2022 Edition 6 - 07/10/22

Important Dates

Principal's Message - Mrs Meyrick

This fortnight our Executive Leadership Team have continued their work to prepare for our opening next year. 

A particular focus was on collating the input about our school values from parent and community members as well as current and future staff followed by creating the supporting documents. 

With a Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) whole school approach to supporting students, we have created expectations to unpack our EPIC Values. 

What does it mean to be an EPIC Learner?  At our new school;

We are Empowered.

We are Polite.

We are Inclusive.

We are Careful.

We are EPIC Learners!

Our school values will underpin all of our learning and time together. We have been able to capture four integral expectations for each of our values. These will form part of our Student Code of Conduct and we are excited to share them with you (see below). Students will have lessons in how to build their skills and demonstrate these expectations in an environment where all adults model this behaviour daily for them. 

Mrs Wuanita Meyrick

Foundation Principal

Our 'Koala Joeys' groups will commence this term to welcome our new Prep 2023 children. It will run in two groups across 5 weeks commencing Tuesday 18th October.

Tuesday morning 9.30am-11am OR Thursday morning 9.30am-11am

An email containing details is scheduled to hit your inbox by the end of this weekend. 

We are also excited to offer a 'Koala Joeys Lawn Picnic' for all of our 2023 Prep families (especially those who are unable to attend the weekly group sessions. This will be held on Saturday 26th November. 

Deputy Principal's Message - Ms Yager

 Welcome to Term 4!

I hope all our families have had a wonderful rest! I am excited and looking forward to a busy Term 4, as we inch closer to opening our doors for students and their families in 2023.

Defence Support

This week we met with Chris Jones, the school Education Liaison Officer (EDLO) with Defence Member and Family Support (DMFS).  We explored ways in which our school will support students who have a parent/s providing full-time service to the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

Our school will be applying for funding in 2023, to allow for the employment of a Defence School Mentor (DSM). The DSM will assist Defence Students and their families to integrate into our new school and provide them with ongoing support. As a member of a Defence family myself, I understand how difficult it can be for families moving interstate or having a parental absence due to deployment.

Our school is committed to building staff knowledge of the Defence lifestyle and the support we can provide to Defence families and students.

https://www.defence.gov.au/adf-members-families

Website

Our school website is being updated with new content each week. Our website will be our point-of-truth for our school enrolments, school times, policies, curriculum and general school information.

Our school - https://newprimaryschoolripley.eq.edu.au/our-school

Enrolments - https://newprimaryschoolripley.eq.edu.au/enrolments

2023 Term Dates - https://newprimaryschoolripley.eq.edu.au/calendar-and-news/term-dates

Ms Petra Yager

Foundation Deputy Principal

Deputy Principal's Message - Ms Swadling

We hope you managed to take some time on the school holidays to spend with family or rested on the long weekend.  It was nice to see the weather heat up and the sun out to create some beautiful days.   

Community Connections 

Our week back has been busy and productive.  We have continued to develop our community connections in preparation for next year.  We have begun to connect with local primary schools at the end of last term to discuss sporting opportunities next year and build relationships with other PE teachers. Some of our local sporting clubs have been reaching out also, you can find more information on these clubs in our ‘Community News Section’ of our Newsletter.  We welcome other sporting clubs or community groups to connect also.  

Ms Fiona Swadling

Foundation Deputy Principal

Business Manager's Message - Mrs Van Der Zee

New Staff

We are into the start of Term 4 with all systems go!  We have two new staff members starting this fortnight.  Leisa our Teacher Aide started this week and is in full swing of sorting, covering and setting up our books and resources for our classrooms and Curiosity Centre. Next Monday our Administration Officer, Nicki, will also start with us. We look forward to working with these lovely ladies this term in preparation for what will be a very exciting start in 2023. Welcome Leisa and Nicki!

OSHC Tender

The tender for the provision of Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) services for the New School at Ripley has now closed.   We have received several applications from service providers and are currently conducting the evaluation process. 

We look forward to advising the community of the successful provider later this term.

