Principal's Message

Welcome back and a very happy 2021 to all members of our school community especially our students. We hope your holidays were filled with lots of family love, pure fun and relaxation. 

It was lovely to start the year with our staff reconnecting with each other, our students sharing their excitement of returning to school and finally welcoming our families back onto our school site.

We were so impressed by the transition of our students from year level to year level, especially our youngest cohorts being the Foundation and Year 1 students and their sheer resilience in managing this significant change following such a challenging year. We again thank our families and our staff for their care and support to make the start of the school year such a positive experience.

A special welcome to all new families. We hope that you build those wonderful connections that lead to everlasting friendships for you and your children. Please reach out if you need any help as we are certain you will find people happy to assist you. If you have any questions about the school, our A-Z booklet is a great way to find out about things even if your child is not in Foundation https://www.ripponleaps.vic.edu.au/uploaded_files/media/new_az.pdf.

A perusal through our new school website will also provide a wealth of information as we continue to update material and brighten it up with some beautiful photos. If social media is your preference then check out our Facebook or Instagram pages. 

Facebook: Ripponlea Primary School

Instagram: Ripponlea_primary_school

Specific information for each year level will be coming out shortly as we prepare for our Virtual Curriculum Information sessions with our team of teachers. 

HOLIDAY WORKS

We are certain everyone would agree that witnessing the progress of the building works at Ripponlea Kinder has brought joy to many families whose children once attended there and have now transitioned to our school. We wait in anticipation for the final inclusive entryway and upgrade to their outdoor areas. This has certainly reminded us that we will soon be ready to commence our very own upgrade of our internal toilet facilities and the long awaited outdoor learning deck delayed due to COVID-19 restrictions. 

We wanted to thank the team from Australian Climate Control and Simon Bacon for installing five brand new air conditioners in our Foundation Year 1/2A & 1/2B classrooms. The generosity of families donating to the school’s tax deductible Building Fund enabled this upgrade to occur.  These energy efficient reverse cycle units will be appreciated by the staff and students at the eastern end of the school. 

We topped up our playgrounds with soft fall mulch and our very own staff member Mark Sorocynski cleaned the school grounds in preparation for the return of our students. Voluntary contributions to maintenance and special projects allows the school to employ Mark to complete a range of maintenance jobs and clean the school grounds each week. 

PARENT PAYMENTS 2021

Thank you to all families who have already made their payments for Essential Student Learning items and have returned their forms to begin collection of our Parent Payments for 2021. All stationery items have been delivered directly to the classrooms. We are also extremely grateful to families for making significant contributions to our Voluntary Payments. Rachel Helyer, our Business Manager can be reached at the school office on 95275728 for all queries. 

SCHOOL UNIFORMS 

A sense of community is a strong focus at RPS. Part of that unity is demonstrated through adherence to our school’s Student Dress Code and Uniform Policy. The policy describes the versatile uniform options we have on offer. The policy also outlines the rationale behind adopting a dress code and uniform; these include:

• Fostering of a sense of community, pride and belonging
• Supporting equality and reducing competition based on appearance
• Offering durable and practical clothing options that allow for individual comfort
• Ensuring our students are easily identified as RPS members.

We ask that families are familiar with the policy which can be found here https://www.ripponleaps.vic.edu.au/uploaded_files/media/student_dress_code_and_uniform_policy_2020.pdf so that they can be assured their children are dressed appropriately. Please also ensure that all items are clearly labelled. The following image displays the numerous uniform options.  

Do please take note that some of the above articles of clothing are special uniform items which are only worn on specified occasions (e.g., house and inter-school sports tops). Again please refer to the policy which also assists with information regarding uniform purchasing and support for families experiencing financial difficulty.

2021 STAFFING  

ADMINISTRATION TEAM

RPS LEADERSHIP TEAM

LEARNING SUPPORT TEAM

SPECIALIST TEAM

TEACHING TEAMS

LITERACY INTERVENTION - LEARNING SUPPORT 

We welcome to our team Ms Emily Ingamells. Emily will be our new Intervention Specialist and will facilitate the MacqLit and MiniLit programs working with small groups of students across the school. 

MiniLit, which stands for Meeting Initial Needs in Literacy has been developed by a specialist team of academic researchers to provide a highly effective and specifically targeted approach of teaching students who are experiencing some difficulties with their literacy skills.  The intervention program is specifically designed for young children in late Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2.  

