Cnr Gillieston & Ryan RoadsGillieston Heights NSW 2321Subscribe:Subscribe: https://gilliestonps.schoolzineplus.com/subscribe

Email:Email: gillieston-p.school@det.nsw.edu.auPhone:Phone: 02 4932 7542

Fax:Fax: 02 4932 5950

16 March 201816 March 2018

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

‘Forward’ is our school motto and that is exactly whereGillieston is going. As part of the Department’s

commitment to improving the facilities of all schools in our area,we are receiving a new demountable toilet block, painting of thecurrent demountable toilet block and a new demountable officebuilding. The old boys’ toilet will eventually be demolished andthe demountable that was our library will be fully renovated.These are some of the upgrades we applied for some time ago,that will relieve some of our space issues in our school.

Great thanks goes to our P&C for sharing the cost of the newfixed equipment. The repairs to the soft fall area have nowbeen completed and children have been having safety lessonsin their classes this week. The official opening with the P&Crepresentatives will be today.

Congratulations to Mrs Madden who will be temporary leavingus, starting next week until the end of term two, to take upa Relieving Principal role at another school. We wish her well.Our executive staff are currently looking into her temporaryreplacement.

Mrs JohansonPrincipal

STUDENT ORAL PRESENTATIONS

Many thanks to all our parents, carers and grandparents whovisited us to share some learning experiences in classes.Schools and classrooms have changed a lot and are continuingto change as teachers continue to prepare children for thefuture. Well done to our students and teachers.

YOUNG LEADERS’ DAY

Rutherford Technology High School held a Young Leaders’ Daythat saw student leaders from all the partner primary schoolsand the high school. Michael Eyb started the day with a uniqueperspective on leadership, followed by Mr Gadd, Director ofPublic Schools Maitland, who led the groups through a seriesof activities that provided the new leaders with direction andskills. The day finished with Cr Loretta Baker, Mayor of Maitlandsharing her leadership journey. Our student leaders are nowlooking forward to having our Student Representative Councilup and running so that students will have a real voice within ourschool.

SCHOOL UNIFORM CHANGE COMMITTEE

Our school is looking at changing our uniform, in particular,the white shirt. There is a process that must be followed toensure we are compliant with the Department of Education.The first step is to form a committee with representatives fromstaff, students, parents and P&C. If you are a parent, keen toparticipate in this process, please contact our office and let usknow.

DRAGONFLIES

Wow! The Dragonflies have had a super exciting fortnight. Wehave held baby chicks, experimented with the new BeeBotsand had lessons around using our new playground equipment.

Well done to Maddison Langridge and Felix Wilks for being ourPBL superstars this fortnight.

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HONEYANTS

The Honey Ants have opened their own café! We have beenpracticing every morning to write each other’s food orders andpractice using money.

The Honey Ants have been practicing to use meaning andpictures to read their books in the engine room. We have beenpracticing to use expression too so we can sound just like LittleChimp.

The Honey Ants have been very excited to visit the baby chicksin the Tree Frogs room. We have been writing about theadventures of the chicks as a class every day, practicing to usedescribing words in our sentences.

SLATERS

What a chirpy fortnight the Slaters have had. Watching eggsdisappear and baby chicks appear has been a highlight, alongwith testing out our new fixed equipment.

If the chickens could talk I would ask them..

“Do you have a best friend?”Hayleigh

“What is your name?”Janabella

What would you say to or ask the chickens if they could talk?

TREEFROGS

The Frogs have had a very egg-citing week or two! As you mayhave seen from the updates, we have had the eggs and chicksin our room. The eggs have all hatched now, and the fluffy downof the chicks is beginning to turn into real feathers. They growso fast!!!

We have been working on stretching sentences in our morningliteracy drills. Here is one from Georgia…the sentence theywere given was “I teach Frogs.” Georgia stretched this into “Iteach frogs to ribbit in choir.” We usually focus on the noungroup, adding adjectives to make our sentences moreinteresting, but this one REALLY tickled Mrs Heath’s fancy!!!

