Hello, and welcome to the eleventh of my monthly Principal's blogs. I will be sharing a new blog post on the first Friday of each month and in this post, I will provide an update of the school’s official commencement, our special event and new donations.
Update
Firstly, a clarification: my previous blog posting (Feb 5, #010) did not make it clear that the former teacher at the RGS resigned for personal reasons before the school opened. Naturally, we thank that teacher for her constructive contribution and wish her well in her future endeavour.
Staff
This month has seen Miss Tracy Main, a local SLSO and administration support officer join our team on Wednesdays and Fridays. Welcome, Tracy!
We also send our best wishes to our General Assistant, Adam Stair, who has needed to move on for personal reasons, and whom we are seeking a replacement for 1 day of work per week. Interested applicants should email the school at admin@rgs.nsw.edu.au with their CV and contact details of 2 referees.
Enrolment
Enrolments for Richard Gill School are always open, and in 2022 will open to Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2. Our prospectus, enrolment form, parent info and fee information can be found here.
Teaching
We have now completed the first 5 weeks of school and the children have been busy learning about many new things. Every day begins with whole school singing and Music lessons with Mr English, followed by learning across all key learning areas (KLA’s) with Miss Presland. The children have been doing daily physical activity, growing seedlings in cups, learning to write their names and count to 100, amongst other things. Our children are especially enjoying their science lessons and finding opportunities to sing and move throughout the day.
Today, all Richard Gill students, parent volunteers and staff participated in ‘Clean Up Australia Day’, spending over 2 hours cleaning rubbish from the vacant block behind the school and along the street frontage on Maitland Street, which helps the children develop a sense of pride for their school and for the environment. The students enjoyed being out in nature and doing their part in keeping our community and planet clean.
Special Event
To officially celebrate the opening of Richard Gill School, we welcome all to attend our Community Open Day on Saturday, March 13 between 10am – 1pm. There will be a range of complementary attractions including a jumping castle, merry-go-round, face painting and live music, plus of course the opportunity for prospective families to visit the school and inspect our newly constructed classrooms.
More information on the event can be found here.
I look forward to sharing information about our special celebration in my next blog.
Donations
Thank you to Heather-Rose for her generous donation of a near new upright Beale piano. We now have 3 uprights and 1 baby grand at Richard Gill School, all of which have been donated, for which we are terribly grateful!
Thank you also to Stan Ray for donating his time, resources, and timber to create a lovely set of natural seating and balancing equipment for the children in the playground.
Thank you to Gideon Douglas for donating a defibrillator wall cabinet to the school, and to Brett Carr, Louise Rogers and Mel Elks at Swansea PS for partnering with Richard Gill School and providing additional support to our classroom teacher Miss Chelsea Presland.
A particular thank you to our parent body who have also been very active this month supporting the promotion of our Open Day event, driving our temporary school bus and assisting with an environmental grant.
Media
There have been several articles shared about the school this month, as word of the school continues to spread across Australia. More information about these articles can be found on our social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, which I would encourage you to follow.
Yours in Music,
Chris English – Principal, Richard Gill School