Specialist News

DISTRICT SWIMMING

On Friday 21st February, 26 excited and nervous students headed to GESAC to compete at the District swimming carnival. Leading up to the competition, students were busy practising every Wednesday from 7am-8am at Harold Holt Aquatic Centre. Students’ preparation facilitated fantastic performances all round. Thanks to the valiant effort of our students we came away with 15 ribbons.

The boys' 12/13 relay team and Cohen Sands' performance in the 100m open and 50m butterfly earnt them a spot at Division swimming where the team is headed this Friday. Well done everyone and we look forward to hearing how you go. 

Thank you to all our friends and families who supported early morning trials and training and who came along to the District competition, as well as Mrs Brooks. We encourage all students to practise all year, ready for 2021.

RIDE 2 SCHOOL DAY

National Ride2School Day is Australia’s biggest celebration of active travel and one of the best days on the school calendar. It is a day full of fun and colour where students, teachers and parents discover the joy of riding and kick-start healthy habits for the future. We will be embracing ride2school day with a ‘dress up your bike’ competition. Dress up your bike in anyway your wish, perhaps with a theme to embrace this years ‘freaky spooky theme’ and be in with the chance to win a cool bike prize as you will be entered into the raffle. We have a team of House Captains who are coordinating this day. We also hope to provide a healthy start to the day with fruit supported by Coles (T.B.C).

SAILING AND PADDLE BOARDING FUN

It’s a great time of year for our Grade 5/6’s as the grade 5’s participate in a 9 hour Tackers Sailing Certificate course and our Grade 6’s trial a new activity this year with paddle boarding. We look forward to seeing how their learning progresses and how much fun they have. Check out the fun at paddle boarding using this link.

2020 HOUSE CROSS COUNTRY

Wednesday 25th March

Thursday 26th March (back-up)

Please ensure children know their age group (students will also wear a colour band to identify their age on the day)

• In determining age group – it is the student’s age by the end of this academic year (December 2020). For example, if a student is currently 10, but turns 11 in August of 2020, they will need to run in the 11-year old’s race.
• Please wear house t-shirts or House colours on this day along with appropriate running footwear with fastened laces.

All races will be run in age groups. The first four from each race and gender will receive a ribbon.

The top 8 male and top 8 female finishers from the 9/10, 11, 12/13 year old races will go through to the Balaclava District competition to be held on Monday 30th April (1st May back-up).

We would love some volunteers! Sign up to a role using the following link if you are available from 9am-10:40am on Wednesday 25th March. Sign up here

WEET-BIX TRYATHLON

It's Weet-bix TRYathlon week! Give triathlon (swim, bike, run) a go this upcoming Sunday in one of the largest kids triathlon participation events in our area (Catani Gardens, St Kilda). The TRYathlon is all about giving it a TRY and is a rewarding and fun day out for you and your child. Participants need to be aged 6-15 years old on event day, and can complete the TRYathlon as an individual or in a team of two. Check out this link for more information and registration. Drop me an email if you sign up and I will come on down to assist and support.

ACHPER CONFERENCE - Miss Jo

Last week, I was very fortunate to represent Ripponlea as the guest speaker and facilitator at “Teaching P.E. for the first time conference”. It’s great to be able to share my experience and knowledge with other P.E. educators, as well as professionally develop myself. I’ve come invigorated with a few new ideas to try and I look forward to sharing this with our students.

Miss Jo's GEELONG 70.3 TRIATHLON -

(1.9K swim, 90K bike, 21.1K run)

As an educator, it is imperative for me to be a role model for our students. In my opinion, to facilitate well is to understand how students’ progress and feel when they are learning. Last weekend, I put my body to the test as I undertook my first half ironman triathlon. This was certainly a new experience that I had been training for following the World Championships last year in Lausanne, Switzerland. Training paid off and I came away with an age group win which meant National Champion and a qualification spot for the 2020 age group 70.3 World championships in November in Taupo, New Zealand. So, the hard work continues and I’m excited for this opportunity.

Miss Zoe

“Visiting art galleries makes you happy, a new study has found. Research commissioned

by Arts Council England has found that the presence of arts and culture has a positive

effect on a person’s sense of community, well-being and their overall satisfaction with their

location.” (Frieze Magazine August, 2019).

I recall being exposed to art as a young child. My grandmother had a life size print of Gustav

Klimt’s The Kiss hanging in her lounge room. She also had some Margaret Preston prints in the

kitchen and many coffee table books on Renoir. My mum is a wonderful potter. My parents’ garden

is filled with her sculptures and has a selection of my pieces from over the years too. Art and

creativity has always been in my life in some way, mostly as a consumer, viewer and from time to

time a maker. I’ve travelled Australia and the world visiting museums and galleries, a past time I

have enjoyed most of my life.

My excitement for galleries and museums seems to have encouraged many students at Ripponlea

to get out and experience art in real life! Of course we live in a world where one can just google

Andy Warhol’s Campbells Soup Cans, but I remember experiencing them for the first time at

MOMA and being completely overwhelmed at the vibrancy of the red and the precision of the

screen print. At the Musee D’Orsay in Paris, the Impressionist paintings appear to sparkle.

Over the last few weeks, my inbox has been full of beautiful emails from parents containing

pictures of students at the Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring exhibition at NGV, as well as

some very lucky students who saw Monet’s work IN REAL LIFE at the Tate in London and Van

Gogh’s Sunflowers in Amsterdam. Tuesday can also be found at Kaws - NGV!

These emails and photographs are often very moving and remind me why I love sharing my

passion with the students. Please continue to share your child's experience with art in the

outside world!

BUDDY BENCHES

We have recently purchased two buddy benches with funds raised by the Student

Council in 2019. These are no ordinary buddy benches, they are benches made with the finest soft

plastic Victoria has to offer. Replas is a local company that turns our single use soft plastic into

garden furniture. Purchasing two of these benches has removed the equivalent of 25,000 plastic

packages that would have created 0.17 cubic metres of landfill. These will hopefully arrive in the

coming weeks to RPS! Lastly, Miss Zoe has signed Ripponlea up for the Colgate Challenge with Terracycle again this year, hoping to get more families and the wider community on board. More details to follow, in the meantime, start collecting your old toothbrushes, floss containers and toothpaste tubes.