Filter Content
Parade every Monday at 2pm
Week 4
Monday 10th May
- Athletics Coaching begins
Friday 14th May
- Gympie Show Holiday
Week 5
Tuesday 18th May
P&C Meeting 6:00 pm in the staffroom
Week 8
Friday 11th June
- Sports Day
Week 9
Tuesday 15th June
P&C Meeting 6:00 pm in the staffroom
Friday 18th June
PBL REWARDS DAY - whole school
Well, while the end of Term 1 wasn’t quite what we expected, I am proud of how our school staff and community supported our students to stay safe over this past week. Thank you to all of our families for your continued support as we navigate the impacts of the pandemic.
Today, many classes celebrated the fantastic behaviour demonstrated this term with a Behaviour Rewards Day. It has been wonderful to see the improvement in behaviour across our school with an increased focus on behaviour in the areas outside of the classroom. We have been working with the Regional Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) team to increase opportunities for students to learn and demonstrate our school expectations and be rewarded for making great behaviour choices. Great job students and staff!
When we return after the Autumn holidays, refreshed and ready to engage in some great learning we will have a few changes to our staffing. Late this term, we welcomed Miss Vicki to our Administration team. Many of you have already had a chance to say hi to Vicki either in person or on the phone. Katrina Camps is taking some leave and will be replaced in P2 by Andrea Broom for the first 4 weeks of Term 2. Bree O’Donnell will be the full-time aide in SS2 for the first 4 weeks of next term. After this time, Andrea and Bree will be the aides in SS2 for the remainder of the Term (Andrea – Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday / Bree Thurs and Friday). Deb Hinds will be the full-time aide in EY3 from the start of Term 2.
We are really looking forward to Term 2 and the exciting events we have planned. You will receive an updated Term 2 Calendar in the first week back next term. Please check our important dates section in this newsletter and note them in your diary and keep an eye out for the Term 2 Calendar early next term.
Learning together,
Sarah
Principal
We have had a great term 1 at Gympie Special despite recent COVID restrictions. Our students have been productive and it has been very exciting to see their progression in learning and social emotional development over the term.
Our Prep students have settled in to their school life and routines beautifully. We have also welcomed a number of new students to Gympie Special and it has been great seeing them settle in, make friends and apply themselves to their learning.
Gympie Special School has some exciting opportunities for our students coming up in Term 2. We will be hosting our Cross Country and Sports Day and students will be able to nominate for multi-class events at a district level. Our Senior Secondary students will be participating in a work experience program every Thursday with the assistance of the Endeavour Foundation.
Have a safe and happy Easter, we really look forward to school resuming on Monday the 19th of April.
Kind regards,
Rachael
Just like that term one is over and it is Easter holidays!
We have had a very productive term 1 and this was demonstrated to me over the past three weeks during curriculum planning days with teachers. We worked together to discuss learning evidence and pinpoint the communication levels and needs of all of our students, this has helped us to determine what the ‘next steps in learning’ are for them.
I also had the pleasure of working with our Senior teachers around our Senior program, to enhance opportunities for our students to access our community, develop work skills and organise a senior camp. Our ultimate vision is to give our students opportunities and experiences to enhance their lives when they leave our school at the end of year 12.
Students across the school this term for Science have been learning about the forces of push and pull. They have been exploring our new playground, toys and the school facilities, to discover where the force of push and pull is used. Junior Secondary 1 made a push and pull Easter Bunny. So much fun!
Happy Easter every bunny. Have a safe and fun break!
Kind regards,
Shellie
Happy Week 10
Student Resource Scheme Payment Plans - If you would like to set up a weekly, monthly or quarterly payment plan please email the office on admin@gympiespecs.eq.edu.au
Parent/Carer Reminder: If you have changed address, phone number or email address please email admin@gympiespecs.eq.edu.au so we can update your information.
Kind Regards,
Sharon, Vicki and Jo
What’s Happening?
Social and Emotional Learning
Firstly, I want to say that social and emotional learning is embedded into every class and every break, every day. What I am doing with classes is different only in that it is coming to our students from someone who is not their regular teachers or aides.
Similar to last year, I have had a focus on being involved with the secondary students. With most classes, I am using the Rhythm2Recovery drumming program to continue to build on the topic of healthy friendships, looking at being respectful, listening to each other and building questioning skills.
Some classes have chosen to have me come to the classroom, where we often play some kind of card or board game, and where we learn and reinforce the vital skills of being kind to each other, being respectful, listening and turn-taking.
