Welcome back to a chilly Term 3. Now that the winter solstice has passed, hopefully we can look forward to the weather warming up.

Recently Defence postings were made available to Defence members which means at the end of this year, Ripley Valley State Secondary College (RVSSC) will farewell some of our Defence students and in 2023 will welcome in newly posted ones. Currently our ratio of Defence students is approximately 1 in 10 and is growing. This year 53 Australian Defence Force (ADF) families enrolled their children at RVSSC. The Defence School Mentor (DSM) program provides support to children of  serving ADF members as they face the challenges of posting into new locations and frequent parental absences due to deployments, training and other service requirements.  The DSM also supports children whose parents have transitioned back to civilian life since enrolment into the College.

All students of current and ex-serving ADF members are welcome to attend Defence club which is held every Wednesday and Friday at second break at the Drop Zone in J2.07.

I am always looking for ways to improve the delivery of support to our ADF students and I welcome any feedback you may have on the DSM program at our College.

Week 3of this Term (25th - 29th July) will be RVSSC's first Defence Week. The focus this year will be on how the military lifestyle impacts ADF families, highlighting some of the unique challenges all members of a Defence family face as a result of the Defence members service. Defence Week puts a spotlight on military life to the whole school community and to give students and teachers an insight into the varied spectrum of experiences ADF members and their families encounter.

Defence Week is our way of saying thank you to all the families who sacrifice and support their Defence members service to Australia, so that other families don't have to.

We are very lucky to have a guest speaker from the Royal Australian Air Force who will address the school assembly with their experiences as an ADF family. There will also be a display set up in the Library for students and teachers to visit and the Defence Club will be open at second break on the 27th and 29th of July for all students and staff to come and make a poppy for the upcoming Remembrance Day commemoration.  

DMFS SUPPORT

For more information on the Defence School Mentor Program you can head to:

https://defence.gov.au/members-families/Family/kids/education.asp

To contact the Defence School Mentor:

Wednesday and Friday 0800 - 1400hrs

Email: tcoop203@eq.edu.au

Phone : 0436 944 525