2 July 2020

Newsletter Articles

Important Dates

2020 Student Councillors

Congratulations to the following students who were elected as councillors:

End of term assembly awards

Merit Certificates

From the Principal’s Desk

A very eventful semester 1 draws to a close with lots of work going on by staff and the students. I trust everyone has received their child’s report via Connect. If you would like a paper copy we can send one out - please contact the office. We are trying to minimise our carbon footprint as a school and should have paperless excursion forms soon via a program called “Consent 2 go.”

The School Board recently met and went through a full agenda. The Board looked at the school budget, went through the Community Framework, endorsed revised policies, analysed the board performance tool, provided advice on the parents/caregivers handbook and reviewed the 2019 Annual Report. They will be meeting again on the 6 August. The Annual Report is available on the school website under the about us tab- reports section. Please contact the school if you would like a hard copy.

The board members also looked through the new therapy centre. They provided some advice as to the set-up of the sensory room and also the new recreation room. The whole building came in under budget, and we are investing the savings into upgrading the recreation room with soft fall flooring and a very large fan in the ceiling. The therapy rooms are already being used, and the sensory room should be operational later next term. It provides a welcome addition to our school infrastructure, and we have plans to add to the area directly in front with more paving and shade.

Keep an eye out for some wonderful bargains as the school tenders surplus equipment. We must comply with government regulations around computers and their life span. We have reserve prices on items, but they are very reasonable, I can assure you.

This term, we have been running a recruitment process for a permanent part time school psychologist. I would like to thank Sarah Mowe (School Psychologist) who has been supporting our student services team while we have been advertising. The process is now complete, and I would like to welcome Luwandi Perera to our school community. Luwandi will be commencing with us at the beginning of term 3.

We will also be recruiting for teachers and education assistants to fill vacancies arising from leave. Miss Coombe will be taking parental leave from term 3, Mrs Marshall is taking some well-deserved long service leave while Miss Jones will use some leave to take up a promotional position in the Middle East. We wish them all the best and hope to see them all soon. We are still finalising replacement staff with the Department of Education and casual staff at the school. Some existing staff have agreed to increase their time for the remainder of the year, which is appreciated.

Congratulations to the year 10 team for a truly fantastic virtual assembly. I would like to acknowledge the merit certificate winners and the school councillors who received their long awaited badges. Given the easing of restrictions with Phase 4, our next school assembly will be in attendance.

While we are entering Phase 4 of the state government COVID 19 roadmap, it is still vital that we all continue to maintain excellent hygiene standards. Adults are practising social distancing, and we have plenty of cleaning products and hand sanitiser in the classrooms. Students and staff are continuing to wash their hands regularly. The school will continue to receive extra cleaning support for term 3. A key element of containing the coronavirus, and indeed, other viruses like the flu, is that students must not be sent to school with any cold or flu like symptoms. We still seem to have students coming to school unwell – we strongly encourage parents/carers to keep children at home. If they do attend school and are ill, we will need to ring you to collect them.

The DFES camp to the Perth Hills Discovery Centre in Mundaring during term 3 week 5 (August 20th-21st) is on track to go ahead. This senior students overnight camp meets the Health Department and Education Department operating guidelines for camps. The students will be cooking their food and sleeping separately in tents. Our middle school camp however, at this stage will not be able to address all the requirements. It was to be held late in term three at Camp Mornington near Harvey but, unfortunately, the campsite has closed. We will look at having an incursion/fun day in term 4 to give the students some fun in lieu of the missed camps. Camps are a big part of our school and we hope that we can plan for 2021.

The METRONET level crossing removal project will remove up to seven vehicle level crossings on the Armadale line. There will be community reference groups established that will workshop idea and concepts as the planning process progresses. If you would like to have your say visit the link below:

Don’t forget our School Development Days as listed in the important dates section - are pupil free days. We will be working on our school plans with an emphasis on sensory needs, communication needs, and explicit teaching. I would like to acknowledge the extra effort all the staff have made this term and congratulate them and the students for working together. I hope everyone has a great school holiday break and I look forward to seeing everyone in term 3. Take care

Andrew Wilson

Our new therapy rooms

Class Updates

7JS

I can’t believe we are already two terms into the year. We have continued to focus on improving our literacy through spelling mastery, guided reading, small group activities and many other fun and interesting ways. We have continued to concentrate on improving our physical education, independent living and social skills. It has been a very productive term, and I hope everyone has a great school holiday.

