Hello, and welcome to the monthly Principal's blog. In this post I discuss our successful grant funding application, recent school improvements, upcoming events and more.
Chris English, Playground Duty with Students, February 2023
Grant success
We’re very excited to share with the RGS community this fantastic news announced by our local MP, Dave Layzell. In addition to 10k received from Bengalla Mining Company in 2022, we have received a grant of $306k to create safe bus access to the front of the school! This is a large project that couldn’t happen without an available grant like the Stronger Country Community Fund and the support of local organisations. We look forward to commencing the project later this year. Thank you to everyone involved for your support of our school and the safety of our children.
State MP, Dave Layzell, parents, teachers and students Richard GIll School, February 2023
School Assemblies
Last week we held our first, fortnightly assembly for students, now that our student body has grown. Each sport’s “house” within the school will rotate responsibility for delivering the assembly, ensuring they have a strong focus on the children, with Barrington (blue) leading our first assembly. Towarri (red) and Wollemi (yellow) will have their turn in weeks to come, with our school houses named after nearby national parks in the Upper Hunter, Wollimi, Towarri, and Barrington. The children all shined when undertaking their leadership responsibilities. A perfect opportunity to support our students in building self-confidence and leadership skills.
Richard Gill School’s first assembly for 2023
School Improvements
Improvements to our playground have been completed, with retaining walls, rainwater tank and pool-style fencing installed around our vegetable gardens and undercover eating area. We hope to install a new piece of playground equipment throughout the year as a result of reviewing submissions made by our students last year through their STEM project learning task.
New water tank being installed at RGS
Individual Education Plans
Individual Education Plans (IEP’s) are a key feature of Richard Gill School, which staff develop in collaboration with families for EVERY student. Meetings with families are being scheduled for Week 8, giving time for children to settle back into their school routines and a strength-based plan to be formulated to ensure our students can work to their potential.
Upcoming Events
There are lots of events and initiatives planned this term!
Today we participated in the Clean Up Australia Day initiative where all students donned their hats and gloves and ventured to nearby grass clearings, collecting numerous bags of rubbish and discussing the importance of putting our rubbish in the bin and maintaining a healthy ecosystem. It is always a joy to take the children outside of the classroom to participate in these kinds of community initiatives. The children really look forward to hands on activities, and I’m sure our neighbouring residents appreciate the reserve to the rear of the school being free of litter.
Clean Up Australia Day at RGS 2023, Friday March 3, 2023
Our inaugural swimming carnival is next Friday, which all staff and students are extremely excited about. This will be our first official sports carnival event and will see students participate in three competitive events of freestyle, breaststroke, and diving. It will also be the first time they are able to sing their sports house’ ‘war cry’ outside of practicing it at school. All house war cries were composed by Richard Gill’s son, Anthony. Sports carnivals are an exciting time for the whole school, and we can’t wait to watch the children enjoy their first event that encompasses lots of team spirit and healthy competition.
Richard Gill School students are also excited to be preparing for our first performance for 2023 at the Upper Hunter Show on Friday, March 17. Myself and Mrs Sherringham have been working hard to prepare a program of predominantly vocal works for the exhibition, where Kindergarten children will be performing for the first time. We will be performing at 2pm. Keep an eye out for details on our Facebook page if you would like to attend.
Enrolment
Next Thursday we are offering an “Early Bird Tour” for families who have already expressed interest in joining Kindergarten in 2024. This will be followed by our popular “Kindy for a Day” program on Friday, May 26, after which time enrolment offers will be made to families. With 6 siblings joining the class, there are only 14 places in Kindergarten available for 2023. There is also a lot of interest for Kindergarten by new families for 2023, so if you are at all interested I would suggest you register your interest in enrolment as soon as possible.
Enrolment is open to Year 1, Year 2, and Year 3 students in 2023, and a waitlist is in place for Kindergarten 2023. To enrol or join our waitlist, please contact the school.
Our prospectus, enrolment form, parent info and fee information can be found here.
Media
Stay tuned for a “Cyber Security” blog incoming from www.chrisenglish.com.au , following attendance at the inaugural AISNSW Cyber Security Symposium hosted by Microsoft in North Sydney last Friday.
Donations
Thank you so very much to Valerie Tamblyn-Mills and Sheila Keane who have contributed another $4,000 to our school, in addition to the $8,000 they contributed in 2022. A reminder that Richard Gill School is a tax-deductible charity, and we welcome donations to support the work we do at our school.
Richard Gill School is always on the lookout for donations of good quality upright pianos, as we forecast the need for up to 8 more pianos in the school in the years to come. This will ensure we have a piano in every learning space, which we know would make Richard most pleased. If you have a good quality piano you would consider donating the school, please contact us and we will organise delivery and tuning.
Yours in Music,
Chris English – Principal, Richard Gill School