Principal's Report 

What a wonderful start we have had to Term 2!  Level 1/2 have had Building and Construction STEM Incursions, our school captains and student voice leaders have represented the school at the ANZAC Day Student Service at the Shrine of Remembrance, our level 5/6 students have heard from an Olympic guest speaker - Tom  Afonczenko, our Junior School Council has met, our teachers have taken part in a Resilience Project Teacher Wellbeing Workshop, the Principals have attended the Riversdale Principal Conference, our new RAFT (Rangeview Fathering Tribe) has run a camp-out on the oval, and we have all participated in a Whole School Cross Country! 

There is lots more to come this term including; 

• Whole School Writing Task
• Level 4 Scienceworks Excursion
• The Resilience Project Teacher Wellbeing Workshop
• P & F Cupcake Day and Mother's Day Stall
• Level 3 - 6 Athletics Carnival
• Level 3 and 4 Schwerkolt Cottage Excursion
• Level 1, 2, 3 & 6 Swimming
• Level 3 and 4 Hooptime
• Whole School Cyber Safety Project Incursion
• Level 5/6 Interschool Sport
• Level 6 Aspire Incursion
• Whole School Resilience & eSmart Superhero Day

We will be having a Pupil Free Day on Tuesday 11th June following the Kings Birthday Public Holiday. Our Their Care service will be operating for those families that need care on this day. 

Riversdale Principal Conference

On Tuesday 23rd and Wednesday 24th Liam Sommers, Kate McLeod and I all attended the Riversdale Principal Network Conference at Cape Schanck. This annual event sees Principals from schools across our Inner East network come together to hear from experts and scholars in education and school leadership. 

Our Keynote speaker was Professor Pasi Sahlberg. Prof Sahlberg is a professor of educational leadership at Melbourne University whose previous work includes teaching and teacher education at the University of Helsinki, Director General at Finland's Ministry of Education, senior education specialist at the World Bank in Washington DC, and the European Commission in Torino, and visiting professor at Harvard University. 

Professor Sahlberg worked with us across the whole first day and covered three broad concepts - the state of global education, the Australian education situation, and what can schools do to improve right now. His message was one of change with a focus on collaboration and collective autonomy, whole student and whole school approaches, and trust-based teacher professionalism. In Australia we need healthy relationships, agency and engagement, and deeper learning and wellbeing. He believes Australia has a world class education system - but not for everyone. There are inequities and significant differences, both between and within Australian schools. 

In the evening we heard from social demographer Simon Kuestenmacher the founder of The Demographics Group. Simon discussed the issue of the nation wide teacher shortage and other demographic challenges facing schools in the coming decades. 

On the second day we had a session with the Victoria Academy of Teaching and Leadership focusing on the Victorian Leadership Development Framework. We discussed Virtuous Leadership and leaders who lead with a strong moral purpose. 

We finished with a fabulous talk from Chelsea Roffey. Chelsea is a speaker, author, researcher and Winston Churchill Fellow who examines barriers and opportunities for diversity. She pioneers the role of women in a non-traditional domain. Chelsea is a journalist and a goal umpire in the Australian Football League. 

Whole School Cross Country

We had a spectacular day on Wednesday 17th with our Whole School Cross Country coming to life. We saw all levels participating from our littlest runners in Foundation to our speedy Level 5 and 6 students who flew around the course. We had a big emphasis this year on just giving it a go - and not being stressed if running is not 'your thing' It was lovely to see so many students just participating to the best of their ability.  

A big thank you to Sam Anderson and Liam Sommers for running laps with the students to assist on the day, and also to Meg Hubbard and Mitch Clark for organising and running this whole event. It is due to our fabulous PE team that we have such successful sporting events. 

Camp Out

On Saturday 23rd April our new Rangeview Fathering Tribe (RAFT) ran the school camp out on the oval. It was a chilly night but there was much fun being had, with a treasure hunt for all children attending, pizza dinner, a fanciest tent competition, marsh mellows by the campfire and a cooked BBQ breakfast. 

A huge thank you to the RAFT Leaders; Simon Tan, Tim Kirk and Byron Wilding. These fathers organised and ran the whole event and it is thanks to their combined efforts that it was such a success. 

Pick Up and Drop Off Times

It has come to our attention that some families are parking across driveways at pick up and drop off times and are blocking access to neighbours to leave or enter their own properties. This has led to arguments and altercations between families in our community. 

Please be mindful of this and respectful when parking at the school, we appreciate that there are issues with access and that you may at times be required to park further away to pick up your child. We thank you for your efforts. 

See you at Rangeview! 

Marika Ferguson

Principal