Thursday's Tidings - 27 July 2023

Dear families,

Tonight, is Gympie Central State School P&C’s free community movie night. The Super Mario Bros. Movie will start at playing at 6pm. Bring your chairs, your warm winter gear and if you haven’t ordered your movie meals, the P&C and Student Council will be making cash sales under A Block. 

Prep/1R hosted their grandparents’ afternoon this afternoon and this was the first opportunity for our 2024 Preps to visit the classroom to start their transition process. The next transition session will be our Under 8’s morning on Tuesday 15th August from 9am-10:30am. 

Parent Teacher interviews 

These are taking place at present. If you’d like to book an appointment, return the booking sheet and take the opportunity to hear from and speak with your child’s teacher. 

Allergies at school 

One of Gympie Central’s students has recently been diagnosed with an anaphylactic allergy to cashew nuts. State schools do not have a ‘nut free’ policy, however, to minimise the risk of such a reaction, families are asked to refrain from sending nut products to school with children. Staff are trained in the recognition and management of anaphylactic reactions, but removing the risk is the better strategy.  

True - Relationships and Reproductive Health - August 

Supporting the healthy sexual development of children and young people is a responsibility shared by schools and families. Those people who receive comprehensive, respectful Relationship & Sexuality Education (RSE) from an early age inclusive of sexual abuse prevention, are more likely to: 

• Make informed and responsible sexual decisions later in life 
• Recognise appropriate and inappropriate behaviour 
• Understand and accept changes and individual differences 
• Talk about their feelings and experiences. 

The program aligns with the Australian Curriculum and is delivered by experienced educators. Prep-3 classes will attend 2 x 30-minute sessions and the 4-6 classes will have 2 x 60-minute sessions. There will also be a 30-minute parent information session at 9am on the morning of 17th August. There is no cost for the program as the school has funded the program thanks to the Department of Education’s Student Wellbeing grant. Parent/carer consent will be required, and these will be distributed next week. 

The best place to get your questions answered about this program is at the parent information session - Can’t get to the parent session? Click on the link to get more information https://www.true.org.au/  

NAIDOC Family Fun Day - Friday 28th July 

Tomorrow morning our indigenous students, and their family and friends, will be off to the NAIDOC Gympie Family Fun Day. It’s a free community event in Nelson Reserve and community members are welcome to attend! 

• Welcome to Country 
• Smoking Ceremony 
• Acknowledgment of our Elders 
• Music and arts and crafts 
• BBQ Lunch 
• Basket weaving & Didge lessons 
• Traditional Games 
• Dance Performance 
• Stalls 

Feedback on student learning 

One of Gympie Central’s focus areas this year is providing quality feedback to students on their learning. This week teachers will be provided release time to work together to use student writing samples to identify areas for improvement, then meeting with small groups of students to provide feedback on their next steps for improvement.  

School fence upgrade 

Earlier this term the school was notified that it has been approved for a new secure 1.8m school fence. This will commence in the current financial year and will be an excellent addition to the facilities here at Gympie Central.  

Book Week parade - Wednesday 23rd August

Book Week 2023 will be held between 19th and 25th August, and returns with the theme of "Read, Grow, Inspire." Start planning your costumes! Our parade will be on Wednesday 23rd August. 

Colour Run - Friday 15th September

Get ready for the Colour Run. It’s happening on the last afternoon of Term 3 and will be heaps of fun. 

Eisteddfod and Gympie Track and Field trials 

Good luck to our Track and Field athletes who are competing at the Gympie T&F trials at Albert Park today and tomorrow, and to the strings students who’ll be competing at the Gympie Eisteddfod next week! 

Remember, we are here to help 

Like always, if there is something that you want our support with, or if your child is struggling, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher for support.  If it is not a matter for the teacher, please call the front office and arrange to meet with a member of the leadership team, so we can work through things together.  It takes a village to raise a child, so let’s work together. 

Student Council Fundraising

This term, the Student Council will be back out selling ice blocks on Fridays. They will be on sale at 2nd break and there will be $1 and $2 options available.

2023 Voluntary Financial Contribution - $20 per student

Each year, the Gympie Central State School P & C Association endorse a voluntary financial contribution of $20 per student, which equates to $0.50 per week for the entire school year. This money is a vital part of Gympie Central P&C’s commitment and helps to fund reading books, classroom resources, photocopying paper and tissues. This year the payment can be made via the Qkr! app or in person at the office. Your support in paying the voluntary contribution is greatly appreciated.

We have a variety of payment options available here at Gympie Central. Our most preferred method of payment is the Qkr! app. Qkr! is a cashless payment app, which means you can make payments on your mobile phone, rather coming into the school. The Gympie Central P&C also use this app, so not only can you pay for camps and excursions, but you can also order school uniforms and tuckshop with the app.

Instructions on how to download and use the app are shown in the link below.

Qkr-instructions.pdf

Qkr-instructions _pdf 1.05 MB

Other payment options that we provide are:

1. BPOINT - (for invoiced activities) Pay online or by phone using credit/debit card: https://www.bpoint.com.au/payments/dete or phone 1300 631 073

2. CENTREPAY - (for invoiced activities) We now offer Centrepay as a payment method for instrumental music and school camps. Use Centrepay to arrange regular deductions from your Centrelink payment. You can start, change or stop using Centrepay whenever you like. If you would like to set up a Centrepay payment, or know more information about this payment method, please contact the school office.

3. EFTPOS - We accept Mastercard, Visa and all Australian bank, building society and credit union cards.

4. CASH - Cash payments are still accepted. However, the school no longer has the ability to give out change, so only cash payments of the correct denomination will be accepted.