Dear Parents and Caregivers

Welcome to Term 2!   We are so excited to welcome students back to school.  We have a great term planned and are so thankful that the Covid restrictions are easing so we look forward to welcoming families back to many of our school events in a Covid safe way. 

We will continue to take care by taking necessary precautions, Covid planning and asking parents to follow health advice when attending any school event while Covid remains in the community.  It will nonetheless, be wonderful to see parents at assemblies, music and drama performances as well as many sporting events.    

I hope that many of you had time off to rest and recharge and were able to take some time out with family over the Easter and school holiday time. It seems that everyone I have spoken to feel exhausted and we are only at the end of April! It seems that the amount of zoom meetings, online activity and working from home has taken its toll on so many people.  Teachers and school staff have certainly worked extremely hard and many went above and beyond in Term 1 and I thank them for their hard work and care of our students.  

Many years ago technology was promoted as the change that we were all going to need.  It was going to make life easier and give us so much time to do other things!  In some ways technology has been a blessing and other aspects it has made life challenging.  It would seem from the amount of people I talk to that we are spending so much more time on technology and what is worse, our children are spending hours and hours online or on their devices. When we look at wellbeing and what strategies we can deploy to look after each other there is a quick and easy one that we can all do collectively. I have talked to my staff about setting some limits to their own workloads and in particular reducing their online presence in the email/communication space. Our staff work extremely hard and while their care is admirable we don’t want an exhausted workforce. We know from the medical field the importance of sleep and the impact of computer light on disturbing sleep rhythms.  So reducing some email/communication traffic could make a very positive difference.  

I have asked staff to avoid sending and replying to their emails after 6.00pm and on weekends so that we can show care for our staff, they can focus some time on their own families and that they can feel refreshed when they come to school.  Perhaps this wellbeing initiative can be extended to every industry and we can encourage our students and family members as well, as I know sending and receiving emails all day and night long is not just isolated to education. Almost every industry is plagued with staff that work all hours of the day and night writing and replying to emails. Thank you in advance for supporting our dedicated staff who care enormously for your children.  If we all accept the challenge to go offline after 6.00pm and spend this time with our families we would all benefit in so many ways. It is a wellbeing initiative that is very worthwhile for every one of us.

I look forward to properly meeting and connecting with families that make this community the special place that it is.

God bless
Tracey

Dear Parents and Caregivers

Welcome to Term 2. I trust that all families have had a wonderful, restful break and have the opportunity to spend time with those dearest to them, making memories that will last a lifetime. Weekends and holidays are very important times for us to reconnect with our children and families. As we spend time together, we strengthen the bonds of belonging and security that are important to building resilience and helping our children flourish.

These times are also a great time to reconnect with our local community. One such example was the ANZAC Service held at the Mandurah War Memorial on Monday morning. It was wonderful to be surrounded by our local community and pay our respects to those who served our country. At the 11.00am service, two of our House Captains laid a wreath in remembrance of the brave service men and women and their sacrifice for our future. I am grateful that Isabella Targett and Lucas Suitor were able to represent our school at such an important community event. On Friday, we will join as a Primary School to pay our respects through the annual ANZAC Assembly hosted by the House Captains.

This term, the Primary School will focus on our value of ‘Responsibility’. Responsibility involves making decisions, being trusted and learning to take credit for one’s actions – whether they are good or bad. It is a quality that shows up in every area of our lives and is essential for our children to learn. I cannot wait to share news of our responsible students with you over the term.

With the easing of COVID restrictions, I am looking forward to bringing our families back together for school events. We have lots to look forward to including assemblies, cross country, swimming lessons, Year 5 camp and incursions, to name just a few activities. Please keep your eye on the calendar for dates. 

Sue Youens
Head of Primary - Meadow Springs

Dear Parents and Caregivers

Our theme for this Term is 'Responsibility', and these days, you don’t hear that word without another related word: rights. Sometimes you hear about rights, and we hear less about responsibilities. That is because our rights relate to us, to ourselves. Our responsibilities are (for the most part) about others.

