August 2024
Principal
Dear Parents and Carers
It is my pleasure to welcome you to Term 3 2024 as the Principal for Durham Road School.
Last term, we gave Linda Lane a wonderful farewell retirement lunch. She leaves a legacy of students come first and a commitment to excellence that has truly shaped our school community. As we embark on Term 3, we honour her contributions and continue to uphold the values she championed. Let us build on her legacy by maintaining our focus on student success and fostering an environment where every student can thrive.
Parents attending IEP (Individualized Education Program) meetings is crucial for ensuring that a child's educational needs are effectively addressed. If you have a meeting coming up, it is a good idea to check the schedule and choose the most convenient format for you, whether that is in person, by phone, or through an online platform. Make sure to prepare any questions or concerns you have about your child's education and development, as this will help make the meeting as productive as possible. If you need any tips on how to prepare for the meeting or what to discuss, feel free to ask!
Term 3 is going to be packed with activities! Here are the upcoming events for your calendar:
- Monday 19th August Book Week Dress Up
- Tuesday 20th August Soccer Program – Secondary (running Tuesdays until the end of term)
- Thursday 22nd August Mission Australia Presentation 10am – Staffroom
- Friday 23rd August Sausage Sizzle (Telethon)
- Friday 30th August Athletics Carnival – Satellite
- Friday 30th August Father’s Day Breakfast
- Tuesday 3rd September NAIDOC Day
- Thursday 5th September Sensorium Theatre - Primary (running Thursdays until the end of Term)
- Thursday 5th September Early Year Sports Carnival
- Friday 6th September Primary & Secondary Sports Carnival
- Wednesday 11th September Assembly Rooms 19 and 20
- Thursday 12th September Are You OK Day
- Friday 13th September Assembly Rooms 2, 3 & 12
- Friday 13th September Starkick Carnival – Primary
- Monday 16th September to Friday 20th September Visit your Child’s Swimming Lesson
- Tuesday 17th September Secondary Assembly Rooms 24, 25 & 31
- Tuesday 17th September Daylight Disco
I look forward to the forthcoming events and I am sure teachers will have photographs to share with you.
Here is to a productive and inspiring term ahead!
Please contact me on 9238 0900 or by email: Ellen.McAllister1@education.wa.edu.au.
Kind Regards,
Ellen McAllister
Principal
Early Years News
We are delighted to introduce Tania Muller as the newest member of our school leadership team. With her wealth of experience and enthusiasm, we are excited about the positive impact she will bring to our community. Tania will be with us every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
IEP meetings are well underway, and it has been a pleasure meeting with parents, teachers, and extended therapy teams to plan for the semester ahead. These discussions are crucial in creating the best educational experience for every student. We are committed to working closely with families to support their child's success.
Additionally, we are reaching out to our community for donations of gently used school uniforms. If you have any items to share, please consider donating them to our school. Your generosity helps ensure that every student has access to the necessary clothing for their education.
Thank you for your continued support and involvement. Please contact us with any concerns or feedback via email or by calling the front office. We are always here to assist.
susan.moran@education.wa.edu.au
tania.muller@education.wa.edu.au
Kind Regards,
Susan Moran and Tania Muller
Deputy Principal
Primary News
Dear Parents and Carers,
It’s definitely looking like a busy term for us in the Primary phase!
WA Cricket have commenced sessions with our students- these have been run informally in the primary playground near the end of the student’s playtime. The sessions have been very engaging for our students, we’d like to thank WA Cricket and Reclink for coming out to us.
Athletics training is yet to commence, although the students and staff are eager to start sessions to get ready for the Athletics carnival later in the term. Watch this space!
We are also looking forward to Sensorium performing for our students near the end of the term- they will be basing their incursions on the book ‘Ten Tiny Things.’
We have had a change to the date of our Rm 19 and 20 Assembly. It will now be held on Wednesday 11th September. A reminder will be sent out to families of the students in the participating classes.
Thank you.
Kind Regards,
Simon Hume
Deputy Principal
Satellite News
Dear Families,
Welcome back to Term 3! It’s wonderful to see the students settling back into their classroom routines and engaging with our programs. We are excited to introduce two new students who have recently joined our Satellite Program from Durham Road School. They have quickly made themselves at home in Satellite One and are already making new friends and exploring their new environment.
First week back the students participated in the Embleton Primary School Cross Country. The students and staff were very enthusiastic to give it a go and, did very well to follow the marked course and persevere to finish the race. We have some impressive runners among us, and a special congratulations to Cody Alecs for earning a spot at the Interschool Cross Country! We are very proud of Cody who represented Durham Road at West Morley Primary School. What an incredible race you ran!!
As we look ahead, our focus will shift to the Athletics Carnival, scheduled for Friday, August 30th. The students have been diligently practicing for the various events, and we’re looking forward to seeing the strong parent support on the day. Please mark your calendars!
