IMPORTANT DATES!
DECEMBER 2019
JANUARY 2020
PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE
The school will be closed from Saturday 21st December 2019
until Tuesday 28th January 2020.
End of Term4 - Early Dismissal - 1:30pm
Students will be dismissed from school at 1:30pm on the last day of term 4, Friday 20th December.
On this day we will run a special program where children will only have one break at 11.00 am. It would be best if they were provided with a substantial snack for this break, as lunch will not be eaten at school. Children will be dismissed at 1.30 pm. A final school assembly will commence at approximately 12.30pm on our basketball courts (hopefully with weather permitting).
Final Assembly
Due to the extreme heat expected on tomorrow, our final assembly will be divided into two sessions. Assembly will be held in the hall, and to make it as comfortable as possible for everyone, we will proceed as follows:
Prep – Grade 2 – Assembly will be from 12.30pm – 1pm. At 1pm students will return to their classrooms where parents and families are welcome to join them in the air conditioned room.
Siblings of Grade 6 students who are leaving are welcome to stay in the hall for the Grade 3 – 6 assembly.
Grade 3- 6 – Assembly will be from 1pm – 1.30pm.
CHRISTMAS CAROLS
Thank you to everyone for attending our Christmas Carols on Monday night. The feedback has been heart-warming. A special thank you to Brad Parker-Hill who organised the BBQ and audio technicians for the evening and coordinated the BBQ with our wonderful school council team of helpers. A big thank you to TheirCare for your assistance on the evening and your financial contribution for this community event. Thank you to all the staff that attended to support our children and make the night a great community event.
Watchful Eye in Jauary
For those of you who live near the school I would appreciate you keeping a watchful eye on our school over the holiday break. If you notice anything suspicious please notify 000 or Heidelberg Police on 9450 8100. Especially keep a look out for the graffiti artists who tend to visit our school each holiday period, and for those people who decide climbing on the roof is a challenge they can’t resist. Please call the police immediately if you see either of these things happening
Families
With the departure of our Year 6 students, some families will finish their connection with Rosanna Golf Links. To the following families:
- Clint & Kelly Richardson – Will & Lucas Richardson
- Simone and Jeff Murphy – Tara, Kate & Harry Murphy
- Kelli & Mark Fisher – Ava, Eliza & Alex Fisher
- Lucy & Mark Medley – Jack & Pippa Medley
- Michelle & Nick Karavas – Caleb & Aidan Karavas
- Tania & Terry Karagiannis – Riki Karagiannis
- Vicky & Jason Adams – Madison & Emily Adams
- Libby Langlands & Andrew Becker – Oliver & Sophie Becker
- Rekha Manyard – Brandon Boncoeur
- Carinna & Graham Cooke – Ethan, Darcy & Declan Cooke
- Jennifer & Gary Davis – Xavier & Brennan Davis
- Tracey Cox & Peter Dyall – Kate Dyall
- Nicki & Andrew Ellis – Fraser & Sophie Ellis
- Rafia Unnisa & Muneer Ahmed – Maliha & Nida Fatima
- Leanne Hager & Paul Fowler – Shannon, Alannah & Anna Fowler
- Shannon & Andrew Hawkins – Mackenzie Hawkins
- Lin Li & Man Hon – Vincent Hon
- Rachma Agustina & Trevor Howard – Ben Howard
- Catherine & Paul Kennedy – Patrick, Sebastian & Sophie Kennedy
- Sara Saadaoui – Asim Kobi
- Kate & Peter Merory – Lachlan & Zoe Merory
- Laura & Steven Oliver – Katie & Max Oliver
- Salima & Chris Osborne – Zachary & Samson Osborne
- Fadia Jaber & Ahmad Qasem – Mohammad & Ameen Qasem
- Anna & Lee Rattray-Wood – James & Aiden Rattray-Wood
- Katie & Mark Stapleton – Ethan & Anya Stapleton
- Shaye & Simon Stoker – Ava & Iris Stoker
- Tammy Weir & Ben Olorenshaw – Marshall & Abi Weir
I say, thank you so much for your association with Golf Links, and for any assistance you have provided over the years, whether it be with listening to reading, helping in classrooms, being on School Council, being a key person in Band Support, being a member of our previous PTFA or Fundraising Group, attending a working bee, being part of the mowing roster, working in the canteen or helping in some other way, THANK YOU. We also have a small number of students who will be leaving Golf Links to attend other schools in 2020. Farewell to all of the children who are leaving from other levels of the school, we wish you all the best at your new primary schools. We would also like to thank all of the parents of the children leaving for your support over the years. To our Year 6 Graduates and the children moving on to other schools, remember to take the Golf Links values of Respect, Responsibility, Curiosity, Confidence and Honesty with you and continue to strive to be the very best that you can.
