By Mikayla van Loon
Gladesville Primary School hosted a wet and wintery end of year celebration and Christmas Carols event despite the wind and rain on Wednesday 14 December.
Bringing together family and friends, each year level performed on stage to a rendition of some famous Christmas songs.
Donning Christmas t-shirts and Santa hats, the Foundation students were first to perform, followed by the Grade 1s, 2s and 3s, while the senior students prepared for a very secretive performance.
Coming to principal Nicki Wood in September to discuss the concert set list, the Grade 4, 5 and 6’s had to improve on their much loved end of year performance from 2021.
In doing so, most teachers were left in the dark about the mystery show but weren’t disappointed with the senior cohort delivering a choreographed and costumed ‘School of Jazz’ performance called ‘Hot Chocolate’.
It ended the night with smiles and laughter after months of rehearsals, particularly for the Grade 6s to say goodbye to Gladesville.
The end of year celebration was also marked by some awards for both students and parents.
“Our school community has made a decision and we recognise student leadership, we recognise staff leadership and as of this year moving forward each year, we’re going to have a Community Leadership Award for one of our fabulous adults in the community,” Ms Wood said.
The inaugural award this year went to Gladesville Garden lead Melissa Strangio.
“Melissa is receiving this award due to her outstanding leadership in initiating the process for the development of the Gladesville garden and subsequent Gladesville gardeners or GG’s as they’re known,” Ms Wood said.
“So Melissa saw a need at the school she sourced a grant, she spoke with me and applied for the grant and then led the entire development of the project and for that Melissa you are an amazing leader in our community and we thank you very much.”
Gladesville also said thank you and goodbye to two long standing families who had been with the school for 12 and 14 years respectively.
