Dear Families,

We hope you’re all settling into the new term! It’s been a busy start, and with the weather changing so quickly, we wanted to remind you to please label all your child’s clothing and layers. Our classrooms can get quite warm, while the playground can be a bit cooler, and items often find themselves separated from their owners.

Last Thursday, we held our ANZAC Service, and it was a truly special occasion. A Scottish bagpiper led myself, our two wonderful school leaders, and members of the Epping Club board through the school as we laid a wreath in honour of the brave soldiers who have served. The Kings School boys were fantastic in helping our students join in the walk and ceremony. For those who couldn’t be part of the procession, we made sure everyone could participate from their classrooms. Be sure to check out our school Facebook page for some lovely photos from the day!

We also had our school photos taken on Friday! While this annual event can be a little hectic, we are so proud of how well the students handled it. We can’t wait to share the photos with you, which should be available before the end of the term. If you missed the ordering deadline, don’t worry! You can still place an order online directly at theschoolphotographer.com.au.

Exciting news! We have a talented sibling of one of our students who is a qualified barber, and he’s eager to offer haircuts to our students at school! Of course, we’ll need your permission first, so keep an eye out for a notification from School Bytes where you can easily give your consent. Depending on the interest and how well the haircuts go, he may consider offering this service regularly at no cost.

Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to a wonderful term together!

Warm regards

Ruth Rogers
Principal

In Term 2 at Karonga School we continue our Literacy program with the following books.

In the junior classes the students are looking at the books: Giraffes Can't Dance, Banjo & Ruby Red and Scary Night.

The students in the senior classes are listening to Cathy Freeman Born To Run, No Never and The Invisible Boy.

Keep an eye out later in the term where we will be publishing some amazing Literacy work from across the school.

Karen Guerin-Kerr
Assistant Principal, Curriculum & Instruction

Here it is. The long-awaited sequel to last term's Room 5 newsletter entry! We last left you on a bit of a cliffhanger, with our community access outings about to begin. We have been out and about, hither and thither, high and low, near and far in our latest adventures, and we're excited to share with you all.

We kick-started with a big day out sailing on the harbour. As always, this was a popular activity, and the boys loved sitting up the front of the boat to feel the wind in their hair or hanging out the back and helping steer us under the Harbour Bridge, past Luna Park and into Darling Harbour.

As the term progressed, we went on a peaceful bushwalk at the Cumberland State Forest, listening to the birds and the lingering drops of rain, tumbling down from the canopy above.

We swung by a couple of lovely parks, where the boys found lots of different ways to have fun together.

We meandered through Chinese gardens. We caught a ferry to Circular Quay for lunch and watched some indigenous performers.

We made new friends at Sir Eric Woodward School when we popped in to enjoy a performance from Amber Lawrence. We jumped and laughed at 360 Action Park. And without fail, we always had singalongs in the bus to our class playlist at the top of our lungs!

I suppose the most special outing was in Week 9 when we visited Sydney Zoo. It was so much fun to wander around and see so many amazing animals!

I'm sure you're wondering if we spent any time at Karonga at all in between these adventures. Of course, we did. Between our usual academic endeavours, gym workouts and running of the Kiosk, we even fit in a couple of new things there as well.

Room 5 have planted over 50 native mint bushes in the school and have taken responsibility for their upkeep. It was hard work, but everybody chipped in to help (even some friends from Room 6). Since they've been in the ground, the boys in Room 5 have all been very helpful when we go up to water them.

Additionally, as part of our mathematics focus on measurement, we have been taking weekly trips to the oval to test our athletic ability! A timed 50m dash, together with throwing and kicking activities have kept us busy each week. The boys have all been tracking their progress with graphs, and we proudly display everyone's personal bests in our classroom.

I could keep on going, but perhaps we should leave something for our next entry!

Onwards and upwards for Room 5, as always.

From Liam and Shiraz

Welcome to Term 2. The students had a great start to the term and some busy first days. They attended the ANZAC Walk, had their school photos taken and are now jumping into the pool every day for swim school.

In this newsletter article however, we would like you to show some outstanding work from Term 1 when the students engaged in some project-based activities, that were linking a range of key learning areas. Based on a selection of picture books, the students  extended their learning integrating literacy, numeracy, science, visual arts and Aboriginal Languages.

One book that we read was ‘Alexander’s Outing’, a beautiful picture book that opened up a wide range of learning opportunities. The students enjoyed colouring in ducks and decorating them with colourful feathers. They further developed their numeracy and literacy skills by counting ducks on the interactive whiteboard and by writing the word 'duck’ with letter cards. In Science, the students could build up on their knowledge and experience about living things and learn what ducks need to live.

Another book we read was ‘Wombat Stew’ a classic Australian children’s book that features some unique Australian animals.  All students enjoyed listening to the ‘Wombat Stew Song’ that we had discovered on YouTube.  Everyone cooked their own wombat stew by painting the billy can and filling it with a choice of ingredients such as spicy gumnuts, slugs and grubs and brown mud. In Science, the students watched videos about wombats in their natural habitat and learnt what wombats need to live. We also explored the Dharug names for some Australian animals and created artworks to match with the worksheets from the Aboriginal Languages program.

Last but not least, look at our beautiful rainbows.

Every Tuesday the students in Room 8 practise their cutting skills. There is range of different scissors available to support the individual needs of every student. Due to lots of snipping practice we had a large amount of coloured cardboard pieces available and integrated those into our work around the letter r. Glueing the cardboard pieces on a template to create a rainbow was a lot of fun with many sticky gluey hands. We are so proud of our rainbows that we have them on display in the Room 8 windows.

Sabrina, Mariam, Janina and all students from Room 8.

Farhan showing respect and kindness as he learns what is required of a school leader at the ANZAC ceremony.

In April, the 2024 Karonga P&C committee came together for a relaxed social evening to acknowledge and celebrate the valuable contributions of its members. A strong and active P&C plays a vital role in supporting programs such as music, art, and swim therapies that enrich our students’ learning experience.

 

Our next P&C meeting will be held on Wednesday, 21st May at 6:45pm. If you’re interested in getting involved or simply want to learn more about Karonga School, we’d love to see you there! Please contact karongapc@gmail.com if interested. 

Warm regards,

Yee-Foong Stone
Karonga P&C President