Principal's Message

As we release the latest edition of our newsletter, we expect that many members of our immediate community are “languishing” (a term used to describe the new way of living though a pandemic). There are many things out of our immediate control right now and managing our “anchors” to keep our “buoys” afloat take priority along with the things that help us maintain our wellbeing.

As we have advised in earlier correspondence with our families, we need to keep our students attending school each day. This provides them with predictability, certainty and routine that supports their wellbeing. Staying connected to their peers and teachers is so vital, as well as providing the safety and love in our homes. 

Remember our values!

WE CARE, WE CREATE & WE CONNECT

Keeping students engaged and providing continuation of learning stimulates the brain. Please remember that we can facilitate adjustments and make modifications to our remote learning program to help every child feel a sense of success. 

To support our school community during this time, resources and supports are available. These resources help to underpin the mental health and wellbeing of our students and the young people in our care during this time. We encourage everyone in our community to access these resources and take care of themselves during this time. 

SERVICES & SUPPORTS FOR STUDENTS & FAMILIES

A Quick Guide to Student Mental Health and Wellbeing resources is available for students, parents and carers looking to access expert guidance and resources to support wellbeing.

Supporting the mental health and wellbeing of our students remains our priority this year, especially during the continued COVID-19 pandemic and while students are learning from home during the current restrictions. 

For students, the guide includes resources to support their own mental health and wellbeing.

• Advice and resources for students about ways to adapt their learning during COVID-19, to look after themselves and where to get help.
• Wellbeing activities featuring AFL and AFLW players with tips on managing stress, staying active and gratitude.
• Smiling Mind mindfulness activities for senior secondary school students, including short videos, online tip sheets and meditations.

The guide also includes resources and supports for parents and carers to help them build their child’s physical and mental health and wellbeing. This includes:

• Resources to support children’s physical, mental health and wellbeing
• Wellbeing activities and conversation starters for parents of parents of primary school-aged children and parents of secondary school-aged children
• Raising Learners podcast series
• How to talk to your child about COVID-19
• Headspace is running webinars for parents and carers about offering support when they are concerned about a young person’s mental health.

Wellbeing guidance for parents and carers is also available:

• On the Department’s website
• Headspace has created a video providing tips to support parents and carers during lockdown
• Through the confidential parent support hotline, Parentline, available 8am to midnight, seven days a week, Phone: 13 22 89.

Quick Guide to Student Mental Health and Wellbeing - Resources for students. 

SEESAW – REMOTE LEARNING FORTNIGHLTY LEARNING UPDATES

We often receive feedback from our families expressing a desire to know and understand what their children are learning across specific areas of the curriculum. Even during Flexible & Remote learning, we continue to provide families a fortnightly blog/news blast or mini newsletter via Seesaw that highlights specific learning in literacy, numeracy, personal and social capabilities as well as inquiry-based concepts. Please take the opportunity to read these updates to develop a better understanding of how we continue to build the skills and knowledge of our students across the curriculum. 

NAPLAN UPDATES

It seems like a distant memory since our students in Year 3 and Year 5 sat the National Testing Program in May. We have been given advice that schools will receive student individual reports in early September. These will be mailed out to families once received, so please check the correct residential address that appears on the COMPASS portal or contact Meagan Brake to update your details. 

Not that in times like these NAPLAN results take a priority, but there is information that Minister Merlino would like to share with all parents, teachers and students regarding our state’s performance. We can all be assured that despite the challenges of the last 18 months, the vast majority of our students have been well supported in their learning through continued partnerships between schools and families. 

https://vimeo.com/591908325/83b6da66b5?utm_source=email+marketing+Mailigen&utm_campaign=direct+send-operational-schools&utm_medium=email

SCIENCE WEEK @ RPS

National Science Week (14 - 22 August) was celebrated remotely at RPS. Our students were provided with so many opportunities to investigate and explore science concepts through a range of Seesaw tasks. We held a quiz and even a Science Microscope Challenge. On Monday our students in Foundation finished their science learning with fun experiments through their “Wicked Weather” virtual incursion. 

