NEWSLETTER Thursday 15 November 2018 Term 4 Week 5
A MESSAGE FROM JON FRANZIN
Dear Parents, Students and Friends of St Gabriel’s,
As Advent is fast approaching, we are being bombarded by the brochures, the shops are awash with tinsel and opportunities to ‘spend, spend, spend’ assail us from all sides. Welcome to Christmas – but not necessarily the true and original version. It’s amazing the way humans can lose the point of a beautiful festival – in the same way a baby on Christmas morning is more enthralled by the colourful wrapping than the gift inside.
The gift inside – hidden away under the glitz and advertising. The beginning of Advent on Sunday, 2nd December, is the beginning of the new year for the Church and a time of peace, reflection and preparation for the feast of Christmas – which will celebrate the birth of a baby, the Christ child, our saviour. As we approach Advent it is important that we keep the birth of our saviour at the heart of the Christmas story.
Orientation Morning It was wonderful to welcome our new students for 2019 to the school on Wednesday morning. Many thanks to the staff who played a significant role in the coordination of this event as well as our current students for offering to be buddies for these new students during the day. On behalf of St Gabriel’s School, I welcome these new families and students to the community and trust that their time with us will be productive and fruitful in the years ahead.
Year 7 2019 Update Evening Thank you to the many parents who attended the Year 7 2019 Update evening on Wednesday night. This was an opportunity to share with the community the many and varied plans that have taken place in readiness for Year 7 next year. Parents had an opportunity to look through our new building and understand how this will operate next year in the delivery of the NESA Life Skills Curriculum. The Curriculum was also discussed along with timetabling, staffing, uniforms and the range of additional activities the students will be involved in next year. We are all very excited about these new
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developments and the enormous benefit this program will offer students and families at the school in the years to come. To find out more about what was discussed on the night please use the link below to view the presentation on our website. http://www.stgabriels.nsw.edu.au/year-7-2019
Bunnings Sausage Sizzle A very big thank you to Simone Garland, supported by many parents, for her coordination of this fundraising initiative last Sunday. It was great to see so many parents come together in support of the school and so generously give of themselves and their time to help raise money for St Gabriel’s. Thank you once again and it is great to be part of such a supportive and inclusive community. Out of School Hours Care (OSHC) St Gabriel’s School is currently investigating offering Out of School Hours Care (OSHC) for our students by utilising the new Year 7 classrooms. This is a preliminary investigation to determine whether or not there is demand from our school community. As you can appreciate this is a major project and will take some time to implement should demand be present in our community. We ask that you please complete a short survey here - LINK TO OSHC SURVEY to help assist the direction of this feasibility study. We would encourage all families to complete the survey by Friday 23/11/18 to ensure that we have the necessary information to make an informed decision about this program. Thank you.
Best wishes for the week ahead.
Jon Franzin PRINCIPAL
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A MESSAGE FROM DIANNE HOOKE
Dear Families and Friends
While these have been slightly turbulent times - if those 2 words can be paired - the love, support and well wishes by so many of you has helped enormously. Thank you!
The children are preparing for our end of year celebration and it does promise to be a wonderful celebration of talent and ability. Many of our community partners and friends will be in attendance as well, presenting special awards and recognising school achievements and successes over this year. Hope to see you
there on Wednesday 5 December at 1 pm!
Tomorrow, Friday 16 November for the Kindies and Juniors, and next Friday, 23 November for the Middles and Seniors we will be hosting grade Assemblies, where the children will receive individual certificates of improvement and achievement for the year. They will all have an opportunity to shine on the stage as well so if you can attend this busy time of year, I know you will be richly rewarded. The Assemblies both begin at 2:15 pm.
Please ensure you are able to log onto the Sentral parent portal as well so that you can view and/or download your child’s report by the end of this term. Teachers spend much time throughout the semester and year ensuring that the delivery of curriculum is accessible and meaningful for each child in their class and that the reporting of those outcomes is professional and descriptive of where your child is functioning so please take the time to access the portal in the last week of school. The link for those who haven’t registered for the portal is HERE the link to login to the portal is HERE.
I look forward to sharing the many blessings of the year with you as we journey through this most special time of Advent in the coming weeks.
