Dernancourt School

This week is National Volunteer Week. We are very lucky at Dernancourt School to have many amazing volunteers who support us – from being a committee member to helping with fundraising, donating time and goods, helping with reading and classroom activities, coaching a sports team and supporting on excursions. We could not do our job without your time and support, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We will have an opportunity to celebrate our volunteers later in the year, but for now, we would just like to say THANKS!

As many of you would be aware, 2024 sees the return of the mid-year intake for new reception students. We will be having new reception students join us for transition visits later this term ready for their term 3 start. We are excited to meet them. If you know of any children who are eligible to start school in the middle of the year, please encourage their families to reach out to arrange a tour.

With the weather becoming cooler, the winter bugs are out in force, and we are noticing that there are an increased number of students with cold and flu-like symptoms.  It is important that we work together to 'stop the spread' of these germs, and we encourage you to keep your child at home until their symptoms have cleared.  

Thank you to the many families who use our school crossing each day. Our student volunteers are trained in monitoring the crossing and look forward to helping you and your families get to and from school safely each day. Being a crossing monitor is a way of volunteering at school, helping to develop leadership skills and shows responsibility. It also comes with the added benefit of helping keep our community safe. 

Just a reminder that our Kiss and Drop area is a 2-minute parking zone only during peak times, with drivers needing to remain with the vehicle. This is to help keep traffic moving and to ensure our students are safe while being dropped off and collected from school. Thank you for supporting and adhering to the parking signs and ultimately, keeping our students safe.

Today, our SRC held a ‘Be Kind’ day. Students worked with their class mates to promote kindness and learn how kindness can help others. It was wonderful to hear stories of kindness at home and at school and to see their kindness in action. Something as small as a smile may well be enough to brighten someone’s day more than you know. SRC are planning another ‘Be Kind’ day for later in the term.

Check if you qualify for free home internet!

If you have a school aged child and have had no active NBN broadband connection in the past 14 days, your family may be eligible for free home internet until 31 December 2025, through the School Student Broadband Initiative (SSBI).

To check if you are eligible, call the SSBI National Referral Centre on 1800 954 610 and their helpful team can check for you. Callback, webchat, translating and interpreting services are available.

Visit the SSBI National Referral Centre website for more information

Our students commemorated National Sorry Day with a touching and creative display of hand artwork. The hands of Aboriginal children form the heart of the mural, surrounded by the hands of children from diverse backgrounds with messages of apology and hope.

This collaborative art project served as a powerful educational tool, fostering empathy and awareness among our children about the significance of National Sorry Day and the importance of acknowledging past injustices.

To help students understand the significance of National Sorry Day, teachers shared the book “Stories for Simon” with their classes. Through this engaging story, children were able to connect with the themes of empathy, reconciliation and the importance of saying sorry.

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

P2    Owen, Morgan & Jessica

P3    McKayla

P4    Evie, Aurelia, Gabby, Noah, Amelie, Hamish & Magnus

P7    Samuel, Tyler & Ziyi

P8    Bailey, Ellie, Isabel, Sargun, Louis & Kit

P10    Divya, Willem, Jaiveer & Corbin

P12    Lucas, Asreet & Ryder

P14    Cherie & Ella

Congratulations to the following students who received class awards at the Assembly in Week 3. The value for this Assembly was Respect.

We raised $286 for the RSPCA from our Term 1 sports theme casual day. Thanks everyone for donating to such a good cause.

Our lunchtime activities have started this term. We have a soccer competition, drawing and colouring clubs and a footy club.

It was fabulous to see so many children walking to school on Walk Safely to School Day on Friday Week 2. It shows that the children at Dernancourt School are taking important steps towards a healthier future.

Our SRC reps have been selling lemons and mandarins before and after school last week. We raised over $100 which will go towards the care and maintenance of our citrus trees.

We welcomed Rachel Green to our assembly in Week 3. Rachel is a local resident who has been chosen for Miss World Australia. As part of Rachel’s Miss World Australia quest, she has decided to raise money for Variety Children’s Charity. We raised $345 from our crazy hair, crazy sock day to contribute to this worthwhile charity and we will also be sponsoring Rachel’s Miss World Australia quest.

Our Garden club helpers in Week 3 were Fiston J4, Mila J5, Olivia P3, Hujjat P5 and Thomas P14. Our work today was all about our fruit trees. Watering the apple trees, cleaning up fruit that had fallen off the citrus trees and picking lemons and mandarins for our fruit stall. They did a great job of helping to set up our lemons and mandarins.

On Tuesday, May 21st, nineteen year 4, 5 and 6 students represented Dernancourt at SAPSASA Football. We pumped each other with jokes and laughter on the bus ride to Fulham North. The first team we played was Largs Bay, who were already excited from winning their first match of the day. We encouraged our team mates and played our best game but were defeated by Largs Bay in our first match. The second match was against Fulham North. Even though Dernancourt did not win this game either we were proud to support each other, share the ball and score goals. Overall, we enjoyed a great day of footy.

Thank you, 

Kate and Aidan 

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