Principal Report

Welcome to the 2026 school year!

To our wonderful school community – Welcome Back! We hope that you all had some down-time over the holidays and that everyone has enjoyed the first week back at school. Certainly, on Wednesday, our first day back for Years 1-6, there was much excitement and lots of smiles! It was a very successful start to school, with not one Foundation student showing any anxiety when parents exited the school after drop-off on their first day. Teachers in all levels will be spending time in the first couple of weeks getting to know students, establishing co-constructed class/school expectations, and setting up learning routines for the year. We have also enjoyed our 2025 Year 6 students coming back to visit students and staff and let us know how much they enjoyed their first few days of secondary school. It has been a very positive start to the 2026 school year, and we look forward to engaging our learners and progressing their academic growth, supporting them to develop great friendships, while strengthening their wellbeing.

Congratulations to our student leaders for 2026

At Albany Rise Primary School, we provide a strong leadership program. This allows students to develop their communication and listening skills, enhance their problem-solving abilities, develop their confidence and teaches them how to work effectively as a team. At our last 2025 assembly, our 2026 school leaders were announced. We would like to congratulate the following students on their roles:

School Captains: Kingston & Chloe

School Vice Captains: Robyn & Hudson

Bradman House Captains: Daniel K & Viyon House Vice Captains: Nathanael & Xavier

Freeman House Captains: Mari & Veroncia House Vice Captains: Archie & Harper

Fraser House Captains: Sidra & Joshua House Vice Captains: Daniel & Josh

Perkins House Captains: Deveshi & Meriem House Vice Captains: Mileika & Daniel

Library Leaders – Chelsea & Hannah

Performing Arts Leaders – Cheata & Nhi

Visual Arts Leaders – Harrison & George

Breakfast Club / Essential Duties Leaders – Dureti & Leonard

Essential Duties – Ethan V & Sana

We have yet to determine our Student Voice Team representatives and Peer Mediators, which will happen in the following weeks, so if there are students interested in pursuing a leadership opportunity, there are still some positions coming up.

We will be sure to notify our community shortly of when the badge presentation assembly will occur. Stay tuned!

Victorian State Schools Spectacular

Moving forward, Albany Rise Primary School will be participating every second year in the Mass Choir for the Victorian Staten School Spectacular (VSSS), and has once again been accepted for participation in 2026. We have been allocated 25 places.

The annual Victorian State Schools Spectacular program is an invaluable performing arts opportunity for Victoria’s government primary and secondary school students.

The program showcases and unites government school communities through working towards a common goal of more students reaching the highest level of achievement in the arts, ensuring kids are happy, healthy and resilient, and building pride in our schools. The performance will be held on Saturday 29th August, with students required at rehearsals on 22nd July, 12th August and Thursday & Friday 27th & 28th August. Other rehearsal dates are yet to be advised. Mr Redfearn will be discussing this with all students in Performing Arts class next week, and distributing an expression of interest form. If you consent to your child being involved in this great opportunity, this form must be returned before Thursday 12th February 2026.

We need your help!

This year, we are looking for some parents to help us with out fundraising efforts. Rather

than one person doing all of the heavy lifting, we are operating on a “many hands make light work” proposition. If you are able to give just some time to help out at your child’s school, we would greatly appreciate it! It’s a great way to meet other parents and get

involved in community! All parents are welcome to meet Jane at 2.45pm on Thursday 5th February (next Thursday), to have a say in which fundraising activities we will run in 2026! This also means our fundraising calendar may look a little different this year. If you would like to be involved in some capacity (and this structure will allow you to give as much or as little as suits you), but can’t make it next Thursday, please email Jane Jane.Capon@education.vic.gov.au to register your interest. Thank you!

Newsletters & Assemblies for 2026

This year, we will be moving to fortnightly newsletters and fortnightly assemblies. Newsletters will go out on odd weeks of the term (Weeks 1, 3, 5, 7, 9) and assemblies will be held on Fridays on even weeks (Weeks 2, 4, 6, 8, 10) during each term. Please check the calendar, where we have listed specific dates for assemblies. We will also be changing some of the content of our assembly, and looking forward to some opportunities for students to perform, too! We hope to see you there!

Meet and Greet interviews

Each year, we offer parents an interview time with their child’s new 2026 teacher. This year, we will hold our “Meet & Greet” interviews after school on Tuesday 24th & Wednesday 25th February. We will advise parents/carers when the Compass booking portal is open for bookings.

Seeking interest for School Council Nominations

In February, our school community will be receiving the opportunity to nominate for School Council.

Our school is more than bricks and mortar. It’s more than students and teachers.

What helps make our school special are all the little things that happen in the background to create the enjoyable and nurturing space which encourages our children to thrive. School Council is one of the things that helps shape the future direction of the learning environment for our children.

School Council is here to provide the best support possible for our students whilst always aiming to provide a successful and nurturing education setting. Being part of the

School Council is an opportunity for parents to understand how the school operates, and be part of decisions that relate to running of the school. As children grow and move to the next stage of their life so do our School Council members. This becomes an opportunity for new parent members, who provide rejuvenation with fresh ideas and input to our school. School Council needs representation from parents with students across all levels of our school and from diverse backgrounds. There is no specific skill sets required as collectively we work together as a team to try and to help guide the school to grow and improve. It’s your perspective and life experience that matters.

