It’s hard to believe the whole school year is now gone. We are finishing off and filing things for the last time and getting ready for a party on Friday with Secret Santa (AKA Kris Kringle) presents for everyone.
Camp last week was a great success and all the children demonstrated their independence and resilience, living in tents for the five days and cooking their own meals. We swam and walked, played in the sand, went kayaking, toasted marshmallows and sang around the campfire… all in all a wonderful week. Thank you so much to all the parents who helped us in so many ways.
Thank you also to the parents who have helped us over the course of the year, with maintenance, canteen or in the classroom, at social events or on the beach at Surf Skills. Your involvement with the school has been greatly appreciated by all of us. Special congratulations to everyone who worked so hard at the Fair. It was a really enjoyable day.
Thank you to my most wonderful colleagues… it is a great delight to work with such a dedicated and skillful team of teachers. I look forward to welcoming Joanne and Sarah and Gabrielle to this team next year.
And lastly some farewells. To Soo Jin, Thank you for all that you brought to Currambena. I wish you a very happy journey beyond this particular crossroad. And to Joe, Alex, Brock, Tim, Allend, Lucie, Carragh, Pascal and Holly who are leaving Currambena, we wish the very best for the next part of their school lives and for all the years to come. I will miss them all and hope they will keep in touch, maybe come along to Currambena’s 40th Birthday Party later next year! They will all take a little part of Currambena with them in their hearts… and of course there’s an endless supply for everyone who remains!
Have a safe and relaxing holiday! See you in 2009.
Love, Wendy
Posted December 10th, 2008
in Wendy's Class
by wendyp
We are getting along very well with camp preparations. Thank you all the parents who have offered help of any sort. We just need a few more things like eskis and mallets which we will sort out today. Drivers and parent helpers at the camp are organised now and we have two activities planned with the National Parks. Barry will come and see us if he can and Ian, our bus driver from the Canberra trip, is going to call in and see us one day as well. Just cross your fingers for us for good weather… from Saturday onwards, to include the Fair!!
Please bring in some more gourmet things for our class hamper. It is starting to look good but could certainly use some more items. I hope everyone is baking cakes and sorting jumble and books. Put it all in the spare room. Cake plates and cellophane went home on Monday.
We still need one more driver for Surf Skills 2 on Thursday PLEASE! I really need someone who can be there and help with supervision so that I can go to an appointment late morning. Please speak to me if you can help with this.
We are delighted to have Sean Will with us this week doing work experience from Killara High. He was at Currambena for most of his Primary schooling and it’s good fun for us to have our ex-students back!
It was also great fun to have Orientation Morning yesterday and see the group as it will be next year. As well as welcoming all the gorgeous people from Olivia’s class, we welcome James, Millie’s brother, who is joining us for Year 6 next year. Another student, Zoe, might also be with us though she was unable to visit yesterday. I think we’re going to have heaps of fun.
Next week we will be away so there will be no piano or guitar lessons. Also, this week, because of interviews for the new teacher, I am having to cancel or move quite a few piano lessons. I will be having a rehearsal for the guitar and piano players for the Fair on Friday during Choices time, so please remind them to bring their books and guitars etc. The musical items will start around 4ish on Saturday so all children playing… or performing in the Pirate item with Tony… will need to be there and ready by 3.45pm.
See you there!
Love, Wendy
Posted November 26th, 2008
in Wendy's Class
by wendyp
We held a meeting of the organising group this morning and it really looks as if this trip is possible!! Leaving Sydney on Thursday 18th June and returning on Thursday 25th with visits to rock art at Jowalbinna, a tour of the Daintree and attendance at the Laura Dance Festival included amongst other highlights of the week, a possible optional Barrier Reef day trip… all for about $1400 per person.
We have a list of names from the noticeboard of people who are interested in coming along. Please send an email to Tracy Everingham moresausage@optusnet.com.au to confirm your interest at this stage and be placed on the email list for further information and updates. There will come a time when we will ask for money to confirm places and meanwhile we are working on doing some fundraising to make it possible for as many of the children to come as possible.
Watch for further news!
Posted November 18th, 2008
in General
by wendyp
It is funny to have the Newsletter a day early. I hope Olivia and her group have a wonderful time at Mowbray Park. It is a great place for a camp.
I was very proud of all the Year 6 leavers who spoke so well at the Social last Friday. It was wonderful for the whole community to have the chance to say goodbye to them like that. Thank you very much to Payman for organising the event… including the gifts for each of them from the school. And thank you very much to all those parents who contributed to the gift for me. It is a great privilege to teach these wonderful kids and I will enjoy the massage and chocolates immensely, too!! Thank you!
Our group is doing some detailed planning this week for Jervis Bay and lists about tents and drivers, food and what to bring are being constructed. Please make sure that your child knows exactly what you are planning with regard to coming down for part or all the camp, driving or needing transport, special food requirements and tents. I have been in touch with Barry Moore, our friend from the Aboriginal community at Wreck Bay, who is going to visit us while we are there even though he is now retired. Another person from the Aboriginal community there will take us for bush tucker walks and do a campfire chat. It should be a great week.
