From the Principal 

<Farewell Jo-Anne 

I am not sure where to begin to thank Jo-Anne for her knowledge, expertise, collegiality, and friendship during the last 12 months.

Jo-Anne has been working industriously behind the scenes for the last year as our gifted and talented Business Manager whilst Hollie Serollo has been on maternity leave. 

Jo-Anne has willingly taken on the role as a mentor, coach, and an educator to the office and leadership team. Jo has fully immersed herself in the running of the school and has created new learning spaces, financial opportunities and enabled the school to grow in such a positive way. Jo-Anne has been able to envision and deliver projects seeing them through from start to finish. You only have to step through the front doors to see her accomplishments, but there are many more things that Jo-Anne has attended to behind the scenes with her well-tuned organisational skills, her eye for detail and the development of sound practices and protocols.

As a principal, leading a school through a pandemic, I cannot thank Jo enough for her patience and tolerance, and for spending many hours guiding us through some difficult situations. 

Thank you, Jo-Anne, and good luck with your future endeavours. 

Jo-Anne will be returning to Jells Park Primary School and I am sure her principal is thrilled to see her return.

I know the community will join me in wishing Jo-Anne all the best.  

Science Mania 

Comets, planets, and explosive gases could be seen in the Year 5 classrooms yesterday as the students shared their terms' work on the Solar System with parents and friends.

The budding Astronomists expertly shared facts and interesting information about everything in the universe beyond Earth's atmosphere. That included objects we can see with our naked eyes, like the Sun, the Moon, the planets, and the stars .

 It also included objects we can only see with telescopes or other instruments, like faraway galaxies and tiny particles.

Thank-you to the students and Year 5 teachers for such an impressive display of Science mania. 

Playground News

Many of you may have been wondering what has happened to the planned playground at the back of the school. 

Stop the press ........it is finally starting on the first day of the holidays.

We were very excited to meet the builders on site, and the playground we are happy to report is going to be full steam ahead!

The back gate of the school will unfortunately be blocked off during the build which will effect the entrance at Kitson street. We do apologise for the inconvenience, but the wait will be worth it. 

PJ Day 

There were some fluffy slippers, colorful pyjamas and a wonderful array of dressing gowns at the celebration of the winter solstice.

What is the winter solstice I hear you ask?

There are two solstices every year: one in June and one in December. The June solstice marks the longest day north of the equator and the shortest day in the south.

The theme of the day was to wear your favourite PJs with a touch of blue, with all gold coin donations going to Diabetes Australia to raise awareness. The Junior School Council collected the generous donations that totalled $588.20

Vaccination Requirements 

As you would be aware, following advice from the Acting Chief Health Officer, the Victorian Government recently announced changes to the pandemic orders.

There will no longer be a mandated vaccination requirement for staff working in mainstream schools. This change will come in from 11.59pm Friday 24 June, so in effect from the start of Term 3 2022. 

With almost 100% of school staff now vaccinated across Victoria, this will cause little change to our school.

As part of the changes, from 11.59pm Friday 24 June 2022, parents and carers who have COVID-19 can transport their non-COVID-19 children via private vehicle to their primary or secondary school when an alternative person is not available to assist. This will include school holiday programs held on school grounds.

This means that parents and carers will be able to leave COVID self-isolation to take their non-COVID-19 child to school or school holiday programs via a private vehicle. 

The parent or carer must travel directly to and from the school only. They must remain in the vehicle at all times, unless it is reasonably necessary to leave the vehicle to walk the child to and from the entrance of the school safely. They must wear a face mask at all times.

Family members are asked to continue reporting positive COVID-19 cases to both the Department of Health and our own testing portal. 

Students who are close contacts and want to attend should still take 5 x RATs over 7 days and wear a face mask whilst indoors if they are aged 8 years or over.

Students should continue to stay home if they are unwell, even if they test negative on a RAT. 

Thank you for your support as we continue to make these adjustments.

Staffing Changes 

Hollie Serollo is returning from maternity leave and will be back on-board next term in the Business Manager role. We look forward to seeing Hollie after she has had a wonderful year  being a Mum to her beautiful daughter Evie.

Acting Assistant Principal-Lauren Rice 

Lauren Rice has been successfully appointed as the second Assistant Principal for 6 months. Lauren has been a member of our staff for many years so therefore has a wealth of knowledge about the school and strong connections with our Great Ryrie families. Lauren will be continuing with her curriculum leadership and will be assisting in the management of facilities and major projects across the school.

Congratulations Lauren, Melissa and I are grateful for your assistance.

Rubbish Free

Our Green Team Captains, Mr Kendall and I have been discussing the possibility of going rubbish free across the school. We set you a challenge for the first few weeks of term to send your children to school with the least amount of rubbish as possible.

There are so many containers that now make rubbish free so much easier. We will monitor the effects of the rubbish in the yard and start to educate students about the benefits and the ways their impact can be also felt from home through to school.

Please help us take on the challenge and watch this space for reports from the Captains.  

Leaving on a Jet Plane.......

I am about to embark on a journey to Europe for the very first time, with long service leave approved for 4 weeks. I am excited however a little nervous as my husband and I begin the trip of a lifetime. We will be visiting many places I have only read about in books including Munich, Italy, Venice, and Switzerland with an 8-day e-bike trip down the Danube. 

Melissa Roberts will be Acting Principal and will expertly manage to steer the Great Ryrie ship. I will send on some regular updates and welcome any travel advice.

A full semester at school has seen so many wonderful things occur, welcoming back our community has been the highlight.

Enjoy some down time and I look forward to seeing you mid-term. To our exceptional, hardworking staff, thank you for your commitment to making Great Ryrie the best place it can be.

Signing off for now……

Karen