Currambena school blog

Congratulations to all the children for their efforts last Thursday at our fundraising event for the victims of the fires, ongoing in NSW. We have yet to find out exactly how much we raised and we will decide how to allocate the money, to humans and animals affected by the fires. The event was great fun for everyone. Thank you to Alice and Zak for proposing the idea and inviting everyone to join.

On Monday, we had our Orientation Morning, in which everyone spent time in the groups as they will be next year. It was great to start getting to know the children from Leesa’s group who will be joining us. I think ours will be a lively and interesting group in 2020. I was most grateful to Samantha, ex-Currambena student about to start Honours in Medical Science at Sydney Uni, for taking the Year 6s for a session about high school and its differences from Currambena. Sam went to Willoughby Girls High from Currambena so was well qualified to talk about that transition! She said she thought all our Year 6 kids are very much ready and I do agree! I hope you’ve been enjoying the My Time At Currambena pieces each week. Alice is today. Marley is the last of them, next week when we hope to be away at camp.

With the fires and the smoke haze and the awful drought, I am keeping a close eye on the weather warnings as we lead up to camp on Monday. So far things look OK but we will be in touch with Booderee Park Rangers this morning and make sure we know how best to be sensible and safe. Thank you so much to all the parents who have been helping with the preparations. There is a great amount of excitement in the room when we try to discuss the details of menu and tent arrangements! Please make sure everyone has practised setting up their tent and has a truly waterproof raincoat just in case!

We are working our way through PIP presentations this week, doing some final maths and grammar and completing the last of our text book units for the year. So busy! Year 6 is working on getting their Leavers’ Project completed and Year 5 will be contributing to my collection of favourite poems with illustrations. Kris Kringle continues with notes and deliveries… final presents should be named with the recipient’s name and brought in on the last day of term, Wednesday 18th please. $15 price limit please.

I think that’s all for today. I’ll send an email with final driver/car lists and some emergency phone numbers on Friday.

Have a great week. Love, Wendy

Hi! I’m Alice. I have been a student at Currambena for 9 years, but in reality, I’ve been a part of the Currambena community my whole life. I’ve been coming into the school since I was a baby. I have watched my older brother and sister start and finish school here and always loved hanging out with the older kids (even when I was just in playgroup.) When I began writing this, there were so many different memories I wanted to include and talk about, but I was forced to only choose the best of the best.

One of the funniest memories that comes to mind when I think about my Currambena years involves Michael, one of my preschool teachers when I was little. For a whole three years, I simply just didn’t talk to Michael. I would pull funny faces at him at lunch and ignore him. I honestly have no idea why I did this, but I’m guessing it has something to do with the story I’m about to tell.

Michael always used to push me on the swing and I would say “super high, super-duper high, super-duper-duper high.” Until one day when I said super-duper duper duper duper high, he pushed me so high that I flung off and spent the rest of the day crying on his lap. After this grumpy phase ended, we finally made up and I decided that it would be okay if we continued to do our secret handshake. Now, I can’t tell you what it is because it’s a SECRET handshake. But I can assure you it’s pretty cool.

After finishing preschool, I had Fran for three terms and for the last term that year I had Paul. All I can remember about Paul was that he talked about Egypt A LOT. And he helped us write our play and guess what it was about… ZOMBIES, which was pretty cool as a 5-year-old. At the end of the play, I remember we had a big dance to the song Thriller and we had put powder on our hands so when we clapped it made smoke. Another great memory of that year was the learning of the FAMOUS “cup song” with Tammy.

Now, moving on to ‘big kid school’, in Year One I had Blake as a teacher and one of the most distinct memories I have of him was the crazy stories he would tell about how he lost his finger and I’m still not sure what really happened TO THIS DAY. It was in Blake’s class, around about this time that everyone was learning to climb the treehouse although, unfortunately, It took me a bit longer to learn how, meaning that while my friends ate their lunch in the treehouse I sat on the monkey bars.

I especially remember this one day when they all climbed up and I got on the monkey bars when Alexa got down from the treehouse climbed up the monkey bars and sat next to me. It was in that truly unique moment that I knew she would be a really special friend.

In Sarah’s class, while everyone was getting excited and ready for their FIRST EVER CAMP, of course, I had to be unlucky enough to break my arm bouncing on the trampoline THE DAY BEFORE CAMP. Although this unlucky turn of events was annoying, I received a lot of positive encouragement from my friends and Sarah, showing me the amazing community I had to support me. Even though I didn’t get to go to the camp, I wouldn’t change anything about my Currambena experience and what it has taught me.

It was an April Fool’s Day in Sarah’s class which is also Marley’s birthday (and I am sorry Marley but don’t worry I wasn’t annoyed, this is a funny memory). I walked into school and all of my friends squealed,
“Alice don’t put your bag in your locker!”
I later found out why. He had put water in everyone’s locker as his April Fool’s joke so most people’s bags where soaked and drying in the sun. But luckily I had a warning and was safe from the attack.

I remember being very proud of my reading skills in Sarah’s class, up until the day came when Sarah asked me;
“So Alice what is this book about.”
And I had no idea.
“Umm…”
but she helped me work on it and now I understand what I read and enjoy it at the same time.

Louise’s class was my next big step forward in Currambena, I had just moved into Year 4 and two of my friends, Alexa and Daniella, and I were OBSESSED with the board game ‘Trouble’. Every lunchtime and every morning tea time we would sit down to play Trouble and couldn’t get enough of it!. And still, every now and then, when we can spare the time, we go in there to play for a little blast from the past. I hope that all my friends and I never stop playing and always enjoy a bit of trouble.

Now Crafty. Crafty, Crafty, Crafty. He has been one of the greatest teachers I have had in Currambena he has let me and all my whole class express our creativity in so many ways. He has been there my whole time at Currambena through humour, jokes, joy and rushed costume making. I don’t know how I would have managed through my nine years without Crafty there and I hope to keep some of the creativity and skills he has taught me through my high school time, and life. And I will never forget about the home of the flesh-eating turkey.

Now last but definitely not least, Wendy. I remember when I first came into Wendy’s class I was so nervous to be a ‘big kid’ but I got a warm welcome from Wendy and the Year 6’s at the time. I quickly adapted to the friendly faces around me and the amazing classroom environment Wendy creates with her positivity and kindness. I have loved every minute in Wendy’s class and am going to miss our amazing camps including; Little River, Jervis Bay, and Canberra and the memories we had there.
So thanks Currambena, and see ya later!