WICKED WEATHER - Foundation

BOOK WEEK @ RPS

This year’s theme for Book Week was Old Worlds, New Worlds and Other Worlds. Our incredible staff led by Miss D and Mrs Howell reinvented the day to include live sessions with popular book readings, a range of activities and we finished the day with a Virtual Book Parade. Everyone had a blast; the creativity of Ripponlea students and staff is to be applauded and we thank our parents who helped students organise their home-made costumes. It was lovely to acknowledge how committed our students are to reading for pleasure, enjoyment and to escape into the worlds of some of our beloved characters. Please take the opportunity to listen to some more book readings on the CBCA website.

https://readingtime.com.au/

SCHOOL REVIEW UPDATE

Given the circumstances of the current restrictions our School Review has been postponed until Term 4 in mid-November. In the meantime, we wanted to refresh our community on some aspects of our school improvement goals. Many families are new to Ripponlea and might not be aware of what the school has been focusing on over the last four years. The FISO, a key Education State reform initiative, was introduced in 2015 for all Victorian government schools. 

The FISO (Framework for Improving Student Outcomes) is an evidence-based framework designed to focus schools’ improvement efforts on priorities proven to have the greatest impact on student outcomes. Here is a diagram on how we have used the FISO to select and determine our goals in the school’s Strategic Plan 2018-2021, as well as our yearly Annual Implementation Plans. This diagram shows the goals we selected at the end of the last school review in 2017. 

There have been many direct changes at Ripponlea in the last four years documented through the Annual Report to School Community. If any parent/s wish to learn more about some of these significant changes, please reach out and speak to any member of the school’s leadership team or School Council members. 

Here is a simple timeline of changes and although some might appear as confusing acronyms for different initiatives, we wanted to let our community know that every staff member at Ripponlea has contributed to the success and the improvement journey of our school for our students. We have a lot to celebrate and will share with our community the outcomes of our review next term.

NATIONAL DOG DAY

Founded in 2004 by Colleen Paige, National Dog Day is celebrated annually on August 26th. August 26th is significant as it's the date that Colleen's family adopted her first dog "Sheltie" from the local animal shelter. Colleen is now considered one of America's leading pet and animal lifestyle experts, creating multiple National Days for Dogs, cats and puppies. National Dog Day recognises and celebrates all dogs: mixed breads, pure breads, family dogs, working dogs and shelter dogs needing rescue. Each day our furry friends work hard assisting us in heroic situations, providing us love and companionship and for this we honour them. As a testament to how important dogs are to our lives and wellbeing, we thought we would share this eloquent and thoughtful letter we received recently.

Hi Miss Jess and Rose, 

We hope you two are well. As important as you are to the school, there is still one problem and one thing missing. 

We need Lola to come to school more. She is very special to us and our stunning and amazing community. 

Lola will brighten up our school by being so cute and clever!!! She will make the school an exquisite place to learn. Lola is amazing and she will make our community even better. 

When we feel sad, we can cuddle Lola and talk to her. In fact Lola is no harm to us. Lola makes us feel better by letting us pat her fluffy fur. 

Lola can help reduce out stress, anxiety and increase the amount of students who come to school more often. 

Lola helps us with our learning and to stay focused. We can read to her and she helps us to remain calm and quiet. Take a moment to be inspired by the adorable little Lola. Lola is so much more than a trained and behaved puppy. The cutie pie changes lives. Lola will stimulate memory and problem-solving skills helping Ripponlea kids to complete their astonishing school work and to learn more at school. 

Thank you for reading this. Please agree to out terrific argument. Please say yes!! 

- May and Bilijana. 

May and Bilijana's letter is highly persuasive so of course we have deferred to our resident experts on the matter:

Until next fortnight!

Natalie Rose Principal

Jess Grey Assistant Principal