What an emotional week!

I would firstly like to wish every single student, parent, grandparent, carer and staff member all the very best for the Festive season. Please take the time to enjoy the "moments' with your families and slow down and breathe. Be safe and be kind.

MONDAY AND TUESDAY - School uniform please - as we farewell our grade 6 students through the Guard of Honour on Tuesday it would be great for all our students to be in their uniforms. Thank you.

GRADE 6 GRADUATION:

Our Grade 6 students had an a amazing night last night at their Graduation Ceremony!

Congratulations to each and very grade 6 student! A huge thank you to the parent Committee who decorated the Theatre and co-ordinated the yearbook and undertook the many tasks to make the night a success!

Huge thank you to Alysha, Brooke and Stuart - your words for each student were fantastic and memorable.

Thanks to all the other staff who attended the evening!

FAREWELLS:

Wow where do I start?

DE PRIOR:

It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to De Prior. De has been involved with ACPS in one form or another for almost 30 years. Prior to De joining the staff at ACPS in Term 2 2005, she was a parent here seeing her 4 children through their primary school years.

De's list of responsibilities at ACPS has been many and varied with her main role being our Business Manager. The schools finances could not have been in better hands.

Above all, De's number one priority has always been the care and well being of the students. Many, many times I have been asked a question to which I answer - "Hmm I think we should ask De," and yes I will have her number on speed dial - she is one of our longest standing staff members and knows this school like the back of her hand. De is also a Warrandyte icon and knows everyone!

If you have ever been fortunate enough to work with or or call De a friend you will know that family, kindness, integrity and loyalty, are words regularly used to describe her. We wish her well in her new adventure to Auburn Primary School. You will be sadly missed by every one of us at ACPS.

JESS O'SULLIVAN: the newly engaged Jess (Miss O) has been with us since she graduated - we have been fortunate to have Jess on staff since 2017. Jess quickly rose to the position of Grade 1/2 Co-ordinator and has mentored a number of Graduate teachers. Many students have been lucky enough to have Miss O as their teacher over their journey at ACPS.

JULIAN FUSSELL: Julian has come in like a breath of fresh air into Grade 3/4! Although he has only been with us for a year Julian has implemented Pyjama Day and has taken responsibility for Junior School Council and running events including the Anzac Day Service and the Remembrance Day Service.

MAGGIE SPILLANE: Maggie's Duties are not quite finished. She will be leading our ACPS performance at The Warrandyte Carols on Saturday night! Thank you Maggie, for all that you have done in the area of Performing Arts this year for all our students.

ROBYN MULHOLLAND: Robyn had been with us for since July 2019 as our School Chaplain. Robyn is very kind and thoughtful to all our staff and students. She quietly goes about her work checking in on different students and making sure they are ok. In this day and age, particularly following our Covid lock downs Robyn's calm, caring counsel has been very welcome and has helped alot of students to breathe easier.

Please check both this week and last week's Chaplain's Corner of our newsletter for further details.

2023 Leaders

Congratulations to our 2023 School Captains

From Left To Right - Charlie F (Vice Captain), Archer N (Captain), Indi P (Captain) and Ally N (Vice Captain)

GOOGLE: "Modernise your devices in a few simple steps"

A huge thank you to Kimberley Hall!

Kimberley is a parent on School Council - who happens to work at Google. Kimberly has been working with some of our Tech savvy students to upgrade out laptops.

Here is some information about the process: "Chrome OS Flex is a version of Chrome OS made to modernise your school's existing PCs and Mac devices at no additional cost. And it's easy to manage Chrome OS Flex devices alongside existing Chromebooks — as with Chromebooks, management and enrolment is all done with Chrome Education upgrade and Google Admin console."

SUSTAINABILITY

Thank you to all the Green Thumbs this year and the amazing work they have done this year to keep our school's recycling program running, Nude Food Wednesdays, for their enthusiasm for caring about the Earth and its animals/people and their regular clean up of rubbish around the school grounds. We couldn't have the school looking and working this good without you!

End of term Events at ACPS

Saturday 17th Dec - Andersons Creek performing at Warrandyte Carols at

Stiggants Reserve

Monday 19th Dec - Class Party 12:30pm and Kris Kringle

Tuesday 20th Dec -Last Day

Final Assembly 12:30pm

Grade 6 farewell arch 1:15pm

Early Finish at 1:30pm

Christmas Tree at the Pines Shopping Centre

We have another art piece on display at the Pines Shopping Centre - this time in the form of a Christmas tree.

Students' learning at school has been transferred onto our Christmas tree. The tree highlights our Australian and Indigenous heritage and is a celebration of Christmas. This term, students at Andersons Creek Primary School have been learning about Australia and what makes Australia unique. We have explored traditions and celebrations within Australia and from around the world. Students have learned about Indigenous and Torres Strait culture and traditions. We have investigated the concept that ‘we are one, but we are many’. A shout-out and ‘Thank you!’ to Emma Hollingsworth, who is a Kaanju, Kuku Ya’u, Girramay woman. She created free colouring pages of Australian native animals, the kangaroo and platypus, that we were able to use for some of the baubles

A team of helpers - mainly from 3/4F Darcie W, Miles, Benita, Reilly, Leila, Giselle, Mila, Lani, Charlie R, Grace, Ella B, Selah, Abbey N, and some other students - Tessa, Daniel, Lucas (5/6B), Tom (5/6E), Lila (PC) and Evie N (2SB) - I hope everyone is included!! - helped to paint, make the paper chain, make the star (thanks Benita!) and place the baubles. Our grade 5 students and other early-finishing students were able to decorate a bauble for the tree. A big thanks to everyone who helped at this busy time of year!

Please keep an eye out for our tree when you're next at The Pines!

2023 Book Packs & Parent Payments

Please refer to Compass for details on how to order and pay.

Enjoy your weekend

Meredith Thornton

Acting Principal

Feel free to contact me via email meredith.thornton@education.vic.gov.au

Specialist Program