School contact details

address: cnr Ayres & Acron Rds St Ives NSW 2075 telephone: 9449 6003 fax: 9983 9334

email: sirericwoo-s.school@det.nsw.edu.au ABN: 98 951 675 254

Sir Eric Woodward School newsletter 1st September 2018 Volume 7 Issue 99

In this issue:

Education Week

Comedy for a Cause

Tell Them from Me

Principal’s message

Deputy Principal’s message

diary dates

birthdays

news from the classrooms

attachments

Education Week

Sir Eric Woodward School opened its doors to our community for Education Week 2018 on Friday

17th August. We warmly welcomed our families and friends to celebrate public education at its finest.

With open classrooms we invited our guests to take a look and join in on all the amazing learning

that takes place every day at the school.

Education Week each year has a theme and the 2018 theme was ‘Today’s schools - creating

tomorrow’s world’. The way public schools are future proofing their students for success in the 21st

century. Public Education is equipping our students with the skills, knowledge and capabilities they

need to flourish in tomorrow’s world. Sir Eric Woodward School prides itself on the outstanding work

accomplished daily by both students and staff, we are a proud Public Education School!

Education Week provided our school the opportunity to showcase to our community what we do

best – fun while learning! The day consisted of open classroom and a live performance. The school

had an Australiana focus of then and now and our backyards. Open classroom activities, included;

a geography lesson using two maps of Australia sorting and plotting locations of natural and man-

made landmarks, a sensory story using the senses to explore literacy concepts and making a

wombat in creative arts, outdoor mathematics looking at engagement in number up and 100s

targets, a STEMs lesson, making greenhouses, PDHPE and History looking at sport, then, today

and tomorrow and work experience an opportunity to learn and engage in how an office environment

operates. Basically a wow factor of ‘Great teaching and learning in practice’!

The day closed with a performance by Musica Viva ‘March of the Fire Ants’. A highly skilled

entourage performing an Australian Backyard suite. All our students, staff and visitors where

magically evoked by the sounds of the Australian outdoors. The performers took us on a journey to

explore Australia flora and fauna. It was a wonderful finale to a great day.

Comedy for a Cause

save the date: Saturday 20th October

Sir Eric Woodward School will be raising much needed funds while having a good laugh in October.

This will be held in conjunction with Comedy for a Cause at Hornsby RSL on Saturday 20th October.

Over the coming weeks we will be reaching out to families and our community to support this

fundraising event including asking for assistance and donations that can be used on the night for

silent auctions and prizes. Nothing is too big or too small, all items will be gratefully accepted and

be put to good use for fundraising.

The funds raised on the night will help fund an integrated service of music facilitation for both our

DESU and Face to Face students in 2019. SEWS is very excited to be holding this event with the

organisers from Comedy for a Cause and look forward to all our families coming on board to make

this a great fundraising event for our students.

Comedy for a Cause was established in 2013 by Matt Wakefield, in hope of supporting not for profit

organisations fundraise in an efficient and entertaining manner. You can find out more about

Comedy for a Cause on their website https://comedyforacause.net/comedy-for-a-cause/

Our fundraising journey is a community effort, so look for more information over the next few weeks

in the newsletter, on Facebook and our website. Thank you in advance to our SEWS families and

community for donating prizes, funds, time and more to this great cause.

Please buy tickets to attend our event or send the link to those who may wish to attend

The link for tickets is: comedyforacause.net/SEW

Tell Them from Me

SEWS parents and carers to participate in the 2018 Tell Them from Me parent

feedback survey

Parents and carers - we want to hear from YOU!

Help us to improve your child’s school. The Tell Them from Me survey is a great way to share your feelings and ideas on Sir Eric Woodward School. This online survey takes 15mins max to complete. All responses are anonymous. Results are used to help shape key decisions in our school.

The survey is available in English and a number of other languages. The survey can be completed in stages if you prefer. Your participation is entirely voluntary but your responses are very much appreciated and VALUED. All parents and carers have been emailed or sent a letter this week with log-in details – watch your in-boxes and letter boxes! The Parent survey is available until Friday 21st September 2018.

