A warm welcome to all of our new families!  We have had 4 new students start over the last few weeks and all of these students have settled in well and have been busy learning new routines, making friends and establishing themselves into our school community.

We have another 3 new enrolments starting early next term and several other inquiries about enrolment for later in the year and 2021. This increase in student numbers is a reflection on the dedication and hard work of all of our teaching staff - both teachers and teacher aides, and the positive messages families are sharing within our community.

Staffing

Due to this growth, there will be some staffing changes. We will advise families as quickly as we can if their student will be affected. Whilst we try to minimise change as much as possible, any changes are made with our students at the forefront of our minds to ensure continuity of learning and as much stability as possible.

Primary 3 will be one of the classes experiencing a staffing change for next Semester. We send a huge thank you to Miss Jan who has done a fantastic job teaching our Primary 3 class this term.  Mr Dale Tucker will replace Miss Jan for Semester 2.  We extend a very warm welcome to Mr Dale and hope that he enjoys his time at our wonderful school.

P&C

Our partnership with our families is a vital one. My thanks go to those families who were able to attend our P&C meeting this week. Feedback from some families has been that a later meeting would enable them to attend. With this in mind, we are holding our next P&C meeting in the Admin Building on Tuesday 21 July at 6pm.  Meetings will run for approximately 1 hour.  It would be lovely to see some new faces attend to support our students. We can organise child minding if needed so you can attend – just let our office know.

Congratulations to our new Executive Committee for 2020-2021 who were nominated and accepted positions at our AGM held on Wednesday 24 June.

President: Juanita Sempowicz

Vice president: (not filled)

Treasurer: Krystal Mitchell

Secretary: Cann Taylor

If anyone is interested in the P&C Vice President position, please let us know.

Report Cards

Students have been busy completing assessments over the past few weeks. Report Cards will be completed over the first 2 weeks of Term 3 and sent home at the end of Week 3.

Arrivals

Thank you to all of our families who are working hard to have their students at school and ready for learning by 8:30am.  Our arrivals gate opens at 8:15am and students are welcomed into to the school and can sit and communicate with their friends and teachers until they move off to classrooms at 8:30am. 

Please note that the gate is closed at 8:45am so that the staff on arrivals duty can move off to their classrooms.  If it happens that you are running late and the gate is closed, please bring your students into school via the top gate outside of administration to ensure that they are signed in.

2020 has been an unusual and challenging year for us all.

we are so proud of the way Gympie Special School staff, students, and families have worked to ensure the best possible outcomes for our students during the unprecedented event of Covid-19, and the different ways of working and living this demanded for us all. A huge shout out to our Gympie Special School staff and families this term.  You have been flexible and responsive to our student’s needs in a very different learning environment. 

Have a happy, safe and enjoyable holiday and we look forward to catching up with you all in Term 3 when school resumes on Monday the 13th of July.

Best wishes,

Sarah and Rachael

Term break is upon us again and Term 2, 2020 will most definitely be a memorable one for us all.  I hope you all have a relaxing break, we all deserve it!

Over the past 3 weeks I have been glued to my computer screen organising units of work for teachers. Our teachers have spent whole days planning and collaborating with me and each other perparing for  teaching and learning in sermster 2. We have all thoroughly enjoyed our curriculum planning days setting individual learning goals and teaching sequences with students as the central focus for all learning. Early next term your class teachers will meet to discuss Individual Curriculum Plans and agree on learning goals for the next semester. Report cards will be sent home at the end of week 3.

Next Semester we will have a whole-school focus on writing for all of our students. For an emergent writer, they are learning that they are a writer and that print carries a message. I encourage you to write with your children over the holidays, write shopping lists, use chalk on the drive way, use keyboards, pens, pencils, iPads, paint brushes, anything that works. Talk, write, play and share messages together. You can always send a message and a photo to the school Facebook page and eagerly await a reply.

Enjoy your families over the term break! Stay warm and see you all in term 3.

Warm regards

Shellie

Positive Behaviour for Learning is a framework that helps teach students positive behaviours that align with our school rules.  We have a committed team dedicated to meeting every week to support the implementation of PBL school wide. During Coivid-19 we sent home  a school PBL placemat. This is also a great tool to use over the school holidays.

