Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to the final newsletter for 2023.

The last week of term is an exciting time at school as teachers finalise report cards, send home student work and celebrate the great learning that has happened across the semester. Individual student information is also being shared across teachers and teacher aides in preparation for 2024 class groupings.  

Teachers and our Head of Curriculum, Kate have been busily planning the 2024 units of work and activities. The Administration and Leadership team have been forward planning for 2024 so we are ready to commence the year.

We have 15 new enrolments for 2024 and 10 of these are Preps! We are so excited to be welcoming so many new families to our school.

2024 Staffing

Rachael Pelling, our Deputy Principal who has been working at James Nash State High School this semester, will not be returning to our school and we wish her all the best for the future.

 I am very happy to announce Phil Whatt will remain as our Deputy Principal for Term 1 2024 and Kate Cloete will continue in the Head of Department Curriculum role for Term 1 2024. I look forward to working with such a fantastic team in 2024.

We have had 2 new Teachers transferred into our school and I extend a very warm welcome to Karen Abt transferring to us from Nambour Special School and Jami Feneck, transferring to us from Baralaba State School. Both of these teachers, who will join our Secondary sector, have visited with us and spent time with their colleagues planning for 2024.

Sadly, this week, we farewell Suzanne Weedon who has been our Guidance Officer since 2016. It will be very sad to see Suzanne move away from our school as she has been an incredible support to students, families and staff over the years, forming close working relationships and friendships during this time. We wish her all the best at her new schools.

January Student Free Days

This year staff have engaged in many hours of professional learning.  We will start 2024 with 3 solid days of professional development from Wednesday 17^th January to Friday 19^th January, in the week before school resumes. We have a packed agenda for these days and anticipate a great year ahead.

The School Office will be open from Monday 15^th January 2024 to Friday 19^th January 2024 for you to drop off any stationary packs, equipment or medication.

Medication

Please drop 2024’s medication into the office during the week before school and complete any paperwork required for your child’s medication. Any students on Medication will require new forms completed for 2024.

If your child has medication currently on campus, please collect this prior to Friday 8^th December. Any left-over medication will be taken to a pharmacist for disposal on Monday 11^th December.

Uniform Purchasing

On Wednesday 17^th January, Thursday 18^th January, and Friday 19^th January the P&C will be available for you to purchase school uniforms from 9.00am to 11.00am each day.   

Celebrations

We celebrated some wonderful events over the past few weeks and still have our Year 6 Graduation Ceremony to come this Wednesday.  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 development activities to support student learning. There have 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, and attended events.  

Thank you

 I would like to thank students, staff, parents and carers for a wonderful year. Thank you to all of our families for the fantastic support you have given our school this year. The past few years have been challenging and your support has been invaluable. Without your support, our work would be much harder. We greatly value our partnerships with families and the wider school community. Thank you!

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 2024 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 support on Campus

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.

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. These must be re- requested every calendar year.

Report Cards

Report Cards will be emailed at the end of this week. Also, students will receive an email detailing which class they are in for 2024 and who their teacher and teacher aide will be.

All students have now have received their 2024 Booklists.  You can also find these attached to this newsletter or email admin@gympiespecs.eq.edu.au 

In addition, Nextra at Central Shopping Centre has copies of the booklists.

Please make sure you have purchased ALL items on the booklist and bring this equipment into school on your child’s first day. The school office will be open from Monday 15^th January from 8.30am to 2.30pm to Friday 19^th January if you wish to drop your child’s booklist items off before the first day.

I would like to wish all of our families an enjoyable festive season, and a safe and refreshing summer Holiday break.

I am really looking forward to working with you next year and enjoying a fantastic 2024.

Best wishes

Sarah Lester