IMPORTANT DATES!
TERM 4 2020
PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE
Walking around the school on Monday was a really special personal moment for me as it was the first time since that very brief period in term 2 that I was able to hear the joyous sounds of woodwind and brass instruments. We know that music can have such a positive effect on mood and it has certainly been a real boost for our students and staff to yet again be immersed in an environment with live music.
2021 Tutoring Program
It has also been extremely impressive to see that though things are not yet perfect, that the positive attitude from our students, staff and community has ensured the success of our transition back to school. We do understand that there are some children who found learning during the remote period to be more difficult to engage in and that the progress of learning for some children was slower than their usual rate. Now that students have settled back in, our teaching staff are working hard to identify any gaps in learning that may have occurred during the remote period. We are now making it a priority to gather this data to enable us to prepare for the next phase of learning. As you may have heard Victorian schools will be provided with once off additional funding in 2021 for a tutoring program. We plan to utilise this funding to support students to catch up if they have fallen behind during the remote learning period.
Message from the Chief Health Officer
Please look through the following advice from the Chief Health Officer regarding the impact of COVID and the necessary safety precautions.
As students in both mainstream and specialist settings recommence on-site learning in Term 4, I want to thank you all for your efforts during this challenging time. I also want to reassure you that the health, wellbeing and safety of children, young people and those involved in their education continues to be of paramount importance.
Throughout the pandemic we have closely monitored the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) on schools; the strategies that can be implemented in schools to reduce risk; and the health impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19) on children and young people, including those with a disability or complex medical condition.
Research by Murdoch Children’s Research Institute found that coronavirus (COVID-19) transmission in schools is uncommon when community transmission is low. A summary report of these findings is available to read.
With declining case numbers in the community, I am confident that the risk of coronavirus (COVID-19) transmission in mainstream and specialist schools is very low, when we have in place a range of health and safety measures.
The health and safety measures recommended for schools focus on the strategies we know are most effective. These include ensuring unwell staff and students remain home, good hand hygiene, enhanced cleaning and wearing face masks (only mandatory for those 12 years and over attending high schools). Temperature screening is not currently recommended for schools, given low levels of community transmission. I encourage you to read the health and safety advice for schools for further information on what schools are doing to keep students and staff safe.
The most important thing I ask of every family this term is to keep your child home from school if they have even the mildest coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms and to get tested as soon as possible. Staying home when unwell is one of our strongest measures to limit the spread of the virus. For more information on what to do if your child is unwell, see this fact sheet.
The good news is that evidence continues to show that children are less impacted by the virus, and are less likely to develop severe illness. Additional advice for families has been developed for those with medical vulnerabilities to support decision making about on-site learning at this time.
Working together to implement COVIDSafe strategies, I am confident Victoria’s students can continue to safely attend school throughout Term 4.
Adj Clin Prof Brett Sutton
Victorian Chief Health Officer
Transition from Year 6 to Year 7
This week restrictions for our Year 7 transition have altered to be in line with the 2021 Prep transitions. Small group primary to secondary school transition activities can now resume. This includes Grade 6 students and their teacher or parents meeting Year 7 educators in the secondary school environment. Group size should not exceed 10 people and groups must not mix with other students at the school.
NAIDOC Week and Remembrance Day
Next week is an extremely important week across our nation with celebrations for both NAIDOC Week and Remembrance Day. Our teachers will make sure students are given opportunities to discuss the significance of these two events and the impact that they have had on forming our shared Australian culture.
Take care
Kirrily Lamers
Principal
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL’S REPORT
Active Kids are Happy Kids
Encouraging your child/ren to be active is an important role as a parent. Physical activity has so many benefits from strengthening muscles and bones to reducing the risk of serious health conditions.
