In this week’s newsletter…….

* Book Character Parade

*Pre-order a yearbook

*Principal’s Message

Upcoming events

Monday 1st September: Support Unit Camp leaves

Wednesday 3rd September: Fathers Day Stall Infants

Thursday 4th September: Next Kinder Kritters Session

Friday 5th September: Fathers Day Stall Primary

Tuesday 9th September: P & C Meeting 7pm Library

Term Calendar - Click Here School Website - Click Here

Grafton Public School A Tradition of Excellence

Term 3 Week 8: Monday 1st September 2014

Locked Bag 9024 Grafton 2460 PHONE: Primary - 66421000 Infants - 66422286

Email: grafton-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Well done to all the students who danced at the CoS concert last week. You performed well!

Raffle Tickets- for the Chocolate Basket are due to be returned today to Mrs Avery. This will be drawn on Friday.

100's Club- winners were $50- D.Brown (have been unable to contact you as yet), $25- Rebecca Jackson and $10-

Kammarah. Congratulations!

Lollie Guessing- the correct guess was 313 lollies. This number was not guessed, but the nearest winner was Zac Hayes

-Love with a guess of 312. Enjoy these Zac (and the other children in the family).

All the dancers thank the school community for their support with these fundraisers.

Dance Ensembles

Parents and families can order a DVD of the “Despicable Grafton Public” concert by

sending $7 to the office in an envelope clearly marked with a name and child’s class. We

are filling orders as soon as we receive them.

Photos of the night and the matinee are available for viewing and ordering at Grafton

Fast Photos from today. Prints will be $1 each.

Community of Schools Concert at South High last week: DVDs of this concert can be

purchased from Mrs Avery for $5. Please mark child’s name and class on envelope.

Last Tuesday at our school, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum were the school crossing guards, Freddy Flintstone taught

Year 6 and Daisy Duck and Winnie the Pooh were the Deputy Principals. It was the fun and mayhem of our annual book

character parade. With the wet weather holding off, the playground was full of princesses, pirates, superheroes, evil

queens and lots more, even a magic pudding! Each year the costumes are becoming more creative and we seem to have a

greater number of students joining in. With the numerous parents and pre-schoolers coming to watch, there could even

be a possibility to include a Pre-school parade or even a Parent parade next year!

A HUGE thankyou to all students, staff and parents for the enthusiasm and effort put into the creation and making of

costumes for last week’s parade. The imagination and skills of our parents never ceases to amaze us. A special thankyou

to staff member, Mrs Rhonda Walters who single handedly made the majority of the staff’s costumes. She is a genius!

Overall, it was lots of fun and a wonderful day was had by all!

Book Character Parade

Another success was the Book Fair. Thankyou to all students and parents who purchased, giving our school over $1000

commission to put toward resources for the Library.

The lucky book winners for 2014 were-

Sarah Rowe- 5/6HA Jonathon Pierse 4FM Zeb White 5JD Bailey Chard 3GT Kate Smith 6SB

Hope Endean 4SL Samara Grebert 3MM Aaron Kendell 3SH Jesse Brown KY Willow Kirby KR

Lachlan Coles 2CM Rachelle McLane 1RP Archie Eggins 1RP Mia Fahey 2/3EW

Book Fair

GPS will be issuing a Yearbook again in 2014. This will be a pictorial account of events here at our school during the year

and will feature the photos of nearly all the students. This year, Yearbooks must be pre-ordered and paid for, but

families will be given lots of time to budget for this expense. Order forms are issuing today, and paid orders must be

returned by the end of October.

Yearbook 2014

Last week students in the Support Unit continued to celebrate Science Week by participating in science experiments.

The children rotated between classes and enjoyed four different lessons with various teachers. Here are some photos

of the fun they had with magnets, making ice cream, looking at molecules and making goop.

Continued Science Week

Planning is well underway for Kindergarten 2015, and the Kinder Kritters Orientation program is now

underway. If there are any little brothers and sisters, friends, cousins or neighbours who are starting

“big school” next year, please call in to get forms as soon as possible so that they can be a part of this

program. Please spread the word to friends and neighbours who may have pre-schoolers starting with us

next year. The next of the Kinder Kritters Sessions is this Thursday 4th September.

Dear Parents and Carers,

Cheer and laugh, we did, as the book characters paraded around the oval. The weather held and it proved to be

another highly successful school event, already locked into the 2015 school calendar. There were many parents who

rescheduled work breaks to join us as well as grandparents, aunties and uncles and the occasional family friend. To

you, our community, THANK YOU for supporting your children and their comprehensive education at our school. It is

very rewarding watching the students faces light up as they parade around the oval cheered on by friends, classmates

and family. Aligned with this was an exceptional book fair run by Mrs Avery, to whom we are all indebted for co-

ordinating this wonderful event and week and thanks to our talented Mrs Rhonda Walters for her magnificent

costumes.

