Rozelle Public School Newsletter

Rozelle is a place where Aboriginal children learned, played and celebrated their culture for thousands of years on this beautiful, natural land. As we learn, play and celebrate together on this land, we honour the Wangal people of the Eora nation and pay our respects to elders both past, present and emerging.

Next week, NSW public schools’ will be celebrating Education Week. This annual event provides an opportunity to celebrate the best of public education and the achievements of our schools, teachers and students. This year is especially significant for public education as it marks 175 years since the establishment of public schools in NSW. 

To mark the occasion, this newsletter is full of stories and images that celebrates the learning that takes place everyday at Rozelle. Afterall, every week is Education Week at Rozelle Public School. 

A wonderful example of public education at its very best was last night’s Iron Cove Performing Arts Festival at the Seymour Centre. Our four groups - band, Stage Two choir and both dance groups were stand out performances and included over 90 students from Years 2 to 6. The choreography of our dance groups showcased every child. Our choir's song choice was perfect and connected with the audience and our band opened the show with a cracking French themed performance. As a school community we should be very proud of our students and the energy they brought to the stage. A huge thanks must go to the following: Jen McLachlan, Amelia Roberts, Jen Christie, Courtney Hansen, Mel Dunne (choreographer extraordinaire) and Helen Crimmins (band mistro). A sincere thank you is also extended to parents who attended the performance and cheered on our school. 

During Education Week our regular learning programs will continue. 5 Honjo will be hosting an assembly; Year 3 and 4 will continue working on their digital art project; our leaders will conduct a school tour for new families; the P&C will meet; and PSSA will continue. Every week at Rozelle Public School is Education Week. 

While there are no plans for a special event next week, the school is planning a spectacular art trail which will take place in the final week of this term. This event will be a celebration of the school's creative programs - music, visual arts, dance, film making and design. It is an event not to be missed and I encourage all families to mark it in their calendars. The Creative & Performing Arts Trail is planned for Tuesday 19 September 2023 and will be a twilight / early evening event. 

EXTERNAL VALIDATION 

Every four years, all schools within the NSW Department of Education complete the external validation process. This process requires an evidence bank to be submitted that shows how the school is performing against an excellence framework. The school team participates in a meeting where clarifying questions are asked, and the school is validated against the NSW School Excellence Framework. This framework consists of 14 elements in the areas of Leading, Teaching and Learning.

The framework places schools on a scale of Working Towards, Delivering, Sustaining & Growing and Excelling. Our school recently completed the process and the validation process resulted in some very pleasing progress for Rozelle. Examples of progress are as follows.

• Learning Culture - Excelling 

• Wellbeing - Sustaining and Growing

• Assessment - Sustaining and Growing

• Effective classroom practice - Excelling

• Learning and development - Sustaining and Growing

• Educational Leadership - Sustaining and Growing

• Management practices - Excelling

• School Resources - Excelling

Rozelle Public School is strongly performing in all other areas and moving from Sustaining and Growing into the Excelling domain in many aspects of the framework. I would like to thank the school team: Angela Svinos, Louise Howlett, Tara Bryant, Alden Kwok, Amy Horton, Sepfora Amanatiadis and Lisa Tohver for working with me in completing this process and to every staff member for their ongoing commitment, ensuring Rozelle is a thriving school community with high expectations for every student. Another Education Week success story!

OUR PRESCHOOL IS EXCEEDING

Congratulations to Sandy, Bernie and Mika! Thanks to their hard work and dedication our preschool received an Exceeding rating, measured against the National Quality Standards. That’s a great “Education Week” outcome and reason to celebrate.

P&C MEETING
The next P&C meeting is Wednesday 2 August in the staff room 7.30-9pm. Everyone is welcome! Bring along some refreshments if you like and we can plan some fantastic contributions for the school community together.

FAMILY OUTDOOR MOVIE NIGHT

Save the date for the Family outdoor movie night on Friday 15 September! It will be a magical family night under the stars with a BYO picnic, popcorn and our school community.

TEACH ETHICS AT RPS!

Ethics is a fantastic NSW schools offer that teaches the students about critical reasoning and how to think through the grey areas.

To teach Ethics you need to spare only 30 mins in your calendar on a Thursday afternoon during term time to teach the class - either 2-2.30pm or 2.30-3pm. The free training can be undertaken by either two face to face sessions or online - choose what suits you! Students signed up to Ethics classes without a teacher unfortunately miss out on this great subject.

You can ask to either teach your child’s class or not. Many Ethics teachers don’t have primary school age children and are either young adults, empty nesters or retirees.

We have two classes at Rozelle PS who need an Ethics teacher - a Year 2 class and a Kindy class. Please spread the word to anybody you think might enjoy teaching Ethics!! Applications and information can be found online on the Primary Ethics website: https://primaryethics.com.au/ 

NEW UNIFORM ORDERS

Please order new items online from LW Reid Made for Schools with deliveries direct to your home. New orders can be made using this link madeforschool

All uniform orders are delivered direct to your home address by Australia Post. Uniform orders are no longer available for collection from the office. 

SECOND HAND ITEMS

Please drop any 2nd hand uniforms to the office - ensuring that they are in good condition i.e. no holes or stains.

