Dear Families,

Term 3 has certainly shaped up to be a very busy time at our school, filled with excursions, incursions, special events and many other wonderful opportunities for our students. We often consider Term 3 to be the ‘quiet’ term, yet somehow we always manage to fill it with lots!

As Jacqui commenced professional learning leave last Friday and has embarked on a spiritual journey on St Paul’s Pilgrimage, I have had the privilege of stepping into the role of Acting Principal. I am incredibly grateful for the support of our leadership team, Vanessa Lamanna, Megan Skoda and Allison King, as well as our dedicated staff and wonderful students, who make each day an absolute joy to come to school.

Parents & Friends Association (PFA) funded resources

Throughout Terms 2 and 3, Jacqui and I have been working closely with our staff and students to identify ways we can continue to enhance our school environment and provide engaging learning and play resources for our students.

We are incredibly grateful to our PFA, who have generously donated over $15,000 through their fundraising efforts.

This funding has allowed us to purchase a range of new resources and equipment, including:

Soccer goals for the oval which will be available for students to use at the beginning of Term 4
STEM equipment, including Makey Makeys, Edison robots and Spheros
A sandpit, including a cover and play equipment – coming at the end of Term 4
Sensory resources for the HUB area

These purchases are a wonderful investment in our students and will provide new opportunities for learning, creativity, collaboration, physical activity and sensory engagement.

This funding is made possible through the generosity of our students and families who have supported the PFA’s fundraising initiatives over the past few years. We sincerely thank our PFA, students and families for their ongoing support and for helping us continue to improve and enrich our school environment.

Samantha Beach – Parental Leave

Samantha Beach will be commencing parental leave at the end of this term, with Friday 17 September being her last day.

We wish Samantha and her partner every happiness as they prepare to welcome the arrival of their little one. We look forward to hearing their wonderful news and wish them all the very best for this exciting new chapter.

1SB Teachers

Throughout Term 4, the classroom teachers for 1SB will be Steve Mondon on Mondays and Tuesdays and Ashlyn McNeill on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

Both Steve and Ashlyn have been valued members of the Good Shepherd community for several years. Steve has been teaching Physical Education (PE) for the past four years and, prior to this, was a classroom teacher. Ashlyn is returning from parental leave and has been undertaking casual teaching work at Good Shepherd throughout Term 3.

Both Jacqui and I are confident that 1SB will be in wonderful hands, and we look forward to supporting Steve and Ashlyn as they work with the class throughout Term 4.

Changes to the Specialist Classes Timetable

With Steve Mondon moving into the 1SB classroom on Mondays and Tuesdays, we have needed to make some changes to our specialist classes timetable. This will result in a change to PE days for many of our classes.

We have asked each affected year level to notify families by the end of today so that you have time to prepare and ensure your children wear their PE uniform on their new PE day.

We appreciate your understanding and flexibility as we make these necessary timetable adjustments.

MACSSIS Family Survey – Reminder

A reminder that the MACSSIS Family Survey needs to be completed by Friday 18 September.

Families can access the survey using the link below and their unique family PIN, which has been emailed to families and sent home with the eldest child in each family.

Family survey: https://orima.com/macsfamily

We greatly appreciate the participation of all families in the MACSSIS survey. Your feedback is incredibly valuable and helps us reflect on our practices, continue to grow and strengthen our effectiveness as a school community.

Scholastic Book Fair

A huge thank you to everyone for your generous support of our Book Fair during Book Week!

We are thrilled to share that the Book Fair generated an incredible $8,690.40 in sales.

As a result, our school has earned $2,607 in Scholastic rewards, which will go towards purchasing new books and resources for our classrooms and library.

Your support makes a wonderful difference in helping us continue to build a love of reading across our school. Thank you for helping us grow our literacy resources and inspire our students through the joy of books!

3D Creative Minds Competition

Congratulations to the following students who received a $25 gift certificate, generously donated by the Parent and Friends Association, as winners of our 3D Creative Minds Competition:

Prep: Hayden Alwis (0LE)
Year One: Yujun Wang (1SB)
Year Two: Liliana Mitrevski (2BP)
Year Three: Sithumi Babarande Guruge (3TR)
Year Four: Jason Setiawan (4AA)
Year Five: Zachariah Franklin (5CL)
Year Six: Hayley Platcher (6EL)
Junior Prize: Liana Geeganage (2CJ)
Middle Prize: Zachary Lim (4AX)
Senior Prize: Adrian Tom Antony (6EL)
Family Prize: Justin Kim (4AX)

Chess Tournament

On Tuesday 1 September, we held our very first Good Shepherd In-House Chess Tournament.

Congratulations to all of our students who participated and to our prize winners:

1st Place: Sebastian Cloppenburg (6EL)
2nd Place: Jeremiah Vu (5CL)
3rd Place: Jamie Loku Kuruppu Arachchige (5SZ)
Prep Medal: Ethan Holian (Prep Yanko) and Samantha Zhou (Prep Barron) – tied
Junior Medal: Gabrian Pantanilla (2CJ)
Middle Medal: Ashane Abeysinghe (4AX)
Senior Medal: Philip Kim (5CL)

Father’s Day Stall

Our Father’s Day Stall was a wonderful success on Friday and ran very smoothly. A huge thank you to Alan for taking the lead on the day, and to our wonderful parent volunteers Niloopa, Helen, Shoo Kim, Nilu, Jin, Sally, Aslin, Natalia, Jan, Leah, Visa, Amanda, Sri and Thien for generously giving their time to support the stall.

We would also like to extend our sincere thanks to our PFA Chair, Catherine, and the PFA general members who supported the event and helped make it such a success. It was wonderful to see our community working together and the children so excited to choose something special for their loved ones.

A special thank you to Jonathan for generously donating a box of beautiful, high-quality socks for the stall.

Thanks to everyone’s generosity and support, the stall has made an approximate profit of $2,500, an increase from approximately $2,200 last year. What a fantastic result!

Footy Colours Day & Sausage Sizzle

Next Friday, 18 September, we will be celebrating Footy Colours Day!

Students are welcome to come dressed in their favourite footy team colours or apparel.

Please ensure that students do not wear football or soccer boots to school.

Our PFA will also be running a sausage sizzle, which families can purchase through TryBooking.

Sausage Sizzle – TryBooking

We will also be holding our Footy Colours Parade at 12:30 pm in the Quadrangle, led by our Year 6 House Captains. All families are very welcome to join us and cheer on our students.

Last Day of Term – 1:00 pm Dismissal

As Friday 18 September is the final day of Term 3, students will be dismissed at 1:00 pm.

Please also take some time to review the upcoming Term 4 important dates for your diary. Term 4 is always a busy term, so we encourage families to take note of these dates. Our school calendar on the nForma Portal also contains all upcoming school events and important dates.

Wishing all our families a restorative and enjoyable two-week holiday break. Thank you for your continued support throughout the term, and we look forward to welcoming all of our students back for Term 4!

Ferial Davis

Acting Principal
fdavis@gswheelershill.catholic.edu.au

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