Mrs Danielle Van Der Zee

Foundation Business Manager

BYOD - Bring Your Own Device

What is BYOD?

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is a term used to describe a digital device ownership model where students use their privately-owned devices to access the departmental networks and information management systems in an educational setting.

Devices are used in the classroom to enhance students' learning experiences in accordance with the Department of Education's 21st Century learning guide. The purpose of BYOD is to create and maintain a highly engaging learning environment that equips students with the capacity to think, solve problems, respond to and thrive within a changing society. A blend of traditional and digital learning approaches will be integrated to maximise the learning potential of every child. The use of technology as a tool, extends learning opportunities for all students combined with normal books, pencil, pen and paper to form the basis of the daily class routine.

Consultation with prospective families at our community meeting held in September, saw an overwhelming support for BYOD implementation from Year 2 to Year 6; with iPads as the preferred device for Years 2 to 4 and laptops for Years 5 and 6. To support families with the outlay of costs, a phased implementation approach will be taken by our school – refer to the table below. In our first year of opening, students will not need to purchase their own device as we acknowledge the start up costs associated with all of our families commencing at a new school. Any box shaded in grey indicates the students in that year level will have class access to devices and are not required to outlay BYOD costs. While this may not be on a one-to-one ratio, it will provide opportunities to increase digital skills, create and engage at a high level and align to our teaching practices for all year levels.  We have done this to ensure that when families do have the financial outlay, the device will last several years. This phased implementation shows that by 2025 we are full BYOD for Year 2 to Year 6.

We understand that parents and the community will have many questions about BYOD and during 2023 we will hold ‘BYOD Information Sessions’ and ‘Parent Onboarding Workshops’ to help us dive deeper into the device specifications, share the ways devices will be used to leverage digital, and help parents with the information they need to purchase and set up the devices.

Homework Policy - Passion Projects

In Queensland State Schools the purpose of a Homework Policy is to communicate homework expectations and support to students and their families, as well as to ensure that homework;

• is effective in supporting learning
• allows sufficient time for family, recreation and community
• does not disadvantage students due to a lack of access to resources.

Our approach to homework encompasses our school motto, Passion & Purpose, by taking the form of PASSION PROJECTS each term. Importantly, it supports our values of EPIC Learners, who are Empowered, Polite, Inclusive and Careful.

John Spencer, a former teacher and now professor, as well as a best-selling author, is a believer in empowering students (and teachers) to own their learning through the power of creativity.  You can learn more about John Spencer here https://spencerauthor.com/

His work centred around ‘What happens when students own their learning?’ is our inspiration for our Homework Policy and much of our pedagogical practices (the way we teach) at school.

Our Homework Policy will be published on our school website soon, and will unpack what a PASSION PROJECT is and how we will support your child to engage in them. Excitedly, it will also unpack how we will showcase these to share with class, year level and our community. Our staff are also keen to undertake PASSION PROJECTS, with Mrs Meyrick already having one underway to share with the school community in Term 1.   

A PASSION PROJECT is a way for a child to capture and share;

• a new learning of interest
• an extended learning about something they are passionate about
• an innovation / design for something new.

Our Homework Policy allows time for students to be athletes, musicians, active and caring community members, creative, entrepreneurs, creators, problem solvers, curious and importantly ‘children’! PASSION PROJECTS allow for children to engage in a hobby or new activity, document their learning or journey however they chose and then present their PASSION PROJECT to an audience.

This video, Seven things that happen when students own their learning, by John Spencer, inspires our development of our Homework Policy. Watch here on YouTube.

Is your child a size 10 shirt?

We are currently seeking four future students (who live in our catchment area) who are a size 10 child's polo shirt. The samples of our House Polo shirts are at sampling stage and we would like to have some student representatives to try on these uniform shirts, take some photos (for publishing) and potentially meet the artist who designed them! If your child is interested, please email Mrs Meyrick principal@newprimaryschoolripley.eq.edu.au expressing interest. 

The Koala Kitchen

Our school will be equipped with a full size training kitchen, known locally to us as 'The Koala Kitchen'. We will use this kitchen to operate our Breakfast Program, cooking lessons with classes and groups and into the future hire this room as an adult cooking class venue. 

