Principal's Report
School Review
Our school review is now complete. The reviewer now has 6 weeks to produce her report. The reviewer regularly described our school as a high performing school throughout the review period. The review panel also mentioned how rare it is for a school to have no obvious areas for improvement. This reflects our supportive school community, awesome students and dedicated/talented/hardworking staff.
Our new Strategic Plan, which will guide our work over the next four years, will be shared with our community once it has been through a quality assurance process with the review company and the Department of Education and Training.
Fathers and Special Friends' Day Breakfast & Gift
A Compass alert was released earlier this week regarding our upcoming Fathers and Special Friends' Day Breakfast, which will be held on Friday 30th August. This alert also contain details relating to a special gift the students have been working on during Art.
Neurodiversity Celebration Week
A few weeks ago, a family mentioned the possibility of the school being involved in Neurodiversity Celebration Week. Since then, I've had the chance to read more about this celebration and it fits very well with all the work we have done over many years to be a very inclusive school. Knowing our community well, there will be families and students who would relish the opportunity to share more about their neurological differences, while those who don't want to, will likely have a greater sense of safety and confidence that we are celebrating all those differences as a school community.
As Principal of SGPS, I couldn't be prouder of our staff and their willingness to be inclusive and supportive of all of our students. This is regularly recognised by many of our families via emails/comments that are passed on detailing their own personal experiences with our staff. It is, however, an area that we want to continue to develop and strengthen, particularly due to the amount of new research and evidence-based best practice that continues to be released as we learn more about these many and varied neurological differences.
We will share more information in the lead up to the next Neurodiversity Celebration Week in March 2025. In the meantime, you can find out more information at Neurodiversity Celebration Week (neurodiversityweek.com) or from the summary below.
What is Neurodiversity Celebration Week?
Neurodiversity Celebration Week is a worldwide initiative that challenges stereotypes and misconceptions about neurological differences. It aims to transform how neurodivergent individuals are perceived and supported by providing schools, universities, organisations, and others around the world with the opportunity to recognise the many skills and talents of neurodivergent individuals, while creating more inclusive and equitable cultures that celebrate differences and empower every individual.
Why was it founded?
Siena Castellon founded Neurodiversity Celebration Week in 2018 because she wanted to change the way learning differences are perceived. As a teenager who is autistic and has ADHD, dyslexia, and dyspraxia, her experience has been that people often focus on the challenges of neurological diversity. She wanted to change the narrative and create a balanced view which focuses equally on their talents and strengths.
Parent, Caregiver and Guardian Opinion Survey
On Monday 29th July approximately 100 randomly selected families received an invitation to participate in a Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey. We’d really appreciate you spending the time to complete the survey if you were selected.
The survey will close on Friday 30th August. The survey is conducted online, only takes 10 minutes to complete, and can be accessed at any convenient time prior to the closing date on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones.
Book Week
Tomorrow we are celebrating Book Week here at SGPS with a character parade occurring in The Hubat 9:00am and 'The Blurbs' performance at 9:30am. These activities are a great way to remind students about how much fun reading can be and also how important it is.