Principal's Report
Dear Armstrong Creek Community,
Hope you have recovered from what was a busy week for those who attended Halloween festivities 🙂
I'm excited to hear that the plans for the ACS Celebration Day are well under way and I'm looking forward to seeing you all there. Thank you to the team of both parents and staff who are coordinating the organisation.
This week some members from the Principal team attended the Barwon Area principal forum held at GMHBA stadium. A big focus of the day was the new VTLM – Victorian Teaching and Learning Model.
The explicit teaching of systematic synthetic phonics for a minimum of 25 minutes a day, P – 2, has been mandated across the state. From 2025, schools are also now expected to implement the ‘Big 6 in Reading’ when teaching students how to read.
The VTLM (summary page attached below) is an incredible resource, condensing all the evidence relating to the elements of teaching and learning, including cognitive science, cognitive load theory and more. It also summarises what has been shown to be the best instructional strategies for teaching novice learners, including a focus on explicit teaching.
We are pleased to know that the work that was developed 5 years ago at ACS is well established. Meaning all of our students have access to teaching practice that is now at the forefront of the VTLM.
Hope you enjoy some sunshine over the weekend.
Regional Athletics
Huge congratulations to both Mackenzie and Ziggy who represented ACS at the Regional Athletics event on Tuesday 22 October. Both achieved amazing results in their events with Ziggy finishing 3rd in the Hurdles and Mackenzie finishing 4th in the discus.
We are all super proud of your efforts!
Staff Wellbeing Week
This week we have focused on staff wellbeing with lots of different activities being offered over the course of the week.
We started on Monday afternoon at our whole staff meeting with guest speaker Ryan Mannix, who is a yoga/meditation teacher, mindset coach and wellbeing facilitator. Prior to this he was a professional runner, representing Australia several times. He has worked with a number of AFL teams, The Australian Olympic Team, WSL, Swimming Australia, Tennis Australian, along with many corporate organisations around the world. Ryan is an Australian ambassador for Lululemon and through this collaboration, leads community wellbeing events across Australia and Asia.
Ryan spoke about the importance of health and wellbeing and showed us different breathing and mindfulness strategies to use.
Wednesday afternoon we were able to participate in our staff Running Club or Pilates Club.
On Thursday, our Staff Wellbeing and Leadership teams provided a beautiful and delicious morning tea for all staff to enjoy.
Today, after school we are going to do Cardio Tennis at the Grovedale Tennis Club - this will test our athletic prowess for sure!
Thank you to our incredible staff who have made this week possible and so much fun!
Student Extra Curricular Activities
We love hearing about our students experiences outside of school!
Harrison and Evie have had their Centrestage showcases over the past two weekends. Evie has been with Centrestage for three years. Two years in the junior program and 2024 was her first year in the juniors program. She made her stage debut in Jungle Book Jnr as a snake coil and Monkey. Both shows were sellouts !
Harrison has been with Centrestage for 4 years and was in his final middles show before moving into the senior program in 2025. He performed in Finding Nemo Jnr as tank gang member Gurgle and also as a member of the children's ensemble.
Both Harrison and Evie had a fantastic time and are looking forward to more shows in the future!
Have a great weekend!