Around the School
Celebrating Mothers Day
Primary celebrated all the wonderful, powerful and inspirational people in our students lives by inviting those special people into our school for a pamper session on Friday 13th May 2023 to celebrate Mothers Day. It was fantastic to see so many of our students Mothers, Grandmothers, Carers, Aunts, special friends and other family members getting pampered by our wonderful students. From neck massages to manicures, pedicures to hand massages - our special guests were given the royal treatment. We hope that all of our special guests felt loved and appreciated from our pamper session.
Guyra Central School want to take this moment to thank all of the special people in our students lives, for all that you do. We hope you all had a wonderful Mothers Day and you were all suitably spoilt by your children and recognised for everything you do on a daily basis.
'We Lead Everybody.' - GRIP Leadership
On Monday May 15th, Guyra Central School Stage 3 leadership team were given the opportunity to attend and participate in the GRIP Leadership program which was held at the Ex Services Club in Armidale.
The students engaged in workshops which included presentations, interactive activities, discussions, leadership games and entertainment with each workshop highlighting the skills required to be an effective leader and the importance in working with others. This years theme 'We Lead Everybody' focused on 4 topics - How to be an 'Others First' leader, The people a leader can impact the most, Ideas that can impact everybody and How to get everybody on board with a new idea.
Our leadership team all expressed that they were able to take something from the workshops that they will be able to use in the future.
Annual Northern Schools Prime Lamb Competition
Guyra Central School had the opportunity this year to host the 2023 Annual Northern Schools Prime Lamb Competition at the Guyra Showgrounds on the 17th-19th May.
Eleven schools from around the region were involved with a total of 260 students and 96 lambs participating in the competition. Andrew Jackson (Thomas Foods International) was the on the hoof judge for the 97 lambs that competed in this competition. Warren and Gina Lockyer kindly donated lambs to Guyra Central School in February and the lambs went on to achieve Champion Hoof for heavy weight lambs (pen of three) and second place for for a single led lamb. These lambs were halter broken and led by Billy Lockyer.
Tyler Beard had success in judging. Tyler achieved 'Highly Commended' for his junior judging and Ellie Mitchell achieved 1st place in her senior judging.
A group of workshops were run during the competition by industry experts. Guyra Central School would like to acknowledge UNE Meat Scientist Dr Peter McGilchrist, Wool industry experts Angus Carter (Landmark Armidale), Hamish McLaren (Nerstane Merino Stud, Walcha), and Junior judging experts James Sharpe from Elders and Joe Van Eyk (Armidale) and Andrew Jackson (TFU) for sharing their knowledge and and providing relevant information during the workshops.
Many of the participating schools arrived the night before the competition setting up camp at the Guyra Showgrounds. Our volunteers from the Guyra Central School P&C and Bald Blair Public School P&C generously catered and served delicious meals to our visitors. Thank you to Mark Werts and Armidale Regional Council for preparing the showground and generously discounting camp fees for the visiting schools.
We would like to acknowledge and thank Guyra businesses, Ray White, Elders, Nutrien and Grazag who sponsored and supported the event. Thank you to Jason Eddy, Gwyn Pearson and Justin Matthews for all their help and support and a special mention to Mara Grills who continues to go above and beyond in many different aspects of this event and for her ongoing support to our fantastic school.
Last but certainly not least, thank you to Mrs Rebecca Smith for bringing this event all together. Rebecca's passion for our students growth is evident from the opportunities she continues to provide our students.
Senior Citizens High Tea Ball
Several Guyra Central School students had the opportunity to give back to the community at the Senior Citizens High Tea Ball. The event was organised by Guyra Home Support Services and attracted 90 senior citizens for a fun filled afternoon of entertainment.
Our students were able to support the event by assisting with the service of food and drinks to the Seniors. The students were congratulated by many people at the event for their efforts and their community spirit. Our students were excellent ambassadors, representing the school with Pride, Respect and Responsibility.
