In this week’s newsletter…….

* Grandparents Day * School Fees

* Book Fair

Upcoming events Friday 8th March: K-2 Green Level Reward Day Tuesday 12th March: P & C Meeting 7pm in library Monday 18th March: Book Fair begins Thursday 21st March: Grandparents Day

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Grafton Public School A Tradition of Excellence

Locked Bag 9024 Grafton 2460 PHONE: Primary - 66421000 Infants - 66422286 Email: grafton-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Term 1 Week 6: Wednesday 6th March 2019

In conjunction with the upcoming NSW Seniors Week, Grafton Public School is holding “Grandparents Day” on Thursday 21st March. We invite grandparents and elderly family members to visit our school and classrooms across all grades Kinder to Year 6. All classrooms at the Infants campus (Kinder, Year 1 and Year 2) will be open from 10am. A special combined morning tea for all GPS students and visitors will be held on the bottom Primary playground from 10.45am. Cake, donuts, tea/coffee and cold drinks will be on sale. All are $1-50 each. Year 3 to 6 classrooms on our Primary Campus will be open to visitors at 11.30am till 12.15pm. All our students are looking forward to having some special visitors for morning tea and a look around their classrooms on the 21st.

Grandparents Day

BOOK FAIR IS COMING!

During Week 8, Scholastic Book Fair will be opening in the Library, providing your child with the opportunity to purchase a new book. All sales bring money back to Grafton Public School to provide more resources for your child’s learning. With every purchase of a book, your child receives an entry into the ‘Lucky Draw’. Winners of this draw receive a book prize! Please come and visit and purchase a book for your child. Students can bring money to school and purchase during their lunch time. Payment can be by CASH and EFTPOS (No cash out). Book Fair will be opened before school, second half of lunch and after school for all of week 8. Below are the opening times. Monday 18/2- 8.20-8.40am, 1.20-1:40pm, 2.50-4pm Tuesday 19/2- 8.20-8.40am, 1.20-1:40pm, 2.50-4pm Wednesday 20/2- 8.20-8.40am, 1.20-1:40pm, 2.50-4pm Thursday 21/2- 8.20-8.40am, 10.45am—11.30am during Grandparents Day morning tea, 1.20-1:40pm, 2.50-4pm Friday 22/2- 8.20-8.40am, 1.20-1:40pm, 2.50-4pm

Library News

* Extra group photos (such as captains, band, dance, SRC etc) were taken last week on School Photo days. These shots are available to order later in the term. Proof shots will be sent to the office. Parents can come in and have a look at them and then order what they wish. Please keep an eye out in future newsletters for when the proofs arrive.

* Now that our younger students have become more familiar with “big school”, we ask that parents consider a quicker drop-off in the mornings. By following a quicker “drop, kiss and go” routine in the morning you are helping to foster your child’s independence and their social skills relating to their peers. * Although it seems early to some, South Grafton High School will soon hold their first Year 6 into Year 7 Transition Information Evening. The evening will be held on Tuesday 12th March 2019 from 5.30pm – 7.00 pm. All parents and carers of Year 7 students in 2020 and the students themselves are warmly invited to attend. It will be an opportunity to meet the principal and the year adviser and perhaps take a tour of the school towards the end of the evening. * Unfortunately due to lack of numbers, we have had to cancel our proposed trip to Disney on Ice. We will try to arrange it again next year. * Just a reminder to families that if you change address, please let the school know as soon as possible. This is particularly important if you are applying for a bus pass as we must have the new address before we can “approve” the new pass with the bus company.

Brief But Important

A reminder that students on our Infants Campus in grades K-2 will be having a Green Level Reward day this Friday 8th March and this will take the form of a disco during the day for all invited students. Students can come in mufti disco clothing with enclosed foot wear. There is no cost involved with this activity , it is a reward for consistent good behaviour. The little ones are so excited!!

K-2 Reward Disco

Join us to say 'Bullying. No Way! Take action every day' - Friday 15 March On Friday 15 March 2019, our school will stand together against bullying and violence to celebrate the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence (NDA). The NDA is Australia’s key anti-bullying event for schools. It is a positive day of action which strengthens our everyday message here at Grafton Public School that bullying and violence have no place. At our school, we have a range of programs in place to address bullying, with zero tolerance for bullying and violence. The NDA gives us an opportunity to put our programs in the spotlight and work together as a community (parents, teachers, staff and students) to talk about bullying and finding workable solutions together to address it. Parents and carers are encouraged to visit the Bullying. No Way! website (www.bullyingnoway.gov.au) for advice and useful information The NDA is about bringing our community together and to recognise the importance of standing together to say Bullying. No Way!

Bullying—No Way

We are 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. We want to assure you that the survey is confidential. The survey is conducted online and will typically take less than 30 minutes to complete. Students will complete the survey during school hours between 11 March and 12 April. Participating in the survey is entirely voluntary. A consent form and FAQs for parents/carers about the survey is being sent home with students in the near future. If you do not want your child or children to participate, please return the form to school ASAP. 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.

