IMPORTANT DATES!
PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE
Preparations for the school production are well underway with the excitement levels of students really starting to show. We are all so grateful to be able to run some regular programming and feel that our upcoming production is just the start. We also had our cross country this week, with students in Year 3 – 6 discussing strategy, racing and just having a go with their friends.
Education Week - Open Morning Sessions
Don’t forget that we are celebrating education week from 22-28 May. Now in its 78th year, Education Week celebrates the strengths and achievements of Victoria’s government education sector. This year’s theme is 150 Years of Public Education, to coincide with this milestone anniversary for Victoria.
Education Week 2022 is an opportunity for all primary and secondary schools, higher education providers, and early childhood education and care services to commemorate the past, celebrate the present and imagine the future of education in Victoria. We aim to run a few celebratory activities during the week to showcase our learning for the community.
On Wednesday the 25th of May, we will be running our annual opening morning for the community. Student led tours will occur with the culmination event a Q and A in our school hall. This is an opportunity for prospective parents and 2023 prep parents to get to know the school, running from 9:30 – 11:00am. On Friday the 27th of May we will hold an open morning in the classrooms. Families are invited to attend from 9:00 – 10:00 and celebrate learning in the classroom with your children. We look forward to seeing you at this time.
Semester Reports
Last year just prior to our extended interruptions we did have a community forum to discuss the evolution of reporting at RGLPS and the language used in the semester reports. We have now had continuity back into our school day and as a result, we have had the opportunity to continue conversations with our staff and our students. I can report that after a robust and thoughtful consultation process that culminated in a delightful conversation with our young school leaders, we have altered the five-point scale of our semester reports to align with the values of our staff, community and most importantly our students. I am always amazed with the insight and depth of knowledge brought by our students and am pleased to announce that the five-point scale will no longer be a graded system of A through to E but rather words to describe where each child finds themselves on the learning continuum. The progression points and progress will remain but the following words will replace the lettered grading system.
A – Learning Well Above Expected Level
B – Learning Above Expected Level
C – Meeting Expectations of Learning
D – Nearing Expectations of Learning
E – Working Towards Expected Learning Level
Tutor Learning Initiative (TLI)
This week students working in the TLI will receive an ILP through Compass. To view an ILP use the reporting tab and select semester 1 ILPs. Inside the ILP you will find some specific and targeted goals that have been designed based on student understanding and formed specifically to work on the next point of need for each individual.
After the goals, you will see a breakdown of each assessment that your child has completed and an example of the skills that your child displayed during the assessment. Early in term 3 we will again send an ILP. This time we will have further data sets to demonstrate the progress that has been made during the course of the program.
Should you wish to discuss the ILP please contact your child’s tutor.
Attitudes to School Survey
About the survey
We value student voice as a means to improving student engagement, wellbeing and quality instruction and are conducting a survey to find out what your child thinks of our school.
The AtoSS is an annual student survey offered by the Department of Education and Training to assist all schools to gain an understanding of students’ perceptions and experience of school. Students will be asked about their thoughts and feelings in relation to RGLPS, their learning, peer and family relationships, resilience, bullying, mental health and wellbeing, physical activity, and life in general.
This year, the AtoSS will be conducted between the 2nd and 7th of June.
What are the benefits?
In our experience, young people enjoy having their say. We have been running this survey for nearly 20 years and it has been invaluable in helping schools understand student views. RGLPS will use the survey results to plan programs and activities to improve your child’s schooling experience.
What are the risks?
While we do not anticipate many risks of participation, some students may find some of the survey questions too personal and sensitive in nature. Should you agree for your child to participate, they are still free to skip questions or to withdraw at any stage if the survey makes them upset or uncomfortable.
The survey has been approved by a Human Research Ethics Committee. The questions are selected from validated survey instruments used in Australia and around the world, are strength-based, and tailored for each year level group.
What will my child be asked to do?
