Wellbeing & Engagement 

National Reconciliation Week

From next Monday, we will be celebrating National Reconciliation Week - which runs from May 27th through to June 3rd. These dates commemorate two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey— the successful 1967 referendum (May 27th), and the High Court Mabo decision (June 3rd).

The 2024 theme is “Now More Than Ever”. The week is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia. 

Students across all levels will explore age-appropriate activities to recognise National Reconciliation Week and learn more about what we can do everyday as we strive to achieve equity, inclusion and fairness for all. Our JSC has organised a 'Splash of Colour' day for Friday May 31st - students are encouraged to wear a 'splash' of either red, yellow or black (classes have been assigned colours) and donate a gold coin, which will go to an Indigenous charity 'Children's Ground'.

Prior to National Reconciliation Week beginning, on Sunday May 26th we will recognise National Sorry Day. This is held each year to commemorate the Aboriginal and Torres Islander people who were forcibly removed from the families and homes. They are referred to as ‘The Stolen Generation’. Our wonderful Cultural Captains, Myra and Layla, have shared messages with our school across the week to inform students of these important events, including at Monday's assembly.

The inaugural National Sorry Day was held on May 26th, 1998. Ten years later in 2008, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a formal National Apology to Australia’s Stolen Generations. Events are held around Australia each year to highlight the significant step forward in reconciliation.

Student Attitudes to School Survey

Our Year 4, 5 and 6 students have now begun participating in the Student Attitudes to School Survey (SAtSS). This will continue to run over the next few weeks with all of our senior students. The survey provides us with valuable feedback directly from our most important stakeholders - the kids!

The survey focuses on areas such as:

• Effective teaching practice
• Teacher-student relationships
• Learner characteristics and dispositions
• Social engagement
• Student safety 
• Student online experiences
• Social and emotional wellbeing
• Physical and mental health
• Emotional and relational engagement

The survey gives our senior students a chance to demonstrate student voice and provide us with data to reflect on as a school. We value student voice extremely highly and will heavily include our students in the reflection process, such as running student focus group to investigate the data and help us form some actions or ideas moving forward. 

Student Absences

At Rangeview, we consider the wellbeing and safety of our students as our top priority. Accurate attendance records play a vital role in ensuring the overall security and smooth functioning of our school community. By promptly reporting and explaining any absences, we can effectively monitor the attendance patterns of our students and address any concerns that may arise. The Department of Education also closely monitors the attendance data of all schools, and it is important we have updated records.

We kindly request all parents/guardians/carers to take a few minutes to review your child's attendance record on Compass and ensure that any unexplained absences are updated accordingly. Simply follow the steps below:

1. Log in to your Compass account using your credentials. If using the app make sure to open in browser.  If you have forgotten your login details, please use the password reset option or contact our school office for assistance.
    
2. Unexplained absences will appear as an alert on your home page – “Attendance: Attendance Note Required”  Student name XXX was recorded as not ‘present’ or ‘late’ without explanation. 
    
3. Select the ‘Click here for more information’ hyperlink, this will direct you to the ‘Unexplained’ menu within student attendance.  Select the relevant date(s) to update the reason for absence by clicking the ‘Explain with Attendance Note’.  Select an option from the drop down menu.  If you believe an absence is inaccurate please contact the school office to amend.

Should you require any assistance or encounter any technical issues while updating the absences on Compass, please don't hesitate to reach out to our wonderful office staff, or myself. We are more than happy to assist you with the process.

Classroom teachers and members of leadership will be aiming to consistently make contact with families for any extended absences (3+ consecutive days).

GEM Awards

Our school leadership team has created a new set of awards. GEM Awards will be handed out at most assemblies from this point onwards. These awards branch off from our work in The Resilience Project, which hold Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness as its key values. 

As we are having a whole school focus on Gratitude this term, the leadership team will be keeping a close eye out on any students displaying gratitude across the school. We are hoping to catch students 'in the moment' in our visits to classrooms and around the school. 

We always love hearing from our school community too - so if you see a moment of gratitude, please contact me and let me know! I would love to hear any stories from our wider school community.

Message of Gratitude

Whilst we are speaking of gratitude, I would like to share a special message of sincere gratitude to Ankur Sharma and his company, UST. UST are a digital transformation solutions company and recently, Ankur contacted the school to inform us that they had some still 'as-new' tech equipment they would like to donate to the school. 

This equipment included items such as:

• Sony cameras
• Tripods
• Lenses
• Wireless mics
• LED lighting and stands
• Additional extras such as chargers, UV filters, batteries
• Camera equipment backpack

This was a hugely generous donation to the school and we already have many teachers very excited about possible uses! These may include background lighting for rock band and choir performances, student podcasts, enhancements to Rangeview News and the wonderful option of staff utilising professional camera equipment for high quality photos of all Rangeview events.

On behalf of all Rangeview staff and students, thank you Ankur for providing the school with these future opportunities.

Liam Sommers

Assistant Principal

Wellbeing and Engagement