Principal Update

Welcome to Week 5 of Term 2. I hope families are coping okay with the colder weather and significant illness that is around in the community.  A reminder that if your child is unwell, to allow them the adequate time to recover before returning to school and if symptoms are prolonged, to seek medical advice. 

While it is important that students remain at home when unwell, when they are fit and healthy and able to attend it is important that that they are here each day and on time. The below table illustrates what arriving late to school each day looks like over an extended period.  

AEU Industrial Action Update

Many families will have read media reports of an in-principle agreement between the Department of Education (DE) and Australian Education Union (AEU) regarding recent enterprise bargaining negotiations. The agreement will now be put to members for a vote. The outcome of the vote will determine if the agreement is confirmed and be sent to fair work to be ratified. As a result of this in-principle agreement the stop work bans have been suspended. The exception to these are the written comments for semester one reports. 

We will be providing  student achievement reports for Semester 1 this year as usual. The reports will be distributed on Friday 19 June. The reports will continue to provide important details about student learning attainment, but full descriptive comments will not be included as a result of industrial action taken earlier this term by the Australian Education Union.

We will of course be pleased to discuss with you your child’s progress. You can contact your child’s teacher to arrange a meeting with them during the last week of term.

Pedestrian Crossing Upgrades for Alphington 

Yarralea Street in Alphington is set to have a new school crossing installed to improve safety for students, families and residents. Member for Northcote Kat Theophanous MP today announced $150,000 from the Victorian Government to deliver the project as part of  Labor’s Safe Local Roads and Streets Program. 

She joined local Yarra Councillor Sarah McKenzie to share the news. The project will be delivered in partnership with Yarra City Council. 

The new raised crossing will be immediately south of the laneway that the school community use to access Alphington Park. This will provide greater alignment with pedestrian desire lines, accommodate people wishing to walk both north and south of crossing, and better align with the new entrance that was created when the school underwent a major capital upgrade in 2022. 

Division Cross Country 

On Wednesday 3rd June we have a team 11 students progressing to the Banyule Division Cross Country at Banyule Flats. We have students representing us in each of the 10-, 11- and 12-year-old boy and girl categories. We want to acknowledge their efforts in finishing in the top 10 at District level and making it through to the Division level. We wish them all the very best. 

STEAM Expo

Our annual STEAM Expo will be held on Wednesday 3 June. Students in Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 will be working on projects in class as part of their Term 2 STEAM Units of learning. Students in Year 3-6 will be provided details of their Science Expo projects within their homework tasks, as well as working on them during class STEAM lessons.  The afternoon will commence from 3:45pm with the STEAM Expo displays set up across the classrooms. We encourage as many families and friends as possible to attend.

Professional Practice Day – Tomorrow Thursday 21 May

A reminder that tomorrow is a Student Free Day at Alphington Primary School. Their Care will be open to provide out of hours care for students - book in direct with them. Staff will be onsite undertaking Professional Practice Day. These days are self-directed by staff with activities based on both individual and team professional learning needs. 

2027 Prep Enrolments

Luke, our student leaders and I have been busily conducting 2027 Prep Tours this term. We have an updated format for the tours, and to date we have received some fantastic feedback. Our Entry to Prep tours start with a presentation from Luke and I in the Staff Centre where we celebrate and share what makes Alphington Primary School such an amazing place. We then visit the Prep classrooms to observe teaching and learning in action, where our amazing Prep students have confidently talked with visitors about their literacy learning. Tour participants are then taken on a walking tour, led solely by our Year 6 student leaders – often a highlight for parents.

We are currently seeking to fill our final places for our 2027 classes and want to remind those families with siblings commencing in 2027 to ensure their enrolment forms are handed to the office by the end of term. Furthermore, we encourage you to join us for on our updated tours as it may give you a new perspective on our wonderful school.

Out of Hours Supervision

Alphington Primary School provides duty of care supervision to students from 8:45am until 3:45pm. Outside of these hours any students who are onsite are to be either directly supervised by their parents, an adult accepting responsibility for them, or be enrolled in the out of hours Their Care program which operates from 7am-9am and from 3:30pm-6:00pm. 

Recently we have had several students onsite before 8:30am and beyond 3:45pm who are not adequately supervised in the school yard. This is friendly reminder of the school’s duty of care provision and expectations for students onsite outside of these hours. Thank you for your cooperation in ensuring all children are safe while onsite.

Have a great week everyone!

Shane Wilkie

Principal