Dernancourt School

Friday June 7 is our Term 2 Pupil Free Day. School will be closed for students, but school staff will be onsite working together on understanding behaviour and regulation. Mark Le Messurier will be taking staff through a session in the morning, and in the afternoon, staff will work together in teams to further their understanding. We thank you for supporting this day.

You may have noticed work happening on our trees last week (on the rainy day). This work was to remediate any issues in our trees prior to winter. The branch removal and tree trimming had been identified after our last tree audit and inspection and was necessary to keep our trees healthy and safe for all to enjoy.

In some disappointing news, our Grounds Shed was broken in to during a recent weekend, with damage being done to the roller door and wall panels. If you happen to be on the grounds over the weekend or after hours, please can I ask that you report any suspicious behaviour to SAPOL on 131 444. This number is also displayed on our electronic sign. Thanks for helping to keep our school safe.

As part of our discussions at Governing Council regarding student safety and traffic management around the school, we have been following up with the Tea Tree Gully Council. Last week, Councillor Marina Champion; Felicity Birch, Director of Operations; and Ryan McMahon, CEO came out to school to meet with me to discuss the issues raised by community members and Governing Council. We spoke about parking issues, the kiss and drop zone, the school crossing and student safety. Driver behaviour and compliance with parking rules is a common complaint raised by our school and local community members. The Tea Tree Gully Council have committed to undertaking a traffic study of our area and will keep us updated of the progress. In the meantime, I encourage you to remain with your vehicle at the kiss and drop zone and obey parking and road safety signs around the school to help keep our students safe.

I hope you all have the opportunity to enjoy the long weekend with your families and we look forward to seeing you all back at school on Tuesday June 11.

This week our Year 3-6 children were fortunate enough to participate in a visit from Jordan "Biggie" Steffens as one of our student wellbeing initiatives.

Jordan “Biggie” Steffens was identified as having dyslexia in Grade 3. As a professional strongman, Jordan wants to put his strength behind giving inspirational talks to children to help raise awareness about dyslexia and strategies to overcome learning difficulties. Jordan has been a professional strongman for over 12 years and holds many strength records.

To list a few of his feats of strength he has

· Pulled a 155-tonne steam train

· Pulled a Qantas Boeing 737

· Pressed 220kg

· In the 2015 Adelaide Fitness Expo, Jordan carried 610kg, which is the most weight carried by a human on Australian soil, a record that still stands today

Biggie spoke to our children about not letting a disability hold you back, resilience, having a mentor to support you and how to overcome disappointments and setbacks. Our students walked away feeling truly inspired and encouraged to always strive for their best.

Congratulations to the following students who have completed the 2024 Premier's Reading Challenge:

J7    Ayaan, Marco, Degmen & Leon

P2    Arham

P4    Lachlan, Aurora, Naysa, Haneet, James, Ryder, Lucas & Emery

P7    Reyansh, Max, Ella, Oliver, Ethan & Ashira

P8    Khush

P10    Inayah, Grace, Diesel, Cameron, Sophia, Samriddhi, Liara, Chris, Mia

P12    Ashton & Seigneur

P14    Indy, Thomas, Archie, Kate & Finn

Congratulations to the following students who received class awards at the Assembly in Week 6. The value for this Assembly was Cooperation.

We had fabulous weather for our Garden Club in Week 5. Nivisha J2, Emery P4, Maanit J5, Mikayla P8 and Hiro P12 really enjoyed being out in the sunshine and fresh air. Some weeding and watering were done and we planted some pumpkin seeds in our remaining raised garden bed. It’s great to see the flowers and capsicum already planted doing so well.

If you are interested in your child participating in the after school soccer at Dernancourt School please click on the link below to register details.

https://strikesoccerschool.com/dernancourt-school-after-school-soccer-enrolment-copy