Hello everyone,

Welcome back to the new school year. We were very excited to see lovely smiling faces on Tuesday morning – and amazed at how much so many students had grown.

What happened over the holiday?

• We had the roof over the older parts of school replaced -due for completion over the next 2 weeks
• We had a new playground, Aston, installed -currently being surfaced. This should be operational by the end of the month
• The pathway/ surface around the swimming pool was resurfaced as there was a hygiene issue

This meant that we closed our school to Vacation Care and to hirers of our pool over this period, in order to give safe access. We are pleased that we are almost back to regular operation, and hope that there will be no further interruptions.

We have welcomed 2 lovely new teachers to Karonga School this week. Lou and Michelle responded to an advertisement we ran in 2021, and are both teaching our younger students in our Kindy classes. They are both experienced special educators and joined us recently for both School Development days. Please welcome them when you meet them.

Thank you to all the families who supported us with a safe return to school, and collected the Rapid Antigen Test kits before school started. We are all working together to make Karonga a safe place for our students. We have a small consignment of throat swabs, which may be preferable for some students. Please swap the RAT kits for these if you find this preferable. They are offered on a first-come basis, so I encourage you to act quickly.

Warm regards

Ruth Rogers

Principal

Welcome back to Term 1, 2022.

Room 3 have been celebrating the Year of the Tiger this week for Chinese New Year. We have been learning about the Lunar New Year by listening to stories, watching videos and using different media to create artwork.

Amy is pasting paper onto a Chinese lantern.

Elijah is painting a tiger using a special brush.

Room 3 are looking forward to lots of different activities throughout the term. We are going to do cooking, library, swimming, music, art and the new 4 Blocks Literacy program to name a few activities.

Lowenna, Barbara, Amy, Brendan, Elijah, Jack, Jayden, Lachlan and Yeting.

Our first week at school was a great success. Room 12 students have done a great job in adjusting to our daily routine.

We learned all about our new school and discovered special people and places. We played on the playground and learned how to be safe as well as trying out lots of new toys and sensory activities in the classroom. We are looking forward to using our senses to explore colours and experience rhythm and rhyme through various activities.

Building communication skills will be a focus for Room 12 students. Aska, (our speech therapist) visited our class this week and observed Room 12 students.

Room 12 students had their first visit to our immersive classroom during technology session. All students were fully engaged and expanded their learning experience. We also had our first music therapy session where students explored different instruments including bells, guitar, gong and Ukulele.

We have been doing a mix of activities already from painting, arts and craft to being outdoors. Both staff and students are very excited to see what this year has got in store for us. We know it will be a busy year for Room 12 but we are ready to explore and enjoy the learning that will take place.

Until next time,

Kamal and Andrea

Hi, I'm Lou Williamson and I am the teacher for Room 11. I come to Karonga with 15 years' worth of experience working with students with disabilities across SSP and Support Unit settings. I am really looking forward to sharing lots of smiles and fun memories with the students. I look forward to meeting you all one day! 

After a school holiday break, Tess is back on the job helping our GA, Jim.