From the Assistant Principal 

Junior School

Year 7 Family Movie Night

Our very first Family Movie Night was a huge success, with more than 130 students, parents and siblings coming along with their beanbags and doonas and pillows and popcorn! The weather turned a little nasty as the sun started to set and the high winds forced us to move into the Student Entry Foyer at the very last moment, but this did not dampen the enjoyment of the night. It was a joy to see so many people mingling and taking the opportunity to get to know fellow Year 7 Community members.

I would like to extend a huge thank you to AHS parent Chris Lienert and his band of hardy parent volunteers, who defied the gale to run a cracking sausage sizzle and make sure everyone had their fill of popcorn and choc-tops! Thank you also to AHS parents, Rach and Andy, who hosted convivial conversation and beverage service for the adults.  All proceeds from the night will go toward our current landscaping upgrades. 

Special mention to my outstanding team of student helpers! Thank you Tate, Ally, Kirsten, Sophia, Ivy and Allegra, who were the very picture of our Auburn Learner Qualities of Character, Citizenship and Collaboration in action. 

Year 7 Camp

The Class of 2029 (!) had a fantastic time at Camp Rumbug last week. Students stepped outside their comfort zones and straight into the mud as they threw themselves into the different activities on offer; mud-run (and falling in), raft-building (and falling in), canoeing (and falling in), bush skills, Jacob’s Ladder, flying fox and many more. It was a pleasure to see students making new friends and memories as they strengthened their bonds with their Year Level Community. I suspect there will be quite a bit of laundry happening over the weekend! Thank you to Year Level Leaders Jacob Bevacqua and Badi Sheidaee for the huge amount of behind-the-scenes work that goes into running a camp and to all the staff who put sleep aside to come along and support the cohort.

Year 9 City Project

Year 9 students have been hard at work demonstrating our Auburn Learner Qualities of Creativity, Collaboration, Citizenship, Critical Thinking and Character spending a week in the CBD undertaking their City Project experience. Students made their own way in and out of the city independently, arriving at our Flinders St venue punctually every day; a most important life-skill in itself. They attended various presentations by engaging guest speakers including a recovered compulsive gambler, Victoria Police, The Big Issue and Frontyard. They visited Melbourne landmarks such as the Magistrates Court and Queen Victoria Market as they researched a social question of their own choice. We look forward to seeing their work culminate at a presentation evening for family and friends this week. The City Project is an important part of the Year 9 curriculum and a highlight of the Year 9 experience. Thank you to all students for being such exceptional ambassadors for our school out in the community! We’ve had nothing but positive feedback about their conduct and engagement. Thank you also to Greg Leach and Leon Raymond for all their work in coordinating this opportunity for our students, as well the many staff who attended to support our students across the week. 

Student Agency at AHS

Last week, teachers commenced cycle 1 of our Pivot Student Survey. Pivot and Student Attitude to School Survey data is highly valued at AHS, as it helps us to better understand the needs of our students and how we can purposefully create an environment that is most conducive to achieving optimal learning and wellbeing outcomes for every student in our school community. In Pivot, students provide each of their teachers with very specific feedback about each of their subjects. Teachers and students then use this data to refine the pedagogical strategies employed in each class and to further improve the connections and engagement within their learning communities. SASS will be conducted later in the year. 

This week teachers have commenced the process of completing Term 1 Learning Behaviour Reports. Careful thought goes into these, and they are considered equally important as student academic reports, as they provide important feedback to students and parents about the skills and dispositions that students require to achieve their full potential at school. These will form the basis of many of the conversations at our upcoming Parent-Student-Teacher conferences on March 14th. We encourage parents and guardians to sit down and discuss the Learning Behaviour Reports with your child in a positive and constructive way, focusing on strengths and looking for specific ideas to develop in areas for improvement. March 14th will be a student-free day, with conferences conducted via Webex from 12 pm - 7.30 pm. Further information will be distributed via Compass a bit closer to the time. 

Over the next week or so, feedback on Common Assessment Tasks (CATs) will be visible on Compass.  CATs occur every 6-8 weeks or so in each subject, and teachers provide detailed feedback to students as to what they’ve done well and what they need to work on next. We aim to create a sense of partnership between home and school, and we encourage parents to review CAT feedback and Snapshot task progress with your child. It’s a great way to celebrate your child’s achievements at school and to ensure they feel supported and encouraged to tackle any challenges they may be facing in their learning. Parents should feel free to email teachers at any point if you have any questions or concerns. 

Buildings and Grounds update

The new senior building, fondly referred to as the West Wing 😀 is on track for completion and classes are set to be timetabled in the new spaces from day 1 of Term 2. Carpet is being laid, furniture is on the way and outdoor paving is underway. We have been working with architects on a landscaping design using indigenous and endemic plants, thank you to Paul Van Est for his expert advice on this, and there will be a working bee in the next couple of weeks to start planting out. Please stay tuned if you are a green thumb, as we’ll soon be calling upon our parent community to help! Thank you to those who expressed interest in working bees on the Getting Involved at AHS form; we’ll be in touch soon! 

Mr Van Est has done a fantastic job designing a landscaping plan for the Canteen courtyard area. Once the temporary toilets are gone, we’ll be able to get this work underway. The plan will see different Victorian eco-systems represented in different zones; it will look fantastic. Also on the cards is a staged repainting program for the entire main building as well as furniture upgrades in particular areas. Donations to the Building Fund are gratefully received and are tax-deductible. Please contact the office if you’re in a position to contribute. 

The good news is that the air-conditioning system has now been repaired and is working well! The not-so-good news is that unfortunately we have not yet been able to open the refurbished bathrooms due to a work defect being identified. We are working closely with the Victorian School Building Authority to progress the remediation process as quickly as possible. It’s certainly taking longer than any of us would like and we thank students and staff for their patience. We have requested additional temporary facilities to reduce crowding and provide a “juniors only” bathroom. Again, we are advocating to have these installed as quickly as possible but it is largely out of our hands. We will continue to provide updates as soon as they come to hand.