28 August 2023

Principal

Hello Parents and Carers,

Term 3 will be extremely busy.  Here are the upcoming events for your calendar.

• Week 3 Parent/Teacher meetings. Please talk to your child’s teacher make an appointment.
• Monday 21^st August - Book Week Dress Up Day (Theme: Read Grow Inspire)
• Thursday 24^th August – Early Years Sport Carnival 10.30am to 12noon
• Friday 25^th August – Primary and Secondary Sports Carnival on the Oval
• Tuesday 29^th August – NAIDOC Day
• Friday 1^st September – Father’s Day Breakfast. All dads and grandads are welcome.
• 18^th September to 22 September – Parents are invited to observe their child’s swimming/hydrotherapy session.

Last term we surveyed parents regarding the Augmentative Alternative Communication devices that your children use.  Thank you so much to all the parents who completed the survey.  We have created self-help guides for parents who use TouchChat, Proloquo2go, Tobii Dynavox or Novachat.  These have been sent home to the 13 families who requested support. Please let me know if you would also like to receive a self-help guide.

The Department of Education has introduced the Connect and Respect suite of resources to assist schools to partner with their parent communities to provide safe, supportive and productive learning environments that are free from bullying, harassment, discrimination and violence.

The complexities and challenges that face many of our students mean that in special occasions we need to be flexible in implementing the Actions of the Connect and Respect plan.  

We have attached the resources related to the Connect and Respect initiate to this newsletter, for your information. This information includes when and how to contact the school, what you can expect from us and the behaviours that interfere with teaching and learning.

I will be taking leave from week 3 to week 9 this term.  Ellen McAllister, Associate Principal, will take on the role of Acting Principal while I am away.  Chris Ralph, Program Co-ordinator, will oversee the Early Years Phase during that time.

We are pleased to advise that the Durham Road School community raised $285.05 for Jeans for Genes Day which we celebrated Friday 4^th August.

Kind Regards,
Linda Lane
Principal

Early Years News

Hello Parents and Carers,

The Early Years phase had a wonderful finish to Term 2 with our biggest highlight being the Happy Feet Music Incursions.  The students had a blast dressing up in costumes and dancing with their peers.  We would love to thank Miss Niki for coming out and running these sessions.

We are excited to welcome Capri Le Maistre to our team, she is taking over as the Room 18 teacher.

Teachers will be sending out information about Semester 2 Parent Teacher meetings.  We are looking forward to reflecting on your child’s progress for Semester 1 and developing new goals for Semester 2.

A reminder to please check the school calendar as we have many exciting events coming up including the Early Years Sports Carnival, Father’s Day Breakfast and Book week.  Classes are also busy preparing their assembly items for the term.

Kind Regards,
Ellen McAllister
Associate Principal

Primary News

Dear Parents and Carers,

The Primary phase has had a positive and productive start to Term 3.  Teachers are busy putting together Individual Education Plans (IEP) for this semester and will be in touch soon about scheduling IEP meetings.

I’d like to welcome Jade Lewis back to the Primary phase as Teacher in Rm 12 on Mondays.

There are lots of exciting events coming up this term- The AFL Starkick Carnival (year 4-6), our school sports carnival, NAIDOC assembly and Book Week, it will be a busy but fun-filled time for the Primary Phase!

Room 15 kicks off the primary assemblies this term- this will be held on Friday 11^th August. Room 14s assembly is scheduled for week 8, 8^th September.

Just a reminder for families, if you are dropping your child off after 9am, please come to the office to sign your child in.  Our staff return to class from the bus bay and kiss and ride at 9am.

Thank you.

Kind Regards,
Simon Hume
Deputy Principal

Satellite News

Kaya,
Welcome back to Term 3. I hope everyone had a restful break and are ready for another fantastic term.

There is a lot happening throughout the term:

• Teachesr will be getting in contact to host IEP meetings.
• Satellite 3 and 4 will be participating in ballet classes run by the Western Australia Ballet. It is always great to have them back for another year and the students really enjoy the program. At the end of the program the students are invited to watch a production by the WA Ballet in term 4.
• All satellite classes will be participating in tennis classes on Monday’s starting week 2 and continuing until week 7.
• Book week during week 6 with the theme of Read Grow & Inspire as well as an open class evening (more information to come)
• Athletic carnival during week 7 Friday (1/9/23)

We look forward to a term of lots of new experiences, fun and learning.

