Welcome back everyone! Welcome to all our new families! This is our first newsletter for 2020.

Our newsletter is published online and will be available via our website, Facebook and the Parent Portal. It will be available to you Week 5 and Week 10 of each term.

Students have settled well into their new classes. You will notice that we have many news students and staff and we trust that you all will make them feel welcome and part of our ‘Village’.

Guildford West Public school Staff List 2020

Principal: Ms Kerry Weston

Assistant Principals:

Ms Stephanie Giles: (Support Unit)

Ms Skye Lang: (Early stage1/Stage 1)
Ms Stephanie Giles: (Stage 2)

Ms Tara Hammill: (Stage 3)
Mrs Hannah Flack

Teachers

K- COOK: Ms Annaliese Dillon
K- LOCK: Miss Shirley Chen
K/1- BLAIR: Ms Skye Lang (AP)
S1 FRANKLIN: Mrs Cihan Bibinoglu
S1 HARPER: Ms Jaclyn Wong
S1 MARTIN: Miss Rebecca Johnson
S1 WILLS: Miss Bre Clement
S2 BURKE: Miss Alyse Clarke
S2 CAMPBELL: Mrs Therese Mailvaganam (Mrs Mials)
S2 LAWSON: Miss Julie Huynh
S2 TASMAN: Miss Jasneet Singh
S2 WATSON: Mr Kemal Isler
S3 BLAXLAND: Ms Tara Hammill (AP)
S3 FLANNERY: Mrs Natalie Alexander
S3 KENNARD: Mr Andrew Robinson
S3 WALTON: Miss Nadia Milana
S3 WENTWORTH: Mrs Stephanie Baxter

S BLIGH: Miss Mariana Birm

Mrs Tracey Shaw (SLSO)
S COTTEE: Miss Laura Cahill

Mrs Marissa Edwards (SLSO)
S FLINDERS: Miss Alexis Mezin

Mrs Georgina Bechara (SLSO)
S THOMAS: Miss Stephanie Vrtkovski and Ms Trisha Dass

Mrs Margaret Turner (SLSO)

Library

Miss Eva Avgerinos

Support Teachers
Mrs Vicki Clement
Mrs Lois Markotany
Miss Trisha Dass
Miss Jasmine Tavita
Mrs Cayley Yousif

SLSO's

Mrs Fadia Issa

Mrs Wahida Bahram

Ms Janette Scerri (Mon-Wed)

School Administration and Support staff (SASS)

Mrs Kelly Crawley (School Administration Manager)
Mrs Kerry Smith (School Administration Officer Mon-Thurs)
Mrs Sharon Furness (Mon-Wed) Community Engagement Officer(Thurs) Principal Assistance
Ms Janette Scerri (School Administration Officer Thurs/Fri)

General Assistant (GA)

John Shaw (Mon/Fri)

School Counsellor

Mrs Lucienne Artin and Mrs Pina Campagna

TRIBES!

Tribes have arrived at Guildford West Public school to much fanfare and excitement for everyone!

Tribes are a relaunched house system and are based on our mascot Guilko the Gecko. Every student and every staff member were allocated a TRIBE on Monday. Tribes will sit together at carnivals, assemblies and other special occasions. The Tribes are Diplo, Carpho and Tokay.

Students in year 3-6 elected Tribe Leaders on Monday, congratulations to the following Tribe Leaders:

Carpho:

Bilal Chamsin and Tahlae Uluibau

Diplo:

Ceyda Oncu and Jayden Beattie

Tokay:

Ayat Alkanane and Taleigha Knowles

We look forward to working with our Tribe Leaders to build Tribe spirit and culture in our school.

Walker Learning

We are very excited to implement the Walker Learning Approach into our K-2 classes. The approach uses developmentally appropriate ways of helping to engage children in truly meaningful and relevant strategies that enhance not only literacy and numeracy but also motivation and self-esteem. (more details further in the newsletter)

L3

This year, again teachers from Kindergarten to Year 2 will be participating in fortnightly training sessions to further develop their skills in teaching literacy. This is an exciting opportunity for our teachers and for all the students they are working with. Due to the intensity of the training, teachers will be working off class at different points through the year and will therefore be replaced by casual teachers in the class. As part of this exciting new literacy program we would like to encourage families to read with their children at home on a daily basis.

Life Skills

Students and staff have been participating in the Life Skills Program weekly in the hall. Students learn about mindfulness, meditation and movement. These lessons have continued to be a highlight with all of our classes and it is great to see the students using the strategies they have learnt in Life Skills beyond these sessions.

Upgrades and Maintenance

Painting was completed over the holidays inside and out. Roof replacement has started on some of the buildings. Many classrooms have taken delivery of their Prowise boards which offer mobility, flexibility and state of the art technology.

