Issue 4 - Term 2

14 May 2020

Principal

Louise Davidson

Deputy Principal

Tish Clarke

Contact Details:

54 James Street

Kellerberrin 6410

PH: 9045 6300

TEXT: 0437 202 819

EMAIL: Kellerberrin.dhs@

education.wa.edu.

Kellerberrin District High School

Chalkdust Chat YOUR GUIDE TO THE SCHOOL NEWS, INFORMATION AND EVENTS

From the Principal

Dear Parents/Carers/Family Member and Friends

We are in extraordinary times and I am so very impressed by how well our staff, students and parents are managing in this new world of learning. We have implemented on line learning, work packages and face to face teaching with our students, all at the same time. Working with CONNECT has highlighted our use of digital technology skills and we are proud of the way the students and parents have embraced this new form of communication for our school community. I must say, some of the jokes the students have posted, have had me in hysterics, Teagan Saunders posted a joke on CONNECT,

Some of our students have particularly thrived and enjoyed on-line learning, Reyne White said that she liked to use CONNECT to send through her diary entries to her teacher. Nevaeh Trewren liked CONNECT because she could see messages to her friends and teachers and Chelsie Harvey said, ’CONNECT was good because I could see notifications and it helped me to use different apps to help my learning.’

Some students enjoyed the work packages and face to face teaching with Jaxon Paron stating, ‘It’s OK here, I like doing my Maths, I liked a strategy game of dice with teams using stacks of dice to find area.’ Demi Silver and Mason Peak both stated that they liked coming to school as they could interact with others and were not lonely.

I have received a fantastic response from our students at home, who have shared photos of them playing cards and playing Frisbee. I am really glad that you have enjoyed these with your family, to the right is a photo of Josh and Maddie Syred playing with their Frisbee.

Supporting our Community

We have offered our staff who have boarding students in Perth, to complete any online learning at our school, under our supervision and we have welcomed some very special visitors to our school, some past students: Callum and Zach White.

I am so proud of our school community for being so patient and following social distancing when picking up and dropping off work packages.

Congratulations again to our wonderful school community for keeping safe, to our students for adapting to different working environments and to our staff to implementing fantastic work packages and on line learning for our students.

LOUISE DAVIDSON

PRINCIPAL

From the Principal

GREAT WORK As teachers have been working with our learners to

achieve their full potential, I’m really proud of the students who have shared brilliant work with me.

Keep it up.

BREAKFAST CLUB IS OPEN

Under the Department guidelines we will be offering breakfast club to our students, just in a different format. Students will not be able to sit in the home economics room, they may however, collect breakfast and take it away to eat. Remember to ensure that you come before the bell goes, as breakfast club shuts on the bell.

THANK YOU

Thank you very much to Aaron Forsyth and Demi Silver for continuing to display our flags proudly at the front of the school. Every day they have ensured that the flags are flying and that we honour our traditions at KDHS.

STUDENTS WHO ARE UNWELL

Please note that if your child is unwell, please do not send them to school. Parents and Carers of any child who is unwell will contacted for immediate pick up, to ensure that we are not spreading any germs.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Our teachers have had some students and parents requesting ‘friends’ on new messenger apps. As part of our Accountable and Ethical Decision Making, our staff are unable to accept any ‘friend’ or contact from any student on social media. Students are welcome to email the staff and contact them through CONNECT if they have any questions.

SUCCESSFUL STUDENTS

QUALITY STAFF

NEW STAFF

We have experienced a turn over of staff and have welcomed new staff to our school.

To maintain safety and cleanliness we have employed two additional cleaners who clean high contact items, washrooms, classrooms and play equipment. I would like to welcome Pippa Peak and Lizel Swale to our staff for the remainder of this term.

I would also like to welcome Mrs Christine Lee who is our new Science and Technologies teacher. Christine is quite local really, as she lives in Trayning and is very excited to join our staff. Miss Nadia Masters joins us from Perth but she is quite used to working in District High Schools and she is looking forward to teaching our Year 5/6 class.

It’s wonderful to have four new staff on board and our school community extends a branch of friendship to all.

BRILLIANT, FANTASTIC, PUTTING LEARNERS FIRST, DILIGENT

I cannot praise enough the brilliant work of the staff at Kellerberrin District High School. The teachers and education assistants have worked very hard to ensure that our learners continued with their education. The work packages allowed for reinforcing and practising of skills, whilst also continuing the curriculum and ensuring the work was differentiated for individual learning. This was a mammoth task in itself. On top of this, the teachers learned new ICT techniques and platforms, whilst maintaining communication with the learners from home as well as maintaining face to face education with our learners at school. Our ministerial staff ensured that the work packages were organised for a smooth pick up and drop off and many thanks to Tish Clarke who stepped up to support our Year 5/6 class. I honestly could not be prouder of our team and I thank everyone for their assistance in ensuring that our learning continued and that our students enjoyed the different activities, with a range of formalised learning, to hands on learning, physical exercise, play based learning and family learning.

THANK YOU

TO ALL THE WONDERFUL STAFF

AT KDHS

CONNECTED COMMUNITY

NEW DROP-OFF RULES FOR PARENTS Our parents and carers have been given the option of sending their children to school or keeping them at home for remote learning, either online or with hard-copy study packs. The State Government has issued a directive that parents and carers are required to drop children at the gate. Our parents and carers have been happy to comply with a requirement for them not to set foot on school grounds and instead drop their children at the gate. ‘Kiss and drop’ is going very well and I saw some nervous parents saying goodbye to their child and allowing us to walk them into school. The students have independently managed the school arrival and departure well. Well done to both the parents and students for being so brave.

SCHOOL UNIFORM We have received a number of orders for school uniforms. If you require an order form please feel free to ring the school and we will give your child an order form, you can then return it to us with the correct amount of money and we will issue your child with their uniform. It is very important that we promote pride in our school and students will be reminded to wear school uniform or to change into spare uniforms that we have on hand.