18th October, 2013

Vol. 2, Issue 27

Music Therapy and

Physiotherapy

Dates for your Diary

Birthdays

Principal’s Message

News from the Classrooms

Attachments

Sir Eric Woodward

School Newsletter

Cnr Ayres and Acron Roads, St Ives NSW 2075

Telephone 9449 6003 Fax 9983 9334

Email: sirericwoo-s.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Website: www.sirericwoodwardschool.com.au

Sir Eric Woodward School provides vast resources and quality educational opportunities for all our students. Complementing the curriculum other services are offered to support the optimal outcomes. With the assistance of community support, through both our P&C and SEWS Association the expertise of both a music therapist and a physiotherapist are provided to support the students and staff throughout the year. Joanne McIntyre – Music Therapist and Clare MacFarlane – Physiotherapist are both integral members of staff and work collaboratively across the school to give greater access to education which benefits of all our students. Providing expertise in these two important areas to support our students’ programs gives opportunities to enhance quality teaching and learning. Both Clare and Joanne are invaluable assets to our team. We thank our community for allowing such programs to be possible at SEWS and we look forward to their continuation in 2014.

Music Therapy and Physiotherapy Joanne conducts music lessons weekly with each face-to-face class and provides a variety of therapeutic and practical music learning experiences for our students. She also works with our teachers in DESU designing small video instructional music lessons for our students enrolled in the distance programs. This year the students have been introduced to the Ukulele and other percussion instruments. Joanne also supports us with our whole school events where she works with teachers on performance items that allow our students’ musical knowledge and talents to shine. Clare works collaboratively with teachers designing and assisting in the implementation of physiotherapy programs for walking, strength, endurance, standing, positioning and balance. She works on fundamental movement skills with our students in the ASU and supports the teachers in DESU after assessing video footage of DESU students to support physical education and physiotherapy programs. Clare also collaborates frequently with parents/carers, doctors and other outside agencies for a consistent approach to all programs. Her expertise is drawn on as she works closely with class groups and individual students on site once a week.

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Dates for your Diary

Parent Networking Meeting and Luncheon- Monday 11th November 2013

Incursion Bush Christmas – Tuesday 12th November 2013

International Day for People with a Disability – Tuesday 3rd December 2013

SEWS Annual Presentation Day- Friday 6th December 2013

School Term 4 Concludes – Wednesday 18th December 2013

Birthdays

Happy Birthday to one of our newest face to face students Stephanie who celebrated her 16th Birthday. A very happy birthday to Jessica in DESU who turned 15 years of age. One of our wonderful staff members also celebrated her birthday this fortnight and, many happy returns Barbara.

Principal’s Message

Welcome back to term 4. We are already in week 2 and what an exciting term it is going to be. Staff and students are working towards a few wonderful performances. DESU students are being visited by their teachers. All students will continue their hard work on their themed units of work and their individual goals. This term we all look forward to welcoming you to SEWS on Friday 6th December for our Annual Presentation Day – A day of celebration and recognition of achievement! Please be sure to mark this day in your diaries. It gives me great pleasure to welcome Sarah Pawley to our team who is currently the new teacher on face to face K-2 class. We are looking forward to Susan Warnes starting next week who will be the new Assistant Principal SEWS DESU. Both staff will be highlighted in next fortnight’s newsletter for our wider school community.

Jo-Anne Gardiner Principal

News from the Classroom Deborah’s Class

It was great to hear that my students and families had a well-earned break in the school holidays! Four students in my class celebrate their birthdays at the end of Term 3 and early in Term 4. Jarrod (Year 12) turned 18 on the 20th of July, and Tristan (Year 11) turned 17 on the 20th of September. Happy birthday to those students! Amy (Year 9) will soon celebrate her 15th birthday on the 27th of October, and Stephen (Year 12) will turn 19 on the 14th of November. Enjoy your last term for the year! Deborah

Jarrod’s 18th

Birthday

Tristen’s 17th

Birthday

Matt’s Class

It is great to be back for term 4. All of the students in my class have been straight back to work and putting in 100%. Josh has been doing spectacular work learning money counting skills and multiple digit addition in mathematics. I’ve had the opportunity to see some of Kayla’s excellent artworks which she created using a range of mediums. It was also great to see Tyson’s super name board he created with some pictures of his favourite things. Tommy has increased the number of questions that he answers when asked by his family members as well as reading more and more books each week. Matt

Kayla’s lovely artworks

Tyson’s awesome name board

Logan creating a fossil

Logan discovering his fossil

Nicole’s Class It was great to hear my students and their families had a safe and happy holiday. My students are now all back working well on their Set work. Katana has been very creative using an app on a DESU iPad to create some wonderful artworks. She used her fingers to dot and swirl colours around the iPad screen, resulting in some amazing pictures. Happy Birthday also to Jessica who turns 15 on the 21st of October. Nicole

Two of Katana’s amazing and colourful artworks she

created on the iPad

Sharon’s Class This week it was exciting to receive Logan’s last Set for Term 3. Enclosed was a USB with many fabulous photos of Logan engaged in his school work. In Science Logan learnt more about fossils, and he continued his learning by discovering and creating his own fossil model. In Creative Art he learnt about sound and produced his own music. Logan you look so happy and proud of yourself. Well done!

