News From the Principal

Christmas Hamper Raffle

All tickets and money are due back tomorrow please. Thank you to those family and community members who have bought tickets. The raffle will be drawn on Monday December 18th with multiple prizes to be won. We will notify winners via text or phone call.

Graduation- Monday December 18th

We are blown away by those families and community members who have indicated that they will be attending this event. Please ensure you are at the hall ready to roll for a 6pm start, as we do not want too late of a night, given we have our whole school excursion the next day. Our night will begin with the formal part of the evening (presentations and graduation video), this will be followed by our two course meal.

Big Day Out

We will be celebrating the end of the school year with a Big Day Out on Tuesday December 19th. This year we are heading to Echuca to enjoy some fun at Gravity Shack (an indoor trampoline and playground centre), followed by a play at the Moama Adventure Playpark and lunch; we will then head back over the border to hop on the Pevensey Paddle Boat for an afternoon cruise. The details regarding costs, travel and times have been published on uEducateus along with the permission form. If you have not already accessed this information and provided permission, please do so ASAP.

If your child is purchasing their lunch, the money should be brought along to school on the day in a named envelope please.

A reminder that the final day of Term 4 is Wednesday December 20th and students have an early dismissal on this day- at 1pm sharp (two hours earlier, instead of one, as it is the end of the year). The staff will be completing their First Aid Training CPR update from 1pm and will therefore be unavailable after 1pm on this day. If you are wanting to chat or just hoping to catch up with a member of staff before the end of the year, please note that after school Wednesday is not possible due to this training commencing at 1pm sharp.

On this last day of the school year we invite students and staff to come along dressed in something Christmas themed. It could be a Christmas t-shirt, Santa hat, Christmas colours or anything else that fits the theme.

Farewell Lynley

Last Friday we said goodbye to Mrs Lynley Lightburn. Lynley retired from teaching after a long career both in NZ and Australia. We had a special morning tea and presented Lynley with a gift. Thank you to everyone who came along. Students, parents and staff will get a further opportunity to say goodbye to Lynley at the Graduation next week.

Working Bee

Thank you everyone, young and old that came along to help out at our Working Bee last Saturday. A special mention to Jarrod who came along the day before to prepare the ground out the back of the school for our new sandpit area.

Thank you also to Ricky for the loan of the "big piece of machinery" (which no one here can name ), and for giving up your time to help out with the demolition. This made the job a whole lot easier.

Our new playground (stage 2) is set to be installed on Tuesday December 19th. Unfortunately, due to the concrete needing to set, it is out of bounds until Friday December 22nd. We will ensure that we do not use it on the last day of school (Wednesday December 20th) but ask community to ensure they do no allow their children to use it until at least the Friday.

The Song Room

Below is a message that I received from Darren Netto our Song Room Music Educator that worked in our school across Terms 3 and 4.

Hi Lisa,

I hope you are doing well. I just wanted to say a big 'Thank you' to you, all the staff and wonderful students for making my stint with the Song Room at Raywood a very memorable one .

My experience in Raywood Primary School was memorable on so many levels . We've had 10 weeks of fun , learning and exploring musical instruments and musical ideas ( the kids have been lovely, respectful and very receptive ) . The students' performance at the end of the program was the icing on the cake (well done to you for organising the event on short notice and please do share any available footage of the performance if available) .

Once again thank you and the staff for being so lovely to work with and all the guidance .

I hope the school has had a glimpse into the magical and healing powers of music and will continue to keep the flame burning.

Kind regards

Darren Netto

School Council

On Monday night we held our final meeting for this year. Thank you to Mitch for his past two years as a parent representative on council. Due to Piper leaving us at the end of this year, we will now have a vacant parent position on council and we would love to fill this with a fresh face. The commitment is not huge and no specific skills are needed, other than a desire to help your child/ren's school. Please contact Lisa if you think this is something you would like to do, because we would love to have you.

Thank You x 1,000,000!!!!!

As this is our final newsletter for 2023, I wanted to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to those people who have supported our school this year. These people do not do it because they are paid to be here or obligated to show up. They support our school by giving up their time, resources and in some cases their own funds, in order to provide each and everyone of our students (and in turn staff and school community) with the most wonderful and fulfilling education possible. (This is the part where I am always scared I will leave someone out....).

Thank you to our school council parent members, Jarrod, Bree, Mitch, Jess and Lisa T and our community member Marcus Uren. You give up your time each month to attend meetings and help make important decisions about our school.

Thank you to Suzanne Camm for your donated goods and judging of our Year 3-6 Public Speaking Competition. An extra thank you to Marcus for this role as a judge also.

To Audrey Felini, thank you for all of the time, care and resources that you put together to provide our students with Easter and Christmas activities as well as the countless drops of art supplies. (See our Community Page for more information about Audrey's program).

To Kath Lourie, thank you for your generous donations of art supplies and towards our Year 6 graduates each year.

A special thank you on behalf of the students, staff and Raywood Families to Nadine and the team at East Loddon Food Share for their generosity this year. Each of our school families have benefited multiple times from the wonderful hampers we receive each term.

To Darryl and his team at the Terry Floyd Foundation, we are so appreciative of the monthly breakfast boxes and the generous gifting books of sandpit equipment.

Sarah Mayor-Cox, thank you for your generous support over the last two years via the donation of countless books to revamp our school library.

Last, but by no means least, thank you to Mez for everything you do for the students, school and staff. Mez works with our students, helps staff with preparing materials for classes, keeps the staff fed at morning tea time and always contributes to fundraising and special events. We really do value all that you do for us Mez.

If I have left anyone off my list, please accept our most heartfelt thanks for supporting our school. We really do appreciate everyone's commitment to making our wonderful school even more fantastic.

That's all for this week- Lisa Duffy

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Important Dates

Term 4 2023 Important Dates

Term Dates 2024