12 December 2024

Principal’s Report

Today is the last day of the year for students.

The office will be open in the morning tomorrow but then will be closed until next year. 

Thank you

There are not enough words to fully express my gratitude to the whole Spearwood Community.  Staff, students, families, and all the committees and groups that work together to make this such a special place.  Although I have only been back for six months it feels like a long year.  The community never skipped a beat in making sure our students have every opportunity to learn and thrive.

Thank you to the Chairperson, Chae Byrne, and the School Board Parent Members:

Jodie Bridges, Crystal Pierce, Sarah Hayward and Sonia Nelson.  This is two meetings a term commitment plus quite a bit of reading before meetings.  Everyone who goes on the board is at first surprised at how much work goes on to run a school and find this interesting.  We thank Jodie Bridges, whose term ends as a Parent Member. Her daughter heads to Highschool in 2025.  Thank you for so many years of hard work and service to the Spearwood Primary School community.

Thank you to the Parents and Citizens Committee (P & C) for everything they do and provide.  Thank you to Sonia Nelson the P & C President for leading with the high care values.  Thank you to Dianne Hunter, Vice President, and Sarah Hayward, Secretary.  Thank you to Jodie Bridges and Rachel Kemp working on the shared Treasurer role. Thanks to the executive members and frequent helpers: Sandra Demirovic, Rachel Kemp, Fleur Venables and Katherine Wood.

The fundraising team has a service to the families of Spearwood Primary School priority, like the canteen the P & C volunteers run each week. The work of the volunteers means that the P & C is then able to support children and families in so many other ways.  The Disco last Friday was fantastic and made possible by hours of work in and out of school.  The Canteen is a great service to the school community.  The Uniform Shop is a lot of work and saves costs to families.  Fundraising at Bunnings and Elections is so many hours of hard work earning money for the school. 

Thank you to Renee Smith who runs the Book Club.  This is a big job, and we appreciate the work you do.  Reading is so important, and your work adds to the reading skills plus the love of reading for our students.

Thank you to the volunteers and staff who make Breakfast Club run each Wednesday.  This helps families with food and sets children up for success in the day.  It is also a nice space and quality time to chat.  This has been created by the kindness and work of our volunteers.

We held a Thank You Morning Tea last week.  Many of the people to whom our school owes so much came along.  Many who deserve our gratitude couldn’t make it. I apologise if there are people who may not have been invited or whom I have forgotten to list here who add to our school community. Thank you all!

Ending 2024 and Planning 2025

As we end the year, I want to thank my staff.  Office staff and classroom staff have worked so hard to keep the school running as smoothly as possible while keeping the focus on High Care and High Expectations for our students.  I have been back for six months, and it has been a bumpy road with many challenges, but the joy of my job and your children never gets lost in the hard work for me.  Thank you, families and students.

We have two teachers who have worked in fixed term roles moving on to new jobs in other schools. We would love to keep them both as they are great teachers and staff members. 

Thank you and Congratulations to Miss Phoebe Cumper who has taught the Year 2/3 class all year and done a fantastic job here.  I was able to write glowing references, and she had been offered a couple of jobs and earned a permanent position at Coolbellup Community School.

Thank you and Congratuatlions to Mrs Alice Kell who has worked second semester with us in Kindergarten part time and then Year 1/2 Full time.  She also has earned a position at another school.

Thank you to Education Assistant Mr Mason McShane who moved from a relief Education Assistant onto a contract this term.  Mason will remain a relief Education Assistant for us so we will likely be seeing him in 2025.  He has done a great job, and we appreciated his hard work.

I would like to welcome back to our teaching staff Ms Toni Lang.  She worked here some years ago before moving to Dunsborough.  When I knew she would be returning to Perth I was so hopeful we could entice her back.  Toni returns even more qualified and capable than when she left.  We are so lucky she has chosen to return rather than take the other jobs she was offered.

I would like to welcome for the first time Mrs Lorraine Van Der Waarden.  She has earned the fixed term position of Manager of Corporate Services for at least the first six months of 2025.  There is likely to be extensions for this position. 

We still have some Education Assistant positions being filled and I will advise next year of any other staff.

Farewell Year Six and others

To our departing student’s,

Good luck.  We wish you all the best.  I hope that Spearwood has given you some core memories that shine positive for you to carry into your future.

To all,
Have a lovely summer break.  Please always be safe and have fun.
We look forward to seeing most of you back for 2025.

In 2025

The Spearwood Primary School office will be open from Thursday 30^th January, 2025.

