School Returns Monday 22^nd July

Once again the Term has flown by. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our enthusiastic, passionate and professional staff for another industrious and positive Term. I am continuously impressed with the amount of time and energy the staff at Joondalup Education Support Centre puts into making sure all students at Joondalup are successful. The Term has been busy with numerous events and activities such as Cross Country, Craft Club, Swimming, Coderdojo, Winter Carnival, Music Rocks Australia and Garden Club. Congratulations to students and staff for a great Term and thank you parents for supporting your school. We look forward to seeing all your smiling faces back at school on Monday 22^nd July. 

Staffing News

Next Term we have a number of staffing changes that will come into effect. They are as follows;

Mrs Legge will be returning and working in Room 21

Mr Prisk will be moving to Room 27

Mrs Catalano will be moving to Room 1

Miss Legge will be returning as a teacher with us and will be working in Kindy on Wednesdays, Room 16 on Fridays, and running some Fundamental Movement programs on Mondays.

Mrs Edwards will be working in Room 7 on Wednesdays

Mrs Shaw will be working in Room 26 on Wednesdays

I would like to thank all the staff, and practicum students who have been working with us throughout Term Two. I wish you all the very best and hope to see you at Joondalup some time soon.

The Joondalup Primary School Principal position was not filled through the merit selection process and the North Metro Regional Education Office will conduct a new process next Term as a priority. Tammy Hanrahan will continue as Acting Principal until such time as the permanent position is filled. Mrs Young will continue in the Acting Associate Principal role.

Winter Carnival

We had three students represent Joondalup Schools in the Lightning Carnival at the Arena on Thursday 20^th June. Thank you to staff and parents for supporting the netball, soccer and football teams. I was very proud to hear staff feedback on the positive behaviour of our students who represented Joondalup Schools. What a fabulous group of students!

Mathletics Renewal

Good news, we have renewed our Mathletics subscription for another three years! This Maths program is a fantastic way to improve your child’s Mathematics progress, while they enjoy the use of the computer and competing against other children from around the world. Our senior students access this program, together with students from Joondalup Primary School.

P&C

Our Parents & Citizens aim is to support the school to provide a standard of education and facilities to your children that would otherwise not be available if we were to rely solely on Government funding. P&C meetings are held on a monthly basis throughout the year for a maximum duration of 90 minutes and are advertised at least 7 days in advance. Newcomers are welcome! In the past the P&C have provided much needed funds to the school which has enabled us to purchase end of year book awards, essential education resources and subsidise the Year 6 camp & much more!  They have recently approved the following requests from staff, installation of an outdoor sink in the Garden Club area value of $650,   greenhouse and work bench for the after school Garden Club (contribution of $1000 towards the total amount), new worm farm value of $850 and two play kitchens value of $600. Thank you for all of your support, you are all fabulous individuals and as a team, you are sensational!

Reports

Reports were given out in hard copy yesterday. If you require an electronic copy, or an additional copy please let Kellie Carter know. Parent meetings will commence early in Term Three for parents wishing to have one to discuss outcomes for your child’s new IEP. Most schools are moving towards sending school reports out electronically. This is something we will commence from 2020.

Specialist Learning Areas – Semester Two

Drumming, Visual Arts, Fundamental Movement Skills, Music and Physical Education are all specialist learning areas. Students do not engage with all specialist programs all year round. They are timetabled. It is likely that your child’s specialist programs may change in Semester Two. This ensures all students experience the entire breadth and depth of the curriculum.

I wish everyone a happy and safe school holidays. I hope you stay warm, and look forward to seeing both students and staff back on Monday 22^nd July.

Natalie Hatton

Principal

This Term, Room 1 have been studying the topic of Australian animals.  The animals we have learnt about are possums, kangaroos, emus, koalas, Tasmanian devils and wombats.  Some adjectives we would use to describe these Australian animals would be: cute, smart, stinky, fluffy, furry, strong and interesting.  We have been reading fiction and non-fiction texts about these animals.

In Health, we have been learning about healthy eating using the characters of “Healthy Harry” and “Sick Sam”.  Our bodies need good food, lots of water and exercise to get through a busy school day. 

We also look at the Zones of Regulation.  There are four zones – red, yellow, green and blue.  The best zone for school is the Green zone because this is where we are happy, calm and ready to learn.

By Charlotte and James

This Term, we have been so lucky to have Ms Brooke McCamish as one our class EA's.  We have enjoyed her passion and positivity in working with our students.  We will miss her and hope to see her around for some relief in the future.  We welcome Mrs Stephanie Catalano into our class and look forward to having her in Room 1.

