Principal’s Blog 013 - Enrolments Open, Local Concert and Our Family Info Night

Hello, and welcome to the thirteenth of my monthly Principal's blogs. 13 is proving to be a lucky number for the school, having commenced with 13 inaugural children and our official opening occurring on the 13th of March. Here is hoping some more luck is coming our way! In this post I will provide a general update of the school, including enrolments, our upcoming Family Info Night and more...

Update

Our website has recently undergone an update. Please jump on and check it out at www.richardgillschool.nsw.edu.au

We hope to have our playground installation completed in the very near future, and am confident that in our next blog I will be able to share some images of its construction and completion.

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.

Enrol for 2022 before June 30 to receive a 25% discount off Term 1 fees!

Family Info Night

For any prospective parents, please know we are hosting a “Family Info Night” on Wednesday, May 19 at 6pm if you would like to visit the school and hear all about it. Follow the link below to register to your attendance. Visit our event page for more info here.

This event will be followed by a “Kindy for a Day” session in early June, which will be an excellent opportunity for prospective students to enjoy a day at “big school”, participate in our daily music lesson whilst meeting their peers and staff. More information to come on this soon.

Early Childhood Music

Our complimentary Early Childhood Music program commenced this Wednesday with strong attendance from the community. It is wonderful to connect with pre-school aged children and give them an enriching musical education at such an important age. There are a small number of places still available in the program. If you are interested, please visit the Early Childhood page on our website.

Donations

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Thank you to Deborah Sellers for donating some early childhood play items to the school, and to Deborah Sheridan for donating her time to assist with our weekly early childhood music classes which commenced this week with great success. The kitchen donated by Deborah was an immediate hit with the children at a recent wet-weather lunchtime.

Media

Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra

Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra

Tonight, we are thrilled to have the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra performing in Muswellbrook, where they are also providing an intimate workshop for our children to finish the school day. What a treat for our children and the Muswellbrook community! We hope this is the first of many performances and workshops in Muswellbrook and look forward to strengthening the ties between the school and ensemble of which Richard was so instrumental in creating. Thank you to Nicole and Rachel at ARCO, and their team, for making this a possibility.

If you would like to attend the concert at 7pm tonight at the Upper Hunter Conservatorium of Music, follow this link - Muswellbrook ARCO Concert.

Yours in Music,

Chris English – Principal, Richard Gill School

Principal’s Blog 012 - Our Special Event, School Progress and Early Childhood Music

Hello, and welcome to the twelfth of my monthly Principal's blogs, on this special Good Friday. I will be sharing a new blog post on the first Friday of each month and in this post, I will provide a recap of our opening event, video’s and images from the day, and our complimentary early childhood music program.

Update

We have had a wonderful first term at Richard Gill School, with Miss Presland, the children and I working hard to establish strong relationships with one another, the cornerstone of all successful teaching. Our parent community are overwhelmingly satisfied with how things are progressing, the teaching and academic progress of their children, and the communications between home and school.

We have recently taken delivery of our new playground equipment and are in the process of coordinating installation, which we hope to confirm in the next few weeks.

Some minor construction works are also scheduled for week 2 of the holidays, with new acoustic paneling to be installed on the ceilings of the new spaces for acoustic treatment.  

Special Event

Above images 1-3 thanks to Jemma Anshaw from Hunter River Times and images 4-12 thanks to Megan Johns Kane from MJK Creative.

On Saturday March 13 Richard Gill School hosted a community open day and official opening event for friends and family of Richard. We were extremely fortunate with the weather, having large storms on the Friday preceding and Sunday following the event. I suspect a special someone was looking down on us with their best wishes! The event was an enormous success, with some excellent video footage captured by Jae Nelson from Little Ruby. Follow the YouTube links below to be the first to view our videos.

A big thank you to all who were involved in the planning and running of the event, particularly our staff, parent volunteers (particularly Mathew Chaina and Jem Anshaw), community volunteers and suppliers; Pampa Flame, All Fun Rides, Sweet Bs Creations, Hot Rock Catering, Beavis Party Hire, The Upper Hunter Conservatorium of Music, Kyda Rock, Gale Force Face Painting, Muswellbrook High School, Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra, Sarah English Marketing, MJK Creative and Little Ruby. And a very special thank you also to the anonymous donors who funded much of the event - you know who you are. We could not have pulled off such a wonderful day without all of this support.

