Guildford West Public School
NEWSLETTER - 2020 Term 3, Week 5
Principal's News
Adam Fraser Parent webinar
Last night I had the privilege of watching Dr Adam Fraser via the live stream for parents’ event. This event was about striving schools and how schools and parents can partner together to help students be more resilient and have a functional relationship with struggle and failure. 2020 has been a year where we have had to all encounter unprecedented situations and move forward with resilience and optimism. Resilience, however, is a skill that our students need to develop and will be required long after this year or COVID has ended. This is a skill that will equip your children with the ability to take on challenges head first, and to understand that it is normal to struggle as we face difficulties. He explored the idea of succeeding by stepping outside of your comfort zone and overcoming adversity, and parents and educators creating safe environments for children to do this. He explored the 4H Model which was developed to guide parents and schools to help their kids develop more resilience, improve learning outcomes when dealing with their struggles and uncertainty. The model is designed to be simple to remember and delivery through the use of – HEART, HEAD, HANDS & HI-FIVE.
Our staff will also be watching a staff version of this webinar where Dr Adam Fraser will explore similar themes and the implications for us as educators and how we can work to best support your children. We do have access to the recording if you missed it live, just email the school and we can send you the link.
Learning Walks
Over the last two weeks I have also had the privilege of visiting all of the classes across the school with the Executive Team. We have been conducting 'Learning Walks' to spend time with the students and teachers in the classrooms. The purpose of these Learning Walks are to visit classrooms to foster conversations about teaching and learning in order to develop a shared vision of high quality teaching that impacts on student learning. I am so proud of the students and teachers at Guildford West. In each classroom I visited students could tell me what their learning goal was or explain what they were learning. I saw high levels of engagement and teachers differentiating learning experiences to ensure all students were learning at their appropriate level. The Executive Team and I will continue to engage in Learning Walks regularly to ensure high quality teaching and learning and to evaluate practices.
Drop off and pickup
The school has been selected to participate in a trial that monitors the long-term impact of staggered drop off and pick up times and determine whether:
· Student safety has increased due to reduced traffic
· There is calmer traffic flow during parent drop off and pick up times
· There is a decrease in inappropriate behaviours
· There is a decrease in congestion and accidents, especially where the school is located on a main street
MORNING
We will continue into Term 3 & 4, using the main pedestrian gate in Palmer St and the Edward St gate from 8:30am. Whilst outside the school is not a designated Kiss and Drop, we continue to ask you to treat is as such. It is now very smooth and will remain so if we all remember a few basics to ensure safety.
· Cars should move to front of the line
· Please stay inside your car
· Please drive off immediately
· DO NOT DO U TURNS at the Kiss and Drop
· Do not park and wait in the Kiss and Drop area
· Gates will close at 9:00am so that staff can return to their class
AFTERNOON
Pick up will continue in the same way as at present, with your child being picked up each afternoon from one of four gates (Gate A, Gate B, Gate C or Gate D) that they have been allocated. As a school students, staff and parents are now in a routine and this will now be from 2:50pm. Please do not arrive early to secure a parking spot and sit for long periods as this is creating parking issues.
· Parents are asked to continue to: Observe social distancing advice. Parents are reminded about observing the road rules and parking signs especially; 'No stopping' areas, parking safely and collecting your child.
· Park, collect and leave as soon as your child is collected and not congregate near the gates and taking up valuable parking space for long periods of time.
· Abide by the School community charter and be respectful of all our community.
This study will include further monitoring through travel surveys, surveys of school crossing supervisors and other key stakeholders. Council rangers are regularly visiting to ensure our children are safe. Any unsafe behaviour may result in fines.
We thank you for working with us and the school very much appreciates your cooperation and continued understanding as we participate in this study.
Support Unit
Class Spotlight: S Flinders
Top Ten Math:
This term, S Flinders are working on our new math program! We have been exploring different strategies to use in multiplication. We have worked on identifying arrays, 10s patterns, commutative property multiplication and different methods to achieve an answer, such as the traditional method and the grid method. The students of S Flinders have worked very hard this term during their mathematics lessons. They are currently working on measuring the area and perimeter of our classroom.
Gardens and chickens:
S Flinders were proud to start Term 3 off with looking after and caring for the school chickens. The boys checked for eggs and added them to the school tally for the chickens. Our students discussed what the weather can do to chickens, why they need food and why they have different areas in their environment. The students of S flinders spoke to the chickens daily and checked in often, even playing music for the chickens! S Flinders have also been looking after our new class garden that has been redecorated and we have new plants to care for, some of these new flowers include: snap dragons, marigolds and coleus.
Kindergarten
Both students and teachers are all enjoying being back at school this term. The students have been able to return to regular routine and build upon friendships, interests and learning. This term has brought many learning opportunities from STEM, hands on learning to fundamental skills in sport to building their sight words in literacy centres.
