A Message from David & Cam...

We cannot believe that we are already at the halfway point of the year! Whilst the term has had many challenges with a range of colds and viruses in the community and significant student and staff absences, it has been wonderful to have a busy and exciting term filled with rich curriculum programs and a full range of events and excursions. We look forward to celebrating the end of term at this afternoon's Dance Party (Thanks to Anna for coordinating this!!) and we wish you all a very happy, safe and relaxing holiday period.

Heroes for Heartkids

Hi, my name is Logan and I am writing to tell you about the Heartkids group. The reason there was a Hero Dress Up Day on Friday and a gold coin donation was to raise money for Heartkids. This money goes towards helping families that have kids with congenital heart disease. 

When I was not even 1 year old I had 3 surgeries, 2 open heart surgeries to fix a hole in my heart and a narrow vein, and 1 to put a tiny cage in my heart through my leg. When I was in the hospital my mum learnt about Heartkids. They helped my family get through some very scary things. Heartkids do heaps of fun fundraisers like a fair at Christmas, camp and Roar and Snore where you have a sleepover at the Zoo. 

On Friday we raised a total of $413 that will support Heart Kids and help them continue the amazing work they do, just like they helped me and my family.

Thank you for supporting this great organisation, 

Logan

Parent/Teacher/Student Conferences

During the first week of Term 3, the Parent/Student/Teacher interviews will take place. Specific details have been communicated via Compass. These interviews provide an excellent opportunity to discuss your child’s progress in the first half of the year with their teacher. Your child is encouraged to attend to share aspects of their learning. If you are unavailable during the scheduled times and would like an interview, please contact your child’s teacher to organise an alternative time. 

2/3S Foodbank Drive

A group of very empathetic and caring students in 2/3S (Olivia, Olivia, Lily, Jenna & Josie) approached me earlier in the term with a proposal to help people in need. They had learnt that there are many people living in and around our community that do not have enough food and they wanted to do something about it. They have worked with their teacher (Sarah) to develop the idea of a food drive and have selected Foodbank Australia as the organisation to support. This week we have seen many generous people donating food and during the holidays the girls and Sarah will make a delivery to the Yarraville Foodbank.

Well done, girls! We are really proud of you for supporting this great cause and putting in the effort to make your idea a reality.

Cross Country

Harriet, Sam and Jensen all continued to the next stage of cross country last week at the Western Metro Cross Country Finals. All three students put in incredible efforts and got fantastic individual results. We love that these three students work so hard to continue to improve their running and they are just getting stronger and stronger. A special mention to Jensen who came first in his age group. He continues to the State Finals on July 14th in Yarra Glen.

Road Safety Plan

We have been working with Hobsons Bay City Council to address our concerns about road safety along Victoria St. The main areas of concern that we have raised are the number of speeding vehicles and the potential for a serious incident when people are crossing the road away from the main crossing. The road safety team from HBCC have conducted traffic surveys and developed a plan to address these concerns. Details of the plan can be found in the below documents or via this website. Feedback is encouraged - please see contact details on the below document to submit your feedback.

5/6 Interschool Sports

Recently our senior students have represented the school by competing against local schools in the Interschool Sport competition. Students competed in Soccer, Netball, Volleyball, Softball & Australian Rules Football. All of our teachers commented on the positive and respectful manner in which our students supported each other and represented our school. Resulting from the Term 1 Interschool Sport program, our Hockey and T-ball teams were successful in progressing to the next stage and will be competing in early Term 3. We wish them the best of luck and know that they will represent our school wonderfully well!

Staffing Update

Next term we welcome Amy Moore to our school. Amy will be teaching in 4/5S on Thursdays and Fridays with Sarah Myers continuing teaching the class Monday to Wednesday. Amy has teaching experience in the ACT and more recently at Wembley Primary School in Yarraville. We are really fortunate to have someone with great experience and skills join our team and we look forward to working with her for the remainder of 2022.

Maths Olympiad

A committed group of Mathematicians have completed three Olympiad tests, with a further two scheduled for Term 3. The students are continuing to develop their problem solving strategies and are demonstrating a pleasing level of persistence. 

Whilst the mathematical development of the students is the focus of the Olympiad, it is worth celebrating our first ever 100% score for an Olympiad Test – congratulations and well done, Izzie! We will continue to learn together through Tuesday lunchtime sessions next term. 

Buildings and Grounds

Our school feels like a giant construction site at the moment! We have a number of projects at various stages. Here is a summary of what is happening:

• Toilet upgrade: The staff and student toilets are well underway and are nearing completion. These are likely to be completed for the beginning of Term 3.
• Sports field upgrade: School Council have obtained quotes to redevelop the basketball courts and the area between the courts and the gym. We are currently working through the design phase to create a multisport field, running track and soccer pitch. We will share designs with the school community once we have them and an update about the first stage of construction. A reminder that all fundraising from this year and previous years is going towards this project - we are getting very close!
• New shade sail: The posts for the new shade sail over the chess tables have been installed and we now are awaiting the shade sails to come (there is about a 6 week wait on these).
• New garden beds: We have been donated multiple truckloads of mulch which will be distributed along the residential fenceline. Trish is working on developing this area into new garden beds and we will continue to develop that area with additional paths and play spaces in the future.
• Cubby houses: The Altona Men's Shed have built us 6 cubby houses for us to put in our playground! We plan on turning these into little shops to further improve the imaginative play spaces at our school. We are planning on holding a few painting sessions for anyone that is interested in helping turn the cubbies into shops. Info about this will be published next term.
• Inclusive schools fund project: We have architect concept drawings for 2 new play spaces to be developed (see below map for the areas to be developed - note that area 3 will be a future project). School Council discussed and approved the designs and the project will now go to tender. The estimated beginning of construction for this project will be late 2022/early 2023.

Premiers' Reading Challenge

We are pleased to announce that we are participating in the 2022 Premiers' Reading Challenge, which is open until Friday 2 September 2022.

Since the Premiers' Reading Challenge started in 2005, it has helped teachers and parents motivate more than 3.5 million children to read more than 54 million books. This year's theme is 'Discover a new chapter'. This refers to the experience of going on an adventure with every turn of the page, as well as those milestone moments in life when a child starts a new chapter on their own journey.

Further details about the Challenge, including student logins and instructions on how to participate, will be published early next term. If there are any keen readers that would like to get an early start over the holidays, the book list for the Challenge is attached below.

2023 Preps

If you, or anyone you know, have a child that will be starting prep at AGPS in 2023, please contact us to let us know as this greatly assists us with planning.

We are also offering school tours in Term 3 for any parents that would like to visit the school and find out more about we can offer their child.