Dear Parents and Carers,

This term seems to be flying by and we still have several very exciting events happening in this second half on our term. Sports Day planning is well under way and Coach Tim has been very impressed with our student’s enthusiasm and participation in his training sessions every week. Sports Day is on Friday 11^th June and all students are encouraged to attend and participate.  Our Senior classes will shortly send home an order form for the Sport’s Day Sausage Sizzle. Make sure you don’t miss out and get your orders in promptly.

We have 2 Sports Houses this year – Red and Blue, but as our school grows slightly bigger every year, we think it is time to make a third house for 2022. We are hoping to do some community and school consultation next Semester to discuss forming this third Sports House and renaming our Sports Houses. We will be asking families to think about the names and the colours of our new Sports Houses and support us making these decisions as a school community. 

In week 9 on Friday 18^th June, we are having our first Whole School PBL Rewards Day! This is very exciting and the PBL team has been very busy planning and organising the 4 hour event. We have booked a petting zoo, face painting and an inflatable obstacle course for the day as well as organising many other fantastic activities to celebrate the wonderful behaviour our students have demonstrated this year.

This week our dedicated staff have engaged in professional development with literacy and communication consultant Jane Farrell visiting our classrooms and supporting our staff to deliver differentiated learning, focussed on our students’ goals. Teachers had a twilight PD with Jane on Thursday afternoon and really appreciated the learning they were able to take away to put into action in their rooms with their individual students. We really are moving forward, learning together. 

Our students and staff will be very focussed over the next few weeks on gathering evidence and information to share in our report cards which will come home at the end of this term. There are plenty of things to celebrate in our students report cards- things we can check and measure and give a rating to. Some things though, are difficult to measure but are obvious within a busy, engaged classroom.

When I walk into classrooms I can see evidence of all the great work students are engaged in, as there is something about a classroom when you walk in that lets you know straight away that the students and adults in the room are happy to be spending day after day learning together. The rapport that teachers and teacher aides at Gympie Special School have with our students is most certainly an important factor in our great classrooms. Our wonderful staff are constantly creating conditions encouraging learning and working to ensure the very best learning for each student. This means we can see things like higher motivation, increased mutual respect, enhanced communication and student’s sense of pride in their achievements. As always, we are excited to share the work that is happening across classrooms and as reporting draws closer, we look forward to celebrating student achievements with you. 

Our wonderful P&C is starting Tuesday Tuckshop in partnership with Gympie West Store. Order forms for Tuesday 8^th June will come home early next week – don’t miss out and make sure you send your order back by Friday 4^th June. 

Moving forward, learning together,