Gunnedah South Public School Newsletter

Friday 22nd February, 2019

Gunnedahs-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au www.gunnedahs-p.schools.nsw.edu.au www. Flexischools.com.au

Gunnedah South Public School Winder Place Gunnedah NSW 2380 Telephone: 02 6742 1899 App:

Term 1– Week 5, 2019

Monday 25th February

North West Basketball Trials Boys & Girls

Friday 1st March

School Clean-up Day North West Tennis Trials Boys & Girls

Term 1– Week 6, 2019

Monday 4th March

North West Primary Swimming trials Living World Koala Drinkers talk for Year 1

Friday 8th March

Zone Trials for Hockey

Term 1– Week 7, 2019

Tuesday 12th March

P&C AGM Meeting

7pm Staffroom

Wednesday 13th March

Kindergarten 2020 Open Afternoon

Thursday 14th March

Selective High School Placement Test

Friday 15th March

Zone Trials for Soccer

Dear Parents and Community Members,

Grade Excursions Year 6 – Sydney Excursion

Our Year 6 excursion notes will be sent home next week. This excursion will be in Mid Term 4 (late November). One of the payment plans available to parents has been specifically designed to assist parents who have children in Year 6. This excursion is split into two groups. Please be mindful that half of the group will depart from Tamworth Airport and return to Gunnedah Train Station, while the other group will do the reverse (due to availability of plane seats from Tamworth). The cost for this excursion is $600.

Year 5 – Canberra Excursion / Snowy Mountains

Our Year 5 excursion notes went home today. We are excited to confirm that we have been successful in changing the Canberra excursion to include a visit to the Snow. We apologise for the delay as we have been working hard to ensure students could have this opportunity included in the itinerary for 2019 and beyond.

The cost for this excursion is $620 and is for six days departing on Sunday 23rd of June at 8am and returning on Friday 28th of June at approximately 4pm. This excursion has been subsidised substantially and also includes hire fees for snow clothing to save parents the added expense of purchasing clothing for the snow. At this stage there are no available parent spaces as students are given first priority. If parent places become available we will advise.

Common General Excursion Reminder Students do not require mobile phones or smart watches on excursions. Please do not rush out and buy mobile phones as our school excursion policy is very clear on this point. The only exception is where a mobile phone is utilised as a medical device.

Farewell Mrs Cherrie Warren – an unsung hero of South School Mrs Cherrie Warren has been cleaning at Gunnedah South for many years. All schools in our area will be moving to a new cleaning company (JOSS) on the 1st March and Mrs Warren has decided that this was the perfect time to finish. Please take the time over the next week to wish Mrs Warren all the best for her next adventure. PS Thank you Cherrie, you will be missed!

Skoolbag App We encourage you to please download the Skoolbag app as this is where all notes are uploaded and is a great way to make appointments with classroom teachers. If you notice a note or information you require i.e. class welcome letters etc is missing from the App please message your child’s teacher and we will work quickly to rectify the issue.

Student Absences The Home School Liaison Officer (HSLO) regularly visits our school to monitor student absences. Parents are reminded that partial absences for ‘Home early’, ‘Family’, ‘Family Appointment’, ‘Running Late’, ‘Late for School’ are not acceptable reasons. These absences will be marked as ‘Unjustified’. Students who are sick for 3 days or more require a Doctor’s Certificate. Please remember, if your child is absent you need to send a note or ring the school or even use the Skoolbag app within 7 days of the absence to provide an explanation. After this time their absence will be marked as ’Unjustified’ and cannot, by law, be changed. Attached is an ’Every Day Counts’ table that shows how absences can add up to a lot of missed school.

Friday Sport Primary students are reminded that in order to participate in offsite sport in Gunnedah that the General Permission Notes must be signed by a parent and returned.

Bridge St Exit – This exit is also working really well and seems to have the least delays.

Bus Gate – This exit is only for students catching a bus.

Winder Place - request We have a number of parents who like to arrive early and sit in their cars with the engine running in some cases for over an hour each day. Please feel welcome to park in the car park and come into the school through the office and volunteer. We have a number of primary classes that would appreciate some adults to read to regularly and our classrooms are nice cool places.

Bus Passes For all children in the Bus Pass application process, parents/carers can print the Confirmation email for their child to carry with them on school days, which is the equivalent to an “Interim Bus Pass”. 2019 Bus passes will be handed out as they arrive, from this coming week.

Finally, I would like to congratulate all students who competed at the Zone Swimming Carnival today. It was fantastic to witness your amazing achievements!

Enjoy the weekend,

Kindest regards,

Mr B (aka Pete to parents)

Parents visiting our School Please remember that we have an open door policy and parents are encouraged and welcome to volunteer in classrooms, with cooking, gardening and reading groups, even with math or even library lessons. The P&C runs a canteen and is always looking for dedicated volunteer helpers too. We love helpers and volunteers at South.

Every person that enters the school grounds or intending to stay in our school grounds outside of drop off times, under mandatory WH&S requirements, need to sign in at our school office. This means that if you enter through the front office you are required to sign in on every instance and return back to the office to sign out. This also applies to parents who are picking up students throughout the day, please remember to sign in and out if collecting children early.

