Greetings all!

Term 3 is quickly disappearing very fast and the remaining few weeks will be a busy time for our Senior sector.

This week is Book Week at school and we’ve all had fun reading books and choosing designs for our ‘Best Dressed Door Competition’. There’s some strong competition out there and all the students are enjoying the friendly rivalry between classes. This year’s theme is ‘Dreaming with your eyes wide open’.

For our Leisure and Recreation Quest elective, students have just had their first visit out into the community to Lake Alford, the Visitor Information Centre (VIC) and the All Abilities Playground. Students gathered some brochures for venues they would like to attend over this Semester and listened to suggestions from Sharon the VIC volunteer. Students are on a quest to find community-based activities they like and will give them all a rating out of 5 stars. We are planning to have further visits to the cinema, Hope Reins, Goldmine Museum, Woodworks Museum, the library, Gympie Rattler and various other community venues or activities.

The Sport and Recreation Quest elective group are exploring physical activities and sports they enjoy. They’re currently learning all about Soccer, including the rules, positions of players and soccer skills. In Term 4, they are going to focus on personal fitness and attending a gym program.

In other senior electives, students have been learning and developing skills in Performing Arts and Digital Technology. Several students are learning to play ukuleles for the end of year (whole school) production. It sounds like they are having a lot of fun as well as learning to play an instrument and developing design techniques.

Other events approaching at the end of this term that our Senior students are involved in are the annual Art Auction on Friday September 9 and a trip to Brisbane on Thursday September 15 to the ‘Girl from North Country’ musical at Qld Performing Arts Centre - QPAC. Students have created wonderful art pieces for our art theme Australia the barren country and we’re currently preparing other art works for the exhibition and auction.

Four of our students, Cody, Tallon, Georgia and Kaidyen have continued their studies at TAFE doing Kitchen Operations and representing our school amazingly. They have all been working very hard learning chef skills, creating fine foods whilst learning very specific language and cooking techniques.

Good news is that since Gympie flooding and damage to facilities, our excursion to Roadcraft will go ahead in Term 4. Students enrolled in the course will have the opportunity to continue working on their learner driver practice tests and becoming familiar with road rules before they attend on October 24 and 25. Notes coming out next week!

Finally, we have to commend our wonderful Senior students for their ongoing commitment to their learning and excellent behaviour. This year has presented many challenges and all students have continued to follow our Positive Behaviour and Learning (PBL) goals. They are great role models for all other students at Gympie Special School. Congratulations to all Senior students.

Thanks

Senior Secondary team