P&C Meeting 12th March 7:00pm – Library Page 1

Respect Responsibility Personal Best

The Galston Gumnut Galston Public School Newsletter

Wednesday 6th March 2019 Phone: 9653 2062 Fax: 9653 1980

Email: galston-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au Website: www.galston-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

Calendar Dates

Week 6, Term 1 Thursday 7th March Peer Support Session 1

Friday 8th March Beecroft PSSA Zone Swimming Carnival No Assembly

Week 7, Term 1

Tuesday 12th March NetSetGo Netball Clinics: 3-4M, 3-4P, 5-6M, 5-6S and 5-6W ScopeIT Parent Presentation, 6:30pm P&C Meeting, 7:00pm

Wednesday 13th March NetSetGo Netball Clinics: KW, 1-2B, 1-2M, 1-2P and 3-4F Thursday 14th March Peer Support Session 2

Friday 15th March National Day of Action Against Bullying Bully Busters Incursion Assembly, 10:00am – 5-6W class item

Note Due Date

2019 School Invoice Overdue Bully Busters Performance incursion Friday 8th March 2019 P&C membership and contribution Friday 8th March Stage 3 Camp Friday 15th March (deposit) Scholastic Book Club orders Tuesday 19th March Got It! questionnaire Thursday 28th March

From the Principal Tell Them From Me student feedback survey I am delighted that this term, our school, like many other public schools in the state, will once again participate in a Department of Education initiative: the Tell Them From Me student feedback survey for children in Years 4-6. The survey measures factors that are known to affect academic achievement and other student outcomes. The focus of the NSW-wide survey is on student wellbeing, engagement and effective teaching practices. More information about the survey is available at: http://surveys.cese.nsw.gov.au

The survey is an opportunity for our students to provide us with feedback on what they think about school life, how engaged they are with school and the different ways that teachers interact with them. Schools in Australia and around the world have used the Tell Them From Me survey to help improve how they do things at school.

I want to assure you that the survey is confidential. The survey is conducted online and will typically take less than 30 minutes to complete. It will be administered during school hours between 11th March and 12th April. Participating in the survey is entirely voluntary.

A consent form has been sent home with students in Years 4-6. If you do not want your child to participate, please return the form by Monday 12th March. Spare copies of the form are available from the office.

Reading Tips - Helping at Home Before Reading:

• Keep reading time relaxed, comfortable and pleasurable in a quiet area with the television turned off.

• Talk about the book cover and read the title. Ask some ‘predicting’ questions about the cover such as:

- What do you think the story will be about? - What sort of book is it?

Week 6, Term 1

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- Have you read a book like this before? Predicting what the story may be about assists with reading comprehension and can develop a bit of excitement about whether the prediction/s may be right. Look through the book, note any interesting pictures and words before reading. During reading:

• Be patient; don't correct too quickly. If your child makes an error, suggest they have another go, perhaps using the pictures for a clue, sounding out the first letter or reading on before you 'tell' the problem word. Wait for your child to ‘have a go’ at reading the word. Don’t be afraid of silence, give them time and let them use the pictures for clues.

• Reinforce your child’s attempts to monitor - Why did you stop? What did you notice? Did it match? Was it okay? Good job, you tried to work that word out!

• Encourage fluency and expression through demonstration when necessary. Take turns reading, you may read one page and your child may read the next page. You may even read with your child to assist with fluency.

After Reading: Encourage your child to respond to the story.

• What was the story about? What was your favourite part? • Talk about the author, characters and plots, or what new information has been learned. If your child reads

silently, ask him/her to re-tell the part that has been read and encourage the 'pointing out' of relevant sections in the text. Work on comprehension by asking your child to explain what they are reading or asking them questions about the content.

