Giralanger #20 - Giralang Primary School

16 December 2015
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
16 Dec
18 Dec
Preschool Family Fun Day
Last day of Term 4
HAPPY HOLIDAYS
Wed 27 Jan Stationery Pack Pick Up, 9.00am-10.00am
Fri 29 Jan Uniform Shop, 2.00pm-3.00pm
Fri 29 Jan Stationery Pack Pick Up, 2.00pm-3.00pm
Mon 1 Feb First day of Term 1 – Preschool, Kindy & New
Students
Mon 1 Feb Uniform Shop, 8.30am-9.30am
Tue 2 Feb First day of Term 1 – Whole School
FROM THE PRINCIPAL
YEAR 6 GRADUATION
One final congratulations to our graduating class of
2015. The graduation ceremony, dinner and disco
were a fitting celebration of your time here at
Giralang Primary School. Continue to shine bright like
the Giralang Stars that you are. Thank you to all of the
parent volunteers and Mr Mace for making the Year 6
Graduation a huge success. Special mention to our
special guest speaker, Lauren Wells. Your speech was
very inspirational.
RATS OF TOBRUK LUNCHEON
We enjoyed a beautiful Christmas luncheon with our
special friends last Thursday. It was wonderful to
reconnect with John Flemming and Dennis
Bridgewater and the families of other Rats of Tobruk
that can no longer join us. Our Year 6 leadership class
were outstanding hosts and our Senior and Junior
choirs combined to perform for our special guests.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS
On behalf of all of the staff at Giralang Primary School
I would like to thank you all for your wonderful
support in 2015. We are so lucky to have such an
interactive community that values quality education
as much as we do. We hope you enjoy the summer
break with family and friends. Read a great book, go
for a swim and just relax! 2015 was a blast and 2016
is going to be even better!
TELEPHONE:
(02) 6205 5866
FACSIMILE:
(02) 6205 5862
www.giralangps.act.edu.au
[email protected]
School Office Hours: 08.30-15.30
P&C ASSOCIATION
Val Brennan
J Kennard/J Sexton
Bec Kostesic
Alison Brake
Rachel McGrath
President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer
Assistant Treasurer
BOARD REPRESENTATIVES
Ryan Wilson
0409 477 127
Megan Taylor
0417 714 911
Toni Patterson
0411 965 067
END OF YEAR AWARDS
On Monday we recognised
students from each year
group for their academic,
social and sporting successes
throughout 2015. We also awarded the perpetual
shields to four very deserving young people.
Congratulations to all award recipients. A photo and
list of award recipients can be found later in this
edition of the Giralanger.
STUDENT LEADERS FOR 2016
If you are interested in a position on the School Board
and would like more information about the roles and
responsibilities of School Board members, please feel
free to contact me or you can talk with one of the
current parent representatives – Ryan Wilson, Toni
Patterson and Megan Taylor.
CLASSES FOR 2016
Last Friday we had our inaugural Move Up Day.
Students met their new teacher for 2016, as well as
their new classmates. The day was a huge success and
students and teachers left feeling very excited for
2016. Classes and classroom teachers for next year
are as follows:
Kindergarten Anne Mahony (4 days) and
Beth Lessard (1 day)
Alana Dal Molin (4 days)
Beth Lessard (1 day)
Stephanie Vials
and
Year 1
Kieran Blackwell
Sally Gladwin
Year 2
Meredith Wells
Lauren Hancock
Year 3
SCHOOL VICE-CAPTAINS
Riley McQueenie
Alexey Grudnoff
Brenton Mace
Katrina Ireland
Year 4/5
Skye Knight
Matthew Garratt
Paul Floyd
BOARD POSITION
Year 6
Lisa Ison
There will be one parent vacancy and one teacher
vacancy for the School Board for a two year period,
commencing April 2016. This is due to the parent and
teacher representatives having fulfilled two years in
office. We need to declare the positions vacant so
that an election can be held if required; in 2016. The
Returning Officer will be Kieran Blackwell.