Don’t delay, complete today!

Thank you for helping us to support our students.

Principal’s message

Tell us, we want to know! The Tell Them from Me (TTFM) Parent survey is now available for all our families to provide anonymous answers to questions to enable our school to be the best it can be. Your contributions are extremely valuable and I urge all our families to take time to complete the survey. The answers are collated and data is taken to drive change in our school where needed. I thank you all in anticipation for completing the survey, having your say and leading our school in a positive direction. Please see the information flyer in the attachments at the back of this newsletter. A big thank to all our teachers and to Suzanne Lawrence, Support Teacher Transition and Emmy Druce, school counsellor for preparing and implementing the annual student reviews. Our parents/carers will soon receive the documentation to sign with actions that resulted in these meetings if applicable. Please sign these and return to the school as soon as possible. During these reviews, I was apparently missed from school public viewing and was written a note from the very caring Joshua W in Class 1. Joshua insisted that his teacher Mrs Cutuli pass on a whiteboard note to me, wishing me well in my big day of meetings. He is such a warm hearted student, it definitely put a smile on my face. Education Week 2018 was a great open day for our families and community. Thank you to everyone who were able to attend. Another SEWS event to be proud of, showcasing our great school. Our students don’t really need a stage as they certainly know how to shine with and without the spotlight. Education week is always a wonderful opportunity to open our doors and share the brilliance of teaching and learning in practice to our community. SEWS would like send our warmest appreciation to Hornsby RSL and Waratah Magpies for their generous support and donation. Through ClubGRANTS NSW initiative both clubs gave so kindly to support speech pathology consultation in 2019. Speech pathology consultation will enhance our student’s communication and social interaction programs. On behalf of the school community I wish both Maureen Dagg and Suzanne Lawrence every success on their next pathways. Maureen has now formally entered retirement and Suzanne will still see all of us as she undertakes her new position as Support Teacher Transition. They will both be missed from our SEWS team! I would like to take this opportunity to wish all our fathers, grandfathers and those who play a significant father role in our students’ lives a very special day this Sunday. I hope you all enjoy ‘dad’ day and spend it exactly the way that makes you happy. Happy weekend everyone!

Deputy Principal’s message

This week I will be travelling to Bathurst for the DESU State Panel. This panel reviews the

applications of prospective students and places those that are eligible into this unique educational

setting. This state wide panel has been operating for two years and allows insight from local area

Learning and Wellbeing Teams as well as Senior Psychologists and the Rural and Distance

Education Team. It is an excellent initiative that offers outstanding support to ensure students are

placed appropriately.

I hope you all enjoyed visiting our school for Education Day. It was wonderful to see so many families

here discovering what we get up to during the day. A special mention to our DESU students who

were able to join us – we are always happy to see you at SEWS. I particularly enjoyed watching

Class 4 build their greenhouses as part of a STEM activity. It was also great to see Class 1 updating

their Chicken Diaries as they continued to document the journey from the egg. Class 2 were

completing some great wombat collages clearly demonstrating their fine motor skills.

Student placement reviews were held last week and I would like to thank our families for their input

into this important annual process. DESU families will receive a copy of the student review summary

shortly and there will be a copy for you to sign and return to the school. This mandatory process

occurs annually for all students accessing a specialist placement in a DoE school.

Finally, we have had another run of illnesses in the school. Please remember to keep your children

at home if they are sick. This prevents the spread of bugs around the school particularly to those

with complex health conditions.

Sian

Quinn and his brother making a wombat collage

Jarrod receiving his TERRIFIC Kids Award

school concludes for Term 3 Friday 28th September 2018

school resumes for Term 4 Monday 15th October 2018

Birthdays

Happy birthday to those students and staff who have celebrated their birthdays since the last

newsletter:

students: Nathan L, Nathan J, Kai, Toby

staff: Maureen, Cassandra, Paula

News from the classrooms

Class 5

This term Class 5 have been looking at ‘water’ as a cross curricular practice.

