Specialists News

Auslan News

Grades Prep-3 have continued practising 6 of the 38 Auslan Handshapes. Handshapes are used to form different signs in Auslan, and knowing which Handshape/s are used for certain signs will help improve our accuracy when signing. We have been matching handshapes to their names and picture cards with Auslan signs that use these handshapes: Hook, Good, Point, Spread, Flat and Ball. 

Grades Prep-3 have also been learning about HOLM + NMF. We already use these components in Auslan but now we are just learning what they are called!

H = Handshapes [Which handshape/s a sign uses.]

O = Orientation [Which way our hands and fingers are facing. Eg: Up or down, forward or backwards facing.]

L = Location [Where in relation to our body, we make the sign. Eg: Lower, Middle or Upper body, for instance on our head, face, arm, hand, leg etc.]

M = Movement [Which way the sign moves. Eg: Up or down, side to side, forwards or backwards etc.]

+ NMF = Non-Manual Features/Functions [Not our hands! Instead, this includes our facial expression, body language, lip reading, and eye-contact to portray meaning.]

Grade Preps will begin learning the Auslan alphabet A-Z to start doing some fingerspelling, and learning to fingerspell their own names which they have been eager to learn!!

Grades 1-2 have begun learning signs for People.

Grades 3-4 have begun learning signs ‘About Me’ to be able to describe themselves.

Grades 5-6 have continued to look at the simple grammatical structure of Auslan. Students have learned and practised using the Topic-> Comment/Question approach to signing in Auslan. They have been adding Time indicators to the beginning of sentences and are ready to start writing their simple Auslan conversations next week!

The Grade 5-6 classes have had a go a translating a simple Auslan conversation Mrs R has been signing in class. I must say that I am very impressed with the number of students demonstrating an eagerness to interpret the signing and the number of students showing a very good recall of signs across the topics we have been learning this year!! Impressive Grades 5-6!!! I cannot wait to see what topics and signs you choose to use in your Auslan conversations!

Mrs Riordan.

Sports News

State Athletics Championships.

Good luck to those students who will be competing at the State Athletics final - Lakeside Stadium in Melbourne on the Wednesday 1st of November.

SGPS will be represented by:

Charlie F - 11 Years Boys - High Jump, 100m and Relay

Hser Yu Say - 11 Years Boys - 200m and Relay

Archie C - 11 Years Boys Relay

Jed K - 11 Years Boys Relay

Emma A - 11 Years Girls Hurdles.

These students have already done at outstanding job to make it to the level, and we would like to wish them all the very best.

T20 Blast School Cricket Tournament

Well done to all of the students who represented the school on Tuesday at the T20 Blast Bendigo Primary Schools Cricket Tournament. This massive event featured over 30 schools across our district and approximately 70 teams. This year SGPS entered 4 teams – a Boys and Girls team in both Division 1 and 2. In what was an outstanding day for our School, our teams won a combined total of 13 games out of 16.

Our Division 1 Boys team had a particularly successful day, remaining undefeated. They won all of their 3 Round Robin games and their Final against Girton - to finish the day 3rd overall. Unfortunately, a slightly lower run aggregate meant they missed out on playing off for first and second.

The Division 1 Girls Teams also performed extremely well. Their only loss for the day came against eventual champions Kennington (by 6 runs). The girls won their Final against Marist College to finish 3rd overall.

Our Division 2 Boys and Girls teams both won 3 of their 4 games and displayed a great deal of skill and improvement as the day progressed. For many of these players, this was their first time playing in a competition such as this and they all had an enjoyable day. Thanks to Mr Mac and parent helpers Ben Rodda, Mick Antonowicz and Matt Pinniger for coaching and supporting these teams on the day.

I would like to congratulate all of the students for the sportsmanship and skill that they displayed throughout the day. 

Swimming Program

Our Swimming Program will be held during this term at the Peter Krenz Leisure Centre, Eaglehawk on the following dates:

GROUP 1           

GROUP 2

The students will complete five sessions with a fully qualified Austswim teacher from the Leisure Centre. Each session will be of 40 minutes duration. As this program forms part of the Health and Physical Education curriculum, it is important for all students to attend and take part in the lessons. 

Further information about our Swimming Program (including consent) will be placed on Compass. THERE IS NO COST for students to do swimming this year. The school has been able to secure a ‘Sporting Schools’ grant again this year and we have also received significant funding via the ‘Swimming In Schools’ program. Both of these Government initiatives have enabled us run this program free of charge. Please note that - with bus, pool hire and the cost of instruction, the swimming program would normally cost approx. $60 per student without this funding.

In order to place students in swimming groups appropriate to their level, all NEW students to Spring Gully PS in 2023 (including all Prep students) will receive a skill competence assessment checklist. We ask parents/carers to complete, as accurately as they can, this form and return it to school as soon as possible so that we can start to organise the groups. Students who completed the swimming program in 2022 do not need to complete this form as they have already been placed in a group based on this year’s results. All students will be assessed by the instructors during the first lesson and placed accordingly.