Rozelle Public School Newsletter

Rozelle is a place where Aboriginal children learned, played and celebrated their culture for thousands of years on this beautiful, natural land. As we learn, play and celebrate together on this land, we honour the Wangal people of the Eora nation and pay our respects to elders both past, present and emerging.

Welcome back to all our students and families for another term of learning. The past fortnight has flown by as we have all settled back into school routines and established learning programs for the next ten weeks. Every term at Rozelle is busy and Term Two is no exception. Highlights include: PSSA commencing for Stage Three; Gymnastics K-2; Chess; Stage Three Coding; Cross Country Carnival; School Photos; and a two week swimming program. I strongly encourage all families to keep across all school communications via our newsletter, emails and SkoolBag alerts and updates.

COLOUR RUN SUCCESS!

Wow! What a fun day we had yesterday. Energy and excitement filled the air - along with clouds of colour. I would like to extend a huge thank you to all parent volunteers and our P&C President Claire Goldsmith. Not only was it a fabulous event, it also raised over $75,000. No doubt some of us will be washing colour out of our hair for days to come!

ANZAC DAY 

On 25 April at 6am I was joined by our 4 student Prime Ministers - Abbey, Jeremy, Jonah and Mikey for the local Anzac Day Dawn Remembrance Service in Balmain. It was a special community service and I was very proud of our student leaders who attended. It was also great to see so many Rozelle families attending. 

Later on that week the school hosted our own service of remembrance which was coordinated by Mrs Amy Horton. The service was our first whole school assembly since COVID restrictions were eased and our students’ behaviour was exemplary. From an early age, students at Rozelle are learning the significance of Anzac Day and their behaviour reflects this. A highlight of the service was Jamie D playing the Last Post and Reveille - how fortunate are we to have such a talented student at RPS. Well done Jamie.   

COVID - CLOSE CONTACTS

This term, families have returned to new settings in place for anyone identified as a close household contact. If your child is a close household contact, the following procedures must be followed:

• You must notify the school if your child has been identified as a close contact and you are intending to send them to school.
• Your child should take a daily rapid antigen test (RAT) and receive a negative result each morning before attending school for 5 subsequent school days. This is a parental responsibility to minimise the risk of transmission. Today all students will come home with additional RAT kits.
• Primary school students who are identified as close household contacts are recommended to wear a mask indoors at all times (except when eating or exercising).
• No student identified as a close contact will be permitted to participate in overnight excursions, including school camps. There are camps for Years 4, 5 & 6 planned for Term Three.

If your child tests positive to COVID the settings remain the same:

• A positive RAT result must be recorded through the Service NSW app and the school should be notified ASAP.
• NSW Health advice must be followed which includes a 7-day isolation period.   

In NSW, positive COVID-19 cases are provided a Medical Clearance Notice after 7 days and allowed to leave self-isolation if they do not have COVID-19 symptoms. Only then can your child return to school. 

Finally…

While the situation at Rozelle has significantly improved from the end of last term, COVID is still present and circulating in our school community. Please exercise caution and if your child is unwell, they should be at home. This is for their comfort and the wellbeing of others. 

NAPLAN

Over the next fortnight, students in Years 3 & 5 will be participating in NAPLAN - National Assessment Program Literacy & Numeracy. For our Year 3 students this will be their first time participating in the assessment program. The online testing will take place as part of a normal school day. It is not something that parents should worry about - we certainly don't want our students to be worried or stressed. In total, students will do four separate assessments - Reading, Numeracy, Grammar and Punctuation & Writing. These will mostly be facilitated in the morning sessions so it is important students arrive on time, having eaten a good breakfast. Should your child be unwell for any of the tests, there will be an opportunity to sit the test at a later date. 

ROZELLE STAFF ROLL UP THEIR SLEEVES

On the first day of term, the school organised flu vaccinations for staff. It was great to have 35 staff take up this opportunity. The NSW Department of Health are recommending flu vaccines this year and I would encourage parents to speak to their GP about getting a flu shot.

Have a great fortnight 

Andrew Braiding

The NAPLAN assessment period for Year 3 & Year 5 students will begin this Tuesday 10 May and will end on Friday 20 May. NAPLAN assesses the literacy and numeracy skills your child is already learning at school. Teachers have ensured students are familiar with the format of the tests and it is important to remember that NAPLAN is not about passing or failing, but about assessing learning progress.