The PBL committee introduced Ardy tickets that are given to students when they display safe, respectful or learner behaviours, both in the classroom and non-classroom settings. Our students are responding well to working towards these and our lovely Principal and Deputy have been visiting our classrooms weekly to draw out a lucky winner.

Our PBL committee consist of the following members:

PBL Coach – Liz

Team Leader – Deb

Academic/Pedagogy Coach – Shellie

Data Manager – Megan

Principal Admin Rep – Sarah and Rachael

It's the end of semester 1 already and History is finished for the year.

Early Years classes have finished their unit of work on ‘My Family, Your Family’. They participated in reading stories about different types of families.  They explored what families are like and how families can be the same and different.

The Middle Year classes have finished their unit of work on ‘Australian Life, Past to Present’. They identified the similarities and differences between families from the 1900s and those in the present day. Learning how to ask different types of questions was a major focus of this unit of work.

Junior Secondary classes explored different aspects of colonial life, in particular, how family structures, roles and responsibilities have changed over time. A particular focus was on comparing information.

Senior Secondary students have finalised their work task on laws in Australia. Overall it has been a positive and engageing learning time for students. Next semester students will study Geography.

Have a safe and relaxing holiday.

Miss A.

It has been my pleasure to support our P-12 students to explore and develop their communication and problem solving skills in the Design Technologies Unit this semester.

The early years students have investigated food and fibre, while the primary and junior secondary students expanded their knowledge and understanding of food and fibre to exploring the technologies used in their production. The senior secondary classes considered the technologies used in packaging food to keep it safe to eat and free from damage.

To watch our students busily working away on projects that interest and extend them without realising they are also meeting and exceeding their communication and curriculum goals, is a privilege, and I look forward to revealing what is to come as the second half of the year rolls around.

Until next time,

Miss Jodie

The end of term is upon us.  What a term it has been! Everyone from students to parents to school staff have shown how versatile they can be during the Covid-19 pandemic. We are fgreatful for the wonderful job parents did assisting their student to learn @ home. It was a rare opportunity for school and families to work so closely together and for families to get more of an insight into what the children are doing at school. Back at school again the children quickly got back into their routines and it has been a very productive six weeks. There has been much progress in Balanced Literacy, particularly in making choices, flip chart writing (independent writing) and engaging in shared stories. Our students have engaged in mathematical concepts of measurement such as longest, shortest, heaviest and lightest. This has included many hands-on measuring activities. We have particularly noticed growth in our students in following directions, participating in group activities and turn taking. This is evident in our gross motor program and HPE activities. We have been lucky to have Chappy Naomi on Thursdays for drumming activities. Thank you Chappy Naomi!

We wish all our children and their families a happy and safe holiday. We will all be back with our batteries recharged ready for a much more normal term 3!

From all of us in the Early Years.

Liz, Tricia, Dana, Megan, Jordan, Jasmin, Lynne, Michelle, Kym.

As we head into our last days of Semester 1, we wonder at the very bumpy road we have had, dealing with Corona virus whilst still working hard to continue our students’ learning. We must again thank our parents for all their support in helping guide their children through this challenging time. 

The class has enjoyed their science experiments this term and are all very keen to show their growing knowledge of materials and properties. Our morning English sessions are helping our students learn fundamental literacy and communication skills. In maths we have concentrated on measurement, particularly length. We would like to thank Miss A, Ms Jodie and Ms Chris for their wonderful programs in HASS, STEM and Art/ Drama.

Mostly we would like to thank all the aides who have helped in our room but especially, Chrissy our full time aide who always teaches our students with patience and kindness.

Happy holidays

 Libby, Andrew and  Chrissy

What a whirl wind this term has been. Primary 2 have been busy with their measurement unit. We have enjoyed using the balance scale to compare the weight of objects. We investigated solids and liquids during Science and really enjoyed turning a solid chocolate bar into yummy liquid chocolate. We also explored a range of objects to investigate their properties, textures and were grossed out by the feeling of slime. We wrapped up our English unit on celebrations by planning a party for the primary cohort. We composed invitations and sent them to our friends, chose a suitable location and voted on what time we should hold the party. Although an all day party was the most popular choice, we ultimately agreed on a Friday afternoon party!

