Gwandalan Public School Newsletter

Term 1 Week 6 - Thursday 4 March 2021

About our school

Gwandalan Pubic School strives to provide students with opportunities to become self-directed, lifelong learners, where they can develop skills that enable them to create a positive future for themselves and become confident members of the community. Gwandalan Public School is a place where every student can learn and grow with confidence.

Principal's Report

Term 1 Week 6

Principal's Report

Staffing changes:

Mrs Notley has taken leave until the end of term and as a result of this there have been several changes to our staff.

Miss Paula Ritchie will be relieving Deputy IL/Instructional leader and Mrs Kirsty Henry will be Relieving Assistant Principal for Early Stage 1. We have Miss Maddy Bartho taking 5/6R and Mrs Hayley Samuels taking executive release. We trust that with these changes we will continue to strive for excellence in achieving in supporting your child at school in all areas.

School Improvement Plan

Gwandalan Public School is currently preparing our new Four Year Improvement Plan. Part of this planning process was to develop a vision statement. This statement has come from consultation with staff. The vision statement is:-

Gwandalan Public School is a supportive, inclusive environment where all are valued and aspire to become respectful and resilient learners.

Our school Improvement Plan includes three strategic directions.

1.     Student Growth and Attainment

2.     Leading through Collaboration

3.     Supportive Wellbeing Partnerships

 

Student Led Interviews

Our Student Led interviews will begin next week. This is a wonderful opportunity for all parents and carers to celebrate and share in their child’s learning this year. For Yrs 1-6 all students will be involved in the interviews and for Kindergarten it will be Parent and Teacher. Learning goals will be presented and discussed at these interviews along with any specific learning and support plans. It will also be a chance to discuss PLP’s for our Aboriginal students with their parents. Bookings for interviews will close this Friday at 6pm.

Swimming Carnival

What a great day for our swimming carnival last week. Congratulations to those students who made it through to the Wallarah Zone carnival this week. Congratulations on all students who represented our school.

Communication

In today’s busy world we find there are many ways we communicate with you. We use this newsletter, Facebook, Skoolbag, Dojo, See-saw, our website and various notes as well as phone calls, email and SMS. We want to make our communication as effective as possible and as user friendly as we can.

Our newsletter remains our main form of communication. We are changing how we use Facebook to make it for positive communication only. This is a very public forum and can affect how the school is viewed in the wider community. The Skoolbag app will be the main means of communicating upcoming events and reminders. Please find a sheet on the app attached. The Skoolbag app will now include a calendar and should be a place you can refer to for all recent communication.

All our teachers now use either Dojo or See-saw to communicate with you also. However, these are not the main forms of communication and we do not expect our teachers to put out reminders etc. via these apps as their primary job is to teach the students.

Attendance

It is a requirement of the Department of Education for parents and carers to explain all absences of their children. Absentee notes can be sent in with your child, emailed to the school or you can provide a verbal explanation via the phone. We now send a text when your child is not at school and you can just reply via Skoolbag or phone the office. If an absence goes unexplained for 2 days, a reminder note will be sent home.

Department of Education guidelines for absences involving COVID symptoms are:-

In accordance with advice from NSW Health (External link) parents and carers are reminded NOT to send children to school if they are unwell, even if they have the mildest flu-like symptoms.

NSW Health has requested that schools encourage anyone who is unwell or has even mild flu-like symptoms, to arrange to be tested through their local medical practitioner or one of the COVID-19 clinicsExternal link.

Students with flu-like symptoms will need to be tested and provide a copy of a negative COVID-19 test result and be symptom-free before being permitted to return to school.

Students who do not undertake a COVID-19 test will not be permitted to return to school for a 10-day period. Additionally, they must be symptom-free for at least 3 days prior to returning to school.

Students who have seasonal allergic rhinitis or another condition that presents similarly to flu-like symptoms are still required to get tested for COVID-19 and return a negative test result. Where their symptoms continue beyond 10 days, students should provide documentation from their GP confirming their symptoms are typical for their condition. If the student develops new or changed symptoms, they should get tested for COVID-19.

As mentioned in last week’s newsletter this year we are having a sausage sizzle each term for students who attend 95% and any absences are justified (ie an explanation was given that is acceptable). At the end of the year students with 100% attendance receive an award and students with 95% or above are recognised.

Aspire High

On Tuesday 2nd March, Stage 3 students participated in a leadership workshop- Aspire High. Sessions throughout the day included:

·       Leading with or without the badge- influence, example and kindness

·       The Epic Race- active, fast paced team event, with a focus on a A.S.P.I.R.E.

·       Knowing me, growing me- understanding my strengths and those of others

The day was enjoyed by all students and I am sure that each student was able to take an important message away with them.

Police Youth Officer visit

The Police Youth officer will be coming out to speak to our Stage 3 students next Tuesday about Cyber-Safety. This will be an opportunity for all our Stage 3 students to learn and find out more about staying safe on-line.

