Principal's Message

CELEBRATING & ACKNOWLEDGING CULTURAL DIVERSITY 

Over the last month members of our school community have been celebrating their own cultural festivals. On the12th February students and families shared in the joy of the Chinese New Year - the Lunar New Year. 2021 is the Year of the Metal Ox, which symbolises diligence, honesty, reliability, stability, perseverance, power, stubbornness and excellence. 

Purim was celebrated on Friday, known as the feast of lots, a joyous Jewish festival commemorating the survival of the Jewish people who, in the 5th century BCE, were marked for death by their Persian rulers. We witnessed many local neighbours and students dressed up in costumes celebrating this special Jewish holiday. 

WELCOME PICNIC 

What a great turn-out last night! Luckily the rain stayed away and there were even a few rays of sun to greet the many families who came along to our Welcome Picnic. It was great to see our community gather together to enjoy some good food, a catch-up and a chat. Ormond Ice-Creamery had their truck onsite to serve up some delicious donuts and ice cream and it was wonderful to see so many community members having a lovely time.

The definite highlight of the evening was seeing the amazing moves of our students as they danced to the beats choreographed by the wonderful Hannah and Mia from Footsteps Dance Company. We were in awe of how well the students managed their routines with only one day to learn it! 

Everyone got into the groove of the disco that came afterwards before we all enjoyed the set played by the Ripp-Offs – our school’s resident parent band with Colin on guitar, Bridget on vocals and JP on the drums. Thank you to everyone who assisted with the picnic, particularly Meagan Brake, and we hope it’s the first of many fun community events to be enjoyed this year.

STUDENT LEADERSHIP CEREMONY

We extend our appreciation to federal MP - Josh Burns who addressed our student leaders and their families at our special badge presentation two weeks ago. Josh highlighted that being a leader is not just about wearing a badge or representing your school. We know our leaders understand the importance of their role in 2021 and we look forward to witnessing their impact on our whole school community. 

Josh also acknowledged how well students across the state transitioned successfully into remote and flexible learning. He even mentioned that students were ahead of the game by participating in live Zoom and WebEx sessions, even quicker than most MPs at Parliament House. 

CURRICULUM INFORMATION YEARS 1-6 

– FEEDBACK PLEASE!

In previous years, we have run onsite information sessions where we invite parents/carers to come along and listen to our teams deliver information about the learning program. This year we tried something a little different through recording a presentation by the teaching teams (shared via Compass on our YouTube account), followed by an invitation to ask questions and then to have these addressed by the team at a virtual meeting. As this is the first time we have tried this format, we would eagerly appreciate some feedback. Please take a moment to fill in the Google Form below to provide that feedback. We will launch the remaining Curriculum Information sessions for Foundation and the Specialists programs soon!

https://forms.gle/4ZtrBJui6qRkjY7s9

WORKING BEE HIGHLIGHTS 

Thank you to all families and of course our students who came down to the school and worked tirelessly at our first Working Be of 2021. The sun was shining and the jobs were endless, many hands throughout the day made things fly by and before we knew it our bins were filled with green waste.  

Here are some more jobs that got done: 

• Painted the west end of the Italian Room
• Oiled the Italian Room Deck and the Library stairs
• Tidied up the Productive Garden, Mini-Pitch, Main Oval, F-2 Play Area, Sports Shed, behind the Barrbunin, and the Front Path
• Cleaned the Drinking Fountains
• Removed the Old Compost Bin
• Sprayed and weeded all throughout the school

A special thanks to these volunteers 

For all the families that cannot join us throughout the year for our working bees, please consider a voluntary contribution to the school’s Maintenance and Special Project fund. This allows us to employ small contractors to complete specific jobs and buy extra materials from Bunnings. 

Following our working bee on Sunday, we have identified that work still needs to be completed on the roof of the OSHC room as well as more painting across the school. The small cubby house near the sandpit needs a full repair and we are looking for any carpenters that can fix or build a new cubby house for our students to enjoy. 

