Student Achievements

I have been thrilled to hear of some remarkable achievements of our students recently. It is wonderful to hear of our students being aspirational and working hard towards their personal goals.

Isla

Isla recently entered a writing competition through Officeworks. Isla's story titled 'Lightning Rock' was awarded runner up and Isla claimed some noise-cancelling headphones and a kindle as her prize. I am most impressed with Isla's use of interesting vocabulary and vivid language that really paints a picture for her readers. Well done, Isla!

You can read 'Lightning Rock' here:

Jensen

Whilst I am very familiar with Jensen's running ability, I was absolutely floored when Jensen's dad approached me last week with details of his latest running exploits. Jensen is currently training for the 10km run in the Melbourne Marathon Festival. During training, he has completed some timed runs and has run 10kms in 38:44. Hopefully he gets some favourable conditions during the official event and can run a similar time because the current world record for 10km under 10 years is 39:33 - Jensen could run a WR pace!

His run is on Saturday 11th December (details here). It would be great if people could come along and cheer him on. Go, Jensen!!

STEM

I am also fortunate to have students from STEM visit my office every so often to show me their creations. Over the past fortnight I have had students creating circuits, coding robots and even coding a soil moisture tester (FYI my plant needed water). I am loving seeing the STEM equipment finally getting used by our students and seeing the development in the students' STEM knowledge.

Kitchen High Tea

Our Year 6 students were treated to a special Kitchen session this week where the students created and shared a high tea (I timed my visit perfectly so I could sample some of the food!). This was such a great idea to get our Year 6 students back into the kitchen one more time after they have missed so much over the past 2 years.

I would like to thank Trish for organising this event and to her wonderful team of volunteers, Pina, Caz, Annabel, Vicki and Anne. Your efforts to help make the Year 6s final weeks at AGPS special are greatly appreciated.

Toilet Upgrade

I am very pleased to announce that this coming Wednesday the toilet upgrades are finally beginning! You may remember that we were successful in obtaining a grant to update our toilet blocks late last year and the project has had challenges getting started. I met with the architects and project managers last week to discuss the plan for the upgrades and the proposed timeline. Both student toilet blocks in the main building are getting a complete overhaul and the staff toilet will be getting a cosmetic upgrade. They will begin with the toilets closest to Gumbuya and then move to the toilets closest to the gym.

This is a much-needed upgrade to our school and one of the most frequently asked things that students say will make our school better. I will update you on the progress.

Reports

Staff have been assessing students and are currently writing the Semester 2 reports. The report expectations have been adjusted by the Department of Education and we will follow the same format as Semester 2 2020. This includes:

a description of the areas of the Victorian Curriculum;
a comment on student participation and engagement in the learning program offered;
for English and Mathematics:
- student achievement information;
- progress shown from the last time these curriculum areas were reported on;
- a five-point scale.
for all other curriculum areas taught:
- a short comment on progress and achievement across the semester.

The reports will go live on Compass on the 15th of December.

2022 Start Dates

Last week, School Council approved the following start dates:

Friday 28th January - Staff return

Monday 31st January - Grades 1 - 6 commence

Thursday 3rd February - Preps start school

COVID Updates

Just to reiterate the Compass notification last week, We have made some changes in line with the Department of Education operational guidelines. The changes are:

We no longer have the staggered finish and allocated exit gates
Adults are able to come onto the school grounds (outdoors)
With the exception of the main office, parents are still not permitted to enter school buildings at this stage.
New vaccine requirements for adults that enter the school buildings for a sustained period of time (see the previous newsletter for further details)

Casual Relief Teacher (CRT) Shortage

A number of factors have contributed to the current challenge in sourcing CRTs for staff that are absent. The primary reasons are:

The substantial reduction of available CRTs
The current guidelines around COVID close contacts and the need to get tested if you are feeling even a little bit unwell

This has resulted in classes at times having to be split. Splitting a class is never our preferred option, however, at times it has been simply unavoidable.

Cam has been advised by the CRT agencies that we utilize that the pool of CRTs is looking far more promising for 2022.

Tutor Learning Initiative 2022

It has been announced that Victorian schools will once again receive funding for the Tutor Learning Initiative in 2022. The initiative provides schools with the resources to provide targeted intervention and support for students that have not made the expected level of growth or are not achieving the academic outcomes through our regular teaching and learning program. We are currently working through the staffing of the initiative and are working through our process to identify the students that will be part of the program in 2022.

Student Leadership Roles

Our Grade 5 students have been submitting their applications for formal leadership positions in Grade 6. The process for selecting our School Captains & Vice Captains is a formal and transparent process. Cam and myself read all of the applications and form a shortlist. The shortlisted students are then interviewed and our 2022 Captains will be announced at our end of year assembly. There are a number of other leadership opportunities that the students can apply for and these roles include Sports Leaders, Art Leaders, STEM Leaders, Library Leaders & KEFAR Leaders.

Step-Up Days

All students have been given the opportunity to attend two step-up days over that past fortnight. These sessions have given students the opportunity to mix with other students and teachers across the school and to visit other classrooms. The final step-up day is on Tuesday 7th December where the students will be placed with their 2022 class in their 2022 classroom with their 2022 teacher.

Prep Transition

It has been such an exciting time welcoming our newest members of the AGPS community to our school over the past month. Our 2022 preps have had 2 transition sessions so far and 2 more to go before the year is out. This process is such an important step to ensuring the students have the best possible beginning to their schooling journey. All the students, no matter if they bounded into the classroom or needed a little extra TLC at the beginning, left at the end of their sessions with huge smiles and confident walks as they ran to their parents to share their stories.

We also welcomed our newest parents and carers on Tuesday as Cam and I gave them a tour of the school and they got to know each other a little better over a cup of coffee. Welcome to our wonderful school! We look forward to a long partnership together.

I cannot believe we are down to the final three weeks of the school year! I really look forward to all the exciting events planned for the students and having some fun together as we close out the year.

I hope you all have a great weekend.

Take care,

David

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