Before that, of course, we have Personal Projects due this Friday, Orientation Morning next Tuesday and then Global Day on Wednesday in our class. ( The children all have a written list of requirements for PPs and Global Day.)
The second Surf Skills day will be on Thursday 27th and I am hoping to find two drivers to help with this please who are both able to stay and help with supervision so that I can go to an appointment in the middle of the day. (Unfortunate timing, but unavoidable.) Then there is the Twilight Fair and we will be mass producing our now famous shortbread biscuits for the cake stall!
With all the exciting new enrolments, we have Selection Committees also running and so it is a very busy time for us all. It looks as if we will have a couple of new enrolments for our group next year, too, as well as the children coming to us from Olivia. So that will be fun!
Sport for the next few weeks will be a choice of either basketball or swimming and we will also be doing some Protective Behaviours and sex education before the end of term so be prepared for some questions or comments at home.
That’s all for today! Have a great week.
Love, Wendy
Posted November 18th, 2008
in Wendy's Class
by wendyp
Hi everyone. Information Morning today and we are almost completely moved out of our old room just in the nick of time.
Surf Skills last Friday was a good success and the children participated well and all developed their skillls and safety knowledge. Thank you to Mike for helping drive us there and to Myung Jin and Rachel for helping my group get back!!
This week is even busier!! Tomorrow our group has a visit to Synergy, the Lane Cove Council Youth Outreach Centre which is located under the swimming pool grandstand. The Youth Workers there run a program to introduce the kids to the services they offer… and they provide lunch for us, too. Then on Friday we are off to Kinma for the day. I would love help with driving there, too, please. Then there is the SOCIAL in the evening and it is going to be great fun with a band and dancing! The year 6 leavers are all going to say some words of farewell to the community… and we will be able to tell them how much we’ll miss them!!
Next week we will start camp preparations in detail so watch out for permission notes and requests for details about tents etc. The weekend reunion camp is going ahead with quite a number of ex-students expressing interest in going down. I am considering whether it might be possible for me to stay down for the weekend, too. Are there any current families planning to be there for the weekend?
Also next week, on Monday afternoon, we have a consultant from the AIS coming to discuss our programming in the Primary classes to ensure we are completely up to date with post-registration details. We would love some parent help to supervise children’s activities for the afternoon while we work with her. Please speak to me if you can help between 1pm and 3pm that day, Monday 17th November.
Personal Projects are due on Friday 21st and Global Day, which the kids voted for, will be on Wednesday 26th. I have given out a note about both of these. Our shortbread biscuits have been a great success, packaging and product!! I hope many more batches will be made for the Fair.
Speaking of the FAIR, our group is putting together a GOURMET HAMPER and we have two baskets to fill in our room. Please contribute something suitable and we can make them look really appealing! The silent auction always attracts a lot of interest.
That’s all for now!
Love, Wendy
Posted November 12th, 2008
in Wendy's Class
by wendyp
Hi everyone. we are almost completely moved into our new space and Olivia and I are comparing notes on the noise factor/s!! The kids have been terrific, moving loads of stuff and sorting things out in the beautiful new space and white cupboards! We hope to be soon enjoying a new sofa along with new desks and chairs!! A few details yet to be decided.
The excursion to Sculptures by the Sea was a success last Friday in spite of the heat and humidity. The surf at Tamarama was a highlight… and we’ll have more opportunity to explore the waves this Friday in the first of our Surf Skills programs at Long Reef. We still need at least one more driver for this day so please let me know asap if you can help. We’ll need to leave around 9:30am and will be back by about 2:30. Thank you to Ursula for coming with us to Bondi and for buying us a program.
Thank you to Julie for taking the group last Thursday morning when I was away. And many thanks to Susan for taking all the baby frogs back to their home pond last Friday. We have two more already and still some tadpoles daily growing!!
NO DIG ORGANIC GARDEN Thank you very, very much to Sally and Ursula for their efforts in the vegetable garden which has been producing enough lettuce, spinach and herbs for children to take home recently. Please bring in your grass cuttings if you can spare them and put them near the compost bins for the kids to add when turning the compost.
STALL FOR PIAS We were going to hold a stall this week to raise money for our sponsor child in Uganda but, with moving rooms, we have been a bit too busy to organise that… probably a good thing because there is going to be a cafe this Thursday afternoon and we wouldn’t want to compete with that. So watch for notices about a cake, biscuit and toy stall next week.
We have been working on time… analog, digital and 24 hour time… in Maths and concentrating on spelling and writing in English. Our group theme is in the Science and Technology area and we are working out a fair way to test and compare products. We will be studying electricity and also holding a Global Day in a week or so when we will dress up in clothes from a country of our choice and make a brief presentation about the country, including some music, cultural examples or food. This is something the group has voted to do…and will be quite separate from our Personal Projects which have a free choice of topic and due on 21st November.
Have a great week. Love, Wendy
Posted November 5th, 2008
in Wendy's Class
by wendyp
Today we are going to start the process of moving ourselves into the newly renovated room next door to Olivia. There will be a cross-over time when we’ll have stuff in two places, but if you have any time over the next few days, especially tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon and would like to help… loading the skip, sorting and moving books and equipment, shifting furniture etc… please let me know.
