Welcome to the last week of Term 1!

We have had a wonderful final fortnight of our term with many exciting activities and festivities with our school community and the broader Thunderbolt Alliance of Schools. As we edge closer to school holidays, I would like to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday break. Next term, staff will engage in two School Development Days on Monday 28th April and Tuesday 29th April. Term 2 will resume on Wednesday 30th April for students.

Honour Board

We are so pleased to announce the wonderful work of Bruce and Roland from the Uralla Men's Shed. Last year, we enquired about a new honour board to display our school captains names, as we have run out of room on our original board. Bruce and Roland worked hard to colour match and replicate the existing board, producing a product which we are beyond impressed with! We are proud to use the proceeds from the Uralla Bowling Club Bingo fundraiser last year to fund this project, and highly recommend the handy work of these two crafty individuals! We are now in the process of organising the sticker work to complete the design and display the names of our Year 6 School leaders for 2025.

Cross Country

Yesterday, we participated in the Small Schools Cross Country Carnival organised by Kelly's Plains Public School, which welcomed Kingstown Public School, Kentucky Public School and Rocky River Public School. The Uralla Golf Course so generously offered us their venue, closing their operations to the general public, to allow a scenic and functional space for our students. The day ran smoothly and we saw many students achieving their personal best. Thank you to Miss Brown for her wonderful organisation and the Kelly's Plains P&C for ensuring we were all fed well! I look forward to our next sporting event together; The Athletics Carnival, which Rocky River and Kingstown will co-host, inviting all small schools from the Thunderbolt and Wild Rivers Learning Alliances.

Monthly Building A Update

At our recent P&C meeting, I announced that each month would bring updates on the Building A project happening at our school. I am really pleased to establish this level of communication between the project team and our school community, ensuring transparency around all of the hard work that is being completed in the background, which is not always visible to the public eye. I will publish the updates in the first newsletter to be published after the monthly P&C meeting, for transparency with the broader community. Please see below the most recent update delivered at the April P&C meeting on Monday 7th April 2025:

Last year we notified you about our project to demolish and rebuild Building A. Thank you for your patience while we continue preparations for this project. The preliminary design of the new building is well underway and we expect it to be completed in the next 2 weeks. Once it is ready I will be able to share it with you. The Department of Education is ensuring the demolition of the existing building is compliant with the required statutory planning approvals. The department is also working closely with the local council and state planning department to ensure the new building complies with all applicable legislation. We will be able to share more information in Term 2 once the design of the new building is confirmed.

If you have any questions about this project, please contact School Infrastructure on 1300 482 651 during business hours or email schoolinfrastructure@det.nsw.edu.au. If you feel you did not receive an answer to your query through the above contact, please notify myself or Erica Peterson (P&C President) to ensure your query is addressed through the appropriate channels.

ANZAC Day

I would like to extend an invitation to all students and staff to march with the school on ANZAC Day, Friday 25th April. Please note, this date occurs during the school holidays.

Students who are able to participate should wear full school uniform (school leaders should wear their formal school uniform) and meet Miss Miller out the front of the Uralla Shire Council Chambers at 9.30am for a 9.45am start. We will send formal uniforms home with students this Friday in preparation. The parade will make its way to Alma Park where the ANZAC service will be held. Students will need to be collected at Alma Park by an adult either at the end of the parade or after the service. The P&C have so generously organised water and icy poles for students on the day. It would be wonderful to have as many students as possible march with us.

Term 2 Calendar on School Bytes

As you are aware, our school is now exclusively using the School Bytes app for all messaging and communication through to parents. The Audiri App is no longer a platform used by our school. One handy feature of the School Bytes Parent Portal is the calendar. For next term, I will attempt to set up a digital calendar within School Bytes, rather than sending out a paper based copy to parents in week one. As dates are subject to change, this will mean parents have the most up to date information on events happening at school. I hope this increases the efficiency and accuracy in information sharing between the school and families. We will send a notification out to families once this has been established.

HPGE Opportunities

Our school prides itself on offering a number of opportunities for High Potential Gifted Education to support students with potential in the intellectual, creative, social-emotional and physical domains, in line with the Departments HPGE policy. Historically, Rocky River has offered Stage 3 students the option to participate in the Inquiring Minds Camp, run out of the Thalgarrah Environmental Education Centre. Unfortunately, the camp is not going ahead this year, but we are locking in some other new and exciting opportunities for our Stage 3 students to explore.

