Principal's Message

Thank you to everyone for making this a wonderful year at Ripponlea Primary School. We are very proud of everything that the students, staff and school has achieved this year and next year will be a very exciting year!

We would like to thank our parent body for supporting the school and donating their time and energy to help make RPS such a great school. Your ongoing support and assistance has been greatly appreciated.

On behalf of all the staff, we would like to wish our whole RPS community a safe and happy Christmas and holiday break. May you all enjoy the festive season with family, friends and loved ones and re-energise and renew in readiness for a fabulous 2018.

Andrew and Linda

Farewells

Linda Rippingille

I am very excited to announce that Linda Rippingille has been appointed to Assistant Principal of Springvale Rise Primary School, a large dual campus school. Linda's experience both in Australia and overseas and her strength of work with teachers and community will place her strongly in the this new role. During Linda's time at RPS she has led the school in many significant ways and her impact will be long lasting. Linda's connection and commitment to the RPS community is part of why we have such a strong community presence and I know will translate well to Springvale Rise.  Linda has been instrumental in many aspects of the school from redefining the school values, her role in the library, introducing visible thinking across the school and transition to flexible learning pedagogy. 

I know that the school community will join me in celebrating this with Linda and acknowledging her huge contribution to RPS.

Wendy Newman

I am delighted to announce Wendy will take up a teaching position at Blackburn Primary school from 2018, this appointment will mean a much shorter trip to school each day for Wendy from her outer Eastern suburbs home!  Wendy started at Ripponlea Primary seven years ago - the same time as our graduating Year 6s, some of whom she has taught for four years of their time here! She has been instrumental in the development of our ICT programs, significant work with our student leadership structures  and taught across a number of grades.

Adriana Conti

Congratulations to Adriana who has been successfully appointed to Clayton South Primary for 2018. Adriana has enjoyed a very successful first year of teaching as part of our 1/2 team, her caring, supportive nature has meant she has built a wonderful rapport with our students and families.  What she has learnt this year will hold her in good stead for the new challenges awaiting her.

Ivana Jovanovic

Thank you to Ivana for all her work in strengthening our Italian program this year, Ivana is moving on to pursue other teaching opportunities. The work that Ivana has continued this year will hold the Italian program in good stead to continue strongly next year.

Kim Thurlow

As a a community we need to thank and acknowledge the immeasurable contribution of Kim who has been on council for nine years and for her role as president. Kim has been a voice of reason and wisdom along with a strong conviction in putting the children at the centre of our work. We sincerely thank Kim for her considerable contribution to RPS and for her willingness to give of herself to represent the families of the school in this way. Kim has been instrumental in a number of key changes across her time at the school.

I thank Kim both personally and on behalf of the council and wish her and her family all the best as Lachlan moves to his Secondary school from 2018. Thank you Kim.

2018 Home Groups

I would like to acknowledge the informed and measured manner in which the teachers have worked together to carefully consider the composition of the class for 2018.  Along with their comprehensive knowledge of students and the academic, social, emotional and behavioural needs of cohorts, student identified learning partners and parent requests, the staff have ensured all children are well placed for optimal learning.  Thank you for the parents who took the time to follow the request process outlined in the newsletter earlier this term.

FA                                                                             3/4A

Dominique Wimpole                                         Alicia Oliver-Cook                                                

FB                                                                             3/4B

Nicole Morgan                                                     Jacqueline Barrow

FC                                                                             3/4C

Lucy Clover                                                           Rob Griffiths   

1/2A                                                                         5/6A

Kate Ashforth                                                       Jess Grey

1/2B                                                                         5/6B

Elyssa Fusco                                                         Bron Howell

1/2C                                                                           5/6C

Tegan Moorhouse                                                Rebecca Skinner             

1/2D                                                                              

Vicki Smith                

Art                                                                             

Zoe Keystone

PE

Joanne Ritson

Italian

Patrizia Kelly

Music

Tanya Harms

Early Finish

Students will be dismissed tomorrow (Friday 22nd December) at 1.30pm -  the last day of school for the year. Please ensure that your child is picked up at that time or that you have booked your child into ROSH. Teachers will be on yard duty until 1.45pm.

2017 Semester 2 Reports

Hard copies of reports have been sent home with your children today, 21st December 2017.

Please be aware that the reports will look slightly different to previous reports as we transition to using Compass for reporting. Compass will provide the school with a variety of tools to improve communication and connectedness for parents.

Due to the implementation in 2017 of the Victorian Curriculum, our reports will not provide data tracking as the previous reports were assessed against the AusVELs curriculum. The data tracking shows student growth in a 12 month period and this will now not occur until Semester One 2018.

The Victorian Curriculum F–10 sets out what every student should learn during their first eleven years of schooling. The curriculum is the common set of knowledge and skills required by students for life-long learning, social development and active and informed citizenship.

The Victorian Curriculum F–10 incorporates the Australian Curriculum and reflects Victorian priorities and standards

Barrbunin Deck

I am delighted to inform you of a wonderful ‘lift’ to the end of our school year, I have been notified this week that the Barrbunin deck will be fully replaced by the Department of Education. The project is currently being tendered through the selected architects and I will negotiate with the succefful contractor once decided to get the project completed ASAP, once dates are confirmed it will be communicated to the community early in 2018.

2018 School Fees

Parents and guardians should have recently received forms regarding the 2018 Parent Payments. Thank you very much to all those parents who have already returned their 2018 Parent Contributions forms.

However we still have many families that have not returned their forms. Can we ask that those of you who are yet to return your forms to please complete and return them to the school office as soon as possible.

If you have not received a form, or would like to discuss your payment options please contact the office.

2018 Starting Dates

The students in Grades 1 – 6 will start school at 9.00am on Wednesday 31st January. The 2018 Preps will start school on Thursday 1st February. We have also started adding some key dates to the Important Dates section of the newsletter