2022 Edition 2 - 29/07/22

Principal's Message - Mrs Meyrick

This fortnight I am excited to introduce you to our three new Foundation Leadership Team members.

 Deputy Principals - Ms Fiona Swadling and Ms Petra Yager

Business Manager - Mrs Danielle Van Der Zee

We have been diving deep into the nine domains of the National School Improvement Tool this week, ensuring that our planning and preparations for day 1 (and next year and beyond) are best practice, innovative and authentic to our school context. Each decision we make and plan to commence is encompassed by our EPIC values. We are striving to have a school learning community where we can be Empowered, Polite, Inclusive and Careful. 

Our enrolment EOI are on the steady increase in the past fortnight, as more local families learn of our new school. Please talk with your neighbours and friends to continue to spread the word for us. 

With much excitement, I share with you our HOUSE art designs that will feature on House Shirts, banners and signs around our school. It has been an honour to partner with Kylie Hill, an Aboriginal artist from KJH Artworks, to create these representations of our four native birds. Our students and staff will all be a member of one of these houses (determined on enrolment) and will develop a house spirit with their team. We look forward to further exploring options of local, state or national identities that we can add to our bird names. 

Keep an eye out for some important dates in our next edition, including information about Prep transition.

Mrs Wuanita Meyrick

Foundation Principal

Deputy Principal's Message - Ms Yager

My name is Ms Petra Yager and I am privileged and excited to be one of the Deputy Principals of the new school to be open in Ripley in 2023.  

As an experienced, passionate and committed educator, I look forward to the opportunity to lead as a Deputy Principal, a school that values the uniqueness of every student and seeks to nurture and grow their potential to achieve greatness by providing an educational experience that fosters a love of learning. I thoroughly enjoy developing each student’s unique strengths, agency, and voice, whilst providing an outstanding and innovative student experience grounded in passion and purpose. 

I wholeheartedly believe that every student deserves a quality education and I look forward to working in partnership with the Ripley community to best serve our children, where together we will develop EPIC Learners. 

Ms Petra Yager

Foundation Deputy Principal

Deputy Principal's Message - Ms Swadling

My name is Fiona Swadling and I am one of the new Deputy Principals for our exciting new school in Ripley. I am a mother of two adult children living on the bayside of Brisbane. I love anything outdoors and challenging myself in all areas of life.  

I have been in education for around 20 years in many different capacities and I am passionate about education and seeing students succeed. I thrive on creating learning experiences that engage and stimulate a desire for learning by tapping into the interests and strengths of children’s naturally inquisitive minds.

I am looking forward to working alongside our community and families and growing together to create an amazing space for our students. What an EPIC journey to be on together!

Ms Fiona Swadling

Foundation Deputy Principal

Business Manager's Message - Mrs Van Der Zee

My name is Danielle Van Der Zee and I feel very privileged to be selected as the Foundation Business Manager for the New School at Ripley.  I have worked in primary schools for over 13 years and am very passionate about all things finance and HR.  I have spent the majority of my education career at Blair State School and more recently at Fig Tree Pocket State School. I love working in a school environment watching children learn, develop and grow.

Education plays a big part in my family.  My husband was a Primary School Principal and is now a Teacher Aide, my sister is a Teacher/Guidance Officer, my eldest daughter will graduate from university this year as a PE and Geography Teacher and my youngest daughter is studying Education Support while working in an OSCH facility and is also a Grasshopper Soccer Coach.  Soccer (football) is also a big part of our family with both my daughters playing in the National Premier League - Women (NPLW).

I am very excited to be a part of the New School at Ripley’s beginnings.  Mrs Meyrick has some amazing ideas and plans for the school and I can’t wait to assist her in bringing them to fruition.  It is going to be an exciting, fun and engaging place to learn.

I look forward to meeting all of you soon.  Please let me know if I can be of assistance in any way - I’m here to help!

Mrs Van Der Zee

Foundation Business Manager

National School's Tree Planting Day

Today was National Tree Planting Day, celebrated in schools all across Australia. Mrs Meyrick, Ms Yager and Ms Swadling purchased some dwarf citrus trees that they will care for until we move to our school site next year. Our citrus trees will be the beginning of our edible garden. We also planted a tree in the Ripley Valley Community Garden within the grounds of Ripley Valley State Secondary College. While we could not plant a gum tree (for our Koala mascot), we did select a tree that would grow quickly and provide shade and flowers near the bee hives.

Preparing to be a cashless school

We are making all the preparations needed to be a fully cashless school commencing in 2023. We will have a range of simple online tools for parents to make payments for their child's tuckshop, excursions, fees etc.

Why are schools becoming cashless? Quite simply this is for safety, security, time efficiency and creates ease of payment for parents/carers (24hr access).

We will hold information sessions about the apps and ways to pay to assist our school community. There will also be some easy tip sheets to assist with ordering and payments. 

Excursions, Incursions and Camp Planning

Our Deputy Principals are working on planning our excursions, incursions and camps to suit our school context and community. Our excursions and incursions will be purposeful and will focus on what we are passionate about. We hope to offer a camp for our Year 4,5,6 students in 2023 and will hold an information session about this later in the year. If your child has been on any recent excursion or participated in any incursions that they LOVED, please let us know your recommendations. Send details to principal@newprimaryschoolripley.eq.edu.au 

Employment Opportunities

Currently teacher aides and Ao2 (admin) positions have been advertised to those currently working within our department and eligible for transfer. The advertisement is located on Metro Connect. Further and wider recruitment may occur into the future, so keep an eye out here and on our Facebook page. 

How to contact us this year

At this stage, you can contact us by email or Facebook message.

Email – principal@newprimaryschoolripley.eq.edu.au

Facebook message – via our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/New-Primary-School-at-Ripley-Opening-2023-101781892534671

Later we will have a phone line and pop up sites for you to visit us in person. 

As our team is currently small, please allow a reasonable response time. Your patience is appreciated.

Community News - Ripley Scout Group

RIPLEY SCOUT GROUP IS HERE!

Located at South Ripley, we're commencing 11th Oct 2022.

Tuesdays - Joeys 6:00pm - 7:00 pm (5yo - 8yo)

Wednesdays - Cubs 6:30pm - 8:00pm (8yo - 11yo)

Thursday - Scouts 6:30pm - 8:30pm (11yo - 14yo)

ENROLMENTS ARE NOW OPEN!

If you would like to register your interest to enrol your child/ren please complete the Expression of Interest Form via the link below and Andrea our Group Leader will be in touch.

Expression of Interest form: https://forms.office.com/r/VCJFC7bFjJ

Community News - Ripley Valley State Secondary College

Trial days for IGNITE, Dance, Football and ESport academies are fast approaching for Year 7 2023. Contact the College or resister via the link.