Assistant Principal Update

Welcome to week 4 of term 2. Teachers are busy completing assessments, moderating student learning, developing report cards and preparing for the second half of the term with curriculum teaching and learning topics. It certainly is a busy time at school. It is also a challenging time due to the increased illness circulating within the community which obviously impacts upon both student and staff attendance. However, we have managed to maintain a focus on student learning.

2024 APS Autumn Fair

What an amazing day Saturday was for the 2024 APS Autumn Fair. The weather was great, perfect conditions with a light breeze and the sun coming out throughout the day to create the ideal temperature for such an event. The school looked amazing with all the rides, stalls and events going on. The number of attendees exceeded expectations and the feedback from students this week is that it was a brilliant day. 

A massive thank you must go out to the School Council Fundraising Committee who have put in a numerous hours and days of work to ensure the event was such a great success. There are a multitude of people to thank, and as a school we will ensure they are all acknowledged personally over the next few weeks.

To all those volunteers who led stalls, supported on stalls, and contributed either time or resources; We thank you on behalf of the APS community.

To those event coordinators who worked behind the scenes both in the lead up and on the day, managing issues as they arose, coordinating equipment and people, thank you for the work you put in behind the scenes to ensure the ‘front of fair’ was amazing.

Moderation of Student Learning

Each semester we dedicate a series of meetings to allow staff to meet in teams across year levels to moderate student learning in reading, writing and mathematics. 

The purpose of moderation at APS is to:

• Support teachers to make accurate assessments of a student's achievement against the English and mathematics Victorian curriculum subjects.
• Build the capacity of all staff to deepen their understanding of the Victorian curriculum and how evidence of achievement is identified, referenced, and assessed.

In addition to supporting teachers in making judgements about students learning against the achievement standards of the Victorian curriculum, moderation is an important part in the planning, teaching and assessment of students learning. It also supports our ability to continually support student’s achievement and improvement. 

Moderation also serves to help identify the next steps for learning, for individuals, groups, and the whole class.

This week teachers have met in teams to moderate students’ writing. Teachers assess students writing against the Victorian curriculum, allocating it a progression point based upon the evidence within the student’s writing which reflects the content of the curriculum. Teachers in adjacent year levels then review the writing piece, analysing it and cross referencing the curriculum to confirm and agree upon the individual progression point for the selected piece of writing.

In order to come to a final progression point for writing for the semester, teachers triangulate multiple pieces of writing data and evidence. 

District Cross Country

The Ivanhoe District Cross Country will be held on Monday 13 May at Chelsworth Park. The top 10 fastest times in the boys and girls 9, 10, 11 and 12 age groups have been selected and sent permission forms via Compass. Please ensure consent has been provided by Monday morning.

We held our first training session last week with the goal being to run the distance at optimal pace. We practiced surge running to understand what it feels like to put in effort beyond our optimal and then challenged ourselves to maintain a consistent pace for 2 laps. 

Tomorrow’s training will be a final hit out at close to maximum pace at 80% distance. 2km runners will run 3-4 laps of the oval with the goal of maintaining the same lap times. 

While 3km runners will run 5-6 laps.

STEM Expo 

Our annual STEM Expo will be held next week on Wednesday 15 May. Students in Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2 will be working on projects in class as part of their Term 2 Science Inquiry Unit. Students in Year 3-6 will be provided details of their Science Expo projects within their homework tasks, as well as working on them during class integrated lessons. 

The afternoon will commence from 3:45pm and end at 5.45pm with the STEM Expo displays set up across the classrooms. Each hub space will also show a short 10-minute presentation on a loop that promotes Science at APS. In addition, there will be a scavenger hunt for students and families to complete with some science prizes for the winners.

Have a great week everyone!

Shane Wilkie

Assistant Principal