From the Principal
Dear Parents/Caregivers,
I hope you have all had a wonderful week.
Girls Education Conference
I had an inspiring start to my week this week in attending the inaugural DoE Girls’ High Schools Principal Network Conference. The purpose was to focus on empowering girls to achieve academic success by identifying key issues in learning and wellbeing, as well as sharing evidence-based pedagogy, programs and initiatives that lead to high impact outcomes across the 14 participating schools. It is important that school do not operate in silos. The Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation (CESE’s) What Works Best 2025: Evidence guide for excellent schools, identifies collaboration as one of the highest impact practices underpinning excellence and equity in learning outcomes in schools. I am proud to be a member of this educational collaboration and will continue to share and harness new ideas through the experiences and connections that I establish through this network. It is an exciting time in education as girls’ schools position ourselves to have loud voices and, most importantly, a big impact on the girls in our schools, in learning and leadership.
Book Week
We may not celebrate Book Week with dress-ups but we certainly harness the principles of highlighting the significance of literacy and books in lighting up people’s lives, through our own literacy initiative, Crime Story. Thankyou to Ms Purisima and the English faculty for driving this program for Years 7-10, who have been treated to this interactive literacy program and creative writing workshop. It is the first time that we have run the activity at Riverside and, judging by the high level of engagement and positive feedback, the students are loving the opportunity to hone their investigative and creative writing skills. Thankyou to our P&C for contributing to the cost of this very worthwhile activity.
We have two very exciting showcases on at Riverside next week:
CAPA/TAS Soiree - Tuesday 26 August 5pm
Everyone is welcome to come along to view and enjoy the Year 12 major works from Visual Arts, Design and Technology, Textiles and Design and Music. The event begins at 5pm in the Gym with the Visual Arts/TAS exhibition. There is a large number of works so leave yourself time to view them all.
Year 7, 8, 9 HPGE Showcase – Friday 5 September 8:30am
This is a showcase of works produced by students in the HPGE program in Years 7-9. Everyone is welcome to attend to see the standard produced by our gifted students. It will be held in the Library and catered for by Ms McNeil-Dean’s Year 10 Food and Beverage team.
HSC 2024: Top public comprehensive schools' average subject scores
I hope you all stumbled upon the SMH article or our school Instagram to share me in celebrating our latest achievement in 2024 HSC analysis.
The graph from the article (below) provides a screenshot of the average score across the entire 2024 HSC cohort, ranked by school. It is worth noting that Riverside ranked 14th, an outstanding achievement. It is also worth noting the location of all of the schools in the top 20 comprehensive schools - inner and northern Sydney - the eternal conundrum of school achievement being aligned to postcode. Equity - a subject for ongoing discussion.
I hope you have all had a wonderful week.
Louise McNeil
Principal
Faculty News
HSIE
Legal Studies - Articulate Revision
Legal studies students are working on revision for their exam. To ease them into it they are playing a version of articulate where the cards are customised to focus on each HSC topic. They need to explain the concepts, articles, cases or laws to each other in order to progress through the board. The winning team gets all the glory and the losers know what they need to revise. Everyone wins! Ps. a big thank you to TAS for assisting with the 3D printing of the game pieces!
Mr J Zabakly
Science
Year 8 Students Build for a Better Future with STELR House Kits
This week, 8E Science explored how science and sustainability go hand-in-hand in the housing industry through an exciting, hands-on investigation using STELR house kits.
As part of their inquiry-based learning, students examined how different building materials—such as insulation, roofing, and windows—affect the transfer of heat in a home.
They investigated the scientific principles behind conduction, convection, and radiation, and applied their understanding of the particle model to explain how heat moves through different materials.
Using the STELR kits, students tested various materials to see how they could reduce heat loss or improve heating efficiency.
They discovered how smart design choices—like using materials that reflect radiation or reduce conduction—can contribute to more energy-efficient and sustainable homes.
The project also gave students the opportunity to explore careers and study pathways in the housing and construction industries, and reflect on the social responsibilities we have when designing homes that are not only functional but environmentally conscious.
It’s inspiring to see our young STEMists thinking critically about the role science plays in building a better, more sustainable future—one energy-smart house at a time!
Co-curricular Activities
Write a Book in a Day
Write a Book in a Day is a challenge our school is participating in which involves writing and illustrating a novel in just 12 hours to raise vital funds for kids' cancer research. These donations to the Kids’ Cancer Project not only help further scientific research, but allow the books that our teams write to be published and judged.
Students from Years 7-10 are participating in this fundraiser and will be holding two bake sales. The first one was held today at lunchtime and was very successful! The next bake sale is scheduled for Wednesday 3 September.
Thank you for all your support!
Ms L Campbell
Careers
Please visit https://riversideghscareers.com/ for the latest information on careers and life beyond school. You can use this site to locate universities, TAFE and any other type of course across Australia, information about the HSC and job vacancies. Feel free to drop into the Careers office if you have any questions.
Ms J Low and Ms T Soares
Dates for the diary
P&C
If you would like to volunteer for various P&C activities, please sign up via the link below.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeHE1OojbX6yWoo85D7kbRofz_1TmQOixDenmj-b-AkkxoJ4Q/viewform