We have a right to life, and a responsibility to maintain that right for others. We have a right to religious expression, and a responsibility to maintain that freedom for others. In fact all of our rights are enshrined in legislation and laws. What is odd, is that few of our responsibilities are regulated. They are a sort of optional extra. We can choose to take responsibility to protect the rights of others, or not. We can make an effort to ensure that the weak are protected, or the voiceless can speak, but we aren’t required to take that responsibility.

This leads us to the sense of duty; to actively seek responsibility, and to consider it an obligation. Around the time of ANZAC Day, we hear much about duty; doing one’s duty. When others have their rights infringed, we have a duty to defend them, to defend their rights. We must take seriously our responsibility to protect others, to stand up for others.

This is not to glorify war; it is hard to do that. But rather, it is to see that duty is about taking responsibility for others, and for protecting the rights of others. If we are not prepared to defend the rights we enjoy, and that our friends enjoy, then we do not understand the fragility of those rights. For all those who have been affected by the scourge of war have seen the fragility of our rights. Our rights, like our responsibilities, should never be taken for granted.

Reverend James Tabor
Chaplain

Dear Parents and Caregivers 

Welcome Back

Although it was a bit of a rainy start, I enjoyed speaking to students and families Thursday morning. I spoke to students about having a positive term and making sure that we always give our best effort when taking on challenges. I have and will continue to speak to students about respect and kindness towards others. Modelling our Core Values is so important for our students, and as staff I make a conscious effort to do so on a daily basis. I also spoke to students about the changes in COVID restrictions and know that families received correspondence from Mrs Tracey Gray on Thursday regarding these changes. I believe these changes will assist our community in feeling more connected and am happy that we are now able to provide face-to-face meetings for parents and welcome parents to their children’s assemblies. Although we must continue to be diligent in our hygiene practices, the changes will be positive.

ANZAC

On Monday, our House Captains Estelle Telfer and Conor Laird attended the Dawesville ANZAC service. The service has not been held for the last two years and it was well attended by the community this year. Estelle and Conor laid a wreath at the service and represented the School with maturity. I thank the Telfers and Lairds for helping Estelle and Conor be a part of this important day. I enjoyed being at the service with my family and I know that Mrs Gray and Mrs Kirke also enjoyed the morning.

We held our own ANZAC service today and the House Captains and Junior Councillors did a wonderful job in leading. I thank them for their efforts and responsibility and also thank Mr Andrew Hastie, Mr Wayne Parsons, Reverend James Tabor and Mr Liam O’Shaughnessey for being part of our service and allowing our student leaders the opportunity to ask them questions about the meaning and significance of ANZAC.

Bus services

Thursday morning was the inaugural Halls Head bus run. It was very exciting to see students on the bus heading for the Meadow Springs campus. This trial service is being run this term to see if it will assist our families that have children on both the Halls Head and Meadow Springs campuses. Closer to the end of Term 2 we will evaluate the service but I do hope that it proves to be an infrastructure that makes things easier for our community.

Noah Clark
Head of Primary – Halls Head Campus

Our School Psychologist has been working on creating a Virtual Chill Out Space.

Student mental health and emotional wellness is a priority.  The pages have been created to serve as a place to help reset, recharge and refocus.  

The different resources include meditation, movement, zoning out, games, puzzles, music and more. 

You can view the page here  

Frederick Irwin Anglican School continues to be part of the Act Belong Commit Mentally Health Schools Programme. 

Please visit the Frederick Irwin website for more information on this programme here and check out this video. 

Our Sustainability Prefect, Phoebe Hull, and Gordon House Prefect, Luke Storey, created a small video for our students to announce our new Containers for Change!  We are so excited to have this initiative at the school. 

Click on the image below to find out more. 

Term Dates 2022 
Term 4: Tuesday 11 October to Wednesday 7 December

Term dates 2023
Term 1: Wednesday 1 February to Thursday 6 April
Term 2: Thursday 27 April to Friday 30 June
Term 3: Wednesday 26 July to Friday 22 September
Term 4: Tuesday 10 October to Tuesday 12 December

Over the holidays, Sydney Meares (Year 12) and Hannah Chatfield (Year 10) represented WA Country at the Basketball Australia U18 Nationals. 

