Principal's Report

Dear Families,

A reminder that Galilee will be closed tomorrow as we host three other schools in learning about Student Wellbeing.

In recent newsletters, I have written about a number of wellbeing strategies such as: the importance of being positive, teaching our children independence and resilience and being grateful for the wonderful people in our lives. I was at a coffee shop recently (corner of Park & Ferrars Sts.) when a simple message was placed upon my table: Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. I read it several times and shared and discussed it with Mrs Burns and Mrs Gerecke. We discussed the importance of celebrating our achievements at work and focussing on the positives rather than dwelling on the challenges. Each day of our lives, we encounter both positive and negative experiences. Why do people focus mostly upon what is negative? Learning from our mistakes rather than allowing them to inhibit our future actions is a critical part of developing resilience. Mistakes are a great opportunity for learning. Teaching your children strategies to deal with challenges can help them to move on more positively. Encourage the thinking that, you can choose how you react to a situation. Have you ever been upset and realised afterwards that the original action was not as serious as you thought? Read the Student Wellbeing section a Growth Mindset  for more information.

Father's Day 

It's wonderful to see so many fathers/male guardians registering for our inaugural Father's Day Breakfast from 7:30am on September 1st. You will have until this Monday to register with Paul Mapley. It will be an exciting event for you and your child/ren and we hope to see you there. Please be aware the Father's day Liturgy in the school hall will take place at 2.40pm on Friday 1st September.

School Fees

 All school fees are to be finalised by September 8th, unless you have an agreement with Mr. Millar or an ongoing payment plan .  All other amounts not paid in full by this date will incur a $200 late fee.

Trivia Night Profit

The final figures are in from our Annual Fundraiser - The Galilee Trivia Night 2017 and we couldn’t be more thrilled.  A profit of just under $18,700 was raised on the evening.  

An important part of our evening was to highlight the importance of the work Kidney Health Australia does and to raise money for this not for profit organisation in recognition of one of our current school families who have a son who was born with kidney disease and attended Galilee.  On the evening we heard their story and we raised an amazing $557 from the generous families in attendance.  We will be making a final donation to to Kidney Health Australia of $1000.

As with all schools, there are always wonderful ways to spend money.  Many families have asked what the monies raised this year will be going towards.  The money from the Trivia Night and the Bunnings BBQ will be combined and we are very excited to announce that after consultation with staff, the SRC and all the school students we will be installing a three metre high retractable netting around the grassed area that will create two defined play spaces.  This will support the children who enjoy the playing of rigorous ball sports during break times, prevent the cross over of sporting games being played and allow children to play safely in the sandpit area and on the playground with less risk of being knocked by a stray ball.  It will create new spaces for teachers to conduct lessons.  The netting will be installed over the September holiday break.

Due to the success of the evening the rest of the monies raised on the Trivia Night have contributed towards an upgrade of the school security camera system.  This upgraded system will ensure the safety of all our children, staff and families of our school community.

It is with the hard work of the volunteers that make these events possible, of the families who attend and of those who so generously donate their money at these events that we are able to continue to upgrade the facilities of our school to benefit all of our children.

Park Street Closed

Park Street entrance will be closed for Book Week, Monday 28th August to Friday 1st September. Please use Bank Street for these five days. Park Street will re-open on Monday 4th September. 

Mathematics in Year 3R

This week I visited Year 3R and they were learning about decimal fractions. The students were able to compare fractions, decimals and percentages  (VCMNA190) - Level 5. They were also able to calculate fractions of whole numbers (VCMNA213) from Level 6 in the Victorian Curriculum. Congratulations to 3R and Mrs Rochecouste.  Watch the video below to hear their clever responses.

NAPLAN

In May, our Year 3 & 5 students participated in NAPLAN and last Friday they received their results. Our students collectively received excellent results achieving well above state and national averages. We also achieved marginally higher than other like schools. Our results are strong in all tests across both year levels. Individual results for each student can at times be inaccurate however, they do provide invaluable information on each cohort of students. In the graphs below, our results are in RED and State averages in YELLOW. 

Year Three Results:

Year Five Results:

Below you can see a five year trend of our results in Numeracy. They show an upward spike in our results in 2017.

Five Year Trend in Numeracy - Year 5

Five Year Trend in Numeracy - Year 3

Importantly, the growth in 2017 for individual students has improved showing that we are catering better for the individual needs of our students.  Although improved, we will continue to focus on increasing the growth of our students.

Pastoral Care Policy

The Galilee Pastoral Care Policy can now be found on our website under Student Wellbeing. The policy and procedures have been explained to the students by their classroom teachers. Staff are encouraged to use restorative strategies but also utilise logical consequences if required.

Prep Transition

This week we held our 2018 Prep Orientation across two days. We have another three sessions for our future Preps to attend. The sessions are designed to: collect data, develop the students' confidence and connect families to Galilee. Congratulations to Miss Fahy & Miss Evans (Prep Teachers & Parent Partnership Leaders) for their preparation and care of the students. The children can't wait to start and we look forward to welcoming them in 2018. At this stage, both classes are full for 2018 and we have a waiting list.

Thank-you to all of the Year 6 Leaders who assisted with the orientation and below is a transcript of Charlotte B's (one of the School Captains) speech to the parents.

Good morning and welcome. My name is Charlotte and I am one of the current school captains of 2017.  I am so lucky to be able to speak to you all today. Galilee may seem small but great things come in small packages. I think that Galilee is an amazing school that has a great sense of community .

One of the amazing things about Galilee is the amount of great opportunities for all the year levels. Every year level participates in five different specialists. These subjects include; sport, art, Italian, ICT and performing arts. These subjects help students with different talents and capabilities to try new things. There is also a school concert that is held every second year where each class performs a song and students may tryout for lead roles in the play.

In our year levels and classes we sometimes get the chance to go and have fun at incursions, excursions and school camps. These help all the students of Galilee to learn about new places and encourage everyone to step out of there comfort zone.

Galilee is a really inclusive school and  has a great sense of community. I have my friends who are always there to help me through my tough times. The playground is always covered in students running around with smiles on their faces. We open some other places for students who would rather different kinds of play. These places include learning street, the hall and the library.

When I started in Prep I had no idea how the school and play yard worked but I had my buddy to help me out. My buddy encouraged me to make friends and helped me learn about new things. Every lunch they would help me line up until I got the right idea. I am now really enjoying being a buddy, it's a great way to get to know new prep students and help them enjoy school.

I have a little brother in prep now and he loves it. Every night he reads and learned like he never had to. He finds school really enjoyable. After the first day of school he came home with about twenty names of students who he had made friends with. That is another one of the great things about Galilee . It is so easy to find friends because you are is such a safe environment.

I hope you have enjoyed my speech thank you very much for all listening and I will hopefully see you next year. Whether it be in the schoolyard, at assembly, mass or one of the fun social events at the school.

By Charlotte B (School Captain)

Security Cameras

The security cameras that I have previously mentioned in the newsletter, are due to be fully installed by August 25. Our current set of security cameras are being replaced with digital cameras and will fully cover the external space in our school yard. The cameras will assist us in continuing to make Galilee a safe place for our students. 

Peace & Blessings,

Simon Millar