Sharon

Logan and his chime box

Logan creating music from the wind chimes

Logan playing his pan flute

Class 1P

What a busy start to an exciting term! This term 1P are learning about

celebrations! We have been looking at occasions that we celebrate like birthdays and festivals that are celebrated by other cultures and countries. 1P has been reading a story about celebrating and role playing some of the ways that we celebrate. We had fun singing and playing instruments in class and Music Therapy and we have made some funny balloon characters. We like watching balloons being blown up, feeling the air come out onto our faces and hearing the squeaky noises a balloon can make. Sarah & David

Telecaster likes to play the guitar in Music Therapy

Yash is celebrating by banging on the drum - just like the one in our story

Class 2L Welcome back to our students as we begin term 4. Can you believe it? Our HSIE topic of study for this term is entitled “Sydney Harbour”. The hot weather we have

been experiencing gave the class opportunity to

go outside and explore some of the sensory aspects of the Harbour. A raised trough was filled with water and features, such as sandstone rocks, toy boats, and models of the opera house and Harbour Bridge, were added. The students loved splashing in the water and manipulating the other objects placed around our model Harbour. A diorama of Sydney Harbour was also created in class and Lucy was particularly responsive as she touched the tactile features added. This week the class has been learning about the Opera House. The students were enthralled as they listened to the operatic tones of Kathryn Jenkins and Andrea Bocelli. Julie, Christine & Chris

Brooke prints the tile texture on the Opera House template

Emily conducts as she listens to opera music and Nathan listens enthralled

Lucy admires her Opera House painting

English In English our unit on Poetry will allow students to engage with high quality children’s literature. Students were glued to their seats during a dark recital of ‘Hist’ by C.J.Dennis.

Hist…..Hark! The night is very dark,

And we’ve to go a mile or so Across the possum park.

Science Our unit of work this term is Earthquake Explorers. This unit will allow students to develop an understanding of the causes of earthquakes and how they change the Earth’s surface. The students have already represented what they think they know about the causes and effects of earthquakes by creating a storyboard. We have also examined the effects of the 1989 Earthquake that hit the city of Newcastle and read the factual information about the measurement of the earthquake. We have learnt the meaning of both magnitude and intensity and added these words to our science journal. If you get a chance, ask us what they mean

Matt’s storyboard about what he thinks he already knows about earthquakes

Jai’s storyboard about what he thinks he already knows about earthquakes

Lucy explores a model of Sydney Harbour

Nathan, Emily and Brooke experiencing a reproduction of Sydney Harbour

Class 4B Welcome back to Term 4! What wonderful holiday stories the students have shared with each other! Each student over the holidays kept a journal to write, draw or paste a photo or remnant in each day. This was useful in re-telling events of the holiday period to their class mates. This term our class welcomed Matias (Mati) who joins our class as a Year 5 student. Everyone has been helpful in showing Mati the ‘ropes’ and in getting to know him and the many things that he is interested in.

New student Matias

Daily iPad App This fortnight we have examined Star Composer. This app allows students to create their own songs using a variety of instruments, rhythms and the ability to record their own voice as backing vocals.

StarComposer – App of the week

Donna & Anita

Barbara’s Class

Jayden has been working on following and

completing patterns in Maths recently. He very successfully matched coloured shapes to outlines to create beautiful designs and finished off some two-part repeating patterns using counters.

Also in Maths, Jayden has mastered reading o’clock times on an analog clock and is now learning to read the digital time. He is working on grasping the concept of ‘half’ so that soon he will be able to start tackling half-past times.

Alex has once again been involved in the worthy and very challenging task of raising funds for the Cancer Council by taking part in his local Relay for Life. In his words “My goal: $300. I go round the track with baton, the baton have to stay on track 12.00am to 9.00am (the next day!)” The event was last weekend, so no photos yet but I hope to have some for the next newsletter.

In Food Technology Alex has now investigated how to buy, store and cook chicken and beef. He is currently exploring the culinary possibilities of seafood. I can’t wait to see which of the delicious recipes on the Coles website he chooses to cook this time! Alex now has regular nights where he cooks with minimal support for his whole family as he works on building his repertoire of reliable, tasty meals. This is even more difficult than it

sounds, as Alex has to please the palates of a family that includes a broad age range, tastes and needs.

Barbara

Jayden making patterns with shapes

Jayden finishing a repeating pattern

Jayden matching clock times by drawing lines by

himself

Relay for Life logo

Amanda’s Class May has been very busy both in and out of school. She loves learning to count by playing number board games and using counting apps on her iPad. She can now count to 10 in Auslan and represent all the numbers with objects. Well done, May!

May has done some lovely art work recently, including a painting which is going into the Richard Kidziak Art Competition later in the term. She made a flower using handprints which she loved and carried round all day. May has been out and about in her local community looking at living things for Science. She also had the chance to go to SeaWorld recently, where she got to see dolphins and other sea creatures close up. That must have been very exciting, May.

