A word from the Principal

Despite the less than ideal conditions on Monday night, the students' smiles showed us what a memorable night they had at the Christmas Concert!  A big thankyou to Miss Jess Cole, Mr John Oldham and Mrs Jemimah Main for coordinating the event.  Our Arts Captains  were outstanding hosts, keeping us entertained throughout the night.   They even managed some impromptu jokes about the terrible weather that we were all experiencing!  We would have loved to make our gym bigger to fit us all but due to the size of the crowd - which is fabulous to see - we wouldn't have fit in there. The Carols are another wonderful memory for our school community for 2022.   I look forward to sharing more memories from 2022 with you next week as the year draws to a close. 

STAFFING UPDATE

I'd like to announce that the following staff will be pursuing new adventures in 2023. Some teachers are moving interstate, some are trying a new school and others taking some time off from teaching. We wish them all the very best as they take their next steps in their teaching careers.

• Di Eva – Di is excited about taking a years leave and spending time with family at her holiday home.
• Sophie Brown – Sophie has taken a big leap and is heading to Darwin for 12mths to teach in an Indigenous community
• Kim Davidson – Kim has decided to broaden her teaching experiences to include some new learning about IB at Mount View PS
• Josh Maroney – Josh is looking to work with a larger PE team and heading to Templeton PS for 12mths. 
• Rachael Arkley – Rachael is excited about taking leave from teaching to explore previous passions.
• Amy Batchelor – Amy has gained a leadership position back in Secondary Education.

Staff returning:

Cass Blonik will return from family leave for 2 days a week in 2023

Robyn Guzzardi is returning after T4 2022 leave

We also welcome to the team in 2023 the following staff: 

Classroom positions

• Claire McCandlish
• Shelley Williams 
• Tia Beagley
• Tiana Dias 
• Karla Markovic 
• Sarah Dobson 

Specialist positions

• Katie Smith - Science Years 3-6
• Adam Horne – Media and Technologies

Educational support

• Georgia Lintern
• Tanya Caulfield
• Crystal Bartlett

All of our new staff have been coming in over the last few weeks to ensure a smooth transition to Karoo and they will be here to meet their new classes next week. 

2023 Student Leadership Opportunities

Over the past few weeks I have had the pleasure of interviewing our future School Captains and Student Voice Captains. The caliber of students is outstanding and we are so fortunate to have so many leaders with us at Karoo – badged or not. 

I look forward to celebrating with our school community the names of the successful applicants for all the 2023 roles that will assume leadership positions at the Awards Assembly next Thursday 15th December. 

The presentation of badges will be at 2:45pm on Friday 3rd February 2023 at our first whole school assembly for 2023. 

School Council

Our final School Council meeting for 2022 was held last night at school. I would like to take the opportunity to acknowledge the contribution made by all members to our school and thank them for their ongoing support. 

The council is made up of the following parent/carer members: Janna Wright (President), Sam Forder (Treasurer), Sarah Elliott, Robyn Howard, Jasmin Meaker, Stephanie Spyropoulos, Tanya Au, Tracey Collins, Allison Aumann and Tony Khouri, and school staff: Ben McFarlin, Claire Moyle, Kim Davidson, Robyn Harris, Sue Baxter (visitor) and Ashley Kuusela. 

Two exciting weeks left! Make sure you keep up to date with all of the Compass messages as there is a lot happening. 

Have a wonderful week,

Danielle Heatley

Principal