Principal's Message
LEARNING AT RIPPONLEA - SCHOOL WIDE ASSESSMENTS
At the start of the school year, you will find our teachers using a range of assessment tools and practices to identify each student’s learning needs across key learning areas. You might hear your child say, "We did a test today" and this might be in fact correct. A range of Progressive Achievement Tests are used to identify what your child knows and has consolidated, to what your child still needs to learn. Teachers use this testing data - matched to the Victorian Curriculum standards - and identify the groups of students and the skills they need to teach at their particular level. Teachers use differentiated teaching and learning approaches to provide each child with their individual learning pathways. The following document can help explain how we teach at Ripponlea Primary School.
WELCOME BBQ
What a terrific night for our school community! We thank you for coming along to enjoy the Blackberry Jam Bush Band. This annual event marks the beginning of the Ripponlea Primary School social calendar. We hope you danced a little, ate a little and got to know many new members of our wonderful school community. We know the kids loved the cracking whip and all the nostalgic Aussie songs. Thank you to our School Council members for hosting this event. The sausages were delicious!
GOODBYE & BEST WISHES
It is with sincere fondness and gratitude that Tanya Harms will remember us at Ripponlea and the feeling is mutual when we consider Mrs. Harms’ countless contributions to the community.
Tanya picked up the mantle of Performing Arts teacher at RPS back in 2006. At the time she was greeted by a somewhat drab, unpainted multipurpose space (the current 1/2C&D room) which she had to share with other teachers and classes. There was one small keyboard, a few xylophones and an assortment of rusting untuned percussion. Tanya recruited her skills and passion (and the assistance of her family) to decorate the space and begin building instrumental resources, beginning with a set of angel chime bars. Over the following years, Tanya would continue to dedicate her own time, resources and energies to enhance the opportunities for our students to engage in a variety of Performing Arts activities.
Tanya’s recollection of her years at RPS is full of richness and diversity – enjoying the process of being part of community-based activities involving the students, their families and the staff. Through staging school performances on a regular basis, Tanya immersed herself in working alongside (and learning from) so many contributors from our community in the areas of music, acting, dance, lighting design, stage directions, costume, sound technology and multi media. Discovering and harnessing the wonderful talents and generosity of the parent community to enhance our children’s engagement in the Performing Arts has given Tanya a great sense of joy and fulfillment, together with tremendous pride and respect for what all the students have accomplished in their artistic endeavours over the years.
We welcome all community members to join us to officially farewell Mrs Harms as she leaves her role as a classroom Performing Arts teacher to more fully immerse herself in her other great love as an instrumental teacher. Please join us in the Barrbunin at 3pm on Friday 1 March to celebrate the indelible mark that Tanya has made on the Ripponlea community.
PRODUCTIVE GARDEN RENEWAL PROJECT
Thank you to Lee Brennan (mother of Reid), Louisa MacDonald (mother of Clea) and Cynthia Swanson (mother of Jun) for weeding our productive garden with a whole bunch of student volunteers. The 2018 Student Council spent last year fundraising for the installation of self-watering wicking beds. Now that they have reached their target, the Facilities and Environment committee can begin the task of building the wicking beds. If anyone has some time to spare on a weekend and knows how to install these systems, can you please contact Bec Parker, George Keon – Cohen or Colin Smith. They would love to hear from you.
SCHOOL ATTENDANCE/REPORTING ABSENCES
If your child is sick or absent, you are required to notify the school as soon as possible on the day of absence, by logging this information on the COMPASS portal or contacting the school office if encountering problems.
Notifying the school of your child’s absence either prior to, or on the day that they will be away, helps ensure the safety and wellbeing of all children and will fulfil your legal responsibility.
From the end of Term 2 2018, all Victorian government schools were required to contact parents/carers as soon as practicable on the same day of an unexplained student absence. If your child is absent on a particular day and you have not contacted the school to explain why, the absence will be marked as unexplained. This system also promotes daily school attendance.
Going to school every day is the single most important part of your child’s education, they learn new things every day – missing school puts them behind.
The Attendance Policy (see below) outlines the school’s processes and procedures for monitoring, recording and following-up of student absences and is available on the school’s website policy tab.
We do want to acknowledge all the parents who have used COMPASS to log all absences. We have seen significant reductions in the number of unexplained absences. It is very important that we continue to have such positive practices from our parent body and we encourage all families to get on board.
FIRST AID TREATMENT
Next Tuesday our staff will be undertaking updated First Aid training including CPR, Anaphylaxis and Asthma management. This training ensures that our knowledge and skills are up-to-date so that we are equipped to respond to injuries and the management of medical conditions. We endeavour to contact parents in a timely manner whenever a serious incident occurs. Parents/carers will also be contacted as a courtesy if a child bumps their head.
ACCIDENT INSURANCE
If a student is injured at school or during a school organised activity, it is the responsibility of parents/carers to cover the cost of all medical treatment and transport to a medical facility/hospital. The Department of Education does not provide accident insurance cover, but advise that there are a number of commercial insurers in the marketplace, if parents are interested in obtaining this sort of protection.
