Dernancourt School

During the school holidays, the office will be open from 8:00am - 3:30pm on Monday 10th July and Tuesday 11th July and then on Thursday 20th July and Friday 21st July. The office will be closed at other times over the break.  

It is hard to believe that we have almost reached the end of another busy term and the midpoint of our year. Friday will see students bring home their mid-year reports and I encourage you to take some time to read them with your child. These reports offer valuable insights into student strengths, areas for improvement, and achievements in the first half of the year. It is important to celebrate their achievements and discuss strategies for further growth over the remainder of the year. If you have any questions regarding the reports, please contact your child’s class teacher.

I am very excited to have been appointed to Dernancourt School as Principal for the next 5 years. I have enjoyed getting to know you all over the last two terms and am happy to be continuing in the role. Thank you for your messages of support, they have been very much appreciated.

On Sunday July 2, a very enthusiastic group of parents, students and staff came together for our working bee. We all worked together to clear the ‘butterfly garden’ at the front of the school and managed to fill two skip bins in the process. It was much harder work than it looked and I know that there were a few sore muscles over the next few days. Thank you to all who attended, your time and support is appreciated.

Friday will also be an exciting day for staff and students with our Pyjama Day. Please bring a gold coin donation, with funds raised going to the Salvation Army. We are all looking forward to seeing an array of colourful pyjamas and warm dressing gowns.

During Week 9, we were extremely lucky to receive a visit from Taryn Brumfitt, the current Australian f the Year. Taryn visited our site to deliver an “Embrace Kids Classroom Program’ that was donated by a generous supporter at a recent Little Heroes Foundation luncheon. We thank her for her visit and we look forward to investigating the program with students in the Primary Years.

The end of Term 3 has also seen our Year 3/4 teacher, Laura Toland begin her maternity leave. We wish Laura and her family well on their exciting new adventure. Suzanne Conboy will continue in P8 on Monday to Thursday and Amy Farquharson will join the team on Friday.

In week 2 of Term 3, (July 31 and August 1) we will be undertaking our external school review. The external school review will identify and provide direction to the school about next steps for continuous improvement. Our last review was held in 2019. The review team will speak with staff, students and the governing council, will undertake classroom observations and look closely at school data and improvement practices. Further information will be sent home on day one of term 3.

The end of the term is only one sleep away and I know there are many students who are excited about the break. As I have been visiting classes, I am hearing plans of camping, pyjama days at home, playing outside with friends and OSHC. I hope that you all get time to rest and recharge with your families and I am looking forward to hearing the stories of adventure when we are back on Monday July 24th.

We will be having another casual day on the last day of the term. Our theme is ‘pyjama day’. We encourage children to come to school in their pyjama’s, oodies, dressing gowns, ugg boots or slippers. Please bring a gold coin donation which will go to the Red Shield Appeal.

Reception to Year 2 children participated in a colouring competition on Tuesday this week. Our two themes for the colouring competition were dogs and pokemon. Our SRC reps are looking forward to judging the competition next term.

Our primary SRC reps are in the process of organising some activities to do before school on the primary asphalt. Skipping, elastics and an obstacle course will be some of the activities on offer starting next term.

Thank you to all the classes who participated in B Kinder day on Thursday Week 8. It was great to see everyone being a little kinder to each other. Let’s try and do that every day.

Year 3 and 4 students from P8 at Dernancourt School created paper sculptures inspired by Maluyligal and Wuthathi artist Brian Robinson. Students practised their 3D paper construction skills, cutting, folding, rolling and fringing recycled paper.

Custodian of the blooms by Robinson is inspired by the flowering and fruit trees grow wild or in garden pots in the Torres Strait. Hibiscus, frangipani, bougainvillea, coconut, beach almond, mango, banana and even wongai, to name a few, bear garlands and fruit year-round.