Armidale Regional Council Library for National Simultaneous Storytime
Each year across Australia over 2.18 million participants in over 59000 locations participate in the annual National Simultaneous Storytime. The event aims at promoting the value of reading and literacy and each year an Australian children's book that explores age-appropriate themes, and addresses the key learning areas of the National Curriculum for Foundation to Year 6.
This year, our K-2 students joined children from Guyra and surrounds at the Armidale Regional Council Guyra Library to listen to Councillor Debra O'Brien read 'the SPEEDY SLOTH' written by Rebecca Young, illustrated by Heath McKenzie. Councillor O'Brien was very entertaining and all of our students enjoyed this years reading.
We look forward to joining in again in 2024.
'Connect, Participate and Celebrate' NSW Youth Week
Guyra Central School were invited to attend Armidale Regional Councils Youth Week morning tea which was held at the Council Chambers. During the morning tea, students were given the opportunity to share their views about issues affecting the lives of young people with the Mayor and Councillors. Students also heard from local community members and service groups who are eager to engage with and support our students.
Armidale Regional Council had a huge cake to celebrate Youth Week which our attending students returned with to the school to share with our students.
Thank you to Armidale Regional Council for involving Guyra Central School students in this years 'Youth Week' celebrations.
Stage 3 Clay Fish Creations
'On the deepest dive, at his limit, Abel was almost at the end of his breath when he felt a rush in the water behind him. It felt like something big, like his mother passing. But at the corner of his eye he saw a blue shadow that blocked out the sun. He whirled around to see a huge mouth and an eye the size of a golfball coming at him. The mouth opened. He saw massive pegs of teeth as it came on in a terrible rush.' - Tim Winton.
Stage 3 have been reading the novel Blueback by Tim Winton. In conjunction with the story students have been creating artworks based on marine animals. Mrs Milne came and taught the students how to create a pinch pot using earthenware clay and how to add details to turn it into a fish. We are now waiting for the fish to be fired in the kiln before we can paint. Stay tuned for the finished product!
Ear, Nose and Throat - Stage 1
Primary Mid-term Reward Session
Stage 3 STEM excursion to Armidale Secondary College
My name is Tae Torrens. I am a girl from Stage 3 at Guyra Central School and I am sharing my experience from a STEM day that my friends and I attended in week 5.
Stage 3 attended a STEM day in Armidale which was held at Armidale Secondary College on Thursday 25th May 2023. It was the first time most of my class had been to Armidale Secondary College and it looks like 2 hospitals combined from the outside. It is really big.
When we arrived we were taken to where our STEM day would be. There was a G,L and a B block and my class (Stage 3 Mint) went to G Block. G Block was on the other side of the building. There was a Football/Soccer field and a huge gym that was called the MPC room. Next to the gym were the girls/boys toilets. Just outside the MPC/Gym there was a shelter which is where we all ate our lunch. During lunch some of us saw people that we knew. I saw my friend Charlie and some of my cousins. What I liked the best at the STEM day was when we had to build boats. My friends Ivy and Elsa built our boat together and I think we did a really good job of building it. After we had finished building it I found a bug. My friend Elsa made our bug a part of our boat. We even made a seat belt for our bug. After everyone else had finished making their boats, the finished products were judged by the people running the STEM day. Our boat was judged best looking boat thanks to our bug friend.
Taearleigh Torrens
Stage 3 Mint
UNE Discovery Voyager visits Guyra Central School
The Discovery Voyager is the University of New England Science outreach and engagement program. The Discovery Voyager visits schools across regional NSW delivering curriculum-aligned activities in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art's and Maths). On Thursday 18th - Friday 19th May primary students participated in the STEAM day with the Discovery Voyager when it visited Guyra Central School.
Over two days our students rotated around different hands-on science experiences. The activities were innovative, engaging and challenging. This was a fantastic opportunity for students to experience STEM with active engagement and playful experiences.