During science we have been investigating the water cycle process. The students have created the

sun, streams and clouds as part of our creative arts program.

The Cab-ra-nanga sensory garden has provided the students with opportunities to explore the

plants, and to water the plants to give them the best chance to grow and thrive.

Clare & Trish

Telecaster creating a rain cloud

Oliver watering the Lemon Myrtle tree

Class 1

The last few weeks have been filled with new experiences and learning opportunities for the students

of Class 1. As the boys continued to learn about what people, plants and animals need to survive,

Week 4 saw the highly anticipated arrival of our new class pets. An incubator holding 10 eggs was

delivered and our journey to identifying what chicks need to survive began. On Tuesday we watched

the first chick hatch and we documented this event in our ‘Chicken Journals.’ By Wednesday seven

more chicks arrived overnight and the 9th chick hatched in front of our eyes on Thursday. Week 4

also allowed us to open our classrooms to our class parents and wider community to show them all

about our knowledge of Australian icons. Using our understanding of the concepts Natural and Man-

made, Class 1 proved just how quickly they could sort and map landmarks around Australia. We

also enjoyed showing our families how we like to build houses and forts using foam blocks for our

chicks who joined in the fun.

In Week 5 we continued to care for our chicks by providing food, water, a clean living space and

warmth but we also started to look at the food pyramid and our own food requirements. We sorted

between sometimes foods and everyday foods and talked about some of our favourites from each

category. We also started to investigate volume and capacity in mathematics. Class 1 worked hard

to distinguish between containers which were empty, full or half-full. The students from Anchor Room

at Christchurch Preschool also came for a visit. The boys were very accommodating, helpful and

happy to share their space with 20 visitors and should be proud of this achievement – well done

boys! Thank you to Lauren and the staff at CC Preschool for your continued efforts and support. We

also said goodbye to our chicks as they went back to be raised on the farm. Will and Leon have let

us know that they are sad the chickens are gone, but happy their friends are still here at school.

Cassandra & Paula

Our baby chicks on their last day at SEWS

Heath locating Uluru on a map on Education Day

The boys taking part in a volume investigation

Leon, Kai and Will caring for our baby chicks

Rama’s class news

We are already in Week 6 and my students have been working very hard on their school programs.

Tyson accompanied his mother to the grocery store and bought bread, milk and ham. He then

followed the steps to make a ham sandwich for lunch. Tyson is learning to greet people in Italian

and practices the greetings with his grandparents. He can also count from 1–10 in Italian. Tyson

enjoys creative arts, and used model magic to make his own Italian mask.

Jayden knows the importance of recycling and collects cartons and bottles. He places them in a

large drum and remembers to take them when he goes to the Earn and Return Centre. Before

putting the cartons in the drum, he separates the straws from the cartons. Jayden enjoys cooking

with his grandma. He baked chocolate chip cookies following the recipe on the packet.

Isabella helps with the washing by loading the washing machine and taking the clothes off the line.

She is also learning to iron her clothes. Isabella enjoys learning about the human body and knows

that there are more than 600 muscles in the human body, and can name the major muscles!

Fionn applied for and obtained his USI number and hopes to go to TAFE next year. He met with the

careers counsellor at TAFE to discuss suitable courses, which he could enrol in. Fionn is getting

adept at paying for lunch and can calculate how much change he will get back.

Rama

Tyson’s mask

Jayden collecting the recycling

Fionn paying for his lunch

Deborah’s class

Happy birthday to Toby, who celebrated his 15th birthday on the 22nd of August!

It was great to visit Toby recently when we experienced a tram ride around Newcastle as part of his

geography and maths topics this term. Toby was able to identify several geographical landmarks

around the city, and applied his knowledge of position and direction.

Tommy is continuing to develop his 3D printing skills in design and technology, creating a copy of a

Star Wars storm trooper helmet. I am looking forward to visiting Tommy next week.

