IMPORTANT DATES!
TERM 4 2020
PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE
Today in Victoria we celebrate World Teachers’ Day. As we look back and reflect on this strange year it is clear that our teachers have managed the new learning and complexities of the remote period with aplomb. I would personally like to thank our teaching staff for the way you have taken up the challenge of successfully continuing, and over the coming weeks concluding, the most disrupted year in Victorian school education history. Your commitment, passion, patience and expertise is inspiring and in a year when we have asked you to be adaptive, innovative and bold you have constantly dared to find new ways to keep doing what you do best — supporting students and inspiring a love of learning. World Teachers’ Day is a chance to celebrate and acknowledge the amazing work that you have done and continue to do.
Thanks.
COVID News
The easing of restrictions has certainly meant a little extra pep in my step this week and I do hope that you have all seen a bit of a positive difference with your families as we move towards a more ‘normal’ existence. The Department of Education has released the 4th edition of the term 4 school operational guidelines. There are a number of changes that I would like to share with you today.
Transitions
- – Children with disability starting school in 2021, are now permitted to attend on-site for individual assessments required for enrolment and transition planning that cannot be done remotely, including for the Program for Students with Disabilities (PSD).
- – Small group kinder-to-school transition activities are permitted in schools in both metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria, such as parents, educators and children meeting a Prep teacher in a school environment. Group size should not exceed 10 people and no intermixing with other students at the school should occur.
- – On-site visits by a Prep teacher to meet a Kindergarten teacher and children in kindergarten settings is also permitted across Victoria.
Graduation
- – Year 6 and Year 12 graduations are permitted face-to-face in Victorian schools. Students from the graduating year level and staff can attend in person. Parents/carers and other family members or friends cannot attend in person but could engage via an online broadcasting of the event.
- – All schools are required to follow public health directions and apply the operational health and safety advice to schools during the graduation ceremony. This includes staff and secondary students over the age of 12 years wearing face masks, physical distancing and practicing hand hygiene.
- – Face masks can be removed briefly for photos or giving a speech. Singing and small ensemble groups (10 or less participants) performances can occur outdoors, with physical distancing of at least 5m between the performers and audience. No external performers are permitted.
Sport
- – Outdoor facilities are recommended for physical education and recreational play.
- – Outdoor contact and non-contact sport can resume. Hand hygiene must be practised before and after use of any sporting equipment.
- – Indoor sport and recreation can resume in regional Victoria from 2 November and in metropolitan Melbourne from 9 November but must be non-contact when indoors (i.e. the activity must be done with a distance of 1.5m between participants).
- – As always, any future easing of restrictions remains subject to public health advice.
Instrumental Music
- – Use of woodwind instruments and singing and voice projection does entail risk of potential spread of aerosols and droplets. As such only individual tuition and small ensemble groups (10 or less participants) can be conducted and should occur outdoors, with physical distancing and other hygiene measures.
Camps and Excursions
- – School camps and excursions in metropolitan Melbourne cannot resume at this time.
- – The Directions issued by the Chief Health Officer currently prevent students from moving out of metropolitan Melbourne and into regional Victoria for school camps or to attend remote campuses.
How These Changes Impact Us
We are extremely pleased to be able to alter many plans based on the easing of these restrictions. Our instrumental music team are now working to timetable face to face sessions during school hours and we will update you as this is in place. We anticipate that by Monday, the majority of students will be able to attend lessons with their music teacher and we will be able to hear music again.
Students getting ready for Interschool sport in 2021 will now be able to commence contact sports outdoors and our new Prep’s will be able to come onsite in very limited numbers to at least reduce some anxiety about the upcoming year. At this stage our departing Year 6 students will not be able to physically attend transition. However, our graduating students will be able to attend a graduation ceremony together. Unfortunately parents and additional family members will not be able to attend at this time but we do plan to film the entire event and gift our students with a copy as a memento.
Please contact me if you have any questions concerning these changes.
WE WANT OUR PARENTS TO TELL US WHAT THEY THINK!
There is still time to give us some feedback. The Parent Opinion Survey closes on Friday the 13th of November. Please check Compass for login instructions.
2021 Prep Transistions
We have been spending some time attempting to engage our future Preps through the WebEx platform. Each week we are giving students the opportunity to log in for a story time session. Last week Luke and I were able to meet a few 2021 Preps as we read The Pigeon Wants a Puppy. It was amazing to see all of those little smiling faces. There really is nothing better than dressing up to share with young people our love of literacy.
Kirrily Lamers
Principal
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL’S REPORT
What a wonderful day we all had today at school. The children were dressed up and having such a good time. This year has been trying for all of us and it was wonderful to see our teachers and students letting their hair/hat/fangs!!! Down.
