P&C Meeting 10th November 7:00pm – via Zoom Page 1

Respect Responsibility Personal Best

The Galston Gumnut Galston Public School Newsletter Wednesday 16th September 2020

Phone: 9653 2062 Fax: 9653 1980 Email: galston-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Website: www.galston-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

Calendar Dates Week 9 Term 3 Friday 18th September Honour Assembly 2:05pm Week 10 Term 3 Wednesday 23rd September Jump Rope for Heart – Jump off day! Wear red.

Note Due Date

Book Week – visiting illustrator Matthew Lin Thursday 24th September

From the Principal Tell Them From Me Surveys – Parents, students and staff We appreciate and value your feedback! Our recent survey on the Learning from Home COVID experience received a high number of responses (in excess of 40) and we value the insights gained from this feedback. This term, our school is once again participating in the Partners in Learning parent survey, part of the Tell Them From Me suite of surveys (student, teacher and parent surveys) on student engagement. Teachers and students in Years 4, 5 and 6 will also be providing feedback through surveys designed for their perspective in the school over the coming weeks. With our school in the midst of building our situational analysis and next 4 year plan, it is timely to get feedback from all of our stakeholders so that we can build on the positives and address areas for improvement moving forward. The survey asks parents and carers questions about different factors that are known to impact on student wellbeing and engagement. The survey contributes to our understanding of parents’ and carers’ perspectives on their child’s experience at school. These include: communication between parents/carers and staff, activities and practices at home, and parent/carer views on the school's support of learning and behaviour. The survey is conducted entirely online, will typically take 15 minutes or less to complete and is completely confidential. The parent survey is open between 2nd September and 25th October. Participating in the survey is entirely voluntary; your responses are very much appreciated, so thank you in advance for taking the time! More information about the survey is available at: http://surveys.cese.nsw.gov.au/information-for-parents The survey can be accessed at: http://nsw.tellthemfromme.com/galston2020 P&C Annual General Meeting I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank our outgoing P&C committee for their hard work, dedication and commitment to our wonderful school community and ultimately, our children! While 2020 has been a challenging year to say the least, it has been fantastic as the new Principal to be welcomed to our school community by the energy and enthusiasm of a committee genuinely interested in supporting our teachers, staff and students! Already, this enthusiasm is being demonstrated by the incoming committee and I would encourage any and all families who are able to donate their time in any way shape or form to engage with the many opportunities provided by the P&C as they arise moving into the future. While we understand that many of our families work full time, all new faces and ideas are welcomed at Galston PS. Teacher Professional Learning Throughout this term, our teachers have been involved in a number of Professional Learning opportunities as they continue to refine and develop their classroom practice. Our teachers at Galston PS work extremely hard, and their commitment to this ongoing professional learning journey is to be commended.

Week 9, Term 3

P&C Meeting 10th November 7:00pm – via Zoom Page 2

Four major areas covered during these sessions in Term 3 include: • Focus on Reading – This learning has been ongoing over the past couple of years and forms a large part of

the current 3-year whole school plan. Teachers have engaged in a research-based program aimed at the implementation of theory and practical strategies to support students in their reading progress. As a staff, we have also begun using the Literacy progressions as a tool to plot students’ development based on demonstrable reading behaviours. This process allows teachers to not only understand where their students currently stand, but also how to progress them incrementally to their next level of personal achievement.

• Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) – At Galston PS, we are a PBL school. PBL is a research-based approach to creating safe and orderly learning environments. As with all systems, we are constantly striving to improve our existing processes and procedures. This term, our staff have engaged in professional learning with a PBL coach. As we move into Term 4 as well as the next 4-year planning cycle, we will continue to review our positive systems throughout the school, as well as the teaching tools which are our consequences. As part of this process, feedback will be sought from our teachers, parents and our children to create systems which are both simple to understand and motivating for our students, while at the same time building our channels of communication with our families.