This is what some of our students had to say about the UNE Discovery Voyage:
'We made robots move around. We had to press the robots buttons on their back to make them do what we wanted. They could reverse. The could go left and right. The robots were so fun and my favourite activity. We caught ants and had a look at them under a light. The light made the ants really big. Isla caught a spider and had a look at the spider under the light.'
Isla Lenehan and Lulla Ketley
Early Stage 1 Rainbow
'I like when I caught a fly without a net. It flew away on me so I didn't get to look at it under the microscope. I liked controlling the robot bee. It was fun to program it to go different directions. The whole thing was really fun.'
Freddy Post - Stage 1
'I enjoyed catching the insects, I could look at them in a microscope. I caught a bug and saw white stuff on the bottom of the bug. I saw it was tiny in real life but really big under the microscope. We pretended we were dung bettles which was fun. We got to roll little balls that were squishy.'
Charles Gordon - Stage 1
'We got to play with the robot bees and it was really fun because we could make them go everywhere. When we played the game outside it was so fun because we got long hammers to roll the balls. When I looked at my creature in the microscope it was a christmas beetle and it looked very beautiful and I really enjoyed it. '
Frankie - Stage 1
'One of our favourite parts was when we unlocked the clues to find the key. The key got us to the next activity. It was like an escape room where we had to find the clues to finish the activity. We liked the part outside where we got to run. There were lasers that measured how fast we could run. There was also a jumping thing where you jump on a mat and it measures how high we could jump. Measuring how high we could jump and how fast we could run was one of our favourite activities but we also enjoyed unlocking the codes because it kept suprising us when we cracked each code.'
Elsie Post, Aoife Collins, Paisley Towler - Stage 2
'We did the 'Treasure Chest' escape room where we had to work out codes. One of the codes we cracked we got a torch. We used the torch to to find other codes which eventually led us to unlock the box. We got to do a bonus round where we had to match up all the codes to crack the final code. The final code congratulated us for finishing the challenge. My favourite activity was the activity that involved jumping and hitting poles that measured how high we jumped. '
Willson McElroy - Stage 3
'We had an activity where we jumped in the air and we measured how long we stayed off the ground. We also measured how strong we were by squeezing something similar to what you find in a gym. I basically liked the running and jumping activities.'
Noah Gilvear - Stage 3
'It was all great. We had to find a key to unlock the lock. We had to find clues. The clues unlocked the primary locker. This let us move onto the secret message which we used shapes to figure out the clues. The sports activity was fun because of the jumping. We jumped to see how many seconds we were in the air. '
Toby Cussens - Stage 3
'I had lots of fun doing the escape rooms. We enjoyed having go at the high school escape room. We were not able to complete it but I enjoyed having a go at it. We did a grip challenge. We squeezed a weight and it measured our strength. Meagan Beard got 25 and had the strongest grip in Stage 3 Mint. We stood on weight pads and jumped, measuring how long we were in the air for. They also used lasers to measure our speed in a 10m sprint. We measured our legs after the race to compare if longer legs help with speed. We decided that it is not the length of someones legs that help with speed. We decided that that the length of the persons step and how fast the person moves is what makes a person fast.'
Charlotte Auld - Stage 3
The smell of fresh-made coffee is one of life's greatest inventions!
A group of students from Guyra Central School recently completed a Combined Food Safety Supervisors Level 1 & 2 course, and Prepare and Serve Espresso Coffee.
There is a lot of skill involved in preparing the perfect cup of coffee and after taste testing a few, I think these budding baristas have what it takes!
With some of the students already having casual and part time employment, they will be well-placed to put their new skills to good use!
A huge thank you to New England Community College for their collaboration and assistance in making this training possible.
Kylie Adams
Head Teacher Careers/Educational Pathways Program
The Scavenger Hunt - PBL Mid Term Rewards
The school was full of excitement students running here, there and everywhere during our PBL Mid-term Reward Session 'Scavenger Hunt'. Our PBL Reward Sessions celebrate our students who have upheld Guyra Central Schools core values of pride, respect and responsibility over a five week period.
