Principal's Report 

It has been another big fortnight here at Rangeview! Level 1 and 2 have been participating in Basketball Clinics, our new Parents & Friends Committee ran the Mother's Day Stall, our Wellbeing Leadership Team attended the Resilience Project Conference, Level 4 had a Science Incursion, Foundation went to the Farm, Level 3 and 5 completed their NAPLAN assessments, the Principal's attended the Principal Network Conference and the whole school participated in our Cyber Safety Incursions with Sam and Kiah from the Cyber Safety Project. The staff were involved in a session after school on Wednesday and I hope families were able to access the Parent Session which ran as an online session following the student incursions. 

Open Afternoon

We will be holding an Open Afternoon on Wednesday 25th May from 2.45pm to coincide with Education Week. The theme of Education Week this year is 150 Years of Public Education. 

Our classrooms will be open from 2.45pm to 3.30pm with activities and student learning on display. Then there will be a variety of special events and performances across the school - finishing up at 5pm. More details will come. So take some time and come and see your child's classroom and our fabulous specialist subject areas on display. 

Principal Network Conference

Kate McLeod, Liam Sommers and I attended the Principal Network Conference on Thursday 5th and Friday 6th May. The conference was held in San Remo and Principals from schools across the inner east network attended. 

The keynote speaker was Maria Roberto from Salutegenics Psychology. https://www.salutegenics.com.au/about-us/ Maria’s work is based on the theory of Salutogenesis where wellbeing is built from the development of positive human assets, including affective functioning and strengths- based skills. We learnt about euthymia and the effects of prolonged periods of stress on the brain and body at a cellular level. We looked at the effects of curiosity, collaboration and fun and their capacity to shift mood - significantly and in real time. We hope that the learnings we have taken will enable us to support the students and staff at Rangeview to build and maintain their neural resilience. 

The second speaker was Peter Sullivan - Professor of Science, Mathematics and Technology at Monash University. https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/peter-sullivan  Prof Sullivan spoke on the role of active leadership and collaborative planning in improving the experience of students when learning mathematics. We discussed the importance of a 'balanced diet' of math teaching. Ensuring students have practical investigations, games & puzzles, explicit teaching, and structured inquiry. We looked at some 'low floor, high ceiling tasks' which are accessible to all students while still extending our strong mathematicians. 

The final speaker was Josh Reid-Jones of the Just Be Nice Project. https://www.jbnproject.com/  Josh spoke of his life journey through family violence and disadvantage and his mission to support youth who face obstacles to success and happiness. 

Unique to the JBNProject is our mission to improve equality of opportunity. We believe that the best starting point is to ensure that everyone is housed, employed and has good mental health. We believe everyone deserves access to help, regardless of how they come to need it. Regardless if you are 15 or 50 you are unable to make the most of opportunities without being housed, employed and having good mental health.

Election Day BBQ

Rangeview's Fathering Project and the Parents & Friends Committee are running a fabulous Election Day BBQ on Saturday 21st May at the front of the gym. Come down to vote and pick up an egg and bacon roll or a sausage! Coffee will be provided by Noel Jones Mitcham for a gold coin donation - proceeds to the school. 

We are still calling for helpers on the sausage sizzle - please sign up. https://volunteersignup.org/DTM3Q

Covid Update

RATs will continue to be distributed to families as they have been throughout this school year for the remainder of this term. However, from Monday 23 May 2022, students will no longer be recommended to undertake either twice weekly RATs in mainstream schools or 5 days a week in specialist schools. RATs however will continue to be required by students who are household contacts to attend school (5 negative tests over a 7 day period) or who have symptoms. 

The ongoing supply of RATs to families in our school will ensure that parents and carers will have them should they need them if their child is a household contact or has symptoms. Families must continue to notify the Department of Health and the school if their child returns a positive RAT result. Additionally, you should inform us if any of your children are household contacts. 

Marika Ferguson

Principal