16 August 2019

Newsletter Articles

A/Principal’s Report

Parents and Carers

Congratulations Carolyn Edwards on her new appointment as Principal of Zuccoli. Last week, we held a short goodbye assembly with students, a whole staff lunch and finished Carolyn’s last day as Principal of Henbury School with a guard of honour by staff and students. We will have a more formal goodbye at our end of term assembly, (26 September) where we can share Carolyn’s achievements during her 10 years as Principal. I will be stepping into the role of Principal for the remainder of Semester 2, 2019. The position will be advertised in Term 4 for the successful person to begin at the start of the 2020 school year.

David (Dave) Panjer will backfill the Assistant Principal role. Dave is coming to us from Nemarluk. He has extensive experience as both a classroom teacher and in leadership roles in Special Education. Dave will bring with him a wealth of knowledge and experience to our context. Dave will start on Monday 19 August.

Our Business Manager, Leanne Shearer is on leave until the end of the year. Tegan Rees will backfill Leanne until the end of the year. Anna Johnson has also joined our front office team, welcome Anna.

We said goodbye to Debra from Blue 2 and Lucy and Michelle from Green 1 at the end of Term 2. This week Regina leaves us from CSC outreach. We wish them well in their new endeavours. This Term, we have welcomed Mel Ehrlich and Andy Rolfe to Green 1, Nicole Simpson (2 days a week while Alysha is on study leave) and Georgie Newton to Blue 1, Samantha Brannelly to Blue 2 and Thu Nguyen to CSC.

Learning Commission

On Tuesday, the NT Learning Commission (NTLC) students presented at the Michael Long Centre to all the schools involved in NTLC. Chief Executive, Vicki Baylis was there to see Henbury School’s presentation and was very impressed. Part of their presentation was talking about how the Henbury Learning Commission students will teach sign language to other schools across the NT and interstate, when they attend Kids Teaching Kids in Melbourne. Emily gave Vicki a one on one sign lesson which was very impressive! Well done to staff Joan Ocampo and Maddi Ingham who do an amazing job leading our NTLC students to have a voice across a variety of platforms.

Perception Survey

The perception survey is now live. Students, parents and teachers will be able to fill this out over the coming weeks, closing August 30. An iPad will be at the front office and on gate duty to encourage as many responses as we can from parents. The link for parents is below and an email will also be sent out with the link. Please contact us if you are having any difficulty accessing the link below.

Whole School Staff Professional Development Days

During Term 3 start-up day, staff discussed and gave feedback on the School Review domains. This information plus, the perception survey, and a review of the 2019 strategic goals will inform the writing of the 2020 Annual School Improvement Plan. A School Review will occur in Semester 2, 2020 which will inform the writing of Henbury Schools three year plan.

Pupil Free Day

On 6 September, Henbury School will have a pupil free day for all students. This day will allow all staff to be trained in or have their qualification updated in MAPA®. With a focus on prevention, MAPA® (Management of Actual or Potential Aggression) programme teaches management and intervention techniques to support staff with escalating behaviour in a professional and safe manner.

SR@H will be available for parents who require it.

School Camp

School camp is coming up in Week 6, 28th-30th August. For those students not attending, there will be a range of fun activities for them to participate in on campus. Thank you to Paul Drewitt and his team who are leading all the organisation and logistics of the camp.

If your child is attending camp please make sure that medication forms and medication is given to the school.

Science Day

Thank you Joan Ocampo for leading another amazing day of fun and learning with our annual Science Day. This year’s theme was, “Destination Moon: More Missions, More Science.” The student’s discovered and investigated not only past space programs and missions to the Moon, but also the new and innovative space programs, operations and missions of today and those planned for the future.

Each class was involved in creating a class banner associated with the theme to present at the opening assembly. The array, thought and creativity that went into the banners was truly amazing. Well done to all classes involved!

School Sport NT Athletics

Good luck this weekend to all our students participating in the NT Athletics Championships. We have 11 students competing in over 20 events. Thank you to Rowan Barrow for organising our students to attend this event. Thank you Rowan, Nim, Amanda and Callum who will be supporting our students over the weekend.