Your child will be invited to complete the survey online during class time using a purpose built secure online survey tool. It is important to note that we are not in any way “testing” your child. Please note:
- Student participation in the survey is voluntary and students may withdraw at any time.
- The survey will take around 20-45 minutes to complete.
How is my child’s confidentiality protected?
Your child will be provided with a unique login to complete the survey from their teacher. The student login is an assigned identifier that may be used to link data for statistical and research purposes only. Personally identifiable data will not be recorded in the survey response file. This ensures that the confidentiality of your child’s responses is protected at all times.
How will results be reported?
The survey results will be reported back to the school in an aggregate form throughout the survey period. All survey data that is made available in reports are for groups of students only so that no individual student can be identified. Data suppression rules are used for schools with low student numbers per year level.
We will share the results of the survey with parents, in documents such as the School Annual Report.
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Options for participation Participation in this survey is voluntary. If you do not wish for your child to do the survey, please opt out via email at Rosanna.golf.links.ps@education.vic.gov.au. Please do so before the 2nd of June, stating that you wish to opt out of your child’s participation, along with their name and year level. If we do not receive a Refusal of Consent email from yourself before the survey commencement date mentioned within this letter, it means that you give your consent for your child to participate in the 2022 Attitudes to School Survey. |
A copy of the survey that we are asking your child to complete is available here at RGLPS. Please contact the administration office if you would like to see the survey before making your decision about whether you would like your child to participate.
If you would like more information, please speak to your child’s teacher, or contact the Department at school.surveys@education.vic.gov.au.
Take care,
Kirrily Lamers
Principal
STUDENT OF THE WEEK
ASSISTANT PRINCIPALS’ REPORT
PRODUCTION INFORMATION - 9 DAYS TO GO !
Our exciting production week is just around the corner so we will be putting out a few last-minute reminders over the coming week.
Costumes
You should have sent your child’s base costume to school yesterday Thursday 12th May. If you have not, please ensure it is at school on Monday for our whole school run through onsite.
!!Permission to Travel to Theatre for Rehearsal on Day of Performance!!
There are still a number of parents who have not given permission for their child/ren to travel by bus to Darebin Arts Centre on the day of their performance. Without permission, these students will stay back at school. Please prioritise giving consent if you haven’t already done so.
Drop Off
Once at the venue, student names will be checked off by a class classroom teacher who will be waiting at the venue door to record student arrivals. From there, students will be taken to backstage rooms where outer costumes will be added and make-up applied if needed. From this time, students will be supervised by their classroom teachers.
o Prep students will be having their faces painted (black nose and whiskers). Please ensure they are at the theatre by 6pm.
o All other students are also asked to be at the theatre at 6pm.
o Lead characters are required to be at the theatre at 5:15pm for mics and sound check.
Pick Up
At the conclusion of the evening, students will be released strategically in grade levels. This is planned to be at approximately 9pm. Parents attending that evening’s performance will be asked to remain seated until their child’s grade is called. The first group will be the Preps. The second, the Year 1 and 2 students and so on. To ensure that all students are accounted for and safely collected, every child will be collected by their parent and marked off a roll by a teacher.
Please contact the general office if you require a form to authorise another adult to pick up your child from the venue.
As you can imagine this event requires logistical procedures so we ask that you please support us and collect students in an organised fashion.
It is imperative that students have their names checked and unchecked at the beginning and end of the evening.
To Bring
On the night of the performance, students are asked to bring a snack and drink in a small bag. While not performing, students will be supervised in class groups. We suggest sending along a quiet activity such as a novel, colouring book or card game to entertain your child/ren while waiting to perform.
DVD Orders
Order forms for a professionally recorded copy of the production will be coming home shortly.
Photography
A reminder that there is no photography permitted.
Tickets
You would have seen on Compass that tickets went on sale on Wednesday 10th May.
Tickets cost $ 26.00 (no concessions available).
