This edition is our last "In our classrooms, staffroom, and community" edition for 2024. In our final newsletter of the year, it will be a year and review! In that edition we will also be launching our new school vision which was established with parents, students, and staff. Thank you to all of our families for your ongoing partnership. As we near the end of the year, our classrooms have been busy! Particularly, we have held our excursions, which complement our inquiry learning.

In our classrooms

Preps Visit the Royal Botanic Garden

The Preps went to visit the Royal Botanic Gardens last Tuesday as part of their topic Watch it Grow. The day saw the Preps make new and exciting links to the learning students have been doing in the classroom. As well as closely monitoring the progress of growing experiments in the classroom and school gardens, the Preps have used our time outdoors amongst nature as inspiration for writing. Thank you to all of our parent helpers!

Grade Two Excursion to Bounce

This week Year 2 students spent two exhausting hours at BOUNCE trampoline park as part of our Happy Me, Healthy Me integrated topic for this term. We bounced, dodged, slid and climbed. It was thrilling, intense, challenging and x-treme! Our return to school saw us reflect with gratitude on our experience, using a variety of well-chosen adjectives to describe our experience. They had an awesome morning at Bounce jumping, leaping, rolling, climbing, sweating and just generally having a ball! A great way to finish up our Happy Me, Healthy Me unit!

Grade Five Adventure Park

On Monday 2^nd of December the Year Five and Six students celebrated a fantastic year of learning and friendship with a fun day out at Adventure Park. We floated down the lazy river, zoomed down the aqua racer and braved the Tornado and Tsunami rides! It was an amazing day enjoyed by all!

Grade 3-6 2024 Swimming Carnival

Under crystal clear skies, our grade 3-6 students competed in events from 50m freestyle to noodle races. We were impressed by the amazing house spirit. Thank you to our 2024 House Captains for your leadership this year, and thank you to Miss Kidd who led such a strong event. We also want to thank all of the parents who helped out or came to watch.

In our STEM Room

In our STEM Room, grade 3s and 4s have planned and designed nesting boxes for our local wildlife. Preps have built tall houses of cards and blocks. Grade 5/6 are designing garments using single use plastics and recycled materials.

In our Art Room

We have been immersed in threads and textiles in Art in Year 3 and 4 this term. Students from Year 4 have been busy learning the ancient practice of weaving. Students created their own loom and used the yarns available to create their own stripes and colourways making beautiful wall hangings.

In Year 3 students have sewn their very own silent fidget toy. Students have sewn 2 pieces of fabric together and created a maze with their sewing. A small button was inserted into the maze before sewing it closed. Perhaps you can make a few over the holidays as a fun project!

Students have been hearing about the summer exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), featuring Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. With interactive displays and a world of dots to explore it will make a great day out over the holidays! Wishing everyone a safe and happy festive season!

Garden Club Progress Update- A Year of Growth and Gratitude

We’re thrilled to celebrate the incredible growth of our school garden this year! Thank you to the hard work and dedication of our talented garden club students and the wonderful parent volunteers, our garden has truly flourished this year.

We’re excited to share that many of our crops are nearly ready for harvest, including snow peas, zucchini, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, carrots, apples, blueberries, olives, beans, lettuce, apricots, and a vibrant herb garden. We are so excited to see these plants thrive and can't wait to share the fruits and veggies with our garden club community.

Students last week were lucky enough to get the first taste of our super yummy and fresh snow peas!

A huge thank you goes out to our garden club students for their enthusiasm, creativity, and commitment to nurturing our garden, as well as to the parents who have generously donated their time and expertise to help make this all possible. Your support has been invaluable!

Thank you again to everyone involved for helping make this garden season such a success this year!

Miss Wellington and the Graden Club.

In Our Staffroom

Students have commenced their transition up program at GIPS. To support student resilience, we do it in three stages. Stage one, students visit a classroom in the year above to see what it looks like. Stage two, students go to a classroom in a year above and a current teacher in that year level leads them in a morning circle. In the last stage, students will meet their 2025 teacher during the last week of school. Our team has worked with care to develop the 2025 class lists. We will not accept class change requests. It can be common for children to have worries about moving up to a new year level. Here are some tips that we find helpful to support resilience in the transition:

- Help students find areas of commonality. Discuss the things that are going to be similar between the former grade and the new one.

- Help students imagine positive things they can experience in the following year like creating a mood board of upcoming experiences. Imagine making new friends, forming connections with new teachers, and learning new things in favourite subjects.