2020 Golf Links Team
Merry Christmas to the School Crossing Supervisors
Please join with me in thanking each of our crossing supervisors for supervising the Brassey Ave and Finlayson St crossings, rain, hail or shine to ensure your children arrive at school and return home safely each day. An extra special THANK YOU to Bronwyn who seems be present at every Golf Links event. We are truly fortunate to have such a wonderful supporter.
Thank you to the Staff
As we approach our last day of the 2019 school year, I would like to thank all of those people who are employed at our school. The classroom teachers, teachers of the deaf and specialist teachers are to be congratulated not only on the excellent programs that they provide for our students, but also for the care and commitment that they demonstrate on a day-to-day basis. They are well supported by a number of support staff who cover a range of tasks including library, ICT, integration, canteen, speech, educational psychology, band, computers, out of school hours care, cleaning, maintenance and office work.
I would especially like to acknowledge the efforts of our terrific ‘front of house’ office staff, Susan Gorham, Kaylene Ingham, Kerilyn Bennett and Deb Howard. Their efficiency, hard work and the way in which they deal with a myriad of tasks (often ALL at the one time) with calmness, patience and a smile on their face, plus the warm and caring way in which all children, staff and parents are looked after is very much appreciated.
A very big thank you must go to our Strategic Team Leaders that have capably managed our school’s curriculum implementation and lead our teams to improved student outcomes. Thank you Kendall WIlson (Curiosity), Kate Haysom (Numeracy), Laura Gray (Environment/Sustainability), Tracey Elso (Welfare) and Cathie Sutton (Literacy).
A particularly important acknowledgement is to say ‘thank you’ to the leadership team: Luke Franklin, Thom Jackson, Kerron Worsdell and Cathie Sutton. These leaders work tirelessly for the benefit of everyone at Golf Links; often well beyond the expectations of their roles. I am sure their knowledge, expertise, kind word or helping hand has supported many of you in some way. It would be impossible for me to carry out my role as Acting Principal without their amazing support and assistance.
I would also like to thank our PLC Leaders –Alice Page, Jess Degenhardt, Janine Thompson, Lauren Scott, Sarah McLellan, Jay Lin, and Bay Fikri. The team leader group in turn is supported by all of our staff. The way in which the staff work together for the benefit of the children is another aspect of what makes Golf Links such a wonderful school. THANK YOU TEAM!
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR
On behalf of all the staff at the school, we would like to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We look forward to seeing you all again in 2020.
Denisse Lobos
Acting Principal
CHRISTMAS CAROLS
A huge thank you to Maree Jaeger of Maree Jaegar Photography for her beautiful photographs of our school community throughout 2019.
DEAF FACILITY NEWS
This year we say goodbye to six of our Grade 6 students, wishing them good luck with the next stage of their learning journey. We are also welcoming four new Prep students, two Grade 2 students and one Grade 6 students into our Facility and school for 2020. We also welcome Lisa Pascal as a teacher of the deaf two days a week working with our grade 1/2 students.
We’ve had a successful year as a Deaf Facility this year. As a team we have hosted a parent information session with a panel of deaf adults with lived experience with hearing loss. We’ve invested thousands of dollars into new assessments and hosted a professional development session for our teachers of the deaf about speech and language assessments. We’ve had the Cochlear Implant Clinic come out and share new information about the latest Nucleus 7 implant. We’ve attended the Primary Deaf Sports Day. All this on top of supporting our students to reach their full potential.
We have recently been successful in an application for some new listening technology. As you know, we have speakers and microphones in every learning space across the school. This grant of just under $50,000 will upgrade our technology to Roger Touchscreens in every learning space across the school, ensuring access to optimal listening for all students at Rosanna Golf Links Primary School.
I would like to thank all our Teachers of the Deaf, Kate Haysom, Cathie Sutton, Jess Degenhardt, Maddi Huglin, Vicki Christofi, Sharon Armstrong and Tracey Elso for their ongoing support for our students and community here at Rosanna Golf Links Primary School. A big thank you to all our Deaf Facility parents for their support and teamwork to help achieve greatness for our students.
Wishing you and your families a happy and safe holiday season, ready to see your relaxed faces for another successful year next year.