I am also looking forward to visiting Bethany this week.

Deborah

Toby celebrating his 15th birthday

Tommy’s 3D printer Storm Trooper

Toby and the Newcastle tram

Charlotte’s class

Jarrod attended the school’s education Week Event and collected a well deserved Kiwanis Terrific

Kids Award. He gained the award in recognition of his consistent effort in his work placement at

Afford. Twice a week Jarrod attends the packing factory in Western Sydney to pack everything from

shampoos to poppadums ready for the supermarket shelves. During Jarrod’s visit he had a taster

of office life as he learnt new skills photocopying, laminating, and using the library scanner and

guillotine. Jarrod did an impressive job and concluded that he prefers factory work to the office. No

offence taken Jarrod!

Katana has created a winning piece of art. You can see her painted dog below, it was painted by

Katana in just one morning using different paints. I love the way she has painted it with hand over

hand help to make it look like dog fur. It is so good that it will be entered into our Richard Kidziak Art

competition.

Nikolina has been experiencing a whole new set of noises these past weeks as the family have had

major building works at home. It’s great for Niki to see and hear a range of different people in the

house, this will keep her entertained as Niki is always very observant when others visit. I’m sure Niki

will love the new renovations and give her seal of approval!

Congratulations to Chris on gaining another Variety Club Heart Scholarship Award. This year Chris

has been awarded to help fund his training, new equipment and travel to his competitions. Rodeo

themed content plays a large part of Chris’ program and I am proud to be able to support Chris’

developing career as well as his learning. Hopefully that means we can do another photo booth at

the next presentation event!

Charlotte

Jarrod at work

Katana’s amazing dog artwork

Chris and Charlotte celebrate

Dawn’s class

We have now settled into the term after a busy first few weeks with everyone diving back into their

school work and striving towards achieving their goals.

Lexi is continuing working on colours with her themes based around a different colour each term.

This term Lexi is focussing on the colour purple and is thoroughly enjoying the new interactive and

sensory books that have been created for her. She is particularly fond of finding photos of objects

from around her own home.

Usman has been working towards responding to his name and is independently signing ‘finished’.

Usman enjoys exploring his world using his senses and is working hard towards all his goals. He

particularly enjoyed his personalised reader about transport featuring the Bananas and Pyjamas.

Ben continues to show his amazing word knowledge. He is independently writing short sentences.

Ben continues to be interested in learning about interesting creatures such as Angora rabbits. He

also enjoyed learning about poisonous creatures in Australia - particularly poisonous spiders.

Andrew has been continuing to work hard. He is continuing to focus on real life skills and

participating in shopping trips to buy his own ingredients for cooking and baking. Andrew’s tutor

has been very impressed with how he has been engaging and focusing on his school work.

Dawn

Lexi featuring in her very own ‘Book of purple’

Louise’s class

Following my recent field trips the students in our class have started their Semester 2 programs that

include their new and updated learning goals. I am already starting to receive feedback about the

progress that the students are making on their goals.

There are many ways to receive feedback on what and how students are learning. One way is to

receive images from tutors showing students participating in learning activities. It is also great to be

able to publish some of these images in our newsletter! Ned has been exploring his local area as

part of his geography studies. Ned really enjoys hands-on learning and has also been practising his

number skills and creating Jackson Pollock inspired artworks beyond the ‘traditional’ classroom.

Another great feedback (and assessment) opportunity is our REACT sessions where Ned has been

shining at showing what he knows and what he understands.

As a student new to the DESU Rhiannon is now getting well and truly stuck into her DESU program.

Rhiannon has completed her assessment Sets and has now started her actual learning program. I

have been very encouraged to hear from Rhiannon’s tutor how Rhiannon is using her visual timer

to manage her own time. This allows Rhiannon to easily understand the duration of an activity and

when a task is to finish. Over time this learning will support Rhiannon to be increasingly responsible

for age appropriate responsibilities.

