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Dear Maarif Parents,
We are close to the end of the term. I hope you all had a great Bayram and enjoyed your time with friends and family. We all need an extra day for Bayram celebrations.
I am aware that many of our parents are asking what will happen to the building. Unfortunately, the building company's turnover took longer than expected, and construction is delayed. However, we are working closely with NESA and looking for alternative locations for extra classrooms. We will also definitely have kindergarten students on board next year.
I regret to inform you that last week, we witnessed a very unfortunate incident at our school, which should not have occurred. However, we must emphasize that such incidents will not be tolerated by our school. We want to make it clear that we will always stand against any attacks on our staff. We must respect our teachers so that our students learn to respect them as well. If a mistake has been made and it can be corrected, the best approach is to fix it or attempt to fix it. It is one of the most essential rules of our school that our parents follow to the parent code of conduct at all times and under all circumstances. Teaching is one of the most respected professions, and our teachers are highly valued.
I also want to remind you that our teachers are on duty until 4:00pm. If you have any questions or need a meeting, please do not approach the teachers at the end of the school day during dismissal; instead, please schedule an appointment. Moving forward, our office will not accept payments/enquiries between 3:00pm and 4:00pm. During this time, our school will also be closed to parent entries.
Additionally, to all students joining the 2024 Türkiye Trip next week, please enjoy and have fun in our beautiful country. This year, they will also be visiting the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
Thank you very much for your support. I wish you all a pleasant holiday in advance.
Best regards,
Dr Zeynep Yaseen
Principal
Dear Parents and Guardians,
Welcome to the Secondary School newsletter!
We hope Kurban Bayram was a joyous occasion for all families. Maarif celebrated Kurban Bayram with a special day filled with activities. It was beautiful to see our students engaging in this critical celebration together.
At Maarif, we continue implementing the Positive Behavioural Interventions and Supports (PBIS) framework. Students have been diligently learning PBIS lessons at the beginning of every class. PBIS continues to foster a positive and conducive learning environment.
The SWISSA competition has recently concluded, and our students participated with diligence and dedication. We are incredibly proud of their efforts and look forward to the following term’s SWISSA games.
In addition to academics, the Maarif Sports Academy, tutoring academy, lunchtime clubs, and sports training have been active over the past two weeks. These programs provide valuable opportunities for our students to develop their skills and interests outside the classroom.
Various year groups and subjects have also participated in exciting incursions and excursions. Year 9 Turkish students enjoyed an enriching Ebru incursion. In contrast, Year 10 Design and Technology students had an informative excursion to Bankstown Airport. These experiences are invaluable for broadening our students’ horizons and helping them apply their classroom knowledge in real-world contexts.
Assessment tasks have been due as we approach the end of the term. Students must stay on top of these tasks and seek support if needed. We encourage open communication, so please feel free to reach out if you have any concerns or need assistance.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at adeba.qasim@maarif.nsw.edu.au
Kind regards ,
Mrs Adeba Qasim
Secondary School Coordinator
Eid Celebrations
On Tuesday, June 18, 2024, the International Maarif Schools of Australia celebrated Kurban Bayram. Students came to school dressed in their finest Eid clothes. The sight of students in their bright and beautiful Eid clothes added a festive atmosphere to the school, highlighting the importance of cultural celebrations. The day was about fun activities and embracing and honouring the traditions significant to many families in the school community.
- Sausage Sizzle: The delicious aroma of sausages grilling filled the air, drawing students and teachers alike to the sausage sizzle stand.
- Face Painting: Creativity and joy shone brightly at the face painting booth. Students had a variety of designs painted on their faces!
- Henna: The henna station was popular amongst students. Students had lovely henna designs on their hands.
- Balloon Art: Balloons twisted into animals, flowers, and imaginative shapes brought smiles to many faces. The balloon artists' skills amazed the students, who proudly carried their creations around the school.
- Bracelet-Making Station: Students made various bracelets at the bracelet-making station.
