Principal Update

I hope you have had a lovely week with winter beginning and yet the weather has provided us with some beautiful days. 

The students have been working hard to prepare for the STEAM EXPO happening this afternoon. We hope that you are all able to visit to see the amazing scientific learning that has happened at all levels. Classrooms are open for you to drop in until 5.45pm.

This week I have been fortunate enough to attend the State Principal Conference and hear from world renown speakers about the emerging trends in education. The focus on student wellbeing is forefront and carefully balanced with learning. 

At APS we have numerous strategies in place to support every student. These are understood by students and parents and all are designed to allow each student to do their best learning. We know that the most successful students are those whose parents are actively involved in their education. We thank those parents who support the school to achieve this for their children. 

This week we had a group of students compete in the Divisional Cross-Country. From all reports, the weather was a bit wet, but all students ran well and represented the school with pride. Congratulations to all runners and those who have made it to the next level.

We continue to see a lot of illness in all classes and appeal again to parents to keep your child home if they are unwell. Staff are also catching the illnesses and replacing them is really challenging. Please think of the community of learners your child is in. 

Only a few more weeks to go before Prep 2026 enrolments close. We are pleased with the number of enrolments and look forward to welcoming these new families to the school. We continue to have a lot of parents 'out of the zone' choosing APS as their preferred school. We continue to offer tours and these are well attended. As a lot of our 'zone' includes the river and the golf course we are able to take some ‘out of zone’ families. We will offer places in week 2 next term. 

A reminder that this Friday 6 June is a Student Free Day.  Staff will be onsite undertaking professional development. TheirCare is open for you to book direct if needed.

Our focus for the day will be the moderation of student learning in mathematics and reading. With the transition to the Victorian Curriculum Version 2.0 staff will be developing a shared understanding of how student assessment tasks provide evidence of achievement against the Victorian standards for each year level.  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.

Tomorrow, Thursday 5 June, we had planned to hold our off-site evacuation drill. However, the weather is looking inclement, and we have several events happening, including our Stand Up Leaders – Say No to Bullying Program activities.

As part of our annual Emergency Management Plan, we are required to conduct drills at various points throughout the year. We will look to reschedule the drill for either week 9 or 10 of the term. The Leadership Team will review the protocols and the exit points prior to the evacuation and communicate these with teachers. Teachers of Prep students will suitably prepare the younger students for their first off-site evacuation. 

Our usual Friday afternoon assembly will be moved to Thursday 3pm due to the Student Free Day. It will be a standard assembly with VIPs presented. We invite all families to attend.

Have a restful long weekend

Kind Regards

Melissa Mackenzie