From the Office 

News From the Principal

Edendale Farm Excursion

On Friday April 28th, we visited Edendale Farm in Eltham. What a fantastic day it was!

The students learnt all about sustainable practices and how to better care for our environment, whilst also meeting and interacting with some creatures. We saw and patted alpacas, sheep, goats, chickens and guinea pigs. We also learnt about how important worms are to our soil and about their life-cycle. We investigated the quality of the water in a dam at the farm by identifying species of water-bugs that were present, as we found out that some water creatures only live in healthy water. 

It comes, as not surprise, that our students were extremely well-behaved and praised by staff for their enthusiasm, knowledge and manners. 

Mrs Lightburn to retire

I would like to take this opportunity to announce the upcoming retirement of Mrs Lynley Lightburn. Lynley will retire in July of this year after 20 years teaching at Raywood Primary School. I wish to thank Lynley for her years of service to the school and we will absolutely  be announcing some formal celebrations and a fitting farewell in coming weeks. 

Not to distract from Lynley's retirement but also important to clarify; the Prep, One, Two grade will be taught by me (Lisa) for the remainder of the year. I am so looking forward  to being in the classroom and creating lots of rich and exciting learning adventures with the students. Mr Hayden Collins and myself are beyond excited to work closely together to provide our students with lots of innovative learning opportunities. We are going to make positive changes to our spelling programs and will introduce other innovative ways to deliver engaging Numeracy, Literacy and Integrated Studies programs. Our students will still continue to receive their weekly Visual Arts Sessions, Outdoor Education and Respectful Relationships Programs as well as our award winning Physical Education sessions. In the coming weeks, a note will be sent home to all of our families outlining this in more detail, but please feel free to come and discuss this at any time with myself or Hayden.   

Enrolments

It is imperative that we increase our student numbers for 2024 and beyond and we need everyone's help and support to do this. 

We believe we are offering wonderful learning opportunities for our students (both within and outside the classroom) with a broad curriculum and programs that many other, including larger schools, do not offer. Our ability to cater for individual student learning needs and target our planning and teaching accordingly is also another unique feature of our school. 

We have updated our flyers and commenced letter drops to families in the catchment areas. 

We are offering tours for new and potential families as well as "Come and Try" sessions. 

I can not stress enough how vital it is that the local community supports its local school and encourages those with school aged students (or those approaching school age) to come along and visit our school. I realise that some families have not chosen our school in the past due to a range of reasons, but I am asking them to please make time to come along and enquire about what we can offer their child/ren rather than just assuming we can't fulfill some requirements or requests. Supporting your local school helping your community grow and prosper and makes for increased community spirit and connections. 

Walk To School

Friday May 19th is Walk Safely to School Day. On this day the bus will cease its morning run at the Speke St Stop, where those students already on the bus will join with the Speke St stop kids (and Stevie) as well as staff. We will also be joined by Marcus, our local policeman. We will then all walk SAFELY to school and enjoy our morning Breakfast Club before beginning our official school day. We will meet at the stop at 8.30am. Anyone from the community is welcome to join us on this day. 

Mother's Day Stall

A reminder this is being held TOMORROW afternoon. Students are able to bring along $5 to purchase some gifts for their mum. Our two school leaders, Link and Piper will be running this stall for all of the students. 

Happy Mother's Day to all of the mums in the Raywood and wider community. We hope you all have a lovely day, filled with the people and activities that make you happy! 

Camps 

Last week the students in Years 3-6 were provided with an expression of interest form with regard our two cluster camps for this year. We would strongly encourage our students to attend their camp so that they can mix with their peers (from other small schools) and put into to practice their self-care and resilience skills. 

If you have not sent the expression of interest back yet, please do so ASAP, as the cluster requires student numbers in order to finalise costings and to let the camps know how many students will be attending. No reply will have to be considered as a "Not Attending". 

If you have any questions or concerns about camp please contact Lisa. 

School Council

Our next meeting is scheduled for Monday May 22nd at 5pm. Please let Lisa know if you are unable to make it. Packages for the meeting will be sent home next week. 

Pie Warmer

Just a reminder this is running each school day of Term 2 and Term 3. 

That's all for this week- Lisa Duffy

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