It was great to catch up with Owen and his tutor and family members at my recent Term 3 field trip.

These are invaluable opportunities to work as a team to review learning programs and to develop

the most relevant and meaningful new learning goals. Owen enjoyed the visit and the chance to

spend time with so many people who were ‘Owen focussed’. Owen really enjoys a natter and

rewarded my visit with great big smiles!

Louise S

Ned has continued to investigate his local area

Ned has creatively explored colour and shape in

his artwork

Lots of hands-on counting with cars (including the car in the background!)

Sharon’s class

Two weeks ago I visited with Ethan. We had a most productive two days where Ethan was able to

demonstrate his success in achieving many learning goals from Semester 1. He is a great help in

unpacking the groceries and knowing which grocery items are placed in the cupboard and which

items require refrigeration. What a star he was, helping his mother prepare his snacks, finding the

required equipment and ingredients. Ethan made a fabulous cake using a packet cake mix and was

great using equipment like a hand mixer and a microwave. Thanks for welcoming me so warmly into

your home.

Recently, Leah entered a regional art competition and her artwork was brilliant. The theme was ‘odd

numbers’, her carer prepared five colours on canvas for Leah to mix using her fingers. Leah was

successful in winning her category and was awarded a cash prize and a certificate for her painting

‘Five Colours’. Congratulations Leah!

I am looking forward to my visit this week to Leroy where we will celebrate his 17th birthday and in

the next two weeks to Leah and Nadine.

Sharon

Five Colours, artwork by Leah

Ethan was all prepared to bake a cake

Class 4

Welcome to Miss Cassidy who has made the transition from practical student to Class 4 SLSO each

Thursday and Friday in Term 3, starting in Week 5.

It was fantastic to see parents and relatives at our Education Day last Friday. All were involved in

our science activity of making a greenhouse to house and nurture our bean seedlings. Innovation

was evident as each and every greenhouse had a unique aspect to it.

Students have continued to monitor the growth progress of their bean seeds and to date have been

keeping a journal regarding the amount of water given, the daily temperature and any visible signs

of growth. We may have started a little early as no growth has been sighted at the time of writing!

Students have noticed how much warmer it is inside the greenhouse by placing their hand inside

and by measuring the temperature with a small thermometer.

All students have been active in the Premier’s Sporting Challenge, recording their participation on

most days. So keep up the activity as the Challenge will finish in Week 8.

Last Friday, Tadhg competed in the Zone Athletics Carnival in the 100 metres under 9 boys’ race,

a first for a Sir Eric Woodward School student. Tadhg did his best and we couldn’t be prouder of

him.

Sue, Amber & Taylor

We enjoyed making greenhouses with the help from our Class 4 parents

We were all very excited for Tadhg during his big race!

Barbara’s class

I’m very excited to be going out to visit Alex this week! It will be great to see in person the wonderful

progress Alex has been making. I look forward to seeing Alex eating finger-food independently and

using photo cards to choose where she wants to visit on her property. Alex has just received a

school iPad, so I will also be able to see how she is responding to the Pictello photo story that was

loaded onto it.

Chris continues to be very active each week as he works towards earning a Premier's Sporting

Challenge certificate. He recently visited a skate park in a neighbouring town to try out his scooter

skills there. Chris can go very fast on his scooter and luckily knows how to use the brake!

Georgia is continuing to spend time in the community exploring the available services. She recently

had her first swimming lesson at the local aquatic centre. It was mainly an orientation visit, but

Georgia took to the pool, and the instructor, with her usual joy and enthusiasm.

It was a pleasure to visit Jacob last week. I was able to see how well he is going with independently

preparing his lunch, doing his stretches and accessing his local community. Jacob has been

investigating body systems in science and recently learned about the circulatory system. During the

visit Jacob showed me his developing baking skills by making a batch of brownies, yum!