CALLING ALL ROZELLE PRIMARY SCHOOL RUNNERS!! 

If you can walk, skip or run a 2km funrun, we want you! The popular “BAYRUN” fun run on 6 August 2023 is now open for entries, and we want to bring home the 2km primary schools trophy to Rozelle school again this year. We just want your participation - all abilities, all ages (preschoolers to year 6’s). Adults can also accompany your runner if preferred. Simply mention you are a student of Rozelle primary school when you enter please. You can take advantage of the early bird price of $25 for kids entries before the 15th July. All participants receive a medal. Please bring along your school hat so we can identify each other before the run and come together for support, maybe even get a team photo. See you at the starting line! Your Rozelle running pals.

For more information and to sign up visit the link here: https://www.bayrun.com.au/

ENROL NOW - KINDERGARTEN 2024
Rozelle Public School is currently taking enrolments for Kindergarten 2024 from families living within our school catchment area. Detailed information about enrolment procedures and a map of the school catchment area can be found on the school website at LINK or by phoning the school office on (02) 9810 2347.  

A comprehensive Transition to School Program will be outlined in future newsletters. In the meantime, the school has six tours planned for new families who are considering enrolment at Rozelle. The tours will be held on the following Wednesday mornings from 9:30am:

• Wednesday 2 August 9:30am
  

• Wednesday 23 August 9:30am

• Wednesday 13 September 9:30am

PARENT ONLINE PAYMENT SYSTEM
RPS is now using the upgraded School Bytes finance system for online payment and permission form consent. If you have not done so already, parents should access the School Bytes portal and register using https://portal.schoolbytes.education.

When logged online, go to the "Activities Section" to give parent consent and payment. PLEASE NOTE: Consent must be given before a payment can be made. 

You can access your portal at anytime, using the portal link https://portal.schoolbytes.education.

You an also access your portal via the Rozelle Public School website - by clicking on the button "Make a Payment" located at the bottom of the home page screen.

If you should have any questions, or have difficulty logging in, please get in touch with the School Office. 

PARENT VOLUNTEERS
Helping out at school is a great way to get involved in your child’s education as well as get to know the staff and other parents and carers.

You can help by:

• listening to children read in the classroom
• volunteering on sports days
• helping supervise excursions
• getting involved in fundraising activities
• joining school committees.

Parent volunteers are not required to have a Working With Children's Number, however they are required to fill in a 'Declaration for Child-Related Workers' Form, as well as provide 100 points of ID to be photocopied at the school office (including either a passport OR birth certificate, along with drivers license OR Medicare / bank card.  

THE SCHOOL CANTEEN
The School Canteen operates as an order-only service five days per week. All orders are made online through Spriggy Schools app and delivered to the school in time for students to enjoy at lunchtime and recess. Orders need to be placed by 7:30am on the day or can be placed weekly in advance. Families will need to download the Spriggy Schools app and create a profile for their child. If you need assistance visit spriggyschools.com.au.

NUDE FOOD TUESDAYS
Nude Food Tuesdays are back! On these days, students are encouraged to bring lunch and recess that are not wrapped in foil, plastic or commercial packaging. Please be mindful of packaging that is put into lunch boxes each day to minimise any rubbish that needs throwing away. Instead, opt for reusable containers for packaging food. Each Tuesday, class nude food lunchboxes will be tallied so please help the Green Team with this great initiative to reduce the waste/rubbish in our school.

NUT AWARE
A number of students at Rozelle have been diagnosed with a life-threatening allergy to nuts. While it is not advised for the school to declare itself “nut-free” we are definitely a “nut-aware” school. This means that we ask parents/carers to carefully consider the food they provide for their child and avoid foods that contain nuts. Before sending in food for special occasions for your child’s class, please check with the teacher. The school appreciates everyone’s effort in keeping all our students safe and supporting their families to manage this difficult situation.

MORNING DROP OFF
Families are reminded that students should not be arriving at school before 8.30am unless they are attending OSH Club or a before school activity such as band rehearsal. There may be occasions where you need to drop your child off 10 minutes earlier. In these instances, students must go to the middle playground, where they sit and wait for teacher supervision to begin. 

LOST PROPERTY
When parents are up at the school they may have seen the lost property trolley which is located inside the building entry from the Darling Street playground. Should your child misplace a hat, jumper, water bottle or lunchbox…you may find it in the trolley.

BOOK WEEK DRAWING & WRITING COMPETITION

This year's theme is Read, Grow, Inspire. We invite everyone to join in the fun of Book Week with these drawing and writing competitions.

The competitions are open to children from grades K to 6.

ENTER NOW

Download a PDF of the drawing competition entry form (grades K-2). (PDF 495.7KB)

Download a PDF of the writing competition entry form (grades 3-6). (PDF 499.3KB)

View the terms and conditions. (PDF 207KB)

ABOUT BOOK WEEK

Each year across Australia, the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) brings children and books together to celebrate Book Week. During this time schools, libraries, booksellers, authors, illustrators and children celebrate Australian children’s literature.

Every year we receive thousands of fantastic entries and it’s the highlight of the year for our children’s librarians. See for yourself the amazing talent we have here in the Inner West by browsing last year's winning entries.