This year, Stage 3 will be competing in the Premier's Debating Challenge which includes a workshop at Armidale City Public School next term, and four rounds of debates throughout the year before a knockout round and for those who progress, a finals event at a 3 day camp competition. We will also be looking at involvement in the Tournament of the Minds Competition for interested Stage 3 students. This involves a six-week challenge at the beginning of Term 3 to solve/answer/perform at the regional final at Armidale. Students will also do a spontaneous challenge on the day which is five minutes to come up with a whole group solution to a problem.

It is so rewarding to be able to offer these experiences to our students who just soak up everything that is made available to them. I look forward to the exciting experiences, growth and development these opportunities bring our Stage 3 cohort this year!

Uralla Shire Council Youth Week Visit

"Challenge traditional ways of seeing things. Why are things the way they are, and how can I do something to make a difference?"

Last week, we welcomed Uralla Shire Council Mayor Robert Bell, Councillors; Lone Petrov, Jen Philp, Council Event Producer Beth Platford and Uralla Librarian Amanda Williams to meet with our Stage 3 students. As part of Youth Week, Stage 3 students were given the opportunity to discuss all things Uralla; what they love, what they wanted to see improve, and any other suggestions around enhancing the current offerings in our town, particularly for their age group. Students spoke with composure and provided clear reasoning behind their suggestions. Lots of valid points were made and we look forward to seeing the council action ideas students have put forward. Thank you to the Uralla Shire Council for providing our young people with a platform to be seen and heard. We look forward to attending the REZ Forum event on Friday to conclude our Youth Week activities.

Rocky River P&C Bulb Fundraiser

Rocky River P&C is running a Bulb Fundraiser to help you prepare your spring garden display. There is a fantastic range of bulbs - tulips, daffodils, ranunculus, irises, hyacinths, freesias and mixed packs. Orders can be made online through the Rocky River Public School portal, which means a portion of the sale price is returned to the P&C to help contribute back to the financial support of our students. Because this is all online, it means anyone can purchase their favourite bulbs through this link and your orders will be delivered directly to your door.

Take a look at the beautiful varieties available through the portal -

https://www.bulbfundraiser.com.au/rockyriverps

Orders can be made up until this Friday 11th April 2025.

School Photos

It was brought to our attention that school photo day clashed with one of the selective school testing dates. Our school photo day has now been rescheduled for Friday 9th May which is the second Friday back of Term 2. There is online ordering available and we encourage parents to use this option. A link to this information is below.

Please follow the instructions carefully and contact MSP Photography via the information on the flyer if you have any questions or concerns.

Uralla Library

Please see the following information regarding holiday activities at the Uralla Library.

The Library is providing extended hours and extra programs and activities for youth during the school holidays.

Extended hours to 6pm Monday 14th, Wednesday 16th, Thursday 17th April, and Wednesday 23rd , Thursday 24th April.

The library will be providing a wide range of board games for use within the library which are on loan to us from the Tamworth Library.

For all the budding artists out there, come to the library and create.

Programs include:

MANGA MANIA: Manga art drawing video tutorials 14th April from 4pm.

RACE & CHACE: Build a pulley driven car out of simple materials. Learn about gear ratios, payload and drag. Test it using our speedway and race against other designs.

Art supplies will be available and tables covered with paper so youth can produce works of art or just doodle.

Youth can draw, doodle or tag and suitable creative pieces will be put on display.

We also have the touring drug and alcohol information toolkit and programs for awareness.

Also, just a reminder that the library is a safe, air-conditioned space and we welcome youth to explore, create or just hang out with friends.

Call out for wire netting

Our fantastic GA, Mr Hine, has grand plans to revamp the chook enclosure at our school in the coming weeks. If anyone had approximately 30m of wire netting lying around which they could spare, please contact the school. Thank you!

Attendance

Reasons for absence

Thank you to all who are prompt in notifying the school of their child's absences both full day and partial day, including the justified reason of why their child was away. It is important that this communication comes through to the school via the correct channels:

Phone call to the school office: (02) 6778 4122
Email to the school email address: rockyriver-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au
Notification through the School Bytes app

Extended leave

Please remember to complete the extended leave or travel form if you are planning to take your children on holidays during the school terms. This must be completed prior to the planned travel.

Kindest regards,

Dani Clyde-Smith

Principal

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