The Grapevine Newsletter 8th March 2024
PRINCIPAL REPORTS
Week 6 Term 1
This week we welcomed two special new members to our Robinvale family. Congratulations to Ata and Laota Lemani for the birth of their beautiful baby girl Eseta! Congratulations also to her proud Grandparents Filimone and Lesieli Afa. Our other new addition is Junia Laeh, the precious daughter of Elizabeth and Albert Minoneti. We can’t wait to meet our new babies in person.
Staff Update
A lot has happened since the last newsletter. This week we welcomed Pretty Munodawafa and her daughter Samantha to the college. Pretty will take over as the Year 5/6 teacher and Sam has joined the Year 8s. Pretty and Sam come from South Africa. Another teacher from South Africa, Desire Zivera, has arrived this week. Desire comes to us as a highly credentialed Maths and Science teacher.
A third teacher from South Africa, Karusha Naidoo will start with us. Karusha is an English and Humanities teacher. Neelam Kumar and her two children will be joining us in week 1 Term 2. Neelam is from Fiji and will join our Maths team. Stay tuned for more staffing updates.
We are still madly looking for homes. Please let Maria Chirchiglia know if you know of any rentals that might be coming to market. Also let her know if you have household items to donate or lend.
This week I met with our new school nurse Rachel Mc Dowall. Rachel comes to us with extensive knowledge and experience as a community and acute nursing. She will be collaborating with school leadership, students, teachers, wellbeing staff to build capability and improve health outcomes for our students and broader community. I’m looking forward to Rachel influencing our Healthy Eating Program and will support teaching our students about good sleeping habits.
STARS Coming Soon
I’m very pleased to announce that the STARS program will begin at Robinvale College in term two. The Stars program provides a holistic program that supports Indigenous girls and young women to attend and remain engaged at school, complete Year 12 and move into work or further study. It is an equivalent to the Clontarf Boys program. This is an exciting opportunity not only for our Indigenous students but for Robinvale, the benefits for our girls and young women will have a ripple effect for our families now and for generations to come.
Robinvale Team Spirit alive at the Swimming Carnival
We held our annual Swimming Carnival on Wednesday March 6. It was an enormously successful day with just about every student participating in the swimming events. Green Team won on the day ahead of the Blue and Yellow, but it really wouldn’t have mattered. Our staff, led by Jonathon Michaels who was supported by Tim Walsh, Travis Bussell, Georgia McGinty, Sunny Handy and Georgie Kelly to organise and coordinate the day did a fantastic job of making sure that every student was included in one way or another to make the day a success. Our students were tremendous in the way they participated in event after event and in the way they supported each other. A very proud day for us all. Thanks again to Jonathan’s team and to the parents who came along to enjoy the day with us.
Congratulations to Matt Phajongdee
Congratulations to Matt Phajongdee who competed in the SSV Mallee District Swimming competition. Matt came first in the Boys 14-year 50m Breaststroke, Freestyle, Backstroke and 100m Freestyle races. He won the Boys 14 Age Champion award at the Robinvale College House Swimming and SSV competitions. Matt, you are a legend! Well, done! The College looks forward to supporting you in the SSV Loddon Mallee Regional Swimming Competition this week. Thank you very much to Jonathon Michaels for accompanying Matt to these events.
NAPLAN Testing Begins
Positive observations made by staff about students’ attitude to their learning are increasing. Over the past 12 months the college has been administering PAT Testing for Maths and Reading. The results are shared back to the students who are excited to see their progress and interested to know what to do when they don’t. Staff use these results to plan and deliver curriculum.
One set of data is not enough to base whole school decisions about how to support our students more effectively. This week our students in years 3,5,7 and 9 will sit the NAPLAN. Staff will compare results to the PAT data and other sets to inform us about how to support students in their learning. We look forward to having 100% participation, please reassure your children that this test is just another gauge of how they are progressing, there is nothing to feel nervous about.
WELCOME TO OUR NEW STAFF
Bhawini Narayan
Bhawini is from Ba, Fiji, she has a Bachelor of Education majoring in Biology, Post Graduate Certificate in Human Resource Management as well as a Post Graduate Diploma in General Managers master’s in business administration. Bhawini has 24 years of teaching experience with 12 years of Vice Principal and Principal roles in Fiji. She is finding the environment at Robinvale College very pleasant and very friendly staff and students at the College.
Pretty Munodawafa
We welcome Pretty with her daughter Samantha from the city of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. Pretty has a Masters in inclusive education, Honours in Inclusive education, Bachelor of Education degree (majored in teaching Year 4 to Year 9 learners) and a diploma in primary education.