Have a safe and happy holiday

Erin and Jenny

Over the past couple of weeks our learners have been flat out with measurement activities. We have been comparing height and length using blocks and we have been able to apply this to our beautiful vegie garden which is coming along nicely. We have also started learning about weight, using the balance scales to decide which things are heavier and which things are lighter.

As our theme for the term has been celebrations, our students have been applying their knowledge to planning an end of term celebration. This involved deciding what type of celebration it would be, who to invite, where it would be held and making a list of what food we would like to have. We are looking forward to our Friday mini celebration. What a fabulous way to end the term!

Also Happy birthday to one of our students that will celebrate his 11^th Birthday over the holidays.

I have enjoyed teaching the P3 students, watching them grow and learn over the term. I will be handing over to Mr Dale for semester 2. He's very lucky to be the teacher of a wonderful group of students. 

We trust that all of our learners will have a happy and safe holiday and return ready for another exciting time of learning.

All the best from,

Ms Jan, Ms Eveline and Ms Karen.

The last few weeks have flown by. We have been in high gear, making sure our students are learning snf completing assessments..

We had a visit from another class on Monday morning. Not only was JS1 accommodating, students played games together and gave up their favourite thing to do for others to play with. Our class has become a team of students who share games and help others.  We take turns and we are flexible to change.   

I had a proud teacher moment when I was off class planning and another teacher worked with JS1. The comment at the end of the day, “Your students were so helpful.”

This semester we watched several books of the week online and came across some very funny titles. Two in particular were, ‘Chicken story time,’ and ‘Pirates don’t change diapers.’ Some of our students get a great chuckle going. We have found that our students are increasing their writing skills and producing better quality sentences during daily writing. In addition, some students are initiating conversation about themselves.

In maths we continue to work on number and measurement daily. We are noticing the students’ confidence is increasing more and more as they become familiar with mathematical concepts. Our science investigation into objects and their materials has been fun with students choosing and identifying a range of objects.

Finally, all the students made decoupage frames and chose photos of themselves to give to their mums for Mothers’ Day, better late than never!

The weather has turned cold, please keep warm over the holidays, especially at night.

Have a lovely break,

Tony, Bree, Debbie and Deb. 

JS2 has been busy with maths measurement activities. We all made cars with the Duplo Lego blocks. They were amazing and almost made the grade for the Lego Masters TV show. We named our cars with amazing descriptive names. These names were: Charlie, Duke Kaboom, Pirate, Demon of Death, Blue Beast, Bubble Star and Spinner. We rolled our cars down a long incline and measured the distance they travelled. We noticed the large, elaborate cars crashed and burned. The smaller, sporty cars went faster and further with far less damage.

After each trial we all had the opportunity to alter our cars to see if we could achieve a better outcome. We recorded our distances and placed them in order of 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd. Then we determined which trial measurement was the shortest, longer or longest distance. It was interesting to find that the level of success was not necessarily in order of trial.

It was a great activity where we problem solved and assisted one another to build the best vehicles possible. We also learned lots about measurement and number order. Below are some pictures of our cars.

Every day we learn reading, writing, and mathematics in our classroom.  One of our favourite thing is to play math games.  The boys are having a competition called ‘Target 100’ and we throw a ball into cups in an addition game called ‘Make 6’.  Reading with an adult is important beacuse it improves our reading, however, it was hard for some students to take Mr Darren seriously when he wore a bandana and a moustache for dress-up day!  Miss Sue and some students are enjoying their reading sitting on our new beanbags in our reading area.  The students are writing independently and writting some really interesting sentences and stories which we like to share with others around the school.

Grace, Sue, and Darren

We have WORMS! Our worms for the worm farm have arrived and the students were able to place them straight into their worm home. The students are collecting compost from the other classrooms in the school to help feed our worms and add to our compost bins.  We are looking forward to being able to use the worm wee to help fertalize our gardens.  Students have been making observations on the carrots heights and also checking out the tomatoes, we are hoping to have a great crop of tomatoes after the school break.

From Trista, Thelma and Debbie.