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Eucharist Reflection Day
On Friday 1st June the children making their First Eucharist will be involved in a Reflection Day at Galilee. The day is designed to help the children reflect on the Sacrament of First Eucharist and what it means. The children will be undertaking various activities to help prepare them for their First Eucharist.
Children may wear casual clothes. The children need to bring their morning tea, lunch and water.
The day will take place within the normal school hours (8.50am – 3.25pm) in the school hall.
Sacrament of First Eucharist
On Sunday 3rd June some of our Year 4 students will receive the Sacrament of First Eucharist at Ss. Peter and Paul Mass at 10am. We invite all families to come along.
The second Sacrament of First Eucharist will be celebrated on Saturday 16th June at Our Lady of Mount Carmel at 6pm.
Reconciliation Week
This week we celebrated Reconciliation Week. Throughout the week, the students learnt the Indigenous song, Taba Naba. Each grade researched and compiled a presentation about a contemporary Indigenous person who has excelled in a particular area. All parents/ guardians are invited to our special assembly tomorrow morning at 8:50am, where our students will perform Taba Naba, and students from each class will present their presentation about an Indigenous person.
We thank Mrs Ferris and Meegan Jia Good for helping us prepare the activities and coordinate the assembly to celebrate Reconciliation Week.
GOSH Bookings - Closure Day
If you will be needing GOSH on Friday 8th (Galilee closure day), please book in by Monday 4th 8.30am. At present, the service do not have enough bookings to run the day.
Book Club Orders
Scholastic Book Club orders are due by 11th June, 2018. Catalogues have been distributed to children today.
Make you orders through the 'Loop App'.
PE timetable change
All Year 3 students need to wear their Sport Uniform next Thursday for their lesson.
Open Morning
Open Morning next Monday June 4, will not take place.
Beachside Cross Country
On Tuesday 29th May, Oliver O, Mark, Jordan Z and Dylan attended the Beachside Division Cross Country to represent Galilee. The boys put in so much effort and tried their hardest earning them the following places:
Oliver O - 5th in 9/10 Boys
Mark L - 5th in 12/13 Boys
Dylan L - 2nd in 11 Boys
Congratulations!
Beachside Recount By Oliver O (3W)
On Tuesday the 29th of May, Mark, Dylan, Jordan and I went to Bald Hill Park in Clayton to run in Beachside Cross Country.
There were six races. I came 5th in the 9/10 Boys. Overall it was a great day and we all had lots of fun.
Learning Support at Galilee!
As many of you are aware, we are very fortunate to have a variety of programmes running in the school aimed at assisting students with specific areas of learning. Some students are supported by intervention specialist teachers, through Reading Recovery and Number Intervention. Others work with Learning Support Officers in Spelling, Reading, Number, Speech-Language Development, English as an Additional Language and Social-Emotional skills.
Our Learning Support Officers (LSOs) – Sharon, Maree, Tegan, Rosa and Pauline – support our students daily in a variety of ways. Each of our LSOs is well-qualified and has particular experience and expertise in various areas. For example, Maree, Rosa and Pauline have participated in training in Number Intervention; Sharon, Maree, Rosa and Pauline have completed training in Guided Reading. Sharon has had a great deal of experience with children requiring support with social skills, such as communication, getting along, resilience and so on, and is currently studying counselling. Maree has studied the Spaulding Method of learning Literacy. Each of our LSOs is working with various children on developing specific academic skills and emotional capabilities that all young people need to acquire in order to be successful in school, to experience well-being and to have positive relationships.
Our specialised Number support programme has been running since last year and has led to marked improvements in Maths for a number of children. LSOs have been working with children in developing Literacy skills for many years; this year, we are formalising our reading programme, so that our LSOs have a structured and consistent approach to Guided Reading, in the same way that they support the children in Number.
As well, we have been working on a social-emotional programme wherein our LSOs support particular children in the area of Personal and Social-Emotional Learning (PSEL). In these sessions, the children develop skills which will help them to thrive in school, through game-playing and interaction with their peers, in the same way that PSEL classes take place in classrooms, but targeting particular skills. For instance, for the remainder of Term 2, the sessions will focus on communication skills: listening, responding appropriately, tracking the speaker, and so on.
As often as possible, the particular intervention session will take place while the class is participating in a lesson in the same subject. For instance, Number Intervention usually takes place during Maths lessons, and Social-Emotional sessions take place while the class is learning about Personal and Social-Emotional skills.
We have trialled the new LSO programmes for several weeks this term and have noted the children’s focus, enthusiasm, enjoyment and willingness to learn in the small group setting. We look forward to obtaining feedback from parents, teachers and students as to the success of our programmes, so that we can improve them over time. If you have any queries about our Learning Support initiatives, please feel free to contact me at any time, either at the email address below or by phoning the school.
jferris@gsmelbournesth.catholic.edu.au