A big thank you to all the parents that came to the Satellite Open Night. It was a fantastic opportunity for you to meet with teachers and view the wonderful work your children have accomplished. Teachers are currently scheduling Parent-Teacher Meetings to discuss your child's progress and set goals for the second semester.
This term, students in Satellite 3 and 4 are participating in a 10-week Ballet course, provided by the Western Australian Ballet. This annual highlight allows our students to develop their dance and music skills with the guidance of talented teaching artists. The course is then followed in an exciting excursion to see the West Australian Ballet's performance of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ at His Majesty’s Theatre.
I look forward to seeing families at the Sport Carnival on the 30th of August.
Kind regards,
Cassie Camacho
Programme Coordinator
Secondary News
Welcome to Semester 2! The classes have hit the ground running and our programs are back into full swing. Over the course of the Semester, we will be having some very cool programs, like FunFit Junior Fitness who will be running some interactive sessions with a focus on movement and dance. It looks like it will be a load of fun. Karli, our amazing Art teacher will also be running some discrete music/drumbeat sessions for secondary, and we are really looking forward to seeing both programs in action.
Science Week is happening, and we have some fantastic classroom sessions planned. The Science Committee have been working hard to make sure everything is as interactive and fun as possible, so the students are looking forward to this.
It is also a very sporty term. Later on, we will have our school faction carnival and the classes have already started to train and prepare for the day. With the Olympics currently on it seemed like a natural fit to get everyone in the mood for what is an amazing and fun day. We are also scheduled to attend the Kalability AFL Carnival. There are still some questions marks about exactly when or if this will occur as we are waiting on some clarification around the details as a city wide Education Assistant Union meeting has been scheduled for the same day, so stay tuned.
On Friday the 30th of August we are having our Father’s Day breakfast so please Dads, Grandads, carers, pop this in your diary. On the 17th of September Rooms 24 and 31 have an assembly; with the fantastic assemblies we have had so far, I am sure this will be one not to miss as well (no pressure gang!!).
Until next time.
Heath and Justine
Kind regards,
Heath Bradley
Deputy Principal
Room 2
It has been lovely to start to Term 3 in Room 2. The students have returned to school with enthusiasm after the break.
On the 2nd of August the students enjoyed coming to school in their pyjamas to fundraise for Telethon. We are looking forward to dressing up again for book week. The staff would like to express their pride in the students' achievements and dedication throughout the first semester. They eagerly look forward to continuing to support their progress and further growth in the coming semester.
Room 3
The weather hasn’t dampened Room 3’s excitement for Term 3 and learning all about dinosaurs! We have had some fun trying to pronounce some of the names. Maybe by the end of term, we will have got the hang of them!
We have welcomed Jess onto our team and farewelled Shalini. Jess has settled in well and we are excited to get to know her.
On Thursdays we are learning all about ‘how things move’. Bev has started the term off with some fun activities like catapulting different materials into the air! It has been very exciting!
Room 10
Room 10 have had a great start to Semester 2. We've enjoyed working with our new regular EA, Peter, along with Alex who has also been in the room a lot this term.
We have been continuing to work on our individual literacy and maths task drawers every day. These have also been helping with our fine motor skills and independence.
We now make a weekly visit to the school library, learning how to choose our own books, read the stories, and be as quiet as we can!
This term we are doing geography. We have been looking at our world, Australia, Perth, and our own neighbourhoods. We have also been learning about other countries where we have friends and family.
In science we are studying how we categorise different types of animals, making choices about what is the same and what is different. All of which should stand us in good stead for the Birds of Prey Science Week incursion later this month!
Room 11
Hello Everyone,
Room 11 is excited to return to school and is working extremely hard for all our events this term. We look forward to the sports carnival, book week, soccer incursion and swimming carnival. Our students put tremendous effort into their activities and focus hard on their work.
Also, this term, we will continue to use our manners in the classroom and work towards being more independent in our daily routines.
We wish you all a great term and hope you enjoy our photos.
Room 12
Room 12 can now access the Early Years playground from their classroom via the new glass door.
The students in Room 12 are encouraged to participate in a range of play-based learning opportunities with their peers to help them understand the world around them. Each morning starts with a discussion about the Day of Week, Letter of the Day and Book of the Week.
This term, the students are learning to count to ten. They love listening to Counting songs and are learning to count a collection of objects through touch and feel.
Room 14
Room 14 finished last term with a fantastic assembly performance! Our families and friends came to watch our performance playing the bells we had learnt in class as the “Room 14 Bells Band”.
This term we have begun making tactile Olympic rings to learn about the Olympics in Paris. We have written a book about our favourite sports in Predictable Chart Writing.
We are participating in a Cricket incursion each week and some of us have enjoyed throwing or rolling the ball. With more practise we are getting pretty good. Sensorium Theatre is coming later in the term, and we’ve already started our fortnightly class discos with disco lights and dancing. It’s going to be a fun-filled term!
