23 Chalmers RoadStrathfield NSW 2135Subscribe:Subscribe: https://chalmersrds.schoolzineplus.com/subscribe

Email:Email: chalmersrd-s.school@det.nsw.edu.auPhone:Phone: 02 9746 6202

Fax:Fax: 02 9764 1996

28 February 202028 February 2020

Principals Report

Dear Parents and Carers,

We welcome back everyone to Term 1 2020 and by now allour new students have successfully transitioned to school andclasses are finalised. We have had to make some changes dueto both student needs and staff changes. We say farewell toBelinda Jensen who started on Waratah and welcome TamieClout who will begin in Week 6 and work with Joanne Kirkman.We welcome Patrice Giannopoulos and Ruben Zantua whoare completing work experience as part of the Social WorkUniversity degree. We value the support they give our studentsand school.

Our first P&C meeting was delayed by a week due to wetweather and storms. We are looking at working together toorganise the Term Parent Forums and fundraising. The P&Chave started fundraising with the Easter Egg collection and Ilook forward to seeing the Easter Egg Baskets so make sureyou purchase your raffle tickets. We have some new parentswho joined this year and we look forward to more parentsparticipating.

All families now have the Return and Earn cards to scan whenyou recycle your bottles and containers. When you scan yourcard, Michelle, will appear as we needed to put a name tothe Chalmers Road Tomra account. If you have given familyor friends a card please also let them know that the nameMichelle will appear when depositing in the Chalmers RoadTomra account. The money goes into a PayPal account andthen regularly transfers to the P&C. We look forward to usingthis money on school resources.

We had a successful fundraising Modernising Classrooms atthe end of last year and will soon be purchasing new furniturefor classrooms. Thank you to all our supporters and for thosewho sent it to family and friends, we had some lovely commentsfrom them. We raised $6,325. We are about to start a new

campaign and this will be sent out soon. Remember that alldonations $2 and over are tax deductible.

We look forward to seeing all our families at PersonalisedLearning and Support Plan (PLSP) meetings where you willhave the opportunity to discuss in detail your child’s learning forthe next semester.

Michelle DaviesPrincipal

Upcoming Events

Monday 9 March P&C Meeting

Friday 20 March Harmony Day

Thursday 9 April Last day Term 1

Friday 10 April Good Friday

Monday 27 April School Staff return

Tuesday 28 April Students return Term 2

Voluntary Contributions

Families can support our school by paying the Voluntary SchoolContribution. This is an annual amount per student payment toassist the school to purchase classroom resources. Paymentcan be made to the school office. Our school accepts cash,cheque and POP payments. Payment can also be madethrough the Parent Online Portal, instructions are available fromthe school office.

Online payments

Parents are able to make payments for school contributions,preschool fees, excursions and any other expense throughthe Parent Online Portal. Access to this is from the school

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website at the link below and the “Make a payment” link onthe right-hand side on the top orange bar. Parents will havethe option on notes sent home to indicate that they have paidthrough the Parent Online Portal. This is an easy and secureway to make payments.

Green Class

We have had a wonderful start to the year. Green Class haveprogressed so well already with their learning of the schoolroutine and interacting with their new class peers. We have alsoloved swimming this week during the Swim Scheme program.

From Sally and Linda

Red Class

This term Paul, Hansy, Analise, Latifa, Hamdan and Rishi haveall settled in beautifully into Red Class. We have been fortunateenough to be participating in Swim Scheme every morningduring weeks 4 and 5. Students have enjoyed being in thewater and are learning how to transition as a group from thepool area. Red class have also been busy cooking biscuits withfrosting for Valentine’s Day and making playdough to be usedfor a variety of sensory activities.

Natalie, Tania and Julia.

Blue Class

Students in Blue class have made a great start to the schoolyear. We are a class of 6 Kindergarten students and we havebeen busy learning the routines of school. We have lovedexploring the different areas of the school, in particular thegross motor room and the middle school playground. We havebeen participating in the school’s swim scheme and lookforward to developing our swimming skills. Blue class havebeen learning our letters and numbers and impressing ourteacher with how fast we are learning. Blue class love our musiclessons each week with Rhythm Village. We are excited for theschool year ahead.

Luke & Shelly

Orange Class

Orange Class has kicked off to a great start to the term! Ourstudents Naomi, Nicholas, Christian, Oliver, Jason & Yue Yanghave been helping to decorate our room with some vibrant andcultural art pieces including Chinese lanterns, and paper andcrayon collages. We’ve been working on creating a colourfulworkbook for our English theme of Identities while matchingand recognising colours.

Students are practicing their safe transitions each morning inour movement breaks while counting through numbers andrefreshing our PBL rules on how to care, learn and be safetogether. We’re very excited for a busy term ahead!

Liam & Manale

Purple Class

Purple Class has settled in very well to our new classroom andall students have been making a wonderful effort in listening,working at class tasks and showing independence at everyopportunity in their school day. We are enjoying our newlycarpeted room and especially our new interactive whiteboardwhich is the envy of other classes! We have been learning in avariety of reading and maths tasks, as well as exciting programsthat have begun already like Monday art, basketball, swimmingand Friday music. Well done to all students in Class Purple whoare listening, working and having a go in all activities!

