Newsletter Week 8 Term 4 2024
Message from the Principal
2025 teachers
Please see the list of teachers for 2025 below. Please understand this can change and, in 14 years of selecting staff, 12 of those have needed me to recruit and select staff over the December/January break. At this stage, I’m not concerned because of the experiences outlined above and the various contingency plans that are swirling around in my mind depending on what is necessary! You will see the term RTI below. This refers to Response to Intervention and is another way of saying having a teacher working with small groups of children to support their learning needs, typically in literacy. All existing administrative and learning support staff will remain in their current roles.
Preschool- Emma Heaven and Jordanna Robson (existing preschool teachers)
Small Group Program: TBA
Kindergarten- Erin Palisi, Ilana Keeley, Leila Chalmers (existing kindergarten teachers)
Year 1- Bella Lucchesi (existing Year 1 teacher), Emma Bliss, Erika Alling
Year 2- Gaby Steinhardt (existing Year 2 teacher), Blair Singh (4 days), Veronica Munoz (4 days), Caitlin Thomas (Caitlin will cover Veronica’s and Blair’s day off, any other absences across Year 2 and RTI for the Year 2 team)
Year 3- Michelle Vy, Jea Lee (existing Year 3 teachers), Hayley Halpin
Year 4- James Traviss (existing Year 4 teacher), Olivia Low, Mollie Zaja (experienced teachers, new to Forrest)
Year 5- Kay Durnin, Dilli Kenyon (existing Year 5 teachers), Sarah Fleming (experienced teacher, new to Forrest)
Year 6- Tara Durnin, Andrew Maurice (both existing Year 6 teachers), Carolyn Davis
Specialist subject teachers- Nicola Sneddon (Arts), Mark Robson (PE), Xingliang Yu (Mandarin)
Specialist support teachers- Carmel DeGraff (RTI), Lucy Nicol (EALD), Belinda Kowalski (Teacher Librarian)
Leadership team- Penelope Day, Monique Darragh, Kylie Dorsett, Jemma O’Brien (Executive Teachers), Laurel Rodrigues (Deputy Principal), TBA (Deputy Principal) and myself
In next week’s newsletter (a special one for the end of the year) I will farewell staff who are leaving.
Arrangements for the first week back next year
Preschool (Magpies) and Kindergarten commence back on Monday 3rd February, Years 1-6 return on Tuesday 4th February, and Preschool (Kookaburras) commence on Thursday 6th February.
On Monday 3rd February, at 12pm all children new to Forrest in Years 1-6 and their parents are invited to come for a tour of the school, parents are required to stay! You will receive information and have the opportunity to ask questions. We anticipate this will take one hour.
On Tuesday 4th February, all Years 1-6 children go to the asphalt where they will see two rows of chairs with class names on them (and their teachers). Think of this as an aircraft fuselage and children will sit in a class line like the wings. We will introduce staff to you and your children and then commence taking the children to their classes for learning and getting to know each other. Staff will be available with class lists in case children have forgotten their class. The youngest students will go back first to their class and feel free to go with your child to their room, so you know where they are based. This should be complete by 9.30am.
Shivoo
Wow- what a night! Thank you all for coming last night, it was a wonderful evening where children and families had a great time! A huge thanks to you all for coming, to Tracy who organised the fundraising behind this, Dipendra for the catering, Ali and Glen for their over-arching P&C support, and all the volunteers and staff who came together to make this happen!
Equity fund
The ACT Education Directorate have an equity fund for eligible families to support with the costs involved in schooling. More information later in this newsletter, or for more information and check your eligibility at: https://www.education.act.gov.au/support-for-our-students/financial-and-resource-assistance-for-families
Have a lovely weekend,
Chris
ACT Instrumental Music Program (IMP)
We are thrilled to share the outstanding achievement of two of our talented Year 6 musicians! Jianuo Yang and Isla Comyns have been selected to join the highly prestigious Combined Year 7 and 8 Junior Concert Band (JCB) for 2025.
This is an extraordinary accomplishment, as selection was incredibly competitive. In November, Isla and Jianuo participated in auditions alongside over 700 students from across the ACT, vying for positions in one of the seven ensembles facilitated by the ACT IMP. The level of talent displayed throughout the process was remarkable, making their success even more impressive.
We extend our congratulations to Jianuo and Isla for their dedication, hard work, and exceptional musical skills. This is a tremendous opportunity, and we are so proud of their achievement!
The Mysteries Of Ameca
On the 28th of November 2024 the Meccano club was kindly invited to meet the new advancement in AI, Ameca. They were able to ask a series of questions to the robot, and Ameca would answer based on her programming. The questions were very different from “can you speak other languages?”, to “will you take over the world?”
She made her way from the UK all the way to the second secret Questacon in Deakin. She is very intricately designed, programmed to even be able to raise her non-existent eyebrows. She can have conversations like a human, even making jokes! (sometimes not on purpose)
With the rise of AI it’s hard to tell what's real and not, but with her clever design, in her body you can see the movements of her robotic body. But her face tells a different story, the ultra realistic faces are incredible. She even rolled her eyes a bit like she was thinking, but the gray colour of her face removed the human feeling. It was amazing meeting a robot like Ameca.
On the same day as we met Ameca, we visited the Royal Australian Mint to see the robots in action. We had a lovely time seeing all the robots, and learning about how they helped make coins. We loved watching Titan pore in soon to be 10c coins into the machine then bow as if to say, “look at me!”.
Then the robot, Penny came to take the barrels away that used to be filled with blank coins (or blanks as the mint calls them). She was harder to spot if you did not realise that she was there.
We saw several interesting coins at the mint, and learned several interesting things about them, like “There are collectable 5 dollar coins which sell for much more than 5 dollars!”
We hope you enjoyed learning about our excursion.
By Ally 6D and Alice 4D
Exhibition Week Activities
Celebrating Student's Achievements
Congratulations to Samar Hooda who is a finalist for the 2024 Climate Choices Schools Awards in the Sustainable Steps Poster Competition category. We hope the awards ceremony at the National Museum on Monday the 9th is an enjoyable one.
Congratulations to Madison Nguyen from class 3V who received the Woden Valley Gymnastics Club Junior WAG state levels gymnast of the year (2024) last weekend.
Givemas
POSITION VACANT: Forrest Primary School Board Member
The Forrest Primary School Board is responsible for setting the strategic direction of the school and acting in the best interests of the school and its students.
The board meets regularly throughout the year and is comprised of representative members from various stakeholder groups e.g. parent/caregiver members, P&C Association and/or local community members and staff members.
A board position will become vacant in March 2025, and we will seek nominations in early Term 1 to fill the following role:
- Board Member
To learn more about the roles and responsibilities of board members, visit the School Boards page.
Further information about the nomination process will be provided early Term 1.
2025 school year Equity Fund now open
To ease the pressure of back-to-school costs, eligible Canberra families can apply now for 2025 Future of Education Equity Fund payments.
The Equity Fund supports eligible low-income families and independent students from preschool through year 12 with a one-off, annual payment to help cover the costs associated with schooling such as uniforms, sport equipment and activities, tuition and music lessons.
The 2025 school year payments for eligible families are $400 (preschool), $500 (primary school), and $750 (high school and college).
Payments of completed applications will begin earlier than previous years, with the first payments to families expected from 6 January 2025.
Families will have until the end of November 2025 to apply for the Fund. Check your eligibility and find more information about supporting documents on the Equity Fund webpage.