Kind regards,
Chris Ralph
Programme Coordinator

Secondary News

News from the Heights,

I trust everyone has had a great start to the second half of the year.  I know that our students have and that things have been going full steam ahead.  It has been great to see parents in discussing future pathways for their children and I have read some great information that we may be able to use to help shape our offerings in the next few years.

We had the amazing Room 25 carry out their assembly earlier.  The theme of a music through the ages being a spectacular one, with some of the students looking eerily like the music heroes they were playing (Seriously, was that Luke or Freddie Mercury’s twin brother?) The performances were outstanding with everyone contributing wonderfully, but Caleb singing Louis Armstrong’s Wonderful World was absolutely jaw dropping. Well done to all involved.  I loved the music, but on a personal note, when 2 of your favourite all time bands are in a presentation called “Music through the Ages” does that just mean you are getting old!

On a Tuesday most of secondary have been practicing for the annual sports carnival.  Everyone is looking forward to it and based on the participation and training it is going to be hotly contested this year.

Until next time.

Kind regards,
Heath Bradley
Deputy Principal

Communication Intensive Group

Kaya,

It is Term 3, and we are officially in the latter half of the school year.

As we move into the warmer weather, we have numerous whole school events.  They are science week, sports carnival, Book Week dress up day, NAIDOC Day, Father’s Day breakfast, and visit your child’s swimming lessons.  Students in Room 22 have their assembly in Week 10 on the 28^th September in the undercover area at 9:15 am.  It’s set to be a fun filled term with lots of opportunities for students to initiate communication and share their experiences.

Secondary classes are busy completing their ASDAN modules.  I know students have had a lot of creative and fun educational experiences in completing these certificated modules.  As always, parents will be given a bound copy of their work.  This will replace Report photographs in Term 4.

I look forward to sharing our student’s Term 4 journey with you.

Kind Regards,
Sharon Peach (nee Rollinson)
Communication Intensive Program Coordinator

Science Week

Week 5 was Science Week!

Classes were invited to participate in Science and Technologies activities to celebrate.  It was well enjoyed by the whole school.

Thank you to the Science and Technologies Committee for the planning and implementation of these enjoyable activities!

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Room 1

This term, Room One is learning about “living and non-living” with a focus on the human body.  We have read a number of books exploring the human body including “Boss of your own Body” by Byll and Beth Stephen and “Who did this wee” by Lucy Rowland.  Our favourite book so far has been “The Bum Book” by Kate Mayes and Andrew Joyner.  We all thought this book was funny and silly.  We have especially enjoyed learning about the skeletal system and had an absolute ball practising and performing the skeleton dance for our assembly.

Room 2

Just like that, Term 3 is underway.  I hope you all had a safe and happy holiday.

This term we are learning all about our bodies and the amazing things they do!  We have enjoyed reading books, listening to songs and making art based around the parts of our bodies.  We have also talked about our favourite body parts.  For some of us, it has been our teeth because we all seem to be losing them at the moment!

We have a jam-packed term ahead with Parent Teacher meetings, the sports carnival, Book Week and NAIDOC week.  I will send out reminders for events.

Room 3

Room 3 has had a fun-filled start to Term 3.  We have been enjoying our new theme for the term, all about Australia.  We are choosing fun Australian songs to listen to and reading some Australian books.

We have been exploring bubble wrap painting to make colourful kangaroos and singing along to the Didgeridoo!  Everyone loved scrunching and smelling Eucalyptus leaves when we read the book, “Give me a Home Among the Gum Trees”.

Our class has been improving our switching skills with musical instruments and in the Multi-Sensory Room.  We even performed a song switching different musical instruments as the Room 3 Band at assembly!

Room 4

This term we have welcomed two new staff to Room 4 - welcome Miss Jade and Miss Kaylah.

In Room 4 we have started to explore our 5 senses.  We have been enjoying feeling different textured surfaces, different smells, and different tastes.  We all particularly enjoy Friday afternoons where we get to use all our senses when we do cooking.  So far this term we have made chocolate biscuits, pizza, snow cones and two minute noodles.