The Uniform Shop will be open on Monday 3^rd February from 10am – 1pm.

Students recommence for 2025 on Wednesday 5^th February 2025.

Marta Rotondella
Principal

Year 6 Graduation

Congratulations to the following Year 6 students on their awards.

Class Book Awards

Congratulations to the following students on their Class Book Awards.

2025 School Captains & Prefects

Students in Years three to six voted for the School Captains and Prefects. Congratulations to this year’s Student Leaders who were announced at the End of Year Concert and presented with their badges.

The School Captains are Declan and Chloe and the Prefects are Riley, Isabella, Meghna, Ananya and Brock. Congratulations!

Upcoming Events

The Birth of the Spearwood Rainbow Serpent

At the beginning of 2024, Our Cultural committee was looking for ideas for our school and Ms Julie and I thought it would be a great idea for the whole school to get involved with the creation of a huge Rainbow Serpent on the boring wall near the office door.    

We used the colours of the Seasons that are around the school as our inspiration and our amazing Serpent started to take shape.  Every student from Kindy to Year 6 had the opportunity to work on the artwork.  While we painted, we explored the cultural significance of the Serpent and the different painting techniques of our First Nation People. 

It took a while to get the Serpent installed on the wall, and then we added three circles to fill in the gaps.  The three circles are designed around the hand of Ms Rotondella, Miss Sudholz and Mrs Dowding, using the same colour set as the Serpent and includes a different range of lines and patterns inspired by our cultural history. 

The huge art installation not only enhanced the boring brick wall but gave us the opportunity to create lasting memories around our school, that reflect on our national history.  

Terri Dowding
Art & Science Teacher

P & C News

It’s been a massive year from a P & C perspective. We thank you for your continued support with our various fundraising efforts. Here are some of our highlights for 2024:

March – Easter Hat Parade Raffle
May - Mother’s Day Stall
August - Father’s Day Stall & Family Day Lunch 
September - Sports Carnival Sausage Sizzle, Bake Sale & Raffle
October – Bunnings Sausage Sizzle
December –Disco & Domino’s Night, Christmas Concert Raffle

Along with all these, the community continues to be a huge supporter of our Friday canteen day and we are now making over 80 orders for recess and lunch per week. We look forward to 2025 to continue providing this service each Friday.

Congratulations to the winners of the Graduation/Concert Raffle. We hope you all enjoy your prizes and thanks for purchasing tickets.

Many thanks to Mrs Janine Griffiths who has been the heart of the P & C for many years prior to her position this year as Manager of Corporate Services at the school.  Janine has given so much time, effort and love to our community here for so long.  As you may be aware, Janine suffered a medical emergency towards the end of Term 3 and has not yet been able to return to the school.  Parents & Students have been asking about Janine and we are happy to report, she is in fact making great progress and we wish her all the very best and look forward to seeing her again soon.

If anyone is keen to join the P & C we would love to see some new faces. The P & C meets on Wednesdays of week 3 and 8 of each term at 9am in room 12. The first meeting for 2025 will be on 19 February and we look forward to seeing you there.

Finally, congratulations to our Year 6 group on their graduation and best wishes for your High School journey. We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2025.

Spearwood Primary School P & C

Sonia Nelson, Dianne Hunter, Sarah Hayward, Rachel Kemp, Jodie Bridges, Sandra Demirovic, Katherine Wood, Fleur Venables

Canteen

Another fantastic year from the canteen volunteers. Thank you so much to Rachel, Sarah, Sandra and Sonia who volunteer in the canteen each Friday. If you are interested or have a few spare hours between 8.30am- 1.30pm on Friday’s, we would love to hear from you as we are keen to get a roster started.

Please contact the office who will pass on your information to the ladies. Our first Canteen Day for 2025 is Friday 7^th February. We look forward to your continued support.

Uniform Shop

If you have any second-hand uniforms, please consider donating them to our uniform shop.  The Uniform Shop will be open on Monday 3^rd February from 10am-1pm for uniform purchases. Flexischools is still available to make purchases online.

VillageOSHC

Gifted and Talented

Saver Plus

Saver Plus supports people to develop life-long savings habits.  It’s delivered by Brotherhood of St. Laurence, The Smith Family and Berry Street.  It’s funded by ANZ and Department of Social Services.

For every dollar you save, you will receive another dollar from ANZ to spend towards educational costs, up to $500.00. 

Community News

Cockburn Youth Centre Summer Holidays 2024 – 2025 Program – Ages 12 to 16

Community Youth Centre January 2025 Holiday Program  - Ages 10 to 17