Ross, Bharti and Gloria

Pink Class

Pink class have had an exciting, fun and engaging start to Term1. This term in English students are learning about Identity.They have been engaging in the topic “Who am I” by complyingactivities and choices they make throughout the day. We areadding all of our information into our “All about me” books. In

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creative arts we are decorating our classroom with a tree, eachleaf has new and exciting information about our learning.

We have settled into a new year with new classmates, we arelooking forward to an exciting year ahead!

Audrey and Sarah

Magenta Class

What a great start to 2020 for Magenta Class!! Our class hashad a very busy start off with not a second spared in theclassroom. Students are creating traditional Chinese dishes thisterm, so far the favourite has been fried rice. Magenta arestudying Chinese culture and comparing it to Australian culture,this has been a hit with the students. Student’s especiallyenjoyed making Chinese lanterns while celebrating the ChineseNew Year. Magenta are focusing on been safe, and makingsafe choices. We are working on staying together whenwalking, using the kitchen appropriately and following ourSchool PBL expectations. Our classroom SPRINT this term isto have all students engaging in board games and outdoorgames, Magenta class really enjoyed Duck Duck Goose. Weare focusing on colours during Mathematics and have beenmaking our classroom beautiful with all of our colourfulartworks. We cant wait for the rest of the fun filled term!

Miss Brooklyn and Miss Helen

Banksia Class

Banksia Class has had a great start to the 2020 school year.Christine and I have spent valuable time getting to know ourstudents, their likes and dislikes, where they are situatedacademically and we have been busily conversing and planningour way forward for each student.

In the meantime, our students have been working steadily on arange of topics from Identity in English to learning about Chinain History, incorporating both theory and practical activities.They are enjoying our sports and creative arts programs and allthe interactive activities we have been doing in class. We takepride in our classroom and all our students have been makinglots of artwork to put on display.

It’s the beginning of a journey and we look forward to the yearahead. Christine and I also look forward to meeting our parentsin the near future and building strong and collaborative workingrelationships, with your child’s development at the forefront.

Kind regardsJoumana and Christine.

Kangaroo Paw Class

Welcome to 2020 in Kangaroo Paw Class from Jackie andGrace! This term we are working in our numeracy activities weare focusing on developing our counting, addition skills andlearning about time. In our literacy activities we are exploringthe concept of our identity. In history we are exploring AncientChina and in PDHPE we are learning about being safe.Kangaroo Paw class especially enjoy our weekly musicsessions, playing the instruments and singing along with Chris.Art on Mondays, where we explore different techniques andartists, is also a highlight of the week and enthusiasticallyengaged in. We look forward to meeting our parents andcaregivers during PLSP meetings and are looking forward to agreat year ahead.

Jackie and Grace

Waratah Class

Waratah class is very happy to welcome their new teacherTamie and new SLSO Jo. We’re looking forward to a busy termfull of fun, recreational and educational activities.

Waratah class are doing lots of learning on Identity andengaging in lots of sensory play. They have also been havinglots of fun learning about personal care and hygiene.

Tamie and Jo look forward to meeting the parents of WaratahClass very soon and inviting them to join us and their children ina class cooking session in the very near future.

Regards(Joumana) and Jo

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Wattle Class

We have had a new student join the High School section andthis year welcome Riley to Wattle Class and also Julian andHassan who have joined Anastacia and Maymunah who werehere last year. The first few weeks have been a settling in timeand we have been busy trying new things and working into ourclassroom routine. This year we have rearranged your WattleClass into a U-Shape of desks with 2 computer stations onthe side of the room for independent work. The advantageof the U-Shape is that students can sit on the outside andLaura and I can teach student programs across the table usingeye contact, Now and Then Charts for communication andprompts to facilitate learning. Eye contact is so important forcommunication, as is looking away especially if you cannotspeak. This gives us great feedback about studentunderstanding and gives greater independence for movement.

We have been practicing teeth cleaning after lunch and havehad a lot of fun just examining toothbrushes and the waydifferent tubes open and close. Seated at the tables to lookat and touch our wet packs (those things we take on holidaysholding these items) we all found out how unusual it feels to trybrushing your teeth while sitting down. Probably because weare all in such a hurry to leave the house in the morning! Such aluxury to have the time to sit down and brush. Also, bathroommirrors are generally at standing height so we will be cleaningour teeth in the High School Bathroom. Some great responsesin the attached photos from one of students.

Craig and Laura

Other News

Basketball

The West Sydney Wolves have been at Chalmers Road Schoolagain this Term. We are having a great time interacting with theplayers from the West Sydney Wolves as we learn and developour ball skills.

From Sally

STrIDeS Launch Choir Performance

Thursday, 13 February, four members of the Chalmers RoadSchool Choir had the honour of performing at the launch ofSTrIDeS (The Specialised Team for Intellectual DisabilitySydney) at the Old Rozelle Hospital. The students’ excellentbehaviour, enthusiasm and effort was a credit to them and theirperformance was very well received by the audience. Greatwork Daniel, Steven, Justin and Tyson!

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