Acting Principal Update

Hi all and welcome to week 9 of the term. 

It has been an extremely busy yet wonderful first term. I hope that everyone gets the opportunity to celebrate the Easter holiday period with family and friends, safe and healthy. See you in Term 2.

With just 6 days until the holidays, I wanted to share a few highlights from the start of 2026:

• The induction of our upgraded 2026 Leadership Team, with the inclusion of the various curriculum leaders; and the election and induction of the Student Representative Council (SRC) and the leaders chosen from each of our Year 1-6 classes.
• Our introductory meetings with teachers and parents – always a great way to start the year and develop our community
• A very smooth and successful NAPLAN period with students participating and completing assessments in line with our school values and dispositions.
• An amazing Prep Parent Welcome Evening which was well attended and supported by our Year 1 parents.
• Another very successful swimming carnival and subsequent district and division meet with several students experiencing success at the various competitive levels. Two of our students were successful in medalling at Regionals which is an outstanding achievement. 

Shared with permission

Substantive Principal Appointment

I believe most of the community are now aware that the process to appoint a new substantive Principal following Melissa’s retirement has now been finalised and I am extremely grateful that I have been successful and appointed to commence from Term 2. 

I want to publicly acknowledge the staff and community for all the well wishes I have received. I am truly honoured to lead such a wonderful team of staff, work alongside an immensely supportive community, and influence the learning and wellbeing of the amazing APS students. 

Victorian Teaching and Learning Model version 2.0 (VTLM 2.0)

In June 2024 the Minister for Education announced a revised VTLM. The VTLM 2.0 is informed by contemporary evidence about the way students learn and the most effective teaching practices and approaches to achieve strong learning outcomes for students. It has explicit teaching at its core.

The department developed the VTLM 2.0 in consultation with the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO). The model is also informed by insights from school leaders and practitioners, and effective teaching and learning practices already in place in many schools across Victoria.

All Victorian government schools are expected to fully embed the VTLM 2.0 in their teaching and learning programs from the start of the 2028 school year.

As a school, the implementation of VTLM 2.0 underlines much of our Annual Implementation Plan for 2026 and 2027. We spent much of 2025 unpacking the VTLM 2.0 with a focus on learning about the research behind the model. In 2026, we have developed a new instructional model, updated our lesson structure, modified our literacy and numeracy planners, and are currently working on enhancing our literacy and numeracy pedagogical practices to reflect the current research base. 

The VTLM 2.0 includes 2 components:

1. Elements of learning – the process of human learning, based on cognitive science, neuroscience and education psychology.
2. Elements of teaching – representing the evidence-based teaching practices that most effectively support learning: planning, enabling learning, explicit teaching and supported application.

The four elements of learning in the VTLM 2.0 are based on insights into the process of learning from cognitive science, neuroscience and education psychology. Next week we will share the Elements of Teaching. 

Term 2 Curriculum Planning

Next week year level teaching teams have been released during staff meetings and their weekly planning time to prepare their term 2 curriculum unit overviews. This process involves reviewing the whole school curriculum plan for each of the curriculum subjects of English, Mathematics, Health & Wellbeing, and STEAM, referencing the Victorian curriculum for the relevant year level, as well as looking at the curriculum content descriptions and elaborations for the year towards and beyond.  Teachers then design the lesson sequence, including the learning intentions, success criteria, key questions, assessment tasks and areas for differentiation. 

Over the past two years we have continued to refine our planning documentation, ensuring we are articulating the Victorian curriculum updated 2.0 version and aligning our pedagogy to our vision for teaching and learning at APS and the VTLM 2.0. We have had a strong focus on creating rich and authentic learning experiences that are engaging for students and develop student voice and agency.

Term 1 House Event – Trivia Fun

Our House Leaders are working hard on the final preparations for next week’s house event ‘Trivia Fun’. Students will complete 3 themed activities, Art, Music and Geography with peers from their respective house. At the conclusion of the session there will be a Kahoot trivia quiz on the subjects. Points will be awarded across the session for how students do with the activities, teamwork, enthusiasm, and finally how they perform on the trivia quiz. 

Voluntary Contributions 

A reminder to families that extra-curricular activities such as incursions and excursions are user pay events covered by the incursion/excursion levy. Thank you to those families who have made these payments already and to those families who may also have made voluntary contributions. 

Reminder to parents some still have unallocated School Saving Bonus from 2025 (SSB)

Please contact Liliana if you are unsure of your remaining balance.

Liliana can be contacted on Liliana Varvarigos Liliana.Varvarigos@education.vic.gov.au

Class Splits

In previous newsletters I have discussed our process for splitting classes when we are unable to secure a Casual Relief Teacher (CRT) due to staff absence. Recently there have been occasions when we were unable to get a CRT. This meant we did a class split.  I would like to acknowledge teachers who are flexible and adaptable to ensure that for those couple of classes who were split, we were able to do it across their year level and all students continued their curriculum program as planned. 

Term 2 and 3 are traditionally terms when we see an increase in staff absence. Coupled with staff leave entitlements and the ongoing staffing challenges in education we envisage that we will need to split classes at times. 

We do not split Prep classes while they settle into school and develop their routines. We also endeavour not to split year levels where there are only two classes. Fortunately, we have a few year levels with small class sizes which can be effectively merged and continue with their curriculum programs.

2026 Ski Camp

The 2026 APS Ski Camp will run from Tuesday 21 July until Friday 24 July at Mount Buller Ski Resort.  There are limited places available for students on this camp. If oversubscribed, priority will be allocated on 1) seniority and 2) opportunity and will utilise a ballot system for selection.

With 62 Year 6 students in 2026 there is a likelihood that the number of spaces offered to Year 5 students will be minimal. However, it is imperative that we fill all 54 available spaces for the camp to be viable. 

The APS Ski Camp relies on self-funded parent volunteers for it to be a success. We require on-mountain volunteers who are capable skiers and/or snowboarders and 1-2 volunteers who are the lodge parents and organise the food preparation and delivery. Parents who wish to attend must also complete an Expression of Interest section on the form. The process for parent selection is based on ensuring a mix of genders, experience, applicable skills, and succession planning

There will be an online Information Evening held in Week 2 of Term 2 on Wednesday 29 April via Webex. It is strongly recommended that all interested families attend this session.

https://eduvic.webex.com/meet/wilkie.shane.s

Expression of interest forms will also be sent home in Week 2 of Term 2. 

These will need to be returned to the school office by Friday 8 May at 9.00am. 

Have a great week!

Shane Wilkie 

Acting Principal