Room 32

Welcome back to school for Term 3!  Our students Alex and Leo had their birthdays in the school holidays – happy birthday!  Our Room 32 students have returned to school with happy and energetic attitudes.  We dove straight back into our school routines and kicked off with lots of fun and sensory activities.  Our topic for this term is our 5 senses – we will be utilising lots of fun sensory and tactile activities to explore contrasting opposites of things that we can sense, such as hot and cold for touch and light and dark for sight.  We had lots of fun so far with Touch as we explored Soft vs Hard when we played with coloured shaving foam.  We will also focus on social skills during game play this term, involving sharing, turn-taking and waiting.  We are currently really enjoying our MSR (Multisensory) and Library sessions.  Our students are amazing at the entire process of transitioning to and from the library, choosing a book off the shelves, taking the book to our librarian to borrow, then either reading it on the couch or placing the book in their library bags to take back to class.  Well done Room 32!

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Room 10

Hello.  Term 3 has kicked off with a flurry of creative activity in Room 10.  In addition to our regular music and cooking sessions, we have been developing our weekly Friday afternoon art class.  Amid all the rainy weather at the start of term we made cut out clouds and celebrated the Women’s World Cup with gold and silver soccer ball collages.  To learn more about the emergency services, we’ve been making firefighter’s hats which some pupils were so taken with, they continued to wear the following day!  Outside the classroom we’ve started exploring medieval history by building castles in the sandpit and training for our upcoming sports carnival.  In health we’re improving our social skills by learning how to recognise feelings and practicing our greetings and farewells.  Good bye!

Room 11

Hello Everyone,

Room 11 is excited to be back and working extremely hard for all our events this term. We are looking forward to the sports carnival, book week and the swimming carnival. We are practising very hard at the activities and focusing hard in our English and Maths work.

Also, this term, Room 11 will be focusing on our manners in the classroom and working towards being more independent in our daily routines. We wish you all a great term and hope you enjoy our photos.

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Room 12

The semester has gotten off to a busy start for Room 12!

This term, we are learning about outer space.  We have been reading books about space and writing about planets, stars, and aliens.  Our very own Naomi has even converted our reading corner into a sensory space station.  All the students have explored the space station and have been greatly engaged with the learning experiences that have come from it.

Furthermore, the students in Room 12 have also been busy learning about two-dimensional shapes, micro-organisms and flags from around the world this term.

We are looking to the rest of Term 3.

Room 13

We have had a very busy start to term 3.  This term for music, we are exploring and identifying different instruments.  We have been busy practising our new skills.  In literacy we have started working on our comprehension; we are listening to simple one or two step instructions.  In numeracy we are learning the concept of more and less with objects and numbers. During our physical activities, we are busy practising for our sports carnival.

Thank you from all the staff in Rm 13.

Room 14

Room 15

Room 15 students have had a busy and active year so far.  We have been working hard towards achieving our individual goals in Literacy and Mathematics.  We have also kept active by participating in bike riding and Move and Groove sessions.  Our favourite time of the week is our weekly trip to the Multi-Sensory Room.

Room 16

This term, Room 16 have been enjoying fine motor activities.  We have practised lacing, using tweezers and posting small objects.  For science we are learning about materials and their properties.  We have sorted materials into groups of plastic, metal and wood and have been learning to describe objects as hard, soft, big and small.

Room 26

Welcome back to the second half of the school year!

The students in Room 26 have settled back into the school routine very well and are enjoying learning about Forces in Physical Sciences, exploring simple chemical separation methods used in the home for Chemical Sciences, Needs and Wants in Economics and the three different levels of Australian Government in HaSS.

Everyone had an awesome time at the soccer carnival.  They all played really well, and it was great to watch our students demonstrate some amazing teamwork skills.  They are all looking forward to the upcoming AFL and Cricket Kalability Carnivals in Kalamunda in term 3 and term 4 and are hoping to win the trophy!

A very busy semester for the students!

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Room 31

Room 31 have entered the final term of work towards achieving a Certificate I in Leadership.  This term the course involves teamwork towards a common goal.

One group have chosen to plan a party for those who have birthdays in August, this includes planning food, decorations, music and much more.

The other group have chosen a joint art activity to produce packs of hand-made gift cards involving painting, gluing, stencils and much creativity.

We are looking forward to seeing (and tasting) the end results!

The cards will be available for sale at the Father’s Day stall, they are black so can be used for everything.

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Satellite 2

Satellite 2 have hit the ground running in Term 3.  We have started tennis lessons on Mondays and have integrated sports carnival practice on Fridays with Embleton Primary School.  We are all enjoying participating in these events and look forward to them every week.

In week 2 we got our green thumbs out to participate in Tree Planting Day and saw some cool animals too!

