Principal Team Report

Important Term Dates

Free Dress Day (Gold Coin Donation): Friday 26 June

End Term 2: Friday 26 June (2:30pm dismissal)

Curriculum Day: Monday 13 July (student free day)

Start Term 3: Tuesday 14 July

Camps are back on! (we hope!)

Year 3 Camp: 9-11 November

Year 4 Camp: 4-6 November

End of Term 2 Principal Message

COVID-19 Advice 

Please note that we now have a dedicated page in the newsletter for all COVID-19 related matters and guidelines. Please take time to check this page each week for important updates. In this week's newsletter and as per the updates from our Premier, Daniel Andrews, we have amended the important advice regarding social gatherings.

Term 3 Drop-Off and Collection Changes

Having observed what works well with regards to our morning Soft-Start and Staggered Afternoon collection, we have made the following adjustments to our approach in Term 3. Our hope is that this will continue to provide flexibility for families as we find sustainable approaches to support the safety of students staff and parents. these approaches continue to be modelled around limiting adult to adult contact and interactions. If the following model doesn't achieve this, we will return to surname based collection strategies.

Morning Soft-Start

All families to arrive at school within a 20 minute period from 8:40am - 9:00am. 

Afternoon Flexi-Collect (3:20pm  - 3:40pm)

All students will be released from classrooms at 3:20pm.  Parents will have 20 minutes to collect their child/ren from school in accordance with the following system:

• If your youngest child is in Years Prep-2, we ask that you collect your child as close to 3:20pm as possible.
• If your youngest child is in years 3-6, we ask that you collect your child between 3:30pm and 3:40pm.

Our hope is that the new Flexi-Collect system supports a natural dispersion of students from school in the afternoon (in a similar way that the morning soft-start does) but again, this will only work if all families do the right thing. 

As per this term's advice, please avoid congregating outside sand around the school and continue to maintain a distance of 1.5m  between yourself and other adults.

Student Excellence Program

The Victorian Government’s Student Excellence Program was initiated this year with the aims to provide:

• structured learning extension programs for high-ability students
• upskilling classroom teachers to better support their high-ability students
• more resources for government schools to build their programs for high-ability students.

As such we are seeking any students in our school who have been assessed (by a psychologist) as being gifted to be part of the program. If you feel your child meets this criterion please email Patricia Stanton to discuss this program further. Patricia.Stanton@education.vic.gov.au

Science Talent Search Entry Forms

Students who are participating in this year’s Science Talent Search need to read the attached acknowledgement letter outlining the process for submitting entries. 

Submission of STS entries this year will be online.

Entry Due Date: Sunday 19 July 2020

• Please send files to me at least 7 days prior to the due date to allow me time to upload and submit the entries to the registration portal.
• Please ensure you fill in the face sheet (see attachment) to send to me along with project files

With Thanks,

Jo Kretsis

STS Coordinator

Free Dress for Backpack Bed

This event will be held on the last day of Term 2, which is  Friday, 26/6/20. There Is no specific attire that you will have to wear, it is a free dress day! Our aim is to make $400 dollars, which we can achieve if everyone contributes!

We will be fundraising for an organisation which supports homelessness. They provide beds and shelter for homeless people in need. One bed costs around $110, so our aim is to buy enough for a family. We encourage every student to bring a gold coin donation or 

more if they wish so.

This event is organised by the following 

 Year 6 students: Campbell, Nimalan, Amarbat, Jake and Hawon. Our original idea was to make a lemonade stand, but under the current circumstances, a dress up-day was the best way to go. For more information or to make a larger donation, please follow the link below.

Farewell To Carol Chang

All the very best to Carol Chang, who is taking leave from ASPS to live and work in Singapore with her husband Teng Fei. This move will mean that both Carol and her husband can be much closer to immediate family members. Carol, an outstanding person and educator, will be greatly missed and on behalf of the whole community, we wish her all the very best for this exciting next chapter. 

SAKG is Back at ASPS!

One of the great things about having students back at school for onsite learning is that the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden program can run again. This week, in the kitchen with Karen, our Year 6 students have continued to develop their skills as gourmet pizza chefs! Forget take-away on the weekend, your kids have got dinner covered!

If your child is unwell, they must not come to school

If you or your child is unwell and exhibiting cold or flu-like symptoms, you must not enter the school.  If a child presents at school with cold or flu-like symptoms, they will be calmly and respectfully brought to the first aid room where they will wait for parents to collect them. Children must not return to school until they are completely well and symptom free.  If your child has allergies which may present in a similar way to the symptoms described above, please be proactive in informing and discussing these with the school.

Learning from Home Community Survey

With all students having returned to onsite learning, we are mindful of not missing the opportunity to gather community stories and feedback that relates to your family's remote learning experience. These personal stories will become 'artefacts' from this historically significant time. If the comments fields are prohibitive, please feel encouraged to email through your family's personal story to the school's email address.

How can we grow from this experience?

As a school we are also acutely aware of the need to not let go of some of the great practice and strategies used to engage both students and parents during this period of remote learning. When completing the general comment fields within the survey, I encourage families to consider the following:

1.) A description of your family's personal story (include the ups and downs).

2.) What you hope changes (school related) as a result of this period of remote learning.

Please complete the following Learning from Home survey by Friday 26 June:

Semester 1 Student Reports

While the shift towards remote learning has made writing students reports for Semester 1 quite complex, all students will receive a report. This report will be quite different to our normal reports and as per the advice from the Department of Education, student progress against the Victorian Curriculum in form of progression points, will not be included. 

The Semester One report will be focused on how students engaged in the extended period of remote learning. Along with the descriptive teacher comments, students will also comment on their experiences of home learning with their classroom and specialist teachers. 

Summary of Semester 1 Report

• Curriculum Overview
• No Progression Points against the Victorian Curriculum
• Teacher Descriptive Comments
• Specialist Subject Summaries
• Student Reflections from Remote Learning

Parent Teacher Interviews

Please note that parent teacher interviews will be held early in Term 3 via Zoom. Online booking forms will be sent home via Geddup in week 1 of Term 3. More than any other time, our hope is that parents will be able to share (through the observations made during remote learning) insights into their child/ren's learning from the viewpoint of strengths and areas for growth. 

2021 Prep Enrolments

Please note that Prep enrolment packs for 2021 can be collected from the school from the Burgess St entrance from 8:30am each day or sent home in school bags as requested.  Please call the office for further information.