Jacob Sands

Playing modified basketball

7S

After a quiet start to the first half of this term, we have returned to a normal and busy second half with all students returning to class for face to face learning.

On Fridays, as part of our literacy lessons, we have been viewing Behind the News (BTN) and answering quiz related to the news story on our iPad using the Socrative App. We also have very interesting discussions on our favourite news topic, where we share our views and opinions on the topic chosen. BTN is also helping us keep ourselves updated with the latest news around the world.

On Thursdays, we learn Key Word Sign (KWS) with Ms Thomas. This lesson is not only exciting but also interactive as we sign to each other as part of learning. The most exciting part of the lesson is answering the special Kahoot KWS quiz that Ms Thomas has created. We are also learning to sign the Australian National Anthem.

Signing to the class

In our art lessons on Mondays, we have been working on designing kites. We had to draw our pattern on a piece of paper and then transfer it on to our kite, finally adding colour to it. After completing the design, we assembled our kites by putting all the parts together. We then flew them on the school oval. It was fun.

The classroom staff are proud of all the students for their perseverance and participation in all activities. Special congratulations to Ryan for winning third place in the cross country race organised by the College and Charli and Ashton for participating and completing the course of the competition. Congratulations to Reon for being selected as the year 7 student councillor for 2020.

We celebrated “Zero to Hero day" in week 8. It was wonderful to see students dress up as their superhero. It has been a busy term, and students and staff are looking forward to a well-deserved term break. Enjoy and stay safe!

Susan Solomon

Zero to Hero Day

8MT

We can't believe that we are almost halfway through the school year. We have continued to keep very busy. For the most part, we are all pleased to be back at school, learning together.

Art

One of our favourite things this term has been making our sculptures. Our sculptures are complete, and they look fantastic. Staff are in the process of displaying them around our classroom. If you didn't guess from our hint last time, they are fish. We have also looked at the glass sculpture Dale Chihuly and have created our very own 'glass' sculptures.

Literacy

We are continuing with our novel ‘Shiloh' by award winning author Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. We are looking forward to seeing how it concludes before the end of the term.

PATHS

During PATHS sessions, we have been learning strategies to make new friends. Our confidence is improving with how to approach new people and strike up a conversation. We have also made a “Hands of Friendship” chain that is brightening up our classroom. It was nice for everyone to share the amazing array of qualities that people within our class display. We all found it very uplifting.

Hands of Friendship

Fitness

Our hip hop dance moves are improving, and everyone is having a lot of fun participating in these sessions. It is a wonderful opportunity for us all to have a bit of a groove and laugh at ourselves as we attempt to master the moves. There has also been some very humorous dance offs between the students and staff. Just on the quiet, the students have it over the staff.

STEM

The students have thoroughly enjoyed doing STEM this term. They have been using Minecraft Education Edition to collaborate as a team to create a model of the human body.

Minecraft has been a fantastic tool in teaching students to work together as a team through sharing ideas and taking on different roles to achieve a shared goal. The students were encouraged to reflect on what wasn't working and discussed how to solve problems as they arose. The project gained momentum when Winston was given the role of 'Construction Manager' whose duties included liaising with the Project Manager (Ms Thomas) and ensuring that all builders were staying on task and following instructions. The before and after pictures show just how far they have come from the beginning of the term. A fantastic achievement!

Minecraft

HASS

This semester the students have shared information about their cultural heritage and connections they have with other countries. They have been working hard to create posters, models of their ‘place in the world’ and collaging international flags to display our connection to the place we live and to the rest of the world. It looks great!

Charline Martlew and Carissa Thomas

Our cultural heritage and connections

8S

Students continued to have a successful term 2 with many highlights and achievements.

