Dear Families,

The days have been getting shorter and cooler but our students showed with STEM Week that the future is definitely bright!

Every year we celebrate our love of learning with all things science, technology, engineering and maths. We were lucky enough to have the team from Swimburne University of Technology visit our school to run a week of incursions with every class.

Our Preps to Grade 2s took part in Chemistry Labs. Channelling their best mad scientist

look in their lab coats, students used their senses to distinguish between different items, and noted how they reacted when vinegar was added (I'm sure they'd love to recreate the bi-carb soda and vinegar reaction for you at home!).

The 3/4s looked at forces in motion, experimenting with gravity, friction and magnetism. Perhaps they can show you how these concepts work with things lying around the house? Finally the 5/6 team got some real world applications to electrical circuits, building simple circuits using motors, buzzers, lights and solar panels to build on their understanding of atomic structure. I'm sure you'll agree these kind of experiences are an excellent addition to their in class learning.

It was a pleasure to welcome families into the classroom for some friendly competition on the Wednesday. Our Preps to 2s were building towers out of clay and and paddlepop sticks while our 3-6s built marble runs out of paper and card. If you weren't able to make it this would be a great one to try over the holidays!

The whole week was capped off with an incredible assembly showcasing our amazing mathmaticians. Our brave class champions got up infront of the whole school and their families to show their maths skills off to determine the year level champions. It was really impressive to see not only our champion's skills, but the respect shown by the students as they sat with quiet anticipation during each competition was incredible to see. The support they showed for their classmates was equal to this. It really sums up our Albanvale PS Community beautifully.

You can see a list of champions later in the newsletter, but it would be remiss of me to not mention the hard work put in by Mr Ibrahim, our Numeracy Learning Specialist, and the 3-6 teaching team. None of this could have happened without their commitment to making it such an exciting week in our school calendar. The bar has been set high for Mr Taylor and the P-2 team as they get ready for LITFEST in Term 3.

Achievement Week Term 2

Honestly, I can't believe we're already at Achievement Week for Term 2. It seems to come around so quickly. Once again, we are looking forward to doing our quarterly check in with the students on their progress, and working with them on their learning goals for the second half of the year. This data will help us form their reports for Semester 1, and we look forward to discussing with you how we can work together with you and your child to achieve their goals at the Parent Teacher Conferences later this term.

Kings Birthday Weekend and Curriculum Day

Monday 8 June is a public holiday (so don't come to school!). We're following it up with Curriculum Day. This is a student free day, but all staff will be onsite doing some learning of their own. These days are so important to maintain consistent practice across our school.

Prep 2027 - Preparing our Little Learners

Prep enrolments for next year are open, and we are so happy to see Albanvale PS is a school of choice within our community. We have already received applications for over 70% of our planned places.

Our school readiness program has been such a success we've had to increase the days we run it. Our excellent educators run the program for those pre-enrolled for Albanvale next year to help get them ready for school, as well as give them a head start with their literacy and numeracy. These sessions run for one hour weekly through out the school term and are completely free.

If you have a child due to start Prep next year (or know someone who does) I strongly encourage you to pre-enrol as soon as possible so they can experience the fun of Little Learners. We are running tours for those needing an introduction to the Albanvale Advantage - just contact the office to organise a time.

Achieve Excellence, Together.

Michael Uzunovski

Principal

TUTOURING @ APS