Assistant Principal Update

Hello APS families and welcome to Week 5 of Term 3. 

It is hard to believe we are almost halfway through this term already. Term 3 has been jam packed with many events and we still have lots more ahead. Last week’s 3-Way Conferences were a great success, with lots of amazing student learning being shared with families. Congratulations to all the students for their efforts in preparing and sharing at their conferences.

There have been several incursions and excursions happening in the past week with Year 1 students visiting the Melbourne Museum, Year 5 students at the IMAX last week, while Year 6 spent yesterday exploring the Immigration Museum and Queen Victoria Markets; and a group of girls from Years 3 and 4 invited to an AFLW day at Marvel Stadium. The Prep and Year 2 students also had an incursion learning all about marine mammals. We are so fortunate that we can offer such opportunities to supplement our curriculum learning. 

In the coming weeks we have Book Week celebrations, Multicultural Day, interschool sports, concert practice for all students and students in Year 3 and Year 4 will be heading off on camp. 

Maths Talent Quest Competition

First held in 1982, the MTQ is an annual activity open to all primary and secondary students.  Students select their own investigation topic based on their personal learning interests and apply mathematics in context. They understand and discover how mathematics is used and found in the world around them, providing a positive experience that reduces the barriers to learning in mathematics and often reduces student maths anxiety.

The MTQ aims to promote interest in mathematics and foster positive attitudes amongst students, teachers and parents. The focus is on the process of mathematical investigations.

This year our Year 5 Challenge Maths Group entered the competition. Their entry; Property Playbook: A young Aussie’s guide to buying their first home investigated the different types of maths required to purchase a dwelling in our local area. Working in small groups, they developed:

• savings plans based on various jobs, calculating expenses and designing budgets. 
• Researched various properties for sale in the area and calculated the required deposit.
• Explored interest rates and calculated mortgage repayments on various loans.

Australian Maths Competition

Last week we had over 50 students across Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 participate in the Australian Maths Competition. The maths competition is held annually and is open to all primary students. We conducted the test over Wednesday and Thursday in different age groups. Supervising the sessions, I can attest that the competition certainly was a challenge with problems requiring a high level of mathematical understanding and application. I was thoroughly impressed by the way students approached the competition, all doing their very best to answer every question. 

Year 2-6 STOMP Dance Production – 'The Day We Grew Up'

Next week students in Years 2-6 will commence preparations for our annual concert. The Stomp Dance Company will again coordinate each of the class dances, with sessions being held each Monday and Tuesday. All students will learn a class dance and the finale dance. Class teachers will provide details regarding simple costumes for students once they have practiced and decided how they will match the theme of their song and dance. 

The Year 6 auditions for speaking roles were conducted by Melissa, Megan and I over the past week and have been announced today. This year’s production also requires a backstage crew with multiple scene changes and props being utilised. Year 6 students are involved in all aspects of the concert production; the acting, prop and program preparation, staging and involved in two dances.

The concert will be held on Tuesday 17 September at the Ivanhoe Girls Grammar Performing Arts Centre from 7:00-8:30pm. Tickets for the event will go on sale through Try Booking in the next couple of weeks.

Book Week Performances

To celebrate Book Week we have again booked Meerkat Productions to provide our students with a dramatic representation of the book Timeless by Kathy Canby, which has been nominated for an award as part of book week. The production team have put the final touches to this year's adaptations and are excited to start performing. The APS performance will be held on Monday 2 September 2024 at 9:30am for students in Prep, Year 1, Year 2 and Year 4. Our Year 3 students will be off to camp, so while they miss this year, I’m sure they will be excited about the camp they have ahead of them nonetheless.

Timeless by Kate Canby - Emit (whose parents turned back time to name him) is surrounded by busyness. Dad is too busy to read stories, Mum is too busy to play games and Emit’s brother and sister are simply too busy doing nothing to do anything, at all. Emit tries everything he can think of to get more time, he tries to catch it, wait for it, but it’s not until Emit tries to buy some time that he learns the secret which is, if you want time, you have to make it.

Bully Stoppers Program & National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence 

The Week 12-16th August is the National Week Against Bullying and Violence. We will observe this week at APS, with a range of recess activities and a whole-school activity throughout the week. The National Day of Action against bullying and violence is Australia's key bullying prevention event for schools.

This year’s theme is ‘Everyone Belongs’, which is a very fitting theme, as we continue to build our school’s sense of connectedness. The idea is that throughout the week, we are reiterating the message of ‘belonging’ and kindness throughout the school. 

As a school we will be supporting the week in a variety of ways. All classes will be undertaking activities to explore the ideas of this year’s theme ‘Everyone Belongs.’ And the leaders are organising events which will foster ‘growing connections’ across our school.

• WEDNESDAY Activity (in Year teams) The Year 6 team will be hosting an activity throughout the week, where all students will complete an activity together, and reiterate the message of inclusion and belonging. 
• Wellbeing lesson- Classes will dedicate one of their Wellbeing lessons to ‘Bullying No Way’ (or Bully Stoppers) 
• Lunchtime activities organised by Year 6 team - Positive Affirmations Wall, ‘Chalk The Walk’, Whole school shared lunch on the turf
• FRIDAY- Celebration at assembly on Friday, run by the Year 6s

Year 3-6 Athletics Carnival

A big congratulations to all the Year 3-6 students who participated in the athletics carnival last Wednesday. It was an overcast day, with pretty cold conditions – but the energy throughout the day from students was amazing. We had a wonderful group of parent volunteers who helped with the timing of running events and supporting with measuring and marshalling through field events. While fun, participation and engagement were the goals of the day; there was also some friendly competition between the houses. 

On Monday 26 August students selected to represent APS will travel to Meadowglen International Athletics Stadium for the District event. Details for selected students will be made available on Compass in the coming days.

Prep -2 Athletics Day

On Monday the Prep-2 students had their junior athletics carnival. Students participated in a range of physical and athletic activities… running and relay events, long jump and high jump, and some very creative and fun throwing events. There were lots of fun and colour as students participated in their house groups.

A big thank you to the parents and student leaders for supporting on these day and Natalie for all her efforts in organising both carnivals.

A reminder that the annual Parents and Caregivers Survey is now live and ready to be completed. We open this up to all families and would like each household to complete a survey. This gives the school and School Council guidance on what is going well and what could be improved into the future.  

Here is the link:  https://www.orima.com.au/parent

Our school's generic PIN is: 178032

Have a great week everyone!

Shane Wilkie

Assistant Principal

Calling all amateur (and professional) gardeners…

The Alphington Primary School organic garden needs some interested ‘green thumbs’ to give it a clean-up and make over as we head into winter and prepare for spring planting.

While the students of APS love utilising the garden space at various points throughout the year, they are unable to maintain it without some extra adult support. That’s where you come in!

The school can provide some resources to support the rejuvenation of the space, whether it be soil, mulch, fertiliser, seedlings, or basic tools. What we need is some expertise and interested people with a little time to help us get things going.

Whether you can pop in after school, during the day or on a weekend, the space is readily available and open for those who have some ideas. All we ask is that you come sign in at the office and do a quick induction before getting your hands dirty.

Ideally, we would get a collective group of interested gardeners who can partner with the school to make the most of what can be a great small scale community garden.

If you are interested, please contact the school via the below methods. We are also looking to set up an APS Organic Community Garden WhatsApp group so that we can easily communicate and share our project work. 

So please leave your mobile number if you would like to be added to this closed group.

shane.wilkie@education.vic.gov.au

Alphington.ps@education.vic.au

9499 2200