Weekly gardening sessions involving propagation and transplanting of plant cuttings saw our stock grow. We had a mini sale to reduce our stock and to add to the school's fundraising. Students helped by setting up the stall, serving customers and dealing with money. We reviewed our numeracy skills before and after our sales and used our learnings to set targets for future sales.

Indigenous histories and culture were integrated into the learning areas. For National Reconciliation Week and an early NAIDOC Week, students listened to several artists including Archie Roach and Adam Briggs. The songs opened students' eyes and increased their empathy. The stories told in the lyrics will be remembered for years to come.

One of the many successes of the term was the team’s enterprise project “Squeaky Clean Laundry Services" picking up business again after some interruptions from Covid19 and students trying to improve the service by undertaking customer surveys. The feedback was mainly positive, and in some areas, a few concerns were highlighted. The students addressed these concerns and hopefully will continue to secure more loads of washing.

Matthew operating the dryer

Daelen and Amy

Several students participated in the 3km cross country run, and we had a 3rd place winner in our division – well done, Monique. Congratulations to all students for their participation.

Running the cross country

Congratulations to Monique and Daelen who are our year 8 Student Councillors for 2020.

Pat Spadanuda

9C

Cannington Community 2020 Cross Country

Brendan Cunnane

9W

It has been great to slowly get back to ‘normal’ this term, with all of our students back and attending regularly. We have had some great things happening so far.

Earlier this term, Mrs Gale, Mrs Egan and I stayed after school one afternoon to attend a webinar run by the Education Department on getting the most out of Minecraft Education. It was an excellent webinar, and we left it feeling excited about the possibilities of it. The following day, we created a world on Mrs Egan's Minecraft account and invited all the students to come into it. The students spent a whole lesson exploring, creating and collaborating. This world is still functioning, and the students have been having a lot of fun in it. Our goal is to create a virtual replica of our school. We have started early planning stages with a group of our boys systematically measuring each block on Wednesday mornings during Maths and then putting the measurements onto the school's site map. It would be great to be able to have this available for younger students when they come for year 7 orientation.

Bentley returned in week 8 for one day a week. He has had quite some time off from his Therapy Dog duties due to social isolation. The students were happy to see him, and the feeling was mutual. He will be attending school most Tuesdays.

Hudson and Bentley

Our garden enterprise is going quite slowly at the moment, with the last of the summer crops removed and new winter crops planted. We currently have four beds of potatoes, spring onions, kohlrabi, beans, peas and rainbow chard. Recently we had a donation of some other seedlings from one of our families, including radicchio, gooseberry and bok choy.

Our class also recently got involved with the worm farms – the school has several worm farms, and we organised to get some worms for them and get them up and running. This has been a new experience for most of our students. Some of them are particularly interested in the function of worms and what they eat. We plan to get the castings for use in our vegetable garden.

During our PATHS sessions, we have been reading the book called Shiloh – this book covers many issues including, animal cruelty, telling the truth and family and peer friendships. The students have enjoyed reading this book, and when we finally finished it in week 8, we were able to watch the movie. The students found it interesting how different the film was to the actual book.

As part of our speaking and listening strand in English, we have been listening to the KidsQs podcast, produced by Media West – for kids by kids. The topics have included global warming, the effects of gaming, what is fake news and others. These are 15 minutes of kids asking questions of leading experts in the field. Our class has been very interested in the topics, and they certainly generate lots of discussions.

In Independent Living, students have been learning how to iron simple items such as tea towels, some students also progressed on to ironing a business shirt, which was challenging for most, but will become more comfortable with practice.

Oliver ironing in Independent Living

Lastly, all of our students participated in the cross country in week 7 – Cannington Community College organised the event, and we were invited to compete. We had some pleasing results with Jaxon Hay running the 3km course in 15 minutes 45 seconds and Kiara Adams running at 3rd place. I was particularly proud of all of my students who participated, at whatever level. Your willingness to give things a try is a credit to each of you!

Next term will provide opportunities for us to return to our planned activities which were postponed due to Covid-19. Stay safe over the holidays. We are looking forward to next term!