We would also like to give a big shout out to Bridget who organised additional green waste bins to ensure our waste doesn't contribute to land fill.

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES 

At RPS teachers work in PLCs which is an approach to school improvement where groups of teachers work collaboratively at the school level to improve student outcomes. Students learn more when their teachers work together creating a culture that is focused on continuous improvement by linking the learning needs of students with the professional learning and practice of teachers. Teachers are committed to professionalism and fuelled by collaborative expertise.

Last week our staff worked with our Regional PLC Manager on how to develop deep collaborative inquiry to enhance teacher practice and significantly impact student learning growth. The school adopts the FISO (Framework for Improving Student Outcomes) improvement cycle and PLC teams can begin to implement stages of this cycle. 

1. Evaluate & Diagnose - set up for a developmental approach to teaching and learning by understanding student’s learning readiness using a range of data.
2. Prioritise & Set Goals -to use evidence to prioritise the learning needs of sub-groups of students within the cohort. What can the students do and where do they struggle? What instruction is working, what needs to change?
3. Develop & Plan -to sequence an evidence based response to teaching and learning. What research-based, high-leverage strategies and assessments will we use?
4. Implement & Monitor -to progressively monitor the impact of the teaching on student learning and make ongoing adaptations. How are we going with our short, medium and long term data sources?

HAPPY, HEALTHY & ACTIVE KIDS – ONE OF OUR GOALS THIS YEAR 

This year in particular, will make sure we look after our students’ mental health and enable every student to get back outdoors, get active and get creative. This means effectively mobilising available resources to support our students, especially the most vulnerable. 

The school is certainly a busy place full of activity before and after the short lockdown period. Ms Jo prepared our students for the Balaclava District – Swimming Carnival, which finally went ahead and we are now ready to start training for our Cross Country Carnival. 

What are students currently doing:

• Foundation students are enjoying more active play opportunities both indoors and outdoors, utilising the playground and large oval during class time as a brain and physical movement break.
• Year 1/2 students commenced their 5 week Yoga classes. Next week they have a team building incursion from Task Works.
• Year 3/4 students are participating in their SEPEP additional sports program every Wednesday morning.
• Year 5/6 students are enjoying their unique Swimming Program, which includes stand up paddle boarding and sailing.

At Ripponlea teachers use a range of learning materials to develop students’ social, emotional and positive relationship skills. Efforts to promote social and emotional skills and positive gender norms in children and young people has been shown to improve health-related outcomes and subjective well-being. It also reduces antisocial behaviours including engagement in gender-related violence.

Each year level covers the same topics at the same time over a two-year period, with the exception of Foundation who cover all the topics in one year. The topics are listed below and these are the same at each year level. The Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships program is assessed in the Victorian Curriculum areas of Personal and Social Capability and Health and Physical Education. Through the Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships program teachers cover topics suchas Emotional Literacy, Personal Strengths, Positive Coping, Problem Solving, Stress Management, Help-Seeking, Gender and Identity and Positive Gender Relations.

RPS FOOTPATH ETIQUETTE & COURTESY 

We are seeking parental support and good teachings of courtesy to help the next generation (our students and your children) with the common sense and confidence to actively use shared spaces. We will also reinforce the importance of being courteous and respectful to others when using the footpaths along Carrington Grove.

Here are some things you can discuss with your children: 

At the top of the hierarchy students cycling, scooting or skateboarding to school and from school need to be mindful of all other users of the path. Students should slow down, keep their fingers on the brake lever and remember they are in a less vulnerable position than pedestrians. They should afford the same courtesies to pedestrians that they expect of drivers while sharing the road.

A smile and a gentle “Coming through” or “On your right” can be a pleasant way to interact with others. Using the bell on the bike or simply stopping and walking your bike around a very congested area on the footpath is also a good practice. We are recommending that older students ride their bikes on the opposite side of Carrington Grove to the school. 

Until next fortnight!

                                                Natalie Rose                              Jess Grey

                                                   Principal                         Assistant Principal