Room 15
Room 15 are happy and focussed as we enter the second half of the school year. We have such a busy term coming up with a focus on movement and being active. We’re very excited about learning to move our bodies by participating in our cricket lessons and practising for our sports carnival. In science we are learning all about how things move as well. We all love to move our bodies and be active!
Room 16
Welcome back to Room 16 for Term 3 – we’re excited to share what we’ve been up to!
We celebrated NAIDOC in our first week back and read a book about inspiring First Nations people. In art we made a fire out of sticks and handprints to link to this year’s theme ‘Keep the Fire Burning’ and we made damper in our cooking lesson.
This term we are exploring the Olympics and learning about the history and the symbols, like the rings, the torch relay and the medals. We are doing lots of fun Olympics themed art and in literacy we are reading books about different sports. It’s been very interesting and fun.
We continue to love our swimming, MSR and library sessions every week and we are looking forward to exciting special days like pyjama day on Friday.
We loved coming back to Term 3 after holidays and we are excited to see what the rest of the year has in store for us!
Room 25
As we continue to strive for independence, we have a few things to celebrate in room 25.
We have learnt the class rules and practiced how to communicate and regulate our emotions.
We have learnt about who we can talk to as friends and who we must not talk to (strangers). This helps us when we are out in the community.
Sandinu has developed more independence by catching the bus to and from school.
We have enjoyed socialising at the school disco and even went out on an excursion to AQWA.
Room 26
In Room 26 this term we are exploring Medieval Life in History. We first learnt about the everyday life of a medieval pheasant in week 1 and then how to become a knight in week 2. We were lucky to have Joel from room 28 volunteer to dress up in his replica armour – letting the class try on the heavy metal helmet, breast plate and leg braces.
In Chemistry we have been experimenting with compounds and solutions watching the effects of soap on fat and the difference in density of salt and fresh water. One group of classmates performed the experiment while their lab partner recorded and then they swapped.
In Maths we are learning about place value up to 100 and beyond - using MAB Blocks and number expanders.
Room 27
It has been a very busy start to Term 3 with everyone getting straight back into the routine and kicking goals already! This term we have been working on our ASDAN portfolios where we have been working with tools and machinery to create our very own woodwork masterpiece. It has been awesome learning new skills and working with our hands. We cannot wait to show you the end result!
Room 32
We’re back for another busy term of growth and learning, whilst having heaps of fun! Room 32 students are focussing on Weather and Seasons this term, especially looking at what we might do, wear, or eat in the different seasons of the year. We have made some beautiful artwork that is winter-themed to decorate our classroom with thus far. We are thoroughly enjoying the rain lately, allowing us lots of water play opportunities. Our students are demonstrating amazing safe and courteous behaviour to which they can collect special “monster rewards” as part of our class reward system. We continue to work hard on our IEP goals with enthusiasm – keep up the wonderful work Room 32!
Workplace Learning
At Durham Road School we are striving to prepare students for life beyond school through our comprehensive Workplace Learning program along with our teaching of life skills. We also greatly value input from parents regarding their desires for their children’s futures.
The importance of focus on life beyond school for our students has recently been reinforced by the research findings of The Disability Assembly of Western Australia (DAWA) Summit regarding the lives of people with Intellectual Disabilities and their support network.
The Summit report stated: Employment (or suitable alternatives to employment) is imperative to ensuring future wellbeing, security, and independence of people with intellectual disability (PWID). There is a requirement for education at a societal level to ensure people understand that most PWID are capable of work and have the right to fulfilling employment.
In combination with the other strategies for teaching employment skills at Durham Road School we take Senior Secondary work experience students to a Disability Expo each year. This year we will be attending the Perth Disability Connection Expo 2024.
The expo is sponsored by St Jude’s and has over 200 exhibitors along with entertainment and a variety of things to do for families and adults. There will be exhibitors focussed on a wide variety of areas including NDIS service providers, allied health, early intervention, resource and equipment suppliers, home and community service providers. Parents may also find this a useful place to go.
If you would like more information, please visit https://developingauscommunities.com.au/perth-expo-2024/
City of Bayswater
Durham Road School would like to extend a heartfelt THANK YOU to Leonie and the City of Bayswater for their invaluable support. Leonie’s assistance made it effortless for us to secure bookings, ensuring that students attending our satellite campus at Embleton Primary School could be transported to our main campus for weekly swimming lessons during term two.
This service, made possible by dedicated volunteer drivers from our community, was crucial in giving our students the opportunity to participate in swimming lessons. The students were always thrilled to see the bus arrive at school, and their enthusiasm was a testament to the positive impact of this service.
Durham Road School and all our families are deeply grateful for the support provided by the City of Bayswater and its volunteers. We truly appreciate the efforts of Leonie and the entire Bayswater City Shire team.
We look forward to the opportunity to utilize this wonderful service again next year.
Thank you once again!
Cyril Jackson Senior Campus ESC Open Day
School Bus Update
