The Grapevine Newsletter 21st July 2023

Attendance Matters

Principal's Report

Welcome to term 3.  I am pleased to share that we have had a very positive start to the term.  Not only have our enrolments gone up to 269 from 260 but we have attracted enough staff to get us through to the end of the year.  We aren’t completely out of trouble because there will be staff who will be moving away at the end of the year, but we can breathe easy for now.  We’ve had several visitors to the school this term and I’m proud to say that the feedback has been extremely positive.  Not only does the College look fantastic but our visitors have been impressed by the positive interactions with our students and staff and with the calm classrooms. 

New Staff

This term we welcome Mauve Phelan, Colm Fitzpatrick, Laura Buckley, Robert Black and Laura McManus who have stepped into primary and secondary classes and who also providing cover for teacher teams to complete curriculum planning.  Molly Handy and Kato Halani are joining our Teacher Aide team. Georgie Kelly will also be starting with us as an Education Support Administration aide. Georgie will be leading the School Representative Council with Sunny Handy as well as providing administrative support to the Disability and Inclusion team.

All in all, we now have a total of 30 teaching staff, 26 teacher aids, 12 education support staff supporting school administration, information technology, careers, student wellbeing, library, and maintenance of the school grounds. That’s a total of 68 staff.  The best news is that of the 68 all but 7 live locally

To complete our staffing profile, we have two KESOs, two staff working in the Clontarf Program and three Our Place staff on site. 

This amazing team is working hard to provide the best learning environment for our students.

Congratulations to Rex Handy who has has beenappointed the position with Clontarf. He will still be involved with the Learning Through Connection program until we find a replacement person for him. This is the only staffing position that needs filling at this stage.  Please contact the College if you know of someone who would like to work with a small group of Indigenous boys to learn through connection to their culture.

Uniform

One of the positive comments I’ve had from parents and supporters of the college is how good it is to see student expectations lifting around behaviours and uniform.  We were on track, but I’ve noticed this term that many students are out of school uniform.  Once again, I seek the support of parents and carers.  The school is implementing a School Representation Policy which requires students to present well and conduct themselves according to our school values to be eligible to attend extracurricular events. (The fun stuff like camps and excursions). Please support your children by ensuring they are in full school uniform.  There will be another school blitz on uniform next week.

Attendance

Another important component to school success is attendance every day.  Parents can expect a staff member to touch base when their child is absent.  This is so the college has a better understanding of any barriers to your child’s attendance and to offer support.  Strong attendance is acknowledged each term with certificates of attendance, Gold – 99-100%, Silver – 90 – 98% attendance, Bronze – 85 – 89% attendance.  Unfortunately, the stats from term 1 to term 2 show a reduction of high attendance.  Every day counts in terms of academic success and social connection.  If you can get your children to school everyday the staff and I will make sure they have a reason to want to be there.

Term 2 Reports

It was good to see parents come to parent teacher interviews this week.  Compiling the reports for semester one was incredibly complex due to the changes that were put in place because of the teacher shortage.  Steph Fang did an amazing job to lead staff through a detailed and lengthy process.  Thanks to Cath Remer, and Sue Neyland for helping by proofreading our reports.  The College was pleased with how the reports presented. Your feedback would be appreciated, please contact myself or Steph Fang with ideas to improve our reports and to let us know what you liked about them.

Writers’ Workshops

Children’s author Phil Kettle has joined us to run writing workshops with our primary students. Phil brings great expertise into the college.  Phil has also provided access to a radio station which we hope will add an extra activity to interest the students; we hope to see the students develop not only their writing skills but their broad casting skills.

Stay Well

Nat Mouvet

Book Club issue 5 is out now.

Please see your teacher if you have not received a brochure.

Issue 5 closes on Wednesday the 26^th July.

The easiest way to order is by using LOOP.

LOOP is the easy way for families to order and pay for Book Club. Log in, or create a new account at scholastic.com.au/loop

1. If you are new to Book Club, follow the Wizard to set up your profile.

1. Click the ORDER tab and select your school and child’s class.

1. Add your child’s first name and last initial (so the school knows who the book is for)

1. Enter the product item number shown on the Book Club catalogue.

1. Make payment via credit card.

3/4 Multiplication

The students in Year 3/4 have begun looking at multiplication. They have been working hard on making arrays to show the product of two factors and to solve number problems.

Wellbeing Spotlight

Semester one of 2023 has seen a brilliant wellbeing team come together to support our Robinvale College students. We are passionate about supporting our students in all areas of wellbeing and have introduced many support networks and services within the school and through the broader  community. Our Wellbeing Spotlight in the newsletter will cover many different topics and services. This newsletter focus is HeadSpace counselling and Doctors in Schools.

We are now proudly linked with the Headspace Schools Program. This is a counselling service available to young people living in regional areas. The Regional Phone Counselling Service partners with secondary schools to provide digital mental health services from credentialled clinicians during school hours. The service provides care coordination, telephone, video and webchat counselling to students as well as guiding school staff and parents/carers in how to support the young people whilst they are physically with them. 

