Principal's Report

Principal’s Message

Open Classrooms

What a wonderful evening celebrating Education Week at Robbie Mac last night!

After two years of COVID restrictions finally we were able to celebrate with the whole school community coming together to recognise student learning and achievement.

Thank you to all families who attended, had a sausage or 2, and came into classrooms and shared learning with their child. There is certainly a community BUZZ around the school and children still discussing today the special time they had with their families last night.

Many thanks must go to our staff for organising the BBQ, for cooking all the sausages, (500+) and for the preparation and interactions for the Open Classrooms.

Thank you to Dan Deltondo from Noel Jones for sponsoring the evening by providing the sausages & sauce for the BBQ, and Aldi for providing the bread.

‘Should you worry about their worries?’

Our evening finished with a bang, with the parent presentation from Chris Daicos. Chris shared a most relevant and pertinent presentation on childhood worries and anxieties. The workshop was very well received with overwhelming feedback from families who attended:

'I thoroughly enjoyed last night's presentation by Chris Daicos. Such a fantastic and engaging presenter. Lots of laughs and great interaction from parents.  I was touched by her own life experiences and strategies we can all adopt.  She gave a great overview about kid's anxiety and how it presents in different ways.  Plenty of scenarios and solutions we can all adopt. I loved the scaffolding examples and turning negative red thoughts into positive green. We will be using these at home. Thank you for an insightful, engaging and fun evening.'

'Imagine my surprise when I ended up with the ticket to “Should you worry about their worries?” A parent information session held by Chris Daicos, during Education Week. The surprise though, was more in the wonderful presentation and the amount of great and useful information on dealing with children, their brains & emotions and the most effective way for a supportive approach to smoothing the seas of worry ahead in their lives.

Thank you to Chris Daicos, the wellbeing team and the school for having our kids’ and parents’ interests in their focus.'

'Yesterday evening as part of RMPS Education week activities, we were fortunate to hear Chris Daicos talk about “Supporting your child and their worries”. It was a great opportunity to hear Chris talk with humorous playback of what is often going on for our children, where their worries come from and that we as parents are a powerful force to provide help, support and guidance. 

With three boys I have my moments(!), so it was a great opportunity to listen to Chris and take some of her pearls of wisdom - upstairs brain needs to be connected with downstairs brain; don’t do everything for them (what happens when we are not there?); and the solutions we offer our children to work through their worries, we also need to use on ourselves. So, take a moment and breathe!

If you were unable to come, Chris has generously offered to share her slides and her list of great resources both for children to view and for adults to read. I would encourage you to take 30mins to read the slides and choose one of the links to explore.

Thanks to Steve Roche for organising and the effort that goes into our school’s wellbeing program. Thanks also to Amanda, Peter, our teachers and school staff - we are fortunate to have a school community that invests so meaningfully in our children.'

'Many succinct methods to reduce anxiety in both your kids and yourself. Acknowledge how they are feeling. Allow them to tell you how/what they are feeling.

Great examples of how to diffuse the circumstances that leads to anxiety.

It’s important that children aren’t allowed to avoid situations, as this will continue to contributes to anxiety'.

Thank you, the school and the teachers who has made today's event possible! I think like many parents, we are inexperienced with how to best deal with our children's worry and how to best raise them!

I did promise Chris to provide some takeaway notes and more importantly to share with parents who missed this opportunity. 

1. Make sure you are always (or try to) be mindful that your child is observing, learning the way you act and react, they will absorb, mimic and respond positively/negatively from parents response. 

2. Broaden parents mindset. The child cannot elaborate or use words to express their feelings well. So probe carefully with love and care, be patient. 

3. Relax. relax. relax. relax. relax. Did I say relax?

4. 2 most important things when children are schooling: 1 Love learning, 2. Make friends. Don't forget this.

I rocked up 15 minutes late, so sadly, i missed the first few bits, but I am looking forward to seeing the presentation pack from the newsletter!

Take care!

Election Day Cake Stall & Coffee Van

Congratulations to the PFA, for your efforts and preparation for our cake staff on Saturday.

 We raised $831.45 with the combined sales of coffee & cakes!. Thank you to all families who baked some treats and to those who purchased a cake and coffee or two while voting! Dan Deltondo from Noel Jones kindly sponsored the coffee van or the day, thank you Dan! What a great success and a wonderful start to Week 5, and our community engagement!

