From the Principal's Desk

Welcome to Week 2, Term 3!

Welcome back families, I hope you all had a safe and relaxing holiday break! The July holidays always seem to bring bouts of illness, however, we are pleased to see a strong return of students with a great attendance rate in the first week of term. We have a BIG term ahead with lots of events on each week. Please read the updates in each fortnight's newsletter carefully, keep an eye on the "Dates for Your Diary" section for any updates or changes, and if you haven't already, please download the Audiri school app for relevant updates and notifications which we send through on a day-to-day basis. Please come in and see Anne or myself if you need assistance to set up the app. 

Staffing 

Principal

I was pleased to share the community announcement last week about my commencement as substantive Principal this term. The merit selection process was rigorous and I am grateful to successfully secure this position. Rocky River Public School is such a beautiful school and community. I look forward to continuing the work of Brad Hunt in this role, and look forward to further strengthening the success of our school in all areas. Please see the community announcement below, in case you missed it.

RFF Teacher

We welcome Ms C (Jemima Clyde-Smith) to our staff this term as our Release from Face to Face (RFF) teacher. Ms C worked with all students on some casual days last term so has already established a rapport with students and is rapidly working in the background to run Visual Arts, Garden Club and other initiatives at our school. Ms C brings to Rocky River a wealth of teaching experience including specialist visual arts skills and abilities which our students are already enjoying! Ms C is in every Friday and teaches Lower Division from 9:30am onwards. 

SLSO

This term, we also welcome Miss Jenna (Jenna Chapman) to our staff as a School Learning Support Officer (SLSO) in the Lower Division classroom. Jenna is a qualified teacher who is currently studying a Graduate Certificate in Special Needs Education. Jenna has extensive experience through her role as an an Outside of School Hours Care Educator and has an adept ability to connect with students through her intuitive nature. Jenna works with the Lower Division class every Monday and Wednesday.

Jeans for Genes Day

This Friday 2nd August we are fundraising for Jeans for Genes. We invite all of our students to come to school wearing jeans or something denim. A gold coin contribution would be greatly appreciated or you can click on the link below to access the online donation page for our school.

We thank you for your support.

https://fundraise.jeansforgenes.org.au/fundraisers/rockyriverpublicschool2358/my-own-idea

NAIDOC Celebration

Next Thursday 8th August, we will be hosting our NAIDOC Day celebration. We will have the Thunderbolt Alliance schools in attendance, with cultural activities run by Uncle Dave Widders and a small team of Anaiwan leaders. The day will involve culturally appropriate conversation about NAIDOC week and its importance, workshops on Anaiwan language, dance and art, and a Q&A session for students to reflect on their thinking at the end of the day. Students are required to attend school as normal, in full school uniform, with combined cultural activities beginning at 10am through to 2pm. We will take lots of photos, and look forward to sharing with parents and the broader community about the success of this event.

P&C Lunch Orders & Year 6 Cake Stall for our NAIDOC Day

Our fabulous P&C have offered to run a $5 lunch order offer for NAIDOC Day. Lunch order will be due in this Monday 5th August. Our Year 6 students will also be running a cake stall. We are welcoming any donations for the cake stall on the afternoon of Wednesday 7th August or the morning of Thursday 8th August, next week. Thank you all in advance for any donations families are already organising to bake in preparation for the day. We really appreciate how supportive our school community is in making such initiatives a success. Please see further information below regarding the lunch and cake stall which will be sent home with students today.

Armidale Light Festival

Our school will be participating in the Armidale Regional Council’s Light Festival Primary Schools Project. This involves our school designing and creating a single 3D sculpture that represents Armidale and the elements of nature with consideration to sustainability that lights and illuminates. This will contribute to the light festival event for public display in Central Park, scheduled for Friday 23rd August 4:30pm-8:30pm.

Your involvement

We are asking each student to please supply an empty plastic bottle (roughly 600ml capacity), including its cap, with the label already removed. Please ensure the bottle is washed and clean, ready to be handled by your child at school. Alternatively, if you have any small, plastic plant pots, this will also work well for our sculpture. 

