Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to our first newsletter for Term 3, 2021. It has been a great start to the term, welcoming all of our students back to school. We currently have 72 students enrolled at Gympie Special school and have been receiving many enrolment queries. We will welcome some new students in the next few weeks as paperwork is finalised. 

It has been pleasing to see how our students have settled back into routine, working hard with their learning and behaviour. Our Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) Team has worked hard with staff to target behaviour outside of the classroom, both before and since the holidays, resulting in a clear reduction of reported behaviours. Well done to our students and staff!

This term in PBL, we are focussing on Transitions. At school there are lots of changes throughout the day. These changes are called transitions. A transition is when I need to stop what I am doing and do something else. This is sometimes a difficult thing to do. I might really be enjoying what I am doing and not want to stop. We will be supporting our students with a range of activities and supports to learn how to transition appropriately and within a given timeframe. I hope to be giving out lots of PBL awards this term for successful transitioning across the day to our students.

I received some very positive feedback from one of our parents about her child’s Semester 1 report card. She wrote, “I wanted to give you feedback on how informative my child’s report card is. The teachers have gone to a lot of trouble to update me regarding what my child has been assessed on, how she was assessed and what she achieved.  There are multiple paragraphs per subject that have been individualised to her. I really appreciate the time and effort that has been made to make the report cards what they should be to assist us as parents in understanding where my child is at.”

It is wonderful to receive feedback about the things we are doing well. The 2021 School Opinion Survey is currently open for families to provide valuable feedback to us about how we are going and how we can improve. Please take the time to provide feedback if you received an email from the department this year. Our students have been busy providing this much appreciated feedback this week. The survey closes this Friday 30^th July.

We have changed the publishing times for our newsletters to Weeks 3, 6 and 9 from now on. You would have already received a class newsletter form your child’s teacher outlining the curriculum and class activities for this term. In addition, a Term 3 calendar was sent home for you to ensure you are aware of school events like Book Week dress up day, Talk like a Pirate day, parades, P & C meetings and any class activities.  

Cent Sale Date Claimer and request for donations: We will be having our major P & C fundraiser “Cent Sale” at Gympie High School in Hamilton Hall on Saturday 6^th November from 1pm. Please mark this in your calendar. We require donations for the Cent Sale.  We need approximately 200 prizes for the Cent Sale to be a success. Please send these into our office over the rest of this term. Children’s toys, household items, grocery items, decorative items, Gift vouchers – any new and unused items will be welcomed as donations. If any businesses would like to donate a prize please let us know.

Moving forward, learning together,