• Whole school planning – All public schools in NSW are currently in the process of preparing their situational analysis in preparation for the next 4-year School Improvement Plan (SIP). Our executive and teachers have been involved in analysing NAPLAN data, attendance data, internal school data, parent/student feedback and school reflections in External Validation as part of the initial phase of the situational analysis. Moving into Term 4, we will continue this journey with a focus on community consultation. This process is extremely important to our school as it will form the basis of ongoing professional learning, whole school projects and the improvement of student learning outcomes over the next four years. We look forward to your input as well as continuing to improve the already high quality of education provided to students at GPS!

• Visiting schools to observe example of effective practice – at regular intervals this term, our executive team have visited schools who excel in key areas to observe, question and learn from examples of effective practice. In this way, we are able to pick out the “best bits” of this practice from local experts and adapt them for implementation in our current setting. This learning is practical and timely as we complete the situational analysis outlined above. In essence, our question has been: What is our data telling us should be a focus for student and teacher learning and how can we see someone doing it well? Our initial observations have included expert colleagues in: Project Based Learning Learning and Support programs to support student learning Instructional Leadership and data talks (teacher engagement with data to inform teaching practice and

improve student outcomes in literacy and Maths); and Positive Behaviour for Learning

Allan Ison

Week 9 PBL Awards Galston Gotcha Prize Draw Winners

Respect

Responsibility

Personal Best

P&C Meeting 10th November 7:00pm – via Zoom Page 3

Year 6 Mini Fete Raffle The Year 6 Mini Fete Raffle which was due to be drawn next week on Thursday 24th September has been extended into Term 4. The new draw date is yet to be finalised and will be confirmed early next term. Please support Year 6 by purchasing raffle tickets. Jump Rope for Heart: Thank you to all the students who got involved!

A huge thank you to all students for their efforts skipping and fundraising for the Jump Rope for Heart program this term. Together we raised an incredible $4735.38 and this money will all go towards vital heart research and education programs. We’ve loved seeing so many smiling faces skipping on the playground and in sports lessons. Our Jump Off Day is next week on Wednesday 23rd September. All students will be skipping after lunch in the playground within their classes to raise awareness for the Heart Foundation. On Wednesday, students are encouraged to wear red in support of this foundation. Students do not need to bring in a gold coin donation as the Galston Community has already donated an outstanding amount of money.

Madelaine Mifsud – Jump Rope for Heart Coordinator News From K-1B What an awesome Term 3 we have had! We have definitely been busy bees! Check out some of the amazing work that is in our room!

Our English unit this term has focused on informative texts and writing information reports. We have been reading books and watching videos on Rhinos, Koalas and Tigers. We have been working hard to sort the information under headings ‘Classification’, ‘Size and appearance’, ‘Diet and eating’, ‘Habitat and Lifestyle’, and ‘Interesting facts’. Then, using this information, we have learnt to create an informative piece of writing. We have learnt many new and interesting facts about these animals! In Maths, we are continuing to develop our addition and subtraction skills and we are learning a variety of strategies to help us when we are adding or subtracting bigger numbers. We have learnt about place value and are learning all about numbers! We have been learning about time - reading analogue and digital clocks to the hour and half hour. We have looked at the months and the seasons of the year.

P&C Meeting 10th November 7:00pm – via Zoom Page 4

We have been learning about 2D shapes, regular and irregular 2D shapes. Year 1 have had fun on the Geoboards making rhombuses, octagons and hexagons and Kindergarten used circles, squares, rectangles and triangles to create their own pictures. We have also been learning about data and graphs. Making our ice cream graph was our favourite!

