Principal's Report

Farewell to Staff

Mrs Emma Orr will be leaving SGPS at the end of the year. Unfortunately, we have not been able to offer Mrs Orr a position next year, due to permanent staff returning from leave. Mrs Orr has been a wonderful teacher at our school for the last five years and we will miss her knowledge and skills, but most importantly, we will miss the genuine love and care she has shown all of our students. 

In addition to the staff listed in the last newsletter regarding leave in 2024, Miss Tayla Spedding (Education Support) will also be taking leave at the end of the year. We wish Tayla well for her next adventure.

Selecting Our Schools Captains for 2024

This week we completed the selection process to determine our School Captains for 2024.  The whole process is a great experience for the students involved and we're proud of how they all handled themselves. This year we had 18 applicants, so decision making was incredibly difficult. So how are these decisions made? 

1. All Grade 5 students were invited to write an application letter explaining why they ought to be considered for a School Captain position. 
2. Candidates were interviewed by Mr Parkes and the current School Captains, Neel and Emma. Unfortunately, COVID finally caught up with me and I missed the interviews.
3. The Grade 5 teachers and Specialist teachers were asked for feedback on each of recommended candidates.

After considering all of the above, our new School Captains were chosen and will be presented to the school community at our assembly tomorrow.

Many thanks to all of the students who went through the process. We are very lucky to have so many awesome students, making the decision extremely difficult. For those children who missed out, I would encourage you to keep putting yourselves forward for any opportunities that present in the future.

House Captains

Many students presented speeches to their House last Friday, demonstrating their desire to be their leader in 2024. I would like to thank all students for nominating for these important roles. As for those children who missed out on School Captain roles, I would encourage these students to keep putting themselves forward for any opportunities that present in the future.

Year 6 Orientation Day

Best wishes to all of our Grade 6 students for their Orientation Day on Tuesday. The local secondary schools are lucky to be getting our awesome students for the day, in readiness for 2024.

‘Step Up' Day

While our Grade 6 students are involved in their transition day on Tuesday, all remaining children will participate in our Step-Up Day. This will give every child the opportunity to ‘have a go’ at the next year level, in preparation for 2024. While some transitions in a primary school are relatively straightforward, some can be significant, and for some children the move can be daunting. By giving every child the opportunity to ‘see’ what it is like in the next class we aim to build confidence in every child so that they are ready to go at the beginning of next year, having some idea of what to expect. 

On the Step-Up day we will be able to introduce our confirmed teaching teams for 2024 to the children. Confirmed class placements, including each child’s new teacher (from Grades Prep-6), will be sent home to all families on this day. The task of constructing the grades is always a very complex one that has taken the teachers significant time to complete. Every child is in a grade with one of the friends that they wrote on their list. We take in to consideration a large amount of information and try our utmost to get the best balance for everyone. All parent requests were given due consideration as part of this process. Many of these requests were fully met or partially meet. In some cases, we were not able to cater for parent requests. Given these thorough processes, I haven’t moved any children from their allocated class during my 19 years as Principal and that will continue to be the case this year.

Grade 6 Graduation

Our Grade 6 Graduation will be held on Wednesday, 13th December from 7.30pm in The Hub. We would ask everyone to be seated by 7.20pm. This night celebrates the achievements of all of our Grade 6 students. Prior to the formal part of the evening, the children will have a dinner at school with their friends and teachers from 6.00pm - 7.00pm before for the formal part of the evening commences at 7.30pm. 

2024 National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) 

This is just a heads up to our current families with a child in Year 2 and/or in Year 4, the 2024 NAPLAN dates are March 13-25 (these are the same for Year 7 and Year 9 NAPLAN). We will be attempting to have all tests completed by Friday 22nd March, leaving Monday 25th for final catch ups.

All things 2024 NAPLAN can be found here: https://www.nap.edu.au/naplan

Infographic from: https://www.nap.edu.au/naplan/key-dates

For those who really like to plan ahead, NAPLAN dates to 2027 are also available in the link to the infographic!

Interview Day - 2024

Although we are still very busy finishing off 2023, we have been completing many tasks that relate to 2024. One of these tasks is organising an opportunity for all of our families to meet with their child’s teacher on the first day of Term 1, 2024. Information that explains this process will be posted via Compass during the holidays (see Mr Parkes’ section). 

Our 2024 Prep students will have a slightly different schedule for their interviews. Details relating to these interviews will be circulated during the holidays also.

 A summary of our start to 2023 is below:

• Monday, 29th January – Compulsory Curriculum Day (PUPIL FREE DAY)

• Tuesday, 30th January – Parent Interviews for Grade 1-6 (11am-6.30pm) AND Prep Assessments (8am-4pm) 

• Tuesday, 31st January – Prep Assessments (8am-4pm)

• Wednesday, 1st February – Prep Assessments (8am-4pm) 

• Thursday, 2nd February – First full day at school for Prep

Repeat Notices

2024 Booklists

Reminder, that the 2024 Booklists will close on Friday December 15, 2023- this will guarantee delivery on book collection day.  Orders received after this date will not be ready until the start of the Term 1 2024.

Book Collection Day

Where:            Spring Gully Primary School

Date:               Tuesday January 23, 2024

Time:               8:00am to 4:00pm

From:               Art Room

Semester Two Student Reports

Reports will be released electronically via Compass on Friday, 15th December. Please be mindful that many other schools are likely to be releasing their Semester Reports at a similar time and that download speeds may vary depending on the time of day you are attempting to download. Reports will only be printed upon request.

Final day of 2023 – early dismissal & final assembly

The final school day for Spring Gully PS students will be Wednesday 20th December. Parents should note the earlier finishing time of 1.15pm. 

The final assembly for 2023 will commence at 1.00pm. Students will be dismissed from The Hub at 1.15pm.