Dernancourt School R-7 Newsletter

It is hard to believe we are already at the end of another school year. It has certainly been a year of many successes and highlights including excursions, incursions and celebrations.

This year we have introduced a new program Read Write Inc. into our early years classes, as well having some extra maths classes during terms 1-3, these were goals on our Site Improvement Plan. Staff have reflected on how far we have come and how we can continue to improve, leadership are now tweaking our 2020 goals based on this information - we look forward to continuing to support and challenge learners to be the best they can be!  

According to the comments students have written in their reports,  the events they enjoyed the most were Matsuri Festival, Colour Run, Casual Days and the opening of the Japanese Garden and Crows Nest.

We have been able to capture some of this which will be published in our 2019 Year Book.

On Wednesday 11th December, your child will spend time with their 2020 class and teacher (if appointed) in their new classroom. We appreciate that while just the thought of this change might cause some concern; please know a lot of time effort, energy and care has gone into choosing the right place for your child to learn next year. Your positive attitude towards change will help to set your child up for success in 2020.

Over the last few weeks some of our classes have been packing up in preparation for 2020. As mentioned in last newsletter we will have an extra mainstream class next year, this means we will need to move a few things around in order to fit all classes in comfortably, and with the correct size furniture.

At our final assembly for 2019 on Friday 13th December at 9:15am in the gym,  we will celebrate our achievements and acknowledge the commitment of our students to our school values and learning. Values Awards will be presented to one student per class the and recipients of these awards appear later in the "Special Edition" newsletter. Our 2019 Volunteer Award will also be presented.

We will also farewell our leaving students including the year 7s and some staff that have been a part of our school community for a very long time.  I am sure you'll join me in wishing each of these members of our community all the very best as they move to the next part of their journey. We look forward to hearing and celebrating their ongoing success and happiness.

Last Tuesday we celebrated the end of 2019 with our annual End of Year Concert. The number of people attending this celebration confirms how highly valued it is by our community. The concert is one opportunity for our students to showcase their performing arts skills to our wider community,  I'm sure you would agree that the smiles on their faces throughout the concert demonstrated their passion for this curriculum area.

Thanks to our Concert Committee Miss Greenhalgh, Mrs Watkins, Sharyn  and  Kellie for organising the event, Sandra and Emma for preparing the backdrop.

I would also like to acknowledge the work of our Canteen Committee to ensure that the concert is a community event, working with Jane and her BBQ Crew to coordinate the sausage sizzle.

Special thanks to families for costume coordination and ensuring that your child was able to participate in an after school event, we acknowledge that this time of year is busy, but the attendance and audience was amazing! :)

A BIG thank you to all our volunteers.  Today we celebrated the  contribution volunteers make to the  learning environment at Dernancourt School R-7...this support  is  invaluable and we hope to see you all again next year.  To those who were able to come to the morning tea today we hope you enjoyed the treats from our staff and felt a little spoiled!  To those who were unable to attend we say ‘thank you’ again and hope that you will continue to volunteer next year!

The crossing monitors are:  

WEEK 9 (P10) Dion, Bradley, Reikaya [Emergency - Eliza]

The school uniform shop will be open on Friday 13th of December from 8:30- 10am. This will be the last day of trading this year. The uniform shop will be closed from 14/12/19-19/1/20.While the shop will be closed during the school holidays online ordering is still available 24/7 and orders will be filled before school returns.The Uniform shop will re-open Monday 20th January 12pm-4pm and Friday 24th January from 8am-12pm in preparation for week one and online orders will be available for collection in these times. Online orders can be placed via https://www.jssportsonline.com.au/collections/dernancourt-r-7-school    AfterPay available online only.

Happy Holidays!

The Governing Council would like to announce that the school fees for 2020 will remain at $250.00.  

After approving the 2020 Draft Budget at the final meeting for the year, our Governing Council celebrated their 2019 achievements with a dinner. Special thanks to Cathy Manser for creating a relaxing tropical atmosphere in the staffroom and catering the event.

The Governing Council AGM will be held early in Term 1 2020 to elect new members - details will be in newsletters.

The Year 4/5 school team was recently invited to a Carnival played on Park 25 that included all the schools from our North East PS district competition, the Kensington schools comp and those from the Western Suburbs. 18 teams played 3 games with a winner to be crowned.

 After comfortably winning our first 2 games against Marryatville and East Adelaide, we took on fellow undefeated Magill in what became the Grand Final of the Night. In a high standard match our team narrowly lost by 5 runs.

 We ended up ranking 4th from the 18 schools and Magill won first place. 

Congratulations to all the players for a tremendous effort.