Hello everyone! What an exciting Term we have ahead of us!

It has been wonderful to see our students engaged and involved in their class activities as I move across the school visiting classrooms and seeing the great curriculum work happening. Staff and students are working hard on their goals, using every opportunity to increase student learning outcomes. Increasing students’ communication continues to be a huge focus for us and we appreciate the support families are providing as we work together with private therapists to ensure we are all working towards the same goals for our students with complex communication challenges. Claire, our Education Queensland Speech Language Therapist, has been consulting in many of our classrooms to ensure staff are able to support our students proactively.

Calendar & Communication

Please check the Term 4 Calendar your child brought home at the end of last term to ensure you are aware of all that is happening this term at our school. If you didn’t receive one or have misplaced it, please give us a call and we will send another one home to you or email it out, if you prefer. We will have some additional things happening that are not on the Calendar as they are still being finalised so please watch out for updates as the term progresses. This year, due to COVID-19, the school term will end early on Wednesday 9^th December.

We are working hard to improve our communication with our families and make sure you receive information in a timely way. Please check our Facebook posts regularly as these are used frequently to inform you of what is happening or share information and photos of what has happened at our great school. In addition, we are continuing to update our Gympie Special School website https://gympiespecs.eq.edu.au/  to ensure all the information you need is available. Check it out if you have not been on there recently. 

BOOK WEEK Dress Up Day Wednesday

Next week, on Wednesday, we will all be dressing up for Book Week.  Our theme this year is “Curious Creatures, Wild minds” which fits beautifully into our English curriculum for this semester which is based on Animals. I am really looking forward to seeing the imaginative costumes our students and staff wear to our Book Week Parade next Wednesday 21 October at 9.15am in the Quad. Book vouchers will be presented to the best dressed student in each sector for use at our school Book Fair, held in the library next week. Parents are welcome to come to both our Book Week Parade and our Book Fair.

QUOTA

On Wednesday this week, we welcomed Joy and Nola, from our local Gympie Quota Club to our school. With our P&C president Juanita Sempowicz, we discussed both the financial support Quota has provided to Gympie Special over a long number of years and the trophies the Quota Club has donated for our end of year awards. Gympie Quota have very kindly agreed to continue supporting our school by donating an annual “Primary Most Improved” Trophy and a “Secondary Most Improved” Trophy.  We will also have a plaque in our office foyer with the names of recipients added annually. A huge thanks to Gympie Quota for their ongoing support as Friends of our school. We really appreciate it.

End of Year Awards Night

This year due to Covid-19 we have held off announcing our awards night. We will need to be very conscious of socially distancing and making sure we are being safe. We have tentatively identified 6pm Thursday 3^rd December for this evening, however it will be a modified evening. More information will be released closer to the time.

We will still be presenting awards and staff will very shortly start nominations for these. This year and from now on we will present awards for both a Primary and Secondary winner for all categories. Our Categories include: Communication, Literacy, Numeracy, School Pride, the Shannon Shield ‘All Rounder”  as well as our 2 Quota trophies for Most Improved.

Drop Off / Pick Up Zone

Thank you everyone for the patience you demonstrate to ensure the safety of our students in our Transport zone. It has been great to see students arriving on time for an 8.30am start to their lessons. It is much appreciated.

Unfortunately we cannot relay messages from the transport zone to classrooms or teachers. Staff on duty in the transport zone go straight to their own classrooms to support learning and do not get an opportunity to pass these messages on.

Instead, please

• write the message in the communication diary or
• ring our office on 07 5480 2333 or
• email your class teacher or email
• admin@gympiespecs.eq.edu.au

NDIS

Would you like help to understand/implement your NDIS plan? Not sure where to start? Does your NDIS plan cover your support needs? Would you like help preparing for a review? We have a parent available to assist you with these questions and any other questions you might have regarding your NDIS plan. Penelope is available on Thursdays from 11.15am to 1.15pm here at school to help parents/carers with their NDIS plans. Please ring our office to book a time with Penelope if you would like this support.

Best wishes to everyone for a wonderful weekend and a terrific Term 4!

Sarah 

Principal