Both girls displayed not only outstanding basketball skills and gameplay throughout the tournament, but more importantly, they demonstrated excellent sportsmanship, team work and a genuine love of the game. 

Congratulations should also go to Jamie Sewell (Year 11) who was selected as part of the squad and trained with the team right up until their departure. Congratulations to these wonderful basketballers! 

Although Western Australia didn't get the results they were after at the Under 18 National Championships, Bella Rutter had a great tournament personally and it was a wonderful experience all round for her.

Congratulations on making the team and representing your State! 

Congratulations to Caitlin Leather for her selection in the Western Australian 17 and Under State Water Polo team! 

This is an amazing honour, and we can't wait to hear how the State team does at the National competition.  Well done! 

Congratulations to Shelby McAuliffe, who is in Year 5 at Halls Head, she has spent the holidays rehearsing for Alice in Wonderland, in two separate productions! 

Shelby travels to Cockburn everyday after school and for most of the day on Saturday, to attend classes at Katherine Mantle Performing Arts Academy. She is part of their advanced ballet training programme and extension contemporary program. Her ballet training is up to 14 hours a week! 

At the end of last year Shelby won the prestigious Dianna De Voss award for RAD grade 3 ballet.  You can read more about this award here

Congratulations to Emma Tomlinson for representing Frederick Irwin Anglican School at the Equestrian Interschools 2022! Her results were: 

Show Jumping 60cm CT 13th
Show Jumping 60cm 9th
Show Jumping 70cm 6th

Well done Emma, what a great result!

This is constantly updated on our website, please ensure you check this regularly as due to COVID-19, events can change. 

Our Halls Head and Meadow Springs student leaders represented Frederick Irwin Anglican School at two ANZAC Day services on Monday 25 April 2022.

At the ANZAC Dawesville Dawn Service, Conor Laird and Estelle Telfer presented a flower wreath.
 
At the 11.00am ANZAC Mandurah Foreshore Service, Primary student leaders, Isabella Targett and Lucas Suitor, and Secondary student leaders, Adriaan van Zyl and Monique Moylan, also laid a wreath as well. Riley Altschwager, Eden Volkers and Caitlyn Bain represented the School in uniform.
 
Our student leaders represented our school beautifully, and we thank them for helping us to recognise the sacrifices made for all Australians.

Lest we forget. 

At the end of last term, Mrs Cowcill, who along with being a parent is also the the WA Cricket Community Officer, brought in the WBBL and BBL trophies from the Perth Scorchers!  

The students were lucky enough to see these trophies up close, while learning more about Cricket. The children really enjoyed this experience.  

Thank you for this wonderful opportunity! 

In KH1 this term, they introduced Sushi and Dora, two guppies, to the science and nature learning area. The children loved watching them swim around the tank and also helping to feed them.

We had a sneaky suspicion that Sushi was pregnant and in Week 4, we welcomed 11 baby guppies (fry). Once again, the children's attention was captured and their interest in the baby guppies was amazing, as they watched them grow and used the magnifying glasses to see the fry up close (they are only about 3mm in length at birth). We also took this opportunity to practice our counting, as we all attempted to count the tiny moving guppies in our tank. This part was definitely a bit tricky, but a lot of fun!

We had come to terms with having a total of 13 fish in our Kindergarten fish tank, when Week 6 happened. Suddenly there were new fry.... at least 10 more baby guppies, bringing our tank total over 23. 

Again, this sparked conversations about measurement and how much the first lot had grown since being born, in comparison to the new ones, and so the counting fun started once again! 

Last Term, the Year 4 students at Halls Head interviewed author David Caddy!  He is the author of the Term 1 class novel 'Whacko'. 

He was very engaging, and gave the students many tips for their writing.  They all thoroughly enjoyed speaking and asking him questions about his novel, writing and more! 

Term 2 has only just started, and our Year 10 students were straight into it on the first day back!  

The students spent the morning at the beach developing their surfing skills! 

There were lots of smiles and everyone was having fun, what a great start to the term.