Assistant Principal Update

Hello everyone,

Welcome to Term 4 Week 4.  This week our Year 3 students headed off on their first overnight, away from home camp. All reports were that they had an amazing time, with the giant swing and flying fox being two favourite activities. It is a very busy term for camps with our Year 2 Sleepover up next on the 16 November, followed by the Year 5 Camp, the Prep/1 Twilight Evening and then the Year 6 Camp. 

“Thank You!”

A big thank you to those parents and carers who attend camps. It simply would not be possible to provide our students with these extra-curricular activities without your support, so on behalf of the school I would like to extend my gratitude to all those who have volunteered to support with our overnight camp program this year.

Learning Dispositions – Creativity

This week we open our learner disposition toolbox and get out ’creativity’. This disposition allows us to approach our learning with curiosity and be ready to try different things to solve a problem.  When using creativity, we recognise that there are multiple ways of approaching a problem.

Sticking with the basketball analogy, I have used creativity to develop a new strategy when defending the fast break in a two on one situation. Usually in this situation I would get scored on easily, either by marking the player without the ball leaving an easy lay up to the player with the ball, or going to the ball and the pass going past me to the free player who would then score.  

To solve this problem, I had tried these previous different strategies, but I was curious as to what might happen if I explored a different perspective and faked going to the ball handler but at the last second spinning away from them, putting them off and getting to the unmarked player. While this doesn’t always work, on several occasions it will either put off the ball handler or allow me to intercept the pass or slow down the ball. It’s pretty weird to watch but being creative allowed me come up with a possible solution.

English Moderation

This week as part of our staff Professional Learning we are moderating samples of learning in English. Today staff will be moderating students’ achievement in writing and next week we will focus on reading.

Moderation is the practice of teachers sharing and developing their understanding of what learning looks like by examining examples of different types and quality of students’ work and comparing these with formal standards and success criteria. The practice gives teachers the collaboration structure and processes to look closely at evidence to establish: 

• What is to be learned? 

• How is learning progressing? 

• What standard has been achieved?

Moderation enables discussion about: 

• How to interpret the Victorian Curriculum F-10 Achievement Standards 

• What students need to learn to meet Standards 

• What success looks like.

World Teachers’ Day - Friday

This Friday 27 October schools across Australia will celebrate and recognise the contributions of our dedicated teachers. Thank you to our class liaisons for organising a small token of appreciation to be sent to teachers on Friday.

I would like to also extend my utmost gratitude to our teachers for the work they do in ensuring that the students of APS are not only taught to the highest standards, but also for the genuine care and delight they take in their dedication as professionals towards our students. Teaching is a multifaceted, often complex, but ultimately, very rewarding profession. I wish all our staff a Happy World Teachers Day 2023… Hats off to you!

2XU Triathlon Series

 A few students have expressed interest in competing in the 2XU Triathlon Series. We are gathering interest as to whether it is worth registering an APS team link on the site. This would allow any interested students to sign up to patriciate as an individual but representing Alphington. 

A link for information can be found below. Please be aware this is a private event and the school is not responsible for any student’s involvement. However, if your child is interested in participating and being linked to an APS team please send an email to me by Friday 27 October (shane.wilkie@education.vic.gov.au) and I will create an APS Team and make the link available in a Compass Post

The Kids Tri is a great introduction to triathlon and welcomes all kids to give it a go! Distances will grow with confidence in swimming, cycling and running. Kids must be the ages 7 to 11 as of 31/12/23.

https://www.2xutriathlonseries.com.au/

Curriculum Day – Monday 6 Nov

A reminder that we will hold our annual before Cup Day student free day on Monday 6 November. On this day staff will be meeting to review the targets set in our 2023-2027 School Strategic Plan and ‘Putting Faces on the Data’.  What this means is that we analyse our various student data sets and identify an appropriate target for students aligned to the updated NAPLAN bands. 

• Needs additional support
• Developing
• Strong
• Exceeding

Following this we can target our teaching across the curriculum to ensure we are appropriately challenging all students at their point of need.

Staff will also spend time on this day reviewing assessment data and commencing the development of semester two student progression reports.

Enjoy your week.

Shane Wilkie

Assistant Principal