RIPPONLEA PRIMARY SCHOOL

Principal's Message

SCHOOL HOLIDAYS

As we head into our last week of this term, we would like to congratulate our students on a terrific term of learning and personal development. They have all grown so much over the last term, the most evident of all are our Foundation students who have matured, taking on learning in leaps and bounds and developing life-long connections. Then we also have their buddies in our Year 6 students, who are now preparing to enter their last term of primary school.

 

Ripponlea has been a busy place on all accounts from our production to ending in our House Fun Run. The question we always ask – When is Ripponlea never a busy place of fun, learning, activities, events and so much more? Thank you to each and every one of you, who make Ripponlea Primary School such as special community. 

We wish you all a very relaxing holiday break!

REMINDERS FOR FRIDAY

Whole school dismissal – Term 3 holidays @ 2:30pm

Whole school assembly 9:00am not 2:00pm

 

Fun Run – Come along and enjoy the day with your child/children at 1:15pm. Our student leaders have worked extremely hard to bring this event to our community. This will be their opportunity to display their team work, leadership and support their house groups.

(We are fully aware that on Friday there is a School Strike 4 Climate Rally. We acknowledge the critical importance of this issue and fully support student voice and opinion on this matter. However, we also encourage students to demonstrate their support and concern in a way that will not detract from their participation in a house event).

If your family is planning for an absence from school, please log this via the COMPASS portal.

CONGRATULATIONS TO KYLIE JEFFARES 

Last Monday, we attended a special presentation at Glen Eira Town Hall to acknowledge Kylieas a recipient of the 2019 Caulfield Volunteer Award. Kylie was surrounded by family, friends and council members. It was a lovely ceremony to mark over 15 years of contribution to our community, starting at our very own Ripponlea Kinder. Please see her nomination below and some photos from the evening.

 

"If there is one parent that everyone at Ripponlea Primary School (RPS) knows, it is Kylie Jeffares. That’s because she is a force unto her own. Her contribution to the community is unrivalled and her impact on shaping our school is remarkable. Kylie has three daughters, and after 11 years at RPS, her youngest finishes this year, so it is timely that we are nominating Kylie for this award.

On top of her busy career, Kylie has been a School Council member for 15 years plus the convenor of the School and Community Partnerships Committee that is responsible for coordinating our school events. This includes our Welcome Picnic, biennial school fete, school canteen, annual Twilight Market, Election Day events and biennial art function. The list goes on. She manages rosters, writes communication for the newsletter, wrangles donations for our silent auctions, BBQs sausages, orders equipment, sets up stalls, coordinates marketing etc.  She is the first (and last) parent at every function, ensuring they run like clockwork. Under her guidance, they always do.

She is also the ultimate collaborator - working with parents and staff, Ripponlea Kindergarten (where she was a Committee member for many years) and the wider community to create shared opportunities for all.

She commits herself to every job with zeal, and we would not be in the position we are in today without her tireless efforts.

RPS is renowned for its wonderful community and active parent involvement, and without a doubt, this is because of Kylie’s influence. She’s a shining example of true community spirit."

 

INDIGENOUS LITERACY FOUNDATION – BOOK SWAP

Aligning with Indigenous Literacy Day on 4 September, we held our inaugural Great Book Swap to help reduce the disadvantage faced by children in remote Indigenous communities. Our Barrbunin was transformed into a veritable book market with students given the opportunity to take home a pre-loved book donated by a peer. Donations from students and from our wonderful community amounted to $542 – a sensational effort. These funds have been given to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation to spend on culturally appropriate books, translation of books into first languages, the Book Buzz early literacy program, and community literacy projects. Thank you to all students, families and staff who helped make this occasion a success.

 

WORKING BEE - THANK YOU 

The list was endless and the weather was not so kind to us the weekend before last. However, despite all of this we were able to achieve a great amount of work that was very satisfying for both our volunteer parents and students alike.