With other classes I get to hang out with the students on the playground, which is also so much fun and a vital space for putting into practice the social skills being taught each day.
Lunchtime Girl’s Group
During second break each Friday, all of the secondary girl’s have the option of coming to the STEM room for break instead of heading out to the play areas.
We eat together, and then have fun together around different activities. These change each week, and have included puzzles, balloons, felt-art stories, colouring in, loom bands, drawing mandalas, and even an impromptu dance routine practiced and performed by some of the students simply because they wanted to.
Resignation from My Role as Chaplain
I wish to inform the school community that I have chosen to return to University, which has necessitated a reduction in my working hours. I have had to make the very hard decision to step down from my role as School Chaplain at Gympie Special School as of the end of this term, Friday 2 April.
I will miss the staff, students and families I have come to know over the last 2¼ years, and will be sad to go.
Thank you for allowing me to serve you, the students, families and staff of Gympie Special School.
It will be hard to say goodbye.
Chappy Naomi
Coming Up
Chappy River Run / Walk
During the Easter holidays, the Cooloola Region Chaplains will be hosting a community event at Nelson Reserve. From 7am a ‘Park Run’ style 5km running event will kick off from Nelson Reserve, heading down along the River Walk path, and back again. Breakfast of bacon and egg burgers will be available for purchase, along with soft drinks and water.
From 9:30am a family-friendly River Walk will follow the same track. Upon return to Nelson Reserve entertainment will be provided by several local musicians, as well as a show from kid’s entertainer, Dan Warlow. Enjoy some snags and soft drinks for lunch, and have a great day out! Please see the flyer for more details, including entry costs!
Hello from Early years.
The term is over and what a wonderful term it’s been! We’ve welcomed two new children over the last few weeks and they’ve quickly settled into the routine of school.
During our Balanced Literacy sessions we’ve read some great books over the term and made our own books after reading them. We’ve had fun with our letters and sounds, doing lots of craft while we learnt about the letters.
During maths activities we’ve been looking for patterns around the school and in our classroom. A really cool pattern song we love is “Banana, Banana, Meatball Rap.” We are also looking for shapes everywhere – they’re all around us.
Sadly our horse riding has been a bit disrupted with the wet weather but next term it’ll be nice to ride when it’s cooler.
We wish all our families a safe and happy Easter holiday and we’re looking forward to working together and having lots of fun next term.
Megan, Lynne, Jennie, Jas, Andrea, Jordan, Jodie, Sonia and all the Early Year’s children
From Megan, Jas, Sonia, Jennie, Andrea, Lynne, Jordan, Jodi and all the Early Year’s children.
Hi Primary Parents,
Over the last few weeks our classes have had a big focus on developing the students fine and gross motor skills. This has involved combining our classes and taking our learning outside. Students have had a focus on rolling, throwing, hitting with a bat and ball, running, crawling and climbing as well as following an obstacle course from start to finish.
All of these skills are essential in our student’s development as these gross motor skills will help their coordination and also benefit their fine motor skills as well.
The students have had so much fun being able to work in different groups with their friends from the other classes which can be seen on their smiling faces. We will continue to develop these skills after the holidays to ensure that the student’s bodies and minds are being exercised during our weekly schedule.
Kind regards,
The Primary Team
Erin, Jenny, Dale, Ev, Katrina, Trista, Trish, Bree
Kind regards,
P2 - Trista, Tricia and Bree
Where did term 1 go? JS1 continue to begin our day with our yarning circle where we acknowledge each other’s strengths. We have been exploring a range of communications when writing and have created texts to thank people in our community including our swimming instructor as our swimming concludes for the term.
In Literacy, our latest text was about the different occupations of people in our community. We were able to name thirty-two different jobs using PODD, Proloquo2Go and verbal responses. We were very impressed by all the students’ input into the task.
Our maths continues to be a source of enjoyment as students work independently when they are mastering a particular goal. The students enjoy working in pairs and groups as well
During our first break, students have been engaging in games with another class. The students have been negotiating the rules and the game choice. We have also discussed how to keep safe when participating. I have been able to partake as well and thoroughly enjoy myself, although I do have to develop my ‘duck, duck, goose’ skills.
Enjoy the break and stay safe!
JS1 students, Deb Darren and Dana.
The favourite activity in JS2, without any doubt, is reading. All the students enjoy reading quietly on their own; reading to other students and adults; and taking turns reading as a group. Their new library cases have been great because they can each borrow a truckload of books and easily carry them back to class.
