Principal's Report

Art Show

Thank you to our wonderful Art Show Committee (plus numerous seasonal volunteers) for your hard work over the past twelve months in preparing for the 2024 Art Show. This evening's opening promises to be a wonderful event as always and I'm looking forward to seeing lots of parents, carers and friends tonight. If you can't make it this evening, please try to drop in tomorrow during the day to support our Art Show and our brilliant local artists.

Having previewed the work on display, and despite having an artistic eye about as sharp as a marshmallow, this years offerings appear to be of exceptionally high quality. Please come along and consider purchasing a beautiful new artwork for that blank wall you can't work out what to do with, or to class up one of those spaces that has become the victim of raising small children!

Turn On The Subtitles

The last thing I expected to receive this week was a video from Jack Black sharing a great way to improve reading outcomes, but here we are! A group from the UK are promoting the link between turning subtitles on when children are watching TV, Streaming Services or Youtube and reading outcomes. They have some impressive evidence to back up their claims: https://turnonthesubtitles.org/research/

Also provided are some FAQs to answer lots of questions you may have: https://turnonthesubtitles.org/faq/

A lotter from the TOTS team to parents & carers:

Why not give it a go?!

(To be clear - as mentioned in the FAQs, by no means are we suggesting that regular reading be replaced by additional screen time!!!)

Dog Etiquette in School Grounds

We love Student Voice at our school, so I thought it was important to share a message that Scarlett and Joanna from Year 3 would like to communicate:

We would like to ask for the community's support in ensuring our school grounds are safe for all community members by following a few simple guidelines in relation to bringing dogs on to school property.

• During school hours, dogs are not permitted on school grounds without approval
• During before and after school drop-off/pick-up, if you have a dog with you please ensure it stays on leash and with you at all times
• Outside of school hours we would implore community members to be mindful that our grounds are used by a variety of people, including those who are not comfortable around dogs. Our school oval is not a designated off-leash park.
• As mentioned by Jo and Scarlett, cleaning up dog faeces is an almost daily task here - on the oval particularly but also near the basketball court and recently even on the new deck.

We understand that it may be non-RMPS people who are causing these issues, however your assistance in setting the example is invaluable.

Traffic Behaviour

I apologise for posting a further negative message, but this term we have had an unprecedented number of complaints from neighbours and fellow parents & carers about road and parking rules not being followed around our school.

Please ensure you follow all parking and traffic rules around our school, particularly during afternoon pick-up. Whitehorse Council enforcement officers and the Victoria Police Highway Patrol have indicated they will be attending our area regularly to monitor and issue infringement notices where necessary.

Peter Watson

Principal