6 April 2023

Newsletter Articles

Principal

Hello Parents and Carers,

We have had a very busy term and I hope that all staff and families have a wonderful break over the holidays.

I have some sad news for our primary parents. Jake Sheaf, a highly regarded teacher, is moving to the country over the holidays. Jake will be taking leave for the rest of the year, and Silvija Nestorovska is taking over as the teacher in Room 14. We wish Jake and his family all the very best and hope we will see him again in 2024.

We will be holding elections for Parent Representative on the School Board early in Term 2. We need three parents to join the Board and represent the voice of all parents. The Board meets once a term at 8am in the morning. More information will be forthcoming.

The P&C held their AGM on March 31st. Unfortunately, we only received nominations for one Office Bearer and two committee members. Without a full quorum of Office Bearers and four additional committee members the P&C was forced to put forward a motion to close. A motion was also put forward to put all existing P&C funds towards school resources. I would like to express my gratitude to Ian Bresland who has been our P&C President for the past 7 years. His exemplary service to our students and families has been outstanding and our school is a better place thanks to him. I would also like to thank Kelly Ward, Gaye Hyne and Kerry Potter for their tireless efforts as Office Bearers in previous years. The closing of the P&C is the end of an era.

Important Dates for Term 2

Please check the attached Calendar to see whether your child’s class is having an assembly next term. Early Years parents are invited to the Library for a cuppa and a biscuit after each of their assemblies.

Term 2 starts for our students on Wednesday 26th April. We have a School Development Day scheduled for Monday 22nd May so please put that in your calendar as there won’t be classes for students on that day.

Kind Regards,
Linda Lane
Principal

Early Years News

Hello Parents and Carers,

Teachers have met with many parents, carers and therapists this term and are working hard to complete Student Individual Education Plans. IEPs will be sent out this week, if you haven’t received your child’s by the end of Week 1 next term please contact the front office.

Our students in the Early Years section of the school have had an amazing first term, with many transitioning to school for the first time. A big thank you to parents, carers and staff who have assisted students in their transition and to settle well into school. As I have walked around the school, I have seen students fully engaged and excited to share their learning.

Room 2 students performed – One Little Finger at our Week 7 assembly, students and staff enjoyed practising for the big day. Room 32 students performed – We Will Rock You at the Week 9 assembly, with students enjoying an encore performance. Both assemblies were well attended by parents and friends, a huge thank you for your support.

Our music therapy incursions started this week with Music Therapist -Angel Tsang. Many students enjoyed the exploring of a range of instruments, with the guitar the most popular. We look forward to four more incursions with Angel working her magic with students.

A reminder to please check the school calendar as we have many exciting events coming up: Mother’s Day Morning tea, Grandparents Day for our kindy students, Dress up Day and Assemblies.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all staff for their hard work this term, it is with great pride that we can look back at the wonderful achievements that students have already experienced.

Have a happy and safe Easter school holidays.

Kind Regards,
Ellen McAllister
Associate Principal

Primary News

Dear Parents/Guardians,

It’s almost the holidays already! Time is flying by, but the Primary Phase students are keeping on working and striving to achieve their goals in the classrooms!

Parents will receive their child/ren’s Individual Education Plans before the end of the term.

Congratulations to Room 13, Room 14 and Room 15 for having their assemblies this term. All of them have been fantastic- it’s great to see the students showcasing their skills and the work they have been doing in class. Thank you to the staff in those rooms for coordinating these.

The school had a visit from some AFL West Coast Eagles Players on Monday 20th March- Nic Naitanui, Andrew Gaff, Xavier O’Neill and Jordyn Baker arrived with Zachary Binning from WAFC, to sign some posters for the students and work with them on some footy skills. Thank you to Zachary Binning for organising the event, it was well received by students and staff!

The School of Special Educational Needs: Disability (SSEN:D) are providing some of our Primary teachers with some training- some topics that have been covered are: Autism Strategies, Department of Education Planning Tools and the Ziggurat Model- this has been invaluable to some of our new teachers in the Primary Phase.

At the start of next term, I’ll be away for approx. 4 weeks. Please contact the office during this time if you have a query regarding the Primary classes.

Jake Sheaf is taking leave next term; I’d like to take this opportunity to thank him for starting the year off on such a positive note and we wish him all the best for his endeavours. Silvija Nestorovska will be teaching Room 14 full-time.

I wish you all the best for the upcoming Easter long weekend, I hope everyone stays safe and enjoys the holiday period.

Thank you

Kind Regards,
Simon Hume
Deputy Principal

Satellite News

Kaya,

It has been a busy term at Embleton and how it’s flown with students settling into their classes and getting used to new routines and classmates.