Membership of the School Board is a wonderful
opportunity for parents to participate in the ongoing
management of the school and to contribute to the
determination of the school’s future directions. These
positions are part of a seven‐member group of three
parents, two teachers, a nominee of the Directorate
and the Principal.
A full list of staff and roles will be released on the first
day back in 2016.
Congratulations to our new student leaders for 2016.
SCHOOL CAPTAINS
Aideen Fitzgerald
Tui Georgievski
RETURNING TO SCHOOL IN 2016
Preschool and Kindergarten will commence on
Monday 1 February. Kindergarten families can meet
in the school hall at 9.00am and Preschool families go
straight to the Preschool Unit at 8.45am.
Years 1-6 will commence on Tuesday 2 February. We
will meet you all on the blacktop line up area at
9.00am in your new classes!
Belinda Love – Principal
GIRALANG PRIMARY SCHOOL: “Adventure in Learning, Caring and Achieving”
STATIONERY PACKS 2016
If you have not purchased your child’s Stationery Pack
for 2016 you can log on to MAXIM Office Group’s
website maximofficegroup.com.au and place an order
which can be delivered to your
home address. Attached to the
Newsletter is the list of stationery
each year group will need on the
first day of school in 2016.
I would like to thank the students of Giralang Primary
and the parents who support our Japanese program.
I have very much enjoyed teaching you all this year
and wish you a relaxing and joyful summer break.
Mata rainen! See you again next year.
Morgan sensei - Japanese Teacher
FROM THE P&C
CANTEEN CLOSURE
MEDICATION
If your child has medication kept at the Front Office
and requires it during the holidays, please collect it
from Louise by 3.30pm Friday 18 December.
Front Office
JAPANESE
It is the end of another exciting year of
Japanese learning at Giralang Primary!
Term 4 was particularly eventful with
our Japanese Fun Day and the wonderful
performance by George and Noriko. This year also
saw Mr Bormann teaching Japanese to our preschool
students and he has been thrilled with their
enthusiasm. I look forward to meeting the preschoolers next year already equipped with some
words in Japanese!
I have also been very pleased with the effort and
enthusiasm shown by all Giralang students to the
learning of Japanese language and culture. It really is
wonderful to teach such positive and eager children.
All students have gained new language skills and with
revision and practise these skills will be retained.
Learning a language requires practise and without it
vocabulary and language patterns can be easily
forgotten. So my suggestion to all my students is to
use the words you know as much as you can.
Describe things using the Japanese colours, count in
Japanese, refer to clothing, food, places etc in
Japanese, and teach your family and friends the
words. Also there are many apps and free online
games which can be downloaded on computers,
phones, ipods or ipads which will reinforce greetings,
vocabulary and Hiragana. I use these myself and can
also recommend ‘imi wa’ which is a Japanese/English
dictionary.
Just a reminder the canteen will be closed this Friday,
18 December 2015.
Items will start to run out this week, so we might
need to substitute your choice for something else (we
will discuss this with your child).
Thank you to everyone for your continued support of
the canteen over this year. Special, heartfelt thanks to
all our wonderful canteen volunteers who make it
possible for the school to have access to this handy
service. Thank you all for your time and your efforts.
Have a Merry Christmas and we will see you in the
New Year.
Cindy - Canteen Manager
MORE THANKS
Thanks to the parents who
helped prepare and serve a
wonderful meal for our year 6 students last week, and
an especially warm thank you to Cindy who, as usual,
did an amazing job cooking for everyone and creating
a fine-dining atmosphere.
The P&C would also like to thank all our volunteers
this year. It has been a busy time but we have
achieved so much. Thanks to those who helped at
events, baked, donated items, or were generally
around to lend a hand. Massive thanks to those who
kept book club, canteen and uniform shops running.
These are large tasks, but ones from which all families
benefit.
There will be plenty more fun to be had next year!
We look forward to you joining us!
GIRALANG PRIMARY SCHOOL: “Adventure in Learning, Caring and Achieving”
The P&C offers parents the chance to learn more
about what happens at the school, to be involved, to
provide important services and to add value to our
school and community. Every parent and carer of a
Giralang student is a member of the P&C and can be
involved!
