Dear Parents and Carers,

It was an exceptional Great Fete! The school community is indebted to the P&C fete committee for their willingness to take the risk with organising a fete with the initial costs for the event, unpredictability of weather, volunteer take-up, and five-year gap from the last Great Fete. Their bravery paid off.
The day allowed our students to have fun through rides, games, performing on the big stage and enjoying ‘sometime’ foods. We saw and heard happy students and families. It also enabled parents and carers to interact via assisting with serving at a stall or through supporting with fete logistics as well as spending money on the day for the school to purchase more learning resources. We had in attendance appreciative current, former and future families. Impressed with the Great Fete was Mr Andrew Bowmer, a former principal, as too, Mr Mark Hodges MP, Member for Castle Hill.
A big thank you to our families who sourced donations. The Great Fete was complemented with a large variety of food and market stalls, sport stalls and our valued emergency services. The MCs were a great inclusion. We all are very privileged to belong to Samuel Gilbert Public School.
Our school community is grateful to all the Great Fete sponsors and businesses who offered our silent auction and raffle items. They are listed on https://www.greatfete.com.au/ . You are encouraged to consider supporting them. 

Be part of a fantastic group of school parents who attend the next P&C meeting to discuss further school community activity at 7.30pm, Tuesday 12 September.

The school wishes our highly regarded teacher, Miss Maddi Berndt and our former general assistant at the school, Mr Chris Greenaway, a wonderful wedding day this Saturday. May the wonderful couple have many happy years together. On Miss Berndt's return as Mrs Greenaway her class will be known as 1G.
Next week we sadly farewell school admin officer, Mrs Amanda Ayling, as her family relocates to the Hunter Valley. We thank Mrs Ayling for being the welcoming face to visitors in the office as well as her eagerness to get jobs done correctly.
We congratulate one of our newest teachers, Mrs Hannah Powell, and her husband on the birth of her beautiful son, Jagger. We look forward to meeting baby Jagger soon.

Yesterday, three Samuel Gilbert PS teams competed against other local schools  in three debates for an outcome of three deserving wins. Well down to our victorious debaters and their coaches, Mr Wicks and Mrs Pellizzari. We thank Castle Hill PS, Dural PS and North Rocks PS for providing strong competition.

This year’s Book Week theme is ‘Read Grow Inspire’. Pictures tell a thousand words.

This year’s Science Week theme was ‘Innovation, Powering Future Industries’. 

Arguably the most important day of the year! I extend my wish for a fun filled day on Sunday week (3 September) to all of our families. Most will have an opportunity to pay respect to that significant male figure in the children’s lives. Dads put your feet up and rest at some stage throughout the day. Enjoy the day, whether receiving soap on a rope or a recliner chair.

Thank you to our diligent P&C and staff who on Friday, 1 September will provide a great tribute to dads and other significant males figures at the annual Fathers’ Day Breakfast. It will also be Jersey Day.

Early next week, kind P&C parent volunteers will provide the students with an opportunity to purchase some Fathers’ Day items ensuring all dads will be well and truly spoilt on Sunday week.

Greg McLaren
PRINCIPAL

We hope that the parents who attended our Information Evening last Thursday found it beneficial. We were fortunate to have our dedicated teachers present some very interesting workshops on a variety of topics as well as our guest speakers Constable Ethan West and Castle Hill Head Teacher Teaching and Learning and Year 7 coordinator, Ms Jo Spinks and her team from Castle Hill High School. Our thanks also to the teachers who provided supervision, snacks and a movie for the children of families attending. To support future planning of events we ask families of students in Years 3-6 to complete a short survey which will be issued early next week regarding your attendance or non attendance at this event.

What a fun event for children and staff alike! The costumes were amazing with many characters from favourite books coming to life across the school. Book readings, class reading activities and of course the character parade reinforced the Book Week theme of Read, Grow, Inspire.

Today our team of 51 athletes will compete at the Zone Athletics Carnival at Blacktown International Sports Park. We wish them all the very best of luck. Thank you to Mr Whybrow for managing our team.

Congratulations to both Felix L. and Zach F. who competed in the Premier’s Spelling Bee regional finals last Wednesday. Both boys were challenged with some very difficult words but competed admirably against over 35 other schools. Felix got tricked in Round 4, spelling expandable rather than expendable, an easy mistake and he should be extremely proud of his efforts.

