Assistant Principal Update

Welcome to week 7. I hope families were able to enjoy some time together and managed the extreme weather that accompanied the long weekend. It was quite timely given the hectic nature of Term 1. We’re now already halfway through week 7 with less than three weeks until the Easter break.

NAPLAN Online: 

We have had a very successful start to the 2024 NAPLAN. So far today, we have completed the Writing assessment. Tomorrow we will conduct the Reading assessment test with Friday allocated for Conventions of Language (Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation. We will conduct the final assessment, Numeracy, on Tuesday 19 March. We also have scheduled test sessions for those students who may require catching up due to an absence during the test period. If your child has been absent or is absent in the next couple of days, please contact your child’s teacher at your earliest convenience and we can adjust, so they are able to participate in the appropriate catch-up session.

If your child is participating in NAPLAN please reassure them that the test are a snapshot of what they can do at this point in time so that schools can get a deeper understanding of how to support them with their learning. While we understand that some students may be nervous or feeling anxious, please reiterate that they do not need to be, to simply try their best and consider it no different to completing an Essential Assessment, which they are very familiar and comfortable doing. 

Division Swimming: 

Yesterday I was very fortunate to attend the Division swimming trials with 16 students from APS. It was a cooler day than the past few days and the conditions were good for swimming. The efforts of all swimmers were amazing. Every student who competed experienced great success. We had several students who finished in the top 3 for the Banyule Division, getting a ribbon for their efforts. Those students who finished in the top 2 of their event will now progress to the Regional Trials to be held at The Watermarc in Greensborough on Thursday 21 March. 

• Girls 11-year-old 4 x 50m freestyle relay (Ella, Audrey, Marlowe, Vaiva)
• Boys 10-year-old butterfly - Will 
• Boys 12 year-old butterfly - Heathcote 

Congratulations to everyone!

Ride2School Day - Friday 22 March: Riding, walking or scooting to school is a great way to start your day. National Ride2School Day is Australia’s biggest celebration of active travel. It is a day full of fun and colour where students, teachers and parents discover the joy of riding and kick-start healthy habits for the future. APS is a strong cycling community with a significant number of students and staff regularly riding to school. We look forward to seeing the bike racks overflowing. Please remember to ride safely and follow road rules. 

We want to make sure every student at Alphington Primary School can do just that, so we’ve partnered with Yarra City Council and charity organisation, Dr Cranky’s to run a FREE Bike Hospital in the lead up to Ride2School Day on Friday 22 March 2024. Dr Cranky’s will fix bikes and if you don’t have a bike, they can provide a second-hand bike at no cost!

Wed 20th March – Dr Cranky’s returns - 8.30 to 9.30am and 3pm to 4.30pm

Another chance to bring your bike in for a check

Important: To help the Bike Hospital run smoothly we need parents to volunteer at each event. If you’re available to help, please email barts@drcrankys.com.au or contact the school office.

STEM Club Excursion: 

Leigh and I are very excited to be attending the 2024 Formula 1 Grand Prix with the APS STEM Club. To support the STEM Club PrintACar Project, STEM Club students will attend the Schools Driver Learning Program on the Friday session of the Melbourne Formula 1 Grand Prix at Albert Park. The purpose of the program and excursion is to inspire students to pursue their interests in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and understand the diverse pathways and careers that STEM and the motorsport industry can offer. The program has a range of exciting and innovative exhibitors, interactive workshops, informative career seminars and STEM-based challenges that will develop new learning and interest in STEM. 

We will be departing Alphington at 7:45am and travelling via train and tram to the circuit. We have a full day of activities planned, including watching the first practice session on track for the formula 1 cars.

Reading at APS: 

At APS we are guided by the evidence based, Big 6 of Reading.

• Oral language
• Phonemic awareness
• Phonics
• Vocabulary
• Fluency
• Comprehension

To be an effective reader requires skills and understandings in decoding, text use and text analysis. Each of these skills and understandings is crucial, but they all take place within an overall focus on meaning making, which is the central purpose of all literate behaviour.  Meaning making must be central to the teaching of reading.  At APS all teachers teach phonics explicitly, alongside supporting students’ literal, inferential and evaluative comprehension and to support students’ interest, engagement and enjoyment with books and other texts that they read and view. 

Alphington Primary utilises the resources from the Literacy Toolkit to provide a systematic and balanced approach to the teaching of reading. It includes: 

• providing a range of explicit teaching opportunities during modelled, shared, guided and independent reading.
• explicitly teaching phonemic awareness and phonics so students can identify the sounds of English and decode written text.
• using strategies to explicitly teach comprehension strategies. 
• supporting students’ understanding, interpreting, critically analysing, reflecting upon, and enjoying written and visual, print, and non-print texts.
• reading and viewing a wide range of rich and authentic texts and media, including literary texts, short stories, poetry and plays as well as popular fiction and non-fiction works.
• active engagement with texts during literature circles and Book Club sessions to develop knowledge about the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they are created.
• providing opportunities for whole class, small group, and individual instruction.
• carefully monitoring students’ reading progression and establishing individual reading goals which are revisited regularly as part of our daily reading program.

Sandpit use:

Our recently installed sandpit in the Prep – 2 playground area is a very popular resource.  Often almost overflowing with students utilising the toys and space. We have purchased an easy to install cover for the sandpit to ensure the space remains free from animals and wildlife when not in use. Each day our teachers on yard duty endeavour to cover the space to ensure the safety of students when using the sandpit. We have noted that members of the APS community are utilising the sandpit outside of school hours. We are fine with this happening but do request that the cover is returned to its position to ensure the space remains safe and hygienic.

Student behaviour & wellbeing: 

As we enter the second half of the term it is common for students to begin feeling tired, and/or easily overwhelmed. This will often lead to conflicts occurring in the playground, sometimes over quite minor incidents. We are very conscious of this and are ensuring we continue to follow our school’s behaviour procedures when investigating and dealing with behaviour concerns. 

The best way for us to support students is to encourage them to report any incidents to a teacher as soon as they identify a problem. On most occasions staff can manage incidents in a timely manner bringing a resolution and restoring justice. We also try to remind students that when an incident is reported, generally, staff talking to students will be adequate. This sometimes is misunderstood by students as ‘the teacher didn’t do anything’, as they expect a strong consequence to be enforced. Nevertheless, we want to thank those families who continually remind their children to report incidents to the teacher and then inform us through the normal avenues if further investigation is required.

Class Liaisons: 

Class liaison parents fulfil an important social and cultural role within our school community. The role is essentially a link between parents in the class, in relation to school social events, and between parents and school committees and sub committees. Communication involves the organisation and management of such events, being cognisant of privacy and confidentiality. 

The tasks typically carried out each year include:

• Organising a social evening or occasion for the parents of the class on occasions throughout the year
• Coordinating acknowledgement of teachers work on behalf of teachers. E.g. World teacher’s Day
• Coordinating assistance at other school events, if requested, including events organised by the Community Events & Fundraising Committee
• Encouraging parent participation at social events organised by the school community e.g. collecting names for a class table at a Trivia Night event
• Disseminate information/requests in relation to school events e.g. costumes for school concerts.

We are still seeking class liaisons for the following classes:

- 6A        - 6M       - 5J         - 4B        - 1E        

We will hold an information morning on Thursday 21 March from 8:45 – 9:15am onsite on Level 1 of the main administration building. I will send out invites via email this week. 

Please note this date has changed due to my attendance with the STEM Club on an excursion to the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix on Friday 22 March.

Have a great week everyone!

Shane Wilkie - Assistant Principal