The Grapevine 19-08-2022

Principal's message

Student voice and agency have been on full display recently as we celebrated with our Year 4 students when they shared their showcase in the F-4 community assembly. Our students are to be congratulated for their hard work, enthusiasm and dedication in increasing the awareness around the environmental issues facing the Great Barrier Reef. The students took their learning to the next level by initaiting and successfully running 2 fundraisers with 100% of the money raised going towards helping the Great Barrier Reef. The casual day 'wear green' and the bake sale were well supported by staff and students and was a great example of 'real world' learning. Thank you to Mrs Rikki Johnson and all of her helpers who supported the students through this work.

A reminder to parents/carers who have been randomly selected to complete the annual Parent Opinion Survey. Please take the time to complete this survey as this provides us with valuable feedback that we use to evaluate our progress and determine our whole school priorities moving forward. Computer and internet access and support is available via the front office for anyone who needs it. 

Please join me in farewelling Mr Tyson Gordon who has made the decision to leave the school and the region, identifying personal family reasons for his decision. We thank Mr Gordon for his time at Robinvale College and wish him and his family all the best for the future. We are currently advertising a teaching vacancy to fill this role.

Please join me in welcoming Melanie Jamieson to the school as our new secondary school nurse. Melanie joins us on  Mondays and Wednesdays and will be based in our wellbeing space. 

We would also like to welcome Talia Tuitupou who joins us this week as our new Community Liaison Officer. Talia will work with us Mondays to Thursdays, with Fridays working at St Marys. Talia will specifically work with our Pacific Islander and LBOTE families and students to increase connection and communication with school.

We are excited to have both of these new staff joining us. Please help them to feel welcome in to our community and you can access support from either of these staff by calling the front office on 5026 3704.

We are currently reviewing our current timetable, curriculum and staffing structure. This is in response to feedback through our School Review focus groups, curriculum mapping and the need to implement structural changes to our timetable to address the new Victorian Government School Agreement and address nationwide staffing shortages. As a result of this, we will be making changes to our whole school timetable for 2023 and beyond to ensure that we are providing a balanced curriculum for our students that is consistent, engaging and well resourced. Stay tuned for opportunities for parents/carers to attend information sessions coming soon, so you can find out what exciting changes are coming up in 2023. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to make contact with me by calling 5026 3704 or emailing me at sarah.broster@education.vic.gov.au

Congratulations to all of the students who participated in Athletics Day. At our whole school assembly this week we celebrated and acknowledged all of our age group winners and announced the winning house from the day's events. The results are:

1st place: Green House - 1561.2 points

2nd place: Gold House - 1476.3 points

3rd place: Blue House - 891.7 points

Congratulations Green House! Congratulations to the students that have qualified for the upcoming Interschool Aths Carnival on Wednesday 31^st of August. 

Well done to the following age champions:

Lewa Damuni - 6 year old champion

Vili Ale - 6 year old champion

Loveila Havea - 7 year old champion

Tevita Akauola - 7 year old champion

Laisani Waqabaca - 8 year old champion

Darcy Jenner - 8 year old champion

Tupou Soni - 9 year old champion

Cayden Jolly - 9 year old champion

Molly Bivolcheff - 10 year old champion

Harry Pettit - 10 year old champion

Lisita Talasinga - 11 year old champion

Latu Ale - 11 year old champion

Sze Qing Poh - 12 year old champion

Zulfiqar Babu - 12 year old champion

Sasha Togo - 13 year old champion

Kolosaini Taimani - 13 year old champion

Bethany McGinnes - 14 year old champion

Salutu Felise - 14 year old champion

Kimberley Wilson - 15 year old champion

Matthew Peniongo - 15 year old champion

Diyana Babu - 16 year old champion

Wade Best - 16 year old champion

Emily Mitchell - 17 year old champion

Massimo Tassone - 17 year old champion

Adriana Falvo - 20 year old champion

Simeon Taumoefolau - 20 year old champion

I would like to give a big shout and acknowledgement to the following who have been selected for the Mildura Heat junior squads:

Under 16 Girls

Mia Johnson

Under 16 Boys

Salutu Felise

Under 18 Boys

Achilles Panapoulous

Apiteniko Kolo

Under 12 Boys Heat Squad

Siosaia Felise

Sunraysia Netball Region 15&U Squad

Torah Woodhead

Congratulations to Hayley Smith who has been selected into the Bendigo Pioneers AFL Sunraysia 2022 girls squad.

Welcome to Early Help - Family Services

Hello, my name is Jade Alvey and I am involved in a new pilot program called Early Help – Family Services. We work with families with children aged 0 – 12 years old to identify and address any worries as early as possible to prevent secondary or tertiary issues arising.

I am a mum of two and understand the huge job of being a parent and the societal pressures that it can have on you.

If you would like to drop in and have a chat with me I am based out of the maternal child health office located at the front of the college every Thursday from 9:00am – 3:00pm. Alternatively if you would like to get in contact with me outside of these hours I can be contacted via email on JAlvey@malleefamilycare.com.au or phone (03) 5023 5966. 

Dinosaurs - Traces from the past

Students in F-4 enjoyed a visit from Melbourne Museum yesterday. They learnt all about dinosaurs and fossils through interactive displays. The students had a great time learning some really interesting facts and experiencing dinosaur fossils.

