On Monday 15 March one of our Gawura Ambassadors, renowned Indigenous opera singer Deborah Cheetham, visited our school specifically to interact and engage with our Indigenous Strings Quintet Group. Deborah also brought her Indigenous ensemble group: the Short Black Opera. Our students performed for them and then they performed for us along with one of their players who joined us via Zoom from Albany in Western Australia.

This was a wonderful afternoon where our students saw where their own instrument playing could lead them in the future. Deborah is a strong advocate for the music strings program at our Gawura School and has agreed to come back and perform again for our students. It would be wonderful one day to have a full Indigenous Strings Ensemble in our high school. Thank you to our Quintet group of performers across Years 1-5 who consist of Nyarla, Tilly, Talaara, Eleanor and Kallarah.

We look forward to speaking with our families on Tuesday 23 March at the Parent Teacher Interviews. Thank you to those parents who have already booked a time.

The last day of Term 1 will be next Wednesday 31 March. We wish you all a pleasant break and the first day back for our students K-12 for Term 2 will be Tuesday 20 April.

Have a wonderful and safe holiday ahead.

John Ralph
Head of Gawura

Positive parenting - role models

As parents we are all seeking to raise healthy kids, who have the skills and character to live flourishing lives. Positive parenting nurtures the development of children’s core abilities and involves emphasis and loving attention on building a child’s strengths and resilience. One of the many ways you can apply the research on positive parenting into your day to day life with your children is through being a positive role model.

5 Ways to Be a Positive role model for our children

Parents influence their children in profound ways by how they live their lives and do the “right” things, even when no one else is looking. Kids learn how to solve problems, respond to challenges and critically think about the world around them, in part, by observing their parents. Some of the key ways parents can model positive parenting behaviours are:

1. Manage your emotions. Anger is one of the greatest blocks to forming meaningful human relationships. When adults act impulsively, yell at one another, or seek revenge, children follow suit. This kind of behaviour can lead to unkind acting out in school, and children not developing the skill of self-regulation – the ability to stop or delay an action rather than behaving impulsively.

2. Stop the blame game and help kids do the same! When you are about to blame someone else for a problem, stop! Think about your own role in the problem, show empathy for others, and focus on the solution rather than culpability.

3. Admit your mistakes. Children are growing up in a world with unrealistic demands for perfection. When adults admit and learn from mistakes, open themselves to feedback, laugh at themselves and take responsibility for their actions and decisions, children learn to do the same.

4. Work hard to accomplish your goals. When adults set goals and persevere to achieve them despite obstacles, they model invaluable skills to their children. As appropriate for your child’s age, don’t be afraid to show kids how you are working to overcome challenges in your own life. Be positive and hopeful.

5. Role Model your thinking out loud. As adults most of our responses and thoughts occur internally, which means that our children cannot hear them and learn from us. If we speak out loud, demonstrating the way that we are positively managing our emotions or our responses to a challenge then our children can also learn what their internal self talk could sound like.

So if you would like to find out more about these things please go to: https://sacs.nsw.schooltv.me/newsletter/positive-parenting. There you will find some really interesting interviews, clips with experts, a reflection quiz and articles on this topic.

SchoolTV is a P&F funded parenting resource for our SACS parents.

Bronwyn Wake
Junior School and Gawura School Counsellor and Well Being Coordinator

To honour the out-of-this-world reading that happens in our school, we have created a display for Premier’s Reading Challenge completions. When students successfully complete the challenge, a planet will be added to the display with their name on it. A number of students have already completed the challenge, as have a few of our teachers. There is some debate about how many library walls will be taken up with planets by the end of the Challenge.

The list of CBCA notables for 2021 has been released. Congratulations to Gabriel Evans, who visited our school during Book Week last year and whose latest book Norton and the Bear has made it to the notables list.

School holidays are a great time for students to continue their learning, growing and knowing through reading. We allow students to borrow double their normal limits for school holiday reading. Reading together as a family is a great way to encourage your child's literacy development, build closer bonds and create beautiful lifelong memories. Let your child share their favourite stories with you and be willing to read them over and over again. Create a family tradition where classics or family favourites are read in the school holidays. Make a cosy corner in your home, where your kids know they can go (with you) to curl up and read a good book. Reading is a special way to get to know your child – what they like, what they are fascinated by, what makes them laugh and what makes them cry.

With you in the joy of reading,

Nicole Cotter
Coordinator of Digital and Information Literacy – JS & GS

SACS Ensemble etiquette

A friendly reminder that if your child is enrolled in a morning music ensemble, they need to arrive at least 5 minutes prior to the start time so that there are no interruptions to the rehearsal. If your child is absent, please notify Mr Milis to let him know why they are away. We do keep a student roll in our ensembles as we are serious about consistent attendance. This ensures that our ensembles can be performing at the best possible level!

Music Practice – more about the elusive P word!

Last newsletter, I included a list of things parents can do to encourage their children to practice. Some of these things included creating a positive mindset around practice, establishing routine and providing a distraction free area.

Here are some more points to consider, as we do know that it is only in rare circumstances that children will have the initiative to practice of their own will.