Hearing Australia Visits 2020
Please add these dates to your home calendar for Hearing Australia visits to Rosanna Golf Links Primary School. Please tell your child’s teacher of the deaf if there are specific needs for the Hearing Australia visits, such as gluing moulds, new moulds, connection issues, etc.
FACILITIES
It has been a huge year for the Facilities team. The school building project has now come to a close and we have been focusing our energies into the grounds. The Triangle project was complex and has been delivered to a high quality. This space will continue to serve as a wonderful resource to the school and community for many, many years to come. Gardens have been planted and plans drawn for the continued development of further areas in the school. We wish to thank all community members for their contributions through working bees and helping during the breaks.
We have had significant works on electrical and plumbing upgrades and maintenance, which ensure smooth and safe operations across the school.
IT
The school has worked very hard to ensure our students are equipped with the technology they need to enhance the learning experiences across the school. We wish to extend a huge thank you to all families who made a contribution to support this. Technology empowers teachers to extend the student learning experience beyond the classroom and enables students to learn and present ideas that would not be possible without this technology. Whilst students have this technology in their hands, much more has been happening behind the scenes to ensure it runs smoothly. We have upgraded our main server and wifi router, Cabelling and also WAPS and will continue to ensure all infrastructure is of the highest quality to deliver a system that is powerful and capable to support the needs across the site.
LITERACY
English Strategic Team – Year in Review 2019
Hello families of RGLPS! The English Strategic Team has been working extremely hard throughout 2019, and as a school, we have accomplished a great deal in the area of Literacy. Staff at RGLPS have continued to work toward our School’s Strategic Plan goals, while also being very mindful of what our student data is telling us. We’ve remained flexible and focused on maintaining and building the amazing talents of our students here at RGLPS.
Our Inaugural Writer’s Festival planning started in Term 1as the English Strategic Team decided upon our festival’s overarching theme, ‘Imagine a World …’ With this theme in mind, teams of teachers collaborated and decided how each year level would expand on the theme. Term 2 was the writing phase, and Term 3 included publishing and overall festival design. The RGLPS Writer’s Festival took place in Week 6 Term 3 and was a huge success. The work was incredibly written, teams encapsulated their ideas with gorgeous art works and decorations, and our visitors all had wonderful things to say about our student writing.
Our school’s Learning Specialists continued to work with the staff at RGLPS, as well as teachers and leaders in the Banyule/Nillumbik Network around the work of the Bastow Institute and the Department of Education’s Literacy Initiatives. In keeping with these initiatives in literacy, a professional learning day was conducted for staff introducing a set of research-based Reading Comprehension Strategies (Harvey & Goudvis), along with the implementation of a school wide reading planner that ensures the ‘Gradual Release of Responsibility’ model. In this optimal learning model, the responsibility for task completion shifts gradually over time from the teacher to the student (Pearson & Gallagher, 1993). There’s a great deal of research material online that you can find if you wish to read about it further.
Along with the Reading Comprehension Strategies, staff also participated in additional in-house professional development around the art of effective Conferring during reading, including the use of readers notebooks. Readers Notebooks have allowed many students to authentically respond to the texts they’re reading in a space that purely belongs to them and allows for personal expression. The topic of conferring will continue to be part of ongoing dialogue into 2020.
In preparation for another year of focused literacy work, the 2020 Literacy Budget has allowed for the purchase of book boxes for all classrooms so that each student will have a space to house a variety of their chosen reading materials, most importantly their differentiated ‘Just Right’ texts. The discussions with staff began in 2019 around empowering students to know themselves better as readers, therefore being able to confidently choose a range of texts that are varied in genre, mostly ‘Just Right’ in reading challenge, and including some stretch texts and some independent texts. This work will begin in Term 1 with another staff professional learning day.
Throughout 2019 we have used our English budget money to continue to replenish the take home book boxes across all levels with lovely new texts in a range of fiction and non-fiction titles, as well as Literature Circle texts at the upper levels, and Guided Reading texts in years P-2. We have also purchased decodable readers at P-2 which have supplemented and supported our younger readers while they’ve been practising their decoding skills.
Celebration of our student writing has continued to be shared with families and the wider community via our Writer’s Corner in the website newsletter each week. Thanks to everyone for their contributions. Also, a group of students in Year 5/6 applied to be involved in the ‘Write a Book in a Day’ competition to raise funds for The Kids Cancer Project. We brainstormed, drafted and collaboratively wrote and illustrated a story around a range of prompt words given to us on the day. Students who were involved did an amazing job and were able to create an imaginative text, from drafting, to publishing and printing all in one day together.
On behalf of the English team, we wish you all a Happy Holiday and look forward to working with you again in 2020!
