Thank you all for the joyful start you have given me at Granville East Public School. I will do my best to continue to ensure Granville East is a place of great joy, belonging, wonder and learning.

I wanted to share with you some of the things I have noticed in my short time here at GEPS:

Students, families and staff are so friendly and welcoming- thank you! I would particularly like to thank the families who came to the Meet and Greet afternoon tea on Tuesday.
There is a lot of amazing learning happening across the school every day. I have loved having students come to show me their work- and I have enjoyed seeing literacy and maths lessons, small group classes, EAL/D groups, student leadership programs, excursions, deep inquiry, dancing and singing and Yarning Circles going on every day.
GEPS students are amazing leaders- through the leadership team, the SRC and the VIP groups. I have been working this week with the Student Advisory Group who have been exploring with me the power of writing and why it is so important to communicate effectively! I can’t wait to hear more.
GEPS teachers are so dedicated to their students. They have shown me every day their commitment to our students in the care they take to make sure every student feels supported and able to be their best.

P&C Thank You

Thank you to our P&C volunteers for the Mother’s Day Stall last week. It was lovely to see so many of our students buying a little something to celebrate Mother’s Day. I hope all the mothers in our community were able to enjoy a special day.

Student successes:

Congratulations to the twenty-seven students who recently attended the Zone Cross Country for the Auburn zone. Our students tried hard and many can feel very proud of their personal success. Mustafa and Menaal have earned a spot in the regional level competition. Thanks to Mrs Maatouk and Mrs McLeod for taking our students to the carnival.

Our Student Representative Council (SRC) have hosted a Biggest Morning Tea today, where they sold cakes and treats donated by our community to raise funds for the Cancer Council. What a positive way to show fantastic community spirit.

Stage 1 students attended Sydney Zoo last week and had a wonderful day learning about animal habitats and features. Students were very excited to tell me about the animals they saw and the things they learned. I also heard lots of reports that our students were also beautifully behaved and showed respect, pride and courage throughout the day. Thanks Ms Kopuz for organising a fantastic excursion!

Our Sound Garden students have begun their work with artist Claudia, along with students from St Mary’s in Erskineville. This collaboration will see students working in art mediums such as textiles, natural resources, sound art and podcasting to produce a “Sound Garden”. We can’t wait to see what they can do!

On Wednesday our students took part in the National Simultaneous Storytime project, reading ‘The Truck Cat’ by Deborah Fenke. Students from across Australia read the same story at the same time- last year there were more than 1.2 million students and teachers all reading together. We love to share our love our books! Why not ask your children to tell you the story!!!

Learning Conversations:

Thank you to the families who have been attending Learning Conversations this term- and congratulations to our students who are sharing their learning goals with their families. This is such an important way for our students to work together to share and celebrate student learning. Learning Conversations will continue throughout the term- please make sure you have booked your meeting time.

Staffing update

Many of you will know that Mrs Delvecchio is on maternity leave. We are lucky to have Ms Melhem to step into the role of relieving assistant principal looking after Kindergarten. Mrs Mengi will also be taking maternity leave later this month. Her replacement will be finalised shortly, and we will communicate with out KA families about this very soon.

We are also pleased to have pre-service teachers from Western Sydney University completing placements at GEPS this term. Mr Demertas is working in 3/4A and Ms Sleiman in 3/4W. They will be with us for the remainder of the term.

Who wore it better?

Did you notice our teachers and staff spreading some joy and having a bit of fun last Tuesday for our very own Silly Sock Day? (Can you guess which teachers wore which socks?)

Mrs Cheryl McNamara

Relieving Principal

Term 2 Calendar