Our big event for Term 1 was our two-week block of swimming lessons at Bayswater Waves. It has been great to see the progress made from day one through to the final week. The swimming staff at Bayswater Waves have been amazing - using visuals provided by our staff to assist with their lessons. It has made a real difference to how smoothly lessons have been going. A big congratulations to all the boys and girls that passed their designated levels.

We also celebrated Harmony Day with Embleton Primary School where students dressed in their traditional cultural outfits and brought traditional cuisine in to eat at the shared lunch that happened in the quadrangle. There was lots of great food to try. The students really enjoyed themselves, it was great to be a part of the festivities.

On behalf of the Satellite group, I would like to wish Daniela Di Benedetto the very best, she will be leaving at the end of Term 1 on maternity leave to have her second baby, we wish her all the best in the weeks and months to come. With Daniela leaving there will be some small classroom changes, Colleen Calvert will be taking over Sat 4 full-time and we will be welcoming a new staff member Treana Jones who will be taking over the DOTT teacher role in Sat 2,3 & 4 on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. We look forward to welcoming you into the Satellite and Embleton community.

A reminder to all parents that Term 2 starts on the 26th of April which is a Wednesday

Kind regards,
Chris Ralph
Programme Coordinator

Secondary News

News from the Heights,

Things have been swimming along in Secondary this semester, so much so that it is hard to believe it is the nearing the end of the first Term!

Currently in the school we have four third year Medical Students from Curtin University as part of the Community Partnership Program, with four more coming later in the year. We have been involved with this program for a number of years and it is designed to broaden the experience of young medical professionals in a variety of contexts and gets them to focus on how they could positively contribute when helping and to reflect on their practice to improve outcomes for all. We are proud to be involved and to highlight some of the difficulties faced by our young people and help soon to be doctors get some experience working with people with a wide range of needs.

We have also had a number of Pre-Service teachers from Edith Cowan University in the school as part of the Tutorial Approach to Student Support (TASS) Program. Edith Cowan University places itself at the forefront of pre-service teacher education in helping prepare graduate teachers for the diversity that exists in today’s secondary classrooms. The placement is designed to further their understanding and foster practical know-how when working with secondary aged students with additional needs. This means we get the opportunity to help educate new teachers and show them the amazing things we do at Durham Road School.

The school recently competed in the Kalability Basketball Carnival at the Ray Owns Sports Centre in Kalamunda. This saw two Durham Road School teams play several games against a variety of education support centres and schools. Our students displayed the sort of behaviour and effort that makes us so proud of them and achieved the amazing result of winning a trophy for being a champion team. It was truly a brilliant day and one where every student who participated should be very happy and be congratulated for their level of engagement and outstanding behaviour

Kind regards,
Heath Bradley
Deputy Principal

Communication Intensive Group

Welcome, Kaya to our families,

Term 1 is nearing it’s end and what an awesome term it has been!

All parent and teacher interviews have been conducted. Students and staff are working diligently on their IEP goals and some inspirational work is being undertaken with our students and staff.

You will have received notes home about our upcoming 5-week incursion from Sensorium Theatre. The incursion provides an opportunity for students to engage in literacy in a new and fun environment and experience Shared Reading and rhyming for pre-reading. The theatre staff will provide students with the opportunity to initiate communication with familiar adults using multimodal communication strategies.

Our phase is also designing a curriculum program for music. This involves purchasing music equipment that has vibrations and can be used by all our students. Some examples are wah-wah tubes, sea drum, Theremin, which is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the person using it! A huge thank you to our musical Nyree Clark for her efforts in sourcing and designing how the instruments will be used, and to Megan Rhodes: Curriculum Coordinator for her future input in collaboratively designing the music program with our teachers.

Kind Regards,
Sharon Rollinson
Communication Intensive Program Coordinator

Early Years Learning Centre

The students in EYLC have had a great start to the year. We have many new students who have started in kindy this year, as well as our pre-primary students. Our favourite activities throughout the week include swimming, art, cooking, and science. We also work well in our Literacy and Numeracy rotations which we do each day.

On days when it has been super-hot, we have enjoyed putting our bathers on for water play in the playground.

We are looking forward to school holidays coming up and returning in Term 2

Room 19

Room 19 has had a very busy start to the school year.

Throughout the term, the students enjoyed and engaged in many activities including art, dance, disco and waterplay. Every day they practise Key Word Signs (KWS) when listening to our national anthem - Advance Australia Fair. They are kept busy as they work with letters and words, numbers, and shapes. A favourite time slot on the weekly calendar is bike riding and obstacle course. They especially enjoyed the recent incursion with the amazing West Coast Eagles.