Rob Jarvis

Week 6 PBL Awards Galston Gotcha Prize Draw Winners

Peer Support Each year the whole school participates in a Peer Support program. This year the children will be participating in a new module, Moving Forward, which focuses on resilience. The experiences in the module help children to identify their qualities and strengths, develop skills, respond with a range of strategies and seek support when faced with challenges. The module contains 8 sessions and will be run during terms 1 and 2 for 30 minutes each week. During this time a Peer leader from Year 6 will facilitate a small group of 6 younger students, who will work together through a number of structured activities. Each teacher will supervise groups in their classrooms. We are commencing our Peer Support lessons on Thursday. In this first session, the children will establish connections with the other members of their group and develop their group agreement to enable them to work well together. The children will discuss an example of a challenging situation and some resilient and non-resilient responses. We encourage you to talk to your children about Peer Support every week, as it will help to reinforce the concepts learned in each session. You may also like to discuss with your child what they can do to help them take an active role in Peer Support. Gemma Watson, Claire Sundin and Giulia Muscat – Year 6 teachers Library News Do you like hidden attractions, cool sights, and unusual things to do? Come and visit the Galston school library! We have started 2019 with some exciting, new and fresh ideas in the library.

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Our new Library Monitors teams, The Avengers and The Justice League, have made a great start to the year helping whenever and wherever they can (just like their superhero alter egos). The Avengers and The Justice League will be running a Chess Tournament in the library at lunchtimes over the coming weeks. Good luck to those players who have signed up to compete. We look forward to a strong and enjoyable competition. New colourful furniture and a revamped layout has brightened and opened up the library space. The cozy beanbag nook has proven to be very popular with the students…a quiet spot where they can enjoy browsing and sharing their favourite books. Recently we celebrated Dr Seuss’ 115 year anniversary (he was born 2nd March 1904) with a colourful display of his ever popular books. We have also been discovering Australian history with the theme “now and then”. Children have been able to see a range of utensils, books and other objects from the past and discuss how the times and people have changed.

We have been discussing and learning about The First Fleet – the ships and the people who sailed in them to Australia. All were surprised at the size of the ships and how many people fitted on them!

A recent LLTC (Library LunchTime Challenge) making paper aeroplanes was enjoyed by all who joined in. The planes are now ‘flying’ high in the library. Who knows what the next LLTC will be! Alisha Antonie - Teacher/Librarian Premier’s Reading Challenge Children who have brought in permission notes have been given their Robot recording sheets. If your child is participating this year please encourage them to borrow appropriate level books. A large number of books in the library have coloured dots and the PRC number on the cover. K-2 have red dots, years 3-4 have green dots and years 5-6 have purple dots. You can also visit the PRC website for booklists and lots of information about the challenge. Delia Morgan - PRC Coordinator Stage 3 Surf Education excursion On Tuesday 26th February Stage 3 students boarded a bus and headed to Shelly Beach at Manly for Surf Ed! On arrival we participated in three activities within our class groups: relay racing with wading and dolphin dives; body boarding; and rip identification and safety in the water. The depths of Shelly Beach held breathtaking marine life, whilst the waves of Manly saw surfing conquered.

At the end of the day the sun-kissed weary senior students collapsed on the bus ready to tell their stories to anyone who’d listen. Amelie and Rachel H – 5-6S

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News From 3-4M 3-4M are having a brilliant start to 2019! We have been learning to use beautiful handwriting, set up our books correctly and become experts at our classroom routines. In our English unit, we are reading the book Storm Boy. Some of us saw it at the movies during the holidays and were very excited to hear that it is our book focus for Term 1! We have loved hearing about Storm Boy and Mr Percival’s adventures and discussing the characters Hideaway Tom and Fingerbone Bill. Our favourite part though… was building humpies! We had an absolute ball using sticks, bark, twigs, leaves, branches and wool to make a shelter. Check out Seesaw for the photos!

