Dear Parents and Caregivers
It is with a happy heart I am sharing good news from all fronts!
At the beginning of each year, we have the pleasure of electing House Captains. This year, we expanded the scope of these roles to School Leaders which includes not only the House Captain role but other leadership responsibilities and opportunities within the school. The search was on for 2 students from each House who have demonstrated leadership capabilities, made a contribution to the school and who value themselves and their learning. I am pleased to say there were a number of courageous students who submitted an application and presented a speech to their peers. The speeches were of high quality and were individualised. In Decimus, the students were asked to finish with one word they thought was vital in the role of School Leader. This, they were able to do without hesitation which is a good sign of a thought application!
This year's School Leaders are:
Decimus - Oliver Young & Gabrielle Oosterbaan
Paxlease - Ella Barton & Ascha Cochrane
Hardy - Bobby Duong & Amelie Dewar
Wyatt - Roos Verjans & Ava Kahsay
On Tuesday, I received a phone call from the Department's media department; this is highly unusual! During the call, I learned that Matthew Summerton has been nominated as one of Australia's Best Teachers' - in a campaign being run by NewsCorp/The Advertiser. The nomination was made by one of our families and is certainly well-deserved recognition. The nomination contained the following description:
Matthew Summerton, Crafers Primary School, SA
Matthew’s approach to teaching, especially STEM, provides students with real world applications of the subject information. His enthusiasm for teaching and learning is embraced by the students. Our school is lucky to have such an amazing teacher. My eldest daughter struggled with maths and science but a year with Matthew has led to her going on to year 12 Maths and physics and eyeing an engineering degree. My youngest daughter is with Matthew this year.
In writing a description of Matthew, I couldn't have said it better myself; his ability to connect learning with the real-world is second to none. Congratulations Matthew!
Finally, I have some staffing news to share with you. Mr Nick Kerley has taken 12 months of leave. Nick is part way through his studies to be a Chiropractor and is taking this year to complete further study. Nick is a valuable member of our staff who has looked after needs too numerous to mention as well as worked with groups of children to care for our school. We wish Nick all the very best, we hope he studies conscientiously and returns to us if his commitments permit it. We have a very suitable person in process for this role and will make an announcement once this has been confirmed through the Department's Human Resources.
Kind regards
Chan
