Gunnedah South Public School Newsletter

Friday 31st August, 2018

Gunnedahs-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au www.gunnedahs-p.schools.nsw.edu.au www. Flexischools.com.au

Gunnedah South Public School Winder Place Gunnedah NSW 2380 Telephone: 02 6742 1899

App:

Term 3 – Week 8, 2018 Monday 10th September

Book Fair ALL WEEK

Tuesday 11th September

P & C Meeting 7pm

Wednesday 12th September

Book Week Parade

Friday 14th September

Year 1 Excursion

Term 3 – Week 7, 2018

Monday 3rd September

Life Education Van Year 3 Excursion Group 3 Girls touch football at GSPS

Monday—Thursday Monday & Tuesday 11.30am

Wednesday 5th September

SOS Rehearsal & Matinee at the Town Hall Touch Gala Day at Longmuir Fields

12.30pm

Thursday 6th September

SOS Evening Performance

6.30pm

Friday 7th September

Kindergarten transition Milo Blast Cricket Day

9.15am—10.45am

Titanium Lunch On Tuesday these four lovely

young ladies, Lily Friend, Daniela Kelly, Corinne Wise and

Shakita-Lee Small ensured Mr B experienced the most

chatty lunch he has ever had. The ideas that were shared for our school were wonderful and amazingly one of the ideas is already planned to happen.

Dear Parents and Community Members,

Thank you to all the mums who helped with the father’s day stall over two days. I particularly liked the full basket of presents that arrived to my office earlier in the week from 3S. Unfortunately, I will never get to open them as I have to pass them on to students from 3S on their return from their excursion to Red Hill this afternoon With this in mind – HAPPY FATHERS DAY TO ALL!

This week, students in year 3 have been at the environmental centre in Gulgong. From all accounts they have had an amazing adventure and their behaviour has been exceptional.

Today the Aboriginal boys’ cultural mentoring group performed at assembly. The performance was exceptional and it was very pleasing to see our boys so engaged with their culture and identity. A big thank you to Clinton Lamb from Centacare who coordinated the program. Also thank you to Aunty Leonie for all your organisation and support of this program.

Healthy Harold continues to visit our school this week. He has been talking with students about bullying and Cyber Safety. Unfortunately in today’s world, these are two issues that children may experience. As always, I remind parents that school is a partnership and if you notice that your child is having difficulties, please do not hesitate to contact their class teacher as your first port of call. Let’s work together to stamp out bullying and also recognise the difference between people who are unkind and bullies. Of course, if there is an issue, please give the school a chance to fix it before you resort to venting to the neighbours or have a “spray” on Facebook.

As always, if you would like to contact me about the learning of your child or feel the need to give me some feedback on how our school is going, please feel free to send me an email, or contact the office to make an appointment. My email is peter.baum@det.nsw.edu.au Have a happy father’s day Kind Regards Pete Baum

Kindergarten Transition

24/8/18

Last Friday we held our very first Kindergarten Transition for 2018, which was attended by 61 children. This is perhaps the largest first Transition day we have had in many years. Many thanks to the Transition teachers on the day, Mrs Langdon, Mrs Higgins, Mrs Holmes and Mrs Urquhart. The children read the story Mrs Wishy Washy and completed a number of activities based on the text.

Our next Transition day will be next Friday, 7/9/15 commencing at 9am.

BRONZE 2M Nate Jaeger, Mea Woolaston

2B Cooper Mitchell, Bella Southwell

2G Lucas Welch, Addison Laws

1H Kayla White, Evan Thomas

1F Zayden Kleinschafer, Stella Goodall, Jye Dundas

1C Nicholas Banks, Cyrrah Moore-Duff, Reuben Crawford

1D Eden Morgan, Ally Mutton, Caden McKinnon

PBL 2M Logan Anderson

2B Chelsea Morgan

2G Nash Carlyon

1H Noah Haley

1F Isaac Vallada

1C Jaydah Budden-Talbott

1D Jai Holmes

MERIT CERTIFICATES

SILVER 6D Flyn Harrison

6L Stella Robertson

5P Rhegan Jaeger, Bronte Snow

5C Ben Hall, Blade Rowlands

4/5H Lucas Passman, Angus Johns

4M Claire Dowe

4R Macey Carlyon, Jack Wild. Clare Robinson

4P Rebecca Sams

2M Isabelle Gilbert, William Curran, Jessie Harris, Abigail Sutcliffe

YCDI 2M Lillee Gray

1H Chase Heinemann

1D Josephine Spradbrow

GOLD 6L Stella Robertson

5C Blade Rowlands

4/5H Lucas Passman, Angus Johns

4R Jack Wild

4P Rebecca Sams

2M Jessie Harris

TITANIUM 4/5H Lucas Passman

4P Rebecca Sams

4R Jack Wild

Term 3, Week 5 Results

Top Classes

#1 MC— Average 1074 Points per student

#2 4/5H — Average 693 Points per student

#3 4M — Average 417 Points per student

Top Students

Aiden Flannery 2LZ 8480 Points

Kyren Roberts MC 2180 Points

Claire Dowe 4M 2148 Points

Thank you!

We have received our sports equipment from the Coles for sport vouchers this week. Thank you to everyone for sending in your

vouchers.