Can you help? We are currently seeking a future parent or community member who knows how to make sugar cookies to provide us with advice in purchasing equipment to suit our own Koala Kitchen Cookies production. There might even be a small business that makes sugar cookies locally that could provide advice. If you can help provide advice in this area, please contact Mrs Meyrick via email principal@newprimaryschoolripley.eq.edu.au  

This room is separate to our tuckshop, so does not impact on the quality food for sale for our students and staff. 

Enrolments

As many of you already know, our school will have a catchment map and a supporting EMP (Enrolment Management Plan). The catchment map for 2023 state schools in Queensland has now been released and you can check your address here https://www.qgso.qld.gov.au/maps/edmap/ 

The EMP will also be gazetted soon, and will outline the plan to ensure that our school (now and into the future) can cater for the children in our catchment. It also outlines some examples of out-of-catchment enrolments; however, our community should be aware that this is in very unique circumstances as our EMP does not yet include any 'Programs of Excellence' that allow out-of-catchment enrolments to be considered more widely. 

Purchased land or building in our catchment? Your individual circumstances will be discussed with you, including timelines for build construction and evidence of owner occupancy (not an investment property) will be required. In some cases, these out-of-catchment applications may be possible. 

Managing out of catchment enrolments applications is a sensitive issue, and unique to each circumstance, and many families may unfortunately be upset by the outcome. Please know that our staff are here to support you with your applications of enrolment to your local catchment school. While out-of-catchment applications for enrolment at our new school may be considered, they may not all be successful. Our EMP will outline this in more detail for families.

All families who have submitted an EOI enrolment will have an email sent to them (scheduled for over the weekend) with next steps. We appreciate your patience while we await the release of these documents so we can commence our formal enrolment processes. 

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 Valley Football Club

Ripley Valley Football Club have an EOI open for U6 to 16 Teams for next season which can be accessed via their website. This closes on Oct 31st.

Ripleyvalleyfc.majestri.com.au

Formal registrations for 2023 will also be accessible via this page as of December 1st.

Community News - Ripley Valley Basketball Club

Community Notice of Ripley Valley Basketball Club upcoming AGM:

This Friday 7^th October from 6:30-7:30pm at the Ripley Valley State Secondary College meeting room located out the back of the indoor basketball courts.

As our community basketball club continues to grow each season we are always looking for more volunteers.

If you are interested, please come along to our AGM this Friday.

Email: ripleyvalleybc@outlook.com

Call: Matt 0413 097 749

Community News - Junior Blasters Cricket

JUNIOR BLASTERS 

This year we are expanding our Woolworths Junior Blaster program to include a program being run at Ironbark Park in South Ripley on Saturday mornings. 

The Junior Blasters program is set up in a way that regardless of skill level, participants can progress through the different levels of activity until they have the basic cricket skills required to progress to Master Blasters competition. 

This program is for kids aged 4-8 just starting out with cricket, running for an hour over 15 weeks through until March 2023, with a Christmas and New Year break period in between. South Ripley commences Saturday 8th October at Ironbark Park from 9am. 

Link to general info on Junior Blasters: https://play.cricket.com.au/cricket-blast/junior-blasters 

Link to our registration page: https://www.playhq.com/cricket-australia/register/f66b92 

We look forward to seeing you there!

Community News - Ripley Valley SSC P&C Halloween Movie Night

The Ripley Valley State Secondary College P&C have an upcoming Movie Night on 29th October with gates opening at 5.30pm. Free entry with food vans, roaming entertainment, face painting, games and more. There is also a costume competition, so be sure to dress up! The movie screening will be Ghostbusters Afterlife (rated PG). 

Community News - Ripley Valley SS P&C Trivia

Ripley Valley State School P&C are holding their first community Trivia Night. $500 worth of prizes for first place and over $2000 worth of prizes to give away on the night. Tables of 10 and this is an over 18s event open to the community. Follow the event on the Ripley Valley State School P&C Facebook page for updates and info. Book your table for Saturday October 15th (6pm start)!