From the Principal
There is so much that happens in the life of a school and so much that needs to be done in order for school community life to flourish. As an Anglican School, we make no excuses for our Christian faith and the Christian culture of respect and care for one another in our School.
Your child has an opportunity every day to be surrounded with the positive messages of hope in Christ and assurances of their personal value to enable them to be all they can be, with confidence and an ability to serve society in a meaningful way.
Every five years the Anglican Schools Corporation conduct school reviews to assist their schools with strategic planning and school improvement processes. This year RJ will undertake a Corporation review in Term 3. Prior to the review taking place, all parents and carers with children at RJ will receive a link to a parent survey for completion. To assist the Corporation with their review and the RJ School Council and Executive strategic planning process we are currently undertaking, I would like to invite all of our families across both campuses to set some time aside to participate in the survey. The data collected will be invaluable to all parties concerned in moving our school forward into the future.
Over the last two weeks, I had the opportunity to hear students from 2M at Marsden Park teach us about being kind to one another irrespective of our interests, ideas or backgrounds. Learning lessons like these at such a young age are important as we grow as a School community and learn to embrace one another. It was also great to see so many of our students from Marsden Park join with some of our Secondary leaders in the Riverstone March last Saturday morning proudly supporting their School and being a wonderful representation to the Riverstone community.
I’m delighted to inform our Marsden Park families of our Music Studio facilities that were completed last week. Our music tutor staff are already making great use of the studios as they provide instrumental and voice tuition to our students. These studios will service the performing arts endeavours while we wait for specialty areas to be built over time at the campus.
As I wrote to families back in February, we are deliberately focusing on developing our instrumental music and vocal programs right across RJ, particularly since they took a big hit during the last two years of COVID. There is much benefit to a child’s development and academic pursuits when they are engaged in music education, not just for one year, but multiple years. If you would like your child to learn an instrument or undertake vocal tuition, please contact our music staff via email performingarts@rjas.nsw.edu.au and they will inform you how to register your interest.
Last week saw our Year 3, Year 5, Year 7 and Year 9 students involved in the NAPLAN testing program. Thank you to Mrs Scrimshaw, Mrs Taylor, Mrs Shannon-Duhigg, Mr Maxwell and Mr Sale for the organisation of their teams overseeing this process and ensuring catch up sessions for students who missed any testing being run over the coming days. The data captured through these tests will provide our staff with a snapshot of the development of our students’ literacy and numeracy and become a point of reference for further individual student growth analysis as our teaching staff look to advance our student learning.
Tonight at the Oakhurst Campus, parents will join members of the Executive to take part in the RJ Oakhurst Community Connect evening and hear from our new School Council Chair, Rev Mike Smith and some of the School Executive. If you haven’t yet registered for the evening, please hop online and let us know you’re coming. We will have a similar evening for our Marsden Park families in a week or so. However, no matter what campus your child attends, please feel free to attend any night that fits with your personal schedule.
This week we have Photo Days happening at both campuses and our next installment of Open Mornings across the school at Oakhurst (Wednesday 18 May @ 9am and 5pm) and Marsden Park (Saturday 21 May @ 9am). If you have friends looking to enrol at RJ for next year, now is their opportunity to do so. Places are filling fast in our entry years (Kindy and Year 7) for 2023 but now is the time to act… and don’t forget, Secondary will be opening at Marsden Park in 2024 for Year 7 students.
I thank God every day for the opportunity to lead such a fine School and see our students stretch in their learning. RJ continues to be a place for young people to belong, serve and succeed and where we desire to grow learners, connect hearts and build community.
God Bless,
Mr Alan Dawson | Principal