All this was made possible due to the hard work of our amazing volunteers:

  • Weeding and preparing the Italian Garden for planting
  • Trimming trees, cleaning the front of the school
  • Cleaning up the productive garden
  • New guards and stakes across all new planted trees
  • Spreading special mulch on all the new trees
  • Spreading sand into the sandpit and long jump pit
  • Sweeping, pruning and general clean up
  • Laying new mod wood flooring in our storage containers behind the Barrbunin (Ben & James - an all day effort!!!)
  • Cleaning and sorting the Snack Shack
  • Vacuuming the synthetic oval
  • Mowing the lawns 
  • Installing our paling people in the Italian garden
  • Fixed flagpole at the front of the school
  • Cubby house cleanout and new kitchen donated by the Hast family

We would like to thank the following families who contributed their time, skills and good spirits to get some very important jobs done: Ben & Nicole (parents of Millie ), Jonathan & Suzanne (parents of Henry), Robyn & James (parents of Harry, Billie & Archie), Cleo & Craig (parents of Nelly & Asher) Cynthia (parent of Jun), Tegwen & Ben (parents of Pippi & Oscar), Brianna & Robert (parents of Hugh & Maya), Nicklas & Bronwyn (parents of Hugo & Elena), Colin & Nina (parents of Nate & Leonard), Kylie (parent of Ashlee), Bridget (parent of Lily & Tex). If we missed your name on our list we are truly sorry and thank you as well. 

Thank you to our king on the BBQ – Martyn Rose.

NAPLAN RESULTS

It was not that long ago that our students in Year 3 and Year 5 sat the NAPLAN testing schedule and now their families have received an official report from the VCAA – Victorian Curriculum & Assessment Authority. NAPLAN is only one piece of data that the school collects to track and monitor student progress over time. NAPLAN is important as it provides information for school authorities and schools to review the effectiveness of their teaching and learning practices and to address any areas requiring improvement. Based on the 2019 results, we can report the following achievements for the school and our students.

 

Lots of improvements in our results in Reading, Writing, Spelling, Grammar & Punctuation and slightly lower in our results for Numeracy, which is an area we are going to focus on in 2020, but these are still above the state.

We see that most results fall above the state mean, apart from Spelling. Over the last few years we have focused on improving Writing, which is steadily improving when we look at our overall trend data from 2017. 

RIPPONLEA STUDENTS SHARE THEIR OPINIONS

We also received the results from the Students Attitudes to School surveys. These surveys were conducted earlier this year amongst Year 4, 5, & 6 students. We had the opportunity to meet with all students and feedback the results. It was very interesting to hear their perspectives on some of the survey variables and their interpretations of the questions. We saw very similar results to last year. We have been aiming to ensure that over 75% or more of students are feeling positive about their learning, school and student connectedness, learning dispositions and resilience. We continue to focus on all these areas through the work of the Student Engagement and Wellbeing team, our curriculum on Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships, and the School Wide Positive Behaviour Support Framework.

RUOK DAY

R U OK? Day is a national day of action dedicated to reminding everyone to ask, “Are you OK?” and to remember every day of the year to support people who may be struggling with life’s ups and downs. This year it took place on Thursday 12th September.

To acknowledge this day, the staff and students of Ripponlea Primary School tied yellow wool around their wrists to remind them to ask others, ‘Are you OK?’

It is important that everyone feels confident they know the signs someone might need support by listening to what they’re saying, seeing what they’re doing or knowing what’s going on in their life. It is important that whenever you notice a change, no matter how small, you need to trust your gut and start an R U OK? conversation. Please use this link to find out more: https://www.ruok.org.au/

 

How to start a conversation

MARKET DAY – YEAR 5/6 EARN & LEARN

The 5/6 students have been fully immersed in ‘Earn and Learn’. This has meant earning a weekly salary, furnishing a house and paying weekly bills. To allow them to experience some of the pressures and expectations of running their own business, the students were required to create their own business and sell a product or service at ‘Market Day’. ‘Market Day’ was held on Monday 9th September.

They had to resource everything they needed and keep any receipts. All loans for purchases were to be recorded so that they could be paid back afterwards. Any profits were collected and the stall with the largest profit could pick a charity to send this money to.

This was a day of lessons – profit was not a guarantee and reflection was important. These were the lessons which will hopefully help to influence any future financial decision making.

Overall, it was an afternoon of celebration and fun. Over $500 was raised with the money going to the Epilepsy Foundation. Congratulations to Anna, Stella and Milla on earning the most profit on the day and well done to the entire cohort.

 

PLEASE DON'T FORGET WE HAVE A SPECIAL CYBER SAFETY TALK TONIGHT 6:00PM IN THE MAIN BUILDING

We hope you all enjoy a wonderful holiday ...

                                                    Natalie Rose                                        Jess Grey

                                                          Principal                                     Assistant Principal