College Happenings

After School Clubs

The staff at The King’s College contribute their free time each week to run a large range of co-curricular clubs for our students. Held after school and at lunchtimes, they are a great way for students to make new friends, learn new skills and contribute to valuable causes.

Environment Club

Each week a growing band of “eco-warriors” meet together with Miss Rudd and Ms Hill to discuss local and global issues.  Recently, we enjoyed Year 7 student Rohan's detailed PowerPoint presentation about reducing and recycling our waste. It included some interesting facts about the negative impact of waste on land and animals, as well as a call to action.  “Together, each one of us can make a difference” and help to create a better environment.

Balian and Shivim helped laminate signs to put on our schoolyard recycling bins, to help educate students about what can go into the recycling bins, while Destiny composed an educational message for students on our SEQTA noticeboard.  We discussed ways to make our campus litter free… and brainstormed some excellent ideas… so watch this space!

World Earth Day

Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. On Earth Day this year, Year 5H walked the grounds to collect as much litter as possible in 10 minutes. After collecting the trash into one pile, the students reflected on how litter affects our environment and wildlife. They were surprised at how much we collected and were relieved that we could dispose of it properly into the bins. 

Spotlight on Literacy: Creative Writing Workshop

On Tuesday 27 April, the Year 5 and 6s were treated to a suspense writing workshop conducted by the Fremantle Literature Centre. The session was conducted by Ms Natalya Simons, an esteemed writer of young adult fiction and a recent Masters of English Literature graduate from Oxford University. 

The session began with examples of suspenseful openers from popular fictional texts. She then began highlighting how these openers contained either an element of the setting, sound, emotion or the unexpected. Students were then required to brainstorm as many ideas relating to settings, sounds, emotions and the unexpected. 

With their ideas noted down on a table, students were required to produce a small paragraph that contained a setting and an emotion. 

‘It was a snow kissed morning, and the wind whistled through the leaves of the big Oak tree. I was dreading to go to school, my legs ached from the cross country race the day before, but I packed my bag and headed out. Whilst walking to school, I turned the corner into a dark alley, the gloom of the ally crept towards me and I could feel an impending sense of doom overcome me.’ - Farai (Year 5/6R)

‘Webs sprang out around the abandoned school. A heavy axe scraped and screeched against the old floors, that was when I noticed a knife stabbed into the photo of myself.’ - Cole (Year 6)

‘She was lured to the front of the boat when she heard a curdling scream, that was when she noticed the reflection in the blackwaters.’ - Josh (Year 5/6R)

Natalya was very impressed by some of their creation, and she even used their ideas for the other classes. The children also learnt about the skill of “show don’t tell,” which is a literary skill that many suspense authors use to describe the impending threat. The students definitely learnt many valuable lessons from this 90-minute session. 

Courage to Care Incursion

The Holocaust institute visited The King’s College on 6 May to run the Courage to Care incursion. The volunteer historians spoke to the Year 10 Humanities and Social Science (HASS) class about the Holocaust, the causes and the impact. The incursion focused on stories of bystanders and those groups and individuals in Europe who supported Jewish people throughout the Holocaust. The break out small discussion groups gave students an opportunity to explore and discuss these stories. It was great to see our students participating, discussing and asking questions. Thank you to all the Year 10 students for their interest, respect, good behaviour and questions during the incursion. 

Some of the Historians and speakers who visited us were first generations of the Holocaust survivors and taught us about these four concepts: perpetrators, victims, upstanders and bystanders; but mainly the upstanders. The perpetrator was the one who started and prolongs the issue like Adolf Hitler. The victims are people who’ve suffered from the other parties’ actions. An example of this were the Jews. The bystanders are the party that watches the event but only spectates it. Like the German citizens who didn’t do anything to save the Jews. And lastly, the upstanders. They are the ones who actively stopped the perpetrators from harming the victims like the righteous man, Chiune Sugihara. Chiune was a Japanese diplomat who saved thousands of Jews by giving them visas that would let them take a train from Siberia to Japan, saving them from near-certain death. 

Alyssia Rudd, Karin Au and Daniel O’Malley

Year 10 HASS Teachers

Students' reflections...

"'Don't be a bystander, be an upstander.' This was a powerful message that taught me the importance of standing up for something that is morally right. During this session, we learnt that the people that stood up for Jewish people were the ones who wanted to build a strong foundation and ignored the opinions of others. They set standards for others and stood up for their rights. Nobody asked them to do these good deeds but they did it with courage." Rylan H, Year 10 Student

"During the Holocaust incursion, I learned that a majority of the people who refuged the fleeing Jewish population were grateful for Jews.  There are so many good people who showed courage to support others. During the Holocaust the Jewish population was dehumanised and put into multiple concentration camps, where they were systematically killed becauseof their religion. This should never happen again." Curtis K, Year 10 Student

 Overall, the message to take away from this incursion is to not let injustice pass through without taking action. Stand up for the victims and be courageous."  Kien N, Year 10 Student