Dear Parents/Caregivers
Just wanting to wish you all a warm welcome to the upcoming 2020 school year and to let you know how honoured I am to be invited to join the Holy Rosary School community. I look forward to building on the achievements of Susan Scanlon and Peter Egan over the last few years. I have already been so warmly welcomed to Derby and I really look forward to getting to know all our wonderful students and families in the upcoming months.
New Staff and roles for 2020
Early Years Lead Teacher, Students with Disability Coordinator and Religious Education Coordinator
Besides myself, we have 2 new staff members starting in 2020 and some change in roles for existing staff. With Miss Melanie Dusterhoft-Maverick leaving, we have reassigned some of her duties to existing staff to create 3 new leadership positions within the school. Miss Jessica has been appointed as Early Years Lead Teacher, Miss Chloe Beckett has been appointed Students with Disability Coordinator and Miss Alis Hart has been appointed Religious Education Coordinator. All of these staff members bring a high level of experience and knowledge to their roles and I look forward to working with them on the leadership team.
Reassigning these leadership roles has allowed us to employ another specialist, Dr Christina Son, who will be teaching Science/STEM and academic extension classes. Miss Christina is a former Native Title Lawyer and Ecological Scientist who has retrained as a teacher. She has high level skills in science, ecology and has taught in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory in the past. We look forward to seeing her share her wealth of experience and knowledge with our students.
In the last week of school, we were very sad to hear that Miss Melanie Bouverie had accepted another position in another school. Miss Melanie has been a bubbly, generous, dedicated, highly skilled and loving teacher to our students in her time at Holy Rosary and will be missed by all staff, students and families. We wish her well in her new role and know that her new school is very lucky to have her.
Our new Year 2/3 teacher for 2020 will be Miss Chelsea Warfield. Miss Chelsea is a very strong graduate recommended by the CEWA “Kimberley Calling” program, who completed an excellent practicum at St Mary’s Broome, and is very keen to move to Derby. Miss Chelsea has worked at a daycare centre as a childcare worker throughout her time at university so already has a number of years of experience working with children. We are also very lucky to have Miss Chelsea because she has studied dance at a high level and is keen to share her skills and knowledge with our students.
Lastly, some of you may be aware this is my first Principal role, however I have been a deputy principal for the last 6 years at St Bernadette’s Catholic Primary School and Mandurah Catholic College, and prior to that taught for 10 years. I spent my first 2 years teaching in Warmun and this is where I got hooked on Kimberley life and have been trying for the last 14 years to figure out how I could move my family back up here.
New Board and P&F Members needed
The school is looking for new board members and I urge you to send in an expression of interest. We are especially looking for Aboriginal families to be involved in our school board. The school board plays an important role in guiding the direction of the school. More details on the school board and a form to submit your interest can be found at this link : School Board. Likewise we are looking to reform our Parents and Friends association this year. The P & F plays an important role in building our school community and ensuring our parents work in partnership with the school, which in turn ensures the best outcomes for our students. Please follow this link for more details: P and F Information.
Strategic Plan 2020 – 2023
The school community will be formulating a new strategic plan early this year. This will guide the school in its decision making in the next few years. We will be looking for input from parents and the wider community about how Holy Rosary can best serve its families and students in order to best serve the Derby community. We will be having a parent and community meeting early in Term 1 to listen to parent suggestions as well as sending home a survey for parents who cannot attend the meeting.
Parent Handbook 2020
Please click on the link in our website for our updated parent handbook for 2020, or call into the office for a hardcopy.
Paperless in 2020
We are looking to go paperless with parent communications this year. This includes parent permission notes which will be able to be signed online after a link is texted to you. Reports this year will also be emailed and viewed online as a PDF instead of printed on paper. There will be a few messages being sent out so that people are aware about going paperless. If you wish to still receive paper copies of communications please either send an email to admin@hrsderby.wa.edu.au or return the opt-out form which will be sent home early in Term 1.
New website
Please take your time to have a look through our new website. The News and Notes section is where most notes will be placed, although links will be texted out also. The Parent Handbook is also uploaded onto the website and has our school procedures in it. The other important section to bookmark is the Term Planners page. If you have some feedback about how the website can be more useful to parents please email me at Yvette.clifton@cewa.edu.au.
Term 1 Dates
School will commence on Monday 3rd February. There is a pupil free day on Monday 17th February when all staff will be attending a PD with Dr Lorraine Hammond who is an expert in reading and literacy strategies. 
Enjoy the remaining weeks of the school holidays and I look forward to meeting you in the coming weeks!
Yvette Clifton