Newsletter Website: www.rand-p.schools.nsw.edu.au | Phone: 02 6029 5228 | Email: [email protected]A Message From the Principal Dear families, It certainly has been a whirlwind couple of weeks and things will be busy right up until the end of this term. Thank you to the families, staff and students of Rand Public School for making me feel very welcome in the role of relieving Principal while Mr Schwetz is on leave. I will be returning to Rand after the holidays to continue the important work we have underway. Clean Up You might have noticed that we’ve recently initiated a clean up of our grounds and buildings. We are very lucky to have Mr Ken Larkin, our General Assistant, to take care of the buildings, gardens and equipment that we enjoy at school. This week Ken filled a large skip with rubbish and broken/unwanted items and staff conducted a clearout of office space and classrooms to ensure that we have clear, organised space for teaching and learning. This morning I met with all students to discuss their role in caring for our school and treating equipment, furniture, grounds and gardens with respect. Thank you for your support as we establish and maintain these high expectations for all. Positive Behaviour for Learning At the P&C meeting this week, I outlined our plans to implement a comprehensive whole-school student behaviour, wellbeing and learning engagement program. In order for our students to flourish in their learning and relationships it is critical that we create and maintain a safe, supportive learning environment. In partnership with our school community, we will be designing a system that meets the unique needs of our school, based on the evidence-based ‘Positive Behavior for Learning’ framework. The first step in this process will be the establishment of our shared school values. Staff and students are beginning to explore the concept of values at school and to consider what is most important to us. Next week we aim to distribute a survey to all families, inviting your input to this important decision. At the next P&C meeting, I will present the combined results of staff, student and community voting and ask the P&C to ratify our recommended whole-school values. After our shared values are agreed, they will be used as a framework for our ‘expected behaviours’ in all places and situations at school. For example, if we value respect then we might establish a whole-school behaviour expectations like: • Care for self and others • Look after property and our environment • Be attentive to the person speaking • Speak politely • Keep hands and feet to self We will teach students exactly how to demonstrate these behaviours, provide additional support where needed and design recognition systems to reinforce our values and expectations, celebrating our successes along the way. If you would like to know more about Positive Behaviour for Learning I would be happy to discuss it with you at any time or you can read about the system on the NSW Department of Education website: https://education.nsw.gov.au/student-wellbeing/attendance-behaviour-and- engagement/student-behaviour/positive-behaviour-for-learning Notes Folders Hopefully your newsletter arrived home in a shiny new folder today. Following feedback from the P&C about lost notes (and those that have turned to pulp in pockets and at the bottom of bags), we have allocated each student a plastic document wallet. Please assist your child in establishing a routine to unpack their lunchbox and check their note folder each day. We’ll also ensure that notes are uploaded to SkoolLoop. We appreciate your patience as we re-establish this process; staff training will be held on Tuesday. School Assembly Parents, carers and guests are most welcome to attend our end-of-term assembly and afternoon tea at 2.30pm next Thursday. Visitors are asked to please adhere to COVID-19 safety protocols by scanning the QR code and completing the sign-in book, practising physical distancing where possible and not attending if you are unwell. Please bring a plate to share and stay for a chat. Joanne Scherf, Relieving Principal Term 2 | Week 9 | 2021
A Message From the Principal Dear families, It certainly has been a whirlwind couple of weeks and things will be busy right up until the end of this term. Thank you to the families, staff and students of Rand Public School for making me feel very welcome in the role of relieving Principal while Mr Schwetz is on leave. I will be returning to Rand after the holidays to continue the important work we have underway. Clean Up You might have noticed that we’ve recently initiated a clean up of our grounds and buildings. We are very lucky to have Mr Ken Larkin, our General Assistant, to take care of the buildings, gardens and equipment that we enjoy at school. This week Ken filled a large skip with rubbish and broken/unwanted items and staff conducted a clearout of office space and classrooms to ensure that we have clear, organised space for teaching and learning. This morning I met with all students to discuss their role in caring for our school and treating equipment, furniture, grounds and gardens with respect. Thank you for your support as we establish and maintain these high expectations for all. Positive Behaviour for Learning At the P&C meeting this week, I outlined our plans to implement a comprehensive whole-school student behaviour, wellbeing and learning engagement program. In order for our students to flourish in their learning and relationships it is critical that we create and maintain a safe, supportive learning environment. In partnership with our school community, we will be designing a system that meets the unique needs of our school, based on the evidence-based ‘Positive Behavior for Learning’ framework. The first step in this process will be the establishment of our shared school values. Staff and students are beginning to explore the concept of values at school and to consider what is most important to us. Next week we aim to distribute a survey to all families, inviting your input to this important decision. At the next P&C meeting, I will present the combined results of staff, student and community voting and ask the P&C to ratify our recommended whole-school values. After our shared values are agreed, they will be used as a framework for our ‘expected behaviours’ in all places and situations at school. For example, if we value respect then we might establish a whole-school behaviour expectations like:
• Care for self and others • Look after property and our environment • Be attentive to the person speaking • Speak politely • Keep hands and feet to self
We will teach students exactly how to demonstrate these behaviours, provide additional support where needed and design recognition systems to reinforce our values and expectations, celebrating our successes along the way. If you would like to know more about Positive Behaviour for Learning I would be happy to discuss it with you at any time or you can read about the system on the NSW Department of Education website: https://education.nsw.gov.au/student-wellbeing/attendance-behaviour-and-engagement/student-behaviour/positive-behaviour-for-learning Notes Folders Hopefully your newsletter arrived home in a shiny new folder today. Following feedback from the P&C about lost notes (and those that have turned to pulp in pockets and at the bottom of bags), we have allocated each student a plastic document wallet. Please assist your child in establishing a routine to unpack their lunchbox and check their note folder each day. We’ll also ensure that notes are uploaded to SkoolLoop. We appreciate your patience as we re-establish this process; staff training will be held on Tuesday. School Assembly Parents, carers and guests are most welcome to attend our end-of-term assembly and afternoon tea at 2.30pm next Thursday. Visitors are asked to please adhere to COVID-19 safety protocols by scanning the QR code and completing the sign-in book, practising physical distancing where possible and not attending if you are unwell. Please bring a plate to share and stay for a chat. Joanne Scherf, Relieving Principal
Athletics Congratulations Ivy, Lexi, Taya, Bonnie, Coby, Charlie, Isabelle, Max, Tahlia, Huntah on your selection to compete in the Southern Riverina Athletics Carnival to be held on Wednesday 28th July. We are waiting for further information and permission notes to come from the host school. We will send these out as soon as they are received. Swimming Our intensive swimming has commenced with a splash! Students have been placed into groups according to their swimming levels and work very hard each day with their instructors.
