Cunderdin District High School

Term 3 is always a busy term with carnivals, excursions, camps, career expos, assemblies and multiple incursions. Within all of this, our staff have been harnessing their skills with an array of training sessions and delivering the best learning experiences for our students.

STAFFING

We warmly welcome Mrs Mel Arnott to our staff permanently who has taken over from Mrs Carol Taylor who is on long service leave and then resigning from the department.

Miss Aleesha Hoskins has won the role of Deputy Principal Permanently, her experience with Quality Teaching across the Kimberley region and Willetton Primary School stands her in great steed to help guide CDHS along our improvement journey.

Miss Jody Thomas-Smith will be commencing as our new permanent Secondary English/HASS teacher at the start of Term 4. We welcome Miss Thomas-Smith and eagerly look forward to her arrival.

Miss Chloe Kirk will continue to be one of our Primary DOTT providers until the end of week 5 at which point, we will revert back to Term 1 and 2 where Mr Hill and Miss Hoskins taught these classes.

The flying squad are working with the school over the holidays to fill the primary Physical education/Secondary Maths role. If this cannot be filled by the flying squad, the position will be shared by the principal and deputy and other secondary staff portfolios may change to accommodate this, we will not be using SIDE to fill the maths position at this stage.

EXTRA KINDY DAY

Please note there is an extra kindy day Wednesday 9 October, Week 1 Term 4. This day is mandated to allow for the 9-week term and 11 week term in term 1 and 2.

CLASS MEETINGS

Thankyou to the parents that have indicated they will be at the meetings. We understand the times may not suit all parents and request that you contact the school to find a time that the admin staff can meet with you to fill you in on the plan for the education of all our students here at CDHS.

2025 PREPARATIONS

As a school we are busily preparing for the 2024 school year, however, we need your help to ensure our student numbers are accurate. Can you please notify Mr Jasper by phoning 9635 3300 or email paul.jasper @education.wa.edu.au if your child/ren will not be attending CDHS in 2025. This enables the school to be well prepared for the students ready for day one.

STUDENT COUNCIL AND FACTION CAPTAINS

We continue to be extremely proud of our student leaders as they have continued to embrace their roles and contribute greatly towards the success of our school.

In Term 4, Year 5-9 students will have the opportunity to nominate for 2024 positions. We encourage all students to consider this opportunity and prepare their speeches for Week 9.

SECONDARY EXAMINATIONS

The Secondary students will be undertaking their Semester 2 Examinations in English, Humanities & Social Sciences, Mathematics and Science during Week 6 of Term 4 (11-15 November 2024).

All students will be issued with an Examination Timetable prior to Examination Week and will also take part in revision work in the classroom environment. In addition to this, students need to ensure they spend time revising the content they will be examined on through setting up a home revision program. All students can participate in the Homework Club which runs every Monday afternoon from Weeks 2-9 of each term.

OLNA

The Online Literacy and Numeracy Assessment in Term 4 is for students in Year 9 and 10. Students that are required to complete the assessment will be advised prior to the testing window opening. The OLNA testing period dates are yet to be determined.

TRANSITION DAYS

The school will welcome our 2025 kindy students on Monday 25 November, this day will also be a whole school transition day where the students will move up a year across the site. Friday 29 of November and 3 of December will be a high school transition day only where the 6’s move up into the 7/8 class and the 8’s move into the 9/10 class. The year 10’s on these days will be supervised by the deputy and will be looking to finalise tasks for our graduating cohort.

In Week 5 of this term, CDHS' educators visited South Halls Head Primary School as part of the Quality Teaching Strategy Partnership Initiative. The focus of our visit was on explicit instruction - a high-impact, evidence-based teaching approach. Research shows that this approach is one of the most effective ways to support student learning as it uses clear, direct teaching and breaks down complex concepts into manageable steps. We explored techniques to boost student engagement and found ways to enhance the great practices already happening in our classrooms.  Staff have brought these insights back to school, and are excited to further develop these strategies to continue fostering a positive and effective learning environment for all students. We look forward to further discussing quality teaching at the classroom meetings in Week 1 of next term. 

Room 6 has been very busy throughout Term 3! We have celebrated some special events and have worked hard to improve our learning throughout the school setting.

Our Class Focus:

This term we have been focusing on being our best and being respectful! We have created some personal goals for ourselves, and discussed ways we can reach these goals. 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 class discussions, focusing on ways we can uphold the school’s values.

 Writing:

In writing this term we have focused on a narrative text called “The Gum Leaf Thief”. This text is part of the Talk for Writing program which has helped us to produce narrative stories using tools such as adjectives, rhyming, precise nouns, powerful verbs, and adverbs. We are beginning to learn about information texts, focusing on foxes.

Reading:

This term we have read a class novel, the BFG by Roald Dahl, which students have really engaged in. We have also been completing fluency reading through reading small passage and strengthening our comprehension by completing activities based on the passage.

