term 4 2020 - communicare

CREATING OPPORTUNITIES

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Matthew BorgwardPrincipal

Term 4 2020

Dear Parents/Guardians/Carers,Term Four is always the busiest term at the Communicare Academy as we finish our programs, and organise events to mark the end of the academic year. It is also the term when most of our reward excursions occur, so our students are busy, and it seems there is an activity on almost every day. The highlight of the term was most definitely the school ball held in week 1 (later than usual because of COVID restrictions) at Point Walter Golf Club in Attadale, themed as “A night in Hollywood”. The students all dressed impeccably and demonstrated excellent behaviour throughout the night, making for a memorable evening, one I am sure the students will never forget. Other great outcomes achieved this term include an increase in student attendance by 8% and overall engagement in both curriculum classes and electives.

As we head into 2021, the Communicare Academy is looking to increase staffing and resources as a result of our funding boost during the 2020 school year. The increased injection of NCCD funding for our students with complex and varying needs means it is vital that these resources are allocated in ways that best suit the needs of our students to give them the greatest opportunity to develop and succeed. As a result of thorough research, we have decided to include a Career Counsellor, Student Support Officer, an additional Education Assistant to work 1 on 1 with students, and an Aboriginal Islander Education Officer (AIEO). We are also upgrading our ICT capabilities throughout the school year. We will also be continuing to work with our Nurse Practitioner to continue delivering allied health services to our students through the Student Services team and have begun consultations with an architecture company to incorporate design elements into our environment, to better meet the sensory needs of our students. These practical improvements will have a direct impact on our students, as per funding agreements. I am very much looking forward to what this will bring to the Communicare Academy in 2021. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Honourable Ken Wyatt and the Local School Community Fund for their considerable grant that was given for the Courtyard Wellbeing Space project.

The students have been enjoying the revamped courtyard with lush grass, tropical plants, creative paving and limestone borders. All our students agree that it has made our courtyard much more functional and relaxing.

We have enjoyed another consistent period at the Communicare Academy in terms of our staff. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Jodi Nickisson an Education Assistant with both educational, and mining sector experience. Jodi started at the start of the term and has slotted in seamlessly working with Sanchia in the Year 8 class. We also welcome Stephanie Dowden our Nurse Practitioner. Stephanie brings with her a wealth of experience in her industry and has worked with other CaRE schools, so understands the space which we work in. Stephanie has hit the ground running part way through term and has already assessed and assisted many students.

This term has been full of recreational and educational activities for our students. Students have been able to participate in the Equine therapy program, BIG fitness program, Friday Wellbeing and Sports day at Mills park, surfing for Outdoor Recreation and we have finally forged a relationship with the PCYC on Royal Street where the students are learning Judo and Gymnastics. Our students have continued to participate in organised sports days with other Care schools. We recently invited St Francis’ School to the Communicare Academy to play volleyball, and the Physical Education teacher emailed to our PE teacher that afternoon with glowing feedback:

“Good afternoon Monte, on behalf of St Francis’ staff and students I would like to thank you for inviting us to play volleyball this morning. This will go down as one of my fondest memories of my time at St Francis’ School. The whole morning was a great experience as a teacher, I thought all involved played wonderfully and it was a pity there had to be a winner, everyone won in my books! Thank you for the generosity extended with the BBQ, the after match vibe was great hey! I look forward to more events with yourself and students. Have a great last weeks of Term 4 and I extend a very merry Christmas to everyone at Communicare. Below are the links to the games I spoke to you about after the game.”

Mr Simon Emmerson, St Francis School Teacher

Besides these valuable recreational activities, we have also had educational incursions from Tomorrow Man, which equips young men with better coping mechanisms, Transition to Work from Communicare, to give our students options after they finish school, Greyhound Rescue, RAC and Gosnells Community Against Graffiti. The students have also enjoyed many educational visits to the Animal Rescue Refuge, Cockatoo Conservation Centre, Perth Zoo, Perth Reptile Park and Fremantle Prison. We have also had several students participate in work experience at D & B Transport Works which has been a valuable experience for the students involved. Our senior students also had the opportunity to participate in an Outdoor Education Camp at Fairbridge School Camp on Point Peron.

We are excited to be offer a Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE) to our students from 2021. This will complement the different learning styles of our students and provide an option for those students who wish to extend their learning and educational options once leaving the Communicare Academy. Navit and Peter are overseeing the accreditation of WACE within our school after implementing it at Sowilo CaRE school. They have had meetings with the School Curriculum and Standards Authority WA and all is on track to start in 2021. Currently our students are working solidly on Certificates I, II and III and we will release the final results of completions at the Presentation Ceremony and following board report.

