I can't believe that this is the final newsletter for 2024 (and my last one at Karoo). This year has gone so fast and we have had so many wonderful memories. I hope you are able to enjoy the last week of school before a well earned holiday break together. I sent out some important communication on Wednesday which I have attached to the next page for anyone who may have missed it.

End of Year Concert

What a fantastic time we had on Wednesday at our end of year concert and didn't the weather turn it on! We tried a new format to hopefully allow everyone to see the stage as well as the opportunity to sit with your children to enjoy the show. Next year if the weather holds out it will definitely need to move to the turf to enjoy the new ground!

Parent / Carer Thankyou Afternoon Tea

Yesterday, we had the pleasure of hosting our Parent Helper Thank You Afternoon Tea, and what a delightful celebration it was! It was heart warming to see so many of our incredible parent helpers come together, enjoying a well-deserved moment of appreciation.

Parent/carer (and grandparent) helpers play a vital role in enriching our school community. From supporting in classrooms with reading and maths, excursions to the zoo or camps, to organising events like the colour run and BBQ's as well as lending a hand in countless other ways, your contributions enable us to provide the best possible experiences for our students. Quite simply, we couldn’t do it without you! Thank you for your time, energy, and commitment.

Building and Grounds update

Over the break we will continue to maintain and improve areas of the school. We are very close to our goal of recladding the outside of the Science room portable. We are currently sourcing quotes and look forward to beginning this work. The gym floor will also be sanded, resealed and will be looking great for the start of the year. The colours of the buildings at Karoo are certainly ready for an update so we are SO PLEASED to let everyone know - that we are commencing this work over the Summer break. The goal is update the colours and modernise the look. As you could imagine, this is a HUGE job to redo the whole school so we will be completing this over a number of years. Future plans are also looking to enhance the bike shed as this has been a student and school council request so we want to make it our next target! After the bike shed we want to turn our direction to the basketball courts - which will need significant funds to resurface and may take a few years!

2025 Year 6 Captains Badge Ceremony

Today we had the privilege of presenting our 2025 School Captains with their leadership badges in a special ceremony. It was a proud moment for our school community as we acknowledged these students for stepping into important leadership roles.

This year, we held the ceremony earlier so our captains can begin wearing their badges with pride from Day 1 of the school year. Their badges are a symbol of the responsibility they’ve embraced and their commitment to making a positive impact on our school.

While our captains hold formal leadership roles, we firmly believe that every Year 6 student is a leader in their own right. Whether it’s through being a role model for younger students, taking initiative in their learning, or contributing to school activities, our senior students are critical to shaping our school culture.

Congratulations to our captains and to all our Year 6 students for 2025. We look forward to seeing the leadership, kindness, and inspiration you will bring to our school community in the year ahead.

2025 Student Captains

ROLE	NAME
School Captain	Chloe V			Xavier B					Kimiya A
Student Voice	Chloe Y				Marley A
Media Captain	Samreen R	Olivia W				Darcy B				Mason M
Science and Environment	Gavin D				Aaron TK			Hetav P
Mandarin	Leo D Olivia W
Visual Arts	Iris Z		Lucas P				Tyler H
Performing Arts	Lexi B		Zara E				Joseph T
Wellbeing	Harper D	Lucy T				Alfie F				Hayley C
Library Captains	Joelle L	Zander B				Jordan Y				Keira R
Sports Captains
Olympia S					Jasper T
Chloe A					Jarred V
Kaitlyn S					Aditya P
Blake M					Walter S

