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What a fantastic start to Term 2!
Our ANZAC Day commemorative service on Friday 23rd April was wonderful. Our students were incredibly respectful and participated responsibly in this special and solemn event. Thank you to our special guest Terry McMullan, treasurer of the Gympie RSL Sub Branch who joined us for this service. Terry spoke to our students and many of them wanted to have a chat with him following the service. I was especially proud of Aliera who read a poem during the service, and Kaidyen, Jordan and Cody who read the Ode.
Week 2 saw us running our inaugural cross-country on Tuesday. Students had the opportunity to compete in one of 4 distances, 25m, 500m, 2km, 3km and nearly every student had a go at one of the distances. There were some inspiring competitors who were so determined to finish either the 2km or 3km events and kept going all the way to the finish line. It was great to see the smiling faces and witness their pride in their achievements. Well done to our students and staff.
Students in the 10 to12-year-old category who competed in the 2km event and students in the 13 to19 year old category who competed in the 3km event had the opportunity to qualify to represent Gympie Special at the District Cross Country Trials. A really big congratulations to the following students who went on to compete in the multi-class events at the District Trials on Tuesday 4th of May: Lochlan, Cody, Geoffrey, Rosie, Jasmine and Georgia. Jasmine, Cody, Rosie, Lukas and Georgia where awarded the multi-class age champion medals in their age group. All of these students have now qualified to compete at the Wide Bay Trials to be held in Gayndah in June.
This is a massive acheivement and we are very proud of our students and wish them all the best as they move to the next level of competition.
This week we had a great school photo day. The feedback from the photographers about our students’ behaviour was fantastic! We are so happy to see some big improvements in behaviour across our school and the students are all working hard to earn Gotchas and class points towards the end of semester Rewards Day on Friday 18th of June.
The Mother’s Day stall was fantastic. Thank you so much to anyone who donated presents towards this stall. Our Senior students did an awesome job of organising and wrapping all of the gifts ready for purchase.
On Monday next week, Tim, our new Athletics coach will commence training our students ready for Sports Day on Friday 11th June. Tim will work with our students 2 days a week for the next 4 weeks, engaging with all students in preparation for Sports Day. We have a full day planned and are excited to see which Team will take home the shield on the day.
Learning together,
Sarah Lester - Principal
Rachael Pelling - Deputy Principal
Shellie Pursey - Head of Department - Curriculum
Hello from the Early Years!
Term two is well and truly underway. Our PBL focus for the first two weeks has been “How to do school”. We have been reviewing our school expectations and routines and are settling back in. In our Literacy work we have been looking at some lovely Indigenous stories, soon we will look at some stories about Australian Animals. In Maths we are continuing our work on shapes and patterns.
We have started going horse riding every Wednesday again. We met a new horse last week, his name is “Spiller”. Feeding Sequin the Shetland Pony is also a great attraction.
Cross Country was a lovely day. It was great to get outside and run around and cheer on the other students. We practiced and practiced the course so that on the day we could run our best. Everyone did a great job.
We commemorated Anzac Day on Friday the 23rd of April. Each class both made and laid a wreath. We had a lovely service.
School Calendars and class newsletters have gone home. Don’t forget to order your food for “Take-away Fridays” by Thursday. NO LATE orders can be accepted.
Until next time……
Megan, Jennie, Lynne, Jas, Sonia, Debbie, Jodie and all the Early Years children.
Welcome back to another term. We hope that everyone had a safe and happy Easter break.
Term 2 has started with a bang; with two events in the first two weeks.
In week one we celebrated ANZAC day. Our book of the week was called My grandad marches on ANZAC day. We compared how we celebrate ANZAC day to the characters in the story. We made a wreath with Miss A, listened to the last post and went to the school ANZAC parade.
Last Tuesday we had cross-country. We have a speed demon amongst us; coming in 2nd place. I am so very proud of how well primary 1 performed on cross country. We were safe and followed school rules, demonstrated resilience and school pride and good sportsmanship. Four laps of the GSS and Gympie High oval is such a long way to run.
Hi Primary 2 Parents
The start of Term 2 has come and gone quickly. We hit the ground running, literally, in P2 practicing our cross country before racing the other primary classes last Tuesday. All the students from all the primary classes did a fantastic job in participating in the event. It was great to see so many smiling faces running around and having a great time.
Our big focus in mathematics has been on remembering and recognising our 2-dimensional (2D) and 3-dimensional (3D) objects and trying to develop links between the two. The students have had a great time exploring the school, attempting to identify these shapes in the real-world school environment.
In English we have focused on our reading and writing skills, concentrating on correct letter formation as well as sentence structures.
Kind regards,
The P-2 Teaching Team
Term 2 began with students commemorating Anzac Day with a ceremony at school on Friday. Week 2 began with our Cross Country. It was great to see everyone compete and the marks on their arms were proudly displayed to show how many laps they ran on the day. Swimming finished in term 1 and the students created a thankyou card for Suzy (swim teacher) who was very excited. The card was laminated so it would be waterproof.
