Hello everyone,

As this is the last newsletter of the 2021 school year, I would like to reflect back on the year and celebrate various things:

For individual students I would like to recognise significant improvement, or toleration or the learning of a new skill. These are based on the core values of LEARNING, INDEPENDENCE & PARTNERSHIP evident on the sides of our buses and on our website.

On behalf of the school I would like to recognise collective improved student learning outcomes, collective skill acquisition and collective advancement in program learning. We firmly believe that All Students Can Learn.

With respect to our families I would like to recognise the significant part you have played in the delivery of ‘at home learning’ during the 17 weeks of lockdown. We would like to celebrate working in partnership with you to care for your children, and keep them at the core of what we do.

This week we had an ABC film crew visit school to shadow our Art Therapist for a program which will go to air next March or April (exact date to be confirmed). This was an exciting opportunity for around 14 students and they were all engaged.

We are excited at the prospect of a fresh start in 2022: we will have 3 kindy and Year 1 classes working together to personalise the learning for these young learners, a strong focus on Literacy throughout the school with a dedicated teacher to work within classrooms alongside classroom teachers maximising communication, employing a range of paraprofessionals to support Karonga: Speech and Language Therapist, Physiotherapist and an Occupational Therapist, and opening up a new class to have impact on our teenage range of students who are in need of smaller class ratios.

I would finally like to celebrate the resilience with which the Karonga community has risen to the challenge that has been 2021.

IMPORTANT DATES:

Warm regards,

Ruth Rogers
Principal

At the beginning of the term, Room 2 was working on their transitioning around the school. Students walked to the oval and went to see the beautiful olive and mulberry trees at Karonga. Sunday did amazing walking without absconding and minimal physical prompting. Oras led the way and was followed by Suzanne and Julian. Students were shown different textures of the leaves and spotted some lizards. On our way we met Roger, the scarecrow and the kids were in awe of his presence! They were curious as to what he was exactly and were tugging on his fingers and clothing to seemingly get a response… we took some selfies and went on our way back to the class for some Pizza and donuts!

The students in Room 4 have had an interesting and busy term.  In English we have been reading “Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll.  Dakotah and Christian have been using page puffers (household pegs) to help them turn the pages of the book independently.  Leila’s favourite character from the story is the Cheshire Cat and Jess’s favourite is the White Rabbit while Jayden particularly liked the Mad Hatter. 

We have also been writing simple texts using Predictable Chart Writing activities, which has been a lot of fun.  Some of the topics we have written about include:  Fruit salad, Going to the Beach and On the Farm.

In Geography we have been learning about Australian landscapes.  We have been reading the book “Are we there yet?”  by Alison Lester.   As part of this program, we have created and painted many beautiful places that are featured in the book.  We have then made an adapted book about journeys around Australia featuring our art work.

Despite the disruptions of 2021, Room 5 has made some amazing progress this year. It has been impressive to see how well the whole class settled back into the normality of face-to-face school. We were onsite and able to learn about the Hindu celebration of Diwali, the festival of lights. The students enjoyed painting Diya’s and candles. This year, Diwali was celebrated on 4^th November 2021. Diwali is a festival celebrated in India that signifies the victory of light over darkness and good over evil.

William has demonstrated his independence in completing his comprehension and has shown remarkable improvement in mathematics. Gianni continued learning his sight words and he is able to read and pronounce challenging words. Sarah has demonstrated her skills in tracing numbers whereas Titan and Sidney are working on their matching and sorting different feelings.

Another highlight, we had International day of disability last Friday 3^rd December. Room 5 students took this opportunity of collecting money from their neighbouring classes.

Room 5 students have started their Christmas craft. We have painted little ceramic dishes and made it as Christmas ornaments. Students have made Christmas wreaths and wrapping paper. We wish everyone Merry Christmas and Happy holidays.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our year in Room 5, despite the stop/start nature of 2021. All the best for 2022 team!

Until next time,

Kamaldeep and Sandiya

What a crazy school year we have had in 2021!

Remarkably, the students in Room 8 have adjusted extremely well to the changes in routine and learning from home. After what seemed an eternity, it was with great pleasure that staff welcomed all students back to onsite learning in term 4.

Room 8 students were a little tired for the first 2 weeks, getting used to learning from school again. However, they quickly got back into the swing of things and transitioned easily back into routine.

Students enjoyed a session with the Art therapist who will be onsite next year. Agam and George particularly enjoyed the sensory nature of the session.

Adam, Steven and Thomas were very interested in exploring the literacy program that will be implemented across the school next year.

Finally, Room 8 farewell Vikki at the end of 2021 and wish him every success at his new school in 2022 and beyond.

Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday.

Megan and Jennifer.

Dance Team has done so well this term since returning from learning-from-home. Our students have all remembered their different dances, including “5, 6, 7, 8”, “Do The Propeller”, “Macarena”, “YMCA”, and “Nutbush”.

The Improvisation Club has been back in the swing of things as we returned to face-to-face learning at school this term.

Meeting once each week, Gordon, Ruby, Hannah, Geonwoo, Tomo and Timmie have made some ‘boppy’ music with Jack our music therapist. We missed Jaehyun’s presence but Geonwoo took to the guitar, just like Jaehyun used to!

The students have enjoyed their own space to be creative, vocalise and explore a variety of musical instruments and sounds. See them here, in their element!

Happy holidays!

Sabrina and Craig

If you missed the original offer to order a free My Health Medical Folder, NSW Health have given the school 3 additional folders and they are available for the first 3 parents/carers to contact the school office.