Issue 19 2023
Message from the Principal
Our thoughts are with all who have been impacted by the recent devastating bushfires. The unfortunate events of last week have once again demonstrated the strength of our wonderful community. Sincere thanks to our brave firefighters and service providers and to everyone in our community for the support you have provided and will continue to provide your friends. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you or your family require support. This link provides excellent information for talking with your children: Helping children who have been affected by bushfires
If you would like to contribute a financial donation to the Lord Mayor’s Distress Relief Fund appeal for the Mariginiup Bushfire, please bring it to the front office in a sealed envelope. All funds received will be forward to the fund, on behalf of the Carramar Primary School Community, on Friday 1st December – thanks in advance for your support.
It is hard to believe that the final few days of our school year are upon us. Our focus is on finishing off the year well, finalising arrangements for our end of year events and making preparations for the new school year. Our youngest and oldest students have been engaging in transition opportunities in readiness for the next chapter in their schooling, with many of our Pre-Kindy students having their first session in Kindy last week and our Year 6 students currently engaging in transition opportunities at their various High Schools. We say welcome and best wishes to all of them.
We are very grateful of the time that our School Board members volunteer in their role and sincerely thank Amanda Joseph and Andrea Cassar for their contributions in promoting our school, providing governance in reviewing the directions of the School Business Plan and evaluating our performance in achieving our priorities. We welcome Emile Rensburg to the position of Parent Representative on our School Board in 2024.
Thank you to Signorina D’Onofrio for her coordination of our recent ‘Festa Italiana’. Whilst some arrangements needed to be modified last week, we are looking forward to a replay tomorrow and hoping to see a sea of red, green and white or students dressed as Italian characters. I’ve no doubt the children (and staff) are enthusiastic about enjoying a yummy gelato, having had some extra days practicing their ordering. Please ensure your child brings the exact money ($5.00) and gives it to their classroom teacher. PLEASE NOTE: The gelato is ‘nut-free’, but may contain traces of nuts and the sorbet is dairy-free.
Congratulations to Ms Malinovic and Ms Dobbs for their excellent preparation and coordination of our inaugural School Musical, ‘Home Among the Gumtrees’. It was wonderful to see all our Year 1 – 5 students singing in unison to culminate the performance. Please see pictures elsewhere.
Thank you to everyone who was able to don their running shoes and come along to join in the fun at our recent P & C fundraiser, our whole school Lapathon. There was certainly a lot of energy being expended and the frozen treats from the P & C were a welcome relief at the end. Sincere thanks for your generous support. Prize winners were presented with their rewards at our recent Faction Friday assembly – Giving Back. Congratulations to all!
The weather looks to be perfect for the final P & C Fundraiser this Saturday: Christmas Movie Night. Another wonderful opportunity for our community to come together. Thanks in advance for your support. Further details can be found on the P & C page.
- Friday 1st December Pre-Primary Christmas Assembly: 8.50am
To be held in the Performing Arts Centre and followed by a Christmas Morning Tea picnic in the Early Childhood Play Area.
- Friday 8th December Year 1-5 Celebration Assembly: 8.50am
To be held in the Performing Arts Centre, with presentations of Academic, Endeavour and Specialist Awards for our Year 1 – 5 classes and performances from our choir.
- Monday 11th December Year 6 Graduation Ceremony: 5.30pm
To be held on the grassed area in front of the Performing Arts Centre. Open only to parents/family of our graduating students, who have been advised of the arrangements for this very special event.
- Tuesday 12th December: Kindy Christmas Concert: 8.50am
To be held in Early Childhood Area followed by Christmas Morning Tea picnic in the Early Childhood Play Area.
- Tuesday 12th December: Year 6 Graduation Celebration
Parents of our graduating students have been advised of the arrangements for this very special event.
Thank you to everyone who has provided feedback thus far to our School Culture Survey. Your responses are valued and help us understand areas where we are performing well and areas that require further development. The survey will be open until midnight Sunday 10th December 2023. Thank you in advance for sharing your views. https://www.schoolsurvey.edu.au/s/CPS2023
I thank all our families for your support throughout the year and for encouraging our children to continue to demonstrate the expectations of our wonderful school. It is particularly important that we maintain our high standards and agreed expectations as our school year comes to a close.
Semester 2 Reports will be sent out via CONNECT on Wednesday, 13th December. Thank you for taking the time to review this important information with your children.
Have a wonderful final few days everyone – I look forward to seeing you all at the various end of year events.
Boordawan
Maree James
Principal
Merit Award Recipients
Year 1- Charlotte, Conor, Juandre, Harlow, Anna Leia, Eden, isabel, Willow
Year 2- Tabitha, Sophie, Samarth, Ruby, Eli, Emersyn, Freyr
Year 3- Maybelle, Liam, Sierra, Jax, Loagn
Year 4- Willow, Isabelle, Jett, Maraam, Michael, Savannah
Year 5- Chloe, Nate, Emelia, Poppy, Wyatt, David, Catarina, Nah, Sam, Matilda, Emma
Year 6- Harley, Asa, Rylan, Etienne, Joshua, Jake, Sabine, Abby
Literacy & Numeracy Cape Recipients
Early Childhood Chatter
Message from Deb Parker (Deputy Principal - Early Childhood)
Hello everyone,
Playgroup:
Our playgroup numbers have continued to grow. The children seem to feel comfortable in the school environment and it is wonderful watching them eating their recess or completing a Christmas activity. I think their attendance at our on-site playgroup will assist them when they enrol at our school next year.
