Hello everyone,

Welcome back to Term 4- a busy term full of celebrations and conclusions.

On Thursday October 20^th we held our amazing Graduation for our Year 12 students: Bavan, Kugan, Sami, Gordon and Jayden C. It was a very special event where we shared stories, and shared experiences of each students’ journey. An events team at Karonga, led by Kamal, did an amazing job of dressing the function room at the Epping Club and ensuring it was special, respectful and celebratory. We invite all seniors to this special event, both to prepare them for their own Graduation, and as a special evening to share a meal with other families who have walked a similar special education path. The Epping Club excelled in preparing the function room to a very high standard and being flexible and responsive to our students’ needs. We sincerely thank them.

We will have a further opportunity to celebrate these graduating students at the Celebration of Learning at 9.15am on Wednesday 6^th December in our school hall. We will take this opportunity to celebrate their time with us at Karonga in a photo montage, to recognise specific students with awards for their effort or contribution to school culture, the students transitioning from Primary to Secondary School, and for the 4 students becoming the 2023 Y12 school leavers. We will additionally announce the 2023 Karonga School Captain/s. Please put this date in your diary and join us for this annual celebration, and to meet with other school families for refreshments at the conclusion.

We were sad to have Aska, our Speech Pathologist, Michelle (teacher) and Rosmin (SLSO) leave us at the end of Term 3. Work commitments for Aska, and positions elsewhere for Room 13 staff has prompted us to canvas for further therapy staff and move existing classroom staff to meet teaching and learning commitments. We are on the look-out for teaching staff- so if you know of any, do ask them to get in contact and we could start a conversation about working at Karonga School.

Welcome back to Term 4 and Room 3. We have been focusing on friction and space for science, we have been learning about the history of the school, looking at photos of the old playground and comparing them to the new playground.

Yeting, Elijah and Jayden are looking at Pembroke, a newer playground.

Elijah, Yeting and Lachlan have been enjoying physical education, walking around the school to go to the office or the hall or moving around on the ground and soft mats.  Jayden, Lachlan, Elijah, Yeting and Brendan have been enjoying sensory play, bubbles, rice and the new sensory mats have been a big hit.  Jayden touched the rice, Yeting played with the sensory mats while Brendon and Elijah enjoyed the bubbles. 

Welcome to term 4. Room 12 students are settling in their daily routine after two weeks of holidays. This term is going to be another busy term with learning new things about different cultures, traditions and enjoy this festive season with lots of crafts activities.

This year, Diwali is going to be celebrated on 24^th October 2022. Diwali is a festival celebrated in India that signifies the victory of light over darkness and good over evil. It is acclaimed as the Festival of Lights. The students enjoyed doing Diwali crafts and painting activities.

Room 12 students have made our class very exciting and have enjoying forming new friendships. We have been looking at books, learning through play, learning to sit for morning circle and turn taking. We have enjoying exploring the school environment, especially Pembroke, the Immersive classroom, Independent Living Centre and the sensory room. With reports due this term, the students practising skills in all key learning areas and completing assessment tasks with minimal assistance, where possible.

We are looking forward to the last few weeks of the school year and building on the learning skills and friendships we have made throughout the year.

What an amazing event it was!

Despite the challenges of the last two years, we were finally able to come together last night and celebrate the most awaited event of the year!

This year’s graduation event was held on 20^th October 2022 with the gathering of 52 guests including some of our senior students and their families at The Epping Club to farewell Bavan, Gordon, Jayden, Kugan and Sami. We would like to congratulate the Year 12 graduates of 2022.

The students received their graduation bear and photobooks from the P&C representative Amy Chang,  who spoke on behalf of P&C president Yee-Foong, about the staff at Karonga.  

Each family took to the stage together to speak of their positive experience at Karonga.  After the speeches the graduates with our principal Ruth Rogers, cut the graduation cake. We then continued to the highlight of the evening....  dancing!

It was a fantastic event where staff, students and their families had a great time dancing and socialising together. We wish all the graduates the very best for the years to come. We would also like to thank The Epping Club, Karonga events team and all the staff members including our ladmin team for their support to celebrate this wonderful milestone in the lives of these five young people.

Until next time,

On behalf of events team,
Kamaldeep Lamba.