Dear Families,

Thank you for a wonderful Term Three!

We are enormously proud of our students who have all managed to shine this term. The growth in learning that we have seen is outstanding. It has been wonderful to see students’ work samples on Dojo Portfolios this term, demonstrating student achievement.

We are forever grateful to our staff who consistently go above and beyond for our students and our community. We feel very fortunate to have the staff we have who are all exceptional teachers.

Term 3 would not have been as successful without our sensational parent community. This term we saw an increased parent participation in all areas of school life. We welcomed more parent helpers into our classrooms, saw parents join a number of committees to help with enhancing communication between school and home and develop an inclusion policy. A greater number of parents attended functions and contributed towards our major fundraising event: ‘Saluti’. We would not be able to do what we do without this hugely supportive community.

Thank you for the part that you played in making Term 3 sensational.

Parent Teacher Interviews

Yesterday we held our semesterly Parent Teacher Meetings. These meetings are designed to foster a partnership between home and school in student learning. Teachers really valued the opportunity to meet with families to engage in discussion about students achievement, work habits, effort and behaviour. We trust families found these meetings informati. We look forward to continuing to partner with our families as we work together to ensure that every child receives the best possible education.

Year 6 Camp Jungai

Last week our Year 6 students attended their second camp for the 2024 school year. They attended a two night, three day camp at Camp Jungai in Rubicon. At the camp, students had the opportunity to sleep in a tent, engage in educational and cultural opportunities with an Indigenous educator. These are experiences we have never been able to offer our students in the past.

Students and staff arrived back at school raving about the camp and their experiences. We are thrilled that they had a wonderful time and were able to engage in rich learning opportunities and experiences and develop new skills and create core memories that will stay with them.

We have asked students and staff to complete a survey following the camps that will allow us to review their camping experiencing this year. Details about survey results will follow in later communications, but overwhelmingly we heard that they would prefer Camp Jungai to have been longer!

2024 Fundraising Efforts

This term our Galilee Parents Association (GPA) have had a big focus on fundraising, with the major fundraising event ‘Saluti’ taking place in August this year. We have been in admiration of the generosity of our parents and those in our local community. With all events and activities so far this year, we have raised a massive $49 563. This is an extraordinary amount that will go towards enhancing the schools budget for new IT devices for our junior students and new resources for the Wellbeing Hub. We would like to especially thank Jodie and Nat our GPA Presidents and Rachel our GPA Secretary who continue to run spectacular events and activities that not only raise funds for our school but also bring our community together.

Principal for a Day

This week we celebrated Principal for a Day with Mr. Millar handing over his role to Principal Sharma. Principal Sharma was successful in gaining this position by winning the GPA fundraising raffle earlier this term. Principal Sharma made some very popular decisions on the day including allowing students to wear casual clothes, allowing students to play outside for an extra 10 minutes following recess and ordering the teachers a pizza lunch. We would like to thank Principal Sharma for his leadership. He did a wonderful job.

MACSSIS Survey- Very Important

Earlier in the month, families were emailed links with invitations to complete very important surveys regarding Galilee. It closes soon so if you are yet to complete it, please do so ASAP. We need a high number of completed surveys to help us understand the overall view of parents and families. The information we get from the surveys is analysed with staff and the School Advisory Committee when planning what we do for the following year. It provides a very important piece of data for our school and we encourage you to please complete it. Please note that the completion of the survey is both anonymous and confidential.

School Uniform in Term 4

In Week 1 and 2 of Term Four, students are able to wear either full summer uniform or full winter uniform depending on the weather. From Monday 21st October all students will need to wear the full summer uniform.

From the first day of Term 4 all students will need to wear their Galilee hat to play outside as we are a SunSmart School. We encourage all students to wear sunscreen to school each day in Term 4 and bring along sunscreen to reapply at recess and lunch. Please note teachers do not apply sunscreen and the school does not supply sunscreen, students will need to supply and apply their own sunscreen.

2025 Classroom Requests

We are currently in the process of organising classes for 2025. Students will be asked to nominate three friends. We guarantee that each child will have at least one friend they have nominated in their 2025 class group. When we organise students into class grouping for 2025 we consider many elements, such as teacher recommendations, the needs of each child and a balance of genders and ages.

A lot of time, effort and discussion between teachers and leaders go into classroom placements.

If there is anything urgent that we need to be aware of, please let us know in writing by emailing admin@gsm.vic.edu.au by Friday 18th October. Please include the reason in your request. We don’t take requests for teachers. Requests after the 18th October cannot be considered as classrooms will be in the process of being organised and handover meetings will be taking place. One change (after this date) can impact other students who are linked together through friendship choices. Please title this email 2025 Classroom Placement.

Please be aware that we consider all needs when grouping students. We will take into consideration urgent information provided by parents but cannot make any guarantees that we will be able to accommodate requests.

Galilee Student News

Congratulations to two of our past students, Siena M & Amelia M, who have been voted the Loretto Student Council of 2025 as Social Justice Captains. In recent years, we have had a significant number of our past students achieving leadership roles at secondary schools. Our programs at Galilee provide a great springboard for independence, responsibility and leadership.

Congratulations also to Liliana Yohannes, one of our Year 3 students. Liliana will be appearing in the upcoming Tina Turner musical at the Princes Theatre! Liliana was supported by Pamela at Dance World to help get her through the audition process.

We are all incredibly proud of her, and we are encouraged that our relationship with Dance World helps to support students like Liliana perform on stage.

Term 4

Term 4 commences on Monday 7th October for students and staff.

Term 4 is traditionally filled with lots of events. We encourage you to continue to check the School Calendar for the most up to date information about events.

Some of the Term 4 events we have to look forward to include:

School Swimming Lessons
School Swimming Carnival
Year 3 Camp to the Zoo
Year 2 Extended Day
DOGS Dads and Kids Camp
School Closure Day on Monday 4th November (the day before the public holiday)
School Closure Day on Friday 29th November
Prep - Year 2 Athletics Carnival
GPA Outdoor Cinema Event (Friday 6th December)
Year 6 Graduation

Term 4 ends at 1.30pm on Tuesday 17th December. Year 6 students finish the day before.

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday. We look forward to seeing you all back at school on Monday 7th October.

We wish you every blessing in the coming holiday period.

Simon Millar, Amy Burns and Richard Harding

Community

SECONDARY SCHOOL NEWS