Gympie Special School eNewsletter

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to the second school newsletter of the 2020 school year! It was great to return to school this week after my weeklong leave, bushwalking in Tasmania. Thank you to Rachael, Acting Deputy Principal and Shellie our Head of Department: Curriculum (HOD: C), for stepping up and ensuring the school ran smoothly in my absence.

I am pleased to announce that Rachael Pelling has been appointed as our Permanent Deputy Principal. Congratulations to Rachael, our school has gained a valuable new staff member.

Have you liked our ‘Gympie Special School’ Facebook page yet?

If you have not yet ‘liked’ our Facebook page, please go onto Facebook today and join our school community page. We will be posting news, photos, celebrations, inviting you to events and keeping you regularly informed via our Facebook page. To let us know you have read a post- hit the thumbs up or send us some love!

Successful and Engaged Learners:

It has been wonderful to see so many of our students receiving Ardy Tickets for demonstrating our 3 school rules: I am Safe, I am Respectful, I am a Learner. Even more excitingly, some students have already received a Bronze Award for earning 20 Ardy Tickets in total. We are working with all students on Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) across all settings in the school environment. Right now, we have a close focus on reducing inappropriate playground behaviour and rewarding appropriate behaviour. We have altered our 3 school rule posters to ensure students can easily identify each rule as well as colour coding our Ardy Tickets so students are aware of which rule they are being recognized for.

Empowered Staff:

Intentional Collaboration: Our staff have been busy collecting and collating data from a range of assessments for each child in our school. Staff will then use this data to have a professional collaborative conversation with Shellie, our new HOD: C. Shellie is supporting staff to ensure all students at GSS are accessing the curriculum at the correct level.

Once this information has been decided, ICP meetings with families will commence. Some students may have a change in their curriculum level and this will result in those students being taught and assessed at the level within which they are currently operating. We are refining and strengthening our knowledge of our students as learners, as well as enhancing our own understandings of the Australian Curriculum, and how best to meet our students needs.

Engaged Partners:

Taxi cancellations: If your student will not be travelling via their normal taxi transport, you must inform the school office, as well as the taxi company. If the school has not been informed, your student will be transported home as per their usual arrangements. Please tell us “Transport change for (student’s name) day and date of change and time of travel e.g. morning or afternoon”.

You can let us know via:

text to our school mobile 0436 813 384
email to admin@gympiespecs.eq.edu.au,
message to the class teacher in the communication book
ringing our school office on 5480 2333

The first lesson of each day starts at 8.45am. Please assist us to commence learning on time by having your student here prior to 8.45am. Staff are on duty in the Transport zone from 8.30am. If you are visiting the school during the day, or arriving late with your child, please enter and exit through admin.

All parents/carers are required to sign in and out. This is an Education QLD Health, Safety and Wellbeing required procedure for safety. We appreciate your support.

Parade is each Monday at 2.00pm in the performing arts room. Parents and carers are most welcome. We look forward to you joining with us!

Best wishes always!

Sarah

Mar
19
Thu

19 Mar 2020

3:30 PM to 5:00 PM

Event Info

Mar
19
Thu

19 Mar 2020

3:30 PM to 5:00 PM

Event Info

Mar
19
Thu

19 Mar 2020

3:30 PM to 5:00 PM

Hello again families and friends. I am thrilled to say that our magnificent Gympie Special School community has me enchanted and I have definitely settled in but, is it really week 6 already? So many wonderful things are happening in all of our classrooms, especially within English units. I have witnessed some awesome independent writing skills across our classrooms. Special mention to our Senior classrooms where some of students were reluctant to write independently last year, and are now writing sentences independently. This makes my literacy heart pump proud with joy!

