South Grafton Public School would like to thank everyone who supported our Book Fair this year. It has been a huge success with sales raising over $10,000 which we think might be a record total at our school!

We receive a commission from the book sales which we utilise to purchase additional books for our wonderful library. Our thanks to Mrs Heyman and Mrs Vickers for their excellent organisation of this fantastic initiative in our library. It was also very reassuring that so many of our students in our current technology age retain a very big interest in reading books. ‘A good book is always hard to replace’.

Congratulations to all our students who participated in our Book Character Parades last week on both campuses. Thank you to all of our parents who supported this outstanding activity with the amazing costumes our students wore from K-6. We had a fantastic day and everyone really enjoyed this special occasion.

Congratulations to our school Debating team who debated against Maclean PS last week in the 2nd Round of the Premier’s Debating Challenge. In a close debate our school defeated Maclean PS. The topic of the debate was ‘Students in year 5/6 should cook dinner once a week’ and our team was the negative team. Congratulations to Elise, Annabel, Zoe and Grace on their excellent efforts. We have been very impressed with their continued growth in debating this year. Our next debate will be held against Grafton PS later this term. Thank you to Mr Davey from the NSW DEC Arts unit for adjudicating this debate.

Thank you to all our parents and their children who participated in our first Kindergarten Orientation PPP activity which was posted on our Facebook page last week. We have had a very positive response to this initative. We have posted our preschoolers finished work which is of a very high quality on our Faceook page. Preschoolers, keep an eye out for a certificate recognising your fabulous work. Parents if you missed this weeks or any week you can scroll back on our news feed to find the activity. Our PPP participation home packs for our preschoolers are available from our Infants office. If you have already returned your child’s enrolment form please contact the Infants office to arrange collection or return your enrolment form asap so you may collect this pack for your child. This pack will include pencils, scissors, glue stick, white board marker, a personalised laminated name sheet and all required resources to participate in the online PPP activities. We will also be emailing out a series of fact sheets for school readiness.

Congratulations to our boys and girls Soccer teams who played against Grafton PS in a gala day format. All our students performed with excellent team spirit and great sportsmanship.

Congratulations to Mrs McGrath and her team of wonderful mathematicians who prepared an excellent submission to enter the Mathematics Association of New South Wales Investigating in Mathematics competition. The presentation was of an excellent quality and the team achieved a merit certificate which is an outstanding performance as this competition is at an elite level.

Congratulations to our students who will be receiving their Silver Badges at our special assembles. Our first Infants Silver Badge will be held on Wednesday 9th September and our first Primary Silver Badge will be held on Tuesday 15th September. Unfortunately parents are unable to attend these morning teas but we will still make these presentations a very special event for these wonderful students.

Thank you to our families who completed the recent Tell Them From Me ‘Partners in Learning Survey’. We really appreciate your feedback as it provides information about the extent to which our parents feel our school supports learning and positive behaviour and promotes a safe and inclusive environment. All key areas were well above the NSW Government norm which was a great result for our school. The survey results have also shown growth from the previous survey which is a very clear indication of positive school improvement. The survey indicated we were particularly strong in the areas of supporting positive behaviour, supporting students learning, safety at school, parents feel welcome and school inclusivity.

We hope all of our dads had a Happy Father’s Day on Sunday.