Meet the Teacher

By the time our Newsletter is published we would have held our 2020 Meet the Teacher event. We hope that you were able to gain insight into routines and expectations in your child’s class. 3 way interviews (between student/parent/teacher) will be held later in the year and this will be an excellent opportunity to discuss individual student progress.

If you have any concerns around your child’s learning please make a time to speak to your child’s teacher via the office, via the parent portal or sending a note with your child. This ensures their teacher has the time to discuss with you your concerns while not teaching. If you need to further discuss then please make a time with the Assistant Principal of the stage.

Every year is a busy year and we look forward and are excited to work with your children during 2020.

Ms K. Weston

Principal

It been a fantastic and busy start to the term in the Support Unit! All students have been getting to know their new friends and teachers and getting into a great routine with their learning. We have also welcomed some new friends to the school who have joined S Cottee.

It has been wonderful to see the amazing learning that has been happening across all of the classes.

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All classes have also enjoyed participating in weekly Life Skills lessons where they have been learning about values such as being a team player and kindness. Students have enjoyed learning to move their bodies through yoga and participate in guided meditation sessions.

Kindergarten students and teachers have had a very exciting start to their time at ‘big school’. So far, we have settled into our classes:

K Cook- Miss Dillon

K Lock- Miss Chen

K/1Blair- Mrs Lang

We have begun to set our routines, engaged in literacy and maths sessions, participated in Life Skills each week where we are learning to become self-regulated learners and enjoyed lots of recess and lunch breaks on the playground with our new friends.

This term, we are learning to be active learners, through our study of humanities. This will see us explore what ‘good listening’ looks like, sounds like and feels like through the exploration of English, History, PDHPE and creative arts content.

Also, if you haven’t signed up to Seesaw as yet, please see your child’s teacher. We look forward to showing you all of the fabulous progress we make in our first year of learning at Guildford West Public School.

Year 1 and Year 2 students have settled into a new year of learning and have been demonstrating their active learning skills across the whole school.

All classes are in full swing with students participating in reading groups, maths groups, life skills and library lessons. Students are exploring what makes them unique and how they can be active learners. We are sharing and responding to texts and discussing big ideas such as kindness, inclusion and respect.

The students have had different learning experiences in their classrooms and across the school. They have really enjoyed this learning and are keen to continue to work in groups to create authentic and interesting products that demonstrate their learning.

The Stage 1 teachers are very excited to support, challenge and encourage all their students this year. We can’t wait to see their growth in maturity, confidence and academics.

This year is off to a wonderful start in Stage 2 with all students settling well into their new classes. Students have been demonstrating their active learning skills across the whole school. We have begun to set our routines, engaged in literacy and maths sessions and participated in life skills each week where we are learning to become self-regulated learners.

Humanities

This term, our focus is on community and remembrance. Students are learning about different celebrations and commemorations that we hold in Australia and how these compare with other celebrations and commemorations around the world. Throughout the inquiry process, students will be studying historical sources as evidence and describing the significance of celebrations.

On Tuesday of Week 4, Stage 2 learnt about the diverse cultures of the Stage 2 teachers and how different cultures in our community have contributed to the diversity of Guildford West Public School. Following the lesson, S2 Lawson created their own digital presentations of their own cultural identity to share with their class.

Stage 3 has had a fantastic start to the year getting to know each other. Students have been so welcoming of our new stage 3 teachers, Mrs Alexander, Mrs Baxter and Miss Milana who have joined Mr Robinson and Ms Hammill on stage 3.

This term the school has access to STEM share kits from the STEM share community. We will be exploring the PC robotics kit which consists of Makey Makey, Grove Inventor Kit for micro:bit, Ozobot EVO and LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3. Stay tuned on Seesaw to see what we create.

Get ready for a fun filled, jam packed year on stage 3, we have many opportunities this year to learn and grow.

Welcome back! The library is open and every class visits the library during the week to borrow books. The students will need a library bag to borrow books from the library. Below is a timetable of when your child’s class will visit the library.

Monday: S Flinders, S Thomas, S Cottee, S2 Tasman, S Bligh.

Tuesday: S3 Kennard, S3 Flannery, S1 Franklin.

Wednesday: S3 Walton, S2 Watson, S3 Wentworth, S3 Blaxland.

Thursday: K/1 Blair, S2 Campbell, S2 Lawson, S2 Burke.

Friday: S1 Harper, S1 Martin, K Cook, K Lock, S1 Wills.

The library is also open during lunch on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Teacher/Librarian

Ms Avgerinos.

This year GWPS is excited to implement the Walker Learning Approach which utilises students’ natural curiosities and interests to drive their learning. In our infants’ classrooms the teachers carefully select play based learning opportunities that link to student interest as well as the NSW curriculum. These hands-on learning investigations address key learning areas, social interaction skills, oral language and problem solving strategies.

