Dear Parents/Caregivers,
I hope you have had a wonderful week. Week 6 at Riverside has been another outstanding week.
The Little Mermaid
How could I begin the newsletter with anything other than news of the school musical. What a privilege to be part of school that produces such a high quality piece of performance year after year. The talent and dedication of the actors, musicians, sound and lighting and backstage crews is such a testament to the value that our students place on the show. It also reflects the commitment to excellence of these 188 fine young members of our school community in setting themselves a goal and seeing it through. Students with the confidence, drive and commitment to teamwork to make a 6-month commitment to the school production, usually year after year, are also the students who succeed in all facets of their school and personal lives; in their learning, performing arts, sport and citizenship, while still retaining their own unique personalities and perspectives. And, as I always say to the students, success looks different for everyone. Confident, creative, independent young global citizens, empowered to face challenges with resilience and positivity is what we strive to build at Riverside, through our rich classroom, co-curricula and extra-curricula program and by and large, judging by the calibre and quality of the students that we have the privilege to work with every day, I’d say we are pretty successful at doing so.
A big thanks to Mrs Young, Mr Young, Ms Wang, Mr Ho and all of the teachers who have supported them along the way, as well as giving up their time to supervise the students over the last few nights and coming to watch the show. A production that captures such an extensive representation of students from Years 7-12, with differing degrees of background and experience in the theatre, is a mammoth event and one that make our school so extraordinarily unique and special.
School Excellence Planning
My key role as principal, as well as being the role about which I am most passionate, is to lead teaching and learning. Teaching and learning is what we call what takes place in the classroom every day; from the planning, delivery and assessment of all NESA syllabus outcomes and requirements, applied, differentiated and registered in faculty programs, collaboratively developed by all staff and implemented via high-impact, evidence-based teaching strategies to ensure the best outcomes for our students.
All program planning and development is informed by documents and requirements overseen by NESA (the NSW Education Standards Authority) and the Department of Education (DE). There is much compliance and accountability required to prove that what we are delivering is correct. There is also governance and communication of DE priorities, informed by the Plan for NSW Public Education plan-for-nsw-public-education-poster.pdf on which to tether our school excellence planning to lead excellence in learning and wellbeing in all public schools.
Explicit teaching is one such priority.
Explicit teaching is what we endeavour to do every lesson at Riverside. All staff have received professional learning opportunities to develop their understanding and skills to embed Learning Intentions and Success Criteria into their lessons to clarify the learning process; the purpose of the lesson, information about how to demonstrate the skill and/or knowledge acquisition and formative assessment and feedback throughout the lesson to support the students in achieving the skill and/or knowledge. Differentiation is the process by which all staff address the learning differences in the classroom by making adjustments to the learning activities to provide an equity of opportunity for all students to achieve. It is a complex and rewarding process but one which all staff at Riverside are expert in enacting.
Parent Survey
Please look out for the parent survey that will be emailed to you on Monday. We are seeking information and feedback to improve our communication and understanding of your expectations of us, in terms of preparing your daughters for life beyond school. Please be sure to complete the survey which opens on Monday 9 June and will close on Monday 30 June.
I hope you have a wonderful long weekend.
Louise McNeil
Principal
Faculty News
Science
HSC Chemistry: Saponification
In HSC Chemistry, things got sapon-taneously exciting as students explored the chemistry of soap-making through a hands-on saponification reaction. Armed with goggles, lab coats, and a strong sense of smell, our budding chemists transformed fats and oils into real, usable soap! Not only did they learn the science behind how soap molecules help lift grease and grime, but they also walked away with a bubbly souvenir. Want to know if it lathers well or just smells like vinegar? Ask your household chemist—they’ll be happy to explain (in great detail).
Mr R Gorrez
Co-curricula Activities
NSWCHS Gymnastics
This week three of our students Maddie W, Charli N and Bronte N competed as part of the Sydney North Gymnastics team and NSWCHS State championships. The girls were part of the team which were crowned 2025 NSWCHS Women's Gymnastics Champions. We also congratulate Maddie W for winning an individual 3rd place on floor. Maddie & Charli were also acknowledged as year 12 students who have competed at the State carnival over several years and will have their medals sent to the school.
Ms T Nagle
Debating
Last Tuesday, our Year 7 debating team had the opportunity to participate in our first debate. It was our first time competing but we were ready to apply the skills we learnt in training to succeed. Our opponent for this first round was Mosman High School, with the debate online. To start off, both teams were provided with the same three topics to choose from. We chose the same topic: ‘High school students should have the choice to participate in online learning instead of in person learning’. We flipped a coin and we were the negative team, so we would debate against the topic. Then, we had one hour to prepare for our debate.
To begin, our team spent around fifteen minutes brainstorming various points and ideas. We spent the rest of the hour expanding on our ideas and writing down what we planned to say.
Finally it was time to debate. Mosman High’s first speaker started with some solid points, but we came out with a strong first speech. Then, their second member spoke and had some interesting points, which our second speaker was able to rebut. We tied up the whole debate with both team's; third speakers arguing strong ideas.
After the debate was over, the adjudicator had ten minutes to consider both sides and prepare her feedback. Finally, she was ready to deliver her opinions. She commented that both teams should consider all parts of the topic as neither team touched on the fact that the online learning was optional, not mandatory. She also said that we needed to be more structured with our speeches and organise the ideas better; however, our team came out on top as our ideas and points were more generalised to all students and were more realistic. Overall, it was a great learning experience for our first debate. We got great feedback that we can carry on for the future. I am looking forward to our next round!
Congratulations also goes to our Year 8 team who were successful in their debate against Mosman High School.
Emma L - Year 7
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