The MiniLit program incorporates key elements of early reading programs: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary development and text comprehension. Our ultimate goal of reading instruction at Ripponlea Primary is to ensure our students read accurately and fluently so that they not only have the best chance of reading for understanding and meaning but also for enjoyment.

MacqLit which stands for Macquarie Literacy Program also developed by a specialist team of academic and educational researchers to provide a highly effective and specifically targeted approach to teaching students who are experiencing some difficulties with their literacy skills.  The intervention program is specifically designed for students in Years 3 to 6. 

The MacqLit program incorporates key elements of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary development and text comprehension.  Such elements are intertwined and are fundamental skills to master as the demands of the upper primary school curriculum require students to transition from ‘learning to read’ to ‘reading to learn’. 

Families will be contacted privately to discuss the program.

LOTE – ITALIAN & FRENCH

During the holidays we advertised for a LOTE (Italian/French) teacher and reached out to the French & Italian Associations of Teachers in Victoria. We will shortly commence interviewing for this position and are delighted to welcome back our very own Mrs Patricia Kelly to help out in the interim. 

Most of the older children will remember Signora Kelly and so will many members of our school community. As a staff we are excited to be working with Trish again and can’t thank her enough for supporting us. 

VISUAL ARTS

We welcome Mrs Michelle Fernandez who will join us as part of the RPS team, before we undertake a similar recruitment process to appoint our new Visual Arts teacher for the remainder of the year.  Michelle was previously the Visual Arts teacher at Valkstone and Hampton Primary Schools.   

WELCOME TO OUR NEW STAFF 

SARAH COUGHLIN

Hello Ripper Community!! Thank you for the warm welcome to Ripponlea… I know you'll discover many things about me over the year but here are a few to begin. Prior to becoming a teacher, I worked as a Social/Youth Worker for many years in a variety of roles; this actually inspired me to become a teacher. Before joining the team at Ripponlea, I was teaching just down the road at Elsternwick and Port Melbourne Primary Schools. Outside of school I spend much of my time training martial arts, which I have also taught to adults and children. When I am not training my body, I am training my mind, so you can find me studying new things with the help of my little black cat. I'm so excited to get to meet and know all of you! 

MICHELLE FERNANDEZ

To the Ripponlea school community, I am very excited to be starting 2021 in the role of Visual Arts Teacher. I have had many years of experience as both an art specialist and a class teacher and I have taught all levels. Close to my heart is teaching art. I love to attend art exhibitions and I like to paint. I have entered my work in community competitions as well as the Cancer Council. My other interests are reading, walking and yoga. Finally, I have two lovely children who are both at University and following their own passions.  

JORDANE HYAMS 

Hi everyone and thank you for welcoming me so warmly into the Ripponlea family. I'm so excited to be a part of this community and am looking forward to a great year ahead. I love cooking and being creative in the kitchen, and I spend a lot of my free time searching for interesting recipes! I also love art and I used to work in the National Gallery as part of the education team before starting my classroom career. I also have become a big fan of bouldering (indoor rock climbing) over the past year and a half and often spend my weekends covered in chalk! This will be my third year teaching and I can't wait to see what it brings!

EMILY INGAMELLS 

Hi everyone! Thank you for the warm welcome to Ripponlea, I am so excited to join the community here. After growing up in Alice Springs, I moved to Melbourne to complete a Certificate IV in Education Support and a Bachelor of Global Studies. I love living in this vibrant city, although in winter I always miss the warm sun and clear skies of Central Australia. In my free time I enjoy reading books, sewing clothes, and going hiking. I also love learning languages and have recently been learning Auslan and Spanish. I am really looking forward to getting to know you all in 2021!

BRENTON O’HOY

Hi everyone! I'm Brenton. I was born in Melbourne but it was Switzerland where I went to Primary School and Greece where I completed High School. I love travelling and nature and one of my heros is David Attenborough. I love to watch and play sport, and my three teams are Melbourne Demons (AFL), Dallas Mavericks (NBA) and Manchester United (Soccer). I live for music and love to watch movies. On the weekends you can usually find me walking my dog Samson at the beach in summer or out eating great food in and around Melbourne. I have loved what I've seen so far from all the wonderful students and staff here at Ripponlea and I can't wait to get to know each and every one of you. If you see me walking around, please come up and introduce yourself!

