Dear families,

We have had an exciting 2 weeks since our last newsletter. The filming that was taken by Channel 9 in Week 2, was broadcast over 2 segments on Monday night February 12th. The second one- introduced by Peter Overton is now loaded onto our share-drive and being enjoyed by students. If you would like to see it, open our school website, and click on the link.
Channel 9 syndicated this story, so it also appeared in the news bulletins in Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, and Brisbane. This was terrific exposure for our little school.
Our Facebook page also received great traction around this news story, and I have received emails from the general public who looked us up and emailed the school to congratulate us for our work. How good is that!
Don’t forget to sign up to our newsletter (by contacting the school office) and social media sites to keep up to date with current events.

Just as we were recovering from the Oscar’s Ceremony (see above) we also had the opening of our Mini Woolies on Tuesday February 13th. Woolworths were terrific partners to work with and this is a really valuable resource for us.
One of our SLSO’s has expressed interest in being our store manager, and we are having meetings over the next few weeks to consider how we actually operate the store. We need to consider how we are manning Mini Woolies, how we stock it, how we vary the range of goods and get the shelf tickets printed, and- importantly how we are going to teach about payment methods. Coins and notes have been used as payment for years, but we need to future-proof our teaching and consider current and future practice. I have reached out to other schools who have had such stores longer to see if they have great strategies, so watch this space.

The ‘Meet the Teacher’ event was held on February 21st. It was disappointing that whilst 41 people had said that they were coming, only 17 family members attended. This seems such a low turnout given that this is one of the few occasions that families can network/ share phone numbers etc. There were more teachers on-site than parents, so perhaps we need to reconsider this session if families do not consider it of value. We will discuss this further as a school and precede next years’ event with a survey to determine what would best suit the school community.

It was preceded by a workshop given by Analise our Speech Pathologist who was talking about the use of devices at Karonga School. We had around 11 carers attend. If you have any ideas for workshops, you would like us to offer, please get in touch via email and we will do our best to address themes.

Health concerns: We all care about the welfare of the students at Karonga. We know that you need to feel that your child attends in as safe a space as possible, and staff at Karonga are concerned about the significant health concerns associated with many of our students.
I have taken advice form NSW Health around 2 ‘relatively common’ children’s complaints and we need to tighten our practice around these factors going forward:
Gastroenteritis- Children should not attend childcare or school until 48 hours after they no longer have symptoms (diarrhoea and vomiting).
https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/factsheets/Pages/viral-gastroenteritis.aspx

Additionally, no swimming for 7 days following a bout of diarrhoea or vomiting.
Green mucus/ discharge from the nose- If you are sick with flu, stay at home and avoid close contact with other people. Keep sick children away from school and other activities. To avoid infecting others, stay at home for at least 24 hours after your fever has resolved and until you are feeling well. This is especially important if you visit people at higher risk of severe illness, including pregnant women, infants, older people and people in hospital, residential aged or disability care.
Influenza fact sheet - Fact sheets (nsw.gov.au)

Please understand that when our office calls for you to collect your child due to sickness, there is nothing personal about this: we are following guidelines from NSW Health Service.

Silent Auction

What is a silent auction?
An item of value is offered, and people separately offer to buy it for a sum of money without knowing what other people are bidding.
What are we bidding on?
A BEAUTIFUL hand-made quilt has been donated to the school with proceeds going directly to the refit of the Sensory Room. It is 163cm x 127cm and is beautifully finished. If you would like to see it, please contact the school and it can be available in the office for you to look at.
How do I bid?
Please text the school mobile on 0476 836 216 with your name and the bid offered. For example, I could text the number and put Ruth Rogers $50. Send.
When do I find out if I was the successful bidder?
The successful bidder will be phoned on March 8th and announced in the Week 6 newsletter.

Please support Karonga School and acknowledge this generous donation.

Regards
Karen

Room 7 was pleased to welcome a new student into their class room this year. Stavya is a Year 4 student and he has integrated with ease to his new school environment. He began the first term by cheerfully joining in all group activities, such as taking a walk around the oval each morning and crossing the road using the training pedestrian crossing installed at Karonga School. Stavya is keen to explore Karonga school each day, and visits his adjacent classrooms to play with other students during indoor breaks. He displays interest in making jigsaw puzzles, and developing artwork. Along with his classmates, Stavya developed a beautiful card to gift his parents on Valentines Day. Stavya enjoys playing with his friends, especially sitting on large balls whilst indoors and bouncing on them. He further enjoys playing in a cubby during indoor play, and welcomes other students to play with him. He enjoys nursery rhymes and walks up to the Interactive White Board (IWB), especially when he hears the rhyme, ‘Rain rain go away!’. We look forward to supporting him in his learning journey this year.

Room 5 are so lucky to welcome Mike to our class and the Karonga family this year. Mike has settled into our class routines seamlessly, and confidently navigates our school with his classmates, walking from one activity to another. He loves art, music and going to the gym, regularly setting an excellent example to other students. We look forward to getting to know Mike even more as we explore new and exciting learning opportunities this year.

Our Wednesday lunchtime club ‘Let’s Get Fit’ has started up again and we are all working hard. Chris, David, Titan, and Massa use the different equipment we have in the gym to improve their fitness and get strong. Chris’ favourite is the treadmill; he is now walking for up to 15 minutes and proudly tells us how far he has walked. Massa loves the rower and is getting very good at remembering to push with her legs and pull with her arms. David also enjoys the treadmill, but also likes the bikes, and Titan likes to work with the resistance bands to build his muscles! We look forward to sharing our progress with you.

Emma and Craig

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