Dear Parents,

Did you see us in the news?! Our reading stars from year 5 were photographed alongside a feature highlighting our school as a success story for our consistently high results in reading in NAPLAN. It is an honour for our school and the efforts of our students to be recognised in the Herald Sun. Printed copies are available at the front office and posted on our Facebook Page in case you missed it.

Father's Day

On behalf of our school community, I’d like to thank our parent helpers, for the organisation of the Father’s Day Stall. Students were impressed with the range of items on offer, and we are sure these will go a long way in helping those who are celebrating feel special. To all the fathers of our community, we wish you a wonderful Father’s Day and hope you enjoyed being pampered by your family.

Parent-Teacher conferences

Parent-Teacher conferences are scheduled for Tuesday the 3rd and Wednesday the 4th of October from 3:30 pm. During these conferences, families will have the opportunity to speak with teachers. Teachers will also discuss students' Individual Learning Plans which include next learning goals as based on their latest learning data. Booking can be made directly on the Compass Portal from this coming Monday. A notification will be sent out to families when they are available. For the first time, you will notice a chance to our ILPs. This includes:

Student Learning Goals in Writing and details about strategies that will be in place at school to support students
Number of days absent this term

Including these two further bits of information are a significant step toward achieving 2 of our school priorities - enhancing student outcomes in Writing and improving students' attendance at school. Teachers will discuss both of these areas with you during the conferences.

Achievement Week

I would like to extend my congratulations to our students for their fantastic efforts in celebrating their learning growth during achievement week these last few days. Teachers have been working with students to complete a range of assessments aligned with our school assessment schedule to measure students' progress so far this year and understand their next steps in learning to set relevant goals. This information is reflected in their ILPs and celebrated on Seesaw. A special mention to one of our year 6 students who has grown by 6 reading levels since the beginning of the year! When I asked him what the secret was he said it came down to focusing in class, listening to his teacher and making sure he reads at home every single night. This students has done a brilliant job in demonstrating not only our school values but also applying his Learning Powers!

LIT FEST 23

I’d like to extend my gratitude to the staff, students and volunteers who worked tirelessly to deliver an exceptional LIT FEST Event for 2023. After consulting with students and staff, the idea to rebrand Book Week was brought to the school improvement team earlier this year. The intention was to maintain the traditions in place at the school but include more meaningful activities that were inclusive of all learning areas in Literacy. The Reading Café is a fantastic example of this which was expanded to include the Writers Gallery, showcasing the work of every student across the school and the APS Spelling Bee Championship which crowned winners from F-2 and 3-6. Furthermore, the High 5 Book Fair gave students the opportunity to redeem their High 5 Cards for the latest in rich and engaging literature. Almost 2000 books were redeemed across the 2 days meaning almost 2000 new books have been added to the personal library of students. Overall, LIT FEST has achieved its mission of celebrating and cultivating a love of reading, literature, and literacy which is one of our schools’ priorities. The committee has already begun evaluating and planning for next year's events so if you would like to get involved or have an idea of how to keep improving this event, please reach out to the school.

Attendance

We all want our students to get a great education, and the building blocks for a great education begin with students coming to school each and every day. Missing school can have a major impact on a child’s future – a student missing one day a fortnight will miss four full weeks by the end of the year. By Year 10 they’ll have missed more than a year of school. There are no safe numbers of days for missing school – each day a student misses puts them behind, and can affect their educational outcomes. All family holidays should be taken during school holiday times. Parents are reminded to communicate with the school if their child is going to be absent either via COMPASS or via calling the school before 9am.

2024 Planning

We are getting to the time of year when we begin planning for 2024. We would appreciate if you could inform our office at the soonest time your child is leaving the school at the end of this year. This will support us in ensuring that we can organise a thorough transition process for your child with their new school.

If you haven't already completed the parent opinion survey there is still time. Families are welcome to complete the survey which takes approximately 5 minutes, either at school or can request the link to complete it at home. Your feedback is important to us as we continue to seek ways to grow and improve.

Warm Regards,

Mr Uzunovski

Principal

Date	Event
04/09/23	Assembly at 2:55pm Enter at Gate D
12/09/23	F-2 Sports Awareness: Plenty Gorge Parklands
13/09/23	3-4 Sports Awareness: Carnival of the Animals at the Art Centre 5-6 Sports Awareness: Ice Skating at O'Brien Icehouse
15/09/23	Footy Day Last Day of Term 3 - Finish at 2:30pm

Important Dates