We now have a number of parents who like to attend afternoon muster – particularly infants muster in an effort to collect children more quickly. Unfortunately this is delaying groups of students moving through our school with teachers to their designated exits, as students are rushing to their parents and unknowingly standing in the middle of spaces we need to move students through. To assist with speeding up exiting for everyone, we kindly ask the following:

Parents completing afternoon pickups from Winder Place are to enter only through Parents’ Gate once it has been opened by a member of staff. Remember, parents need to enter the school to pick up infants from under the cola in an attempt to reduce congestion and promote safety for our younger students in this area. To do this, please enter through the Winder Place Parents’ Gate, not the front office. (Parents are encouraged to stager pickups and are reminded that this gate operates until around 3:20pm and it is much easier to complete pickup after 3:10pm as the daily rush is over).

Parents picking up students exiting on Stock road - this exit is working well. Thank you to parents who wait on the centre island and are teaching children to use the crossing properly.

MERIT CERTIFICATES

GOLD 6T Jake Atkins, Mackenzie Keeler

SILVER 6T Jake Atkins, Lucas Passman, Mackenzie Keeler

4C Ivy Fouracre

TITANIUM 6T Mackenzie Keeler

5S Timothy Capper

Mrs Sharon Tydd (canteen)

BRONZE 6T Rhegan Jaeger, Jake Atkins, Timmy Marshall, Charlize Wheeler, Lucas Passman, Savanah Eather, Mackenzie Keeler

6F Jessica Ferguson, Charlotte Semmler, Oscar Donoghue

5/6M Alice Swain

2S Caden McKinnon, Claire Howes, Liam Harvey

2R Meghan Flanagan, Chaise Heinemann, Heidi Blomfield

2LZ Deegan McCormack, Ellie Beasley, Kelly Briggs, Ryan Rayward

2H Maddison Craig, Ryder Alvey, Kayla Poss

1S Emily Killen, Amarly Riley, Lachlan Pringle, Jordan Duff

1H Benson Jounquay-Hayes, Naila Anwari, Eva Payne, Mya Hartog

1D Dustin Ibrahim, Callie Stephens, Libby Capper, Violet Grace

1C Levi Smith, Sophie Lane, Marissa Harvey

K/1A Nicholas Swain, Yasmine Sahota, Georgina Stuart, Poppie Scotford

KT Ashton Hancock, Addison Lumby, Zaine Crawford

KS Flynn Locke, Liliana Biamah Pearl Meredith, Isaac Woolaston

KM Chloe Lane, Noah Zechel, Cooper Foley, Flyn Burgess

KH Harry Bresac, Indi Riley, Grace Nakia, Alexander Budden

Yarn Up

with Millie &

Lacie

Last week, students at Gunnedah South were learning about the significance of the date ‘13th of February’ and what it means for all Australians,

especially Aboriginal people.

Students across our school were able to describe Sorry Day and the importance of the apology given to

the Stolen Generations by Kevin Rudd 11 years ago.

This week, Years 1- 6 were developing their understanding of growth mindset and how that helps us be safe, respectful learners

at Gunnedah South. Kindergarten had their first PBL lesson this week, introducing them

to the expectations for All Areas.

Coming Soon

Week 6 Thursday 7th March

will be our PBL Reward Day.

Come dressed in your

Green, Purple and Orange.

SOUTHEY SIGHTING The students were super excited to see Southey in our playground yesterday, where he was greeted with a rock star welcome!! Southey was extremely pleased to see and hear about the students

being safe, respectful leaners.

Ingredients

1/2 cup Nuttelex or dairy free margarine (85g)

3/4 cups caster sugar (130g)

1 tablespoon golden syrup

1 1/2 cups self raising flour (or gluten free) (228g)

1 1/2 teaspoons gluten free baking powder

1/2 tablespoon rice milk or other

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Plain Vanilla Biscuits

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200◦C.

2. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper.

3. Cream the margarine and sugar together.

4. Add the golden syrup.

5. Sift in the flour and the baking powder.

6. Add the milk and vanilla essence and mix until the in-gredients are just combined.

7. Place the mixture onto a floured board and roll out until 1cm thick. Cut into shape.

8. Place on the prepared baking tray.

9. Bake for 7—10 minutes or until golden brown.

10. Remove from oven and place on a cooking rack.

Hint:- If you are pressed for time, roll the mixture into balls, place them on the tray and press gently with the back of a fork.

Recipe adapted from Allergy Safe Family Food, Suzanna Paxton (2009) p. 152.

Donated by William Riordan KS 2018

Safety Reminder

At Gunnedah South Public School we always hold the safety

of our children as our first priority. Our Schools’ Work

Health and Safety protocols, require every visitor to our

school, including parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings,

neighbours and trades-people to sign in at our school office

as you enter and then sign out as you leave.

The requirement to sign in and out of the school no matter what the time of day is

to ensure everyone's safety. This includes if you are taking an item to your child,

meeting a teacher for a PLP, etc, everyone needs to please sign in and out again when

visiting our school grounds.

With a heightened awareness of Stranger-Danger at the moment, we also ask that

parents and carers please wait outside our school grounds until the 3pm bell for the

end of the school day, rather than entering the school and waiting for your children,

even if you have signed in. Your cooperation in this matter would be very much

appreciated by all staff, parents and carers of our school community.

SCHOOL BANKING For all students wishing

to build up their bank accounts,

banking day this year is weekly on

Tuesday

Due to road works in

Bridge Street

for the next four weeks, it has been recommended that

you avoid this area

when bringing your

children to school