Principal Report
Dear Parents and Carers,
Welcome back to 2025. Friday was a happy day at school. It was the first day we had all of our students at school. Our grade 1 to 6 students have had a week to settle into school life. On Friday, they were joined by the preps. There were no tears, and no fears, just super stars as they walked out today to join their parents and carers. They all looked perfect with their new uniforms and bags.
Thank you to the prep team for the assessments this week and to those parents for working with the teachers to tick that initial task off. The data will really help the team start teaching the children at their individual points of need. Once the day started the Parents & Friends (P&F) hosted a welcome morning. I would like to say thank you to Tanya and the team for organsing the first event of the year. They did a better job than Mr Bradley who forgot the drinks. Whoops.
I would also like to extend a thank you to all the staff who have hit the ground running after their summer break to ensure that each child has the very best experience we can offer this week. Thank you all.
Changes for 2025
When we enter a new year, there are always changes. Last year, we shared information on staff that changed. This newsletter I would like to share a little more about the changes we have put in place to support the curriculum needs of running a school.
Maths has moved to Maths 2.0. A revised curriculum for 2025. At the same time, we have been working with a group of numeracy coaches and maths experts at Top Ten Numeracy. The Top Ten approach to maths is a drive for more engagement, more hands-on activities that explore mathematical concepts in the Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract approach (CPA). We have strong maths students, we want them to be even stronger. CPA is proven to be a highly effective approach to teaching that develops a deep and sustainable understanding of maths in students. In time we will also be going further with our explicit pedagogical teaching model. The outcome will be all-round better results for students in maths.
At the same time, we are adapting our approach to reading at RHPS to align with the reading approach being shared by the Department of education. There is also a new English curriculum called English 2.0. This is an approach that sees reading, writing, spelling and speaking and listening move to a systematic explicit model of teaching. We are waiting for more information, however, in the short term, we will be sending decodables home with prep students, as well as focusing on phonics each day with our Prep to Grade 2 students.
We are also supersizing our well-being efforts. We have explored how we improve the well-being of staff and put our efforts into creating a strong culture within our whole school community. We are now focused on delivering an extensive and supportive curriculum to students, through our staff, and supported widely by the community. More information will be shared over the coming weeks on the direction we have chosen for wellbeing.
To fit in more Maths lessons, and go deeper into literacy, some areas of the curriculum have had to change. We have moved Science to a specialist subject and rested Global Arts. We are still committed to LOTE and will continue with 30 minutes per week of French for students in Prep to Grade 2. The students will continue to explore Spanish through DuoLingo with dedicated time allocated each week. Every effort in these classes to link back to cultural studies will be made. There will also be links to history, geography, and economics through our Inquiry subjects.
Support
We will continue to focus on those students that need support in reading through MiniLit and MacqLit as well as small tutoring groups. There will be a maths support group Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday in the Library each morning for grade 3-6 students. We are extending our maths support to include Prep to grade 2 students on Fridays during the school day.
Extension
The students who show us that they need a push will continue to be offered spotlight sessions as well as the high-ability program.
We have also moved our assembly schedule back to a Friday, still on a three-week rotation. This is called Community on your child's schedule. The other weeks we will host Buddy sessions, vertical class groups and more wellbeing in grades 2/3/4. This is where school can get trickier for kids.
Information Nights
On Tuesday 11th February, we warmly welcome all families to our Information Nights. There will be information sessions from year-level teaching teams, as well as specialists. We will also be signposting what has changed this year as your child(ren) transition, as well as sharing information about our school production and end-of-year activities. Think of it as a camp week without the sleepovers.
OSH opportunity
OSH has a great opportunity for someone to join their team. They are looking for someone who can work each morning and afternoon. The OSH team is looking for someone who is confident to supervise students at OSH, and colleagues in the workplace when Debbie and Nicole are absent. There is the offer of certification, as well as reduced rates for RHPS children in OSH. Please send an expression of interest to Jenine.Farley@education.vic.gov.au
by Wednesday 12th February. The role will be advertised on 'recruitment online' and a formal application will be required after the expression of interest.
SCHOOLS’ PRIVACY POLICY
Information for Parents
The School' Privacy Policy informs the school community that information about students can be shared to fulfill the school's core functions of educating and supporting our students. The Schools’ Privacy Policy establishes a clarified ‘need to know’ framework, where school staff share information about students with other staff who need to know as part of their role. This is consistent with Victorian privacy law.
Child Safety
As part of our child safety policy, all visitors to school outside of the drop-off and pick-up times must report to the office.
All visitors need to sign into Compass as a visitor.
You will be handed a visitor badge, you will require a volunteer Working with Children Check and will need to complete an OHS/Child Safe Induction to be in the school during the day.
If you arrive and need to drop off your child we will accompany them to class for you.
We encourage families to pick up children after 3:15 pm. We are grateful for your support.
Parking at school
The parking bays at school are all used by staff. Please do not park in the staff areas. We have disabled bays for families at the front and back carparks. We have passes for students who have extenuating circumstances through the year, like broken bones etc. See below for details.
Kiss-N-Go:
In the mornings, we operate a Kiss-N-Go system after 8:30am, at the front and rear carparks. Please help us by having your child ready to hop out of the car, ready with their belongings. For safety they need to exit on the curb side of the vehicle. If there is a child lock on the curb side door, and a staff member is at the ring road, give them a wave, and they will happily open the door for you.
If you are using the ring road and find yourself needing to wait for someone else's child to get out of their car, we PLEASE ask that you be patient. We never overtake other cars. If you are dropping children for OSHCare, please make sure the ringway is clear by 8:25am. After school, we DO NOT operate the pick-up system due to the volume of children leaving school at the same time. The gates are closed at 3pm.
Roadside parking:
We have lots of on-street parking, and lots of neighbours. When parking, please only park in marked car spaces. Let’s show kindness by not double parking and by keeping driveways clear for the households, so they are able to enter and exit their own properties without stress.
Kinder parking:
We are lucky that the Kinder/council allow Rolling Hills families to park in the Kinder spaces. We do however need to ensure that their families have access to parking at all times. It is a popular pick-up and drop-off spot and in discussion with the Kinder/Council we need to ask you to follow their preferences when using the space.
RHPS families park on the far side of the car park ensuring the bays nearest to the kinder are free for kinder families pick-ups.
As a community we need to continue to show their families kindness while using their parking spots. Please do not double park or block the entrance area to their car park, even if there are no spaces. This makes the area unsafe for ALL children.
General safety:
Drive safely and slowly at all times. The speed is 40km outside of school and 5km inside. Please respect this and keep our children safe.
We have received numerous requests to remind families that safety of your children is of upmost importance. Please remind your child/ren how to move through carparks by checking for moving cars (including cars reversing from car parks). We encourage you to please park your vehicle, get out of your vehicle, and supervise your child/ren as they cross car parks.
Walking and riding to and from school:
Children leaving school need to use the pathways, rather than driveways when approaching or departing school. It would be appreciated if this could be emphasised and modelled to them.
If you find parking near the school during these times a challenge, we encourage you to park a few streets away and take a short walk to meet or drop off your child. We would also welcome the safe use of bikes and scooters and have a bike rack outside OSHCare. Helmets are a must.
Permit to Park:
If you have an expired 2024 Family parking permit, can you please bring it into the office to be swapped for a current 2025 permit. These permits are for families who have an ongoing physical issue and need support with accessing school.
Requests can also be made for temporary passes for students who have extenuating circumstances through the year, like broken bones etc.
Thanks,
Craig