Assistant Principal Update

Hello everyone,

Welcome to Term 4 Week 9. It’s hard to believe there are just 19 school days left for 2023. This week our Year 6 students commenced work on their legacy item – as Melissa mentioned, the house mural that will be painted onto the blades of the main administration building. You can see the almost completed Walert and Yanggai images in the photo below. David will be back again following the Year 6 Camp to complete the mural with further help from Year 6 students for the final touches. 

Camp Events

Today I am travelling down to Portsea to visit the Year 5 students at their outdoor education camp. While the weather hasn’t exactly been perfect, students are making the most of it and are enjoying the range of outdoor adventure activities on offer.

This Thursday night the Prep/1 students have their Twilight Evening. They have several activities planned for the evening and a visit from an ice cream truck to finish. Next week our Year 6 students are off to Marysville for their final camp for primary school which I’m sure will be a fantastic way to start off what will be a very busy and memorable couple of weeks.

SMART Spelling

As we come to the end of the year, we review much of what has happened both from curriculum and extra-curricular perspective. We have now implemented the SMART spelling program for most of the year and having completed our assessments can begin to see the impact of the program on students’ spelling growth and achievement.

The SMART spelling program integrates the four areas of spelling to provide students with a balanced approach to learning and understanding how words work. Phonology (sounds), orthography (Letters), morphology (meaning), and etymology (history and origin). It also provides teachers with a consistent model to teach words to students in a systematic way that can easily be differentiated to suit individual learning needs. 

Below are a few snapshot statements following my preliminary data analysis:

• 33% of students have a spelling age that is 12 months or greater than their chronological age.
• 23% of students have a spelling age that is 18 months or greater than their chronological age.
• In Year 3 80% of students achieved growth in their spelling age above the expected measure (months).
• In Year 2 71% of students achieved at or above their expected spelling age (months).
• There was significant growth across all year levels for those students who were greater than 12 months behind in their spelling age at the start of 2023.
• Students who were greater than 12 months behind in their spelling age made some of the greatest gains.

2023 Semester Two Reports

Teachers are finalising reports over the next week, and these will be published on Compass on Friday 8 December. Teachers spend a lot of time ensuring reports are accurate and reflect a student’s achievement for the semester. Both student achievement and progress are included in the report. This includes providing a teacher judgement against the achievement standards, assigned as a score, that accurately reflects where each student is along the relevant learning continuum for curriculum areas taught during the reporting period. Teachers also provide a comment which describes student achievement as well as areas for future learning which outline goals in English, mathematics, and personal and social capability.

We encourage families to share and discuss the report with their child to develop an understanding of the learning and celebrate the achievements. If you wish to discuss your child’s report with their teacher, you can make an appointment to do so during week 11 of Term 4.

APS Writers Festival and Art Show 

Last Wednesday night’s Writers Festival and Art Show was an amazing success. It was wonderful to see so many families enjoying the wonderful writing and art displays. 

The scavenger hunts were again popular, providing an engaging way for students and families to interact with the various displays.  Congratulations to Edie, Esther and Rose who were announced as the winners on Friday’s assembly.

A big thank you to all the students and teachers in preparing for the evening. A special mention to Christy & Tessa for their efforts in coordinating the event.

Enjoy your week.

Shane Wilkie

Assistant Principal