Dear families,

We are sending the newsletter out a few days earlier this fortnight to ensure everyone has information in readiness  for next week.

This week I was treated to a movie in the new playground area by some of our preschool students. It is fantastic to see all of the children playing in the new nature play area. Thank you preschool friends for the show.

It has been wonderful to have our staff and students back at school. Having a gradual return of students has enabled staff to spend valuable time with students in settling them back into school routines. I want to thank parents and carers and students on the outstanding job you are doing with drop-off and pick up from school. We have a wonderful community who are certainly abiding by the requirements and protocols. We can all stay healthy when everyone does the right thing.  Next Monday the 25th May, we look forward to having students from year 3 and year 4 return. On Tuesday the 2nd June, students from year 5 and year 6 return. Monday the 1st June, is the Reconciliation Day public holiday.

Remote Learning

If your family is continuing to learn remotely, please let your child’s teacher know.

For our P-2 families continuing remote learning we will now transition to the learning packs developed by the Educaiton Support Office. A staff member will call once a week to check in on your child’s wellbeing and learning progress. 

For years 3 and 4 slides will continue to be posted for students to access. A staff member will call once a week to check in on your child’s wellbeing and learning progress. 

For years 5 and 6 our teachers will continue on with the current remote learning model.There will be one specialist post at the beginning of the week for students to access in their own time.

P-2 Home Learning Packs

For P – 2 families engaging in remote learning we encourage you to access the Home Learning Packs developed by the Education Support Office. These are available for use at https://bit.ly/acthlp. These have been designed to support families who are choosing to keep their child home due to COVID-19. Each weekly K-2 Pack consists of 3 structured daily tasks covering English, Maths and one other curriculum area each day. The preschool pack consists of three weekly open-ended activities each week. Each task is stand alone, curriculum aligned, and require minimal resources. However, some tasks require access to a device to watch support videos (eg. A story read aloud).

Adjustments on the School Site

For those students returning next week, here are the protocols to be aware of:

• All school bubblers have been turned off. Each student is to bring their own water bottle, clearly labelled.
• If your child is unwell, it is the responsibility of parents and carers to keep the child at home. If a child comes to school and becomes unwell, the school will contact the parent or carer to come and collect the child from school. The child will be kept isolated and cared for until the parent or carer arrives to take the child home.
• Parents or carers of students who bring devices and/or phones to school, please ensure these are wiped down each morning before coming to school.
• Parents and carers are discouraged from coming onto school grounds.
• Physical distancing at school drop off and pickup times is most important.
• If your child is under the age 7 or in an LSU, you may escort your child to their class lines.
• Other students should be dropped off and picked up from the carpark, without entering school grounds where possible.
• If you do enter school grounds, all adults must be fully aware of social distancing requirements and adhere to them.
• Parents are not to congregate around classrooms or play equipment. 1.5 metre social distancing must be adhered to.
• Parent should avoid entering classrooms.
• Playground equipment can not be accessed before school and at the end of the school day, as it needs to be sanitised.
• The preferred method of communication with teachers is by email.
• Should a parent or carer seek a face to face meeting, you will be required to book a time with the teacher in advance. This is to allow for a suitable meeting location and social distancing arrangements to be put in place

To finish, check out our new preschool play area with Captain Tily, Captain Archie and Captain Marley. We love it!

Rebecca Turner

Principal

Responsible Learners

Respectful

Responsible Learners

All of our wonderful award recipients will appear on the Tree of Excellence in the administration building corridor. We have a huge tree ready to have a huge amount of students who have been demonstrating positive behaviours on the tree!

Writing

This term we have been focusing on identifying parts of a sentence. We start a sentence with a capital letter, have finger spaces between words and the end of a sentence has a full stop or punctuation mark. Students have also been engaging in Interactive writing experiences, reconstructing, labelling and writing simple sentences.

Spelling

This term we have been focusing on alliteration and consolidating our letter sound knowledge by creating class books. We are also learning our one word spelling words each morning. We are comparing words like then, we, went and no, noticing similarities and building these using a variety of materials.

Reading

During reading we are focusing on sounding out words like pot and spot and other CVC words. We are also continuing to ensure our mouth is ready to say the sounds that we know and track words from the beginning to the end. 

Numeracy

This term we are focusing on teen numbers and representing numbers in different ways. We are also focusing on forming our numbers correctly.

Spotlight on Music

During online learning there has been so much music fun for our students to enjoy!

I have loved seeing the creativity and enjoyment the students bring to their google meets with me.

Here is a Term 2 snapshot:

Year K-2

Dressing up like a pirate!

Learning about pitch in music with high and low animal sounds.

Year 3/4

Learning dance moves to ‘Can’t stop the Feeling’ keeping with a beat and following the music changes.

Year 5/6

The Year 5/6 students have been ‘Hooked on Classics’ and are learning about famous composers-Beethoven, Mozart, Handel and Chopin. (One student commented that classical music is kinda cool!)

Students are also working through their Term 2 music project called ‘Instruments of the Orchestra’.

