St. Gabriel’s News 1

St. Gabriel’s News A school for students with hearing impairment

and other special needs within Edmund Rice Special Education Services

Newsletter No: 5 Date: 4th May 2012 Term 2 Week 2

Diary

Friday, 11 May 2.00 p.m. Mothers Day Assembly and Afternoon Tea Tuesday—Thursday, 15-17 May NAPLAN Assessments—Years 3 and 5 Thursday, 17 May SCHOOL BANKING

Principal’s Message

 Dear Families and Friends Wow – what a night! The Gift of the Gab 2012 will go down as one of St. Gabriel’s most memorable events. Where to begin? From the moment you entered the room in the Castle Hill RSL the atmosphere hit you. The decora-tions were beautiful; great lighting and flowers with a touch of bling and guests dressed up for the occasion. Gift of the Gab said it all- there was the buzz in the air of people having a good time. Tim Webster the MC did a great job teasing out the real person in his inter-views with our panel members. I loved Michael Milton’s way of looking upon the challenges he faces being an Olympic athlete despite having lost his leg as a result of cancer when he was nine. He welcomes the challenge of finding ways to do what we can do without thinking. The “out of the ordi-nary” excites him. Corey Brown, Janelle Bloom and Kathryn Fox took us beyond their obvious achievements and spoke with passion about the differ-ence they can make through their careers. Br Gerry McGrath gave us an insight into the St. Gabriel’s of the past and Stephen Lawlor used sign to add his memories (St. Gabriel’s emphasis on speech which influences all that we do today commenced in 1952). Lisa Lipovac, Corey’s mum, captured all that is good about St. Gabriel’s today. The generosity of the people in the room in supporting the auctions was won-derful ,add to that a delicious meal and finishing off the night with dancing to the great sound of the Jury was perfect. I would like to thank and congratulate Candice Palin and her team who worked so hard to ensure the night was truly remarkable. I would also like to thank all of you who contributed so much and in so many ways. We are such a little place but the support we get says so much about the wonderful com-munities to which we belong. THANK YOU! Kathy

Our sympathy is extended to the Piperata family

following the recent passing of Giuseppe’s

grandmother

We ask that your thoughts and prayers are with them at this

sad time

Happy birthday to those children who 

celebrated  birthdays in April 

 Ali who was  9 on 

7th April Thomas J who was 

9 on 10 April Scott who was 7 on 

19 April Kian who was 8 on 

22 April 

Bandaged Bear Day 30th March 2012

Thank you all for buying

Bandaged Bear merchandise to raise money for this worthy

cause—we raised $165 which we will be sending to the Children’s

Hospital at Westmead

School Photos

School photos were taken recently and should soon be available to send home to you. We would like to thank those parents who so kindly helped supervise the children while the staff photo was taken. It was much appreciated.

St. Gabriel’s News 2

Children's Awards The following Awards were presented at our School Assemblies Week 9 Term 1 2012 (Monday, 26 March to Friday, 30 March) Student of the Week: Dion for being a great liturgy presenter

Class Awards Junior N - Samrath for doing his best in dance and movement Junior L - Giuseppe for his drawing and forming letters of the alphabet Middle S - Charlotte for getting back into school routines so beautifully after her holiday Middle W - Kian for excellent work with his iPad Upper R - Corey L for excellent work in sight words Do Your Best Award: Xavier Be Safe Award: Dominic Care and Share Award: Olivia Uniform Award: Loki Week 2 Term 2 2012 (Monday, 30 April to Friday, 4 May) Student of the Week: Thomas E for great listening to the teachers and following instructions

Class Awards

Junior N - Joshua for remembering and following our classroom rules and routines Junior L - Loki for being a great classroom helper Middle S - Miguel for participating well in maths Middle W - Corey P for great work in reading and phonics lessons Upper R - Blake for writing our Mothers Day invitation Do Your Best Award: Chloe in communicating and following directions Be Safe Award: Melanie Care and Share Award: Jayden Uniform Award: Blake M Music Awards: Dominic for great singing Xavier for joining in with music

St. Gabriel’s News 3

  Welcome to another term! It was delightful to see all the children so prepared to learn and eager to renew friendships again. And already what an amazing beginning to what promises to be a term of great learning and development: our fabulous Gift of the Gab behind us now; the first of our canteen days held so successfully; banking begun again and Edmund Rice Feast day celebrated by all. While we were sad to say goodbye to Rhia Huett at the end of last term, due to her many other commitments, we welcome Rhonda O’Brien to the

role of visual arts teacher this term. It’s wonderful to have her on board each Tuesday to develop the children’s creativity and expression in a key learning area that speaks quite often so vividly and warmly to children to whom language doesn’t often come easily or readily. Ylana Bloom, our speech consultant, begins work this term as well, working in classrooms to provide language and speech support, tailoring visual learning to classroom needs and providing resources that will enable best practice speech and language learning in individual classrooms. Our Quality Teacher Project with Moveabout Therapy Services will take place this term as well – and the focus for this year’s project is facilitating play between students, the first step along the path towards good social skills learning. iPad learning is continuing within classrooms and we are investigating the use of apps with the Smartboards as well as developing staff learning overall. You will receive an invitation shortly to an ‘iPad Club’ meeting, at which staff will be present to share with you some of the apps they are using in classrooms but there will also be time for you to share with staff and other families what you have discovered along the way yourselves. We will hold a club meeting one morning this term, with an evening meeting to be held next term to enable as many families as would like to attend, to be pre-sent. The toileting seminar is still in the pipeline, so to speak, as well – more on that in the very near future. This term also features our first Design 2 Shine program for the year, with a Science focus this time. There will be 3 days of workshops with a Year 4 class from St. Bernadette’s as well as some of the Year 9 Gilroy leaders – all to kick off on Wednesday 30 May for the students. You will be invited to a presentation day/sausage sizzle on Friday 1 June, where the children will showcase their learning from over those three days. I look forward to the rich continued learning with your children this term and hope to see you at one of the events in the next few weeks, beginning with the Mother’s Day assembly this Friday: such a fitting way to celebrate the remarkable work each and every one of you do every day!