We want to thank the P&C, volunteers, staff, and class prefects for their support and hard work in making the event a success!
We are excited to announce that Mohamad Dib has won every game at the JT Junior 125 Springwood Junior Tournament, held over the long weekend of June. Throughout the tournament, Mohamad showcased exceptional skill and sportsmanship.
We are incredibly proud of Mohamad's outstanding achievement and commend him for his remarkable success.
The SWISSA competitions have successfully concluded for Term 2. Our boys' and girls' soccer teams played incredibly well. Students showed dedication and passion for the sport. Every Tuesday, the students eagerly anticipated the games and put in tremendous effort.
We want to extend a special thank you to Talha Hocam and Yusufhan Hocam for their dedication and hard work. We also want to thank the students for their effort in every game.
Year 8 students have been diving into the world of financial mathematics. Our students have shown incredible enthusiasm and engagement as we have explored vital concepts such as profit, cost price, sale price, and the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
We began by revisiting the basics of cost price and sale price. The students learned how to calculate profit by subtracting the cost price from the sale price. This foundational knowledge paved the way for more advanced topics, enabling our students to understand the real-world applications of these concepts.
One of the highlights of our lessons was understanding the Goods and Services Tax (GST). Students explored how GST is calculated and added to the sale price of goods and services. This enhanced their arithmetic skills and gave them a glimpse into the workings of our economy.
The students displayed remarkable problem-solving skills and collaborated effectively to find solutions. Their ability to grasp these complex concepts was truly commendable.
To bring these lessons to life, we discussed real-world scenarios where financial mathematics plays a crucial role. From budgeting for a school event to understanding the pricing strategies of businesses, our students saw firsthand how these mathematical principles are applied in everyday life.
Mr Bahadir Korkut, Ms Lark Lu, Dr Zeynep Yaseen & Ms Mariam El Maarraoui
Maths Teachers
It's assessment time for English classes as students reflect on the big-picture ideas in the texts they are studying. Years 7, 9, and 10 had the opportunity to be creative in their multimodal tasks, and we enjoyed looking at what they produced. In particular, Year 9 has entertained us with their performances of Shakespearean monologues on The Taming of the Shrew. Some students got into character as they examined attitudes towards women in the text and Shakespearean times. The feedback from Year 9 on this task has been remarkably positive, as they enjoyed the nature of the task.
Year 8 were introduced to PEEL paragraph writing as they thought analytically about the nature of love and the complications that arise when characters disguise their identities and true feelings. Students developed their paragraphs into mini-essays, and most students now understand an essay's basic structure and features. They will need to refine this knowledge until they finish high school.
The next few weeks will be about completing the text study and consolidating what has been learned.
Ms Susan Naser & Mrs Canan Korkut
English Coordinator & English Teacher
Welcome to Week 8 of the 2nd Term.
Assessment Tasks have been underway since the last issue, and the results of all the student's hard work have been astounding!
From Year 8, they worked hard on their pillows and their research on comfort items; from Year 7, they worked on their tote bags and their historical influence on the fashion industry. Other students have been working on weaving crafts for their assessment task, such as bracelets and woven bookmarks.
I look forward to seeing the final results on Monday morning when they are due for all TAS Students.
If you have any issues or concerns, please email me, and I will respond as soon as possible.
Ms Noor Elmubasher
TAS Teacher
Ancient India
Dear Parents,
Our Year 7 students continue exploring Ancient India, having already delved into its geography, social organisation, and religion. In the coming weeks, we'll expand our studies to include the ancient legal systems, everyday life, warfare, and funerary customs. The students eagerly engage with the material, and we look forward to deepening their understanding of this fascinating civilisation.
Mongol Expansion
Our students are continuing their fascinating exploration of Mongol Expansion. So far, they have studied the geography of the Mongol Empire, nomadic life and society, and the life of Genghis Khan. Next, we will dive into the Mongol army's strategies, Mongol rule in China, and the far-reaching consequences of Mongol expansion. We are excited about the insights and understanding this unit brings our students.
