From the Assistant Principal 

Junior School

Time and Space evening for Year 8 and 9 students

It was a pleasure to welcome around 70 Year 8 and 9 students and their fathers/ father-figures to the second of our Time and Space evenings last week. I’m very proud of the many student facilitators who volunteered their time to facilitate and assist on the night, making this very special and unique event possible. Feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive, with students and dads alike expressing how helpful it was to be guided through the discussion points and to be supported to connect with each other in this way. It was great to see dads meeting other dads and making new connections as well, something that can be a bit of a challenge in high school when the students are that little bit older. We look forward to the third and final Time and Space event for 2023, where Year 10 students and their parents/ guardians will prepare for the senior secondary years - to be held in November. Watch this space for booking info. 

Buildings and grounds update

Work is now (finally!) underway on refurbishing the second floor classrooms following extensive water damage early on in the roof repair stage of our Capital Works program. These rooms are expected to be ready for us to use again after we return from the September holidays, just in time for the exam period. The refurbishment includes new blinds, windows, carpet, skirting and repainting.

The kick-off meeting for our bathroom upgrade project  was held today, which was exciting! I’ve also had a preliminary planning meeting with our project manager to pencil in the location for the temporary bathroom facilities and site compound. We expect the project to take most of term 4 with demolition works hopefully taking place over the September holidays to minimise disruption to classes. The work to bathrooms on all three floors will be done concurrently, so students will use temporary bathroom facilities during this time. We will be installing separate male, female and gender-neutral toilet blocks (not portaloos) in the canteen courtyard area. We look forward to providing further updates on this long anticipated project!

Chances Boroondara have thoughtfully gifted the school with a Chinese Pistachio tree to be planted in memory of our beloved late Principal, Maria Karvouni. This was actually Maria’s favourite and is the same as those planted in the Student Courtyard and Front Courtyard. Our intention is to rehabilitate the garden bed at the top of the steps in the Front Courtyard and give the tree pride of place in this prominent location. We are very grateful to Chances Boroondara for this lovely gesture. If you have any contacts for landscape gardeners, please be in touch. 

Fostering a culture of respect at AHS

Wear it Purple aims to promote positive and inclusive environments for rainbow young people and is a day we celebrate at AHS each year. We are proud of our school values of Diversity and Respect. We work proactively to foster an environment where all students feel welcome and valued regardless of their religion, gender, sexuality, ethnic background or anything else. Many staff and students showed their support of this principle with the simple act of wearing a splash of purple or rainbow colours on the day. 

Teachers have participated in a series of professional learning workshops over the past couple of weeks focusing on these particular school values through a Respectful Relationships lens. Sometimes young people engage in what they think of as harmless “banter” and off-the-cuff remarks, but which can actually be quite thoughtless and

 disrespectful. Teachers will be keeping an eye and an ear out for this kind of talk and reminding students to be mindful in their choice of words. We all have a part to play in maintaining our welcoming and inclusive school culture. We would encourage parents to have a dinner-table conversation about “banter” and how our words can make others feel, even if they don’t necessarily show it. Words are important. Thank you for supporting a positive culture at AHS.