THANK YOU: As we approach the school holidays, I would like to thank families for being so supportive this term. Thank you, parents and caregivers, for keeping your child home whenever they have been unwell. It has certainly been a challenging term with high numbers of student and staff sickness. We have had to combine classes at times, when we have not been able to replace staff. Our students have managed these changes very well and I thank our staff for their flexibility and resilience during these challenging times.

INFLUENZA:  We are starting to see more cases of illness unrelated to Covid-19, such as the flu. The flu is highly contagious and can be serious. The Queensland Government is offering free vaccinations to all Queenslanders over 6 months of age.

Vaccination and practising good hand and respiratory hygiene is your best defence against the spread of the flu.

To protect yourself and those around you, here are 7 easy steps to help fight the flu:

• Get a flu shot every year
• If you are unwell, stay at home and avoid contact with others
• Wash your hands often and properly with soap and water, or use an alcohol-based hand sanitiser
• Cover your cough and sneezes with a tissue or a flexed elbow. Throw your tissues away immediately and wash your hands afterwards
• Try to stay 1.5 metres away from anyone who coughs and sneezes
• Clean frequently touched surfaces regularly with soap and water or detergent
• Don’t share items such as cups, glasses, cutlery, lip balm, toys or anything which has come into contact with the mouth or nose.

SPORTS DAY: Sports day is Friday 15^th July, the first week back after the holidays.

Students have been working with Coach Tim to prepare for our annual Sports Day. Please come along on the day and cheer your student on. We now have 3 Sports Houses: Mari which is Gubbi Gubbi for Kangaroo and the colour for this house is RED;  Dala which is Gubbi Gubbi for Mary River Lungfish and the colour for this house is BLUE, Gigum which is Gubbi Gubbi for  Cockatoo and the colour for this house is GREEN. 

STAFFING NEWS:

• Alison Huth is retiring! Alison has been a teacher at Gympie Special School since September 2014. She has had a long successful career in education, becoming a teacher in 1984. Alison will be taking Semester 2 off on leave and then formally retiring. We wish Alison all the best for a relaxing, fun and happy retirement.
• We are also farewelling Judith Taylor, one of our terrific teacher aides, who has accepted a position in the private sector. Judith is an excellent aide, whose professionalism and commitment will be missed. We wish her all the best in her new role.
• Our Deputy Principal, Rachael Pelling has accepted a 6-month position at James Nash State High School for Semester 2, 2022. We wish Rachael all the best in her new position there and look forward to welcoming her back to Gympie Special at the start of 2023.
• We welcome Chrissie Hansen to our school next semester as our Deputy Principal. Chrissie is a very experienced Special School Deputy Principal who comes to us with a wealth of knowledge. Chrissie is looking forward to meeting and supporting students, families and staff at Gympie Special.

REPORT CARDS: Report cards are currently being written, following class assessments being completed. Report Cards will be emailed to families at the end of week 1, Term 3 by Friday 15^th July. If any parents would like a parent teacher interview, these can be arranged as part of the Semester 2 ICP meetings for those students in Years P to 10 or as a separate meeting for Years 11 and 12.

SCHOOL OPINION SURVEY: The annual suite of School Opinion Surveys will be conducted in Term 3 and will close on 12 August 2022. All families, school staff and students in target year levels (5, 6, 8 and 11) will be invited to participate. We encourage you to take this opportunity to have your say about what our school does well, and how we can improve.

An invitation to complete the Parent/Caregiver Survey will be emailed to one parent/caregiver per family in the week beginning 11 July.  The invitation will be sent from the Department of Education, not the school, and it will have the subject line School Opinion Survey for parents and caregivers, 2022.  Check your junk email folders if you can’t find it.  The survey can be completed as soon as the invitation is received and will take approximately 5 minutes using a computer, tablet or smart phone. 

Parents/caregivers who do not have access to the internet at home are welcome to complete their survey online at the school. School computers/tablets will be available.

YEAR 12 GRADUATION:

The last day for Year 12 is Friday 18^th November. We will be holding a graduation ceremony in our Performing Arts Room on Friday 18^th December from 9.30am, followed by a morning tea for our graduating students and their families. The Year 12 Formal Graduation Dinner event will be held during that week also and the date and venue for this event will be announced early next term as we work with our Year 12 students to plan their graduation.

I cannot tell you all how proud I was to accompany our multi-class athletes to the Wide Bay School Sport Cross Country trials on Tuesday 7^th of June.  A massive congratulations to our 2022 multi-class Gympie Zone Cross-Country team! Cody, Geoffrey, Zane, Tyson, Jasmine, Shyanne, Mason and Ryan.

Shyanne, Mason, Ryan and Zane ran amazing individual races and have been selected into the Wide Bay Cross Country team.  They will compete at the Queensland State Titles in August.  What an amazing achievement!  We wish them all the very best.

Moving on …. For now

It is with mixed emotions that I let you all know that I have been recruited to James Nash State High School for a 6-month secondment. My new position will be for Semester 2 to head up some project work as Deputy Principal.  Chrissie Hansen, who is a very experience special school deputy will be replacing me.

