Principal's Message
The last fortnight has been extremely busy for everyone at Ripponlea. I have enjoyed chatting to many students, visiting classrooms, getting to know our staff, meeting new Foundation families and getting to know our school councillors at our very first meeting last night. This is a very important year for our school, as we begin implementation of our newly formed Strategic Plan. A school’s Strategic Plan charts the school’s priorities over a four-year period. Over the year I will be sharing our progress against the goals and key improvement strategies of our Annual Implementation Plan: both documents provide a direct link to improved outcomes for all students. One might question what will be our focus for 2018?
Click hereto find out our selected goals and key improvement strategies:
HOUSE SWIMMING CARNIVAL
On Thursday, our Year 3-6 students spent the day at GESAC trialling for the Balaclava district swimming sports. The highlight for many students was certainly the novelty events, amidst the competition for the winning house. Every student participated, which was so pleasing to see. I would like to thank our parent volunteers, staff and Ms Joanne Ritson, our PE teacher. Congratulations to Carrington who were the winning house, but only a few points ahead of the others. We wish all of our students the best of luck when they compete at the districts next week.
SCHOOLMATE APP
Have you ever wondered how you as a parent can help support your child at school or find out more about what your child is learning? The Department of Education has created an APP to help families find out what your child is learning at school in each subject at each year level. You will also find practical tips about what you can do at home to help support your child's education. SchoolMate can be downloaded from the App Store.
SCHOOL MORNINGS - SOFT START
Ripponlea has a “Soft Start to School” every morning, whereby staff are in their learning areas from 8.45am and students are able to go straight into their learning spaces. Once inside, students are able to get settled and organised for the school day. Each year level will have a special routine for the start of the day, so please check in with your teacher for some clarification about this. Given teachers are supervising children from 8:45 each morning, they are unable to have parent meeting during this time. Parents are always welcome to make an appointment at other times that are more convenient by contacting the office or leaving a message on the voicemail of the teacher.
We kindly request that students and families do not enter learning spaces until the yard duty teacher with the high-visibility vest is out in the yard at the basketball end at 8.45am. Some parents prefer to take their children directly to their learning spaces at 8.45am; however, we strongly discourage leaving children unattended if a teacher is not present. On Tuesday and Thursday mornings, staff attend a briefing until 8.45am, which may see that some staff are not in their learning areas at exactly 8.45am but maybe a minute or so later.
NB: Staff are unavailable during the following days and times:
Tuesdays 8:30 to 8:45am (Staff briefing) & 3:45 – 4:45pm (Staff Professional Learning Session)
Wednesdays 3:45 to 4:45 (PLT Meetings)
Thursdays 8:30 to 8:45am (Staff briefing)
NEW BELL TIMES
We have introduced a new bell system (playing music) at Ripponlea to help prompt our students to be more organised and transition from their play at recess and lunch. When students hear the music play before the bell, they are reminded to finish play, collect their belonging, get a drink or go to the toilet before the bell rings and then they enter their classrooms. Student are far more prepared for their sessions and our younger students are benefitting from this gentle reminder. We have also introduced a 3:45 bell to help remind families that the OSHC program is beginning and that our teachers have completed their supervision of the yard. Any student that has not been collected will be taken to the school office.
STUDENT SUPERVISION AT SCHOOL PRIOR TO AND AFTER SCHOOL
Teachers commence yard duty supervision of the playground at 8:45AM each day. Please be aware that children who arrive prior to 8:45AM may be unsupervised in the playground. We have many students arriving at school far too early at 8:00 am.
After school, there are teachers on yard duty until 3:45PM. After 3:45 children who have not been collected may be brought to the office.
If children remain uncollected after 4:00PM every effort will be made to contact parents and the children may be sent to the out of school hours care program, Camp Australia with any costs to be met by the parents. Camp Australia is available to families who need early and after school care. Please contact Elly Patterson on 0404 458 298.
