ENewsletter

Principal's Report

Gatton's Got Talent

2020 Enrolments

Will you be with us in 2020?

In order to work out approximate class numbers for 2020, we would appreciate your advice as to whether your children will be leaving the school at the end of this year (not Year 6 students!).

This information is simply to assist the school in working out numbers for 2020 classes. If you indicate that your children will probably be leaving and then they end up staying, this will not be a problem - just advise us accordingly as soon as you know one way or the other.

If you think your child/ren will probably not be at GSS in 2020, would you please phone the office on 5466 3333 or email admin@gattonss.eq.edu.au by Monday 18th November.

When we have 2020 enrolment forms for new students we can consider their class placement in our planning which is well and truly underway.

Much is taken into account when allocating students to classes and teachers to classes. Whilst we cannot consider requests for a certain teacher, if parents / carers have ideas regarding including or not including their child with certain peers, twin situations etc please put your thoughts in a note or email to us ASAP and it will be taken into consideration.

Attendance is important in the last weeks of term.

As we reach the end of Term 4, parents and carers are reminded that children must attend school every school day unless they have a reasonable excuse for being away, such as illness. Visiting family, being tired, or starting holidays early are not good reasons to be away from school.

Behaviour Of The Fortnight

“I am in the right place at the right time”

This week we are focussing on “I am in the right place at the right time”.

One of the most important aspects of this is for our students to be in class and ready to learn at the second bell at the beginning of the day and after both breaks. This is a timely reminder that at 8:45am our first bell sounds for students to head to their classroom. Each moment of the day that is lost hinders our students learning.

Thank-you to all our families who support our behaviours of the week by having follow-up discussions at home. It is great for us all to be working together to make our school a great place to be.

DAY FOR DANIEL

The Daniel Morcombe Foundation was established in honour of Daniel Morcombe to make Australia a safer place for children.

This year we supported the foundation by wearing red and donating a gold coin to the Walk Tall counselling service. We raised $339.50 to assist children and families who are recovering from trauma.

Gatton State School remains committed to providing a safe and supportive environment for our students.

PREP 2020 – Enrol

Do you have a child who is born between, July 1 2014 and June 30 2015? You are invited to join us to find out more about prep in 2020 at Gatton State School.

We will hold information sessions as well as orientation visits for our future students.

Information sessions:

Prep 2020 information sessions have now finished. If you were unable to attend the sessions and you would like to gain more information please call our office to arrange a meeting and tour of the Prep area.

Later in the term we will have 2 days where prep students for 2020 can spend a morning as a prep student in readiness for next year. Dates for Transition mornings are:

Tuesday 26th November
Monday 2nd December

Please contact the office if you would like any further information or would like to make a time to meet with the Deputy Principal to talk about prep for your child next year. Enrolment forms and information packs are available now. We look forward to meeting you and your children to start their exciting school journey with us.

Roll Call for Class of '59

Roll Call for Class of ‘59

On Saturday 2nd Nov, a group of past students visited Gatton State School for a walk down memory lane. They sent a letter to Mr Burke to compliment how beautiful and clean the grounds were. They were happy to see the Domestic Science building was still there along with some other classrooms. Their Teacher from Grade 4 even made the trip back to Gatton for the day but a few red slips were handed out because the adults were being too noisy in the playground.

AQUATHLON 2019

On Friday 25th October, Ella Griffiths and Azariah Zillmann represented Gatton State School in the Darling Downs School Aquathlon at Dalby. The 10 and 11 year old students participating in this event are required to run 1 kilometre, go straight into a 200m swim, then out of the pool and run another 1 kilometre up to the finish line.

Congratulations to Ella for completing the gruelling course. Ella came 51st completing the course in a time of 14:51.7. Azariah came 60th, with a time of 16:03.9.

2019 Lockyer Zone STEM Challenge

On the 24th October, we were part of the exciting Lockyer Zone STEM Challenge. There were kids from Gatton, Flagstone Creek, Helidon and Peace who were part of the competition. It started with a mathematical relay. We had to race back and forth to answer maths questions from a card. The fast-paced activity was tiring but fun.

The next challenge for the day was problem solving made up of maths and science questions. While the problem solving was being marked, the next challenge awaited us - puzzle wranglers, which consisted of using 6 numbers and any basic operations (+,-,x,÷) to reach a target number. We found this challenge quite easy.

The most exciting activity for the day was the engineering challenge. We had to build a tower using straws, pegs, pipe cleaners, a container, a cup and a bouncy ball. The structure had to hold the bouncy ball at the top. This challenge was a lot of fun.

At the end of the day, we couldn’t wait to see who the winners were. It was close but Peace won the Year 4 division, Helidon won the Year 6 division and our team, the ‘StemVibes’, won the Year 5 Division.

This was a wonderful experience with some activities being exhausting and quite hard but all were enjoyable and a lot of fun.

Heidi and Julia

STEM Challenge

T-Rex Visits Prep A

This term in Prep A, we have been learning how to write letters and after having visited the Gatton post office last term, we were very inspired to start writing our own. We started our learning adventure by reading a book called Dear Dinosaur, written by Chae Strathie, where a young boy visits a museum and meets his favourite dinosaur, a Tyrannosaur Rex, and begins writing letters to T-Rex.

This story inspired us to write our own letter to T-Rex and to our surprise, T-Rex wrote back! We exchanged a few letters with T-Rex before he came to visit our classroom one afternoon when we had all gone home. T-Rex had left his footprints on our classroom floor, a special parcel and another letter for us. We were so excited when we found the parcel the next morning. In the parcel, T-Rex had sent some of his friends to play with us and we were so excited that we had to write T-Rex a thank-you letter. We spent the next few days playing with our new dinosaur friends, doing different dinosaur activities and learning more about dinosaurs.

