Special Education Bus Fundraiser Trivia Night Sept 6th
Hover your mouse over the image for more information about our trivia night and special education classes.
Aug
28
Aug
28
We Skyped UNICEF Australia
This week as part of our school design enrichment project and wearing our UNICEF blue t-shirts we were very fortunate to Skype with Mia Cox from UNICEF Australia. She spoke about the work UNICEF does across the world which is completely driven by The Convention on the Rights of the Child. Ms Mulrooney and her students shared their classroom with our project group and learnt that 57 million children do not go to school each day! That is nearly 3 times the population of Australia. Rut, Hamid, Wakjira and Evan shared their school plans with Mia and she was very impressed that the students were only 9-12 years old and yet were producing such amazing work 🙂 Mia asked that the students work be shared with her to be placed on the UNICEF website, a great acknowledgement for our students. Now they have to build their scale models using virtual technology or 3D modelling.
Aug
21
UNICEF School Project
The video of the Maria Grazia Primary School, short-listed for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, in Afghanistan served as inspiration for the initial school designs by our enrichment group of EAL/D (English as an Additional Language or Dialect) students. Using the UNICEF Child Friendly Schools Manual building criteria many of the student group had their plans approved today and are now able to start building their models using Sim-on-a-Stick, a stand alone virtual world on a USB that we use at our school. All plans have been drawn to scale and the students have excelled with this project.The building criteria they had to meet was:
- Structure is stable and built from local resources
- Administrative office
- Safe water
- Hygiene facilities
- Toilets
- Light and free from glare, dust, noise and odour
- Colour natural and reflecting culture of country
- Power (electric or alternative)
- Evacuation area
- First-aid area/bay
- Library
- Landscaping
Next week we will be with Ms Mulrooney’s class as we Skype with Mia Cox from UNICEF Australia. The students will be sharing their work with her and talking about the project whilst also learning about the amazing work UNICEF does around the world 🙂
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- Wearing our UNICEF blue t-shirts
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- Starting on the classrooms
Aug
14
Ms Bullen Australian Exceptional Teacher Award
IT WASN’T Lotto, but Coffs Harbour Public School teacher Janelle Bullen was equally thrilled when told she had been judged one of Australia’s top teachers.
Ms Bullen, a much-loved special education teacher, joined an exclusive band of 10 school teachers recognised from 1497 entrants nominated in the Office Max Australia’s A Day Made Better program.
“You’re kidding, I never win anything; I always thought I would win Lotto but this is great, thank you so much,” Ms Bullen told her class.
Coffs Harbour Public School principal Peter Hickey said after Ms Bullen was nominated for the award the school community kept it a tight secret, with 12 fellow teachers supporting the nomination with online letters.
“Janelle is a fantastic teacher, a real asset to Coffs Harbour,” Mr Hickey said. “She always goes that extra step and I believe she is the best special Ed teacher in NSW, if not Australia; the students certainly think so.”
The bearers of good news, Phil Lowrey and Claire Atkinson from Office Max, yesterday presented the school with an Apple ipad and $1000 worth of arts, crafts and stationery. Source: Coffs Coast Advocate
Congratulations Ms Bullen from all the staff, families, and communities that have the privilege of working with you, have students in your classes or are the recipients of your amazing work. Your exceptionally giving nature and incredible wealth of knowledge that you so readily share including an absolute love of all children, no matter their circumstances, sets standard for all educators on what it means to be a teacher of excellence 🙂
Our Principal, Mr Hickey also commented further:
“Janelle is the special education Assistant Principal at Coffs Harbour PS. She supervises 5 special education classes with up to 5o students who have a very diverse range of disabilities including severe and moderate, behavioural disorders, autism and physical disabilities. She is responsible for her staff and ensuring her school caters for these students. This is a very challenging position. Currently she is fundraising for a mini bus so our school can transport these students to offer them extra opportunities. She has a great passion for ensuring these students have success in their school life which transfers to their home life. Janelle also teaches the behaviour disorder class at the school. She is remarkable at what she does and I believe her amazing contrribution to these student’s lives is a celebration of the human spirit.”
Coffs Harbour Public School Staff
Aug
14
FIA World Rally Championships 2013 Stage 10
In 4 weeks the the FIA World Rally Championships will land in Australia from Germany for the 10th race in their racing calendar and make their home in our school grounds. There already are a lot of changes to our lower grounds as a hospital and other structures are put in place for the cars, drivers, and crew. Here is a panorama of our playgrounds…well what is left. It is getting very exciting and the school will have a front row seat to what is involved in running an international event like this.
Mrs Booth
Aug
11
Biodiversity Officer Visit
Nigel Cotsell, biodiversity officer with the Coffs Harbour City Council, spoke with our science group of students about the wonderful tree life that exists on our school grounds and nearby. He took the students through a description of each tree and the role they play in preserving the biodiversity of the Coffs Harbour area. Our school grounds contain:
- Smooth Barked Apple
- Turpentine Tree which was used to build the Coffs Harbour Jetty in 1892 as its timber contains a chemical that resists marine invertebrates and termites, and it is one of the most difficult timbers to ignite.
- Red GumTree
- Bloodwood Tree
- Tallowwood Tree
- Black Bean Tree which used to provide food to megafauna
One thing that was noticed by Nigel was that some of our trees had asphalt laid right up to their trunks which is actually killing the tree slowly. Some of the asphalt needs to be dug up to expose the soil and then covered with a layer of bark chips so the soil doesn’t become compacted. This will then allow vital moisture and nutrients to the small feeder roots of the trees aiding in their health and limiting dead branches.
Finally, the students’ and Nigel went for a walk to a small council reserve on City Hill where the two oldest trees in Coffs Harbour still stand. They are both scribbly gums and dated between 300-800 years old!
Mrs Booth