Amanda

May visiting Sea world

May with her handprint flower

Jo’s Class

I was very pleased to hear that Robert has had a fabulous start to term 4 after being unwell at the end of term 3. His tutor reports he is working hard on his Maths lessons, especially in the area of time where he is developing his knowledge of hour and half hour time and becoming a ‘champion time reader’! Robert is also using his DER laptop to complete lessons made with the Smart Notebook Software. He is finding the activities very engaging and is enjoying the interactive features of these lessons. Well done Robert, it was fantastic to get such positive feedback and I’m looking forward to the amazing work you will achieve over the rest of the term.

Jo

Robert’s time work

Louise’s Class

Welcome back to my students, tutors and carers to another term at Sir Eric Woodward School - DESU. Term 4 will be very busy as we acknowledge and celebrate our students’ achievements in Yearly Reports and during Presentation Day celebrations.

In this newsletter I would like to share some photos of Kaylah, her mum (her tutor) and her dad on their recent Starlight Foundation family holiday on Hamilton Island. Kaylah, her parents and brothers enjoyed a very stimulating holiday that the whole family will remember for years to come. Kaylah was very well during the trip enabling her to participate in most holiday

Kaylah shows her appreciation to Steph for a great holiday

Class 5H

We have a new student, Stephanie, who has joined our class and has already settled into the class routine, doing some great work.

This term we will review all our work from this year, bringing it altogether by learning about some of the special cultural events that are celebrated around the world. We are learning about the ways people celebrate, particularly when they use fireworks. We have begun with the Vietnamese New Year’s Eve and in Art have made some dainty flowers typical of this cultural event.

In Science we explored the concept of thrust and made balloon rockets (fireworks) which whizzed right across the classroom. The students were very engaged with this experiment watching to see how far the ‘rockets’ would travel.

Sandy & Jennie

Georgia pressing the switch to cut the red flowers for

our display

activities. When she couldn’t get around in her wheelchair Kaylah could be seen tootling about in one of the island golf buggies. Kaylah was able to share lots of quality time with her mother while ‘the boys’ honed their (considerable) golf skills. It is great to hear and see that Kaylah was able to achieve so many educational goals across Key Learning Areas during her time in Queensland.

Louise S

Kaylah and Terry enjoy the underwater experience (without getting wet)

Kaylah out on the reef

Megan holding the petal she cut for our Vietnamese

New Year's Eve display

Rifa watching the balloon rocket

Stephanie enjoying the sound of the squeaking balloon rocket

Stephanie using her chin to switch to say”Hi”

Class 3B This fortnight in review –

3B has ‘hit the ground running!’

We welcome new student Runa Nozawa to 3B. Runa loves singing, dancing and being outdoors.

In Music Therapy we have begun rehearsals for our performance of ‘What did the fox say?’ for International Day of Disability and in preparation for Presentation Day – it’s not that far way!

Last week students from 3B and one student from 4B went on the first of our weekly Friday sports excursions to St Ives Park PS.

We set off on foot; a little worried it might rain but were not disappointed as the sun shone the whole time. We all had fun and met some new friends as we began working on Aussie Tag fundamentals.

In HSIE, 3B and 4B started studying Antarctica by watching some short video clips and answering a quiz to check what we already know about Antarctica. Our students are already quite knowledgeable and very keen to learn as much as possible.

In PDHPE our fundamental movement focus is the ‘throw’. It is amazing to see the Students’ progress already with this basic and useful skill.

In English, we are focusing on Review writing using a favourite book.

In Maths we have touched on Measurement using scales, made a square metre from newspapers to make estimates of the area of objects in our room and much more.

We are looking forward to a busy and fun-filled Term 4.

Sue & Paula

Students Dylan, Jai, Sam, Max, Runa and Mati enjoying Friday sport at St Ives Park PS

Class 6R

6R has started their community access program. Each week we will be going on an outing to learn more about our community and to interact with people.

This week we started locally at St Ives Shopping Centre. We bought the ingredients we needed for our Food Technology lesson and had a look around. We were lucky enough to get to meet a dog and a guinea pig at the pet shop and stopped for a drink near the Food Court.

We are looking forward to trips in the future to bowling and the Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour.

We have also been very busy finishing off our art works for the Richard Kidziak Art Prize. All of our art works are unique and are made from different media. We hope they all win!

Nicci & MaryAnn

Daniel at the pet shop

HI Five for Community Access!

Kowie and the Guinea Pig

Daniel and Nicci complete shopping while on Community Access

Lorrin and her mum Sue out and about during 6R’s Community Access

SAVE THE DATE!

SEWS will open our doors to celebrate

Annual Presentation Day On

Friday 6th December, 2013 Our Families and Friends will be invited to join us at

75 Ayres Road, St Ives For

Recognising the achievements of all our students Student and Guest Performances

A Luncheon Your invitation will arrive soon and we look forward

to seeing you!

FRIDAY 6th December