Assistant Principal Update

Welcome Back!

I hope everyone managed to get some time over the Christmas and New Year period to relax, re-energise and spend some quality time with those close to you. After a fantastic 2024 I am excited and enthusiastic about the upcoming year and the busyness that comes with working in a primary school. It has been great to see lots of families back this week in the playground. 

It has been amazing to see how quickly students have been able to settle back into school, particularly our new Prep students to APS, who managed both the classroom environment and attending specialists in their first few days. We have a strong focus on play and the development of social relationships between staff, their buddies and with each other. The Prep team have developed a variety of wonderful learning spaces, including our structured play room (see below).

Over the break we have had some artwork from the 2024 Art Show framed and installed in the hallway. I have included a picture below, but please feel free to check them out when you in the school.

Start Up Program

Over the first week I have received several positive comments from families and students about how great the yard and classrooms are looking. APS prides itself on providing a unique environment to ensure every person can achieve their full potential. At the forefront is the wellbeing of the whole community. 

To ensure we can provide a safe and supportive environment for all students, teams spend time during the curriculum days developing their year level Start Up Program.  The aim of the program is to provide a structure for all staff to follow to ensure a consistent beginning to the year for all students. This is usually implemented over the first two weeks.

Building Relationships - incorporating getting to know you, goal setting - Do we display these?

Teamwork – let’s not forget how complex teamwork is. We need to teach the skills involved. 

Celebrating learners – understanding ourselves and others as learners and embracing individual differences. Exploring the 5 APS Learner Dispositions.

Understanding our rights and responsibilities - exploring our rights and individuals and as a community of learners - what responsibilities must we uphold?

Embedding our ‘School Values’ – one thing to recite them, but what do they look like? How do we live them?

School Rights, Values & Learner Dispositions

The beginning of the school year is a timely opportunity to review with students and our community the rights, values and learner dispositions that we use to guide student learning, behaviour, and personal and social development. I was impressed on Friday at assembly that when I spoke about these, students were very articulate in identifying these and defining what they are and how they look in action around the school.

At Alphington Primary School we have two rights that guide our day-to-day actions:

• We all have the right to feel safe
• We all have the right to learn as much as possible

Alongside the two rights, APS has adopted a set of values and learner dispositions to guide the conduct and approach to learning of persons who represent the school. These are: 

VALUES

• Kindness: Demonstrating empathy and being inclusive; displaying gratitude. 
• Respect: Consideration for self, others and the world around us; being polite and courteous. 
• Resilience: Being flexible and able to bounce back; being optimistic. 
• Curiosity: Showing interest and wonder; making choices; a love of learning. 
• Integrity: Being honest and fair; having a sense of what’s right and living it.

DISPOSITIONS

• Collaboration: Working as a team, working collaboratively on shared goals
• Creativity: Problem solving, having different strategies, exploring different perspectives
• Determination: Being persistent, learning from mistakes, taking pride and putting in effort
• Optimism: Growth mindset, being open to new ideas, being hopeful and seeing the bright side
• Reflection: Monitor your learning, seek and give feedback, reflect on goals and progress

What I really love about the APS rights, values and learner dispositions is that they encompass all that we do in schools and mean we can focus on affirming positive behaviours rather than ‘enforcing rules’. 

For example, if a student is being disruptive and calling out in class, they can be reminded of the right to learn and being respectful of others. If there is rough play in the yard, students can be reminded of the right to feel safe and to demonstrate kindness. If a student is having difficulty with their learning, we can talk to them about determination and being optimistic

I encourage families to discuss the school rights and values with their children and unpack what they mean both at school and as a member of your family and community.

Class Liaisons

Class liaison parents fulfil an important social and cultural role within our school community. The role is essentially a link between parents in the class, in relation to school social events, and between parents and school committees and sub committees. Communication involves the organisation and management of such events, being cognisant of privacy and confidentiality. 

The tasks typically carried out each year include:

• Organising a social evening or occasion for the parents of the class on occasions throughout the year
• Coordinating acknowledgement of teachers work on behalf of teachers. E.g. World Teacher’s Day, end of year
• Coordinating assistance at other school events, if requested, including events organised by the Community Events & Fundraising Committee. E.g. APS Fair
• Encouraging parent participation at social events organised by the school community e.g. collecting names for a class table at a Trivia Night event, 
• Disseminate information/requests in relation to school events e.g. costumes for school concerts.

We would really like to see these roles continue to be reinvigorated in 2025. Information and nominations for the role will be included with your Term 1 Class newsletter and via Compass. Please consider whether you might like to do the role.

Have a great week everyone!

Shane Wilkie

Assistant Principal