Children under the age of two are free of charge (must be able to sit on ticket holder’s lap)
There are very few tickets available. If you are yet to purchase your tickets, please do so as soon as possible. We will be releasing any unsold tickets on Wednesday at 10am.
Students at the school will not require seats booked as they will remain with their class groups. Siblings attending must have booked seats if they are older than two years as per the policy of the venue.
A professional video recording will be made of the production for families to purchase so that those who might miss out on seeing the production live, will still be able to enjoy the performance.
This promises to be an exciting night and we look forward to seeing our RGLPS families attending to help celebrate the return of our school production.
Classroom Helpers
We are so excited to begin accepting classroom helpers into our classrooms again. To be able to work in the classrooms we require you to read and understand our classroom helpers course and complete an acknowledgement of your understanding of the conditions and responsibilities. This course can be found at: https://www.rosanna-golflinks-ps.vic.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Parent-Helpers-Course-_-OHS-2022.pdf
After completing this course you should then make contact with the classroom teacher/s. Please introduce yourself and outline your interest and availability. The classroom teacher will then make contact with you to set up a suitable time to come along and help.
Lunch Clubs
We will be beginning our Lunch Clubs this week. These clubs are open to all students across the school, however there may be limited spots in some clubs due to limited resources or space. Our students will be given a reminder at our weekly assembly when clubs will be running. We hope to support all students to access these clubs and further develop their social skills and friendships through meaningful and practice experiences.
Premiers Reading Challenge
The Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge is now open and Rosanna Golf Links Primary School is excited to be participating. The PRC application offers a range of exciting features including:
- access to a library catalogue (including book images and blurbs)
- a modern user-friendly interface
- rewarding students with badges as challenge milestones are achieved
- the option for students to mark books as a favourite, give them a star rating or complete a book review
The Challenge is open to all Victorian children from birth to Year 10 in recognition of the importance of reading for literacy development. It is not a competition; but a personal challenge for children to read a set number of books by 2 September 2022.
Children from Prep to Year 2 are encouraged to read or ‘experience’ 30 books with their parents and teachers. Children from Year 3 to Year 10 are challenged to read 15 books.
All children who meet the Challenge will receive a certificate of achievement signed by the Victorian Premier and former Premiers.
To read the Premier’s letter to parents, view the booklist and for more information about the Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge, visit: https://www.vic.gov.au/premiers-reading-challenge
Luke Franklin & Denisse Lobos
Assistant Principals
TEACHING AND LEARNING
RGLPS is firing on all cylinders at present with lots of great activities happening around the school! We are now only one week out from our school production at the Darebin Arts Centre and all classes are busy with final rehearsals for ‘The Amazing Race’. The whole school will have an onsite dress rehearsal at school next Monday May 16th, prior to a venue rehearsal during the day of both evening performances on Monday 23rd and Tuesday 24th May.
In addition to concert practice, Year 3 and 5 students have participated in NAPLAN tests this week and we also have weekly Year 1/2 Swimming and interschool sport underway for Year 5/6 students. Year 3/4 students are also heading off on an excursion to Healesville Sanctuary next Tuesday to support their learning about habitats.
Getting into the 'Flow' of Learning
This week, I am going to talk about the state of ‘flow’ and its significance for learning.
The state of ‘flow’ was first recognised and named by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the 1980s. ‘Flow’ is that state where we become so engrossed in a task that we lose track of time. We also sometimes refer to this as being ‘in the zone’.
Csikszentmihalyi observed this state in many fields and professions including amongst artists, athletes, mathematicians, and writers. He noticed that individuals would become so absorbed in what they were doing that time seemed to almost disappear! This state of ‘flow’ is now considered the deepest form of attention we know of. Csikszentmihalyi also identified that people achieve this state when several conditions are being met. So, what conditions that enable us to achieve this state?
- Firstly, you must have a clearly defined goal and set aside other tasks and goals to focus on this. Csikszentmihalyi’s research found that multi-tasking and distraction kill ‘flow’ and you are unable to achieve a state of flow when you are trying to do two things at once.
