Principal's Post
From Mr Phillips
This has indeed been a busy week at Ringwood Secondary College with NAPLAN testing, being undertaken by over 500 students in Years 7 and 9. Unfortunately, we do not receive any feedback until close to the end of term 3 to assist in developing plans for individual and groups of students. This will be different in 2017 as we are one of the trial schools for NAPLAN online. This will give us more flexibility in delivery of a test, which is adaptive and for which the feedback will occur much earlier.
VCE Premier's Awards
Two of our students were recognized as top students in their studies from VCE, having obtained a perfect study score of 50. The annual awards held at Crown Palladium acknowledged all of the top achievers including Ellena Boyd (Health and Human Development) and Arthur Zhi-Bin Foo (English as an Additional Language). They both should be immensely proud of this achievement. Academic excellence is a team effort and their teachers Mrs Nicole Solomon and Ms Lucy Moore were particularly chuffed too!
Ringwood Training Graduation
I was delighted to welcome our successful graduates to our awards ceremony held on Thursday evening. Certificates for those who had successfully completed School Based Apprenticeships, Traineeships and Apprenticeships were presented in Automotive, Engineering and Information and Communications Technology. The support of many local industries and partners, as well as the presence of State and Federal Members of parliament was also greatly appreciated. We do make every effort as a school community to enable multiple pathways for our students.
Volunteers Luncheon
Earlier this week I had the opportunity to celebrate National Volunteers Week at a Community Volunteer Luncheon at Karralyka. Mayor of Maroondah, Cr Natalie Thomas, herself a former Ringwood Student, acknowledged those in our community who give up their time to make Maroondah such a caring and supportive place to live.
One of the highlights was the performance of our Junior Stage Band Students led by Mr Lachlan Mackay, who entertained all of the guests.
Mt Gambier National Stage Bands Competition
On May 6, our Jazz ensembles made the annual trek to Mt Gambier to participate at the Generations in Jazz event and did so with great resolve, performing well across the board. There were a number of outstanding results, including: Holly Watson for making the Future Finalists on Alto Clarinet, and Emily White for making the Division 1 Superband on Piano! A huge congratulations to both young ladies and well done to all ensembles that performed and represented the College so admirably across the weekend.
Dance Fair
Our Dance program continues to go from strength to strength and last weekend our students participated in the dance fair at Fairhills High School, obtaining outstanding results. They have all worked particularly hard and Ms Gaynor Borlase has been a wonderful coach for these students. There were a swag of individual awards which have been reported elsewhere in this newsletter and Ringwood Secondary College was the overall schools’ winner
Hats off time!
SunSmart wants Victorian secondary schools to throw away the sun protection from May – August, when UV levels are lower. Throughout these months, Victorians are encouraged to get some sun exposure for vitamin D – important for the development and maintenance of healthy bones, muscles and overall health. From May to August in Victoria, sun protection is not recommended as UV levels are lower, so people are encouraged to be outdoors around the middle of each day, with some skin uncovered. Being physically active outdoors will also help the body to make vitamin D. Download the free SunSmart app for Apple, Android and ipad devices to remind you when you do and don't need sun protection each day. For further information on vitamin D, visit the SunSmart website.
Student Safety.
As the wetter and colder weather settles in, it is a timely reminder to all students travelling along busy roads that it is often difficult for vehicle drivers to see students when they alight from buses or emerge from between parked vehicles. Basic road sense should apply in these situations, such as looking right, left and right again before crossing a road and waiting for a bus to have cleared the immediate area before crossing. The area closest to our school for which the risk is greatest is in Great Ryrie Street near Bedford Road. Hopefully the traffic signals will be in use later this year but in the meantime please use common sense and patience in these situations.
Finally, our building project is really taking shape with the site cleared in readiness for the builders arrival on site in the coming days and a construction time period of approximately 12 months. It was brilliant to witness the final demolition of our oldest portables! I will keep you informed of progress as the work commences.
Michael Phillips
Principal