Looking after the chickens
This term, Kindergarten have been given an opportunity to look after the chickens, K Lock in week 4 and K Cook in week 5. It is our responsibility to feed the chickens their food, making sure to measure and note down each different part of their balanced diet. It is also our responsibility to count them to take the eggs to the front office, where the eggs are used for many different purposes. Nothing is wasted !
Walker
Walker Learning is back and the children have never been so excited to explore, discover and learn through hands-on activities. Each day in the middle session, both classes open their doors and the children are free to explore the carefully designed hands on activities that relate to what we are learning about this term. Through play, children are practicing and refining ideas and previous learning to gain more knowledge for the next targeted lesson. Each day there are focus children where 1 on 1 time is taken with that child by the teacher, a photographer and a reporter to document the learning. This process allows the children to have ownership over their learning and pose questions and ideas not previously thought about.
Stage 1
Staff and Students in stage one have been overjoyed to get back to Walker Learning in Term 3. Our focus is on the features of places and the connections people have with them. Our dramatic play centres have been transformed into campgrounds, travel agencies, tourist information centres, hospitals, beaches and rainforests. Students are developing their communication and language skills as they interact with their peers.
Students build rich vocabulary as they pretend to be travel agents booking holidays to significant places that they have been exploring such as Uluru. They are able to integrate literacy and numeracy skills by reading travel brochures and working out the cost of flights, hotels and car hire.
When camping students navigate where they are going, who is coming with them and what they need to pack. They investigate the options of taking a car or a caravan, sleeping in a tent or a cabin. Students make real world connections such as creating marshmallows to roast on the fire, re-enacting an experience they have had with their families.
We would like to thank our parents for your continued support and ask that if you have any spare small cardboard boxes or paper towel rolls that you send them in with your child to use in our construction areas.
Stage 2
Stage two have had an amazing start to term 3. We have been participating in some truly exciting educational experiences. Maths groups began in week 1 and some fantastic learning has occurred so far this term. In S2 Campbell we used M&M’s to create rectangular arrays and recorded our findings in our Maths books.
Students in stage two have also had opportunities to create and explore in the STEM lab. In S2 Campbell we have been learning about robotics and coding using the Lego WeDo kits - we even made cars that actually move. We then tested our cars to see which team built the fastest car and Meera and Sidra were the winners. Great work girls!
Little Poets
Stage 2 are learning all about poetry this term and writing some amazing poems using many forms and language techniques they have learnt. They have been exploring different forms of poetry such as cinquain, haiku, limericks and ballads. All students in Stage 2 love sharing their poetry skills on Seesaw for parents to view. Here are some poems that have stood out in our class!
Stage 3
STEM
This term, Stage 3 classes have been experimenting with the use of Green Screen for our STEM learning!
Green Screens are a great way to have our students explore digital storytelling and media creation. Green screens are used in the movies to make it look like the actors are driving across the desert, and it's used on TV to make it look like your local news announcer is standing in front of an animated weather map.
Here are some examples of our Stage 3 students creating fun projects with the use of Green Screen!
Top10 Maths
Our school has implemented a new way to learn maths and it is called a Fishbowl from our Top10 Maths program.
Students in Stage 3 work in groups to showcase their understanding of numeracy skills with their teacher. There are lots of hands-on activities as well as collaborative thinking involved to solve numeracy problems.
Here are some examples of our Stage 3 students participating in Fishbowl sessions, collaborative learning and independent activities during their Maths lessons.
English - Poetry
Since the beginning of Term 3, Stage 3 have been focusing on poetry and poetic techniques. Students have been building their creative writing skills through exploring and using figurative language such as imagery, similes and metaphors. To guide our poetry unit, we have been focusing on landscapes that we feel a connection to, are fascinated by, or that we simply really enjoy looking at.
We have had lots of fun so far being exposed to a range of different poetic styles and reading poems like Silver, The Triantiwontigongolope and watching slam poetry in class. We can’t wait to showcase some of our final Poetry tasks but for now here are some examples of the amazing poetry that Stage 3 poets have created so far!
Student Birthdays
Birthdays at school
We like to acknowledge birthdays at school but we can’t have a birthday party.
We ask for your cooperation. If you would like to bring in something for the children to share please ensure the following:
- You contact your child’s teachers via the school office (telephone) prior to the birthday to book a suitable time.
- Please only send cakes that are easy to share at school. Cupcakes, cake pops, donuts or chocolate crackles are best.
- We do not keep matches or knives in classrooms.
- We will not be able to cut up birthday cakes.
- That you speak to your child’s teacher about student allergies.
- Please note that cousins and siblings (brothers and sisters) will not be able to attend. Their learning is important.
Guildford West Public School
Email: guildfordw-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au
Website: www.guildfordw-p.schools.nsw.edu.au
Location: 23-51 Palmer Street, Guildford West NSW, Australia
Phone: (02) 9632-9942
Facebook: guildfordwestps