IMPORTANT DATES!
PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE
What a rollercoaster term it has been. We commenced with an incredible Anzac Day assembly where one of our bands was finally able to perform to our community. We had an incredible term full of sporting achievements. The NAPLAN assessment took place for our Year 3 and 5 students and multiple students accessed the tutoring program. With a tiny COVID interruption towards the end we were still able to finish off the term with some fun as our Prep students had a pajama day. Two of our Prep students have already written persuasive letters to me suggesting that we let the whole school in on all of the fun. It really reinforces how far some of our students have come in a very short time.
COVID Safe Practices
Key changes in the easing of restrictions include:
- Density limits:
In regional Victoria, a density limit of 1 person per 2 square metres applies to staff areas, such as staff lunchrooms, and areas accessed by the public, such as reception areas.
In metropolitan Melbourne, a density limit of 1 person per 4 square metres still applies to these areas.
Importantly, over the school holiday period there has been no change to the face mask advice, which will continue to apply to all Outside School Hours Care holiday programs.
- – Secondary school students aged 12 or older must carry a face mask at all times and wear a face mask indoors when at school, including when attending an Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) program, unless a lawful exception applies. Face masks are recommended to be worn outdoors where physical distancing of 1.5m cannot be maintained.
- – Children under 12 years of age and students at primary school are not required to wear face masks when at school, or when attending an OSHC program.
- – Face masks are mandatory for all school students aged 12 or older on public transport and when in taxis or ride share vehicles. This includes travelling to and from school on public transport or in a vehicle with others not from your household.
- – Visitors and parents must also observe face mask requirements.
A reminder that parents, carers, and visitors can enter school grounds, however they must adhere to density limits and check in using the QR codes.
Staffing News
We are so pleased to announce that Sarah McLellen has been the successful applicant for the internal position of Learning Specialist. Sarah will remain in her classroom 2 days a week and support the development in Mathematics teaching and learning for the rest of the week. Nadine Park who has done an amazing job as a 3-4 tutor this year will be the other classroom teacher in 4ST.
It is with sadness that we inform you that Penny Parker will be leaving us next semester. She has been a valued member of the team here at Rosanna Golf Links for the past 10 years. Currently she commutes quite a distance to be with us, which of course impacts on the time she’s able to spend with her young family. She was recently successful in applying for a job closer to home at Ringwood North Primary School, commencing day one of Term 3. She will be missed but we wish her well.
In other news, Lauren Zahra and her partner are expecting their second child early to mid Term 3. Accordingly, Lauren will be taking parental leave and will not return to us for the remainder of 2021.
As a result of these circumstances, we are excited to announce that we have begun the process of employing a full-time teacher to take over in 1PLJ. This process will be completed during the upcoming holidays and an appointment announcement will be made as soon as the successful applicant has been confirmed.
Reporting at RGLPS
This year we have been working hard to ensure that our reporting to parents and our communication methods are improving to suit the needs of our learners and their families. As you know we have placed a greater focus on the continual method of reporting rather than the final summative result. This has meant that we have been evolving our progress reports and semester reports throughout the year. At first we sought feedback through our staff and we are now at the point where we would appreciate feedback from our families. Next term we would like you to save the date as we look to have a community forum around reporting on Thursday the 5th of August at 6:00pm – 7:00pm. At this forum we will outline how we foresee student agency in learning through goal based ‘I can’ statements becoming part of our process and we will discuss what we think a 5 point rating scale should look like.
State reporting mandates have altered over the past few years with less uniformity and the capacity for schools to report student learning to students and parents in formats that best suit local school communities. As the single centrally prescribed format is no longer in existence it gives us a wonderful opportunity to get feedback from our key stakeholders and continue to develop a format that works for us.
We want reporting to be continual, whether that be through Seesaw and portfolio tasks to informal chats with the classroom teacher, but we don’t want to rely on end of semester reports as our only communication tool.
This year we have opted to send our Prep reports without the standard progression points that have traditionally accompanied reports at RGLPS. This has been a very considered action as we currently have a 5 point rating scale of A – E grading. This means that the only way to receive an A rating is to be 18 months above the typical developmental continuum of learning. I personally struggle with this as it does set up reporting to have negative connotations for our students. We want to shift this and allow our students and families to understand that students all show growth at a different pace. By removing the progression points we can demonstrate exactly what a child can do and remove the focus from what grade a child achieved.
It is our aim to work through this whole process together and I look forward to seeing you all at the reporting forum in Term 3.
Tutor Learning Initiative (TLI)
This semester 87 of our students were able to access the TLI across the school. We are so pleased that the TLI has been a success for many of our students, and we want to continue with the program throughout 2021. Next term the completed IEPs will be uploaded to Compass so that families can share in the celebration of learning.
