Fete - Two More Sleeps!

The excitement has been building all week and now we only have two more sleeps until we get to enjoy the AGPS Fete! It has been 3 years since our last fete and the fete committee have been planning for this one for over 18 months - we can't wait to see it all come together!

There has already been a tremendous level of support from all areas of the school community in the planning and preparation phase and a number of people have committed to spending their Saturday volunteering and helping out to make sure this event is a success. I cannot be more thankful for the support that our community has shown and cannot wait to enjoy the day together tomorrow. See you there!

What are we fundraising for?

A reminder that all funds raised from this event go directly towards literacy and learning resources for our school. Our school has undertaken a number of evidence-informed improvements to our literacy learning programs over the past few years. We are really proud of the progress that we have made with these changes and the impact it is having on our students' academic achievement but resourcing for this is a continual challenge. Having the funds to fully support and improve our literacy programs will make a significant difference to our kids and we thank you in advance for supporting our fete and therefore supporting our kids to achieve success at school - thank you!

Fete Committee

I would like to highlight the efforts of some individuals within our community. The following people have put in countless hours planning, preparing and resourcing for the fete:

Victoria Reynolds
Haley Ballingall
Tom Brockbank
Fiona Farrugia
Leanne Grima
Lisa De Vaux
Candice de Vaux
Nicole Thompson
Amanda O’Brien
Liz Oblak

This group, along with a few others who have also gone above and beyond, have done an incredible job pulling together the many pieces of this huge event. I have been fortunate enough to attend many meetings with this group and have been blown away by their generosity, creativity and passion for our school. We are so fortunate to have such a dedicated group working so hard to make our school the best that it can be and I encourage you all to share your gratitude when you see them on Saturday.

Harmony Week

Last week the whole school celebrated our diversity through a range of activities for Harmony Week. Altona Green is a great multicultural community and Harmony Week encourages us to celebrate our diversity. Our school is a wonderful mix of cultures from across the globe - we have many students who were born in many different parts of the world (see the below map to see how diverse we are!) and 31% of the parents of our students were born in a country other than Australia.

The message of Harmony Week is ‘everyone belongs’ – it’s about inclusiveness, respect and belonging for all Australians. Sarah Myers and the JSC planned a fun-filled day with a range of activities that were designed to be inclusive for all students. This included skipping, chalk drawing, Harmony Day colouring and drawing, bracelet making and a dance party under Gumbuya. They aimed to have everyone in our school be gifted a friendship bracelet and it certainly seemed as though they were successful!

We also finished the week with a whole school dress up. Students and staff came in either orange (the colour of Harmony Day) or items of clothing to represent their cultural heritage. This prompted many discussions about our diversity as well as promoting inclusion and helping us celebrate the individuals that make up our great community. This was such a great day - thanks so much, JSC & Sarah!

Student Leadership Conference

On Wednesday, the four school captains, along with Sarah Myers, attended the Youth Leadership 'Dream and Lead' Conference in the city at the Melbourne Convention Centre. The conference is designed to support primary school students in discovering their leadership potential, whilst providing them with strong foundations to succeed. Throughout the day, our captains participated in a range of activities to develop their problem-solving skills, and increase their confidence and independence.

They were fortunate enough to listen to special guest speakers from different organisations who spoke about what leadership is and the skills and attributes needed to be an effective leader. They learnt about and practised skills related to listening, resilience, empathy and problem solving and how to build trust.

Highlights from the students were all about the great guest speakers, the music, mingling and dancing!

2026 Prep Information Night

We held our 2026 Prep Information Night on Tuesday. This is always a great event as we love talking all about our wonderful little school. The highlight of the night was hearing our captains speak about our school. We were so impressed with the planning and preparation that they all put in to their speeches and then their courage getting up there and speaking in front of all those strangers. Amazing work, captains!

Planning Week

This week has been planning week for Term 2 for each of our Professional Learning Teams (PLTs). Each teaching team is released from the classroom for a day to partake in their planning day. During this time the teams work together to sequence the curriculum for the term, analyse student data, plan for support and extension to ensure all students are challenged, celebrate the academic success of the students and plan for any further events and activities during the term. These are really important days for our teaching teams and work to ensure that all the students are set up for success for the following term. Thank you to Amy and the team leaders for all their efforts planning and running these days.

Attendance

We want all kids to come to school every day. Attending all day, every day helps students build their learning and maintain strong social connections with their friends and teachers. Each lesson provides a foundation for the next one, making it easier to learn the next concept. Every day counts – each day a student misses puts them behind and has flow-on effects:

We understand that there are circumstances where your child cannot attend school but we encourage all parents and carers to prioritise and promote attendance - school is better when your child is here! Please see this article for further information.

We would also like to remind everyone of the process for late arrivals and early departures (as posted on Compass):

Please pick your child/ren up at either 11:00am; 11:30am; 1:30pm or 2:30pm as picking up during instruction times disrupts the whole class/school.
If your child is going to be late or leave early, please do not put this on Compass - Jen will do it when they arrive or leave. Please only put all day absences on Compass.

Jen Armstead is our school's attendance officer. Her role is to monitor attendance and support families that may be having difficulty getting their child to school. Please contact Jen if you have any questions or concerns about attendance

Cross Country

Our school held our cross country try-outs this week for students aged 9 and above. It was great to see so many of our students have a go during these try-outs and to see them persist when things were really getting tough for them. We also loved the support and encouragement shown by the spectating students during each race (although we are not sure about the effectiveness of high fiving during a race!).

The top 7 for each age category head to Queen of Peace on Friday 2nd May to compete against the Laverton District Schools. This event will be published via Compass for those students who qualified.

Thanks for a great fortnight. We cannot wait to see you all at the fete on Saturday!

Take care,

David

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