Specialists News

Sport/Phys Ed News 

State Athletics

Congratulations to Max H and Sonny R for their efforts at the State Athletics Championships last Thursday. 

Max finished 3rd in the 11 Years Boys hurdles and 9th in the 200m, whilst Sonny finished 5th in 10 Years boys 200m. This is an outstanding effort considering the standard of competition.

Well done to both of the boys – the school community is very proud of you!

Paddle Victoria Marathon Awards.

A huge congratulations to Daphne B from 5/6 Garmey/Staley for receiving the best Sub-Junior Female paddler for 2025 at the recent Paddle Victoria Marathon awards ceremony. Well done, Daphne!  👏

Loddon Mallee Region Hot Shots Tennis Final.

Well done to our Hot Shots tennis team who represented the School at the LM Regional Final in Swan Hill recently. This team consisted of; Alex W, Tommy R, Oliver S, Cormac P, Zoe S, Leni C, Nihira G and Rose W.

Hot Shots is a modified version of tennis (smaller courts, lower nets and lower compression balls), and is now the preferred format for competitions in Victorian Primary schools. This competition consists of teams of 8 students who combine their scores over a number of singles and doubles games. The Regional Final featured the best 14 teams from Central and North West Victoria.

As expected, the standard of competition was very strong and our team was highly competitive in all of their games. They played matches against St. Mary’s (Echuca), Nichols Point PS, St. Mary’s (Swan Hill) and Rochester PS. 

I would like to congratulate the students for the way they conducted themselves on the day. They displayed outstanding skill, teamwork and sportsmanship – and they should all be very proud of their achievements. I would also like to thank the parents/family members who travelled up to Swan Hill to support the students.

T20 Blast School Cricket Tournament

Congratulations to all of the students who represented the school last Friday at the T20 Blast Bendigo Primary Schools Cricket Tournament. This massive event featured over 30 schools across our district and approximately 70 teams. This year SGPS entered 4 teams – a Boys and Girls team in both Division 1 and 2. In what was an outstanding day for our School, our teams won a combined total or 12 games out 16.

Our Division 2 Girls team had a particularly successful day - finishing 1st. They won all of 3 of their Round Robin games, setting up a final against St Monica’s. The girls saved their best game for last – bowling superbly and batting well in partnerships to take out the trophy. Fantastic effort girls!

Our Division 1 Girls also had a brilliant day – remaining undefeated. They won all of their Round Robin games and their final to finish the day 3rd overall. Unfortunately, a slightly lower run aggregate meant they missed out on playing off for first and second. It was great to see both of our Girls teams perform so well and remain undefeated, particularly given this was the first time that most of them had played competitive cricket.

Our Division 1 and 2 Boys both won 2 of their 4 games and displayed a great deal of skill and improvement as the day progressed. There were a number of fantastic individual highlights throughout the day – classic catches, huge sixes, thrilling run-outs, etc. However the most pleasing part was how the boys worked together as a team and demonstrated great positivity and enthusiasm.

Thanks to Mr Staley and parent helpers Sean McCann and Mick Antonowicz for coaching and supporting these teams on the day.

Swimming Program

Our Swimming Program will be held during this term at the Peter Krenz Leisure Centre, Eaglehawk on the following dates:

GROUP 1   - Week 8      

 GROUP 2 - Week 9

 The students will complete five sessions with a fully qualified Austswim teacher from the Leisure Centre. Each session will be of 40 minutes duration. As this program forms part of the Health and Physical Education curriculum, it is important for all students to attend and take part in the lessons. 

The cost of the Program is $18.00 per student. The school has been able to secure a ‘Swimming in Schools’ grant again this year which has helped to reduce the cost. With bus, pool hire and the cost of instruction, the swimming program would normally cost approx. $68.00 per student without this funding. Further information about our Swimming Program (including payment/consent) can now be found on Compass.

In order to place students in swimming groups appropriate to their level, all NEW students to Spring Gully PS in 2024 (including all Prep students) will receive a skill competence assessment checklist. We ask parents/carers to complete, as accurately as they can, this form and return it to school as soon as possible so that we can start to organise the groups. 

Students who completed the swimming program in 2024 do not need to complete this form as they have already been placed in a group based on this year’s results. All students will be assessed by the instructors during the first lesson and placed accordingly.

Auslan News

Grade Preps have been learning about the parts of HOLM + NMF (Handshape, Orientation, Location, Movement + Non-Manual Functions). We look at these components each year in progressively more depth as HOLM + NMF are an integral part of Auslan, being a visual-gestural language. The Preps have also been learning some Handshapes (Point, Claw/Ball, Hook, Good, Flat and Spread/Five) that are used to make signs in Auslan. See if your child/ren are able to show you any of these Handshapes. Learning the various Handshapes in Auslan, helps us to sign more accurately.

G1-2s have been revising signs for People: person, children, he/she/they, girl, boy, woman/lady, man, mine, yours, and theirs, and learning new signs for Community Helpers/Occupations: teacher, doctor, nurse, fire fighter, police officer, hairdresser/barber, pilot, cook/chef/baker, mail carrier, dentist, vet, mechanic, soldier, artist, farmer, photographer, singer, carpenter, builder, scientist, worker, taxi driver, waiter, musician, and astronaut [F-S]. Students have written simple sentences to sign, drawn their favourite community helper, and played an occupations boardgame to practise the signs for people and community helpers.

Grade 3-4s have been working on a mini book ‘About Me’ to practise signs for describing themselves in a social context. Students have been practising signing sentences to introduce themselves, and give details about their age, birthday, eye colour, hair colour and style, and things that they love. Students have also been playing the “Who Am I?” game to practise signing about someone’s appearance.

Grade 5-6s have been focused on signs and sentences for camping, the weather, nature and environment. Many of these signs are revision from previous years, however there are many new signs in these topics also.

- Weather: hot, warm, cold, degree, temperature, cloud, fog, lightning, rain, snow, thunder, wind.

- Sky: rainbow, sunrise, sunset, moon, planets [F-S], star, sun, horizon, day, night, light, dark.

- Seasons: Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring.

- Natural Disasters: Avalanche, Snow, Cyclone, Disaster, Drought, Earthquake, Emergency, Flood (water rising), Hurricane, Landslide, Lightning, Snow Storm, Tornado, Tsunami (water + waves), Volcano, Wildfire/Bushfire, Windstorm, Wreck/Damage.

- Environment: Beach, Climate, Clouds, Environment, Fire, Lake, Land, Mountains, Plants or Flowers, Rain, River, Ocean/Sea, Snow, Survival, Water, Weather.

- Camping: Camping/Tent, Sleeping Bag, Toilet Paper, Fire, Hiking, Fishing, Torch, Stars, Wood [F-S], Backpack, Marshmallow, Place, Beach, Forest, River, Fun, Adventure.

Grade 5-6s have been practising these signs through 3 different card games on signplanet.net to see if they could beat their own PB and accuracy. They have also been creating a PowerPoint on Nature and the Environment or Camping, to lead their peers in sign practise of their chosen signs in these topics.

Mrs Riordan

Music News - Japanese Taiko Drumming

Recently, every class had the opportunity to participate in a Taiko Drumming Incursion as part of the Music Curriculum. It was a thrilling, high energy workshop where we learned to play a variety of rhythmic patterns! We learned about the history of taiko drums and their importance in Japanese culture. The Junior and Middle schools also learned the Sakura fan dance. Every class was invited to dress up in traditional Japanese costume as part of their Taiko workshop.