Assistant Principal Update

Welcome to Term 4 Week 8. It’s hard to believe there are just 18 school days left for 2024. 

The energy across the school is extremely high as the busyness of school ramps up.    

We are looking forward to the Year 5 Camp next week. The Year 1 and 2 swimming lessons have been going well. Prep students went on an excursion to Bundoora Park last week. The Year 6 students are working on their legacy item and preparing for Graduation. The Year 5 students will deliver their leadership speeches today and then Friday is the Maker’s Market.

While it is exciting to have all these amazing things going on it does mean we need to continually be aware of the impacts this has on students’ wellbeing and that of staff and ourselves. So, this week as we head full steam to the end of the year, my goal is to take moments to be grateful and enjoy the experiences that are being afforded to us.  I hope you can also find some moments throughout your week to be mindful and note what you are grateful for.

APS Writers Festival and Art Show 

We had the Arts and Writers Festival last Wednesday. It was yet another amazing display of our students learning. It was wonderful to see so many families enjoying the wonderful writing and art displays. 

This year the staff were asked to nominate and select their favourite pieces from those student works on display. Of these we are going to frame some pieces to be displayed in the main administration building, so keep your eyes open for these in the coming weeks. 

A big thank you to all the students and teachers in preparing for the evening. A special mention to Michael for their efforts in coordinating the event.

2025 Planning

We are in the final stages of preparing classes for 2025. As we finalise the teachers, student classes and classrooms, staff will begin commencing the important job of planning for next year. 

We will allocate time in the coming weeks for staff to meet, share and discuss student transition data. This will ensure that students learning, and wellbeing needs are shared between their 2024 and 2025 teachers, and that year level teams can begin planning differentiated teaching, learning and wellbeing programs to ensure students’ needs are catered to at their individual point of need.

2024 Semester Two Reports  

Teachers are finalising reports over the next week, and these will be published on Compass on Friday 13 December. Teachers spend a lot of time ensuring reports are accurate and reflect a student’s achievement for the semester. Both student achievement and progress are included in the report. This includes providing a teacher judgement against the achievement standards, assigned as a score, that accurately reflects where each student is along the relevant learning continuum for curriculum areas taught during the reporting period. Teachers also provide a comment which describes student achievement as well as areas for future learning which outline goals in English, mathematics, and personal and social capability.

We encourage families to share and discuss the report with their child to develop an understanding of the learning and celebrate the achievements. If you wish to discuss our child’s report with their teacher, you can make an appointment to do so during week 11 of Term 4.

Student Leadership at APS

Today Year 5 students who have nominated for 2025 Official Student Leadership positions will deliver their speeches. Below is the exert from the Student Leadership at APS document which outline the procedures for selection of the Official Leadership positions.

Official Leadership Position Selection Procedures:

Speeches:

During week 8 of term 4 students who have nominated for Official Leadership Positions are required to deliver their speech outlining which positions they have nominated for and why they feel they are the best candidate for the position. The audience is the Year 4s, 5s and Year 6 current leaders, the teachers of these students, the Assistant Principal and Principal. 

Voting:

All students and staff listening to the speeches will be asked to cast some votes. The Principal team and teachers will discuss the importance of selecting the student they believe will carry out the position the best. The ballot paper will list the positions as:  School Leaders; House Leaders; other Official Leadership positions. Each ballot paper requires three names to be written, one under each category, to cast a vote. All candidates' names will be displayed on a central board. 

Ballot Paper:

The votes are counted and tallied by the Year 5 teachers. The students with the highest votes are given an opportunity for an interview with Melissa, Shane and a Year 5 teacher. 

The number of interviewees is dependent on the cohort number, teacher judgement, leadership potential and the preferences the students have nominated. 

Interviews: 

Student Leadership Interviews are held following the speeches and official voting. The interviews are intended to be relaxed and informal in nature lasting about 5 minutes. A predetermined list of questions relevant to the nominated positions is developed by the interview panel prior to the interview. Selected students are given the questions 5 minutes prior to their interview time so they can prepare some brief notes.

Official Student Leadership Positions Announcement:

The leaders are selected and announced to the school in the second last week of term 4. An official induction ceremony takes place early in Term 1 of the following year. All official student leadership positions will be issued with:

• A School Leader Badge and/or a School Leader patch       
• Official Leadership Position Certificate

Learning Disposition – Optimism

Being optimistic is a behavioural choice. Certainly, it can sometimes be hard, particularly when times are difficult or overwhelming. However, the research is conclusive that one’s ability to have a positive and growth mindset, particularly when faced with challenges, directly impacts one’s likelihood of finding success, enjoyment, or gratitude from experiences. It is this disposition that we want students to grow and develop.

From the sporting psychology perspective and my basketball analogy, there are numerous studies on elite athletes that show the difference between making the winning shot or not, often comes down to the belief that they will make the shot. Michael Jordan apparently never considered the fact that he might miss a game winner. He had an overwhelming optimism that he would make it. And if he did miss, then he automatically knew that the next time he would make it. Complete positivity and optimism in his ability to achieve the desired outcome.

Bendigo Bank

A big THANK YOU to Thilini for securing a $2,000.00 donation from Bendigo Bank for next year's APS Fair. What an amazing effort as the Fair Committee continue the process of organsing this great event again! 

Call for Volunteers

A message from School Council

Loving these big smiles? Why not join the APS Community Engagement & Fundraising Committee to help make more of them! :) 

With a few members moving on as their children finish up at APS, we'd love to welcome some new members. We are a small but mighty team, made up of parents across multiple year levels. We love creating fun, helping the school and our awesome APS community.

Join the crew by reaching out to these current members for a chat: 

• Thilini Nanayakkara - Grade 2 & Prep
• Kylie Troy-West  - Grade 1 & 3
• Sarah Eager - Grade 3 & 5
• Linda Besenyei - Prep
• Zoe Warne - Prep
• Mike Chen - Prep
• or email us at alphingtonps.cef@gmail.com 

It's around 1-2 hrs a month commitment (mostly via WhatsApp), and more specific roles around events like the Fair, Trivia & Comedy Nights.

Come chat to us at the end of year picnic! 

All are welcome.

Enjoy your week.

Shane Wilkie

Assistant Principal