Assistant Principal Update

Welcome to Term 4 Week 6. 

I hope families were able to spend some time connecting over the weekend and the Melbourne Cup Holiday. With a long term ahead of us, a mini break at this mid-point hopefully will recharge us for the final 6 weeks ahead.

All classes are finishing up their Writers Festival and Art Show displays in preparation for next Wednesday’s event. The Year 2 students are very excited about their sleepover tomorrow night, with teachers planning the activities for the evening. 

Leadership @ APS

Our Year 5 students have commenced their leadership speeches, which they will deliver in week 8. Our current School Leaders and the 2024 Year 6 cohort have worked with Melissa and I to develop an updated leadership model. Families of students in Year 5 will receive a copy of this document via a Compass post this week. Below is a summary:

Student leadership includes listening to and being able to clarify the issues of the students they represent and advocating on their behalf. Student leaders have an increased sense of responsibility to help others and to model leadership principles and values. Student leadership is not confined to a small group of individuals, as leadership potential is inherent within all learners. Trust, autonomy and relationships are enhanced through the development of leadership qualities.

At Alphington Primary School we believe that all students can be leaders and encourage a range of leadership opportunities. In broad terms these are represented as three layers of leadership; official positions, senior leadership as a Year 5/6 student, and point-in-time leadership opportunities.

Year 6 Official School Leadership Positions

Year 5/6 Senior Student Leadership 

At APS we have an expectation that all Year 6 students will participate in some form of leadership through their involvement in contributing to the school community and beyond. In addition, we offer some specific options for students to begin developing their leadership skills.

• Being a Prep Buddy
• Action Teams
• Leading Assembly
• Canteen 
• Supporting with whole school events
• Managing sports and games equipment

Point-in- time Leadership Opportunities 

These are events, fundraisers and ideas proposed and developed by students throughout the school year. 

Students who aspire to nominate for Official Leadership Positions will often have developed their leadership skills through point-in-time opportunities.

Examples of past ideas include: 

• World’s Greatest Shave
• Biggest Morning Tea
• Down ball competitions
• Charity fundraisers

APS Comedy Night

By all accounts the APS Comedy Night on Saturday was a huge success. 

We are very thankful to Sam for organising such a wonderful line up. 

Huge gratitude to School Council, especially Matt for organising the event and thank you also to Kylie and the whole team who helped make this night a success. 

It is a huge acheivment at this very busy time of year.   

Curriculum Day – Monday 6 November

Last week Melissa mentioned that staff undertook professional learning as part of our Curriculum Day working collaboratively in mixed year level teams to analyse our recently released NAPLAN and Attitudes to School Survey (AtoSS) data. Looking for trends from the recently released data we identified some key whole school focus areas that will support the development of our 2025 Annual Improvement Plan (AIP). 

The second session of the day focussed upon ‘Putting Faces on the Data’ and unpacking the 4-year academic targets set following our school review and the completion of our 2023-2027 School Strategic Plan. The goal of the session was to take each of the long-term targets and start to understand what these mean in terms of the individuals and groups of students over the year. Keeping in mind that the 2027 target for Year 3 students relates to our current 2024 Preps.

By 2027 increase the percentage of Year 3 students achieving NAPLAN proficiency levels as follows:

• Exceeding in Writing from 16% (2023) to 25%
• Exceeding and Strong in Numeracy from 88% (2023) to 90%

By 2027 increase the percentage of Year 5 students achieving NAPLAN proficiency levels as follows:

• Exceeding in Reading from 50% (2023) to 55%
• Exceeding and Strong in Writing from 88% (2023) to 90%
• Exceeding and Strong in Numeracy from 83% (2023) to 87%

Staff analysed our various student data sets and identified an appropriate target for students aligned to the updated NAPLAN bands. (Needs additional support, Developing, Strong, Exceeding) and set a realistic target for those students in Years P-4 based upon their current levels of achievement. As a school we can set learning goals for these students in the specific learning areas to target our teaching across the curriculum. This ensures we are appropriately challenging all students at their point of need, with consideration to the overall improvement of our school in relation to the teaching of literacy and numeracy, and the 4-year strategic targets.

Foundation Transition

Last week we held our Prep Transition Parent Information Session and this Friday our 2025 Prep students are onsite undertaking some literacy and numeracy activities in their 2025 Prep classrooms. Their final transition session next Thursday will involve a mini specialist program, introducing them to our Arts, LOTE and PE. This is a very exciting time for our school as we support students as they begin their school journey. The current Year 5 students have joined the transition students and begun their role as Prep Buddies, a highly successful program which we are very proud of and that the students highly value.

Art Show & Writers Festival  - 20th November

Our Annual Art Show and Writers festival will be held on Wednesday 20 November onsite from 3:45-5:45pm. Students writing will be displayed in classrooms in the Main Administration Building and The Three Level Learning Centre. A map of the display locations will be included in the festival program. This year we are looking at minimising paper by making the program digitally via a QR code.

The library will also be open for families to visit on the afternoon of the event. 

There will be a Scavenger Hunt through the Writing and Art Displays. With your scavenger hunt clue sheet, a visit to each year level will find the answer to each of the questions. Families with correctly answered scavenger hunts will go into the draw for some Writing & Art prizes.

Learning Dispositions – Determination

This week we open our learner disposition toolbox and get out ’determination’. Students will continue working in their class to explore how they can practise being determined as a learner and what benefits it has. We often see that some students can be particularly determined in one area of the curriculum but may find it difficult when experiencing challenges in other areas of the curriculum. We want to teach students how they can transfer the positive ‘determined’ mindset from one aspect of their life to another.

I have previously used a basketball analogy to explain the learner dispositions in action… I have been determined to be better at three-point shooting, setting the goal that 3 or 4 out of 10 is realistic. But it requires significant practise – hundreds of shots, and you have stretches where you will miss 10 in a row. But you learn from those mistakes, and you persist and will get on a run of 5 or 6 in a row. Which leads to that pride of accomplishment. 

A key learning is to then apply that level of determination in other aspects of my life, those that might not bring me as much joy but are still valuable in terms of accomplishment.

Remembrance Day 

On Monday at 11:00am prior to recess all classes observed a minute’s silence to commemorate Remembrance Day. Staff planned some time prior to the minute silence to talk with students about the meaning of Remembrance Day. The Year 5 students sold remembrance badges and lead us in our minutes’ silence. Thankyou to the Year 5 students who lead the day.

Student Wellbeing

The end of the year is often a challenging time for students as they tire and require a little more structure and support to ensure their emotional and wellbeing needs are being catered for. We are very conscious of this, and teachers are continuing to plan multiple different learning activities which are fun and engaging. We recognise that the busyness of school and personal lives impact students in different ways, so teachers are allocating extra time both explicitly planned and incidentally to hold Circle Times with their classes. This ensures that minor incidents and concerns can be dealt with and discussed in a safe and supportive environment.  Please reach out if your child is experiencing difficulties as we head into the final half of Term 4.

Maths Association of Victoria (MAV) Maths Talent Quest 

You might remember that last month Martha and I attended the Annual MAV MTQ Awards ceremony after our amazing Year 5 team secured a High Distinction for their entry – Property Playbook – A young persons guide to buying property. The event had an official photographer and we received some very nice images which I have included below.

Enjoy your week.

Shane Wilkie

Assistant Principal