Hello, and welcome to the twenty-sixth of my monthly Principal's blogs. In this post I discuss Aboriginal Education, our Strategic Plan, Kindy for a Day, and the Stanmore Festival of Music returning.
Update
Today is the last day of Term 2, with staff and students no doubt looking forward to a well-earned Winter break. Students return to school on Tuesday, July 19, with a Staff Development Day being held on Monday, July 18.
Aboriginal Education – “Get Up, Stand Up, Show Up”
On Thursday, June 2, three of our students represented Richard Gill School at an Aboriginal Flag raising ceremony hosted by Muswellbrook Shire Council at Simpson Park. Audrey, Eli, and Izaac represented the school with pride and observed a Welcome to Country and a didgeridoo performance, which was then shared with our students back at school. Throughout the month of June, we’ve had a strong indigenous focus to our lessons across many KLA’s where the students have learnt an indigenous song, completed numerous indigenous artworks, made Johnny Cakes and damper, participated in a yarning circle, and have generally sought to celebrate and recognise the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through our History lessons. We look forward to forging strong connections with our local indigenous elders and organisations as our school continues to grow.
Strategic plan
We are pleased to share with our friends and followers the Richard Gill School Strategic Plan for 2022-2026. After numerous revisions and feedback from various stakeholders, the Board of Directors and I believe this plan clearly outlines a strong vision for the establishment of the school.
View our Strategic Plan here.
Kindy for a Day
On Friday June 24 we held our first “Kindy for a Day” session for the year, with prospective students considering enrolment at Richard Gill School in 2023. We are excited to see interest in our school surge as our reputation grows, and currently have 17 enrolments confirmed for Kindergarten 2023, with only 3 places remaining. Thank you to Miss Presland, Mrs Sherringham, Miss Smith and Mrs Hines for all their work coordinating a fantastic day for our prospective students.
Stanmore’ Festival of Music
We are excited to announce that students from Richard Gill School have been invited to perform at the annual Stanmore Festival of Music, a festival created in honour of Richard. The festival will be taking place on Saturday November 5. You can follow the Festival’s Facebook page here.
See below the caricatures of Richard Gill being used as part of the Festival’s promotion.
by Bill Leak
by Shakespeare
Enrolment
In 2023, enrolment is open to Kindergarten, Year 1, Year 2, and Year 3 students. 3 places only are still available for Kindergarten 2023.
Enrolments for Richard Gill School are always open, and in 2022 are open to Kindergarten, Year 1, and Year 2. Our prospectus, enrolment form, parent info and fee information can be found here.
Donations
Thank you to the following people who have made recent contributions to our Scholarship Fund. We are so very grateful for your generous donations, which will go directly to ensuring children from all backgrounds can attend our musically focused school:
Kim Williams AM
Valerie Tamblyn-Mills and Sheila Keane
Warrick Jordan
Diana Humphries
Kerin Brown
Thanks also to Jane Spencer who has donated a beautiful French Horn to our school, and to Elizabeth Grainger who is donating some wonderful music teaching texts.
Media
Intentional looping/repeat teaching is a key characteristic of learning at Richard Gill School, whereby our students stay with their teacher for 2 or sometimes 3 years. This is something I have seen have great success in Steiner schools (although they take the idea a little too far IMO) and in Big Picture Education. The article below examines research that supports the idea of looping – website link here
“Researchers found that repeat teachers are linked to slight increases in students’ test scores in math and English/language arts across all grade levels.”
The impact of Covid 19 on 15-19yo Australians - Orygen and Mission Australia have released their report on the impact of COVID-19 on young Australians in 2021, based on an annual Australia-wide survey of more than 20,000 young people. Whilst the children at RGS are much younger than those surveyed in this report, Covid 19 has brought many disruptions to education, particularly for those who commenced Kindergarten in 2020.
The full report is available to download here: Clusters of COVID-19 Impact
Finally, the staff and I are looking forward to a well-deserved break, with school returning Tuesday, July 19, and hope you stay safe and dry in the days and weeks ahead.
Yours in Music,
Chris English – Principal, Richard Gill School