Year 9 History students have completed their half-yearly. Congratulations to those students who have committed to their studies and devoted themselves to their studies. Please encourage students to continue to revise through course content to excel and improve their grades for the following semester.
Year 10 History students have completed their half-yearly exams, and well done to those who committed to their studies. Students are encouraged to achieve competent results; year 10 History students must revise coursework to improve grades in the following semester. We continue to explore the remainder of the unit 'Australians in the Vietnam War' before the end of the school term.
Ms Burcin Taskin & Ms Sumeyye Islek
HSIE Teachers
Exciting Sports Activities!
Dear Parents and Students,
We are thrilled to share some exciting updates from our sports department at International Maarif Schools of Australia. Our students in various year levels have been actively engaged in multiple sports activities, enhancing their teamwork, skills, and overall fitness.
Year 7 Students: Netball Team Success Our Year 7 students have been making waves on the netball court! They have diligently practised and recently participated in several matches, demonstrating exceptional teamwork and sportsmanship. Their dedication and enthusiasm have shone through, reflecting their commitment to personal improvement and team success.
Year 8 Students: Volleyball Training with a Professional Coach Meanwhile, our Year 8 students have received training sessions from a professional volleyball coach. This expert guidance has sharpened their skills and inspired them to strive for excellence on the volleyball court. We look forward to their continued progress and competitive spirit in upcoming matches.
Year 9 Students: Introduction to Cricket Our Year 9 students have embarked on an exciting journey into the world of cricket. They learn this beloved sport's fundamentals through interactive sessions and hands-on practice. Their enthusiasm and willingness to learn are commendable, and we anticipate their growth as cricket enthusiasts and players.
Year 10 Students: Lacrosse in Thursday Evening Sports Lessons Lastly, our Year 10 students have actively participated in lacrosse during their Thursday evening sports lessons. Lacrosse offers them a unique blend of athleticism, strategy, and teamwork. They have enthusiastically embraced the challenge, further enriching their overall sporting experience.
We are incredibly proud of all our students for their dedication, teamwork, and sportsmanship displayed across these various sports activities. Their commitment to excellence both on and off the field is truly commendable. It reflects the values we uphold at our school.
Thank you for your continued support in encouraging our students to pursue their sporting passions and for being an integral part of their journey to success.
Warm regards,
Ms Aslihan
PDHPE
Ms Aslihan Agyar, Mr Yusufhan Diler, Mr Talha Sen
PDHPE Teachers
As we approach the end of semester one, stage 4 students sat their semester one exam, and the results show pleasing progress! They also finalised their term assignments on cells and adaptations of living things. For the rest of the term, stage 4 students are conducting experiments on what they learned this term by applying the steps of the scientific method throughout their practical investigations.
Year 7 students started the classification of living things topic (the process of arranging organisms into groups based on similar characteristics)
By the end of this topic(classifications), Year 7 students will be able to:
- Understand why all living things have a universal scientific name used worldwide
- How scientists sort and group living things
- Identify features of living things and how features are used to group organisms
Year 8 students are concluding the topic of ecosystems by studying the impact of human activities on ecosystem biodiversity.
By the end of this topic (human activities and biodiversity), Year 8 students will be able to:
- Understand what biodiversity is and the role it plays in maintaining a healthy environment
- Understand that humans can have a positive or negative impact on the land.
- Predict the future effect of human activity on biodiversity!
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Year 9 students explored several interesting phenomena in our ecosystems in the last couple of weeks, including natural cycling and recycling. They also learned about the pyramid of biomass, which explains how organisms consume energy in food chains while flowing from one level to another, where most of it goes into living activities. At the same time, the rest is spent on growing and cell development. In addition, students learned why biodiversity is essential for stabilisation and explored the concept of sustainable living. They realised that Realiseda's ecological footprint is among the highest in the world, highlighting the need for lifestyle modification to protect our planet's natural resources better.