The weather has been hot, our room is dynamic, and we are all looking forward to the end of the term! Wishing everyone a safe and happy Easter holiday break

Room 20

Room 20 have been having so much fun so far this year. The highlight to date has been meeting some of the West Coast Eagles players! It is no coincidence they had their first win of the season in the week they visited us, we like to think they learnt some new skills from Room 20 students! We have been busy practising our Geography skills by taking school tours during HASS, trying out obstacle courses during Move ‘n’ Groove and creating masterpieces during Art. Hip Hop dancing sessions and swimming lessons are also class favourites. We are looking forward to more great times and fabulous learning opportunities in Term 2.

Room 21

The students in Room 21 have had an amazing start to the year! We have been learning the classroom routine, working hard in Literacy and Numeracy sessions, having music and cooking lessons with Michael Black, Protective Behaviours and sensory sessions with Shae and Sport lessons with Loraine. Well done Team 21!

Room 22

This term we have been busy doing all sorts of activities. We have explored solids, liquids and gases during Science. Our favourite experiment was mixing a solid and a liquid to make a gas to blow up a balloon.

We have written our own sentences about our favourite part of our literacy books and even held items from the story like a didgeridoo, a boomerang and a coolamon that you carry water in.

Our colourful art activities involved spinning paint to make our suns and moving paint around under glad wrap to decorate our snakes. They look amazing on our classroom wall.

Some of us have visited the Library to borrow books. We have been swimming and even spent time with players from the West Coast Eagles! We are also very lucky to listen to special songs Nyree wrote for us about saying ‘yes’ and ‘no’ and saying good-bye at the end of the day. We can’t wait to see what we’ll be doing next term.

Room 23

Our students and staff have had an excellent start to the year with everyone settled into our new room. We have been exploring the festivals this term including Australia day, Chinese New Year, Saint Patrick’s Day and will be completing craft with an Easter theme.

Students have been busy working on the theme of ‘Australia’ for the term, taking part in Hip Hop dancing, Balanced Literacy, Hydrotherapy and Multi-Sensory Room sessions. We’ve also had an excellent visit from the West Coast Eagles!

Room 24

Room 24 have had an awesome start to 2023. We have all had so much fun getting to know each other and building relationships. So far this term, we have gone on two excursions and had one incursion. Our incursion was about public transport and using SmartRiders which was very informative. Our first excursion was to the Art Museum by train and our second excursion was to the Sensorium Theatre to watch a show called “Wonder Box”. Both excursions were fantastic, and everyone behaved marvellously.

In class, students have worked on making posters and gave short presentations on interest-based topics. It was great to see and hear the students getting excited to learn and share about their topics. After each work session, students have been choosing games to play together - Zingo, Uno Flip, Things, and cards are very popular choices amongst the students. Some of our students have also been going to work experience, doing Cert courses and/or have been working on skills at the Enterprise and Training Centre.

We look forward to seeing what the rest of the term brings before enjoying a well deserved break!

Room 27

We have been super busy in Room 27, getting on top of our daily schedule and trying to get the most out of each day. Our weekly Friday jam sessions have been a hit, and not to forget to mention our Hip Hop lessons are back and running! It's safe to say we will be breakdancing our way through the year! Our ASDAN unit has us working hard on healthy eating and living and our personal hygiene routines. We have all made some good friends in Room 27 and it's great to see the students playing together during recess and lunch

Room 28

Room 28 has started the year well. In ASDAN we are focussing on life skills. These skills include putting on an apron, preparing work surfaces, choosing food, cooking food, and cleaning up after the food is made. Language used in this cooking reflect personal choice: Did you like it?

We hope you enjoy these pictures of us learning

Room 29

Room 29 has had a great start to the year! Joining Zamahn, Ahmed and Griffith are Zayla, Jack and Efraim! Our new students are enjoying their new classroom, fellow classmates and new teachers.

Room 29 have been enjoying swimming classes, art classes, dancing and cooking.

Room 29 is looking forward to all things great and small in 2023!

Pool

The pool has been busy, busy with lots and lots of hydrotherapy this year. Luckily for all our students the pool is heated to a lovely 34 degrees which is perfect for our students who get cold easily. Did you know……….

• Hydrotherapy builds strength, balance, and coordination Hydrotherapy builds fine motor skills such as grip, hand, and finger strength Hydrotherapy increases aerobic capacity Hydrotherapy allows exercise without pain or restricted movement Hydrotherapy improves range of motion of joints
• Hydrotherapy improves posture

Our students enjoy all these benefits when they have their sessions in the pool. We look forward to continuing our work in the water coming into the winter months. Please make sure your children have a nice big towel to keep them warm once they finish their session.

