Principal's Report 

This fortnight at Rangeview we have been busy with a huge range of activities and learning tasks. Our long distance runners participated in District Cross Country, Level 2 and 3 had Netball Clinics, Level 6 had a Leadership Incursion, Foundation went to Myuna Farm, we participated in National Simultaneous Storytime, we opened our new playground, the whole school commemorated National Sorry Day, our graduate teachers attended the Graduate Teacher Conference, we held our Foundation 2024 Information night, and we had our Term 2 Curriculum Day! 

National Sorry Day 

On Friday 26th May we commemorated National Sorry Day. National Sorry Day remembers and acknowledges the mistreatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were forcibly removed from their families and communities, which we now know as 'The Stolen Generations'. Our whole school dressed in the colours of the Aboriginal Flag and donated a gold coin to the Mullum Mullum Indigenous Gathering Place. We stopped the school at 11am to hear the National Apology made by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on 13th February 2008. 

Two of our student leaders - Elroy and Ayla - together with Ms Bell and Ms Ferguson, attended the official Sorry Day flag raising at the Whitehorse Council gardens. We heard from Mayor Cr Mark Lane and Aboriginal Elder Uncle Colin Hunter - who performed a smoking ceremony. Our leaders were introduced to Cr Prue Cutts - Deputy Mayor, Whitehorse Council and they got to try some cookies baked with traditional ingredients.

New Playground

On Monday 22nd May we finally opened our new playground - yet to be officially named by our JSC. This playground was the result of a Department of Education Inclusive Schools grant and was built to begin to use the oval banks as play space for our students. Two lucky students in 5/6G and one in 2G were the first to use the slides, and since then they have been used consistently by students in all Levels from 1 - 6. 

Will Fowles our local member for Ringwood, attended the school to celebrate the opening of this wonderful new play space and our School Captain Emily and Student Voice Leader Josephine, were delighted to see that he tried out the big slide himself! Well done Mr Fowles! 

TheirCare

As you are aware we are moving to a new before and after school care provider - TheirCare. TheirCare are commencing from the first day of the school holidays and will be running our school holiday program. Details of the holiday program are below and were sent home as a paper flyer yesterday. 

There will be an information session run by TheirCare at 6pm on Monday 5th June in our school Library. If you are unable to make it to this session and would like more details on the new service, there will be a follow up WebEx session held on Tuesday 13th June at 6pm using the below link;  https://meet299.webex.com/meet299/j.php?MTID=m0f44364d5d3e3cfa4b53a0813c0675b8

Please remember that you need to sign up for the new service with TheirCare using this link   https://theircare.com.au/ 

You will need your own CRN and your child's CRN for your enrolment. These numbers are provided by Centrelink and if you currently use the OSH Club service, can also be found on your OSH Club account page.  Once you have made bookings with TheirCare you can link your child's CRN account to TheirCare. Details of how to do this have been emailed to all families. This step is essential to begin receiving the Child Care Subsidy. Families will not be invoiced by TheirCare until the subsidies are in place. 

Student Led Conferences 

We will be holding our 3-way Student led conferences on Monday 19th and Wednesday 21st June in the afternoon and evening. These will be face to face conferences here at the school and we hope to have interpreters available for those families that request this service. 

These conferences are an opportunity for students to discuss their learning together with their teacher and their family. 

Level 6 Camp

We are looking forward to our Level 6 camp to The Summit from Monday 5th June for 5 days. This adventure camp challenges the students (and the staff) to push their limits and stretch their goals to achieve physical and mental tasks. This is the first camp that will be assisted by parents from our community and we are so thankful to those who have volunteered to go. It is an amazing experience and one which our students reflect on for years to come. We hope our volunteers are ready to get muddy! 

Pupil Free Day – Friday 2nd June

There is a Department of Education requirement that all teaching staff have a Report Writing day as one of the four Pupil Free Days in the school year. This term’s curriculum day will be for this purpose. Education Support staff, admin staff and Principal Class will be onsite on this day and the OSH Club will be providing care for any families that require it.

Thank you to all of our community for another wonderful fortnight of learning at Rangeview. 

Marika Ferguson

Principal