Zach had us all on the edge of our seat as he confidently tackled words that would have most of us reaching for our dictionaries. “Continuum”, “ebullient” and “underprivileged” leaving him unfazed. By the end of Round 7 only Zach and two others remained. “Impediment”, “waive” ( Zach’s word) and “brochure” were managed by all boys without falter. Then came Round 9! Max from Manly Village PS spelt   “tuxedo”, Zach ( tarpaulin) and Rio ( abacus) spelt their words incorrectly making Max the winner. Zach and Rio proceeded to Round 10 to compete for the runner up position. Zach correctly spelt “paramount” and Rio was tricked on “cavernous”, making Zach the runner up! An amazing accomplishment- congratulations Zach.

This is an extremely busy time for our creative arts groups with choral groups, dance group, bands and public speaking in full swing.

All school dance groups had the opportunity to perform at the school fete on Sunday to a very supportive audience. Next week Mrs Medcalf’s Stage 3 group and Miss Stacey’s Before School groups will also be performing at the Hills Performing Arts Festival on Tuesday evening as well as competing in the Hawkesbury Eisteddfod on Wednesday. We are always very proud of our talented dance groups and extend our best wishes for these performances. Miss Stacey’s groups will also be performing in the Dance Extravaganza Eisteddfod at Pacific Hills on Sunday morning. We wish them the best of luck in this very competitive eisteddfod. 

On Wednesday Mrs Spears and a number of Stage 2 vocal ensemble members had their first rehearsal for the Primary Proms concert which is coming up on the 12 September. We will also have a number of vocal ensemble members performing in the massed choir at the Hills Performing Arts Festival, conducted by Mrs Medcalf next Tuesday evening. We are looking forward to these performances.

Our bands have also had a very full schedule with performances by all three bands at the school fete and at the Hawkesbury Eisteddfod on Tuesday. A huge congratulations to all three bands who despite missing a number of members due to illness or the clash with the Primary Proms rehearsal, gave excellent performances with both Performance Band and Training Band placing first and Concert band receiving Highly Commended. Congratulations to Mrs Skinner, Mr Dalton and our band students.

Next week our bands are heading to Benedict XVI Retreat at Grose Vale on Wednesday and Thursday for their annual band camp. Tutorials and band rehearsals along with some recreational activities will be enjoyed by the students attending. A huge thankyou to Jaimy McGilvray for her organisation of this event for our students.

Our finalists in the school public speaking competition impressed our adjudicators with some well prepared and presented speeches last week. Congratulations to all speakers on reaching the finals and in particular to our winners Anna T. – Year 6, Austin P. – Year 5, Aanya V. – Year 4 and Shriya I.- Year 3 who engaged the audience with their speeches on “The Power of Voice”, “A Dream”, “Doctors” and “Satellites” respectively. They will be wonderful representatives for Samuel Gilbert in Week 10 at the Hills Public Speaking Competition.

This week Jesse A. competed in the School Sport Australia Diving championships as a representative for NSW. We enjoyed watching Jess via live stream in some of his events. Congratulations Jesse on this wonderful achievement. Jesse developed his diving skills through his trampolining training.

All children will have the opportunity to purchase a Fathers’ Day gift on either Monday or Tuesday next week. Years 3-6 and 2P will have a chance to visit the stall on Monday ( along with any Stage 1 Dancers) with all other classes visiting on Tuesday.

We look forward to celebrating Fathers’ Day on Friday morning with a BBQ breakfast. Remember to wear a jersey for Jersey Day to heighten awareness of organ and tissue donation and the importance it plays in saving lives.

The School Swimming and Water Safety program has provided students with the development of water safety and learn to swim skills since 1954. Approximately 1,300 schools and over 110,000 students access the activities provided by School swimming and water safety programs annually. The NSW Department of Education provides funding for all students to receive instruction. The students meet costs associated with transport and all pool costs. This is an extremely economical way for students to learn vital swimming and water safety skills, catering for diverse cultural backgrounds and all socio-economic circumstances.

If your child is unable to swim 25 metres confidently in deep water we encourage them to attend this program. 

We have initially offered the program to Year 2 students but will extend the offer to older children who are not confident swimmers in deep water. In 2022 15 children aged between 5-14 years drowned in Australia. Many of these in backyard pools which could have been prevented with knowledge of basic water safety and swimming skills. 

