Dear Parents/Guardians

Last weekend, Riverside High School’s Junior and Senior F1 in Schools teams competed in the National Finals held in Melbourne. The event was livestreamed, allowing our school community to watch the races and listen to the students’ interviews.

This week’s newsletter includes a detailed report from the event, along with the final competition results.

A huge thank you to all the students who participated for their incredible effort, commitment, resilience and collaboration in completing their car designs and portfolios. Your hard work truly paid off!

Special thanks to Jay Duggan (Science Teacher), Annette McCarthy, and Jo Howell for supporting the students throughout the national competition and to Adrian Smith (Assistant Principal), who coordinates the F1 in Schools program at Riverside High School.

Students who participated included:

Alice G, Charlie S, Louis H, Lucas P, Millie V E, Nandali A, Nina H, Nina L, William W and Yuxuan S

Save the Date: SideFest 2025 – Friday, 24th October!

Looking ahead to 2025, Riverside High School will once again host SideFest our much loved school fair! SideFest is a fantastic learning opportunity that fosters collaboration and strengthens our connection with the wider community. The theme for this year’s fair is “Halloween” and we’re already excited for what’s to come.

The first SideFest planning meeting will be held later this term. If you’re interested in running a stall, please contact the School Administration Team on 6327 6333.

External School Review

As part of our commitment to continuous school improvement, our school will participate in an External School Review this year. These reviews aim to support schools in raising student achievement, maintaining high performance and ensuring quality assurance to build public confidence in Tasmanian Government schools.

All Tasmanian Government schools undergo an external review every four years. The primary focus of the review is to help us enhance student learning outcomes. The Review Team will include an External School Review Leader and trained Principal Peer Reviewers. Our review is scheduled to take place on Monday, 16^th June – Thursday, 19^th June.

Through this process, we will identify effective school practices that have been validated by the Review Team, as well as areas where we can make future improvements.

As part of the review, some students, families, School Association members and staff may be invited to share their perspectives with the Review Team. This may occur through:

• Individual interviews (including phone calls with families)
• Group discussions (with students or staff)
• Meetings (such as School Association or staff meetings)
• Classroom visits

We sincerely appreciate your support and time in contributing to this important process.

Year 5/6 Open Afternoon

Thank you to the Prefects who supported our recent Open Afternoon for families of Year 5 and 6 students. The Prefects did a fantastic job leading tours of the school and showcasing our facilities. Families also had the opportunity to speak with teachers and school leaders at Riverside High School.

The Year 6 Transition Program at Riverside High is coordinated by Karen Dudley, with transition visits beginning in Term 3.

Importance of Home Group / Class Teacher 8:45-9:00am

Home Group starts at 8:45am each morning. This is where Home Group Teachers record attendance and communicate important information to students about the day, school events, opportunities and extracurricular activities.

Home Group Teachers provide pastoral care to students ensuring they feel connected to school and friends and have a significant adult at school to communicate with.

Please support your child to be at school on time and organised.  The Breakfast Club is open each day and all students are welcome to have breakfast in our Café from 8:10am.

The Riverside Shopping Complex will not serve students after 8:40am.  The complex of a morning is not supervised by teachers, so we are asking parents/guardians to ensure their child is dropped at school rather than the shopping complex of a morning.  If your son/daughter needs to go to the Shopping Complex, please support them to be at school on time.

School Uniform

As the weather becomes colder, a reminder to students to transition to the school winter learning uniform.  The winter learning uniform is pictured in this week’s newsletter along with the sports uniform.  Students participating in the Year 9/10 NHSSA Sports Roster are permitted to wear their sports uniform to school on the Wednesday and Year 8 students participating in the sport roster on a Thursday. The Riverside High School beanies are also an optional uniform garment for students in winter.

Jeanna Bolton
Principal