Meet the Foundation Team

(from left to right) Drakelyn Bui, Rhiannon Brolly, Jackie Andersson, Laura Macdonald, Dania Al Taib, Lucy Walton, Sarah Salt, Phoebe Rontogiannis and Mei Luong.

The first day of school is always a big day, full of different emotions. Some students were excited, some were nervous, and many were feeling a mixture of both. It’s perfectly normal for students to be feeling a wide range of emotions on their first day of school. There is a lot to learn and become familiar with, and so helping students to become familiar with each other, teachers, and the learning space is of utmost importance.

Thank you to all the families for supporting your child and giving them the best transition into school life. Our 2025 Foundation students have settled into school extremely well. Enthusiastically welcoming each other to Athol Road Primary School and making it clear that already they all are an integral part of our community.

Look at me with my family on my first day of school!

My First Day of School - 2025

What students did in the first week of school:

Wow! What an amazing first week the students have had in Foundation. They explored the different places in the learning space, learning where to put their bags, where to get their hats, where to go to the toilet, and importantly, where they could play outside during recess and lunchtime. Students were introduced to routines, such as the Morning Circle, celebrating each other's birthdays, and they went to Specialist for the first time and loved doing lots of different activities. They have all enjoyed getting to know each other this week and the teachers are excited for the term ahead!

Yogi

The Foundation students are excited to have Yogi in the learning space. Each student will have a chance to get to know Yogi, if they wish, by giving him a pat on the back. Students will be taught the three important rules of having a wellbeing dog at our school.

We say hello to the person, not the dog!
We give lots of space when we pass the dog!
We keep moving (we don’t stand around and stare)

Yogi can help students in a whole range of ways. Being near a dog can reduce stress and anxiety and decrease the heart rate. Dogs can help us to feel more connected to our school, learn to understand ourselves better, and grow confidence in relating to others.

Literacy

Students are developing their phonological awareness skills, such as identifying the number of syllables in words and detecting rhyming words. These skills are essential for students to learn to read. They are learning some of the sounds of the alphabet, beginning with /s/, /a/, /t/, /p/, /i/, /n/ and /m/, developing an understanding of how to blend these sounds together to read simple words. Students will be participating in a range of language experiences to build their oral language skills. They will also be practising how to form letters correctly using the Hartley’s Handwriting program.

Mathematics

Students are exploring the numbers from 1-20, particularly recognising numbers and matching them to collections. They will be counting each day that they come to school, until they celebrate their 100th day later in the year. Students will be learning about patterns using a variety of materials, understanding how to make patterns with objects. They will also be developing their understanding of location language, such as next to, behind, in front of and between.

Inquiry

Students are exploring their personal likes and dislikes, needs and wants, as well as their abilities and strengths. They will be focusing on developing their skills to express their emotions, make friends, approach challenges confidently and resolve conflicts positively.

Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)

Students are learning to identify and express a range of emotions. They discuss feelings, label emotions and demonstrate emotions. They are learning to recognise what emotions ‘look like’ and what they ‘feel like’ - this helps students to develop strategies to identify feelings and begin to learn to process emotions in a healthy manner to support wellbeing. Navigating feelings is very important and supports children’s participation in the school environment and strengthens lifelong wellbeing. Children with positive emotional resilience and emotional intelligence will be happier, they will feel more confident when faced with challenges, and better navigate social situations. For these reasons we incorporate an SEL program into our teaching at ARPS.

Included in SEL lessons is URStrong and the Friendology program. Through URStrong and Friendology, students will learn a set of tools and terms that they can use to develop conflict resolution skills and build emotional resilience. This helps students to help identify and respond to social difficulties. Some are these terms are:

Mean-on-purpose: This is when someone intentionally hurts others feelings.
Friendship Fire: This is when bad feelings arise between friends.

Students will learn these terms and be supported to use them at school to develop and maintain healthy, positive friendships.

Students drew pictures of different feelings and what it looks like when we have them. This is part of that important first step of needing to be able to identify a feeling in order to then positively respond to and manage that emotion.

Indoor Sports Springvale