Principal's Message

What an end of term!

Congratulations to students and staff for a fabulously productive term of learning - inside and outside the classroom. We have maintained our focus on explicit teaching in literacy and numeracy while also nurturing inquiry, science and citizenship.

Over the last few weeks:

• Kindy have visited the farm and held an open afternoon around Learning Centres
• Stage 1 have engaged in STEM incursions - building cities with magnetic building blocks and making ice-cream using liquid nitrogen! (they've also raised funds for next term by selling ice blocks!)
• Stage 2 have investigated the laws of motion, used magnetic building blocks and shared their CTC projects at an expo
• Stage 3 went to uni (at Kingswood campus), held a mini-fete (and raised over $2700), they even flew in a wind tunnel (at iFly) - thank you to Ardoch
• Press Gang produced the Spring edition of the Our Voice school newspaper
• Choir & Dance Group performed at the Opera House
• Community Warriors took our food bank donations to the House of Welcome!

We also held Gold Badge & Celebration Assembly, Come and Play sessions, parent Learning Walks and our Performance day extravaganza! 

Thank you to Ardoch - the children's charity for giving us this fabulous experience! We LOVED it!

Our Spectacular - Sydney Opera House

Year of The Dragon - Spirit of the Dance

A focus on outdoor play

At Celebration assembly this week, I highlighted the focus we have put on outdoor play this term. Students spend just over an hour a day playing in the playground... so we wanted to harness the potential of this time, as a learning experience.

The benefits of outdoor play include:

1. physical health and fitness
2. mental health and wellbeing
3. social skills and teamwork
4. cognitive development (creativity and problem-solving)
5. connection to nature and the environment.

During term 3, our staff have worked hard to build up the supports for students in the playground - from scooters and giant jenga to air hockey, chalk drawing and skipping!

Outdoor play is not just a break from the classroom - but an opportunity to learn, to grow, to have fun and to build healthy habits. 

Ask your child what they like to play at recess and lunch!

Finally

2 students are participating in regional athletics tomorrow - Aisha I (1/2A) and Marwa Z (5/6A). A huge congratulations to them for making it in - and good luck!! Go GEPS!

Enjoy the 2-week Spring holiday.

School is back Monday 14 October at 9am.