LEARNING TUTOR INITIATIVE 

We are delighted that this year we have a number of staff are undertaking a range of roles to support student learning needs. At the end of 2020, we completed a range of assessments to identify students who will require additional intervention as well as students who might have developed some gaps in their learning due to the difficulties experienced in remote learning. Over the next few weeks we will be working with our staff and our new Learning Tutor Mrs Kay Conser.

MEET OUR SCHOOL CAPTAINS 

Hello RPS community, my name is Marley and I am so excited to be your school captain this year. Some of my hobbies are skateboarding, BMX riding, swimming and I am always up for trying something new. I also recently got a new Cavoodle puppy named Chewie Wookie Elisha. I can't wait to make a valuable contribution to our school, so feel free to come and make suggestions or say hi to me at any time. 

Hi my name is Teddy and I'm one of your School Captains for 2021. I was in Student Council last year which I really enjoyed. You may not know that I lived in Switzerland for five years until I was seven years old, and that's when I started at Ripponlea Primary, halfway through Grade Two. I play AFL, Soccer and Cricket at Club level. Team sports are my favourite and I think Ripponlea is like one giant team. So now I hope you know a bit more about me!

HIGH ABILITY PROGRAM

We congratulate Erina and Sol in Year 6 for being selected to participate in the Victorian High-Ability program. Last year we had three students selected Wynn, Phoebe and Izzy. High-ability students in Years 5 to 8 at government schools have the opportunity to participate in 10-week online extension and enrichment programs. The virtual program, delivered by Virtual School of Victoria, will focus on extending and developing students' Maths and English abilities. 

Mr Rob Griffiths our High Ability Practice leader will also work with small groups of students to provide learning support in Mathematics as well as enrichment and extension tasks. 

OUR GOALS IN 2021

At the final School Council meeting in December 2020, we endorsed the school’s Annual Implementation Plan for 2021. The Annual Implementation Plan establishes school’s improvement goals, actions and key priorities over the next twelve months. There will be a state-wide focus for all schools in Victoria across the following key areas: 

1. Learning catch-up and extension: Support for both those who need it to catch up and those who have thrived to continue to extend their learning. Additionally, we will support those cohorts who were most affected by the lack of usual transitions and establishment practices in 2020, e.g. 2021 Foundation and Year 1s.
2. Happy, active and healthy kids: We will make sure we look after our students’ mental health and enable every student to get back outdoors, get active and get creative. This means effectively mobilising available resources to support our students, especially the most vulnerable.
3. Connected schools: We will build on the stronger connections that schools have established with their families, carers and communities through 2020 to embed and spread improved ways of working to support our students.

Using these key areas we have embedded our school’s specific actions and success criteria, mapping our improvement over the next 12 months. The full Annual Implementation Plan is published on the school’s website. Share link here: https://www.ripponleaps.vic.edu.au/uploaded_files/media/ripponlea_primary_school_4087__2021__aip__overall.pdf 

RPS IS A PBS SCHOOL – 

POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR SUPPPORT

Many of you would know that Ripponlea PS adopts holistic, evidence based well-being practices through the framework of the School Wide Positive Behaviour Support system (SWAPBS) or simply referred to as Positive Behaviour Support (PBS). It is a framework for 

developing and explicitly teaching appropriate and positive behaviours. Teaching, modelling and reinforcing positive social behaviour is an important part of a student’s educational experience. Teaching behavioural expectations and acknowledging students for meeting them is a much more positive approach than waiting for misbehaviour to occur before responding. 

Ripponlea staff view their role as educators to develop students who are not just academically prepared for the future but have the pro-social skills to manage an ever changing global society. We have developed across the school a common approach, a common language and tools to help support every child and hope to work in partnership with families for even better outcomes for our students. We continue to learn and build our own skills and we hope that you can come along on this journey with us. 

In 2021 we continue to place emphasis on establishing a positive school culture that promotes a safe and supportive environment for everyone to learn and succeed socially, emotionally and academically. 

Parents can help by:

• Discussing the behavioural expectations of their child
• Encouraging and acknowledging positive behaviours
• Using the same language to provide consistency between home and school
• Keeping communication between you and your child’s teacher active throughout the school year

Here is our special handbook to assist you to have these discussions with your child. 

COMPASS COMMUNICATION PORTAL 

This portal communicates all daily whole school correspondence or specific year level significant information for an event or an activity.

