Newsletter #17 17 November 2023
GHPS IS COMMITTED TO CHILD SAFETY
Learning Today. Leading Tomorrow.
Playground East Site
It was wonderful to return to school on Monday to see the bright, colourful additions to the East Site play areas. To welcome us to the entry of the school Gymnasium is the school logo. Also painted are several outlines of 4 and 6 squares, which is a very popular game played by many students each day.
In both the May and June meetings of the Student Council, we discussed what we would like to work on this year to make our school even better. The idea to have 4 squares marked on the ground was a top priority from classes across the Year 3- 6 and we passed this idea onto Mr White to see if the Buildings and Grounds team could help. We greatly appreciate Mr White sourcing quotes for companies to install our 4 and 6 square games and think they look amazing. It has been really great to see students’ enjoyment and having fun when playing these games!
Swimming
A very important final reminder for all parents and carers that students will have the opportunity to attend swimming classes at Monash commencing MONDAY 20 NOVEMBER.
Please organise your swimming bag this weekend and be on time to school. We hope everyone really enjoys their swimming experience.
Prep 2024
Students have been enjoying the recent Prep transition session in the Art Room, and exploring Science in with Ms de Bruyn, Mrs Oldham, Ms Draper, Mr Bowden, and Ms Marini.
There is one final transition session on Tuesday 28 November when both students and parents will attend, but in separate sessions.
Parents will attend the Information session in the gymnasium and the kinder kids in the Prep room.
Parents are encouraged to attend the important Information Session which will be held by Mr White and I after they drop their child off in the Prep Rooms.
Staffing
This week Mrs Nerida Burns has attended GHPS to commence handover.
Nerida met with Mr White and I and attended the Consultative Committee meeting. She also was very excited to see our new banners and recognised the high achievements of the school to date.
Nerida attended the SaGE Principal Network learning Day with Cameron on Thursday and will be back at GHPS on Monday 20 November to continue with handover.
Grateful to the GPA
I am always delighted to attend the meetings with GPA. Their generosity and spirit are heartwarming and contagious!
This week they have continued to outdo themselves by planning a surprise lunch for Staff in the East Site Staff Lounge.
It is a lovely gesture to once again acknowledge the incredible dedication and fabulous teaching by all our teachers. Awesome work teachers and thank you so much GPA.
Workforce Planning for 2024 is still underway. The PLC Leadership Team is fine tuning class organisation, teacher placement and numbers of classes that will fit within the Student Resource Package (SRP) which is the funding model provided by the Department of Education. The Department of Education provides funding for our school based on the number of students enrolled on 28 February 2024. Projecting the numbers of students in each class commences with the 2023 number of students and known new arrivals and departures. The number of classes is determined by the budget provided to the school to fund all teachers.
In 2024, all full-time teachers must be provided with 4 hours of non-face- to face teaching to attend to planning, preparing resources, assessing, administration, emails, marking work and the many, many tasks and requirements teachers undertake in their very complex job.
Specialist classes for 2024 will be: Art, PE, Music, LOTE and Science. As with Science this year, Science and LOTE will be taught each semester with a specialist.
We endeavour to maintain even class sizes for all levels with configurations that have an even spread of girls and boys and ability levels. If we know where numbers of enrolments will be or are leaving, we can do this in the most effective way possible. With only 23 school days left it’s getting close to the end of the year. Last minute notification of families makes this really challenging so please advise if you know that you are moving.
Thank you to the families who have contacted the office already with this information. We also have new enrolments still coming in, particularly in Prep. At this time, we are closely tracking and monitoring the enrolments and will confirm the staffing with the community before the end of the year.
At this time, we have been notified by some families that they will be moving to new homes and not returning to GHPS, however there may be some families that are yet to advise us, so we ask that you do so immediately before Monday 27 November.
As the numbers of students at each year level impacts this organisation, we need to know how many students will have enrolled to make up each year’s level and then how we can best organise grades and compositions.
Love our Library even more!
Recently Mr White, Mr Jacobs and Lisa picked up some free new shelving for our Library.
A lot of moving, shifting around and hard work to make our Library look even more inviting and functional.
Helping to get everything unloaded were our wonderful year 5/6 students who did an awesome job to help.
Thank you so much for making our Library look even more spectacular.
The meeting for November School Council will be on Monday 27 November at 6.30pm.
The Finance and Building Fund Committees will meet prior at 6.15pm.
