Jarrahdale Primary School An Independent Public School

Jarrahdale Primary School is an Independent Public School (IPS). Students attending IPS benefit from a curriculum and staffing

structure that reflects their needs and can be changed in line with the local community’s evolution.

Please direct enquiries regarding this publication to Jackie Adams on (08) 9525 5157 or Jacqueline.adams@education.wa.edu.au

elcome to the first edition of our bi-yearly school update.

Jarrahdale Primary School has changed and

adapted to the local environment since its

beginnings as a railway carriage school in

1874. We now boast a vibrant, thriving

community encompassing students, staff,

parents and the wider Jarrahdale community.

Being located in a semi-rural area, the school

is able to provide a safe, stimulating

environment where all children are

encouraged to reach their full potential. Staff

work together to provide a range of learning

experiences that support students’ academic,

social, and physical development.

Our Earth Care program provides practical

cross-curricular learning opportunities while

fostering appreciation for the environment

and encouraging life skills for sustainable

living.

W

Joy | Pride | Success

SCHOOL BOARD The Jarrahdale Primary School Board is formed with the central purpose of enabling parents and members of the community to engage in activities that are in the best interests of students and will enhance the education provided by the school.

The role of the School Board at Jarrahdale Primary School is to help steer and provide the long term future for the school and maintaining oversight of school operations. School management is the responsibility of the principal and involves educational leadership, and the effective day-to-day administration and supervision of the school and its staff.

The Board’s aim is to provide additional expertise to help the school achieve the best outcomes for the students. The Board supports the school in increasing effective autonomy and flexibility to further improve the quality of the whole school program.

2016 Jarrahdale Primary School Board Members

Julie Denholm, Principal Pam Starkey, Chair

Patricia Green, Staff Rep. Claire Brodie, P&C Rep.

Simon Bowers Jane Scott

Iona Ruscitto Kristen Giles

Salli Galvin

PRINCIPAL Welcome! Semester 1, 2016 has been really positive as we settle into the flow of being an Independent Public School, streamline our communication systems and work towards creating academic and social learning experiences that will enhance and stretch our student learning and understanding.

The design and delivery of the newly integrated Western Australian Curriculum has been exciting. Our staff are committed to providing situated and authentic learning experiences, tied to academic outcomes, which provide academic and lifelong learning skills for our students.

We have streamlined our communication strategies and are now using a mix of online, electronic and traditional communication. To further support our ICT use and online accessibility, a new operating environment is being rolled out across Australia, and will provide our school with greater accessibility.

The online Connect system is working well and positive, meaningful interaction between parents and teachers has increased which benefits our school community and how we teach and report.

The school continues to settle into the IPS system and, in partnership with the School Board, we are able to take control of various aspects of the administrative and corporate governance direction, tailoring our intrinsic, static and financial assets to the unique requirements of a small semi-rural primary school.

Other valuable school resources are our Parents & Citizens Association (P&C) and Class Liaison Parents (CLP). The P&C supports the school goals of providing an adaptable, green and enjoyable culture of learning. This is done using a variety of methods including running the uniform shop, fund raising, awareness and promotion. CLP Representatives act as school ambassadors by creating relationships and providing effective communication within the school community.

We continue our ongoing commitment to being relevant as a school community, education hub and member of the wider Serpentine-Jarrahdale area. This is being achieved through interaction with the community in a variety of ways, including incursions, excursions, interschool activities, volunteering, fund raising, parent evenings, partnerships and the support and celebration of local support services.

Looking towards Semester 2, we welcome the opportunities that Terms 3 and 4 bring as we work together building a strong, viable and resilient learning community.

Julie Denholm, Principal

ACADEMIC LEARNING, REPORTING AND TARGETS As a school community, we have been working to improve the school’s

academic standards to enable students to achieve their own personal

best. These give each student the necessary foundational and learning

skills required to encourage lifelong learning beyond the sphere of formal

education. To provide and encourage a learning community, the school

together with parental support, takes firm and immediate action on

unacceptable behaviour.

As our world becomes more digitally centred, it is important to find a balance

between technological awareness and expertise while instilling strong

foundational education skills. Teachers incorporate ICT into teaching at specific times to support and enhance the learning required by

the curriculum. This year we have purchased a class set of iPads, software and a charging station. The iPads are proving popu lar and

educationally beneficial for students.

NAPLAN took place in Term 2 and we are interested to see how our students are progressing in the targeted areas. Last year we had

student representatives in the Australian top 20% in areas of Year 3 Numeracy and Reading and Year 5 Writing. O ur students were

either at or above the national minimum standard in Year 3 Numeracy, Reading and Writing and Year 5 Numeracy and Writing whic h was

incredibly pleasing as it shows that our academic standards are in keeping with the rest of Australia. Some areas for improvement were

identified and staff have incorporated additional strategies to target teaching methods and improve student understanding and knowledge

retention.