I look forward to continuing to lead the school for the remainder of this year.

SarahCorry
A/Principal

HENBURY SCHOOL COUNCIL

Thanks

The Henbury School Council would like to sincerely thank Carolyn Edwards for her ten years of service at Henbury School as the Principal. Throughout that time she has overseen enormous change, with the planning, build and move in to our new current school premises. She has also seen the development of a dynamic staff that have the best interest of our students at heart. Carolyn has received numerous personal awards and overseen many awards for our school for the education of our students.

Good luck for her new venture at Zuccoli and we wish her all the best with her new school, teachers and students.

Henbury School Council

HENBURY VACCINATION PROGRAM

Vaccinations will be happening in September for year 7, 9 and 10 students. If you have any queries about the school based vaccination program, please contact Janine Kelsey, our Health Promoting School Nurse on 89977077.

Check the upcoming dates below for vaccination dates.

For more information click on the link below.

PURPLE 2

There have been a number of highlights so far this year. Some include completing our class art project, spending time with ‘Harlow’ the therapy dog and participating in Total Recreation and various Skill Sets.

Purple 2 Art Project

Purple 2 re-created the story ‘Where is the green sheep’ by Mem Fox. We used a range of mediums and materials to create different characters from the pages of the story. Some mediums included paints, watercolours, cotton balls, cardboard, wool, chalk, charcoal, pencils, crayons, glitter, paper, newspaper, magazines and sand. We painted backdrops to be used in the final piece. Then we used a camera to take multiple photos of our artworks to make moving photo stories of each page. Voice recorders were then used to record students reading the story or making sounds using different items. Here are some of the photos of our artwork.

‘Harlow’ the Therapy Dog

Once a week Purple 2 have been very lucky to spend time with Harlow. We have seen Harlow do a lot of cool tricks. We enjoy having Harlow come to visit. She is so soft and calming. These visits are a perfect end to every Monday!

Total Recreation

It has been wonderful to see most of Purple 2 class participate in the Total Recreation program. The sports we have enjoyed the most so far this year have been softball and soccer. Cruz really enjoyed learning how to dribble a soccer ball. This Term we are learning skills in cricket. So far we have been working on throwing the ball at the wickets, underarm catching and batting.

Skill Sets

Last Semester Purple 2 students were spread across four different programs including Hairdressing, Woodwork, Sensational Designs and Recycling. This Semester we have students in Horticulture and Recycling. Danny has continued in the Recycling program this Semester and has shown some fantastic growth in his participation. Well done Danny!

New programs that Purple 2 are looking forward to this Semester include the Henbury School camp, swimming, Zumba classes, bucket drumming, Riding for the Disabled (RDA), Science with Joan and The Arts with Vince.

Thank you from Purple 2.

PURPLE 4

Spacecraft

As a part of science week, all classes were invited to create their own spacecraft. Classes were encouraged to build their spacecraft’s in a sustainable way by using recycled materials. It was great to see the enthusiasm that all P4 students maintained throughout the design, research and construction of our spacecraft. Once the spacecraft was finished our students reflected on what skills they had used/developed through the whole process. Here is the list that they brainstormed -

Skills used for rocket making:

• Fine motor – Cutting, sticking and painting
• Creative skills
• Measuring – special awareness
• Planning skills – research, computer skills
• Team work – we worked together
• Collaborative ideas
• Brainstorming
• Recycled and reused
• Lots of problem solving
• We used the Henbury values

PURPLE 5

Wow, it’s Term 3 already! Purple 5 had a good holiday and we are happy to be back at school.

We continue our regular life skills programs including menu planning, shopping, budgeting and cooking. This term we are excited to begin Science lessons in the Science room with Joan Ocampo.

We have been hard at work in the past 2 weeks building a rocket for the annual Henbury School Science Fair competition.

We enjoy getting active with Total Rec sports on Wednesday and Rising Stars basketball on Fridays.

