Love RAVO Day 2022

Favourite books, celebrating literacy, sunshine, friends, picnic lunches, uplifting music and delicious cupcakes: Love RAVO Day 2022! Last Friday, Ravenswood students and staff celebrated their love for Ravenswood and their sense of connection to one another with a special Read at RAVO Love RAVO Day. The School celebrated the joy and rigour of learning experiences, the warmth and support of our community and RAVO sisterhood along with our indomitable semper ad meliora RAVO spirit.

The day launched with uplifting music and brightly coloured yellow heart-shaped balloon arches which welcomed the students as they walked into School. Student leaders in the Senior and Junior School supported Principal Mrs Anne Johnstone and Head of Junior School – Deputy Principal Ms Sarah Guy, in gifting each student with a Read at RAVO sticker for their books and Ravenswood branded pens.

The students were surrounded by a range of giant personalised book covers and inspirational book quotes, nominated by students and staff in a Read at RAVO survey that was distributed in the week leading up to the celebrations. During their Mentor Groups, Senior School students also competed in a friendly Literature Lines Poetry Competition, collaborating to create inspiring poems for Love RAVO Day on sisterhood, connectedness and togetherness.

At lunchtime, students from Prep through to Year 12, along with staff, gathered on the Oval to enjoy a School-wide picnic where they read their favourite books under the sun, borrowed books from a roving library, shared their books with one another, and listened to inspiring poetry from one of Ravenwood’s talented Year 11 Poet Laureate Tiana Pendray. Supporting Head of Senior School Pamela Elliott, School Vice-Captains Jasmine Petty and Paris Lay-Lee hosted the event, sharing heartening words on behalf of School Captain Lucy Walsh who was representing Ravenswood at the IGSA Sport Athletics Carnival. Mrs Anne Johnstone inspired the students with her Principal Message, and surprised every student with an individual cupcake. Prep students exclaimed to teachers that it was ‘the best day ever!”

Principal Anne Johnstone said, “As we celebrate Love RAVO Day and look to the future I would like to encourage all of us to continue to look beyond ourselves and do all we can to keep building this warm sense of connection and belonging that is at the heart of our great school and community– always remembering the positive impact we can we can make together – in the slipstream: Ganbatte! As I look at our whole school assembled here today, I am inspired and filled with pride and hope for the future … We have so much to celebrate as we give thanks for our School on this Love RAVO Day!”

Read at RAVO emphasised the importance of the myriad of benefits of reading for learning, and for both physical and mental wellbeing. Together with its significant role in the development of vocabulary and comprehension skills, regular reading has been shown to help improve connectivity in the brain, reduce stress, lower blood pressure and heart rates, and even develop greater levels of empathy with others.