Principal's Report

Flexible. Resilient. Positive. 2025

Welcome back to all of our Rangeview Families for Term 4! We hope you have had a lovely Spring break and are ready to begin the new term with us at Rangeview. We are going to have another wonderful Term of learning and engagement. There is a wealth of activities, incursions and excursions planed for the students to enrich their learning program here at school;

Foundation 2026 Transition Sessions
Foundation Teddy Bear’s Picnic
Division Basketball, Division Athletics, Division Volleyball, 3/4 and 5/6 Regional Hooptime, Regional Athletics, Regional Basketball, Regional Volleyball, Regional Softball, District Softball, Division Cricket, Junior House Aths.
MoRE Men’s Project Community Presentation
Whole School & Graduation Photos
World Teachers Day – Friday 31st October
Level 1 & 2 Museum and IMAX Excursion & Minibeast Incursion
Public Speaking Competition
Whole School Oktoberfest – Tuesday 28th October
Level 2 Sleepover
Level 3 & Level 5 Camps
Level 5 & 6 Zoo Excursion
Level 6 Graduation
RAFT Lego Masters Event
Whole School Carols – Tuesday 16th December

Billy Cart and Footy Colours Day

On our final day of Term 3, we celebrated our annual Billy Cart and Footy Colours Day, and what a day it was! Our staff started the day with a delicious healthy breakfast in preparation for our big day.

As always, the day was beautifully organised and run. A huge thank you to Liam Sommers for his organisation and our incredible staff who adore supporting our students on our special event days. Thank you to all of our families that made Billy Carts and also those that attended on the day.

Curriculum Days Term 4

Rangeview will be holding two pupil free Curriculum Days in Term 4. The first is Monday 3rd November - this is preceding the Melbourne Cup Public Holiday, and the second is Friday 21st November. Our staff will be attending professional learning on the new Victorian Teaching and Learning Model 2.0, and our annual First Aid and Anaphylaxis training.

Our Before and After School Care provider TheirCare will be open for any families that require care on either of these days.

2026 Class Placement Requests

We will be building our 2025 grades in the coming weeks. As always, we will be taking great care to ensure that the classes are well balanced, and all students have the best opportunity to be engaged and learn.

If you have a particular parent request around a friendship or a separation for your child, please forward this in writing to the Assistant Principal Kate McLeod at by Friday 31st October, 2024. We cannot take requests after this date. We can only consider one request and cannot consider requests for a particular teacher. Please see the Teaching and Learning page for more details.

Changes to Digital Device Use

From 2027, the Victorian Government is introducing changes to the use of digital devices for students from Prep to Grade 6.

Under the new guidelines, schools:

will no longer invite families to purchase their own digital devices to use at school for Prep to Grade 6
will follow new recommended digital device times, including minimal device time for Prep to Grade 2; and a maximum of 90 minutes per day for grades 3 to 6.

These changes are intended to support families by reducing cost-of-living pressures. They will also support students by reducing screen-time which can reduce the risk of eye strain, sedentary behaviour, and reduced peer interaction. These reforms complement Victoria’s nation-leading mobile phone restrictions, ensuring an integrated approach to addressing digital distraction and the inappropriate use of technology.

What this means for our school

This means we will be ceasing our current BYOD program for Grades 3 to 6 from 2027 on. Instead, we will provide class sets of digital devices for use by students. Students who have been using BYO devices prior to 2027 will be able to continue to bring their devices to school, but we will be following the new recommended device use times. We have already begun phasing out the BYOD iPad Program in our Junior School and do not have a BYOD program for F - 2 for 2026.

Students with disability who use a digital device as a reasonable adjustment are exempt from these changes.

You can read more about the changes on the department’s website: Digital Learning: Policy | VIC.GOV.AU | Policy and Advisory Library

Working With Children Checks

Working With Children Checks (WWCC) are required by law for people who engage in child-related work (where paid or voluntary). At Rangeview we have many events including reading with students, incursions, excursions, swimming, camps and sleepovers, where parent helpers require the WWCC. If you have volunteered to assist with school activities, please bring your WWCC to the school office to be copied. To apply for a WWCC please go to https://service.vic.gov.au/services/working-with-children . The application takes about 15 minutes and for volunteer work there is no cost and can take between 3-12 weeks to receive.

Marika Ferguson

Principal