2 August 2019|    Issue 1  |    Term 3

Affirmation

“We are what we repeatedly do; excellence, then, is not an act but a habit”. – Aristotle

From the Principal’s Desk

Dear Parents/Care Givers

Finalist WA Education Awards Primary School of the Year 2019

Our school was nominated for School of the Year 2019 earlier in the year and last week we were informed that we have been awarded Finalist for the WA Education Awards School of the Year 2019. It is a great honour to be chosen among four schools who will be judged in October this year for Primary School of the Year.

Our success in becoming a Finalist has been a large part due to the Team of teachers and support staff, students and parents who work tirelessly to make this school what it is. Our school is a fantastic blend of high academic achievement, a nurturing and caring population of stakeholders and expert teams of parents who have helped build our wonderful school into a lovely place to be educated and where children feel safe and included in a challenging and playful atmosphere of cooperation and collaboration.

I am so proud of all our staff and students – each and every day, we all enjoy coming to our school to work and learn and play – as many students state to us, “we don’t like holidays because school is so much fun and it challenges us all the time”.

A big thank you to everyone for helping us develop your part of the wonderful jigsaw that is Caladenia.

Please read the letter from our Director General of Education WA, Ms Lisa Rodgers and refer to the Canning Gazette where our students are featured in an article about the School of the Year.

High Achieving Students

Our school will be training other schools in WA over a two-day course for Principals and teachers this term and next. This training of other schools is high recognition of the work we have pioneered in Gifted and Talented/High Achieving Students in WA since 2011 (PAC and MAC classes).

The training will also be carried out by Wattle Grove (our sister school in MAC) as well as some other expert people in Gifted and Talented Education. Ms Ashby will be included in this training of other schools.

In-Term Swimming

Next week sees the commencement of two weeks of swimming lessons for half our school. The other half of the school swimming lessons will be in Weeks 9 and 10. We do not always get what we ask for in lessons and we need to carefully schedule them so that they do not clash with other major activities/functions in the year.

I am particularly proud of our school and community at this point in time as we are recognized for our achievements. It is a role that I enjoy and one that has shaped me and influenced my directions in education over the course of the past 11 years here. It has grown from a school of just over 100 in 2007 (school opening) to over 907 in 2019, all the while retaining that beautiful blend of family and strong relationships as our enrolments have grown well beyond Dept expectations. It is a challenge at times, especially as an Independent Public School, handling over $7million budget and our own staffing and operational processes and resourcing. We have over 90 staff and the number of parents and students exceed 1500 people – a very large business and educational facility. I am proud to say that the staff of this school, with the expertise of the School Board, are truly wonderful to work with and are always an inspiration to me and the children of the school. Their commitment and sheer hard work is exemplified by the honours they are currently receiving from outside the school

Thought of the Day: – Revel in the joy of being recognized for the good things we do in life.

Kind regards,

Edward Nastasi
Principal

School  News

REMINDER – Swimming Lessons for Group 1 starts this coming Monday, 5 August.

Book Club

Issue 5 Closes this Monday 5 August. Please drop form along with cash into the P&C box, located in the front office.

Class  News

Year 1 Room 21

Our Wonderful Writing

We have been writing amazing narrative texts in our classroom over the last two weeks. We wrote about superheroes and their fantastic powers. There were lots of dastardly villains, but our superheroes always saved the day! We read our stories to some Year Six classes and they were very impressed by our work. Our stories will be displayed in the classroom this term, so please come and read them!

Year 3 Room 23

Throughout term 2, the year 3 students of Room 23 have delved deep into the world of journalism. We put on our press badges, got our notebook and pencil ready and thought about ways to hook our reader! We looked at all the different components of newspapers and identified key information such as the captions, headlines, hook and the sources. We then researched, gathered sources and wrote our own newspaper article! Have a look at some of the incredible article the students have made.

School Board, P&C and Community News

VacSwim 2019

You can now enrol your children in VacSwim swimming lessons for the October school holidays. With swimming pools and beaches a big part of the Western Australian lifestyle, it’s important your children are safe in the water. Programs are available for children from five to 17 years and cater to all skill levels – from beginners to those doing their Bronze Medallion. They are being offered at pool venues across the State. Enrol your children in VacSwim now at education.wa.edu.au/swimming

School Board News

Getting to Know our School Board Members

This week Chao Sun (Parent Representative) has outlined his reasons for joining the School Board.

Introducing Chao Sun “I joined the school board because I truly care about giving our kids the best possible education. We’re lucky to have such a wonderful school and it needs our participation as community members to maintain it this way. During my four years on the board, I have gained valuable insights into the education system and become more and more aware of the hard work that’s behind the scenes so hat’s off to Mr. Nastasi and all the staff members in Caladenia.” – Chao Sun.

Carole Veneris

School Board Chair

2 August 2019