Death’ at that time and compared it with ‘The Covid Pandemic’ of today.

– Ms. Christina Bella Rodrigues

Civics and Citizenship Teacher

 

Middle School Arabic

Assalaamu Alaikum Dear Parents / Caregivers

Ramadan Mubarak

The Arabic language classroom in the Middle School has been bustling with new learning since the start of this academic year.

The Year 7 students explored the ‘On the Beach’ unit and learned relevant expressions and vocabulary. They also completed activities to strengthen reading comprehension, spelling, sentence construction, grammar and handwriting. The students examined various styles of creative writing in order to write their own composition about their experiences and activities on the beach with families and friends.

The Year 8 students enjoyed the ‘Rabbit and the Hare’ story.  In addition to reading comprehension and sentence construction activities, students examined the singular, dual, plural nouns in Arabic and compared them to their counterparts in English.  They conjugated the present tense verb with the third person pronouns and the past tense verb with all pronoun groups.  The students experimented with writing their own narratives. The stories written were creative and original.

The Year 9 students studied various units of work on Time, Nature, The Winter Season and Hobbies.  They familiarised themselves with the necessary terms and vocabularies to express meaning.  They conjugated the present tense verb with the second and third person pronoun groups and learnt parts of speech; verbs, subjects, objects, prepositions and adverbs. Students could choose either to write a text or to develop a dialogue to be orally presented on any of the topics covered in order to reflect on their learning.

I wish all the students in the Middle School a successful Arabic learning year.

Mrs Hanah Dallah

Arabic Language Teacher

Middle School ICT

Year 7

The Year 7 students engaged with coding in Term 1. They began by understanding binary coding, while also converting binary to decimal before later embarking on colour coding. The term finished with the students block coding on Scratch to create their own, unique algorithms.

Year 8

The Year 8 students engaged with learning about how their computers transfer data through several networks.  The students investigated the Sydney Train Network and investigated how it mirrors computer networks. The students investigated a range of networks before the term ended with them researching and understanding different protocols computers use to interchange data. 

Year 9

The Year 9 students developed their HTML knowledge from last year by creating a website of interest. Along with HTML coding, they practiced CSS for styling along with adding a JavaScript element for interactive purposes. The students ended the term with understanding data compression while practicing lossy and lossless image compression.

Senior School Arabic

Assalaamu Alaikum Dear Parents / Caregivers

Ramadan Mubarak.

The Arabic language classroom has been very busy since the start of this academic year.

The Year 10 students studied an inspirational narrative about ‘Famous Women – Helen Keller’. They explored the meaning, vocabulary and expressions in the story.  In grammar, they studied the absolute object, relative adjectives, patterns, sequencing and Al Hamzah spelling rules.  Students completed a written assignment about who or what has inspired them. The Year 10 students also explored the topics of Cooperation, Motherhood and General Information in Geography through various texts and literacy activities. 

The Year 11 students started the academic year with the online learning. They explored and analysed various units of work such as: Opinions on Learning Arabic, Time Management, My School etc.  They also completed the text production and text analysis summative tasks, after analysing and examining various types of letters and completing many formative literacy tasks.

The Year 12 students related their writing to ‘The Impact of Technology on the Environment’, in a text production summative task, after intensive reading of Arabic reports and articles on the topic. This replicates the SACE assessment tasks that they are required to complete.

I wish all the students in the Senior School a successful Arabic learning year.

Mrs Hanah Dallah

Arabic Language Teacher

Senior School English

Year 8

The Year 8 students read Mahtab’s Story this term while also studying Australia’s treatment of refugees in detail. The students worked on an information writing task where they had to pick out language techniques and explain their purpose. Later on in the term, the students used those techniques to write a persuasive letter directed to Parliament about the treatment of asylum seekers like Mahtab in Australia.

Year 9

The Year 9 students read Animal Farm this term while studying the effect persuasive language can have on the reader. The students created their own propaganda newspaper pages taking a side from the book, before writing a persuasive essay about eating meat and animal products. The focus of writing with intent was later transferred to narrative writing where the students taught a lesson from a proverb through stories where the focus was creating tension in order for the reader to care for the characters involved.

Antonios Pagonis

Senior School Islamic Studies

The significance of charity is evident within our faith. In order to collectively explore the concept of charity at a local level, the Year 12 Stage 2 Religion Studies class, created, organised and run a charity campaign on Tuesday the 29th of March.

Through the cooperation of the Hutt Street Centre and their Angel for a Day program, our senior students were able to cooperatively understand the benefits of giving to others preparing a meal for the homeless.

The Angel for a Day campaign successfully provides up to 40 000 meals, lunches, and breakfast every year for individuals experiencing homelessness. Our students, involved in the preparation of these meals, were able to display their empathy for people experiencing homelessness and reflect on the lives of those that struggle with contrasting lifestyles.

