GORDON WEST BULLETIN V O L U M E 5 2 0 1 7 A P R I L 6 2 0 1 7

Principal’s Report Ryde Road Pymble 2073 Telephone: 9498 4644 Fax: 9498 4436 Email: gordonwest-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au Website: www.gordonwest-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

Friday 7th April

Easter Hat Parade

Last day of term

Mon 24 April

Staff Development Day

Wed 26 April

Term 2 begins for all students

Wed 26 April

ANZAC Service

Wed 3 May

Ecumenical Service

Mon 9 May

P&C Meeting

Tues 9-11 May

Naplan

Dates to Remember

What a successful band camp held at Vision Valley on Saturday and Sunday 25/26 March. Members of Concert Band 1 and Concert Band 2 spent a weekend of intensive musical instruction and together participated in a number of fun activities. The Gordon West children chose canoeing, waterslide, archery and bike riding as their preferred Vision Valley supervised activities and had a great time. Together with these additional outdoor activities, an exciting movie evening and all of the music instruction it was certainly an exciting productive weekend. The Band Camp concluded with a great concert with both bands demonstrating their skills by very capably playing compositions that they had learnt over the course of the weekend. A big thank you to Miss Harper, Miss Hortense, Ms Keighran, Miss Graham and my wife Julia for giving up time on their weekend to join in the spirit of the occasion. A big thank you to Ms Thomas from the Gordon West SLSO staff for organising all of the administration side of the camp to ensure that everything ran smoothly. Congratulations to our new Band Director, Ms Bella Harvey for her wonderfully contagious energy, enthusiasm and capable musical skills that she brings to the role of Band Director. Gordon West band students are certainly in for an exciting year. From a Principal’s perspective it was lovely to observe Gordon West children and their peers really enjoying themselves away from the formality of the school environment yet practising for over 6 hours to further enhance their musicianship.

The Gordon West Annual Report for 2016 is now on the school website for your perusal. Thank you to everyone from the Gordon West school community who was involved in the preparation of this most comprehensive document. You will note that information gained from school community surveys is taken very seriously and we appreciate your willingness to contribute to the many surveys distributed which can be arduous given how busy modern lives can be. I would like to acknowledge the enormous amount of work that our Deputy Principal Miss Harper has done in collating and writing many of the individual reports contained in the Annual Report.

While you have the website open you may care to read the updated Gordon West Strategic Plan for 2015/ 2017. We are very excited in relation to the 3 Strategic Directions that we have chosen and of the changes we have made as a result of feedback and consultation with stakeholders. We will continue to consult with the school community to determine our school’s future directions. Once again please don’t hesitate to contact me or any of the team leaders mentioned should you wish to discuss any aspect of our plan. Congratulations to the Strategic Directions Planning Team for the very exciting opportunities that will support our students to develop the 21st century skills required to become successful learners, confident and creative individuals and active and informed citizens. We welcome Ms Haile Edmonds to Gordon West who will replace Ms Merchant as teacher of 4M. After the vacation Ms Edmonds and her 4M class will also move into a new demountable building that will be located adjacent to 4G directly behind the Administration block. It is an exciting time for 4M with a new teacher and a new classroom! Ms Edmonds looks forward to meeting 4M parents and welcomes parents dropping in to say hello. Ms Merchant has taken leave from the Department of Education and will not be returning to Gordon West. Ms Merchant is an extremely accomplished educator who has made an enormous contribution to Gordon West over several years in various capacities. We greatly appreciate her dedicated manner and thoughtful, caring approach to the students, staff and the broader Gordon West school community. We wish Ms Merchant all the best for the future. The Parents and Citizens’ timetable of meeting presentations by Gordon West staff representatives has been completed and will be published shortly with accompanying explanatory notes and/ or presentation overviews. Thank you to Dr Wenk from the P&C who surveyed parents to ascertain topics that they would like presented by Gordon West staff prior to the monthly P&C meetings. The first presentation was the very successful You Can Do It program overview. The next presentation will be an overview of the Gordon West Learning Support Program presented by Mrs Haywood accompanied by Miss Harper. They will discuss the role of the Learning Support Team that works collaboratively with the classroom teachers, parents, students and specialists to provide assistance to students with additional learning and support needs. This presentation will take place at the next meeting of the Gordon West P and Co on Monday 8 May, 2017. Thank you to the school community for your support of the school uniform policy. The wearing of school uniforms contributes to establishing and maintaining of a positive school image and positive school culture. Parents are reminded that students will have the option of wearing full winter uniform from Wednesday 26 April, day one, Term 2. The compulsory wearing of winter uniform will commence Monday 8 May 2017. Parents are also reminded that the first day of Term 2 Monday 24 April will be a School Development Day . The Gordon West OSCH will be open on this day and we once again thank parents for their support of School Development Days where a great deal is achieved in a student free environment. Thank you for a very successful Term 1. Enjoy the break.