The best approach for preparing your child for NAPLAN is to encourage your child to do the best they can on the day. Please ensure your child is well prepared by having a calm approach and expecting the best results, having a good breakfast each morning to sustain them for the first session of the day and ensuring they arrive with plenty of time on the morning of their scheduled assessments so there is no rush and they are organised. Below is our proposed test schedule which is subject to change. If for any reason your child misses a test on the scheduled day please know that there are days scheduled for NAPLAN catch up.

WEEK 3

WEEK 4

STUDENT REPORTS

Individual student reports (ISR) and additional student reports (ASR) are usually dispatched to schools towards the end of Term 3. Schools then distribute the ISR and ASR to parents.

Please contact the school if you have any questions about NAPLAN at rozelle-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Our Cross Country Carnival will be held this Thursday 12 May at King George Park, Rozelle. Students in Years 2– 6 will walk with their class to and from King George Park. All children must bring their own lunch and recess, have a supply of water for the day and MUST wear sun safe hats, sun protective clothing and sun screen. Parent and carers are most welcome to join us for the day.

CROSS COUNTRY CUPCAKE STALL

Year 6 parents will be running a cupcake stall at the cross country carnival to raise funds for the Year 6 Farewell. Students may bring some money to purchase some yummy treats.

When parents are up at the school they may have seen the lost property trolley which is wheeled regularly into the Darling Street playground. Should your child misplace a hat, jumper, water bottle or lunchbox…you may find it in the trolley.

Applications for enrolment into the preschool program have now opened. All the necessary information and application forms are available on the school website at  https://rozelle-p.schools.nsw.gov.au/ or from the school office. Children are eligible for enrolment in preschool classes from the beginning of the school year if they turn four years of age before July 31 of that year. Applications close at 3pm on Friday 1 July.

There is no priority for the order in which enrolments are received by the office. The Preschool Placement panel, consisting of the Principal, the President of the P&C and one of our preschool teachers, considers all applications in accordance with the priorities of the Department of Education and Communities' Preschool Enrolment Policy and the Rozelle Public School Preschool Enrolment and Fee Policy.

Wow! What a day and what an amazing result! The P&C is thrilled with the support given by the whole school community to our first ever colour run. We are incredibly grateful for Mr Braiding’s enthusiastic promotion of this event. A special thanks goes to the great sports who agreed to put their bodies on the line to be slimed when we hit our stretch targets - school leaders Jonah, Abbey, Mikey and Jeremy, Alden Kwok and Tara Bryant and of course, Andrew Braiding. We are delighted to announce that Rozelle Public received over $75,000 in sponsorship pledges – well done, RPS!!

Now that the fun run is over, the last step is to finalise your child’s incentive reward. The ‘wishlist’ of prizes they made when they first set up their profile needs to be confirmed and orders placed for redemption. Please access the fundraising profile on https://www.schoolfunrun.com.au/ and finalise the order by SUNDAY 15 MAY.

Now that the kids have had their fun, it’s time for the Rozelle parents to get together, strain their brain and battle it out to find RPS’s trivia champions!! Hosted by professional quiz master Simon Whale, this event will be held in the school hall where you can BYO snacks and drinks. Book a babysitter and snap up your tickets ASAP as this awesome night will sell out quick! Purchase a team table of 8 or individual tickets from https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing?eid=901597&

The social and fundraising committee is looking for donations big and small for prizes to add to the fun and excitement on the night. If your business, employer or contacts have an item or service suitable as a raffle prize to donate we would love to hear from you! We are also looking for items of smaller value such as gourmet treats, coffee beans, alcohol, vouchers, homemade goods etc that can go into the prize hampers for our winning teams and runners up. 

Please send an email to carolynmag08@gmail.com if you can help with donating goods or your time as a volunteer (marking answer sheets, etc). 

The Uniform Shop continues to supply online orders placed via Flexischools. The shop also opens on Friday mornings between 8.45am and 9.30am for cash or credit card sales of our new and second hand items. Order enquiries can be made via rozelleuniformshop@gmail.com

Thank you to our 2021/2022 sponsor Cindy Kennedy from the McGrath Team Balmain for your financial support of our P&C events.