Cathie Sutton and the English Strategic Team
NUMERACY
Mathematics Strategic Team – Year in Review 2019
Did you know, that there is no such thing as a “maths person”? That every time you make a mistake, your brain grows? This is what our Mathematics Strategic Team members have been learning all about in 2019.
Throughout the year, our team members have been completing many hours of coursework in the area of Mathematical Mindsets. This professional development was hosted through Stanford University online by Jo Boaler, an education author and professor of Mathematics.
Next year, we look forward to sharing this learning with the rest of our staff. More importantly, we are excited to share this with our students by promoting classroom environments where our students love and seek out challenges, are intrigued by their mistakes and enjoy the ‘productive struggle’.
Effective assessment of in the area of Number has continued to be a focus in 2019. Across the school, our teachers have trialled new systems for moderating that align more closely with the way we encourage students to learn. This work will continue in 2020 as we begin to focus on the areas of Measurement and Geometry and Statistics and Probability.
Another way we are ensuring consistent judgements of student outcomes is with the introduction of Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT) – Maths, which has been trialled in a number of classrooms in Semester Two. This data will allow teachers to better track student growth and plan for targeted, differentiated teaching and learning.
In Term Four, we celebrated all things mathematical by hosting our first Whole School “Charlie and the Number Factory” day. On this day, students rotated through a number of activities that focused on the ‘real life’ applications of maths and problem solved on the behalf of Mr Wonka himself. It was wonderful to hear students discussing their mathematical thinking with their peers, debating with each other and explaining their strategies.
Maths really is everywhere and there are lots of ways you can encourage problem solving with your children over the holiday break. Perhaps a building project or budgeting for Boxing Day sales! Did you run out of ingredients (you may need to halve that recipe!) or maybe you need to equally share that box of Maltesers… Planning a holiday? There’s time, money, measurement and more all in one!
On behalf of the Mathematics Strategic Team, we hope you have a mathematical holiday and can’t wait to grow our brains even more in 2020.
Kate Haysom and the Mathematics Strategic Team
SUSTAINABILTY
Sustainability Strategic Team – Year in Review 2019
This year our goals in the area of Sustainability have been to:
– Maintain our Resource Smart Schools ‘5 Star Sustainable School’ accreditation
– Provide opportunities for students to voice and take action to make positive impacts on their school, local and global communities
– Develop a formal Rubbish Reduction Policy
– Support students and parent volunteers as they support the school with sustainable actions
With support from our staff, students and parent community we have made great progress toward all of these goals this year. We have maintained our ‘5 Star Sustainability’ rating through continually working on developing our Biodiversity at RGLPS, trying to minimise the amount of waste we produce and decrease our energy and water use. Highlights have been refurbishing our Frog Pond, planting lots of new plants around our beautiful school grounds, beginning to recycle soft plastic and introducing an initiative to collect run off water from our drink taps. In Term Two we celebrated some of our successes in these areas with our Sustainability Festival and were blown away by the knowledge and passion our students have in this area. Our Environment Leaders in each class have been excellent representatives and have shared students’ opinions and ideas about Sustainability, working to take action by working on different projects. We hope to continue developing our students’ confidence to take action and make positive change next year and look forward to seeing their ideas come to life. We have formalised our Rubbish Reduction Policy which can be found on Compass under school documentation, or on the Policies section of our school website. I would like to thank our parent and community volunteers for their time and effort in supporting our sustainability initiatives including our weekly Garden Club, collecting soft plastic recycling, bottle caps, bread tags and batteries and taking them to be recycled, adding our billing data to the Resource Smart School program and much more. Without your help we would not be able to maintain our ‘5 Star’ rating and continue to strive toward our goals. If you have interest in supporting our sustainability program moving into 2020, please contact Laura Ryan, Sustainability Strategic Team Leader for more information. We are always happy to have help in this area!
WELFARE
Welfare Strategic Team – Year in Review 2019
In 2019, the Welfare Strategic Team continued to support staff with the implementation of the Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships (RRRR) program from P-6. In Term One, RGLPS saw the introduction of the Carlton Respects Program as part of our Start Up for our grade 5/6 students. Student Action Teams (SAT’s) were formed through the election of two class representatives from each of our grade 5/6 classrooms. This initiative is in line with the Respectful Relationships program which encourages inclusive and respectful practices. The role of our SAT’s this year has been to identify areas for improved safety and inclusion in the playground or wider community by collecting baseline data on gender groupings, social interactions and access to play spaces. Some of the investigations students identified and took action with included the equitable use of play spaces in the school yard and the equality of gender access in inter school sport.
