Hello everyone,

I am thrilled to be back at school after an extended holiday and family wedding. It is great to see all the students again, and today I have been so pleased to see all the students across the school engaged in the science experience in the hall. The ‘dome’ has been an inspired opportunity to offer a multi-sensory experience to our students. It offered an intergalactic experience of space travel, music and special sound effects. I joined some of our younger students in the dome- who were very brave to go inside such an unusual, noisy and confronting venue. To push your way through the entrance and enter such a dark, light-deprived space was initially daunting- but the friendly storyline and soon helped to calm most students. What a great event to kick-start ‘Science Week’.

It is during term 3 that we start to consider orientation of our new students, planning for 2024 (diaries have been ordered this week with some minor changes) and a review of all student placements. We get teachers off class for 30 minutes to discuss their 6-7 students and to ensure that all needs are met- for example that they are receiving vision or hearing support if it has been identified. For many of our students this is a routine annual review, but if you feel strongly that you would like to be included/ consulted, please contact the office and we will attempt to include you in the meeting which will last between 3-5 minutes on average for individual students.

Founders Day is coming up in 4 weeks-time. September 14^th each year is a time for us to celebrate our school and recognise those people who helped to lay the foundations for the school we enjoy today. There will be a range of activities available for you to enjoy – so do look out for information coming out.

Regards

Ruth Rogers

Principal

Education week was held in week 3 and this year’s theme celebrates 175 years of public education in New South Wales.

Our celebration of Public Education at Karonga School, saw 29 guests attend a small slideshow presentation in the Hall, that acknowledged student achievements throughout semester 1, followed by a tour through the school and the opportunity for our guests to spend time in the classrooms with students.

It was great to see so many guests in our classrooms, sharing learning time with our students.

Part of our open day program, we ran a ‘parent workshop’ focusing on numeracy and literacy strategies focused on ‘an alternative pencil.’ Karen our Assistant Principal Curriculum and Instruction (APCI) and Analise Wren -Speech Pathologist led families through a productive session.

Room 2 have been enjoying time outside, eating lunch outside recently due to the warm sunny weather. It is nice to have this opportunity to spend quality time eating and spending time with our peers.

When we are eating inside, we practice our life skills, sweeping floors, wiping tables, washing dishes. We are also practicing sorting cutlery.

We have been using switches to read books in class. Felicia and Shuyang have been using the switches to assist them in their sounding out the words. Shuyang, Tomo and Felicia have been using devices to communicate during class time.

We have been using different objects to look at patterns during Maths. Felicia used the pegs, Tomo used blocks and Shuyang completed a work sheet. Everyone had a turn at drawing patterns on the board. We are still learning about patterns, and need teacher assistance at this point but we will work on learning about patterns as the semester continues.

During cooking with Room 1, Shuyang helped to stir the corn fritter mixture. Shuyang enjoyed eating the fritters while Felicia tried them.

Ria and Shuyang got to experience community access this week with Room 1, travelling through the Cumberland State Forest and taking photos of natural and built environments. They are still learning how to use the iPad and what we need to take photos of, but as the weeks continue, we look forward to seeing the photos. Each week we will look at the photos and use them for our art and geography lessons.

Lowenna and Rupak

Education Week was an enjoyable experience in Room 8. We began with an activity focussing on Karonga School. We counted the number of students in each class with Timothy counting up to 72 students. All students counted the number of teachers on the day, and said 11. They identified four buildings constructed in our school and each student began to ponder thereafter about what they liked about Karonga school. Oscar said ‘Music’, Mark and Timothy said ‘Swimming’, and Chris said ‘Room 8’. We thereafter progressed to discussing about what we learn at Karonga School. All the students contributed to the discussion by pointing and selecting images of reading, writing, playing, singing, cooking, walking, sharing, being safe, and being a good friend.

The students practiced kindness and appropriate behaviour by welcoming 2 friends during this week, i.e., Genesis and Tarnae of Room 7. Their kindness was displayed when they selected to play songs preferred by Genesis and Tarnae during their short stay in Room 8.

On Wednesday 2^nd August, we welcomed parents to our school. Mark was overjoyed to welcome his Father, while Chris was pleased to see his Grandmother and brother visit Room 8.

The students were learning mathematics, i.e., multiplication during this time. After a warm up of skip counting, Chris, Oscar and Mark prompted Timothy to write, ‘We are learning about groups’ on the Interactive White Board (IWB).

Chris’s brother demonstrated groups of five using counters.

Mark’s Father used little toy cars to demonstrate groups of 5.

Timothy and Oscar used toy dinosaurs to understand groups with their teachers.

Thereafter the students transitioned to English Reading, with Chris reading ‘Hattie the Fox’ to all students. Mark gave his Dad several story books to read to him.

During the week students of Room 8 focussed on the pillars of Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) too. They were able to point out appropriate behaviour and not appropriate behaviour with ease. Chris, Mark, Timothy and Oscar responsibly corrected each other during learning activities.

Hettige & Kerrie

Room 13 are very happy to be back at school after the holiday. We have quickly settled back into our class routines and we have enjoyed seeing all of our friends.

In literacy, we have been reading the book ‘A Dark, Dark Tale’ by Ruth Brown. We all enjoy this spooky story, especially the surprise at the end. If you want to know what the surprise is, you can find the story on YouTube.

For Education Week open day, our families joined us to do some Dark, Dark Tale craft. We made black cats and Haley and her family were particularly good at it.

 

This week we are looking forward to our science incursion about the Earth, and later in this term, we will be starting our new book ‘Hattie and the Fox’, making a calendar of the seasons in science, and celebrating Founders Day on the 14^th September.

Until next time, Emma and Nicky

This week Karonga staff and students celebrated 175 years of Education.  To mark this special occasion, Karonga shared a morning of learning with the families, friends and carers of our school community at an Education Week Open Day.

  

Alkira_Flyer.pdf

 

  

Person Centred Approach Australia

  

 

 

Sahara Services

 

https://saharaservices.com.au/sahara-school-holiday-program/

 

  

 

 

 

Disclaimer:

 Articles published in the Community Noticeboard section of the Karonga Newsletter are provided for information for our school community only and their inclusion no way constitutes an endorsement of the product or service by Karonga School.