Attached is a list of roles and jobs which the P&C
looks to fill each year. Maybe there is one which
would suit you?
The first P&C meeting of 2017 will coincide with the
school’s Information Night for parents (date to be
advised).
PRESCHOOL - YELLOW PINWHEELS, RED SPARKLERS
ORANGE FIRECRACKERS
Wow! What an absolutely incredible and amazing
year we’ve had in Preschool. We have laughed,
played, learned, discovered, explored, shared and
grown so much. A big huge thank you to all our
wonderful parents, families and friends out there who
have helped us on our journey this year, you are all
stars! We look forward to seeing you at the Preschool
Family Fun Day on Wednesday and wish you all a safe
and relaxing summer.
Happy Holidays
The P&C committee [email protected]
UNIFORM SHOP
Special ‘back-to-school’ opening
times:
The Uniform Shop will open on
Friday 29 January from 2-3pm
(this time coincides with the
second book pack collection)
AND Monday 1 February from 8:30-9:30am (first day
for Kindergarten and new students). All families are
welcome to come in on those days.
We hope you have a wonderful (uniform free!)
summer break!
Alison & Tamara
Uniform Shop Co-ordinators
SCHOOL BANKING
School Banking is every Friday. Please drop off your
banking books at the Front Office in the morning.
Cate Ticehurst & Christine Ostheimer
School Banking Officers
Beck Verdon – Preschool Teacher
Jess Morris – Preschool Teacher
[email protected]
[email protected]
KINDERGARTEN – STARS & TWILIGHTS
As part of our Health and Physical Education unit,
Kindergarten have been learning about actions that
promote health, safety and wellbeing. We have been
learning to identify ‘sometimes’ and ‘every day’
foods. The students had the opportunity to
brainstorm and sort laminated pictures of foods into
two groups and then we created a poster to highlight
the foods we should eat sometimes and the foods we
should eat every day. The students then created a
meal of everyday foods which they placed on plates
using pictures from magazines. We have also looked
at other ways to stay healthy such as washing our
hands, cleaning our teeth and covering our nose
when we sneeze.
GIRALANG PRIMARY SCHOOL: “Adventure in Learning, Caring and Achieving”
A special note from Ms Hardy: I would like to thank
Mrs Nicol for allowing me this opportunity to work
with the students in KN this term and of course the
students themselves! We have had a great deal of
fun.
Miss Dal Molin and Mrs Nicol have had a wonderful
time working with the Kindergarten students this year
and we wish them all the best heading into Year 1.
We hope you have wonderful and safe holiday
season.
Alana Dal Molin – Kindergarten Teacher
Leanne Nicol – Kindergarten Teacher
Anne Mahony – Kindergarten Teacher
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
YEAR 1 – SUPERNOVAS & RAINBOWS
Congratulations to all students in Year 1. You have
worked extremely hard this year. You have produced
some outstanding pieces of writing, used your
problem solving skills in Numeracy, you have danced,
cooked, performed, sung, investigated what life was
like for your Great Grandparents and made movies on
the iPad….just to mention a few activities. No wonder
we are all so tired! You are very ready for Year 2 and
we wish you the very best. We are so proud of each
and every one of you. Some of our Year 1 students
were recognised at the Awards Assembly on Monday
14 December. Congratulations to the winners: Maeve
Heerdegen, Charlie Deren, Sonny Lauvao, Dean
Helmers, Bailey Jones, Josephine Currey.
Skye Knight – Year 1 Teacher
Paul Floyd – Year 1 Teacher
YEAR 2 – PHOTONS & AURORAS
Welcome to the last week of Year 2! What a year it
has been and we would like to congratulate each and
every student on their hard work this year! All reports
have gone out, if you have not yet received yours
please check with your classroom teacher.
Both Miss Malmberg and
Mrs Williams would like to thank
all the students and their families
for making their last year at
Giralang such an enjoyable time!
If you get a chance they would
love to say goodbye to you.
We wish everyone happy and safe holidays, and all
the best for 2016.
