Students Return to School Students have returned happily back to school with few problems. Most are very happy to be here with just a few needing extra support. I am very proud of how well Kindergarten students have coped as some of them had only just become used to school before the COVID pandemic.

Thank you to parents who have worked so hard with the home learning. We realise it wasn’t easy but you have done a great job of keeping learning happening for our students. I also believe our teachers did a great job of putting work packages together for home learning. It is something we have not had to do before and it has been a steep learning curve for everyone but at the end of the day I believe everyone has tried their very best and I am very proud of our teacher’s efforts.

Thank you to parents for following our guidelines around drop-offs and pick-ups. Your respect in this area is appreciated.

Reports Your child has been assessed during the learning from home period and will receive additional assessment on their return to school. Teachers are working hard to ensure they are confident of where students are up to with their learning. The Dept. of Education has said you will receive your child’s semester 1 report before the end of August (week 6, Term 3). For our school this should be week 2 Term 3.

Reports will not be graded and comments are only for English and Maths but teachers are looking closely at the goals students have set and will also report on future directions for each student.

Attention Year 4 Parents- Applying for Year 5 entry to an opportunity class in 2021. Thinking of applying for Year 5 entry to an opportunity class in 2021? You must apply online at: education.nsw.gov.au/public-schools/selective-high-schools-and-opportunity-classes/year-5

Key dates

Application website opens: Tuesday 9 June 2020

Application website closes: 5pm, Friday 26 June 2020 You must apply before this deadline

‘Test authority’ letters sent to all applicants: Wednesday 2 September 2020

Opportunity Class Placement Test: Wednesday 16 September 2020

Placement outcome information sent overnight on: Tuesday 1 December 2020

Mrs Preen Mrs Preen will be going on maternity leave at the end of this term and for the remainder of the year 1P will be taught by Mrs Marina McCann who is an experienced teacher and has done some casual teaching with us. She is trained in L3 so will be able to continue the literacy program the students are currently doing. Mrs Garry will continue to take the class on a Monday.

Kind Regards

Sandy Notley

Principal

Class Awards

GWANDALAN PUBLIC SCHOOL NEWSLETTER Term 2 Week 6 2020

GWANDALAN PUBLIC SCHOOL Phone: 02 4976 1318 Email: Gwandalan-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au Kanangra Drive Fax: 02 4972 5189 Web: www.gwandalan-p.school@det.nsw.gov.au GWANDALAN Principal: Sandra Notley NSW 2259

Striving for Excellence and Success

KA Charlie D - Expressive Reading Seth S - Consistent Effort in all KLAs KW Charlie G - Fantastic work making patterns in Maths Isabel R - Great work sounding out words in Guided Writing lessons. KI Grace H - always demonstrating STAR expectations Noah S - an excellent effort reading and writing sight words 1T Elisha Mc - for consistently displaying STAR expectations Ruby E - for creating a beautiful masterpiece of Uluru 1J Charlotte Mac - for working hard to complete her written response to Seagull. Aurelia T - for a well thought out plan and written letter to the humans from Seagull. 1P Zeithan W - Improvement in making positive choices in the classroom and playground. Damon V - Aiming high in all Key Learning Areas 2W Aylah C - Excellent spelling results Jacob R- providing insightful answers in class discussions 2T Kye Mc - Big welcome to GPS! Ella B - Always being a kind and courteous student 2L

Sargun B - for a confident and positive return to school. Ruby G - for an improved and positive outlook. 3/4V Shelby F - Always being a helpful and polite class member Mitch C - Always displaying lovely manners and a great attitude. 3/4G Ian B - a BIG improvement in reading Piper F - Deepening her understanding of fractions 3/4B Wakena C - A very settled return to school Andrew S - Working hard in reading groups. 3/4K Addison B - for Always presenting quality work Lara F - for Always actively participating in class lessons 4/5B Ruby B - demonstrating persistence in her learning and aiming high Skye S - consistently displaying all of the STAR expectations. 5/6H Harper M - for working hard to complete all set tasks Burton C - for a settled return to face to face learning 5/6P Madison C - Always working to her full potential Lyndsie H - Fantastic effort with Mathematics 5/6R Brooke W - creating an excellent 'Chinese Dragon ‘ Ashton O - demonstrating persistence when completing his Fractions & Decimals Pre-test

KW have been learning about “Our Five Senses” in Science. We went for a walk and wrote a sentence about what we saw.

KW

We are learning to use capital letters and full stops.

We are learning to leave finger spaces between words and use our sounds to work out unknown words.

GPS P&C UPDATE Term 2, Week 6 We had our P & C meeting last night and we had some discussions around what we can raise money for this year. We are currently looking at purchasing water bottle refill stations and fundraising for a second playground and reading materials.

Sandy has been speaking with the Assets team and has still been pushing to get the playground organised. Hope we can get this built for the children as soon as possible.

Whilst we are having Zoom meetings we have changed the time of our meeting to 6.30pm so people can get dinner organised prior to the meeting.

JOIN GWANDALAN PS P & C Our next meeting will be on Wednesday 1st July at 6.30pm. The zoom details are published on the monthly P & C meeting invite. We are hoping we will see some more people come to the meeting now that it is online. We would love for you to come and see what we do and have input in what happens around our school. We are all volunteers and many hands make light work. It only costs 50 cents to join so why not come and see what great stuff is happening around the school.

SCHOOL BANKING

Our Commonwealth Dollarmites Banking program runs every Tuesday morning. Since Covid-19 this has not been occurring and will not return for Term 2. Hopefully it can be up and running in Term 3. Join the Facebook Group to stay up to date. Just search Gwandalan Public School Banking on FB.

Digital Entertainment Books are available for order. Gwandalan Public School code www.entbook.com.au/34637o

CALENDAR OF EVENTS DATE EVENT

Wed 1st July 6.30pm Zoom P & C meeting

Wed 5th August 6.30pm

P & C Meeting

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.

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.

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.

If so, please contact the office.

Invoices have been sent home last week for outstanding amounts for Bookpacks.

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.

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.

Bookpack payments – $60

The Uniform Shop is currently stocked with all uniform items, the preferred method of purchase is online ordering although you are able to purchase at the school on Wednesdays 8.30am – 9.00am and Fridays 2.00pm – 3.00pm.