Parent Information sessions on building resilience and emotional regulation in primary school children were held throughout the year as well as student and parent information sessions focussing on Cyber bullying. In Term One, the whole school united to take a stand against bullying as part of the National Day Against Bullying Campaign.
In Semester One, the welfare team began linking the Respectful Relationships program to the achievement standards and content descriptors within the Victorian Curriculum. Short ‘I can…’ statements were formed to develop student friendly language and to assist staff to easily identify the development in Social Emotional Learning (SEL) from one year to the next. A scope and sequence document was developed to deepen knowledge of the personal and social curriculum and to assist staff when planning.
The welfare team have also begun unpacking our Start Up Program and aligning it to the RRRR program for each year level to also assist staff during planning sessions.
In 2019, the welfare team has also continued to explore the implementation of the School Wide Positive Behaviour (SWPB) Framework. A whole staff professional development day was held in Term Three where staff completed a SWPBS survey. This data was unpacked by the Welfare Team to identify staff needs in preparation for a whole school SWPBS curriculum day which was held last week. This curriculum day supported staff to develop a consistent understanding on the need to explicitly teach social and emotional skills as well as academic skills and to develop clear expectations and school wide consistency around behaviours and how we respond to behaviours.
CURIOSITY
Curiosity Strategic Team – Year in Review 2019
This year the Curiosity Strategic team have focussed on creating students who are aware of the world surrounding them, building their awareness of what it means to be a global citizen. We have focussed on creating a school wide instructional model based around the E5 model of learning, and all staff attended a PD in the explicit use of the E5 Instructional Model.
The Curiosity Strategic team have also focussed on creating a school wide template to begin documenting individual student learning goals in 2020. This proforma will be trialled school wide next year and will incorporate our ‘I can’ statements, making students explicitly aware of their own individual goals for the year. We are looking forward to exploring these in more detail in 2020.
PERSONAL AND HEALTH EDUCATION 2020
TEACHING AND LEARNING
School Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS)
Last Friday 13th December, all RGLPS staff met on our Curriculum Day to learn about School Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS) with expert Louise O’Kelly. A priority was to explore community feedback from all stakeholders and select new school values. After significant discussion, staff arrived at three new school values – these will be launched at the school early in 2020. The rest of the professional learning day was spent unpacking the new values, planning ways to explicitly teach the values by developing a RGLPS Behaviour Matrix and arrive at a common staff understanding of major and minor behaviours of concern within the school.
This work on SWPBS will be continue to be embedded across all classes in 2020 and beyond. Look out for updates in the school newsletter and through weekly school assembly.
Semester Two 2019 Reports
Semester Two 2019 reports and Individual Learning Plans (ILIPs) have been released to parents/carers via Compass. Please click on the ‘View Academic Reports’ link in Compass to access these documents. As I am sure you are aware, a significant amount of teacher work goes into the assessment and preparation of comments about each child. Please contact your child’s teacher if you have any questions about their learning and progress towards Victorian Curriculum Achievement Standards.
Summer Holiday Learning
Holidays are primarily a time to recharge, relax and spend time with family. However, research shows that many children experience a dip in their reading and other aspects of their learning, following an extended period away from school. A recommended way for parents/carers to ensure their child avoids this ‘summer dip’ is to encourage regular reading over the holidays. Remember reading doesn’t have to be a book; magazines, online sites, audio books and newspapers also count as opportunities to practise reading. Children can also read aloud to a sibling, adult, friend or toy. Discussing a text with a family member or friend also supports children to practise and extend their reading comprehension and understanding. Remember if you run out of reading resources at home, consider visiting a local community library to refresh and replenish reading materials over the break.
To maintain mathematics skills during the holidays, children can log on to Mathletics, play board games, practise counting money and giving change, estimate and tell the time, practise measuring when cooking and play counting or maths games with the family. The key is to make maths part of every-day life and make it fun to maintain engagement.
Above all, please prioritise spending time together as a family and have a restful and safe break!
See you all in 2020!
Kerron Worsdell
Teaching and Learning Coach
SPORT NEWS
OSHC
Dear OSHC families
We would like to thanks everyone for other great year and wish everyone safe and happy holidays.
Just a friendly remind that your OSHC accounts need to be finalised by tomorrow please. If you have any question or concerns please let me know.
Many thanks
Katie
CANTEEN
FRIDAY 20th – Canteen closed for cleaning and stocktake.
Margaret Groves
Canteen Manager
CANTEEN ROSTER
Thank you to all our canteen volunteers.
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
