Residential Manager

What beautiful weather to finish Term 1.  Autumn in my opinion is the best season in Denmark and the Great Southern, the beaches are renowned, the water is warm…ish, the surf is celebrated and the holidays are here.    We are still dealing with the pesky Covid and its variants but on the whole boarding has dealt with it in a very calm and organised way.  Well done to our students and our staff for an outstanding start and finish to term 1.

Pemberton Mountain Bike Excursion

Dane Carter and Eric Bogensperger headed off to Pemberton on the 19th March 2022 with 7 students. 

 ‘On the 19th March, 2022 myself and six other YR10 boarders headed off at the crazy time of 6:15am for a fun-filled day at the Pemberton mountain bike park.   After a two and a half-hour drive, hot drink and practice runs on the skills trail and the dirt jumps, we pushed up the almost vertical push-up trail, leaving us with dead legs and no breath at the top of the hill.   The way down was way more fun and by lunch we had done 7 runs down the hill (meaning we also had 7 long walks up).

For lunch, the Pemby bakery was our best option and the pies and BLT’s went down a treat. The muggy weather was not the best to ride in and water breaks were called almost constantly, along with five minute rest periods at the start of every trail for us to cool off! After another couple of runs down the hill, the heavens opened, and the muggy weather became nice and cool (and wet) however, this also meant the trails became very slippery; there was some pretty scary bits after that, but nothing was broken and it provided entertainment for those not involved.  

The last run of the day was taken very steadily so that we would get home in one piece. Soon enough, we were running around packing the bus, soaked to the bone and a tad chilly, hanging out to get back to Denmark for a shower!  The whole event was a great experience and a great day full of thrills (and a few spills) but we all got off the bus at the end without any bits missing, so it was a definite success. A big thanks to Dane and Eric for taking us to Pemberton and supervising the bunch of crazy (and drenched) kids that decided that MTB in the rain was a good way to spend a Saturday.’  

Thank you to Phoebe Mottram Year 10 for providing a write up of what was a fabulous day.

After School Surfing

‘This term, a bunch of the boarding students were lucky enough to attend surfing lessons with Mike Neunuebel down at Ocean Beach every Tuesday arvo. We were a pretty mixed group, abilities wise, with some of the Year 11’s and 12’s having been attending Mike’s amazing lessons since they arrived at the college in Year 10, but by the end of the term all of us had managed to stand up on our boards at least a couple of times. It was great to see everyone putting in their best efforts and encouraging each other. We are all super grateful for the opportunity and can’t wait until the lessons start up again in Term 4.’

Thank you to Vallie Turner and Ayla McMaster for their write up of the surfing lessons.

REACH – Installation

If you have any issues with Reach, please email me and I can reset your username and password kelli.gillies@education.wa.edu.au.  We have found that when the app receives an update many users can no longer log in. Let us know so we can sort this out for you.

REACH APP Features

• Create leave events
• View and Manage Leave Events
• Sign in and out of school campus
• Manage Hosts
• Personal Leave Calendar

Tutoring and Homework Help

There is a Facebook group that you can join to access local tutor information.  Please contact the college if you would like more information regarding this.

Laundry

Tracy, Suzanne and Marie do an amazing job in the laundry, can you please remind your child to check the lost property box as we are accumulating many items.  Second hand clothing is available in the laundry please check with the ladies before you buy anything new as we may be able to swap clothing sizes.  We welcome donations of the college uniform (in good condition) as students leave the college.  Clothing without name tags will be displayed on the table for collection when the laundry is staffed, otherwise it will be packed away until the following shift.  A record of lost clothing is kept in the laundry.  If students have lost an item of clothing, please report it to the laundry staff.

College Uniforms

There are second hand uniforms available in the laundry and via our Facebook group WACoA Denmark – Buy and Sell – Second-hand uniforms 

Health and Wellbeing

The College continues to provide support to students requiring doctors and other health related appointments. Where possible these appointments are made outside of school hours to minimise disruption to the school program. For any follow up appointments with specialists the College asks parents and carers where possible to make these during school holidays.  Please contact the College if your child has any medical imaging needs before appointments are made in Albany.  When students are ill in residence the College will provide immediate care and will arrange necessary medical appointments. To minimise the spread of illness all students who are unwell are required to remain in their rooms, eat after all other students and minimise contact with other students until recovered. If students are unable to participate in the learning program for more than one day the College will contact families to discuss alternative care arrangements.

School Nurse

Please contact the college if you would like more information regarding appointments.

School Psychologist

Bree Crocket is our Registered School Psychologist for 2022; Bree will be on campus on Thursday and every second Friday for students who would like to make an appointment.  Bree can help students with strategies for settling into boarding life, managing relationships, study habits and exam stress.  We would like to encourage students to use this valuable service. Parents can contact Bree on a Wednesday at the College.

Travel Arrangements for Home Weekend and End of Term

The College will organise travel arrangements (bus tickets) for the home weekend, end of term; The College books outward travel for home weekend and the end of Term 1, the return ticket is booked by the parent/guardian and must be booked to arrive early afternoon preferably into Denmark; late arrival will incur a pick up fee if the student is arriving into Albany by the College of $100.00; all other travel arrangements throughout the term are to be arranged by the parent/guardian.

Vehicle Forms

Prior to any student vehicle/motor cycle being brought to the College please ensure all forms are completed and up-to-date and that any vehicle or motorbike that comes on to site has been approved.  Quad bikes will not be approved as part of our recreational motor cycle program.

Medication

Reminder for all parents and students -  we require students to hand in any medication that they have to 

residential staff; medication is recorded, stored and administered from the residential office.

Reminders

Weekend Leave – have it in REACH by WEDNESDAY NIGHT…..or no leave