Drama gives a sense of what it is to be other than ourselves

Standing in the wings of Clubbe Hall stage on Friday evening after the finale of the Preschool to Year 2 Junior Musical, I enjoyed watching the excited faces of the students as the enormous, red velvet curtains closed. In the darkness of backstage, glowing faces looked to Mrs Graham with such pride as she congratulated all on their efforts and performance, everyone enthusiastically joining in with ‘Three Cheers for Us!’ before racing off to join their families and guests. These special moments, experienced at the end of each production and greatly anticipated by the students, encapsulate the magic of knowing that for a short period of time, they have been something other than themselves, given permission to move beyond their boundaries and test what they can become… which is limitless.

See Photo Gallery

Ms Sally Robson, Head of Gib Gate

Studies

UNSW REACH Assessments

In Teaching and Learning at Gib Gate, as part of Frensham Schools Strategic Priorities 2018-2022, we are continuously seeking to improve and extend our assessment and benchmarking using a research-based, robust set of tools. This provides data across multiple subjects and years enabling us to study individual, class and cohort levels of achievement and growth. This approach to data analysis ensures excellence in teaching practice and enhances creative pathways for learning that increase personalisation and flexibility for all students so they can achieve their personal best.

In Term 2, we have utilised the newly developed UNSW Global Assessment programme – REACH. The REACH Assessment tools will provide us with an annual, independent and objective benchmark of student progress to support our teacher professional judgement, class-based tasks and formal school-based assessment programme and inform future curriculum planning and programming.

The REACH assessments are based on the Australian curriculum for students in Years 2 to 6 and are suitable for use across all ability levels. They are administered in comfortable, timed conditions for the children in their classrooms by their class teacher. This term, students in Year 2 completed the Science assessment and next term will complete English in Week 2 and Mathematics in Week 3. Each of these assessments has been completed online in a secure, digital environment.

Students in Years 3 to 6 completed Digital Technologies (online), Science (online) and Writing this term. The Writing Task – a persuasive text – was completed by Years 3 and 4 last week, in pen and paper format. Year 5 completed the task on their Chromebook laptops and Year 6 on their personal laptops, in a ‘locked down’, secure browser that allowed no access to other sites to access information and no access to word processing tools for editing including ‘spellcheck’. The test allowed 35 minutes for all students Years 3-6 to respond to the following stimulus: We should build more roads – do you agree or disagree with this statement? Next term students in Years 3-6 will complete the English assessment in Week 2 and Mathematics in Week 3.

In addition, we have always provided our students with the opportunity to challenge themselves using UNSW Global ICAS Competition papers and we will continue to use this tool in addition to REACH. ICAS has been redesigned this year and is aimed at recognising academic excellence for high-potential students, emphasising challenge and extension in tight timed conditions. The ICAS Competition online papers in 2019 will be undertaken by students who have a high level of success in REACH in Years 2-6, allowing them to apply their learning and challenge themselves at ‘competition level’ in each of the disciplines above. The ICAS Competitions require students to think beyond the classroom and provide us with data that acknowledges their performance achievement at the highest level.

Please refer to the UNSW Global website for further information: https://www.unswglobal.unsw.edu.au/educational-assessments/services/

Ms Kate Chauncy Director of Teaching and Learning P-12 and Coordinator of Gifted and Talented Programmes

Enrichment/Activities

Extra-Curricular Activities
Term 3 Extra-Curricular enrolment forms are available on Schoolbox. Please complete and return the forms to Mrs Russell or email krussell@gibgate.nsw.edu.au with your child’s enrolment into classes for next term.

Junior Musical
Thank you to all the students, teachers and parents who supported preparations for last week’s performances of the Junior Musical Production, The Starship Silver Grey. The students were very proud to share all their hard work and they also had a lot of fun.

Soirée
We will hold the first Soirée for the year in Term 3 on Wednesday 7 August. This performance is an opportunity for students in Years 5 and 6 who have music tuition and are prepared for a performance.

Mrs Anne Graham, Gib Gate Coordinator (Administration)

Sport

Sports Achievements
Isabella Barber (Year 6) competed at the CIS Cross Country championships at Eastern Creek in Sydney last week in the U12 Primary Girls age group. Congratulations to Isabella for finishing in 11^th place overall!

Interschools Skiing
We wish the following students all the best as they compete in the NSW Interschools Northern and Queensland Region Snowsports Championships to be held at Perisher during the winter vacation: Isabella Atra, Madeleine Bendror (Year 6), Ewan McLaughlin, Matilda Telford (Year 5), Sebastian Atra, Annika Basson, Zali de Manincor (Year 4), Phoebe McLaughlin, Mae Gilkeson (Year 3) Sophia Atra (Year 2) and Charlie Telford (Year 1).

Miss Klauer will be managing the team for the Championships.

Gib Gate Athletics Carnival
The Years 2-6 Athletics Carnival is being held on Friday 3 August at Holt Field, Frensham, next to The Centenary Pool. Please see Schoolbox for event details. Kindergarten and Year 1 will attend at lunchtime and have their Fun Athletics Carnival in Term 4, led by Year 2.

Mr Michael Standen, Coordinator PE and Sport Gib Gate

Preschool

Inspiring the youngest Gib Gate students to see the benefits of written expression is something we incorporate into each day in Preschool. The most effective way for children to learn is to have practical, hands-on experiences that inspire them to question and ponder the world around them.

In the last month we have included literacy in all the topics studies as a way to gain and share information and to record ideas. The incorporation of literacy ranges from creating an outdoor birthday area, writing a thank you letter, making lists of the vegetables in our lunchboxes, creating birthday cards, writing shopping lists for cooking experiences, Pre Lit lessons, measuring the Games Field to compare the size to Uluru, and taking a vote. Preschool students are familiar with print and its purpose and armed with a clipboard, they can often be heard saying, ‘Let me record that!’ or ‘How do I write that?’ with each other and with teachers. By empowering Preschoolers as active, contributing and capable students who can be ‘thought keepers’ they become open to a whole world of possibilities.

Mrs Tinna Loker, Preschool Coordinator