Assistant Principal Update

Welcome to week 4 of term 2. 

Thank you to those who attended this afternoons Open Day. We had a good number of current and perspective families visit the classrooms and it was great to showcase our community yet again. 

Teachers are busy completing assessments, moderating student learning, developing report cards and preparing for the second half of the term with curriculum teaching and learning topics. It certainly is a busy time at school. It is also a challenging time due to the increased illness circulating within the community which obviously impacts upon both student and staff attendance. However, we maintain our focus on student wellbeing and learning.

Semester Reporting

As outlined in my previous newsletters, we have made significant changes to our reports for semester one 2025 to align with the changes from Victorian Curriculum Version 1.0 to Version 2.0, and to provide a more informative snapshot of students’ achievement. 

A major change in the Maths Curriculum Version 2.0 is the removal of progression points for the three strands of mathematics. In Version 1.0, students received a progression point for each strand of the mathematics curriculum:

• Number and Algebra
• Measurement and Geometry
• Statistics and Probability

The Mathematics Curriculum Version 2.0 now has five strands for Prep to 2 and six strands for Year 3-6, separating number and algebra, measurement and geometry, and statistics and probability. And the removal of probability from Prep -2. 

As a result of these changes reports will show just one progression point for mathematics which reflects the student’s overall achievement against the achievement standard. An example is shown below. As this is a new way of displaying achievement it is not possible for Compass reports to show the growth in a student’s achievement since they last received a report. A case of being unable to compare apples and oranges as such.

Moderation of Student Learning

Each semester we dedicate a series of meetings to allow staff to meet in teams across year levels to moderate student learning in reading, writing and mathematics. 

The purpose of moderation at APS is to:

• Support teachers to make accurate assessments of a student's achievement against the English and mathematics Victorian curriculum subjects.
• Build the capacity of all staff to deepen their understanding of the Victorian curriculum and how evidence of achievement is identified, referenced, and assessed.

In addition to supporting teachers in making judgements about students learning against the achievement standards of the Victorian Curriculum. Moderation is an important part in the planning, teaching and assessment of students learning, supporting our ability to continually support student’s achievement and improvement. 

Moderation also serves to help identify the next steps for learning, for individuals, groups, and the whole class. 

This week teachers have met in teams to moderate students’ writing. Teachers assess students writing against the Victorian Curriculum, allocating it a progression point based upon the evidence within the student’s writing which reflects the content of the curriculum. Teachers in adjacent year levels then review the writing piece, analysing it and cross referencing the curriculum to confirm and agree upon the individual progression point for the selected pieces of writing. To come to a final progression point for writing for the semester, teachers triangulate multiple pieces of writing data and evidence. 

Term 2.2. Professional Learning Community (PLC) Focus 

Throughout the semester I have shared with families how we use PLCs to collaborate to improve student learning. Building a PLC is a proven way for schools to increase student learning by creating a culture that is: 

• Focussed on continuous improvement by linking the learning needs of students with the professional learning and practice of teachers.
• Committed to professionalism and analysis of student data.
• Fuelled by collaborative expertise.

This term we are focussing on a reading PLC. Alphington prides itself on the importance and value we have of reading, and this is reflected in the consistently high results we achieve through both our school assessment practices and on NAPLAN – we regularly have 85-90% of students achieving in the Strong or Exceeding bands.

Our priority during our current reading PLC is on identifying students with a specific need within the Big 6 or Science of Reading components: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.   

For example, the Prep team have prioritised a group of students who require additional support in segmenting and blending sounds (phonemic awareness and phonics). They have developed an explicit plan, working alongside our speech pathologist, Meg to teach sound key consonant/vowel/consonant word, with a specific focus on the short vowel sounds found in some of these words.

Our Year 5 team are using Literature Circles to develop students’ engagement during rich authentic text discussions. With a focus on improving comprehension by building their skills when discussing texts with complex and overlapping themes. They will focus on generating opinions, supported by evidence from the text, and asking questions by initiating discussion and conversations about books with their peers.

In week 10 teams come together, and we share and celebrate the findings and outcomes of the PLC cycle. At this point we prioritised identifying key learnings that can be added to our collective understanding around the successful teaching of reading. 

District Cross Country 

On Monday 12 May we had 61 students attend the District Cross Country with our APS team. Students competed on the day across the Boys and Girls 10, 11, and 12-year-old age groups. The weather was beautiful for all races with sunny conditions. Although the temperatures did get quite warm by the time the 2km races came around.

Several students finished in the top 10, ensuring they will progress to the next stage and represent APS and Ivanhoe District at the Division championships at Banyule Flats on Tuesday 3 June.

New Basketball Backboards and Rings

The backboards and rings have been installed on our refurbished basketball courts. This finalising the refurbishment. 

We are very happy with outcome and the students are looking forward to enjoying them for many more years to come!

Have a great week everyone!

Shane Wilkie

Assistant Principal