Page 1

Term 1 - Week 2 Friday 7th February 2020 Principal’s Report Welcome back for our 2020 school year and to our first edition of our fortnightly Gladstone Gazette. It has been wonderful hearing about some of the holiday adventures our families have undertaken over the holidays, we are very pleased to hear many families spent time resting and relaxing to refresh ready for the 2020 school year! Our Kindergarten students have had a great start to their school journey and are super keen and excited to participate in their own learning. We warmly welcome Joel, Asher and Willow and their families to our school community. On behalf of our entire school community we welcome you to Gladstone Public School where I have no doubt you have been made to feel very welcome by our staff, students and families. Very excitedly, the holidays saw the removal of our old canteen building and the delivery of a new building. Over the coming week’s construction will continue to complete the fit out of the canteen. Until the construction and fit out is complete we will not be running a canteen. We do understand that this may cause some inconvenience, however we are excited to have this long awaited project well underway with a completion date looming! During this construction, the entire canteen area has been cordoned off and we commend students and families for keeping clear of this area. We are also having some maintenance repairs completed on our front fence and weather shed, thank you to our community and students for being patient and understanding during this time, ensuring our safety at all times and keeping clear of any contractors and equipment. Thank you to our families for promptly returning notes and payment for our intensive swimming program. This will continue each day next week. We have already noted great growth in our students swimming abilities and water confidence since our swimming for sport last year. Well done to everyone for keeping up with your swimming instruction and skills over the holidays. Our year has started with great success in the pool as our students competed at the small schools swimming carnival demonstrating great resilience and sportsmanship. Well done to everyone who participated and thank you to our families for taking time out of the day to support student transport on the day. There were some great results on the day, seeing many of our students’ progress to representing Gladstone and the Macleay Small Schools at the Macleay Swimming Carnival next week. Well done everyone! Thank you to our families who have taken time to ensure their school stream app has been updated. This is an extremely efficient communication tool between school and home. We have made great use of the online forms. Thank you to everyone

who has taken advantage of this. In the coming week we will be posting and updated student details form, please take time to respond even if your details have not changed over the holidays. It is vital that we keep our records up to date to ensure we have the correct contact information. We will be hosting a School App information session in the coming weeks where we will be looking at the functions of the app and sharing some of the hints and tricks as well! We will keep you posted! This year we have put our classes on line with Class Dojo. We are all excited to share information directly with parents regarding our students learning progress and giving students the opportunity to efficiently share their own learning successes with home. Please take time to read the attached information regarding the Class Dojo app including how to connect. Our staff have all come back to school refreshed and ready for the great adventures that Gladstone has to offer for 2020. Please check our staff schedule for each staff members work days, don’t hesitate to come in and make an appointment to see any of us if you have any questions, concerns or would just like to have a chat. Marion, in the office is available to make appointments for all of our teachers. Have a great week, Rebecca Smith, Principal

Calendar Term 1 2020 Date Friday 7th February Intensive swimming

Newsletter Mrs Smith away – Rpl by Mrs Selby

Monday 10th – Friday 14th February

Intensive Swimming

Wednesday 12th February Macleay Swimming Carnival

Thursday 13th Mrs Smith and Marion away at training

Friday 14th February NRL – Smithtown PS

Monday 17th February OZ harvest presentation

Tuesday 18th February Mrs Scullion at training

Wednesday 19th February Lower North Coast Swimming Carnival

Term 1 – Week 2

In our classrooms…

This year we are using Class Dojo in our classrooms. We will be using this to track and monitor students behavior and share learning progress and success. Dojo points will be added for positive behaviours and following our school expectations in the classroom and playground; being fair, safe, respectful as well as working well in class, being team players and being on task and resilient in our own learning. This system will also be monitoring and tracking behaviours that require extra support and guidance when making our own choices about socializing and working at school. Thank you to our Primary Class who have already connected and made great use of the class dojo to share exciting news from the classroom. Our Infants class are now online and are ready to start sharing the excitement and adventures had in our classroom! It is easy to connect, please use the code provided in the note attached or send in your email address and we will connect you straight up! We will be sharing Class Dojo information at our first assembly and are more than happy to answer any questions you might have about the application.