We have moved into our new classroom and just love it. The space allows us to investigate and inquire in many learning centres. We even have a balcony that we have set up as a garden, activity and play area.

This Term we have been learning about Community Helpers and got to see an ambulance and fire truck at school.

My favourite activity this term was..

In Room 21 we have been practicing our writing using lots of different techniques. We have used water and paintbrushes on the concrete, sensory rice writing and used concrete materials to spell words.

We are becoming writing superstars! 

NAIDOC

On Wednesday the junior classes had Aamiley's dad come in and talk to us about Aboriginal culture to celebrate NAIDOC week. Chris showed us a video of an Aboriginal story from where he grew up in Shark Bay, talked to us about some of his amazing paintings and helped us decorate some boomerang pictures. We were so lucky to have this experience. Thank you Chris!

We have been lucky enough to have a visit from Jane Farrall this week. Jane is a leading speech pathologist and special educator passionate about literacy and Augmentative and Alternative Communication. Jane has offered our school a range of consulting workshops where she has modelled sessions in our classrooms as well as conducted presentations and whole school professional learning to upskill staff in a range of areas targeting the students at our school. Jane has provided our staff with extensive knowledge covering theoretical and practical aspects for our balanced literacy approach here at Joondalup Education Support Centre.

It has been a real pleasure to spend time at Joondalup Education Support Centre again!  During my time at the school, the focus in the classrooms and in teacher sessions has been on comprehensive literacy instruction and on the importance of language and communication. 

Comprehensive literacy instruction is a balanced approach to literacy teaching and learning.  This approach recognises that there are a range of different learners in every classroom and that for every student to learn, we need to teach all the different skills involved in literacy.  For some students, developing their comprehension by building their knowledge of the world and their knowledge of texts is the most important part of literacy instruction.  For others, they need to most improve their phonics skills, or their fluency or their knowledge of sight words.  Comprehensive literacy instruction ensures that we teach all of the areas of literacy to make sure that each student gets the skills they need to make progress.

Across the week I have been able to work with teachers and education assistants in all classrooms.  It has been a pleasure to work within the classrooms, and the highlight for me, as always, has been seeing the progress the students have made.  Communication is also a priority for many of the students in the school and Joondalup ESC staff are working hard to support each student with their language and communication.  Many students have their own customised Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) systems, and staff work to model the use of these throughout the day so that each student has the best opportunity to develop.  Further work needs to happen in both areas, but particularly in the area of AAC where we need to move to increasingly complex systems to ensure each students’ communication continues to develop to support their learning.

Jane Farrall

Speech Pathologist and Special Educator

Literacy and Communication Consultant

Term 3 2019

When Hugh heard of a student in our centre being diagnosed with diabetes, he offered to share what it is like to live with diabetes to staff.  Hugh showed everyone how he does his testing and explained what the results mean.  Hugh also talked about what he needs to do depending on the results.  Staff have found this information so vaulable coming from a students perspective. 

Well done Hugh!

Earlier this year, Joondalup ESC was accepted to participate in the STEM Enterprise Pioneer School partnership. This initiative is funded by the Department of Education, and is in partnership with Innovation Unit, an organisation that work with industries to create innovate practice in their work. Our school is one of 60 schools participating in this program.

Following an introduction workshop earlier in the term, last week saw a collection of five staff members from the school attend a two day workshop with the aim of prototyping a model to enhance skill based learning with our school. We will now be following up this plan with our whole staff, and trialling some of the innovations we have been developing. Further information will be provided as we move through the program. I would all like to take the time to thank parents who took the time to participate in ethnographic interviews as part of our data collection for the program. Your insights are invaluable in moving forward with our vision for this aspect of our school vision.

Sandra Bennett

I attended a Talk for Writing PD last Friday. The Talk for Writing approach enables children to read and write independently for a variety of audiences and purposes within different subjects. A key feature is that children internalise the language structures needed to write through ‘talking the text’ . The approach moves from dependence towards independence with the teacher using shared and guided teaching to develop the ability in children to write creatively.

This was a very informative PD with many strategies I can take into my classroom and help the students on their way to believing they are writers with something important to share. 

