Dernancourt School

Matsuri Day was a big success on Friday last week, with students and teachers participating in different Japanese cultural activities across the day.  Classrooms were a hive of activity, with the celebrations continuing over the breaks. There were special lunch time activities and a visit from a life size Pikachu, a Japanese cartoon character.  Adding to the celebration was the bright coloured clothing and traditional Japanese dress that students and teachers wore on the day. Thanks to all involved.  It was a fabulous day.

On Tuesday night at our staff meeting, teachers worked together in teams to moderate student writing samples. This term, the focus for moderation has been on the Narrative genre.  This time provided an opportunity for teachers to discuss student achievement, identify areas of growth and determine next steps in teaching and learning for our students.

Last week you would have received an email from the Department for Education containing a link to a parent survey for our school.  I encourage you to complete the survey as it provides us with information on how we can improve and also lets us know what we are doing well.  The survey results are collated by the department and shared back to the school later this term.

Next week (week 5), is Book Week.  We are all looking forward to participating in fun book-based activities over the week, culminating in our Book Week Parade on Friday August 25th at 9am.  I have been hearing whispers from students about what they are dressing up as, and teachers are busy making plans about costumes too. All we have to do is order the sunshine!

In week 6 (week beginning Monday August 28) teachers are offering times for parent teacher discussions.  If you wish to make a time for a discussion, please make a booking through the link that was sent out on Audiri or See Saw earlier this week. 

In other good news, our Koala friend has been sighted in the yard again this week, calling the large gum at the front of the school home.  The koala has caused some excitement across the school and has been the topic of many discussions.  Keep an eye out in our big gum trees, as the Koala tends to move around the school.

Julie Raggett

Please be safe and follow all road and pedestrian rules at the front of the school. It gets very busy, and in order to keep everyone safe we ask that everyone follow these rules. At the ‘kiss and drop’ area remain in your car and move up as needed. This is a very short term dropping and picking up area from your car. When you leave this area please do not do a u- turn over the white line, it is very busy and near misses (and small car accidents) have occurred. Please also do not use the carpark drive way to do a three point turn for the same reason. When crossing the road, we encourage you to use the designated school crossing, especially when arriving to school in the morning heading for the Junior Primary gate and leaving from this gate in the afternoon. We know it is quicker to dart across at this point but it is not safe for our students with cars coming and going in the drop off zone.

Year 1 Phonics Screen Check

This term our year 1 teachers are administering the year 1 Phonics Screen Check. The check is completed with each year 1 child individually and is organised in to two sections with a mixture of 40 words, both real and pseudo (made up) words.  This helps teachers to know and understand if children are applying their phonics knowledge. Phonics is the relationship between letters and sounds, and students understanding this relationship is a vital component to learning to read. This check occurs every year and is used to inform targeted teaching and whole school planning of Junior Primary literacy.

ICAS assessments

ICAS assessments are designed to recognise and reward academic excellence. Each year over 1 million students across the world take part in an online assessment.

This year Dernancourt School students were offered Spelling Bee and Mathematics options for ICAS. We have 13 students participating in the Spelling Bee and 17 students participating in Maths. The Spelling Bee will take place on Monday 21st August and the Maths assessment on Monday 28th August. If a student is away on the day, they will be offered a make-up session in the same week. We wish our participants all the best!

Kym Dinedios

Pupil Free Days
Pupil Free Day	Term 3	Week 6	Friday	1st September
School Closure Day	Term 3	Week 7	Monday	4th September
Pupil Free Day	Term 4	Week 6	Friday	24th November

The Book Week Raffle will be available on Qkr for 50c per ticket. Cash sales will be available before and after school Monday - Thursday during Week 5.

There will be three draws - R/1, Year 2-4 and Year 5/6.

Week 5	Lucas (P7)	Francesko (P7)	Samy (P12)
Week 6	Zara (P14)	Sunny (P14)	Ben (P14)
Week 7	James (P12)	Samarveer (P12)	Samson (P10)

Congratulations to the following students who have completed their Premier's Reading Challenge for 2023:-

J7    Dakota, Colton & Diyan

P5    Amelia

P7    Anabelle, Alice & Corbin

P10    Liara, Angel, Brooke, Shanmukh, Kota, Felix & Renesh

P12    Dominic, Riley & Evan

P14    Kaliah

   

   

J3	Lulu and James S	J4	Evie and Noah
J5	Charlie and Netra	J6	Kate and Naysa
J7	Orion and Degman	P2	Ellie and Agam
P3	Ethan S and Ashira	P4	Aadya and Samuel P
P5	Charlie	P7	Mia Mantzarapis and Luca
P8	Javish and Ayda	P10	Divya and Kayden
P12	Ryder and Adi	P14	Milly and Liam
PE	Kaan and Liara	Performing Arts	Milly and Liam
Japanese	Saisha

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.

 

Garden Club Term 3, Week 3

Our Garden club members for this week were Conor J5, Kate J6, Tyler P3, Aidan P7 and Zara P14. They had the exciting job of helping to plant our new apple trees. We now have a pink lady and a granny smith apple tree to add to our fruit tree collection. They also helped with watering our other garden areas and tasted some of our fresh lettuce leaves that we have growing in our garden beds.