Not all unkindness is bullying

At Gunnedah South we strive to keep our students happy and safe! We believe that one of the most important functions of a school is to be a safe and supportive learning environment which provides ample opportunities for children to learn how to get along

with others and be a responsible and cooperative member of our society. We encourage a culture of kindness. Kindness is not exclusive; all people can connect through kindness,

which can create a foundation for success in schools, community and society.

The term "bullying" is being used to describe a lot of undesirable interactions children have with peers. Bullying is tragically real, with devastating consequences in both the

short- and long-term. But bullying also has a very specific meaning.

Although definitions vary, they generally include some common themes. Bullying must include an imbalance of power (whether it's strength, popularity, or access to

information) and is a behaviour that happens repeatedly. When bullying happens, it's crucial to address it immediately and effectively.

But it is important to remember that not all undesirable or unkind behaviour is bullying. Unkindness is not bullying. Sarcasm is not bullying.

Often offensive behaviour is defined as bullying, particularly because it provides a

narrative structure with a clear-cut villain and victim. But it's important that we resist, or at least question, our use of the term, “bullying”.

Someone can be insensitive, thoughtless, immature, mean and even aggressive without it being bullying. And it's important to make sure children understand that. Here's why: for the rest of their lives, our children's happiness at home and success at work will be

determined by how well they can navigate relationships and resolve difficult issues. If we write every unpleasant encounter off as bullying, we don't prepare them well. At a

minimum, we are modelling misdiagnosis.

"When we fail to distinguish between bullying and ordinary

meanness, we trivialise the very serious cases of peer abuse," Eileen Kennedy-Moore, an author and clinical psychologist wrote in an article in Psychology Today.

"Also, calling every act of meanness ‘bullying’ sends an unhealthy message: It says to kids, 'You're fragile. You can't

handle it if anyone is even slightly unkind to you.'"

…/continued...

Not all unkindness is bullying...continued

None of the above-mentioned behaviours are ideal or good, but they don't meet the criteria for bullying. It is important that we help to build children’s resilience to unkind behaviours and unpleasant situations. Learning how to deal with situations, which yes, are

unkind but really aren’t bullying, empowers children to take action and make effective choices. We practise the social skills necessary to achieve this in a variety of teaching

and learning experiences every day. Our PBL lessons focus on strengthening students’ social and emotional development through ‘getting-along’ programs as well as their ability to deal with challenging situations through resilience-building and bounce-back

initiatives.

How do we respond when a child encounters unkindness that isn't bullying?

While the answers are as varied as the situations and the children involved, successes can be had with a simple question: "What are your choices?" And as a follow-up, "What are the likely outcomes of those choices?"

Learning to honestly evaluate complex situations, look at the dynamics of relationships and respond in a thoughtful way requires and develops discernment, honesty and self-

awareness.

We help our children build those skills when we model them ourselves.

A strategy we use at Gunnedah South is:- DO THE HIGH FIVE! The High Five strategy

is an extremely effective way for students to deal with conflict or incidents that may happen in the classroom or the playground and empowers students to solve problems in a

positive way. The steps students are encouraged to follow in reaction to negative and unkind behaviours are:

1) Ignore

2) Walk away 3) Talk friendly

4) Talk firmly 5) Report to the teacher.

It is important to note that if a student is experiencing conflict of a serious nature, we

encourage students to skip certain steps and focus on reporting to the teacher so that the problem can be solved as soon as possible, ensuring safety to those involved.

Practising this strategy at home with your child will benefit them greatly and may help to reinforce desired social and emotional skills when interacting with others and when engaging in a variety of social situations.

Informative Writing in 1D This term in 1D we have been learning to write informative texts.

Last week we completed our POST writing assessment on Kangaroos. We took some time to sit down with Miss Doherty and special guest,

Mrs Walters, to compare our PRE and POST writing samples. We were so impressed with our growth and improvement that we invited

Mr B to come and take a look.

Pre Assessment Post Assessment

Pre Assessment Post Assessment

LIFE EDUCATION VISIT

HEALTHY HAROLD & THE LIFE EDUCATION VAN IS COMING TO GUNNEDAH SOUTH.

The Life Education program addresses many of the components of the NSW PDHPE syllabus and helps children to develop relationship skills, positive communication (both face to face and online), problem solving and decision-making skills. The primary school modules focus on issues around: food and nutrition, personal safety, physical activity, cyber safety, safety with medicine and safety with legal drugs - tobacco, alcohol and caffeine.

Merchandise will be available from Monday 27th of August. Please assist the Life Education Team by

completing the order form and providing the correct money.

Dear Parents, For 2018 we will not be charging the $11 to students for Healthy Harold’s visit. In an effort to support South School students and families, our P&C have kindly offered to subsidise this activity by 50%. We are also in the process of trying to secure a sponsor for the remaining 50%. If this is unsuccessful, school funds will be redirected to cover the short fall to prevent another expense for families. Thanks Mr B

Week 6

Monday 27th August 6L, 4M & KR

Tuesday 28th August 6D, 4R & KS

Wednesday 29th August 5S, 4P & KC

Thursday 30th August 5P, 4/5H & 1D

Week 7

Monday 3rd September 5C, KA & 1F

Tuesday 4th September 6W, 2LZ & 1C

Wednesday 5th September 2G, 2M & 1H

Thursday 6th September 2/3B & MC

Week 8

Monday 10th September 3S, 3M & 3H

HAROLD

MERCHANDISE