This is what our students had to say about our PBL Reward Session:
We went in groups and ran around finding different things like sticks and leaves. When we ran to find things we ran behind all of the big kids. Isla was on of the groups that finished first and we think she won 14 chocolates. After we all finished we watched a movie and ate popcorn and lollypops.
Winona Towler and Nayte Mayled
Early Stage 1 Rainbow
We were in groups and we had 10 clues to find and we had to get all the clues in the right order. To get the clues right we had to listen really carefully so that we knew where to go. We were lucky to all have a teacher with us help us solve the clues along the way. Jackson and Matilda enjoyed all the running around to find the clues. Lachlan enjoyed eating popcorn and lollypops after the Scavenger Hunt.
Matilda Auld, Jackson Atkin and Lachlan Small
Stage 1
We were pretty much in our peer support groups during the Scavenger Hunt which was pretty good because it made the teams even. We had been doing peer support during the year in these groups. Another good thing abut the groups was that the older kids were able to help the little kids with all the clues. We all worked together pretty good and were able to find the clues easily. It was fun getting to each station. It would be fun to do it again but this time in rounds. We would like to take on one group at a time and then have a grand final.
Billy Ryan and Lincoln Atkin
Stage 3
We have been on our best behaviour during the term and shown Pride, Respect and Responsibility so we were able to participate in the Scavenger Hunt. Airlie Vidler really enjoyed running around and searching for clues with her friends. Sophie Rumbel agreed saying she also like looking for the clues. Hamish Brown thought that being a part of the winning team was pretty good. His team were winners of chocolates.
Airlie Vidler, Hamish Brown, Sophie Rumbel
Stage 2
Ellie Mitchell and Brooke Grills attend RYAG Sheep
Earlier this year Brooke Grills and Ellie Mitchell took part in RYAG Sheep. An initiative of Rotary, RAYAG Sheep is a four day camp which students from across the state have the opportunity to participate in. This year, Walcha Rotary Club hosted the event and Brooke and Ellie participated in various activities including; embryo transfer in ewe, analysing the fineness of wool, wool judging, fashion judging and all things sheep.
Brooke and Ellie were invited to give a presentation about their experience at RYAG at Rotary's fortnightly dinner on Tuesday 23rd May 2023. Brooke and Ellie who both gained valuable life skills and knowledge from this experience. Both girls made lots of friends and recommend this experience to other students who are presented with this opportunity in the future.
Work placement for Big Picture student Lillianna Eddy at the Guyra Gazette
Year 10 student Lillianna Eddy has been making the most out of her opportunities in Big Picture and has incorporated her passion for photography and her interest in film making into her learning during 2023. Lilliana is working on a short film about Guyra as her project this semester.
Lillianna is also doing weekly work placement at the Guyra Gazette. Lillianna is hoping that this experience will give her an insight into the process of how the Gazette is made from start to finish. Lillianna hopes that she may be able to contribute some youth-orientated stories to the weekly Gazette.
Keep up the great work Lillianna!
Anyone for pizza.......
During term 2 all students in stage 2 and stage 3 have enjoyed making pizza using products from our garden in the primary. Students make their own pizza bases by preparing dough and use a selection of toppings sourced from our garden including silver beet, parsley and thyme along with sweet Guyra tomatoes to top their pizzas.
Students have to work together to produce their yummy pizzas. Our finished product is proudly shared with students and staff.
UNESAP - Let's Hang it! 2023
The University of New England Acquisitive Art Prize (UNESAP) and Lets Hang it! exhibition was established in 2004 by the Faculty of Education at UNE with the purpose of promoting visual arts and encouraging talented young artists. The competition is now in its 20th year and is broken up in four different categories - Infants, Primary, Junior Secondary and Senior Secondary. Every year a professional artist is invited to judge the award along with the panel - Belinda Hungerford and Alexis Rickards from NERAM, and Blanca Pizzani and Alina Kozlovski from UNE. The winners are announced at the launch of the exhibition and the four First Prize-winning artworks will become a part of the UNE art collection and will be displayed around the University campus in Armidale.
