Term 2 Week 8

16th June 2025

As outlined in a previous newsletter and discussed at a P&C Meeting at the beginning of the school year, due to our increased enrolment, we will be reorganising our classes next semester for Years 1-3. 

When the 2025 school year began, we were one student away from forming 11 classes, meaning that we began the year at maximum capacity. Since then, our enrolments have increased, and as a result, our staffing entitlement has increased as well. Our classes have become too large and a reorganisation is necessary. 

With that, we welcome Ms Alyisha Beckingham to our Russell Vale staff. Ms Beckingham has been a regular casual teacher at our school throughout the past semester and has extensive experience working as a full-time classroom teacher, most recently in 2024 at Appin Public School. Ms Beckingham will add greatly to Russell Vale’s commitment to nurture, guide, inspire and challenge students – to find the joy in learning, and to develop the skills and attitudes needed to understand the world and, in time, become active, contributing members of society. 

As always, we will do our best to ensure that each child’s individual needs are considered in this transition and discussions have been held at great length with teaching staff about how to best create the new classroom. In doing this, we will limit excess movement among current classes, but some changes across the classrooms are inevitable. Please note that this will not affect any Year 4 students. All families will be notified prior to the end of this term if their child is affected by these changes. 

Our next P&C meeting will take place tonight, Monday 16th June, at the Woonona-Bulli RSL starting at 7:00pm. We have a fantastic group of very dedicated volunteers who add a substantial amount to the life and operation of our school for the benefit of all students and I look forward to catching up with them prior to my long service leave detailed below.

Student reports will go home Wednesday 25th June. As always, the report will indicate whether your child’s teacher has requested an interview with you. I remind you that even though an interview may not be requested by your child’s teacher, you will have the opportunity to request one from the teacher. This year, we will once again be using an online booking system for parent-teacher interviews. Interview bookings will go live Thursday 19th June via School Bytes and interviews will take place in Week 10. If none of the times provided are suitable, please contact the teacher to arrange an alternative time.

Congratulation to all students who participated in our Public Speaking Competition in their classrooms. It is a pleasure to see such fantastic talent from the students at Russell Vale. Each of our stage winners and runners-up will present their speeches later this year at one of our Community of Schools assemblies and next term at our annual Education Week Open House in Week 3. 

The winners were:

Kindergarten:  Lola B

Stage One:  Giselle B

Stage Two:  James M

Stage Three:  Max B

The runners-up were:

Kindergarten:  Lara F

Stage One:  Angus M

Stage Two:  Rosalie M & Finn B

Stage Three:  Talulah N

Also, congratulations to our Premier’s Spelling Bee winners:

Junior winner:  Jasper K

Junior runner-up:  Verity L

Senior winner:  Isabella P

Senior runner-up:  Tempe L

Best of luck to our Stage 2 & 3 students who will be participating in their Gala Day this Friday.

I will be on long service leave beginning Thursday 19th June and returning Monday 4th August as I head back to Canada with my family. Pip Smith will be Relieving Principal during this time.

Paul Cuthbertson
Principal

Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in line with the NCCD guidelines (2019). 

Information provided about students to the Australian Government for the NCCD includes: 

• year of schooling;
• category of disability: physical, cognitive, sensory or social/emotional; and
• level of adjustment provided: support provided within quality differentiated teaching practice, supplementary, substantial or extensive. 

This information assists schools to:

• formally recognise the supports and adjustments provided to students with disability in schools; 
• consider how they can strengthen the support of students with disability in schools; and 
• develop shared practices so that they can review their learning programs in order to improve educational outcomes for students with disability. 

The NCCD provides state and federal governments with the information they need to plan more broadly for the support of students with disability. 

The NCCD will have no direct impact on your child and your child will not be involved in any testing process. The school will provide data to the Australian Government in such a way that no individual student will be able to be identified – the privacy and confidentiality of all students is ensured. All information is protected by privacy laws that regulate the collection, storage and disclosure of personal information. To find out more about these matters, please refer to the Australian Government’s Privacy Policy (https://www.education.gov.au/privacy-policy). 

Further information about the NCCD can be found on the NCCD Portal (https://www.nccd.edu.au). 

If you have any questions about the NCCD, please contact the school.

Thank you to everyone who brought in a gold coin donation for Pjyama Day last Thursday. Funds raised enabled us to purchase 16 'Lets Read Book Packs' totaling $420 for The Smith Family.

Sushi Day will be held on Wednesday 18th June for International Sushi Day - orders have now closed.

A huge thank you to Megan, Kirsty, Angela, Tahnee, Vanessa, Abby, John and Ellen for all your support and help in the canteen for the Athletics Carnival, it was a mammoth day. If you see any of these parents around, please give them a thanks. 

An extra special thank you to Megan and Kirsty, who ran their own athletics carnival race inside the canteen from start to finish. Megan started preparing weeks beforehand, prepped the day before, cleaned at the end of the day and to top it off made house coloured cupcakes. What a champion! How good do they look. 

Thank you everyone! 

• 16th   P&C Meeting - Woonona Bulli RSL 7:00pm
• 17th   Choral Festival Rehearsal
• 18th   Sushi Day
• 19th   Parent-Teacher Interviews online bookings open at 9:00am 
• 20th   Stage 2 & 3 PSSA Soccer, Touch & Rugby Gala Day
• 25th   Student Reports go home
• 30th-4th July  Parent-Teacher Interviews 

• 4th      Last Day of Term 2
• 21st    School Development Day
• 22nd   Students commence Term 3
• 23rd    State Cross Country
• 31st    District Athletics Carnival - Day 1

• 1st      District Athletics Carnival - Day 2
• 4th     Choral Festival Rehearsal
• 18th    Amplify Music Performance
• 20th   CoS Day 3 - Woonona High School

Sadie C, Ellis M, Jacinta P

Lux P, Molly J, Cruzer C, Callum J, Ezra N, Sadie C, Lily T, Harper E, Luca B

Sofia H, Daisy S

Clarence H, Kade M, Jacinta P, Jack M, Ruby F

Louis W, Samuel W, Archie K, Monty B, Jime-Paul K

Harvey S, Oscar G, Raphi C, Will D, Penny J, Sunny K, Eliza K, Sienna B, Lucas S, Marley T, Isaac L

Bowen P

Disclaimer: Russell Vale Public School advertises in this column as a service to parents. Russell Vale Public School does not endorse, sponsor or accept responsibility for the management or organisation of the advertised events or services.