IMPORTANT DATES!
PRINCIPALS’ REPORT
Meet the Teacher Evening
Our RGLPS teachers found it highly useful to meet with parents and carers in person or online at our ‘Meet the Teacher’ meetings this week. It was very helpful to touch-base and gather information about each child so we can best support them across the school year. Learning about home learning and reading habits, individual interests, health/family issues assist our teachers to customise the approaches used and to set appropriate learning and wellbeing goals for each child. A big thank-you to parents and carers for making themselves available to meet with us across the week!
School Council
At the time of writing, our election process has not quite completed. Next week I should have more of an idea regarding our structures and I will know if we have to go to an election. Keep an eye out through Compass and the bulletin for further information.
Parent Representatives
Having a classroom parent representative is a great way for the families within each classroom to stay in touch! Generally, this role involves collating contact information and organising special family events outside of school. If you are interested in being your child’s class representative, please send your classroom teacher a message.
Junior School Council and Environmental Leaders
This week marks the close of our JSC and Environmental leader elections. As our badges distribution has been delayed, we will hold off on presenting these at assembly until we have a full complement of badges.
Take care,
Kirrily Lamers
Principal
STUDENT OF THE WEEK
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL’S REPORT
International Women's Day
Wednesday 8 March 2023 is International Women’s Day (IWD), an annual day to celebrate the social, cultural and political achievements of women across the world. This year, the United Nations’ theme for the day is ‘Cracking the Code: Innovation for a gender-equal future’.
I was fortunate enough to attend out regional principal forum yesterday and listen to, and work with some amazing principles and department leaders from across our region. I have three sisters all working in high level positions typically male dominated professions. Gender should never be a barrier for success. It is important to acknowledge that this has been the case and we should all publicly celebrate and encourage achievements of our female leaders and workers. I feel privileged to work in a profession with a strong gender diverse workforce and hope other organisations can follow the lead of the Department of Education in encouraging our young women to follow their dreams and aspirations to achieve whatever they want, without gender barriers.
To mark the day at RGLPS we will introduce the concept and run some structured activities.
STOPIT Service
STOPIT is a new Victoria Police text notification service enabling commuters, including school students, to report any form of inappropriate behaviour that makes them feel uncomfortable, frightened or threatened on the public transport network.
How STOPIT works
The STOPIT service enables commuters to use their mobile phone to promptly, easily and discreetly report inappropriate behaviours.
To use the service, commuters simply text ‘STOPIT’ to 0499 455 455. This triggers an automated response that includes a link to where the commuter can provide more details about what’s just happened.
When people report these types of inappropriate behaviours, police can investigate and identify offenders to improve safety on public transport for everyone.
Parents and carers are encouraged to consider discussing the new service with students who travel on public transport. Students who use mobile phones outside of school hours are encouraged to save the STOPIT number in their mobile phone.
Please note, STOPIT is for reporting non-urgent incidents on public transport. Always phone 000 in an emergency.
For more information, refer to sexual and anti-social behaviour on public transport on the Victoria Police website.
TEACHING AND LEARNING
Task Switching
Last year, I wrote about the ‘myth of multi-tasking’. A large body of international research indicates that we can’t competently perform multiple tasks simultaneously. Instead, what we are doing is ‘task switching’ between different activities. This has been shown to damage productivity as we need time to orient ourselves again to each new task. Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University Cal Newport explains: ‘Research has shown that people who work on multiple things concurrently are less able to filter out irrelevancy, have poorer memory and are more easily distracted.’ Essentially, if you have to work on a cognitively demanding task, you should focus fully on that task.
However, there are times when task switching is of benefit. When creative thinking is required, task switching can improve our ability to generate multiple, diverse ideas and our ability to identify the unique or best solution to a problem.
Columbia Business School professors Jackson Lu, Modupe Akinola and Malia Mason have found that when we focus on one task intensively, we ‘cognitively fixate’ and can get stuck on one way of approaching a problem. When we set a challenging task aside and ‘task switch’ to another activity, this helps break the hold of our fixation. It allows us to later return to the challenging task with fresh eyes and a fresh mind. Upon reflection, this makes a lot of sense. I think of all those times, I have gone for a walk or tackled a minor errand before coming back to a tricky problem and have suddenly found a new solution or a fresh idea. However, it is important to note that we are not always aware when we are fixated on a task. Therefore, it can be a good practice to force ourselves to switch tasks at regular, closely spaced intervals. One way might be to set a timer every 10 – 15 min and then mindfully do something else when attempting a creative task. Professors Lu, Akinola and Mason argue that ‘When it comes to creative tasks, we are not switching too often. Rather, we are radically under-switching’ between tasks. This is certainly something worth exploring to increase creative thinking and get the most out of ourselves each day.
Hope everyone has a great week. Remember we have school photos next Friday 3rd March!
Kerron Worsdell
Learning Specialist
MATHMATICS NEWS
To celebrate World Maths Day on Wednesday 8th March, we are excited to invite families from the RGLPS community into our classrooms to participate in some maths games with students. This is a great opportunity to engage with your child within their classroom environment, and a chance for students to share their learning with you.
Most classrooms will be open from 9:00am-9:50am, however some classes that have a specialist lesson during this time will instead open their rooms to you in the 2:40pm-3:30pm timeslot. Open times for specific classes are:
We can’t wait to see you then!
SCHOOL PHOTOS
CAMPS EXCURSION and ACTIVITES FUND (CSEF)
Camps Excursion and Activities Fund (CSEF) - (for parents holding a current Health Care Card)
Applications are now open for 2023 CSEF funding. If you received CSEF in 2022, I have submitted an application on your behalf and nothing further is required from you unless there is a prep student to be added. In this case, please contact me on kaylene.ingham@education.vic.gov.au to confirm I have added your student.
CSEF funding is a government initiative to assist families where a parent or carer is the beneficiary of a financially means-tested card (most commonly a Health Care Card, however please contact me if you require the full list of eligible cards). The funding is to be used for camps, excursions and activities. Please advise the office or chose the CSEF option on Compass when you wish to access the funds for any of these purposes. We don’t do this automatically as some parents prefer to pay smaller amounts themselves and use the funding for more expensive activities such as camps. Any unused funds are automatically rolled over to the following year and are transferred to your child’s next school if applicable.
If you are an eligible parent, and have not received CSEF in the past, please call past the office to collect an application form and present your card.
GARDENING NEWS
CANTEEN
Summer Specials
Beefie Burger – burger served in a roll with lettuce, tomato, cheese and tomato sauce: $6.10
Extras: Pineapple: $0.80
Beetroot: $0.70
Plant Bases Burger – burger served in a roll with lettuce, tomato and tomato sauce: $7.10
(Burger is Gluten Free) Extra: Pineapple: $0.80
Beetroot: $0.70
Fruit – Cantaloupe $1 per slice
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
