15 February 2018

PRINCIPALS REPORT

Welcome to the 2018 school year! It has been a wonderful start with everyone settled and straight into their learning. It is lovely to see our students so happy to be back at school and looking so smart in their uniforms. Thank you to all our staff for the many hours of work they have put in to ensure the very calm and focused start that we have enjoyed.

I would like to extend an especially warm welcome to the families who are new to our school community. I am sure you are enjoying the same warm welcome to this lovely school that I am receiving. Thank you to the parents and children who have taken the time to introduce themselves to me. I am really looking forward to working alongside you all to make sure that our school continues to be one we can all rightfully be very proud of.

We have an exciting first term ahead of us. The grade 6s will be attending a 3 day leadership camp at Orana in just a few weeks. Mr Coombe and Mr Lockey have a very busy and exciting program planned and I am sure the children will have the most wonderful time. Most importantly, the students will be learning valuable skills to become Peer Support Leaders, Sports Leaders, Assembly hosts and generally be great leaders and role models in our school. Our prep to grade 5 students will be joining the grade 6s at Orana for the day on Friday 2nd . They will participate in a range of fun and challenging activities run by our grade 6 leaders. Permission forms for this excursion will be sent home soon.

This year our students will participate in a range of specialist lessons. Mr Miller will be returning to our school and taking classes for weekly PE lessons. Mrs Rigney will again take classes for library lessons and she will also take classes for specialist ICT lessons. Mrs Cross will be taking classes for music every fortnight and she will continue to run our amazing Marimba, choir, recorder groups. We welcome Mrs Angela Lincoln to our staff and she will be taking classes for science lessons each fortnight. We will continue with our garden and cooking programs and we will continue to offer a wide variety of activities to our students from grades 3 to 6 on Friday afternoons.

You will have noticed that we have had lots of work done around the school over the holidays. The ECE toilets are nearing completion and I thank you for your patience with the inconvenience this has caused. We will continue to work towards improving our school buildings and playgrounds for the safety and enjoyment of our children.

School Values

We have decided to update our school values this year so that they are easy to understand for even our youngest children. We chose three that we think our whole school community will agree are extremely important. They are SAFE, FAIR and CARE. We have spent a lot of time in the first week of school talking to children about what these words mean and what is expected of everyone at this school. We will continue to think about what our values mean to us and we look forward to sharing this thinking with you in future newsletters and on our school Facebook page.

ASSEMBLY

These will be held every second Monday from 2 – 2.30pm. The first one will be held this coming Monday 19th February. Parents and Carers most welcome.

I am so thrilled to be joining the Risdon Vale school community and am very much looking forward to a wonderful year ahead!

Rachael Wells
Acting Principal

SCHOOL HOURS

Risdon Vale Primary School hours are 8:30am through to 2:40pm. It is important that parents/carers do not bring children to school before school hours because there is no supervision of students at that time. Similarly, it is important parents/carers either collect their children at the end of the school day or make other collection arrangements so students are not left unsupervised at the end of the school day. Unsupervised students may engage in dangerous play or put themselves in dangerous locations. Parents/carers are responsible for their child outside school hours unless they have accessed school based child care during these times.

NEWS FROM THE SCHOOL OFFICE

School Banking will be processed on Tuesday mornings.(Kindergarten please bring yours on a Monday) If you wish to participate in the Student banking and don’t have an account you can open a Student account at any Commonwealth Bank Branch and have it attached to Risdon Vale Primary School.

IMPORTANT

All validation forms should be returned by this Friday so as our records can be updated. Also the Major Excursion Consent and Medical Information Form. No forms your child will not be allowed to go on the Excursions coming up this month.

CAMP:- It would be appreciated if these forms could be returned as well ASAP

NEWS FROM THE SCHOOL ASSOCIATION

Our first meeting for 2018 will be held on Tuesday 27th February at 3pm in the staff room.

All parents & carers are welcome to attend. Come along and help this small working committee to plan our events for 2018 School year.

NEWS FROM THE LIBRARY

Book Club orders due by 21 February.

ICT user agreements for students in grades 3-6 must be returned asap with both student and parent/carer signatures please.

Library times: Prep/1B Wednesdays but please return books on Tuesdays

1/2P and 1/2V Tuesdays but please return books on Mondays
3/4W and 3/4P Wednesdays but please return books on Tuesdays
5/6C and 5/6L Wednesdays but please return books on Tuesdays

Students will need a material or plastic Library bag to borrow.

Home Readers will be given out this week. Research has shown listening to your child read for just a few minutes a day has a huge impact on your child’s success at school. Please support this valuable program.

Thanks Jean Rigney

NEWS FROM THE NEIGHBOURHOOD CENTRE

BREAKFAST CLUB will be held Monday – Wednesday – Friday mornings 7.45am – 8.30am in the School Open Room. All Children are welcome and if parents/carers wish to stay you are welcome too.

Calendar of Up-Coming Events