Congratulations to our Gladstone Super Fish! Great performances at the Macleay Small Schools Swimming Carnival!

Term 1 – Week 2

2020 Staff Our school staff have all come back ready and refreshed for a new year of adventures in 2020. We are all excited about year ahead and have great plans to best support our students through their 2020 learning journeys. We have welcomed back Mrs Marion Parker to our Office. Mrs Scullion, Mrs Pugh and Mrs Smith as our classroom teachers along with Michelle and Evan as our school learning support officers, who will be working closely with our teachers to best support our teaching and learning programs. Michelle and Evan will be in our classrooms for our Literacy and Numeracy sessions. Ms Syd will be visiting on various timetabled days throughout the year as her role of Instructional Leader. She works across a network of small schools supporting literacy and numeracy in our classrooms and professional learning for our teachers. Mr Taylor has joined us as our Itinerate Hearing and Support Teacher, he will be supporting in our Infants classroom during timetabled sessions from Tuesday to Friday. Robert will continue working on Thursdays keeping our grounds looking great! Mrs Ruth Waite from the Kempsey Shire Library will be visiting every second Thursday with the Kempsey Shire Library van for our students to borrow and return from the town library. We will also, continue to host the Macleay Stay and Play Playgroup on Thursday morning, with Bel and Jess from Lower Macleay Preschool. Please direct any inquiries regarding the Playgroup sessions to Bel from Lower Macleay Preschool –on their Facebook page or by phoning 6567 4743.

SRC NEWS Our Student Representative Council for this semester is looking for members. If you would like to have a say in what our school does and be the person that your year comes to with their concerns or ideas then you're the type of person were looking for! We need members with great ideas, a selfless attitude and a drive to make our school the best place in the valley. Speeches will be said NEXT MONDAY 10th February in class. Class time will not be set aside to make the speeches as this is an opportunity for parents to work with their children to help create persuasive speeches. Votes will take place in class straight after speeches. Can't wait to hear the speeches and choose our new members! Mrs Scullion

Welcome back from Mrs Pugh I’d like to welcome our school community to the 2020 school year. It’s always good to have a break and I spent mine exploring the south island of New Zealand. While it really wasn’t all that relaxing but I feel refreshed and ready for the challenges and achievements this year will unveil. Starting a few days later than you all was scary as I wondered if I could ever catch up with you but as the day progressed I quickly adjusted. I started on an artwork with the owlets and hopefully we will complete it this week. The Raptors revealed a little of their thoughts on a worksheet “What I want My Teacher to Know”. They also produced their own postcard which will be displayed in the room. In mathematics we worked on geometry- parallel and perpendicular lines and angles. In Science and Technology, both classes will be investigating Earths place in Space. I love that we can offer Intensive Swimming to the whole school again as it is an excellent opportunity to develop those swimming skills that are so important in our environment which is blessed with beaches, rivers and pools to enjoy. I will also be teaching Library this year. Owlets will borrow on Thursdays and Raptors on Fridays. Please remember to send library bags in on those days. Books can be returned any day and the town Library Van will visit us every second Thursday. I am sure we will all have a beaut year and I encourage you to pop in for a chat anytime. Mrs J Pugh

Staff Schedule 2020

Mon

day

Tues

day

Wed

nesd

ay

Thur

sday

Frid

ay

Mrs Smith Infants Class Office Infants Class

Mrs Scullion Primary Class

Mrs Pugh

Library Infants

and Primary Class

Infants Class

Primary Class

Mrs Marion Parker School Administration Office

Every second Friday

Michelle Classroom Support

Evan Classroom Support

Robert General Assistant

Ms Syd Small Schools Instructional Leader – Classroom support and Professional Learning timetabled

sessions throughout the week Mr Taylor Itinerant Hearing Support

Infants Classroom Timetabled sessions

Term 1 – Week 2