Rhoda Whelan

10H

Congratulations to all students who took part in the Cross Country Carnival

On Friday 12 June, all students were invited by Cannington Community College to take part and compete in the annual cross country event. It was fantastic to see 37 of our students involved in the competition.

Jasmine Sunderland from year 10 was the outright winner. Ryan Grant, Monique Park and Kiara Adams placed third in their divisions.

Well done to all participants. All students have received a certificate of participation.

Year 10 Students support Shenton Park Dogs Home!

It has been a busy time in the year 10 classrooms as all students have been making chew toys for the dogs at Shenton Park Refuge. This project formed part of the Community Service program undertaken in year 10.

Our guest speaker, Ms Reimers, came and talked to the students about the refuge and the importance of looking after animals. She was delighted when we presented her with over 150 chew toys that were hand made by the year 10 students.

Judi Janes

Community Service

10J

How can it possibly be the END of term 2 already! Time flies when you’re having fun in our classroom.

In eSafety, students have looked at the dangers of online platforms and how to protect themselves. We've covered topics like Cyberbullying, Safer Gaming, and Social networking. Students created their own "Fake Book" page, and we have looked at ways we might be vulnerable on gaming platforms that connect us to strangers online (such as Fortnite).

In BME, students brainstormed questions to investigate business opportunities in the school. They created a Popplet on the iPad then, as a class, we cherry-picked the most useful questions and created a list in Word. We then used our Microsoft 365 accounts to create a survey using Forms online. The students did a fantastic job, and we are – at the time of writing – currently going through the results to come up with a good business idea that will meet a "need” or “want” for staff at school. We will turn this idea into reality in term 3.

We have been on quite a journey in Rec Pursuits to learn a new recreational skill. The watercolour group has come such a long way since they started! At first, this style of painting seemed too hard – but NOW – you should see the quality of the paintings produced. I have attached some photos for your reference. They are outstanding and show the importance of maintaining high expectations of students.

For community service, our students have been busy collecting items for the Darling Range Wildlife Shelter and making dog chew toys from scraps of old towels. They have done such a great job, and I'm particularly proud of everyone's positive attitudes and willingness to volunteer their time to support a worthy cause.

On Fridays, we focus on developing workplace skills. This term we have learnt a range of enclave-type tasks that involve repetition (such as folding letters into envelopes, weighing out samples, making up collections with a "jig") that simulate a real workplace. We rotate stations every six minutes, which keeps things exciting and helps us to develop a range of skills. I've included some photos of these tasks.

Finally, this term is the year 10 cohort’s turn to run the assembly. This time around – as a historical first - we will be running it via WebEx (video conferencing software) while all students remain in their classrooms. As you might imagine, it's a bit of a logistical nightmare, but we are quietly confident. #CANDO.

Rachael Jones

Group 1

Greetings from Group 1! As always, we have been keeping very busy in our classroom. The cooler weather has brought about some minor challenges, but our students have adapted well. We have even participated in YouTube workouts in the classroom! The staff are very pleased with the effort and determination of students this term. They have all been very hardworking and well-deserving of the upcoming holiday!

YouTube workout

We have had several highlights over the past few weeks:

• Hiba and Stephen were elected year 11 student guild members and are now representing the student voice at the senior campus.
• We went on an excursion to the WA Art Gallery to view a range of artworks, including Outside: Matters of the heart in Indigenous art in the Six Seasons gallery and Pulse Perspectives, the 2019 year 12 art exhibition.
• Some students have been to job interviews for workplace learning and will be starting work soon.
• One of our classmates had to travel interstate, and we have been keeping in contact with him via WebEx – we even had a virtual game of Uno one day!

Chatting to Cam via WebEx

Below is a quick overview of what we have been learning in class:

Stephanie Brown

Writing directions using a school map

Group 2

The second half of this term has been very successful. Our students have been busy completing their literacy and numeracy tasks. During English, our students have discussed risky behaviours, created a poster illustrating the top 10 ways of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, taken part in peer evaluation and self-reflection, created an art piece and reflected on the designs with their peers. The students thoroughly enjoyed sharing stories and showed a tremendous amount of pride while completing their art designs.

