Dear families,

The end of the year has come around very quickly this year, and this is my final time writing a newsletter. It has been the most enjoyable end to the school year yet at Rolling Hills for me.

Camps, Sleepovers, Art show, Carols and Graduation....we may have bitten off a little too much in the last week, but we got there, and we are all still smiling.

I would like to share my thanks to the grade 6 students and all of the educators over the years that have influenced them so far. They are a great group and a credit to their families. Graduation was so much fun. Thank you to Miss Cairns and the 56 Team for their organisation of graduation.

We are now ready for a new group of leaders across the school. The grade 5 students all worked really hard on their applications and speeches to be school leaders. I would like to share that we think of them all as leaders when they reach grade 6, formal and informal. They all have the ability to lead across the school with their peers.

Congratulations to the following students,

Captains: Amber Cherry and Lachlan Armstrong

Vice Captains: Elinor Sinco and Chloe Hughes-Gage

Library: James Miller

Design and Tech: Riley Williams

Visual Arts: Polly Blunt

Performing Arts: Grace Palmer

Rafter: Luke Van Suylen

Thorpe: Leilah Donnelly

Freeman: Wyatt Peccenini

Bradman: Finn Johnson

Thank you to all of our brilliant staff for their time and effort in ensuring this was a bumper year to remember, especially as we approach the end. People have gone above and beyond to make sure that events, excursions and everyday experiences for our children are the best we can achieve.

There are so many faces to thank for the smooth running of our year,

Our teachers, Prep to 6
Our specialist teachers,
And more than ever this year our supportive and flexible CRT teachers
ES in our classrooms,
ES staff around the school,
Office staff - Ms Farley, Mrs Schilte, Mrs Schilling and Mrs Sullivan
External support staff, inc Ms Romijn and Dennis
Our cleaning team
Our leadership team, Ms Murcott, Ms Farley, Mrs Warner, Mr Wilson, Mrs Cripps, Ms Poole
And all of our amazing parent volunteers

All of you are appreciated.

Moving forward there will be changes to the way we organise our school. We are being asked to prioritise the core areas of our job as educators while balancing the desire to offer students all those extra opportunities we love to share in with them. In the future, we will need to request more support from parents when we do offer events outside of the school day. I am sure there will be lots of volunteers.

Farewell and welcome to some new faces

I send my best wishes to the following staff who are moving on to new adventures.

Katie Smith, Clare McCandlish, Teagan Cairns, Claire Cripps, Emily Rapson and a long-term relief teacher Reuben Langerak.

I wish them well with their new challenge.

Tuesday 13th December was Transition Day and the students spent time with their new teachers and classmates.

We welcome Sam Younes as a grade 2 teacher, Millie Pinney-Gvozdic into grade 56, Megan Pepprell into grade 56, Sarah Jones into grade 34, Emma Wright into grade 2 and Sally Newton into Prep. We have also added to our ES team with the addition of Sue Williamson and Louise Spiers.

Attendance

This year our attendance has been tricky. We would LOVE to make this our number one goal for everyone next year. If your child is fit and able to be at school, we want them here with us learning. Please help us with this goal by helping share the benefits of school every day and by focussing on all the things that go well each day for your child at school.

Learning

This year has been testing with lower attendance due to illnesses beyond our control. We have remained resolute in our focus on offering the best teaching we can to students. The students have experienced NAPLAN for the first time on computers and they have shown that they can handle anything. The results have improved again this year with highlights being the grade 3 reading at 76% in the top two bands, and the grade 5 writing, 15>33% in the top two bands. We are aiming to keep improving each year. We will continue to focus on writing, differentiation and mathematics.

Growth

The school has grown to 385+ students next year from 360. This means we will be using every class space and area we can to teach. We haven't quite got the full picture planned but what I can share is we will be teaching all of the specialist areas and offering support initiatives across the school for those that need a little help, as well as those that need to be pushed.

Building works

Can you believe we have had a whole year where we have not built something? We can't.

We think it is time to add something new and exciting to our school grounds

Over the holidays we will be investing in the outside areas of school again. This is a good chance to say thank you to you all for the support of Parents and Friends who are supporting the building work with a kind donation.

We are building our own cover over the quadrangle that will provide shade across the whole area. We are also adding a grassed space using the best Tiger Turf material. The area will have a junior running track, down ball courts, and eventually a Gaga pit. This will give the school a central space to meet, learn and play.

In Term 1, we will also add a 5-canopy cover across our long 'rainbow' play area. This will offer children sun protection all year round.

Improvements for 2023

We will be making some changes to the way we structure our day to help us improve the quality of our teaching and student learning.

The updates are:

The timing of the school day moving back to 8:50am, although students will still receive a bell at 8:45am to line up. No change to the 3:30pm finish.
The students will have an increase in their specialist lessons, and they will move to 4 hours. These will now be on the same day.
Students will still have Sport, Science and Library time on the other days.
The same day will allow for teachers and ES to be able to collaborate more within the 38 hours to ensure our programs continue to improve.
The time for staff to collaborate on the curriculum will be supported by the leadership team and the principal team each week. This will allow for individual expertise by teachers to be captured and shared across all areas of the school.
Subjects will now align better, allowing, in time, for the opportunity for co-teaching and differentiated groups.
The time spent at recess supervising students eating snacks by class teachers will now be moved to supervision as a group by a duty teacher.
We will still keep the supervision of eating lunch by the classroom teacher.
Staff need to have a clear 30-minute lunch break in the new agreement, before the time we currently have.
A change to the second half of the day to allow for lunch to be earlier for students and staff. Lunch will be at 12:20-12:30 for eating and 12:30-1:00pm for play.
A change to 3 x 30-minute play windows will allow for more movement and breaks for students and staff.

The updated day may take a little while to get used to, but I am sure the students will adapt quicker than us all.

Always happy to talk through any information you are unsure of and explain why have made our changes. I would like to share my thanks to the parents across the school that volunteered their time to talk through the proposed changes.

I would like to wish you all the vest best holiday break with your immediate and extended families. Stay safe and well and we will see you on the 30th of January at 8:45am for 8:50am start.

Best wishes,

Craig

Notices