- Secondly, you need to be focusing on something that is meaningful to you to achieve ‘flow’. We all know how hard it is to pay attention to something that feels meaningless to us as as our attention slips and wavers. More recent research indicates that our brains pay much closer attention to things that actually matter to us.
- The final criteria for achieving a ‘flow’ state is to work on a task that stretches you; at the outer edge of your capability, but not beyond it. This is also known as the ‘Zone of Proximal Development’ (Vygotsky). If a goal or task is too easy, we tend to move into autopilot. Conversely, if something is too difficult for us, we can become stressed, preventing us from achieving the state of ‘flow’. This is one of the reasons teachers stress the importance of children choosing a ‘just right’ text for reading. We are attempting to create conditions for children to achieve ‘flow’ and become engrossed in reading.
To learn more on this topic, I highly recommend viewing Csikszentmihalyi’s popular TED Talk (2004) on ‘flow’. See: https://youtu.be/fXIeFJCqsPs
Education Week
The week of May 23rd is ‘Education Week’. Aside from celebrating with our first school production in several years, we will also hold an Open Morning for parents/carers to visit classes in action on Friday 27th May from 9am – 10am.
During Education Week, most RGLPS classes will also participate in ‘Simultaneous Storytime’. This is a national event where thousands of children around the country read the same text to celebrate reading and literature. This year’s text is ‘Family Tree’ by Josh Pyke and Ronojoy Ghosh, which is described as a ‘…celebration of family, community and the seasons of life’. ‘Simultaneous Storytime’ activities will take place on Wednesday May 25th 2022.
Teacher Professional Practice Day
RGLPS has scheduled the common Professional Practice Day for teachers on Thursday 26th May. Teachers will largely spend this time planning, analysing assessment data, working on Semester One reports and undertaking professional learning. A reminder that there will be no classes for students on this day.
Have a great week everyone!
Kerron Worsdell
Learning Specialist
MATHS NEWS
Maths Riddle
Well done to those who attempted last week’s ‘Tricky Triangles’ challenge. The answer to the challenge is: 23 triangles.
Here’s this week’s Maths Riddle. I’ll share the answer in next week’s newsletter.
Turn the Fish Challenge
Move 3 sticks to make the fish swim in the opposite direction.
Hint: Try using materials (pencils, twigs, hairpins) to help you solve the problem.
Extra Challenge: Can you make your own stick challenges? Start by making a picture, then seeing if you can make the image flipped in as little moves as possible.
If you’d like to share your response or have your working out featured in our newsletter, please send your solutions to sarah.mclellan@education.vic.gov.au
DO YOU HAVE A PREP STARTING IN 2023?
Thank you to everyone who has already enrolled for prep 2023. We look forward to meeting all of our new siblings!
If you haven’t already enrolled, spare forms can be found in the office foyer or on the school website.
SPECIAL RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION (SRI)
Just a reminder to those families who have given permission for their children to attend Special Religious Instruction (Christianity), that we have commenced again and will be meeting every Thursday in the library, from 2 – 2.30pm (the first part of the second break). It would be helpful if you could remind your child/children on Thursday mornings that it is SRI day!
Thanks very much,
Cathie Clarke
Ph: 0411 883 904
CANTEEN
Canteen Volunteers
Volunteers are now allowed back into the canteen and you would be most welcome.
Because of our new lunch time table you assistance would be required as below.
You need to have done the school volunteer on-line course and be fully vaccinated.
If you are interested in helping out please email me at margaret.groves@education.vic.gov.au.
Please include: name and contact information: email, mobile number, date and times available.
TIMES
MONDAY : 11AM-1PM
WEDNESDAY 10:30AM-12:30PM
FRIDAY Any hours from 9AM-1PM- Especially between 10:30AM-12:30PM which is our peak.
If you can’t do the entire time and still want to volunteer we are flexible.
Regards
Margaret Groves
Canteen Manager
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
