GORDON WEST BULLETIN V O L U M E 1 0 2 0 2 0 J U L Y 2 2 0 2 0

Principal’s Report Ryde Road Pymble 2073 Telephone: 9498 4644 Fax: 9498 4436 Email: gordonwest-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au Website: www.gordonwest-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

It has certainly been an eventful Term 2. From the beginning of Week 9 Term 1 the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted on most aspects of our school’s operation. Our philosophy has always been to live one day at a time addressing all issues as they arise. The reality is that we will have to continue to be vigilant because this dreadful pandemic will be a challenge that we all have to face in the foreseeable future. We are very fortunate that the Department of Education has been incredibly supportive of schools in these most challenging of times. I would like to acknowledge and thank all members of the Gordon West Public School community for your overwhelming support in addressing all issues that have arisen.

One area of confusion has been that the parents of Year 1 and Kindergarten students and certain parents of other students have been permitted to enter the school grounds when other parents have not. Kindergarten and Year 1 parents were given permission to enter the school grounds at the synthetic grass area for afternoon

dismissal for reasons of safety because of the proximity of Ryde Road and to facilitate early dismissal. Early in Term 3 we plan to evaluate the effectiveness of our early dismissal policy and make changes if required. The Department of Education policy is that parents do not enter the school grounds unless granted special permission and this policy is scheduled to continue. In fact external visitors including parents to the school site during school hours are requested to attend the school office to sign a statement that they have practised designated health and hygiene measures. Enclosed in the Bulletin is a copy of the Gordon West Designated Play Areas for your information. The safety of the 575 children attending our school is of paramount concern. Subsequently the school has been divided into six different zones where different rules apply so that our children can enjoy our beautiful facilities in a safe and happy environment. The designated play zones and accompanying rules are continually being evaluated. You may note that specific activities have not been allocated to the tennis court area not because this popular area isn’t used regularly. This area has multiple usage with individual supervisory policies also changing on a needs basis. Please discuss these designated play zones with your children.

Dates to Remember

Friday 3 July

Last day Term 2

Monday 20 July

Staff Development Day

Tuesday 21 July

Students Resume T3

During the course of this week we have met with the Council Rangers and Council Managers to discuss the challenges of traffic management in the immediate vicinity of the school. All 42 schools in the Ku-ring-gai Municipality have experienced traffic management concerns in varying degrees. The COVID-19 challenge has exacerbated the problems with more parents driving children to and from school. Council Rangers have been very understanding. This morning when meeting with the Rangers, multiple Gordon West parents who could have been immediately booked for traffic infringements were given verbal warnings which we hope that they will adhere to in the future. We are in the process of evaluating our current rules practices to hopefully facilitate a more effective management policy in the immediate vicinity of the school. A big thank you to Mrs Garland, Mrs Armstrong and Mrs Harvey for conducting a major evaluation of our Guided and Home Reading Programs K-6. Four new benchmarking kits have been purchased together with an online benchmarking kit which will help to accurately determine instructional and independent reading levels across the school. New guided reading resources have also been purchased to compliment the benchmarking facilities together with new home readers being redistributed throughout the school. A more detailed overview of this evaluation will be provided early in Term 3.

Once again thank you for your continued support and understanding as we work through the school calendar where numerous events will have to be drastically modified or even cancelled due to the challenges of COVID -19. For example school camps are not being permitted at this point in time and the State and District Athletics carnivals have been cancelled. Our athletics carnival scheduled for early Term 3 has also had to be cancelled. We may have the opportunity of staging a modified athletics carnival later in the year. Although the District Dance Festival has been also cancelled we have decided to still have our internal dance groups. Of course the cancellation of any anticipated event is disappointing. However we will get over it and should consider ourselves very fortunate that we live in such a beautiful country as Australia. The current situation in Victoria is a reminder that we shouldn’t become complacent and must always be vigilant otherwise the consequences could be catastrophic. At the beginning of Term 3 we will provide you with a COVID-19 Update.

Have an enjoyable vacation.

J Huckerby Principal

Kindergarten 2021

Enrolment

Enrolments for Kindergarten 2021 are now being accepted.

If you have a younger child due to start school in 2021 please complete an enrolment form (available from school office or website).

All forms can then be lodged with the required identity documents at the school office so you can be added to our mailing lists for events relating to Kindy 2021 later

this year.

All new enrolments will require a 100 point residential address check due to new regulations established by the NSW Dept of Education.

STUDENT NEWS PREMIER’S READING CHALLENGE

Yuri K KP Olivia L KA Alina H 2H Raik K 2J

Sophie W 3/4D Jed L KW Zara L 1J

Carlos Z 4C

Congratulations to the following students who have completed the challenge:

Claire Y 3G Jack B 4H

Grace P 4/5T Leila Z 4H

Kay Lynn G 6S Mia P 2L

Amy B 3H Jason Z 3W

Holiday Tennis Program

A holiday tennis clinic will be conducted at Gordon West Public School in the school holidays:

Clinic details: July 6th-8th Mon to Wednesday 9.30am - 12pm $90 9.30am - 2.30pm $140

Enrolments and enquiries to Scott 0414 554 612

Ethics classes at Gordon West Public School Are you able to volunteer to be an ethics teacher for Gordon West Public School.

We are seeking volunteers so we can provide ethics classes for all the families who have requested it for their children. Perhaps in these circumstances you may be working from home and can find a little more time for this most rewarding activity?

Ethics teachers receive full training by Primary Ethics, the not-for-profit organisation approved to design curriculum and training for the ethics program. Training consists of either a two day face to face workshop and short online modules or since Covid it is now possible to do all the training online.. Lesson materials are provided. Suitable volunteers will have an interest in children’s education and development of critical thinking skills and must be available at 12:25pm on Wednesdays each week.

In ethics classes, children learn how to think logically, disagree respectfully and support their arguments with evidence, rather than act according to blind habit or peer pressure.

Children discuss topic such as: -imagining how others feel -how do we treat living things? -what is laziness? -how do we disagree in a respectful way? -fairness

If you are looking for an opportunity to make a valuable contribution to our school, please visit www.primaryethics.com.au or contact Julie Brown on 0412 128 209 or email her at northshore-region@primaryethics.com.au