Near the end of term
Friday 15 December: Lunch will be at 12.30-1.3pm
Final whole school assembly will be on Friday 15 December at 1.30pm
End of Term 4
Students will be dismissed at 1.30pm on Wednesday 20 December
Libby Alessi Principal
Congratulations to the following students who received a ‘Student of the Week’ award.
Kate FB – For creating an excellent informative writing piece about Dogs. You carefully captured details about how to care for dogs, explained what dogs eat and successfully used pronouns to replace common nouns in your writing. Keep up the incredible work!
Emmy FD – For writing an amazing fact file about dogs this week. You recalled information from the text, wrote detailed sentences and used pronouns correctly. It was lovely to read the sentences you created. Fantastic Work!
Alice FD – For being a superstar problem solver when working out what comes next in growing and shrinking patterns. You used numicon and your ‘counting on’ skills to find the rule and complete the patterns. Excellent effort!
Ananya 1F – For consistently showcasing your best effort in all your learning tasks. Well Done Superstar!
Nikita 1F – For his great work in Maths discovering the number line strategy for calculating change.
Ahil 2M – For consistently recording your daily reading in your Reading Diary and bringing it to school each week to be checked. You are a remarkable reader!
Zoe 2M – For your wonderful efforts in maths this week, where you were able to use the vertical strategy to solve addition problems and ‘send digits next door’ to regroup. You helped others to understand regrouping, too. Well done!
Jaden 2S – for demonstrating teamwork, responsibility and respect this week by using initiative to share our classroom resources with others. Keep up the good work Jaden!
Kira 2S – for demonstrating teamwork, responsibility and respect this week by using initiative to share our classroom resources with others. Keep up the good work Kira!
Vedesh 3C – For the organisation, focus and effort you display when you’re completing your work. You attentively listen to instructions and ask clarifying questions when you’re unsure. Well done superstar!
Eklavya 3C – For the perseverance you demonstrated when learning how to round numbers to the nearest tens, hundreds and thousands place value. Well done, Eklavya!
Winston 3RK – For not only picking up your own rubbish in 3RK but picking up other people’s rubbish, keeping our classroom community neat and tidy. You are a living legend. Well done!
Haru 3RK – Being a great garden helper. You really care about looking after our Year 3 garden beds. Well done!
Yianni 4A – for always having a positive attitude towards all tasks and being an inclusive and friendly member of our class. Keep up the great work!
Dion 4SJ – For reliably, maturely and proactively responding to teacher advice and encouragement, about completing unfinished Inquiry tasks, that are commented on and assessed in your forthcoming December reports. You are an inspiring champion, a deep thinker and a motivated legend.
Shresta 5/6K – For always going above and beyond for other students in your class and your teacher. Thank you for your initiative and productivity!
Rishikesh 5/6K – For being very involved in leadership sessions and writing down/brainstorming a lot of ideas about the different roles. Well done also, on always trying your hardest in class and having beautiful manners.
Elka 5/6R – for believing in her abilities to overcome challenges faced in class this week. Well done for using your prior knowledge to help you complete your numeracy assessments with confidence and resilience, you are a star!
Riddhi & Harshitha 5/6R – For successfully finalising their first novel together entitled ‘What’s Going On?’. I am so looking forward to publishing this amazing piece of work and proudly displaying it in our school library. Well done ladies!
Science News
TheirCare News
GHPS Facebook
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Calendar
TERM 4
November
Mon 20 Whole School Swimming Program commences
Tue 28 2024 Prep Transition #4 & Parent Information Session
December
Fri 1 Year 5/6 Sports Gala
Fri 1 Prep excursion
Tue 5 Carols Night
Fri 8 Special Assembly 10.30am and Morning Tea to farewell Mrs Alessi
Wed 13 Year 6 Graduation
Thu 14 Year 3-6 Movie Day and Prep – 2 Picnic Day
Fri 15 Final Assembly 1.30pm
Wed 20 Last School Day Early dismissal 1.30pm
Fee payments and Excursion Permissions and Payments.
All Communication notices regarding excursions will be sent through COMPASS.
Permissions are to be given through COMPASS.
Preferred payment method for Fee payments and Excursions is through COMPASS.
This will allow us to always keep all the correct information available to staff whilst on an excursion.
If you have any questions, please contact the office or see Guide below.
CLICK HERE for Parent’s Guide to Compass
Thank you.