Book Week Competition
The theme for book week this years was Curious Creatures, Wild Minds.
Well done to all of our students for your wonderful work in our Book week competition. Congratulations to all of our book week winners. They have created some wonderful comics with some interesting storylines and amazing illustrations. Here are the winning entries:
Just a reminder, to see images in full please click on each one.
Thank You Bunnings Northland
A huge thank you to Bunnings Northland for your thoughts and generous gift. They donated us a lovely planter to help celebrate our students coming back to school. We have now planted the flowers and this will no doubt brighten up our entry to the school.
Luke Franklin
Assistant Principal
STUDENT OF THE WEEK
SUSTAINABILITY
TEACHING AND LEARNING
High Impact Teaching Strategies (HITS)
Last week I introduced the HITS or High Impact Teaching Strategies that teachers in all Victorian government schools try to apply and incorporate into their teaching.
The ten HITS are evidenced based ‘…instructional practices that reliably increase student learning wherever they are applied.’ (Department of Education and Training, 2017) These ten instructional strategies have been identified from the findings of thousands of studies, exploring what has worked in classrooms across Australia and around the world.
This week I am going to outline more about the High Impact Teaching Strategy of Collaborative Learning.
Collaborative learning occurs when students work and learn in small groups or in partnerships. This collaborative learning is thoughtfully and purposely chosen by the teacher and also helps establish a positive learning environment in the classroom. Students actively participate in tasks with their peers and learn to negotiate, take on different roles and responsibilities and work collectively towards a common goal or to solve a joint problem. Learning with and from peers also gives children a chance to develop their interpersonal skills. This reflected in the Personal and Social, Ethical and Intercultural Capabilities of the Victorian Curriculum. Collaborative learning also helps students to make appropriate decisions and consider the impact of their choices on others from a variety of backgrounds. Research shows that collaborative learning strategies have a proven positive effect on student learning achievement, with a particularly strong impact as children enter adolescence.
At RGLPS, our teachers are very aware that opportunities to collaborate and learn with and from peers was significantly impacted and limited by the pandemic lockdown. During planning, our teachers are actively seeking opportunities for students to work in groups or pairs to complete tasks and to speak and share their thinking with others. This might involve playing maths or word games, creating a role play related to the current integrated unit in a small group, discussing a text, teaching a skill to others or by giving feedback to a partner on their writing. Aside from helping students to reconnect with their peers and support overall wellbeing, these activities also have a verified positive impact on student achievement.
Ways you can support your child to develop collaborative skills:
- Help children understand the impact of their actions on others through discussion and by putting themselves in ‘someone else’s shoes.’ Discussing literature or films is also a way to explore the point of view of others.
- Play board games with friends or family members to help children learn to share, take turns and be a graceful winner or loser
- Discuss language used in online forums and on social media to help them understand how things can be misinterpreted through poor communication
- Support your child to give constructive feedback by using a feedback sandwich (a suggested area for improvement sandwiched between two positives pieces of feedback)
- Talk about good manners and kindness and highlight examples of these
- Divide and allocate household responsibilities or jobs so children see the importance of working together and making a fair contribution to the family home
Next week I will talk about another one of the HITS and outline other ways that you can support your child with learning in the home.
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
Essential Learning updates remain suspended for the remainder of 2020.
ICAS 2020
ICAS will be administered onsite at school from next week. Tests will be conducted in the Before/After School Care room on the dates below.
Please be assured that tables will be cleaned before and after each ICAS to minimise the potential of cross contamination.
ICAS dates:
Friday 6th November 2020 ICAS Digital Technologies
Friday 6th November 2020 ICAS Science
Tuesday 10th November 2020 ICAS English
Tuesday 10th November 2020 ICAS Mathematics
Friday 13th November 2020 ICAS Spelling Bee
When ICAS test results are received around late November, I will publish the names of students achieving a Credit, Distinction or High Distinction for each ICAS in the school newsletter. If parents do not wish their child’s name to be published in the school newsletter, please advise me by email at Kerron.Worsdell@education.vic.gov.au or via phone on 9457 4178.
Have a great week everyone and enjoy the Cup Day public holiday next Tuesday!
Kerron Worsdell
Teaching and Learning Coach
LITERACY
RGLPS ART GALLERY
3/4 Clay Art
SPORT NEWS
Dear Parents and Students,
Just a short one this week! Research – Lower Plenty Baseball Club are looking for boys and girls to play in their summer season. You can get in touch with the club via Facebook, ask for AJ who is the head coach. They play at Cavanagh Rd in Lower Plenty and many other RGLPS students are down at the club so you are bound to see some friendly faces!
Kind Regards
Darren 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