Our school will continue its strategic focus on delivering a Balanced Literacy approach across all learning areas. A Balanced Literacy approach encompasses shared and independent writing, shared and guided reading, self-selected reading and working with words. Within a balanced literacy approach, communication skills are a vital element. Staff will be placing a strong emphasis around modelling communication using verbal language with PODD books to encourage all students to communicate effectively at their skill level and understanding. Last Tuesday Teachers attended a workshop where they had to play and interact with mathematics activities without talking; they could only use PODD and other symbols to communicate with their partner. Whilst it was quite a fun activity, and we all had many laughs, it was serious business! Many of our students are non-verbal and do not have the language to communicate effectively. Our teachers increased their awareness and ability to use PODD and other communication tools, to support student engagement in a variety of learning activities. We hope you see improved communication skills at home with your child over the coming months.

Deputy Principal News

Hello Parents and Caregivers,

The National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence (NDA) is an important day to mark Australian school communities standing together against bullying and violence. On Friday the 20^th of March, our school will be acknowledging this National Day by wearing something orange to raise awareness.

For further information click on this link: https://bullyingnoway.gov.au/NationalDay

The World’s Greatest Shave for the Leukaemia Foundation will also be recognised on Friday 20^th of March. Student and staff are encouraged to participate in “Crazy Hair Day”, which involves creating a crazy hairstyle for the school day. Please send along a gold coin donation to support the Leukaemia Foundation.

When: Friday 20^th March, 2020

What to Wear: Something orange

Hair: Crazy hair day.

Bring: Gold Coin Donation

The Great Moscow Circus

Students at Gympie Special School have been rewarded for following our 3 school rules.

Be Safe
Be Respectful
Be a Learner

Our students receive “Ardy Tickets” when staff members spot them doing the right thing. These Ardy tickets are then collected and put into sector boxes for Monday Parade. If your student’s name is drawn out of their sector box, they can then select a prize using our choice board. Next week, on Monday the 9^th of March, students will be able to choose a free pass to the Great Moscow Circus!!! There will also be a major prize draw, where all the tickets are placed into one large box and one lucky winner will receive a free family pass for 2 adults and 2 children.

We will keep encouraging our students to follow the school rules and get as many Ardy Tickets into the draw as possible. The passes are valid for the 18^th of March.

Kind Regards,

Rachael

We have had an excellent response to our information update and this is appreciated. I would also like to issue my thanks to the many parents who have agreed to participate in the Student Resource Scheme. The results this year have been excellent with 42 forms returned so far and 15 families who have contributed a payment. We welcome you to make regular part payments of a value you can afford. Alternatively you can set up regular Centrepay deductions by following the steps below:

online using your Centrelink online account through myGov
using the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app on your mobile device
at a service centre with help from our staff
by calling us on your regular payment number.

Once you’ve agreed to have a Centrepay deduction, we pay the business for you, out of your Centrelink payment. We’ll send you a letter telling you we’ve set up your deduction. You can also check your deduction summary online.

The lowest amount we can deduct is $10 per fortnight.

REMINDER: P & C Annual General Meeting at 3.30pm on Thursday 19th March 2020, all welcome.

Please continue to notify us of student absences, remember you can phone outside office hours and leave a message with the following details:

Student name
Roll Class
Reason for absence
Expected duration of absence

From the office team,

Jo & Cassandra

Email: admin@gympiespecs.eq.edu.au

PH: 07 5480 2333

Chappy News

What’s coming up?

Next week is our next Parent and Carer Morning Tea. I’d love to see you there.

Launching at the Morning Tea next week is a Mother’s Day Fundraiser (Mother’s Day is at the end of Week 3, Term 2).

Following the launch at the Morning Tea, ticket books and further information will be sent home next Thursday in the student diaries.

Funds raised will be used to support families to access school events and resources. This may include book packs, uniforms, school camps and similar expenses.

How you can be involved

Encourage your family and friends to buy a ticket or two, or ten!

Greetings from Learning World.

The students have been off to a flying start this year with Junior Secondary delving into the history of Australian Colonisation, including tales of convicts and bushrangers. Primary classes are investigating how roles and responsibilities within families have changed from the early 1900s to today. Early Years classes are continuing to investigate immediate and extended family structures and how they can be different. Finally, the Senior students doing legal studies have so far looked at how laws are made, and the laws around fines and consent. We look forward to a busy half term to come.