The Basketball clinics on Tuesdays were great fun! The hoop may have been high but we still managed to shoot the ball up in the direction of the hoop. We are continuing to work on our skipping skills and are looking forward to Jump Off Day next Wednesday afternoon. We have worked very hard all term and are looking forward to the last Friday …… because we reached our class target of 60 pebbles and so we get to bring our favourite toy to school! The holidays will be a great chance to rest and recharge. Erin Bolger – K-1B P&C News Introduction and Thank You My name is Sue Downing and I am very excited to take on the role of P&C President at Galston Public School. I'd like to acknowledge all of the time, effort and dedication given by Kim Alsdorf to our school over many years as President. Kim – your actions and achievements are too numerous to count, but I'd like to thank you for the systems you've created and improved, for meetings run, advice provided and endless amounts of energy given to the children and families in our school community. Galston Public School has been lucky to have you and even luckier still that you are staying on as Vice President to help with this transition. Thank you to the awesome P&C committee and many others for welcoming me so warmly – I appreciate your kindness. It is a privilege for me to be in this role and I look forward to the opportunity to work with our school's amazing teachers, staff and families. I think we each have a contribution to make and I can't wait to connect and collaborate with you all. Please feel free to reach out in person or by phone/email – my contact details appear below and I look forward to hearing from you. R U OK? Day A big thank you to Pam Ferris for organising the drinks for all the students and staff for R U OK? Day last Thursday. We hope this donation was well received by our school community.

P&C Meeting 10th November 7:00pm – via Zoom Page 5

Silver Coin Drive Thursday 15th October The P&C fundraising committee are planning a fun Silver Coin Drive for the students on Thursday 15th October. For details see the ad later in the newsletter. Sue Downing – P&C President, sedowning88@gmail.com (0487 601 925) Canteen News: Week ending Friday 18th September Thank you everyone for your continued support of our canteen this term. Below is the SignUp Genius for our Term 4 Monday Roster. We are asking for an additional volunteer next term on Mondays to help with counter sales at recess from 10.55-11.15am. Monday counter sales are busy and as the children only have a limited amount of time available to purchase from the canteen then go off to play, we like to try and make sure that this is a quick process for them, hence why we are asking for additional help. If you are free on a Monday and are able to come up to the school for this short period of time, your help would be greatly appreciated! This is also a great introduction for parents who might like to help in the canteen but feel unsure about it. To volunteer for a short time is the perfect stepping stone. Please sign up today so our Monday canteen can start up Day One of Term 4 (Monday 12th October):

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0d4ba8a823a6f58-monday5 Also, I would like to thank all those volunteers that have signed up for our Term 4 Friday Roster. The Friday Roster for Term 4 is complete, so every Friday in Term 4 our wonderful canteen will be open. Monday Roster Below is the roster for the remainder of term:

Monday 21st September 10.30am – 1.30pm Lucy Parrin 12.30pm – 2.30pm Shelley Thirup

Friday Roster Below is the roster for the remainder of term:

Friday 18th September Helper Helper Assistant Supervisor 9.30am – 12pm Sjaan Perlowski 12pm – 3pm Kate Herrington 9am – 3pm Ali Toy 9am – 3pm Jeff Best

Friday 25th September Helper Helper Assistant Supervisor 9.30am – 12pm Belinda Crofts 12pm – 3pm Edyta Lynch 9am – 3pm Jenni Bohman 9am – 3pm Pamela Ferris

Once again, thank you to the wonderful parents that have volunteered for our Term 3 Monday and Friday rosters. Your continued support of our canteen is very much appreciated! Pamela Ferris – Canteen Committee, canteen@galstonpandc.org.au (0413 048 028) Uniform Shop The Uniform Shop will be filling uniform orders placed through Flexischools weekly. If you do not have a Flexischools account, please contact the Uniform Shop so that other arrangements can be made. Orders will be packed and sent home with students at the start and end of each week. Any enquiries please contact us via uniformshop@galstonpandc.org.au.

P&C Meeting 10th November 7:00pm – via Zoom Page 6

Kristie Chambers – Uniform Shop Coordinator

P&C Meeting 10th November 7:00pm – via Zoom Page 7

P&C Meeting 10th November 7:00pm – via Zoom Page 8

P&C Meeting 10th November 7:00pm – via Zoom Page 9

P&C Meeting 10th November 7:00pm – via Zoom Page 10