Headspace (headspace.org.au) provide us with a list of ways physical activity also improves our mental health. They state that it can:
- Help you sleep better
- Improve concentration
- Raise your energy levels
- Improve confidence
- Boost you mood
- Release stress and lower anxiety
Given this, it comes as no surprise that Sport and Recreation Victoria have developed a wide range of initiatives to better support our children to participate in sport and recreational physical activity. Our school will be looking into the Active Schools Program to help boost our current program.
The Get Active Kids Voucher Program has been developed to support community sport participation, families will be eligible for vouchers to help support their children get involved in organised activities as part of the Get Active Kids Voucher Program.
Under the program, up to 100,000 children will be eligible for $200 vouchers to help with the cost of sports equipment, uniforms or memberships.
Sport and Recreation Victoria will announce eligibility criteria and details on how families can apply for funding over the coming months.
Find out more
For more information on Active Schools, contact Kate Minter, Physical Activity and Healthy Eating Unit, via:
- phone: 03 7022 0798
- active.schools@education.vic.gov.au
For more information on Get Active Kids Voucher Program please refer to this Sport and Recreation Victoria web page.
iPad Apps for Learners
If you are looking for ways to encourage and support learning at home with reading and writing this list of iPad apps could support. Whist it is titled for students who are dyslexic or have reading and writing difficulties, I believe these tools will support and engage all learners.
Luke Franklin
Assistant Principal
STUDENT OF THE WEEK
TEACHING AND LEARNING
High Impact Teaching Strategies (HITS)
This week I will provide an overview of another of the ten High Impact Teaching Strategies (HITS) – Explicit Teaching.
Explicit Teaching takes place when teachers clearly show students what to do and how to do it. The teacher demonstrates or models a process or skill as they introduce new learning. This generally involves the teacher using what is called ‘think aloud’ to verbalise the thinking and decision making they use when undertaking a process or task. The purpose of ‘think aloud’ is to make students aware of what an effective learner does. For example, the teacher might say to themselves, ‘this piece of writing doesn’t make sense so I’m going to reread it again and find the problem I need to fix’; or ‘this sentence is way too long so I’m going to break it into two sentences so it’s easier to understand’. ‘Think aloud’ can be used in all aspects of the curriculum and is critical strategy used by teachers to ‘demystify’ the learning process and highlight what a proficient learner does.
Explicit teaching takes place primarily in the first stages of what is known as the ‘Gradual Release of Responsibility’. (Fisher and Frey, 2007) There are four stages:
- I do (teacher models)
- We do together (teacher and children practise together)
- You do together (children complete collaboratively in a group or with a partner)
- You do on your own (child attempts independently)
The Gradual Release of Responsibility and use of Explicit Teaching enables the teacher to provide clear support to children as they learn a new skill or concept. As the student’s proficiency level improves, the level of support is gradually reduced until the child can use it independently.
Many parents probably intuitively use Explicit Teaching at home but here are some additional tips for supporting your child in their learning:
- Try using ‘think aloud’ when you complete a new process eg as baking a cake: ‘Now I’m going to double check the recipe to work out what I have to do next…’
- Demonstrate to your child how to do something and use gradual release eg- model how to place the pizza toppings on a pizza and when your child have seen what to do, put topping on several pizzas together before moving on to them doing it independently.
- Provide feedback about aspects of a process or task they did well and give tips for improvement.
- If a process is particularly hard to learn, help your child write or draw it out in steps as a reminder.
- Where possible, show your child a finished example and have it nearby for them to refer to. This could be as simple as a photo of what a cake should look like or what a clean bedroom looks like.
Semester Two Reporting
Semester Two reports will be made available to parents on Wednesday 16th December 2020.
Progression points this semester will only be provided in English (Reading and Viewing, Writing, Speaking and Listening) and in Mathematics (Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry and Statistics and Probability).
Essential Learnings
Essential Learning updates remain suspended for the remainder of 2020.
