Gympie Special School eNewsletter

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,

Sarah Lester - Principal

Good afternoon Gympie Special School families and friends.

It has been wonderful to see all of the students settled back at school after the winter break. I am excited about Term 3 and very much looking forward to reading some of the poems and rhymes our students will be producing in their Semester 2 Literacy Unit of work.

Gympie Special School Athletics

Following our school athletics carnival, Mr Dale and I had the privilege of going through all of the results and selecting a team of multi-class athletes to represent our school at the District Athletics Carnival to be held at Albert Park on the 5^th and 6^th of August. A really big congratulations to the following students:

Arley

Hayley

Rosie

Lukas

Shyanne

Zane

Rory

Gorgia T

Savannah

Oscar

Jasmine

Maddie

Lochlan

Cody

Ant

Jordan H

Students who compete in the district athletics could then be selected in the Gympie Zone Athletics Team and have the opportunity to compete in the Wide Bay Athletics Trials. We are cheering for each and every one of them…watch this space.

FUTURES PLANNING WITH P.A.T.H.

Preparing our students with the best possible post-school options is extremely important. As part of this preparation, our Year 10 students will have the opportunity to complete a P.A.T.H. this term. P.A.T.H. is a very student-focussed process that highlights their strengths, abilities and dreams for the future and then provides a pathway to get to there. (insert picture here DP PATH)

P.A.T.H. stand for Planning Alternative Tomorrows with Hope.

It is a globally recognised visual person-centred planning and goal setting tool developed by Marsha Forest, Jack Pearpoint and John O’Brien.
It uses graphics to map out a vision of a desirable future for an individual or a group of people.
A person can be assured their goals and dreams are correctly expressed
It helps participants and their supporters focus on NDIS goals, implementation of the goals and future planning

What is the process?

The year 10 student (pathfinder) is supported by those who care about them, and who are interested in helping them move toward their goals.
Two of Gympie Special School trained staff facilitate the process
We use colourful images and drawings that provide memories without relying on words.
These images and colours assist in creative thinking, provide energy and support memory.
Goals are set, as part of the journey, then actions to achieve the goals are recorded.

https://youtu.be/FOX_uwIbPXQ

Year 10 parents and carers will receive an invitation to attend a P.A.T.H. meeting for their child this week. We are very much looking forward to completing this process with you and your child.

Kind regards,

Rachael

Hi everyone,

Term 3 is looking to be great fun! I love this semester’ English focus about rhyme and poetry which also feeds into The Arts Music and dance, exploring rhymes and songs to make music and dance patterns. I have seen some engaged literacy learners in classrooms enjoying books and songs that rhyme, my personal all-time favourite is Hairy Maclary by Lynley Dodd. There are so many fun and engaging books, songs and nursery rhymes that provide opportunity to learning about rhyme and patterns. Have some fun at home with your child, as you sing familiar songs, read books, or watch TV, identify the words or sound patterns that sound the same. For example: star and car, rain and train, bat and mat.

This term we are also privileged to have Coach Tim provide coaching sessions for all of our classes again. Balls skills will be the focus, with particular focus on kicking and dribbling the ball with our feet and throwing, catching and dribbling using basketballs. Students and teachers are pretty keen to start sessions next week as they are always fun and engaging for all.

The other exciting news is BOOK WEEK, we will be holding our book week in our library from the 23 August to the 27^th of August. This year’s topic is ‘Old worlds, New Worlds and Other worlds. Like last year, we will have a character dress up day, best dressed door prizes and we will have a book fair with lots of books and trinkets for sale in the library.

Best wishes for a wonderful winter break!

Miss Shellie

Early Years Sector News

The children are so excited to be back at school, see their friends and start learning again after their winter holiday. The Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) expectation for week 1 was about getting used to school routines again. In week 2 the PBL expectation was ‘I am a learner when I am ready for work’. We are consolidating learning to listen and follow instructions across the context of the day. The PBL rule of the week is also advertised on our school Face Book page.

The Early Years children are enjoying the new focus in Literacy, listening to rhyme in familiar and unfamiliar stories and thinking of rhyming words.

The cooler weather makes being outside so much fun and the children are making the most of it, playing with balls, using the sandpit, running and climbing in our fantastic playground.

Happy Term 3 from the Early Years!

Megan, Lynne, Jennie, Jas, Janet, Jordan, Jodi and Deb.

GSS Arts Room News

After a fun and exciting term of drama activities in term 2, the students are commencing this term by listening to and imitating the soundscapes of nature. They are exploring the ancient music of indigenous ancestors by using percussion instruments made from natural materials as well as their own bodies. Following are some photos using instruments and our bodies from Early, Primary and Junior Secondary Sectors.

Regards, Miss Grace (Arts Teacher)

Primary Sector News

Welcome back to Semester 2, Term 3. This semester has a lot in store for us.

The students will be learning about number and sequencing in Mathematics, rhyme and poetry in English, emotions and Ball games in Health and Physical Education and the Environment around us in Science.

A huge congratulations to all the Primary Years athletes who have made the Gympie Special School team to go to the district trials for athletics on the 5^th and 6^th of August. Great work everybody!!

Our excursion has had to be rescheduled to Monday the 13^th of September which is different to the parent calendar that was sent home. Please keep an eye out for permission slips coming home soon.

Enjoy the upcoming semester.

The Primary Teaching Team: Miss Erin & Jenny & Dana, Mr Dale & Katrina & Ev, Miss Trista & Bree & Tricia.

