Dear families,

I hope as I write this newsletter I hope that we have everyone back online with power and heat, and everyone's close ones have been unhurt during those recent storms. I was reading today that some areas are still struggling for power and they need the Army. Wow!

I would like to share a thank you for the small donations you each sent into school on Tuesday. I am sure they will make a big difference to families who are finding life tough. We never know when this could be us.

The free dress was a great welcome back to school, but the underlying message about thinking about others is just as welcome.

We know that building empathy in children leads to them being great citizens who care about others as adults.

Thank you to Jacinta Parolo and Meagan van Den Helm (and anyone I did not spot) who helped bag and move the 100s of items to Lisa at Nourish Network. Lisa was extremely grateful as she did not know this was happening. If you wish to access any support for you and your families, or you know of someone who may benefit from their services please look them up at

We also had a huge turn out for our community clean up. I was overwhelmed by the help and also the amount of work we achieved. The school has never looked better. It has not escaped me that many of you had spent the weekend without power and had been involved in your own family clean ups. Once dad joked that he would do anything to get the kids back to school Tuesday! I also do not know what happened quicker, the tree Paul Cantlay loped that was unsafe OR the chips being eaten by the hungry kiddies. Thanks for the extra help with making the trees safe and to the people who covered the refreshment duties.

COVID UPDATE

We are now back to some areas running smoothly. There are some welcome relaxing of rules.

PE is back in the gym.

Production practice can continue and we very much hope that we can get everyone who wants a ticket to the production. We believe with some further restrictions planned that we will be able to cater for 300 tickets. There may be some prioritising of grade 5 and 6 families who will not see another production, as well as ticket limits this time. We will also have a DVD available.

Camps are able to go ahead as long as are the only group using facilitates at one time. Our understanding is that our 5/6 camp to Phillip Island is able to go ahead under these arrangements.

Face masks are no longer required outside unless the 1.5m social distancing cannot be adhered to.

Adults must wear a face mask inside, however, staff working with students are able to do so without masks, but may wear one if they wish.

Parent volunteers are able to be on-site, based on density limits.

QR codes are located at all entry points. Parents who are on-site must both sign in via the Compass kiosk (this fulfils our risk management and OHS requirements) and also sign in using the QR code (this is for potential contact tracing).

Most parts of our normal school operations are now able to return to normal.

P&F SILLY SOCKS & SCHOOL DISCO

This last one was impacted. We will work on a suitable new date for the disco.

Silly Socks and Walk to School Wednesday is next week on the 23rd. Staff will join the walk from several spots near school. The weather is 14C and 40% rain....fingers crossed that is after 9.00am ; )

SCIENCE @ RHPS

Mrs. Granger and Mr. Taylor have been co-sharing a grant to support them to become Science Specialists in a Primary School setting. They will continue to learn about Science for the next year a half. As part of that journey they will also support class teachers to increase their confidence and ability to teach quality Science on a weekly basis.

Next week the students will complete a short assessment that will provide us with a base of their understanding. It is not related to their reports. We will then introduce more Science opportunities for them to take part in.

Across Semester 2 all students will have a science block with Mrs. Granger, Mr. Taylor and their classroom teacher. I have seen the Science lessons and they are very exciting and they will be engaging for our children. I can't wait to join in.

MUSIC IN SCHOOLS

Ms. Poole and Ms. Allan have been taking part with their grade 1 and 34 classes in some drumming sessions with a mentor called Matt from an organisation called the Soundroom. The students have loved the sessions. We have used a $6000 grant we won to support this and we have also just bought a class set of instruments. Next year we are hoping to take a trip across the globe and learn about Africa.

TUTORING APPROACH - TLI

We are currently reviewing the approaches for tutoring in schools that we had in place over the last term. We will adapt them based on how the students have improved on their reports.

We will be launching a tutoring program in Semester 2 called MacqLit.

MacqLit is an explicit and systematic reading intervention program for small groups of older low-progress readers. It provides teachers with a comprehensive sequence of lessons that includes all the key components necessary for effective reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.

Who is it for?

Ideal for students who fall in the bottom 25% of a standardised reading test or curriculum-based measure, and who have particular difficulties in the area of word recognition.

Specifically aimed at struggling readers in Year 3 through to high school.

Joy Smith has just been appointed 3 days a week to work with students in grade 3-6 in this approach. She will complement the amazing work that Helen Plunkett has undertaken between Prep and Grade 2 with students.

SUCCESSES

Those students have been in the TLI or LLI groups this term and have had a success will receive a letter home next week and a certificate at next week's assembly. There are quite a few!

LAST DAY

School will finish at 1:30 pm this Friday. Assembly will be at 12:45pm and will be recorded and shared on Compass as a link. There are no parents/carers on-site at this point. OSH will run as usual for families and can be booked via 97269396.

Have a wonderful week and a safe and enjoyable holiday break with your children and families.

Craig

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