So what is involved?

The majority of the School Council is made up of parents. School Council is made up of 8 parents and 4 school employees.

Each member commits to a 2 year term.

School council members attend two School Council meetings per term (1-2 hrs a meeting) and two committee meetings a term (up to one hour per meeting). Subcommittees available are Finance, Education, Facilities, Parents Association & Marketing

Please consider nominating to be a part of this journey. If you have any questions, and would like to speak to a current School Council parent member, please contact the office and we can put you in touch.

Annual privacy reminder for our school community

Our school collects and uses student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ privacy policy and the Schools’ privacy collection notice.

Our Photographing, Filming and Recording Students policy ARPS-Photographing-Filming-and-Recording-students-policy-August-2024.pdf , describes how we collect and use photographs, video and recordings of students. The policy also explains when parent consent is required and how it can be provided and withdrawn.

The Department of Educations has approved the use of Microsoft 365 for student use, enabling them to collaborate anytime and anywhere with a suite of trusted, reliable tools including Microsoft PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Forms, Outlook, etc. Google Workspace for Education is also available and includes products such as Google Classroom, Drive, Google sites, etc. If you have any questions or concerns regarding your child using these products, please contact the school.

For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ privacy policy: information for parents. This information is also available in eleven community languages:

Amharic
Arabic
Chinese
Dari
Gujarati
Mandarin
Somali
Sudanese
Turkish
Urdu
Vietnamese

Supervision in the yard

Parents are reminded that the yard is supervised from 8.45am in the morning, and until 3.45pm in the afternoon. Parents must be present to supervise children before and after those times. Alternatively, children can be booked into Camp Australia, which provides onsite before and after care.

Outside of School: sport or other activity - Achievement of the Week

We know how important physical activity and sport is for our students and to our school community, which is why we privilege time at school for PE and sport. We also know that we have some very talented students who participate in sports and activities outside of school. We would love to celebrate their achievements! If your child has received an award or progressed to the next level of their activity outside of school (be it sporting or otherwise) , please let us know and we would love to celebrate their achievements in our newsletter. Please contact Mr Mottershead with information and a photo, or email through to our school office on Albany.rise.ps@education.vic.gov.au

REMINDER: At school, students must wear hats when outside

All students at all government schools in Victoria are required to wear hats outside at school when the UV rating is 3 or above. Typically, this is every day in Terms 1 & 4 but sometimes happens in Terms 2 & 3. The UV rating is now high enough to cause skin damage every day. Please ensure that your child brings their SunSmart school hat to school every day. Students without a SunSmart school hat will be required to sit under the shade sails between the oval and basketball courts, near the sandpit. We also encourage students to wear sunglasses and bring & apply sunscreen before going outside.

NAPLAN 2026

NAPLAN is a national literacy and numeracy assessment that students in Year 3, 5, 7 & 0 sit each year. It is the only national assessment that all Australian students have the opportunity to undertake. As students progress through their school years, its important to check how well they are learning the essential skills of reading, writing and numeracy. Whilst is does not replace a child’s report, which is a comprehensive assessment of the child’s progress over a full semester (two terms) of learning, it does allow parents to see how their child is progressing against national standards over time.

This year, NAPLAN testing for Year 3 and Year 5 students will be held between 11th March and 23rd March 2026. Specific dates for our school testing within this time frame will be announced soon.

Birthday Free Dress

We know that every single day at school is important for learning and connection. Of course, we want to celebrate with our students when they have a birthday! Late last year, we introduced the practice of students coming to school in free dress on their birthday. This seems to be working very well and will be continuing this year. Students are looking forward to being at school on their birthday, and also, it is easy to spot who has a birthday to make sure they have a great day!

Student’s Mobile Phones and Smart Watches

A reminder that the Department of Education has in place a mobile phone ban that requires students who bring mobiles phones to school to have them switched off and securely put away during school hours.

The ban applies equally to all government schools across the state.

This also applies to ‘smart’ watches that some of our students have. ‘Smart’ watches have similar capabilities to mobile phones, including the ability to send and receive messages, make phone calls and play games. As such, these watches will also need to be locked up at school.

If your child brings a phone or smart watch to school, they will need to lock it up during school hours and then collect it back from the safe at the end of the day. At Albany Rise, students are required to deposit their phone or watch at the office for the school day, and collect it at the end of the day.

Exceptions: For a small number of students with particular health needs, an exception to the policy may be granted. Please contact Jane Capon or Michael Mottershead if you would like to discuss this.

School mobile phone policy: A copy of our school’s local mobile phone policy, which implements the government’s mobile policy in line with our local context, is available here: https://albanyrise-ps.vic.edu.au/about-us/policies/

Parent support: The Mobile phones in schools webpage provides links to resources for families to help them balance their children’s time using mobile phones. If you have further questions, please contact the administration office.

Thank you!

Jane Capon

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