
Newsletter
School of the Year 2019/2020

Affirmation
“Don't let yesterday take up too much of today.”
- Will Rogers
Dear Parents/Care Givers,
We had a real opportunity to practice what we have developed in our plans for an emergency last Wednesday. A whole school block was evacuated when a burning smell was coming from a classroom (Room 23). Within a short time, the children from the classrooms were taken safely away to the Undercover Area. The Fire Brigade and electricians/air-conditioning people were effective and quick acting. All of our safety mechanisms and processes worked very well.
The problem was a loose downlight connection that was fraying away. We have replaced all of the downlights and so the issue is resolved safely. The Dept of Education was marvelous in its checking on our safety and health.
Harmony Day Assembly
The Assembly was a celebration of a focused week of learning about various cultures and traditions from around the world. The Music Dept put together a fantastic presentation of sights and sounds from around the world. The Art and the LOTE and PE specialists also presented sections of the Assembly beautifully.
We have such a wonderfully cohesive community where culture, religion or any other feature from any country is accepted as one – children do not place restrictions on anyone being their friend and they play so well together without racial tensions. I am sure our children don’t even know that there are differences amongst them. We are blessed with great empathetic teachers who exercise wonderful modelling for the children. Thank you. I love our community.
Cyber Safety
Paul Litherland delivered one of his best presentations last night to our parents on cyber safety for our children. The main message was
- Know what you children are doing on the internet at all times
- Set time limits on the internet
- Know how to block sites from the danger
What an amazing resource Paul is to children. His sessions with the classes were very well received by the children and they now know what to do to protect themselves from cyber dangers – however, the message is still to parents – understand the pressures on children these days and help them through with problems not yell at them.
Thank you to the 80 or so parents who turned up last night – you received the best from Paul and we intend to take him up on his suggestions and guidelines in navigating the internet safely and using professionals to solve cyber bullying and on-line dangers.
School Board and P&C
We are meeting with the Mayor and City of Gosnells personnel to discuss parking and traffic flow on 20 April. The Board and P&C are clear about what we need to do about this and how we would like it resolved for the safety of our children at Caladenia. It is a great joint planning exercise and I am thankful to both Caladenia community groups in coming together to show solidarity in this matter.
We are also planning joint activities together for the building of a tighter and joyful community of Caladenia people. We are excited by the potential this can have on our community.
Parking and Traffic
Thank you to the fabulous families who have started walking to school with their children. We have had more children walking and riding to school since we started the Your Move Program.
Please be patient in your desire to get to the same small area of the school to drop-off/pick up children. If parents would spread the drop-off and pick up from the full extremity of the school parking on the roads around the school and let children walk across the grass to the oval gate, it would be far easier and less congested. One of the problems is that everyone, within a short space of time each day, wants to be at the same gate on Bushy Gardens. If you could arrange to pick up your child from a different place around the school, it would alleviate some of the congestion. Also, if possible, try not to come into the car park to drop-off in the mornings – let your children out around the school and let them walk into the school on their own – they did this successfully during COVID last year without any problems.
Before School
Please remember that children should be at school by 8.15am in the mornings – teachers will let students in to class at that time. This time is used by the teachers to listen to children read, prepare for the day’s lessons and check homework.
Safety
We are trying our best to provide our children with the best safety and health practices we can. We have shown children how to be safe riding/walking to and from school and how to protect themselves from on-line abuse or misadventure. It is the responsibility of parents and adults to look after our children and know what they are doing all the time, to keep them safe from harm.
Best wishes.
Ted Nastasi
Principal

Upcoming Events
Friday 26 March
Berri Icy Pole sales 2.30pm at gates.
Tuesday 30 March
Pyjama Day
Wednesday 31 March
- P&C Easter Raffle drawn
- Last day of Term 1
Monday 19 April
Term 2 commences – students return
Harmony Day
On Monday, 15th March we celebrated Harmony Day. Our community embraced the event by wearing orange or their traditional dress. The Specialist teachers prepared and presented an Assembly for classes in Years 1 to 6, where they shared some of the content of lessons the students had experienced leading up to Harmony Day. At our school, we embrace the message behind Harmony Day – ‘Everyone Belongs’ each and every day and the students and staff enjoyed celebrating their knowledge and songs during the Assembly.
Our 2021 Board and P&C Committee
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 address below:
Justine.arnold@education.wa.edu.au
Pre Primary Room 4 – Miss Perera
This week in PP4 we have been learning the Nursery Rhyme Hickory Dickory Dock. We have talked about rhyming words and the children were exposed to the time language of “o’clock”. The children have really enjoyed singing and learning our Hickory Dickory Dock dance. PP4 hope you all enjoy your Easter break. We are looking forward to an exciting Term 2!
Year 4 Room 20 – Mrs Harris
The students in Room 20, Year 4 have been discovering and describing the stages of life cycles of different flowering plants and the pollination of plants. We made our own bees using pipe cleaners and placed them in cups which represented flowers. The students used chalk powder to represent the pollen and the bees were used to show can pollen can move from plant to plant
Room 20 was also lucky enough to have Miss Roberts sister come in and show us how to press flowers! The results were amazing! The flowers had to be left for 3 weeks to dry out completely. The students were then able to identify the plants features that they had been learning about.
National Ride to School day was held on Friday 19th March. It was wonderful to see so many students and parents walking, riding, or scootering to school that day. Staff were out and about giving stickers to acknowledge those that had participated. A reminder, to wear your helmet when riding or scootering to keep yourself safe as you travel around our community.
Our next event will be in Term 2, Week 4 on Friday 14th May – Walk Safely to School Day. We hope even more students are able to join in on this day.
Mrs Nicolle Wall
Your Move School Champion
Easter Raffle
The last day for Easter Raffle Donations is this Monday 29 March 2021.
Don’t miss out on your chance to WIN!!! Winners will be drawn on Wednesday, 31 March 2021
School Banking 
Where: Jacaranda Block
When: Thursdays 8am -8.30am
New to banking? – just go online at
https://www.commbank.com.au/banking/school-banking.html to open an account, then bring in your deposit book and we will do the rest.
We are looking for volunteers to help process deposits, please contact either Caris or Stacey or alternatively, you can leave your details at the front office.
TODAY
Berri Icy Poles $1 at the gates 2.30pm
Wishing all Caladenia students and families a very safe and happy Easter holiday.
Enjoy the last week of Term 1.