While we were busy playing with our new dinosaur friends, T-Rex sent us an email to let us know that even though dinosaurs are extinct, their bones (fossils) are found all over the world. T-Rex told us that he had hidden four bones in our prep sandpit for us to find. It was so EXCITING. We found four bones and used them to practice measuring length. We will have to write a letter to T-Rex to say thank you for helping us learn how to write letters and for making our learning fun.

Prep A T-Rex visit

Sustainability Train

5c/10c Piece Donations to purchase outdoor seating for students.

If your child is asking for 5c/10c it is to add to their class’ Sustainability Change Train. This money will be going towards the purchase of outdoor tables and chairs for the students to sit at lunch times. Each table and chairs is approx. $1000 to purchase. Our goal is to collect enough 5c/10c pieces to purchase one table and chairs before the end of the school year.

TUCKSHOP DAY - November 1st 2019

The ongoing efforts of our tuckshop convenor and the volunteers who support our students and our school have been tremendous this year.

We should remember to say please and thank you every day, but in honour of Tuckshop Day on Friday 1st of November, we’d like to say a very special thank you to this wonderful team.

Janet and her helpers provide a great service that helps out families who have to juggle many different tasks at the start of each day and some good food helps the students study and play through the day.

We don’t take their hard work for granted and it is great to see parents putting up their hands and getting involved with our school too. Thank you everyone!!

Primary Prattle

Yes it is in print again…

The magazine that shows everyone what you have been doing all year. Articles include class pages, sports pages, lots of photos, games and much more. Approximately 140 colour pages of Gatton SS memories.

Order your copy by completing the form below and handing it with your payment to the office by Friday 29th November.

Delivery will be on Break Up Party Day – 12th December.

Cost: $20.00 (This covers costs only – no profit is made from these sales)

Order your copy by completing an order form available from the office and returning it with your payment by Friday 29th November.

Delivery will be on Break Up Party Day – 12th December.

Cost: $20.00 (This covers costs only – no profit is made from these sales)

Gatton Police Service helping those in need

This is the third year Queensland Police Service have partnered with Foodbank, and Gatton’s second year participating. The Drive will be promoted by Police Media on the QPS Twitter and Facebook pages, and the Gatton Police Station will be advertised as a drop off point for non-perishable food.

Foodbank are a non-denominational, non-profit organisation which acts as a pantry that local charities approach for the food they provide to needy families.

They receive food donations from farmers, wholesalers, manufacturers, retailers, and from food drives just like this one.

They are the largest hunger relief organisation in Australia, and in 2017 alone provided enough food for over 67 million meals.

This year’s food drive will focus on the devastating effects of long-term drought to our Farmers and Graziers.

All we ask is that everyone go through their pantry at home or go out and purchase any non-perishable essential items (and within expiry date) and deliver to the Gatton Police Station or school office, so that I can collate the donations and send to Foodbank Queensland. This year’s Drive runs from 7th November 2019 to 7th December 2019.

Sensory Santa

Sensory Souls and Grand Central Shopping Centre are excited to introduce Sensory Santa. Sensory Santa is an inclusive event for families with special needs to have a photo with Santa in a Sensory Friendly environment. Have you always wanted to take your children to see Santa but have been worried about how they might react? Do your children have sensory challenges (Sensory Disorders like Autsim) and would be fine to see Santa if only they didn’t have to wait in line with the crowds, feel the pressure of time and the noise of lots of people walking around? Well Sensory Santa could be exactly what your child needs in order to visit with Santa this year.

Sensory Souls presents Sensory Santa which is a visit with Santa that has

• no crowds and minimum noise as the session is before the shopping centre opens or during the quieter times.

• no lines -appointment bookings only in 10 minute sessions

• no music

• no spotlights

• a chair next to Santa

• an understanding Santa and photographer

• wheel-chair access Autism Assistance Dogs welcomed Santa sack filled with strategies.

Booking is free, No obligation to purchase photos Mobile phones are not permitted to take images in the Santa set. To book head to www.sensorysouls.com.au/bookings

Christmas Gift Stall

Gifts for Mum, Dad & Grandparents

Gifts from $2 - $20

Free gift-wrapping

Thursday 28th November from 8:15am

Hall Meeting Room Prep – 3 will visit with classes.

Year 4 – 6 can visit before school or in breaks.

P&C NEWS

P&C Meeting

The next P&C meeting will be held on 14th November, 2019 at 6pm in the Staff room. All are welcome to attend.

Breakfast Club Term 4

Available on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:15am to 8:45am.

New Tuckshop days and hours are Wednesday to Friday 8:15am to 1:30pm.

Tuckshop is no longer open on Mondays and Tuesdays. Please ensure your children have lunch brought from home on these days.

If you are able to lend a hand for a couple of hours in 2020 please contact Janet or the school office on 5466 3333.

Thursday Specials Tuckshop Menu

The Tuckshop is now offering Thursday Specials. Check the Gatton State School P&C Facebook page for these specials.

This Weeks specials are:

Pizza $3.00 (choose from Chicken, Meatlovers, Hawaiian)

Garlic Bread $1.50

Red Food Days

Red food days will be coming up soon. Order forms will be coming home next week.

Prep – year 3 Thursday 21st November

Year 4-6 Friday 22nd November

Volunteers

Volunteers are needed to help for the Speedway canteen on November 16th. Hours are from 2pm to 9pm. If you are able to give an hour or two of your time please contact the office 0754 663333. Free entry to all volunteers.

Uniforms

The Tuckshop is now taking layby's for 2020 uniforms. To help families with the expense of uniforms you now have the option to layby uniforms. Please contact the office or Tuckshop for a layby order form.

Gatton State School Newsletter

Term 4 2019 | No. 18 07th Nov 2019