Thursday's Tidings - 18 April 2024

Welcome back to Term Two and to our new families who’ve joined the Gympie Central Community. The students have come back ready to learn and there is a calm, settled atmosphere across the school. 

Focus on reading 

The school is continuing its work around the teaching of reading. In the early years, your child will be explicitly taught to read at school using an approach called systematic synthetic phonics. This approach teaches children how sounds and letters link together to form words that we can read and write. It provides students with a reliable strategy for decoding unknown words and discourages guessing. 

What does the term systematic synthetic phonics mean? 

• Phonics is the understanding that letters and letter combinations represent speech sounds. 
• Systematic means that letters and sounds are taught in a planned order. 
• Synthetic refers to the process of synthesising or blending the sounds and letters to decode (read) words, and the segmenting or pulling apart of sounds and letters to encode (spell) words. 

Using a systematic synthetic phonics approach, children are taught the letter-sound correspondences that represent all 44 sounds in English, gradually, over time. Students are first taught the most common and consistent letter-sound correspondences (for example: the letter ‘b’ in ‘ball’; the letter ‘v’ in ‘van’) before being taught the less common alternative letter-sound combinations (for example: the many ways we can represent the sound ‘ay’ — bay, break, tail, sleigh and so on). 

School ANZAC Service - Wednesday 24th April @ 12pm - Families welcome 

Parents and families are invited to join our students next Wednesday 24th April when Gympie Central will commemorate ANZAC Day with a special 30-minute service at 12pm in the school parade area. This service will be led by the school captains and will be attended by special guest speaker, Gerard Irvine, from the Gympie RSL. 

ANZAC March - Thursday 25th April 

Gympie Central students always proudly join other Gympie schools to participate in the town march showing our appreciation for our service men and women, and showing pride in our school. We’re wanting as many students as possible to join us again this year - our uniform stands out and looks fantastic as we march with all the schools and groups.  

For students able to join us on ANZAC Day - Thursday 25th April, Gympie Central will join local schools and organisations to march in the Gympie ANZAC March along Mary Street to Memorial Park. Details are: 

Event:                Gympie ANZAC Day March. Staff will march with students. 

Date:                   Thursday 25th April

Time:                   Gather in Mary St at 9am for a 9:30am march. Students not required to stay for the service following the march. Exact location in Mary St will be shared next term. 

Uniform:        Full school uniform including school or navy blue hat. A small supply of spare school hats will be available. 

It will be great to see as many students as possible join their peers on this day. For any students who have family medals to wear, these can be worn on the right side. 

Gympie Central is also proud to have a number of students who will be joining the Gympie Combined Marching Band. Keep an eye out for our uniform shirts among the others and cheer the band as they march past.  

Parade performances 

This term each class will do a small performance on parade. Our first group is 6B on Friday 26th April. Families are always welcome to come along to each parade. These performances are always a lot of fun and it’s fun to see the performers in each class! 

Uniforms - navy jumpers in Winter 

Students wear our uniform with pride and with the cooler months approaching, navy jumpers are the required winter uniform. Our uniform jumper is navy blue. The uniform shop has jumpers (with logos) for sale. However, a navy-blue jumper without the logo is appropriate as we head into the cooler months. Supporting our uniform policy shows pride in our school and helps children feel part of the school community. If you’re missing a jumper (or hat/ lunchbox/ water bottle!), the lost property is stored at the base of the stairwell at the admin end of A Block. 

The P&C will host a 2nd hand (and new) uniform sale on Friday 3rd May from 8:00-9:00am. There will be: 

• navy school jumpers (new and 2nd hand) 
• school shirts (new and 2nd hand) 
• 2nd hand navy track pants 

If you have any old uniforms that have been outgrown, the P&C will gladly accept donations.

The P&C is also planning for its Mother’s Day stall. If you have any items that would work in a Mother’s Day hamper, or if you are crafty and can contribute items, the committee would really appreciate these donations when they put out the call next term. 

And don't forget our P&C are holding a FREE Community Movie Night on Thursday 2nd May (see details below). Raffle prizes will be drawn on the night, so make sure you get your tickets in!

Transition to High School 

Parents of Year 6 students are encouraged to consider where your child will attend high school in 2025. Gympie SHS and James Nash SHS encourage families to enrol their Year 7 students as soon as possible to enable forward planning for 2025. 

GSHS has opened its enrolment process and scholarship information is available on their Facebook page and from the school if parents require a copy. PDF copies are attached to this newsletter. 

Need a ride on mower or photocopier?

See the attached tenders from Wolvi SS. 

In the coming weeks our school captains will start visiting Goodstart Duke St to continue to build a partnership with the centre. These visits started last year after a couple of visits, the Goodstart kids couldn’t wait for the captains to turn up each visit! 

Kenny Chan Manga Artist - Nexus Arts - Monday 20th May 

This term we have Nexus Arts artist Kenny Chan visiting our school on Monday 20 May. Kenny is a manga artist and has run sessions with schools all over Australia. Kenny teaches a quick and simple way to draw original characters in a Japanese comic style. Students will learn tricks to adding personality and humour to their drawings.  

There is a $6 cost for students to participate so keep an eye out for the note with more details in the coming weeks. 

Have a great week and hope to see as many as possible at next Thursday’s town ANZAC march. 

Warm regards,
Glenn Cafferky

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.