The Galston Gumnut · built humpies, enjoying the adventures and survival of the pelicans, understanding the friendship that Storm Boy has with Mr Percival while sometimes stepping

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Respect Responsibility Personal Best

The Galston Gumnut Galston Public School Newsletter

Wednesday 27th March 2019 Phone: 9653 2062 Fax: 9653 1980

Email: [email protected] Website: www.galston-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

Calendar Dates

Week 9, Term 1

Thursday 28th March Sydney North PSSA Regional Swimming Carnival Peer Support Session 4

Friday 29th March Grandparents / VIP Day Honour Assembly, 2:05pm

Week 10, Term 1 Tuesday 2nd April Final NetSetGo Netball Clinic: 3-4M, 3-4P, 5-6M, 5-6S and 5-6W Wednesday 3rd April Final NetSetGo Netball Clinic: KW, 1-2B, 1-2M, 1-2P and 3-4F

Thursday 4th April SRC Mufti Day – Story Dogs fundraiser Peer Support Session 5

Friday 5th April No Assembly Week 11, Term 1

Tuesday 9th April Parent Teacher Interviews: 3-4F, 3-4M, 3-4P Futsal Gala Day P&C Meeting

Wednesday 10th April Parent Teacher Interviews: 5-6M, 5-6S, 5-6W

Thursday 11th April Parent Teacher Interviews: KW, 1-2B, 1-2M Anzac Service, 9:00am

Friday 12th April

Easter Hat Parade, 9:00am Cross Country Carnival Extra Play No Assembly

Note Due Date

2019 School Invoice Overdue Got It! questionnaire Thursday 28th March Stage 3 Camp Friday 29th March (balance) ScopeIT Education Tuesday 2nd April

From the Principal Thank You Thank you to the P&C Fundraising Committee and parent volunteers for running the Election Day BBQ, Cake Stall and Book Stall on Saturday. Thank you to the parents who donated cakes and books and purchased items on the day amid the excitement of the polling booths. Emergency Contact Details Update - Please Return A note requesting any updates to your emergency contact details will be sent home tomorrow. Please return this as soon as possible, even if your details have not changed. Thank you. Gift / Membership Cards A number of store gift/membership cards were handed in that may have fallen from someone’s purse whilst voting on Saturday. If you are missing any gift/membership cards, please see Mrs Morgan in the office. Grandparents / VIP Day Drop-off Zone We are looking forward to seeing lots of visitors joining us this Friday for our Grandparents / VIP Day. We will be setting up a drop-off zone at the front gate of the school, marked out with witches’ hats, for any elderly visitors who may need to be dropped off directly out the front.

Week 9, Term 1

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Harmony Day Thank you to Mrs Pearce for organising this fantastic drone photo at our Harmony Day celebrations last Thursday. On Harmony Day we celebrated the cultural diversity makes Australia a great place to live. The message of Harmony Day was ‘everyone belongs’. We wear orange on Harmony Day as traditionally, orange signifies social communication and meaningful conversations, and also relates to the freedom of ideas and encouragement of mutual respect. Parent Teacher Interviews Thank you to all the parents/carers who will be taking the opportunity to participate in parent teacher interviews during Week 11. Please keep in mind that our teachers welcome the opportunity to discuss your child’s progress with you at any time throughout the year. If you are unable to make interviews during Week 11, please contact your child’s teacher to organise an alternative date and time. Parking Please remember that the area at the front of the school is a No Parking Zone from 8:00am - 9:30am. To ensure traffic flows as smoothly as possible, please don’t leave your car parked and unattended in this zone. If you need to enter the school during this time, please park in a different area. Knockout Soccer Well done to Mrs Watson and the Knockout Soccer Team for their efforts last week against Hornsby North PS in the NSWPSSA Football knockout competition. The result did not go our way, and Hornsby North proved to be too strong for us, however, Mrs Watson was proud of the effort of our boys and I’m sure they enjoyed the experience. Thank you to the parents who were able to assist with transporting the team to and from the game. Easter Raffle Donations The annual Galston PS Easter Raffle is on again! Donations of Easter-related items, such as Easter eggs/ bunnies/chocolates, Easter craft kits and books etc, will be gratefully received, as will any baskets you may wish to donate for packaging. These items will be packaged into hampers and raffled off on Friday 12th April following our Easter Hat Parade. The packaging of donations into hampers has begun, so please send in your donations as soon as possible and up to 9th April. Additional Easter Raffle tickets are available from the Office.

Rob Jarvis

Here’s the latest crop from our pumpkin patch.

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Week 9 PBL Awards Galston Gotcha Prize Draw Winners

Story Dogs Story Dogs is a fun and unique reading support program, run by volunteers, that aims to improve children’s confidence and reading skills. Students spend approximately 20 minutes one-on-one with the trained Story Dog team (a trainer and the dog) once a week reading appropriately-levelled books. The dog’s job is to listen, with the trainer providing prompts to encourage the student. The program is designed primarily for Year 2 students who may be experiencing some reading challenges, but do not necessarily qualify for intensive school-based intervention. One-on-one time with a more experienced reader in a non-threatening environment is invaluable for all students, but particularly for those who need a bit of encouragement. We are very fortunate to now have two Story Dog teams operating at Galston PS: Val Wright and her loveable Labrador, Zoe, have been working at GPS since Term 2 last year. This term we also welcome Sue Armston (Theo & Lincoln’s grandmother) and Rosie, her Newfoundland, who will start this week. Thanks to the suggestion of some plucky SRC representatives (who felt the older students were missing out!), Rosie and Sue will work with Year 3 and 4 students. Lisa Ward – Learning and Support Teacher SRC Fundraiser Mufti Day for Story Dogs On Thursday 4th April the School Representative Council (SRC) is inviting all students to wear mufti and bring a gold coin donation to support Story Dogs in schools. Zoe and Rosie are planning to attend with their handlers, Val and Sue, so please come up to have a pat and say hi! Geeta Pendharkar – SRC Coordinator Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire Just a reminder to all Kindergarten–Year 2 parents that the voluntary Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires for the Got It! program are due back to your child’s classroom teacher by this Thursday 28th March. Thank you. Lisa Ward – Learning and Support Teacher