Children will return to school Wednesday 26 April 2017.

J Huckerby Principal

Canteen News Canteen will be open 5 days per week in Term 2. This will be a trial for Tuesdays and Wednesdays and it will only be for lunch orders. 

To order your child’s lunch on these new days, please use Flexischools as normal. 

Canteen will require volunteers for these new days. To sign up to help please go to Signup.com using this link: 

 h p://signup.com/go/rzpDjB  

Some of the tasks you will be doing on the day are preparing food, packing lunch bags and washing up. 

Canteen will provide lunch for all of your help! 

Canteen appreciates all your help. 

Kind regards 

Sa  Piispa 

Canteen Manager 

canteengwps@gmail.com   

Holiday Tennis Clinic  

Two holiday tennis clinics will be conducted at Gordon West Public School in the holidays catering for beginners to advanced standards.  Clinic 1: April 10‐13 (Mon‐Thurs) 9:30am –12pm $105 9.30am– 2.30pm $185  Clinic 2: April 18‐20 (Tues‐Thurs) 9.30am ‐ 12pm $80 9.30am ‐ 2.30pm $140  All enquiries to Sco  on:  

0414 554 612  

STUDENT NEWS

PREMIER’S READING CHALLENGE

Congratulations to the following students who have completed the Premier’s Reading Challenge

Karina S KT Emily A 1A

Hannah R 1S Chloe S D 1S Hajin Y 2K

Sayaka C 3H Charlotte F 4F

Caitlyn C 6J Jasmine Z 1F Sacha L 3H

Nicola B 4M Sophie E 4F

Congratula ons to Tom R from 4M who was awarded the 10yrs Boy S9 Age Champion for Sydney North Swimming.  Both Tom and Summer M are currently represen ng Sydney North at the at NSW PSSA Championships.  We wish them well and look forward to hearing their results from this event. 

KH Jessica A, Kai H, Jacob P KP Nicholas W, Amy B, Alabama V KT Millie Z, Grace N, Aiden L KZ Grace M, James O, Lionel Z 1A Coby N, Nahyun P, Emily A 1F Freddie G, Ann Y, Soufian M 1S Grace P, Nicholas L, Hannah R 1W Evan E, Chelsea S, Taminah R 2B Janelle C, Scarlett G, Emily H 2E Lilly O, Liam B, Will P 2G Macayla W, Jenney A, Ahaan M 2K Oliver P, Talin S, Kiara H 3G Indigo J, Carter A, Melisa M 3H James L, Jioh K, Sayaka C 3S Paige C, Archie G, Kaylee Z 4F Alex T, Livia L, Aaron Y 4G Jack B, Elizabeth T, Lucy H 4M Scarlett S, Sejin P, Tom R 5D Scott D, Chloe F, Alex C 5T Tom P, Sara L, Amelie M 5W Tiffany F, Hamish R, Izzy S 6J Jacinta D, Marcus L, Ella M 6S Sarah H, Izzy B, Paul P

29/3/2017

KH Jeffrey L, Sophie W, Emma M KP Ryan G, Nadia W, Yipeng P KT Jason Z, Samantha F, Kelvin L KZ Sophie F, Joan H, Patrick L 1A Lily X, Ethan H, Liam S 1F Summer D, Sam C, Poppy B 1S Jack B, Frankie R, Ethan C 1W Fraya M, Abigail J, Cian C 2B Camilla D, Jaren S, Arvand H 2E Frances S, Wyn Yen C, Joshua T 2G Conor H, Izzy N, Harry W 2K Lambert L, Shem C, Taylor G 3G Oliver A, Momoko I, Heather Z 3H Bowie P, Hamish F, Ava H 3S Timofey S, Leona L, Alisa L 4F Imogen R, Aarya V, Sophie E 4G Emily B, Vincent C, Yue Leon C 4M Isabella C, Pauloine P, Max T 5D Sienna P, Annabel B, Eli v R 5T Chase T, Nadine C, Noah D 5W Hassan J, Boseo P, Ahroo J 6J Mikayla F, Junhee S, Kate v d L 6S Nick C, Lily H, Thoams F

5/4/2017