‘Initially we used the Paper Play unit from the Dream BIG teaching and learning resource. Here students were introduced to what paper can do in order to make the paper three dimensional. Using recycled papers from the school, old books and photocopies, students explored the possibilities of paper over a number of lessons. They used a word bank to get started; fold, cut, coil, twist, feather, rip, shred, rip, scrunch, pinch and roll, which students then added to over time. This list was provided in Dream BIG resource companion word list.

Students where then introduced to Brian Robinson and his work Custodian of the blooms. Students brainstormed what a garden is and we began to focus on ideas of sustainability and the idea of using recycled materials that could be composted.

We discussed the concept of a custodian through our HASS unit and reinforced the importance of sustainability and caring for Country and the environment. Students planned their designs and considered how they might manipulate the paper to realise their ideas.

Tip: Tearing paper from magazines and sorting this into colours meant that students could learn about colour theory along the way and even have conversations about why some advertisements use certain colours.

Using a paper plate as a base, students created their designs using all the skills they had learnt in previous lessons and brought the works together to create a collaborative display. Students are also working on procedure writing and were asked to create a set of instructions on how to make their bloom”

Over two Thursday's Sue and Jacki have held art activities in the Resource Centre at lunchtime. Some of our students created this beautiful piece of artwork which has been displayed in the Resource Centre ready for Naidoc Week.

Well done to all participants. A magnificent piece of art is now displayed thanks to your creativity.

Dernancourt Sapsasa soccer team travelled to Blair Athol North to verse Ingle Farm, Northfield and Blair Athol North. The boys were all very excited for the day and started off great in their first game beating Blair Athol North 4-3. We then went into our second game with a bit of confidence and started well leading by a couple of goals before falling just short and losing 5-6. In our last game we played Ingle Farm who won the day and lost.Thanks to Lyn Whistler and Steph Cavallaro for transporting students as well as all parents who dropped off and picked up their children during the day.

Kieran Ryall

PE/Health Teacher

On the 21st-23rd Grace Lynott and Ava Placanica went to the Sapsasa District Metro Netball carnival to represent the Adelaide North Eastern Schools. The girls had a great time and everyone is proud of their achievements and hope they can continue to grow their netball skills.

Congratulations to the following students who have completed their Premier's Reading Challenge.

J4    Toby, Noah, Gabby, Maanit, Abby, Luca, Maheera, Emery, Aarna, Evie, Chloe, Inayat, Delilah, Elliot, David, Predestine, Jasmine, Kyra, Joshua, Fotimaa, Ellie, Magnus, Nessya, Amber and Haneet.

J5    Caelen, Charlie, Aurelia, Amelie, Ruben, Jenisha, Harriet, Morgan, Shivanya, Madaline, Emma, Oona, Haya, Hazelprit, Sakshum, Sascha, Jaylen, Vincent, Parker, Lucas, Netra, Hamish, Eric and Conor.

J6    Aviana

J7     Marco and Orion

P3    Reyansh, Rory, Lincoln and Eeshan

P7     Alyssa

P8     Ama

P10   Taylor

P12   Archie

P14    Ava

UNIFORM SHOP UPDATE

From July 1st the uniform shop will be open Friday morning from 8:30am-9:30 am only.

The online shop will still be available to order at anytime and online orders will be packed and delivered to the classrooms Fridays.

If you require uniform items urgently you can place your order online and email mflanigan@belgravaiapparel.com with the order number and details to arrange an alternative collection time.

REMINDER: Please remember to clearly label all school uniform items and at the end of term check that your child has not accidentally collected someone else’s jumper or Hat as these items are easily mixed up.

We had lovely weather for our final Garden Club for Term 2. Our helpers this week were Eric J5, Lewis J6, Piper P2, Araina P2 and Ivy P12. We began with some weeding in our already established garden beds. The main job was to clear the garden bed behind the canteen to create a new herb garden. Our garden volunteers did an amazing job of clearing out all the weeds and grass and planted basil and chives.