She has taught in 5 different schools in South Africa since January 2008 until 2024 making it 16 years. Pretty was at her last school for 7 years before coming to Australia. She will be teaching year 5/6B (Middle School community) Maths, Literacy, and IBL. Pretty’s first impressions of the school is that it is a very welcoming community, the teachers, learners, and the community at large. Parents have stopped her for interesting conversation which she will forever cherish. She is thankful for such an amazing community and would thank the school management team. They have been so welcoming from the first day they interviewed her till date. Pretty is grateful for allowing her to be part of School. She will be forever grateful for this opportunity and is looking forward to many decades if not a century in this community.
Desire Zireva
We Welcome Desire from Harare, Zimbabwe South Africa. He is a vibrant Mathematics and physical science teacher with an exciting and impressive track record of excellent performance.
He has an Education Honours in Mathematics Education (Current), Honours in Educational management University of Pretoria 2023, Bachelor in Education (Mathematics and Physics) University of South Africa 2015 and his Diploma in Education University of Zimbabwe 2004.
Desire will be teaching mathematics and science (year 9, 10 and 11) here at the College. He was awarded winner of Best Mathematics teacher award in King Cetshwayo District of South Africa 2021, 2022 and 2023. Desire’s Philosophy is never leave no one behind.
SWIMMING CARNIVAL 2024
The College Swimming Carnival was held on Wednesday.Congratulations to the students that particpated on the day and to the student who supported their team. To Sports Team, A lot of the work and preparation was done well before the day and behind the scenes so a special thank you to Jono MIchaels Tim Walsh, Travis Bussell, Sunny Handy, Adam Jealous, Georgie Kelly and Georgia McGinty.
Congratulations to
1st – Green House (697 POINTS)
2nd – Blue House (598 POINTS)
3rd – Gold House (462 POINTS)
Age Champions:
9 YRS & UNDER: DORRIS LEA’AETALA & VINCENT MAFI
10 YRS: GWENDOLINE MASILA-LIUTOLO & DARCY JENNER
11 YRS: MOANA SONI & JED MACINTOSH
12 YRS: AVA BEST & HARRY PETTIT
13 YRS: LISITA TALASINGA & JAI AKID
14 YRS: AMYLEIGH REYNOLDS & MATT PHAJONGDEE
15 YRS: SASHA TOGO & HAMISH JENNER
16 YRS: SULIANA MAFI, RUBY HINGANO & SHANNON MARLOWE-COOK
17 YRS & OVER: CHRISTINA ALE & TYLER GRIFFITHS
Mary Gaides's Award Sam Backus
VIC VICE GOOGLES
Students studying the VCE Vocational Major, and the Victorian Pathway Certificate experienced a revolutionary new careers education platform. VIC VICE is a virtual reality platform that allows students to see, touch and experience different workplaces. Students were given the opportunity to view 360-degree videos with interactive touchpoints and video-game style simulations and activities in the career areas of Agriculture, Community Services, Transport and Logistics and Health.
Student also participated in learning how to use the NMLLEN (Northern Mallee Local Learning & Employment Network) Portal, to search for a Structured Work Placement in either Robinvale or Mildura. This is a site where businesses have expressed their willingness to give students the opportunity to experience different types of work over the course of their certificate. Some employers may be looking to offer a School Based Apprenticeship or even a full-time apprenticeship. Both sessions were run by Dale Harvey the NMLLEN Structured Workplace Co-Ordinator.
Students appreciated these opportunities.
SRC Recycling fundraiser Congratulations!!
Thanks everyone for the great effort over the last fortnight. We nearly doubled our total of containers!
$32.40 raised making a total so far of $49.50
192 plastic bottles, 30 softdrink cans, 96 juice cartons and 4 glass bottles
Thanks 1/2A students for doing lots of sorting and counting of containers.
Thanks also to those who brought containers from home.
Here are some of the containers you can recycle ( Insert pictures)
I would love some volunteers to help with soring and counting containers Friday lunchtime prior to delivering to Robinvale Trash and Treasure/Recycling
In appreciation of your efforts
Janice Purcell
Container recycling organiser
SALT PROGRAM
School-age girls and women across Australia will have the opportunity to try a trade and learn basic tool skills as Supporting And Linking Tradeswomen INC (SALT) travels across Australia over the next couple of years.
SALT, in conjunction with the National Careers Institute, will be running workshops over the next six weeks in Victoria and South Australia to encourage young women to consider a career in a trade.
20 students from years 5-9 took part in the SALT workshop last Monday. They were given hands-on experience of tools used in most trades and gain great skills which will help them in the future for their own lives.
