Principal's Report

By Judith Drew

Principal Report

LEST WE FORGET

Reminder:

Thursday 25th April- ANZAC day public Holiday-

no school

Friday 26th April- Student Free Curriculum Day –

no school

During Term 2, our teachers will be continuing to build a strong focus on Mathematics learning across the school. Individual student goal setting, ‘hands on’ Mathematics tasks, Ninja Maths activities and celebrations of maths learning will be occurring in all year levels. It has been wonderful to already see some of the learning that has been shared on Class Dojo’ with families over the past week, and looking ahead to see some of the fabulous learning planned for weeks to come.

On Friday, teaching staff will again be engaging with Regional Education Improvement Leaders to learn more about the new Victorian Maths curriculum (commencing in 2025) and build our repertoire of highly effective learning tasks for students. This afternoon (Wednesday) teaching staff will be undertaking professional learning in relation to assessment tools and best practice for data analysis and collection in Mathematics education. It is an exciting time for Maths learning across our school at the moment.

We strongly encourage our families to join the Mathematics Learning and fun at home. There are many simple ways to support students’ Maths learning, most importantly displaying a positive attitude towards Maths in our conversations with students. Here are some great resources and links you may like to consider:

Great Video: https://numeracyguidedet.global2.vic.edu.au/numeracy-at-home/

ANZAC presentation in Hall led by school captains 3pm Wednesday 24th April

Our school Captains and Vice-Captains today led a special presentation for ANZAC day in the school hall. The presentation included classes creating and sharing wreaths to commemorate the occasion.

Below is some information for families to consider sharing regarding ANZAC day:

About ANZAC Day

ANZAC Day as we know it was first observed on 25 April 1916, as people came together to commemorate the landing of Australian and New Zealand forces at Gallipoli, Türkiye, on 25 April 1915.

This important tradition has now become an opportunity to stop and reflect on the sacrifice and dedication of all our veteran and service community, and the families who support them.

It is a significant day for the department, and we proudly recognise our many staff who have served over the years.

ANZAC Day in your local community

ANZAC Day is a public holiday. School staff and students who wish to observe the day can join in commemorative activities at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne. These activities include the:

dawn service
commemoration march
laying of wreaths
commemoration service

For more details, including about the dawn service, refer to the RSL Victoria website. The dawn service will be livestreamed on the Shrine of Remembrance website.

RSL Victoria sub-branches also host ANZAC Day commemorative services for everyone in their local area to attend. For a local ANZAC Day service near you, refer to the RSL Victoria website.

As ANZAC Day is a public holiday, schools are not required to fly the Australian national flag at the masthead.

PUPIL FREE DAY, FRIDAY APRIL 26: REMINDER

As advertised at the beginning of the year, we have a pupil free day on Friday April 26, which gives the community a long weekend as it is the Friday between Anzac Day Thursday and the weekend.

We have mathematics Education Improvement Leaders facilitating learning, including Gaye Wilde coming to work with staff from our school on the day. Staff will be focussing on ‘The Big Ideas’ in Mathematics, as well as planning learning and assessment based on the new Mathematics Curriculum, which will be implemented at ARPS in 2025.

Additionally, staff will be working on our approaches to support student engagement and wellbeing. It promises to be a very productive day.

AEDC – 2024 Australian Early Development Census

Parents of students in Foundation will soon receive information about the AEDC from their class teachers. The AEDC is a national census that is conducted every three years by the Australian Government, in partnership with state and territory governments. It measures how children have developed by the time they start their first year of full-time school.

The AEDC is completed by teachers based on their knowledge of the children. Children do not need to do anything to be included in the census and will attend class as usual while the census is conducted. The data collection will start on 07/06/2024.

Teachers will answer questions about the five key areas of early childhood development, which are: physical health and wellbeing, emotional maturity, social competence, language and cognitive skills (school-based), and communication skills and general knowledge. You can see all the questions at https://www.aedc.gov.au/avedi.

Please keep an eye out for this letter from the school, with more information for Foundation students which will be distributed soon.

Walk Safely to School Day is a national event in Australia, encouraging children of primary school age to walk to school and promote road safety, health, public transport and the environment. It's annually observed on the fourth Friday in May.

Originally this event was started in New South Wales in 1999. It had the status of the community event till 2004, when it was moved to the national level on April 2. Since then the event is organized in every community of Australia. Walk Safely to School Day is supported by all state, territory and local governments, as well as Planet Ark, the Heart Foundation, the Cancer Council, Diabetes Australia, Beyond Blue and the Australian Conservation Foundation.

The main objectives of Walk Safely to School Day is encourage parents or caretakers to walk their children to school. At this time they can reinforce safe pedestrian behaviour and promote the benefits of walking. This would help create regular walking habits at an early age. WSTSD reminds parents, that they have to closely watch their children in all road environments. Children under the age of 10 must hold parent's hand when near or crossing the road.

Look out for more information about Walk Safely to School Day in upcoming newsletters.

Premiers Reading Challenge

This term, students in Foundation to Year 2 will be working with their teachers to take part in the Premiers Reading Challenge. Each class will be reading 30 specially selected books to complete the challenge. This years theme is Explore, Learn, Enjoy. We hope parents can support this program at home. To find out more: https://www.vic.gov.au/premiers-reading-challenge

Class organisation, staffing and ‘Grade Splits’

As the cooler weather commences, this is often the time where not just students, but some staff may occasionally become unwell or absent from school. Our school has a ‘Grade Splits’ policy that aims to minimalize the impact on students and classes, by prioritising available Casual Relief teachers to classes where a class may be most disrupted (eg. Where the teacher has been absent several days, or is absent for prime teaching times and no specialist teachers are available). Where no replacement teacher is available for a class, (sometimes Michael Mottershead, Ninette Paolucci, Dana Kroenert or myself will take a class if needs be), and if there are no other options available, we will ‘Split the class’. This means that 2-3 children from one class, will be supervised and taught in one of the other 9 classes across the school. This can sometime happen at short notice (eg. A staff member has to rush home to look after their own children who are unwell, during the school day).

Generally, due to the logistical challenges and often short timeline, we do not communicate when ‘Grade Splits’ occur to parents on the day. Copies of the ‘Grade Splits’ policy can be provided from the office on request.

Colour Fun Run Prizes Have Arrived!

Prizes from our Colour Fun Run will be distributed to students from classroom teachers today. Please be sure to check children’s bag when they come home to confirm they have collected their prize from the classroom teacher. Many thanks to our Parents Association team for all their hard work in managing the prize distribution this week and fundraising event in Term 1.

Congratulations to Shashwat in 5JK who was our Highest fundraiser at ARPS for the Colour Fun Run. A special presentation for highest fundraisers will occur at our Assembly next Friday, 3rd May at 2.45pm.

Afterschool / Beforeschool care & Curriculum Days – Information from Camp Australia

During the week, communications between the school and our before and afterschool care provider, Camp Australia, have confirmed that we will not have a whole day program running at the school on 26th April. Whole day programs require a minimum number of students to participate (12-15 students). Currently, our school services between 5-13 students each day in before and afterschool care, with the lowest numbers on Fridays (usually under 10 students).

In coming weeks, we will be sharing promotional materials in the newsletter and online to build the numbers of students attending before and afterschool care. We are eager to establish a program that can run not only on school days, but also on curriculum days for those who require it. For this to occur, we need consistent numbers of 15 students each day in the program.

You can read more about our Camp Australia program on the dedicated section in this newsletter.

We hope you have a safe and enjoyable long weekend, remembering that tomorrow and Friday are NO SCHOOL days.

Mrs Judy Drew

PRINCIPAL