Pre-Kindy Sessions:
This term, we welcome our new families as we start to prepare for our new Kindy students of 2024. Over the next few weeks, the new students and their families are invited to visit our school on a Wednesday morning. Whilst the parents are attending an information session, whether it is about early language skills, occupational therapy or dealing with anxiety, the new students get to visit the kindy classrooms and spend some time with the teachers. These sessions are very well attended and feedback from the parents is always very positive.
Promoting Language in Early Childhood:
At last week’s session, Mrs Keyser, a consultant from the Language Development Centre, spoke to parents about oral language as well as pre reading and writing skills. Did you know that language skills include both understanding (comprehension) and speaking (expressive language)?
Comprehension means being able to understand instructions, questions, conversations and literature.
Expressive language, or speaking, is being able to find the right words and use them to communicate a message.
It is important to encourage the development of your child’s language skills. This will reduce your child’s risk of future difficulties with learning.
Below are some suggestions of how you can assist your child to develop those early literacy skills.
Christmas at Carramar:
Our current Kindy and Pre-Primary students are busy practising for their very special Christmas concerts. The kindy concert is performed in our Early Childhood playground followed by a picnic with the family, and the Pre-Primary concert will be in the Undercover Area followed by a picnic in the Early Childhood playground. These concerts are always a highlight of my school year. We look forward to welcoming families to these special events. Look out for some photographs of the concerts in our next newsletter.
Sharing Successes
Emma Graham from Year 5 competed in a gymnastics competition for the Academy of Gymnastics and won 2nd place in her category. Emma said she loved the beam most and thought she did very well. I’m sure her parents and the crowd would have been wowed, and especially her coach, for her commendable efforts. Her flawless technique brought her the silver medal!
Mckensie Cassar from Year 3 competed in an Irish dancing competition for O’Brien Dance Studio placing 4th. Mckensie said, “It was challenging, especially with all the foot moves.” It was amazing for her to perform so beautifully and after all the effort it took to get there. Her presentation was skilful and faultless, which helped her to deliver an outstanding performance.
Last Sunday, some students from our school performed in a dance concert for local dance school Schulz Dance Company. A special congrats to the following students on winning their awards; Maggie (Most Potential), Lyla (Technique Award), Zoe (Musical Theatre Award), Simone (Most Improved) and Mia (Runner-Up Competition Star)! Maggie said, “I really loved my Can Can acro dance because my friends spin me around, I really enjoyed it”.
We also had a few of our students go over to Melbourne to participate in the National Cheerleading Competition. Well done to Hayley, Daisy and Alexis.
Carramar's First Lego League
On the 10th of November Carramar's First Lego league teams travelled to Woodvale Secondary College to compete in the regional robotics coding competition.
Our Year 5 and 6's did an excellent job imagining new technology to help share their hobbies, coding and programming a Spike Prime Lego robot to complete missions/challenges and displaying gracious professionalism throughout an enjoyable day.
Our Remarkable Robots team ended the day earning the prestigious Motivate Award Trophy - making it two years in a row a team from Carramar has earned the award. Team veterans Laurenda and Blake have now collected 3 trophies between them in the past two seasons!
Congratulations to all Carramar Lego League members on a fantastic display of team work and technological understanding (Simone, Kyrl, Tanisha, Hayden, Blake, Nicholas, David, Zachary, Owen, Paige, Estelle, Laurenda, Archer, James and Leigh-Anne).
P&C Chat
Who is excited for a fun night, surrounded by friends and family? We certainly are.
Our exciting MOVIE NIGHT is upon us. THIS SATURDAY 2nd December. Gates open at 5pm.
- There will be FOOD
- There will be STALLS
- There will be SPACE TO RELAX
- And, of course, there will be a MOVIE!
Everything you need to kick start your December.
Remember to return your form, pre-order dinner order and payment to the office by TOMORROW.
This is a no smoking/vaping, no alcohol, no pets event. Low back chairs only, please.
Our Stationery Drive is starting again. With your children heading home with their remaining stationery for the year, please consider if you would like to donate any to the school. The bins will be placed just outside the library. If it is something you would like to participate in, please only donate new and unused items. The school very much appreciates the donated stationery and will disperse the donations amongst the students in our school community.
The P&C would also like to take this opportunity to thank the school for their support throughout the year. We love being part of this wonderful school and truly enjoy running events that the school and school community can be a part of .
We also appreciate the parents, families and carers who make up our school community. Without you all, we wouldn't have these events and we love how you all jump on board with all of our crazy ideas and support us.
Well done to everyone that participated in Lapathon We raised $6200. Our overall donation winner was Xavier in Year 3.
Year Group Highest Donations:
Kindy- Dia
Pre Primary- Shyla
Year 1- Zahlia
Year 2- Lilly
Year 3- Charlotte
Year 4- Indi-Jo
Year 5- James
Year 6- Laurenda
Lucky Dip Winners: Paige, Cohen, Delilah, Savannah M, Amelia T, Billie-Rae, Hunter A, Daniel G
Tea Towel order collection is now at the front office for those of you that still havent picked your order up.
tHank yuo
P&C Team