Miss A

DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGIES

Sometimes, it is the little things that make all the difference, and a change to 45-minute lessons for the 3 specialist classes, HAAS, Technologies and the Arts, in 2020, is a notable improvement across the school. All students now have the opportunity to move from their usual classrooms to different spaces for these sessions, which, in turn, gives them valuable skills in adapting to changes in routine. This semester primary students are exploring food and fibre production, junior secondary are investigating where ideas for designs in food technologies come from and opportunities for innovation, and seniors are examining current packaging for familiar food items and designing a sustainable product that is also cost effective. While this is all very interesting, our focus in every class this semester is learning that it is ok to make mistakes, that there is no “wrong” way to do something and we just need to have a go!

The Arts.

During the past weeks all Art classes have been busy with their different projects. Early years have been ‘Looking Down’ into rock pools after watching a Torres Strait Islander video about a crab and a fish who get married. Dauma the crab and Garom the fish are puppets constructed from ghost nets – discarded fishing and trawler nets which litter the waters off northern Australia. The students have made their own collaged rock pools complete with sea creatures. This is the link to the story of Dauma and Garom:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8lriZ_PTu4

The primary classes are enthusiastically making their Tiny Worlds. It is great to see the students showing respect and care for each other’s art work while constructing their worlds together on the same model landscape board. Students have set up a scene for a battle with miniature soldiers, made a fort and have been making a volcano in a section of the landscape. Others have been helping to make trees. Next newsletter we will hopefully have a photo of the final group product.

Primary model making: early beginnings of the landscape.

Junior Secondary are responding to the issue of plastics pollution by making cardboard sea creatures which have swallowed plastic. Their individual sea creatures will be constructed into an installation at the end of the project.

Works in progress - junior secondary sea creatures which swallowed plastic.

Senior Students are currently preparing cardboard relief pictures for printing. They have chosen images from everyday life that represent popular culture to make their prints.

The first image shows great use of mark making through the student's control of line. He has made the burger template look 3D. The second image is a cardboard relief of a motor bike. This work is still in progress.

During our art lessons I continually see our young people’s creativity through their spontaneity and resourcefulness. They are engaged in exploring and solving their art problems, often in surprisingly successful ways. It is rewarding to be a part of their experience.

EY2 News

We have had a busy term so far. Our class has been establishing routines to complete academic work tasks and Positive Behaviour for Learning processes.

Morning Balanced Literacy Block including - Letters and Words of the Week, Independent Writing, Sign-In, Morning Message, and Book of the Week - is well under way.

In Maths, we have been investigating number and measurement. Students are particularly interested in using real-life tools such as Kitchen scales, balance scales, rulers, tape measures. Playdough is also popular during this session as we learn about longer/shorter, bigger/smaller and use the scales for heavier. This learning area is also incorporated into our Outdoor Learning sessions which involve water and sand play.

Science is learning about Materials and their Properties. Doing a scavenger hunt around the school to find these items is fun. We then take these photos back to the classroom, where students can sort these accordingly.

In Health, we are learning about keeping our bodies safe and how we grow

Gym work obstacle course is also fun as we include maths, language and health into one session.

Horseriding has been a great lesson also. It is amazing to see how the students interact with their horse. It is totally transforming as the students become so engaged in what they are doing. We are very lucky to be able to be involved in such a wonderful experience.

Overall a great start,

EY2 students, Megan, Jordan and Jasmine.

Early Years 3.

We’ve had a busy time in our classroom over the first half of the term. The books we’ve read for our books of the week have been mostly about animals. We continue to enjoy completing our book reviews to give our opinions about them using the PODD. Everyone has a different opinion!

We started attending Riding for the disabled again in week 3 and are enjoying riding and talking to the volunteers. It’s nice riding under the trees and down by the little creek.

The weather has been too hot for outside learning, so all the Early Years classes have come together in the gym in the air conditioning to practise a circuit using skills such as rolling, balancing and climbing. We love getting out of our chairs and joining in the rolling and rocking.

We are working hard to earn Ardy tickets as part of Positive Behaviour for Learning. We’re excited on Mondays to see who gets a Student of the week certificate or has their name drawn out of the box for a prize.