Many of our students have been seeking and gaining the support of the professional mental health workers at HeadSpace. This service has been a game changer for our school with little to no wait times to gain an appointment. Please reach out to Kate Zimmer (Assistant Principal-wellbeing), Travis Bussell (wellbeing support staff 7-12) to make an appointment or for further information

Counselling services for our primary aged students is also available through Mallee Family Care and some other services we are currently linking in with. Again, please reach out to Kate Zimmer (Assistant Principal-wellbeing F-12) and Krystl Brown (wellbeing support staff F-6) to make an appointment or for further information.

We are offering Mental Health Education Workshops ran by HeadSpace throughout the remainder of the year. These workshops focus on areas such as;

• Let’s Talk About It: Mental Health
• Looking out for your friends: Notice, Ask, Connect 
• Standing Strong: Bullying & Mental Health 
• Transitions: Primary to Secondary 
• Transitions: Leaving School 
• Self-care: looking after your mental health 
• Naming & understanding our emotions 
• What Next: Life after a Natural Disaster 

Headspace Digital Services

Young people can also get support for mental health by creating a headspace account. You don’t need to face things alone. Create a free headspace account today to join a supportive online community and access tools and resources to help you manage your mental health. It’s simple, free and safe.

With a headspace account, you’ll get instant 24/7 access to a great range of tools and support for mental health. Build connections in a community of like-minded young people, join group chats, create your own personalised space, and get professional 1-on-1 support — all online and free.

• https://headspace.org.au
• Create an account
• Explore a wealth of services including:

#             Creating your own personal mental health toolkit

#            Online forums, where you can connect with others, get insights into how people deal with similar situations and ask questions within peer support chats

• eheadspace, chat online or via phone (1800 650 890) with a clinician

Another great online counselling service is Kids Helpline (available 24/7)

• Phone: 1800 55 1800
• Webchat: https://kidshelpline.com.au/get-help/webchat-counselling/

Doctors in schools

We are so fortunate at Robinvale College to have our Doctors in Schools services. The doctor can assist with all medical needs including health checks, mental health care plans, advice and more.

Household Furniture

Our new CRT’s are moving into a house, if  any one has any spare furniture that they could give or lend until the end of year. Please contact the school 50 263 704

TERM 3: F-6 ASSEMBLY SCHEDULE

A friendly reminder to our families of students in F-6, that it would be wonderful if you could celebrate our students’ successes at our weekly assemblies.Here is the Term 3 schedule outlining which classes will be showcasing their projects that week.Assemblies are held from 9am on Fridays in the F-2 building.

Clontarf News

Well, we have had an action packed Nine-week Term2 which has flown. It has been great to see the boys Sticking to the task at hand at school as well as aligning with our Clontarf pillars Education, discipline, Self-esteem, life skills and employment opportunities. Unfortunately, we had our

Operations Officer James Stewart Finish halfway through the term Which made things a bit more trickier, we wish James all the best in his next journey. I am now delighted to announce. that Rex Handy has started with the Academy this term as the New operations officer. Rex Handy. Rex comes with a wealth of experience in the Robinvale community and has already got some strong relationships with the boys. We have done a number of activities during Term 2 such as Date night activities after school Which was a huge success, Big day out trips, employment visit? And a year 10 work experience week in Melbourne. The school also started a new Alternative program for the Year 8 To 9 Clontarf boys which is starting to really take shape and be highly beneficial for the boys. They are learning a lot more life skills and doing more hands-on work that is more relative to them such as painting and maintaining the planter boxes on the school grounds, figuring out how much paint is needed and there designs for the boxes and also planning out the new irrigation system for the are a they are working on. A majority of the lads have been Completing fantastic working class And attending school on a regular basis. With a well-earned break  we  now focus our eyes on  Term3 which will be even busier then Term 2 with many excursions already booked and employment visits pencilled in. Thank you all. our partners who helped us with the first semester and we look. forward to your ongoing support for the rest of the year and beyond.

Thanks

Ryan Sedgmen

Director.

CLONTARF Employment Visits

We were lucky enough to visit Two work sites during term2. Our first trip was to the Robinvale police station, The Clontarf boys were given a tour of the station by Senior Sergeant Dale Long and Sergeant David Logan. The boys had a very engaging time at the station learning all the workings of the station, checking out all the equipment that is used, Touring the holding cells, and were given a detailed Road map of how to pursue a career in the police force and them any different job opportunities in the police force. Special thanks to the Robinvale Police station for letting the boys tour the facilities. Later on in Term 2 the Year 4 to 7 Clontarf boys attended Parks Victoria to see a familiar Face in Leon Johnson where We were given a site employment visit. The boys were able to tour Around the depot and use all The different types of equipment used at Parks Victoria, plus they shown the different type of job opportunities that exist in Parks VIC. Special thanks to Leon and The team the boys really had a great day topped off with a hour or so of fishing and a BBQ on the river