In each classroom we include nine different investigation stations. They include Dramatic play, Collage, Science/Nature, Construction, Tinkering, Sensory, Numeracy, Literacy, and Reading Area.

This newsletter we are taking a closer look at Construction Investigations and how students benefit from these experiences. Students develop their knowledge and understanding through hands on creating. The construction area allows opportunities to develop, plan, represent ideas, map out, build and complete designs. This develops collaboration, turn taking, measuring and balancing. It also strengthens hand eye coordination, fine and gross motor skills.

The K-2 teachers would happily take donations of light/thin cardboard boxes, empty cereal boxes and empty paper towel rolls to help our students build their fantastic creations. Please let you class teacher know if you have some to donate.

Welcome back everyone to 2020. This term (and year) is looking to be busy again with lots of ways for everyone to come together to support student learning.

Breakfast Club 2020

Exciting news for 2020 is that Guildford West has been accepted into the FoodBanks School 4 Health Program. Breakfast helps students to focus and concentrate in class. The School Breakfast 4 Health program has four key benefits to the students:

1. Health

Improves nutrition and eating habits

Improves mental and physical health

Helps combat childhood obesity

2. Participation

Reduces absenteeism and improves punctuality

Enhances engagement and productivity in the classroom
Improves concentration and behaviour

3. Learning

Improves readiness to learn and cognitive function

Improves educational outcomes

4. Social Development

Develops social and leadership skills

Widens social networks and builds friendships

Builds stronger relationships between staff and students

Tell Them From Me survey

I am delighted that this term, our school, like many other public schools in the state, will participate in a Department of Education initiative: the Tell Them From Me student feedback survey. The survey measures factors that are known to affect academic achievement and other student outcomes. The focus of the NSW-wide survey is on student wellbeing, engagement and effective teaching practices.

More information about the survey is available at: http://surveys.cese.nsw.gov.au

The survey is a great opportunity for our students to provide us with valuable and quick feedback on what they think about school life, how engaged they are with school and the different ways that teachers interact with them. More than 6,300 schools in Australia and around the world have used Tell Them From Me to survey 5.4 million students. Capturing the voices of our students will help improve how we do things at our school.

I want to assure you that the survey is confidential. The survey is conducted online and will typically take less than 30 minutes to complete. It will be administered during school hours between 16 March and 8 May. Participating in the survey is entirely voluntary.

A consent form and FAQs for parents/carers about the survey is being sent home with students. If you do not want your child or children to participate, please return the form to school by Friday 13 March 2020. Copies of the form and FAQs are available from: http://surveys.cese.nsw.gov.au/information-for-parents. The consent form and FAQs are available in 23 languages.

Ready Steady GO - Uplifting Program

This well loved program is back at Guilford West for 2020. The program aims to strengthen the emotional well being and resilience of children and families.

SAVE THE DATE – Year 2 – Your “Ready” hangout will be in Term 1, Week 9, 4:00pm in the hall, Wednesday 25 March 2020

Activities, games and dinner are included! More details and an invitation will be sent home soon.

Coffee with the Principal

Again in 2020 - Coffee with the Principal will continue Wednesdays – even weeks,

9:00 – 9:30 am in the Staff room – Everyone welcome. Come along meet with staff, other parents and community.

DATES for your diary:

04 March- Coffee with the Principal 9:00 – 9:30

05 March- Auburn Zone Swimming Carnival Auburn Pool

18 March- Coffee with the Principal

20 March-Bullying No Way! National Day and Harmony Day

25 March- Year 2 ‘READY’ Hangout

26 March- School Photos

1 April- Coffee with the Principal

2 April- Backflip against Bullying - Wear cultural dress or Orange

7 April- Cross Country Carnival – Guildford Leagues Club

Communication to Parents

Parent Portal: Sentral developers have been working on their parent portal, they have identified issues and have made many improvements – it is still a work in progress – but has shown tremendous improvement. In light of the improvements and the fact that we use Sentral for many aspects of your students learning and reporting - we have made a decision to continue with the Parent Portal for now.

The portal is a brilliant way to stay up to date with school – giving you access to message your child's teacher and advise of absences. Individual family notes will be sent home with instructions on how to set up your account and link your child to your account.

FACEBOOK and WEBSITE: Will continue as platforms to share and celebrate student and school successes.

As always your feedback is welcomed and you can contact me at school or via email sharon.furness1@det.nsw.edu.au

Sharon Furness
Community Engagement Officer

We are still seeking tenders for our Canteen. Print and online advertisements have been booked. If you know anyone that is interested in applying for the tender please pass on the details. A copy of the advertisement follows.

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