Principal's Message
Winter is certainly on our doorsteps and we are slowly navigating our way through May with only five more weeks before the end of Term 2. This is the opportune time to consider getting a flu injection for all members of your family. Many of our students and teachers have already braved the common cold and we continue to encourage our students to practise good hygiene habits to help prevent the spread of cold and flu viruses.
These include:
- Covering your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing and sneezing.
- Putting used tissues in a bin and washing hands thoroughly afterwards.
- Washing your hands frequently with soap and water or using a hand sanitiser.
Please help us to remind all children, whether at home or at school. We also encourage families to please reconsider when sending a sick or not fully recovered child to school, this only continues to further spread germs across the class and year level.
F-2 SWIMMING
Next week will be a busy week at Starfish Swim School in Bentleigh with each of our junior classes taking part in a water safety and swimming programme. We acknowledge Jo Ritson for her excellent organisation of the programme and sincerely thank all the parent volunteers who have signed up to assist during the lessons. Please do remember that goggles and swim caps are compulsory. We also ask that, for safety reasons, students do not wear crocs or thongs to school before swimming. And very importantly, name everything so that towels, bathers, goggles, etc. return home and are ready to be taken back to school for the following lesson.
YEAR 3/4 EXPO
Amidst our NAPLAN testing, our students also held an incredible presentation of their learning to their family & friends of other year levels. The EXPO was the culmination of learning based on their current unit of inquiry on Classifying Living Things.
This learning was contextual, creative and collaborative. Students worked together on meaningful projects requiring critical thinking, creativity and communication in order to complete complex tasks. They also needed to apply their understanding of multiple academic disciplines to solve genuine, real-life problems. By making learning relevant to students, they see a purpose for mastering required skills and concepts. We certainly noticed the high levels of engagement.
ANNUAL REPORT
Last week before our School Council meeting we presented our 2018 Annual Report. Although this summary covers the previous school year, it was a great opportunity to reflect on the school’s achievements and highlight some further areas of improvement, we are currently working on this year.
Please find a copy of our presentation and a copy of the Annual Report below. This will also be posted on the school’s website and through the VRQA register. If you have any questions regarding the report, please don’t hesitate to speak to any member of the school’s leadership team.
PARKING
We all know that Carrington Grove can be very busy at drop-off and pick-up times. A kind reminder to our community to be mindful of the parking restrictions in place and be considerate of our neighbours. Recent instances of driveways being blocked have caused significant inconvenience for some of our neighbours, so please do check that these are clearly accessible.
SCHOOL COUNCIL UPDATE
A range of new policies were updated at the last School Council meeting (click here to see) . We also continue to proceed with our playground upgrade. School Council and the Facilities and Environment committee have received a number of quotes and designs for the new playground. The students have been consulted on their preferences and we welcome any input from our parents. The playground is a senior playground for students in Year’s 3-6 and our emphasis has been on maximising the space and introducing some new and favourite play pieces throughout. Unfortunately given the election outcome our promise from Josh Burns cannot be fulfilled.
PRODUCTIVE GARDEN
Our Productive Garden is starting to sprout some veggie wonders and the rain is a welcome relief. Ben Shewry and Kylie Staddon are the team from Attica who organised the replanting of our garden, alongside our gardening club parent volunteers and students. Kylie and Ben donated many plants from Attica’s gardens including a significant donation of plants from a nursery named Renaissance Herbs. We have many exciting things to still plan for the productive garden and we will keep our community updated in future months, once we harvest.
THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO - OUR WONDERFUL ES STAFF
The month of May is a time across the globe where we acknowledge the significant contributions of Education Support staff. Every day, ES staff help ensure the smooth and effective running of schools and at Ripponlea, this is particularly true. Our wonderful ES staff – Kim, Lilly, Mark, Natalie P, Rachel, Sarah and Tania – do so much to enrich and support our learning community from providing individual support in the classroom, to organising finances, to overseeing administrative activities, and so much more. Our school is truly blessed to have such a fantastic team and our morning tea celebration this week was but a mere token of our appreciation. On behalf of the RPS students, families and staff, we thank them for the positivity and dedication they bring to our community.
HOPE FOR GLEN EIRA
The generosity of our community was in full force for this appeal and our efforts were mammoth!
Our student leaders helped take the large number of bags to the collection cars, who had to return for a second trip. Words cannot express our thanks for supporting the broader local community. This will be Ripponlea’s 4th year in supporting such a worthy cause.
REPORTING TO PARENTS – SCHOOL REPORTS ON COMPASS
Our aim is to communicate student progress and achievement to parents clearly and effectively. We use a combination of written reports, showcases of learning, student support group meetings, portfolios, three way conferences and sometimes parent teacher interviews.
Currently our teachers are starting to prepare for the first reporting cycle of the year. Teachers have gathered observations, completed checklists of skills, gathered post testing data, completed a range of summative assessments with all students, collected samples of work and have moderated within their teams and across teams for consistency and to be able to make appropriate teacher judgments against the Victorian Curriculum Standards.
At the end of this Semester, each family will receive their child’s report summarising student effort, progress and achievements academically, along with areas for improvement and social development. Accompanying the report will be a student’s current work sample portfolio for parents to review and comment on.
Parents are encouraged to discuss their students learning with their teacher at any time during the year. However, we do ask such discussions are held outside teaching time and that an appointment is made in advance.
Once again the reports will go live via the COMPASS Communication Portal on 26th June 2019.
Until next fortnight!
Natalie Rose Jess Grey
Principal Assistant Principal