Principal Update

Hello APS families and welcome to week 4 of Term 5. 

Another amazing week at APS with several events keeping staff, students, and families busy as we head towards the end of the term.  The Year 5’s went to the Melbourne Museum on Monday, Tuesday was our Junior Athletics Carnival, which ended up being a great success, with feedback being that having it onsite due to the condition of Alphington Park making the event more successful. Today our Year 2 students are off on an excursion to the city. STOMP Dance officially starts on Monday and Tuesday next week for our Year 2-6 concert. Tickets will go on sale soon with details ahead in today’s newsletter. The Year 3 and Year 4 Camps are on the horizon. Please read ahead to learn about the Year 2 outdoor education event planned for later in the year.

There are so many events coming up in the last month of this term that I recommend keeping a close eye on the school calendar and Compass.

Parent/Carer Opinion Survey

Our school is conducting the annual Parent / Carer Opinion Survey offered by the Department of Education and is seeking your feedback. The survey is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of families’ perceptions of school climate, student behavior, and student engagement. The survey is optional, but we encourage and appreciate your participation.

Our school will use the survey results to assist in identifying areas for improvement and professional development needs in the school, to target school planning and improvement strategies. 

The Parent / Carer Opinion Survey will be open online from Monday 17 August to Friday 18 September 2026. All families are invited to participate in the survey. 

Details of how to complete the survey, including the survey link and Pin will be provided via Compass next week.

The survey will be conducted online, only takes 20 minutes to complete, and can be accessed at any convenient time on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones. 

The online survey will be available in English and 10 other languages including Arabic, Greek, Hakha Chin, Hindi, Japanese, Punjabi, Simplified Chinese, Somali, Turkish, and Vietnamese. Resources are also available in additional languages to assist parents / carers who speak a language other than English at home. Please reach out to your child’s teacher, or the school directly for survey guides in your language.

2026 Policy Updates 

Each year Alphington Primary School is required to review and update several policies. Our school policies are developed upon templates provided by the Department of Education and modified to be contextually relevant to our school. On Tuesday evening I presented numerous policies to School Council for consultation and approval. The following policies have been updated for 2026 and will go live on our school website in the coming weeks. Community consultation is a valuable aspect of the review process, and each of the policies listed below are available in draft form at the office for families to view.

• Bullying Prevention
• Child Abuse Identification and Response
• Child Safety Code of Conduct
• Complaints 
• Visitors

Year Prep-1 Concert – 'Weather with You'– Wednesday 2 September

The Prep/1 students are well under way with their 2026 concert preparations for their show Weather with You to be held at Kew High School’s Theatre on Wednesday 2 September. Tickets for the concert will go on sale through TryBooking on Monday 17 August.  $20 for adults and $15 for concessions

Year 2-6 STOMP Dance Production – The Haunted House 

Next week Kira and the team from STOMP will commence the dance program for our 2026 APS Year 2-6 Concerts. All classes from Year 2 to 6 will have a 45-minute session with the choreographers to learn both their individual class dance and the finale dance. 

Teachers will also support students with both dances (class and finale), with practice outside of the STOMP sessions.

The concert will be held at Ivanhoe Girls Grammar on Monday 14 and Tuesday 15 September from 6:30-8:30pm.

We will have a full rehearsal at school in the gym the week prior and a stage rehearsal at IGG Performing Arts centre on Monday 14/9 from 10-2pm.

Details about costumes will be coming out in the next couple of weeks. 

We have developed two ticket options for this year’s concert.

Tickets for a single night, either Monday or Tuesday performance will be $25 for adults and $20 for concessions.

There will also be a two-night package available for families with siblings in both nights which will be $40 for adults and $30 for concessions. 

Book Week Celebrations 

Dress Up Parade - Our annual, and very popular book character parade will be held next Thursday 27 August in the gymnasium from 9:15am. We invite all families to attend this great event. We encourage families to visit the classrooms following the parade for special book week celebrations.

Meerkat Performances  - To celebrate Book Week we have again booked Meerkat Productions to provide our students with a dramatic representation of the book Dear Broccoli, which has been nominated for an award as part of book week. The production team have put the final touches to this year's adaptations and are excited to start performing. 

The APS production will be performed to our students on Fridy 21 August at 9:30am for students in Prep, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3. 

Dear Broccoli by Jo Dabrowski and Cate James

At first glance, Dear Broccoli appears to be a story about a child who doesn’t like vegetables. However, underneath the humour, songs and audience participation is a story about something much bigger: the desire to be heard. Throughout the performance, students explore friendship, empathy, communication, active listening and belonging. As Frank and Broccoli exchange letters, they discover that understanding someone else often begins with taking the time to listen.

Year 2 Outdoor Education Program – Year 2 Big Day Out!

Following a review of our Year 2 sleepover from previous years, the school has made the decision to revamp the Year 2 program. The sleepover was proving to be a challenge on several fronts, including OHS concerns and appropriate facilities for students to sleepover inadequate.

As a result, we are now moving to a more traditional camp approach where Year 2 students will attend an outdoor education facility and undertake activities to collaboratively build confidence, resilience and problem solving in an outdoor environment. 

The Year 2 Big Day Out will be an extended extracurricular day program, with an extended day formatt. More information will be provided to families by the Year 2 teachers as we get closer to the event.

Have a great week everyone!

Shane Wilkie

Principal