Student Survey

All students have been invoiced for all applicable fees. An invoice has been issued for each student and has been posted home.

This invoice will outline to parents the majority of fees applicable for the entire year. We have included school fees, textbooks, fees for extra curricular activities such as band, choir or dance and a deposit payment for our major excursions (further excursion payments for the major excursions will be applied as the excursion gets closer and costings finalised.)

Payment can be made in cash, cheque, by EFTPOS at our Primary office, or online through our Parent Online Payments link on our website. If you wish to pay the invoiced fees one at a time, all at once or make a payment plan of a certain amount each fortnight that is fine. To arrange such a payment plan, please speak to Jo or Miss Karen in the office.

School Fees

Dear Parents and Carers, Got It Program K-2 I would like to thank all the families who have children in Kindergarten to Year 2 who returned the ‘Got It Program’ surveys last week. We had an overwhelming response and the Got It Team are currently processing the results. We are now planning to run this program all year to support as many families as possible. Our Got It Action team looks forward to working with families, students and staff to gain the best outcomes for the students. K-6 Easter Hat Parade This year our SRC are taking charge even further on our ‘War on Waste’ and have organised the theme of our Easter Hat Parade to be on “Recycling”. Students in K-2 and the Support Unit classes will be making their creations at school with their buddies from older grades and students from grades 3 to 6 will be given this task as a homework project. Students are encouraged to be creative and use recycled products to create their hats for the parade. I am looking forward to seeing the creativity of the students. We are extremely proud of our SRC and the environmental awareness and proactive decisions they are making. P&C Meeting The next P&C meeting will be held at 7pm on Tuesday 12th March in our newly refurbished library on the Queen Street Campus. It was lovely to see some new faces at our last meeting, including some additional fathers. If you are able to attend the P&C meetings, we encourage you to come along and have input into the P&C and school initiatives. You can be involved as much or as little as you would like. Fortnite and other Games The school has been made aware that there is a disturbing character appearing in the game Fortnite. This character is apparently talking to players and sending inappropriate verbal and visual messages of self-harm. Please supervise your children whilst they are gaming, have conversations with them about the content of the games, limit screen time and ensure the games are age appropriate. It is becoming increasingly common that games are been hacked and inappropriate content is added. Finally, I am proud and happy to announce that I have been successful in gaining the Principal’s position at GPS, following a very thorough application and interview process. I look forward to working with you all and leading the GPS team for many years to come. Kind regards, Miss Michelle McDonagh Principal

From the Principal

Your children need as much support online as they do offline. Over the next few weeks we will be including some information and useful tips to help parents and students protect themselves online

Each week we will try to acknowledge the children who received awards at their grade assemblies in the previous week. Congratulations to the following students who received awards last week:

Kinder: Peter Davies, Fred Holloway, Harrison Kenny, Charlieroy Gibson, Manha Mahamud, Hayden Ryder, Kenzie Sandoz, Marang Rampa, Millie Green, Maddison Hayes

Year 1: Makana-Rose Knott, Maryam Alsaraj, William Joyce, Thomas Eggins, Eelzy Abrahams, Aaleaha-Mai Ferguson, Holly Hawes, Max Austen, Faith Chamberlain, Brenton Duroux, Theo Dickson, Kash Lavelle, Shianne Richards, Koby Hayes, Vienna Thurtel, Layla Hayes

Year 2: Harrison Tilse, Olivia Watling, Eli Brown, Katelyn Baker, Zane Smith, Jax O’Rourke, Hanna Maginnity, Tai-Lee Spurway, Kayla Causley, Jasmine Irwin, Bailey Hagenson, Gabrielle Fergusson, Nate Fahey, Tiara Mills,

Year 3: Charlotte Evans, Elliott Blinman, Ruby-Lee Johnson, Ryan Stapleton, Caleb Bird, Indy Paul, Malakai Donnolley, John Louloudias, Robert Johnston, Scarlet McGuren, Georgia Elks

Year 4: Alecsis Spencer, Paige Tilse, Jeremy Davies, Matari Holten, Ashleigh Bulmer, Sasha White, Logan Smith, Raymond Randall, Matthew Hoade, Sebastian Perrett, Harrisan Dendle-Duroux, Cloe Highly Peacock, Myles Adamson, Elisabeth Kennedy, Ciarna Gardiner, William Rhodes, Bella Leaegailesolo, Amity Felntjar

Year 5: Chloe Wills, Kiera Banfield, Willow Kirby, Aaliyah Roach, Rion Crouch, Owen Appo-Green, Tylissah Third, Ryker Montague, Myla Smith, Brock Eveleigh, Chelsea Willard, Cooper Gilkinson, Zac Morrissey, Abbey Maginnity, Lachlan Passmore

Year 6: Ameera Alam, Jordan Durrington, Chelsea Campbell, Ruby Deefholts, Izak Richardson, Izaya McKenna, Aaron Beilby, Mia Nagle, Alexandra Harrigan, Makaya Dendle-Gadd, John Bates, Brea Beckhouse, Charlie Feeney, Mishelle Hancock

Assembly Award Winners

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