Cunderdin District High School

As Term 1 draws to a close, it’s great to reflect on a positive and productive start to the year. Our students have engaged well with their learning, supported by dedicated teaching and support staff who have worked hard to provide meaningful and relevant opportunities. We recognise that most students are making the most of this support, and for those who are finding the commitment challenging, we will continue to work closely with families to encourage positive changes in their schooling.

Cunderdin District High School is fortunate to have a team of staff who genuinely care about our students, both in their learning and the challenges that come with it. It has been particularly rewarding to see our new teachers and support staff settle into their roles with enthusiasm and passion, making a strong impact in these early weeks of the 2025 school year.

A sincere thank you to all our teachers and support staff for their dedication this term. Their hard work has created an environment where students can thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.

There have already been so many additional learning opportunities that have been provided to our students this term, and as a school we are proud to have put these in place. Swimming Lessons, the Faction Swimming Carnival, the Year 3/4 Assembly, the Interschool Swimming Carnival, Medical Students’ Teddy Bear Hospital and Career Conversations, the SIDE Mini Industry Roadshow, and the Year 9/10 War Memorial Excursion were all highlights.

You may have heard your child talk about ‘popping bubbles’ in class. Whilst we do encourage having fun, this is a new school-wide initiative that has been established through a partnership with Elastik. Taking assessment data from NAPLAN, On-Entry, Progressive Achievement Tests and our own assessments, Elastik can identify the concepts each student has difficulty with, and groups these concepts in ‘bubbles.’ As our students demonstrate their understanding of the concepts, the bubbles are ‘popped.’ It is an exciting development to help ensure our students receive every opportunity for success.

As we begin to turn our attention to Term 2, I want to highlight a significant change that will be taking place. The Department of Education are in the process of implementing Compass throughout all schools, and as of Tuesday 6 May 2025, our school will be actively using it. Compass will be a new way of recording and communicating all attendance and behaviour in our school. More information will be distributed to parents closer to its implementation, but you can find out more about Compass at https://www.compass.education/guide/.

We hope the upcoming school holidays provide a chance for you to enjoy some quality time with your children. We look forward to an exciting and busy Term 2 ahead!

Room 1/2 has been very busy throughout Term 1! We have worked hard to improve our learning throughout the school setting and ensure we uphold the class and schools’ expectations and values.

Our Class Focus:

We have been focusing on being our best and being respectful! We have discussed ways we can uphold these two values in everyday life and created posters to remind us. Some examples include keeping our hands and feet to ourselves, being respectful when listening to others, and using kind words. We have been participating in explicit PBS lessons and class discussions, focusing on ways we can uphold the school’s values.

Writing:

In writing this term we have been focusing on creating complete sentences, with both a noun and a verb. Throughout the lessons, we have introduced high level vocabulary, such as horrid, atrocious, fabulous, and exceptional. The students have enjoyed creating complete sentences using these words.

Reading:

We have been reading a variety of texts and answering comprehension questions. We have been strengthening our questioning and predicting skills throughout our reading lessons. We have started using reading comprehension PowerPoints that is connected to our history topic; family history.

Mathematics:

Throughout this term we have revised numbers from 0 to 20, sorting collections, creating simple data displays, and days of the week/months in the year. We have also explored addition strategies, shapes, and place-value. We have continued to revise concepts that we have learnt through fun games in our rotations and maths-based crafts.

Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS):

This term in HASS we have been focusing on History, particular our families and celebrations. We have discussed how different families look, how different families celebrate, and celebrations vs commemorations. 

Art:

In Art, we have been focusing on the different elements; colour, line, shape, and texture. We looked at the difference between primary and secondary colours and warm vs cool colours. We created some crazy haired people using different types of lines and made some fun balloons with a variety of different textures.

Digital Technology:

In Room 1/2, we have been discussing computers and different types of computers. We have dived into the parts of a computer, specifically the mouse, keyboard, and printer. We revised the difference between hardware and software.

The term has kicked off with a fantastic pace, featuring a range of activities and exciting learning opportunities.