Spotlight on Health/PE

Over the last month Health & PE has had to make some adjustments for online learning. To start with we looked at the importance of staying physically active at home during this period. Students were given a large variety of fitness activities that they could do by themselves or with the whole family for fun. Week 1 of home learning students were surprised by videos from Jarrod Croker who is the captain of the Canberra Raiders. Jarrod also spoke about the importance of staying physically active which is important for our body and brains for learning. Jarrod demonstrated several exercises through his videos for the students to do.

Throughout the online learning students have also looked at a variety of fundamental movement skills to practice at home. These include catching, throwing, skipping, striking and more. As equipment is limited at home, we looked at using objects from around the house to use as replacements. This included replacing a ball with a pair of rolled socks, making a skipping rope out of plastic bags or using a plate as a racket.

It was great to see so many of the students online and to see their excitement being able to interact with their peers during our Google Meets.  I would love to see students and families continue to keep active at home by playing games, doing fitness exercises, kicking a ball or just going for walk together. Keep up the good work.

Spotlight on Environmental Science

This term students in Environmental Science and Culture are looking at Energy. The Key Inquiry Questions we will be covering are:

1. Energy is an essential resource.
2. There are renewable and non-renewable energies.

3. Human consumption has a major effect upon energy resources.
4. We can reduce our energy consumption and lessen the environmental impact.
5. Sustainable practices will ensure energy for the future. Sustainable practices will extend our existing energy resources.

This unit of work is designed to raise awareness in students about:

• What is energy?
• Why do we need energy and how much do we use?
• Where does energy come from? (assumptions about energy)
• How was energy used by different people in the past?
• How do we use energy today?

The Environment Centre will once again be growing crops and enable students to understand the practical benefits of recycling.

Spotlight on Japanese 日本語 (nihongo)

Ngunnawal students worked very hard on their Japanese while learning from home.  It has been fantastic to start the Japanese club up again this week and have fun with origami and other games!

All year levels celebrated Japanese Boy’s Day or Children’s Day on (May 5) from home with some art and craft activities making samurai helmets and  koinobori (carp kites) in a variety of ways.

Kindergarten: 

 

It has been fantastic to see kindergarten students try a lot of different ways to say numbers and colours in Japanese. They are now going to work on words for animals and a farm.

Year 1 and Year 2:  

Students are becoming experts at reading and using clues to  understand stories in Japanese. The are now working on a story called “There is a bird” とりがいますよ (tori ga imasuyo).

Year 3 and Year 4:

Students have been working on how to talk about their birthday. They have worked hard to master saying and writing days of the week, months and the full date of their birthday.

Year 5 and Year 6: 

Students have been doing a great job of mastering a conversation and vocabulary about body parts and going to the doctor. It has been fantastic to use flipgrid and screencastify to see the students practicing their speaking with great expression and clear pronunciation.

がんばってください ganbatte kudasai (Do your best)

フィオナ 先生 (Fiona Sensei)

The National Reconciliation Week 2020 theme reinforces that we all have a role to play when it comes to reconciliation, and in playing our part we collectively build relationships and communities that value Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, histories and cultures.When we come together to build mutual respect and understanding, we shape a better future for all Australians. Karen Mundine, Reconciliation Week Chief Executive Officer.

Wednesday 27 May marks the beginning of Reconciliation Week. Our classes will be exploring this years theme, In this together through a range of learning experiences. 2020 is certainly the year we have all needed each other. Ask your children to share with your family what they have been learning about and what the theme means to them.

Orders will be available through the flexischools app. The link to flexischools is on our SZ App home page or can be found on https://www.flexischools.com.au/

The flu vaccine is safe and will help protect you and your loved ones from influenza this winter. The flu vaccine won’t protect you against COVID-19 but can help families avoid getting both viruses at the same time. It’s particularly important for children to be vaccinated, as they are more likely to contract influenza and spread it around.

PRESCHOOL @ NPS

Preschool_facebook_flyer_enrolments_2021.pdf

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Kindergarten_Enrolments_Flyer_2021_DRAFT_2.pdf

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YEAR 7 ENROLMENT @ GOLD CREEK SCHOOL

Online Enrolments for all 2021 ACT Public School enrolments are now open for all year levels Preschool to Year 12.

Year 6 students in the Gold Creek feeder schools (i.e; Ngunnawal, Palmerston and Margaret Hendry School) will need to complete an online enrolment form to progress to high school education.

Enrolment applications made between 28 April 2020 and 5 June 2020 will receive a school placement offer from 27 July 2020. Applications made after 5 June will receive their offers later in the year. Further information about the enrolment process and timeline, and access to the online enrolment form, can be found on the Education Directorate website using this link: https://www.education.act.gov.au/public-school-life/enrolling-in-a-public-school

Due to the coronavirus and social distancing restrictions, Gold Creek School’s information events for 2021 enrolments will be held differently this year. Further information on alternative ways Gold Creek School’s information will be made available to you will be outlined in future newsletters.