Healthy lifestyles

During Maths, the students have been busy organising an excursion plan. They were instructed to work out the related costs, form of transportation required, how many students and staff would be attending and create a timetable to make sure everyone would be back at school on time. The students also completed a measurement activity. They were required to estimate, weigh, measure and convert different units.

During HPO, students have shown a keen interest in playing dodgeball, soccer, badminton and table tennis.

Enjoying HPO

We have also continued encouraging our students to bring in or share memorable stories. It has been fantastic seeing the excellent discussions taking place and smiles on their faces.

Mustafa Hussein

Social games

Group 3

We have had a busy end to the term, and we are all looking forward to ADWPL beginning again and students heading back to or starting new work placements. We were excited to see Hugo and Zidane begin SBT modules and they have begun to learn about OSH with Ben from Edge.

During HPE, we are learning how to read other people's body language and identifying short term and long term health goals. It was pleasing to see most of our students enjoying badminton, dodgeball, indoor soccer and basketball this term and improving their physical skill levels and overall fitness and wellbeing. Students are encouraged to bring a sports shirt and be respectful of protocols such as washing hands after sport.

DFES lessons have been fun and challenging as students are learning about DRSABCD and first aid and will start the “calling an ambulance” module in the coming weeks. We will be able to complete some DFES practical activities next semester as restrictions are eased.

Maths has seen us learn about probability and use the wheel of chance to understand terms such as impossible, not likely, 50/50, likely and certain. We have started examining our income and expenditures, and it is pleasing to see some students using independent skills to access online banking accounts to work out how to budget each week.

Dwayne Griffin

Pathways

During Reconciliation Week, the class painted some Australian and Aboriginal flags to hang in our classroom. They also watched the great moving movie "The Rabbit Proof Fence". We had a lot of discussion about the issues faced in the past and present times.

Allana painting her flag

It has been great, these last few weeks, to see some of the Pathways students return to their workplace learning placements after such a long absence. Hannah, in particular, has enjoyed getting back into the swing of things at "Total Green Recycling". She did a fantastic job dismantling old NBN boxes that were dug up.

Hannah at work

This term sure has flown by fast. This week we had a lovely visit from a furry friend called Oscar. Ethan and his mum kindly brought in their rabbit to visit for a couple of hours. At first, he was a little timid, but eventually, he ventured out to say "Hi" to Ethan's classmates and teachers.

Cindi Griffin

Ethan and Oscar

Design and Technology

Woodwork

Year 7 students have completed their first semester of woodwork and have been getting used to the workshop noise and wearing items of personal protective equipment when needed. Mr Sands’ class has completed Fred’s wagon. Mrs Solomon’s class has finished their naughts and crosses game.

Year 8 students have been working hard, making a jewellery box. Both classes are in the process of painting, decorating and fitting the hasp and staple. Students often treasure this project because they have made a box in which to keep their precious items. Students are looking forward to their next project, which will be a model F1 race car.

Year 9 students are about to complete their money box truck model. It has taken many weeks to make and assemble all of the components. Now that the model looks like a truck, students are enjoying adding some personalised extras to give their model a unique character. Many students are keen to get going on the next project, which is the Apache Helicopter.

Year 10 students have completed their biplane model. This project has many parts to make, all requiring many different skills. They have started making a wooden toolbox which has a handle turned on a wood lathe and provides a chance for students to customise the inside of the box to suit their individual preferences.

Year 9 Enterprise

The year 9 enterprise Cando collecting team has asked me to place a reminder in this newsletter regarding the collection and recycling of aluminium cans. (every aluminium beverage can sold in WA is suitable, including those that previously contained a percentage of alcohol). The collecting team requests all parents and students to look after the environment and support our recycling enterprise by donating cans - placing them in the green bag in the garden area at school. We have been advised by the Department of Water and Environment that we have won a $550 grant to buy equipment to store and process cans for recycling. Our student team has processed 1200 cans this year so far and counting!

