From the Principal's Desk

Principal News:

Welcome to Week 4!

Look at our fabulous mural completed by Nick Levy. Nick is a local artist who has listened to the students ideas to turn into a mural telling their story.

Last week we had Northern NSW Football come and run a FREE half-day session to encourage your students to make new friends and get active outside the classroom. Our students loved the day, that is sponsored by Newcastle Permanent.

Check-in Assessments

Martin's Gully will be running the Check-in assessments in weeks 5 and 6 this term, which are online assessment for students in Years 3 to 9. They are mapped to the NSW Syllabuses and National Literacy and Numeracy Learning Progressions. There are two assessments:

reading
numeracy

Each assessment is designed to be quick and easy to administer, consisting of between 40 to 50 multiple choice questions.

The assessment can supplement existing school practices to identify how students are performing in literacy and numeracy and to help teachers tailor their teaching more specifically to student needs.

Assessment windows for 2023 include:

Term 2 (Weeks 4 to 7)

Years 4 and 6 complete reading and numeracy assessments

Term 3 (Weeks 8 to 10)

Year 6 complete reading, numeracy and writing assessments

Term 4 (Weeks 1 to 4)

Years 3, 4, and 5 complete reading and numeracy assessments

Tell Them From Me Survey

The Tell Them From Me student survey asks students in years 4 to 6 about a range of school experiences, including their engagement and wellbeing at school and beyond. It also asks students about teaching practices and the learning environment.

The survey takes about 20 minutes to complete and is completed at school.

The information on this page is for parents and carers, and how they can support their child to participate in the Tell Them From Me student survey. If you do not wish your child to participate in Tell Them From Me, complete a non-consent form and send it to your school.

PAX Word of the Fortnight: ATTENTIVE

How can you be more attentive in class?

Remove any distractions including any items you might fiddle with.
Focus on what is happening in the present, what you are learning.
Prepare for learning, switch your mind on!
Listen with your whole body to the teacher or classmates.
Look at the teacher when they are talking, sit still and wait your turn.
Participate, have a go and ask questions.
Get plenty of sleep.
Eat healthy foods and drink lots of water.

How can you be more attentive this week?

Student Successes

Congratulations to all our students who attended the Zone Cross Country on Friday 12 May. Your behaviour and sportsmanship were outstanding!

Martin's Gully did extremely well in all events and came home with the trophy for the 8/9 Boys and the 11 years girls.

Congratulations to Charlotte Perry (1st), Julian Warne (3rd), Nixon Kennedy (3rd), Kieran Ahern (4th) who have all qualified to attend the Northwest cross country in Coolah.

Congratulations to all the boys and girls who were involved in the netball this week.

Attendance Matters:

We have set our school a target to achieve 90% attendance 90% of the time for 2023.

Can you help us do this? Coming to school each day between 8:30am and 9:00am and leaving at 3pm is just a simple way we can achieve this together. Let's do this together.

Staff Spotlight:

Hello to everyone at Martin’s Gully. My name is Dawn Stainton and I have had the pleasure to have been not only a parent at MGPS but have also worked here for the last 9 years, in many different roles – starting as an SLSO, to now being the relieving School Administration Manage.

I have lived in Armidale for the last seventeen years with my husband Craig, and our 3 children, Emily, Brooke and Will – and our 2 cats, Inky and Barry.

When not working, I love travelling, especially in our caravan, discovering new places - and taking the opportunity to try out all the different parkruns!

I love coming to school every day, working with my colleagues, watching the students learn and grow and getting to know our school community.

Hi MGPS community my name is Leanne Frost. I have been the student administration officer here at the Gully for the last 15 years.

I have lived and worked in Armidale all my life. My husband Allen and I have 2 adult boys Ben and Tom and 3 gorgeous grand children who I spend lots of special time with.

I like to spend time in my vegetable garden and catching up with family and friends. I have a little puppy, a cavalier x pug, whose name is Harriet, she is a little treasure.

I have worked in many places over the years, most recent being Armidale High School, Duval High School and Newling Primary School. I have finally found the most special place of all at Martin’s Gully and it has only taken me 30 years. MGPS is the happiest place to be, with fabulous students and a wonderful crew to work with. Supporting students, families and the staff throughout the school year is a privilege, how lucky am I.

Finally, we have quite a lot of sickness in our school including COVID cases. RAT tests are available at the front office should you require them for testing. Students should not come to school if they have symptoms such as a runny nose or a cough. They may return to school when they are symptom free. There is no isolation period required.

Have a wonderful week!

Felicity Pennington and Peta Deiderick