The Year 12 Religion Class went to Marion Mosque in the morning to cook the meals to be donated to the homeless and then delivered it to Hutt Street Centre in the afternoon. All students felt a sense of generosity and gratitude to be able to assist those that may be in need or suffering within society. This excursion ultimately assisted in the understanding of charity as well as the spiritual significance such a notion can have on an individual, whether it that be at a local level benefitting those in our local communities or at a global level contributing to worldwide charity organisations.

Senior School Science

This term the year 12 chemistry class visited the Flinders university outreach facilities to attend a workshop on analytical chemistry which has been developed to help achieve, cement, and extend knowledge of some of the analytical chemistry techniques in the SACE Stage 2 curriculum. The students have tried different experiments include chromatography and AAS.

Senior School Sports

Assalam alaikum

2021 Western Zone Champions!

While it’s been a quite term in the high school sports department due to the current climate, we’ve got incredibly exciting news. Every year, the best performing schools in each zone: North, South, East, and West are awarded the Sporting Schools Shield. We are very proud to announce that the Australian Islamic College Adelaide is the 2021 Western Zone Champion. The historic moment for our school is only possible due to the incredible talent of our students, as well as the commitment, hard work and love they put into their sporting ventures.

This achievement should not be overlooked as it will, and has already, pushed our students into believing they are capable winners. Their drive for success will only become stronger as they realize what they can accomplish. This is a lesson they will hopefully take into their lives outside of school and into the future.

Grants and Coaching!

Once again, we have managed to successfully acquire a sports grant for term 1. The grant money was used to bring in high quality soccer coaches from Football Australia to take several sessions throughout the term. The leftover funds were used to purchase new soccer balls, both indoor and outdoor.

We have also continued our partnership with the Port Adelaide Football Club, who have come into our school to run AFL skills sessions for our Stage 1 Integrated Learning students. We hope that these sessions will help give us the best opportunities for continued success in the Power Intercultural Cup later this year.

Excursions!

We have participated in the following sports excursions this term:

  • Senior 3v3 Basketball Western Zone Competition
  • Junior 3v3 Basketball Western Zone Competition

Upcoming excursions this term:

  • Year 12 Ice Skating Bonding Session
  • Middle School Rewards Excursion: Ice Skating

Wassalam alaikum

Paiwast Ahmed

Career Counsellor

Like the previous years, we aim to provide the students focused career guidance that will help them make the best career choices based upon their aptitude and preference. One of the key events that students attended in Term 1 was Tertiary Studies and Careers Expo. Held in week 11, it involved Year 10, 11 and 12 students in going to the Adelaide Convention Centre and provided a fantastic opportunity to source information about a wide range of study options, career opportunities and new trends in further education, training and employment.

The expo not only boasts exhibition from employers, TAFE and reputed universities interstate and in South Australia, but also offers a number of seminars. Seminar topics range from individual faculty programs, new study options, tertiary admissions process to career pathways. If students need more specific information, they can always ask questions at the exhibiting stand after the presentation.

All students were provided with a career seeker worksheet to enable them to ask focused and relevant questions relating to length of courses, pre-requisites, employment options, pathways and bridging courses, costs, deferability, average salary and competitive organisations. The students found it beneficial and eagerly took notes.

Another exciting event for the students form Years 7-11 that had been organised was the Endeavour Programme delivered by Flinders University. In the past, we have had representatives come in to conduct activities with students relating to setting objectives, time management, stress management, motivation, self-care, setting a study timetable and exploring future study opportunities. Unfortunately, these presentations had to be postponed because of Covid restrictions and will be re-organised in term 2. I hope that it will help them develop habits and set goals, which will be helpful to them in both their personal and professional life.

If you have any questions, concerns or suggestions to make, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards,

Benish Hussain

Career Counsellor

Year 11 Art Room

The Arts News !

As usual, this term, we have got a number of exciting art and design projects organised for our students in the Art Room. Most of the students appear to enjoy working on the various projects that are going on. In particular, the Year 11s have been highly motivated and thoroughly enjoying their Folio task that they are working as part of the SACE Tasks.

To fulfil the requirement s of the task criteria, students have to explore, replicate and experiment with various art styles, media and techniques. Below are a few pages from Aamina Hag’s folio.

Niuma Ernst

The Arts

Acknowledgment

Acknowledgement

State Government Capital Grant Acknowledgement

Australian Islamic College Adelaide
would like to acknowledge and thank the

Government of South Australia – Department for Education

for the

2020-21 Round 2 State Government Non-Government School Capital Grant

which supported the Communication, Learning Resource & Air Conditioners Project

and

2021-22 State Government Capital Grant for Independent Non-Government Schools

which supported the Essential Sun Smart Shade for Students

ADELAIDE

HEAD OFFICE

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