The K-1 Spring Carnival will be held in Week 8 of this term.

DATE:                                       Tuesday 5th September 2023
TIME:                                       11:10am – 1:00pm
WHERE:                                   School Oval

Students and teachers are looking forward to our annual K-1 Spring Carnival. Students will take part in running races and novelty events. This is a fun in the sunshine event, where participants will be awarded an “I Ran a Race!” sticker. This year we will welcome some little visitors from Castle Glen for a quick visit to ‘big school’ for a preschoolers race.
Children should come dressed for the day in their sports uniform, with their sports shirt or a T-shirt in their house colour. Children MUST have a hat and a drink for the day. Please ensure you apply sunscreen to your child in the morning.
The carnival will be finished by 1:00pm and children should bring recess and lunch to school as normal. The canteen will be operating for lunch orders and snacks.
We welcome as many parents as are able to, to join us on the day.

Cathie Barclay & Gilliane Appave
DEPUTY PRINCIPALS 

With the inspiration of book week this week: Read, Grow, Inspire, there’s been plenty of time to feel inspired and enjoy reading our favourite stories. Reading, as we know, has a range of benefits that help children learn and become good readers. Children learn about reading by watching, copying and interacting with others, so while it’s important for your child to read themselves, it’s just as important for them to hear and watch others read too. Reading quality literature helps your child with conversation and word building skills. Try these tips at home when working on word building skills:

• Use describing words when talking. Instead of saying: “There’s a dog.” Add a description such as: “There’s a fluffy, white dog.”
• Build on your child’s language by teaching them new words.
• When reading with your child, talk about the words used in books. Discuss the meaning of words together. You also might like to find new, interesting words to talk about.
• Practice using new words in a sentence.
• Make labels for things around the house.

Here are some suggestions for picture books to help your child with word building:

• The Very Cranky Bear – Nick Bland
• The Day the Crayons Quit – Oliver Jeffers
• The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs – Jon Scieszka
• Possum Magic – Mem Fox
• Dunbi the Owl – Pamela Lofts
• The Little Refugee – Anh Do and Suzanne Do

Learning Walks and Talks offer opportunities to provide support for students and teachers as well as give data to inform next steps in professional learning on teaching practice. Learning Walks and Talks are short (10-15 minutes) classroom visits designed to gather a snapshot of student learning. This week at SGPS, Learning Walks and Talks commenced in classrooms coordinated by the school executive. With reading as the focus and using a specific structure and criteria when completing the learning walk, executive will now collate and analyse the data ready to share with staff to review current practice in reading. The data collected will provide evidence of current teaching practice and will continue to drive the direction of whole school professional learning.

Amanda Keane
Assistant Principal, Curriculum and Instruction

Following a 5-year hiatus, the Great Fete returned on Sunday with glorious weather and wonderful community spirit. It was lovely to see the thrill on the faces of our children, be entertained with their talents, and welcome so many of our current and past families as well as the general community back to the Great Fete. A final Fete newsletter will be issued next week but, in the meantime, we would like to take this opportunity to pass on our gratitude to everyone who made Sunday a success.

A big thank you to all who supported the Fete with their time and resources. Thank you to our parents, carers, grandparents and family members for your donations for mufti days, for selling raffle tickets, baking and volunteering. To everyone who helped, thank you. Everyone has contributed in some way to the success of the Great Fete and we are thrilled to announce that together, we have raised over $37,000.00. What a tremendous effort for the benefit of our school. These funds will be used towards the upgrades to the Basketball court and the playground. 

We would also like to thank our Principal Greg McLaren, the School Executive and school staff for their support. Thank you for working alongside us and ensuring that nothing was ever too much trouble. Thank you to the School staff for their Lucky dip stall and to OOSH and all their volunteers for their Sand Art stall. We appreciate your ongoing support of our community.

We are also very grateful to our Fete sponsors and supporters. A special shout out to our Principal Sponsor, Di Jones, our Major Sponsors, Robert Cliff Master Jewellers Shine Bright Dental, Sophie Lea Photography and CBK Select Tuition. 

