Gosford Public School 19 October 2017 - Page 1

Gosford Public School Bulletin Faunce Street, West Gosford, NSW 2250 Tel. 4349 3600 Fax. 4349 3699

Term 4 – Week 2

Email gosford-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au Wednesday, 18th October, 2017

Welcome back I would like to take this opportunity to welcome all back for the final school term of the year and as this is our first newsletter for the Term share some thoughts about our expectations for the remainder of the school year. Term 4 promises to be a very busy time with many events, activities and end-of-year celebrations planned. I urge all parents to monitor the weekly newsletter, the school website, the school App and our Facebook page closely over the next eight weeks as each of these resources will be used to communicate upcoming events and key dates. Term 4 Focus Can I ask parents to support our teachers in reinforcing the following important end-of-term goals for our students:

• Term 4 provides a good opportunity to consolidate many of their curriculum understandings for the year. There is still time to ‘get on top of’ any academic areas that are worrying them.

• Teachers will be spending a significant amount of time preparing and administering assessment tasks as they ready themselves for the final reporting period of the year so regular school attendance is critical as will be arriving at school ‘on time’!

• Please reinforce our school rules/values - our students need to look after their friends by sharing the good thoughts and respecting each other in work and in play!

• Term 4 can be a time to celebrate all the hard work we’ve done over the year but we still have plenty of time to get some more work done and our celebrating can wait until the end of the year!

• Our Year 5 and 6 students have a really important time ahead – Year 6 will be finalising their preparation for the transition to high school and dealing with a mixed set of emotions whilst

• Year 5 will be thinking about moving into Year 6 and the student leadership opportunities/responsibilities that will become available to them in the new year.

So, some important messages - I now ask parents to reinforce these same messages at every opportunity to help us all enjoy what should be a great finish to the end of a very successful and productive school year!

DIARY DATES

Week 3: Ready,Set,Go Tue 24/10 Week 4: Ready,Set,Go Tue 31/10 Kindergarten Reptile Park excursion Wed 1/11 Week 5: Swim School all week! ‘Day of Stars’ Fri 10/11 Week 6: Swim School all week! Week 7: Opportunity class orientation Tue 21/11 Week 8: Volunteer morning tea Week 10: Presentation Day Mon 11/12 ‘Gosford’s Got Talent’ Tue 12/12 Year 6 Farewell Wed 13/12 Class parties Thu 14/12 Reports home Thu 14/12 Yr 6 graduation sssembly and ‘snake’ Fri 15/12

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

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New Newsletter Format We hope you have noticed (& appreciated) the new ‘look’ to our newsletter – our newsletter will now be distributed on a fortnightly basis – contributions from the community are encouraged! RAPs Update I finalised the school’s self-assessment process this morning with the final RAPs panel meeting for the year. Since the beginning of Term 3, I have led eight review panels – each panel has worked through a process of:

- Identifying perceived issues or points of interest, - mapping the review against the ‘School Excellence Framework’, - collecting & analysing evidence, - making ‘on-balance’ judgements (using the ‘School Excellence Framework’) and - developing a series of recommendations.

The next step in this self-assessment process is for me to collate the ‘on-balance’ judgements and recommendations and share them with the school community, which I will do over the next few weeks. I would like to thank the staff and parents who have contributed to this process and acknowledge their commitment, their support, their patience and their open & honest thoughts, opinions and ideas! This collaborative process positons us well to develop a really appropriate and relevant ‘School Plan’ which will guide our school over the next three years.

Applicants for selective high school placement for Year 7 in 2019 Applications for placement in Year 7 in selective high schools in 2019 open 10 October 2017 and close 13 November 2017. Applications need to be completed online – LATE APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. If you do not have internet access at home, please contact the school and we can try to accommodate you here at GPS.

