We welcome everyone to the 2022 school year and what a fabulous start we've had.

It was with great sadness that I was unable to be at school the last few weeks of 2021 and am so happy to be back seeing our school community come together for the new school year. I especially wanted to wish our 2021 Graduating students a fabulous start to Year 7 and best wishes as their secondary school educational journey begins. I extend my thanks to Meredith Thornton who capably led the school in my absence.

The first thing I noticed when coming to school over the holidays, was the Grade 6 Tribute Project proudly displayed and welcoming staff, students and visitors to the school as they walk down the path/driveway. Thank you to Julie Clarke our Visual Arts teacher and our 2021 Year 6 students for organising this beautiful artwork!

We Welcome our Prep Students to ACPS...

And now to our students commencing their primary school years, we welcome our new Preps to ACPS. Their first day is always a highlight of my year and from the smiles I saw on faces, a highlight for our newest students as well. Don't forget to visit the Foundation tab to find out more about how our Preps started the year and for some fabulous pictures.

Key dates for Term 1

Thursday 10 Feb Year 5/6 Sex Ed Information Night - ZOOM 6.30pm

Friday 11 Feb Gr 6 Leaders badge presentations at

assembly 2.45pm - outdoors

Tuesday 15 Feb Information Night

Prep - 6pm

Year 1/2 - 7pm

Thursday 17 Feb Information Night

Year 3/4 - 6pm

Year 5/6 - 7pm

Tuesday 22 Feb Meet the teacher Interviews

3.50pm - 8pm

Thursday 24 Feb 3.50pm - 5pm

Saturday 19 Mar Warrandyte Festival

Assemblies will now be held on a Friday afternoon at 2.45pm each week unless advertised otherwise. At present we will be holding our assemblies outside on the blue basketball court. We welcome parents and carers to all our assemblies and highlight next week's badge presentation assembly for our Year 6 leaders.

Grade 6 Leaders - Badge Presentation next week

There is a significant importance of developing our students’ leadership capacity at ACPS. We would like to acknowledge the hard work and fantastic effort that all of our students made and it was certainly a tough and difficult decision when finalising our roles. However, it is worth noting that being given a role and responsibility doesn’t immediately make you a leader, it is how you encourage, inspire and lead your peers through your actions. In itself, every student in Grade 6 this year can certainly be a leader in their own right and we look forward to seeing all of our students being role models and fantastic citizens within our school and community.

We proudly announce our 2022 school leaders:

School Captains: Rosalie and Jay

Vice Captains: Millah and Cooper

Tech crew: Giacomo, Kaleb and James

Library Captains: Max, Sam and Maggie

Sustainability Captain: Charlotte

Grounds Crew: Charlie, Cohen and Marlon

House Captains: Erin, Lachie, Alannah, Adam, Sierra, Taylor, Archie and Hamish

Arts Captains: Kai, Daniel

Junior School Council Leader: Jack

Our official School Leaders Ceremony will take place at next week’s assembly on Friday 11February at 2:45pm. We can’t wait to see all our 2022 leaders making a positive difference within our school community.

Alysha Buzzini 5/6B is overseeing Gr 6 leadership and we thank her for her commitment to further developing student leadership at ACPS.

Introducing Sian McQualter 3/4M - ACPS Whole School Literacy Leader

A message from Sian to our families...

We are delighted to let you know about an educational resource that is available to your child at home as part of our school subscription – Story Box Library.

Your child can watch favourite stories, read aloud by fabulous storytellers, at home as well as in the classroom.

Reading aloud to children, in particular by diverse and engaging storytellers, greatly improves language and literacy skills, especially in the early years of a child’s development. Story Box Library is committed to supporting and engaging the practice of storytelling. It is intended for use as a complementary form of delivering the precious experience of being read aloud to, in order to improve children’s lives. Connecting children with literature through the complementary medium of film, providing a vibrant, interactive experience via a diverse range of storytellers sharing the best of our local children’s picture books.

A notice has been sent home with our school's login and password.

To access Story Box Library at home visit www.storyboxlibrary.com.au

Introducing Sarah Bailey 2SB - ACPS Sustainability & Green Thumbs Leader

We are looking to create a friendly group of staff and parents who would like to join us to maintain and improve our beloved Children’s garden and Cluckingham palace chicken coup. Tasks will include:

Help out with the Grade 1+2 gardening program on a monthly basis (Thurs/Friday).
Weekend care for chickens in Cluckingham Palace (they are arriving mid-Term 1).
Help create 2 new wicking beds for our Children’s garden (no prior knowledge required).
Maintain a “Swap and Share” trolley – new initiative this year!

The garden has been hit by Summer again and is ready for some keen gardeners to come and breathe life into it again. Experience or just willing hands are welcomed.

Please contact 2SB Class teacher Sarah Bailey Sarah.Bailey2@education.vic.gov.au to register your interest.

“GREEN THUMBS” – Our 2022 student Sustainability group is currently being organised with speeches and selection process within classrooms in the coming week. Certificates will be presented at an upcoming Assembly soon when positions have been appointed.

A few housekeeping items...

Have you collected your Rapid Antigen Tests? Each child was allocated a box of 5 tests at the start of the year. This is for parents to voluntarily test their children twice a week. We still have a small number waiting for collection. As we have started to get reports of Covid positive cases and, to try minimise the spread, I encourage all families to test their children twice a week.

Face masks - Please ensure your child has a spare mask in their bag. These seem to get lost or broken on a regular basis and we are not handing out 'spare' masks. In the latter part of term 4 last year we handed out close to 300 masks over a five week period.

How can I email my child's teacher? Go to the 'from the office tab' in the newsletter and you will see a list of all the teachers and office staff and their email addresses.

Supervision for students commences at 8.45am and concludes at 3.45pm. We understand children are excited about coming to school but ask you monitor drop off times.

Sign in for late arrivals after 9.15am. In this instance, a parent/carer must escort the student to the office and sign them in.

Please phone the school and leave a message if your child is going to be late or absent.

Covid - All parents/carers/visitors to the school must wear a mask to enter any school building, show evidence of vaccination and QR code in. Please note that teachers can often be busy in the morning as students are arriving so we ask everyone to do the right thing. Please note that we do have a small number of students and parents exempt from mask wearing.

Have a happy and safe weekend...

Sue Dyos

Principal

Grade 1/2