I hope you share my joy looking back at our students’ achievements from this term and of course this year while reading our Term Four newsletter and I hope to see many of you at our Presentation Ceremony.

Have safe and happy holidays and we will see students back for Term One on Monday 1st February 2021.

2 2 Term 4 2020THE COMMUNICARE ACADEMY

CURRENT EVENTS - Tene Moore

Throughout Semester Two I thoroughly enjoyed teaching the Current Events and World Studies fixed focus classes. In the Current Events class students watched a brief recap of the week’s top news stories and got half way through a series on how to decipher fake news.

Unsurprisingly, this term students talked a lot about whether or not Western Australia state borders should or should not remain closed, and why they supported or were against closures.

Many of the World Studies class themes merged with Current Events. Students were asked to consider Australia’s relationship to each country. This year there was a shortage of Australian fruit pickers, so countries like Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu flew in workers to various Western Australian farms. Students discussed why they felt locals may not want to pick fruit and how foreign affairs impacts Australia. The culminating event was sharing a meal at Pappa Rich, a Malaysian restaurant.

STEM & GARDENING - Susanne Cripps

This term, the focus for Year 7 and 9 has been on chemistry. The Year 7 students have built volcanoes and tried out different chemical reactions to create an eruption. We have tried mixing Mentos and coke, Bi-carb soda and vinegar and made elephant toothpaste. Year 9 students have focused on the structure of the atom and created a model showing the relationship between protons, electrons and neutrons. Year 8 students have been focusing on reproduction, learning about different reproduction methods and puberty.

In STEM, we have created robots for an end of the term robot competition. The students have used creativity and a lot of problem solving to make a sturdy construction. Not everyone has been interested in the Robots, Mustafa has spent this term creating a model from scratch. He started with a bridge and know it has expanded, containing a mountain with a tunnel, a river and some houses. I have really enjoyed working with the students and to see how they refined their skills and came up with some amazing ideas.

The gardening group has been focusing on flowers. At the beginning of Term Four, we went to Bunnings and picked out some lovely and colourful flowers to plant in the front garden.


SEWING CLASS - Mandy Ruediger

IMAGINE CLASS: STRING ART DESIGNS - Linda Daniel

Our Sewing class continued throughout Term Four. We focused again on designing clothes, with students choosing their own patterns and picking the fabric.

The students followed step by step instructions to draw out and transfer patterns onto fabric and complete the sewing process. We have one student this term who has finished her beautiful hooded jumper and other students who are hoping to finish their design before the end of term.

The sewing students have also been willing to organise a fashion show with their finished designs on the last week of term.

Term Four has seen the Year 7’s busy creating works of art with nails and string. Students have worked exceptionally hard to produce imaginative and unique string art designs. Well done!


ART CLASS - Tene Moore

GERMAN CLASS - Mandy Ruediger

Students did a great job throughout Semester Two. The Term Four Art project was a skate deck design. Students were tasked with sanding their own skate deck and coming up with a design that explored aspects of their own self-identity. One student chose a Maori word which meant family for her skateboard. Another student selected a chain to represent parts of her life which held her down, then images which were uplifting surrounded the chain. Deck designs were drawn up onto A3 templates before painting them on the actual skateboard deck.

A few students worked on independent art projects which included paintings placed around the campus.

In Term Four we introduced the German language to our range of Fixed Focus classes. In the first class the students engaged in activities learning general facts about Germany. They displayed a lot of general knowledge and interest in this session. We followed this with a general look at the German language and differences with the English language. Students learned how the German alphabet has a few different letters and all nouns have a grammatical gender. In the following classes, the students learned vocabulary in topics including greetings, numbers, colours, and food and drink. The students have shown a lot of interest and enthusiasm when learning the language, and we are very pleased with their progress. We look forward to running German as a fixed focus option in 2021.

ADVENTURE WORLD REWARD DAY - Sanchia Hall

Our Year 8 and Year 9 students were all rewarded for their efforts and engagement throughout the year with a full day trip to Adventure World. Both year groups have worked well and made a lot of progress through what was sometimes a difficult year.

It was great to see all the students interacting and increasing their interpersonal skills as they mixed and had fun together at the park. It was fantastic to see the whole group behaving so appropriately in such a fun social setting.

Students went on adventure rides, swam in pools, had a nice morning tea and enjoyed lunch together. Students and staff all had a wonderful time.

