Issue 01 Junior Site Bites

Junior Site
Bites
From the Associate Principal….
What a busy and fantastic start to the year we have had. We started Monday with 85 new Preschool
students and 78 new Kindergarten students, on Tuesday we welcomed 410 Students in Years 1—6 and
on Wednesday we welcomed our second half of the week Preschool students, another 47 children. Our
student population has grown by approximately 60 students from 2014 to 2015., and we now have
623 students from P-6. This is a credit to the school leadership team, the staff, and the community
that our students and parents create. It is a school community that people want to be a part of, and of
that fact we are immensely proud.
Welcome Morning Teas
Week 1
Term 1
On Monday morning and Wednesday afternoon the school hosted morning and afternoon teas to welcome new parents into the community. This provided the opportunity for families to connect with other
families in the community, as well as the school leadership team. Thank you to those that made the
time to come across, it is always lovely to meet the new families and put faces to names that I may
have only previously communicated with over phone or email. I look forward to having time to have a
relaxed chat at the Evening on The Green on 19th February.
Meeting your Child’s Classroom and Specialist Teachers
Dates to remember:
16 ,17, 19 February
Preschool Bus Wash
18 February
Swimming Carnival
19 February
Evening on the Green
20 February
School Photos
24 February
‘Think you know about Cyberbullying’
3 March
It is important for parents to get to know their child’s classroom teacher and establish lines of communication from the outset, to ensure that you are included and have input into your child’s educational
journey. Your child’s class teacher’s email address was included in the letter that the children received
from their teacher the week before school. If you are unable to get into the school, email is a reliable
and effective way of reaching the teacher. Please allow staff time to respond, as we often don’t get to
check our emails until the evening. An appropriate amount of time to wait for a response is 4872hours. If you do not receive a response in this timeframe, please contact me at
[email protected] and I will follow up on your behalf. Attached to this newsletter is a form
requesting information specific to your child. Please take the time to fill this out and return it to your
teacher. The information your provide allows us to cater not only to your child’s academic needs, but
also their social emotional needs, and allows us to develop a comprehensive understanding of your
child’s background and what makes them tick. If you haven’t had the opportunity already, please make
the time to come in to the school and meet your child’s class teacher. They are available before and
after school during week 2 and 3 for informal drop ins with parents. The Evening on the Green will be a
great opportunity to spend some time with your child’s teacher, the parents and children in your child’s
class, the wider school community and to see some of the Gold Creek staff and students talents in action.
Home Learning
@GoldCreekSchool
Homework is a topic of much debate in recent times and we have found that we have varying levels of
uptake across the grades and within each class. For this reason, we will be sending home a Home
Learning Information Sheet (attached). This outlines the school expectations, the individual responsibilities of all participants, and a return slip to indicate your preference for your student’s Home Learning.
Home Learning will be set in year level teams and will be consistent across the classes at each year
level. Home Learning must be differentiated and purposeful. Students will participate in Mathletics
this year, which is a resource that can be used at home to support students’ maths understanding and
development. Home readers and home reading expectations will continue to be differentiated according to need. Other Home Learning tasks can include spelling, project based activities linked to the Units
of Inquiry. Please ensure that you complete the return slip and return it to your child’s class teacher as
soon as possible.
Check out the P&C website:
Community Connections
http://goldcreekschoolpandc.org.
au/
On Friday of Week 2 families will receive the Community Connections. Community Connections provide
all the information specific to your child’s individual class and daily organisational needs.
NPS Community Breakfast
Follow us on twitter:
Gold Creek School
Kelleway Ave, Nicholls, ACT, 2913
www.goldcreek.act.edu.au
Junior Site Bites
Becoming a part of the Gold Creek Community
Becoming involved with your child’s school is your opportunity to contribute to the tone of the school culture that we collectively create. It is
also proven that volunteering even just three hours a year is enough to make an impact on your child’s performance. There are so many ways
that you can be actively involved in the school community, regardless of your other commitments. These include helping in the classroom,
attending excursions, coaching/managing sporting teams, volunteering to help in classrooms, assisting in the library… the possibilities are
endless! Below are just some of the initiatives currently running, but of course we always encourage parents and carers to be proactive and
share their ideas for ways to assist. Come along to the first P&C Meeting to find out what’s happening this year and how you can be involved
and please take the time to complete the Volunteer Database attached to this newsletter.
What can I be involved
with?
What will my participation look like?
Who shall I contact if I am interested?
Join the P&C
The P&C allows you the opportunity to find out what is going on at the P&C President—Michael Rush
school and contribute to decision making. You will have the opportunihttp://goldcreekschoolpandc.org.au/about
ty to contribute to the culture of the school, and assist with the organi-the-pc/pc-executive/
sation of whole school events,
Online Platforms
Online platforms are a great way to share the wonderful things that
happen in your school community and can be done from any where at
any time. Tweet and tag.
Volunteer in the classroom
Teachers always need help in the classroom. This could be a matter of Contact your child’s class teacher via email
covering books, reading with children, laminating, sharing your experor catch them before or after school
tise in a certain field, assisting with literacy or numeracy rotations.
[email protected]
Become a mentor for a
student
Shannon Birch—Director of Students
We have many students across both campuses who would benefit
greatly from having a mentor. We are building a mentoring program
[email protected]
and require people who have the time to commit to meeting weekly/fortnightly one on one with a student. Varying backgrounds and
experiences are sought. Please contact the school if you can make the
commitment and have an interest in supporting students with gifts and
talents or other needs.
Assist in the school library
There are numerous jobs to be done in a library. This can include returning collections to their rightful spot, covering books,
@GoldCreekSchool
Keryn Hoeschle—School Librarian
[email protected]
End of Term Organisation
Kate Woods—Associate Principal
Are you a sorter/organiser extraordinaire? If so we need you! The art
rooms, teacher resource rooms, home readers and other community
[email protected]
spaces and resources need ongoing love and attention to retain their
value. We would love to have a roster of parent volunteers to assist
with the organisation and maintenance of these spaces and resources.