This year Guyra Central School had four students submit art work into the UNESAP - Let's Hang it! 2023 competition. Guyra Central School received notification recently that Kate O'Kane's art work is a finalist art work and will be on display at NERAM 28th July - 13th August 2023.
Kate is a talented young artist and the art work she has created to enter into the competition is a water colour canvas. The public will have the opportunity to cast their vote for the - People's Choice Award 2023. If you or your family members are lucky enough to have the opportunity to visit NERAM while the art works are displayed, don't forget to check Kate's art work out. Below is the link that can be used for the Peoples choice award. Voting for the People's choice award opens at 4pm Friday 28th July. Voting closes Sunday 13th August.
Good luck Kate.
Multi-Cultural Perspective Public Speaking Competition - 2023
During Term 2 Guyra Central School Stage 2 and Stage 3 students have been participating in the Multi-Cultural Public Speaking Competition. This involved students preparing a speech and delivering it to their classmates. Students in each class selected the best public speakers in their stage classes to progress to our school finals.
The school finals were held in the Guyra Central School Library. Our stage 2 and 3 school finalists delivered their speeches to K-6 students and our primary Teachers. Our primary students and teachers determined which of our stage finalists would represent Guyra Central School at the Multi-Cultural Perspective Public Speaking Finals for 2023.
Will Vidler, Elsa Kliendienst (Stage 3 representatives) and Elsie Post (Stage 2 representative) travelled to Delungra on Wednesday 28th June 2023 to attend the finals. Will, Elsa and Elsie were required to deliver a speech on this years topic 'Use your Voice' to an audience and a panel of judges. Will, Elsa and Elsie were required to deliver an impromtu speech.
Elsie Post received 'Highly Commended' for her pre-prepared speech and impromtu speech.
Congratulations Will, Elsa and Elsie on each of your achievements in the Multi-Cultural Perspective Public Speaking Final.
Big Picture UNE Experience day
On Tuesday the 16th of May, the year 7, 8, and 9 Big Picture students went on an
excursion to six different UNE departments in Armidale. The first stop was the Armidale UNE Medical Clinical School, where the students learned how to do CPR, and got some hands-on experience by practicing on the mannequins that were controlled by a chip connected to an ipad that could make them do very realistic patient things like talking, breathing, vomit, having their heart stop.
The next stop was at the SMART Farm Innovations Centre. Where the students learned about how the livestock get tracked, why they get tracked, how the farmers measure the crops to figure how much sheep or cattle can go in a paddock or how long to keep them there. The students learned about accelerometers, the sensor device used in trackers and even phones. They learned that an accelerometer is used to tell your phone screen to turn when the phone is turned. They also learned about how the sensor is used in a tracker.
Then the students continued their journey to the museum where they had a snack break to fuel them up before continuing. After their little break they continued on and discovered many species on display i the museum. They were invited to do a little fun activity inside the lab where they played with polystyrene and were given a task to cover the dinosaurs with it.
Transition are enjoying 'Big School'!
It has been a very busy term for our wonderful Transition students. They have been getting used to the school routine and putting in a great effort with all learning tasks experienced.
We enjoy a weekly story, which is used to engage our students in learning about story features, new vocabulary, and comprehension. We also complete an art task linked to our story.
Other areas of learning this term have included: name writing, number -1 to 10, listening games and sequencing tasks, initial sounds games, reading for enjoyment with our high school student helper Indianna Gosper and lots of dance and movement.
We have ventured out to the main play area now at both morning and lunch play times. Mrs Robinson has been supervising the students of a morning, along with the teacher on duty. We will continue to join the older students outside of a morning (weather permitting). Please keep this in mind when dropping off at 8.30am.
