Assistant Principal's Message

Assistant Principal Report

ARPS Cross Country – Southern Reserve – Friday 8th March

Last Friday our year 3-6 students walked to Southern Reserve to compete in our annual Cross Country competition. The cross country involved students competing against others in their age group, running a course around the boundary of Southern Reserve. Students test their endurance, stamina and resilience running distances of between 2 and 3 kilometres, depending on their age.

The top 10 in each age group, and boys or girls, received a ribbon and house points. Our top runners will have the opportunity to represent Albany Rise at our District Cross Country in term 3.

Congratulations to all our students for their efforts and demonstration of our school values throughout. Thank-you to all our parent helpers, teachers and education support staff. Without your support, events such as these wouldn’t be able to go ahead. A special thank-you to Celia Kelsall, our P.E teacher/coordinator, for planning and leading this most successful event.

Reminder: Albany Rise School Council AGM – Wednesday 20th March, 6.30pm

Our Annual General Meeting (AGM) for 2024 will be held with our ’new’ 2024 School Council members, on Wednesday 20th March at 6.30pm. The Annual Report will be shared. This will be followed by our usual School Council Meeting at 7pm. Parents/Carers and staff are most welcome to attend our Annual General Meeting (AGM), which will be held in the staffroom, in the Administration Building.

Lost Opportunities

Lateness and lost opportunities are a big focus for the Department of Education and our school this year. The accumulated absence or lateness does add up to significant lost learning time. Consider this:

• A student who is late by half an hour each day misses the equivalent of 16.6 days of learning each year.
• An 80% attendance rate is the equivalent of missing one day per week or 40 days of lost learning for the school year which could add up to 2 ½ years from Prep – Year 12.
• 85% attendance equals 30 days of lost learning per year or 2 years from Prep – Year 12.
• 90% attendance equals 1 day per fortnight or 20 days per year equalling one year of absence from Prep – Year 12
• 95% attendance equals 10 days of lost learning and over half a year of lost opportunities from Prep – Year 12.

Research conducted by the Department of Education indicates that there is no safe threshold to missing school. They determined this using a combination of school enrolment figures, attendance records and NAPLAN results. They studied patterns of over 415,000 primary and high school students over a five-year time frame. In all analyses, average academic achievement on NAPLAN tests declined with any absence from school and continued to decline as absence rates increased.

Every day of absence made a difference, and this was particularly true for unauthorised absences. The effect of one day of absence was relatively small, but added up quickly as more and more days were missed. The effect of missing days accumulated over time, so that school absence not only impacted achievement in the year in which the days were missed but in future years as well. The message is straightforward and well supported, every day of school that is missed is a lost opportunity! Please ensure your child is at school every day!

Opening Hours

I would like to remind families that the school operates between 8:45am and 3:45pm. We request that students/families do not enter the school grounds prior or after these times unless it is to attend before or after school care or for special events. 

Teachers are not on yard duty until 8:45am and finish yard duty at 3:45pm so that they can complete other tasks before and after these times. As such, we cannot guarantee the safety of students who are entering the school grounds outside of these times. We would hate to see an injury occur because a child was left unsupervised. If your child needs to arrive prior to or after these times, please enrol them with Camp Australia. Please contact the office if you would like further information.

Moving Forward:  Junior School Easter Hat Parade – Wednesday 27th March

Junior School (Foundation to Year 2) should have received a notice recently regarding our upcoming Easter hat Parade on Wednesday 27th March at 9.15am.

Please join us at 9.15am (not afternoon assembly) under the blue shade sails as we share our Easter hat creations. If the weather is poor, we will run the parade in the hall. 

Thank-you for supporting!

Michael Mottershead

Assistant Principal