Gresford Public School Newsletter Term 4 - November 10th, 2016

4938 9304 www.gresford-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

Last week was a special one for our school commencing with tree planting in the Community Group Arboretum on Sunday. Thanks to all families who came with grandfriends to plant a native tree to beautify Gresford for future generations. We then enjoyed the lively concert presented by the Musica Viva group, Zeeko listening to an array of unusual instruments. Our bell was welcomed home in a dedication ceremony and now graces our Remembrance Garden. Some quality pieces of writing were on display as part of a competition for creative writing about our bell. Winners in each class were Mac Spinks, Lucia Merchant, Chase Hoffman, Amber Smith, Dylan Gardiner and Soanette Venter. Mrs. Freda Colllison, a Gresford ex-pupil and Lucy Pittman from Kindergarten were the first to try it out, followed by all the children.

Principal’s message

Please help support the bell restoration through the children’s spellathon. Spellathon sponsor sheets were sent home last week. Year 5/6 are attending a Hunter Water Catchment Crawl today where they will be learning about caring for our waterways. This complements our whole school unit on caring for the environment with our visit to the Barringtons next Monday. Please return notes and money for this excursion by tomorrow. We also need permission notes for our visit to the Remembrance Day service at the cenotaph tomorrow. Kind regards, Pauline

School planning snippets

As part of the Department of Education’s devolution of funds to schools, our

school has been selected to be part of an initiative called Early Action for Success.

This program focuses on providing extra support for children in K-2 and will see

the appointment of an Instructional Leader to assist teachers in these grades to

develop focused literacy and numeracy programs .

PBL AWARDS Lucas Snell, Hamish Mead, Lara Silver, Katie Curtin-Edwards,

Paige McFadyen, Tillie Parish, Amber Smith, Alysha Cowley

SCHOOL MERITS Acacia Galvin, Elizabeth Venter, Megan Venter,

Chase Hoffman, Rose Kelehear, Soanette Venter

SPORTS AWARDS Lacey Hoffman, Hayden Wilson, Leila O’Connor,

Bella Sellens, Dylan Gardiner,

Katharina Lawrence

ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT Pearl Ropata, Lacey Hoffman, Shannon McFadyen, Kayden Atkins, Blake Wilson, Bella Sellens, Jack Laurie, Carl Thompson

LIBRARY AWARD Jada Laurie, Leila O’Connor, Liza Kelehear

GOOD LISTENER AWARD Bryson Snell, Dylan Gardiner

NOVEMBER FRIDAY 11th

Remembrance Day Service at

Gresford Cenotaph; donations of

flowers gratefully accepted

MONDAY 14th

Whole school Science & Geography

excursion to the Barringtons

THURSDAY 17th

Spellathon sponsor sheets to be

returned to school. Testing on this

day.

Book Club due back

FRIDAY 18th

P&C Meeting 10 am

Y6 Orientation @ Dungog HS –

selected students

WEDNESDAY 23rd

Kinder Orientation 9.30am

WEDNESDAY 30th

Kinder Orientation

DECEMBER WEDNESDAY 7th

Kinder Orientation

THURSDAY 8TH

Year 6 Farewell Dinner

@ St Annes Hall

6.00pm

AWARDS

CANTEEN ROSTER

FRIDAY 11 NOVEMBER Christine Vigar & Tracy Merchant WEDNESDAY 16 NOVEMBER Mel Thiecke & Jody Turner FRIDAY 18 NOVEMBER Joleen Pittman WEDNESDAY 23 NOVEMBER Bec Spinks & Alissa Abra FRIDAY 25 NOVEMBER Sharon Hill & Kristy Duncan WEDNESDAY 30 NOVEMBER Mary Horn & Yanmin & Clayton Scott

P&C News

Next P&C is on

Friday 18th November

From 10.00am

All welcome!

SLUSHIE’S NOW AVAILABLE

from the canteen at $2.00 each.

A special reminder of the readiness for

school program being run for our

prospective Kindergarten students for 2017

TRAIN 4 School Being run by Dungog Community Centre at alternating

sites of Paterson, Vacy and Gresford Schools.

A program which provides a supervised play group

whilst parents are given information and support for

starting their child at school.

Input from childcare specialists such as speech

pathologists and occupational therapists.

Next date at Paterson 8th December from 10.00am to

11.30am.

Next session - Practically Ready To Go

An excellent preparation for supporting Kindergarten

entry.

Please pass this information on to any prospective

Kinder students for 2017.

Applications for entry to

the Department’s Year

7 selective high schools,

2018 closes on 14th

November.

For more information,

see

www.schools.nsw.edu.au

/shplacements or enquire

at the office.

Professional Learning Teachers have participated in the following recent

training opportunities : Leadership, dance, learning

support, quality teaching and L3.

Breakfast Volunteers Needed Gresford Public School are in need of volunteers to help run the Breakfast Club. Volunteers are asked to be at school by 8.30am until 9.00am to serve fruit and toast to the children. If you are able to volunteer just one morning a week it would be great. Call Nicole on 4938 9304 if you are able to help.

Christmas

Food Appeal

Commencing the first week

in November, we will be

doing our annual

Christmas collection of

food items for the needy.

This collection is

organised by Samaritans

and encourages children to

support those less fortunate

than themselves. Tinned

ham, puddings etc will be

gratefully received.

Summer Dress

Orders can now be made

$45 each

Please ring Lyndell on

0429949559

to place your order.

FOR SALE

Sporting News Cricket matches continue in friendly competition with some junior talent adding to

the small numbers in the senior years. We have played Clarence Town, competition

winners from last year and today, Hunter Valley Grammar.

Boot Camp run by Mrs. Davies continues to be very popular on Thursdays and is

giving all a good workout. Our senior sports leaders are presenting a lively program

of morning fitness for all to start their day.

Flowers for Remembrance Day Donations of flowers and foliage would be greatly

appreciated for tomorrow’s Remembrance Day Service. If

you are able to donate please drop them off at the schools

office in the morning. Thank you.

NEW

EFTPOS Machine

We now have a new

EFTPOS machine which

allows us to accept

payments over the

telephone.

Due back

17th November

No late orders

will be

accepted!

Fungi: friend or foe?

All about fungus – what it is, how it’s used, what can kill you, and what you might find

in the bush.

Dr Lesley Wright and Skye Moore will reveal the fascinating world of this unique and

surprising variety of life.

Fungi are genetically more closely related to animals than to plants. They are essential to

ecological systems as the principal decomposers and recyclers – yet fungal diseases also

cause serious worldwide health problems.

Skye Moore is the author of ‘A guide to common fungi of the Hunter-Central Rivers

region’ and Dr Lesley Wright is a retired scientist working voluntarily for CSIRO Scien-

tists-in-Schools at Gresford Primary.

Cost: FREE!!

Where: Wednesday 16 November 2016, 7.00-8.30pm.

Where: Dungog CWA hall, Dowling St (next to Chillbillies), Dungog.

Booking: No booking is required.

We'd love to see you there.