We are reading some books from the ‘Pig the Pug’ series in Shared Reading and students are having lots of fun contributing to our own picture books based on what we are reading.  Students have been loving using playdough to investigate why objects sink or float in Science and learning about History with Miss Treana.

Art

Kaya Wanjoo.  We have begun term three with some fantastic drawing sessions.  Students have come back to school with an impressive eagerness to learn.  This term, the students will be moving on from bugs and beetles and will be producing art works that have an ocean themed focus.  However, keep an eye out for their impressive bug and beetle hotels at this year’s Father’s Day stall, which will be held later in the term.

The students’ first drawing this term has been an angler fish and they are also participating in some fantastic ocean themed ceramics and sculpture lessons.  I look forward to seeing their creative endeavours throughout the term.  As always, thank you to our staff team who help scaffold the students learning journey in Arts and Enterprise.

Workplace learning

The Work Experience program at Durham Road School has been developed over many years.  We begin students learning work skills in the classroom.  From their second semester in Year 9, teachers can take students to the Enterprise Training Centre to begin learning about expectations in a workplace.

After the students have developed their work skills and behaviours sufficiently, we search for work experience positions off site.  The skills and understanding our students gain when taking up work experience positions is not limited to the specific tasks they undertake.

The students are taught how to dress for work, the types of clothes that are appropriate for the setting and why.  They learn to style their hair appropriately and ensure they are wearing appropriate jewellery etc.

Most of our workplaces are accessible via public transport so students learn to use Smartriders, how to travel safely on public transport, where they can turn for help and what to do if they are separated from the group.

When at work they learn how to interact with work colleagues, supervisors and members of the public. They also learn safety signs, routines, activities and conversations appropriate to break-times in an adult setting. They also learn how to deal with the quality-controls related to their work.

Work experience introduces students to many life-lessons that cannot be taught as easily in a school setting. It also broadens the student’s horizon regarding their future plans.  We enjoy being part of this challenging and exciting process.

On a separate note, Perth Disability Connection Expo is at Perth Convention Centre on Friday 25th and Saturday 26th August. The website states “Our NDIS Provider & Participant Expos are dedicated to decreasing confusion and increasing the level of connection between Service Providers, Carers and Participants” For more information or to register your attendance visit the link below.

First Aid Corner

As we head into the last month of winter and breathe a collective sigh of relief, lets continue with good hand hygiene practices and encourage our children to cover their cough and sneeze and wash their hands.

There are still so many cold and flu viruses around, please keep your child home from school if they are unwell and help prevent the spread of illness, to staff and fellow students.

Your First Aid Officer

Family Liaison Officers

In these difficult times many families are struggling to make ends meet. Here is some information that might help a little

HUGS
Hardship Utility Grant Scheme

HUGS assists Western Australian utility customers who are in financial hardship and are unable to pay their utility bills.

Some families may be eligible for financial assistance through HUGS where payment arrangements and other hardship strategies have been used.  Assistance can be offered with your gas, electricity or water bill.

You may be eligible if your utility provider assesses you as being in the following situation:

• You contact your utility provider to discuss your outstanding debt and you are assisted by your utility provider as being in financial hardship and not in payment difficulty
• You have exhausted all your options with the utility provider and enter into a payment arrangement for at least 90 days to address the outstanding debt and
• After completion of the payment arrangement, if your outstanding bill is still more than $300.00

You may be eligible for up to $580.00 per year.
Go to hugs@communities.wa.gov.au
Unfortunately, The Pantry is no longer able to supply the school will food donations. Maybe Foodbank can assist:

FOOD ASSISTANCE

FOODBANK - DO YOU NEED FOOD OR HELP TO AFFORD GROCERIES?

How to get a referral

To shop at Foodbank WA branches or Mobile Foodbank you need a referral from one of the charity partners listed below

To get a referral for Foodbank WA please free-call The Emergency Relief and Food Access Service on 1800 979 777. It’s open 9.30am – 5.00pm Monday to Friday (closed on public holidays).

The call takes about 20 minutes and you will need: 

• A form of identification, such as a driver’s licence 
• Your Medicare or Centrelink card

Find a charity

1. Visit waconnect.org.au
2. Click on “I am looking for Assistance”
3. Enter “Food” in the drop-down options and then enter the suburb where you live in the next box and click Search.
4. A list of charities in your area that may be able to help you will be displayed.