Bless us with strength, courage and wisdom to discern wisely, love joyfully and be a light in the darkness …

~ Dianne

H.o.C.’s Corner

Mothers Day Assembly and Afternoon Tea

Friday, 11 May at 2.00 p.m.

Following the invitation sent home recently to come along to our assembly and afternoon tea, it would be helpful if we could know names and numbers of who will be joining us—kindly let the school office know if

you have not already done so.

Welcome!

Welcome to Rhonda O’Brien who has joined St Gabriel’s as our Visual Arts Teacher this term.

It’s lovely to have you on board, Rhonda and we hope you enjoy your time with us!

St. Gabriel’s News 4

     Valerie Gieules, Learning support in Middle S (mornings) and Middle W (afternoons), joined St Gabriel’s this year. Prior to St Gabriel’s, she was working as a school learning support in mainstream schools (Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Wentworthville and St Bernadette, Castle Hill) as well as providing respite for special needs children and adults.

Valerie found her passion for special needs, after moving to Australia 13 years ago. She found it very exciting that special needs children or adults were involved in schools and the community. She undertook a long dis-tance course (certificate in teacher’s aide) and looked for a position, after her youngest daughter began High School, and ended up working on two fronts: school environment and home/community environment. From those experiences, she became very passionate about inclusivity, supporting and motivating each child to the best of their abilities. Last year, as well as working full time, she enrolled and finished a Certificate III in Education Support, and is looking forward to furthering her studies focusing on different disabilities. Valerie and her husband are very proud parents of three: a son—a nurse, who wants to develop his knowledge in critical emergencies, a daughter—a first year student in Bachelor of Education in early childhood and pri-mary teaching and a younger daughter in year 10. The girls love their ballet and contemporary dance classes, and the three of them have been involved in St Johns Ambulance as volunteers for the past 8 to 10 years. Valerie is absolutely delighted to be working at St Gabriel’s: “A great place where great things happens: the job of her dreams.”

Project Compassion Thank you to everyone who so generously donated to our Caritas collection over the Lent period and we are delighted to report that we collected $100—enough for a family in East Timor to buy two goats to raise and breed. Thank you for making a difference to those in need

Coles Sports for

School Promotion 2011

Thank you for your wonderful support in the Coles Sports for Schools Promotion last year. We collected 15,874 points based on the hundreds of shopper dockets that were sent into our school and we have just taken delivery of some wonderful sports equipment for our children including play ball kits and scooter boards with which the children are sure to have lots of fun!

Congratulations!

Our warmest congratulations to Rachel on her marriage to Ethan on 21st April.

The staff celebrated with her on the last day of term with an afternoon tea wishing her all the best for her special day. Rachel is now Mrs West but her class will remain as Middle S.

Farewell! We sadly said farewell to Rhia Huett, our Visual Arts teacher, who left St Gabriel’s at the end of Term 1. We thank her for all she has done with our children this term and wish her all the very best for the future.

St. Gabriel’s News 5

St Gabriel’s Coleman Greig Annual Charity Golf Day Monday, 17th September 2012

Just a reminder that the Annual Charity Golf Day will be held on Monday, 17th September and we are indebted to Coleman Greig Lawyers who have supported our school with this event for the past 15 years.

Woolworths Earn and Learn Promotion 2012 9th May—1st July 2012

After the great success we had last year with this promotion, we have signed up again this year and are looking forward to earning lots of resources for learning!

When you shop at Woolworths, the staff at the checkout will give you one Earn and Learn sticker for every $10 you spend in store (excluding the purchase of cigarettes, alcohol and gift cards). Sticker cards have been sent home and you can simply attach the stickers to the card and send completed cards into the school to be placed in the collection container in reception. We have plenty of sticker cards so if you want more, please let Val know. Don’t forget to let your friends and family know about this promotion—the more points we earn, the more resources we can order!

Change of Date! Please note that the date of our St Gabriel’s 90th Birthday celebration has now changed and will be held on Sunday, 4th November—watch out for more details closer to the time!

SCHOOL BANKING

School Banking has now re-sumed for Term 2 and will take place on the following

Thursdays: 17 May 31 May 14 June

Student sickness To protect the wellbeing of our students and staff, we would ask that when students have diarrhoea that they are kept at home for at least 24 hours to ensure they are fully well when they return. Your cooperation is appreciated.

St. Gabriel’s News 6

Easter Liturgy and Easter Egg Hunt —Tuesday, 3rd April  

It was lovely to see so many parents join us for our ‘Easter liturgy” and watch the beautiful performance, “Friends of Jesus”, by our students. This was followed by an Easter egg hunt where we had even organized our own Easter Bunny to hand out chocolate eggs to the children! The eggs were given to us by Castle Towers Shopping Centre who had invited shoppers to donate Easter eggs to various charities as part of their “Easter Egg Drive” and we would like to thank Castle Towers for inviting us to be part of this promotion and for the very generous donation which was much enjoyed by our children! 

                  

DATES FOR THE DIARY Student Term Dates for 2012 Term 2 Tuesday, 24 April - Friday, 22 June 2012 Term 3 Monday, 16 July - Friday, 21 September 2012 Term 4 Monday, 8 October - Tuesday, 11 December 2012 St. Gabriel’s Golf Day Monday, 17th September St. Gabriel’s 90th Birthday Sunday, 4th November (please note change of date)

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