Dear families,

We celebrated our fabulous SASS staff recently at a breakfast before school. It was a great event where teachers all prepared food to be shared over hot drinks on Tuesday morning instead of our regular meeting. We all sat outside and shared time together socially which is very special indeed. I know you join me in thanking the non-teaching staff for all they do: whether it is the grounds staff, office personnel or our teaching assistants (SLSO’s). They do a great job and this was a gesture to show our appreciation.

The Founders Day event on Thursday September 12th was a triumph. This year recognized our 60th anniversary of those special people who started our school and there was a great atmosphere at school as we included ex-students, ex-staff and community supporters for this annual event. Over 100 people visited us over the 2-hour period, along with around 45 Y9 boys from the Kings School who facilitated all our activities and additionally played musical instruments in the courtyard. Besides opening up our playgrounds and the Immersive Classroom, North Rocks RFS brought a truck to school to engage the students; we hired a photobooth for families to capture takeaway souvenirs; we hired a soft-serve ice cream machine (very popular) and the ‘always enjoyable’ petting zoo. I have been inundated with kind words since Founders Day from many who attended, and we continue to be very proud of our school and our students. We are sending home commemorative mugs today- as tomorrow marks the official Founders Day.

Please enjoy some of the photographs captured during the day.

We have recently held ITP (Individual Transition Plan) meetings for all students in years 10, 11 and 12. We have been considering the best way to transition Y12 students as they leave Karonga at the conclusion of Term 3, and we have plans to invite an NDIS planner into school in the near future to support families to fully understand the process and advocate for their young person. Look out for details in upcoming emails and newsletters.

Our General Assistant, Jim, has worked at Karonga since 1999 – (25 years) and transitions into retirement at the end of this term. We are still to determine a permanent replacement for Jim, but we have secured a grounds man from a private school who will move temporarily into the role to see if it is a ‘good fit’. Jim has worked tirelessly to keep our 9 acres looking so good, and to fix things as they inevitable break, so he will be a sad loss to the staffing support. I am sure you join me in wishing him well.

We have been pleased to have Department of Education personnel visit our school to approve the provision of improved fencing. This helps us to keep your children safe- which is our paramount concern. We anticipate these changes to be installed during the upcoming school holidays.

Students from Room 1 have been enjoying the warmer weather. The have been enjoying walks around the beautiful Karonga School grounds. Arik is always pleased to access the outdoors and looks forward to walking in the school environment.

This term, students have been investigating the effects of plastic pollution on our seas and oceans. They have viewed animations on the topic. Students have also worked collaboratively to create wall art depicting clean, dirty and polluted waterways. Anita, Sidney and Shuyang have especially enjoyed placing sea creatures on the wall charts.

Monday swimming is a favourite for Oras, Ria and William. Students respond particularly well to Mr Wei and gain therapeutic and physical benefits from the program.

As we head towards the end on Term 3, we look forward to more learning in Term 4.

Megan and Sandya.

This term there has been a big focus on life skills, communication and play skills in Room 12. We have a strong routine that lends itself kindly to the needs of our busy classroom.

We have our daily morning circle, where we work on making choices and communication skills. Our class is getting much better at making eye contact when saying ‘hello’ to their friends and staff members. On our morning walk, we work on following instructions and staying together as a group. Sebastian and Daniel look forward to our walk each day and are often happy to lead the group and control the pace.

Room 12 has started to do task boxes, which involve the development of fine-motor skills and encourage self-guided learning and work. Ali has shown fantastic engagement with these tasks and often chooses to repeat boxes after completing them. Nakissa has shown great concentration as he works on and completes each of his task boxes. Each of the students in the class have all shown increased motivation and engagement with their tasks and they are moving towards completing boxes independently.

During our play skills sessions, we have been learning to play with and alongside our friends. We work on skills like sharing, turn-taking, and communication. We work on these skills in the classroom, sensory room and immersive classroom. During our class visits to the Sensory Room, Ishan has shown great improvement in engaging with play and taking turns with staff using the sound making machine. Gregory has made big strides in playing with and alongside his peers and starting to request ‘more’ from staff.

Room 12 is a busy classroom and the students have done fantastic work developing their life skills and completing their learning for the term across all units of work.

Javier & Rupak

It's been a busy start to the term in Room 14!  We’ve been focusing on developing our communication, literacy, and numeracy skills, while also working on becoming more independent learners.

We have been working on Personalised Learning Plans and building life skills this semester. We are learning how to express our feelings and needs and doing well in finding tools to help us regulate. We’re also working hard to greet people appropriately through words, Key Word Signs, or visuals.

In our literacy program, we are engaging with books, listening to, and responding to various texts. We’ve been reading several books from the NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge list. In numeracy, we’re exploring 3D objects and concepts like “full” and “empty” as part of our Volume and Capacity unit of work.

Each morning, we participate in our class walking program to improve our strength and fitness, and we're getting closer to completing two full laps around the oval! Additionally, during our weekly swimming sessions, we are learning about safety in and around the pool.

The gardening and work experience sessions have been highly successful, with students focusing on tasks such as weeding, raking, and watering the garden.

We hope you enjoy looking through our photos and seeing all the learning we’ve done so far this semester.

Until next time,

Kamal and Hyma

Remaining one of our most consistent lunchtime clubs, Music Improvisation with our Music Therapist, Bec, continues to be a popular activity with all our participating students.

Our students have so much fun experimenting with different sounds while exploring a variety of string and percussion instruments. As always, Bec is a wonderful facilitator who knows the students well and what kind of music they love to hear, be it rock & roll, pop, morning circle favourites, or even fun songs made up on the spot. The big smiles from our participating students tell us that the club is a big success, so Karonga will keep on rocking for the rest of 2024 and beyond!

The Signing Choir has been busy practicing for the Epping Music Festival which takes place at Chatswood Concourse on November 7^th. This year we are performing two songs, one on our own, and one with the combined schools choir made up of 400 students from 10 schools in the Epping area. We are very excited to be included in this great event and look forward to it every year. We hope to share some photos of our performance in November, so keep an eye out in the newsletter and on the Facebook page.

When coming and going from school, and heading out on class excursions, we always use safe travel practices.