What a wonderful time we all had at Night School on Wednesday night!

I sincerely thank Susan Miles and Ali Clarke who organise this every year. They are passionate about creating opportunities for our community to come together. Thanks also to our hard working staff and supporters who willingly give of their time and create the activities.  Special appreciation to our 'chefs’ - Dom, Adrian and Laura for catering for everyone.  The food was very welcome and also yummy!  I feel so grateful to lead a school with such a dedicated staff who all 'pitch in' to make events such as this such a great success. 

I would also like to thank our families, our community for coming along to support our learners and our school. Thank you too for your words of gratitude during the evening - we do appreciate hearing positive messages!

Our night school event highlighted the connectedness experienced by our school and our community. Sometimes though our students do not feel confident and secure. There may be social issues at school that they find hard to navigate. 'Belonging' is an important part of the culture of our school. Unkind words can be as hurtful as physical aggression and we work hard as a school community to ensure everyone feels included and safe. We encourage our students to speak up if things are not right. We aim for each child to feel respected, supported and for their voices to be heard and valued. Kindness of course,  is more than just a school issue. Our entire community has an important role to play - our strength comes from working together to combat these behaviours. Please let us know if there are any issues your child may raise with you at home.

Kind regards

Our students were captivated by the imaginative storytelling by Terrapin Puppet Theatre's performance of 'Feathers'. The performance tells the story of lonesome Feathers the ferret and his quest for finding his flock. Feathers encounters along the way were full of funny moments and sparked meaningful conversations about friendship and identity.

We do love Pyjama Day at GPS! Thank you to our SRC students for your organisation and our community for your support. The money raised at this event will go towards out Year 6 Celebration day at the end of the year.

We love books in Kinder Gold! We have been practising our reading skills by reading to ourselves using a ‘pointy finger stick’ to point to the pictures and words and capital letters. Using the pointy finger helps to keep us focussed on our book.

We have also been sharing books with friends, learning about partner etiquette and taking turns. We sit elbow to elbow and knee to knee and share the book between us. We love exploring books together and our independence is growing!

High School transitions are continuing for some of our grade 6 students. These visits are a great introduction to high school routines and expectations, hopefully making the move to grade 7 next year a little smoother. This week our students participated in an art class and are already looking forward to their cooking class next week!

What a great afternoon - we could not have asked for better weather! Thank you to all our families who joined us - and of course our wonderful staff and helpers for coming up with the great activities!

Teachers, students and staff shared in an afternoon tea of sausages in bread and pasta bake before moving through a rotation of fun activities hosted by our team of teachers.

Families boogied at the disco in prep, made lanterns and bracelets in 1-2, some got  their first (temporary) tattoo, played glow in the dark games in the POD, and panned for gold in the sandpit. We also toasted marshmallows over the fire and warmed ourselves with hot milo.

There was keen spectator interest and intense player concentration as Black Square Chess Grandmaster James played against all 13 students at the same time!

Thanks to James from Black Square Chess for giving up his time to support our students!