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BEES

The Bees have been working very hard this week. We haveexperimented with different art forms and have been focusingon the purpose of abstract art and created our own pieces.Please look in the gallery below to see our fabulous work.The busy bees have also been trying really hard to improvetheir writing. We thought of and used some fantastic describingwords such as ‘the classroom was a desert’ or ‘the school waslike a dog park’ and ‘as green as a goblin’. Keep up the greatwork bees!

BEETLES

It has been a busy week in the beetle’s room this week. Thebeetles have visited the chicks and been learning how to besafe, respectful learners on the new playground equipment.

SCORPIONS

The Scorpions have continued with their imaginative text themethis term and decided to create a comic strip. They learnt thatthe pictures in a comic strip replace the figurative languageused in a normal imaginative story. I think they have done agreat job.

AROUND THE CLASSROOMS

I have been very busy visiting classrooms during literacysessions over the last few weeks.

The year is off to a great start with students workingconsistently on all literacy activities. Learning centres areoperating in all classrooms with science-themed writingactivities, text comprehension tasks, word work, sharedreading and teacher directed guided reading lessons underway.A highlight so far has been watching Kindergarten studentsengage in their very first quality discussion around the text‘Big Rain Coming’ and also watching them engage in groupactivities with their peers.

I have also been working with Year 1 students to assess theirunderstanding of number sense which will help teachers targetspecific areas of need in numeracy.

Kim CummingsInstructional Leader

NEW PLAY EQUIPMENT TRIAL

There was much excitement this week when several of ourclasses had a trial play on the new equipment. All students willspend this week getting to know the rules for safe usage of theequipment under teacher supervision.

On Monday morning the staff had a safety briefing beforehaving some fun assessing the equipment. It wasn’t all playthough as we were becoming familiar with safety points to passon to students before the P&C officially open the equipment.

PBL REPORT

Thankyou to everyone who got their Gillo Gold Rush chartsin for their chance to go to the Principals picnic. For those ofyou who aren’t familiar with the Gillo Gold Rush charts, theyrepresent to Mrs Johanson that your child has received ten GilloGolds. The next Principal’s picnic will be in week eleven, anddon’t forget, every time your child receives a Gillo Gold, be sureto remind them to ask their teacher to put a stamp on their GoldRush chart. The two students from each class who fill up themost Gillo Gold Rush charts with Gillo Golds will be chosen toattend the next Principal’s picnic.

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BOOK CLUB

Please remember to place all Book Club orders via LOOP.Orders for this issue are due before 26th March 2018.

STUDENT BANKING

Student banking is processed each Monday morning. Pleaseremind students to hand their bank books in at the office beforeschool on Mondays.

BUS ROUTE CHANGES

Students who live in Saddlers Ridge or Darcys Peak will now becollected by bus S934 in the mornings. The bus will travel onthe following route:

8.45 Cliftleigh

(L) Heyes Street - GILLIESTON HEIGHTS

(R) Cartwright Street

(R) Fanning Street

(L) Cessnock Road

(R) Saddlers Drive

8.47

(R) Spring Street - continue over Bridge

Bus Stop - Before Bridge

(R) River Oak Avenue - continues around the block

8.52

(L) Spring Street

(R) Saddlers Drive

(L) Scenic Drive

(R) Cessnock Road

(L) Gillieston Road

9.00 GILLIESTON PUBLIC SCHOOL

P & C NEWS

Canteen News

Our school canteen reopened this Thursday 15th March. Welook forward to serving your children each week in the canteen.

After this week the canteen will operate Wednesday, Thursdayand Friday each week. A copy of the menu is attached for yourconvenience.

A reminder that we also have reusable canteen bags for sale for$10 as we will no longer be providing paper bags for orders.

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CAMP AUSTRALIA

COMMUNITY NEWS

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