Mark Bormann – Year 2 Teacher
Karly Malmberg – Year 2 Teacher
Stephanie Williams – Year 2 Teacher
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
YEAR 3 – SUNRISES
It has been a pleasure teaching
the Year 3 Sunrises! Thank you
all for making me feel so
welcome. Congratulations to all
of the award winners at
Monday's assembly. It was a tough job deciding on
the recipients, which highlights the calibre of the
students in Year 3. All the best for Year 4. It was
wonderful witnessing the joy and excitement
displayed on Friday's Move Up day. I wish you all a
wonderful summer break with your families!
Chrissie Walker – Year 3 Teacher
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
GIRALANG PRIMARY SCHOOL: “Adventure in Learning, Caring and Achieving”
YEAR 4 – FIREFLIES
Wow! It’s the end of the year
already! I would like to say a huge
thank you to all the families of the
Fireflies for their support during
my first year at Giralang. I am
already getting excited for next
year and all the amazing opportunities that will bring.
Students will be taking home their books and
portfolio over the coming days. There is some
incredible work in these books and I would encourage
families to sit and look through some of the learning
experiences that we have had over the year. Again,
thank you to all families for their support in making
2015 a fantastic year for the Fireflies.
Matt Garratt – Year 4 Teacher
[email protected]
YEAR 4/5 – SPARKS
What an amazing year the Sparks have had. I am so
proud to be their teacher because of all the learning
they’ve done. I could write so much about the
amazing things we’ve achieved together but I decided
for this newsletter to ask the students what stuck
with them the most through the year.
Jade: The highlight of the year was decorating
biscuits.
Marte-Hanna: This year was awesome because of
doing fun things with our amazing teacher.
Felix: I liked going to Greening Australia and trying the
mountain pepper.
Sophie: I liked doing Step Into the Limelight because it
was really fun.
Isobel: I loved everything about this year, it was too
hard to choose just one thing.
Amy: I liked when Kaleen High came to perform their
music, dance and circus tricks.
Tarshi: My favourite thing was growing watermelons.
Oscar: I enjoyed entertaining the class with my
hilarity to make them laugh.
Noah: I enjoyed doing lots of maths activities because
I get to do them with the best teacher ever.
Niki: I enjoyed our excursion to Greening Australia
because we get to grow plants.
Joey: I loved school camp because it was loads of fun
learning about leadership skill during the high rope
course.
Ayla: I loved making new friends and listen to them
read books.
Jesse: I loved performing in Limelight and then
teaching the class drama skills.
To all the Giralang families, I thank you for the
support throughout the year. I hope you all have a
safe and Merry Christmas.
Piper: The best thing about this year was doing PE and
playing oztag.
Muzn: The highlight of this year was going on all the
excursions, especially to Greening Australia.
Sophia: I liked going to Greening Australia and
planting all the plants.
Bo: My favourite part of the year was the end of the
year activities.
Bee pollination experiment
Felix & David,
David: My favourite part of the year was all the
special events including the Film Festival and
Giralang’s Got Talent.
GIRALANG PRIMARY SCHOOL: “Adventure in Learning, Caring and Achieving”
Muzn and Jesse
YEAR 6 LEADERSHIP CLASS - THE LUMINAIRES
The final week of primary school for the Luminaire’s!
CAFÉ Reading with Year One
Meredith Wells – Year 4/5 Teacher
[email protected]
YEAR 5 – LASERS
Hello and welcome to Week 10 of Term 4!
It is hard to believe that we are at the end of another
school year.
I would like to say a big thank you to all of the
students for a wonderful year in 5B. It has been great
to see the growth in learning that you have all
achieved this year. I hope that you all look back on
2015 as a wonderful year at Giralang Primary School –
I certainly will.
Last week we had a fantastic time with our
graduation. The day included student’s receiving their
graduating certificates, sharing a dinner with staff and
getting to dance with their Year 5 friends. The
evening closed with the cutting of the graduation
cake and symbolised students preparing for their
journey into high school. I would like to thank parents
who supported all graduation events and staff for
serving the Luminaire’s dinner.