Become a Class Parent
Contact
As a class parent contact you will be a friendly contact point for the
parents in your child’s class. Through this role, you can build the connection of the families within a particular class, organise out of school
play sessions, picnics, disseminate information to a distribution list.
Intervention Support
Receive training to offer intervention literacy and numeracy support for Kate Woods—Associate Principal
students in need. You will participate in a series of training sessions to
[email protected]
be able to offer support to students through the Golden Bridges program, Mini-Lit, and Homework Club.
Lost Property and Uniform
Pool
We need a parent volunteer to coordinate the lost property. Children
Kate Woods—Associate Principal
lose their belongings all the time and we need assistance to return it to
[email protected]
the rightful owner. After a certain time organisation is required to wash
clothing, store for second hand clothing pool or recycle.
Parent Community Room
As a Kidsmatter School we aim to establish a parent community room
for parents to have a place to connect with one another. The coordinating group would establish the room, roster opening dates and potential activities.
Gold Creek School
Kate Woods—Associate Principal
[email protected]
Kate Woods—Associate Principal
[email protected]
Kelleway Ave, Nicholls, ACT, 2913
www.goldcreek.act.edu.au
Junior Site Bites
Camps in 2015—Year 5 and 6 Students
Parents will soon receive an expression of interest letter to indicate their intent in sending their children on the school camps at the end of
the year. Once we have an indication of numbers, we will send home information on how to make scheduled payments in the lead up to the
school camps to support parents to pay the costs over an extended period of time. School camps generally cost $250—$300 depending on
location and duration. There will be a Year 7 camp in 2106, so it is important that people are able to make informed decisions around
sending their children to all three camps over three years, or selecting just one or two.
Intervention and Enrichment
Cooler Stations
From Week 3 we will be beginning our Intervention and Enrichment Programs. Students
involved in these programs will receive a note of explanation about the specific program. Those who would like more information will be directed to contact Shannon
Birch, our Director of Students.
We have had several cooler stations installed
around the school. Students have each received a drink bottle so that they can refill from
these cooler stations and stay hydrated. We
have three class sets on backorder so some
children are yet to receive these. The drink
bottles will remain at school, and be labelled
so that children always have access to cool,
fresh water. These will be taken home to be
washed on a Friday.
We will be implementing a whole host of different approaches to further develop students literacy and numeracy proficiency, provide targeted support for those needing a
boost to reach the next level, meet the social and emotional learning needs of students,
and broaden the richness and diversity of our extra-curricular activities to increase student engagement and connection to school. Some things to look forward to in 2015
include Robotics Club, a jewellery making class, a martial arts program and more.
ILP/PLP
Book Packs
ILP and PLP meetings will be
held in Week 3 and 4. Please
keep your eye out for a note
that will be coming home
shortly with more information.
Please ensure that you have purchased all materials for the school
book packs. It is necessary for students to be able to participate in
all learning activities for them to have the bookpack resources.
TERM 1 ASSEMBLY ROSTER
 W1
no assembly
 W2
Junior School
 W3
no assembly
 W4
3-6 (Year 3)
 W5
P-2 (Year 1/2)
 W6
3-6 (Year5/6)
 W7
P-2 (Kindergarten)
 W8
3-6 (Year 4)
 W9
Good Friday
 W10 Anzac Assembly
(K-10 Thursday)
Gold Creek School
Notes home
Week 1
Gold Creek School has a Student Support Fund for families who are
unable to meet the cost of the school bookpack. Please contact
Kerry Lyttle if you would like to discuss this option on 62051814.
Swimming Carnival Note
Week 2
* Resources Levy and Mathletics Levy can be paid at the front office. Please pay these as soon as you can so that we can start to
roll out the Mathletics log ons and get children started.
Community Connections
Evening on the Green
Bring your picnic rug and come and enjoy an evening on the
green with live music, an art show and food and drinks on sale.
A fantastic opportunity to meet with the community, your
child’s class teacher and other parents in your children’s
class/es.
Thursday 19 Feb
Senior Site Concourse
5.30pm—7pm
Kelleway Ave, Nicholls, ACT, 2913
www.goldcreek.act.edu.au
Junior Site Bites
CLASS
Preschool
Swift Parrots (M-T-W)
Spotted Frogs (W-T-F)
Rainbow BeeEaters (W-T-F)
Legless Lizards (M-T-W)
Grasshoppers (Belinda Brown)
Kookaburras
PRIMARY
KA
KB
KC
KD
1A
1B
1C
2A
2B
2C
3A
3B
3C
4A
4B
4C
5A
5B
5/6
6A
6B
Gold Creek School
TEACHERS
LIGA ALITE
JANE MARSHALL
LIGA ALITE
JANE MARSHALL
BELINDA BROWN
CINDY CONDON
CARLY HUGHES
JANE PHIPPEN
JAYNE BLECKENDORF
STEPHANIE VIALS
KATE MOSKAL
MELISSA VAN REE
JULIE PICKERING
JODIE GRAHAM
BEVERLEY JOB
LISA RYAN
ANGELA SPENCE/LANNY HALLAHAN
VARUNA ARORA
MICHELLE GRABHAM/CHRIS HARDING
SHANNON BIRCH/ KIM BARNETT
DIONE BROWN
KATIE YOUNG
CADEYRN OLLERENSHAW
EDDIE MCCALLUM
AMANDA CHISNALL
KATIE ROGERS
ANNA BUCKMAN
Kelleway Ave, Nicholls, ACT, 2913
www.goldcreek.act.edu.au