This year’s Great Fete would not be made possible without the hard work of the Great Fete committee led by Tym Richardson, our SGPS P&C President and supported by a team of dedicated committee members. On behalf of our school community, thank you to the Fete Committee and their families for all you have done to make the Fete a success:
Tym Richardson
Fiona Young
Matt young
Ivanna Sukkar
Katie Pike
Kally Mitchell
Jaimy McGilvray
Srishti Mehta
Mahiyar Hira
Paddy Jessing
Dannii Miesch
Lauren Wright
Jana Luchman
Jacqueline Quinn
Abbey Huang

The Father’s Day Stall this year will be held on Monday 28^th and Tuesday 29^th August. Students attending the Hills Performing Arts Festival on Tuesday 29^th are welcome to attend on Monday during lunch or after lunchtime if they are scheduled on Tuesday. Please check which day your child/children are scheduled to attend the stall and send in cash to attend the stall. Items are priced between $1 - $10 and children are welcome to purchase more than one item. We need volunteers to help run the Stall and serve the children so if you can assist on the day, please sign up here: https://signup.com/go/reHvPa 

Our annual Father’s Day BBQ is scheduled for Friday 1 September 7:30am-8:30am. Our students love welcoming their Dad’s, Grandpa’s and special Father Figures onsite to share some time together at school. Please book and pay by Wednesday 30 August here: https://www.trybooking.com/CKYZC. Also, if you can help, we need volunteers to assist some of the OOSH and school staff to cook and serve. Please sign up at https://signup.com/go/reHvPaP. 

Events for your radar: Please note these events for your calendar.
· Band Camp - Wednesday 30-Thursday 31^st of August
· Father’s Day Breakfast and Jersey Day – Friday 1st of September
· P&C September Meeting – Tuesday 12^th September 7:30pm in the Library
· P&C October Meeting: Tuesday 10^th October 7:30pm School Library
· Interrelate (Years 3 – 6) Online on Tuesday 24 October
- Where Did I Come From: 6pm
- Preparing for Puberty: 7:15pm
· P&C AGM: Tuesday 14^th November 7:30pm (General Meeting followed by AGM)
· Mother/Daughter Camp – 18-19^th of November – This event is for Mum’s and daughters in Years 3 – 6. 

More information: For more information on events and news please check out the following: 

• Website: www.sgpspc.org.au 
• Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SGPSPC
• School website: www.samuelgilbertnsw.edu.au 
• School app: You can find the link to the school app on our front page of the www.sgpspc.org.au website 

Elizabeth Tye
SGPS P&C Vice President
etye@sgpspc.org.au

The Bands have had so much fun in the past week! They did an amazing job commencing the entertainment on the Main Stage at the School Fete to a great crowd. Thank you so much to all our parent helpers for setting and packing up the stage so quickly and smoothly.
We also had great success at The Hawkesbury Eisteddfod on Tuesday. Although there were several students missing from our Bands (particularly the Concert Band who were missing a quarter of their members) due to a clash with Primary Proms, the groups carried on and did our School very proud.

            Training Band – 1st Place

            Concert Band – Highly Commended

            Performance Band – 1st Place

Next week the Bands are off to Grose Vale for Band Camp! An email was sent out with the final arrival and pick up details for camp as well as a packing list. Please email Briony at sgpsbandcoordinator@gmail.com if you did not receive this information. The students will be starting a huge amount of new repertoire which we look forward to hearing in Term 4.

Term 4 Dates
Sunday, 22nd October – INVITATIONAL CONCERT

•        Concert at the Harvey Lowe Pavillion in the Afternoon

•        Please RSVP in Bandforte to this event if you haven’t already

 If you have any further questions, please contact Briony at sgpsbandcoordinator@gmail.com

Wow! What a fantastic Book Week we have had, the Book Character Parade on Monday was brilliant, so many fantastic costumes worn by the students and the teachers! We had a huge Hogwarts group including teachers and students, Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, Madam Hooch, Hagrid, Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Luna and so many more characters were represented on the day. Dr. Seuss was also strongly represented with many Thing Ones and Thing Twos, the Lorax, Horton and a number of Cats in Hats as well as One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. We also had some very hungry caterpillars, Wimpy Kids, Disney Villains, Wicked Witches, Willy Wonka, Maverick Pilots and Dogman.

A number of our very helpful library monitors were moving around the parade taking photos, some are included here, they really outdid themselves, taking over 500 photos throughout the parade, we will be organising many of these photos over the coming weeks, so keep an eye out for some future displays.