PRIVATE PROPERTY BROUGHT TO SCHOOL
Parents and carers are reminded that the Department of Education and Training (DET) does not hold accident insurance and parents/carers are responsible for paying the cost of medical treatment for injured students including the cost of ambulance attendance or transport. There are student accident insurance policies available for parents from commercial insurers. We do not make any recommendations on these policies and parents are encouraged to find a suitable personal accident insurer themselves if they so desire. Similarly, DET does not hold insurance for personal property brought to schools and it has no capacity to pay for any loss or damage to such property. Please be assured that we will take all care should a child bring a particularly valuable item to school however we cannot be held responsible. If a child has to bring a phone or other valuable items to school, we ask them to hand them to the teacher or the office for safer keeping than just in the child’s school bag.
SCHOOL 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 to developing quality programs that we have on offer to cater for the needs and interests of our students.
On an annual basis School Council prepares a budget to provide resources for educational programs, administration, facilities development and maintenance. Our income is currently funded from two sources:
Department of Education & Training (DET) –contributes to school administration, utilities and services, urgent works, maintenance, cleaning and general school operations.
Parent Contribution – this is the major source of our educational and school program funding.
We are also extremely fortunate to have outstanding support from the school community in our fundraising ventures such as our Ripper Fete this year. These funds also enable us to enhance the school resources and facilities. I would like to thank all parents who have made their contributions and generously contributed to the school’s Building & Library funds, which are tax deductible donations.As advised in our Parent Payment letters distributed last year, fees were due to be collected by the 29th January unless otherwise arranged with the office. If you require any support regarding payments please contact Natalie Galati our business manager.
CSEF - CAMPS, SPORTS, EXCURSIONS FUNDING
The CSEF is an annual State Government payment made to the school which is used towards camps, sports and/or excursion expenses for the benefit of the eligible student. Primary school funding is $125 per year. To be eligible for this fund, a parent or legal guardian of a student attending a registered Government School must be a holder of a current Veterans Affairs Gold Card or be an eligible Centrelink Health Care Card (HCC) or Pensioner Concession Card (PCC), or be a temporary foster parent. Application forms are available at the school office and can be submitted to the school by the end of Term 1. If you wish to use the CSEF to assist with the cost of upcoming school excursions, then please fill out and return the attached form ASAP.
COLES SPORTS FOR SCHOOLS
Coles Sports for Schools is back! When you shop at Coles, you will receive Sports for Schools vouchers that we can exchange for sports equipment. The more vouchers you collect, the more sports equipment we will receive. Please place the vouchers in the collection box located outside the office.
STUDENT HEALTH & WELLBEING
Children who are unwell should not be at school. We currently have a number of students with “gastro” and we ask families to keep a look out for symptoms and keep them at home until at least 24 – 48 hours after the last event. Thanks for your assistance and vigilance with the welfare of your children and our students.
TERM 2 CURRICULUM DAY - CHANGE OF DATE
Over 2017 our staff have been engaging with some professional learning on the VCOP Writing Program. Staff have completed an introductory session on VCOP and the Big Write process. Supporting our students in the development of their writing skills is one of our major goals in 2018. This program emphasises the use of text structure, as well as the importance of Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers and Punctuation (V.C.O.P) during the writing process. We were scheduled to have this workshop in Term 3, but since contacting the provider, we are able to secure an earlier workshop. This would be very beneficial for our staff to engage in, so that we can begin to work with our students on the most effective writing strategies.
Although we have set our next Curriculum Day on the 16th April, our presenter is only available on Friday 20th April. We have consulted with our School Council and they have approved this change of date. To support families who would need to make alternative arrangements, we will be contacting Camp Australia to provide care on this day. More information will be provided shortly.
NB: Students will now be at school at the start of Term 2 on Monday 16th April, but will not attend on Friday 20th April.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused, but we hope with early notification our community can support this valuable opportunity for our staff and students.
Reminder: Photo Day is Monday 26th February
Enjoy your fortnight, until our next newsletter!
Natalie Rose Jess Grey
Acting Principal Acting Asst. Principal