Principal Team Message

WELCOME BACK RIPPERS & WELCOME TO OUR NEW FAMILIES

It was lovely to mark the beginning of the Term with a whole school assembly, singing our school song accompanied by Mr G and welcoming new students and their families to our community. We hope all families and in particular, our staff and students had a most relaxing and enjoyable holiday break. We have lots to look forward to, especially the Centenary celebrations and the myriad of other activities/events we have this term. We are super prepared and of the mindset that everyone will lend a helping hand, come together in Ripper spirit, work collaboratively and make this a fantastic term to end a very special year.

YEAR 3/4 MOUNT EVELYN CAMP & TIME IN LIEU ARRANGEMENTS

As soon as the term commenced, some very nervous yet excited students and staff headed towards the Dandenong Ranges to one of the popular YMCA camps - Mount Evelyn. By all accounts, this was a very successful experience taking our students out of their comfort zones, away from home, challenging them to work as a team and conquering their personal challenges of choice.

We would like to commend our Year 3/4 students on the way they represented our school. They were respectful, always demonstrated good manners and were willing to grow and challenge themselves in all areas.

Whether the giant swing, flying fox, low ropes, animal encounters, bike riding, hiking or crate stacking there was a lot of learning, social bonding, personal development and sheer exhaustion by the end of the week. These opportunities wouldn't happen if we didn't have staff volunteer their time to supervise students outside of their agreed working hours.

In recognition of the additional workload of educators, the new teaching agreement specifies that individuals who attend a 'structured activity' such as camps, parent-teacher interviews, curriculum information sessions, sleepovers, productions and many more activities and events outside of their agreed working hours will accrue time in lieu.

This is a complex process that principals are managing through consultative structures and agreements with all staff. There are lots of media reports regarding the cancellation of camps, and schools taking drastic measures to cut back on certain extracurricular activities that occur outside the working hours of both teachers and education support staff members.

We know that our staff work very hard and we are all endeavouring to ensure a better work-life balance. Our staff would never want to scale back these special opportunities for our students, but we must be considerate of how we manage these so there is minimal impact on our staff, students and the school. We might need to consider rearranging some events to occur within their working hours.

On a happy note, our deepest thanks must go out to Mrs Nield, Miss I and Brenton for organising the Year 3/4 Camp. This takes hours of work, organisation, risk assessment and preparation and every camp must be approved by our School Council. We also thank other staff willing to attend and ensure we have enough supervision and support during the camp. A big shout out to Vicki, Mr Leech, Ms Jane, and Mark and Natalie Pfaller our integration aides.

PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY FOR SCHOOLS VISITS RIPPONLEA

Yesterday we welcomed Tim Richardson MP, the Parliamentary Secretary for Schools, along with Josh Burns, Federal MP for MacNamara, Lior Harel, Labour candidate for Caulfield and Stuart Andrews, our Senior Education Improvement Leader for Bayside Peninsula schools. Tim was very excited to meet our student leaders Yvie, Frankie, Archie Peter and school captains Elena and Ivy. He had a tour of the school and officially announced the school's $178,000 grant under the VSBA Inclusive Schools fund.

Tim was very impressed with the design and rationale of our Inclusive Learning Deck as well as the inclusive practices our leaders discussed. Our leaders discussed the range of opportunities this deck will provide for all students as well as members of our school community. Tim will continue to check on the progress of this project and promised to be there at the official opening. Whilst on tour, we invited Tim, Josh, Lior, Stuart and their families to attend our Centenary Carnival. Tim promised to spread the news to members of his electorate in Mordialloc.

GO FOR GOLD CAR-FREE DAY FRIDAY 21 OCTOBER

Get your walking shoes ready to travel actively to school together on Friday 21 October!

Families, students and teachers are encouraged to ditch their cars and start the day with some exercise by walking to school together. Not only is this a healthy way to get to school, it helps reduce traffic congestion as well as helping the environment.

We are all meeting with a Camden Ward Councillor - Simone Zmood on the corner of Balaclava Road and Orrong Road at 8:15 am. Sarah Coughlin and some student leaders will meet you on the corner of Melbourne Grammar School. Please join us for this walk to school.

RIPPERS MUST ALWAYS PROUDLY REPRESENT OUR SCHOOL IN THE LOCAL COMMUNITY

It was very disappointing to receive an email from Glen Eira Council regarding the actions of some of our younger students at Green Meadows. A large group of students destroyed the plants around the park.

Here are the gardens BEFORE

and AFTER

Ripponlea students are always highly regarded in our community as being respectful citizens and it's sad that the reputation of our school can be tarnished by such poor behaviour. We are appealing to families to ensure there is adequate supervision of children at this local park. We hope that these students can apologise to the council and repair any damage caused.

This is such a valuable learning opportunity and we welcome the students to come and speak to us so that we can work on a plan to repair this situation and learn from the experience without punishment.

WORLD TEACHER'S DAY

A deep thanks to our lovely families for treating our whole staff to a spectacular luncheon today. Our staff were supplied with the most amazing smorgasbord of delicious treats, the quality of which would honestly rival some of Melbourne’s top eateries!

This is in recognition of World Teacher's Day. Our teachers have shown great resilience during challenging times and have always proven their dedication to their students and our community.

CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR ENGAGEMENT

At the end of last term, we received some lovely news about Mr Dave Bremner or as the students prefer Mr B. Dave proposed to his lovely partner Emily.

Congratulations on your engagement and we can't wait to celebrate your future wedding!

DIVISION ATHLETICS CARNIVAL

Yesterday our athletic superstars hit the track at Duncan McKinnon Reserve. RPS had a total of nine students qualify for the following events: sprints, hurdles, relay, discus, shot put and long jump.

A huge congratulations to Oliver E who has qualified for regionals in hurdles and will compete next week.

Thank you to all the parents for driving our students to the event and supporting them throughout the day.