Some special Thank-yous must me given out to all that helped with the day, in particular; Mrs Medcalf for her skill with the music for the day, Mr Lau for his role as Parade Leader, to all the teachers for dressing up, all the students for their enthusiasm and wonderful behaviour and also to all the parents and carers for helping make costumes, dressing up and coming along on the day. You have all shown overwhelming support of such a fun and important event in the support of quality children’s literature and helping to foster a love of reading in all our students.

The Thursday Morning Read is back on this week and will be continuing every Thursday Morning at 8:20am in the Tiered Learning Space in the Library. All are welcome, students, siblings, parents, and grandparents, come along and listen to two fun stories before school. Book Week had us see special edition Morning Read sessions on Monday and Wednesday mornings, we had two guest readers this week; Mr Wicks read “Where the Lyrebird Lives” by Vikki Conley and Mrs Medcalf read “Book Week Bear” by Rory H. Mather. I look forward to other teachers coming forward to volunteer to be guest readers at future Thursday Morning Read days.

The Premiers Reading Challenge has now closed for students, I will be finalising all the student entries and their certificates will be processed and sent to the school as soon as possible. Don’t forget to continue with your reading journey throughout the rest of the year, Premier’s Reading Challenge 2024 is just around the corner.  

Heath McKenzie lives and works in a very small suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and has worked with numerous clients and publishers worldwide. He has written over 40 picture books and collaborated with numerous authors including Nazeem Hussain, Justine Clarke, Josh Pyke, Tim Cahill and more! He is quite possibly best known for his work on the Do Not Open This Book series with Andy Lee. Heath is also the illustrator of 2023's National Simultaneous Storytime book, The Speedy Sloth by Rebecca Young.

Heath McKenzie has worked with many publishers and production companies. Heath is generally inspired by too much television, too many movies and music (lots of music). He is specifically inspired by movie posters, 50s and 60s commercial art, Japanese signs and cartoons (anything animated, really).

Some of Heath’s books include; Why is the Sky Blue? Beware, Bewar the Drop Bear! You Get What You Get and You Don’t Get Upset, Money Doesn’t Grow on Trees, You Don’t Have to Like it, You Just Have to Eat it! The Wildest Book Week Ever! Zoo School, Zoo House, Now That’s a Hat! Don’t Butt in, Butt Out! Nothing but Oranges and The Amazing Never-Ending Book, just to name a few. So come along to our school library and find some of Heath McKenzie’s work to borrow and enjoy.

Yours in reading,

Adam Hands,
Librarian

Shop Hours: 
Monday 8.30am -9.30am & Wednesday 2.30pm – 3.30pm

Only one family per time will be served in the shop.

Please book through the P&C website: //www.sgpspc.org.au/uniformshopappointment// and follow any updates from the P&C or school about COVID safe measures.

Out of stock:
-Trackpants size 6: these are out of stock until summer delivery in September. Please advise by email if you wish to cancel your order, or wait until they come in.
- Sport’s shirts size 12 and sport’s shorts size 14: delivery due on 8/09/23.
- Navy socks shoe size 13-3: due in with summer orders. 

Deliveries:
Summer stock is due to arrive late Term 3, early Term 4.

Preloved Stock: 
We have plenty of items available at very good prices. Donations always welcome. These can be left at the School Office, the Canteen or at the Uniform Shop. Please block out previous child’s name on items if at all possible.

Kindergarten 2024:
Parents with older children at the school are encouraged to order online on Munch Monitor where possible, for delivery to older sibling’s class. Please consider purchasing second hand stock for the emergency set of clothes for your Kinder child’s school bag.

Stocktake: 
We will be doing our yearly stocktake in Week 10 of Term 3. However, the shop will continue to be open at the normal times.

 Kind Regards,

Sheryl Naylor
SGPS P&C Uniform Shop Manager
Email: //uniformshop@sgpspc.org.au//

Week 7
Monday, 28 August: Fathers' Day Stall for Years 3-6 and 2P and any Stage 1 Dancers
Tuesday, 29 August: Fathers' Day Stall for Years 3-6 and 2P and any Stage 1 Dancers
Wednesday, 30 August: Band Camp and Hawkesbury Dance Eisteddford
Thursday, 31 August: Band Camp
Friday, 1 September: Jersey Day and Fathers' Day Breakfast 

Week 8
Monday, 4 September: Swimming Scheme commences for Year 2
Tuesday, 5 September: Kindy & Year 1 Spring Carnival