Principal's Report

End of Term Two

I wish all families and staff members a safe and restful holiday break.  Term Two has definitely been busy with lots of exciting learning experiences such as: the Sustainability Market; incursions and excursions; English Parent Night: Reports and Student-Led Conferences; soirees; masses and sporting events. 

Looking ahead to Term Three, we will continue to be very busy.  Our staff will be planning our first Prep Transition session, Grandparent/Special Person's Day, Maths Parent Night, Speak with Power for our Year 5 students, Book Week and the Year 2 Sleepover.  We will also have Teeth on Wheels here in August and our students will be participating in Jump Rope for Heart at the end of term.  Thank you to the  Parents Association  who are currently planning the Annual Fundraiser on July 27 and the Father's Day Breakfast later in the term.

The students will be exploring our STEM Big Idea called Discovery. The teachers are already busy planning some fantastic learning opportunities that I am sure the students will enjoy.

End of term will conclude at 1.30pm tomorrow, Friday 28th June. Please ensure you have someone to pick up your child/children on time or book them into GOSH which will be open from 1.30pm. 

Term 3 commences on Monday 15th July.

Great News

The message below is from Mrs Price after the birth of her grand-daughter, Harriet (we sent flowers).

Thank you so much for thinking of Hannah & Duncan & sending the beautiful flowers on ‘Harriet Grace’s’ safe arrival - they were beautiful & they were so surprised to receive them. 

We are currently over here in London getting to know our precious little granddaughter who is now 3 weeks old & is an absolute joy! We are very blessed!

Once again thank you for thinking of us & enjoy your well earned holidays.

Architect Firm

Last week, members of the Building Committee interviewed four short-listed architectural firms. The panel was comprised of parents, staff and from Catholic Education Melbourne. All of them had extensive experience building in the education sphere. We are excited to announce that the panel decided to appoint Clarke Hopkins Clarke (CHC) to consult, design and oversee our upcoming building project. They were the same firm who designed our Masterplan back in 2016.

For more information, read their website: https://www.chc.com.au/

The process will involve consultation with all stakeholders of the Galilee community. The previous Masterplan will be used as a starting point but we understand that there are a lot of new families and staff who have joined Galilee since.

Designs and permits will take at least one year before building can commence. 

Below is a simplified picture of our Masterplan developed in 2016 with many details omitted:

 The first introductory meeting occurred today with CHC.

Perceptual Motor Programme

In Term Three, Prep - Year Two will be taking part in a Perceptual Motor Programme (PMP) on Fridays. It is a strategy to assist the development of children's gross motor skills and therefore assist with the development of fine motor skills, essential in the learning of reading and writing. 

The key areas of development through PMP are: 

Gross motor skills, fine motor skills, balance, crossing the midline of the body (laterality), body and space awareness, visual and spatial aids, rhythm sequence, memory, listening and cooperation.

We will aim to run the programme every Friday after recess and will organise the students in mixed Prep to Year Two groupings. We would love many of our parents to be involved in the running of the programme as possible. If you are able to spare approximately an hour of your time on Friday to run an activity and either have your WWCC or are willing to get one, we would love to have you on board. Please email Holly Burke (Prep - 2 Sports Leader)  hburke@gsmelbournesth.catholic.edu.au to let her know your availability. A CareMonkey with further details will follow.

We look forward to hearing from you,

Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 Teachers

SRC

Congratulations to the students listed below who have been appointed SRC Leaders for Semester Two. They will be presented with their badges at assembly Wednesday 17th July.

We would like to thank Semester One SRC Leaders, your promotion of nude food and your many ideas to improve Galilee has been greatly appreciated.

English Night

Last Wednesday we held a highly successful Family English Night with over 100 people in attendance.

Families learnt about and demonstrated: Reading comprehension, Smart Spelling, Book Orientation, Decoding Strategies, Daily 5 & CAFE Reading.

Thank you to the English Team for their outstanding planning and facilitation of sessions: Laura Cox, Sammy Bamford, Laura Mason, Linda Florenca-Grillo, Cassie Smith & Julie Ferguson.

Thank you to all the parents who attended the night. It was wonderful to hear your positive feedback. Some of the parents who attended said the following: 

It is always helpful to get new and creative ideas and insights to improve my child’s reading. I enjoyed the live demonstrations.

Thank you for the information and opportunity.

Very helpful to learn strategies the school uses in class so can be used at home.

Strategies were very helpful for early readers.

Really engaging evening, thank you to all for giving their time.

Teachers were informative and kept the night interesting.

Maybe we could start earlier 5-6pm.

Laura Cox (English Leader)

Staff on Leave

Please note the following staff will be on approved leave: Laura Cox first for two weeks and

Sammy Bamford for first week of Term Three.

