Welcome back to Term 2! I am so thrilled to be writing this as the Principal of our dynamic, inclusive and high performing school. I see school leadership as such a privilege and such a responsibility, and I am so pleased to be moving into this first term of official Principalship with you all. Here at Rangeview we are ready for another term of learning, engagement, curiosity and fun!

This term we have a huge variety of events and activities including but not limited to;

Level 6 Camp - The Summit
Level 1& 2 Swimming Program at Aquanation
Level 3 & 5 completing the NAPLAN assessment
Level 4 Scienceworks Excursion and Science Incursion
Foundation Myuna Farm Excursion
National Reconciliation Week from 27th May - Be Brave. Make Change.
Education Week from 23rd May - Celebrating 150 years of Public Education in Victoria
Rangeview Open Afternoon - Wednesday 25th May from 2:45pm.
Whole School Resilience and eSmart - Hero Day on Friday 3rd June.

Parents & Friends Committee

Rangeview's 2022 Parents and Friends Committee is ready and rearing to go - with our new co-presidents Tara Muncey and Saskia Desilla at the helm. Our Vice President is Emma Rankin and our Treasurer is Laura Warren. Our Secretary is Rebecca Peers.

This year Rangeview is embracing a new model for running events throughout the year. This model is used very successfully by some of our neighbouring schools and it ensures that there are clear and manageable expectations for all families in the school. The new model is as follows;

Each event or activity that is run by Parents & Friends is allocated to a school Year Level.
Families in that Level can volunteer to assist with running that event.
The Events will stay with that Level for subsequent years so that as families move up the school they have the opportunity to assist in different events.
Members of the Parents and Friends Committee will lead the event with assistance from families in the allocated Level.
Events can be as big or small as the Level families desire.
Parents and Friends Committee will lead and run the Rangeview Fair with assistance from all Levels.

The traditional events have been allocated to Year Levels and a few new events have been added.

Foundation Parents: Observing and Learning!

Year 1 Parents: Cupcake Day (Term 3)

Year 2 Parents: Lunch Days - Subway / Other? (Term 2 and Term 4)

Year 3 Parents: Movie and Pizza Night in the Gym (Term 4)

Year 4 Parents: Kids Disco - Junior Disco and Senior Disco (Term 3)

Year 5/6 Parents: Mothers and Fathers Day Stalls (Term 2 and Term 3)

Parents and Friends Committee will run the Disco Bingo Parents night and will lead the Rangeview Fair.

Our first event is the Mother's Day Stall - this is happening on Friday 6th May, a massive thank you to Tracy Beckter and Jennifer Littlechild-Takamori for the organisation of this event and to the Level 5/6 Families.

A big thank you to Chris Roche and the Fathering Project members who are running the Election Day BBQ on May 21st. Come down to school - vote and have a sausage or an egg and bacon roll! Coffee provided by Noel Jones Mitcham (gold coin donation goes to the school)

We look forward to this being an eventful year for Rangeview and I thank all of the members of the new Parents & Friends Committee for their enthusiasm and support.

Campfire Conversation

On Thursday 28th April, Kate McLeod, Chloe Tomkins, Kirilee Bell and I, all attended a Campfire Conversation and Smoking Ceremony at Antonio Park Primary School. Uncle Chris from the Mullum Mullum Indigenous Gathering Place spoke to us about Aboriginal custom around the Smoking Ceremony and then we participated in a conversation with Aboriginal community members, local leaders and DET indigenous liaison. It was excellent to participate in this important local event and we look forward to Kirilee Bell and Chloe Tomkins leading our school in our Aboriginal Cultural understandings and the Reconciliation Week activities.

New Display Boards

There are some new display boards going up in the foyer of the school and down the main corridor. These will showcase our learning and engagement focus for 2022. Look out for the Professional Learning Community (PLC) board with details of each level's mini enquiries, the Resilience board with information on both Resilience Project (TRP) and Rights, Resilience & Respectful Relationships (RRRR), the Numeracy board with each fortnights Math Awards and fun math puzzles / games to try, the eSmart board and the Parents & Friends Committee board.

Rangeview Gratitude Tree

We have a huge Gratitude Tree on display in our school foyer. Dani Anderson our RRRR Leader, has worked with teams to have the students complete a small gratitude / a moment that went well and write or draw it on a leaf. I was surprised that one student was grateful for their Leg (which one? only one?) but then discovered that the 'o' from the word had moved to the next line.. (lego)

Thank you to Deirdree Geilings for creating the Boab Tree!

COVID Update

As you are all aware, we are moving forward with some levels of COVID in the community and there are updates and changes to our school restrictions and COVID safe requirements. At times the media may publicise information that is not in line with health or DET guidelines and this can be confusing for families. If you are unsure of any of the COVID requirements, please feel free to contact the school directly for information.

Face masks

From 11:59 pm Friday 22 April, face masks, while recommended, are not required in any school setting. This means students in grades 3 to 6, staff and visitors in primary schools are no longer required to wear face masks. Any student or staff member who wishes to wear a mask may do so, including those who are medically at-risk.

Screening requirements

Students who have tested positive for COVID-19, and have completed their 7-day isolation period, now do not need to undertake rapid antigen test (RAT) screening for 12 weeks after their release from isolation. This was previously 8 weeks.

Household contacts

Students who are household contacts of a COVID-19 case are not required to quarantine. They may return to school as long as they undertake rapid antigen tests (RAT) 5 times during their 7-day period. They are required to notify the school that they are a household contact. Students aged 8 years and above who are household contacts are required to wear face masks when indoors at school unless they have a valid exemption. If a student household contact returns a positive RAT result, they must isolate for 7 days.

Vaccination requirements for visitors to schools

Parents, carers and other adult visitors (not performing work) are no longer required to show evidence of two doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

Vaccination requirement for Parents/Carers working/volunteering in schools

All adults working directly with students must provide evidence of three doses of COVID-19 vaccination.

RAT screening program reminder

RATs will continue to be supplied for the first 4 weeks of Term 2 to support the early detection of COVID-19 in our school.

The testing recommendations will remain the same this Term for students and staff with:

mainstream schools – recommended to test at home twice a week
specialist schools – recommended to test 5 days a week at home due to the higher risk of severe illness for medically vulnerable children.

I wish to thank all of our Rangeview families for their support and responsible approach to managing illness in our community. I would encourage any family who needs assistance to reach out to the school.

Marika Ferguson

Principal

The Art Room