When it feels like a chore, remember:
• Practising music is HARD. It is worthwhile, but requires specific skill in the “how” to practice domain. Consult your tutor regularly and use the practice diary for advice on how your child should be practising. Practice is often about quality over quantity, especially in the earlier years!
• Learning music is an abstract skill. Do not be fooled into thinking that it will always be “fun.” The rewards of music learning come when students have had help at home to learn the discipline of practice, and can master the skills they have been working on in their lessons.
• Be present for your child’s practice. You do not need to be musical to be present. It can be a challenging line between being overbearing and being helpful with a child’s practice, so take the time to work out how you can make it work in your home. Even if your child is in the kitchen and playing for you as you prepare dinner, you can be asking them “did that scale sound like it should?” or “what do you think your tutor would say about the way you did that? Was it how they’d accept it?”
• Remember why you are persisting. Music is a wonderful skill in its own right, but by giving your child the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, you are giving them a myriad of other transferrable skills which have been proven to help them in other areas of their lives. Discipline, teamwork, persistence and executive function are just a few of the skills which can be developed.

Finally, I strongly encourage parents to spend the 17 minutes watching this TED talk by Dr Anita Collins which she presented in 2014 on the benefits of music education.

https://www.ted.com/talks/anita_collins_the_benefits_of_music_education?language=en

Keep at it parents! You are doing a great job. As always, please feel free to contact me if you wish to discuss your child’s music education in more detail.

Ben Milis
JS Music Teacher and Chapel Music Coordinator

We had the annual ASISSA Swimming Carnival on Thursday 11 March at the Warringah Aquatic Centre. We took a strong team of 30 swimmers to represent the school in the first interschool carnival since 2019! Congratulations to all swimmers who did us proud on the day and in particular James Chandra, Anthony Wu and David Kim who qualified for the NSWCIS Carnival.We also had each of our relay teams receive a ribbon on the day, which was an awesome little demonstration of how well they swam together as a team. Well done!

We have finished up our summer season for Stage 3 Saturday sport with plenty of great results and positive experiences over the term. Each of the teams have developed well and are clearly having plenty of fun playing with their classmates on a weekly basis. We’re about to begin winter sport program. If your child is in Stage 3 and would like to play either rugby or netball please email – tdunseath@sacs.nsw.edu.au.

Tony Dunseath
Assistant Year 8 Coordinator, Curriculum Coordinator, Junior School Teacher

How you can help promote Reading Comprehension with your child

The teachers in the Junior School have been looking at our reading and comprehension data over the past weeks. We have decided to look closely at comprehension and some strategies that enable students’ comprehension to improve. These strategies then, are seen to improve skills of:

1. Determining key details;
2. Understanding the structure of text (story/book);
3. Making inferences and;
4. Synthesizing the main idea of the text (story/book).

There are various ideas that have been suggested you might like to have a go at implementing:

1. Provide a range of texts (eg. story books, animations, graphic/ comic type representations, video, audio, diagrams/charts, fiction, non-fiction) for your child to read

2. Identify and discuss vocabulary from rich texts with your child. (Look for tricky words and let the child try to define in their own words, or you share a meaning and ask them to share back the meaning in their own words)

3. Provide time to talk about the texts they read and have listened to, or even a television show they have watched. Talk about how the text/story/ episode makes them feel, what it makes them think of, what they see in their head (visualise in their head as they read/ watch). Provide time for your child to talk, draw or write about and reflect on their reading, e.g. if reading a story about the beach, perhaps draw a picture of themselves at the beach they have just read about, what they would be doing.

4. Encourage them to reread a page, on the second and even third re-reading they will comprehend the passage even better than just a one-off reading. This strategy will also improve your child’s fluency which in turn will improve comprehension.

5. Model how to read a page and retell the story in your own words (this is comprehension and synthesis of information). Then have your child read and retell the next page, retelling the story in their own words. This will boost their comprehension better than anything else.

Whilst your child is completing homework, it may be helpful to use some of these ideas;

In our Big Write times, we have used some of these strategies. Book reviews for homework also provide an opportunity to write and reflect on what students have read.

Keeping it simple though, for the busyness of today’s world, research is suggesting that the simplest way for comprehension to improve is to – read, retell, read, retell.

Read – you read a chapter or page to your child.

Retell - you retell the chapter or page to your child in your own words

Read – your child reads the same or next chapter or page to you.

Retell – your child tells you in their own words what has happened in the pages they have read.

Please try these strategies at home and we guarantee they will promote your child’s understanding.

Joy Rohrlach
Year 5 Leader

Year 5 had the most amazing time at Kirrikee recently. The students were so excited to be travelling there and the buses were abuzz with chatter and laughter. The students were divided into 5 groups and each group did a different activity each part of the day. Activities included go kart making and riding, abseiling, bush walks, animal habitat investigation and habitat creating. The food was awesome and some staff who shall remain nameless actually went back 4 times!! It was a really wonderful bonding time for all of the Year 5 students and fabulous for staff to see their class in a different environment and learning space.