This year, we are delighted to welcome a special visitor to our classroom every Thursday. Miss Jessica is currently working towards her Certificate III in School-Based Education, which will qualify her as an invaluable Education Assistant once completed. She will be engaging with small groups and individual students, guiding them through various activities.

We were fortunate to have swimming lesson in weeks three and four and then our swimming carnival at the end of week 5. Everyone did very well despite some of the days being a little bit cold in the pool!

Mathematics

In Mathematics we have had a strong focus on number and place value. We have worked with 10s and 1s and now 100s as well. We have also been working on quick number facts with addition and will be moving onto subtraction as well. We have also looked at telling the time on analogue and digital clocks. Year ones have looked at telling the time to the hour, while year two students have looked at telling the time at quarter to and quarter past.

Literacy

Our Literacy lessons have had a big focus on grammar and sentence structure this term. We are working hard to produce sentences that make sense and are interesting. We look forward to putting our knowledge to use in our future writing. We have also been working on Sounds-Write and learning some alternative ways to spell sounds. It is hard work and there are so many ways we can spell one sound. Reading books have been going home for us to practise reading as well. These will be changed on Tuesday and Fridays going forward.

Art

During our art lessons we looked at abstract shape as well as colour. We also thought about what makes us unique and incorporated all these into one artwork. You can see these on display outside our classroom.

Harmony Day

On Wednesday 19 March we celebrated Harmony Day. We discussed the meaning behind Harmony Day and how to be inclusive of everyone in our class. We then made a puzzle of all of us which is also on display outside our classroom.

2025 is definitely off to a roaring start here in year 5/6. Term 1 has absolutely flown by and it’s hard to believe that there are only just a few weeks left remaining. The students have settled in well to routines and the increased workload of an upper primary class, and throw in swimming lessons, swimming carnivals, school photos and NAPLAN, you can see why students may be starting to become a little worn out.

The year 5/6 students should be proud of the start they have made to the year. All are working hard to improve in all areas of learning which is fantastic to see.

Literacy

So far this term we have been reading ‘War Horse’, a novel by Michael Morpurgo. This story has hooked students’ attention, and we can’t put it down! The story centres around a young colt named Joey who was purchased by a farmer and befriended by the farmer’s young son. However, amid growing world tensions and the brink of World War One, Joey is soon sold and finds himself in the middle of war-torn Europe. It has been interesting to see students captivated by this novel and a different perspective of a non-human character set-in real-world events. The novel has sparked many discussions on the history of the time and development of new vocabulary.

In writing , students have been learning of narratives and Persuasive texts. We have seen some excellent ideas on some really strange topics for persuasive texts including that sharks should be removed from oceans and stored in tanks, homework should be illegal, and students should be paid for coming to school. While some of the topics are a bit silly, students have worked hard to develop their persuasive skills including their use of rhetorical questions, statistics, expert opinions to name a few.

Mathematics

So far in Mathematics we have covered decimal fractions, addition and subtraction strategies, place value and using time involving reading timetables and calculating elapsed time. We have especially enjoyed using various maths games to sharpen our skills and improve our fluency. We have been practising our use of the four operations using Ninjas Maths and have seen improved results across the class. 

Art

In Art students have been exploring use of colour and line as stylistic features. Currently we are drawing emu’s using primary, secondary and tertiary colours to create effect. Some may argue that their emu looks a little weird, but all of them are individual and this is something to showcase.

As the term draws to a close, Room 3 wish you a safe and relaxing holiday period.

Year 1/2

Year 1 and 2 students are discovering chemical science focusing on materials and how they can change. Students have explored different types of materials, like wood, metal, and plastic, and observe how they can be altered by heating, cooling, or mixing with other substances. Through simple experiments, students learn about reversible changes, such as melting and freezing, and irreversible changes, like burning or baking. This hands-on exploration helps them understand that materials can change in many ways and encourages curiosity about how these changes happen in everyday life.

