A Message from Cam...
We have had a positive start to the Term 3 with a highlight being our first assembly with our brand new TV! We have a very busy term planned that is filled with camps, activities, excursions and community events that everyone will enjoy. Our teachers have planned stimulating and challenging curriculum programs for our students - please have a look at the Curriculum Newsletters page of this newsletter to see what our students will be learning about this term.
New TV!
Last Friday 45Z presented their dioramas using our wonderful new TV! From conversations that I have had with excited students, staff & parents, it is clear that our new addition to Gumbuya has been a huge hit! This is a prime example of how the wonderful fundraising efforts of our community has a direct benefit to our teaching & learning program. Thank you again!
Pupil Free Day - Monday 4th August
Next Monday 4th August will be our next pupil-free day for the year. This day is focused on professional development of our staff aligned with our whole school improvement strategies, primarily focused on continuing our work on effective mathematics instruction.
Ozone Day - Friday 8th August
Our School Captains have been working incredibly hard to organise Ozone Day - a day where we focus on the environment and what we can all do to be environmentally conscious members of the community. More information will be communicated via a Compass communication shortly.
The day includes dressing in the environmentally friendly colours of green or blue and bringing in a gold coin donation that will be used on an environmentally friendly initiative.
Camps
Along with the terrific curriculum programs for Term 3, it is camping season! Please see below for a snapshot of each of our camps. More detailed information will be communicated by the relevant teams closer to the camp dates.
Year 2 Anglesea Camp (Monday 15th September - Tuesday 16th September) This year will be the fourth year that we have attended this camp. It is a wonderful camp that is a fantastic first school camping experience for our students. There will be a presentation on Wednesday 6th August at 5pm held over WebEx going that will address key details about the camp.
Year 4 Camp Allambee (Wednesday 17th September - Friday 19th September) Following on from a very successful Grade 4 camp last year at Camp Allambee, we are excited to return with our current Grade 4 students. The camp is an adventure camp and the feedback from last year's students & staff was overwhelmingly positive. The camp will challenge the students in a very supported setting. Information about this camp will be communicated very shortly.
Year 6 Canberra Camp (Monday 8th September - Friday 12th September) Our annual pilgrimage to Canberra is also approaching! Preparations are well underway. This camp is a wonderful 'rites of passage' experience for our Grade 6 students and provides many memory-making experiences! We can't wait!
NAPLAN
Whole-school and individual student NAPLAN data has been made available to us, and we are pleased to share that our students have continued to perform very well on these tests and we have again received very pleasing whole-school results. We have continued to have a large percentage of students receive 'exceeding' or 'strong' results in many of the assessments and our overall results when compared with similar and network schools has remained very strong. These results align with our improved academic results in our other school-based assessments and show that the improvement strategies in place are having the desired impact.
Individual Student NAPLAN reporting
Families can now collect their child's NAPLAN results from the office. A Compass note was sent out on Wednesday regarding this.
The NAPLAN assessments measure student achievement in Numeracy, Reading, Writing, Spelling, and Grammar & Punctuation and the results are presented in 4 proficiency levels. These are:
Exceeding
Strong
Developing
Needs additional support.
Students’ NAPLAN reports provide valuable information to teachers about how we can continue to support your child.
Each set of NAPLAN results is an important milestone but it’s also important that students know that one result does not define them – these results provide a snapshot of student achievement at a point in time and are about making sure every student gets the support they need so they can continue to get the best from their schooling.
Student Achievement
Our students continue to excel in a variety of endeavours. Riaan Rao has received a Super speak award. This award is presented to students who have completed 2.5 years of Public Speaking & Communication Skills training at Super Speak (equivalent to 100 hours) and presented 10 formal solo speeches. Congratulations Riaan
On a personal note, it is lovely to be back in our wonderful school after an extended medical break in Term 2 and next week we welcome David back after a long overdue and thoroughly well-deserved holiday. (Just don't mention the football..)
Take care,
Cam