FROM THE DEPUTY PRINCIPAL

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Tell Them From Me It is your LAST CHANCE to complete the Tell Them From Me surveys. The survey is conducted entirely online on smartphones, iPads, tablets, laptops or computers. It will typically take approximately 15 minutes or less to complete and it is completely confidential. The survey closes this FRIDAY 20 October. Although participating in the survey is voluntary, your responses are very much appreciated. To access the survey for our school go to: http://nsw.tellthemfromme.com/8qjpq

The next P and C meeting will be held on Wednesday 25 October 2017 in the Chapman Room starting at 7:30pm. ALL WECOME. Light supper is provided.

Uniform Shop News

For the next two weeks (weeks 3 and 4), the uniform shop will be open on a Tuesday morning between 8:30 and 9:15am in the Chapman Room. It will also be open as normal on Thursdays between 2:45 and 3:30pm.

Scholastic Book Club Book Club Issue 7 catalogues were sent home last week. Orders must be completed by Friday 27 October 2017. All orders are placed online by parents at scholastic.com.au/LOOP or using the LOOP app, which can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play. The school office cannot accept any cash payments for Book Club.

FROM THE CANTEEN

Child Protection This term, students in Years 1-6 will be learning about child protection. This incorporates teaching and learning in three broad themes- Recognising abuse, power in relationships and protective strategies. NSW Premier’s School Sport Challenge. At the end of the last term, students in years 3-6 completed 10 weeks of the PSC. The benefits of daily physical activity is endless:- feel good, improved mood, improved fitness, ready to learn, fun with friends, make better decisions, sleep well, improved attention and memory. Results were collected on a weekly basis, by the sports leaders, and entered into the on-line tallies.

FROM THE LIBRARY

FROM THE SPORTS DESK

FROM THE P & C

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Awards Daily average activity time per student Average time in minutes per week per student

Bronze 30 minutes per day 210

Silver 45 minutes per day 315

Gold 60 minutes per day 420

Diamond 80 minutes per day 560

Congratulations to all students for the effort they put in. When all levels were tallied, our classes received either a silver or a bronze award. Well Done! GOLD- 3/4B, 3/4L, 3/4R, 3/4S, 5M, 5/6G, 6H. SILVER- 3W, 5B, 5N, 6C, 6Y. 22 teachers also participated in the challenge, with awards ranging from encouragement to diamond. A great effort teachers! Tennis This term years 5 and 6 are completing an 8-week tennis program at school. We have received a sports grant to fund this program so students don’t have to pay. Dance Year 6 are also participating in a 10-week dance program, where they are learning individual and partner dances leading up to their farewell at the end of the year. Swimming School This will be held over 2 weeks, commencing Monday 6 November (week 5) to Friday 7 November (week 6). This program which is conducted by the Department of Education is free of charge. The cost involved is for the bus hire and pool entry. It is aimed at students who are not confident in swimming 25m. We had an overwhelming response to the program this year and our 2 sessions are now full. Thank You to Mrs Jo Lee for her organisation of this program.

Central Coast Council School Environment Leadership Day 2017 Bellanca, Soleil, Brianna and Amelia - Environmental Group Representatives Last Tuesday, four representatives from our amazing Environmental Group went to the Australian Walkabout Wildlife Park with Mrs Wade. Once there, we split into two groups: the Tassie Devils and the Wallabies. We were with numerous other schools from the Central Coast. Each group undertook four different tasks that helped us develop our environmental awareness. Some of the activities we did included seed collecting and planting, meeting the animals, looking at the different houses of the environment, bush tucker, animals in our backyard, Aboriginal culture, collecting minibeasts, and measuring the amount of carbon dioxide in trees. Some of us even ate termites! We had a lot of fun and learned a load of things to carry out back at school, so we can be a more environmentally friendly school.

FROM THE ENVIRONMENT GROUP

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Meeting the residents

Seed collecting and planting

Don’t forget that our canteen is now running the new Healthy Canteen strategy and the new price list is now in use and is available on the school’s website. Roster 23/10 Felicity 24/10 Colin 25/10 HELP! 26/10 Zoya 27/10 Larissa

FROM THE CANTEEN

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