ANZAC DAY 2016

By JPS Student Council lors

Each year in April, we commemorate ANZAC Day. ANZAC stands for the Australian New Zealand Army Corps and includes the soldiers who first served at Gallipoli and the Western Front. Last year we marked 100 years since the ANZACs landed in Turkey with a Dawn Service held at Jarrahdale Primary School.

The First World War is significant for all Australians. This war had the most deaths,

wounded and mentally hurt people in our history and changed the way that Australians see themselves.

We talk about the ANZAC spirit, first shown on the battlefield, courage, ingenuity, humour and mateship. Who we are as Australians has been shaped by the men and women who contributed to the building of our country. The spirit of ANZAC is an important part of our identity.

Mr Dimopoulos, a special member of our school community, passed away last year. He served in the Second World War, was captured by Japanese soldiers in Singapore and spent time as a prisoner-of-war in Thailand. Our memorial garden is a reminder of his wartime experience, the power of friendship and the importance of working together to help others. We remember Mr Dimopoulos in this space as he was a significant part of our school.

It is also important to acknowledge the military forces who have served Australia in other wars and peace keeping missions. We remember all armed service personnel who fought for our country, those who died on the battlefield and those who came home.

PARENTS AND CITIZENS COMMITTEE Our focus over Semester 1 has been long-term planning, creating strategies and sustainability to increase profits and assets of the P&C, allowing the committee to successfully function regardless of volunteer levels or position changes. This has included creating forward thinking strategies, community liaison plans, marketing strategies, and a school survey to discuss community expectations from their P&C. We are focusing on integrating further into the community, increasing training opportunities for our volunteers and establishing a volunteer incentive program.

It has been wonderful to see our volunteer numbers increase this semester with new committee members and lots of community group enquiries about partnering in projects towards mutual benefits. One of our goals is to collaborate as much as possible with other community groups, for a more "work with, not compete with" view to ensure our committee’s goals are both achievable and sustainable.

We are working to strengthen our new collaboration with the Serpentine Jarrahdale Food and Farm Alliance with more future joint ventures, which is strongly in line with the schools clean eating and environmental ethos. This will hopefully prove to be beneficial for the school in the longer term as we establish a strong connection with the Alliance during their fledgling stage of formally starting up.

Along with our normal fundraising events including the SJ Fair and Log Chop, the committee has been working hard to establish new ideas that will provide long term benefits to the school community. Planned ideas include a school recipe book and the funding of an entry feature through a ‘Buy a Brick’ wall scheme. Designed by an architect who is a former Jarrahdale Primary School student, the feature will incorporate the Little Free Library.

2016 Jarrahdale Primary School P&C Committee

Tara Maxwell, President Rebecca Hughes, Vice President Khadine Tinsley, Treasurer Alicia Caruso, Secretary Bec Adlam, Uniform Coordinator Trisha Ruul, Book Club Coordinator Espe Young Melita Masterman Claire Brodie Erin Cox Iona Ruscitto Julie Denholm, Principal

EARTH AWARE Every Tuesday morning the whole school actively engages in Earth Aware a programme promoting environmental awareness through cross curricular and hands on learning. Activities include strategies for minimising waste and litter, using water wisely, saving energy, protecting our biodiversity and learning to grow and cook organic meals.

Our kitchen garden has been prolific and this semester we have harvested a phenomenal 100kgs of produce including sweet potatoes, mandarins and Jerusalem artichokes. We have also been busy building several large ‘berry beds’ complete with recycled bike wheel trellises and look forward to making and selling our inaugural berry jam around Christmas time. These beds will give us greater food production and allow us to explore perennial climbers (berries, kiwifruit, chokos) in greater depth.

Our kitchen garden has been prolific and this semester we have harvested a phenomenal 100kg of produce including sweet potatoes, mandarins and Jerusalem artichokes. We have also been busy building several large ‘berry beds’ complete with recycled bike wheel trellises and look forward to making and selling our inaugural berry jam around Christmas time. These beds will give us greater food production and allow us to explore perennial climbers like berries, kiwifruit and chokos in greater depth.

The Waterwise classes have focussed on the importance of ground water, particularly in relation to its larger role in ecosystems and we have been learning about aquifers and bores. During Wastewise lessons we have been documenting and monitoring the birds, animals, insects and mini-beasts that call our school grounds ‘home’. These studies will assist in creating strategies to increase the biodiversity that surrounds us. In cooking classes we have been making delicious spinach ravioli with eggplant filling from scratch, practicing our knife skills and making jams and cordials.

