Principal's Message
by Ms Reynolds
Welcome back to term 3!
I hope you enjoyed a lovely winter break in the Sydney sunshine. It was wonderful to see students back at school last week - well rested and ready for the term. I was impressed by students' calm and happy return with all classes productively re-engaged with learning.
Our focus for the start of the term is Aboriginal learning, Agency and Action! We spent time on the school development day engaging with Aboriginal education, ensuring that our Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander students are culturally catered for and that all of our students learn about the history, culture and stories of Aboriginal Australia.
At GEPS, we have also celebrated NAIDOC week in assemblies and in classrooms.
NAIDOC Week is held across Australia in the first week of July each year, to celebrate and recognise the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It's an opportunity for all Australians to learn about First Nations cultures and histories and participate in celebrations of the oldest, continuous living cultures on earth.
At GEPS, we've been working on ensuring our teaching and learning programs, as well as our class routines and practices, are inclusive of learning about Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander peoples, stories, cultures and histories.
There is a great lot of information out there - here's a story reading by Deadly Kindies - a YouTube channel set up by the Qld Education department with the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health - offering great resources for early years learning:
We are also focused on student agency - building students' skills, knowledge and dispositions to engage in deep learning; reflect on themselves as learners; and make good decisions about future learning. We are teaching creativity, problem-solving, communication and the ability to critically reflect. These goals for students go across all key learning areas and are setting up the foundations for their future.
The World Economic Forum has outlined the key literacies, competencies and qualities needed for lifelong learning (see image below) - and GEPS is focused on teaching and nurturing these aspects.
The top 10 skills you'll need in 2025
- Complex problem solving.
- Critical thinking and analysis.
- Creativity, originality and initiative.
- Leadership and social influence.
- Technology use, monitoring and control.
What's happening in classrooms?
For more details about the Big Ideas your children are working on - and homework tips - each stage has sent home overviews of learning for the first half of this term.
Stage 2 have had an excursion as well as an open morning already this term!
What's coming up for other grades?
Stage 3 Open Morning is next Tuesday 1 August 9:30 - focused on maths.
Kindergarten celebration of 100 days of school is Wednesday 2 August 9-10:30.
Stage 1 open classrooms - "Paint and Sip" is set for Monday 14 August 2-3pm.
Looking forward to a sunny day next Monday for our Athletics Carnival - all parents are welcome to come along and enjoy - or help out on a station!
