In our classrooms

Welcome back

Welcome Back to Term Three, GIPS Community! I hope this message finds you all rejuvenated and ready for another engaging term ahead. It's wonderful to see our students return with such enthusiasm and eagerness to continue their learning journey. As we embark on this term, I encourage us all to reflect on the connections and growth from the first half of the year. Whether it was mastering a new concept in class, participating in extracurricular activities, or demonstrating our school values of respect, resilience, honesty, gratitude and empathy in action. Together, let's continue to foster a positive and inclusive environment where everyone feels valued and motivated to excel.

Welcome back to Debbie McDermott who has returned from Long Service Leave. It's great to have you back, Deb!

I want to also extend a heartfelt welcome to our 27 new students and their families who commenced Monday. One student is joining us permanently whilst the other 26 students are joining us for Term Three as part of a short-stay visit from different countries from around the world. Below, our students in 2B are getting to know each other.

Below students in 2G reconnected with their Insta Winter Holiday Snaps!

I am particularly excited to see our community come together once again for various events and activities planned for this term including our School Production towards the end of this term. From classroom projects to sports competitions, from cultural connections to school council led initiatives, there will be plenty of chances for us to learn, grow, and celebrate together.

Let's make Term Three at Glen Iris Primary School a time filled with joy, learning, and memorable experiences. Remember, our motto "Aim high" reminds us to set ambitious goals and strive for excellence in everything we do. Thank you for your ongoing support and commitment to our school community. Together, we will make this term a resounding success!

A glimpse in our grade one classrooms this week

Grade one students are working on addition strategies while playing maths games with cards. Yesterday, students in 1SH had a go at solving worded maths problems involving addition. They identified the important information that was needed, eliminated the information that wasn’t needed and solved their problems with pictures or counters to demonstrate. Everyone worked collaboratively to read through the information and record their answers. Great job Grade Ones! Our Big Ideas Curriculum is building the foundational and conceptual building blocks to enable high school creative and critical mathematical thinking.

Writing Workshop in Prep

Our Prep students continue to blow us away in their writing ability. This is due to their tremendous teachers supporting their development. Check out Prep C's writing work from earlier this week!

Lunch play

It was a frigid return to school this week; nevertheless, we lucked out without any wet day timetables.

Morning Circle

One of our school improvement goals this year was to incorporate morning circle into every class every day. We start our days with a greeting, discuss values we want to focus on for the day, talk through the day's timetable, hear any announcements from our children (recent playdates, holidays, and birthdays can be quite common) and then end with a positive primer to build our bodies with lots of positive emotions so we can be ready to learn. We intentionally have included morning circles into our daily rhythms to improve student belonging.

In our art room

Sensational Shaman Heads

In Art Year 4 students have been inspired by the fun and colourful artwork of Australian and New Zealand artist Telly Tuita. Telly enjoys reinterpreting his Tongan background in a modern and contemporary manner. Students created a Shaman headdress repurposing a plastic container and other found objects from the art room. The finished works are a wonderful example of the imagination and creativity of our students. Well done to all Year 4 students. These Sensational Shaman Heads are currently on display in the main office area.

Integrated Studies: Learning from the Past

Last term the grade ones finished up their topic, Learning from the Past. Some students had the opportunity to use the old fashioned slate boards and black boards to complete their ‘handwriting’ practice. The class agreed that pencils and paper are much easier to use than chalk and a duster!

Visit from 1SH

Thank you to my visitors this week who came to learn about chimneys as part of their study of Three Little Pigs. Here they are inspecting my fire place! (No chimneys here)

In our staffroom

This week we have been analysing the student and community feedback regarding our Language Other Than English, French. We will update the community soon. We also are excited to welcome back our writing consultant Lisa K who is going to lead us in peer observations observing each other teach writing. Finally, we have been hard at work for the past term developing a school vision, one that is aspirational, achievable, and captures what makes us great. It has involved significant consultation from our School Leadership Team with staff and children. We are going to present our drafts to School Council and hope to present GIPS' school vision this term to our community. Stay tuned!

In our community

Parent Teacher Conferences

Parent Teacher Conferences are July 25th. Bookings are now open and close 8 pm on July 24th. Please see Compass communication for all of the details. We look forward to seeing you soon.

Professional Practice Day- 30 July

This is a friendly reminder that our Professional Practice Day, on 30 July, is a student free day. Bookings are available with Team Kids. This is a time our teachers use to co-plan the semester ahead.

Story Time

July 23rd is our last community-open Story Time for 2024. The rest of our Story Times this term are reserved for our local kinders. If you have a pre-school aged child, please consider bringing them along to story time. You can book directly on our website.

Get ready to go for gold at our annual parents and carers night! The event will be a night at the GIPS Olympic Village, held at the Glen Iris Uniting Church Hall (where assembly is held). This year we will be embracing the Olympics, and it promises to be a fun night of games, trivia and friendly competition. Whether you are aiming for gold or cheering from the sidelines, it's going to be a night to remember! Come and join us for a celebration of community spirit and Olympic fun! This event will also include a silent auction and will be the main fundraising event for the year. Further information on tickets and tables will be provided shortly.

Many thanks!
GIPS parent committee

Book Week Author Visits

We are so excited to welcome two inspirational authors to our school during book week: Adam Wallace and Amelia Mellor. More information regarding ordering books (if you would like your child to get a signed copy) will come out via Compass next week.