JS1 students have begun to focus on core words each week that we are including in our daily routine and chart writing. We have continued to explore different forms of communication and different cultures. We discussed how Aboriginal, and Torres Strait Islander Peoples may have communicated with each other as there was over 250 language groups.
We are continuing to increase our mathematical knowledge and have noticed some students are becoming more competent in areas of maths including number and patterning. When the students work in pairs, they help each other to consolidate their knowledge. It is great to see their development.
In science we have continued to explore forces and how different objects react to pushing and pulling. We will continue to investigate gravity, air resistance, and dabble in magnetic force. In addition, we will explore light and sound.
Our HPE has been loads of fun and all students have been able to identify safe and unsafe play in a range of games. We have also designed and created posters that demonstrates the students’ knowledge.
Excited and happy to be back!
JS1 students, Darren, Dana, and Deb.
Junior Secondary 2 News
We have had a very busy start Term 2. Our Shared Reading during the first week focused on our commemoration of Anzac day with two excellent books, “My Grandad Marches on Anzac Day” and “One Minute’s Silence.” Both texts highlighted the messages of loss, pride and compassion and led to much discussion. We looked at the similarities and differences between the two texts and sequenced illustrations and text from “My Grandad…” In week two, we read the text “Kabi Kabi (Gubbi Gubbi) Kids,” about three indigenous children from the Gympie region. This is another interesting book highlighting one of the cultures found in our local area and the lives of aboriginal children today as compared to their ancestors, decades ago.
In maths, we are continuing our practical measuring activities, sorting, recognition and classification of 2D shapes and 3D objects, and for some of us, investigating the effect of one-step slides, flips and turns.
In science, we are studying Forces, particularly, revising ‘push and pull’ and learning about ‘light and sound.’ So far we have listened to speech vibrations through a balloon and watched rice and dry beans jump around as we created loud sound vibrations next to them!
This week, we all surprised ourselves with the distances we ran during the cross country and were very proud of our efforts!
Kind regards to all our families,
Miss Libby, Miss Sue, Miss Michelle, Miss A, Mr Andrew and Miss Grace, Kate and Che.
Hello Parents and Carers,
We have had a busy few weeks in the Junior Secondary classroom. We have been focussing on building positive relationships and enjoying our literacy and numeracy learning.
The students had a great time our Cross Country last week and enjoyed both the competition and cheering each other on.
Until next time, all the best from
Team JS3, Mr Gavin Miss Emma and Miss Dana
Senior School News
Hello and a big welcome to Term 2. This term is a very busy term for all of our senior students. By now you will have received your parent calendar that shows you the dates of upcoming events. We are involved in a lot of fundraising activities to help with camp at the end of this term.
Order forms will be sent out each week for hamburgers, followed by hotdogs, then pizzas. These order forms will go home each Wednesday and need to be back at school on the Thursday.
Students are continuing to participate in our car washing and cooking programs and have been extremely busy creating beautiful gifts for our upcoming Mother’s day stall. We would like to do a big shout out to our P&C who have supported us with some of our upcoming events, your support is greatly appreciated.
Our students will be continuing to participate in P.E and Health, with lots of great fitness challenges to come and healthy choices to make. Some of our students have created safety posters for our kitchen to get ready to create a healthy choice sandwich.
Our senior production is full steam ahead with rehearsals happening weekly and our visual art students creating some amazing effects
The senior team- Alison, Cann, Stewart, Liz, Anne-Maree Deb, Judith, Chrissy.
GSS Arts Room News
We are into week 3 of our new arts curriculum for term 2 Drama. While you are probably familiar with your child’s talents for dramatizing a situation, we are using our real life situations in the first 2 weeks to explore our own stories and shared stories with our friends, by putting on short skits and using our bodies and voices to express our dramatic ideas. Some costumes and props really help to make it super – enjoyable and fun! This newsletter I am featuring photos from early years.
Regards, Miss Grace (Arts Teacher)
HASS - Learning World News
Welcome back to another busy term of Specialist subject learning. Students across all sectors spent time preparing for ANZAC Day parade by making wreaths. Some students learnt ANZAC poems and ‘The Ode’, to present on parade. The parade was a respectful time and all students rose to the occasion.
Many classes have started their assessments for History and HASS, and these are progressing well. It is great to see students trying their best and remembering ideas from last term. Junior and Senior Secondary classes are continuing with the unit “War, Rights, and Freedoms’, with an emphasis on rights and freedoms this term. Early Years are looking at celebrations and Primary classes are investigating community celebrations.
Miss A
P & C News
A big, big thankyou to all of the parents and staff who volunteered their time at our Bunnings Sausage Sizzle. The day was a huge success and we raised over $1200!
Each Year 12 graduate in 2021 will have their Graduation Dinner ticket purchased by the P&C. We are very pleased to be in a position to support our students as they transition to post-school life.
Kind regards,
Juanita Sempowicz P&C President
P&C Meeting
Tuesday, 18th May at 6.00pm
All welcome!
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
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
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
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!
