6 April 2023
Affirmation ∼ “A well-educated mind will always have more questions than answers” – Helen Keller
Dear Parent/ Care Givers,
Term One
This has been a great beginning to a year for several years now since we were infected with the “COVID Effect”. It has been wonderful opening up the school once again to our community and inviting fun events into our lives at school, for both children and families and staff.
As a staff, we had meetings to discuss what could be done to “get back to normal”, as well as positively referring to the Parent, Student and Staff Surveys of 2022. All these gave us some real strategies which basically involved having some fun things happening at school.
We thank parents, students and staff for their insights into what is possible. These ideas have been turned into a wonderful term of positivity and cooperation amongst our beautiful multicultural community at Caladenia.
The Easter Bunny Breakfast was truly magnificent and had a great turn-out. Thank you to the P&C Team for this wonderful breakfast which brought people together for a great community event.
Thank you to everyone, especially our fantastic P&C, staff members and students for making the term exciting and event filled. In tasking our staff to this end, Ms Asplin has especially stepped up to ensure our plans would be carried out expertly and she has done an extraordinary job with these events.
This week’s Harmony Week has been a wonderful exposition of how and why our wonderful community at Caladenia live so well together in our school. Our children play with one another as friends and peers and never do we experience cultural issues or problems. Families do the same and it expresses to us all what a harmonious community we have built together.
Thank you all. We hope you have enjoyed the term and continue to do so for the rest of the year, with many more events planned to simply enjoy.
School of Excellence
Caladenia has been chosen as a school of excellence (only five were chosen for this honour) by the Dept of Education WA. As a school of excellence, we are entrusted to assist other schools in WA make improvements in their planning and teaching. Our staff (both teaching and allied professionals) work very hard each year to build and maintain a school where quality and high standards are the focus for our children. We are doing so well as a whole community – thank you for your confidence in us and for entrusting your children to our care and for believing in what we do. Thanks.
Traffic Flow and Parking
This is a continuing problem for us as drivers ignore safety and rules around the school. Patience is a great lesson for each of us to learn – it is only a few extra minutes out of our day to sit calmly in a queue of cars and wait for our turn to drop off children on the school side of the street.
When Police and Rangers are present all motorists abide by the law – as soon as they are not present, it becomes dangerous again. We must all take responsibility for the safety of our children before someone is seriously injured or worse. Thank you.
Our School
· We hope you have noticed our improvement in communication timings and consistency. We are always looking at ways to improve and suggestions are always welcome but not all are activated for various reasons. Please know that every decision made in this school is for the benefit of your children. We are here for the children’s education and emotional/social growth – this is our core work and never would we disadvantage or treat children which negatively affects them in any way.
· NAPLAN was very effectively run this year once again expertly by Mr McIlwraith – thank you for the massive task that is NAPLAN each year. Thanks too for staff assistance.
· School restarts on 26 April 2023 for students.
· Thank you to the parents who turned up for the Cyber Bullying professional learning day for children, staff and parents. Paul Litherland was once again truly open and frank about what can happen to children without adult supervision of social media platforms. Thank you to Mr McIlwraith for organizing Paul to attend all day last Thursday and evening for parents.
Happy holidays, everyone. We wish all families a joyful break together. Thank you, staff for a great term. Building student relationships has been very beneficial to you and the children in your class. Thank you for the fantastic efforts of the new staff to commit and dedicate their best work to the
THOUGHT: “It is a beautiful world…be grateful for what is in front of us each and every day”
Ted Nastasi
Principal
School News
Bracadale Road Playground
On Friday 24 March, The Honourable Terry Healy, Member for Southern River, officially opened the new playground on Bracadale Road. Our Student Executive were invited to cut the red ribbon on the day. Special thanks to the parents of our student leaders who also attended the event. We trust our community will get years of enjoyment out of this new local facility.
Solar Eclipse – Protect your eyes!
During the school holidays, West Australians will be lucky enough to witness one of nature’s most spectacular events, a Solar Eclipse.
Many people have planned a trip to Exmouth to observe a Total Solar Eclipse. At 11.27am on Thursday 20 April, the moon will come between the sun and the Earth and totally block out the light for 62 seconds. In Perth, we will witness a Partial Solar Eclipse – approximately two-thirds of the sun’s disc will be covered.
Looking directly at the sun during a solar eclipse can cause permanent damage to your eyes. Children and teens are the most vulnerable.
Keep safe during the Solar Eclipse and remember these important points:
· Do not look at the sun.
· Looking directly at the sun during a solar eclipse can cause permanent loss of vision.
· There is no treatment for damage caused by looking directly at the sun.
· Indirect viewing is the safest way to view a solar eclipse.
You can use a pinhole viewer to indirectly view the solar eclipse.
Why not make one of these during the school holidays?
Student Achievement
At Caladenia, we love showcasing our students’ sporting achievements and events, as well as any other interests that they would like to share with our Caladenia Community.
If you have something your child would like to share, please email along with photos to the email address below:
Justine.arnold@education.wa.edu.au
Class News
Pre Primary Room 7 – Mrs Dalbock
We have had an awesome time in science this week, learning about wind. We have been investigating how the wind blows different objects. First, we had to predict what would happen if we dropped a paper straw on a windy day. We then had fun exploring what happened when we dropped a variety of objects in front of the fan, and finally drew and talked about what we observed and why.
Year 6 Room 17 – Miss Jansen
Throughout the term we have been researching and learning about the issues in wildlife tourism. Students in room 17 have been conducting their own research on different wild animals, how we interact with them (tourist activities) and what happens to some of the them behind the scenes. Over the last week they have been researching information to design their very own animal sanctuary to help provide a welcoming and friendly space for wildlife in danger. Here are some of the animal sanctuaries we have designed for a range of animals including tigers and chimpanzees.
From all the staff at Caladenia, we wish every family a safe and happy Easter and wonderful holidays
P&C News
Next P&C General meeting will be held on Tuesday 2nd May 2023 at 7:00pm in the school staff room.
All are welcome and encouraged to attend.
Bunny Breakfast
Our very first P&C Bunny Breakfast was a huge success. It was so wonderful to see all of our Caladenia families braving the rain to enjoy a hot cross bun, juice, music and of course a super special visit from Mrs Bunny. We look forward to celebrating this special event with you all again next year.
Special THANK YOU goes out to the P&C team for organising this event, to Mrs Asplin for your ongoing support and commitment. It takes a very special person to dress up as the Easter Bunny and the children absolutely loved it. Thank you to Bakers Delight in Harrisdale for the tasty buns and lastly but most importantly the parent volunteers, we could not have hosted such an amazing event without you.
FRIDAY 9TH JUNE 2023
TERM 2 WEEK 3
The winner of the P&C VIP Parking raffle was Kirsty Grey. Congratulations Kirsty and enjoy your term of easy parking.
P&C Meeting – All Welcome
The next P&C General meeting will be held on Tuesday 2nd May 2023 at 7:00pm in the school staff room.
Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend.