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Peer Support This week in Peer Support children will revise what they have learned about resilience and discuss the people who show them support. Through a story, children identify where the character has used her personal qualities, strengths and skills to help her overcome challenges. They identify times when she needed support to continue. The children discuss a range of challenges and determine the best person to approach for support. The children consolidate the protective factors for resilience by revising their own strengths and skills and identifying five people they can go to for support. Remind your child of their qualities and skills and encourage them to ask for help in challenging situations. Gemma Watson, Claire Sundin and Giulia Muscat – Year 6 teachers Primary Ethics 2019 Have you ever thought about being a volunteer Primary Ethics teacher? Are you keen to help students develop critical thinking and logical reasoning skills? Do you have a spare hour once a week? If you answered yes to any of the above, we'd love to hear from you! Now in its second year at Galston Public School, the Primary Ethics program is more popular than ever and we have full and extra-full classes running across Stages 1, 2 & 3. Our new Kindy students can't yet commence Ethics as we don't have enough teachers, so we need your help. Please reach out to us if you (or someone you know) might be interested in joining our team. It's highly rewarding, free comprehensive training is provided, and the curriculum and teaching resources are all supplied. No teaching experience is necessary! Ethics classes are held on Wednesday mornings from 8.55-9.30am. To find out more, please call/SMS Pip Davis on 0422 427 699. Pip Davis – Ethics Coordinator for GPS News From 3-4P The race to the end of term has begun. The weeks and activities are now blending with assessment tasks. Everyone is working hard and achieving oodles. Here is a snippet from Term 1 in 3-4P. As a whole class we are reading Storm Boy. We have researched and learnt about the Coorong National Park, built humpies, enjoying the adventures and survival of the pelicans, understanding the friendship that Storm Boy has with Mr Percival while sometimes stepping into the shoes of Fingerbone Bill and Hideaway Tom. At the end of the term, we will watch the original Storm Boy movie with a follow up of the new movie on its release next term.

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Thank you to all the families that have covered this year’s school books, helped contribute items to our classroom and volunteered to help out in Reading Groups. We would love to have your smiling faces back with us again in Term 2, our Reading Groups are so successful due to your involvement, thank you! Maths lessons have started with revising place value, mental and algorithm computations, constructing 3D objects, solving patterns, measuring objects around the school and drawing measured lines with rulers. Honing in on being accurate to the millimetre. Our times tables are coming along, helping us in all our maths lessons. 3-4P has many times tables whizzes! Sport and fitness are much loved by many of the 3-4P students and this is a great break from the hard work we are doing in the classroom. The netball clinics have seen our catching and throwing skills improve. In class we are learning about what our minds and bodies need to be healthy, gaining the understanding that it is ourselves that make us great, with a little help from our family.

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Art is happening all the time in 3-4P, we have many artists in the making. Do come in and see our colourful classroom and art pieces on display. This week we started to paint our pelican scene from Storm Boy and build our Easter hats with 1-2M. Well folks, that’s all from us in Term 1, see you next term. Sharon Pearce – 3-4P

P&C News P&C Membership Thank you to all families that have already paid their P&C membership, and also to those generous families that have made an additional contribution. Please note, to be eligible to vote on P&C matters you need to pay the $10. We will continue to take payments up to the end of Term 1, so if you wish to make a donation or vote on any matters throughout the year at P&C please make your payment by 12th April. Election BBQ Thank you to all the families that donated yummy food for our election day BBQ. Voters coming to Galston enjoyed picking up something sweet for morning tea. Also thanks to those that helped during the day either with the cake stall or cooking up a storm with bacon and eggs and sausages. We will tentatively be doing it all again in May once the Federal Election date is set. Kim Alsdorf – P&C President, [email protected] Canteen News Friday 29th March and Monday 1st April Lunch + Counter Sales Please lodge all orders through Flexischools.com.au by 9.15am. Please note that due to issues Flexischools has been having on Friday mornings, parents are requested to lodge Friday lunch orders on Thursday afternoons or before 7.30am on Friday mornings. Flexischools are working to rectify the bandwidth issues. Orders for Grandparents/My Very Important Person Day have now closed. If your child is absent from school on a lunch ordering day you are able to cancel the order online prior to cut off at 9.15am or call Flexischools on 1300 361 769. +++++FRIDAY SPECIAL+++++ Vanilla custard in a cup $1 per serve Louise O'Rourke – Canteen Committee

Friday Roster 29th March

Helpers Assistants Supervisor

9:30-12:00 Fiona Laws 9:00-3:00 Beck Morsink 9:00-3:00 Jeff Best

12:00-3:00 Julie Parker

Monday Roster

Morning 10:30 to 1:30 Afternoon 12:30-2:30

1st April Julia Eccles Kristie Chambers

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Uniform Shop We encourage all parents and carers to order uniforms via Flexischools. Orders will be packed and sent home with students each Monday. Any enquiries please contact us via [email protected] The uniform shop is open the first two weeks of term and, when the following term has a change of season/uniform, the last two weeks of term. During the term the uniform shop is open once per month, with the dates being determined at the start of each term. Remaining Opening Dates for Term 1 Tuesday 2nd April - 2.30pm-3.15pm

Kristie Chambers and Lucy Parrin – Uniform Shop Coordinators, [email protected]

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