Compass will allow you to:

• Log your child’s absence notes
• View your child’s attendance
• View your child’s report
• View school alerts and messages
• Give permission for an excursion/activity
• View the calendar of all school and year level events

Meagan Brake, our Administration officer, is our main communication officer for Compass. She receives communication from teachers, leadership, parents and Ripper Families and posts information via the portal. Given a school can have a large number of daily information to distribute, we take the following approaches depending on the importance of the correspondence. 

1. We can email and SMS the information (Compass will alert you)
2. We can email (will alert you)
3. We can just SMS (will alert but disappears quickly on iPhone)
4. We can just post and save making the correspondence live for the period (no alert)

Please note:

• Reminders are occasionally sent as alerts, but not always
• All communication drops off after an event has concluded
• All minor correspondence drops off after 7 days
• All permission closes off by the due date for planning purposes
• All notices can be found on the school documentation tab

We highly recommend that all families make it a regular habit to check COMPASS on a weekly basis to avoid missing important information. If you need any help in navigating this portal please come and see Meagan at reception. Please be advised that COMPASS operates best in Chrome and in browser mode, it was not designed to be an app, although can operate some features. 

YOU TELL US INTERVIEWS 

Thank you to all Years 1-6 families who have booked a timeslot to meet with their child’s 2021 teacher on Tuesday 9 February. (Foundation families will receive information for their You Tell Us event in a couple of weeks.)

Our teachers are very excited to meet with you IN PERSON in your child’s classroom! This is your opportunity to let your child’s teacher know everything they need to know to help cater for their learning. Teachers would like to know about your child’s interests, strengths, out-of-school routines, specific needs and also how they have fared over the last twelve months. Please note: teachers have met for handover processes in 2020 and due to the limited time students have been at school, teachers are unable to comment around student progress at this point in time.   

To ensure we maintain COVID safe behaviours...

1. Please sanitize upon entry to the school building. Sanitizer stations can be found outside of each classroom and entry way.
2. Please maintain physical distancing and if unable to do so please wear a mask.
3. Please sign in using the sign in sheets located outside the classroom.
4. When waiting in the corridor please use the chairs that are spread out across the hallways and avoid congregating in groups.

We ask that you are mindful of the teachers needing to meet with the families of all students in their classes so please ensure you arrive on time and stick to your allotted appointment. If more time is needed, please arrange a follow-up meeting with the teacher.

To book an appointment, please go to www.schoolinterviews.com.au and click on 'Make a booking' then enter the code: 7uvf7

CURRICULUM DAY

As a school we have publicly acknowledged the difficulties faced by our students and families over the last twelve months. As we forged forward, our passionate staff gave so much of themselves last year that we certainly found it hard to look after ourselves and one another as a staff.

In recognition of this, we have engaged Tracey Ezard to work with our staff this year. Tracey surveyed the needs of our staff in Nov-Dec last year and is preparing a bespoke program designed to enhance collaboration to build a culture of learning, trust and innovation amongst RPS staff.

Our first set of workshops with Tracey is occurring on Friday 12 February, therefore this will be a Curriculum Day where students do not attend school. We are very excited to be learning with Tracey who comes to us with a wealth of experience that she has brought to over 300 schools across Australia. We look forward to sharing our learning with the community and watching our students benefit from the culture that Tracey will help us nurture.

LOOKING AFTER OUR HEALTH 

We start the year from a great position feeling that things are returning to some normalcy for Victorians and most definitely for our school operations, but we must continue to implement procedures and practices that ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of every member of our community, especially for our students and staff.  

We kindly ask families to discuss with their children general health and hygiene practices. If your child is unwell, even if they have mild symptoms (cough, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, decreased appetite, fever, body aches, diarrhoea, headache, chest pain, difficulty breathing) they must remain at home and get tested. Parents/carers should also consider getting a medical certificate from your child’s treating GP to confirm that it is safe for them to attend school with persistent symptoms that may overlap with some of the symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) such as cough or runny nose. 

Please do not send them to school, as you know when a child comes to school unwell it doesn’t take long before the rest of the class including the teacher are affected. We really want to ensure everyone can continue to come to school and stay healthy. 

Wishing everyone a very happy, healthy and successful year ahead. 

A positive mindset for 2021. 

Let go of what’s gone. 

Be grateful for what remains.

Look forward to what’s coming. 

                                                Natalie Rose                              Jess Grey

                                                   Principal                         Assistant Principal