Joy Rohrlach
Year 5 Leader

Year 6 were thrilled to be able to travel to Canberra earlier this month and were very fortunate to have the most stunning weather for their 3 days there! We visited a variety of significant places in Canberra, with Parliament House being one of our favourites. It was thrilling to sit in the Senate and House of Representatives and be able to learn more about politics and the leaders of Australia, past and present. Another highlight was Questacon. Year 6 had so much fun trying out all of the experiments and games throughout!

We also visited Old Parliament House, the Mint, the AIS, the War Memorial, went on a lovely cruise on Lake Burley Griffin, wandered around Mt Ainslie and had an awesome time exploring the Arboretum! Our bus drivers took us on a tour of all the Embassies where we learnt about their purpose and the style in which they were built.

Year 6 demonstrated exceptional behaviour and respect, while consolidating all of the learning we have done in class.Please note that support of the Australian Government through the PACER grant contribution has increased to $30 per student, instead of the previously announced $20, which has reduced the overall cost a further $10 per student, reducing the overall amount for this trip, which is drawn against the student levy.

Katrina O'Malley
Year 6 Leader

On Monday 15 March, Year 6 was fortunate enough to take a break from learning in our classrooms and head to the lovely Royal Botanic Gardens to investigate a wide variety of local native plants which were integral in the life of the first Australians. We looked at how Indigenous people of the Sydney area used plants for food, medicine, tools and weapons. We were extremely lucky to have headed out on a glorious Autumn day, so we took the opportunity to play in the open areas of the garden while we were there, much to the joy of students!

Katrina O'Malley
Year 6 Leader

The National Assessment Program

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is a point in time assessment of literacy and numeracy skills that are essential for every child to progress through school and life. Students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 participate in the annual NAPLAN tests in writing, reading, conventions of language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy.

Our school will be participating in NAPLAN Online between 11 and 21 May 2021.

In preparation for NAPLAN Online, our school will also be participating in practice tests in Week 9. The practice test is a trial-run and key preparation activity for NAPLAN Online in May. It is not an assessment of student ability and the tests will not be marked.

Excessive preparation for NAPLAN Online is not recommended. Students can use the public demonstration site (https://www.nap.edu.au/online-assessment/public-demonstration-site) to familiarise themselves with the types of questions and tools available in the NAPLAN Online tests.

If you have any questions about NAPLAN Online, please contact our K-6 Curriculum Coordinator Mrs Susie Moffatt: smoffatt@sacs.nsw.edu.au.

Susie Moffatt
Curriculum Coordinator K 6

Sports tracksuit and raincoat

New tracksuit

Introducing our new sports tracksuit for K-12.

These new tracksuits jackets provide wind protection and are waterproof and fleece lined for those cold Sydney mornings. They are light weight, breathable, durable and comfortable. They also have zipper pockets for safe storage.

The new tracksuit pants provide wind protection, with a comfort stretch for being active during the winter months.

NB. The old-style tracksuit will continue to be part of the regular school uniform with a changeover period of 2 years.

New winter jacket/raincoat

This new jacket is design for those wet winter mornings to go over your children's blazers. They are fully lined and waterproof.

All items are available from the uniform shop in store or from the webstore.

The Middle and Senior School Eco Club have just started the MobileMuster campaign, to get people to recycle old and broken mobile phones and accessories.

Inside the St Andrew's Cathedral School foyer and at BBC reception, the Eco Club has placed a green MobileMuster box. In this box students, staff and parents can place their used phones, chargers, other tech accessories e.g. smart watches and headphones.We accept all kinds of phones and these phones do not need to be dismantled.The collection runs until Monday 7 June (Week 7, Term 2), and we hope to collect as many items as possible so please bring in any old or broken phones you can.

Middle School Eco Club
Elizabeth Skipsey and Tara Ball

The Association of Parents & Friends presents

The P&F invite you to a fun evening with other parents without the pressures of children, drop offs, lost property or any of the other things that fill your week.

It’s a great way to get to know the other families that are a part of our school.

Food and drink included in ticket price.

Event details:
Date: Friday 23 April
Time: 6pm – 8pm (parents are welcome to stay later at their own expense)
Price: $30 each, includes food and drink
Venue: Level 7 Rooftop Bar, Primus Hotel, 339 Pitt St, Sydney
Bookings: through https://is.gd/BUop4D tickets go on sale 12pm on Thursday 25 March

Please book early as this event is capped at a maximum of 120 guests.

TheirCare is offering a holiday program full of fun activities, to view their full Easter holiday program  and the pupil free day program on Tuesday 19 April program, click here.

Wednesday and Friday appointments available

I would like to advise you that we have secured the services of a very generous doctor in the city who is willing to see our Gawura students and their families free of charge (he will bulk bill through Medicare) if the need arises.

Dr Shuo (Shore) Zhao is located at Level 1, 70 Pitt St, Sydney. You can book an appointment with him on any Wednesday and Friday morning between 8.00am – 12.00pm. The number of the practice is Ph: 02 9233 3399. We understand that many parents already have their own doctor that they use, possibly even through the Aboriginal Medical Service (AMS) in Redfern but this is just another option for you to use if you choose to do so and one that is located in the city, near our school.