Assistant Principal Update

Hello everyone,

Welcome to Term 4 Week 4. It has been an amazing week with a definite energy in the spring air. This week there has been lots of extra activity outside of school with Year 6 students competing in the district cricket competition – with the boys winning and progressing to the division event to be held at Alphington Park on Friday. 

Last week students in Years 5/6 had important cyber safety sessions conducted by our local police liaison officers. Students in Years 3/4 will have their cyber safety sessions next week. Year 5 are off to Kew High this Friday for a ‘Taste of High School’ day. While the Year 2 students are off to Healesville Sanctuary next week.

REVISED DATE: Emergency Evacuation Drill - Thursday 31st Oct

Due to several students and staff being offsite this Friday we have rescheduled our onsite lockdown drill. The drill will allow us to review our processes and protocols when locking down the school. This will be the first lockdown drill for the year, and as such, we will announce the drill to the students. We will be using the scenario of an extreme weather event. We will request that all classes and buildings are locked, and students move to a safe space in the room. Staff will be briefed about the procedures for the lockdown drill prior to the alarm being sounded and the announcement being made through the PA system.

2024 Colour Run

What an amazing afternoon we had last Thursday at Alphington Park for our Biennial Colour Run. The windy weather had us nervous during set up, but fortunately by start time the weather had turned it on. Students participated in two main activities – an obstacle course and the colour fun track. The obstacle course getting students warmed up for the main event. Just a few of the photos below demonstrate the amount of fun had. 

A massive thank you to the Student Representative Council and Martha for all their work in getting the Colour Run organised. And to the numerous parent and family volunteers who helped on the day to make it so successful.

We look on track to hit our fundraising target which will contribute to the upgrade of the outdoor basketball court. I am currently gathering and reviewing various quotes. There are significant lead times on many of the contractors, however we hope to get this project underway soon with an early 2025 completion.

Moderation

Over the next few weeks during our staff Professional Learning sessions, we will be moderating samples of learning in English and maths. Last week staff moderated students’ achievement in writing and next week we will focus on reading and then maths.

Moderation is the practice of teachers sharing and developing their understanding of what learning looks like by examining examples of different types and quality of students’ work and comparing these with formal standards and success criteria. The practice gives teachers the collaboration structure and processes to look closely at evidence to establish: 

• What is to be learned? 

• How is learning progressing? 

• What standard has been achieved?

Moderation enables discussion about: 

• How to interpret the Victorian Curriculum F-10 Achievement Standards 

• What students need to learn to meet Standards 

• What success looks like.

Learner Dispositions

Over the next 5 weeks we will be sharing with the community details about each of the five dispositions that are part of our Learner Dispositions Toolkit. Our five learner dispositions are the characteristics or mental tools someone has when approaching learning. They are the characteristics we want students to develop self-efficacy and become the best learner they can be.

For the final half of this term a different year level will share at assembly their thoughts, reflections and learning about each of the dispositions.

Week 4 - Year 4 presenting Determination

Week 5 - F + Year 1 presenting Optimism

Week 6 - Year 2 presenting Creativity 

Week 7- Year 3 presenting Collaboration 

Week 8 - Year 5 presenting Reflection

World Teachers’ Day

Last Friday 25 October schools across Australia celebrated and recognised the contributions of our dedicated teachers. We recognised all our teachers at our Friday morning assembly and had a lovely breakfast with cereals, pastries and bacon and egg muffins thanks to School Council.

Thank you to all the class liaisons and various parents who led efforts to share their collective thanks to our wonderful APS teachers. 

Curriculum Day – Monday 4 Nov

A reminder that we will hold our annual before Cup Day student free day on Monday 4 November. On this day staff will be meeting to review the targets set in our 2023-2027 School Strategic Plan and ‘Putting Faces on the Data’.  Staff will also spend time on this day reviewing assessment data and commencing the development of semester two student progression reports.

Students Arriving at School Before 8:30am

 We have noticed an increase in the number of students who are arriving at school before 8:30am. There have been several instances where multiple groups of students have been playing in the yard just after 8:00am. Teachers have reported that they have met students in the yard as they are arriving at school, and when questioned as to whether they are supervised or in ‘Their Care’, the students reply that they have just arrived early. While it is fantastic to hear teachers checking in with these students, we must remind families that students are not supervised in the yard until a staff member goes on duty at 8:45am. Any students arriving at school before 8:30am must be supervised or enrolled in the before school program.

Reminder - Class Placement 2025

We are well underway with planning for 2025. We will run 18 classes with single age groups again next year. It is the time of the year where we ask parents to email if they are wanting to make an educationally based request for their child. We use a program called Class Solver, to form the classes. Staff enter data for each student about their academic progress, social development, anything else of relevance and friendships, which has been gathered from the students. Once the data has been entered the classes are created. The staff then review the classes carefully to ensure that all groups are ‘balanced’ and able to do their best learning. 

If you feel compelled to make an educationally based request, then you can suggest no more than two students that you know your child should be with or to be separated from.

This request must be made to Melissa by email before Friday 15 November. Please note no late emails will be accepted and no requests for specific teachers will be considered.

Enjoy your week.

Shane Wilkie

Assistant Principal