It is essential for each of us, as members of the critical mass, to reflect upon the influences that may impede the

social development of our growing national culture. Rhetoric, used by ‘the single liner’ politicians, which implies

disrespect of culture and history, has no place in a complex and growingly sophisticated society. Extremism takes

many forms and we, the collective mass, must be wary when the ultra-right have moved to a point where they appear

to be meeting up with the tail end of the extreme left. Nelson Mandela wrote: “Education is the most powerful

weapon which you can use to change the world.” I live to see this come to fruition, in all its forms.

Public education is inclusive of all comers; where creed, sexuality, spirituality, gender identity, and all forms of

disabilities, creativities and intellects blend together in our melting pot called a school. We proudly sit side by side

growing as rich and capable citizens of an inclusive and multicultural society where everyone is provided with

opportunity to achieve personal best, not allowing set doctrines to impede our decisions and growth.

Our School has student ‘well being’ as a key component of our school’s growth plan. It was with this in mind that we

undertook the Positive Behaviour and Learning (PBL) program which became the corner stone of our school discipline

code four years ago. We have a simple mantra: STAR- which we follow in developing our school culture and

implementing our discipline code. It was a product of parent, student and staff collaboration and has grown both in

direction and depth. We value and hopefully Set a good example, display Respect and Tolerance, and Always do our

best. Our community is also using these as discussion points as are the households that have students attending our

school. United we stand, not always perfect yet hopefully, perfectly balanced.

I had a fortunate childhood and my life was blessed by the extraordinary person I discovered in my father. He was an

inspiration to many, but especially to me. When young, you don’t appreciate the support, encouragement and sacrifice

it takes to turn a child into an adult. As one moves through adulthood it is only with wisdom that one recognises the

qualities of our parents. I hope all fathers enjoy their forthcoming special Sunday.

May the breeze be gentle, the sun upon your back and your decisions guided by the compass of moral imperative, what

is right, fair and just.

Kind regards,

Will Randall

Principal

From the Principal

* The note distributed to some of our Yr 3 to 6 students by Mr Stephen Lamb regarding Milo T20 Cricket had

incorrect dates. Please note that the correct dates are:

Yr 3 and 4: Thursday, September 11th

Yr 5 and 6: Friday, September 12th

All other arrangements remain unchanged.

* Don’t forget the Fathers Day Stalls coming up this week which are being organised by our P & C. Infants Classes

will get the opportunity to buy something special for dad on Wednesday, and all classes Years 2-6 will be able to buy

on Friday.

Brief But Important

LATE MAIL: Congratulations to our GPS Boys Hockey team who today defeated

Timbumburi PS to make the State Finals. The team now heads to Sydney next Monday to

play against the other top three teams in NSW. Well done boys and Mr Bennett!

Canteen News

Canteen Infants Roster

2/9/14 Marcus Marcus

3/9/14 Elizabeth Brown

4/9/14 Charlene Keefe

5/9/14 Rhonda Martin

8/9/14 Narelle Rankin

Primary Roster

2/9/14 Jayne Grieve

3/9/14 Kim Parbery

4/9/14 Mandy Pierse

5/9/14 Tyne Windon

8/9/14 Kate Kratz

Each week we will try to acknowledge the children who received awards at their grade assemblies in the previous week.

Congratulations to the following students who have received awards :

Kinder: Jesse Aston, Taylor Joyce, Liam Paxton, Joel Warburton, Amelia Connolly-Cardno, Myla Smith, Hope Henderson,

Lachlan Coles, Cooper Gilkinson, Neve Rhodes, Dalton Drummond, Brock Harrison

Year 1: Tobias Traecey, Linchon Perkins, James Bright, Kade Goodwin, Cara Cookson, Cedar Jamieson, Charlie

Schlenert, Isabella McLennan, Ruby Deefholts, Ryan Stout

Year 2 Charlie O’Toole-Finn, Malakye Gardiner

Year 3: Chelsie Bagnall, Jenavieve Kearns

Year 4:

Year 5: Ebony Tonna, Brock Ferguson, Shannon Millard,

Year 6: Talon Lawson, Alex Fischer, Lachlan Scott, Logan Eggleton, Clay Cavanagh, Dylan Battaglini, Reilly Lawrence-

King, Corey Blinman, Benjamin Crispin, Lani Diskon,

Support Unit: Jarrah Browning

Assembly Award Winners

COUTTS CROSSING CRICKET CLUB

SIGN ON DAYS Friday, Sept 5 and 12 at Ellem Oval nets 4-6pm Friday. Then on Saturday Sept 13 from 2pm a sign on at the McIntosh Park nets in Coutts Crossing.

New Players Welcome. Teams games and training all at Grafton and South Grafton Fields

come join the fun from Milo Cricket to u16's contact barbwillis4@gmail.com

Community Notices

Attention all parents of students attending

South Grafton High School in 2015.

'Major raffle prize is a 2 person VIP Magic Pass giving you unlimited entry to Warner Bros. Movie World, Sea

World & Wet’n’Wild Gold Coast until 30 June 2015. Other prizes include a microwave oven, quilts, as well as

dinner, jewellery and beauty gift vouchers. Raffle tickets are available from Mrs Ware.'