The days go very quickly when they’re full of activities!

Early Years 3.

Mar
12
Thu

12 Mar 2020

9:00 AM to 11:00 AM

Event Info

Mar
12
Thu

12 Mar 2020

9:00 AM to 11:00 AM

Closing Date: 05 Mar 2020

Event Info

Mar
12
Thu

12 Mar 2020

9:00 AM to 11:00 AM

Closing Date: 05 Mar 2020

P1

Students have been busy learning their sight words, letters and sounds. This week’s focus letters are Uu and Ff. The five focus sight words are ‘or, one, had, by, words’. We learn these through repetition. As a great educator once said “it’s not the amount of time you spend on a subject but the amount of times you touch on a subject”. Repetition can be fun if you get creative. Word Uno, Puzzles, Bingo, Memory games, word/letter hunts around the playground, car games, writing in the sand pit, pavement chalk, word art, etc... the ideas are endless (thanks Pinterest).

To increase engagement learning should be fun and interest based. It is hypothesised by leading child behavioural researchers that fun is as important as a child’s physiological needs. We also like to get to know our students likes and dislikes so we can structure the learning to suit their interests. The result? Happy and engaged learners who progress academically – and that’s what we strive for in P1.

Cheers P1

Goodness! Is it really halfway through Term 1? It’s amazing how quickly time passes when you’re having fun!

In Primary 3 we are having a great time learning about Celebrations around the World. We have looked at how other cultures celebrate special occasions and at the same time, we’ve been learning about the different text types that we are reading, both fiction stories and non-fiction fact and information sources.

We are also learning about how collections of objects can be counted, and can be changed, by adding to, or taking away from! This is going to help us learn about how we can measure how heavy, how long and how tall things are, including our growing bodies.

In Physical Education, we are exploring the way we can move our bodies, and where we can play and exercise in both a safe way, and in safe places.

Learning about how we fit into the world, and how we understand the world around us, is very important business for our students, and we really thank our families for supporting their learners by preparing them every day, to be ready to engage with the amazing journey of learning that they experience at Gympie Special School.

Warmest regards, Sharon, Karen, Ev & Jodi M

Week 6 already!! We are working like a well-oiled machine. Our class is continuing to focus on particular letters that help us to write daily in our flipchart books. Apparently images of spiders are a hit with teenage boys. Our weekly text is, ‘Bedtime is cancelled.” As you can imagine, this has been an amusing text to read. We are looking forward to publishing our weekly book complete with images on Friday.

In maths we have measured our heights using a variety of informal measurements. The students are increasing their number knowledge using a variety of resources; it appears that a favourite is juggling balls and a large dice.

We have been having physical breaks in class by playing throw and catch games when our work is completed, before moving onto the next task. Our students are definitely great sports as they wait their turn and sit when they are out. Great to see! We also have smart moves to music and line tiggy several times per week.

Finally, we have a class full of dolphins. During swimming instruction, the students are improving their arm strokes, kicking their legs and diving for objects under the water. I am fairly sure this is one of the highlights of their week.

More to come,

JS1 Students, Tony, Bree, Debbie and Deb.

JS3 Science: Chemical Changes

We have been experimenting with how combining chemical substances can cause interesting outcomes.

We try to predict or hypothesize what will happen before it happens.

Sometimes we get it right and sometimes we are surprised by what happens. It’s exciting!

Senior Secondary 1

We are very privileged to have Paul coming into our class to volunteer his time to help one of our talented students with his art, Thank you Paul. The student has also been the first student in senior secondary to receive a Bronze Ardy, Congratulations and well done. There are a number of other students that are very close to achieving a Bronze Ardy award.

Active Volunteering

The Active Volunteering group have been proving themselves and when they arrive are now greeted by the manager with “here come all my workers” and “we have saved you lots of work”. This puts big smiles on the students’ faces and they say that they feel very proud, they are proving themselves as hard workers who are willing to give everything a go. Students are communicating well with other staff and peers while packing bread, tomatoes, frozen chips and boxes of dry goods.