Principal's Message

Parents are reminded that the Staff Car parks at the front and rear of the school are not for parent parking. Parents with a valid disabled pass may use the designated space at the front of the school..

ARPS staff are well and truly focused on our school’s strong traditions of wellbeing, engagement and learning excellence to ensure strong outcomes for each child. At ARPS a student’s education is full of opportunities, being rich and varied with a significant range of extracurricular activities in addition to the core, required (standard) learning of the Victorian Curriculum. 

Each class teachers’ daily priority is to plan and provide one hour of reading, one hour of writing, and one hour of maths. Other than our core business being in these important academic areas, our overarching purpose is to nurture the growth of ‘the whole child’. We thank the teachers for their thorough planning to enable our academic work to continue as we navigate important production rehearsal times, to ensure individual and collective success – looking excitedly to ‘The Primary Production Problem’  performances early next term. 

As rehearsals and preparations continue for the upcoming school production, I am continually reminded as to what a fantastic learning opportunity this represents for our students and one we haven’t been able to provide for a number of years (with our previous attempt performed in the hall with just our student audience due to COVID restrictions). 

The production is an important part of the school program and an essential part of the overall learning journey of each individual student. Being a successful learner is very much about confidence; learners who have the confidence to step out of their comfort zones to try something new and challenging develop an ever-increasing understanding and appreciation of their own abilities and talents.

The shows take place over two different evenings to allow our senior children greater scope and stage time, and accommodate the opportunity for every student to perform from Foundation to Year 6. This amplifies the need for families to be aware of the different arrangements for each performance evening … especially drop off/pick up points and the times for these. To save confusion, separate information will be communicated to families in coming days to ensure parents are aware of arrangements, such as: 

• students to change into most of their costume at school (named special items will be kept at school- more information about this will come home soon).
• hair to be neat and not covering faces so children can be seen on stage; if your child has long hair it can be in a ponytail, pigtails or plaits; please comb short hair off faces. 
• A small bag to be brought, containing extra hairpins etc, and a water bottle, and a snack. Considering the time of our productions we suggest that children have dinner before their performance. 

There is plenty of excitement as we draw closer to our school production, with ticket ordering arrangements to be shared before the end of term. 

Tickets for our 2023 production are $15 for adults and children under 18 years $10                        admission. Family tickets (2 adults and 2 children) are $40. 

Please be aware that photography is not permitted during the shows. Videos will be for sale sometime after the performance nights.

We are aware that ticketing poses some challenges for families which may require an explanation. As a school we wish to give students experiences that they’ll always remember and do so with the intention of simply covering our costs through ticket prices, as well as creating a Parents Association fundraising event. We understand the current cost of living pressures and are grateful your support. 

Fathers Day Stall 

Many thanks to our wonderful Parents Association group who provided a fantastic Fathers Day stall this year. There is a lot of forward planning, purchasing and coordination that goes into the running of our special event stalls. I sincerely thank the Parents Association for all their volunteer time and efforts to support students across the school.

          I also wish all our Fathers, grandfathers, male role models and carers in our                                          community, a very Happy Fathers Day for Sunday!

Parent Requests for Grades in 2024 (REPEAT):

Can parents choose teachers?

•            The short answer is no.

What can parents request?

•            That their child might be with (or not with) another student based on education needs, or if there may have been a past incident or negative history with another student. Parents may request something like, having your child separated from a good friend to help them focus or have the opportunity to make new friends.

Who do I send my request to?

Follow this link and complete the online form: https://forms.gle/9wcG9mhRwGvN2bHv7 

No later than Friday 13th October, 2023 (no exceptions).

How do we make grades for 2024?

We start by asking students to identify five ‘friends’ they might like to have in their grade for the next year. When we say ‘friend’, we mean someone who they would work well with, not always their best friend. Students have ample time and opportunity to be with their best friend, outside of school and classroom hours. Importantly we don’t guarantee these ‘five’ requests, usually students will get one or two of their ‘friend’ requests.  Sometimes not getting requests upsets students and their families. Invariably however, we find that students meet new friends (in their new grade) that they wouldn’t have met if we hadn’t encouraged mixing the grades, across their years at school. So, this is a deliberate strategy that supports students building their friendship groups across the years. 

Who makes the grades?

Classroom teaching staff and specialist teachers all contribute to making the grades. 

The Principal Class Team decides on the final grades. As a rule, we never make changes after the grades have been made. So please make your request before 13th October.

What factors do we consider when we make grades?

When we make grades, we consider things like: Academic capabilities / friendships / students’ behaviour. We want to ensure that grades have an even spread of boys and girls – we do not stream grades.

I trust this explains how we do this process; this is consistent with most schools.