In term 3 our 1-2 students will continue with Laura Ryan returning from maternity leave on Fridays as an additional tutor. Our 3-4 cohort will still have access to the program with a reduction from 3 sessions per week to 1 session per week and our Year 5 cohort will be supported by myself and Luke Franklin in Mathematics. Many students will move out of the program as they have made significant progress during the first semester and that will give us additional spaces to support some of those who may have missed out during semester 1. The plan is for tutoring to continue until the end of the year in some format.
Take care everyone and have a well deserved break. I do hope that you can get away and have a little refresh and I look forward to commencing the second semester of learning.
Kirrily Lamers
Principal
ASSISTANT PRINCIPALS’ REPORT
School Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS)
In 2019 we began the implementation of the School-wide behaviour support framework.
School-wide positive behaviour support (SWPBS) is a framework that brings together school communities to develop positive, safe, supportive learning cultures.
SWPBS assists schools to improve social, emotional, behavioural and academic outcomes for children and young people.
When SWPBS is implemented well, teachers and students have more time to focus on relationships and classroom instruction.
Students and staff benefit from:
- increased respectful and positive behaviour
- increased time focused on instruction
- improved social-emotional wellbeing
- positive and respectful relationships among students and staff
- increased adoption of evidence-based instructional practices
The RGLPS journey so far…
Luke Franklin & Denisse Lobos
Assistant Principals
TEACHING AND LEARNING
Term Two and Three High Ability Program (HALP)
Congratulations to the following students in Year 5/6 who completed one of the High Ability Learning Programs (HALP) during Term Two.
Year 5 – Jade D, Molly M, Eamonn N, Toby W, Ava W, Sam W, Madeleine O, Eva L, Ainsley H
Year 6 – Emmy B, Cordelia H, Alba N, Lutz S
Due to the recent lockdown, the planned end of term two HALP excursions had to be postponed but I will endeavour to reschedule these and plan an engaging celebratory event for participating students later in the year. Student feedback from both High Ability Learning Programs was extremely positive, with most students expressing disappointment when their sessions ended.
In Term Three, another three RGLPS students will be participating in the English HALP and one student in the Mathematics HALP. A big congratulations to these students who have been selected for these enrichment programs by the department, based on their academic results. I hope they enjoy the programs as much as the participating students in Term Two did!
Tournament of Minds 2021 (TOM)
RGLPS is participating in the Tournament of the Mind – Primary Division again in 2021.
For those that are unaware, the Tournament of Minds is an enrichment program offered to high ability students in Australian schools. A team comprises of seven students, who work over a six-week period towards a presentation for their chosen Long-Term Challenge. The team chooses either The Arts, STEM, Social Sciences or Languages and Literature Challenge (released at the start of term three).
The TOM Team must work together to create a script, props, costumes, assign roles and organise themselves to respond to their challenge, and with limited adult assistance. The TOM team then present their Long-Term Challenge solution at the Regional Final (La Trobe University) on the weekend of August 21st-22nd. On this date, the team also respond to a Spontaneous Challenge, which gives the judging panel the chance to see the team’s skills in action.
All challenges operate under strict guidelines and time parameters. Participating students gain skills and experience in areas such as team-work, negotiation, organisation, confidence, thinking, problem solving, communication, as well as many other cross curricula skills.
The selected TOM Team will work under my supervision for a double session each week for the six weeks of the challenge. *This time commitment may need to be extended as the Regional Final gets closer.
This year’s selection process has worked as follows:
- – All Year 5/6 classroom teachers nominated high ability students for the 2021 TOM Team
- – Nominated students were given an overview of the Tournament of Mind competition and invited to submit an application form if interested
- – Kirrily and I read through the applications to select the seven members of the school TOM Team
Please note, TOM rules state that no more than four students can be from any one year level.
Book Week Parade - Thursday 26th August 2021
2021 Children’s Book Week will be celebrated with a ‘Book Character Parade’ on Thursday 26th August. All students and staff are encouraged to dress up as their favourite book character, or in keeping with the theme ‘Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds’. During weekly library sessions, all RGLPS classes will explore some of the CBCA Book of the Year short listed titles and participate in the annual RGLPS Literature Quiz. We hope this advance warning gives students and families plenty of time to start organising their costumes for this exciting dress up day celebrating children’s literature!
ICAS 2021
ICAS assessments will be offered to students on the dates below. Please note that participation in ICAS is optional and at parent expense (each ICAS costs $17.05).
