Principal's Report 

What a fabulous fortnight we have had a Rangeview! We had students competing in the State Athletics finals, each level ran a Public Speaking Competition and then we hosted the Interschool Public Speaking Competition, our Principals attended the Area Principal Forum for schools in the Inner East, our Level 5/6 All Star Girls and Level 3/4 Hoop Time competed at Regionals, our Level 5/6 Boys competed at Netball Regionals, Level 6 had a Hands on Science Incursion, our JSC ran a wonderful Crazy Hair Day, senior students competed in Regional Softball, senior students also competed in Hot Shot Tennis, we had our 4th Transition session for our new Foundation students, our First Lego League team competed in FLL Challenge Awards, our Level 6 students travelled into the city for the end of Primary School German excursion at Munich Brauhaus, and the Junior School is participating in the Junior Athletics Carnival today! 

Area Principal Forum 

On 6th November Liam Sommers and I attended the Area Principal Forum in Doncaster. We heard from our Executive Director Erika Bienert and the Deputy Secretary David Howes. Some interesting data was shared around the state of education in Victoria. 

Victorian government schools have the best overall (Years 1 to 10) school attendance rates, and ranks first for secondary school attendance and Aboriginal student attendance.

Victoria continues to lead the nation in primary school NAPLAN performance. Victoria ranked first or second in:

•8 of 10 domains and primary year levels by mean score, more than any other jurisdiction

•10 of 10 domains and primary year levels by proportion of students needing additional support, equal to the ACT and ahead of every other jurisdiction.

•Victoria ranked equal first, along with the ACT, in the proportion of students strong or exceeding in Year 3 reading.

In the state-wide Student Attitudes to School Survey 2024, there were large improvements at all stages of schooling compared to 2023 with the largest improvements for health and wellbeing factors, many of which have recorded the most positive results since health and wellbeing questions were added to AtoSS in 2021.

In the state-wide Staff Opinion Survey 2024 all sections had higher endorsement than 2023 with strong positive results in staff safety and wellbeing and school leadership. 

Overall workforce data shows the Government schools teaching workforce growing by 1700 which is higher than any other state or territory and the strongest student : teacher ratios.  

Moving forward the Departments plan of continuing as the Education State, sees a five pillared model :

1. Excellence in Teaching and Learning 
2. Every Student Matters
3. Lifting Secondary School engagement and Achievement
4. Expanding, Supporting and Recognising the Workforce
5. Schools at the Centre of Communities. 

Parent and carer School Saving Bonus

The Victorian Government is delivering the School Saving Bonus – a one-off $400 support for government school students from Prep to Year 12 in 2025.

From Tuesday 26 November 2024, you will receive an email from the Department of Education with your unique $400 School Saving Bonus code.

The School Saving Bonus will help families cover the cost of uniforms, textbooks, excursions, activities and more. If you have multiple children enrolled in Victorian government schools for 2025, you will receive one School Saving Bonus code email per child. These emails might arrive on different days. Please make sure to check your spam/junk email folder.

Parents and carers can use the School Saving Bonus code in store at school-nominated suppliers. Parents and carers can also choose to access the School Saving Bonus online system, where they can allocate part or all the $400 bonus to use at school nominated-online suppliers or for school activities.  To learn more about the School Saving Bonus, visit School Saving Bonus | vic.gov.au. A step-by-step user guide will be available on the webpage on 26 November.  

If you have not received your School Saving Bonus code via email by Friday 29 November, please contact the Department of Education by emailing school.saving.bonus@education.vic.gov.au

School Grounds Projects

At Rangeview we have a number of grounds projects in train or ready for commencement in the coming weeks. 

Oval Cricket Pitch; Through joint funding from Heatherdale Cricket Club and Cricket Victoria, we are installing a Cricket Pitch into our school oval. This permanent pitch will be ready to use before the end of the school year. We extend our thanks to HCC and Cricket Victoria for making this possible for our Rangeview student cricketers! 

Values Poles; Our new Rangeview School Values are ready to be announced and we thank the student body, the school council, the Rangeview staff, and the whole community for their ideas and feedback. We have standing poles being made that will display these new values which are to be installed in the main entrance of the school in the coming weeks. All of the students will have the opportunity to come to an unveiling of the new poles once they are ready. The poles will also display some Aboriginal Artwork which we have had commissioned for the school. We have worked with Aboriginal Artist - Amanda Hinkelmann - to create a piece of art that we will display in our foyer and use elements in displays around the school. Amanda consulted with student groups and a working group of staff to create this art for Rangeview. 

Replacement Playgrounds - Yellows and Biggies; Later in Term 4 the Yellows and Biggies playgrounds will be fenced off and removed. These are the oldest playgrounds in the school and are due for replacement. Removal will create the space we need for our new Junior and Middle School Adventure Playground. We have again worked with the team at Rocket Box to design a playspace for our students that incorporates multiple natural elements and direct student requests and feedback. The new playground will be installed over the January break and will be ready for use early in Term 1. 

VSBA Building Works; The school has received a grant through the Department of Education to complete some repair works on the rooves of the main buildings and the drainage in multiple sites across the grounds. Although not as exciting as play spaces, these works will ensure our buildings and grounds are safe and dry into the future. This project will commence this term and continue into Term 1 and will be managed by the Victorian Schools Building Authority. 

Parking

Please be aware that the new parking signs are in place and are being enforced through local council for our surrounding streets - Haven Court included. 

Can we again remind families to respect our neighbours when parking for pick up and drop off. We have noticed an improvement in safe and careful driving since the tragic incident at the primary school in Hawtho, however we are still seeing parking issues such as blocking neighbours driveways which restricts entry and exit from their homes. Thank you for the higher levels of care, please be considerate of neighbours property and access. 

Junior School Athletics Day

Today Mr Clark and Ms Hubbard have run a hugely successful Junior House Athletics Day. Together with a group of tireless student leaders, they have run multiple sports activities around the school including sprints, hurdles, egg and spoon races, tunnel ball, basketball skills and mini-javelin. The Junior school participated beautifully with much joy and enthusiasm evident in every event. The day concludes with the annual Egg Toss in front of the whole school. I congratulate our PE team and student leaders of such a spectacular event. 

Marika Ferguson

Principal