This project is running during Visual Arts on a Friday, over the next three weeks. Please bring in your bottles/plastic pot plants by this Friday, 2nd August, if possible.

New England Sings 

We have decided that we will participate in both New England Sings and the Thunderbolt Festival. We were concerned about both events occurring on the same weekend, with New England Sings involving a Saturday and Sunday Commitment. Our parent survey which was sent out on the Audiri app last week didn't have many responses. Thank you for those of you who did indicate your preference between the two events - it was an even tally for both events if you can believe it!! I want to thank our dedicated staff who have all offered their own time to be present at these events to ensure our students can participate in both. Our teachers work tirelessly before, after and during school already, and this additional weekend of activity is a testament to the dedication of the teachers at Rocky River who are willing to ensure our students can participate. 

All students K-6 will be involved in the rehearsals run by NECOM at our school. The students have also been introduced to the chosen songs and are rehearsing on a Thursday afternoon during Music lessons with Jess. Attending the New England Sings concert on the weekend in October is not compulsory, however, we encourage families to bring their children to perform in the concert choir. 

Our involvement in New England Sings rehearsals at school:

Rocky River is scheduled to receive the following visits from NECOM as an outreach school - located here on school premises:

Term 3, Week 5 - Friday 23rd August 9:30am - 11:00am

Term 4, Week 2 - Thursday 24th October 9am - 10:15am

We have an additional rehearsal this term combined with Uralla Central School and Kentucky PS - located at Uralla Central School:

Term 3, Week 8 - Tuesday 10th September 1:30pm-2:45pm 

(this will be a combined day excursion, including attendance at a morning cultural performance - a note will come out in the coming weeks regarding this excursion day)

Your involvement in New England Sings weekend concert:

The weekend commitment for the NE Sings concert located at Lazenby Hall, UNE:

Saturday 27th October - 11:15am-1:00pm final dress rehearsal

Sunday 28th October - 2:30pm - 4pm (arrive at 1pm)

Parents wanting their child to attend and perform will need to come to both the Saturday and Sunday events. Teachers, including myself, will be present at both the Saturday rehearsal and Sunday concert event, however, the school will not be providing transport for students to and from UNE each day. It will be up to families to transport your own children to and from the event. We encourage all students and families to participate, however, understand if there are other weekend commitments or family reasons which may not allow this to happen. 

For those who haven't participated before, please see the video below to gauge the scale of the concert.

The Premier's Spelling Bee 2024 Regional Finals

Our Junior and Senior spelling be champions, Ivory and Lionel, will be competing in the Regional Finals on Monday 12th August. Participation is via zoom, on school site. We look forward to cheering on our school champions and wish them the best of luck in their participation.

Junior session: 9:00 for 9:30am – 11:30 am

Senior session: 12:00 for 12:30pm – 2:30 pm

Book Week Parade & Assembly

We are SO excited about the fast approaching book week event in August. We will be combining our Week 6 Assembly at 2:15pm on Friday 30th August with our book week parade. Originally, I had scheduled our book week parade for the week prior - so don't worry parents, that's another week for costume prep! We welcome all families and carers to our book week themed assembly that day. This year's theme is "Reading is Magic", I wonder if you can guess what my costume will be...

Zone Athletics

Congratulations to the following students who have been selected to represent Rocky River School at the PSSA Zone Athletics Carnival on Friday 9th August.

Joah, Ivy,  Harrison S, Harrison C, Phoebe, Naomi, Cailey and Mackenzie.  We wish you all the best on the day.

We also wish to acknowldege Matt Peterson who has been coming in to train students for the event, thank you Matt for your dedication and support of our students and our school.

P&C Meeting

The next P&C meeting will be on Monday 5th August at 5:30pm. I look forward to seeing you all there. All parents and community members are welcome to join in and stay up to date.

Attendance

There is lots of sickness spreading at the moment and we understand if your child must stay home to get better. We look forward to students attending school again when fit and ready to do so. Well done to all of the committed students and families who continue to maintain their best attendance possible at our school.

Dani Clyde-Smith

Principal