Year 3/4

Year 3 and 4 students are studying physical science and have been focusing on the concept of heat. We are exploring where heat comes from and how it can move through different materials, discovering the process of conduction. Through some hands-on experiments, students observed how heat can change the temperature of objects. We are also learning about the role of heat in everyday life, from cooking food to keeping our homes comfortable. This exploration helps students understand the importance of heat and how it affects the world around them.

Year 5/6

Students in Year 5 and 6 students are exploring physical science and are diving into the world of light. They are investigating how light travels, its behaviour when it interacts with different materials, and how we see things. We experimented with reflection, refraction, and the spectrum of colours in light, using tools like mirrors, prisms, and lenses. Through hands-on activities, students are developing an understanding of concepts such as the speed of light, and the role of light in everyday life.

In week 5 this term on Friday 7th March our school held the annual Faction Carnival. This year we invited Meckering PS to join us. Congratulations to all CDHS students who competed in both races and novelties for a fantastic day of swimming. We saw records broken and photo finishes with Red Barons winning the overall and Be your Best shields at the conclusion of the day. Well done to all students for their participation and sportsmanship. Thank you to our very appreciated parent volunteers and wonderful staff for your efforts.

By Tealah and Shaynae

Congratulations to the following students:

Year 3/4 Champion Girl          Jorja

Year 3/4 Runner Up Girl         Mikaela          

Year 3/4 Champion Boy          Oliver

Year 3/4 Runner Up Boy         Ayden & Flynn

Year 5/6 Champion Girl          Charlotte

Year 5/6 Runner Up Girl         Emily

Year 5/6 Champion Boy          Sam

Year 5/6 Runner Up Boy         Hudson

Year 7/8 Champion Girl          Avah & Georgia

Year 7/8 Runner Up Girl         Rosie

Year 7/8 Champion Boy          Leon

Year 7/8 Runner Up Boy         Bentlee

Year 9/10 Champion Girl         Shaynae

Year 9/10 Runner Up Girl        Ella & Tealah

Year 9/10 Champion Boy         Lukas

Year 9/10 Runner Up Boy        Marshall

Winning Faction: Red Barons

Be Your Best: Red Barons

Winner of Parent vs Staff vs Student Relay: Meckering Parents

So far this term the 7/8 English class have been focussing on sentence structure and narrative writing. The Year 9/10 English class have explored the origin and development of Fairy Tales and are moving on to a study of the novel "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas".  There has been in-school and standardised testing in Reading, Writing and Language Conventions to assist in identifying what areas need to be focused on during our EDI lessons.

In HASS all classes have been studying History, looking at historical skills and set case studies. The Year 7's focused on Ancient Egypt and the Year 8's looked at Medieval Europe. In Year 9 the students took a deep dive into the industrial revolution while the Year 10's looked at the inter war years. The topics are now moving onto World War 1 for Year 9's and World War II for the Year 10's. A note will be going out this week regarding an excursion to the local war memorials for the Year 9/10 class.

The Year 10's all have the opportunity to undertake Workplace Learning this year, which is a course that counts towards their WACE attainment in Year 12. We are very grateful to the following businesses for supporting this program and having our students work with them on Thursdays: Hutton and Northey, Shire of Cunderdin,  Shire of Tammin, Mortlock Timber, Cunderdin Farmers Co-operative and CRC Cunderdin. 

A reminder that the assessment outlines for courses are on Connect and when work is marked the results can be found there. If anyone has any concerns regarding their child's course or progress in English are HASS, please contact me via email.

In lower primary Physical Education students have been developing their Fundamental movement skills through obstacle courses and small games. Below are some photos of the P/1 class showing off their jumping, climbing and balancing skills.

This term in 9/10 sport we have been doing Volleyball for our PE lessons. We have learnt different techniques such as the 'dig', 'Serving' and 'Setting'. Students were put into 3 teams and in these teams we all have roles which are Coach, Captain, Equipment manager, Photography/Media, Sports committee and team manager. When we play volleyball all of us come together to work as a team to achieve success! The Grand Final was a close contest between CVT and Rainbow Feet, with the eventual winners Rainbow Feet being crowned champions of the tournament.

By Makayla, Shaynae and Tarkan