From the Principal's Desk

Week 8 Update

This week, MGPS celebrates Harmony Week.  Harmony Week celebrates Australia’s cultural diversity.  In schools we celebrate inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for all Australians, from the traditional custodians of the land to those who have come from many countries around the world.  The ongoing theme of Harmony Week is ‘everyone belongs’.  By participating in Harmony Week activities, we can learn and understand how all Australians equally belong to this nation and enrich it.

This Friday all students are invited to wear orange to school and the P&C are holding a Harmony Day donut morning tea.  Orange is the colour chosen to represent Harmony Week.  Traditionally, orange signifies social communication and meaningful conversations.  It also relates to the freedom of ideas and encouragement of mutual respect. 

School representation

Congratulations to Pippa, Lia and Josh on being selected in the Armidale PSSA Hockey trials last week! 

Wishing our swimmers who are off to represent at Northwest PSSA Swimming next week the best of luck! We are already so proud of you all! Cheer each other on and enjoy the day. 

Wellbeing

You Can Do It!

In a fun-filled way, You Can Do It! Education’s Program in K-2 helps prepare young children with the behaviours and ways to think that strengthen the social-emotional learning skills (SELs) that are essential for their wellbeing and to learn successfully.

The lessons in the program are designed to make it easy to introduce your children to new ways of thinking and behaving that strengthen each of the five social-emotional (5 Keys) taught in the program: Confidence, Persistence, Organisation, Getting Along, Resilience. 

The children are introduced in Kindergarten to the five character puppets – their new classmates using their names.  Each puppet represents one of the 5 Keys for success and happiness:  Connie Confidence, Gabby Get Along, Oscar Organisation, Pete Persistence, and Ricky Resilience.

Experience has shown that children identify very closely with the puppets, and many will consider them their friends.  After children have been introduced to the puppets in the lessons, teachers use their names during ‘teachable moments’ in the classroom and outside to help your children engage in confident, persistent, organised, getting along and resilient behaviour.  For example, you can ask a child looking doubtful about performing a difficult task: “What would Connie say?  Connie would say, ‘Don’t be afraid to make a mistake.’  That’s how you learn to do new things.” 

NAPLAN Assessments for Year 3 and Year 5

This week, our Year 3 and Year 5 students will finish their NAPLAN assessments.  We are so proud of the way they have tried their best.  NAPLAN is just one aspect of a school’s assessment and reporting process.  It does not replace ongoing assessments made by teachers about student performance, but it can provide teachers with additional information about students’ educational progress. If your child has missed an assessment due to absences, we will make it up over the next few days. If they will not be back to school this week, please contact the office to let us know. 

NAPLAN results will not be back until later in the year. 

Focusing on Vocabulary Development at MGPS

The Importance of Vocabulary in Reading Instruction

Recently, Mrs. Deiderick highlighted the significance of reading at home. 

This week, we will focus on why vocabulary is essential for reading instruction.  Vocabulary plays a crucial role in word recognition.  When students can relate a word they see on the page to one they have learned through listening and speaking, they are more likely to read it correctly.  This connection also helps them read related words more easily.

Additionally, vocabulary is key to reading comprehension.  Readers need to understand the meanings of most words to grasp what they are reading. As children progress to more advanced texts, they will encounter new words that may not be part of their everyday vocabulary.  Learning the meanings of these new words is essential for their understanding and enjoyment of reading.  We look forward to using activities that help our students to expand their vocabulary and assist in reading comprehension across all key learning areas. 

We deeply encourage you to read with your children to assist in learning new words.  Thank you for supporting your child's reading journey at home!

Martin's Gully official Facebook page 

If you are on Facebook here is the QR code to access our official Martin’s Gully PS Facebook page. Our school puts up new photos on Facebook most days of different classes and their learning and activities. This is different from the MGPS Parents page, and we would love to see more engagement so feel free to share it to ensure further opportunities for communication between home, school and the broader community.  Updates to changes in our calendar are often shared here along withWhat's Happening on COMPASS. 

Please keep checking our What's Happening for events coming up next week and for the remainder of the term. 

Wishing all families a wonderful week! Enjoy your donuts on Friday, for those who have ordered through Qkr and we look forward to seeing those who are attending Assembly this Friday where the Magpies and Possums will be performing. 

Mrs Polson