Keyboard Lessons

Keyboard has started this week and I know all students have enjoyed their lessons so far. Thank you to Carmel Smith for the great job she is doing. This is a great initiative and I am sure we will see some very talented keyboard players emerge.

Sue Tangye

Relieving Principal

Learning and Support

Our Learning and Support team consists of our three assistant Principals, Learning and Support team coordinator, Principal, School Counsellor, LaST and School Chaplain. This team meets every week to discuss, collect information and give recommendations for teachers of students who need adjustments to access the curriculum and meet their educational goals. Our Learning and Support Team plays a key role in meeting the specific needs of children with disability and additional learning and support needs. The team will get to know your child, work with your child’s teachers to make sure your child’s additional learning and support needs are identified, organise the planning process, and design the supports for your child and work with the whole school community and other professionals to improve learning for all students.

The learning and support team also assists in early intervention planning, processing and allocating resources.

As part of your role in supporting your child, you may meet with a member of the learning and support team to: discuss your child’s strengths, interests and areas for development plan adjustments and supports, monitor your child’s progress.

If you would like more information about the role of the Learning Support Team or any other learning and support matter please don’t hesitate to contact the school.

 

 This website is a great place to go to find out further information:-

https://education.nsw.gov.au/parents-and-carers/inclusive-learning-support/support-and-adjustments

 

Integration Funding Support

Integration funding is an area where we are able to employ student learning and support officers to specifically support those students on Integration funding, employ extra teachers and provide additional programs and supports for students. Few students with a disability will need integration funding support, and most students with disability and additional learning and support needs are supported through the resources at Gwandalan Public School. These are allocated through a learning and support resource package as part of the school budget.

Integration funding is provided by the department on application by our school, if needed, so that students will be supported in their mainstream classroom.

Your child is eligible if

  • they are school-aged
  • they are enrolled full-time in a mainstream class in a NSW public school
  • they have a moderate to severe intellectual disability, physical disability, mental health disorder, autism spectrum disorder, hearing and/or vision impairment as defined by the Department's disability criteria
  • they need essential adjustments to access learning opportunities and school experiences.

Again if you would like more information about this program please don’t hesitate to contact the school or clink on the link below:-

https://education.nsw.gov.au/parents-and-carers/inclusive-learning-support/support-and-adjustments

This link will also provide information for parents on a range of other learning and support strategies available.

 

Learning and Support Team- Gwandalan Public School

Our swimming carnival photos are now in the gallery on our website

Zone Swimming Carnival - Wednesday 3rd March @ Mingara

Week 5 - K-2 Assembly Award recipients

Week 5 - 3-6 Assembly Award recipients

Women's NRL Roosters visit - Stage 2

Stage 3 - Aspire Higher

From the Office

Our office hours are 8.15am to 3.30pm. We accept cash, card and Parent on line payments (via school website). Notes can be dropped off at the office and put into the payment box at the front counter.

Stewart House

We are sending home Stewart House envelopes today. If you would like to donate $2 for your chance to win a $4000 gift voucher fill your details out on the back of the envelope and return it to the school. We will also be selling hand balls for $3 each later on this month.

Notes  

Invoices are being sent home on a weekly basis for Bookpacks $65 per student. Ukulele for term 1 $25 per student. For the students doing Keyboard Lessons the note will be given to the student at the lesson $67.90 per student Term 1. Chromebook notes $100 due for Year 6 and for students in year 5 who haven’t taken up this opportunity you may make a payment of $140 to the office. Student can pay with cash or eftpos at the front office or via our school website through Parent on line payments. 

Medication     

We are currently updating health care plans, we will be in contact with you in regards to paperwork needing signing or plans needing updating.

If your child carries a puffer in their bags please notify the office as we now have paperwork that needs to be filled in.

Is your child on medication at School?

If so, we would appreciate you arranging to have your child's medication prepared into a Webster pack. This is prepared for you at the Chemist. Many Chemists do this as a free service. However, some may charge a small fee.

Is your child on medication at home?

If so, please contact the office. 

Attendance

We will be sending out sms messages to parents when students are absent. Please ensure that we have your correct mobile as we ask that you reply to these messages by phoning the school or recording the absence via the skoolbag application.

SkoolBag App 

Have you got our skoolbag app? If not, why not download it to keep up-to-date with all the latest news happening around the school. Just go to your application store and search Gwandalan Public School.

Payments Due

Book packs – DUE NOW $65 per student

Ukulele – DUE NOW $25 Term 1

Keyboard Lessons - $67.90 Term 1

Chromebooks Yr 5 - DUE NOW $140 per student & Yr 6 – DUE NOW $100 per student

Skoolbag App

Do you have our Skoolbag app? If not, why not download it to keep up-to-date with all the latest news happening around the school. Just go to your application store and search Gwandalan Public School.