Children singing the school song “Oh Come Now My Friends” composed by Nigel Westlake, lyrics by Anthony Gill

Montage and speech highlights of our Official Opening event

Footage from ABC’s “The Business” on day 1 of the school opening

NESA

As we expand into Year 2 tuition in 2022, we have submitted our annual documentation to the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA).

Early Childhood Music

We have 12 x 3-5 year old’s enrolled in our complimentary Early Childhood Music program, set to commence on Wednesday May 5. This is a very exciting new strand of the Richard Gill School which is already proving popular with young families in Muswellbrook. There are still some spots availble. If you are interested be sure to fill in our expression of interest form as soon as possible here.

Shopping Centre Holiday Pop-Up Sessions

For local families with children entering K/1/2 in 2022, if you’d like to speak with me personally about the school please drop into Muswellbrook Marketplace on Monday/Wednesday/Thursday or Friday, April 12/14/15 or 16. I will be set up at the top of the escalator between 11am and 2pm each of these days with information packs available for collection.

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 at on our Documents section on the website here.

Wishing everyone a safe and happy school holiday,

Yours in Music,

Chris English – Principal, Richard Gill School

Principal's Blog 011. School’s commencement, our special event and new donations

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

Principal’s Blog 009. School’s Construction, Orientation Program, and Our Special Event.

Hello, and welcome to the ninth edition of my monthly Principal's blogs, and my final blog for 2020. I will be sharing a new blog post on the first Friday of each month and in this post. In this post, I will provide an update of the school’s construction, Orientation program, and our special event.

Orientation 2020

This week we welcomed eight Kindergarten students to Richard Gill School to commence their Orientation program, which was terribly exciting! Below is a summary:

This week saw some of our inaugural students arrive onsite as a group to participate in the first of our orientation sessions. It’s going to be a year of firsts!

Our new Kindergarten students participated in a range of activities outside. Sand and playdough were big hits, as was utilising a range of sporting equipment in their play scenarios. The students also participated in some music activities and explored the delightful sounds of the “humarimba” (human-marimba). A humarimba is meant to have two people holding it with a belt around their waist but as it is too heavy for young children, I have attached it to my hammock stand. Several unique tunes were improvised with the accompaniment of fruit shakers! Many also played puppet shows.

We enjoyed listening to a story and getting to know each other. I hope everyone enjoys many more playdough creations with their take-home playdough.

I am looking forward to meeting the rest of the inaugural class next week and am very excited about starting 2021 together.

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School Development

Construction continues to remain on time, with structural steel and further mechanical works being conducted this week, before electrical and plasterboard works commence in the coming weeks leading up to Christmas. Our play equipment has been ordered but with a 12-week lead time will be installed mid-way through Term 1. Stan Ray is generously donating some lovely natural tree stumps and timber logs for nature play and balance activities that the children can use until our permanent installation occurs.

We are Registered

It is with great excitement and relief that Richard Gill School has now received their official NESA (NSW Education Standards Authority) registration certificate meaning Richard Gill School is now officially recognised as a new, NESA accredited independent school. This is a huge milestone for the school and a great amount of effort and time has gone into seeing this come to fruition. I would like to thank our staff, board and everyone else involved for their tireless work in making this a reality.

Enrolment

Enrolments for 2021 are still being accepted. Please do not delay in returning your enrolment form. Our prospectus, enrolment form, parent info and fee information can be found on our website, in our Documents section here.

Save the Date

Saturday, January 30, 2021. To celebrate the official opening of Richard Gill School we wish to invite everyone in the community to save the date for a special community event on the school grounds. We will have several complimentary family-friendly attractions to be enjoyed by the community throughout the day, followed by a VIP event in the evening for special guests who have supported the school throughout this critical establishment phase.

Donations

This week I would like to put the call out to any person, family or organisation that could donate children’s books to our library. Staff and friends have donated approximately 75 books to kick start the library, however, it would be ideal for the children to have hundreds of books at their disposal to borrow and read at their leisure and during their lessons.

Thank you to Aberdeen Library who have also donated some 100 books to our library.

Please email details of any prospective book donations to admin@richardgillschool.nsw.edu.au we are seeking fiction and non-fiction children’s books in good condition.