Earth Aware has also extended learning to our community via a series of workshops including Pruning, Wholefood Cooking and Introduction to Vegetable Gardening. These have proved very successful and we have received positive feedback and many questions about the program and ethos behind Earth Aware. In addition to community workshops, we have hosted professional development to other schools, allowing teachers to learn about our program as part of their professional development.

AWARDS Jarrahdale Primary School is proud of their students’ academic and service, community based achievements. One way we recognise

outstanding effort is through the yearly graduation and awards assembly.

2015 Jarrahdale Primary School Award Night Recipients and Donors

AWARD RECIPIENT DONOR

Room 1 Academic Performance Oakley Jarrahdale Equestrian Centre

Room 1 Reach for the Stars Cooper Jarrahdale Equestrian Centre

Room 2 Academic Performance Ellie State Wide Insurance Brokers

Room 2 Reach for the Stars Isabelle State Wide Insurance Brokers

Room 3 Academic Performance Verity Jarrahdale Primary Parents & Citizens

Room 3 Reach for the Stars Lexi Heritage Trading Post Jarrahdale

Room 4 Academic Performance Colm Jan & Greg Johnson

Room 4 Reach for the Stars Emily Jan & Greg Johnson

Music Awards Ebony | Phoenix Heritage Country Choir

HASS Award Kieran Lions Club of Serpentine Jarrahdale

Literature Award Alex MLA

Citizenship Awards Phoenix | Lexi Rotary Club of Byford & Districts Inc.

LOTE Award: Italian Skye Jarrahdale Volunteer Bushfire Brigade

Science Awards Freya | Seamus Woodside SciTech

Sports Award Riley Andrew Hastie MP

Numeracy Award Lucas Cr Barry Urban

Earth Aware Award: Cooking Phoebe Jarrahdale Parents & Citizens

Earth Aware Award: Gardening Michael Serpentine Jarrahdale RSL

SJ Shire Environmental Book Award Oakley Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale

Endeavour Award Ruby Jarrahdale P&C Association

JPS Student of the Year 6 Ebony Jarrahdale Community Association

NATIONAL RED BALLOON DAY – THANK YOU FIREYS Jarrahdale Bush Fire Brigade and Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPAW) visited the school as we celebrated National Red Balloon Day –

Thank you Fireys. The student all dressed in red and gave a gold coin donation. As a school we raised $125.95 which was donated to Fire

Services WA.

PAST STUDENTS When our students leave school to further their education, they remain a valued part of our community. We’re always interested in hearing

what our former students are doing so that we can celebrate their stories.

Marcus Gianatti attended JPS in the 1980s and he is now a Deputy Principal at

Armadale Senior High School. His family are still part of the local community.

Liam Richer attended JPS in the 1990/2000s. He won the John Curtin

Scholarship to attend Curtin University and in 2010, was chosen to go on the

Anzac Student Tour.

Kimberley Steele attended JPS in the 2000s. She undertook tertiary education at

Curtin University, completing a double-degree, and then joined the Finnish Army.

She is now involved with the Murchison Widefield Array that is providing scientists

with a new way of viewing solar storms, space junk and the formation of the

Universe.

Jarrahdale Primary School has a wonderful history of multi-generational attendance through the years.

Roy Day & Mary Scrivener attended the primary school in the 1900/10s, then Lil

Day and George Johnson attended in the 1930s. Their son Greg Johnson was a

student in the 1950/60s and Greg’s wife, Jan, has worked at the school in various

roles since the 1990s. Their children, Simon and Marie Johnson, were students in

the 1990s and 2000s.

Maxine Haddow (nee Kneale) taught at JPS from 1968, and married Dave

Haddow, a Jarrahdale local who attended the primary school in the 1950s. Their

daughter, Ellen attended the primary school in the 1970s and now Ellen’s

daughter, Tiah, is one of our students.

Peta Rowe was a student in 1960/70s. Her daughter, Nicole Mullings, attended in

the 1980s and her partner, Ashley Scott, attended in the 1970s. Their three

children, Emily, Daniel and Hannah are current students at the school.

Tara Maxwell attended JPS in the 1990s and her son, Jack, is a current student.

Jarrahdale Primary School aims to:

provide a collaborative learning environment involving students,

teachers, parents and the wider community

enable children to reach their full academic and physical potential

encourage children to adapt to a changing social environment

while maintaining positive self-esteem.

20 WANLISS STREET, JARRAHDALE WA 6124 | ( 08) 9525 5157 t | (08) 9525 5190 f | WWW.JARRAHDALEPS.WA.EDU.AU