Book Fair

Another success has been the Book Fair last week. Loads of families visited the library and purchased books and goodies! The Fair raised $1,726.40, which we have taken to purchase more books for then library. A wonderful effort all around- thank to everyone who assisted with the Fair, to families who made a purchase and to Lisa Ralling and Jess Lipscombe for coordinating.

Pupil Free Days - Term 2:

Please note the upcoming PUPIL FREE DAYS for this term have been approved by School Council for Friday 3rd June & Tuesday 14th June.

For Term 2, 2022, the Department of Education and Training has provided schools to hold each teacher’s allocated professional practice day on the same day of the term for all staff. This is to enable the most effective and efficient use of this day. As a result, we have scheduled our professional practice day for Friday 3rd June. Professional Practice Days allow teachers to focus on the improved delivery of high quality teaching and learning, by planning, assessing students learning, analysing data and to inform planning and practice.

Our previously advertised Curriculum Day has been moved to Tuesday 14th June. Students will not be required to attend school on these days.

TeamKids will be providing a service on both days from 7.00am to 6.00pm. Please contact TeamKids as required: 1300 035 00 or info@teamkids.com.au

Flu & KEEPING HEALTHY

As you are aware there are a lot of cases of Flu in our community and this will continue as we enter into the colder months. I want to reassure you that we are taking this very seriously and continue to follow the expert advice of the Department of Education and Training and Department of Health, to help ensure that our school continues to run effectively. 

To help protect our school and the wider community, we ask that unwell students stay home, given the impacts of flu and colds on our school community.   

To help reduce the spread of flu, colds and COVID-19, students are being encouraged to; 

• wash and sanitise their hands regularly
• avoid touching their eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands
• cover their nose and mouth when they cough or sneeze

• get tested for COVID-19 if they feel unwell and follow the current Department of Health isolation requirements if a positive result is shown

• if unwell, stay at home until their symptoms pass. 

Face masks are available in all schools and can be worn by any staff or students who wish to do so, including those who are medically at risk. 

Vaccination remains the best protection against both COVID-19 and flu, and we encourage you to get your child vaccinated. Flu vaccinations can be booked through GPs and pharmacies, many of which can also provide COVID-19 vaccinations. 

Please see the letter from the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Victoria Faculty Council Chair, about the importance of protecting your children and family. 

If your child does become sick while at school, please also ensure that we have correct emergency contact details for yourself. This is so we can get hold of you as quickly as possible.

I am aware that this is a challenging situation and we thank you for your understanding and support at this time.  

We will be celebrating Reconciliation Week next week

National Reconciliation Week - 27 May to 3 June - is a time for us to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements. 

This year’s theme is ‘Be Brave. Make Change’. Making change begins with brave actions in our daily lives and at Robbie Mac we’ll be doing this in a few ways. Throughout the week buddy classes will be getting together to create an Acknowledgement of Country. The traditional owners of the land that our beautiful school is located on are the of the Kuli Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation”. Students will investigate the significance of this acknowledgement and further understand the importance of Country to Aboriginal People. 

We will also be installing an Acknowledgment of Country plaque in our office foyer. To raise money for our plaque, on Thursday the 2nd June, students are asked to come to school in free clothes and bring a gold coin donation.”

Please find video of F1W’s Acknowledgment of country at assembly last Friday https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T_Ns37cOx0mZwzZ92QEBNpZIOo_PJaZA/view?usp=sharing

Education Committee

Another way parent and carers are able to engage with the community is via our Education Committee. As we are in a year of Review this is an appropriate time to capture what we are teaching at Robbie Mac, having a say in policy making and giving feedback to the school- how we are going, what is going well, and how we could do things differently!

Our next meeting is Wednesday 1st June at 6.00pm in the staffroom- please come along and have a say!

The Chess Pieces have arrived!

Our PFA have raised funds for our new giant chess pieces which have arrived. The student voice team have organised a roster to share the chess board during breaks. This will give our students an alternative option for play at recess & lunch……..and yes, the student voice team have distributed rules of the games! Thank you PFA- past & present these are awesome!

From Monday 30th May I will be taking leave from school for 4 weeks until the end of Term 2. During this time Peter Watson will be Acting Principal. Peter is ready and willing to step up and lead our community over the next few weeks during my absence, and I know he will do an outstanding job! 

As I conclude I have added some photos of the Foundation morning tea last Friday.

Another thankyou to the PFA for providing such a BIG welcome and yummy morning tea for our families!

All the best to our Robbie Mac community over the next couple of weeks.

Kind regards,

Amanda Wigg

Principal