IMPORTANT DATES!
TERM 3 2020
PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE
2021 Planning our School Structures
After consultation with our students, our community and our staff we have decided to run a new model of schooling in 2021. We will run with a straight grade format with 1 or 2 composite classes to shore up our numbers. We are very excited by the new possibilities this change brings and keen to start 2021 with this new structure. We are still in the planning phase and will be sending materials home shortly to allow families to consult with us further re student class placement for 2021. Once again we ask if your plans have changed for 2021 and your child/ren is going to attend a different school in 2021 please let us know so that we can make the appropriate arrangements.
Roadmap to a School Return
Last Sunday Premier Andrews did outline particular elements of the proposed roadmap to easing the COVID – 19 restrictions. I am sure that we were all pleased to hear some positive news about a return to onsite learning. As I write today we are awaiting further advice from the DET regarding the operational guidelines for term 4 and as soon as that information is available I will communicate all news but I do understand that people will be anxious about elements of the school return and I wanted to make sure I gave you all of the information that I have at the moment. The following simply outlines what we know so far.
14 – 18 September (last week of term 3) 5 – 9 October (first week of Term 4)
Remote and flexible learning will continue for all students, except in specialist schools in rural and regional Victoria.
On-site supervision for children of permitted workers and vulnerable students will continue to be provided consistent with existing guidelines. I anticipate that permitted worker permits will have to be reissued and sent to the school again and I apologise for the inconvenience here. Please remember that the childcare permits are not valid for schools as we fall under the education category not the childcare category.
From 12 October
Students in Prep to Grade 2 return to full-time on-site schooling. The existing remote learning program will not continue for these year levels.
Students in specialist schools return to full-time on-site schooling. Schools can offer learning materials for students who continue to learn from home. This includes students enrolled in our Deaf Facility.
Date subject to health advice
All students from Grade 3 to Year 10 in metropolitan Melbourne will continue with remote and flexible learning. A date for the return of these year levels to face-to-face learning will be subject to further health advice.
During the staged return, outside school hours care will be available to students attending for on-site supervision and progressively for the relevant year levels returning to on-site learning.
Vacation care may operate during the school holidays but only for students who are eligible for on-site supervision at school in Term 3.
Take care,
Kirrily Lamers
Principal
WELFARE
MENTAL HEALTH INITIATIVE
As we continue through this year the importance of mental health is now more than ever important. I have come across this wonderful initiative called ‘Talk to Ten’. This program aims to cover 10 important topics over ten weeks in 10 minutes. Each session will be followed up with 10 mins of community questions. If you’re short on time and interested please see the links on the flyer to register.
CYBER SAFETY
This week has highlighted the importance of internet safety and ensuring that we as parents are vigilant about what sites our children are accessing. At times children do and will come across inappropriate content online. It is important that you maintain an active role in supervision and regularly engage in open discussion with your child about what they see. We sometimes see students who need to discuss issues with an adult and as a parent, you should be the first point of call. If your child needs further help it is advised that you seek a mental healthcare plan and engage with a psychologist.
To further protect your child/ren you should always use an internet filter and parental controls. Please see this information for more information.
Luke Franklin
Assistant Principal
SUSTAINABILITY
TEACHING AND LEARNING
'R U OK Day?' - Wednesday 16th September 2020
Our RGLPS student leaders recently advocated for a whole school ‘Wellbeing Day’ to honour ‘R U OK?’ day and to support children and families struggling with the demands of remote learning. The mission of ‘R U OK?’ Day is to ‘…inspire and empower everyone to meaningfully connect with people around them and support anyone struggling with life.’
As a school, our teachers felt a ‘Wellbeing Day’ was a great suggestion, however we had a relatively short timeline to put this in place. To give teachers time to adjust their existing planning and discuss possible wellbeing activities with students, the school elected to delay the ‘Wellbeing Day’ until the final week of term. ‘Wellbeing Day’ will be celebrated on Wednesday 16th September 2020.
On the day, teachers will not be holding live learning sessions or assigning Seesaw remote learning tasks for students to complete. Instead, children will be encouraged to undertake activities that support their personal wellbeing and in particular, enjoy a break from screens. All students will be discussing possible activities for the ‘Wellbeing Day’ in their classes with their teachers. Activities might include taking a walk in nature, playing a boardgame with the family, gardening, colouring, yoga, doing craft, cooking or reading a book. This is only a sample of activity suggestions – we really encourage students to select activities that are relaxing and support their own wellbeing.