Tradestart

Tradestart students are busy making a folding camping shovel out of mild steel. This project requires a range of hand skills together with the use of oxy-acetylene and arc welding equipment to complete. Class members have been using flap polishing discs mounted on angle grinders to prepare their project for priming and painting. It has been fantastic to see our students challenging themselves and so engaged in working together as a group.

Folding camp shovel

Year 10 DFES Cadets

The Department of Fire and Emergency Services Cadets are working through a module called “Living in the Field". Students are working on the mapping section, which involves learning about map grid referencing and interpreting the information on different types of maps. Contour lines of topographical maps have been made into 3D land shapes with damp sand. Students used wool to demonstrate their understanding of the position contour lines on the land shapes they made.

Mapping

Academy / Interest-based activities

Students doing leatherwork have been busy finishing their projects before the end of the term. Winston has participated in leatherwork for two terms and has managed to complete the first student made leather belt. This project has involved producing a repeating design along the belt, riveting, and a leather softening process. A great job!

Mark Arrantash

Winston with his belt

Workplace Learning

Senior School

Term 2 has been interesting. Workplace learning was paused for some time and is now just beginning to be re-organised. Well done to the students who have been able to continue their placements. They have returned with great enthusiasm. Congratulations to the students who have attended “Meet & Greets” at new placements.

Hopefully, term 3 will be much more routine, and we get back to doing what we do best.

Carollyn Pears and Vera Edwards

Office Information

Payments

Thank you to everyone who has paid their contributions—just a reminder you can pay your contributions by EFTPOS, direct debit or by a payment plan. Please contact the office to arrange a payment plan. All charges for years 11 and 12 students are compulsory. Please arrange payments as soon as possible. If charges are not paid, then the school can no longer subsidise your child’s excursions. Our bank details are BSB 016 270 A/C 340822406 (when using online banking, please remember to state your student's name in the details box; otherwise we cannot identify the relevant student).

Middle School Parking

We have two visitor bays located at the school entrance. Please note that parking is not permitted in the driveway as indicated by the 'no stopping' markers and yellow line, as this causes a traffic jam on Wharf Street and is dangerous for students. Your cooperation would be appreciated. Parents are welcome to park down the side of the school near the bus bays.

Visiting the School

All visitors must sign in at Reception/Business Centre and receive a yellow visitor label.

Tanya Buchan

Star Tech

Recently our Prime Minister made a statement on malicious cyber activity against Australian networks. In this statement, two sections stood out to me:

• “Regrettably, this activity is not new – but the frequency has been increasing.”
• "Cybersecurity is a whole of community effort – government, industry, and individuals. The risks are present and will continue to be present."

This is a timely reminder to keep our internet-connected devices up-to-date is constant and important for us all. For most of us, this means checking your phone and computer have all updates installed. This includes updates for the operating system: such as Android, iOS, MacOS and Windows, and also apps running on your phone or computer. Updating apps is especially important if they have any financial information stored, such as a credit card or PayPal details.

The Prime Minister's full media statement can be seen using the following hyperlink:

The Australian Cyber Security Centre is another site with more information, improving the security of your internet-connected devices:

Stay safe, and I’ll catch up with you again in the next newsletter.

Pete Bazen

Information from the Community Nurse

Colds and Viruses

Upper respiratory tract infections and colds are everywhere, especially at this time of the year in winter. It can be difficult for students to avoid catching them. Here are some points which may help:

Hand washing

Keeping hands clean is the best way to get rid of germs. Make sure hands are washed often with soap and warm water, or an alcohol-based rub (hand sanitiser). Hands should also be washed after blowing noses and before eating.

Covering coughs and sneezes

It is important that disposable tissues are used rather than hands or a handkerchief when coughing or sneezing. Teaching children and adolescents to cover their nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing with a tissue or the inner elbow, to put the tissue in the bin as soon as possible and to wash hands straight afterwards is very important.

Staying at home

Keep your child home from school if he/she has a cold/cough/fever or pain.

Viruses can be very serious for some people, so it is especially important for sick people to keep their distance and for sick students to stay home from school.

I am available Monday to Thursday at the middle school campus, telephone 9351 2480

Amy Myles, Community Health Nurse

Enjoying friendships at school

West-Rise Basketball Information