Barbara & Nicole

Chris exploring his local park

Jacob works hard on stretching & balance

Georgia's first swimming lesson

Checking out how the heart works

Doug’s class

Azra has continued to develop her expressive communication skills this term. She is now able to

make one of her favourite movies play on her iPad by pressing an iSwitch. Azra presses the switch

to make the movie play for 30 seconds. If she wants to keep watching, then she presses the switch

again! Well done Azra! Very impressive that Azra is learning to modify her environment

independently.

Harry has been enjoying caring for his new edible native garden area at home. He has been watering

it twice each week and using the timer on his iPhone to water each plant for one, two, or three

minutes. Harry and his siblings have talked about the edible qualities of the plants, and now the

teachers at the siblings’ school are thinking about planting out a similar garden at the local primary

school. Respecting and sharing Aboriginal culture and knowledge is yet another achievement Harry

has experienced this year. You’re doing an awesome job, Harry!

May has been participating in a range of activities and therapy sessions each week. Attainment of

learning goals is made more achievable when teachers and allied therapists work alongside each

other. It is wonderful to be in weekly contact with May’s speech pathologist so we can maximise

May’s skill acquisition to promote her independence. May is doing a great job at using some verbal

communication, some AAC using Proloquo2Go, and some Auslan. A multimodal communication

approach will set May up for communication achievement in the years ahead. Great work, May!

Finally, just a reminder that each student’s revised Personal Learning Plan is on its way to you in

the post. Please read through the content and learning goals, then sign and return one copy in the

reply paid envelope.

I am looking forward to sharing some more of our amazing students’ achievements in the next

newsletter.

Doug

Azra using her iSwitch

Harry is looking for lizards in his new garden

Jon’s class

Cruz has been busy working through her first school work Set. Her sisters have enjoyed creating art

works with Cruz and reading to her from our library books. Cruz has continued to enjoy her busy

lifestyle on the farm. In her spare time she enjoys watching and even participates in horse riding,

sheep herding and feeding cattle.

I met with Jayden and his family in Week 4. Jayden is a pleasure to work with. He is a very

enthusiastic young man. Jayden always has many animal facts to tell me and I have enjoyed

discussing these with him at great lengths and learning new facts myself when we researched further

information on each animal. I also had the privilege of attending Jayden’s first horse-riding lesson,

it was a pleasure to see Jayden in his element enjoying his new leisure time hobby.

Mohamed continues to impress. He always has interesting facts to tell me during our weekly

conversations and it is always pleasing to hear what he has achieved during the week. Mohamed is

looking forward to watching his team, the Rabbitohs, play and hopefully maintain their position on

the NRL ladder.

Jacob is continuing with his regular routine in his home and is working hard to complete his school

work. Jacob’s garden is showing signs of early ‘spring growth’ and he has been able to watch the

plants sprout and flower.

Jon

Jayden and his teacher Jon Jayden’s first horse ride

Jayden in his element Cruz’s sister reads her a library book

Karen’s class

Two weeks ago I went on my field trips to see all my students. My first trip was to see Seth and his

tutor on the beautiful Hunter coast. It was wonderful to see them again. In between completing

assessment and discussing Seth’s PLP we found the time to walk down to the beach. This is one of

Seth’s favourite places to visit and I can know see why! Thank you both for your hospitality and

allowing me to experience a little bit of your paradise.

My second trip was to visit Jules, Justin and Nate who all live in the same city, and all of whom I

would be meeting for the first time. I flew there in a small plane which was an experience in itself! I

was warmly welcomed by Jules and her tutor as we spent the morning getting to know each other.

We went out for lunch to a local café and then spent the afternoon exploring some of the old buildings

in the area. Jules is a lively, articulate young woman and I am going to enjoy working with her and

her tutor this semester.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Nate during this field trip. He is a real chatterbox and didn’t stop

talking the whole time I was there! He showed me around his house and where he does his

schoolwork. Nate recently celebrated his 15th birthday and was excited to show me all the presents

he had received. I unfortunately did not have the opportunity to meet with Justin during my field trip

but enjoyed meeting with his new tutor.