We hope everyone enjoys the respite from live and remote learning on the day and take time to monitor their own mental health
The Calming Effect of Reading Physical vs Online Books
Continuing on with our wellbeing theme, research by neuroscientists has found that reading books resets your emotions and makes you feel calmer. As we escape into a text, we set aside our ‘day to day’ worries and concerns, which helps us to unwind. However, we need to avoid reading on a screen as much as we can. Screens emit high energy blue light which can cause long term damage to our eyesight. Essentially, our retinas have not been biologically wired to handle blue light, which causes eye strain and damage to our retina over time. Aside from reading on screens being bad for your eyes, the physical act of turning the pages of a physical book is also multisensory and ‘anchors’ on the page help us to retain learning. An example of this is thinking back to a time when you wanted to reread a passage of a book. Often you can remember that the selection you are seeking is at the bottom left side of a page or can locate a book by the cover design or font used in the lettering. Online books have fewer of these ‘anchors’, which makes it harder for our brains to retain and learn information.
Victorian Challenge and Enrichment Series
A number of our Year 5/6 students have now participated in an online session as part of the Victorian Challenge and Enrichment Series. As mentioned previously, these programs have been created by the Department of Education and are strictly for high achieving students working at least 12 months above level. A nomination from the school is required to participate. I have received very positive feedback so far about these programs. Jayden Parker Hill reflected on the ‘Creative Writing Challenge’ and said; “I really enjoyed learning new, helpful techniques to assist me when creating my main characters for my stories. I also enjoyed hearing many shared ideas for inspiration.”
It is gratifying to hear that our RGLPS students have really enjoyed and valued these enrichment opportunities. There are more RGLPS students registered for a variety of programs as part of the series throughout term 4.
ICAS 2020
The recent Victorian Government announcement about return to school dates for Term 4 means that most students who are registered for 2020 ICAS tests will need to complete these from home. Over the next few weeks, I will email instructions, logins and links to parents of registered children to enable students to sit the various assessments from home during the sitting window. All parents of registered students will be contacted prior to Wednesday 7th October. I ask that all parents ensure that the email address currently listed on Compass is up to date so that I can email you the necessary information.
Please note Year 2 students registered for ICAS will be supervised to complete their assessments onsite after their return to school. Year 3-6 students will need to complete the ICAS from home as the sitting window ends before the anticipated return of Year 3-6 students onsite.
Maths Olympiad #5
The next Maths Olympiad is on Wednesday 16th September 2020. I am aware that this day is the scheduled whole school ‘Wellbeing Day’. However, the rules of the Maths Olympiad require students to complete the Olympiad on this date in order for their results to be counted. Fortunately, the Olympiad only takes students around 20 min to complete so students will still have the majority of the day free to select and enjoy wellbeing and relaxation tasks.
Team Planning Days
Wednesday 16th September will be a Planning Day for the Prep and Year 1/2 teams and specialist teachers. Planning days enable teachers to collaboratively plan for the upcoming term. The Year 3/4 and 5/6 teams held their Planning Days on Wednesday 9th September 2020.
Term 4 2020 Year Level and Specialist Team Newsletters
Year Level and Specialist Team Newsletters will be released at the start of Term 4 2020. This delay provides teams with additional time to plan for a combination of remote learning and return to school tasks, as per the Victorian Government Coronavirus Reopening Roadmap. Thank-you for your understanding around this.
I hope everyone enjoys the final week of term!
Kerron Worsdell
Teaching and Learning Coach
RGLPS ART GALLERY
Nick Cave Sound Suits - Wow!! (Grades 3-6)
STATE RELIEF
CANTEEN
Recipe Share
Hi RGLPS families,
Have you had time to cook up some amazing recipes during iso? We would love it if you would share your favourites with our community. If you have a great recipe, please send it, with a photo of your masterpiece, to Deb at Deborah.Howard@eduation.vic.gov.au and we will get it into the newsletter for everyone to try out.
Huge thank you to Archie & Harry’s grandmother, Suzanne for this week’s recipe.
“The whole family loves this ‘Hippy Bread’ and has been on high rotation throughout lockdown.
It’s dairy free, egg free and oil free & filled with highly nutritious ingredients so ‘guilt free’ too.
We added a sliced banana to the top for decoration.
* Aquafaba is the juice from a can of chickpeas. Make Hummus!”
Cook’s tips:
This is an American recipe. It calls for “apple butter” which is an American spread made by cooking apples with vinegar and can have spices added. Also the recipe uses turbinado cane sugar, which I have substituted with brown sugar, but you could also use coconut sugar or your choice of dry sweetener.
ENTERTAINMENT BOOKS
OSHC NEWS
LUNCH TIME CLUBS
Unfortunately, we are unable to run lunch time clubs at this time.
COMMUNITY NEWS
Disclaimer: Rosanna Golf Links Primary School (RGLPS) does not endorse any product or service advertised in this newsletter. RGLPS takes no responsibility for the content of advertisements or the quality and reliability of products or services offered in the advertisements