ICAS 2020
2020 ICAS tests are currently underway. The final three ICAS will be conducted next week in the Before and After School Care room on the following days:
Tuesday 10th November 2020 ICAS English
Tuesday 10th November 2020 ICAS Mathematics
Friday 13th November 2020 ICAS Spelling Bee
When the ICAS results are received later this term, I will publish names of students achieving a Credit, Distinction or High Distinction in the school newsletter and announce them at assembly. If parents do not wish their child’s name to be published in the school newsletter or announced to the wider school community, please advise me by email at Kerron.Worsdell@education.vic.gov.au or via phone on 9457 4178.
Kerron Worsdell
Teaching and Learning Coach
RGLPS ART GALLERY
1/2 Mixed Medium Project
SPORT NEWS
Dear Parents and Students,
We did it! We are the State Champions of the School Sport Victoria ‘Virtual Track and Field’ competition! Thank you to all of the parents that supported their children and emailed me their results – with around 2000 points coming in from households, it was just what we needed to get us over the line. In the end RGLPS finished on 12584 points with Lysterfield Primary coming home strongly on 10801. A real credit must go to the students who looked at the data and worked out what Lysterfield’s strategy was, predicted their points for the following week (which was within 100 points – impressive!) and then came up with the plan for us to score 3000 more than them by the final day. The real world experiences in data/graph analysis, prediction, planning, implementation and success were valuable life lessons for our students during this competition that will help them in all fields of life in the future; I am just so proud of their endeavour and their ability to recognise that creating a collective strategy and working together to see it through to fruition always reaps great rewards.
There are many students that gave noteworthy performances – forgive me if I have missed anyone!
Emily Sellwood – Senior Primary State Champion (Most Entries)
Ava Schivo – Junior Primary State Champion (Most Entries)
Freya Wilson – Senior Primary 2nd Place Overall (Most Entries)
Jessica Sellwood – Junior Primary 2nd Place Overall (Most Entries)
Alice Thornton – Junior Primary 3rd Place Overall (Most Entries)
Charlotte Mulhall – Junior Primary 4th Place Overall (Most Entries)
Thomas Thornton – Junior Primary 5th Place Overall (Most Entries)
A special mention must also go to the following families for a significant point contribution to our school total: Moy, Gray, Shaweesh, Winter, Keenan, Keogh, Tomic, Chapman, Smit, Borschmann, McNicol. I would also like to say a big thank you to the all of the teachers and their classrooms that changed their regular mid-day Brain Break to sprinting or jumping to help the cause J
It was phenomenal to see our whole school unite for a 2nd time this year and win another whole school challenge. Whilst 2020 has been a year we will never forget, to win the RH Sports Competition AND the SSV Virtual Track and Field has definitely given our students some fond memories they’ll never forget!
Mr Peters
PE and Sports Coordinator
CHANGES TO CSEF ELIGIBILITY AND USAGE FOR 2020
In light of the difficulties faced by many families this year, the Minister for Education has extended the eligibility date to qualify for CSEF to 5 October 2020, with applications to be submitted prior to 27 November. If you have any of the below listed Concession Cards, please contact Kaylene in the office or email kaylene.ingham@education.vic.gov.au so an application can be submitted on your behalf.
Applicants must hold a Centrelink Health Care Card in their name, or be an eligible beneficiary of a Veterans Affairs Gold Card or be a Temporary Foster Carer.
The eligibility date on the card must be no later than 5 October 2020. Families who are eligible for the later eligibility date will receive 50% of the standard primary school rate, so $62.50 per child.
In addition to the extension of the eligibility date, the Minister is also allowing the funds to be used for school fees or voluntary school charges for the remainder of 2020.
CANTEEN
The canteen will be open for ONLINE ORDERS via FLEXISCOOLS ONLY from Wednesday 14th October.
The canteen is available for recess and lunchtime orders on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Due to COVID restrictions we will NOT BE able to offer over the counter sales until further notice.
Please do not send your children to school with cash, as we cannot accept it and they will be disappointed.
Ice-creams, chips, dim sims etc. can be ordered through Flexischools for recess and lunch and can be collected by them at those breaks.
We will initially be using the Winter Menu shown below.
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