2025 Classes and Specialist Teachers

Year Level	Leader / Teacher	Teacher	Teacher
Foundation	Mrs Amy Ellis FE	Ms Tiana Dias FD	Mrs Claire Tilley FT
Year 1	Mrs Madeline Diaz 1D	Ms Karla Markovic 1K	Mrs Alicia Gropel 1G
Year 2	Mr Tim Wilson 2W	Ms Kat Bacalja / Ms Beck Barton (Tues/Wed) 2B
Year 3	Mrs Fiona Marker 3M	Ms Tia Beagley 3B	Mrs Karen Corrales 3 / 4 C
Year 4	Ms Clare McCandlish 4M	Ms Cass Blonik / Mrs Robyn Harris (Fri) 4BH	Mrs Karen Corrales 3 / 4 C
Year 5	Mrs Emma Finnerty 5F	Mr Josh Edwards 5E	Ms Sarah Dobson 5D
Year 6	Ms Michelle Davies 6D	Ms Gemma Wild 6W	Mrs Alisa Hardware 6H
PE	Ms Lauren Kavanagh
Visual Art	Mrs Jess Cole
Music / Performing Arts	Mrs Jess Cole	Mr Oldham
Media & Technologies	Mr Adam Horne
Mandarin	Mrs Hilary Cheng
Science	Ms Katie Smith
Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader	Ms Kat Bacalja	Mrs Robyn Harris
Learning Specialists	Mrs Peta Phillips and Mrs Amy Ellis (A) (English)	Mrs Simone Vitas (Mathematics)	Mrs Robyn Harris (Wellbeing)
Assistant Principal - Teaching and Learning	Mrs Ashley Kuusela	Mrs Peta Phillips (A)
Assistant Principal - Wellbeing and Inclusion	Mrs Courtney Hoffmann

We are excited to welcome Maddy Diaz as a new teacher at Karoo in 2025.

Ms Sophie Brown will be heading back to Darwin in 2025 and we wish her all the best.

We are also excited to welcome a number of new Educational Support Staff - Kim Milne, Simndhu Havanur, Alex Grant, Rhiannon Beatty, Matt Evans, Amber Majic and Stevie Hjorth.

A familiar face will be joining Karoo staff in 2025 with Janna Wright in the library role.

Farewell Year 6s and Families

Our Year 6 cohort have one more final week at Primary School. They have a jam packed

week ahead, kicking off with the Graduation Night, then a tennis day and finishing the week at Gumbuya World. They have lots of wonderful memories of their primary school adventures that have been reflected in their impressive yearbooks. I want to wish each one of our Year 6 students all the best on their next step of their schooling journey and encourage you all to stay in touch. To the families that are leaving us this year - thank you for your ongoing support and passion for all things Karoo and your dedication to the ongoing success of your child/children. We also wish you well for the future.

PEPS - 2025 Advance Notice

An initiative that we proudly introduced in 2023 was our PEPS (Parent Education Partnership Series). We believe that strong partnerships between home and school are essential for student success. The idea of the sessions are for regular parent education opportunities that are designed to provide families with valuable insights into your child's learning and development at Karoo. The sessions offer practical strategies, highlight key aspects of our teaching approaches, and foster a shared understanding of how we can work together to achieve the best outcomes for your children. To ensure we are able to continue to hold these sessions we need the numbers to grow so we wanted to communicate the 2025 dates well in advance so you can pop it in your diary now.

2025 PEPS (Parent Education Partnership Series)

Term 1 - Friday 14th March @ 9:15am - Literacy

Term 2 - Tuesday 13th May - Time TBC - SWPBS (School Wide Positive Behaviour Support)

Term 3 - Tuesday 6th August - 7pm - CyberSafety

Term 4 - Tuesday 28th August - Time TBC Maths

Congratulations and Many thanks to everyone!

This year has been another positive and highly productive year at Karoo Primary School. We have seen the ongoing positive engagement of all our families, through a range of school activities and special events, such as our Colour Run, Carols, daily classroom support, KPA and so much more.

After another busy year, I would like to thank the large number of people who continue to contribute so positively to our wonderful, caring school community. Thank you to the Karoo Parents’ Association and families across the school who have organised and supported many outstanding school events for students and the community, whilst also raising valuable funds for the school. Thank you to all our School Councilors who actively contribute to the governance of the school and support our drive for ongoing high standards of education and student performance.

A sincere thank you is extended to the dedicated and hardworking staff who have contributed to the success of Karoo Primary School in 2024. Your professionalism, diligence and the high level of care shown to all of our students is hugely valued.

To all those who support our school community, I wish to thank you for all your contributions throughout this year. With your support and involvement, our school continues to be an extremely busy, positive and dynamic learning environment.

I feel such mixed emotions writing my last newsletter at Karoo. Thankyou so much to all the wonderful families that have emailed, sent messages and wished me well. I am quite overwhelmed with the words that have been said to me in the last few days, it has been incredibly touching. Karoo really is a special place that has had such an impact on me. I look forward to seeing you all around in the coming week and wish your family a safe and enjoyable holiday break.

Danielle Heatley

Principal

Celebrating Students

Goodbye and good luck