ICAS registrations can be made through the Parent Payment Portal located at https://www.icasassessments.com/shop-parents/ Please use the school code MHT858. Registrations via the Parent Payment Portal will close on Sunday 25th July 2021.
Semester 1 2021 Reports
Semester One reports have now been released to parents. To access these, please login to Compass and click View Academic Reports. Select 2021 Semester One Reports.
Three Way Conferences (3WC)
Three Way Conferences will be held between teachers, parents and students on Monday 26th July 2021 between 11am and 7pm. These will run for 15 min between 11am and 6:45pm. Please monitor Compass and the newsletter for updates around Three Way Conference bookings and whether these will be able to take place in person or need to be run via Webex. Three Way Conferences bookings will be made available early next term.
Term 3 2021 Team Newsletters
Term Three Team Newsletters will be released to parents today (last day of Term 2) via a Compass alert and link. I encourage all parents/carers to make the time to carefully read these newsletters and take note of important dates and information for the upcoming term.
Please see: Compass -> School Documentation -> Year Level Newsletters -> 2021 -> Term 3.
On a final note, I hope all families and students have a restful and enjoyable school holiday break in preparation for a big Term Three ahead. Stay safe!
Kerron Worsdell
Learning Specialist
DO YOU HAVE A CHILD STARTING SCHOOL IN 2022?
Please make sure you have handed your enrolment form and accompanying paperwork into the office.
Enrolment forms can be downloaded from the RGLPS website, or collected from the school foyer.
We look forward to welcoming our 2022 prep siblings!
SCIENCE NEWS
Space Wattle
Soon our space wattle seeds will return to earth and the space wattle team will start supervising them!
These wattle seeds were sent to space late last year and have been in space for over 6 months and we have been very lucky to be picked to get a sample of the wattle seeds! We need to ensure that we all look after and treat these precious seeds with respect and care. We are expecting the seeds to arrive in the next couple of months so we are very excited to have the space wattle team to start their work!
Malinthi K, Science Captain
LITERACY STARS
Please click on each image to view.
SUSTAINABILITY NEWS
Plastic Free July
Plastic Free July is a worldwide movement to help millions of people be part of the solution to plastic pollution so that we can have a cleaner world. We encourage all families to be part of this challenge throughout July. To help, you can reduce the amount of plastic you use during this month.
There are 3 different levels of Plastic Free July. The 1st level is not using the 4 main plastic items which include takeaway coffee cups, plastic bags, plastic water bottles and plastic straws. The 2nd level is to avoid single use plastic packaging. The 3rd level is going completely plastic free. Why would this help? This would help to end climate change and many more environmental issues. Just imagine if 10 people don’t use one new plastic item every day for a week – that’s 70 less pieces of plastic that won’t end up in our oceans or communities. Imagine 100 people not using new plastic for a week – that would be at least 700 pieces of plastic that we don’t have to worry about.
You can find out more information here: https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/
We hope to see families of RGLPS participate in plastic-free July.
“We don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly, we need millions of people doing it imperfectly” Anne Marie Bonneau.
Maddison B & Eliza B, Environment Leaders, 6SMV
SPORTS NEWS
Interschool Sport Semi Finals and Grand Finals
Friday 16th July, 2021
Wonder Recycling Rewards - Bread Bag Collection
Hello Parents and Teachers,
Firstly I would like to say a big congratulations to all of our families for the amount of bread bags we have collected for the Wonder White Bread Bag Recycling Competition so far! It has been wonderful to see so many happy faces dropping off their bags into the collection bins at the office each day as we get closer to our target of 25kg of plastic. It has also been great to talk to students about the benefits of recycling plastic rather than letting it go into landfill.
The competition closes on the 16th of July, so there is still plenty of time to collect bread bags and bring them in to school.
The bread bags do not have to be Wonder White, they may be any bread brand or bakery bread bags (you may also hand in any wrap/tortilla bags as well).
Please ask your family and friends to collect them for our school – there will be 5 lucky schools that receive the grand prize of new playground equipment made from recycled plastic and all schools will receive 500 points per kilogram of plastics collected to spend on sports equipment.
Thanks for your help everyone!
Darren Peters
PE and Sports Coordinator
RGLPS ART GALLERY
COMPASS CHANGES
CSEF -Extension of closing date 13th August 2021
This is a reminder to all parents who hold a Health Care Card that applications for 2021 CSEF will now close on 13 August 2021. Please contact Kaylene or Susan in the office should you have any questions regarding your eligibility.
CSEF is government funding for students whose parents hold a Health Care Card. The funding is $125 per student and can be used for camps and excursions.
FUNDRAISING
CANTEEN
THEIRCARE – BEFORE & AFTER SCHOOL CARE
COMMUNITY NOTICES
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
