Karonga School eNewsletter

Hello everyone,

As we conclude the school year at Karonga, it has given us lots of opportunity to reflect on some great opportunities we have had this year, and some significant celebrations.

Founders Day was a highlight for many this year, and we anticipate this being an annual event where we celebrate the original pioneering parents who started the school in Epping, and we share our space with families to enjoy our school environment. The P&C were terrific partners on this significant day and we are already in discussion as to what the 2023 Founders Day will look like. Put Thursday September 14^th into your diaries now!

Our recent Celebration of Learning was a great way to conclude our school year. Besides jackets and shirts for those transitioning to senior school in the primary and secondary years, we recognised personal achievement. The special awards were based on a voting system from staff on bringing alive the qualities of the awards. These awards ranged from the Olympic Spirit award for physical endeavours, to the Reuben F. Scarf award for ‘consistent effort and desire to improve’. This voting does not recognise comparison between Karonga students and mainstream expectations, it does not even recognise comparison between one Karonga student and another Karonga student: at the Celebration of Learning we celebrated personal growth, personal achievement and personal improvement – whatever that may look like for each student. We had a significant turn-out from families, with 40+ family members attending.

On Wednesday we held our concluding assembly and gave our Principal Awards. These reflect a terms recognition of awards given in assembly, with most regular recipient receiving this award.

We wish you all well over the holiday period, and look forward to seeing all students back on Tuesday January 31^st 2023.

Well Term 4 is coming to a close and so too is school for 2022.

This term, we have especially loved visiting Karonga's ILC and engaging in a variety of cooking activities. Among the cakes, cookies and brownies, we definitely had a couple of highlights.

Using mulberries we picked from the school orchard, Room 5 made some delicious jam and ice cream!

William was so enthusiastic about picking mulberries and loved munching them straight off the tree while Gianni had the inspired idea of making jam with them!

Making mulberry ice cream was a special challenge but with everybody working together, we managed to make a delicious, fruity treat.

Timmie and Hannah have thoroughly enjoyed visiting different rooms around the school, including the library and sensory room. Our most popular destination, however, has been the immersive classroom. We have caught the train together, driven through the countryside, dived underwater, walked on the moon and even visited the zoo together without ever leaving school! The students all have their favourites, which they request every time we visit.

With the end of 2022 also comes the end of one of our own's time at Karonga school. Kugan graduates from Year 12 at the conclusion of this school year. We have all loved his cheerful personality and will miss him very much. We wish him every success in his life after school.

2022 is wrapped up and now we look towards next year.

That's it from us!

From Liam and Sujung

News from Room 8

As we head into the summer holidays, this is Room 8’s final 2022 newsletter article.

We welcomed Shuyang to Room 8 in Term 4. He transitioned particularly well and quickly became a valued class member.

Chris had a birthday this term. We all enjoyed sharing the lovely rainbow cake that Suzanne brought in.

Timothy received his Year 6 shirt at the end of year assembly.

Oscar was surprised to be named 2023 Primary school leader. He is very proud of his badge.

Jordan thoroughly enjoyed weekly SRE instruction. He always brought back a lovely craft activity.

Finally, we farewell Ashton who is moving interstate with his family. He wasn’t at Karonga for very long, but made an impact with his big personality.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Megan and Suzanne.

End of year assembly

It was great to see students receiving their awards and graduation clothing at the end of year assembly. The P&C are proud to fund the clothing and embroidering of their names for students entering Yr 6 and Yr 12 in 2023.

Therapies

We are pleased to announce that the P&C has sufficient savings to continue to financially fund therapists for Music, Art and Learn to Swim in 2023. We will continue to share news and photos of students enjoying these therapies next year.

Next meeting and P&C membership

Our next meeting will be held on Wednesday 15^th February 2023 at 6.45pm. We encourage families, carers and friends to attend and have a say on how P&C funds can help support students.

Uniform Shop

Earlier this week, the school notified families of the NSW Government’s Back-to-School program which allows parents and carers to redeem up to $150 per child towards the cost of school uniforms, bags, shoes, textbooks and stationery.

Karonga P&C’s uniform shop is currently unable to accept the vouchers at this stage. We are looking into this process and hope that we can accept them in the new year. We will keep you updated on this.

On behalf of the P&C, I would like to wish all students and their families a safe and happy end of year. May you all enjoy the festive season and take some quality time with your loved ones.

Yee-Foong Stone
Karonga P&C President
karongapc@gmail.com

2022_Premiers_Back_to_School_letter.pdf

2022_Premiers_Back_to_School_letter _pdf 199.80 KB

A teacher at Karonga school inspired the students and staff to participate in a project of kindness. The Compassionate Christmas Project is supported by Sabrina and her husband who work tireless supporting charities like this one, making a difference in many people's lives. Sabrina took the opportunity to include the budding artist students of Karonga and we have received the following messages of appreciation for our efforts. Well done to our students and staff, kindness is a perfect way to kick off the festive season!

Did you know that 100s of school grounds will be open and welcoming the community these holidays. Check out the links Share Our Space (nsw.gov.au) and Free holiday activities (nsw.gov.au) to see what spaces and activities are on offer near you.