Satellite 3

It has been a busy start to the term. On Tuesday the 21st of March we celebrated Harmony Day. We enjoyed a shared picnic with the students from Embleton Primary School. It was so lovely to see the students trying different foods from other cultures. In week 7 and 8 we have been attending swimming lessons at Bayswater Waves. It has been incredible to see the students gain in confidence and skill. I would like to wish the students and the families a safe and relaxing Easter break and I look forward to hearing about all their holiday adventures in Term 2.

Satellite 4

This term we have been very busy with special events including Harmony Day where we celebrated different cultures and shared meals from countries around the world. We also attended swimming lessons at Bayswater Waves and some of us got to graduate to Stage 4, an awesome achievement! In class we have been learning a lot about the history of Australia’s Prime Ministers. We completed some posters in groups on some of our favourites including Kevin Rudd and John Howard. We had a class discussion on some of the things we could do if we were Prime Minister some suggestions were to help the elderly more and to improve parking at the hospitals.

On behalf of everyone in Sat 4 we wish you a safe and Happy Easter.

Art

Kaya and welcome to another Arts/ Enterprise update.

We are all steam ahead in the ETC and gearing up for our Mother’s Day Stall next term. The students have been working hard to learn new skills and produce some fantastic products, some of which are lino print bags, recycled plastic bowls, coasters, stools, and recycled paper fire bricks.

We recently had a visit from all the lovely Lions Club members who donated money for our new extruder and plastics tools. They were very impressed to observe student demonstrations and finally get to see the plastics products we are producing. A huge thank-you to our students: Luke, Emma, Jasmeen, and Jordan for your thorough demonstrations.

Workplace learning

As part of the Workplace Learning, where possible, students travel via public transport to their workplaces. To teach the students safety techniques and to increase understanding and confidence each student takes part in training from Transperth staff both at school and in the wider community. The sessions are always extremely informative. This year we were the first to hear about the imminent closure of Bayswater Train Station.

To maximise student achievement Justine Loggenberg and Samantha Reid meet once each term with Vocational Education and Training (VET) staff from other Special Education schools in the North Metro area. Ideas are shared, legislation is applied, success is celebrated, and relationships are developed, ensuring we can partner with other schools to take advantage of each other’s offerings.

Family Liaison Officers

Now is the time to claim ABSTUDY for your high school child

ABSTUDY is a group of payments for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. ABSTUDY helps with the costs of studying or doing an Australian Apprenticeship.

It can help with your child’s school fees, boarding costs, travel to and from school and other school items. If your child’s travel is impacted by COVID-19 or they need to study remotely, ABSTUDY can also help.

If you’re a parent or guardian and your child is younger than 16, you should claim on their behalf. If your child is 16 and over, or independent, they can claim themselves. To claim, call the Services Australia’s ABSTUDY line on Free call 1800 132 317.

If they’re starting Uni or TAFE, they’ll be able to claim online through myGov.

Claiming before 1 December means ABSTUDY payments can be finalised in time for the start of school next year. This is very important if your child needs to move away from home to study.

To see what you or your child can get, and learn how to claim, go to the link below:

Recommended website:

Source Kids has been developed to deliver important information to those caring for and working with Australians with a disability. They provide up to date information and relevant resources. The Sourcekids Disability Expo is in Perth on October 28th-29th, so pop it into your calendar & save the date. The expo brings together disability product and service providers for the two-day event with equipment, technology, sport and recreation, plan management, support workers, sensory and other retail products. The Source Kids Disability Expo is the perfect way for families, professionals, and people with disability to connect with providers and find the latest options available.

This website is also worth a look:

Mums raising children with special needs. Source Mama also has a Facebook Community Page, unapologetically candid, uncut, and heartbreakingly real, whilst uniting, elevating and fiercely empowering.

Companion Cards

A Companion Card is a card issued to people with a significant and permanent disability who require attendant care support from a companion to participate at most venues and with activities. Cardholders present their card when booking or purchasing a ticket from participating businesses. The participating business will recognise the Companion Card and issue the cardholder with a second ticket for their companion at no charge.

Cinemas, museums, sport, tourist attractions, Transport and travel, community events.

More details can be found at:

All students at Durham Road School are eligible for a Companion Card.

Safe and Found

Safe & Found WA is an initiative introduced by Western Australia Police Force (WA Police Force) and Australia Medic Alert Foundation.

Safe & Found supports people living with dementia, autism or a cognitive impairment who might be at risk of becoming lost or reported as missing, by ensuring Police have immediate access to critical information to assist when undertaking search operations.

A detailed profile outlining your personal history and characteristics is completed ahead of time, and kept securely along with a recent photo, on the Safe & Found database for Police to access immediately if you go missing.

A Safe & Found ID bracelet is included with your membership to protect you when you're out in public. Your bracelet is engraved with the details needed to return you to safety should you appear lost or disoriented.

More information can be found at the link below:

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