Welcome back parents!
This last fortnight has seen our school open up with the easing of more coronavirus restrictions and it has been wonderful to see our parents on site again, the students gathering together for whole school briefings and assemblies, and after school activities happening again. Having this connection with our parents and the wider community is so important to ensure the best outcomes for our kids, and the research shows that high parent engagement in a school = high achievement levels and better social emotional outcomes of the students.
A school without its parents and community connections is just a building with teachers and kids in it, not a school community!
This is why we would love to see as many parents as possible at our first P&F meeting next week. Our P&F will be focussing on ways to increase parent involvement with the school and our activities. They will be holding meetings once a month, and it would be great if all our parents tried to commit to attending just 1 P&F meeting per year . The P&F are not asking for huge time commitments, people can choose to commit as much or as little time as they can afford to. Big thank you to Leah Hart and Kelly Betambeau who have volunteered to start up our P&F once again. Thank you also to all our parents who are already actively involved in our school, such as our School Board members, Leah Hart, Ash Bin Omar, Deedee Purdie, Sally and Mick Courtney and Caz Hutton, and those who have been attending our assemblies and morning briefings. As a small token of thanks, if you ‘check in’ on our Facebook page next time you are in the school, we will send home a voucher for a couple of coffees at Jila for you to enjoy with a friend!
Winun Ngari Corporation
I have also recently had the opportunity to meet with Susan Murphy, CEO of Winun Ngari and her fantastic team, as well as Ms Elsia Archer OAM, chairwoman of Regional Development Australia Kimberley, to discuss ways that both Holy Rosary and Derby District could improve outcomes for the kids of Derby, who are ultimately the future of Derby. Both Eliot Money and myself are keen to ensure that both our schools in town offer strong opportunities for Derby’s kids, with excellent facilities and programs for our kids. As a united voice and with the support of organisations like Winun Ngari and Regional Development Australia, we are hoping to send a clear message to government and private organisations when funding or sponsorship opportunities arise, for the benefit of both our schools and our town’s future.
Virtue focus: COURAGE
Our virtue focus this fortnight has been courage. Our Year 1s read out some beautiful prayers at assembly about having courage to learn, stick up for their friends and not argue with their siblings! Jesus showed courage in the face of death. In the hours just before he died, he was in the Garden of Gethsemane and his disciples slept, even though Jesus ahd asked them to pray and stay awake with him.
He knew he was just about to be crucified and was scared but remained courageous even though he knew he was about to die. As Catholics, we can follow Jesus’ example of courage by our understanding of Jesus’ sacrifice for us.
Maintenance Upgrades : Canteen space
We have been very fortunate to have the support of Wattnow who have undertaken thermal imaging and electrical inspections throughout our two storey classroom and canteen block, and will be commencing extensive electrical upgrades to the building starting next weekend, and completed in the first week of the holidays. With the completion of electrical upgrades we look forward to rejuvenating our canteen space which is at the heart of our school and can be used not only to provide breakfast and lunches for our kids, but also a space for cooking lessons with things we are growing in our garden, and as a hub to invite parents into our school for a coffee and to meet and connect with each other. We can’t wait to reinvigorate and enjoy our canteen space again at our school, and massive thank you to Wattnow for always being so quick to respond and prioritise work required at our school at all times!!
Early next term we will be updating our Maintenance Plan to ensure that proactive, preventative maintenance occurs on our lovely old buildings as much as possible!
Farewell to Miss Mary!!
We were very sad to farewell Miss Mary last week who accepted a redundancy offer last week and has finished employment at Holy Rosary. Unfortunately due to a downsizing of our school in the last few years we have had to prioritise staffing in our teaching areas over our administrative staff in order to ensure our students still enjoy high teaching staff ratios to enable individualised instruction and pastoral care. Miss Mary has provided 3 years of service to the school as our front office administration assistant and we will miss her attention to detail and knowledge of office policies and procedures. We wish her well in her future endeavours.
Academic Extension Program
Last week Miss Christina started our Academic extension program from Pre-primary to Year 6. The children enjoyed some cooperative problem solving tasks which required a bit of lateral thinking strategies! We look forward to seeing their work on some independent research passion projects and other activities soon!
After School Activities
Big thank you to Miss Claudia, Miss Catie and Mr Kayde who have been committing their own time to ensuring our kids have after school opportunities such as netball on Wednesdays and football on Thursdays. Thank you also to Garnduwa and Shooting Stars who have organised and invited our students to participate in these activities.
2021 Kindy Options : 3, 4 day or Full-time options
Parents of children who were born between 1 July 2016 and 30 June 2017 are asked to enrol now for 4 Year old kindy for 2021. Next year we are offering kindy students the option of attending 3 days, 4 days or full-time. Students currently enrolled in 3 year old kindy are not automatically guaranteed enrolment and need to submit a new enrolment application and organise an interview. Please drop in or ring the front office to enrol soon to ensure your place in this exciting new opportunity for our school, and spread the word about our full-time kindy option! Our Holy Rosary Alumni option still applies to 4 year old kindy enrolments for next year, so please check the conditions here: Holy Rosary Alumni Incentive , to see if your family or anyone you know is eligible for a $500 gift voucher.
Merit award winners
Well done to these merit award winners this week, well done to exhibiting our school virtues of reverence, respect, resilience and responsibility!!
Cross Country Next week!!
Our Cross country carnival happens next week! Please see our note here : Cross-Country Carnival 26.6.2020 and again big thank you to Winun Ngari for their generous donation of a sausage sizzle for our kids and parents!!!
Best wishes
Yvette Clifton
Principal