Breakdance Workshop

On Tuesday the F-4 students participated in a Breakdance Workshop. This workshop was delivered by School Sport Victoria in partnership with the State Schools Spectacular. Presented by qualified and experienced breakdance teachers, these workshops have a social, fun, interactive focus aimed at encouraging more children to be active as well as promoting diversity, inclusivity and enjoyment through physical activity. The students had a brilliant time in the workshop, having fun and learning some new skills!

Year 4 Bake Sale

Our Year 4 students have dedicated their time in the month of August to learn about and raise funds for the Great Barrier Reef. They have improved their leadership skills and worked as a team to make change. They presented their posters they created about the Great Barrier Reef to the students and parents. All students read out a fact about the reef and then answered questions from the room.Year 4 will be displaying their posters in the office hallway for all to see and learn about the reef.

After learning in class that the coral in the Great Barrier Reef was dying rapidly due to climate change, the students had also learnt that scientists had created a coral that was sun proof and could be replanted into the reef to try to save it. The Year 4 students came up with the idea of a bake sale to help raise funds, organised approvals, baked, decorated and sold the cupcakes themselves from start to finish and did an amazing job! A massive thanks to Miss Johnson for assisting the Year 4s through the process to make this possible! Thank you to Leon and the Clontarf boys, Nolene and the Year 9 students who helped as well. Please follow the online link below if you would like to donate:

https://give.barrierreef.org/.../Year4Rob.../year-4-go-green

Unit 3 / 4 Psychology Trip

DAY 2: On Tuesday, students attended Melbourne Zoo, where they looked at ethics and research methods. Students chose 2 animals to observe and investigated the five domains of health, nutrition, environment, behaviour and if whether it was a positive or negative experience. The students then collected quantative data of the orangutans over a short period of time. Students will take these notes back to class and look further into research methods and skills, which coincides with their final Area of Study. Thank you to Miss Edwards for organising such an informative trip for the Psychology students.

Psychology Trip

Congratulations - 100 nights of reading

Congratulations to Tuakpo Unufe who has reached 100 nights of Reading. 

F-4 Community Awards

F-4 Community Week 5 Awards. The SEL Awards for week 5 were for being curious. Congratulations to the following students who received an award:

Foundation/Year 1- Valeria Tamaliso

Year 1/2 - Viliami Heitonga (absent)

Year 3 - Austin Smith

Year 4 - Aiden Le and Molly Bivolcheff

Star of the Week Awards:

Foundation/Year 1- Nico Jackson (absent)

Year 1/2 - Gabriel McDonald

Year 3 - Paulina Tamaliso

Year 4 - Clint Smith

Jack Dang from Robinvale/Euston Rotary Club came and handed out awards to two students who have shown outstanding community and citizenship values. Congratulations to Darcy Jenner and Siosaia Felise.

National Science Week

Miss Hill's F/1 class had fun experimenting and creating this week, to celebrate National Science Week. The theme for this year is 'Glass: More than meets the eye'. F/1 students had fun with refraction, by using water in a glass jar to 'flip' pictures they had drawn - how cool! They then looked at images of stained-glass windows and had a go creating their own. They loved seeing the rainbow colours come through their windows and shine on the tables, the floor and themselves!

Missing home readers

Dear families of F-4, it has come to our attention that we are missing a lot of the home readers that students take home to practice reading with their families. We need these books returned to school as soon as possible so that we can continue to engage the children with a varied range of reading options to positively contribute to each child’s literacy development. Can everyone please have a look at home and send back any home readers that you may have there.

Pupil Free Day - date reminder

Reminder that Monday 22nd August is a Pupil Free Day. Students are not required to attend school, as staff will be participating in Professional Development

Radio Awareness

Years 3-6 were involved in a radio awareness workshop for kids. This highly popular incursion brings the world of radio broadcasting to the classroom with a range of enjoyable cooperative learning activities designed to involve all children. Presented by an experienced radio broadcaster, it presents an enjoyable and valuable workshop for the use of speaking and listening skills.

VCAL and VET

VCAL Foundation have been working on following and writing instructions. This week, students focused on finding, creating or recreating a recipe to cook. VCAL students put together a recipe and steps for their favourite recipes that will go into our VCAL Foundation cook book.

This term the VET tradies students are taking part in units of the VET Horticulture package.  The students are learning all about pressurised irrigation operations and soil / growing media sampling and testing.  Students have organised their own garden beds down at the Community Centre,  topping them up with good quality soil and laying the irrigation lines in readiness to plant vegetables in the coming weeks. 

Clontarf and MVAC team up

Thursday 19th of Aug, the Robinvale Clontarf Academy invited MVAC services workers in to our academy to have a friendly discussion around preparing yourself for sporting events and sporting lifestyles. Calvin Henry, Steven Bowden and Travis Bussell went through what sporting goals the boys may have, how do we plan to achieve those goals and what can we do to get our bodies right to get the best out of it. We spoke about the sugar content in some so called sports drinks, compared to others, what meals are best eaten before and after sports and when to eat them. Following the discussion, we all got to participate in a warmup session and shooting game with the boys. Richard Hingano Best gave a great Clontarf thank you to finish off our interaction. We thank MVAC and the boys for their time and effort to run our session and we look forward to doing things with them in the future.