As we conclude 2019, we thank all our families who make up the Karonga School Community. You are all very special people and it has been a privilege to work with you all in 2019. As we reflect on a school year it is amazing to echo all the achievements and milestones we have reached. Physically we have refurbished some staff spaces around the school (staffroom, counsellor’s office and the Teacher Preparation rooms which were looking very neglected) as well as outside spaces with an Armistice Garden, and the provision of a new multi-sport court beside our oval. In 2020 we plan to further these refurbishment plans with establishing a Science Room and invest in some great technology, as well as a complete overhaul of our main playground and sensory garden. We have already met with a landscape architect and had hoped to progress this over the summer holidays to be least disruptive to the school, but we have found that we do not want to rush the process and get it wrong. We have further meetings planned for February and will keep you posted with plans.

We complemented some physical projects with introducing some new programs into the school- using 2 pupil-free days at the beginning of the school year to train all staff in the Picture Exchange Communication system (PECs). This communication system is now fully embedded throughout the school and we plan to build on this in 2020 with increased communication protocols.

Careful planning has gone into establishing classes for 2020 with consultation from all staff before staff names were assigned to drive programming. We hope that we have got it right, and can only apologise if we need to tweak groupings in the new academic year. There are so many factors to consider when we put classes together, but please know that changes are only ever implemented with the students’ best interests at heart.     

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Warm regards, Ruth Rogers

True to our students’ style, Room 4 has had a very busy and extraordinary Term 4.

We have had a number of our students be quite unwell and need to spend time in hospital. We are particularly missing Alkira and Brendan who we have not seen for a while.

Room 4 has looked at their different height measurements over the year. We have students from Year 1 to Year 12 but a higher age definitely does not equate to a greater height, as Mel and Kerrie have sadly noted. We started the year with Jayden C as our tallest and Brendan as the shortest. We have now ended the year with Kaspar as our tallest and Brendan still the shortest but that little bit taller!

Room 4 has also been growing and measuring sunflower seeds. This term has been a far more successful attempt than the beginning of the year! We had three main plants marked with a blue, yellow and orange paddle pop stick, and we measured and compared them over the course of the term. Yellow was the favourite plant for Brendan and Jayden C, and they were both very pleased to see it grow the tallest!

With the current drought and water restrictions we have used this opportunity to demonstrate what happens when we do not care for our plants with water. Since Week 8, we have sadly watched most of them start to perish and we now have a greater appreciation of how much water is needed for living things.

For Halloween this year, the school invested in some costumes for wheelchair users. Room 4 was extremely excited to trial these costumes and show them off around the school as they delivered natural lollies to their peers.

In another dressing up event, Room 4 celebrated Chicken Fest. A Hamish and Andy initiative, Chicken Fest aims to celebrate local chicken stores who provide quality food. Room 4 took the opportunity to thank Chicken Salt at North Carlingford shops who always provide Karonga students and staff with quality food, and most importantly, treat all our students with respect

Well done to all Room 4 students on a busy term and year.

Mel and Kerrie

On Wednesday 4^th December, Karonga students, staff, family and friends gathered in the hall to acknowledge the wonderful work achieved by our students throughout 2019 in our annual Celebration of Learning Assembly.

Students were publicly congratulated on their achievements in citizenship, sports, community engagement, music, resilience, independence, and academia, to name just some of the areas!

Congratulations to our award recipients on a wonderful school year.

Melanie Currey, Assistant Principal

On Monday 9^th December Karonga School had the Year 6 Graduation and celebrated the wonderful achievements of our students. We had a special guest Mr John Alexander who helped hand out the awards for student achievement in the areas of Kind, Safe and Learn.

Our graduating students for 2019 were Louisa, Titan, Jesse, Ria, Dakotah, Alkira, Christian, Suzie, Naya and Geonwoo.

We also presented the shirts for our up and coming Year 6 students for 2020 to Sarah, Sidney, Rajveer and Sylvia.

Congratulations on all of our student’s achievements throughout the year and thank you to the parents, carers and staff for making our Year 6 Graduation and End of Term Assembly such a successful event.

Linda Sharman, Relieving Assistant Principal

Joseph has been at Karonga School since 2008 and has been a valuable member of the Karonga community. Most of the staff have worked with Joseph and we can all see what an amazing person he has grown up to be.

Joseph loves school and his favourite things to do are swimming, cooking and using the computer. He also really enjoys community access and has become so good at doing the recycling that the class staff no longer need to help him!

We all wish Joseph the very best for the future and both the staff and students will really miss him. Karonga just won’t be the same without you, Joseph!

Susan Wu, Class Teacher