Reports have gone home to families and will give
student’s guidance into their achievements for the
year and the goals they should set for themselves
next year. Portfolios will be coming home, which will
represent the hard the hard work and dedication the
class has put into 2015. It has been a pleasure to
teach Year 6 and I wish the each and every student all
the best in their future endeavors.
Brenton Mace – Year 6 Teacher
[email protected]
I would like to say farewell to James Lemon who is
moving school at the end of this year. He will be
greatly missed by all of his peers and we wish him all
the best.
I would like to wish everyone a fantastic end of year
break – please enjoy the holiday period, have a safe
and relaxing time with your families and I look
forward to seeing you all again next year.
Kieran Blackwell – Year 5 Teacher
[email protected]
Mr Mace addressing his class at Graduation
GIRALANG PRIMARY SCHOOL: “Adventure in Learning, Caring and Achieving”
TELEPHONE:
(02) 6205 5866
FACSIMILE:
(02) 6205 5862
www.giralangps.act.edu.au
[email protected]
School Office Hours: 08.30-15.30
P&C ASSOCIATION
Val Brennan
J Kennard/J Sexton
Bec Kostesic
Alison Brake
Rachel McGrath
President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer
Assistant Treasurer
CONGRATULATIONS
Kindergarten
Academic Award
Sofia De Oliveira Cruzado
Citizenship Award
Megan Eldridge
Sportsperson Award
Jon Camilleri
The Giralang Rising Star Award
Dustin Schueler
The ARTS Award
Tomoki Hazelwood
Japanese Award
Bailey Kerin
Year 1
Academic Award
Maeve Heerdegen
Citizenship Award
Charlie Deren
Sportsperson Award
Sonny Lauvao
The Giralang Rising Star Award
Dean Helmers
The ARTS Award
Josephine Currey
Japanese Award
Bailey Jones
Year 2
Academic Award
Theo Radisich
Citizenship Award
Ella Reading
Sportsperson Award
James Corkhill
The Giralang Rising Star Award
Russele Subing-Subing
The ARTS Award
Emily McGrath
Japanese Award
Farrell Hidayat
Year 3
Academic Award
Georgia Bianchini
Citizenship Award
Isabella Pekkarinen
Sportsperson Award
Yuki Rundell
The Giralang Rising Star Award
Robert Venn
The ARTS Award
Blake Miller
Japanese Award
May Howard
Year 4
Academic Award
David Brake
Citizenship Award
Cassie Merrick
Sportsperson Award
Xanda Georgievski
The Giralang Rising Star Award
Oscar Ashton
The ARTS Award
Sophia Burke-Millea
Japanese Award
Isobel Hemming
Year 5
Academic Award
Leilani Holgate
Citizenship Award
Muzn Abbas
Sportsperson Award
Tui Georgievski
The Giralang Rising Star Award
Jesse White
The ARTS Award
Helena Corkill
Japanese Award
Ingrid McGrouther
Year 6
Academic Award
Finn Pekkarinen
Citizenship Award
Caitlin Radburn
Sportsperson Award
Maxx Green
The Giralang Rising Star Award
Gurmeen Kaur
The ARTS Award
Elia Georgievski
Japanese Award
Claire Heerdegen
Perpetual Shield Recipients
Sportsperson of The Year
James Lemon
Glen R Memorial Shield
Riley McQueenie
(Good all-rounder)
Di Herbert CCC Award
Edana Hosking
The Raymond Widdows OAM Rats of
Riley Lang
Tobruk Prize (Resilience)
BOARD REPRESENTATIVES
Ryan Wilson
0409 477 127
Megan Taylor
0417 714 911
Toni Patterson
0411 965 067
END OF YEAR AWARDS
GIRALANG PRIMARY SCHOOL: “Adventure in Learning, Caring and Achieving”
GIRALANG PRIMARY SCHOOL: “Adventure in Learning, Caring and Achieving”
GIRALANG PRIMARY SCHOOL: “Adventure in Learning, Caring and Achieving”