Riverside Currents Week 1 Term 2 2025

Dear Parents/Caregivers,

I hope you have had a wonderful week.

Welcome back to Term 2. It is always wonderful to see the girls back at school and to get the buzz and the business of learning back again.

New Staff

This term we welcome the following staff to our team:

• Ms Yong – Learning and Support Teacher Wednesdays and alternate Fridays (to job share with Ms Heugh). Ms Yong will also work as a Student Support Officer on Mondays (to job share with Ms Christie)
• Ms White – Visual Arts
• Ms Thompson – TAS

We also welcome a number of practicum teachers from Macquarie University (mostly) to spend time being mentored by our talented teachers. Thankyou to Ms Reoch, Mr Sendov, Ms Philpott, Ms Campbell, Ms Ravishankar, Ms Halverson and Ms Macintyre for supporting these trainee teachers and to Ms Halverson and Ms Ghorra fo coordinating the Prac Teacher Program at Riverside. School-based practicums and internships are an important part of the teacher training program, ensuring the highest quality skills and practices can be cultivated and developed within a supervised, supportive classroom environment. It is also a great way for schools to remain in touch with new ideas and innovative practices and to identify future teachers to continue to build the stead supply of quality staff within our school. Welcome to all of our prac teachers. We know you will enjoy your time with us.

Cross Country Carnival

Congratulations to all of our cross country competitors for their participation and effort in yesterday’s carnival. It was great to see so many competitors putting themselves out there, despite the unpredictable conditions. Sporting carnivals, such as cross country, are an important part of school culture and a great opportunity for staff and students to interact in a more informal, relaxed setting. Unfortunately, the weather has not been good to us; hence, the last minute decision last term to postpone the carnival and then to make it a competitors-only carnival to reduce the discomfort of students and staff sitting on the cold, wet ground if they were not competing. There were some outstanding results and we will be strongly represented at Zone. Thankyou to Ms Hendriks and the PDHPE staff, along with Ms Tyson for their expert organisational skills in organising the carnival and the variation to school operations.

School Production

Excitement is mounting for the Little Mermaid. Look out for ticket sales to open – it is guaranteed to be an amazing event!

Thankyou to our Riverside teachers

Our School Production is just one of the examples of the rich extra-curricula program that we offer at Riverside, made possible by the passion, creativity and generosity of our talented staff, some going noticed and many going unnoticed. I celebrate the dedication of our staff unreservedly and acknowledge their commitment to providing high quality, individualised learning experiences for all students. This is particularly true of Year 12 staff teaching courses with major works, many of whom, at this time of the year, are holding extra lessons and supervising students in the holidays to ensure that major works are finalised. None of this is expected and is all initiated by the staff themselves. We are a very lucky school.

HPGE Applications

To all of our parents with younger daughters – just a reminder that the registration link for the HPGE test is open and can be found on our website:

https://riversideg-h.schools.nsw.gov.au/events/2025/5/hpge-test-2026.31_may.html

Have a lovely weekend.

Louise McNeil

Principal

HPGE

Year 9 English HPGE

At the end of last term, the 9T class read the novel Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier within the unit ‘From Gothic and Beyond’. The students have been reading very enthusiastically!

Every week, literature does what it does best, and carries us away in the romance and tension that is all tied up in Manderley, Mr De Winter and Rebecca’s many secrets!

Here are a few reviews written by the students –

“Throughout these weeks of reading Rebecca I really enjoyed reading it. Rebecca was a very entertaining book, with not only being entertaining and engaging but also taught me a lot of elements and structures of how to write a gothic story along the way. As I was reading this book I always wanted to know what was happening next. I would highly recommend reading Rebecca for future years as it was a really well structured book with also making you think and wanting to know what happens next along with learning on the way.” – Amelia T

“I personally really enjoyed Rebecca and thought it was very interesting. I liked Daphne Du Maurier's writing style as it was very descriptive and made me intrigued and quite engaged with the text. Rebecca's plot and writing style explored suspense and fear keeping the class on the edge of our seats when reading the novel. Overall I loved this text!” – Arabel K

“I enjoyed the book because of the mysterious and dark aspects. I like how you were always wondering what would happen next or what has happened which leaves you wanting to read more and leaves you curious. It was also a good demonstration of a gothic novel to give us an idea of how to write our own gothic novel.” – Camille H

“I loved the book Rebecca because it had a lot of suspense, and it helped me understand gothic writing for my test. I loved how there were a lot of areas in the book where you had to think what actually happened that the author, Du Maurier didn't tell you. The book was very intriguing and had a lot of suspense which I loved and there were a lot of cliff hangers in the book.” – Natalia V

Ms M Purisima

Faculty News

English

Year 11 and 12 Drama

In the last week of term, students in Year 11 and Year 12 Drama took to the stage to perform in group performances which showcased the skills they have learnt in Drama this term.

Students in Year 12 Drama have been studying an Approaches to Acting unit, where they have learnt about Drama practitioners who had a positive impact on 20th Century actor training.

Students have been learning about experimental theatre techniques and focusing on their physicality to create an engaging actor-audience relationship. These skills will also come into play next term when they begin to work on their HSC Group Performances.

This term students in Year 11 Drama have been introduced to Improvisation, Acting and Playbuilding. They have continued to develop their vocal and physicality skills in acting throughout the term whilst completing numerous improvisation and playbuilding activities. This culminated in their group performance, where they were given a choice of topics to base their group performances on. Students worked effectively focusing on how they could demonstrate their acting skills and the elements of Drama in their performance piece.

Well done to our senior Drama students on a pleasing Term 1 in Drama!

Ms R Young

Co-curricula Activities

Under the Sea Bake Sale Success

On Thursday last term, the quad was filled with the delicious scent of cookies, cupcakes, and creativity!

Our enthusiastic musical students came together for a spectacular bake sale to raise funds for this year’s musical, The Little Mermaid; and the event was a wonderful success!

Thanks to the generosity and support of our school community, the bake sale raised over $850 which will go directly toward props and microphone hire for the upcoming production. From mermaid-themed cupcakes to turtle pancakes and blue sugar cookies, every sweet treat was a delight!

Special thanks to the students and their families who baked and provided goodies, and to our wonderful student helpers who set up, decorated and staffed the tables.

Stay tuned for more updates on our musical rehearsals and ticket sales in next term’s newsletters.

Thank you again for your continued support!

Ms R Young

Archery Australia Youth National Championships

Congratulations to Jasmine B (Year 8) who set two national records and one state record over Easter representing NSW whilst competing at the Archery Australia Youth National Championships in Canberra.

Jasmine won gold in all main events and secured a silver in individual match play, cementing her position as the top ranked Under 14 female recurve archer in Australia.

Sporting Success Stories