Things To 

Know

BHN LUNCHTIME EXPECTATIONS & BODY IMAGE PROJECT AT RIPPONLEA  

About the project:

Better Health Network Health Promotion team is working alongside our teachers, students and their families to create environments where all children grow up to love food and appreciate their bodies. Through deep reflection and capacity building, the BHN team support schools to create value alignment and practice guidance of how to safely support children and young people around food and body image. 

The why:

School settings play a critical role in shaping how children perceive and speak about their bodies, through lunchtime rituals, classroom learning, and staffroom conversations. Teacher attitudes & language, curriculum content, peer relationships, and school culture can either reinforce appearance-based norms or act as protective factors (Tylka & Piran, 2019). Across the BHN catchment (Bayside, Glen Eira, Kingston, Port Phillip and Stonnington), body image remains a primary concern and priority for local schools.

In the early years of a child’s life, research highlights that:

• Children with body dissatisfaction and weight bias are more likely to engage in disordered eating behaviours, with 19% of childcare professionals having seen children reject food because ‘it will make them fat’ (Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years, 2016).
• At age 5, 90% of boys and 92% of girls have indicated a preference for not inviting children in a larger body to their birthday party, and perceiving thin-to-average sized children as ‘good’ (EMBodIED Research, La Trobe University).
• Up to 68% of primary school-age children have reported appearance-related teasing from peers (Damiano et al. 2018).

Seeking Focus Group participation

As a part of the Lunchtime Expectations project, we are seeking parent/guardian participation in key reflective practice focus group sessions. We want to hear from families on their experiences of eating opportunities at home and at the school. 

These insights together with those of the teachers and students will help to contribute to a positive lunchtime environment at Rippopnlea Primary School. 

Date: Wednesday 12th November, 2025 

Participants: Families – Option 1

Date: Friday 14th November, 2025

Participants: Families – Option 2

Your participation will help to shape the school's practices and ensure we are fostering an environment where children grow up to love food and appreciate their bodies. If you are interested in participating, please get in touch and register on this Google Form.

https://forms.gle/YtMyAdwecw3swGuz9

If you are interested to learn more, please get in touch with the team via abast@bhn.org.au and kdimaio@bhn.org.au 

HALLOWEEN MINI PARADE - FRIDAY 31st    OCTOBER 

Get ready for some spooky fun! Ripponlea Primary will celebrate Halloween on Friday 31st October with our Mini Parade. This is a wonderful opportunity for students to get creative, recycle costumes, and enjoy a fun community event.

On the 31st, students will showcase their amazing outfits in a small Halloween parade at 9:15 am around the school. Parents and carers are warmly encouraged to come along and enjoy the festivities.

Year 2 Sleepover Note: Our Year 2 students will be having their school sleepover on the Thursday night before Halloween. To help make the morning smooth and fun, students can either:

• Bring their Halloween costumes in their overnight bag, ready to change into at school, or
• Be collected by families in the morning to get dressed at home before returning for the parade.

That evening, Halloween celebrations will continue across the community, and students can simply head out trick-or-treating after school to keep the spooky fun going!

We can’t wait to see everyone’s spooky, silly, and creative costumes lighting up our school grounds! 👻🎃

HALLOWEEN SNACK SHACK SPECIAL

This Friday the 31st, Snack Shack will offer Spooky Gingerbread Cookies for only $2!

Don't be afraid, they're delicious! 

CHANGES TO SEESAW PLATFORM IN 2026

In preparation for the 2026 school year, we would like to inform you that Ripponlea Primary School will cease using the Seesaw platform for communication with families. This includes the uploading of student goals, fortnightly newsletters, and in-class learning activities.

After reviewing our usage, we have found that the platform is no longer being used to its full capacity, and that the cost of maintaining Seesaw outweighs the benefit for our school community. We do not wish to continue passing this expense onto families. Additionally, Seesaw has created a significant administrative load for our teachers and office staff, and feedback from students suggests they have grown tired of the platform since the post-COVID period.

As we prepare to transition away from Seesaw, we invite all families to download a copy of their child’s learning portfolio as a treasured keepsake. Families can easily do this by exporting their child’s portfolio as a PDF.

Please ensure that you complete your download by Saturday, 30 November 2025, after which Seesaw access will no longer be available through the school account.

You can find a step-by-step guide on how to download your child’s portfolio in the attached PDF.

We thank you for your support and understanding as we streamline our communication systems to ensure consistency, efficiency, and reduced costs for our community.

EXCITING NEWS: MENTAL HEALTH IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS INITIATIVE COMING TO OUR SCHOOL

We are delighted to share some exciting news with our community. From next year, our school will be part of the Mental Health in Primary Schools (MHiPS) initiative, a Victorian Government program that provides every primary school with a dedicated Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader (MHWL).

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This is a significant step forward in supporting the wellbeing of our students and families. We know that children’s mental health is closely linked to their ability to learn and thrive at school. Having a qualified teacher in this leadership role will strengthen our whole-school approach to wellbeing and provide extra support for our staff, students, and families.

What This Means for Our School

• Our school will receive government funding to employ a Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader for two days a week in a non-classroom role.
• This person will not be a counsellor, but instead will act as a coordinator and facilitator.
• Their focus will be on promotion, prevention, and building staff capacity to support students.
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What the Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader Will Do

The new role will:

• Build the skills of our teachers and education support staff to identify and respond to student needs.
• Create clear referral pathways for students who may need extra help and connect families with local community services.
• Embed evidence-based training and strategies across the school to strengthen student learning and emotional development.
• Lead a whole-school approach so that wellbeing is supported in every classroom and playground space. 

Why This Matters

This expansion of our Wellbeing and Inclusion Team reflects our school’s strong commitment to supporting every child. While the role is non-clinical, it is a vital position that helps coordinate supports, build staff confidence, and ensure that wellbeing is at the heart of everything we do.

The MHiPS initiative is based on a highly successful pilot led in partnership with the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and the University of Melbourne. It has been shown to make a real difference in schools, and we are thrilled to now be part of this program. 

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Looking Ahead

Our Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader will begin in Term 1, 2026, and will work closely with staff, students, and families. This is an exciting addition to our school community, ensuring that every student has the opportunity to learn in a safe, supportive, and thriving environment.

Prahran High School Band Performance – Coming Soon!

We are excited to announce that on Friday 7 November, the Prahran High School Band will be visiting Ripponlea Primary School to perform for our students.

Prahran High School has a strong connection with our community, with many of our Ripponlea students successfully transitioning there since its opening in 2019. This special performance is a wonderful opportunity for our students to experience the outstanding music program offered at the high school and be inspired by older students, some of whom are proud Ripponlea alumni!

We look forward to this exciting event and the joy it will bring to our school community.