In Year 10, we learned about the physical and chemical properties of elements that belong to various groups in the periodic table, including the alkali metals, the alkaline earth, the versatile elements of Group 14, the halogens, the noble gases, and the transition metals. Interestingly, we learned that while the reactivity of these elements increases as we go down from one period to another in the lower groups of the periodic table (i.e. Groups 1 and 2), the reactivity decreases as we go down from one period to another in the higher groups (i.e. Groups 17 and 18). We also watched several videos illustrating the levels of reactivity of some elements. At that point, we started examining chemical reactions, including the possibility of generating energy. We learned about word equations, the balance of formula equations, and exothermic and endothermic reactions. Furthermore, we explored several reactions with oxygen, including combustion, corrosion, and respiration.
Mr Bilal Almadi & Mr George Hassoun
Science Teacher
Year 7 Advanced Turkish Students
With advanced-level year 7 Turkish students, we read and listened to texts about festivals and the activities held at festivals this week. According to the posters and texts provided for the festival activities, the students performed role-plays where they used expressions to invite each other to a place, accept, decline, and give reasons. The students organized poster information for the festivals they arranged themselves. The students made comments about the films on the presented posters. They strengthened their remarks by stating whether they would prefer to watch these films and adding the movies' genres.
Year 8 Beginner Turkish Students
In Turkish class for Year 8, beginner Turkish students have been learning about how people dress differently in summer and winter in four cities of Turkey: Erzurum, Antalya, Rize, and Istanbul in Türkiye. They discovered that in Erzurum, where winters are cold, people wear coats, gloves, and hats to stay warm, while in Antalya, where it's sunny, they wear light clothes like T-shirts and sandals. In Rize, where it often rains, raincoats and boots are common. In Istanbul, where seasons change, people wear layers in winter and lighter clothes in summer. This study has helped students understand how weather affects clothing choices in different parts of Türkiye. The students learned this information from the Turkish text they read and verbally described the given pictures in Turkish. They answered questions related to the text.
Year 9 Beginner Turkish Students
Year 9 beginner students first matched the visuals of four different characters given for four seasons with the Turkish words they had learned, and then they verbally described these visuals. The students used the sentences they learned to explain their outfits verbally. The students expressed the clothes they learned by matching them with colours and forming grammatically correct sentences.
Year 10 Beginner Turkish Students
In Turkish class for Year 10, beginner Turkish students began by reading a Turkish text describing various seasons and corresponding clothing. They matched photos of clothing to each season, expanding their vocabulary and cultural understanding. They also explored characters' emotional reactions to seasons, promoting empathy and a deeper connection to the text. Additionally, they verbally explained a character's clothing colour in Turkish, linking it to emotions and seasons to practice spoken Turkish in context.
Sever Meyra Biçer
Turkish Teacher / Türkçe Öğretmeni
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Year 7
We continue to work on shopping with our Year 7 students.
This term, we have learned the names of fruits and vegetables. This vocabulary should be used when shopping, which products are sold in the market and greengrocer's shop and even which aisle we can buy from, Turkish currencies and measurements, greetings and parting expressions. We have learned to ask and answer questions on these topics and read and acted out many dialogues.
As an assessment, students were given a shopping dialogue. The students prepared for this dialogue in the time given to them. On the assessment day, a greengrocer's shop was set up in the classroom, and natural fruit, vegetables, and money were used for shopping. The students acted out this dialogue using the role-play method. To the extent they could, they performed successfully without looking at the paper, using their body language and facial expressions, and paying attention to intonation and pronunciation.
Year 8
While searching for answers to the question "What do you like to do?" with our Year 8 students, we learned about fun activities and hobbies that can be done in our free time and vocabulary related to them.
Our students learned to ask each other what they like and dislike and to answer questions positively and negatively. They also learned to ask each other offer questions, invite each other to activities (Shall we go to the cinema? Shall we ride bicycles?) and make weekly plans and programs. They used future tense patterns while making their plans. They did a lot of reading and writing.