Gympie Special School is one the most student-centred environments I’ve ever had the pleasure to work in and I will miss the staff, students and parents during my 6 months away. 

Until 2023,

All the best,

Rachael

Over the past few weeks I have been working with classroom teachers on our Semester 2 units of work. Personally, I get very excited talking with the teachers about the learning activities, books and resources the students will be engaged with to enhance the teaching and learning of the curriculum. Our English unit of work for next semester is focused on imaginative texts, in particular characters and events. Secondary sector will focus on “Good vs Evil” storylines. Teachers are very enthusiastic about the props and activities that can be planned to deepen the students understanding of the texts. I am looking forward to the character dress up day for our book week activities in week 7 next term and hope to see some of the characters from the stories engaged with in the classroom.

I have also been working with the Senior teachers about student QCIA goals, it has been a delight to see how many of the goals set, have already been achieved! I was beyond proud of our Senior School production on Thursday, watching the student singing, dancing and sleeping their way to an awesome performance. Well done to the staff and students!

Yours in education, Shellie.

Hi everyone,

Early Years students and staff thoroughly enjoyed our excursion to Bunnings in Week 7. Elaine, the activity co-ordinator from Bunnings made us feel very welcome. She had a pot painting activity ready to go as soon as we arrived. The students were very creative with their designs and you can see by the big smiles on their faces just how much fun they had. The students then each chose a flower and potted in up into their decorated pots with soil. After the activity students had a short play in the play area and finished with morning tea. Elaine entertained the students while they sat and ate by making popcorn in the big popcorn machine. They were all very excited when it started popping! It was a great excursion to culminate our ‘Growing Well’ Science Unit.

Thank you

Early Years Team

Hi there again Primary Parents,

It’s hard to believe that we have already reached the end of our first semester. It has been a challenging semester in many ways but it is great to see how far our students have come.

Over the past few weeks we have had several events going on. Coach Tim has been back and teaching all the kids in preparation for our athletics carnival, the students have been practicing javelin, shot put, long jump and high jump. The students have thoroughly enjoyed this time with Tim.

A couple of our Primary Classes even ventured out to the shops to learn more about our focus in English and Mathematics, where we have been looking at advertising and money.

Several of our primary sector students will be heading off next term to compete in the State Cross Country Trials down at the Gold Coast. Congrats to Ryan and Mason on a fantastic effort. It has been great to see so many of our Primary Sector students experiencing success.

We have also welcomed a new student, William to our Primary Sector in the P3 classroom. Welcome William, we hope you enjoy your learning experience here with us at Gympie Special School.

Next Friday is our PBL sector reward, which will be a disco. Please keep an eye out for the information that is being sent home.

We hope that the holiday will be a nice time for your children to recharge and come back ready for the start of the new semester.

All the best

The Primary Sector Team

It was my first week on Class S2 replacing Miss Kate for a few weeks. The students made me feel welcome straight away and I’m very impressed with their excellent communication skills, their helpfulness and willingness to work and learn.

Our Shared Reading book for Week 7 was ‘Curry for Murray’. The students enjoyed all the different dishes described and got very hungry just by thinking about it. They named all their favourite dishes, and some very strange and unfamiliar dishes were mentioned, some I would definitely not try myself…

We decided to make sandwiches with our favourite fillings in class on Thursday.  The students managed well and enjoyed eating the sandwiches.

S2 Students, Miss Kate, Miss Carina and Miss Dana.

Term 2 has been very different with the weather and illness impacting attendance of students and staff. Our Year 11 and 12 students need to be congratulated as they have shown great resilience and remained focused on their learning. Semester One electives and subjects have continued with these last few weeks culminating with individual student presentations and a dance production.

Students have planned and rehearsed their Senior dance production of ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ and presented 2 shows at school. Our Art and Props group made the backdrop of a jungle scene whilst dancers and singers learnt key Auslan signs to include in the routine. Dancers negotiated changes to the dance routine for improvement and singers rehearsed with microphones in readiness for the shows.

In Hospitality, students have rotated between food preparation and presentation one week, then setting up tables and receiving the cooked meal the following week. Students are involved in selecting the meals and are up to serving a 3-course dinner, yum.

Two of our students, Cody and Geoffrey recently represented our school at regional level of cross country after meeting the criteria at our school cross country. Congratulations to both boys for reaching the next level of sport representation.

Car washing in Winter has its challenges with the cold weather and working with cold water. The students have continued doing a great job and received great feedback from recipients regarding their hard work.

Sadly, due to Gympie flooding and damage to facilities, our excursion to Roadcraft had to be postponed. We are hoping it will go ahead before the end of the year. Students have continued working on their learner driver practice tests and becoming familiar with road rules.

In Term 3, we have the annual Art Auction approaching. Senior Secondary students have already made a start to their individual pieces and exploring the dynamics of the Australian outback. The theme this year is “Australia the barren country.”

Finally, we have to comment on the high standard of work students have been demonstrating with their individual presentations for English. They have been engaging to watch, shared new information to us all and actively involved the listeners with their topic of interest. Congratulations one and all on a job well done.

Thanks

Senior Secondary team