- Encourage children to reflect on past instances of resilience. They can consider these in a journal.

- Listen to worries. Talk to your child about what they are most looking forward to and what they are worried about.

According to research, the biggest transitions are the transitions to prep, high school and university. You may find these links helpful:

Starting Secondary School

Starting Secondary School for Children with Disabilities

Starting a New School

Tips for Starting School

Supporting Transition: A positive Start to School

We have also been working hard on our semester reports, which will be published on the last day of school this term.

In Our Community

Prep Take Off

Today our 2025 Prep Take Off concluded! Welcome to all our new families joining GIPS. We've had a wonderful four sessions with today's finale ending with a concert.

Congrats to Lachie

Lachie competed in the 10-year-old, 200m Track and Field event at the School Sport Australia Nationals, finishing 3rd in his heat. He placed 10th overall in the country! He also competed in the Medley Relay in which Victoria placed 2^nd winning a silver medal.

Tea Towels

If you ordered a commemorative tea towel, they will be available for pick up in your child's class shortly. They look fantastic! Thanks to Caroline for all her help.

How to Recycle and Raise Money for GIPS

GIPS now has a container deposit scheme donation code where you can donate your 10c container refunds to the school, this is a fantastic way to recycle while also raising funds for the school.
It is an easy 3 step process:

1. Collect eligible containers (can's, bottle and juice boxes) check for the 10c mark, often near the bar code HINT: you can keep lids on
2. Find your refund point HINT: CDS Vic Depot Oakleigh at 37-41 Oxford St Oakleigh is close by
3. Donate HINT: at the machine select "enter zone ID" and scan the GIPS barcode (the friendly depot staff can also help)

See attached poster for more information.
Tis the season to collect containers and this code can be used all year round.

Thanks to Claire for all of her help.

PSW Christmas Trading Hours

Please see below for the 2024 PSW trading days for the holiday period this year.

PSW is currently open Monday to Saturday to assist with ‘Back to School’ preparation.

Cam Care SRC Event (13 December) and Big Day In (17 December)

We want to inform you of two upcoming events that have different uniforms for the day.

SRC Event (13 December) The SRC are collecting food for CamCare on 13 December. CamCare supports the local Boroondara community. It provides food to those who are less fortunate, and during this festive time, they will make hampers for people to take and celebrate with. We are asking each student to bring at least one nonperishable item. To celebrate our collection, we will also have a casual clothes day. No gold coin donation is required as you are bringing food as the donation. Some ideas of foods that might be good are chocolate, biscuits, and canned goods. Please bring the food to your classroom on 13 December. Thank you!- SRC

Big Day In (17 December) On Tuesday 17th December, we are going to celebrate a full year at school in 2024 by enjoying a fun filled day together. We call this “GIPS’ Big Day In”.

All house groups students will take part in different activities getting into the house spirit for one last time in 2024. Students will have the opportunity wear and show their house colours. Please have students dress up in house colours for the day. Thank you!- House Captains

2024 Yearbooks Now Available to Order

Our beautiful and unique 2024 GIPS yearbooks are now available to order. Our students make each page one to cherish for years to come. The cost of yearbooks is $36. Orders must be made by 11 December. Yearbooks will be available to collect the last week of school via the classroom. Available only until 11/12. Thanks to Miss Kenny for her help with the yearbooks this year.

Click here to order: https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1328194

All questions can be sent to our front office team.

Recent Fundraising

Thank you to everyone who has supported the school in fundraising efforts this year. The money raised has helped us begin to replace our ten-year old iPads with new shared sets in Prep and Grade Ones. We also have used the money to create a decodable reader library. Because of all of your support, every 2025 Prep student will be able to access take home decodable readers. Recent fundraising totals are listed below:

Christmas Trees: $2890

Tea Towels: $2698

Thank you to Caroline and Craig and all the parents and staff who helped with the above two events.

Next year, the school hopes to focus fundraising efforts on further resourcing our new Spanish classroom, supporting our wellbeing resources, and new furniture across the school.

TeamKids Holiday Program

TeamKids have another action-packed Summer Holiday Program lined up!

Ready to DISOVER the TeamKids difference?

- Learn new skills and make new friends

- Qualified and remarkable educators

- Digital detox with our no screens policy

- Delicious and nutritious morning and afternoon snacks

- CCS- approved care