Merry Christmas

The staff and I would like to wish you all a happy and safe Christmas and New Year and hope everyone enjoys a wonderful time with family and loved ones.

There will be no Principal’s Blog in January. I look forward to giving you another instalment the first week of February 2021.

Yours in Music,

Chris English – Principal, Richard Gill School

Principal’s Blog 008 School Construction and a Special Community Event

Hello, and welcome to the eighth 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 construction, new donations received and a special community event to save the date for.

Update

We have now received written confirmation of our NESA (NSW Education Standards Authority) registration as a new independent school, and are now only awaiting the arrival of our official signed certificate from the Minister of Education. This is fantastic news and allows numerous other pieces of the logistical puzzle to fall into place.

School development

Construction is now well under way having commenced on Monday October 19. Demolition was the first order of business, which has now been completed. Fencing works have commenced and will be completed any day now, weather permitting. We also had our dangerous (hollow) tree removed and engraved with our school initials RGS by the generous Stan and Mark Ray. See photos below.

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Enrolments for 2021 are still being accepted. Please do not delay in returning your enrolment form. Our prospectus, enrolment form, parent info and fee information can be found here

Thankfully, restrictions surrounding Kindergarten Orientation programs are being relaxed in NSW as Covid community transmission rates remain very low. I look forward to developing an orientation program for our foundation students to be held sometime in November/December. Stay tuned.

Community Event

Save the date Saturday January 30, 2021.

To celebrate the official opening of Richard Gill School we wish to invite everyone to save the date for a special community event on the school grounds. We will have a number of complimentary family friendly attractions to be enjoyed by the community throughout the day, followed by a VIP event in the evening for special guests who have supported the school throughout this critical establishment phase.

Donations

This month it brings me great pleasure to acknowledge 2 new generous donations to our school. The first is a significant financial contribution by Mr John Flood towards equity scholarships for local children. The second is an upright piano donated by Carol and Tony Berry of Aberdeen. We have also received delivery of another upright piano donated earlier this year by Sheridan Carmichael of Muswellbrook. On behalf of the school and the board I must offer my immense thanks to these individuals for their generosity and the positive impact they will have on the school and the education of our children.

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Yours in Music,

Chris English – Principal, Richard Gill School

Principal’s Blog 007 Exciting New School Developments

Hello, and welcome to the seventh 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 development, music education research and an exciting new opportunity for music in Muswellbrook.

Update

This week I have been meeting families and community members at Muswellbrook Fair (in front of Coles) from 10am – 1pm, and next week I will be at Marketplace (at the top of the escalator) from 10am – 1pm. If you’d like to discuss the school or enrolment with me in person, please come and have a chat, no booking required.

School Development

It is now 17 days until construction will commence at Richard Gill School, and 122 days until day 1 of Term 1, 2021! We have selected our construction company of choice and demolition of the existing interior for Stage 1 is set to commence on Monday October 19, allowing us maximum time to complete Stage 1 of the school by mid-January. All going well, expect to see some photos of our early construction works in next month’s blog.

Enrolment

Our enrolment numbers have reached double figures, with 10 students now confirmed as foundation students at Richard Gill School! Further to this, our sibling discount in 2021 has been set at a reduction of $750 for the second child, $1500 for the third and a huge $3375 for the fourth child.

Enrolments for 2021 are now being accepted. Please do not delay in returning your enrolment form. Our prospectus, enrolment form, parent info (NESA) and fee information can be found here.

Orientation

Thankfully, restrictions surrounding Kindergarten Orientation programs are being relaxed in NSW as Covid community transmission rates remain very low and we look forward to developing an orientation program for our foundation students to be held sometime in November/December. Stay tuned.

Point of interest

Now available for public review is recent Music Education research conducted by Dr Anita Collins. These documents can be found here or on our website under the heading ‘Research’ on our Family Resouces page. This is essential reading for all music educators and parents.

As the Richard Gill School establishes itself in Muswellbrook, we hope to attract unique musical and educational opportunities not ever seen before in our region. Excitingly, we have had interest from the Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra or ARCO (an ensemble with which Richard was heavily involved in) regarding a potential concert and workshop opportunity for May 2021. Watch this space, and enjoy the warmer weather.

Yours in Music,

Chris English – Principal, Richard Gill School

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