NAPLAN
Over the past two weeks our year 3 and 5 students have been completing NAPLAN. Congratulations to all students for completing the assessments so happily and confidently. The data from these assessments will provide an understanding for parents where their children are at, in comparison to students from across the state of the same age.
Information harvested from these assessments is used by the school to drive future directions in teaching. I would like to remind everyone, these are a point in time snapshot of student progress and should not cause any distress to students. Testing is a usual part of our teaching and learning programs.
Walk Safely To School Day (WSTSD)
Friday 20th May 2022, our school participated in the national Walk Safely To School Day. Now in its 23rd year, National Walk Safely to School Day is an annual event when all Primary School children are encouraged to walk and commute safely to school. It is a community event seeking to promote road safety, health, public transport and the environment.
The objectives of WSTSD are:
- To encourage parents and carers to walk to school with primary school age children and reinforce safe pedestrian behaviour.
- To promote the health benefits of walking and help create regular walking habits at an early age.
- To ensure that children up to 10 years old hold an adult's hand when crossing the road.
- To help children develop the vital road-crossing skills they will need as they become mature pedestrians.
- To reduce the car dependency habits that are being created at an early age and which will be difficult to change as children become adults.
- To promote the use of Public Transport.
- To reduce the level of air pollution created by motor vehicles.
- To reduce the level of traffic congestion.
Afternoon pick up
3:00pm is an incredibly busy part of our school day, as we have 236 students all trying to leave at the same time. When picking up children, I ask that all parents and caregivers respect each other. Our Pandel cul-de-sac is by far our busiest pick-up point, so if possible, try and pick up at Margot or Clarence gates. Many of our families park at the Glendale Playground on the corner of Graham and Clarence St and walk to the gate. Please know, that we will have teachers on duty at each of our 3 exit points to ensure the safety of students. Thank you for helping to keep our school a happy and welcoming place for all.
Uniforms
I understand the frustrations our GEPS community are having around the availability of uniforms, especially with size 12 shirts. I am in regular communication with Country Feeling Uniforms to try and support or speed up the process. Unfortunately, as with many businesses, there are significant delays on products across the globe. We are currently looking at having uniforms kept on site at GEPS, as a way of minimising the postage costs and associated delays. I hope to have some news around this in the coming weeks.
School Attendance
Regular school attendance is very important. If children do not attend school regularly, they may not keep up with schoolwork. It’s not only the academic work, missing out on the social side of school life can affect children’s ability to make and keep friendships, which is a vital part of growing up in a social world. Setting good attendance patterns from an early age will also help your child later on.
Employers want to recruit people who are reliable. Being on time is also vital. Arriving late at school is very disruptive for your child, the teacher and the other children in the class. Arriving at school prior to the commencement of classes is also a good opportunity for children to socialise, play and strengthen friendships.
We understand that we are living in very different times at the moment and sickness and being away from school is unfortunately inevitable. However, when students are well, it is imperative they are at school everyday, on-time, ready to learn.
Have a fantastic week everyone,
Tim Lewis