You will be informed of other staff on Leave later in the term, in the first newsletter.

Sustainability Market

What a wonderful afternoon we had last Thursday. The buzz around the school over the last few weeks has been amazing to witness. We sold plants, coffee scrubs, beeswax wraps, tea tree oil sprays, food, bath salts, heat packs and so much more! We are proud to announce that over $2300 was raised. The money raised will be helping to fund Galilee's ever growing garden. We also raised $79.65 for Sacred Heart Mission.

Congratulations to James from 4G for selling out of his metal straws. This was James' own initiative and he sold his products alongside the ice cream cone plants from Year 4. Well done James, a fantastic effort!

We would like to thank the staff, students and parents for all their efforts in making this year's market another success. We had so many parent volunteers from all year levels and we are so appreciative of the time they were willing to spend in classrooms and at the market. Thank you also to Fr. Dean from Sts. Peter and Paul's and Fr. Hugh and Anne from OLMC and St. Joseph's for coming to the market to support our students. 

Our herb garden is coming along well in learning Street, be sure to check it out!

Brighid Fahy and Holly Evans

STEM Leaders

New Morning Routine 

As you know, we have been trialling our new morning routine this term. We recently surveyed parents, students and staff about their thoughts on whether we should continue this for the rest of the year. 

The parent survey had over 200 replies. 85% believe we should continue, 10% don't mind and 5% would like morning assembles to return.

100% of staff and 92% of students would like the new routine to remain.

With the results overwhelmingly showing majority support for the new morning routine, we will continue this for the remainder of the year. 

Achievements And Stories Of The Students

By the School Captains

Bamlak in 3M won a trophy in soccer recently. When his team was playing in the finals at Albert Park he was awarded a medal for being the most valuable person on his team. Bamlak scored more than half his team's goals and his team won by an astounding 8 goals. He was very proud of himself and enjoyed playing. This was Bamlak's 2nd year playing for his team in the Grand Final so he did an amazing job.

Give For A Goal

Bridget S in Year 6 was in the Week 6 newsletter

and there was a piece about Give For A Goal. What happened was every goal I scored people could donate to my profile on Give For A Goal. This money would go to help vulnerable girls. Thank you to all of the families that donated to my Give For A Goal fundraising campaign. The money I have raised from your donations will provide a clinic for 10 vulnerable girls in the community which is fantastic. I have raised more money than what I set for my goal, which is great. Thank you. If you would like to visit the website just click on the link: https://www.giveforagoal.com/search/

Thanks,

Bridget S, 6B

Galilee is Straw-Free

Hi Parents, Teachers and Students of Galilee,

Recently we conducted a survey counting the number of straws used at Galilee in one year.

We would like to thank all of the students who participated in the survey. We estimate that Galilee uses 4,200 plastic straws per year. This is a large number. Many of the plastic straws we use end up in the ocean and hurt the animals and can kill them, because of this, nearly all sea turtles are endangered. We can change the number of sea turtles getting killed each year by using fewer plastic straws. Next term will begin to be a straw-free school so you can do your bit to help the turtles and other sea creatures by not using plastic straws.

Thanks from Violet, Sive and Grace.

Traffic Congestion

We have a shortage of car spaces outside of Galilee, making it sometimes stressful for families to drop off/pick up students. We encourage everyone to:

• be patient and courteous to other drivers
• plan for the shortage and arrive a little earlier than usual
• consider alternative streets to park such as: Park , Montague or Dorcas
• walk or ride a bike to school if possible
• respect the parking conditions, particularly the 5 minute zones that allow for greater flow of traffic and avoid leaving a car in front of our driveway which is our emergency exit/entrance

In the meantime, myself and Michelle (SEB) are attempting to meet with the local council. If anyone in our community is a Traffic Engineer and prepared to help, please contact me.

Carmen Carnovale is also working with the local council on a project called 'Healthy Tracks' that may also lead to a solution about parking.

We look forward to finding a resolution.

Sandringham Hospital

Over the past few years we have included many advertisements for staff or parents asking for optional donations for relevant charities. This September (Father's Day) I will be participating in a 24 hour bike ride to raise funds for the Sandringham Hospital where all three of my children were born. If you would like to make a donation, go to the following link: 

Student Collection

This week students have been required to be collected twice at 1:30pm (Monday for Student Led Conferences and Friday for end of term). Parents are encouraged to read the Newsletter and other forms of communication so they are aware of changes in routines. Our Parent Handbook, published on the website in 2016/17 informs parents that students not collected (exceptions made if we can contact parents) more than 15 minutes after the conclusion of the school, will be sent to GOSH.

Simon Millar

(Principal of Galilee)