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.
Today we reach the halfway point of the school year - hard to believe, but it’s true! For staff and students, the first semester of learning has been a busy and productive time with many rich learning opportunities. Over the past six months, students have continued to make progress in literacy and numeracy through class programs that are tailored to their needs. The MultiLit reading intervention program has supported a number of students this semester as they develop foundation phonics and reading strategies. The Maths Olympiad has challenged students' problem solving skills and will continue next term with Mr Bancks. Students in Year 3 & 5 participated in the NAPLAN Assessment schedule and we look forward to seeing those results in early Term Three.
This semester, our K-2 students have enjoyed weekly music lessons with our specialist music teacher, Jen McLachlan. Years 3-6 have produced many wonderful artworks with Alison Cole as part of the Visual Arts program. Next semester the programs will switch with students now having access to both specialist programs.
Throughout Semester One, students continued to participate and enjoy many sporting and physical education opportunities. Both the swimming (despite the washout) and cross country carnivals were great days and produced many excellent results. A number of our students went on to compete at zone, regional and even state championships. Friday PSSA has also provided a regular opportunity for our senior students to compete against other local schools in soccer, netball and touch football. Swim school, gymnastics and outdoor education camps have all kept our students challenged and motivated.
Programs across the school have been enhanced through excursions and the expertise and creativity of visitors. A highlight of the semester for the whole school was Koomurri Day where members of the Aboriginal community shared their culture through music, dance, art and storytelling. As part of their learning on bugs and insects, Kindergarten enjoyed a visit from Travel Bug where they got to see and hold a variety of critters with many legs! For Years 2 & 3, a performance of Fantastic Mr Fox was a memorable experience.
Earlier this week, Semester One reports were sent home. All students can be very proud of the progress they have made throughout the first half of the year. Mrs Svinos and I enjoyed reading the detailed general comments written by class teachers. These comments reflected the knowledge and understanding teachers have of their students and where they are heading with their learning.
As we wrap up Semester One, I would like to extend a sincere thanks to our staff who continue to work hard everyday to improve outcomes for our students. Rozelle is a busy, vibrant and thriving school - with many moving parts. Our students are at the forefront of decision making and staff value the positive partnerships we have with families. We are all looking forward to a well earned winter break before Term Three begins on Tuesday 18 July. Wishing everyone a safe and enjoyable break.
STAFFING UPDATE
Yesterday, we said farewell to Ms Polly Pullin who is relocating to Tasmania with her family. Polly has been a teacher at Rozelle for the past 4 years and this year was teaching 1 Olley. During her time at Rozelle, Polly has contributed to school wide programs and passionately advocated for the needs of her students. She will be greatly missed. Joining the Rozelle team is Kate Vallieres who will take on the teaching responsibilities of 1 Olley. Kate lives locally and is an experienced teacher of Year One. This week we also said goodbye to one of our regular casuals Nicole Quiggly. Nicole has been working at Rozelle for the past 2 years in many different roles. Her enthusiasm and friendliness will be missed as she takes up a new role at Annandale Public School.
PRESCHOOL SUCCESS
Many of our families were first introduced to the RPS community through our preschool. Those who have been in preschool know how special the program is - thanks to the expertise of Sandy Dorn-Steger. Every 5 years, all preschool settings undergo Assessment and Rating, a process which assesses the quality of the service. This term, Rozelle engaged in the process and I am very pleased to inform the community the overall rating for our preschool was EXCEEDING.
The summary comment states:
“Your service is commended on its achievements in exceeding the National Quality Standard and providing quality outcomes for children. In particular a comprehensive educational program, careful planning and reflective practice and willingness to collaborate with families and other community organisations to enhance children’s learning and wellbeing demonstrates the commitment of quality by educators at your service.”
Congratulations to Sandy, Mika and Bernie for all your hard work during the Assessment & Rating process. The community already knows what an incredible program Sandy leads and I’m so pleased the Early Childhood Education & Care Directorate have also recognised this.
NATIONALLY CONSISTENT COLLECTION OF DATA ON SCHOOL STUDENTS WITH DISABILITY
Rozelle Public School will 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:
This information assists schools to:
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 questions about the NCCD, please contact, Louise Howlett, Assistant Principal Learning and Support or the Principal, Andrew Braiding on (02) 9810 2347.
RPS DEBATING TEAM
Congratulations to the RPS Debating Team for winning the affirmative and negative debates last week. Our affirmative team were the clear winners over Five Dock PS however the negative had a very close debate, and we eventually came away with the win.
Affirmative
First Speaker: Ava P (5 Honjo)
Second Speaker: Davin C (5 Honjo)
Third Speaker: Charlotte T (6 Hart)
Team Adviser: Emilia M (5 Honjo)
Negative
First Speaker: Almira Y (5 Honjo)
Second Speaker: Billie K (5 Hojo)
Third Speaker: Mya A (6 Mombassa)
Team Adviser: Molly M (6 Hart)
A very special shout out to Oliver Misko from SSC Blackwattle Bay who has been coaching, adjudicating and spending a lot of his own time giving incredible feedback to our club members. He is an incredible human and made the top 6 in the State for his recent public speaking competition. Other members of the club include Amalia C (6 Mombassa) for great timekeeping last week, Chantelle D (6 Hart), Eloise R (5/6 Cotton), Nova L (6 Hart) and Vienna T (6 Hart).
NAIDOC WEEK CELEBRATIONS
Rozelle Public School has been celebrating NAIDOC Week (2nd - 9th July) with many interesting classroom activities this week. We will continue to celebrate during Term Three, week one, culminating in an assembly on Friday 21 July at 9.15am in the school hall. All welcome.
P&C MEETING
The next P&C meeting is Wednesday 2 August in the staff room from 7.30-9pm. Everyone is welcome!
THE MAIN EVENT WRAP UP
The Main Event on Saturday 17 June was an absolute blast!
Everyone brought their A-game with some amazing costumes including Amelia Earhart, Steve Irwin, Tina Turner, Barry Humphries, Olivia Newton John and more!
A big thank you to our Djs Andy Dome and Kellie Stanbury - a recording of the music from the night is available to be streamed here: Link
WINE CAGE WINNER
Congratulations to Georgie O’Neill, parent from 2 Drysdale & Kindy Wyatt.
A thank you to the Sackville who kindly donated the wines!
ONLINE FUNDRAISING AUCTION WRAP UP
The online auction was a great success and raised $15k!
Thank you to everyone who bid on items and congratulations to those who won!
If you have yet to collect your item please contact Annabelle Berriman to arrange a time annabelleberriman@gmail.com
*Note that payment for the item must be completed prior to item collection.
Thank you to the numerous local businesses and parents who kindly donated items.
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
The 2nd hand uniform shop will be open the first Friday of term 3, Friday 21 July from 2.30-3pm.
Please drop any 2nd hand uniforms to the office - ensuring that they are in good condition i.e. no holes or stains.
Some remaining brand new but discontinued items including organic cotton polos and backpacks will be sold for $10 each - bargain!
We need volunteers to help run the 2nd hand sales and sort the donations. If you are able to donate some time please contact Carly Davies carly_skye75@yahoo.co.uk
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:
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.
CALLING ALL ROZELLE PRIMARY SCHOOL RUNNERS!!
If you can walk, skip or run a 2km funrun, we want you! The popular “BAYRUN” funrun 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/
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.