Warmly
Dianne Hooke Head of Campus
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WHAT’S ON THE SHELF This is a story of Emo, a moody, despondent emu who meets a positive and happy kangaroo. The two of them embark on a road trip around Australia, visiting the major Australian icons like Uluru, The Great Barrier Reef, The Sydney Opera House and Tasmania. As the trip continues Emo has a change of heart and starts to begin to feel better about his life. The rhyming verses personifies the various creatures of our Australian landscapes precisely. The book displays fantastic illustrations from around Australia that celebrate our beautiful country. This book explores feelings, friendships, travel and the great outdoors. It would be a wonderful gift to family or friends overseas to give them a taste of what Australia has to offer and could inspire a visit! A great read for younger readers who will delight at the rhyming throughout and the beautiful illustrations.
Suzanne Toomey Teacher Librarian
IMPORTANT DATES FOR YOUR CALENDAR
Friday 16 November Kindergarten & Junior Awards Presentation (2.15pm) Saturday 17 November Parent Group Dinner (see page 7 ) Friday 23 November Middle & Senior Awards Presentation (2.15pm) Wednesday 5 December End of Year Concert (1.00 pm) Friday 7 December Last Day of Term for Students
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AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS CLASS AWARDS Week 3 & 4 KINDY JUNIOR D Will for staying on task to complete learning activities
Rafael for amazing drawing
JUNIOR M Ira for excellent participation in sports lessons Xavier for using excellent manners
JUNIOR P Jessica for always trying her best in literacy lessons Leila for trying her best in all class activities
JUNIOR MIDDLE N Alex for great sentence writing and publishing on the iPad Michael and Veer for great effort in reading
MIDDLE SENIOR A Will for great engagement in reading & response activities using Proloquo2go
MIDDLE SENIOR O Arpita for achieving level 55 for Spelling Mastery Chloe for great effort during reading
MIDDLE SENIOR T Jon for great work in Maths
MIDDLE SENIOR L Aziz for doing his best in writing activities Kaitlyn for making smart choices in the classroom and playground
ENVIRONMENTAL AWARDS KINDY JUNIOR D Ellie for being a great classroom helper JUNIOR M Christa for cleaning up around her desk after eating
Matthew for cleaning up after himself
JUNIOR P Leila for always making an effort to keep her classroom clean
JUNIOR MIDDLE N The whole class for keeping the classroom very tidy
MIDDLE SENIOR A Joshua for making sure all the iPads are switched off when not in use
MIDDLE SENIOR O Milena for always putting rubbish in the bin after lunch Jay for recycling paper
MIDDLE SENIOR T Nikola for always helping to put classroom toys and play equipment away
MIDDLE SENIOR L James for keeping his area tidy and putting his rubbish in the bin
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SCHOOL AWARDS Week 4 STUDENT OF THE WEEK Week 4 Arpita CARE AND SHARE Liam
BE SAFE James G
DO YOUR BEST Leila
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN CLASS Diwali Festival On Wednesday, 7th November all Middle Senior classes celebrated Diwali, The Festival of Lights at St Gabriel’s. We had an amazing time not only learning the facts of why and how we celebrate this main Hindu Festival but also engaging in drawing colourful “Rangoli”, trying different Indian food and wishing “Happy Diwali” to our friends and teachers.
Gilroy Catholic College Band Performance Today we enjoyed a performance by the Gilroy Catholic College Band. They performed for us and told us about the many instruments that they were playing.
The crowd favourite was definitely the drums!
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SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY NEWS
Bunnings Community BBQ!
A huge thank you to everyone who donated their BBQ skills, time and goods to the Bunnings BBQ last Sunday at Bunnings Castle Hill. What a fantastic way to connect with each other and our local community.
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FROM OUR SPECIALIST LEARNING TEAM This term we are looking at using everyday routines to encourage communication and learning.
The routine for this week is getting dressed. This routine is excellent for teaching names of clothes, body parts and colours. Name these items during the routine or encourage your child to find the colour or piece of clothing. The link below has examples of ‘getting dressed’ communication boards that may be helpful if your child requires extra communication support.
http://vialimachicago.com/getting-dressed-communication-board
This routine also provides an opportunity to practise choice-making. Involve your child in the process by offering him/her a choice of two shirts. As an extension, this also provides another opportunity to develop problem solving skills by talking about the weather and what clothes are appropriate. Both of these skills are important social skills.
Claire Formby Speech Pathologist
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