Year 9
We worked on their assessments with our Year 9 students.
In the past weeks, we learned the words for congratulations and wishes to be said on special occasions in Turkish. We read texts and did exercises on this subject. As an assessment, the students were asked to research the words for congratulations and wishes to be said on special occasions such as 'wedding, graduation, holiday, birthday, baby birth, buying a new house, Mother's Day, Father's Day, illness' in Turkish and English and to compare and contrast how these special occasions are celebrated in Türkiye and Australia.
The class worked on how to prepare the assignment.
Zeliha Uzun Turkish Teacher
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In our Turkish lessons with the Year 10 students, we recalled information about religious and national holidays and their dates. Afterwards, we discussed the general routines of what is done during religious holidays in Turkish culture, and the students shared their holiday memories both orally and in writing. We did a dictation exercise with Mehmet Akif Ersoy's poem 'Bayram.' The students wrote the poem they listened to by following the spelling rules and then read the poem aloud.
Ayşegül Şeyma Akdemir
Seyma Akdemir
Turkish Language Teachers
Year 7
The year seven students have diligently worked on their assessment tasks, explicitly focusing on landscapes using reference photos. We are proud to share some of their impressive works, such as [insert specific examples of students' work here].
Year 8
Our Year 8 Visual Arts students have deeply explored Pop Art. They have been eagerly researching the works of Andy Warhol and other artists who played a significant role in the Pop Art movement during the 1960s.
Years 9 and 10
The students have been making remarkable progress in their assessment tasks and have been introduced to Fiona Hall's captivating works, sculptures, and statues. They have also been honing their sketches and artistic skills, promising growth in their creative abilities.
Year 7
- Music lessons have focused on the orchestra's instruments and their composition to create music for various events.
- Whether for soundtracks to a movie or live music for the opera, they have also been researching the families of instruments, such as the Sting and Wood families.
Year 8
- Music students have been researching the classical music composers of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. Listening to their music, the history and legacy they have left behind through their lives and compositions.
- The students have also examined classical music used in commercials and how it affects the product's message.
Year 9 and 10 Design and Technology students have been working on their Term 2 Assessment tasks. Year 10 students have focused on t he work of past and present designers. Students focused on the designs of airplanes in preparation of their DT excursion to Sydney Flight School. Students learnt about the preflight checks conducted by piolets and had the opportunity to take part in a simulator-based activity. Students trained like pilots!
Year 9 DT focused on the past and present designers in agriculture. Students learnt about the advancement in technology and how it has benefited agriculture. Students also focused on the use of AI in agriculture.
Mrs Adeba Qasim
Design and Technology & TAS Teacher
Secondary Religion Studies
Assalamu Alaikum wa rahmetullahi wa barakatuh,
The Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said, "If anyone recites a letter from Allah's Book, he will be credited with a good deed, and a good deed gets a tenfold reward. I do not say that 'Alif-Lam-Mim' are one letter, but 'Alif' is a letter, 'Lam' is a letter, and 'Mim' is a letter."
Our secondary students on the Mushaf were reciting their assigned pages in a group. Elif Ba book students recited their assigned activity pages with the Qur'an support teacher. Some rules were explained and displayed on the board.
Mr Muhammed Ordukaya
Secondary Islamic Studies Teacher
We request that our parents and/or carers be extra cautious during school drop-off and pick-up times. Please ensure NSW Government rules regarding road safety are being followed and adhered to at all times.
This means:
- Respecting the road rules and signs, and driving within the speed limit of 40km/h in a school zone.
- Parking safely in designated parking areas or in drop off/pick up zones.
- No double parking, as it is dangerous and illegal.
- Three-point turns and U-turns are not permitted in school zones, as not only is it dangerous for students and other vehicles but also causes traffic congestion.
- Follow the directions of our school crossing supervisors.
- Give way to our School Bus drivers.
Thank you for your cooperation.
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