Virtue of the Fortnight : Integrity
Our virtue of the fortnight has been Integrity, and we have been talking to the students about doing the right thing even when no one knows about it. This might be picking up rubbish even when it’s not theirs and no teachers can see them, being an ‘upstander’ and standing up for others when people are being unkind, or just doing their best in their schoolwork at all times. If we listen to Jesus in our hearts and follow His way that is living with integrity. We spoke about how it is not always easy to stand up to peer pressure and do the right thing but it is important to always keep trying. Our Year 5s are currently preparing for their First Holy Communion, and our Year 3/4s are currently preparing for their First Reconciliation, so during this time they will be focussing closely on living with integrity and following Jesus’ teachings to treat others the way they would like to be treated.
Year 6 Camp
Our Year 6s went on camp to Perth this week staying at Woodman Point. They enjoyed visits to the zoo, Aqwa, Fremantle Prison and Ninja West. Our Year 6s were wonderful ambassadors for Holy Rosary and showed respect, resilience, responsibility and reverence at all times! Thank you so much to Mr Kayde, Miss Alis and Miss Claudia for organising a wonderful camp and agreeing to go with the kids this week, and making sure everyone was safe and happy during their time away.
Staffing and Class Groups 2021
We are in the process of finalising our class groupings and staffing for 2021. We are lucky to only be losing 1 teacher this year. Miss Christina will be returning to South Australia and her family at the end of the year. Miss Christina has brought a depth of knowledge in Early childhood education to our team and has been instrumental in the success of our Bush Kindy and expanding early years enrolments. She will definitely be missed by our kindy students and our entire school community!
We have appointed 2 new staff members for next year, Miss Michelle Beckley and Mrs Yolanda Lombardo. Miss Michelle Beckley will be teaching 4 Year old kindy and the Bush Kindy program with Miss Lesley. Miss Michelle is originally from northern England, and changed careers to Early Childhood teacher after many years running her own hairdressing business. She has experience in various early childhood settings and is looking forward to continuing the success of Miss Christina’s and Miss Lesley’s early childhood program after meeting with them last week in Perth for a handover. We are sure our kindies will love our new kindy team as much as they have loved this year’s!
We have also been lucky enough to appoint an Assistant Principal commencing next year, Mrs Yolanda Lombardo, who will be moving here in January with her husband, Iman, who is originally from Canada. We had a total of 9 high quality applicants for our advertised AP position and a 4 member panel interviewed five applicants at the end of last term. Yolanda comes to us after 14 years teaching in Catholic education, 7 years working at St Gerard’s Catholic Primary School in Perth and the last 2 years as Inclusion Support Coordinator at Xavier College on the Tiwi Islands. She has also taught in St Mary’s Kalgoorlie, and spent 8 years working in the Public Sector in policy development and Human Resources before becoming a teacher. Yolanda and Iman have 2 grown up sons, one working and living in Melbourne and the other is in Perth. You can see Yolanda’s adventures in the Tiwi Islands on her Instagram @yolo.in.tiwi . We are very lucky to have Yolanda moving up here to assist in leading Holy Rosary for the next few years, and look forward to welcoming her and Iman here in January!!
Our staffing and class groups for 2021 will be as follows:
| 3 Year old and 4 Year old Kindy | Miss Michelle and Miss Lesley |
| Pre-Primary/Year 1 | Miss Chelsea and Miss Catie |
| Year 1/2 | Miss Jocelyn and Miss Kellie and Miss Tara |
| Year 2/3 | Miss Jessica and Miss Sandhi and Miss Tara |
| Year 4/5 | Miss Giorgia and Miss Teki and Miss Kylie |
| Year 6 | Miss Claudia and Miss Bernice |
| Health/Physical Education/Digital Technologies | Mr Kayde |
| History/RE/Aboriginal Studies | Miss Alis (Terms 1 and 4 only) |
| Learning Support Coordinator | Miss Chloe |
| Music | Miss Yvette |
| Students with Disability Coordinator | Miss Yolanda |
We are fortunate next year to have near full time Education Assistant support in each class, in addition to the support of Miss Chloe 2 days a week for learning support, and Miss Yolanda’s expertise in supporting students with additional needs.
Our very successful Macqlit literacy support program will continue as will our partnership with the Kimberley Schools Project which has seen our students achieve great success in literacy this year through the extensive support programs and coaching it has provided for our teachers.
On Monday 7th December we will have a “Move Up Morning” and our students will spend the morning in their new class with their new teacher.
Class lists are currently being finalised and will be displayed up in the undercover area next to the canteen servery by the afternoon of Monday 2nd November. As always, feel free to email or call me with any concerns you may have : Yvette.clifton@cewa.edu.au, 0409 533 651.
Individual Adjustment Plan (IAP) Transition Meetings
Emails will be sent out soon for formal IAP meetings for students who receive special needs funding. Students receive funding for certain diagnosed conditions, and this funding assists the school in providing extra support for these students. The IAP meetings will involve the student’s current class teacher, next year’s teacher, and myself. Parents of students who do not currently receive funding, but who are on adjustment plans, will be contacted by their class teacher for a meeting to discuss their child’s progress this year and go through their IAP.
ECU Occupational Therapy Students
We currently have Occupational Therapy Students from ECU completing a practicum at the school, and they will be with us for another 4 weeks. They have contacted some parents for consent to work with some of our students individually, and will also be going into classes to work with our students on emotional regulation using the Zones of Regulation program.
P&F News
We had a P&F meeting on Monday, please join the Holy Rosary P&F Facebook group to keep up to date with P&F planning. We are hoping to organise Class Reps and Class Facebook pages to enable our parents to connect with each other. Connecting with the parents in your class is a great way to support your child with their learning and their social and emotional wellbeing as you get to know the families of the other children in their class. We hope that class parent groups can connect through regular dinner catch ups and events inviting new parents to get to know the other parents in their children’s classes.
Well done to this fortnight’s Merit Award Winners and Interschool Spelling Bee Team, and to Ben Richardson who took out the Year 5/6 Trophy for the Broome region!!