STUDENT LEADERSHIP – BADGE PRESENTATION
What a proud moment, as we officially inducted our student leaders and acknowledged their new roles at the official ceremony held last Friday. We thank the major of Glen Eira Cr Jamie Hyams for attending our assembly, presenting the badges to our student leaders and highlighting his personal views on leadership and responsibility.
Leadership is the art of motivating, setting an example, influencing and taking personal responsibility to achieve the goals of the team or school. It is important for all students to experience leadership opportunities. We believe all members of our community should be capable of exercising leadership in different contexts. We are already impressed by the commitment and collaborative nature of the whole student leadership team.
Congratulations to all our 2019 student leaders!
2019 School Captains:
Polly G & Finley B
2019 School Vice-Captains:
Abbie M & Tom P
2019 House Captains:
COMPASS COMMUNICATION
COMPASS is the school’s preferred method for all school communication, including the school’s fortnightly electronic newsletter. COMPASS is easy to navigate and has many features that support the functioning of the school.
Please note that the COMPASS app has never been developed to be the only mode of correspondence. The COMPASS portal operates best in browser mode and on the Google Chrome platform either on the desktop or on a smart phone.
At any point in time you can view all important school dates and events both on COMPASS and at the back of the school newsletter. Sarah Corron, our administration officer, coordinates all correspondence for the school. Sarah will send out COMPASS SMS reminders and email alerts, and will sometimes post information on your News Feed specific for your child’s year level. It is really important for us that all families are using COMPASS, as we have launched a number of features over 2018.
COMPASS Features:
Calendar of events
Online consent forms
Recording absences
Tracking and monitoring your child’s attendance data
Viewing your child’s achievement reports
School documentation
Soon we will be releasing some new features, but would like to be assured that all families are navigating the system comfortably. To support all families, we will be running COMPASS mini tutorials. Please come along to the staff room on the following dates:
Monday 4th March - 2:45pm
Thursday 7th March - 9:05am
SCHOOL TOURS
Ripponlea Primary School offers families the opportunity to tour the school in small groups or private tours with the school principal. We have locked in a number of dates on the school’s website and kindly request that our families pass on this relevant information to any interested parties.
LOST PROPERTY
Please ensure your child’s uniform is clearly labelled, as the lost property boxes are slowly starting to fill up. Please note that our Year 6 students empty the tubs and return all items on a weekly basis, but encouraging your child to take responsibility for their belongings can certainly help us with this situation.
FOUNDATION STUDENTS & YEAR 6 BUDDIES
One of the highlights for a Year 6 student is the special bond they share with their Foundation Buddy. Starting school can be daunting, but the cheerful, helpful support of an older peer can make the world of difference! In the first few weeks of the year, Year 6 students work with their Buddies to help the Foundation children adjust to school life. We wanted to thank all the Year 6’s for displaying the values of caring for others, friendliness, respect, valuing difference, including others and responsibility. The Foundation children are settling so well into school life and we are very proud of the resilience they are displaying!
FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS
We have something very special here at Ripponlea - a school built on the efforts of parents and teachers for the benefit of all of our students. We enjoy fantastic facilities, resources and programs because, over the years, families have contributed financially beyond government funding.
I would like to thank all parents who have made their contributions so far this year and generously contributed to the school’s Maintenance, Building & Library funds, which are tax deductible donations.
As a result of these financial contributions, we were able to refurbish some classrooms with removal of old cupboards, installation of new storage cupboards, fixed the sliding doors in the 3/4 classrooms, relocated bag lockers, added new bi-fold doors to the Foundation classrooms and we will be reviewing and installing new air conditioners across the school.
In addition to these works, we removed all the rubbish across the school, bought new furniture for our Year 1/2 classrooms and topped up our soft fall across all play areas. This year we upgrade our library with soft furnishings, a new service desk, computer and new shelving units. So much can be achieved through the generosity of our community for the benefit of all students.
STUDENT WELLBEING - SCHOOL WIDE POSITIVE LEARNING & BEHAVIOUR FRAMEWORK
Over the course of 2018, Ripponlea Primary School began an exciting journey of introducing the staff and partially the students to the framework of the SWPBS. Using a whole-school approach to promote positive behaviour across a school is the most effective way to develop a safe and supportive learning environment.
In a whole-school approach, the school community (students, parents and school staff) work together to establish the expectations for behaviour. The expectations are simple, clear and explicit.
Research shows that students are more likely to respond positively when they know what is expected of them and when responses to behaviour are fair and consistent.
In a whole-school approach all students are explicitly taught the expected behaviours. Some students will require additional support to learn the expected behaviour. A few students will require intensive support to assist them to learn appropriate ways of behaving.
We are excited to say we have developed a Matrix of expected behaviours across different parts of the school. We are now at the 'Living the Matrix’ stage. Staff have developed a common language and understandings which they are beginning to unpack with students and they will be acknowledging expected behaviours that are reflected in the Matrix.
Later this term (on Monday 18th March - 7pm) we will be holding a special information evening for all parents to learn about the School Wide Positive Behaviour Support framework, that we continue to implement this year.
SWPBS Purpose Statement:
At Ripponlea PS we care about ourselves, others, our learning and our school; we create an environment where we can grow and learn; we connect our actions with outcomes which helps us to make good decisions.
Until next fortnight!
Natalie Rose Jess Grey
Principal Assistant Principal