On Wednesdays we enjoy a visit from Louie, the therapy dog and his owner Andrea. He always barks a welcome when he enters the classroom. He loves to play fetch outside on the grass with his favourite toys.

Our class continues to make healthy dog biscuits to sell from the front office and the café on Fridays. Thanks you for supporting our class business!

Enjoy the rest of the term!

Julie, Shelley, Simaki, Anastasious, Farhat, Lachlan, Callum and Jekamiah.

DARWIN HIGH OUTREACH

The AFL recently announced that Aaron Knight-Nilsson of the Darwin High Outreach class was selected in the AFL Inclusion All-Australian squad. Players were selected based on the demonstration of the AFL’s values, that being Play to Win, Play Fair, Play with Passion and Play as One Team.

Aaron recently went to Sydney to play in the 2019 AFL National Inclusion Carnival. “Aaron KN was a stalwart in defence for the Territory and earned his spot in the Australian team off the back of only his first outing for the NT Inclusion side.” Nick Eades, the Head Coach, said it was great to have Aaron and three other NT students recognized for their consistent performances. Two of the other students were from Henbury. NT Captain Byron M has earnt his third straight call up to the All Australian squad after his defending skills rallied the troops in the carnival. Joining him for the second year in a row was Travis BA who had kicked the most goals for Thunder this carnival, including a four-goal haul against Vic Metro in Round 1.

For the first time, the All-Australian squad will travel to Brisbane to take part in an exhibition match at the 2019 INAS Global Games in October. We wish Aaron and his teammates all the best.

Aaron (left) and a teammate holding the trophy

STAFF PROFILE – SAM BRANNELLY

My name is Sam Brannelly and I am thoroughly enjoying my first semester here at Henbury School!

I’m a born and bred Territory girl and commenced my career in education 17 years ago. For the past three years I have lived in Katherine where I was Assistant Principal Katherine High School. I’ve been in school leadership positions for the last 8 years but am enjoying being back in the classroom. I’m passionate about schools offering quality learning opportunities for students and believe strong relationships with parents and students is essential to school education.

On a personal note I have four children and one grandchild and I enjoy getting out and about and experiencing the Northern Territory, it never gets old

STAFF PROFILE – MEL EHRLICH

Hi. I am originally from Western and Mid North Coast N.S.W.

I’ve lived and worked in the NT for 30 years. 20 Years Mainstream Schools and 10 years in Special Education.

I have taught in Tennant Creek, Jabiru, Katherine and various schools in Palmerston.

I have a son, who is living in Perth.

Outside of school I like fostering dogs, reading, going to the Cinema and travelling.

I have only started at Henbury School this Term and I am enjoying building relationships with students, both in and out of my class, parents as well as the helpful and supportive staff.

STAFF PROFILE – ANDY ROLFE

Hello All

My name is Andy (short for Andrea) Rolfe and I originally came to Darwin on a prawn trawler in 1983, and continued working on boats for the following 8 years, even after I became a mum. Once the kids had to go to school we settled into a house in Rapid Creek where I still live. My ‘kids’ are now in their 30’s and I became a nanna six years ago.

I have been working in schools since 1992 and in 1998 I started working at Henbury School. I went out to Palmerston High School in 2000 to work in the Henbury “annexe’, watched the building of the new Special Education Centre, and continued working there for 19 years. I have come full circle now, returning to a vastly improved, beautiful new Henbury School. I love being close enough to work to ride my bike every day.

I enjoy travelling and hiking during the holidays and I spend most of my weekends gardening. I also practice yoga in an effort to keep myself healthy and centred.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Happy birthday to the following students who celebrate their birthday in August!

Moise – 1st
Simaki – 3rd
Leeam – 8th
Enrique – 17th
George – 20th
John K – 24th
Carter – 28th
Kyle – 28th
Azaria – 28th
Hayley – 28th
Mary – 28th
Banjo – 29th

UPCOMING EVENTS

COMMUNITY NOTICES