Lessons have focussed on developing specific word knowledge skills eg. contractions, syllabification, and punctuation when writing and they are becoming adept at applying this using the class laptops to write independently. With minimal assistance students then navigate the internet to find pictures to illustrate what they have written. We have also been using ‘Sunshine Online’ as another tool to further develop comprehension and grammar skills.
In math we have used a variety of instruments to explore measurement and gain a better understanding of the language of measurement we use in everyday life. In HPE students chose one piece of equipment, or area, in our new playground, took photos and wrote about the rules needed for everyone to use it safely. They have all now chosen an activity in the wider community for their individual project. They will be teaching their classmates how and why this is a safe place to be active. Swimming has been a great success this term with excellent participation and engagement in lessons. Well done JS2.
Thank you Chappy Naomi. We have enjoyed the drumming sessions you’ve run with us to practice our communication and social skills. We wish you luck with your studies. Another fun thing this term has been playing with the hula hoops. Miss Michelle made us all laugh when she demonstrated her 3 hoop trick.
Have a great school holiday. We’ll be back term 2 refreshed and ready for more fun in learning.
Yours in learning,
Miss Libby, Miss Sue, Miss Michelle, Miss A, Mr Andrew, Miss Grace and students.
Our new measurement station is leading to spontaneous investigations into lightest, heaviest, balanced and unbalanced as students go about their regular daily routines. In a similar way, some of our students are enjoying exploring patterns with different materials while others spend time learning about different textures, sizes and weights of familiar things.
We have continued our explorations into forces by looking at movement in living and non-living things and getting crafty on our windows. So far, we have hot air balloons, butterflies, kites and lanterns but we also took time out to enjoy some rabbit and bilby themed activities as we get ready for the Easter break.
We said “goodbye” to weekly swimming lessons and look forward to filling that spot next term with other physical activities in the outdoor learning space. Our communication strategies continue to grow and the whole class responds well to knowing what comes next by following the visual time-table. One of our class mates has taken on the morning task of asking the teachers “who’s here today” and happily demonstrates how it should be done if we forget an important step. Another maintains the calendar and checks off the day, date and month on a printed calendar before updating the notice board. He then goes outside to check the weather and has been known to rush inside during break time to change the symbol from sunny to raining to keep us on top of what is happening outside.
As we pack up our school bags for the last time until Monday, 19th of April, we wish you a safe break and look forward to hearing all of your holiday news soon.
Until next time, all the best from
Team JS3, Miss Jodie, Miss Emma and Miss Dana
Senior School News
We would like to wish all of our families a safe Easter Break. This term has just flown by and all of our senior classes have been working hard towards achieving goals both QCIA and Australian Curriculum. The senior team have planned for events in term 2 which you will receive details about in your Parent Calendar. Some of these consist of work experience in week 2 for our year 11 and 12’s, a Future choices meeting for year 10 parents as well as our Mother’s day stall and upcoming camp at Luther Heights.
Our car washing program has been a big success with staff and our students have received valuable feedback. Our theatre production is also coming along nicely and we are very excited about preforming later in term 2, date to be advised.
Some our students participating in our Health unit have been exploring healthy and unhealthy options. Students have also been exploring healthy habits including washing hands and how to be safe in the kitchen.
It is great to see students wearing the new high school shirts, if you have pre-ordered a shirt please contact the office to make cololection arrangements.
The senior team- Alison, Cann, Stewart, Liz, Anne-Maree Deb, Judith, Chrissy.
GSS Arts Room News
The end of Term 1 sees us concluding the Visual Arts curriculum for the year. Following the activities since week 7 in the previous newsletter, we have made Mark Makers, which pre-date our modern paintbrushes and painting tools, and then used them to Make Marks. We found out that depending what materials we chose for our marker ends affected our marks. We also completed hand & free-style painting, nature-scape installations and the senior classes did rock painting.
Regards, Miss Grace (Arts Teacher)
HASS
What a busy start to the year. All sectors have worked hard in HASS to learn skills which assist them to learn about the world. Early Years finished the term off by looking at Easter celebrations and how they celebrate Easter with their family. Primary classes extended this idea to include how Easter is celebrated around the world. Junior Secondary classes completed the first part of their studies about war and remembrance. Year 10 students also completed this work. In a culminating activity in week 1, Term 2, students will participate in a school ANZAC parade at 11:45 on Friday 23rd April, in the Performing Arts room. Next term will be a flurry of activity as we move onto other areas of learning.
Have a safe and happy holiday.
From Miss A