There should be a term calendar coming home with this Newsletter which details activities for this term, including the Jervis Bay camp. The Reunion Weekend Camp is open to past as well as present families. Let me know if you are interested in going to this. The site has been booked and a group of ex-students is getting organised.
We were all delighted to see Pascal back this week after his trip to Switzerland. Our second student teacher, James, has just two more days to do next week.
In class, we are doing some very important revision in Maths and writing some amazing stories in English at the moment. Our Theme for the term revolves around Science and Technology and we are currently investigating products and services and devising fair tests to compare different types of shortbread biscuits. We will also be creating a process for mass producing our own… so I think this will be useful for the Fair!
Swimming and basketball are both going well on Tuesday afternoons and we’ll be doing surf skills again next week on Friday… we’ll need drivers for that please. This Friday is our visit to Sculpture by the Sea and we’ll be going by bus. Children will need to bring hats, lunch, including a drink of water, and swimmers and towel for a swim at Tamarama … or raincoats and umbrellas if the weather is like today!… before we catch the bus back to school.
Have a great week. Love, Wendy
Posted October 29th, 2008
in Wendy's Class
by wendyp
Our excursion last week to Kimbriki was one of the best we have ever been on. The children and I learned so much and found Peter Rutherford such an inspiring person. The tip is a most exciting place and the Ecogarden is quite amazing. Peter’s Hang Drum was beautiful to listen to and we all enjoyed eating the native raspberries and the white mulberries and tasting all the different herbs. Thank you again to Lisa and Mike for driving us.
There are a number of other excursions planned for this term… all very exciting. Sculptures by the Sea, surf skills, Synergy, Kinma and of course, Jervis Bay. I hope we are not going to overload our very generous and precious drivers. I will print out a term plan and send it home for everyone.
Meanwhile, our trip to Tambourine Bay last week was a great success and the children have voted to investigate the possibility of holding next year’s school concert on the stage there. A concert picnic!Today we are hosting another Information Morning and on Friday we’ll have two visiting students from a small school called Tallowood in Queensland.
We are working on writing styles and continuing spelling in English and revising measurement and times tables in Maths. We have been doing some preliminary work on global connections and product origins and have yet to make decisions about our group topic and PPs for the term. A lot on!
The Year 6 leavers will have their “My Time at Currambena” pieces ready for the Newsletter each week now. It is sad thinking of saying goodbye to them in a few weeks time.
I hope you all have a good week. Love, Wendy
Posted October 22nd, 2008
in Wendy's Class
by wendyp
Chairpeople: Carragh and Lucie
1. MS Readathon by Wendy. Wendy received a phone call from the organisers of the MS Readathon who are hoping that anyone who still has money they have raised will send it in quickly.
2. 40 Hour Famine by Carragh. Our total raised in the 40 Hour Famine was $1500. Congratulations to everyone who helped to raise this fantastic amount and thanks to all the sponsors.
3. Concert by Fran. Fran asked everyone whether they would like her to continue investigating the idea of holding next year’s school concert at Tambourine Bay using the platform there for a stage. the meeting voted yes.
4. Clean-up by Wendy. Since we were not here on Thursday afternoon to do Sustaining Currambena, please could everyone do a special clean up around the school after this meeting.
5. Welcome back by Lucie. Welcome back to Term 4 and remember it’s the last term for the year so make the most of it!
Meeting adjourned. Preschoolers first. Clean-up!
Posted October 21st, 2008
in School Meeting
by wendyp
Hi everyone. It was great to see the children back at school looking rested and pleased to be here. We have started discussions about things to do this term and it will be a very busy one, as fourth terms usually are. There were a couple of suggestions that we make this one longer than its nine weeks… partly so we can fit more in and partly because there are a few children going on to High School who are very aware of the things they will miss about Currambena. You will be reading their “My Time at Currambena” pieces over the course of the term.
Our first excursion for the term is to Kimbiriki TODAY! It’s a great place and I’m sure you’ll hear all about it tonight.
Our main excursion is, of course, the camp at Jervis Bay from Monday, December 1st to Friday, 5th. The weekend days, 6th and 7th, have also been booked for the Reunion Camp and any families who wish to come down to this gorgeous site for the Friday and Saturday nights after the school camp ends should let me know please. Parents who would like to come with us for the school camp should also let me know soon. I have a few names already and I imagine there are others who will want to be there for the Leavers’ Ceremony which the kids usually organise on the Thursday night.
Sport this term starts next Tuesday and will involve a choice between basketball and swimming, with a commitment to whichever is chosen for four weeks. No extra cost but please help children remember swimmers etc or appropriate shoes etc.
And lastly, many thanks to the people who came in to tidy up the grounds over the weekend. Thanks to Alex for carefully transfering our new little frogs to their safe environment and thanks to Payman for changing the cushion covers for us. When the newly renovated rooms are completely finished we will ask for help to move us in! We’re looking forward to that!
Have a great term! Love, Wendy
Posted October 15th, 2008
in Wendy's Class
by wendyp