Karen

Enjoying a trip with Cruz

Exploring old buildings with Jules

Amanda’s class

I have had a wonderful few weeks visiting all my students. It was great to see the progress they

have all made and watch them engaging so well with their programs.

Sam has been practicing using a sign that he has developed to indicate that he wants to go to the

toilet. He is also learning to greet visitors very politely. When I visited he came and shook hands,

looking at me while I said ‘hello’.

Sharif is making good progress using a Powerlink box to turn a lamp on and off. He is going to help

his mum cook by using his switch attached to the blender and mixer via the Powerlink. Sharif has

lots of animals. He loves his three rabbits snuffling his hands and sitting by him when he is out of

his wheelchair and is relaxing on the floor.

Kayla has rearranged the folder containing her PECS card so the pictures she wants to use most

often are now on the front page. Good planning, Kayla! I took some Indigenous plants to her home

and together we planted them in her garden. The plants include Cinnamon Myrtle, Minty, Apple

Berry and Davidson Plum. Kayla will keep the new plants watered while they settle into their new

home as well as weeding when necessary.

Tim will be leaving school at the end of Term 4 so he is focussing on activities he can do when he

leaves school. He is playing lots of sport including tennis, basketball and bush walking. He sent me

some lovely photos of a duck and some bats he saw when he went walking in the local nature

reserve. On my visit he learned to make a movie using iMovie. Tim wanted a program that allowed

him to add narration as well as his own photos. I was impressed at how quickly Tim worked out how

to add a voice over to the pictures of his own versions of Power Rangers.

Amanda

Kayla’s new Indigenous plants

Tim making a movie

One of Sharif’s rabbits

Melissa’s class

I cannot believe that it is already Week 7! As always, all of my students are making me extremely

proud with their hard work and achievements. All field trips for my class have been completed and

we are all set to finish the term with lots of productive work. Thank you to all my families who always

make me feel welcome during my field trip visits. These visits really do help to inform where to go

to next with the education program and I love spending time with my students. I always seem to end

up learning new things too!

I had a wonderful time visiting Logan. We had a busy time accessing the community, attending

appointments and completing schoolwork. However, we did manage to find some time for Logan to

share his passion - computer games. He was even able to teach me how to survive one level on

Mario Kart. Thank you again for a lovely visit and keep up the great work.

I also had the chance to catch up with Braydon and his family. It was great to spend time with

Braydon. Although it was only one day, I was able to observe Braydon out in the community, caring

for his new baby sister and go through his current schoolwork. Like Logan, Braydon is also a

computer game whiz. Therefore, I was able to get a true understanding of the games he loves

through his expert tutelage.

Alicia as always is working hard and we are really seeing a progression in sound and number

recognition. Alicia is now recognising the letters and sounds we are learning in her environment on

packaging, eg ‘n’ on the Nutella jar. She is also becoming a master of jigsaw puzzles. I look forward

to what Alicia can achieve in the future.

Melissa

Alicia eating lunch

Braydon with baby sister

Class 2

In the last couple of weeks Class 2 has welcomed two occupational therapy students, Chloe and

Kirsty, into our classroom. They have provided additional support for students during morning circle

and fine motor activities and will continue to share their skills in Class 2 and with other SEWS

students.

Continuing on with our ‘All Things Australian’ theme, Class 2 students have engaged in counting

activities by using Australian animal stamps to make print artworks and then counting how many

animals are on their sheet. The students have made a model of a kangaroo with a baby in its pouch

and identified marsupial’s while reading ‘Don’t Call Me Bear!’.

The students are also looking at Australia, and its features and places using Google Earth on the

computer and on the whiteboard. The students have zoomed in on theme parks in Queensland and

then compared these to Sydney’s Luna Park. They have also gone looking for koalas in Taronga

Zoo!

Jo & Jennie

Daniella practices her hand writing skills with

Chloe

Daniella and Quinn look at and touch the knitted

platypus and kangaroo

What animal can you see in this picture from Google Earth?

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