Black Swan News Grahamstown Public School

29 Hastings Drive, Raymond Terrace 2324. Phone – 02 4987 6510, Fax – 02 4987 6513 Email: grahamstow-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au Website: grahamstow-p.schools.nsw.gov.au

Events - Term 1 2020 4 February - Swimming Carnival 11 February - Parent Information Session 18 March - Athletics Carnival (proposed date) 31 March - Road Safety visit

Notes and Money Due Information will be sent home regarding the Voluntary Contribution and Mathletics once the costs have been finalised

Assemblies will be held on Monday at 2pm with the first date to be advised

Term 1, Week 2

3 February 2020

Hello and welcome back to all of our GPS families! We hope you all had a

fabulous break and are ready for another prosperous year of learning.

Swimming Carnival 2020

Our first sporting event for 2020 will be our Annual Swimming Carnival held

on Tuesday 4 February at Lakeside Leisure Centre. Only students who can

confidently swim 50M can nominate for an event. Students in Year 2 this

year may attend the carnival if they are swimming in an event. If your child

is not attending the carnival they will be expected to attend school as usu-

al. The cost will be $5.00 for each student. Students will depart school at

9.15am and will return approximately 2.45pm. Permission notes must be

returned by Monday 3 February and students are to bring the $5.00 fee

with them on Tuesday 4 February.

Sport In Schools 2020

This year, Sport in Schools Australia (SISA) will be coming in to provide

specialised programs that cover the PD/H/PE syllabus. As this is part of

our PD/H/PE syllabus all students are required to patriciate. Fully trained

specialist teachers will work with all students on the physical aspects of

this curriculum each fortnight on a Friday afternoon. Years 3–6 will partici-

pate in this program on odd weeks and K-2 on even weeks. There will be a

cost of $5.00 per student which will be invoiced at a later date.

Star Struck 2020

Our school will be auditioning for Star Struck this year. If your child has

nominated themselves to audition for our dance group can you please

complete the permission note and return it to Mrs Trembath by Friday 7

February. Auditions will be available to all Year 3-6 students. Depending

on numbers, there will be two groups of 16 students and one Aboriginal

group of 16 students.

School Assemblies 2020

Formal assemblies will be changing to a Monday afternoon from 2-3pm

and will alternate between K-2 and 3-6. The schedule will be sent out once

it has been confirmed.

Special thanks to the Major Sponsors of our 25th Anniversary Fair

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Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Welcome back to Grahamstown Public School for 2020. It is lovely to have our old families back and wonderful to see so many new families join us this year.

The school year has started on a very positive note, but there are a few changes you need to be aware of.

We have welcomed some new staff; Miss Kate Lockwood, Mr Robert Fajks and Mr Owen Todhunter. We know that they will be wonderful assets to our school and bring great professional knowledge to our teaching team.

Due to a large number of new enrolments, our numbers have grown to the point where we have to make another class. This will mean that we will have 13 classes again, where we expected to drop to 12 which is what we based our organisation on at the end of the year. We have worked hard to reallocate students to new classes and these will begin on Wednesday 5 February. This will mean a new appointment to the school, and may mean a change of class teacher at the end of Term 1 again, but we will do our best to avoid disruption as much as possible. Unfortunately, all of this is beyond our control, but please be assured that we will do our best to make the transition as smooth as possible and have put a lot of consideration into the formation of the new classes.

Our new structure will be:

Class Teacher Class Teacher

Kinder Koalas Mrs Higgins 3 Bilbies Miss Butler

Kinder Joeys Mrs Lambert 3/4 Kookaburras Mrs Cant/Mrs Finnane

1/2 Marsupial Mice Mrs Moore 3/4 Lorikeets Mrs Lockwood

1/2 Magpies Miss McTaggart 4/5 Herons Mrs Humphrey

1/2 Fruit Bats Mr Fajks 5/6 Bees Mrs Brown

1/2 Tawny Owls Mr Todhunter 5/6 Cassowaries Mr Casserly

5/6 Honey Ants Mrs Heath

Parents of students moving into new classes will be notified by letter before the restructure takes place.

This year, Sport in Schools Australia (SISA) are coming in to provide specialised programs that cover the PD/H/PE curriculum. This group has previously provided the Gymnastics Program that many children have been involved in. Fully trained specialist teachers will work with all students to develop sport and PE skills. This will occur each Friday afternoon. In odd weeks, students in Years 3-6 will participate in the program, while in even weeks, it will be years K-2. While students are participating in this program, class teachers will be

working collaboratively to analyse student data and develop learning experiences that will move them forward from their point of need. The SISA staff will integrate fully into our school and have worked extensively with us so that they are aware of the varied needs of students and are very familiar with our PBL expectations. This program will be mostly funded by the school; however, we are asking for a payment of $5 per child for the year to offset the cost. This will be invoiced at a later date.

To allow for our SISA program, we will be changing our Formal Assembly to Monday afternoons. Assemblies will run from 2 – 3pm and will alternate between K-2 and 3-6. Assemblies won’t start for a couple of weeks and we will let you know as soon as the schedule has been set.

This year we will be introducing an initiative called Pods. Children will begin each week in their Pod group. During this time, the weekly PBL lesson will be taught and the children will participate in activities that foster relationships with other children and staff members they may not come into contact with at other times. This initiative will help to ensure that each child is known, valued and cared for and that children have a wider range of people in the school they can go to if they need support, fostering a greater sense of belonging and care. These Pod groups will begin later in Term 1.

Parent information sessions will also look a little different this year. More information about this will come home shortly, but please keep the afternoon of Tuesday 11 February clear for this event.

We look forward to working with you all again this year as:

Together we grow with pride, learn for life and strive to be the best that we can be!

Regards

Michele Winn

Principal