20 August 2021

Jockey Club Sarah Roe School’s latest newsletter is available to read now. Find out the latest news around the school and upcoming events.

Principal’s Message

Total Communication at JCSRS

Dear all,

This week it has been a real privilege to welcome all our staff and students to the school at the start of another exciting academic year. Thank you for sharing your holiday photos which we will share with the whole school community.

On Wednesday we welcomed eight new students. They had a really positive first week at JCSRS, enjoying their lessons, exploring school and getting to know new friends.

We also have eight new staff joining our team this term:

• Robyn Turnbull – Occupational Therapist

• Max Lewis – Lead Teacher

• Liezel Kemp – Class Teacher

• Nasreen Irani – Educational Assistant

• Tom Hui – Educational Assistant

• Gemma Parker – Educational Assistant

• Esther Lam – Occupational Therapy Educational Assistant (starting on 20th September)

• Kelly Maddix – Lead Teacher (starting November 2021)

Sadly, we have to say goodbye to two of our long standing members of JCSRS who have to leave for personal reasons. Bianca Brown, who was our physiotherapist for 19 years has relocated to Australia over the summer holidays. We are sending warm wishes to her and her family. Our driver Matthew will also be leaving us at the end of this month. He was our school diver for 8 years. Bianca and Matthew’s contribution to the school community over many years was invaluable and they will be missed by all students and staff.

Dates for your diary

On the 2nd of September parents are invited to the Meet the Teacher event. In the next few days we will confirm if we will hold it at school or if we will have to have this meeting on Zoom. It is an excellent opportunity to find out more about our new curriculum and find out some practical information about the school. Most importantly, you will have a chance to meet your class teacher and other parents.

On 6th and 7th of September we will have optional 1:1 parent meetings which we will hold over Zoom. You will be able to book a meeting with your child’s teacher and therapists. During these meetings you can discuss your child’s Individual Education Plan (IEP) and how your child is settling into their new class.

As parents and carers you also all play a really key part in enabling your children to make a very positive start to the new academic year and ensuring that all of them achieve their true potential. We hope that the planned meetings will support you and your child. Please get in touch with your class teacher or our therapists if you have any questions.

The next staff training day (CPD day) will be on Monday 4th of October and students will not be coming to school on that day.

I am looking forward to connecting with you all in the very near future and I would like to wish all students and staff every success for 2021-2022.

Kind regards,

Anna

Activities to Encourage Communication

Ensure your child has their talker with them as often as possible.

The aim of these activities is for the adult to model the words on the talker. Try to avoid moving your child’s hands to the words.

1. Baking

   • Choose a simple recipe to make with your child.

   • Read through the ingredients together. As you gather them from around the kitchen you can press ‘get’ or ‘get it’.

   • During pouring and scooping you can press ‘in’, ‘on’ or ‘in the bowl’.

   • You can talk about ‘waiting’, while they are cooking.

   • Share the delicious treats together. You can press ‘yummy’ or ‘I like it’.

2. Shopping

   • Shopping could be to buy the ingredients for a cooking task or a general shopping trip.

   • Remember to take your child’s talker to the shops with you.

   • When looking for items in the shop you can use the words ‘up’ or ‘down’ to talk about where they are on the shelf. Use ‘in’ or ‘put it in’ when putting items in the basket.

   • If your child finds something they like, you can model ‘I want it’ or ‘Can I have it?’

   • Practice numbers when talking about the price.

   • Use phrases such as ‘here you go’ or ‘here’ when giving items to each other.

3. Making a drink

   • Choose a drink to make with your child, it may be a smoothie, a hot drink or a juice.

   • You can press words such as ‘open’ when looking for the items in the cupboard or fridge.

   • When pouring drinks, press ‘in’ or ‘in here’.

   • If making a smoothie, think of all the words you can model when using the blender – ‘on’, ‘go’, ‘fast’, ‘noisy’, ‘stop’.

   • Enjoy sharing a drink with your child, press the words ‘yum’, ‘I like it’, ‘hot’, ‘cold’.