HASS - Learning World News

Welcome back everybody. So great to see all students engaging in HASS and eager to learn. We have changed focus to Geography this term and students across all sectors are investigating connections. Individual connections, local connections and for the secondary students a focus on Australia’s global connections. There will be a significant focus on mapping conventions. Seniors are also looking at community connections and ways of engaging with local opportunities.

Miss A

Well week 2 it is! We have hit the road running. JS1 students have already begun writing using rhyme as part of our English unit for Semester 2. The week 2 Book of the Week explored sentences ending in ‘ate.’ Can’t wait to see the images the students add to their writing.

During maths, students are exploring number, positional language and time. We have already used number lines and are ready to explore other strategies to locate specific numbers. We are looking forward to playing positional games with the students to explore the maths language, ‘in,’ ‘on,’ and ‘under.’

Our quad games continue and we are finding a number of Junior Secondary students have become comedians, sharing jokes at the table during first break. It is wonderful to see all the students having the opportunity to develop friendships with peers from other classrooms.

We continue to explore PODD, Proloquo2Go, and Auslan communications by using our Core word of the week.

In addition, the students continue to participate in weekly PBL lessons and are not only learning about the current rule, they are applying it actively in the school setting. When I cast my mind back to Week 1, Term 1, JS1 students have come a long way and it is a pleasure to watch them continue to grow both academically and watch their growing independence.

Great to be back,

JS1 students, Darren, Dana, and Deb.

Junior Secondary 2 News

Welcome back to Term 3! We have already created some interesting and fun rhymes in response to the two texts we have shared in English, “Fat Ferdie” and “Room on the Broom.”

Our predictable chart writing continues to develop and we are always happy to publish our sentences and illustrate with pictures during computer time on a Thursday. We then read our finished books to our little friends in Early Years 2 on Tuesday afternoons.

Each morning we punctuate our Morning Message and read a humorous rhyme selected by Miss Libby, which is then analysed to work out the rhyming pattern. This is followed by onset/rime, letter and sound activities and making word activities according to our level. Our reading comprehension instruction is centred around imaginative, informative and for some, persuasive texts, many of which rhyme.

In maths we have used number placemats to write numerals and number names, and draw representations of the MAB blocks that we have used to model the numbers. Some of us also represent the numbers on a number-line. This week we made our own clocks and represented o’clock, half past and/or quarter to and quarter past, depending on our goals. We will continue to explore the language of position and the duration of events during learning experiences this term.

In HPE we have already started practicing throwing, catching, bouncing and dribbling with basket balls and soccer balls.

Warm regards,

Libby, Sue, Michelle, Chris, and Kate.

Hello Parents and Carers,

JS3 have successfully relocated to the top of the school to be in the same area as the other Junior Secondary classes. This gives us more room in which to work and the ability to work with the other two JS classes. They didn’t realise how much they missed us until we moved in.

It is great to see how quickly the class has settled into the new room and they are managing new routines and expectations well. We are working hard on our transitioning to and from other areas within the school.

One expectation that needs attention is student lift usage. We are using the ramp when moving between the lower and upper areas of the school. This not only provides the opportunity to reinforce transitioning skills, it also provides movement and exercise for all involved

Warm regards,

Gavin, Naomi and Dana.

Technologies

The students are excited to be back at school. Digital technologies is fun and engaging and the student’s personal interests are used to enhance engagement in their learning activities. I feel I am in a privileged position as Digital Technology is a learning area where students of all ages learn essential skills in a high-interest environment.

During semester 2, students will be exploring a variety of digital equipment and software including programable robot devices plus software and games on Laptop Computers and iPads. They will be introduced to data representation and the safe and appropriate use of digital technologies; particularly in regards to interactions with staff and peers using safely managed departmental electronic mediums. One activity will require students to research a favourite subject (animal, character or celebrity) and share interesting facts and images about it with peers or staff via these mediums.

Young people can sometimes know more about digital technology than the adults they live with. It is said that we, as adults are digital immigrants while our youth are digital natives. They are born into the world of digital technology, it is not foreign to them. The primary way young people learn about digital technology is from trial and error during play and the sharing of information between peers. Technology is the way of the future for our youth. We seek to encourage their interests in exploring the digital world while guiding them towards wise decision making and thoughtful and safe online practices while maintaining a positive regard for others.

Andrew Stokes

Design and Digital Technology Specialist Teacher

Senior School News

We have had a great start to the term with many exciting activities for our students still to come. Year 10’s have new electives starting from next week on a Tuesday, these are Skills in the Kitchen and Market Garden. The focus for these is for the students to learn work skills that they can carry through their adult life.

Work experience for year 11 and 12 starts up again next week and the students can’t wait. The seniors have been very busy gathering decorations for the Winter Tree on Mary Street that Gympie Special School was invited to decorate. The decorations went up last week and what a fantastic effort by the school it was!

In Miss Alison’s class they have just started reading “Wild Pork and Watercress” by Barry Crump. Students were asked to write and draw their interpretation of the introduction of the book. Lochlan’s drawing demonstrated his understanding of the book and highlighted what a skilled artist he is and he should be very proud of his work.

In year 10, our new science unit focuses on exploring skies, landscapes and the solar system. SS1 and SS2 have spent some time creating fantastic jigsaw puzzles which reflect this. In SS2 the students have made a puzzle of the Earth which is now complete. The moon puzzle has just begun but will be difficult because it is made up of many different shades of grey.