Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to the final newsletter for 2019. It is an exciting time at school as teachers complete report cards, send home student work and celebrate the great learning that has been evidenced this semester. Individual student information has been shared across teachers and teacher aides and there is much excitement and forward planning for 2020. On Thursday 12th of December, at our Awards Night, we will hand out Report cards, the 2019 Yearbook, class lists and teacher allocations for 2020.

At this time of the year, I would like to thank students, staff, parents and carers for a wonderful year. Without your support, our work would be much harder. We greatly value our partnerships with families and the wider school community. Thank you!

It has been a period of change and improvements as we have celebrated great learning, improved curriculum delivery, a change in Principal and many special events. Janet Humphreys, our Deputy Principal will be leaving us at the end of this year. She has won a position at Lee Street State Special School as Deputy Principal. We wish Janet all the best in the future and thank her for her tireless effort, commitment and dedication to improving outcomes for students at our school. I take this opportunity to thank her for everything she has done for Gympie Special School. She has been a valuable staff member, and we will miss her greatly.

I am pleased to announce and welcome Rachael Pelling to our school next year, as our Acting Deputy Principal. Rachael has been working across the Region as a Principal Advisor: Australian Curriculum. She comes to us with a wealth of curriculum knowledge and skills.  We will shortly appoint and announce our Head of Curriculum for 2020 and I look forward to working with such a fantastic team in 2020.

Successful Students:

This semester has seen the school celebrate the great learning taking place in classrooms, students demonstrating pride in their work and staff engaging in professional learning with lots of enthusiasm. There has been high levels of positive behaviours demonstrated by students and many have achieved significant personal successes in their learning. I am particularly thankful to parents and carers who have sought to share information about their child, visited classrooms, attended events and ensured that we have developed strong partnerships.  I look forward to strengthening these partnerships in 2020 with both students and families.

Empowered Staff:

This year staff have engaged in many hours of professional learning.  We will start 2020 off with 3 solid days of professional learning in the week before school resumes. We have a packed agenda for these days and anticipate a great year ahead.

Engaged Partners:

A big thank you to our small, but dedicated P&C who have worked throughout the year to support our school and raise funds to support our school initiatives. The P&C will be renewing their drive in 2020 to seek more members and I would encourage everyone to consider becoming a member and joining in to ensure the best possible outcomes for our students.

NDIS: The department is committed to improving outcomes for students with disability by delivering high-quality education supported by reasonable educational adjustments. The department recognises that NDIS supports may contribute to improving a student’s ability to access and participate in education and achieve.

In some instances, parents may request that NDIS providers deliver supports included in their child’s NDIS Plans (NDIS supports) at school, during school time. The NDIS providers may be either engaged by the parent or NDIS plan managers.

These must be re-requested every calendar year. All current requests expire on Friday 13th December.

As Principal, I will consider requests from parents for NDIS providers to access Gympie Special School to deliver NDIS supports at school, during school time on a case-by-case basis. If you wish to request this please collect the paperwork from Cassandra in our office or request it to be emailed to you.

Facilities:

Over the holidays, we will be having some work done in a few classrooms to replace old vinyl flooring, an old basin and make our learning spaces more user friendly and attractive.

I wish everyone a safe, refreshing and happy holiday! I am really looking forward to working with you next year and enjoying a fantastic 2020.

Yours in learning,

Sarah