Newsletter Week 10 Term 4 2024
Message from the Principal
Thank you for welcoming me into Forrest Primary earlier this year. I’ve had a wonderful time and look forward to what 2025 brings.
Staffing updates
Nicole Jaggers, currently one of the Deputy Principals at Gold Creek, is joining us as our second substantive Deputy Principal next to Laurel Rodrigues. Nicole has extensive experience as an International Baccalaureate educator, consultant, conference presenter (we presented jointly at the 2018 Singapore IB Conference, the only public school presenters there) and IB evaluator (I believe we are the only two IB evaluators in public schools in Canberra). Her experience and knowledge of the Primary Years Programme (PYP) is phenomenal. However, she has also held the role of Disability Education Coordinator (DECO) and has many strengths across the board. She will be a fantastic addition to our school and is taking on the primary role of being our IB Coordinator and leader of the three subject specialist teachers. The other leadership roles at present are:
- Laurel will be the DECO and team leader of the support specialist teachers
- Monique Darragh will be the P/K team leader and curriculum leader of literacy
- Jemma O’Brien is the yrs 1/2 team leader and leader of cultural integrity
- Kylie Dorsett is the yrs 3/4 team leader
- Penny Day is the yrs 5/6 team leader
- Some roles are still being finalised (such as wellbeing and numeracy coordinators). We will have discussed and organised those before school returns next year.
- We are still looking for a SGP teacher/s. One visited on Monday, and another is coming for a look later this week (teachers don’t finish when children do!). I’m still confident things will fall into place…
- In addition to our current team of Learning Support Assistants (LSA's), we have Luke and Zildjian (Zee) joining us from the Canberra Raiders next year, along with Maddy who has worked with us previously. Please welcome them to the Forrest family next year!
- Finally, Kelly Robertson joins us as the acting Business Manager whilst Sonya is on leave. Kelly starts on Monday 13th January. Kelly has lots of experience, especially in the early childhood sector. I know you will join me in welcoming Kelly into the school.
Staff Farewells (in alphabetical order)
Lachlan Babbage has worked with us for the last few years as a Learning Support Assistant whilst he has been training as a teacher. Now that he is qualified, it is time for him to take the next step in his career as a teacher at Torrens Primary. My abiding memory of Lachlan will be the calmness he exudes regardless of the situation.
Liz Bujaroski has worked at Forrest as our second deputy and DECO for just over a year. In that time Liz has had a huge impact on the school and is an absolute star who I and others have learned from. She will be returning to her role at Mawson Primary. My abiding memory of Liz is the dedication she has towards supporting children with additional and diverse needs across the school.
Claire Gilder joined Forrest at the same time as me and quickly made an impact on the Year Six team and students. Claire was very upset she couldn’t make Graduation as she wanted to see the children before they depart. My abiding memory of Claire will be the work she put in to support children through Exhibitions.
Alex MacDonald joined us at the end of Term Three and quickly became a popular member of staff through her good humour and relaxed demeanour. She is moving to Chapman Primary, and my abiding memory of Alex will be of the love and passion she has for her pet dogs!
Lauren Wright was an LSA at the school and progressed into being a teacher. Her children adore her, and she has developed very strong relationships across the school with parents, staff and children alike. My abiding memory of Lauren will be of her sitting down in front of children, supporting them in their learning.
Winsa Daniswara has supported year 3 by teaching year 3MV on Fridays this year. We thank him for his support and wish him well on his future endeavours.
Thanks also to Jess Willding who has been teaching 1ST on Thursdays and supporting our Art release program on Fridays. Thanks Jess, for your support for Forrest.
On behalf of the staff at Forrest, I wish you all a wonderful break over the holiday period and hope you get to spend quality time with your children. We would also like to thank you for your warm wishes, cards and gifts over the last couple of weeks and the support you have provided the school over the last 12 months. If your youngest child is graduating this year, please remember Forrest will continue to be a home for them and we are always happy to find out how they are progressing. Thank you once again and take care.
Chris
Earlyact News
Thank you to everyone who supported the Year 6 Exhibition Big Action Week. It was a huge success with over $1,500 raised for the charities. The school had great fun at the disco, dressing up and snacking on sweet treats. A big thank you must go to Three Mills Bakery for their generous donation of 30 pastries which helped raise $710 for Greenpeace.
Thank you also to the whole school community for the AMAZING donations to The Canberra Hospital's Givemas Appeal. The donations were dropped off to the hospital's staff members who were greatly appreciative of the generosity shown by the Forrest Primary community.
As you are aware, we have been collecting lids for Lids 4 Kids in our library Donation Hub. On Friday the 13th our sorting committee members from 2024 and the new organiser for 2025 visited the Lids 4 Kids Hub to see what happens to our lids. We all learned about the colour and plastics sorting, the shredding and melting processes, as well as how products are made. We even got to see the beginnings of a bench slat being made! It was such a great experience, and we are looking forward to Earlyact continuing our involvement with all of our Donation Hub charities.
Belinda Kowalski
Earlyact Co-ordinator
