Dear parents,
As another year draws to a close it is the time we reflect on our practices and review our successes and look for areas of focus for the coming year. My focus as Principal continues to be aligned to Education Queensland’s Strategic Plan - Equity and Excellence. This plan encompasses, Educational Achievement, Engagement and Wellbeing and Culture and Inclusion. Each of these areas are very important to our school and in particular for our students. Our Annual Improvement Plan involves our focus on each of these and targets for improvement in each.
Educational Achievement:
· This year has again seen our academic results, both A-E and NAPLAN exceed the state and national benchmarks. We are one of the top-performing primary schools in the region.
Engagement and Wellbeing:
· Our school is still one of a just a small number of primary schools with dedicated Student Wellbeing teachers and Student Wellbeing team of support staff.
· We have a Child Psychologist and Guidance Officer on site each week.
· Our teachers are engaging in continual professional development on how particular pedagogy leads to higher levels of engagement in learning for students.
Culture and Inclusion:
· Our classrooms are inclusive and welcome diversity and strive to create welcoming and accessible learning environments for all students.
· Each Year level has access to a dedicated team of teachers, teacher aides and specialist support staff to cater for the individual learning and social and emotional needs of students.
In 2024, we will continue to plan and implement continuous improvement strategies in each of these areas.
In these final weeks of the school year our school is a buzz with the many exciting events that happen in these last couple of weeks of school.
Last week we had our Twilight concert celebrating our fabulous Music Program. Congratulations to our Music students and the Teaching Team and all their wonderful staff and parent helpers last Wednesday night! What a fabulous night for our students and their families. It highlighted all the amazing work our students and Music Team have undertaken throughout the year.
Our students who excel and are passionate about sport were recognised this week. Our HPE teacher Tanya Howard has worked hard all year at ensuring that the diverse range of sporting abilities has been considered whilst organising a variety of events and opportunities for our students to participate and excel. Congratulations to our sporting students and their dedicated teacher!
One of our students has received an opportunity of a lifetime which needs acknowledgement. Seth Tonna has been ‘scouted’ by an international soccer team and been invited to Spain this week to play soccer. Our congratulations and best wishes to Seth on this amazing achievement and we look forward to hearing about his experience early next year. Maybe we will be watching him on the international stage in the future!
Last week also saw a talented group of our STEM students yet again retain the STEM Cup at Griffith University. Our other primary schools on the Gold Coast are left wondering if the cup will ever leave Robina! Congratulations to these students and Mr. Haydn Quinn on this amazing achievement.
This week our prep families were treated to some wonderful Christmas performances by our youngest students. It was delightful to see the variety of talent we have in our prep classes. There is definitely some future ‘stars’ among them.
We still have our Year 6 Graduation and Swimming Carnival for Years 4, 5 and 6 to go next week.
Throughout 2023, The Robina State School Parents and Citizens Association has continued with their valued support of our school. Their organisation has organised Mother’s Day, Father’s Day stalls, the Colour Blast and Christmas raffle, just to name a few. The OHSC, Tuckshop and Uniform Shop continue to directly support our Robina students and parents and their efforts throughout the year are greatly appreciated. In 2024 the P & C Association will continue to enhance the educational provisions for our students. It’s through them that our students will enjoy increased opportunities, better facilities and greater learning experiences that will build on those already being provided in the classroom. On behalf of the students and staff I would like to sincerely thank the P & C Association for all their hard work and wonderful work in supporting the students and truly enhancing their learning experiences.
Our enrolments for 2024 are continuing to fluctuate and we will continue to manage this change until the commencement of school next year, which makes our staffing and class allocations difficult to finalise. We will however send home your child’s class allocation with our Annual Christmas letter on the final day of school. Please understand that there may still need to be changes made depending on gains and losses over the holiday period and into the start of 2024. Our new Prep students will be sent a letter over the holidays informing them of their teacher for next year.
The time for email requests for class allocations for 2024 has passed and any further requests now will not be considered until Day 8 next year. Thank you to those parents who met the deadline and enabled us to consider the requests when allocations were being completed.
A reminder to get your Christmas raffle tickets before next week. There are some fabulous prizes which would take care of holiday activities for your family! Thank you to our very generous families who have sent along some wonderful items for the raffles. Good Luck!
Regards,
Carmel Baker
Principal