Congratulations to the Eights and Nines for their great work this year and for the excellent way in which they conducted themselves on this trip.

KEYS 4 LIFE - Joao Montenegro

For the second time this year, Communicare Academy successfully ran the Keys for Life Pre-Driver Program as part of our fixed focus curriculum. Keys for Life is a School Drug Education and Road Aware (SDERA) initiative, that has more than ten years of State Government support. The program is linked to the Australian Curriculum, WA Licensing System and WA Certificate of Education.

In Term Two, six of our students passed the final test receiving their Keys for Life Certificate which allowed them to apply for their Learner’s Permit.

Congratulations to: Bilal Bennett, Taris Coleman, Ebony Newman, Skye Strahan, Skye Haines and Coby Wallace.


BIG PROGRAM - Written by a Year 12 Student


RAOK EXCURSION - Libby Rodwell

On Wednesday 11 November, the RAOK community class headed out to the Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Conservation Centre in Martin. We were met by the wonderful and very knowledgeable staff who lead the group on a tour of the centre, shared wonderful stories and vital information with our group of students. We learned about Black Cockatoo’s migration habits in Australia, the effects of deforestation on the species and what we humans can do to support the species survival. The Centre is also home to many other birdlife such as the magnificent emus, peacocks and peahens who wander freely around the grounds, red and grey kangaroos, and a few pairs of dingos who share spaces on rotation across the property. Students and staff were eager to meet some of the black cockatoos at the Centre who are unfortunately unable to be rehabilitated and released back into the wild due to losing or never gaining the skills to feed themselves without human intervention.

As the gate to the aviary opened our feathered friends came to investigate, landing on our shoulders and eating the honky nuts we were gievn, some being a little cheeky and nibbling on buttons and lapels of our clothing. Students were smitten and the feeling was mutual as one or two of the cockatoos became rather fond of individual students and would continually perch on them. The knowledge and understanding gained of some of WA’s flora and fauna and has encouraged the class to become more active in supporting wildlife with students enquiring about volunteering at the centre and a group discussion on tree planting has begun.


NATIVE ANIMAL RESCUE CENTRE EXCURSION - Libby Rodwell

In week six, students in the Animals Community and Communicare Community classes merged to attend the Native Animal Rescue Centre in Malaga. Students were greeted by Kelli, the centres Education Officer and two baby nine-week old Barking Owls, saved from a felled tree as eggs. Kelli then surprised us all with 2 and half year old possum, Olly. Olly enjoyed lap snuggles and cuddles with students – he even fell asleep! After the educational talk, we all ventured to the aviary area where we were entertained with song and dance by Owls, Galahs and Black Cockatoos. Returning to the centre, we saw a local lizard who was rehabilitating and preparing for release. This was such an amazing and worthwhile excursion being able to connect with Australian wildlife, at Native Animal Rescue (our second animal excursion in two weeks).

If you are parking near the school DO NOT park at the businesses across the road or at the VET. These are private carparks and are not to be used by the Communicare Academy community. If you need parking space, please park down our driveway, or on Moore St near the PCYC, or at the train station. Thank you for your cooperation.

PARKING AT THE COMMUNICARE ACADEMY


In Term Three, students have experienced more challenging physical activities such as abseiling, commando course and Boxing for Fitness. Students have developed their understanding about their body and mental limits, their personal safety in different scenarios and teamwork decision making. In addition, the Outdoor Education program builds community and culture, raises expectations and standards and increases connection between students.

OUTDOOR EDUCATION - Joao Montenegro


This year’s only camp was held at Point Peron Camp School. Unlike in past years when the Communicare Academy has been able to host multiple camps, this year we merged all camps into one, so students who were not involved in the Outdoor Education program were also able to attend. 21 students participated and everyone gained confidence in various water activities such as snorkelling and stand-up paddle boarding. Students completed a series of team building activities such as crate building goals where more than 60 crates were used as a tower to reach an object.

All meals were provided, and rostered students took turns washing dishes. Another secondary school on the campsite provided some friendly competition with a night of basketball. Each day we were there, the sunny, breezy weather provided a beautiful backdrop setting as well as a full moon during evening. This camp won’t be easily forgotten.

SENIOR SCHOOL CAMP 2020 - Tene Moore


2021 TERM DATES

Term One02 Feb 2021 – 01 Apr 2021

Term Two21 Apr 2021 – 01 Jul 2021

Term Three19 Jul 2021 – 24 Sep 2021

Term Four11 Oct 2021 – 16 Dec 2021

*Dates subject to change due to staff PD days

term 4 2020 - communicare

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