From the School Leadership Team
Welcome back to Term 2
Welcome back to a new term and it is fantastic to see all of our students and families around the school and cafe after the break. Vicki and her team did a fantastic job with Vacation Care and the children loved the wide variety of activities available.
The building work on the new Foundation Centre is continuing well, and we now have a roof and all of the framework up. The next steps will be electrical, cladding and the decks and windows and then we will be at lock up very soon.
The retaining wall near the basketball courts was also rebuilt over the holidays. We are just working to reinstate that part of the basketball court fence and then we will be able to relay the pavers for the ramp and remove the scaffold stairs.
Kylie Myllynen did a lot of work around the school over the holidays cleaning all of our exterior spaces, tidying our garden and painting new handball squares - just to name a few of the things that we achieved! Tim Kriewaldt also did some work around the school and collected our new desks for Year 5 and 6 - they look great in the classrooms and learning support room.
Tanya Rowland, our Business Manager, also worked long hours over the holiday period so as to ensure that everything stayed on track with buildings, retaining walls, and having all of ourp lay spaces open in time for Term 2.
A warm welcome to Chelsie Riches as she joins us to teach Year 3/4 for the rest of the year. It is great to have her with us and we know that she will find teaching the lovely group of students that she has in her class to be very rewarding.
Well done to Zoya and Kanav, our School Captains on your great representation of our school at the Tea Tree Gully RSL Dawn Service on Anzac Day. We also commemorated Anzac Day at our regular school service on Monday and appreciate the efforts of The Hon Tony Zappia MP, the team from 7RAR who made up the catafalque party again this year, Aaron Madden the Army Bugler, and our very own Ray Shillabeer, a Vietnam veteran who is also a member of our Church congregation - Ray led us in the ode again this year. Thank you to all of the parents who also attended and supported our Anzac Day service.
Colin Buchanan Concert
We are super excited to announce that the renowned children's Christian entertainer, Clin Buchanan, will give a concert in our Worship Centre on Saturday 15 June at 3.00pm. Lots of us would know some of Colin's songs including 'Remember the Lord' and '10,9,8, God is Great!'. This is a joint effort between the school and the church and we are pleased to be able to partner in this on the back of successes that we've enjoyed with Messy Church and many other initiatives. Information about ticket sales will come out early next week.
School Band Programme
It is a pleasure to announce that we are launching our school band programme for students in Years 3 - 6. This provides students who are interested to be able to learn a range of instruments including flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet or trombone. Students will be able to participate in a range of weekly group tutorials and rehearsals as part of the programme. A letter from Mrs Ali is attached outlining details of the programme and the opportunity for students to try out a range of instruments to discover what they might be best suited to. Mrs Ali has been able to negotiate an excellent price for the programme at $30 per week to cover the cost of tuition, plus the cost of instrument hire.
Professional Learning and Principal Review
As mentioned in previous newsletters, Lutheran Education enables all of its Principals across each learning community to undertake a cyclic review survey. This enables me to obtain feedback from parents, students and our staff team and School Board which serves to both affirm strengths of my leadership, as well as to identify areas of suggested growth.
Thanks to all who took part in the survey to provide valuable feedback so that I can continue to grow and be the best leader that I can be for the benefit of our learning community.
Lutheran Education SA NT WA are currently collating and summarising all of the feedback and I will be able to meet with our Executive Director, Craig Fielke, and our Board Chair, Tammie Switala, in the coming weeks to review the feedback and to plan for ongoing professional learning and growth.
School Building Fund
The school building fund is an excellent way to make a tax-deductible donation towards our building programme, both now and into the future.
Our School Master Plan has been developed to allow us to work on the most important new and existing buildings first as finances permit.
Upcoming projects include:
- New Foundation Classrooms (to be completed July 2024)
- An Early Learning Centre for 3 and 4 year olds
- Development of a Gymnasium and Sports precinct near the School Oval.
Other smaller projects being planned include enhancements and reconfiguration of our Music and STEM areas (also in July 2024).
You can help to accelerate these exciting projects by giving to our School Building Fund.
If you would like to donate to the school building fund, please complete an electronic deposit to :
GGLPS Building Fund
BSB 704-942
Account 100 242 340
Reference – your name
The school will forward you a receipt which you will then be able to claim against this year’s tax return.
This may be the last year that tax deductible donations could be made to the school building fund, as the Federal Government are currently reviewing the deductible gift recipient status of all school building funds across Australia. We are also looking to acknowledge and thank all of our generous donors and volunteers in the school yearbook this year.
Eisugakkan Visit and Japan Study Tour
We are looking forward to a number of year 5 students from Eisugakkan visiting our school in the first week of Term 3 - from Wednesday 24 July through to Sunday 28 July. We are seeking expressions of interest and assistance in a few different areas.
- We are arranging an optional camp for year 5 and 6 students who would like to spend the night with the Eisugakkan students at AFL Max on Friday 26 July. The cost will be $160 per student for those students that would like to 'opt in' for this experience. It will prove to be a valuable time for the students to be able to make new friends, practice their Japanese and make some great cross-cultural connections.
- We would love the opportunity for our visiting Eisugakkan students to be able to have a 'homestay' with our students and families. We have about 20 students visiting from Eisugakkan this year and would love to have enough parent volunteers for them to be able to spend Saturday and Saturday night on the 27th of July with our students and families, being dropped back to their hotel on the Sunday morning of the 28th.
We are finalising costs for the year 5/6 study tour to Japan later in the year. We plan to travel to Japan and visit Eisugakkan school, as well as a range of other sites around Japan, from Monday 23 September - Friday 4 October (the last week of term 3 and first week of the school holidays).
Our travel agent is currently updating the prices to reflect 2024 fares, and Sensei Bishop is working to find some savings in the itinerary, as the current projected cost is about $5500 per child and $6000 per adult. We plan to hold an information session in the next month once these details are finalised.
If you are interested in hosting a homestay student for one evening (this is open to all families across the school) or are interested in you and your year 5 or 6 child attending the Japan Study Tour (and you have not already completed an expression of interest), please contact Melissa Bishop, our Teacher of Japanese via bishop.melissa@goldengrove.sa.edu.au
Strategic Plan
We have an exciting year ahead as we embark on the implementation of our new strategic plan. We are energised by our purpose to enrich the lives of children and each individual in our school community, and beyond the school environment. With a Christ- centred foundation, we foster an inclusive environment where everyone can belong, explore and thrive. Equally exciting are our new values - love, collaborate and explore, which will underpin all that we do, as well as our strategic priority areas of:
• Excellence and innovation in learning
• Well-being and culture
• Community and Partnerships
• School Development
A few reminders
Please be reminded of some of our key events to commence the term.
- Monday 6 May – P & F Meeting at 7.30pm in the Admin building
- Friday 10 May – Class Carers’ Mother’s Day Stall
- Friday 17 May – Ignite – Junior Amazing Race
- Friday 17 May – Date Night – 6.00pm to 9.00pm. Date night is a P & F initiative where you parents can drop your children off at GGOSH for the evening and then go out for dinner or a movie etc...
- Monday 27 May – National Sorry Day
- Wednesday 29 May – Middle Of Term (MOT) Breakfast
- Friday 31 May – Colour Run
Will Wallace
Principal