In Maths, we have been learning a lot about 3D objects, in particular, what the difference between a prism and a pyramid is. Do you know what the difference between a triangle-based pyramid and a triangular prism is? Ask us and we can tell you! 3-4M have also been persisting through learning their times tables every day, making Miss Mahony a very proud teacher to see the determination and motivation to improve and learn. In our Bounce Back lessons, 3-4M recently discussed the different ways you can be friendly to someone, including: holding the door open for someone, saying good morning to your teacher and friends, and asking if someone is alright. Check out our ‘Heart Art’ in the hall where you can see more of our ideas on ways to be friendly to others. Jaime Mahony – 3-4M P&C News Parent Directory The 2019 Parent Directory was emailed out on Sunday evening to families included on the list. This year we have taken a different approach in distributing the directory as a PDF file, to try and be more sustainable. P&C Membership Thank you to all families that have already paid their P&C membership, and also to those generous families that have made an additional contribution. Please note, to be eligible to vote on P&C matters you need to pay the $10. Payments may be made by direct deposit (preferred method), cash or cheque. Please note as this relates to the P&C the school office will only collect the payment slip plus cash and cheque payments. Please do NOT pay using POP. Help required for Election Day 23rd March 2019 The NSW State Election will be held on Saturday 23rd March and GPS is lucky to be an election location which gives us a great opportunity for fundraising with the general public. The P&C are running an election day BBQ along with a cake stall and 2nd hand book stall. As with all events the P&C run, all profits go back to the school. • We are hoping parents could make and bake some cakes, slices, biscuits etc to sell on the day. These can be

left at school on the Friday or brought in on the Saturday. Please label each item with name and all ingredients, and serve on a disposable platter.

• We are also selling 2nd hand fiction & kids’ books (these kinds of books only!) It would be great if you have any books you are willing to donate to the stall, but please only donate books in good condition that are also “known” and will sell well.

• Lastly, we require helpers on the day for a shift from 7:00am till close at approximately 2:00pm. If you have an

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hour or so and can help out, we would love to hear from you! Please contact the fund raising committee: Kris Taylor kristentaylor@iprimus.com.au or

Jodie Burton jodienburton@gmail.com

Kim Alsdorf – P&C President, kim@galstonpandc.org.au Canteen News Friday 8th and Monday 11th March Lunch + Counter Sales Please lodge all orders through Flexischools.com.au by 9.15am. If your child is absent from school on a lunch ordering day you are able to cancel the order online prior to cut off at 9.15am or call Flexischools on 1300 361 769. Thank you to all those parents who have contacted me regarding a coffee machine. From Friday we will be able to provide volunteers (as well as grandparents, parents and friends) with a coffee. :) Over the last few weeks we have had a couple of lunch orders not make it to the intended recipient. Could you please remind your child/ren to read the front of the lunch order bag carefully to ensure it is their lunch order before they eat it? Thank you. In a couple of weeks we will begin rostering for Term 2. If you are interested in assisting please make contact with me (0424 578 579) as soon as possible. We appreciate that everyone is busy, but even a couple of hours once a term helps to keep the canteen open. All new volunteers are always rostered with a trained volunteer, so please do not think you will be thrown in at the deep end… All current volunteers - if you have particular dates that you would like to request for Term 2, please advise Amal or myself. Thank you! Louise O'Rourke – Canteen Committee

Friday Roster 8th March

Helpers Assistant Supervisor 9:30-12:00 Edyta Lynch & Annie Norton-Taylor 12:00-3:00 Kylie Dawson 9:00-3:00 Rachel Lacey 12:00-3:00 Julia Wellington

Monday Roster

Morning 10:30 to 1:30 Afternoon 12:30-2:30

11th March Julia Eccles Carolyn Sommer Uniform Shop We encourage all parents and carers to order uniforms via Flexischools. Orders will be packed and sent home with students each Monday. Any enquiries please contact us via uniformshop@galstonpandc.org.au The uniform shop is open the first two weeks of term and, when the following term has a change of season/uniform, the last two weeks of term. During the term the uniform shop is open once per month, with the dates being determined at the start of each term. Remaining Opening Dates for Term 1 Tuesday 26th March - 8.30am-9.15am

Tuesday 2nd April - 2.30pm-3.15pm

Kristie Chambers and Lucy Parrin – Uniform Shop Coordinators, uniformshop@galstonpandc.org.au

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