Mathematics:

Throughout this term we have explored addition strategies, shapes, and place-value. We have continued to revise concepts that we have learnt through fun games such as sheriff, speedy maths, Mathletics, and maths-based crafts.

Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS):

This term in HASS we have been focusing on Geography, particular local places. We have discussed what natural, managed and constructed local places are, as well as mapping our school using a map key.

Indonesian:

In Indonesian, we have been revising our numbers, colours, and simple greetings. We are starting to learn about familiar animals, such as pets and farm animals.

Special Events:

In Room 6, we have celebrated 100 days of school by engaging in a variety of activities, such as creating crowns and drawing portraits of our future selves.

We have also had the privilege of organizing the Year 1/2 assembly, our focus being on what we want to be when we grow up! We sung the song “When I Grow Up” and dressed up as what we want to be when we are older, ranging from workers, singers, and artists to McDonald’s workers, pilots, and crocodile hunters! We then invited our families to stay for morning tea in the 1/2 classroom, where we enjoyed spending time with our families and friends!

Term 3 has been filled with exciting learning experiences and adventures, with the Year 2/3 students working to the best of their abilities. We have focused on how to be a good friend and class mate this term, coming up with a class promise to work by. It has been very pleasing to see all of the students continue to flourish and pursue their personal best. What a group of Superstars! ⭐⭐⭐

ENGLISH

Through out the term we have been exploring narratives and ways to make our stories more exciting for an audience. We have written a thrilling class story called “The Dam” based on our Talk for Writing text “The Creek”. We have made sure our story was full of suspense and excitement for the reader by using lots of adjectives and similes. This has helped all of us to write more interesting and descriptive stories on our own.

We have continued with our reading groups, introducing many fun and challenging grammar games along with working on gaining a better understanding of what we have read though literal and inferential questioning.

MATHEMATICS

In Mathematics we have covered many topics including the revision of place value of 3- and 4-digit numbers, measuring length and volume using the correct units of measurement for each, telling time to quarter past and to, identifying the features of 2d shapes and subtraction with re-grouping along with the daily reviews of our tables and other basic number facts.

HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES (HASS)

This Term we have begun our Geography unit, looking at Our Land and Our Connections, discovering our place in the universe, looking at the continents and the country we live in, Australia. We will continue to explore our continent next term when we travel around Australia, exploring each state and territory and all each of them has to offer.

INDONESIAN

The students have looked at the various family names in Indonesian, looking at the diversity of families in Australia and Indonesia and discussing the similarities and differences. They have then moved on to learning about farm and Zoo animals and the noises they make in Indonesian compared to how we say it in English. Many funny noises could be heard coming from our classroom. We will also look into the animals that are native to Indonesia next term. To consolidate all of this learning we have continued to use the Indonesian app LanguageNut which challenges the students to various quizzes and games to consolidate the topics covered.

I wish everyone in the Year 2/3 Family a happy and safe holiday and look forward to working with you all in Term 4.

Mrs Packham 😊

Digital Technology has seen students from Years 1-6 study the importance of being responsible, respectful and safe while online. They also covered the different types of technology we use in our everyday lives, sorting device components into hardware vs software or peripheral, input vs output and have started using programs like Book Creator and Survey Monkey to create and interpret data.

Established in September 1918 to serve the needs of ‘isolated’ and ‘outback’ children in the primary years, the School of Isolated and Distance Education has a varied history. It has evolved into an online K-12 school based in Leederville. It continues to provide an education to Western Australian children and young people who are living in isolated, regional, or remote situations.

A hallmark of the school has been its adoption of new practices and technologies to improve the quality of the education it provides. In the past this has included print materials, television, video and audio recordings, use of the Royal Flying Doctor two-way radio, satellite, and more recently, internet technologies.

Over the last decade, SIDE has transitioned from teaching and learning through correspondence to an online model. Students around the State and travelling in other parts of Australia or the world receive their education through modern digital technologies.

In term 4, at Cunderdin District High School, students will continue to utilise SIDE for the following subjects.

Year 7 and 8 Digital Technology, Indonesian and Media Art. These classes run concurrently and due to the size of our cohort one group of students does Digital Technology whilst the other does Media Art. Indonesian is run at the sometime however has 2 separate teachers working with our students. Varinder Rikhraj in particular has been working with CDHS students since 2021 and is a very experienced Indonesian teacher. The classes CDHS utilise SIDE for are ones that we currently don’t have the expertise for on staff and this method allows for the best possible teaching experience for our students and these mandated topics.

Year 9 and 10 are completing a Certificate II in sport and Recreation. This qualification is suited to high school students who assist with the delivery of sport and recreation activities, including completing a range of fundamental customer contact and maintenance duties. It is ideal for those students with a keen interest in the sport and recreation and are currently involved in a sporting or recreation area and have access to team and facilities outside the school environment.

This qualification provides a pathway to work for any type of sport, fitness, aquatic or recreation organisation including commercial, not-for-profit, community and government organisations. Most importantly it contributes to a year 12 “C’ grade equivalent that they can utilise for graduation purposes.