P&C Meeting P&C minutes have been emailed to parents. If you did not receive an email, please notify the school so we can check we have the correct email address. The next P&C meeting will be held at 8.30am on Friday 23rd July 2021. Football/Netball Carnival This year will be our 37th annual football/netball carnival. The date has been set for Sunday 8th August 2021. All of our families (and many community members) are involved with this carnival as it is the P&C’s only fundraiser each year. We ask everyone to help out as we require people to cook the BBQ, make salad rolls, serve the food, restock toilet paper in the bathrooms etc. A working bee usually takes place on the Friday before the carnival where we ask as many parents as possible to assist with setting up, marking courts/grounds etc. Many hands make light work, so many hearts make a school.
Dates for the Diary June
Tuesday 15th to Friday 25th
Intensive Swimming
Thursday 24th Assembly – 2.30pm. Followed by afternoon tea for those who are able to stay. Please bring a plate
Friday 25th Last Day of Term
July
Monday 12th Staff Development Day
Tuesday 13th Students return to school
Thursday 15th NAIDOC Day TBC
Wednesday 28th (note date change)
SR Athletics for qualifying students
K-2 News Last week K-2 filled the fuzzy jar! Students have been doing lots of positive things in the classroom and playground to fill the jar. The students chose to play RPS Home. We had a great afternoon playing in the sun. We also have been focusing on using kind words and kind actions. Students made a poster for a peer in the class and wrote something they like about their peer and used different materials to decorate them. 3-6 news Last week the 3-6 class had technology lessons. We learnt about ‘Scratch’ (coding software) on the computer. We made a story and games on Scratch. We experimented with codes and we watched tutorials and we made more fun games. Everybody loved coding and playing games and everyone wanted to keep going on Scratch all day. Even when we went home, some people went to do Scratch at home and we all had a good time. Charlie
Playing our part to build a national picture of child health
Our school, along with thousands of others across the country is now beginning preparations for the fifth Australian Early Development Census (AEDC), involving students in their Kindergarten year at school.
The AEDC gives us a national picture of the development, health and wellbeing of children in their first year of full-time school. Since 2009, the census results have helped communities, schools and governments plan services and develop better policies to target support for children and families.
Children don’t miss any class time, and parents/carers don’t need to supply schools with any new information for the census. The AEDC gives us data at a school and community level - it isn’t an assessment of individual children.
Some teachers have also noticed that completing the assessments made them more aware of the needs of individual children and the class as a whole and that the census results are useful in planning for transitions to Year 1 and developing class programs.
Participation in the AEDC is voluntary. Parents/carers don’t need to take any action unless they choose not to include their children in the census.
To find out more about the census and how communities are using the data to help children and families visit the AEDC website: www.aedc.gov.au
Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD)
Dear parents and caregivers, Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in line with the NCCD guidelines (2019). Information provided about students to the Australian Government for the NCCD includes:
• year of schooling • category of disability: physical, cognitive, sensory or social/emotional • level of adjustment provided: support provided within quality differentiated teaching
practice, supplementary, substantial or extensive. This information assists schools to:
• formally recognise the supports and adjustments provided to students with disability in schools
• consider how they can strengthen the support of students with disability in schools • develop shared practices so that they can review their learning programs in order to
improve educational outcomes for students with disability. The NCCD provides state and federal governments with the information they need to plan more broadly for the support of students with disability. The NCCD will have no direct impact on your child and your child will not be involved in any testing process. The school will provide data to the Australian Government in such a way that no individual student will be able to be identified – the privacy and confidentiality of all students is ensured. All information is protected by privacy laws that regulate the collection, storage and disclosure of personal information. To find out more about these matters, please refer to the Australian Government’s Privacy Policy (https://www.education.gov.au/privacy-policy). Further information about the NCCD can be found on the NCCD Portal (https://www.nccd.edu.au). If you have any further questions about the NCCD, please don’t hesitate to contact me via the school office. Yours sincerely, Joanne Scherf Relieving Principal