Rory Critchley

Digital Technologies for SEN – Google Education Partnership

Earlier this year, our school was successful in receiving a $12,790 from Google. The purpose of this funding is to share our best practice in Digital Technologies for students in Education Support Centres. Last week, staff from 8 other schools from across the Education Support North Network attended the first workshop of this series. The goal of this session was to collect data on where the schools are at in Digi Tech instruction, and use this to build a model of learning support for their staff. Throughout the rest of this year, we will work with these schools by delivering professional learning to their staff, having them visit us and observe our practice, and coach them teaching in their own schools. We hope to extend this to other schools across the state as the year progresses. This is an opportunity for our school to develop a strong network of digital technologies specialists who we can draw on for collaborative planning and moderation tasks in the year to come. We thank Google for recognising the work we do here at JESC and investing in our program.

Additional information on the Google Educator Professional Development program can be found at this link: https://australia.googleblog.com/2019/05/computer-science-grants-for-australian.html

Winter Lightening Carnival

Soccer. The beautiful game. The most popular sport in the world. A game filled with passion and excitement. This year three students from Joondalup Education Support Centre played alongside Joondalup Primary School students in the Winter Lightning Carnival against Currumbine Primary School and Edgewater Primary School.

The sports played on the day were Netball, AFL and Soccer. James, Malachi and Cameron all featured in the boys soccer team. They were involved in training at senior school sport every Friday and throughout selected lunch times.

Joondalup finished fourth in the soccer this year. Most notable was the sportsmanship shown by the boys soccer team. The boys were not in the final however they did console the 2nd place school after their penalty loss. It is moments like this that make us extremely proud of the students and how they represent the community. Well done boys.

If your child is interested in playing sport outside of school, please consider contacting the West Australian Disabled Sports Association.

West Australian Disabled Sports Association’s: Juniors program is designed to provide the opportunity for young school aged individuals with a disability to be involved in a broad range of sport and active recreation in a variety of settings in the local community. For further information please contact the WADSA office on (08) 9470 1442 or email reception@wadsa.org.au.

Circus in Sport

Step right up, come one come all to the greatest show on earth. The Joondalup Education Support Centre Circus has come to town and the students are perfecting their technique during Physical Education classes.

Circus skills use the essence of circus, that is, fun, playfulness, skills and teamwork, to help the students embrace being active, cooperative and creative. Circus skills use the human skills of balancing, body manipulation, dexterity and our need to be children, to pretend and to play games that challenge our minds and bodies while having fun. 

The students were able to harness the excitement of the circus and met physical challenges with great excitement and enthusiasm.

West Perth Football Club Visit

‘Up There Cazaly’ is a term often heard around the AFL fields as a nod to taking a great mark. Well you can’t get much more ‘up there’ or high flying than a bird. This is where the West Perth Falcon’s come in.

People from West Perth Football Club came to Joondalup Education Support Centre to teach students the high flying and fundamental movement skills involved in AFL. Most notable was the enthusiasm of the students, allowing the coaches to delivered a program to the whole school based on marking, kicking and handballing skills.

AFL is a great game that allows the students to work together to achieve goals and learn about competition in a physical environment. The visit established confidence within the students and allowed them to build and further develop a love for the sport.

The Joondalup Kinross Junior Football Club’s Starkick program was introduced to the club in 2016 and allows children with special needs to enjoy football.

If you are interested in AFL, the Joondalup Kinross Junior Football Club can be contacted via phone 0450 013 320, e-mail registar@jetsjfc.com.au or by visiting their website at https://www.jetsjfc.com.au/.

Mr Robert Lee

Physical Education Specialistts Teacher

Abstract Landscape

The students in rooms 7 & 26 worked with the element of value to create these simple landscapes. The work was embellished with silver or gold paint marker.

Cushions and Bags

Students in rooms 1, 2, 7, 16 and 26 printed textures onto fabric.  They then worked with an adult to sew the fabric up to create a cushion or bag. Stuffing the cushion was fun.  Plaiting the handle for the bag was challenging.

Dinosaur Fossils

The artwork was inspired by the recent discovery of fossils in an underground opal mine in outback NSW.  The discovery included the remains from 100-million-year-old herd of dinosaurs and a new species.

The students in rooms 1, 2 and 16 were directed to draw the dinosaur skeleton. They used oil pastel and put a dye wash over the top.

Winter Splash

The students in rooms 7 and 26 worked with cool colours to create a puddle and then added the person jumping in it with rubber boots on.

Flowers

These floral sculptures were created by the students in rooms 1, 2 & 26 after viewing the work of Georgia O’Keeffe.

Helen Sweet

Art Specialist Teacher

This week students came dressed as their favourite animal in support of SAFE Perth. SAFE is a local not for profit organisation dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and rehoming of pets.  We raised $295.20 and all proceeds will be donated to SAFE.

Please see the P&C dates for the year.