Dernancourt School R-7 Newsletter

On behalf of the staff at Dernancourt School R-7,  we would like to thank families for their support in what has been a challenging year for us all. Through the  changes that 2020 presented us with, we have admired the way our learners and their families have adapted and worked with us, embracing unpredictable situations and turning them into learning opportunities. 

Special thank you to the families that volunteered on committees and assisted with classroom support and extra-curricular activities. We have appreciated your efforts to remain connected to your child's learning and classroom. We are hopeful that 2021 will see us returning to more opportunities for  our parents and other volunteers to be involved.

We would like to thank our dedicated staff for the support they have offered our learners through 2020. They have remained committed to providing the best education they can to our students.  We are grateful for their passion towards school improvement. Our teachers begin their holidays from the end of the school day on Friday 11th December and they will be offline and unavailable to check emails or private messages until they return to work on 20th  January  2021. We hope they are able to re-energise over the break and spend time with their loved ones. 

Next year we have many plans to continue to improve our school grounds and facilities as well as continuing our school  improvement journey. We are excited about the introduction of laptops into our year 5-7 learning spaces and we look forward to the new opportunities,  innovation, creativity and inquiry that technology brings; adding a layer to our learning programs that will enable us to align our students digital skills more closely with other schools in our partnership and ensuring our students are well placed in their preparation for education in secondary settings.

Our Front Office will close from Friday 18th of December and re-open on Monday the 11th of January 2020. If you need to contact school during this time, please use our Skoolbag app, as this will be monitored intermittently by staff offsite.

Again, we thank you for your support, understanding and partnership. By continuing to work together we make Dernancourt School a great place to learn and belong. Enjoy the holidays, Merry Christmas. We look forward to seeing you back on Wednesday 27th January 2021.

We would like to thank parents for their  support in our class placement process. This task is undertaken over a number of meetings with whole staff, year level teams, levels of schooling, and specialist teaching teams at the centre of these decisions. We always focus on what is best for student learning and as we know that wellbeing plays a significant role in learning, these are both integral in our considerations. 

While we acknowledge that some of our students are anxious about changes,  we are confident that we have made the best decisions based on the information we have gathered from students, teachers service providers and parent letters/emails to leadership.  We are aware that after class visits and reading reports, some students and families have made requests to have these decisions changed. While it may appear that moving your child is only a minor change, this has a significant impact across our school and would mean unpacking all classes. You are able to provide feedback or further information about your child, however meeting these requests may not be possible. Any request based on teacher preference will still not be considered. We appreciate your support on this matter. 

Below is our 2021 class structure and teacher names. Unfortunately, in some classes we are still not able to confirm the teacher.  We know that this is also unsettling for some learners but we will advise you of any staff additions as soon as we are able to via our Skoolbag app or email. 

​On Friday 11th December we concluded our school year with our End of Year Celebration and Farewell Assembly.

At this assembly, we said goodbye to staff and students who are moving on from Dernancourt School R-7. All of these members of our school community were thanked for their positive contributions to our school and we wish them every success with the next part of their journey.  We look forward to hearing of your successes. 

We have a number of R-6 students moving to other schools to continue their learning journey. We acknowledged these students with a photo presentation at the End of Year Assembly. We thank these students and their families and hope that their time at Dernancourt has created many treasured friendships and memories.

We have a number of staff who we needed to say farewell to at our final assembly this year. Some are moving on to new schools and others are unsure of their direction for 2021 at this time. We would like to thank the following staff for their valuable contribution to our school and their commitment to student learning.  We know that they will continue to touch lives and have a positive influence on student learning wherever their next appointment is.

We did note at our assembly, we have been unable to renew some contracts at this stage. Many of our support roles are tied to funding which we don't have details of yet but we hope that we are able to contact some staff over the break to invite them back onto our staff team in 2021.

We hope your future is filled with exciting challenges and you reflect on your years at Dernancourt School with fond memories.

P12 - Isaac, Fatimah, Sky, Sarah, Jack, Devina, Dion, Kiarna, Ramsey, Tyler

P14 - Feroz, Connor, Larissa, Henry, Lachlan, Bradley, Erin, Ceridwen, Jack, Domenic, Digby, Clever, Ethan

P6 - Angas, Monique, Alex

During this term, a committee of Year 5 & 6 students have been working with the Leadership Team to design the commemorative tops for the 2021 Year 6 & 7 students. 2021 is a special year in that it will be the final year that Year 7s will graduate from Primary School and the first year for Year 6s. The students decided they would like a unique top for each year level but would like the designs to be similar and the names of all graduates on the back of the tops. 

We are proud to be able to give you a sneak preview of the tops. Orders need to be made ASAP so we can have them ready to begin the year. Well done to our committee for their hard work , consultation and ideas.

Casual Day donations for World Vision raised $354.60. Thank you to everyone for your generosity.

The uniform shop will be closed from 11/12/20-15/1/21. 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 28th January 1pm-4pm and Tuesday 19th 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   

Please book a time to visit the uniform shop using this link  https://www.schoolinterviews.com.au/code?code=epksh

Happy Holidays!